This should be an excellent weekend of wrestling. That said, last weekend had the Will Ospreay-Marty Scurll match, and I doubt anything tops that, seriously check that out if you haven't is the leader in the clubhouse for 2018 match of the year in my opinion. I find my level of interest this weekend goes: Supercard>Takeover>Mania, but I'm sure to watch and hopefully enjoy all 3.
As for predictions/hopes, I'll start with Supercard:
Finally an ROH women's title. I'm picking Mayu Iwatani, but its totally possible they put the title on Tenille just because more people likely know who she is. Hopefully they meet in the finals, if you have never seen Mayu, she is great and one of the five best women's wrestlers in the world.
I'm fully expecting Ibushi to crush Hangman. Should be a fun match though, both these guys are willing to go 100 MPH at all times.
Punishment Martinez is like best case scenario Baron Corbin, but I can't see him beating the Stone Pitbull.
I think the Bucks and Flip take the 6-man titles back. Frankly the build on Being the Elite with Flip trying so hard, for so long to be accepted deserves a payoff here.
I'll pick Lethal-Tanahashi in a somewhat surprise upset of the Briscoes. I think if just for shock value. I'm a little surprised the Motor City Machine Guns aren't on the card, maybe I missed an injury?
Kenny King vs. Silas Young might be the match I care least about on the card. Just not interested in either guy. I'll pick Kenny King I guess. Same with Chuckie T vs. John Gresham. I'll pick Chuck, but meh.
I'll pick the Villain to pull of a bit of an upset and beat Dalton Castle. Castle is my sleeper pick for entrance of the weekend by the way. I think Scurll winning the ROH title could really make all the overarching Bullet Club stories that much more interesting.
I'll take Kenny over Cody. This is probably the match I'm most looking forward to this weekend. Omega main event matches have been universally great for almost 2 years. He's the best wrestler on the planet right now.
NXT Takeover:
This is probably going to be the best show of the weekend, its possible every match is 4 stars or better.
I'm assuming Adam Cole is pulling double duty, and if he is, I'd be very shocked if he won twice, especially as a heel. With that in mind, I'll pick him and O'Reilly to retain the tag titles. AOP feels ready for a call up after Mania, and Dunne/Strong isn't really a team.
While I'm totally rooting for Cole to win the North American Title as well, I'll pick Ricochet. I think giving him a title in his first match would be quite the introduction.
In my 2nd most anticipated match of the weekend, I like Gargano over Ciampa. I think this feud is too big for just a one off. I think it continues maybe all summer. For that to happen Gargano needs to win this round. I could see maybe Gargano wins, but has to be stretchered out of the building.
I like the build with Shayna/Ember, but Ember Moon should retain. She deserves a much longer title reign. If I had to book it, I'd say somewhat similar to the first match, but Ember wins more clearly. Either by her finish, or if you really wanted a big reaction, by submission, perhaps after a Baszler mishap causing an injury.
I think Almas retains over Black. Almas needs the title more, and Black's undefeated streak has to end sometime. Even though Almas is the champion, he feels a bit like the underdog. Maybe Black has the match won a few times, but for whatever reason(Vega distraction, knocked out ref, foot on the rope, etc.) the match doesn't end and Almas eventually pulls out a win, cheap perhaps. I think this goes on last.
Wrestlemania:
Good lord this is a long show. I'll probably be nodding off toward the end so hopefully for my sake the matches I care about come first. I'm a little disappointed that Cena-Undertaker doesn't seem to be happening. I don't recall them ever feuding before, so the novelty would be there, also the rare match I think where even kids, might be rooting against Cena. Oh well. Probably for the best as Taker hasn't really had a good match in about 5 years.
I'm a sucker for Battle Royals so I'm interested in both of them. The women's one especially, since it could actually advance a storyline. I'm going with Bayley winning, by eliminating Sasha last. That's the money feud people have been waiting on. Frankly, I think Alexa should have lost to one of them at the Elimination Chamber, since their feud is way better and more title worthy than Alexa/Nia but we'll get there. I'll throw a sleeper pick for the Andre...Goldust. Nobody has really gotten anything from winning this, so why not use it as a career achievement award of sorts.
I think Cedric Alexander was going to beat Enzo for the title before all that stuff happened, so I'll stick with him getting the win. Honestly though, I'm still not feeling the CW division at all.
