wrestling / Columns

Surprises in Store for WrestleMania 32?

March 31, 2016 | Posted by Mike Hammerlock
Roman Reigns Image Credit: WWE

We’re into the final week before WrestleMania, where the WWE will attempt to put its best foot forward in front of 100,000+ people in Dallas and a worldwide audience of millions. The last two installments of Mania have provided us with epic conclusions. Daniel Bryan’s career-defining night at WM30 and Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank to close WM31 will stand out as signature moments for decades to come. Yet it’s hard to clear that bar every year. You only get so many all-time highs.

That’s what WM32 finds itself up against. How do you measure up to the previous two installments with a depleted roster? Doesn’t help that Vince McMahon’s booking has been tone deaf as far as his audience is concerned. Two of the main event matches – HHH vs. Roman Reigns and Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon – have been fraught with problems. Fans have rejected Reigns’ character. I suppose they could have Reigns win and act like a white meat babyface and it would function like a heel turn since a stadium full of people boo their lungs out, but it won’t be particularly enjoyable. Undertaker-Shane just looks like a trainwreck inside the ring. During his promo a last week’s Raw it didn’t even look like Vince was buying this matchup.

Yet the WWE does tend to be good at making lemonade from a bushel of lemons. If it recognizes the potential for this card to flop, it can throw some surprises our way. If ever a card demand some major swerves, this is it. They need to erase this Road to WrestleMania from human memory. The only way to do it is to deliver a far better show than we currently expect. Mind you, that’s easier said than done. So this column is going to look at some of the potential surprises and dig into whether they’ll cause much buzz.

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Bray Wyatt wins the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Level of surprise – Low. Starting slow here with Bray. The ATGMBR is not going to be a star-studded affair. Big Show winning it again actually wouldn’t be the worst call. It would make beating him at the next ATGMBR mean something. Yet if Bray’s in there, it’s his to win. Reportedly he had back surgery recently, but he’s been working dark matches.

Impact – Medium. Bray needs a notable win. The good part is he can spin this forward and bring some excitement to the pre-show. It also would set up Bray to unleash the Family during the main card. Some relevance and confidence would do Mr. Wyatt a world of good.

One of the underdogs wins the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match

Level of surprise – Medium. I mean, no one expects Stardust, Sin Cara or Zack Ryder to win. They’ve been so devalued as singles performers it really would be a shocking victory for any of them. Miz would be mildly surprising too. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Dolph Ziggler look like the only serious contenders. Anyone outside of those three would give people a “did not see that coming” reaction.

Impact – Low. Beyond the surprise factor, there’s no payoff here. If anything, they’ve already monkeyed too much with this one. A four-man ladder match would have been fine. While I think Cody Rhodes has been handled with nearly criminal incompetence, he’s not going anywhere as Stardust. Better to let Owens, Zayn and Ziggler shine. Would be fun if they added a stip where guys could be eliminated by pinfall or submission. Nothing wrong with thinning this herd.

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Becky Lynch wins the Divas title

Level of surprise – Medium. Sasha Banks and Charlotte are both former NXT champions, while Lynch didn’t really hit her stride until she got to the WWE. Like the other two, she debuted as part of last year’s oddly executed divas revolution. Yet Becky was the third wheel on Team PCB behind Charlotte and Paige, whose WWE career couldn’t be going much worse at the moment. Then Becky caught on. She’s got a cool energy about her, knows how to make an arena entrance too. People loved Sasha before she hit the WWE. Charlotte’s got royal bloodlines. Becky’s been the revelation, though. She’s become the everywoman on the roster, the lass we all root for no matter how much the odds seemed stacked against her.

Impact – Medium. A Becky win probably would get a big pop inside the stadium, she’d celebrate it like crazy and it would feel like a true WrestleMania moment for a female wrestler (haven’t been many of those). Becky would give this match some immediate payoff, leaving Sasha to chase her for the belt heading into the summer. Could work with Sasha winning and then Becky chasing her too (give the women a MITB briefcase match if they go that route), but we sort of expect that outcome.

New Day drops the tag belts

Level of surprise – Medium. The numbers are stacked against New Day, but it’s still hard to imagine the League of Nations winning something. Sheamus is the only guy in that faction who’s been made to look even vaguely capable. So a LoN triumph would feel like a slap upside the head. New Day is on fire and just entering its face phase, as opposed to being supposed heels that everyone loves. Seems an unlikely time for them to lose.

Impact – Low. While they could tell the story of New Day losing to the numbers advantage, perhaps adding a new member and then reclaiming the belts, it’s more time filler than a compelling direction. Maybe if they kicked it into some sort of Evolution vs. Shield blood feud, it could justify a WrestleMania downer moment. LoN would have to do something fairly despicable at Mania in order to sell the whole thing. A bad guy win and nyah-nyah-nyah would annoy fans. New Day deserves better.

Bullet Club debuts

Level of Surprise – Medium to huge. We know Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows are coming soon. They are a made-for-the-WWE heavyweight tag team. They could show up at Mania and give us a lot of drama. The level of surprise depends on who their leader is. If it’s Finn Balor, then we’ve got a medium-level surprise. Great WWE debut for Balor if they go that route. It’s a bigger surprise if AJ Styles heads up the crew, mainly because he’s been involved with this Chris Jericho feud. He seems otherwise occupied, which could be a great way to throw us off the scent of a possible Bullet Club debut. If so, well done. In either of those cases, the Undertaker-Shane match would seem to be the place for them to get involved. Shane’s got to have a plan up his sleeve, and Bullet Club would be a dynamite plan. Shinsuke Nakamura would fit here too.

