12 Early Predictions For WWE WrestleMania 35
7. John Cena Vs. Samoa Joe
John Cena and Samoa Joe share a tenuous historical link; Joe, working towards this match on an Eyes On The Game appearance earlier this month, explained John Cena was hired on the basis of their all-greenhorn clash in UPW, a league once utilised on a feeder basis by WWE. Where Cena was signed and went on to become the biggest star in the industry, Joe - lacking the optimum physique - travelled a circuitous path to the same company.
If any performer in WWE can put this trivia over as motivation - even within the scripted confines of a WWE promo - it is Joe.
Using his natural menace and frightening bellow, he is more than capable of conveying to Cena that his very monstrosity was forged through a career-long pursuit of the man who only ever looked good surviving his raw onslaught. Refined as a combat athlete through a torturous experience of which Cena knows nothing, there can be no escape for Cena in New York. Joe is going to embarrass him in front of the same fans foolish enough to seal their own fate at WrestleMania XX.
The storyline writes itself.
Framing the endgame of his career as the end of John Cena's, the motivation behind WWE not signing Joe will, inevitably, manifest as a counterproductive fat joke, which ideally is only cracked to set-up a gruesome beat-down angle on the go-home SmackDown.
The match itself promises much, even by Cena's latter standards. Outmatched in terms of power, this is a new dynamic for the Face That Runs The Place - and a sorely-needed new opponent.