We’ve got another event coming up, so that means it’s time to give our predictions for who we think will end up being the superstars who will garner the most spotlight on the show. With Extreme Rules 2016, this is going to be a much more relaxed situation than what is coming up with Money in the Bank and what recently passed with WrestleMania and even Payback to a certain extent, but that doesn’t mean the wins and losses are completely irrelevant.
Who do I think will stand out in terms of storyline development, performance, victories and so on? Let’s take a look…
The Club
While the WWE World Heavyweight Championship will remain in the possession of Roman Reigns by the end of the night, the bulk of the story for that whole segment is going to be featuring AJ Styles and his alignment with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.
What happens with The Club is a bigger story in many ways than the prospect of a title retention itself, as most people probably just assume every possible scenario ends with Reigns winning somehow. This could happen as a result of him just gutting through and pulling out a victory, or The Usos evening the odds, but I’m suspicious that there might be a split where AJ Styles ends his partnership with his friends.
Whatever goes down, the bigger story being talked about isn’t going to be where Roman Reigns goes next, but what Styles, Gallows and Anderson will be up to.
The New Day
Try as they might, I don’t think The Vaudevillains have much of a shot at winning the WWE Tag Team Championship. The New Day are still the hottest team going and it doesn’t make much sense to put the belts on an act that is still working toward getting over with the main roster audience that isn’t too familiar with them from their NXT days.
Plus, it seems like too much of an obvious path ahead for The New Day to drop those belts to the aforementioned Club just for Simon Gotch and Aiden English to throw a curveball, right? I’m expecting The New Day to retain and to have some kind of a promo ahead of time that is one of the more entertaining parts of the show as well.
The Miz and Maryse
With Money in the Bank coming up as the next pay-per-view on the schedule, I truly feel that the best case scenario for WWE is to put the briefcase in the hands of Kevin Owens, rather than having him stick around the Intercontinental Championship scene.
If that is indeed true, then he can be ruled out for winning the title in this match, and given the three other competitors left over, I put more faith in The Miz sneaking out of there with a win than for Cesaro or Sami Zayn to be the new champions just yet. The title was just tossed around between Zack Ryder and The Miz, so it would just be too soon to do that again. Next month, maybe, but for now, WWE should keep the gold where it is.
Charlotte
Good God, I do not care about this match whatsoever, but that doesn’t mean I can invalidate the segment based on such a biased opinion. The Women’s Championship is still struggling to achieve the level of credibility that it was promised (which is the same as the entire Divas/Women’s Revolution that’s been going on for months with hills and valleys) but despite all the glitches here and there, it’s a guarantee that Charlotte is going to be walking out of Extreme Rules as a featured player.
There’s no way WWE has invested this much into her just to have her drop the belt to Natalya of all people, particularly in a Submission Match where she’ll look considerably weak as she can’t rely on Ric Flair to help her. That would cement her as being a champion not worthy of the status WWE wishes to paint her as being, because although she’s a heel who cheats to win, she’s not meant to look like a complete chump.
Charlotte’s keeping that title until SummerSlam where she can drop it to Sasha Banks. Extreme Rules is just another win on the road to that future loss in New York.
Dean Ambrose
The smart money is always to bet on the guy who will be sticking around rather than the one who is going to be leaving for a little while, particularly when the match is named after him. Chris Jericho has been active for a longer stretch than I had imagined he would be, but we all know that it will eventually come to another hiatus. Meanwhile, Dean Ambrose is one of the most popular stars in the company and beating Y2J does nothing but help his standing on the roster.
With some big names scheduled to come back soon, Ambrose will need that extra boost to keep him afloat, or WWE will be making the same mistake they’ve done in the past where they push him aside (for God knows what reason) while making him come up just short of a victory over and over again. Not at Extreme Rules, please? Give The Lunatic Fringe another celebration…and a new plant.
What do you think of this list? Should the opposite opponents be given these spots instead? Who is missing that should be added? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!
