WWE WrestleMania 33: Match Card Predictions 6.0, Post-Royal Rumble
How do our WrestleMania 33 card projections look after the Royal Rumble?
Now that we have the Royal Rumble out of the way, we are just over two months away from WrestleMania 33. The Grandaddy of Them All, the biggest night of the year for WWE, the night when the biggest rivalries come to a head. WrestleMania 32 was, at times, a disappointing night. WWE will be determined to make this year’s Show of Shows as good as it is possible to do so.
As of right now, we don’t officially know any of the matches that will take place at WrestleMania 33, but coming out of Royal Rumble a few things became a little clearer. One match that looks nailed on to happen is The Big Show going head to head with NBA Legend Shaquille O’Neil.
Other than that, more or less every other match on the card is up in the air, WWE may even change all of their planned matches between now and the big night. We still have the SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view Elimination Chamber to come in February, and the Raw-exclusive event FastLane to come in March, everything could change between now and then. Titles could have changed hands, injuries could have occurred, people could be gone from the company.
Follow along with us as we present you with the matches that we think will happen at WrestleMania 33.
WWE.com
Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
The Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match has now become a staple of the WrestleMania 33 card. It gives WWE the perfect opportunity to fit a whole host of men onto the ‘Mania card, and always provides one of the early highlights on the night of the show.
The current Intercontinental Champion is Dean Ambrose, a man who won the belt from The Miz on the first SmackDown Live episode of 2017. It’s very possible that Ambrose will still be holding the belt by the time we arrive in Orlando for ‘Mania. It’s also very possible that we could see The Miz in the Ladder match to try to win back his former title.
Along with Ambrose and The Miz, this could be a perfect way to get some of the other mid-card faces from SmackDown on the WrestleMania card. Potential entrants could include Apollo Crews, Luke Harper, Kalisto, Heath Slater, and Rhyno, plus anyone who may find themselves lost in the shuffle or not booked in anything else on the night.
This kind of match is one that always has the potential to steal the show. As we saw last year, when Zack Ryder walked out with the Intercontinental title in this exact match, anyone can become a champion on the biggest night of the year.
wwe.com
The Big Show vs Shaquille O’Neal
WWE loves to have a celebrity or two on the WrestleMania card, and every now and then one of those celebrities ends up in a match. WrestleMania 33 will be the night when the NBA Legend Shaquille O’Neal steps into the WWE ring once again.
Big Show and Shaq first came face to face during last years Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. They had a small amount of physicality together, but nothing too significant. In the last few weeks both men have been posting on social media, showing off their physiques and calling each other out, Big Show looks to be in the best shape he’s been in a long time.
When Big Show came out on Raw last week and officially entered himself into the Royal Rumble, many people assumed that we would also see Shaq have one of the surprise spots in the Rumble. That didn’t happen, but we should still be on a path to these two facing off.
This match will be the one that drags in the non-wrestling crowd, with Shaq a big enough name to gain some media attention outside of professional wrestling.
Credit: WWE.com
Seth Rollins vs Triple H
This is a feud that goes back months, right back to the night in late summer 2016 when Rollins was facing Kevin Owens for the vacant Universal Championship. Triple H made his presence known when he interjected himself in the match, Pedigree’d Rollins and allowed Owens to get the pin to win the title.
Since then Rollins has been calling out Triple H at every opportunity, with no reply from the Authority man. On Raw, Rollins was forced to into a match with Sami Zayn, if Rollins lost then he would lose his spot in the Royal Rumble to Zayn. Of course, he lost after a distraction when Triple H’s music played.
Then at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, with the commentary team on camera, Rollins made a big statement. Jumping the guardrail and getting into the ring, Rollins said he wouldn’t leave the arena until Triple H came out to face him. He did, but only to instruct security to escort Rollins out of the building.
Source: WWE.com
Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg
Goldberg and Brock Lesnar will battle one final time at WrestleMania, only this time it will probably have the Universal Championship on the line. With Kevin Owens walking out of the Royal Rumble as the Universal Champion, and Goldberg already being announced as part of the main event of Fastlane, you don’t expect to see the former WCW star lose that match ahead of the biggest event of the year.
