The first Pay Per View after WrestleMania 32 is being billed as “The first pay-per-view of a New Era”. I suppose they want us to think that a lot of things have changed lately and that is why this is a new era. On one hand, we have a lot of new faces on Raw over the past few weeks and months, and that is a positive development. On the other, we still have Roman Reigns being force fed to us as the babyface hero, and there is nothing new and exciting about that.
A month after WrestleMania 32 and it seems as though most of the show existed in a one-night vacuum. Consider:
- The stipulation of the Undertaker/Shane McMahon match was that if Shane won, he’d gain control of Raw and The Undertaker would be done. So, Undertaker won the match, Shane took over control of Raw the next night anyway, and we haven’t seen the Undertaker. You have to wonder if this was always the plan, or if the WWE was telling the truth when they said that the overwhelming response to Shane on social media was why he was running Raw.
- Zach Ryder had a surprise WrestleMania moment by winning the Intercontinental title in a ladder match. The crowd went wild, he celebrated in the ring with his dad, and the feel-good story came to a crashing halt the next night when he jobbed to The Miz and lost his championship in about 24 hours. The guy didn’t even make it to the next pay-per-view as champ!
- Triple H hasn’t been seen on TV since he lost the title in the main event at WrestleMania. Shouldn’t he have at least shown up and talked some smack?
- AJ Styles lost in a critically derided match to Chris Jericho, and somehow he became the #1 contender for the WWE title at Payback shortly thereafter.
Of course, as a wrestling fan, you are supposed to suspend reality, logic, and reasoning and become immersed in the show and just let it happen. But, wouldn’t a little bit of continuity in the storylines kill the WWE creative team? Some of these things are just head-scratchers.
Either way, if this truly is a new era, we have a chance to see how it all plays out in a new pay-per-view. The names on the card certainly very different than the names on pay-per-views this time last year, so at the very least, we have something different to watch. Here is my expert analysis and picks for each meaningful match.
The Miz (c) (with Maryse) vs. Cesaro in a Singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
As much of a fan of The Miz as I am, I never enjoy when a guy who can stand on his own is paired with his real-life wife in a storyline. He doesn’t need help drawing heat from the crowd, he is a natural heel that is easy to hate. This pairing with the returning Maryese isn’t going to make him look any better than he already does.
The fan favorite Cesaro returned to Raw the night after WrestleMania to a hero’s welcome after a lengthy absence due to a nasty shoulder injury. Maybe I’m forgetting something, but I can’t remember anything he really did to distinguish himself before he got hurt, and I can’t figure out why the crowd is so behind him. It’s like the WWE fans want him to be the next Daniel Bryan for some reason that I can’t decipher.
I don’t have very high hopes for this match, Cesaro isn’t a technical master and often blows spots. Maryese is certainly going to interject herself into the match in an annoying way, and nobody is going to come out of it looking very good at all.
Prediction: Winner and still Intercontinental Champion, The Miz
Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho
Both of these guys are coming off of a very disappointing WrestleMania. Jericho won a snoozefest against AJ Styles in the second match of the night, nearly putting the 101,000 fans in the audience to sleep in the process. Ambrose was given a chance to make a career-defining statement against Brock Lesnar in a street fight. He produced a match that was short and uninteresting, and it generated very little chatter. It was not much of a career-defining statement for Mr. Ambrose.
These two were hastily thrown into a program via an argument over who got to host a talk show. This is certainly the type of angle that lends itself nicely to a grudge match. It remains to be seen if any of the heat that these two are carrying into the match is going to translate into something interesting to watch. Jericho is about ten years past his prime and hasn’t put on a decent match since his latest return. Ambrose has shown flashes of brilliance (his WrestleMania match against Lesnar notwithstanding), but he doesn’t have much to work with against a decrepit Chris Jericho.
Prediction: Winner, Chris Jericho
Charlotte (c) (with Ric Flair) vs. Natalya (with Bret Hart) in a Singles match for the WWE Women’s Championship
The WWE thankfully dropped the term “Diva” for good and that is the best thing that’s happened to women’s wrestling in recent memory. Unfortunately, the quality of the women’s matches is still going to be awful. The one bright spot we have to look forward to is the return to TV by Bret Hart for the first time since he announced that he was suffering from prostate cancer. Let’s hope The Hitman is recovering well and looks good when we see him.
Prediction: This match is going to suck.
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. The Vaudevillains in a Tag team match to determine the #1 contender for the WWE Tag Team Championship
For the masses of fans who chant “N-X-T! N-X-T!” at live events, this match is for you. Both of these teams have made a splash on the main roster, both of them making their first appearances on WWE TV after WrestleMania, and then making it to the finals of the #1 contender tournament for the WWE Tag Team Championship.
