WWE has the last PPV before the Brand Split 2.0. Here is the Pulse Wrestling crew’s full preview and match by match predictions!
WWE World Heavyweight Title
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth Rollins
CB: I’m going to go for the gusto here. Rollins wins, then Ambrose cashes in and wins.
Winner: Rollins, then Ambrose, who leaves Money in the Bank as champion.
Spain: I am still ridiculously happy about Rollins being back, but I can’t see him winning the Championship yet. Reigns really does seem to be in it for the long haul and, after all the trouble it took to get him there, I can see the sense in that. When the Roman Empire comes crashing down, I think Rollins has a good chance of being involved, but not tonight.
Winner (and still WWE World Heavyweight Champion): Roman Reigns
Penny; I’m torn. I really want to believe they have the faith in Rollins to give him his belt back, but they still seem so hellbound and determined to deludedly believe we’ll eventually cheer for Roman if they just keep demanding it of us. Vince is too clueless and sewlf-absorbed to actually learn from mistakes or look at the evidence of how over or not over something is and evolve accordingly, so sadly I expect Roman to retain here.
Winner; My interest in this industry is slowly Roman far away from here
Michael McMonigle: Dean Ambrose stole my choice on the last episode of Raw! I was all ready to predict Seth Rollins winning and Dean Ambrose cashing in the MITB briefcase having all three former members of The Shield holding the belt on the same night. However, since Ambrose talked about that exact scenario on Raw, it can’t be that. This “should” be the match everyone wants to see, but as of now, it is maybe third from the top of the card. Maybe with a longer and more drawn out push it could do well as a SummerSlam main event. So I will say the big Roman Reigns push continues and they try to maybe build for a SummerSlam rematch.
Winner – Reigns
Sam P: If this doesn’t lead to a Shield triple threat in the future, wrestling is dead to me.
Winner – Roman Reigns
James Wright: The obvious thing here is for Roman to beat the man that never lost the title and considering how the WWE has booked Reigns so far you have to think this is how they will continue. However there is a part of me that hopes that somehow they have actually noticed that there is little growing support for Reigns as ‘the guy’ and maybe to rectify this they should have him go chasing the title again and actually put him up against some adversity. I mean I’d rather they just turned him heel instead of Seth Rollins but we are beyond that now. So I am going to go out on a limb and say that Seth will actually get the win and then Roman will chase the title to put him in a better light with the fans, it might not work, but certainly what they are doing right now isn’t working either.
Winner – Seth Rollins (New Champion)
Widro – Either Roman wins or there is a disputed finish that separates the belts.
Winner: Reigns
John Cena vs. AJ Styles
CB: AJ Styles needs to win here, and win this feud in general.
Winner: AJ Styles
Spain: This is tough. Styles has not got the job done for the last few of his Pay-Per-Views, and I don’t think that should continue. But this is Cena’s comeback and he is, from a marketing perspective, still the face who runs the place. So, him losing out of the box could be an issue as well. I’m guessing they’re going to throw Styles a bone on this one, even if it means AJ’s going to lose a couple more in the future.
Winner: AJ Styles
Penny; They’ve been forthright and honest about how good Styles really is and let him look legit strong and dangerous against Roman even if he wasn’t allowed the duke there, so naturally Cena is going to bury him completely because we can’t have anyone with pre-WWE earned respect from fans and wrestlers alike look good now can we? So this will be Owens all over again. AJ will get a surprise clean win here to give us false hope, then Cena will destroy him in the every rematch over the next 5 months.
Winner; Vince’s long-term ego-stroking.
Michael McMonigle: I like how the WWE is telling its audience, “THIS is a dream match. THIS is a match you should care about. Because Cena!” To be honest, I don’t think anyone who has ever seen AJ Styles wrestle thought, “He’s good, but not John Cena good.” Everyone knows Styles is a better wrestler. The trick is going to see how well they can pull off the “big-time” feel they are trying to make this match be. Also, is it just me, or does the build up for this match make the World Title seem unimportant… Almost like, “Hey, I’m AJ Styles and I main evented and wrestled for the WWE World Title on the last two pay per views. But this match with Cena is the match that is actually IMPORTANT.” I am not a fan of Roman Reigns, and I believe you can have big matches that don’t have a belt attached to them, but something about how this match has developed just strikes me as wrong.
Winner – John Cena (because WWE)
Sam P: The fact that Styles has been pitted as part of the New Era against John Cena is hilarious. They’re the exact reason same age. Still, Styles is new to WWE and it should be a hard fought battle. I worry this could signal the inevitable decline for Styles that is all part and parcel of being a main roster star that Vince McMahon didn’t make. A styles win here followed by a ton of Cena victories? Likely.