Lesnar and Goldberg still have issues coming out of the match they had at Survivor Series, where Goldberg got the win in less than 90 seconds. Lesnar took the older Goldberg for granted, and ended up losing out. But a match at ‘Mania has to happen if WWE wants to end this feud on the biggest note possible.
If the Universal Championship is on the line, then you can expect more of a reaction from the crowd than if it was just another one on one match between the two of them. Hopefully, this will be the final match between the two, you have to imagine that Lesnar would walk out champion, after losing his two previous encounters with Goldberg.
WWE.com
Charlotte Flair vs Bayley vs Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax
These four women make up the majority of the Raw Women’s Division, and hence should all be part of the Raw Women’s title match at WrestleMania.
Charlotte and Bayley battled for the title at the Royal Rumble, whilst Sasha and Nia Jax went at it on the pre-show. Right now we have both pairings seemingly happy with the fact they are battling each other, but they all need to come face to face at ‘Mania, if for nothing else than to get all four of them on the card and not just have two of them wasted on the night.
It’s how we get there that could be interesting. Perhaps in the next few weeks, we see Sasha back up Bayley after a beat down by Charlotte, then Jax gets involved to even the numbers up. That leads to a tag match between baby faces Bayley and Sasha and heels Charlotte and Jax at Fastlane in March.
That match leads to all three of the challengers becoming desperate to get the win, as they are all eager to win the Women’s title. We then see friction between Sasha and Bayley as well as Nia just wanting to batter everyone. That leads us to a fatal four-way showdown, and eventually the match at WrestleMania 33.
WWE.com
Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton
This match would have the WWE Championship tied to it, as Randy Orton won the 2017 Royal Rumble match. Tension would not get teased with Bray Wyatt, but it’s possible things develop.
With the recent events that saw Luke Harper more or less thrown out of the Wyatt Family, after losing to Orton on SmackDown, the Wyatt’s seem like they could be coming to an end. We may very well see Bray win the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber in a few weeks time, and then he goes forward to face his ally Orton at WrestleMania.
The Wyatt Family has been a big part of the SmackDown Live brand since last years brand split, right down to Orton and Bray winning the tag titles from Heath Slater and Rhyno, before dropping them to American Alpha.
Now seems like the perfect time to throw both Orton and Wyatt right up to the top spots on SmackDown. Fans have been desperate to see Wyatt win a big singles title for at least a couple of years now, this should be the spot where that finally happens.
Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho
The last few months have been the Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho show on Raw, but WrestleMania would be the perfect time to have the best friends finally collide one on one.
At Royal Rumble, we saw Owens defend his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns, with Jericho locked in the shark cage above the ring. That was meant to ensure that Jericho couldn’t get involved in the match, which he didn’t except for brass knuckles. Braun Strowman would interfere and cost Reigns the match, allowing Owens to win.
Heading to ‘Mania, the tension needs to build between the pair. Jericho will probably have to defend his United States Championship before ‘Mania, so that could be a time for Owens to cost Jericho that title. That leads to Jericho putting Owens on The List, and then a match between the two of them on the grandest stage of them all.
That match could potentially have a title attached to it, be it the United States or Universal Championships, but it doesn’t necessarily need anything on the line other than pride.
Credit: WWE.com
The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns
There’s a couple of matches that could potentially be in the pipeline for The Undertaker. The fact that he isn’t attached to either Raw or SmackDown, not officially anyway, tells you that WWE may very well be hedging their bets with the Deadman.
All signs point to Roman Reigns as the opponent, however. The Big Dog eliminated the Dead Man in the closing moments of the 2017 Royal Rumble match, which led to him mumbling a few words at ringside that seemed to indicate we haven’t seen the last of these two in a ring. If so, a clash in one of the last matches at WrestleMania 33 would make sense.
Reigns vs. Undertaker could be called a “dream match”. It’s not on the level of Sting facing the Phenom, but it’s still a younger star facing one of WWE’s legends. Given that this is also one of the company’s top babyface (maybe the top one), could that mean we’re in for Taker’s second-ever WrestleMania loss?
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