Yet the potential huge way for Bullet Club to debut would be as a faction backing Roman Reigns. Something’s up with Roman and he’s great inside a badass faction. Fair to say, this would take everyone by surprise. It also would truer to Bullet Club’s heel roots. They’d need a talker in the mix. Jericho? Yet Roman going darkside and pulling on a Bullet Club t-shirt would be a spectacular end to the show. Side note: Alberto Del Rio would make a fabulous enforcer in that kind of faction, but I fear the WWE has poisoned him from a creative standpoint.

Impact – Large. Bullet Club, done right, would be a major part of the WWE’s storytelling through the rest of 2016. It either would be central to Shane McMahon’s remade Raw and/or the faction behind the current or potential WWE champion. It’s the move that would sell a million t-shirts.

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Dean Ambrose beats Brock Lesnar

Level of surprise – Medium. It is a street fight, so Ambrose can use his vast knowledge of plunder for the victory. Beating Brock in a straight up match would be a real surprise. Yet the stip here makes an Ambrose win seem possible. However, it is still Brock Lesnar. The story might wind up being you can hit Brock Lesnar with the proverbial kitchen sink and not beat him. We’d buy that. That’s why it would feel like a surprise if Ambrose wins. The general response would be, “Holy shit, Ambrose actually did it.”

Impact – Large. You beat the beast and you are in rarified air. Ambrose would become a made man. No more Mr. Almost. Undertaker is the only guy who’s beaten Brock in the past three years and even that involved some cheating. Putting Lesnar down for a three count would be a life achievement. No matter how contrived the finish may be, Ambrose would be the effective #1 contender for the WWE title. If Reigns wins the WWE title, then Ambrose would find himself chasing his soon-to-be-former best friend. I suspect there’s money in that fight. Toss in Seth Rollins when he gets healthy and maybe we finally get the Shield three-way that we’ve been waiting almost two years to see.

Roman Reigns turns heel

Level of surprise – Low. Reigns has become a heel despite the WWE’s attempts to make him the biggest face in the industry. In fact, forcing that exact issue has caused fans to reject Reigns with even more gusto. It would be far more surprising, in a bad way, if Reigns doesn’t go aggro at Mania. I’m not sure HHH makes a compelling foil for this kind of turn, but he’ll have a stadium behind him during the match, opening the door for Roman to do something rotten. Maybe Reigns throws in with Vince. Maybe he factions up (e.g. Bullet Club). Maybe he’s just a lone angry Samoan. It’s where they need to go.

Impact – High. The surprise factor on a Reigns won’t be large, but do it right and the fans will be hooked. A big part of this business is giving the people what they want. They want the WWE to stop with Reigns as Cena 2.0. Anybody 2.0 usually counts for a terrible idea. Reigns finally can get onto a path of his own. It gives the WWE the chance to tell some real stories. This is the logjam they need to clear.

Return outta nowhere

Level of surprise – High. If one of John Cena, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins or Cesaro can make it back at the main show, the WWE has done a great job of keeping it under wraps. Supposedly Orton and Cesaro are the closest to returning, at least according to their original recovery timetables. Cesaro’s even booked on the WWE’s upcoming European tour. How these guys might get involved is hard to say. The Undertaker-Shane match is the nominal place for a return. It’s a chance to stick it to Vince, be part of whatever the next wave is and set up something down the road with Undertaker. Cena makes the maximum amount sense for that job, but others could work as well. Rollins could monkey wrench the title match. Orton could ambush Lesnar, setting up a feud they’ve surely wanted to stage since Lesnar returned.

Impact – Medium. It’s not like guys returning from the sidelines reshape the landscape. It just means the WWE can operate with a fuller roster. That’s a good thing. As I’ve mentioned recently, getting injured in the WWE has become a career move. Fans have gotten so restless that anyone returning to the fold looks like an energy injection. Not that he was injured, but look at the greeting Del Rio got when he came back last year. They completely botched it after that, but fans initially were down with the possibility that Del Rio do some exciting things. Even Orton, who’s been adrift for a while in creative terms, could get into a pile of hot feuds: Orton-Owens, Orton-AJ, Orton-Lesnar, Orton-Nakamura, Orton-Wyatt. From a matchmaking perspective, getting these guys back is nothing but a positive.

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Shane McMahon beats the Undertaker

Level of surprise – Low. Yes, I know this is a massive mismatch on paper. Undertaker should wipe the floor with Shane in this battle of middle-aged men. Yet if you follow the WWE at all and you’re prone to thinking about things, there’s little point in bringing back Shane and promising a change of direction if they’re not going to do it. WWE fans are responding to what Shane’s saying when he runs down the current product and bemoans talented guys getting overlooked. You can’t feed people that line and not deliver on it. Shane’s taking over Raw in kayfabe terms and perhaps it will shake up the WWE’s moribund product. People will act like this is a major surprise. It is Undertaker at WrestleMania, but there’s no point to the Deadman winning here. Only one outcome makes sense.

Mind you, how they do it could amp up the surprise factor. A Bullet Club invasion or John Cena supposedly costing Undertaker his WrestleMania career (until they fight at WM33) would bring some wow factor. I keep hoping the find a way to take Shane out of the match and put in a real wrestler. Cesaro is exactly the kind of talent that’s not getting a chance. He could pop up at the 11th hour and give Taker the kind of fight we expect at Mania. Yet we should assume Shane gets the win.

Impact – High. We can and should be cynical about how much things actually will change, but why bring back Shane-O Mac if the plan is to do more of the same? A roster split, a production change, a new creative direction – there must be something to this. This entire match is about what comes next. No one actually wanted to see Shane challenge Undertaker. This might even be the piss break match on the card. The reason why it exists is so they can declare that, omigod, everything just changed.

article topics :

WrestleMania 32, WWE, Mike Hammerlock