{"id":16982,"date":"2018-04-08T09:02:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T13:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=16982"},"modified":"2018-04-08T09:02:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T13:02:11","slug":"wrestlemania-34-card-preview-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/04\/08\/wrestlemania-34-card-preview-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE WrestleMania 34 (4\/8\/18) Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

WrestleMania returns to Mercedes Benz Superdome with one of the most stacked cards in WrestleMania history. The\u00a0WrestleMania 34<\/strong> main card right now on paper looks to have at least six to seven matches that could very well steal the show if given the right amount of time. WrestleMania for WWE fans is the equivalent of the Super Bowl in the NFL, the Stanley Cup for the NHL, the NBA Finals, The Premier League Championship for English Soccer. It\u2019s a true culmination of a year\u2019s worth a storylines, coming together as the fans get their fix on one of the biggest nights in professional wrestling and sport entertainment.<\/p>\n

Smackdown Live Tag Team Championship: <\/i>The Usos (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The build up for this match has been nothing more than stellar. The Usos<\/strong> establishing themselves as the dominate tag team since getting back the titles at Hell in a Cell 2017<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/i>New Day<\/strong> returning back into the championship picture to reignite their championship aspirations and rivalry against The Usos, and last but not least Luke\u00a0<\/strong>Harper<\/strong> and Erick\u00a0<\/strong>Rowan,<\/strong> aka The Bludgeon Brothers,<\/strong> returning with a new repackaged and more vicious style. Since their repackaging, The Bludgeon Brothers made it clear that they are a true force of the Smackdown Live<\/strong><\/em> tag division. These three teams are truly the best main roster teams (not name The Bar<\/strong>) that the WWE has to offer and they have the opportunity to take the New Orleans crowd for a fast paced and wicked ride.<\/p>\n

Winner: The Bludgeon Brothers<\/em><\/p>\n

The build up for the Bludgeon Brothers has been slow but stellar and it makes a lot of sense. Dominance and strength has been their greatest asset that the writers have given to them and they\u2019ve been protected pretty well since their repackaging and it shouldn\u2019t change. The only other option there is potentially seeing The Usos retain by pinning a New Day member, protecting The Bludgeon Brothers and giving The Uso\u2019s a clear rivalry post-WrestleMania. However, with the way that Harper and Rowan have been performing, on paper it makes the most sense to give the titles to them.<\/p>\n

WWE Raw Women\u2019s Championship<\/i>: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Truthfully, this match shouldn\u2019t be any longer than five to seven minutes. With the way that this match has been built, this is really about establishing Nia Jax as this dominant force via a squash match against the champion. Nia had been emotionally pushed to her brink, verbally embarrassed by Alexa Bliss and Mickie James (pot calling the kettle black in Mickie\u2019s case) about her weight and despite it makes for a good rivalry, it\u2019s in bad taste. Nonetheless, this is all about Nia getting her comeuppance against the champion and finally getting her chance at the championship (and winning), as well as having the fans on her side (which its working). Truthfully, there has been so many opportunities for Nia to win the Raw Women\u2019s championship and the WWE writers hadn\u2019t capitalized on those opportunities, however, it makes the most sense at this point and juncture for Nia to win.<\/p>\n

Winner: Nia Jax<\/em><\/p>\n

WWE United States Championship: <\/i>Randy Orton (c) vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Rusev<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s a brief tidbit for you all, in championship matches at WrestleMania, Randy Orton is 2-3 (notable wins at WM 24 & 33 and notable losses at WM 22, 25 & 30). The United States Championship will be defended on the main WrestleMania card for the fifth time and the title has changed hands four times. The only time that the title hadn\u2019t changed hands was in WrestleMania 23<\/strong><\/em> when Chris Benoit successfully defended the championship against Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). WrestleMania 20 & 31 saw John Cena defeat Big Show and Rusev respectively, WrestleMania 22 saw JBL defeat Chris Benoit and Kevin Owens defeat Chris Jericho last year at WrestleMania 33 and truthfully, it should be no different. This match makes a lot of sense for the championship to change hands and it should go to Rusev<\/strong>. Rusev should leave New Orleans as champion because he has proven to be a financial asset to the WWE. From his \u201cHappy Rusev Day\u201d T-Shirt to his calendar, \u201cRusev Day\u201d is easily the most over chant in the WWE, to the point where Ring of Honor fans were chanting Rusev day at a ROH event. On paper, this is Rusev\u2019s moment to shine on the grandest stage and imagine how amazing would it be to have a crowd of 70,000 people chanting Rusev Day.<\/p>\n

Winner: Rusev<\/em><\/p>\n

WWE Intercontinental Championship:<\/i> The Miz (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This match right here is an odd spot to an extent. On paper, it seems that this match is either The Miz<\/strong> or Finn Balor<\/strong>\u2019s to win. It has been rumored that Reigns\u2019 first rivalry post-Brock Lesnar would be against Seth Rollin<\/strong>s for the Universal Championship, so Rollins winning the Intercontinental Champion makes little sense. Finn Balor has been in limbo since returning from shoulder injury post-WrestleMania last year – from the inaugural WWE Universal Champion to many questionable feuds, Balor has been in a weird spot. However, since it is WrestleMania, we are most likely to see \u201cThe Demon King\u201d make his WrestleMania debut, a gimmick that the WWE writers have been protecting since his main roster debut since he\u2019s yet to lose a match under that gimmick. The Miz has been a great Intercontinental Champion – he\u2019s been the driving force for a lack of world champion for the Raw brand and has taken the ball and kept it rolling. However, with the WWE draft rumored to happen at Backlash<\/strong><\/em>, it makes the most sense for Miz to move forward and go onward to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n

Winner: Finn Balor<\/em><\/p>\n

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship: <\/i>The Bar (c) vs. Braun Strowman & ???<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Braun Strowman,<\/strong> angry that he didn\u2019t have a match for WrestleMania, decided to take things into his own hands by defeating the Raw tag teams in a battle royal. Despite doing this on his own, General Manager Kurt Angle<\/strong> insisted that Strowman get a partner. But with WrestleMania lurking, no clear announcement has been made about Strowman\u2019s partner. Since winning the tag titles back from Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan, The Bar haven\u2019t been challenged by any means and it\u2019s been a far cry from a solid 2016\/2017 Sheamus and Cesaro had. From defeating the likes of The Hardys, Ambrose\/Rollins, Rollins\/Jordan & Titus Worldwide, The Bar\u2019s current reign has been very underwhelming. As for Strowman, there have been plenty of rumors on who is going to be the mystery partner. From the likes of a returning Neville or Rey Mysterio to even long time foe Big Show, there are endless possibilities and it all ends with Strowman winning his first championship as a member of the main roster<\/p>\n

Winner: Braun Strowman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WrestleMania returns to Mercedes Benz Superdome with one of the most stacked cards in WrestleMania history. The\u00a0WrestleMania 34 main card right now on paper looks to have at least six to seven matches that could very well steal the show if given the right amount of time. WrestleMania for WWE fans is the equivalent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2484,"featured_media":16976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[168,1831,120,111,730,390,602,58,202,76,55,1397,1435,47],"class_list":["post-16982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-alexa-bliss","tag-bludgeon-brothers","tag-bobby-roode","tag-finn-balor","tag-jinder-mahal","tag-new-day","tag-nia-jax","tag-randy-orton","tag-rusev","tag-seth-rollins","tag-the-miz","tag-usos","tag-wrestlemania-34","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}