Vince McMahon has great expectations for selling out Dallas Stadium and breaking the WM3 record. This was probably already his goal, but he likely got more motivated by the Hulk Hogan debacle this past summer. Despite the current state of the WWE they have all the ingredients to create a card that could fill up the stadium and leave fans debating over which match was best.
The New Day vs. The Wyatts for the Tag Team Titles
The New Day has become the hot team in the WWE. They have gone from an utter failure as babyfaces to superstars as heels. They have even survived the very questionable decision to take the Tag Titles off them for a while. They have unlimited potential in a division that is starved for talent.
A good path for the New Day would be to drop the Tag Titles at Survivor Series to the Dudley Boys. The Dudley’s would then carry the straps until the Royal Rumble where they could drop them to the Wyatt family. At this point pushing Bray Wyatt as a single is a mistake. WWE will only further devalue his character with the way the current story lines as there is no place at the top for Bray. The company is better off stashing him in the light tag division and waiting for a better time.
The Wyatt’s, also employing the free bird rule, could drop the Tag Titles at WM32 to the New Day in a good opener. Then Bray can set off after Mania to being the main focus of the group being pushed as a single chasing the World Title, more on that later. The New Day would emerge from the winter as faces and the fans would be primed for them to defeat the heels and become three time champions.
Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the U.S. Title
The WWE has basically done this match already, but it included Randy Orton. Still many fans are clamoring for a Shield showdown so why not give it to them. Dean Ambrose could go over here and get pushed up the card a little bit after constantly having to fight for respect the past few years. As a follow up Roman could turn heel against Dean with the angle being he’s bitter and jealous over the love the fans show Dean.
Seth Rollins is pretty much a made guy. He will eventually rise back up the card to the World Title, but his monster push needs to be cooled at some point.
The Rock w/ Rhonda Rousey vs. HHH w/ Stephanie McMahon
This could become a mixed tag, and will be if Vince has his say. The premise here has to be the end of the merciful end to the Authority angle. The Rock would be the right guy to remove the dark cloud the Authority has cast over the company. This match should not go on last as many would suspect as the WWE needs to protect its full time roster. Something they have done poorly in the past. Also at this point how much do these two really have to give in a main event spot?
This match is much safer earlier in the card. The angle was setup last year when the Rock confronted the Authority. He would simply need to appear on Raw at some point and run down HHH and Stephanie for their bumbling methods running the company. HHH could attack the Rock as being jealous of him and put himself over the Rock as a better wrestler. In the end the Rock gets the win and Steph and HHH are finally sent packing from TV for as long as possible, hopefully years.
Sting vs. The Undertaker
Many probably feel the Taker and Brock will meet at WM32, but let’s stick to the concept that for some odd reason that that match is too big for Wrestlemania as was the tag line for their Summerslam rematch. Why not keep the crowd hot for that match and have it at Survivor Series. Also the Taker is taking on some dates in October and will probably be able to maintain his fitness better in the fall than waiting another 7 months.
That makes way for the dream match of Sting and Taker on this show. Sting should be built up with at least two or three big PPV matches leading up to it where he wins. Perhaps a Cena Sting match and/or Sting Randy Orton. Sting probably will not win the title from Rollins, but he needs to be protected in that spot. The WWE has completely underutilized Sting to this point and it probably was wise to keep him off TV since WM31 where he jobbed to HHH for no apparent reason.
Taker can lose or win his feud with Lesnar, as long as he continues to regain the respect as the legend he is. The booking finish for Summerslam didn’t help that fact, but his effort during the match did. It’s critical that he looks good win or lose in the final match so that he’s got some shine on him for Sting.
It really doesn’t matter who wins here as long as both guys get their stuff in and pop the crowd as much as possible. If this is the last ride for Taker than tradition says he goes out losing, and considering he’s got tons of respect for the business that would make sense.
Brock Lesnar vs. Cesaro
Brock is going to put asses in seats for WWE for at least three more years after extending his contract, but what WWE needs to do is use him to build new stars. Cesaro is a guy caught in push limbo. All signs seem to point to him getting a rocket pack push, finally, but WWE haven’t found the right launching pad. Cesaro needs to get away from Kevin Owens because Owens also deserves a push as well.
His path to this point is probably one where he beats Rusev, Big Show, Kane, Miz in feuds and goes into the Rumble a hot commodity through good booking. He makes a deep run in the Rumble, but loses it late to the eventual winner. Seeking to capitalize on his good performance he challenges Brock and the angle could be the Heyman quit on Cesaro and left him for dead basically. Cesaro wants to prove Heyman was wrong to do so and what better way than to run through his prized Brock Lesnar.
Cesaro goes over Brock and is the first guy to pin him clean since HHH committed that sin at WM29. Cesaro would come out of WM32 hot as a firecracker and is a logical great foil for Seth Rollins down the road.
Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for the Women’s Championship
Charlotte needs to win the title from Nikki Bella as quickly as possible so that the Women’s division can actually start making some progress. Sasha then needs to be elevated to the spot of #1 contender and win the title off Charlotte, but this story should be about Charlotte getting screwed out of the title in some way and Sasha getting all the heat for doing it. Sasha must become even more egocentric and selfish. Charlotte must be denied the rematch from around Survivor Series all the way until WM32. This will keep the fans clamoring for the rematch and build up the emotion for it.
Charlotte should go over and win the title back on the biggest stage. There are endless possibilities for the women when you figure in Becky, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha. The rest of the division can take a backseat and job for those girls for the next two years as they provide epic after epic with this match being the crown jewel.
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Title
If the WWE was smart they would appeal to the indy and hardcore audience with what was the best NXT feud and perhaps one of the best ROH feuds of all time. The premise here is simple. Owens needs to be endlessly pushed and his target in the next month or so should be Ryback. Owens should win the IC title and defend it up until WM32.
In the build up to the 2016 Rumble Owens should make a case for winning and pulling an Ultimate Warrior at WM32 winning the World title while holding the IC strap. He can talk about how much it would mean his family and prove all the doubters wrong. The WWE put Owens over Cena once and he has continually been one of the most entertaining characters on the mic and in the ring the past few months. To get value from that they need to push Owens like a rocket ship and make this seem believable.
Owens should be doing very well in the Rumble when suddenly Sami Zayn’s music hits and he enters the Rumble. Owens and Zayn should go at each other immediately and eliminate each other fighting to the back setting up their WM32 match. Owens is motivated because Zayn has cost him his WWE Title shot and Zayn is motivated by Owens injuring him and costing him the NXT title in 2015.
This story is so easy a blind man could see it. It’s important that WWE puts this match second from the top to show the importance and raise the stature of the match. They should stop fearing having two great matches back to back. That’s a myth. Zayn should finally get his epic win and revenge over Owens, but this match will be far from the end of this legendary feud. There is no doubt the action here will be excellent.
John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan for the Heavyweight Championship
The importance of the WWE putting two full time wrestlers in the main event of WM32 can’t be understated. All the conjecture about certain legends coming back needs to be put on the back burner. The WWE needs to be about guys who work the road week to week and really are the backbone of this company. Love or hate John Cena he’s the hardest working man in the business. He should be rewarded with this spot.
Daniel Bryan is the biggest face in WWE whether people realize it or not. Despite the poor handling of Bryan over the past two years and his bad luck with injuries, a wrestling Bryan is the biggest attraction in the business right now. So how do we get here?
Obviously the WWE will have to clear Bryan to wrestle. Hopefully he is fit enough to do so. If that is the case they need to keep him away from the ring until the Rumble and he should finally win after two years where fans were extremely upset he didn’t. Bryan winning the Rumble would be finally a demonstration that the company does listen to their fans. That would make the win seem even more sentimental.
John Cena did not win the World Title at Summerslam, and that makes sense. The WWE wants to milk his chance to tie the record of Ric Flair way more than they were able to going into Summerslam. The Jon Stewart interference and explanation was awful, but it did accomplish shining some light on how important that record, however wrong, is to the business.
Cena can grab the strap at Survivor Series from Rollins and finally tie the record. The WWE could just go with Cena as a heel in face clothing as they have for years, but they could gain some real value by finally turning Cena heel. It could be done by Cena being upset with all the praise being heaped on Bryan after winning the Rumble.
Cena could play jealous and attack Bryan finally turning himself heel. With the amount of hate that was shown for Cena in New York (WWE home) and considering his age the timing might finally be right and it would certainly help raise the profile of this match. Even if WWE avoids turning him the fans will probably fall in line with Cena being the heel and Bryan being the huge face.
One aspect that needs to be promoted during this feud is that Cena always gets his win back. The WWE can play that fact up as Bryan holds the last win between these two and it’s a rare day when a star gets two wins in a row over John Cena. Even the Rock couldn’t accomplish that.
The WWE might also be best served to leak that this could be Bryan’s last match. Even if it’s completely untrue fans would eat that info up and rightly assume he’s going out on his back to Cena. Yet in the end Bryan should go over and finally put an end to the run of John Cena on top. Cena should not come back down the road and break the record because even he could understand that perhaps it’s better to be tied.
From there Bryan could face the likes of Owens, Rollins, Reigns, and a host of others until he finally runs into Bray Wyatt at Summerslam 2016. Remember Wyatt holds a clean win over Bryan from the singles match of the year in 2014 at the Royal Rumble. They have excellent chemistry. Also considering all those other matches even if Bryan has a short run it will pay off greatly in the end.
This card wouldn’t require the WWE to drag anyone out of retirement and the Rock is almost 100% to compete this year. It’s a reasonable card with reasonable stories and it’s not too many matches so the card can be well paced. It will be interesting to see how close the WWE comes to this and where they actually end up going. Sadly they have been off par almost the entire year of 2015, so let’s all hope 2016 is a lot better.