Singles Match Match: John Cena vs. The Miz: This is a very important match for The Miz. Creative has done a fantastic job of building the feud between Cena and the former reality star, and their promos have been some of the best the two respective talents have cut in quite a long time, so it’s important that The Miz rival the level he’s risen to on the mic with a solid outing in the ring. I think these two will have a good wrestling match, as it seems obvious they work well together, but something tells me WWE is going to make a very big mistake and put Cena over clean and in a redundant, Superman-like fashion. If creative has plans to put any stock into The Miz as a top player on Raw, they have to allow him to appear as a credible threat to other top guys, and in this instance, John Cena. If they book him to look like he’s all talk, and we end up seeing a glorified squash match on PPV, then in essence WWE will be self-sabotaging themselves because there’s a lot of potential in The Miz right now. In the end, I think The Miz should win this match. It doesn’t have to be a clean win, as I understand he is the heel and the point is to make him look weaker than Cena, but he needs to hold his own in the ring, look good, and somehow come out on top. Prediction: The Miz
Women’s Title Match: Melina (c) vs. Michelle McCool: This might be the first good Diva’s match we will see on PPV in a long time. These two should work well together and hopefully this is just the beginning of their feud. Realistically it has to be considering there is no other Diva (besides Gail Kim, who is a face and is being punished for working in TNA) on the Smackdown roster that can compete against Melina and give her an actual run for her money. I’ve said it before, the entire Divas division is in a stale place in WWE right now, but hopefully a good match between these two on PPV will convince Mr. McMahon that there is potential with the Divas, and that booking solid matches amongst the women who can work is the best thing to do on a weekly basis. Prediction: Melina
Unified Tag-Title Match: Carlito & Primo Colon (c) vs. Legacy: This is a match that has the potential to be great from an in-ring standpoint, but unfortunately has suffered from a severe lack of hype. It almost seems like creative books two different forms of Legacy on TV. There’s the Legacy that accompanies Randy Orton, and then there’s the Legacy that competes as a tag team. The latter is apparently an invisible entity. But having said that, the team I really fear for in this bout is The Colons. I say this because although I think Legacy is overlooked as a tag team, I’m betting they will definitely go over this Sunday, win the tag titles, and then the question becomes, “what happens to The Colons?” Primo and Carlito are a hell of a tag team, but Carlito has been used sparingly for years now, and Primo isn’t faring much better. I hope I’m wrong here, but I could see The Colons disappearing for quite sometime if they lose to Legacy this Sunday night. They might end up becoming part of the job squad on Monday Night Raw, assuming they don’t become card carrying members of the “future endeavored” club first. Prediction: Legacy
The Great Khali vs Dolph Ziggler in a No-DQ Match: Although this is really the one sleeper match on the PPV, I do think WWE needs to smarten up with how they’re booking Dolph Ziggler because he’s very talented and shouldn’t be wasted as he is on Smackdown right now. The No-DQ stipulation obviously favors Khali here so that Ziggler can’t cheat somehow to get a fluke win over the big man, but I’d like to see WWE get creative and allow Dolph to use the No-DQ stip to his advantage. Might be interesting, and a good way to elevate a wrestler who is in dire need of a smart push. Prediction: The Great Khali
I-C Title vs. Rey’s Mask: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Rey Mysterio: Here’s the one thing I don’t like about this program: Rey has been mask-less before. I understand that WWE does not acknowledge history if it’s not their own, but for wrestling fans who have been around the block, we know that Rey spent quite a long time without a mask during his WCW days. Back then, the move was made to take the mask off Rey so that he could connect more with the fans as they would be able to see his face, and I have to say that might be the motive for the angle in WWE right now, but, it might also not be a very good business move. If Rey loses this match and his mask, then thousands of children might stop buying them and wearing them to live events. Who knows, maybe they’ll keep buying them in some type of protest, but then again it does seem kind of silly to wear a mask of a man who doesn’t wear one himself. In the end, I think that Chris Jericho needs to lose the IC Title and step back into the Heavyweight Title picture, and that might just happen this Sunday night at “The Bash.” So I’m going out on a limb with this one: Prediction: Rey Mysterio
