Well.....this is it. This is the ONLY match that I am looking forward to tonight. Because let's be honest, this WWE Championship match is selling the pay-per-view. Wrestling wise, there's gonna be some great wrestling. No doubt about it. But as far as storylines go, as always, there's not a lot of intrigue in any match on the card besides CM Punk vs Ryback. I'm not invested in the other matches, and this card has been so rushed and so poorly built, the wrestling and this match is the only thing that can save it. But I will be fair and give my predictions on the rest of the matches before I address the BIG one. I'll make them short and sweet.
They tried so hard to build a story between these three divas, but because the division has become so horrible and storylines cease to exist with the divas, it's hard to be invested in this. Eve is somewhat over, Layla isn't, and Kaitlyn is just fluttering around. I would say give the title to Kaitlyn since she got "taken out" at Night of Champions, but I see Eve retaining.
The match is going to be great, but there's no story. Why does Del Rio hate Orton? Why does Orton have to fight him? Why do I even have to care about this match? There has been no story built to make me invested. Orton wins, and Del Rio continues to flutter around just like Kaitlyn.
They've worked extremely hard in re-building the tag team division and even harder building credible tag teams. They have two winners right here. Kane and Bryan dominated the end of August and all of September with their chemistry, but does it end here? I don't think so. I like this team of The Rhodes Scholars. I'm a fan of Cody Rhodes, and an even bigger fan of Damien Sandow. But Bryan and Kane are way too over to not win.
This is another match that's going to be fun to watch, but again no story, no investment. They started out good building one up on Miz Tv a few weeks ago, but they haven't carried it and extended it. Kofi won the title on WWE's Main Event for god sakes, and since there's been no promo exchanges and no storyline progression to make me care. The Miz didn't do much with the IC Title when he had it, and Kofi will probably do even less. Kofi just won it, so he's gonna retain.
Oh boy...*sigh* I don't know where to start with this one. You talk about a match that I absolutely do not care about. The only thing they've done to somewhat build this match up is the Brogue Kick vs Big Show's KO Punch. While that's a starting point, that's not a good enough reason to make me care about this match. Sheamus' title reign in general has not been interesting and his character doesn't help that much either. What can you say about Big Show. He's been doing this for a long time. There's not much else he can do to make me care any more. Obviously Sheamus is going to win, cause what reason is there to put the title on Show? Maybe unless Dolph Ziggler comes out to cash in the briefcase? That's a factor worth mentioning.
Antonio Cesaro will defend the United States Championship against.....oh wait. The United States Champion doesn't have a match on the card. Go figure.
And for all the little kids, age 8 and above, John Cena will be on the pre-show. Even when he's not on the card, we still need to see and hear from him.
And now onto the MAIN EVENT. The match that will sell this show: CM Punk vs Ryback for the WWE Championship. This match has got a lot of people talking. WWE will once in a while get back that shock value where you never know what's going to happen, and they've done it again with this match. People may have an idea of what may happen in this match, but they don't know for sure. We don't know which way WWE is going to go with this one. We really don't. And that's what makes this match so appealing.
But I'm gonna break down this match, scenarios and give my final thoughts on what'll happen.
You cannot harm CM Punk's current title reign. If not for the fact that The Rock has a WWE Championship match waiting for him at the Royal Rumble, then by all means, I would say Ryback would be the new WWE Champion tonight. But if you keep the title on Punk until the Rumble extending his current reign past a year, his match with The Rock means a lot more that way if Punk were to lose tonight and regain it at Survivor Series, or at TLC. Punk's 1-year title reign vs The Rock pretty much sells itself.
Ryback cannot lose clean. Ryback's character since his debut has been a MONSTER. That's what he does. He comes in, destroys his competition, and leaves. You cannot have your Monster lose clean without any type of interference because that makes him look weak. CM Punk's title reign has certainly made him the alpha dog in the WWE, but he cannot beat Ryback clean. Same reason why Goldberg never lost a clean match. To beat a Monster, you're going to need a little help. You can't do it on your own. Ryback has gained so much momentum in the last few weeks and if he loses clean, you take all the wind out of his sails. But at least if takes a mounted effort to beat him, you know the Monster still is strong because it took a lot to put him down.
And also, for some odd reason, this match is inside the Hell in a Cell. So you can forget about ending the match on a DQ, or any sort of countout or double pin nonsense to keep the title on Punk like they did at Night of Champions. There MUST be a winner.
Can Ryback work a long match? The biggest problem with Goldberg was because he was so dominant, he was used to the short, quick matches, but when the matches got longer, you saw that he was average at best, but got better as his career moved on. Ryback's matches have not even exceeded 5 minutes. And you can't have a 5-10 minute Main Event Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Championship. That just won't do. This match has to go 15 minutes or longer.
Do you take the chance? Is this the night where you make a new star in Ryback? A lot of people, myself included, have complained about Cena constantly being the main event because there's nobody else at "that" level. Now due to Cena's injury, there's a new face in the main event. Do you pull the trigger and give Ryback the title? All these months of hype and squash matches won't mean jack if he doesn't win the WWE Championship. But is Ryback the superstar of the future? Is he ready? Can he carry the WWE as its Champion? Can WWE survive the backlash if Ryback turns out that he's not ready? Will Lesnar interfere? Will Cena have a role in this match? You only get one shot at this sort of thing. If Ryback wins the WWE title somewhere down the road, it won't mean as much. If you're looking for that moment to make a new star, it would have to be tonight.
Ryback can't lose, CM Punk can't lose. If Ryback is going to get beat, it's going to take numbers. I said it before, if Ryback is going to lose, Brock Lesnar will be the reason, unless WWE pulls something completely out of left field. If CM Punk loses, then you have a star for the future, but you have to think about the booking going forward and how things will be when The Rock comes back to hype his Royal Rumble match. Recently, WWE has never thought of the long term effects of some things.
I say CM Punk is going to retain the WWE Championship. CM Punk's title reign has been very good, almost a year now. If you want his match with The Rock to have that extra something, he needs to keep the title and milk his reign for all its worth so when he faces The Rock, it's BIG. Ryback has to lose, and I hate that it has to happen, but I just don't think he's ready to be the WWE Champion.
Tonight is the night. Do you have your WWE Champion end the unbeaten streak of the Monster that you've pushed so much, or do you look toward the future and make this Monster the Champion and prove that you don't need John Cena on the marquee every pay-per-view? Tonight is going to answer A LOT of questions. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
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