31 Possibilities

WrestleMania 31’s beginning to take shape. Roman Reigns has won the Royal Rumble and seems likely to retain his number one contender status against Daniel Bryan at Fast Lane. Doing so will see him go on to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE title. Lesnar isn’t currently scheduled to defend his title at Fast Lane, making his defence at ‘Mania all but a certainty.

Sting will wrestle at 'Mania. Unfortunately.

Triple H is intent on calling out Sting at Fast Lane, which will presumably lead to a match on March 29. Rollins seems destined to have a grudge match with Orton. The first ever Cena v Rusev meet has been moved forward to Fast Lane but in all likelihood they’ll end up wrestling again at WrestleMania, because it’s such a WrestleMania match. And ‘The People’s’ Elixir’¹ Daniel Bryan has been talking to Dolph Ziggler on Twitter, for all the world to see, about having a match together on ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All’.

But what if all of these threads are red herrings? I mean, they’re probably not because it’s shaping up to be the sort of card WWE likes to produce for ‘Mania. But none of it is definite yet. Not even Reigns v Lesnar, until Reigns gets past Bryan.

There’s still time for WWE to swing onto a very different path.

We’ve seen Paul Heyman offer Lesnar to The Authority as a problem solver. What if ‘The King of Kings’ has no intention of wrestling Sting himself and instead plans to challenge him to step in the ring with Lesnar? That could mean two matches for the usually light scheduled ‘Beast’. But he could also lose the title in an as yet unbooked defence at Fast Lane or in an altercation on RAW to a Money in the Bank wielding Seth Rollins.

That would see Rollins going into WrestleMania as the champion. Reigns would be the obvious candidate to face him. But maybe all the promos and the heavy-handed pushing and Triple H’s talk on Austin’s podcast were all intended to lead us in the wrong direction. Maybe Daniel Bryan will wrest the title shot away from Reigns, giving us D-Bry versus Rollins for the WWE championship in the WrestleMania main event. The return of the mighty Orton could wait until ‘Mania itself, or the night after.

Bryan versus Rollins at WM31? It'd be good but it's not likely.

This would leave Rumble winner and perceived golden boy Reigns out in the cold. What if his increasingly heelish mannerisms have actually been the lead-up to a full blown turn? He could attack Dolph Ziggler, the guy currently rumoured to be Bryan’s WM31 opponent, in frustration.

This chain of events would give us Reigns v Ziggler, Lesnar v Sting, and Rollins v Bryan for the championship. This is all massively unlikely. In places it’s unappealing. But it’s not impossible. WWE could surprise us with some or all of this. While I don’t necessarily want them to it is nice that there are alternate paths that they could take. It’s nice to have some unpredictable wrestling television from them.

But I'd draw the line at changes occurring that prevent us getting Miz versus Mizdow on the pre-show. That's the one match that really has to happen.

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¹ That's not just a Frasier reference, it's an apt Frasier reference. I think 'The People's Elixir' is an amusing a relevant nickname for Bryan. I'll be using it from now on.