The first pay per view for the Blue Brand isn’t filling me
with excitement. I want to be disappointed. I want to be team blue, because I
love Shane O Mac and all the massive bumps he has taken and I love Daniel Bryan
– I physically jumped out of my seat when he won the title at Wrestlemania 30.
They were always going to struggle with fewer draft picks but the way that they
have shaped up both the tag team division and the women’s division to both have
a wealth of competitors has been admirable. With only three weeks – and more
importantly now since the brand split, only three shows (six hours of
programming) - between Summerslam and
Backlash there doesn’t seem to have been enough time to build the hype around
the show. This compares to Raw which will have had 15 hours of programming
between Summerslam and Night of Champions. It says a lot that the match I am
most excited about involves Heath Slater. And on that note…
The Hype Bros v The Usos
& The Winner v Heath Slater and Rhyno
The best resolution to the Heath Slater story is that him
and Rhyno win the belts. There’s only so many times that the audience (and by
the audience, I am assuming everyone thinks exactly the same way I do) will get
behind the free agent with one last shot at a contract storyline, and he seems
to be quite over along with it so it should play well.
For this, American Alpha needed to be out of the picture.
They’ve been built up as an unstoppable force and without an injury would have
been certain to hold the belts. The injury to Gable will keep them out of
action for around about a month, giving them the opportunity to take the belts
that they deserve from Slater and Rhyno at the next pay per view.
The Usos heel turn after their 30 second loss against American
Alpha should be enough to get them to the final. The attempt to give them a bit
more of a personality needs to be followed through, and they should beat the
Hype Bros, potentially with a bit of underhanding dealings to cement their bad
boy status.
The only other possibility that could work out would be the
Usos somehow screwing Slater and Rhyno out of the win and a contract, but I
think all the necessary parts can be put in place without this happening.
Slater needs to win to justify a contract. Shane and Bryan can’t go back on
their word without seeing week so this is the logical conclusion.
Prediction: Slater/Rhyno to beat Usos in the final.
Women's Championship:
Nikki Bella v Carmela v Becky Lynch v Alexa Bliss v Naomi v
Natalya
I like elimination matches. I think it comes from watching
the old style Survivor Series matches as a kid (and I am hoping there will be a
red v blue one this year). This format will allow most competitors to get a
moment in the sun. Only three of these I can see as potential winners – Natalya,
Becky and Nikki.
Nikki seems to be going into a feud with Carmella and I
can’t see her challenging for the title any time soon, so that pretty much
rules Nikki out as a winner. As the longest reigning female champion, she
doesn’t really need it at this stage, either. I can see her perhaps getting
close but then Carmella coming back after previously being eliminated and
hitting a knock out move on Nikki for someone else to eliminate her.
Naomi is getting more over but she’s not at the stage to
push for a belt yet, and Alexa needs more of a push before she is getting
there.
This leaves Becky and Natalya. I imagine they will be the
last two in the match, and whoever loses will be the likely number one
challenger afterwards. I’m going to plump for Becky as she has had more
exposure over the last few months but I wouldn’t rule out Natty getting it in
the near future.
Prediction: Becky
Predicted order of elimination: Alexa, Naomi, Carmella,
Nikki, Natalya
Randy Orton v Bray Wyatt
There’s been a lot less hype about this match than Orton’s
against Lesnar, for obvious reasons. However, I can see this being a much
better match. I am a fan of Wyatt and he’s the sort of character that can lose
and still come out really well. Orton will be in need of a moral boosting
victory after Lesnar smashed him open and it’s hard to see him take a clean
pin. Wyatt needs to build his own
standing, so I don’t think a run-in from a returning Luke Harper would really
help him out. Wyatt’s rivalries often last a few months, so I think the likely
scenario is an Orton victory with Wyatt keen on revenge.
Prediction: Orton
Intercontinental Championship:
The Miz v Dolph Ziggler
The Miz v Dolph Ziggler
This could go one of two ways. The first is that Ziggler has
become fired up after coming close to the main title recently and is on fire,
making light work of The Miz. The other is that he fails yet again, increasing
his frustrations and leading to the heel turn that has been teased. Over the
last year or two he’s had some really good moments (at Survivor Series as part of
Team Cena) and some really crap moments (his entire feud with Rusev complete
with girlfriend stealing storyline) and he definitely deserves more good than
bad for a while. Either one of these
storylines could suit him to give him the push he needs to justify the title
shot he received at
The top heels on the Smackdown roster are AJ Styles, Bray
Wyatt and The Miz. The first two are not true heels (the crowd gets behind both
at times, especially Styles) and I find Miz quite lacklustre, so there’s
potentially space for a heel Ziggler to make his stamp upon the blue brand as
one of the top heels. It’s difficult though to see him take a heel turn during
the match as I don’t care if he cheats to beat The Miz, so I think Miz’s never
ending Intercontinental tour will likely continue.
Prediction: The Miz, with a heel turn for Ziggler on
Tuesday.
Heavyweight Championship
Dean Ambrose v AJ Styles
This is interesting. Styles has had all of the momentum this
year with two clean wins against Cena to become the New Face That Runs The
Place and solidify his spot at the top of the roster. Ambrose’s title reign is
still quite fresh and he has stigma of being the man that brought the title to
Team Blue. To take it from him now would seem like it is too soon to me. I just
really can’t call this one. Styles came up short against Roman Reigns at
Extreme Rules in a match when he had The Club by his side, and my hunch is that
it will stay with Ambrose as Styles perhaps hasn’t paid quite enough dues.
Prediction: Ambrose
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