Hello! Yes, tonight is the last night before we officially dive into the brand split and everything that comes with said brand split. You know what that means? This PPV largely means absolutely nothing. I have no doubt the majority of the matches tonight will be quite fun, and the WWE Title match will be interesting- but I highly doubt there'll be much in the way of interesting follow up to this PPV beyond who wins the WWE Title, a potential angle with The Club and Sasha's mystery partner. There's 9 matches to predict, so I'm just going to jump right into them.
Pre-Show: The Usos v Fabreeze
I have to assume that The Usos are winning this match. Beyond the obvious part of it being a Pre-Show match which means the babyfaces generally win, returns aside The Usos are by far and a way the most credible team on Smackdown to rival American Alpha. The thing is though, saying that- Fabreeze have actually been on TV more than The Usos over the last month or two. They've actually gotten a few wins in that time as well, so it's not inconceivable that Fabreeze do actually win. However, as already said- I just can't see it personally. I wouldn't mind The Usos turning heel in the near future actually, because we just need to see a different side to them now they're likely to be moved back into the spotlight.
Winner: The Usos
The New Day v The Wyatt Family
Before we found out the rules for the Draft, and the Draft did in fact take place I would've said that the Titles aren't on the line in order to give The Wyatts a win and a rematch for said Titles at Summerslam. However, as we now know The Wyatts are inexplicably being split up (again). With that in mind, it just doesn't make sense to put the team that's breaking up over the team that's staying together. Surely even WWE can't be stupid enough to do that.
Winner: The New Day
Sasha Banks & ??? v Charlotte & Dana Brooke
The outcome for this match isn't really in question. Given the fact that basically every woman except for Becky, Nattie, Carmella and a few of the complete jobbers are on Smackdown- the whole problem with the New Day/Wyatts match doesn't come into play for this. Sasha's team is winning without a shadow of a doubt to set up a Title match at Summerslam where Sasha has to win.
The question is of course about who Sasha's partner is going to be. I'll preface this by saying, I'm not really going to talk about Bayley in this section. I talked about Bayley in both the RAW and Smackdown Reviews earlier on in the week. The extent of what I'm going to say about Bayley is, the crowd won't accept anyone except Bayley tonight. Apart from an absolutely top-tier return, the crowd are going to absolutely bury this match if Sasha's partner isn't Bayley.
I said it in my RAW Review, and the Smackdown/Draft Review. The fact Bayley wasn't drafted and brought in to do a run-in on Tuesday means her chances of being Sasha's partner has massively gone down in my book. So, it's time to look at the other options.
Nia Jax
If we're talking within kayfabe, Nia would be a choice that makes sense for tonight. It would actually work quite well because Nia can establish herself as one of the women to "look out for" by being in the same ring as Charlotte right off the bat, and then she can branch off from Sasha and say how she's only out for herself tomorrow.
Lita/Trish Stratus
This is the top-tier return I referenced a bit earlier on. I know Trish recently said she was open to a run as a Heel manager, and long-term a return tonight could eventually end up with that- so I wouldn't rule it out. Lita's basically just because I think she's on the road as an agent now, so it would be quite an easy position for her to fill- and again, because she's Lita it would help to offset the lack of Bayley.
Nikki Bella
A Nikki return is fairly close now. I saw Nikki's tweet saying how she's headed to the Performance Center, which means she's been cleared to a point and because of this obviously being a Tag match Nikki can take it a bit easy and just beat up Dana Brooke for most of the match. This would be a surprise partner that I'd actually want to see, just to see how much it's completely buried by the crowd.
This could be a point in the show where the crowd turns on the show in general as well, so WWE really need to play it smart when it comes to where they position this match on the card if Bayley isn't actually the tag partner.
Personally I think the "top-tier" return is most likely, because it'll be easier to write said "top-tier" return out of the direct spotlight heading into Summerslam with Sasha/Charlotte needing to be the match.
Winner: Sasha Banks
John Cena, Enzo & Cass v The Club
This is a fairly straightforward outcome in my opinion. My ideal outcome believe it or not would be Cena pinning AJ to set-up the rematch at Summerslam with them being 1-1 with pins on each other. I know that sounds weird because CENAWINSLOL and Cena's burying him!
AJ is being split away from Gallows & Anderson. Gallows & Anderson are going to be on RAW with Finn Balor. Even the most moronic of people in WWE's creative can put those pieces together. I don't know if I'd have Gallows and Anderson turn on AJ during the match to protect him a bit in taking the pin, or they turn on him after. But given the fact this is the last time AJ, Gallows & Anderson will be on the same show together for a while it has to be tonight.
