Not too long after Crown Jewel, we are already at Survivor Series and for the first time this year, the ‘WarGames’ is coming to the main roster.
There are 2 WarGames matches and at the time of writing, 2 championship matches.
Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Mia Yim, and TBA vs Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky), Nikki Cross, and Rhea Ripley in a WarGames Match
I feel that the 5th woman is going to be a returning Doudrop (Or Becky Lynch if she is ready) and will be the powerhouse to win the WarGames match. Team Bianca to win
The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch), Drew McIntyre, and Kevin Owens vs. The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)
This will be a banger after banger after banger. The Brutes have nothing to lose here and it would solidify the Bloodline. I can’t see them being knocked off before Wrestlemania. The Bloodline to win
AJ Styles (w/ The OC) vs Finn Bálor (w/ The Judgement Day)
Former Bullet Club leaders going head-to-head and it will be fantastic. I expect references to BC aplenty in this match. One to watch. Finn Bálor to win.
Ronda Rousey (C) vs Shotzi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship
Ronda needs a few wins against her name and will feed on Shotzi. I don’t expect this to go long. Ronda to retain
Seth “Freakin” Rollins (C) vs Bobby Lashley vs Austin Theory in a Triple Threat for the United States Championship
Bobby will probably ‘kill’ Austin Theory from the outset but Seth will nab the win and retain his title by the skin of his teeth. Seth to retain
I will not go into detail about the results of this show because it’s a glorified house show.
Alexa Bliss & Asuka (C) vs Damage Ctrl (Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky) in a tag team match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Winner: Alexa Bliss & Asuka retain!
The OC (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) vs The Judgement Day (Finn Bálor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio) [w/ Rhea Ripley] in a 6-man tag team match.
Winner: The Judgement Day!
Drew McIntyre vs Karrion Kross [w/ Scarlett] in a Steel Cage Match
Winner: Karrion Kross!
The Uso (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso) (C) vs The Brawling Brutes in a tag team match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships.
Winner: The Usos retain!
Braun Strowman vs Omos in a singles match.
Winner: Braun Strowman!
Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley in a singles match.
Winner: Brock Lesnar!
Bianca Belair (C) vs Bayley in a Last Woman Standing match for the RAW Women’s Championship
Winner: Bayley to become champion!
Roman Reigns (C) [w/ The Bloodline] vs Logan Paul in a singles match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
Tomorrow night, inside of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA is the 14th Extreme Rules PPV Premium Live Event and every match has a stipulation.
This is in stark contrast to previous years where there might have only had 1 stipulation.
Tomorrow night is also the potential reveal of the White Rabbit, an ARG that has been played out on WWE House Shows (Non-televised shows) and at random times during Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown. In between commercial breaks, fans were listening to ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane.
Viewers were shown QR codes, either planted backstage or flashing on the screen for a second or two. Each one featured a puzzle that would eventually lead to the next location for WWE.
Some of the links from the links this week have shown the following:
Mysterious numbers, symbols, morse code and even barcodes lead to White Rabbit milk.
This is of course the return of Bray Wyatt. A superstar who was released from WWE back in July 2021 has been teasing his return for some time, especially after the retirement of Vince McMahon.
Who knows where or if he will pop up tomorrow night is yet to be understood.
Besides the Bray Wyatt/White Rabbit stuff, there is still a loaded card from bell to bell, including the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championship is up for grabs.
Non-Title Matches
Matt Riddle vs Seth Rollins in a Fight Pit match (with special guest referee Daniel Cormier)
I am so glad they brought back the Fight Pit. Matt Riddle has been inside the Fight Pit once against former NXT Superstar Timothy Thatcher back in 2020 with special guest referee Kurt Angle.
The feud for this has been great, the two of them getting under each other’s skin and I couldn’t think of a better way of settling this.
Matt Riddle wins. [Correct Prediction]
Edge vs Finn Bálor in an “I Quit” match.
The feud between The Judgement Day and Edge has been bumpy. A bad booking decision was made by Vince to kick Edge out of TJD even though he was the one that formed it. Hopefully, this ends up with Edge returning because I do not see what else Edge could do here. The addition of Dominik Mysterio to The Judgement Day has been nothing short of amazing. The connection between Rhea and Dom is great!
The Judgement Day needs to come out of this strong as a whole, so I have Finn Bálor to win. If Edge wins, I am not sure where TJD goes from here. [Correct Prediction]
Drew McIntyre vs Karrion Kross in a Strap match.
This is going to be bloody. Two big lads fighting each out and beating the crap out of each other with the leather strap. I predict that there are going to be shenanigans from Scarlett too.
