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Payback 2014 Predictions

on June 1, 2014 at 3:17 pm

Payback is tonight and it looks to be a good show, although I can’t say I would be spending sixty bucks on it if it weren’t for the Network. With no WWE World Heavyweight Championship match involved it’s missing that “big show” feel for me, especially considering that seeing the second tier titles are defended regularly on Raw, but I’m sure some of the matches will be great. Let’s dive right in-

El Torito vs. Hornswoggle in a Hair vs. Mask match
While I know a lot of people have grown to hate this feud, especially with Torito going over non-little person wrestlers a couple of times already, now that they have two preshow matches under their belt I kind of want to see if they can stretch this feud through an entire year of preshow gimmick matches. Isn’t the preshow just when everyone’s getting their PPV junk food ready anyway? Since Hornswoggle can grow his hair back and Torito can’t put his mask back on (y’know, metaphorically speaking), the bull is winning this one.

Rusev vs. Big E
Since the WWE has made it clear they’re putting more focus on Rusev and less focus on Big E by taking the IC title from him, this one is easy to pick with a Rusev win. Since the Bulgarian-Russian brute hasn’t been catching on with crowds I would like to see Big E win, but I think the WWE will wait a little longer before giving Rusev the ol’ Sweet T. treatment.

Bad News Barrett vs. Rob Van Dam for the IC Title
While I think BNB will win and I WANT him to win, I’d actually be okay with RVD going over here if only so he will have won at least one match of importance since his return almost a year ago. I know that it’s the worst thing ever when a wrestler comes back from retirement or a break and runs all over the younger guys, but RVD seems to have the opposite problem going on. Some guys like Jericho can come back, lose every match and still be able to main event for the title when needed. I don’t thing RVD is in that same category though and I worry he will lose any remaining credibility unless he gets a big win sooner or later.

Sheamus vs. Cesaro for the US Title
This match is a hard one to call. I’ll officially pick Sheamus to win because he just won the title not long ago, though I feel like Cesaro has more of a push going on right now with the new music and all of the mic time they’re giving Heyman. There have been lots of backstage rumblings about Cesaro being one of the big guys that the WWE is going to base the coming year around though, so you never know…

Paige vs. Alicia Fox
As much as I enjoyed Paige in NXT, her Divas Championship run has fallen fairly flat. I know it’s very “IWC” to blame the writers and not the wrestler, but Paige has been booked as an underdog champion with little mic time and it’s not working for her. And to be honest the crowd has little reason to cheer for her other than the fact that she has an awesome looking submission finisher. Alicia on the other hand is giving crowds something to look forward to with all of her unpredictable post match antics. When Paige first won the championship I thought she would hold it at least until AJ came back, but the longer she’s gone the more I think the title is up for grabs.

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a Last Man Standing Match
There is little doubt in my mind that Cena will win. While this feud could have been a great way of putting Bray Wyatt over as a threat in the ring, I’m starting to think that the WWE believe that Cena just being in the ring with someone is putting them over. I’ll admit that I’ve lost interest in this feud since Extreme Rules where Cena almost won several times despite it practically being a handicap match for most of the match. The fact that Bray only won due to the deep voice kid who has never been seen again shows that their not interested in making Bray look like he can physically beat Cena. I mean sure, he’s gotten way more exposure as a result, but as a singles competitor he looks like he needs the help of two giant dudes and one gimmicky little kid and even then can just barely win.

Daniel Bryan surrendering the championship???
While this obviously isn’t a match, it’s a huge part of the show so I think it’s worth predicting. As such, I predict that Bryan will NOT surrender the title, and Brie will get out of being fired by challenging Stephanie to a match at the next special event (PPV), Money in the Bank. While that isn’t a match I look forward to in terms of in ring quality, it will be nice to see Steph get her comeuppance without Bryan attacking her and making all wrestling fans look like wife beating misogynists. I don’t really think that the WWE will make Bryan surrender the title for Brie, given how many wrestling fans want to see Bryan wrestle and don’t want to see the Bellas stay employed.

The Shield vs. Evolution in a No Holds Barred Match
Even though this feud started on shaky ground (Orton couldn’t get his world title rematch until they dealt with the Shield?) it has been great to watch. Thinking back to a decade ago when “Evolution” became synonymous with Triple H & pals burying anyone except themselves, it feels good to see them making new, young stars really shine. I especially appreciate that while the golden child is Roman Reigns, all members of Shield are made to look strong. Given Batista the Destroyer’s upcoming movie promotion schedule, I think the Shield will win. Maybe I could see Evolution squeaking by with a win, but it isn’t really Evolution with only Hunter and Orton. I may be assuming too much about Dave leaving, but this whole program has been about putting over the Shield so I honestly see them winning no matter what.