I think Mania opens with the return of Daniel Bryan to Mania. That said, this feud has basically killed Smackdown(mostly Shane's fault as he's been awful) so I'm more into just seeing Bryan than actually caring about this match(which feels weird as I'm a huge Zayn fan) I'll go with Sami/KO winning, by beating Shane. I don't think there will a swerve here.
While it will obviously never happen, I kinda want Alexa to be Braun's partner. She doesn't have to compete, just be out there while Braun wins the tag titles by himself. This is another match, i'm not really interested in. I can't believe this is Braun's Mania match after the year he had. I'm Braun/mystery partner. Let's say Matt Hardy, just for some potential future story potential.
While they always have solid stuff together, I'm not really into the Smackdown tag title match. I'm kinda sick of New Day and the Bludgies do nothing for me. That said, I think they'll change up the title scene, so I'll pick Harper/Rowan to win.
This US title feud is also something I'm not into. The alignments are all wrong. Roode and Orton should be heels, and Rusev should be a face. I feel like Rusev was added to this match so the crowd wouldn't play with beachballs during this match. I'll pick Roode since he's guy who is enhanced the most by having a title. Anyone but Jinder would be fine though.
The IC title match is yet another match I don't really like, I'd have preferred Miz/Rollins and Balor to do something else. My guess is Miz is probably losing and taking some time off since he just became a dad, so I'll pick Rollins to join the list of guys who have won every title.
Much like the Smackdown authority figure match, I'm not really into the Raw version other than the novelty of it being Rousey's 1st match. Like that match, I'll go against the grain, and pick HHH-Steph to win by HHH beating Angle. This is also where I could see a swerve happening as Rousey joins up with the Authority and turns on Angle. Rousey rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and I think they'd be right to capitalize on that as she has natural heel tendencies, and it would give her someone to talk for her.
Alexa/Nia is a tough one. Like i said earlier, i hate that this is a title match, because the story says Nia should win, but man she is not very good at anything other than looking unique. I'll pick Alexa to retain, simply because she's the better character/wrestler. Maybe Alexa dodges Nia outside the ring, and Nia goes through the barricade or into the post or something and Alexa wins by countout.
The match I am most looking forward to at Mania is Charlotte vs. Asuka. I think Asuka should absolutely win this, by submission no less. I hope this gets 15-20 minutes. Could Charlotte's flipping cutter be turned into a chicken wing? I think that'd be a neat finish if I were booking it. Carmella should 100% not cash in here, and if she does, she should lose in probably under 30 seconds. Can she cash in on the Raw women's title? That would make more sense to me, though I'd probably prefer she lost that too.
Styles/Nakamura had a great match at Wrestle Kingdom in 2016, and in theory, this could be better, as they were both pretty banged up heading into that one. Is it just me or has Nakamura kinda been heeling it up a bit as of late? I think that should continue, and Nakamura should win possibly through ruthlessness, and cheating a bit. I think this is a feud that likely extends beyond Mania, so for that to make the most sense, Nakamura has to win.
Lesnar/Reigns is basically meaningless to me. We already saw it, we already know who is winning, and the story build has been retched. Boos and beachballs are my prediction for this one. If I were booking, I wouldn't drag it out. Have it be a fast hard hitting bomb fest for 6-7 minutes. No trading control, no slow build, just bombs left and right. Kinda like Lesnar/Goldberg last year. I'd personally pull a swerve here(can Rollins somehow cash in the IC title to join this match?) and have Lesnar win. Maybe have Cena get involved in some way here? Then have Lesnar lose the title on Raw. How many Mania's in a row do you want the lasting shot to be overwhelming boos.
That turnip has been out of juice for years. That "throw through the table" was pitiful. And HHH standing there letting Rousey grab his throat so Stephanie can get in position was just sad. I bet he cringes at production meetings. Like he's going to sell getting choke slammed by R. Rousey.
ondering emoji:
, and possibly avoid the boo-fest that comes when RR wins, I'd make Lesnar-Reigns next to last. Asuka pins Flair for the Women's Title, and at the end of the evening when Nakamura pins Styles for the WWE title, Asuka comes back out and celebrates the top two singles belts being held by Japanese wrestlers and it's a throwback to WM X8 (?) when Benoit and Eddie Guererro celebrated winning titles together.
