Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of FANTASY BOOKING where we discuss what we would do if we were given the power to control what happens when it comes to WWE Creative and the planning of events.

It's that time of the year when we set our sights on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania.

We're only a few weeks away from WrestleMania 35 and the card is getting very crowded with each passing show, but it may not be shaping up the way you specifically would have preferred. If you were in the position to change things, how would this event go down?

What would you do if you were in charge of creative control over picking the matches scheduled for the biggest event of the year?


The Rules:

1) The earliest time frame you can begin planning from as a reference point is the day of last year's WrestleMania. You may change the outcomes on that show, but you cannot change the actual matches that were booked for that card.

2) You need to justify your choices within a reasonable mindset of what WWE has in store. Just because someone is a favorite of yours does not mean WWE would be pushing them to the title in any realistic fashion.

3) You cannot include people who are not a member of the roster, whether they are retired, working for another company, or obviously deceased. You can, however, work under the assumption that injured stars might possibly return in time for certain events (if it is within reason).

4) Be realistic when it comes to bringing up NXT stars to the main roster. WWE never brings up 30 people in a year, so don't flood the market.

5) The brand split cannot be undone.

6) Time constraints need to be taken into consideration. This cannot be a 14 hour show.


Note: I'm going back to WrestleMania 34 and I'm making some adjustments with the theory in mind that Roman Reigns is fine, the leukemia thing is kept unknown, certain injuries are avoidable and so on. I'm also honestly not putting as much effort into it this year, as I feel like there are too many factors to try to work in from a year-long standpoint. I had considered forcing myself to stick to just the 2019 Royal Rumble and onward, but even that has so many variables that I figured "screw it" and just had some fun with what I feel I would have done back the day of WrestleMania last year with some hindsight and some foresight.


I'm making a drastic change to the way this goes down. Instead of a two-hour kickoff, I'm making this ONE hour to get rid of absolutely everything that is on the promotional side of things. One 60-minute chunk of time dedicated to promos, recaps, panel analysis, video packages, and so forth.

Then, that other hour is going to be part of the official show. That way, people don't miss matches because they think the kickoff is pointless, they just skip the pre-show itself. Now you might be thinking "but what about reminding people of the feuds?"

Tough shit. Nobody needs to watch 10 minutes of the same footage we've already seen. These storylines aren't that complex. And if you haven't been watching Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live, well, this is your incentive to tune in every week. Maybe you wouldn't be lost if you had watched WWE programming. Ask your friends for the information you need. We don't need casuals tuning in for WrestleMania and no other show in the year, we need people wanting to watch everything.


Wendi Richter (Memorial) Women's Battle Royal

Start the show off with a battle royal, because it's interesting. Ideally, I'd like to see this be named the Wendi Richter Battle Royal and have Cyndi Lauper go into the Hall of Fame since it's in the New York area. Then, when Richter passes away, it becomes the Wendi Richter Memorial Battle Royal.

Competitors in this match include, but aren't limited to: Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox, Billie Kay, Carmella, Dana Brooke, Ember Moon, Lacey Evans, Lana, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Mickie James, Naomi, Natalya, Nia Jax, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Sonya Deville, Tamina, Zelina Vega

I would make sure to include some names from NXT and NXT UK. Most likely, those names would be Toni Storm, Mia Yim, Jinny, Kacy Catanzaro, Rhea Ripley and maybe Shayna Baszler. I say maybe, because I have two theories behind how I'd book this.

One would be that Alexa Bliss wins. She's important and she deserves a victory. However, the other would be that Baszler would win it if they wanted to really give her a big boost going forward that would come into play later on.

Cruiserweight Championship Match: Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Chad Gable or Rey Mysterio

To counteract the chaos of a battle royal, I would follow it up with a fast-paced cruiserweight title match.

Buddy Murphy as champion makes sense. Cool. Totally down for it. As far as his opponent, there are two options. If Rey Mysterio is willing to go down to the 205 Live brand to make people tune in, you have to go with him. However, WWE might think that that's not utilizing Mysterio to this best of his popularity and would rather him be an upper-midcarder and main-eventer on Raw or SmackDown. In that case, you go with Chad Gable, who is super underrated and overlooked.

The title changes hands no matter who Murphy's opponent is.

