From this week's Observer
The plans at this point are that neither Kevin Owens nor A.J. Styles will be champions going into WrestleMania. Smackdown has an Elimination Chamber match, meaning six guys will be in, so if John Cena wins the title at the Rumble, and that’s being teased (although they did downplay the tying of the Ric Flair record this past week), that doesn’t mean he’ll retain it in the Chamber match.
The Mania lineup at this point is looking like Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, HHH vs. Seth Rollins, Jericho vs. Owens, Wyatt vs. Orton, Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal and Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax as the Raw women’s title match. The key is the Rumble winner is likely, although they could swerve, to be the person who will challenge for either the Universal title or WWE title.
The only Smackdown match on that list is Orton vs. Wyatt, and it’s not a secret that Wyatt was scheduled for a title run in 2017. That immediately puts both of them in contention, and if one wins, the other would be favored to win the Chamber match. There’s a story that just started going around about Orton winning the Rumble and Wyatt winning the Chamber match. If that doesn’t happen, it would be because plans changed. Even though historically the booking before Mania always gets out and it almost never changed (it changes for other reasons, such as injuries or guys quitting, but that’s usually known as well), with the increase in social media, my feeling is nothing is a lock until it happens. I doubt we’ll see major destination changes, in the sense the top of the card will probably be pretty close to as is slated now, but how to get there could change.
On the Raw side, Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Reigns or Jericho vs. Owens would likely be the title match. Goldberg’s storyline explicitly mentions coming after the title. Owens vs. Jericho would make more sense as the U.S. title match since Owens would figure to win if Jericho is still going to tour over the summer.
The Mania lineup at this point is looking like Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, HHH vs. Seth Rollins, Jericho vs. Owens, Wyatt vs. Orton, Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal and Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax as the Raw women’s title match. The key is the Rumble winner is likely, although they could swerve, to be the person who will challenge for either the Universal title or WWE title.
The only Smackdown match on that list is Orton vs. Wyatt, and it’s not a secret that Wyatt was scheduled for a title run in 2017. That immediately puts both of them in contention, and if one wins, the other would be favored to win the Chamber match. There’s a story that just started going around about Orton winning the Rumble and Wyatt winning the Chamber match. If that doesn’t happen, it would be because plans changed. Even though historically the booking before Mania always gets out and it almost never changed (it changes for other reasons, such as injuries or guys quitting, but that’s usually known as well), with the increase in social media, my feeling is nothing is a lock until it happens. I doubt we’ll see major destination changes, in the sense the top of the card will probably be pretty close to as is slated now, but how to get there could change.
On the Raw side, Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Reigns or Jericho vs. Owens would likely be the title match. Goldberg’s storyline explicitly mentions coming after the title. Owens vs. Jericho would make more sense as the U.S. title match since Owens would figure to win if Jericho is still going to tour over the summer.
at this match.
