Why hello there. I see you are still hanging around this place. I’m glad you are here. I decided to take a stroll through some old stomping grounds and resurrect the old Fantasy Book for a little WrestleMania special. These Fantasy Books may continue as the spirit hits me, or they may forever fade into the nothingness of the interwebs. That is up to Widro to decide.
Today, however, I shall share a few little tidbits I thought could be interesting to book for WrestleMania and after. Let’s dive right in…
- It appears that the WWE is going to run with the John Cena versus Undertaker storyline and match. I am not opposed to that at all, but I think it could be done a little better. If you feel like it, check back through the archive here and see how I thought it should go down way back when. I think there was at least one full Fantasy Book column about it.
- I know they try to get everyone on the show to have their little WrestleMania moment. Heck, that seems like the only reason to have added the Andre the Giant and the no-longer-Fabulous-Moolah battle royals in the first place. But there seem to be an inordinate number of multi-person matches this year. I would rather have a long storyline that gets paid off with a huge one-on-one match at least for the title matches. Adding additional people to a title match often times diminishes the quality of the match. And that is not what you want at your biggest event of the year. Take this example: the Intercontinental Title. Miz is the champion and they are fiddling with his title reign to make him possibly be the longest holder of that title if he wins at WrestleMania. All good so far. But he doesn’t really have a current storyline that can be paid off. So the writers look around the locker room and realize Seth Rollins and Finn Balor have nothing to do, so they shoehorn in a 3-way match for the title. From the beginning, this storyline seems forced and Miz (the champion) seems overshadowed. Now, let’s fix it with just some minor tweaking – Balor defeated Rollins for the Universal title a while back and was injured during it. Balor’s never gotten the Universal belt back. Rollins has had success but a recent run of failures has left him craving to re-establish himself as the main player on Raw. But Balor is not cool with that, since he already beat him and feels like he should be the bigger guy in the pecking order. The two of them continue to do their little game of one-upsmanship for a few weeks. Heck, you can even have Miz play troublemaker and try to rile them up. Then, one week, Miz goes too far and asks why Balor and Rollins are even fighting. They don’t have a shot at the Universal title and they are definitely well below the Intercontinental champion on the ladder of success. Kurt Angle comes out and says that Miz is right. And since Miz doesn’t have an opponent for WrestleMania, this may be a way to solve everyone’s issue at the same time. In fact, Angle can make it a triple threat right then. The next week, Miz will complain that it is not fair while Rollins and Balor interfere in each other’s matches causing losses both ways. Rollins and Balor will both complain to Angle about the goings-on. Angle will come out the next week to start Raw talking about how he can admit when he was wrong. He listened to all three men and have decided to alter the plan for WrestleMania. Miz shouldn’t be punished for being a dominant champion, so he says he doesn’t have to wrestle in a triple threat match. But he still needs to wrestle. In addition, Balor and Rollins have proven that their hunger to be the best will not allow Raw to be big enough for both of them. So, at WrestleMania, Finn Balor will go one-on-one with Seth Rollins (it could even be a ladder match if need be). The winner will immediately get a shot at the Intercontinental title against Miz and the loser will have to leave Raw (to presumably go to Smackdown). Miz could even be the guest ref for the initial match. This gives the fans an awesome Balor versus Rollins match with some major intrigue, the possibility of Miz being able to pick the bones of the winner to defend his title, and we don’t have to dilute the product. What do you say?
- I will admit that having Daniel Bryan return throws off my fantasy booking a little, mainly because I didn’t want to see Shane-O-Mac compete at WrestleMania. It also messes up my plans for Kevin Owens though. But not as much as the WWE changing the US Title match to a Fatal 4-way match. Look, I can tolerate Bobby Roode, but I don’t like Jinder Mahal, and I can’t stand Randy Orton. So I was hating the 3-way match as it was scheduled. By adding Rusev, at least they have someone in there that the fans care about, even if WWE doesn’t like to acknowledge how much Rusev Day has caught on. With Rusev languishing for the past several weeks, I figured it was a foregone conclusion he would be in the battle royal and forgotten. But I had hopes. Hopes that he would have won the battle royal and made a face turn at the same time. I guess it is still possible for him to make a face turn, but what he does after is more difficult to set up, but let’s try… Let’s say that Rusev wins the US title in a surprise victory. The crowd goes nuts, he and Aiden English are able to fight off an after match attack by Mahal, and Rusev Day is celebrated. Then, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeat Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan through some sort of nefarious scheme. Maybe have Sami hit Bryan with brass knuckles behind the ref’s back, allowing Owens to get the pin. Afterwards, Shane goes away and Bryan and Sami tear some houses down with a series of great matches after WrestleMania. Meanwhile, Kevin Owens has a revelation and tries to distance himself from Daniel Bryan a bit. So he challenges for the US title, claiming he never should have lost it, etc. Owens going after Rusev’s title, on Rusev Day, makes for a pretty easy, fun, and exciting storyline to carry Smackdown for the next couple months. Seriously, give them the ball and see how far they hit it out of the park. Yes, I know, I mixed my sports metaphors there!