Their feud has been rocky in the last week or two but it’s a good start for the returning Karrion after being out of the WWE fold for a while now.
Karrion Kross to win! [Correct Predicition]
The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland and BUTCH) vs IMPERIUM (Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci) in a 6-man tag team ‘Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook match’
This feud has been great. Sheamus had a fantastic match against Gunter at Clash at the Castle in Wales for the Intercontinental Championship (And at the time of writing, are set to have a rematch for the title tonight on SmackDown (1 am on BT Sport (UK/Ireland) / 8e/7c on FOX (US)))
BUTCH being the literal personification of Scrappy Doo has always been a highlight for me. This is going to be a must-watch match.
The Brawling Brutes to win! [Correct Prediction]
Title Matches
Bianca Belair (C) vs Bayley in a Ladder match for the RAW Women’s Championship
Ever since Bayley (And Dakota Kai and IYO SKY) returned to WWE back at Summerslam, I was very hyped for Bayley’s first match and I am finally glad that she is getting an opportunity once more for the RAW Women’s Championship.
Bianca has been a great champion since winning the title at Wrestlemania but the storyline that was supposed to be told with Becky Lynch got thrown out due to Becky’s injury, but this made up for it.
For storyline purposes, taking the belt off Bianca here makes sense. Let Bayley and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Dakota and Iyo enjoy a run and perhaps swap the titles either at Survivor Series or potentially at the Royal Rumble. Bianca doesn’t need a long reign with the title.
Bayley to win and to become the NEW RAW Women’s Champion [Incorrect Prediction]
Liv Morgan (C) vs Ronda Rousey in an Extreme Rules match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship
This back-and-forth between the underdog of Liv winning the title from Ronda and Ronda clawing her back to the title has been great to watch.
She already has lost once and another loss would be devastating for her. It would take the edge, the shine off Ronda as she was always presented as a dominant force because of her background (Former UFC Champion)
I feel that Liv is going to win this match and it should allow Liv to move on to someone else to challenge her for the title.
Liv Morgan to win and retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship [Incorrect Predicition]
Later today, from the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales will be the first WWE PPV Premium Live Event held in the UK in 30 years, with the last being WWE Summerslam 1992
A lot of hype is going into this event as this is the first major Premium Live Event that has been fully booked by Triple H and not Vince McMahon. Something that has never happened since Wrestlemania 1 back in 1985.
There is a huge emphasis on the hometown hero, Scotland’s Drew McIntyre as he vows to dethrone the head of the table, the Undisputed WWE Universal ChampionRoman Reigns, two years after winning the Universal Title at WWE Payback 2020.
Plus, Ireland’s own, Sheamus takes on the ring general, GUNTHER for his Intercontinental Championship.
Here are my predictions for the event:
Non-Title Matches
Edge & Rey Mysterio vs The Judgement Day
A rivalry that we didn’t make sense when it started has now enveloped into this massive grudge match as the former (supposed) leader of the The Judgement Day, Edge is to face Finn Balor and Damian Priest. The former tag champs in Edge and Ray know how they work together and will do nothing but put on a good show for everyone involved. Hopefully Rhea and Dominik don’t cross paths during the match or Dom might pay the price.
While I don’t see who could come out as a clear winner, but the popularity of The Judgement Day needs to be increased, so let’s hope that they win today. Judgement Day to win.
Matt Riddle vs Seth Rollins
2 workhorses in the WWE right now as their future plans at the time were put up in smoke whenever Riddle’s tag team partner Randy Orton became injured and Seth’s rival from Wrestlemania, Cody Rhodes also became injured.
The two were supposed to fight at Summerslam, but Riddle was not medically cleared to compete.
The two were put together and it has paid off quite well, with this week on RAW, this rivalry became personal and it devolved into a massive fight.
There isn’t much to discuss about these 6 women here, just a shame that Bianca is not defending her RAW Women’s Championship title here tonight, but with the returning Bayley, the called up Iyo and the returning Dakota, it would make logical sense that they win.
There is no stakes for Asuka, Alexa and Bianca to lose but hopefully Bianca is not taking the pin as that could make her weak. Iyo, Dakota and Bayley to win!
Title Matches
Liv Morgan (C) vs Shayna Baszler for the SmackDown Women’s Championship
This match came about after Shayna won a gauntlet match to face Liv after Liv’s Summerslam opponent, Ronda Rousey was suspended for breaking a referee’s arm.
There hasn’t been much of a build for this match but this is going to be Liv’s biggest match to date, let’s hope she can retain. Liv to win and retain!