Balor doesn't have to debut on the show tonight, but the turn does have to happen tonight for the reasons already mentioned. Either way, Cena's team is winning, most likely with AJ taking the pin.
Winner: John Cena, Enzo & Cass
The Miz v Darren Young- IC Title
I already talked about the angle that I believe they're doing with Darren in this weeks RAW Review, so I won't go into too much detail on it again. Suffice to say, I'm expecting Darren to have a pretty strong showing tonight- but then get fucked out of winning the title in some contrived way. Whether that be a count-out, double pin, DQ etc.
Winner: The Miz (possibly Darren, but Miz still retains)
Zack Ryder v Rusev- US Title
I've seen a lot of talk about the distribution of Titles over the two shows, specifically linked to the match just discussed and this one. The general consensus from what I've seen is that if Darren or Zack wins, then both of them are winning. My issue with that line of thought is it's simply not sound logic. RAW's getting the Cruiserweight Division, and presumably a Cruiserweight Title so that'll be a Title to have on RAW- and then as I'll discuss later I have a feeling the WWE Title will find its way back to RAW in the Main Event.
Smackdown needs to seem important. The whole reason for the split is because the ratings for Smackdown on Thursday were shit and USA were getting worried by them. So having the US and IC Titles on Smackdown with them hopefully being built up a bit is one way that I can see them trying to make it seem important.
While it's unlikely, I've had a weird feeling that Zack's winning since the match was made so I'm going to stick with my gut. Which is probably stupid, especially when considering the fact that Mojo was called up to presumably team with Zack in the Hype Bros.
Kevin Owens v Sami Zayn
As with the Wyatts/New Day match, the outcome of this match seemed completely obvious- right up until the draft took place. To the surprise of basically everyone, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens haven't actually been split up.
I think everyone was expecting Owens and Zayn to be split up, Sami gets the "feel good" win to send both guys on their way and that's that for this chapter of their rivalry. Now they're both on RAW I have no fucking clue what's going to happen in this match. I'm leaning toward an Owens win, but honestly I don't really know. I wasn't nearly as critical of the draft as most, but the decision to keep Owens and Zayn on the same show was just absolutely fucking stupid.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Becky Lynch v Natalya
In the "I can't believe this isn't on the Pre-Show" match, we've got Becky Lynch v Natalya. This is one of the more straightforward matches to predict. Becky's most likely going to be the top woman on Smackdown, so she needs a win tonight to kick off her run. The other way to look at it is that if Becky loses to Nattie then she can chase Nattie for the womens feud on Smackdown building to Summerslam, which is probably quite likely- but I hope that isn't the case.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Seth Rollins v Dean Ambrose v Roman Reigns- WWE Title
I realise this is somewhat contradictory to what I said earlier on about Smackdown needing to be viewed as "important", but I can't see the WWE Title staying on Ambrose tonight. Equally, I can't see Roman getting the Title for obvious reasons- so the only option left is to put the Title back on Seth and have Seth/Roman be the WWE Title match for Summerslam.
The other way to go is to have Ambrose retain and have Rollins/Roman for the new world title that they're going to presumably be introducing before Summerslam. It'll probably be "cleaner" for the split that way as well because there won't be any of those pesky rematch clauses floating around. The only guy I can't see leaving with the Title is Roman, because despite what some people are saying- Vince knows that he can't just give Roman the Title back tonight. Especially with the Brock stuff, giving Roman the Title on his first televised appearance back after a Wellness Violation will be sending completely the wrong message. So now that I've said that expect "the guy" to be standing tall at around 4am tonight.
As I've already said, this PPV simply doesn't matter. Especially with the fact that we had two WWE Title matches on TV this week, I can actually say this is going to be like a slightly more important RAW. We're even getting a Talk Show segment! With that said, the matches should be fun- and there is at least some potential for some interesting angles on the show.
Thanks for reading as always, with Predictions there is a Review to follow not soon after- so keep an eye out for it tomorrow. Then we officially start the RAW Review/Smackdown Reviews with completely separate rosters as of this week. So in short there's a lot to look forward to at the moment, and hopefully you'll be coming back for all of the Reviews that are going to be coming your way. Thanks again for reading, and just remember- if we don't get a Ryback return to team up with Sasha as "Rybanks" Sasha's partner will be a huge anti-climax.
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