- Jumping to the Women’s side of things, I predicted the Asuka versus Charlotte Flair match a while ago, so I was not surprised they went that direction. I expect a big-time match (possibly a match of the night contender) with Asuka coming away with the title. Now is where we get weird. After a long and grueling match, Asuka gets the victory and the title. Barely able to stand, the ref raises Asuka’s hand and gives her the belt. All of a sudden, Carmella’s music hits and she comes out with a referee in tow. Trying to take advantage of the weakened Asuka, she cashes in her Money in the Bank briefcase and attacks. Asuka pretty quickly floors Carmella with a wicked kick and pins her, maintaining the just-won championship. On the following Smackdown, we see the other Women wrestlers picking on Carmella a bit, teasing her about losing the briefcase opportunity, etc. Later in the show, we see Carmella backstage down in the dumps and all alone. In walks Baron Corbin. The lone wolf comes over to Carmella, sits next to her, puts his hand on her shoulder and tells her he understands her pain but she will be okay. It is a tender moment that the crowd will crap on because that is what they do. Then Corbin will leave because he is a lone wolf and showing care and emotion is not normal for him. But Carmella is touched by his compassion and starts trying to hang around him in the future weeks. I wouldn’t go so far as having her stalk Corbin, but she would always show up when he is around, cheering him on, wanting to talk to him, etc. It can seem annoying to Corbin at first, but we know he is secretly enjoying the fact that his attempt at being a human person has resulted in a positive response from the object of that emotion. Eventually, Corbin and Carmella will form an alliance, a partnership, and possibly even a romance which will help them both get over a little more and win a little more. And then, Test will return. I mean, Big Cass. Big Cass will come back and be all, “hey woman, why you hanging around this scuzball? I thought I was your one and only scuzball.” And we get the Baron Corbin versus Big Cass feud no one wanted.
- Oh, hey, whoever lost that Balor versus Rollins match and got sent over to Smackdown will immediately become a top contender for the world title won by Nakamura over Styles at WrestleMania. This will allow a couple months of incredible and new matches for the big gold belt while AJ maybe takes a brief vacation to recuperate some nagging injuries. Either that or he takes on Daniel Bryan after he is done with Sami Zayn.
- And finally, let’s end this with Braun Strowman. I hate the fact that the WWE is making him look so much more dominant than the entire tag team division. I just hate it. But, if they are going to do it, they might as well take advantage of another storyline going on currently. Strowman needs a partner for WrestleMania, right? Bray Wyatt just got deleted or purged or exorcised or something by Matt Hardy. Why not have Wyatt, a beaten and broken shell of a man now, be picked by Strowman as his partner. Strowman could be paying back the start that Wyatt helped him with in the Wyatt Family and Wyatt can try to start rebuilding himself. At least there will be two wrestlers holding the tag titles and not one.
- What? You are interested in fantasy booking the Universal Title? Okay, Brock Lesnar continues to make Roman Reigns look like a little bitch by beating his brains in every time they meet. Lesnar appears ready to win at WrestleMania when Reigns hits a surprise spear out of nowhere and goes for a pin. Everyone is dreading the ref’s hand falling for the three count, but no! Lesnar kicks out! He decides to stop selling and goes to break Reigns’ arm with the Kimora Lock. The ref stops the match, giving the victory to Lesnar and Reigns looks hurt (kayfabe hurt). Lesnar and Heyman stand over Reigns when Samoa Joe’s music hits. Joe comes out and suplexes Reigns out of the ring and beats on him on the floor. Lesnar is all smiles watching this and Heyman is just trying to get Lesnar out of the ring. Finally, Joe traps Reigns’ injured arm in a chair and stomps it into oblivion. Then Joe slides into the ring and gets right in the face of Lesnar who is still laughing. Lesnar stops laughing immediately as the two men butt heads and stare at each other until we fade out.
Yeah, no Ronda Rousey booking or the odd 3-way Smackdown tag title match or any of the other things happening at WrestleMania just yet. These ideas were the ones that made their way through the labyrinth without being devoured by the minotaur. Let me know what you think in the comments. Let’s make this Road to WrestleMania thing a thing!
Until next time, be excellent to each other.
