Hard to believe there has not been a WWE PPV since SummerSlam 5 weeks ago! Raw is up first with their exclusive event No Mercy, which was a Smackdown PPV last year. 7 matches are on tap for the show, including two major main events worthy of being on Wrestlemania. It's cliche, but even though they keep saying it each week, it's serious. Let's delve into the matches!
The Miz will defend his Intercontinental Championship against Jason Jordan in Jordan's first singles title match of his career. Say what you will about the dumb Angle's son storyline, but Jordan has proven he has what it takes to hang with the big boys in WWE. Three straight weeks he had great matches with former World Champions as Finn Balor, John Cena and Roman Reigns. He didn't win any of those but he looked like a star in defeat. This is Jordan's first big opportunity to stand out and get a major PPV victory. After everything The Miz has said about Angle, I feel like this can be a pretty lengthy feud and could produce some great matches. If WWE is going to go with Miz to break some more IC Title history, it would make sense for Jordan to win so Miz can win it back in a couple of weeks to become an eight time champion. I think it's time to pull the trigger on Jordan. If not, why else bring him over? Jason Jordan overcomes the odds and win the Intercontinental Championship.
Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt will face man to man on Sunday in a match I could unfortunately care less about. HUGE fan of both guys but they deserve better. I hope Balor moves to the IC Title picture afterwards (cause Lord knows the Universal Title is still going to be held hostage) because it kind of seems like they're wasting Balor's potential right now. I'm going with Balor to win here.
Enzo Amore just became a Cruiserweight and he's already getting a shot at Neville for the title. I hate this for a lot of reasons, mainly because talented guys like Cedric Alexander or Cruiserweight Classic runner up Gran Metalik are just in dumb tag matches each week doing nothing. These are the guys the division should be centered around but because Enzo has nothing else to do due to Big Cass and he's a great talker, he's getting a shot. I know Enzo brings more eyes to 205 Live but it would probably also help not to do it after Smackdown...just saying. I'm a huge Neville fan and I think he's above the Cruiserweight division. If Balor can feud with Wyatt, why can't Neville be in the mix too? I'd kill for a Balor/Neville feud right now, so a small part of me is hoping Neville will lose, lose his rematch then say to hell with that division and try to make a name for himself all over again. Another part of me knows that sounds too good to be true and to go with the obvious; Neville retaining with his Rings Of Saturn/Break Orbit submission. That's what I'm sticking with.
Another SummerSlam rematch will see the Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose defend against former champion Sheamus and Cesaro. These guys put on a barn burner of a match at SS and look to repeat here. This should be the same ole hard hitting, fast paced action we've come to expect from 4 of the best in ring workers WWE has today. Give them 20 minutes and they will steal the show. I'm going with Ambrose and Rollins to retain.
Alexa Bliss has the odds against her when she defends her Raw Women's Title against Sasha Banks, Emma, Nia Jax and the returning Bayley. Hard one to choose. I've been dying for a Sasha/Bayley feud but it seems like any time they're going to do it, they don't. Sasha was just champion and they gave it right back to Bliss. Raw's division is so frantic and changes all the time so Bliss walking out as champion is not really likely. Asuka is coming to Raw and it's only a matter of time before she's the champion. I think Asuka needs to win it against a big opponent, one that should be booked as unstoppable. Nia Jax has been close to winning the title on many different occasions and she needs to be the one to try and stop Asuka. Nia Jax should be the one to win this match and the title. Her monster status is going to stick unless she finally gets a title to back it up. Nia Jax wins, wins her first Raw Women's Title.
Roman Reigns VS John Cena. This is a Wrestlemania worthy main event and should still be a Wrestlemania match one day. This is the the hand picked guy WWE chose 10 years ago VS the hand picked guy of this era. It's a once in a generation type of clash. The promos leading up to the match have been fantastic as well, with both guys calling each other out on great issues. Cena calling Reigns a Cena bootleg, Reigns calling out Cena for being a part timer after Cena hated The Rock for it. They've done all this with only getting physical once. It's really helped push the match along so when it does happen, it's going to feel very fresh and new. This could easily be the first of a duology or trilogy of matches between the two. Who goes over first though? Let's look at the last couple cross generation matches for reference. Rock beat Hogan in their first match while Rock beat Cena in their first match. Cena had to grapple the torch away from Rocky the next year though. I'm all for the young guy winning in these type of matches, especially after Reigns beat The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. I'd like to see Cena win to back up everything he has said, especially since I don't like how a face Reigns brags on ending Taker's streak each time he talks. Reigns would be such a bigger star if he was a heel but I digress.
Roman Reigns will defeat John Cena in one of the biggest matches of his career. This is all apart of his Wrestlemania build to defeat Brock Lensar for the Universal Championship, which brings us to the main event.
Braun Strowman is having some amazing 2017 and it could reach its biggest moment if he can win his main event match against The Beast Brock Lesnar with the Universal Championship on the line. Strowman has looked like a complete monster against Lesnar, even more than Joe did in the summer months. Putting the Beast through two tables at SummerSlam, then laying him out the Raw after then getting right up after a German Suplex in one of the best moments of 2017. Strowman is looking like a complete monster for a new wave of WWE fans. How can WWE capitalize on this? By having Strowman win the Universal Title at No Mercy.
But who am I kidding? We all know that while Strowman will take it to Lesnar, he will ultimately go to Suplex City, get his with a F5 and Lesnar will vanish until January. What a freaking joke.
Brock Lesnar will defeat Braun Strowman to retain the Universal Title, then hide for the rest of the year until the Royal Rumble. Because that makes sense.
I'm looking forward to No Mercy. Here's hoping the Wrestlemania worthy matches live up to the hype!
