The Card For Wrestlemania 31 Is Almost Set, And It Looks Pretty Good, Including HHH vs Sting, Bray Wyatt vs The Undertaker, and Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar

After last night’s decent enough Fastlane PPV, the road to Wrestlemania is in full swing, with the big show coming up a little over a month from now on March 29th at Levi’s Stadium. And I, who am usually not satisfied with the writing or the product, have to say the card for Mania looks pretty good. The WWE does do a good job of not being lazy assholes when it comes Mania time. They step their game up between the Rumble and Mania. If only they focused this much the rest of the year.

My thoughts on what we know so far:

Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins:

Randy Orton returned last night and got revenge on Seth Rollins for “hurting” him a few months ago. Orton is a tried and true veteran who when focused can put on outstanding matches. This match and feud has a ton of potential. Rollins is the top heel (who for some reason was stuck in that opening tag match with the Big Show and Kane who looked awful. Particularly Big Show. Enough of him. Just so, so, so bad.) and Orton got a pretty nice face pop last night. I expect Rollins to go over at Mania, but wouldn’t be surprised if Orton wins to push the feud on for a couple more months.

John Cena vs Rusev

Of course Cena didn’t lose clean last night. Didn’t tap out, just passed out. I don’t really mind it though. I dislike Cena a lot. But he has been losing matches at PPVs and putting young talent over so much recently that I respect the shit out of him. He has a ton of pull backstage and with Vince- if Cena didn’t want to be midcarding right now, he wouldn’t be. Cena can easily at any time go to Vince and get back into the main even picture. But he’s midcarding and fighting for the USA Championship. Kind of a breath of fresh air. If only he was allowed to change his character to not be so repetitive and boring.

I hope Rusev wins at Mania. Would really escalate his character to be more than just a flash in the pan type guy. We’ve seen this happen a lot with people who feud with Cena- they end up getting buried and you never hear from them again. Wouldn’t be shocked if Cena pins Rusev clean at Mania though.

Bray Wyatt vs The Undertaker

One of the coolest moments of last night. An elaborate Undertaker entrance like we’re used to…and then…..
 

Rumors are Undertaker might show up on Raw tonight. Not sure who wins the Wrestlemania match. After Undertaker lost last year, the match doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it otherwise would, but it’s still being set up perfectly. Bray Wyatt is AWESOME. He’s all around the best in the business right now. Undertaker is old. But would he come back just to lose his second match at Mania in a row? What would that mean for his legacy? But it’s actually realistic that real life Undertaker is just a nice dude who wants to escalate the company and doesn’t really care so much about his legacy. Either way, the promos, particularly from Wyatt, will be A+ leading up to Mania.

HHH vs Sting

Sting was on one time the biggest draw in WCW. Every other big name from WCW has wrestled in WWE. Not Sting. Not once. And now on the biggest stage of all, Sting will be making his debut in the ring vs HHH, the guy who helped put WCW out of business. Pretty cool story line. And pretty cool to see Sting wrestle a match for WWE. It’s why I don’t think CM Punk is gone forever. Every single person you never expected to see in the ring or back on WWE television has shown up in recent years. I think once Vince is out of the picture, anything is possible. But back to this match. While Sting is old, I think he can still put on a decent enough match. HHH wouldn’t be doing this otherwise. Trips won’t let his match suck. And I hope they let Sting repel down from the ceiling. Maybe jump out of a helicopter over Levi’s Field? One little tiny mistake a few years ago and they don’t let people come down from the ceiling anymore? Gotta get back up on that horse.

Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar

Well we’ve known this was going to happen for quite a while. And it’s growing on me day by day. They’ve stopped making Roman Reigns be John Cena Jr. God that was awful. They’re letting him be more…him. Not dumbing him down to cater to kids. And that’s a great thing. His match last night with Daniel Bryan wasn’t the best match, but it wasn’t the worst. He is steadily improving. I don’t think he’s ready yet- they should have made him climb the ranks and win some other belts along the way- but such is life.

Lesnar vs Reigns has potential to be an awesome match…but it also has potential to be a dud. Really no in between there. They are going to have to put it all on the line. Do big spots that we wouldn’t expect to see from these guys.

Everyone has Reigns winning. But I’m not so sure. Last year we were floored when Lesnar beat Undertaker. It was the most mortal lock in the history of locks that Taker would win, and then he lost. So why are we so confident Reigns wins at Mania? They might shock us again. Plus there are now rumors that Lesnar might resign with WWE and not go to UFC. Would be very, very interesting if they have him beat Reigns.

Plus, more on Reigns…what is he at this point? A heel? A face? He’s just…there. He gets a mixed reaction, but nobody is sure what to do about him. Lensar though, has been so dominate that he’s basically a face at this point. Fans LOVE seeing him destroy people. Kind of weird for the Mania main even to be Lesnar vs a guy without a real identity, but that’s what’s happening, as of now.

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Everything else:

Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler:

Man. Daniel Bryan is the most over superstar since the Rock, put into the main event of Mania because the fans were so behind him, but still hasn’t gotten the support of Vince. He’s back out of the main event picture, again. And it’s tiring, the fans are just giving up on trying. He’s going to continue to be the most popular guy, while working the upper-mid card. Looks like him and Ziggler will be involved in a match at Mania…no real story line behind it, just two really popular faces putting on a really good match. Maybe they’ll make it a number 1 contender’s match? That would make a ton of sense.

Dean Ambrose

Remember when he was the most popular guy for a hot minute? Then they ruined him by giving him a stupid nickname and limiting what he does? Sigh. Wish they wrote him better, but it’s not like he’s completely fallen off the map. Ambrose vs Barrett will be really good, and I expect Ambrose to win the IC title.

Sheamus

If they do Sheamus vs Bryan I will laugh out loud at how awful Vince is. Maybe they’ll throw him in the Ziggler/Bryan match. Nobody likes Sheamus. Go home Sheamus. Just go home.

Kidd and Cesaro

That was pretty sweet when they won the tag belts last night. The tag division stinks, but they are really good in the ring. I hate the Usos with a passion, so anyone holding the belts besides those fatties works for me.

There are a few other storylines like Miz vs Mizdow and The Rhodes brothers that might get some preshow treatment. I enjoy both of those storylines and expect Mizdow to go over and Cody Rhodes to revert back and get a push. I’m sure I’m forgetting something and I’m sure there will be changes before Mania (maybe the Rock and/or Stone Cold will get involved!), but things are looking bright as of today.