Sunday, May 22, 2016

Extreme Rules 2016 Predictions


Ugh. Baron Corbin should have just beaten Dolph Ziggler at Extreme Rules. WWE's penchant for 50/50 booking is horrible and it has already reared its ugly head when it comes to Corbin. I'm surprised to see a stipulation match on the Kickoff Show. Anyway, if the WWE wanted to book this properly, Corbin would absolutely run though Ziggler. Knowing them, Ziggler wins this with another rollup. Still, I say this falls in the middle where Corbin wins a hard fought bout.

Winner: Baron Corbin

Man, I hate this feud. Both girls are solid in the ring (though Charlotte is horeshit at selling since the main roster call up), but why should I give a shit? Their characters are still just "my family wrestled". Not having Ric at ringside should allow for the match to be better than the Payback one and hopefully it doesn't have a screwy finish. Give Charlotte the win and move the title to Sasha Banks already dammit. This waiting is just stupid.

Winner: Charlotte

This is a tough one to call. One the one hand, Chris Jericho has been rumored to leave back to Fozzy for a while now and that would signal a loss for him here. On the other hand, Dean Ambrose never seems to win on Pay-Per-View. Considering he got a rare one at Payback, the numbers would point to him losing again. It's kind of a toss up. If Jericho sticks around, he wins here and I suspect Dean gets the rubber match. If Jericho leaves, Dean wins and picks up some momentum. I think the latter happens.

Winner: Dean Ambrose

At Payback, I picked Miz to retain against Cesaro with a rollup or something like that. I was right. Here it's tougher. Again, it would be tough to see the WWE pass up another chance to put the strap on Cesaro. He returned to great pops and has put on some really strong matches already. I feel that Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are going to cancel each other out. They'll brawl and continue their rivalry, leaving the outcome to be between Cesaro and Miz again. With Money in the Bank coming up next, I could see Miz sneaking out another win and allowing Cesaro to enter that match as a possible winner. Hell, I'm gonna predict that.

Winner: The Miz

TONG PO! Rusev is the only example I can recall of a guy getting absolutely obliterated by John Cena, only to have his career be better within the year. Sure he's no longer the unstoppable monster heel, but he's been allowed to showcase a much different side. Rusev has allowed his personality to shine through and is consistently one of the most interesting people to watch on the roster. Kalisto is also a lot of fun, but his reign has been handled poorly. They haven't treated him like he's important. Instead, he wrestles and loses in tag matches or wins on Main Event and Superstars. It's time for a new champion. Let the era of the real Rusev begin.

Winner: Rusev

Even before the unfortunate injury to Enzo Amore, I had the Vaudevillains picked as the winners of the Tag Team Tournament. Save the Enzo and Cass/New Day feud for down the line, which should be golden. The Vaudevillains were getting next to no heat until the Enzo injury, so it happened to help them out. Still, I don't think they have enough traction to be champions quite yet. The New Day still rank among the most entertaining acts in all of wrestling and I could see them reaching the one year mark as champions.

Winner: The New Day

Oh fuck this. I was looking forward to the arrival of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in the WWE. Hell, even the AJ Styles angle was very interesting for a while. Now, it's just non-stop tag match after six man tag match after tag match. I've seen this far too many times for me to care. Yea the tornado rules will allow it to be worked differently but at this point, why should I give a shit? I'll go with the Good Brothers to take this one.

Winners: Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows

 Talk about potential that has kind of gone down the drain. This feud was all sorts of intriguing heading into Payback and the match itself mostly delivered outside of the shenanigans. Since then though, this feud has mostly disappointed with only a few moments to really interest me. I expect this will be another good match between two guys that know what they're doing. Unfortunately, with the new of the returns of John Cena, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and a few others, I could see AJ Styles being taken out of the main event spotlight. Regins retains and moves onto another small feud before we get Reigns/Cena or something at SummerSlam.

Winner: Roman Reigns

2016 Prediction Record: 18-14
2015 Prediction Record: 60-35