Winner. AJ Styles
James Wright: I’m not really sure this is a match that I really ever wanted to happen since Cena never really appealed to me and neither did Styles, at least in TNA. However since the two have been paired off in the WWE my interest has actually grown quite a bit. I had no idea that AJ had so much beef with Cena and if it is not legitimate then he is great at selling it like it is. The one positive thing about Cena is that he can put on a good match with a game opponent so I am expecting this to be a pretty decent match, although I worry that we will get the same old story where Cena’s opponent picks up the first win in a series of three matches and then he obliterates them through the magic of Hustle, Loyalty and Respect in the next two. In this case I am going to go with the optimist in me and pick Cena to win this one with AJ going over in their inevitable rematches, if through nefarious means.
Winner – John Cena
Widro – Should be a great match. AJ absolutely has to win.
Winner: AJ
Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro
CB: Ambrose takes it.
Winner: Ambrose
Spain: And this is why I secretly hate this PPV just a little: I can never guess this one. I am pretty much always wrong, and I have no doubt it’ll happen again. So, I’m just going to blindly flail and take a guess this time…
Winner: Dean Ambrose
Penny; Let’s look at everyone involved shall we?
Jericho won’t win because he only comes back these days to put over guys he thinks can be great ones. He doesn’t want or need the briefcase, he’s just there to have fun and teach the younger guys and have fun.
Del Rio won’t win because please, Vince is a racist twat and unless your name is Dwayne you’re not getting in sniffing distance of the world belt if you’re not white.
Zayn is forever trapped in “The perrenial Plucky Underdog” role. Vince saw him succeed in that role in NXT and thinks that will work in WWE, but Vince likely missed the part where eventually the Underdog gets to finally WIN. So Zayn is just here to give fans false hope and bump like a lunatic.
Cesaro? Well we all know what Vince thinks of Cesaro. It will NEVER matter how hard he works, how over he gets, or how much everyone else in the business likes him. As long as Vince has the final say, Cesaro never gets the brass ring.
That leaves the only two likely winners, Ambrose and Owens. And of those two? Owens is the only one who’s been both booked consistently as mostly a winner since he survived his Cena Burial, and the one the bookers generally seem to be behind and give the best moments to. Ambrose is entertaining as all hell and hugely over with the crowd, and we all want to see him win it and immediately cash in to make Rollins/Reigns a Triple Threat, but again, this is WWE, and NXT is the only WWE product that gives a flying fuck what the audience wants.
Winner; The Flying Frog Of Fortitude
Michael McMonigle: This is the match that the PPV is named for, so it makes sense that it has received the most promotion. Plus, it makes sense that it has the most over and interesting wrestlers in the match (and Alberto Del Rio). The fans would like to see Ambrose win, but since they talked about it on Raw, it won’t happen. I still don’t think management has faith in Cesaro to be a main eventer, so he’s out. Unless Vince McMahon wants to purposely alienate his audience, he will tease a Del Rio win, but won’t do it. Sami Zayn hasn’t been on the main roster long enough to be the top challenger, and I think he is viewed in the same light as Cesaro. Chris Jericho would be the safe choice (and it would be nice to see him win the match he developed) because you can trust him to bring it on the mic and in the ring (as much as possible). Plus, he could be another challenger to feed to Reigns if they wanted. But I will say they won’t screw this up and will let the most over person in the match, Kevin Owens, Plus, I think everyone knows Owens would be awesome with the briefcase in one hand and a microphone in the other.
Winner – Kevin Owens
Sam P: This has to be the show stealer. There’s so many possibilities here, both in terms of the actual winner and future storylines for all involved. Owens and Ambrose are the most viable contenders, but, despite how much of a delectable heel he’d be with the briefcase, Owens still has the Sami Zayn feud to deal with. Ambrose is a face, and it’s more difficult to justify a sneaky cash in as a face, unless he cashes in on his former Shield brethren later in the evening. I keep talking myself in and out of who will win, so…
Winner – Dean Ambrose
James Wright – This is one of the best put together MitB matches I can remember, where every man in the match could arguably win the match with some believability. Now sure Jericho and Del Rio can’t do much with a win, but that hasn’t stopped the WWE before so they could still pull it off. Then Ambrose, Owens, Zayn and Cesaro are four guys who could really use the case to jump to the next level, especially now that there is this brand split. Part of me thinks that instead of having another tournament to crown a new champion on a show, or just assigning the belt to someone they should just make the guy who wins the case champion since you could argue that they have already earned it. Whether or not that actually happens it is so hard to pick between these four; my heart wants Owens to win, Ambrose makes a lot of sense story-wise, it could help Sami the most as the newest guy on the roster in the match and Cesaro arguably deserves it the most due to all the guff he has had to go to in the past few years, especially since had he been more active during the two-belt times he almost certainly would have been a world champion already. Whatever happens I am sure we will get a great match and I think the temptation of the Shield triple threat either at Mania or Summerslam is too great to resist, so I’m going with Ambrose.
