IYO SKY vs. Asuka
The common aphorism is that good things come to those who wait. Well, the fans waited for Kairi Sane to get her babyface payoff from a long-winded storyline that stemmed from Damage CTRL. In that storyline, Asuka was abusing and manipulating Kairi Sane by blaming her for every loss they had as the Kabuki Warriors and even guilt-tripping her for being the reason Iyo Sky left them for Rhea Ripley.
These women did a really good job in telling that story and had the fans invested, but WWE decided to fire Kairi Sane unceremoniously and put a screeching halt to all of that momentum. Similar to what they did with R-Truth, fans are now chanting for WWE to rehire Kairi Sane. She should come back and help IYO SKY win this match to get her sweet revenge against Asuka finally.
Prediction: IYO SKY
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu – World Heavyweight Title Match
There are so many positive platitudes that could be attributed to the Bloodline storyline in the WWE, but it ran its course three years ago and has become as stale as a moldy bread on the kitchen counter. The Usos let the entire WWE Universe know that they want to be singles stars, be their own men, and become leaders of the locker room who don’t have to follow Roman Reigns’ orders to succeed.
Yet, they hypocritically did the opposite of what they set out to do, as they are back to being the Tribal Chief’s spineless subordinates. Furthermore, during his WrestleMania feud, CM Punk pointed out that Roman always needs help to tell his stories in WWE. Roman defeated Punk clean at WrestleMania without help and hypocritically went right back to recruiting the Usos on the Raw after ‘Mania.
The antithetical pivots in this storyline have become completely asinine and come across as a contrived methodology to stretch out a profitable storyline that has already lost its steam. WWE even went as far as to include Solo Sikoa and the Tongans in this story as obstacles for Jacob Fatu, who has proven that he does not need The Bloodline to fight his battles for him.
After defeating a Bloodline hater in Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 42, getting a world title shot was the perfect next step for Fatu. Unfortunately, he is the first challenger for Reigns, and Reigns is not losing the title so soon after dethroning Punk at ‘Mania. To protect Fatu in defeat, the mystery attacker who kicked Fatu’s teeth down his throat back in October should screw Fatu in this match and be revealed as Randy Orton.
Orton asserted that he was destroyed by factions like The Vision and The Bloodline at the expense of helping his friend and star pupil, Cody Rhodes, keep that WWE Title. Since Orton still has past transgressions with those factions, it would make sense for him to get involved here and add even more layers to his storyline with Cody Rhodes on the road to SummerSlam.
Rhodes will be disgusted at the callousness of Orton, especially since Fatu suspected that either Rhodes or McIntyre might have attacked him all along. Rhodes won’t be happy with Orton keeping that secret from him this entire time and even tarnishing the credibility and prestige of his title reign during that time. He will be especially traumatized to see that Orton punted Fatu’s teeth, just like Orton did to his eye at ‘Mania.
Prediction: Roman Reigns