Scramble Match for The ECW Title: Tommy Dreamer (c) vs. Christian vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry vs. Finlay: Here’s why I am really looking forward to this match: ECW is going to get at least 20 minutes of representation on a WWE PPV! This is big news for the “C-” show, as it’s a consistently fun show to watch yet is also the most consistently under booked when the three WWE brands combine. While I’m not a huge fan of the scramble match itself, the wrestlers in the bout should make it fun and suspenseful. If any cynic who thought Dreamer wouldn’t last very long as The Champ is a betting cynic, then I’d say this is the time to put your money down on someone like Swagger or Christian. The scramble match, much like a triple threat or a fatal four-way, has a built in way for the champion to lose the title but not necessarily the match. So if WWE wants to take the belt from Dreamer, they can do so while still making him look like a champion that went out on somewhat of a winning note. And that’s exactly what I think is going to happen. Prediction: Jack Swagger
World Heavyweight Title Match: CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy: I think it’s fair to say at this point that neither WWE nor Jeff Hardy has any idea what the future holds for the two sides as business partners. I think Jeff’s taking it day by day, and WWE is doing all they can to use every bit of Jeff’s drawing power in the event that he decides he’s not going to re-sign with the company. But while they are booking him at the top right now to get the draws from him, they are most likely very concerned that he will not be sticking around when his contract expires, so I don’t think they will give him the title. At this point, according to Hardy’s Twitter account, his contract has merely a few weeks left on it, so a title run would be pretty meaningless as he’d have to drop it again very shortly. Of course WWE is not above a hot shot title switch as proven by the Batista/Orton situation a few weeks back, and there is a possibility management will decide to give Hardy the belt at the PPV and then punish him for leaving the company by losing it a few weeks later in a humiliating way. But, I think all of that would come at the expense of CM Punk’s momentum, and that’s something I’m sure WWE is looking to protect right now, especially considering the Jeff Hardy situation. Prediction: CM Punk
Three Stages Of Hell Match for The WWE Title – First Fall is a Singles Match, Second Fall is a Falls Count Anywhere Match, and the Third Fall, if necessary, will be a Stretcher Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H: I didn’t think WWE would be able to book a better match between Orton and HHH just 6 days after their great Last Man Standing Match on Raw this past week, but I think they’ve put something together that has a lot of potential to keep fans interested in the bout and provide a more intense contest than the one we saw this past Monday night. I’ve always liked the 3 Stages of Hell concept, although its predictability lies in the idea that we know the match will get to the third fall as that’s the one everyone always wants to see the most of the three. I don’t quite mind that though, as the contest should be very physical and we know that both wrestlers will put everything they have on the line. It’s still way too early to put the title around the waist of Triple H, and more over it’s too early to take the title off the waist of Orton, and something tells me WWE knows this. So I’m going to say that even though the odds favor Triple H here because he didn’t win the title this past Monday night, WWE is going to put Orton over so that the feud can continue between both guys. Even though people want to see Orton vs HHH come to an end, I think WWE fears that with Batista going down with an injury, their only sure bet right now in terms of main events is the continuation of Trips vs Orton. Prediction: Randy Orton
In conclusion I have to say that ultimately I am looking forward to this PPV, because despite its under promotion, there is only one match on the card (Khali vs Ziggler) that doesn’t look good on paper. The rest of the card, if booked and wrestled properly, has the potential to be a great in-ring wrestling event.
Thanks for reading, and as always be sure to send any and all feedback to VOWNick@gmail.com!
Make sure to visit WrestleZone.com on Sunday, June 28th for the best live play-by-play coverage of WWE’s “The Bash” pay-per view!
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
