WWE WrestleMania 31 – Where’s The Rest Of The Card?

With the 31st Wrestlemania just days away, it’s time for yet another of the many previews you’ve probably already seen. Expect this column to be littered with pessimism, whining and complaining, but possibly a hint of excitement here and there as well.

The first thing that might bother some fans [but perhaps not others], is the lack of matches. For some reason the WWE has been hell bent on reducing the size of the Wrestlemania card over the past few years. The last five Wrestlemania cards, including this one, have featured no more than eight matches, with the last couple dropping to seven. We had eight matches set for this card, but now we’ve got two pre-show matches and seven on the Pay Per View itself.

Is there a particular reason for this? It’s difficult to determine. In the old days they used to have smaller cards, but they also never had four hour shows. When a three hour PPV averages seven or eight matches, you’d think adding an extra hour to the show would warrant a couple more. Instead, they prefer to add more time to matches already booked and give musicians a segment of the show in which to perform some of their greatest hits.

Anyway with that rant out of the way, on to the card

Let’s start with the pre-show

Tyson Kidd and Cesaro[c] vs The New Day vs Los Matadores vs The Usos [Fatal Four Way match for the Tag Team championship]

If anything wreaked of ‘thrown together at the last minute,’ it’s this. The sad fact is, if you just take Big E out of the equation, you have the makings of a very entertaining match. While it would be nice to see these guys go at it on the main card, it’s easy to understand why it hasn’t made it there. Unfortunately, much like the discontinued Cruiserweight division, the WWE doesn’t care about matches like this, and this makes it difficult for the fans to care. The result, a fatal four way match thrown together for the pre-show.

Who will win? Most likely one of two teams. Los Matadores and The New Day are just there to make up the numbers and prevent a carbon copy from FastLane. If Vince has decided that Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are over enough, he’ll keep the titles on them. If he thinks they’re not, they’ll head back to The Usos.

Prediction: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal [featuring more guys than I care to name]

It looks like this is replacing the former pre-show Battle Royals they used to do. They pulled the plug on this concept for a couple of Wrestlemanias, but now it’s back under a new name to make it seem more significant. The problem is, sending it down to the pre-show takes away any significance it could possibly have had. At Wrestlemania 30 it looked like this Battle Royal may have actually held some importance. They hyped it up and named it after a WWE legend, then gave it to Cesaro. The expected push for Cesaro never came and now the concept of this match seems meaningless.

There are many guys in it that could be doing better things. Mizdow, Ryback, The Miz, Mark Henry, Goldust, Curtis Axel etc. Instead they’ve all been thrown in to the WWE blender. I have no idea who will win. Some are more likely than others, but given how little it will probably mean to win this event, it could be anyone. I’ll go for Mizdow, since he seems to be one of the only characters in this match that anybody cares about.

Prediction: Damien Mizdow

WRESTLEMANIA 31

On to the main card, i.e the matches that the WWE care about.

Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins

It’s difficult to be sure what match will open the show, so let’s start with the feud that’s been built up best. Why has it been the best feud? Well it helped that both wrestlers appeared on WWE programming every week for a start. That seems to be something of a rarity in Wrestleamania build ups these days.

So who will take the win? Seth Rollins is the Money in the Bank holder and the WWE has never made too much effort in protecting the guy with the briefcase in the past. Rollins has lost matches at PPVs since winning the case, and there’s no guarantee he won’t be defeated again. The thing is, Randy Orton, despite his ravishing return, doesn’t really need the win. He’s not in the title picture right now and just seems to be a top guy that the WWE can use to put other people over. It would be logical for them to do that now, allowing Rollins have his first PPV singles win since Hell in a Cell last year.

Prediction: Seth Rollins

Bad News Barrett[c] vs R-Truth vs Dean Ambrose vs Stardust vs Dolph Ziggler vs Luke Harper vs Daniel Bryan [Ladder match for the Intercontinental championship]

Quite possibly the show stealer. It seems like they’ve put all the most talented guys in to one match and added a stipulation that will make it even more exciting. There’s a lot of talk about the WWE [and Triple H in particular] wanting to give the Intercontinental and US championships more prestige, so having guys like Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler as challengers, makes sense, even if fans would prefer to see them main eventing shows.

The Money in the Bank matches used to be guaranteed winners at previous Wrestlemanias, as far as match quality goes. With that match type now having its own PPV, it’s nice to see the multi-competitor ladder match return to the WWE’s grandest spectacle of the year.

As far as the winner goes, matches with this many wrestlers are always more difficult to predict. I have an idea who won’t win – that would be R Truth, Stardust and Luke Harper. Any of the others could take the title. I feel a title change on and with Daniel Bryan having never won it before and there being serious concerns over his health, this might be the time to put the strap on him and give fans something to be happy about.

Prediction: Daniel Bryan

Bray Wyatt vs The Undertaker

So The Undertaker’s back. Many people must have wondered how they would work him back in to the picture after his streak was ended last year. Many people also expected a Wrestlemania loss to be his last WWE match. Heck, many probably expected him never to lose at Wrestlemania in the first place.

I wasn’t sure if he’d make a return, but he obviously feels up to it. The question now is, what do they do with this match? Rumors have been flying that The Undertaker’s retirement match may take place at next year’s Wrestlemania. If so, then losing this would be pointless. Not only that, a loss for The Undertaker here would take a lot away from Brock Lesnar. His claim to being the man who ended The Undertaker’s streak is something Paul Heyman can repeat over and over again whenever necessary. Brock being one of two men who has defeated The Undertaker won’t quite have the same ring to it.