Intercontinental Championship Fatal 4-Way Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens

Lashley is a heel. So is McIntyre. Not much different on their ends, nor on the babyface ends of Balor and Owens. I kind of dig Owens as a babyface for something new, even though I guess I would have been hesitant to turn him, given the creative control. Hindsight.

Lashley retains the title here by beating Balor, but everyone is booked to look good. You just had a babyface victory in the cruiserweight match, so booo for this one.

Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Authors of Pain (c) vs. The Revival

Akam and Rezar would have beaten The Shield to win the titles and had run through the Raw roster, which would have been much better booked in 2018 than the garbage we had with all those throwaway joke teams like The B-Team, The Deleters of Worlds and so forth.

The Revival would have turned face and would be heading into WrestleMania as the fan favorites. They'd also likely capture the titles here in a triumphant moment.


Buffer Segment

I don't know what this would be. Maybe something with Elias and Honky Tonk Man. The point is, after four matches, people would need a bathroom break and we're giving them one.

Women's Tag Team Championship Match: The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (c) vs. Trish Stratus and Lita

Tag titles get created. Bayley and Sasha Banks win them. Blah blah. They fight Trish and Lita. Banks and Bayley retain the titles. Everyone hugs when Bayley suggests it. Later in the year, Bayley and Banks will fight The Divas of Doom and The Bella Twins among the teams that are already on the roster.

United States Championship Four Corners Elimination Match: AJ Styles vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas vs. Mustafa Ali / Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton

If Rey Mysterio is in the cruiserweight title match, then Mustafa Ali is in this match. If Mysterio's not a member of 205 Live roster, then he's in this and Ali gets sadly bumped to the next match.

Seeing as this is an elimination match and not constituted a Fatal 4-Way, I'd book the finals of it to be Styles against Orton. I don't know who I'd have be the champion going into this match, but I think I'd lean toward Styles walking out with the championship so he could lose it to Almas (and yes, he's not just "Andrade", he retains his full name).

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Now that we've had several matches since the previous battle royal, we can have another. Amazing how much more this will mean when it's not on a kickoff. Also, I'd probably have both battle royals have a built-in title shot opportunity.

Participants of this match include, but aren't limited to: Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode, Bray Wyatt, Chad Gable (if not in the other match), Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, Elias, Erick Rowan, Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, Lars Sullivan, Luke Harper, Mojo Rawley, Mustafa Ali (if not in the other match), No Way Jose, R-Truth, Rhyno, SAnitY, Shelton Benjamin, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sin Cara, The Ascension, The Bar, The Colons, The Fashion Police, The Good Brothers, The Singh Brothers, Titus O'Neil

I'd also like to incorporate some NXT and NXT UK people, perhaps Keith Lee, Kassius Ohno (definitely, he may never get a chance to wrestle at WrestleMania otherwise and I'd like to see him brought up as the third member of The Bar) and Dave Mastiff.

As far as storylines heading into this, I'd want Bobby Roode to be a heel and want to win it and rename it the Glorious Battle Royal. Someone like Apollo Crews would make it a point that this is how he puts himself back on the right track for his career. A guy like Nakamura wants to test himself with lots of competition. SAnitY likes the chaos of a battle royal. Rawley wants to be the first two-time winner and so does Corbin.

When it comes to who is victorious, I honestly don't know who I'd pick as it would depend on plans for the Superstar Shake-up, but I'd probably lean toward Lars Sullivan with Curt Hawkins being the runner-up.


SmackDown Women's Championship Match: Asuka (c) vs. Becky Lynch

Let's bring it down a notch from the messy battle royal and go with some singles action.

Asuka would be the heel in this match, having gone on a tear. Becky Lynch's whole "The Man" persona is something I never would have imagined would have taken off the way it did, so no, I don't have the foresight to have booked her in the Ronda Rousey match a year in advance. That is your explanation why she's not in that later on.

Instead, this would be about Becky being the person that Asuka hasn't tested herself against. I think Asuka should have won the title from Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34 and kept it this entire time, and oddly enough never had a singles match with Becky along the way. She would have been a babyface for the first few months of her reign and then had gotten cockier and cockier, eventually beating Ember Moon (who would be on SmackDown) at Survivor Series, Naomi at Royal Rumble and now, she's up against Becky.

And she loses. Becky wins the title and all is well...but there's a threat lingering...

