PWP Nation’s Bruce Hart previews the full card for WrestleMania 32 and gives some possible outcomes and thoughts.
Greetings and happy Easter!
It’s only a week until the biggest wrestling show of the year WrestleMania 32 and this week I’ll take a look at the card and offer some candid perspectives on what I think could or should transpire. As of today, this is the lineup, although it’s subject to change: CLICK HERE
United States Championship Match: Kalisto (c) vs. Ryback
It appears that Ryback is being switched back to heel, although he’s been switched back and forth so many damn times already that it doesn’t really matter anymore. That’s too bad, because at one time, he had the potential to be a marketable commodity. In any case, this match is just your typical preliminary card warm up. Seeing as Kalisto is apparently being groomed for some kind of modest push, he’ll probably get his hand raised.
The Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz
While I have a lot of respect for both of these teams, there wasn’t really any perceptible reason to have this match, certainly not with everything else on the card. That begs the question: why are they having another hardcore style match on a show that’s already got cage matches, street fights, ladder matches, triple threat matches, a battle royal and assorted other overkill.
This is about like bringing a sandwich to a smorgasbord. Anyway, since Bubba Ray and D-Von do little but else but ECW style extremism, you can probably expect an orgy of kendo sticks, nut shots, chairs, tables and whatnot, as if it really matters. It’s a toss-up as to who goes over, my guess, though, would be the Usos.
Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
When the WWE originally came up with the concept of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal a few years ago, I’m sure their intention was to honor Andre the Giant, who was not only one of the great attractions in our business but one of the most respected. Unfortunately, the Andre the Giant Battle Royal has almost become an affront to him become it’s been reduced to a dumping ground for all the bottom of the barrel leftovers, jabroneys, nondescripts and guys on the downhill slide on the WWE roster.
As a rule, a match like a Battle Royal should be a main event, so it tends to be almost counter productive to have one as a preliminary card filler. If it were up to me, I’d be having the Andre Battle Royal as the main event on another pay per view; or perhaps, re-name the annual Royal Rumble, the Andre the Giant Royal Rumble.
Better still, and no offence to Andre, I’d probably just scrap the whole concept altogether, kind of like King of the Ring and other concepts that seem to have gone by the wayside. Anyway, having said all of that, there are still some decent wrestlers in this match, including the likes of Big Show, Kane, Erick Rowan and a few others. The common consensus is that either Show or Kane will probably go over, which would be fine, albeit almost predictable. I wouldn’t mind seeing some deserving dark horse, such as, say, Curtis Axel or Alberto Del Rio get their hand raised, however, if only to revive their lagging careers.
Triple Threat Match for the WWE Divas Championship: Charlotte (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch
Charlotte has been doing a nice job lately of establishing herself as the Divas champion and the grand stage of WrestleMania should be a nice coming out party for her.
Since so many other matches will probably be pulling out all the stops to get in all their high spots, false finishes and whatnot, I’d prefer to see Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks resist the temptation of going overboard on all of that and just give us some hard fought, no nonsense wrestling. There are enough sub-issues between these three and they’re all good enough workers that it should be a pretty decent match.
Ultimately, I’d be surprised if Charlotte didn’t get her hand raised, as she certainly deserves to and, as Hunter likes to say, it would be what’s best for business.
AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho
From a wrestling and artistic perspective, this match has the potential to be the best match of the night – as both guys are great workers, have good chemistry and the buildup to the match has been well done.
While Chris Jericho has done a nice job of re-establishing himself as an old school heel and has gotten surprisingly good heat in the process, I, nonetheless, think it makes sense to take advantage of the grand stage of Wrestle-mania to get AJ Styles over, especially with the departures of other key faces such as Daniel Bryan, John Cena and Neville.
Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Kevin Owens (c) vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz vs. Sin Cara vs. Zack Ryder vs. Stardust
I have no idea what the prevailing rationale is here, throwing together a bunch of mid card guys, none of whom seem to have any pre-existing conflicts or issues with each other, in a gimmick match, on a card that already has way too many other gimmick matches.
To my way of thinking, it probably would have been better to simply have Owen and Sami Zayn wrestle for the IC strap, one on one. Having said all of that, this should still be a pretty good match, as most of the participants are good workers, regardless of their status, and they should have excellent chemistry.