GUNTHER (C) vs Sheamus for the Intercontinental Championship
Oh this is gonna be good, the Austrian with the biggest slaps together again Ireland’s own Sheamus who is looking to become a Grand Slam champion as the IC title is the only title that he has not won in his career.
Sheamus to win and become champion!
Roman Reigns (C) vs Drew McIntyre for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
This is the main event and a big match feel, Drew won the Royal Rumble in 2020 and won the WWE Championship in front of no crowd at Wrestlemania 36 but now 2 years later, he is hoping to do it again in front of the UK crowd. Roman won the Universal Championship at Payback 2020 and the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 38 beating Brock Lesnar.
If Roman beats Drew, it would upset a lot of people as there isn’t many other people who can beat him for the title. We’ll see what happens, but I would like Drew to walk away with the title. Drew McIntyre to win.
At first, you would think that his Twitter account was compromised, as he had only reassured talent (WWE Superstars) a mere month ago at the Money in the Bank PPV that he wasn’t going anywhere.
This includes that he is to retire but still be a shareholder (He is the majority shareholder of the company) and his replacements is his daughter, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as “Co-CEO’s”.
Earlier on Friday, it was announced that Paul “Triple H” Levesque had resumed his position as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, a position that he held from the beginning of NXT (The wrestling promotion, not the gameshow) in 2013 until 2020 when he stepped back due to health concerns.
Vince’s retirement comes soon after the Wall Street Journal published 2 articles about incidents of sexual misconduct, going back to at least, the mid-2000s with ‘hush’ payments of at least $12 million being made to various people, in and out of the ring.
The first report from the Wall Street Journal, detailed about how a paralegal was hired by WWE who was paid $3 million dollar in a ‘hush’ payment from Vince, but while employed, her wages were increased from $100,000 to $200,000 during this relationship.
To date, several law firms have begun investigating these claims of sexual misconducts. As of writing, there hasn’t been any update to any of these investigations.
With Vince leaving the most prominent position in WWE since he bought then-named WWWF from his father back in 1982, Vince leaves behind a legacy that seen him sent Professional Wrestling into mainstream entertainment domination.
Without Vince, we would never have had Wrestlemania, the infamous Attitude Era, John Cena, The Rock, Batista, The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, plus thousands of other professional wrestlers, managers, commentators, backstage interviewers.
We wouldn’t have had the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW back in the 90’s. We wouldn’t have had NXT. We wouldn’t have had competition in the form of TNA (Now, IMPACT Wrestling), Combat Zone Wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling, Ring of Honor, All Elite Wrestling and multiple various different promotions that has come and gone. Indie promotions that has produced home-grown talent who have gone onto WWE to become massive households names.
Without Vince, professional wrestling would still more than likely be a circus attraction.
Now with Vince leaving the company, we are entering a new era of Professional Wrestling.
Fans are itching to see how well Stephenie and Nick can produce new and exiting superstars. The thoughts of the proverbial ‘Forbidden Door’ being swung open, just like how AEW has already opened its door with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) with their AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door PPV back in June.
Some talent that are in other promotions (mainly AEW) would see this as a great opportunity to go back to a place that they worked for previously. Perhaps they were frustrated by Vince personally or the way that WWE was being run. The likes of CM Punk comes to mind. Tag teams like FTR could see themselves back in the company to be on the world stage once more.
Over the next 3 – 5 years, we will see a change in Professional Wrestling. New management, new talent, new opportunities. Younger minds making these sweeping changes that would reintroduce healthy competition between all promotions to make professional wrestling bigger and better.
In some cases, WWE as a company was/is being held back by Vince but maybe that changes. Or has the ‘powerfulness’ of Vince over the years, become second nature for the likes of Stephanie, Nick and the rest of WWE management.
I am personally excited for a new change. Not just lipstick on a turd and blaming Baron Corbin for poor ratings.
Mayhaps we get this scene again… This team that they only mean it.
Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn (Anything Goes Match)
Johnny Knoxville to win!
Pat McAfee vs. Austin Theory
Pat McAfee to win!
Bobby Lashley vs. Omos
Bobby Lashley to win!
Edge vs. AJ Styles
Edge to win!
Title Matches
RK-Bro (C) vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy in a Triple Threat for the RAW Tag Team Championships
The Street Profits to become the NEW RAW Tag Team Champions
Queen Zelina & Carmella (C) vs. Sasha Banks & Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan vs. Natalya & Shayna Baszler in a Fatal 4-Way for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan to become the NEW WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (C) vs Universal Champion Roman Reigns (C) in a Winner Take All Championship Unification Match.
Brock Lesnar to become both WWE and Universal Champion.