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Ladder Match: The Hardy Boyz (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Usos

The Hardy Boyz are nearing the end of their careers and they want to relive their glory days. In their minds, since they can't have a match with Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boyz, the next best teams on their scale are The New Day and The Usos.

Just let these guys do their thing. The Hardy Boyz likely retain the titles. You don't want too many title changes happening.

Universal Championship Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Braun Strowman

I would be so, so tempted to make this a No Holds Barred match or a Street Fight or something, but I think that would be best saved for the rematch once Strowman wins the title here. There's already enough No DQ action on this card.

Roman Reigns would have beaten Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania last year. Then, he would have dropped the title to Samoa Joe around SummerSlam. Over the course of the months to follow, Joe would have done everything he could to avoid having a match with Strowman, going so far as to injure him at some point when it seemed like he couldn't avoid it anymore. Joe would have even interfered in the Royal Rumble to screw Strowman out of it.

But Strowman would win the Elimination Chamber and in this match, he'd win the title. They'd have a rematch at the next event that would be No DQ, like I said, and Strowman would retain. At some point in 2019, The Monster Among Men would lose the title to McIntyre, but not until he had already beaten a few other people like Lashley and Sullivan.


Hall of Fame Parade

This gives fans a chance to run to the bathroom again. Everyone smiles and waves. Standard protocol.

Triple Threat Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

This one is tricky. Obviously, back at WrestleMania 34, I wouldn't have known about the leukemia. I'm so glad that Reigns is finally getting cheered, but I'm booking this as if that wasn't a factor. I would have been tempted to make Reigns the heel here, with Ambrose the tweener and Rollins the babyface.

Alternatively, I'll go with Rollins as the babyface, Ambrose as the heel and Reigns as the tweener in the sense that if the leukemia announcement had not happened, people would still be booing a babyface Reigns, so he'd be tweener by default.

This would be a hardcore match, of course. I don't know who I'd book as the winner. Probably Reigns.

Three Possible Options....

So here's the thing. It seems like WWE had it planned to do Batista vs. Triple H from a while back. If I couldn't get out of that, then sure, go ahead and do it, but I'm not the biggest fan of that match. We've seen it before multiple times and it happened at WrestleMania, and I just don't think it should happen at all, let alone take up a spot on the card that could go to something else.

Alternatively, if Kurt Angle absolutely must retire this year (and I don't think that that would necessarily have to be the case, as he could retire at WrestleMania 36), then his retirement match goes here, likely against John Cena.

Alternatively to both of those, though, if I could get around doing both of them, I'd like to do something called The John Cena Invitational. Basically, this could be a piggyback off what happened last year with The Undertaker, wherein Cena would say he wants a match and he wants someone to step up. We wouldn't know who the challenger would be until WrestleMania itself. Who would take him on? Ideally, I'd like for it to be someone from NXT, and my vote would go to either EC3 or Velveteen Dream. Either of them would be firmly in NXT at the time and not bouncing around the main roster on Main Event like what EC3 is doing. Either man would win, and Cena would be basically doing the job just to put over someone who could be a big star going forward.


WWE Championship Match: The Miz (c) vs. Daniel Bryan

As much as The New Daniel Bryan can be a fun change of pace and The Miz as a babyface has worked surprisingly well, I wouldn't have taken those paths. I would have gone with the simple story of Daniel Bryan winning the WWE Championship before being screwed out of it by The Miz, who would cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase. Then, Bryan would win the Royal Rumble and the title here.

Raw Women's Championship Match: Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Charlotte Flair

Rousey enters this match as the heel. During the match via shenanigans, Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke try to help out Rousey, but Becky Lynch, Bayley and Sasha Banks manage to make the save. The match is turned into a somewhat impromptu lumberjack match with the two sets of trios on the outside keeping people in check.

Flair wins the title and at the end of the night, The Four Horsewomen of WWE stand tall in the ring with all of the championships they have to offer. Later, possibly at SummerSlam, there's an actual 4 vs. 4 match between these two groups. Most likely, Baszler defeats either Flair or Lynch to win one of their titles during the year, probably Flair, while Rousey probably beats Lynch, and Shafir and Duke probably beat Bayley and Banks, but I'm not sure when/how all that goes down. The point of this is to have the four women responsible for this current mindset of women's wrestling in WWE celebrating together at the end of the night.