Also, The Undertaker’s streak loss leading to him being defeated in subsequent Wrestlemania matches weakens his credibility further. What sounds better, ‘The Undertaker had an amazing streak that was finally ended after 21 matches by the beast Brock Lesnar, or ‘The Undertaker had an amazing streak until he lost to Brock Lesnar and then started losing to everyone he faced at Wrestlemania after that?’

The Undertaker’s last Wrestlemania performance left a lot to be desired, and that might be another reason he wants to return and leave fans on a high note. Perhaps if this match is top notch, he might even consider drawing the line on his career after it and won’t be returning at Mania 32.

Prediction: The Undertaker

AJ and Paige vs The Bella Twins

The Diva’s champion is on the card but there’s no Diva’s title on the line. Shock horror? Not really. At least the WWE are trying to build some sort of story around the diva’s. Paige and AJ are now best buddies and have formed a tag team while The Bellas are, well, The Bellas.

By the way does anyone know how and why Brie forgave Nikki for costing her the match against Stephanie back at Summerslam, then beating her and humiliating her for a month? No neither do I.

Without wanting to disrespect the diva’s, the winner isn’t important here and won’t mean much. I’m just hoping for a passable match. It’s AJ and Paige’s first outing as a tag team, so they’ll probably get the rub.

Prediction: AJ and Paige

Rusev[c] vs John Cena [United States championship match]

I never thought I would see John Cena fighting for the United States title again, two PPV’s in a row! The fact that this is a rematch bothers me though. Re-matches do happen at Wrestlemania, but often the reason for them, is that the first match was so good and so entertaining, they decided to do a rematch because of it. The other factor is that rematches booked at Wrestlemania are normally big ones – see Stone Cold vs The Rock or Brock Lesnar vs Triple H. Cena vs Rusev doesn’t quite fit in. The two had an average match at Fastlane for the US title, and now we’re supposed to want to see it again, at a PPV like Wrestlemania?

This would have had much more steam behind it if it was their first bout. Fans would have been curious to see if Cena would put Rusev over, or squash him. Now fans have a different question on their minds – Is Cena seriously going to job to Rusev twice? I think not, but then that would mean he’s going to win the US title. Is that likely? Who knows? Perhaps for a little while. Of course the other alternative is Cena beating Rusev to a pulp and either getting disqualified or both men getting counted out. That could be the most likely scenario, but I hope not and I refuse to predict it.

Prediction: John Cena

Sting vs Triple H

When I first realized this match was on the cards, my reaction was probably the same as that of many fans. The eyes rolled and I stuck my hands out in despair with the question, why?

A few months ago, or even, as soon as people new Sting was joining the WWE, they wanted The Undertaker v Sting to happen. This would have been a dream match. Now when I think about it, perhaps there is some sense and logic to this booking.

It’s highly likely that Taker would pick up the win against Sting, so rather than having Sting lose his debut match in the WWE, how about giving him a win? The Undertaker can return, fight someone else and win, and then in a year the two men can go head to head in what might be The Undertaker’s retirement match. Then Sting can lose.

There is talk of Wrestlemania 32 being littered with legends, and The Undertaker having his last match there, so if the company really is thinking that far ahead, this booking is sensible. Either way, there’s no way Triple H is winning this one.

Prediction: Sting

Brock Lesnar[c] vs Roman Reigns [WWE World Heavyweight championship match]

The match that seemed like a forgone conclusion is now up in the air. Brock Lesnar was making sporadic appearances when he first returned to the WWE, but that didn’t deter the company from sticking their most prestigious title on him. While fans were initially overjoyed to see him beat John Cena at Summerslam last year for the strap, they’ve also been disappointed to see him make such rare appearances since then. Brock has defended his title twice since his title triumph, and one of those ended in a disqualification. Him having the belt has meant we’ve had to sit through four PPV’s without a WWE World Heavyweight title match.

As much as putting the title on Roman Reigns was always a risk, given the reactions he has been getting, leaving it on Lesnar was not an option, if he was leaving. Now we know he won’t be, since announcing his signing of a new multi year contract. This leaves everything open. While Lesnar looks like he’ll still only be showing up to three or four PPV’s each year, he could retain the belt at Wrestlemania and lose it to Rollins during a cash in on Raw. Perhaps Rollins will be the first ever person to cash in his briefcase at Wrestlemania? Perhaps Lesnar will lose the title in a rematch at Extreme Rules, then head off for a few months before returning for Summerslam? What if Paul Heyman interferes in Reign’s favor and we get a double turn, like the Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler one from Payback a couple of years ago?

The possibilities seem endless, and make what was already an obvious conclusion to this year’s main event, a little more spicy. I’m certainly looking forward to it a lot more now. I’m looking forward to the crowd reactions, the match itself, and the result that I’m not 100% sure of anymore.

Prediction: Roman Reigns

CONCLUSION

It’s far from the most exciting Wrestlemania card we’ve had to look forward to, but it has its moments. If there’s one word I’d use to describe it – it’s anti climax. Not necessarily because of the headlining matches, but some of the under card, or more specifically, the lack of it.

What happened to the potential brother vs brother, Dustin Rhodes vs Cody Rhodes match? They had a sloppy Goldust-Stardust match at Fastlane and are now in separate matches at Wrestlemania.

How about The Miz vs Damien Mizdow? This story was actually built up quite nicely, but they haven’t concluded it with a match at Wrestlemania.

It seems like the WWE had a handful of big matches in mind, and shrugged off the rest of the card in a ‘Ah! just stick the rest of the roster in one match’ kind of way. This type of thinking is somewhat of a common occurrence in the company, let’s hope it changes.

What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, opinions, feedback and anything else that was raised.

You can find me on Twitter @WojZed