The Vaudevillains are working some sort of retro gimmick, with an overly-produced ring entrance, and an authentic Vaudeville-esque attire. They haven’t had too much of a chance to show much personality yet, and it is hard to tell if they are heels or babyfaces.
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady are working a classic gimmick of an “opposite” tag team. They look nothing alike but manage to jell together as a team. They built up such an avid following in NXT that the crowd chanted along with their cadence during their ring entrance during their Raw debut. Anchored by Bergen County, New Jersey’s own Enzo Amore, this team is already a charismatic presence on the WWE main stage.
No telling what this match is going to be like, but these two teams are young and hungry and will certainly going to try to make a good first impression on a WWE pay-per-view and set themselves up for a championship run in the near future.
Prediction: Winners, Enzo Amore and Colin Casssady
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin
The WWE went for a surprise moment when Baron Corbin won the André The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. Corbin wasn’t even announced for the match; he was a surprise entrant representing the NXT brand. He eliminated Kane and captured the trophy for himself. It’s hard to imagine a better WWE debut moment. Corbin rode his momentum to the next night at Raw and cut a great heel promo, totally turning the fans off to him.
Corbin is being fed Dolph Ziggler in his singles pay-per-view debut. This is a good chance for him to show what he can do in a one-on-one match. Ziggler is an experienced hand who oversells his opponent’s offense and will likely make Corbin look strong in victory.
Prediction: Winner, Baron Corbin
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens
This has potential to be the match of the night. In fact, it is the only match on the card that has me genuinely excited. The storyline behind their feud is based on their actual real-life history together as friends and travel companions on the independent circuit. The angle was built as a slow burn beginning in NXT last year and it has finally resulted in a match between the two on a pay-per-view. In a way it is a shame this match wasn’t on the WrestleMania card.
Sami Zayn immediately got over with the fans as a babyface. I don’t see the attraction, but the crowd has taken to his hokey entrance music and strut. Kevin Owens is a natural heel and an innovator in the ring. He is so good at his job that the crowds have no choice but to cheer him anyway. He has performed at a very high level over the course of the last year he has been on the main roster.
This match should tell a fascinating and dramatic story. Owens and Zayn have been in the ring together for years and should have a good chemistry with each other. Expect lots of dramatic moments and near-falls. This will be a classic good guy vs. bad guy grudge match. Hopefully it won’t be the last matchup between the two.
Prediction: Winner, Kevin Owens
Vince McMahon to announce his decision regarding Shane McMahon running Raw
Like I said earlier, this storyline doesn’t make much sense. By way of his loss at WrestleMania to The Undertaker, Shane is supposed to be gone. It’s somewhat intriguing that he’s stayed on WWE TV for so long. It was initially believed that he was brought back to the WWE just as an emergency fill-in to give The Undertaker a credible opponent at WrestleMania, and that he was going to return to his day job after the match was done. Not much is known about exactly why Shane left WWE seven years ago, but he certainly did branch out on his own and it is not publicly known if he plans to resume his career, or stay with the WWE on a more permanent basis.
This announcement will probably turn into some kind of angle, likely with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, possibly even leading up to a match at the next pay-per-view. Maybe the next match will have another useless stipulation attached to it.
Roman Reigns (c) vs. AJ Styles in a Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
If this match is representative of “The New Era” in the WWE, please somebody take me back to The Attitude Era! There are a lot of things wrong with this match, it’s almost hard to decide where to begin. Let me give it a shot:
- AJ Styles is clearly a babyface. Why did they book Roman Reigns against a babyface when he is supposed to be a babyface himself? Wouldn’t they be doing Reigns a favor by booking him against a heel instead?
- How did AJ Styles suddenly get booked in a main event? He just got to the WWE in January, now he’s a main-eventer?
- Why should I care about a guy who couldn’t even beat Chris Jericho at WrestleMania?
- Whatever WWE writer that came up with Roman’s new “I’m not a bad guy, I’m not a good guy, I’m just the guy” catch phrase needs to be fired and blackballed from the professional wrestling industry.
- Roman even gave up his somewhat cool ring entrance through the crowd that originated during his days with The Shield and now comes down the ramp. Yet, he still wears that stupid flak jacket.
I could go on all day, but I am not impressed with either of the two and I’m not sure who to even care about in this match. There will likely be some sort of involvement from Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows in this match as they are working an angle that leads us to believe they are about to swerve their friend, AJ Styles.
If anything, maybe we all get lucky and something interesting does happen. Like AJ Styles does a heel turn and wins the match due to outside interference from Gallows and Anderson. Or Reigns does a heel turn by joining forces by Gallows and Anderson and gains an underhanded victory.
No matter what happens, don’t expect the wrestling to be any good. Roman Reigns has yet to look good in a singles match in a main event. His match against Triple H at WrestleMania was average at best, and that was because he was in the ring with one of the all-time greats.
Prediction: Winner and still WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns
The North Jersey Nonconformist 
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