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We’re still in shock over HHH’s turn on his former chosen one, Seth Rollins. Hunter has seemingly put all his eggs into one basket with the 1st ever RAW Universal Champion, Kevin Owens.
Come September 25, RAW will take center stage with its new brand specific showcase – WWE Clash of Champions. Kevin Owens will defend his newly won championship for the first time ever against Seth Rollins, who’s clearly out for revenge. Owens’ best friend, Chris Jericho, will take on Owens’ former best friend Sami Zayn in a grudge match, plus we’re getting two big title rematches from SummerSlam 2016. WWE Clash of Champions 2016 will present a card full of championship matches and some shocking victories we’re looking to predict right here.
Here’s our preview of RAW’s return to branded PPV’s.
Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax
Predictions & Winner: C’mon guys…you and everyone else knows how this is going to go. “Crazy Fox” got treated like a dusty mat two weeks ago by the intimidating Nia Jax. While we can see Fox getting in more offense and actually putting on a halfway competitive match this time, the end result won’t be shocking whatsoever. Nia will get her hands on Fox after a spirited sequence of moves from her rival, then proceed to smash her and keep her RAW winning streak intact. This won’t be a total squash, but Jax is clearly getting the victory here.
Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho
Predictions & Winner: Jericho has been of fire lately. He’s entertained us over the past few months thanks to his association with Owens, “it” and his penchant for calling everyone a stupid idiot. He’s been extra savage lately; Jericho decked Sami Zayn right in the noggin with a smartphone during a very heated discussion. Because of that, Zayn is ready to tear into Y2J for his sneak attack. We’re betting this will be the opener of the show, which will turn out to be one of the better one-on-one matches of the entire event. Jericho is still at the top of his game and Zayn is always capable of putting on exciting bouts with quality opponents. Zayn looks to be climbing a bit higher on the totem pole towards a midcard championship run, so we envision him getting a crucial win over Jericho and moving further towards his first main show title run.
Charlotte (c) (with Dana Brooke) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley (Triple Threat Match for the WWE Women’s Championship)
Predictions & Winner: Sasha Banks makes us nervous every time we see her dive through the middle of those ropes to the floor. She throws caution to the wind and puts her all into coming out as the winner. She never comes out unscathed, though. Banks’ recklessness worked against her during her Women’s Championship bout against Charlotte at SummerSlam 2016. We figured she’d be out for a while longer due to injury, but she surprised us all by coming back and getting a rematch against the woman who defeated her once before. Only thing that she has to worry about now is the addition of her biggest NXT rival, Bayley, to the match’s proceedings. We’ve had the pleasure of watching all three of these pros put on some incredible matches on NXT and that will be the case here. They say it’s way more exciting to watch the challenger chase the title, which is a train of thought we envision WWE sticking to here. Charlotte will sneak away with the win here after an awesome Women’s Championship encounter, but this war won’t conclude here. We can see Bayley getting her one-on-one match at the next PPV and Banks splintering off into a feud with Nia Jax.
Cesaro vs. Sheamus (Seventh Match in a Best of Seven Series)
Predictions & Winner: We really expected more from this series of matches between Cesaro and Sheamus. They both get into stiff striking contests on the regular, which is an element of their matches that’s been brought to this new feud. But every one of their meetings has just been a plain ol’ singles match with no type of fresh stipulation put on it to make it a tad bit different. The matches aren’t terrible, but they’ve just been…meh. Tied at three victories apiece, both men will take on each other in a final match and determine the ultimate victor of this whole series. Our gut instinct is going with the “Swiss Superman” on this one. He just seems a lot more likely to take advantage of his rumored newly won title shot and put on a much better championship match than Sheamus. Cesaro wins and we’re betting he gets a shot at the WWE Universal Championship on a future episode of RAW. We hope those rumors of him leaving WWE this year are so, so untrue…
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T.J. Perkins (c) vs. Brian Kendrick (WWE Cruiserweight Championship)
Predictions & Winner: The Cruiserweight Classic has to go down in the books as one of the best wrestling tournaments ever. We get a kick out of watching ROH’s Survival of the Fittest, NJPW’s G1 Climax and PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles annual tournament gatherings. But we’re extra pleased to see that the CWC became a focal point of WWE programming in tourney form. The winner of the entire event and RAW’s Cruiserweight Champion T.J. Perkins is a hot commodity on the main roster. But his main adversary in this match is a veteran who’s still got some sneaky tricks up his sleeve. This one will be fast paced and just as jaw dropping as the other bouts we were witness to during the CWC. TJP just captured the title though, which means it’s unlikely that he’ll drop the title so soon. TJP FTW!
Rusev (c) (with Lana) vs. Roman Reigns (WWE United States Championship)
Predictions & Winner: Rusev has every reason in the world to crush Reigns, in our opinion. Roman has gone out of his way to embarrass Lana (Rusev’s wife), which is an act that has made Rusev sympathetic in our eyes. Can you really fault the Russian bruiser for fighting for his wife’s honor? Anyways, Reigns and Rusev are finally going to have that US Championship match they were supposed to have at SummerSlam 2016 (we all know how that came to a close). We’re expecting a pretty brutal affair between these two brawlers. The end result? Somehow, someway, Rusev will cause Reigns to fall unconscious to his Accolade submission hold. That’s right, you heard us correctly: our money’s on Rusev doing the unthinkable by successfully defending his US Title. We can totally see WWE defying our expectations for this match’s victor and completely swerving us all with a Rusev win.
The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/or Xavier Woods) (c) vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (WWE RAW Tag Team Championship)
Predictions & Winners: Sigh…so we were huge fans of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson during their reigns as tag champs in NJPW. So far, their WWE run has been less than impressive. That whole “Old Day” segment and the “ringpostitus” gimmick hasn’t really entertained us in the slightest. Their beef with The New Day has turned into one of the more disappointingly horrid feuds of 2016. We’re ready to see this whole thing come to a close at Clash of Champions, but we don’t envision that happening due to the results we’re predicting here: Gallows and Anderson are leaving this PPV with RAW’s Tag Team Championship due to nefarious means. Which means this feud will probably continue since The New Day are gonna want to get those titles back ASAP. Sign once again…
Kevin Owens (c) vs. Seth Rollins (WWE Universal Champion)
Predictions & Winner: Rollins looks like he’s veering more and more towards a face run. And he has the perfect reason to do so since HHH turned on him and cost him his chance at becoming WWE Universal Champion. We’re all in for a big face run by Rollins since it involves him standing across from RAW’s biggest heel, Kevin Owens. Owens has the support of HHH and that’s why he managed to walk away with RAW’s top prize. Rollins is on the road to redemption and revenge, which means it’ll pit him against Hunter’s new chosen one. This main event will end up being the match of the night, for sure. But we expect to see some shenanigans take place. We can totally see Hunter showing up again and looking to cost Rollins the win. However, Rollins will fend off Hunter to the delight of the crowd. But this will cost him in the end. Owens will take advantage of Rollins’ change in focus and pull away from this match with his championship intact. Rollins will fly into a fit of rage, which we ultimately see culminating in a match against HHH at WrestleMania 33. We can totally see Owens taking on Rollins again at some point before this goes down, though.
