Braun Strowman’s recent injury will seemingly have a big impact on Raw’s upcoming two pay-per-views, Extreme Rules and Great Balls of Fire.
If the reports and the natural flow of things are true, Strowman was being set up to main event both shows—first in an Ambulance Match against Roman Reigns and then in a Universal Championship title shot against Brock Lesnar.
Clearly, with him being out for several weeks, those plans need to change, meaning Extreme Rules 2017 could have a slightly different card than previously anticipated.
While I think this has bigger implications for Great Balls of Fire and even SummerSlam, it does appear that Extreme Rules is out of its main event, so with that in mind, what other matches could be on the lineup for the show?
Let’s gaze into our crystal balls and try to predict what the 2017 Extreme Rules pay-per-view card will look like…
CONFIRMED MATCHES
n/a
PRESUMABLE MATCHES
Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe
Without the presence of the Universal Championship (that’s what you get when you put it on Brock Lesnar, WWE…just saying…) and the Ambulance Match no longer being available, this is the go-to feud that will main event the night.
Realistically, this should be the end of their feud unless WWE feels like it needs to be stretched out into Great Balls of Fire, but that depends greatly on whether Seth Rollins will get the title match at that event against Lesnar or if it will default to Roman Reigns, who at this point should just be sitting out Extreme Rules.
If this is the main event and particularly if it is the end of the feud between Rollins and Joe, there should be some kind of stipulation to the match, but there hasn’t been much indication of what that may be. If WWE is feeling lazy, this will just be a generic No Disqualification match, no matter what name they attribute to it (Street Fight, No Holds Barred, etc).
Raw Women’s Championship Match: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Bayley
Bayley will have her standard rematch in an attempt to win back the Raw Women’s Championship. I don’t anticipate this having any kind of gimmick attributed to it as the feud can survive without needing to pull that trick out this early.
As far as a winner goes, the smart bet is to go with the champion retaining. Alexa has all of the momentum going her way while another title reign for Bayley would be moving backwards and retreading familiar territory.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Dean Ambrose (c) vs. The Miz
Shy of the Rollins/Joe match and the tag team title defense down below, no other fights on the card seem more poised to have a gimmick attached to it than the Intercontinental Championship match between Dean Ambrose and The Miz.
Despite those two having already feuded for the title on SmackDown, moving them over to Raw and reinvigorating their problems has sparked some interest, making this one of the most interesting feuds going on at the moment.
The type of stipulation for this match could be virtually anything, but I don’t think it will be something too intricate or brutal. Their feud has been more of a verbal one than anything else, which would rule out going to some sort of extreme even like a Last Man Standing match.
Off the top of my head, I would think there’s some potential for this to be a cage match just to get that gimmick on the card, even if the justification for this particular fight to have those is certainly a stretch. Perhaps all it will take is for Ambrose to bring out his Lunatic Fringe side to suggest locking them in a cage and for WWE to ask the audience to simply go along with it.
Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Hardy Boyz (c) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus
At this point, the tag team title match seems like it certainly should have a gimmick, but the easy answer of the ladder match should be thrown out the window, right? That just happened at WrestleMania, which was where The Hardy Boyz won the titles to begin with.
Then again, maybe that’s the reason the repeat could happen. Cesaro and Sheamus could cut a promo saying they want to undo what the record books show and they want to beat Matt and Jeff Hardy in their own match out of spite.
The future of the division rests more on the shoulders of The Hardy Boyz than Cesaro and Sheamus, despite the latter team’s recent heel turn, so the idea of a title change happening is hard to imagine with or without the ladders coming into play. Then again, if WWE wishes to drag this out for as long as possible, playing hot potato with the belts is one of the easiest ways to accomplish that.
Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor
Having two supernatural-esque characters face off seems like a recipe for a gimmick, but on the heels of the House of Horrors match and the fact that this would be their first match together, I have to assume this will be nothing of the sort.
It’s a better call to save the theatrics for Great Balls of Fire, if not SummerSlam, rather than jumping straight into the deep end from the start and having nowhere to go after that point. People will be invested enough in seeing these two face off just in general without having to overload it with anything else that could be saved for later.
When it comes to guessing which man will come out on top, my gut says Bray Wyatt will get the better of Balor leading up to the event, lose at Extreme Rules and then go back on the attack the night after, setting up the need for a gimmick match at Great Balls of Fire…possibly including some kind of fire, given the namesake.
Cruiserweight Championship Match
Every Raw event always includes a Cruiserweight Championship match of some sort, but outside of Neville, the participants are a bit flexible. This could very well be a third singles match between he and Austin Aries or it could include TJ Perkins in a Triple Threat match, or possibly even Gentleman Jack Gallagher to make it a Fatal 4-Way.
Right now, I would lean more towards the three or four contestants setup as that allows for it to be a default No Disqualification gimmick, which would fit with the Extreme Rules concept without having to go overboard.
POTENTIAL OTHER MATCHES
On top of these matches listed above, there is also room to include one or two more for filler purposes on the pre-show or as a buffer segment between other, more important matches.
Another Women’s Division Match
If there is to be another match representing the women’s division, the two most likely options are Sasha Banks vs. Alicia Fox or Mickie James vs. Nia Jax, as the feud between Dana Brooke and Emma has to be put on hold until Emma is cleared to wrestle again.
Given those two options, it really doesn’t matter all that much which one would be chosen. At the moment, they’re about equal to each other in terms of importance and general interest, so you might as well flip a coin. Nia Jax could learn a lot from working with Mickie James, but that doesn’t need to be on a pay-per-view to happen, as they could get more time on house shows, which makes me think the Banks/Fox match has a slight edge to possibly happen.
Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
Let’s be honest. Would anybody really care to see this again? Both teams have a lot to offer and they’re fun in different ways, but this feud has limped on long enough and any interest in it has to be dead by now.
Just because that may be true doesn’t mean it rules out the possibility WWE could throw it onto the kickoff portion of the night, though. It’s happened before and it could happen again.
Strangely, I never thought I’d say this, but I’d rather see Heath Slater and Rhyno against The Golden Truth if it were necessary to throw another tag team division match onto the card.
Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick or Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann
These feuds work better as 205 Live and Raw supplemental series, but again, if WWE is looking for some filler, this could be another step heading toward their respective blowoff. Both programs have continued to a point where they could end at any moment and it wouldn’t seem premature.
Apollo Crews vs. Who Cares?
Almost any of the matches above has a more solid chance of happening than this option, but it’s still a potential idea on the table. Apollo Crews could be set up for a match against a jobber like Bo Dallas, Curt Hawkins or Curtis Axel just so he and Titus O’Neil can celebrate to remind the audience that that storyline is going on. It would be entirely skippable and it’s doubtful anybody would truly care to see it at all, but it would at least be better than seeing the same video packages on rerun for another 10 minutes, right?
Those are my predictions, but what do you think might happen for this card’s lineup? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
