We’ve already broken down the superstars missing from WrestleMania 33, which means it’s time to take a look at the lucky few who not only will perform on the card, but will likely steal the show.
Whether it’s in a scripted or non-kayfabe sense by factoring in everything from wins/losses, how much of an emphasis WWE puts on that superstar, their momentum heading into the next television episode, match performance and everything between, here’s the shortlist for who I think will be coveting the most spotlight come WrestleMania 33:
Note: I’m limiting myself to the very top ten of the potential list (in no particular order). Many more people will have WrestleMania moments, but while I think we could see Austin Aries win the Cruiserweight Championship and the like, they won’t make as much of a splash in comparison to the others listed here…
Brock Lesnar
There’s no need to do a full rundown of repeating the same things everybody has been saying for months. We all know the trajectory is for Goldberg to drop the Universal Championship to Brock Lesnar in the main event of the night in a relatively quick match. Obviously, main eventing the pay-per-view, beating a legend like Goldberg and winning the universal title are three aspects that outweigh virtually everything else possible, so it’s a given, and an obvious one at that. Unless there are plans for Goldberg to retain and to keep wrestling, nobody should be shocked with the outcome here or Lesnar’s inclusion on this list, so let’s just move on to the other people, shall we?
Roman Reigns / The Undertaker
I just can’t make a decision between these two.
My gut is telling me WWE wouldn’t make the mistake of having The Undertaker lose because they can’t possibly be that stupid to think that a Roman Reigns victory would go over well in the slightest bit, and they would have to know that it would trigger an even greater catalyst for a heel turn that they just don’t want to do.
My brain, however, is saying “you idiot, of course they’re going to do it, because they are dumb enough to think that people will somehow still cheer him!”
If I absolutely had to lean one way or the other, I would say Reigns will probably come out of this looking like the bigger star of the two, either by winning the match or by being the more dominating of the two and just coming up short at the end. Then, of course, Reigns will be there Monday night to follow it up with a promo and probably a win over someone to offset his loss (or carry the momentum of his win, if that happens) while The Deadman will go missing for another year.
The end result is going to be much more beneficial to Reigns no matter what happens as he stands to gain more than The Phenom does at this point in their careers. The Undertaker is there to put Reigns over either as a tough opponent or as the second person to defeat him at WrestleMania, not to get another name to add to his list to give more credence to his own mythic status.
Randy Orton
I’ve been a vocal opponent of Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble just to force Bray Wyatt to win the Elimination Chamber and the WWE Championship solely to have Orton dethrone Wyatt at WrestleMania, even though their feud has won me over during the past few weeks and I’m now actually interested in seeing what they have to offer.
Nevertheless, I still think this is exactly what is going down and if Orton doesn’t win it at WrestleMania, I’ll be utterly shocked. He’s the driving force of this feud even though it all boils down to revolving around Wyatt as the champion.
Orton’s the one with the fresh babyface turn, the momentum carrying him forward, the legacy as a multi-time champion and the Royal Rumble to riches story. While this isn’t going to be anywhere close to the true main event of the night despite WWE perpetually referring to it as such, somewhere in the middle of the pay-per-view, we’ll see a new WWE champion.
The Non-Sanctioned Match Participants
Originally, the plan was for Seth Rollins and Triple H to face off in what probably would have been a generic 1 vs. 1 situation or at most, a Street Fight. Rollins’ injury threw things off course a bit, and this is now classified an “non-sanctioned match.”
As such, there’s a chance there won’t be a definitive “winner” between the two if WWE opts to book it as more of a generic brawl where one man stands tall in the end, but no referee counts a pinfall. That makes it more difficult to determine which man comes out as the bigger highlight, since we could very well see Triple H in complete control, destroying Rollins for several minutes at a time before Rollins is able to get one or two hits in that sends The Game reeling. At that point, who really looks like the more dominant man?
If it’s just a brawl, there’s also the chance both men have someone come out to help them in this fight with Samoa Joe on Triple H’s side and Finn Balor rescuing Rollins from a 2-on-1 assault.
Assuming that happens, Balor and Rollins will be the two featured players people are talking about, with Balor’s return possibly outweighing Rollins’ victory.
Kevin Owens
Going into this match as the United States champion is a severe hindrance to Chris Jericho, as he’s expected to take time off following WrestleMania so he can go on tour with Fozzy. Because of that, it only makes sense for Owens to come out with the win so he can take the title off Jericho’s hands and Raw won’t be missing both the US title and the universal title (as the latter will be on a part-timer who won’t show up until August)
Both Owens and Jericho are going to shine here in their own ways, of course, but in the end, only one of the two former best friends will have his hand raised.
Something interesting to take note of, though, is that there’s absolutely nothing stopping WWE from swerving us by having Jericho retain the title only to be forced to defend it against either Owens again or someone else the following night on Raw or even at Payback a few weeks later, permitting his schedule allows for him to work those nights. That could actually be when he drops the title rather than here, which would then open him up to being the winner to serve Owens his comeuppance at Mania.
The smart bet is still on Owens, but it’s a much closer race than some might think.
John Cena and Nikki Bella
John Cena’s not going to be some afterthought come the SmackDown following WrestleMania, that’s for sure. Even though he and Nikki Bella are just in a mixed tag team match against The Miz and Maryse, which is about as undercard as you get when you put it up next to many other matches on the show (on paper), you can be damn sure it won’t be swept under the rug.
My first instinct was to say Maryse would take the spotlight as she hasn’t wrestled in years, but rumor has it John Cena will be proposing to Nikki Bella after their victory. If that happens, rest assured, that will be not only a WrestleMania moment for 2017, but it will be used in video packages forever and will be one of the most talked about things to happen in the entire year.
Obviously, that would be something that crosses over into the Bella Twins YouTube channel, the Total Divas show, Total Bellas, and possibly even a WWE Network special. That way, everyone can be completely sick and tired of seeing it super fast while we all wonder why The Miz still isn’t holding some kind of championship gold.
The SmackDown Women’s Roster
Is it a cop out to pick all participants of a match that doesn’t even have a set field of competitors yet, rather than singling a specific person out? Sure, but it never hurts to have a little flexibility when you can, and this is a scenario where I feel like the bigger story here isn’t going to be one woman standing out, but rather, the entire division.
Much more attention seems to be given to the women over on Raw as they were given a few historic things to do this past year that the SmackDown roster wasn’t able to equal, but for my money, the blue brand has easily had the better entertainment value. Charlotte Flair’s act grew tiresome for me so long ago that I can’t even remember when I stopped caring and for her to be wrestling Sasha Banks and Bayley on such extreme repetitiveness means I have no real interest in their match. I have even less positive things to say about Nia Jax.
For the women on SmackDown, though, they have all stepped up their careers since the brand split happened. Every single one of them is in a better spot now than they were before the draft. When you say they’re all involved, my instinct is to be excited about just which one of them will be the standout performer because they could all accomplish that feat, whereas if you were to tell me the whole Raw roster was in a match, I’d only be interested in seeing Sasha Banks and Bayley lock up. The Emma thing is a fiasco, Summer Rae and Paige have been gone forever and Dana Brooke doesn’t seem to matter at all. While Raw’s contribution for the women’s division at WrestleMania will be touted as a big deal, I think it will be SmackDown’s ladies who will really take home the adoration they deserve.
Those are my picks, but who do you think will end up being the primary focal points? Drop your predictions in the comments below!