Winner – Dean Ambrose
Widro – I think Kevin Owens is a good pick, but since I think both Rollins and Reigns will be in the title picture, Dean with the briefcase gives them all the Shield teases.
Winner: Ambrose
WWE Tag Team Titles
The New Day (c) vs. Enzo & Big Cass vs. The Vaudevillains vs. The Club
CB: The Club wins to give them some gold.
Winners: The Club
Spain: In my opinion, it’s about time the belts were off the New Day. They’ve done great work, and there are now enough good teams around that they can start rotate the belts well. I’m sort of leaning towards the Club, considering their dominant feel, but I’d not be surprised if Enzo and Cass got the job done.
Winners (and new WWE Tag Team Champions): The Club
Penny; New Day retains since the other teams aren’t ready for title runs yet, but we’ll get a lot of teases for Enzo And Cass to pull off an upset.
Winners; The Old Day
Michael McMonigle: When you don’t know what to do with a division, you just throw everyone into a match. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if they threw the Usos and the Luchadragons into the match as well. Since I predicted AJ Styles to lose earlier, maybe this is scheduled to be the make up match for The Club. The match should be a bit of a mess, but I think they pull the belts off the New Day here.
Winner – The Club
Sam P: If I were in charge, I’d give The Club the gold and have them decimate all comers for a while like the monsters they should be. It would build them up for an eventual and potentially awesome feud with Enzo & Big Cass. However, I’ve no idea where any of this is headed, which is pretty super sweet. Should be a great match in the mould of the NXT bouts. Bring it on!
Winners: The Club
James Wright: Here is another match where it is hard to call since the New Day are on course to have the longest tag title reign of the modern era, Enzo and Cass are massively over, The Club are being booked as the most dominant team at the moment and the Vaudevillains are the team that could use the titles the most. In this case I am thinking that the WWE wants to replace the old title reign record too much, otherwise they wouldn’t have started mentioning it, much like with Nikki Bella, so despite my continued disappointment and protests I believe that the New Day will once again retain here.
Winner – The New Day (Still Champions)
Widro – They keep pushing that the New Day is going to break London & Kendrick’s record WWE Tag Title reign.
Winners: New Day
United States Title
Rusev (c) w/Lana vs. Titus O’Neil
CB: Rusev wins.
Winner: Rusev
Spain: Feels like it’s a little early right now for Rusev to lose the strap, but I like to think I’n familiar with the lack of logic in WWE’s storytelling. Calling it for Titus.
Winner (and new United States Champion): Titus O’Neil
Penny; I pick Titus in the TR Open solely because I think he’s who Vince will pick, but honestly this is my piss break match. I couldn’t care less about either guy.
Winner; Meh
Michael McMonigle: Does anyone think Titus O’Neil is a viable challenger? Is this a way for the WWE to apologize for the ridiculous suspension to O’Neil and avoid a lawsuit? Is it February already and the company wants to pretend it has a social conscience? As long as Rusev keeps his new version of The Accolade he will continue to look like a bad ass, and that is what the title needs.
Winner – Rusev
Sam P: If you think Titus has a chance, put your hand up. Now, if you have a hand in the air, slap yourself with it. You’re an idiot.
Winner: Rusev
James Wright: Even though Rusev seems like he is gaining slight momentum as champion I think that Titus is getting this match as a kind of apology for his suspension and that alone might get him the title. It makes sense, one Prime time Player gets the US title, the other gets Bob Bucklund, completely even.
Winner – Titus O’Neil (New Champion)
Widro – Titus getting a push is nice to see but I think Rusev gets the clean win here
Winner: Rusev
Charlotte and Dana Brooke vs. Natalya and Becky Lynch
CB: Charlotte and Dana win, Sasha and Bayley immediately show up.
Winners: Charlotte and Dana
Spain: Without the title on the line, I figure that this one’s going to go to the faces. Charlotte can handle losses with amount of wins she’s racked up.
Winners: Natalya and Becky Lynch
Penny; Charlotte will lose because Dana messes something up to continue Charlotte’s predictable tantrumy meltdowns. What those are building to well, your guess is as good as mine. But she’s on one of those weird Champion On A Losing Streak runs that never make any sense.