Since Kevin Owens seems to have been getting over with the IC strap lately, I can’t see any reason for him not to go over.
No Holds Barred Street Fight: Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose
To be honest, I haven’t been that excited by the pre-fight lead up to this match, what with Brock Lesnar already having given Dean Ambrose so many suplexes that they cease to mean anything anymore and Dean’s almost cartoonish promo with the chainsaw, as well as some of the other contrived bullshit. For whatever reason, there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between these two and their styles don’t seem to compliment each other, either.
Even so, I think they could still have a decent match, if Brock actually got back to some traditional old school heeling and Dean were to primarily focus on selling his ass off and making the balls to the wall comeback. Even though there are supposedly no rules, I’m hoping that they don’t go overboard with all the extremism and whatnot – as the fans will probably already have had their fill of all of that by the time these two step into the ring.
As for the finish, it would probably hurt Brock more than Dean to do the job, but if Brock’s not going to be working on a regular basis, it would make more sense to have Ambrose somehow get his hand raised and perhaps move on to some other opponents that better suit his style – such as Kevin Owens or perhaps Seth Rollins, when he returns.
No Disqualification Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Roman Reigns
The common consensus seems to be that Roman Reigns will be going over in this one and finally winning the WWE title. If so, it would certainly be deserved, as Roman has paid his dues. All things considered though, if I was booking the match, I’d be inclined to leave the strap on Triple H a while longer.
I say that for a number of reasons – first, Hunter hasn’t really had the strap that long and, other than his match against Dean Ambrose a few weeks ago, hasn’t really established himself as the champion, so, to have him drop it now might be somewhat premature and almost too predictable.
I think that if they were to orchestrate some pretty hot finish in this match, perhaps involving, say, Seth Rollins (if he’s physically capable of doing something), or perhaps have Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon or even Shane McMahon somehow get involved – all of which wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, it could set the table for a hot return match between these two, perhaps at SummerSlam, at which time, it might make more sense to finally put the strap on Roman.
Keeping the strap on Hunter might also add better serve to intensify the simmering conflict between Shane, Hunter and the so called Authority, which is another important consideration. Having said all of that though, it seems like the die has already been cast and that Roman will be crowned champion here, hopefully it will be pretty cut and dried, with not too many needless artificial additives.
Hell in a Cell Match: Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker
(If Shane wins, he gains control of RAW; if Undertaker loses, he can’t compete at WrestleMania again)
Even though Reigns and Hunter is a world title match, which would generally make it the main event on most occasions, it’s a good bet that Shane McMahon and Undertaker will be the last match on the card. As you probably know, the prevailing stipulation for this match is that, if he loses, Shane will cease to be involved anymore in the WWE. If he wins, however, he’ll supposedly gain control of RAW.
While I’ve already expressed my skepticism about Taker and Shane going against each other, given that they’re both faces and have no prevailing issues with each other, I, nonetheless, think this still has the potential to be a pretty good match – as long as they keep it pretty simple, logical and work within their means.
All things considered, I’d like to see some kind of scenario where Shane, the obvious underdog, is selling his ass off and barely hanging on and, at some point, one of the members of the Authority, perhaps Hunter, Vince or, even, Stephanie, comes to the ring to occur the referee and something backfires, which enables Shane O’Mac to pull off a miraculous, surprise win. If it were done right, not only would it get a huge pop, but it should also set the stage for all kinds of hot returns.
Ultimately though, if Shane was to go over and ostensibly gain control over RAW, it should provide the WWE with a great opportunity to not only regain public confidence, by scrapping the whole Authority charade, which has become increasingly contrived and counterproductive lately, but it might enable them to revive the RAW and SmackDown conflict, which was a pretty hot ticket a decade or so – with Shane now representing the RAW brand and perhaps Hunter and Stephanie or Vince, himself, running SmackDown.
In any case, I need not point out to those calling the shots here that this is a critical, make or break juncture for the WWE, and they really need to hit a home run, not strike out. For their sake and for the sake of wrestling fans the world over, I hope they get it right and hit a bases clearing grand slam!
On that guardedly optimistic note, I’ll call this a wrap, but shall be looking forward to re-connecting with you next week, for WrestleMania post-mortems. Until then, take care and enjoy the show!
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