After looking over the card, I can honestly say that Payback definitely falls into the category of pay per view special events that I wouldn’t be watching if it weren’t for the WWE Network. There are a few matches that look good and I’m sure the Shield vs. Evolution will be stellar, but the main draw for me- Bryan and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship- is something I could get by following a recap online.

└ Tags: Payback, predictions, wwe

2 Comments

Extreme Rules Predictions

on May 3, 2014 at 7:08 pm

The Extreme Rules “special” (since “pay per view” doesn’t qualify anymore) is creating a big problem for me. Every time in the past when we would order a PPV we always ordered a ton of junk food to go with it in order to have the best viewing experience. This worked for us because we’d really only ever order the Big Four PPVs and maybe one or two of the in between ones, so it wasn’t a big financial strain and we didn’t feel guilty over eating a ton of junk. But now with them being “specials” on the WWE Network, we essentially are getting all of them, even the ones we normally wouldn’t watch like Extreme Rules. So should we still order a bunch of junk food and devote the whole night to watching it? Or should we treat it like Raw/ Smackdown and kind of watch the matches we’re interested in, but mostly work on drawing stuff, checking twitter, or playing video games? I’m not complaining, I’m happy to be able to watch Extreme Rules through the Network, but at the same time I realize that I’m entering a bold new world of wrestling-watching, and I have to, in the words of Triple H, “evolve or perish.” On to the predictions!

El Torito vs. Hornswoggle in a WeeLC match
In today’s world of bringing up terrible misfires in wrestling in order to make a catchy video/shirt/meme about it, I’m always surprised that the WWE’s brief “Juniors” division isn’t brought up more. It was everything you hate about this match, but in a division with it’s own wrestlers and entrance graphic. I can’t remember if there was a championship though… Anyway, I’m predicting a win for El Torito, presumably after goring Hornswoggle in his nether regions.

Big E vs. Bad News Barrett
Bad News Barrett has so much momentum going into this match that I think he’s going to pull it off. He’s been ripe for a push and a real title run for a while now, and I think this BNB gimmick is just what he needs to pull it off. He got close to the world title as the stuffy English leader of the Nexus, floundered a bit as the “business is booming” boxer businessman, but as the smarmy asshole who brings bad news to people? He’s gold. Big E. hasn’t had much of a presence at all during this tournament, so I feel like there was a good chance that whoever won the tournament would go on to win the gold anyway.

Paige vs. Tamina Snuka
I’m pretty sure Paige is going to win this one and at some point AJ will come back for a real feud with her over the belt. That being said, I think Tamina and Paige will have a great match together. Paige is being pushed as an underdog and I think it’s going to work a lot better against the larger Tamina than it does when she faces the jobbers of the Divas division like Aksana.

Alexander Rusev vs. Xavier Woods and R-Truth
It’s the easy pick of the night. Rusev will win cleanly and definitively. I don’t know what the future holds for these competitors, but I imagine Xavier and R-Truth having a brief career in jobbing, Rusev having a brief Tensai-ish failed push, and Lana going on to Total Divas. I’ll let you decide which fate is worse.

Jack Swagger vs. RVD vs. Cesaro
All I can imagine RVD thinking is “I came back for this?!” I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really wish it were a tag match with Paul Heyman and Zeb Colter teaming with their clients. Actually it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that’s where this is headed, so I’ll cautiously pick Rob Van Dam to win so he can go on to better things and Heyman and Colter can continue to go at it.

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
This feud has gone too far to end at Extreme Rules, so I’m picking Wyatt to win as a way to continue it. It COULD end here with Cena winning, but that would make Wyatt look a little like a chump, so I don’t think it will happen. Given that Wyatt doesn’t seem to want to beat Cena in the ring as much as screw with his mind, I don’t feel like it really matters if he wins or loses. I’m still looking forward to this match though, based off of the quality of their Wrestlemania match.

Evolution vs. the Shield
I may be in the minority here, but I think the Shield are going to win. It will probably be them just squeaking out a win after getting their butts kicked for most of the match, but I just don’t see Evolution winning. Which is weird considering at the last PPV all three of them were involved in the main event. Maybe they will win! But I’m putting my online credibility on the Shield. Either way I see some kind of post match beat down to continue the feud.

Daniel Bryan vs. Kane
Am I the only one who thinks this will close out the show? I’m picking Bryan to win of course! Kane’s the big filler monster when it comes to in between feuds, so I don’t see him having much of a chance at all. And for that matter, I’m still not sure why Orton never got his rematch either. I get that “storyline wise” Triple H convinced Orton that he’d have to get rid of the Shield before going after Bryan, but, y’know, that’s kind of dumb. My hope is that Bryan pins Kane cleanly to end this feud before it gets much traction. I don’t hate it, but I want to see Bryan defending against real contenders, not someone who got jobbed out in five minutes at Wrestlemania only a month ago.

So there’s Extreme Rules 2014. Not very Extreme in my opinion, but with Wrestlemania 30 coming off pretty solid last month I’m willing to give them a chance.