Winner; Nasaly Neidhart and the Goth Jailbait Princess
Michael McMonigle: A tag team match involving the champion? Why? Why not have the champion defend the belt? The only reason is to have some heat built for a title match down the line (probably SummerSlam). As such, since Natalya has already had a couple shots, let’s assume Becky Lynch is next in line. Logical booking would say let’s have Becky Lynch get the victory over Charlotte and have her hound the champ until the eventual title match at SummerSlam. Since it is logical, they probably won’t do it, but I am hoping enough people at the top are ignoring the Women’s Division so someone smart can make it work. Plus, let them change Becky Lynch’s entrance music while they’re at it – https://insidepulse.com/2016/06/17/the-fantasy-book-on-re-booting-the-entrance-roman-reigns-becky-lynch-enzo-and-cass-and-more/)
Winner: Becky Lynch and Natalya
Sam P: This programme has seen the burgeoning Women’s Division take an alarming u-turn into irrelevance after the earth shatteringly brilliant Wrestlemania weekend story. Let’s move on, with Sasha Banks costing Charlotte the win here and setting up what we all want to see. More of The Boss.
Winners – Natalya and Becky Lynch
James Wright: This match seems kind of thrown in and I’m surprised it’s not on the pre-show, possible that they are trying to avoid people citing it as the padding that it is. It’s not that the women’s division is being ignored or undersold, it’s that it is now getting the same amount of creative direction as any other division, which is next to none.
Winner – Natalya and Becky Lynch
Widro – Babyface team is makeshift and both have lost the title opportunities. This should get Charlotte back on a winning streak. I think Nikki Bella runs in after to set up a Summerslam match.
Winners: Charlotte & Dana Brooke
Kickoff Show Matches:
Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews
CB: Fella wins since he’s in a new movie coming out.
Winner: Sheamus
Spain: Sheamus has been in a movie, but seeing as how there has been very little attention paid to it, I reckon we’re going to see the next chapter in the rise of Apollo Crews.
Winner: Apollo Crews
Penny:
Winner; Crews
It makes zero sense for Sheamus to go over someone they are building to being a new star. But maybe they will start a losing streak storyline with Crews. They tend to like those.
Winner- Sheamus
Sam P: I was clamouring for Crews to have a solid heel to square off against in NXT. He was getting lost in the shuffle and needed a prolonged feud, and he might have found it with Sheamus. Hopefully this will kickstart the talented smiler.
Winner – Apollo Crews
James Wright: I’m wondering if the WWE will actually commit to the ‘new era’ here and have Crews actually beat Sheamus since it would be a big win for the new comer to the main roster. Sheamus may be mostly a black hole when it comes to the company in terms of fan interest, but is still a multi-time world champion and seemingly favoured by some so a win here could mean big things going forward. If Sheamus wins then I don’t know what the WWE are playing at.
Winner – Apollo Crews
Widro – Not sure what the future is for either guy at this point, Crews’ push seems dead in the water but he needs a win to start some kind of momentum.
Winner: Crews
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin
CB: Corbin connects four in Ziggler’s head.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Spain: Despite Baron Corbin only having one actual move, I think that he’s going to take the win. Any chances of Ziggler having another career resurgence seem to be more or less nil, so why let him win the feud. End this, and hopefully keep Corbin off TV for, oh I don’t know, ever?
Winner: Baron Corbin
Penny:
Winner; Corbin
Speaking of losing streak storylines, Dolph Ziggler’s has gotten to the point of ridiculousness. No one on the roster needs the brand extension more than Ziggler. But he has gone after both of the secondary belts with poor results and is no where near the top of the card these days. Maybe a stint in NXT would be good for Ziggler. Let him challenge Samoa Joe and give Joe some big time victories with Ziggler bumping all over the world for him.
Winner – Baron Corbin
Sam P: It’s remarkable we’re getting this again. It’s like Del Rio / Kalisto from earlier in the year.
Winner – Baron Corbin
James Wright: Why are we getting this again? I don’t care, sorry.
Winner – Tedium
New Kickoff Show Matches:
Widro – My guess is that Dolph is leaving the company soon, it’s hard to remember someone getting this de-pushed after Wrestlemania season.
Winner: Corbin
The Dudley Boyz vs. Lucha Dragons
Sam P: “Hey! We’ve got some guys not doing anything at Money In The Bank. Let’s throw them into a match.” Cut to Zack Ryder crying in the corner.
Winners: Lucha Dragons
Widro – The Dudleys need a win.
Winners: Dudleys
Golden Truth vs. Breezango
Sam P: An alarming thought occurred to me when I heard about this match. Is this the longest running continuous storyline currently on WWE programming? Seriously, when did Goldust and R-Truth start their ludicrous backstage segments? I looked it up. January. Holy hell.
Winners – Golden Truth
Widro – Hard to predict but I’ll go with the Golden Truth.
Winners: Golden Truth
