Predicting Every WWE PPV 2017 Main Event After WrestleMania

Taking into account injuries, suspensions, drafts and new signings, it’s pretty much impossible to accurately predict WWE’s future match cards. Their booking might follow familiar patterns, but even the savviest of fans can’t claim to know exactly what the company’s creative teams are thinking at any given time.

But with a slew of new and returning PPVs currently being divvied up between RAW and Smackdown, it’s fun to speculate upon just how different the WWE landscape will look in nine months’ time. After all, if somebody had told you at the start of 2016 that AJ Styles would win the WWE Championship, Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair would headline Hell in a Cell, and RAW and Smackdown would once again be split into two individual brands, you’d probably have called them crazy.

With two varied and adaptable rosters at their disposal, and a host of eager call-ups just waiting to make their debut, endless possibilities await WWE, as the company looks ahead to the year’s remaining PPV cards.

Despite the fact that RAW also had the go-home WrestleMania PPV in Fastlane, the red brand will also host Payback this year, the blow-off show that’s supposed to set new feuds alight and tie up any Mania loose ends.

The post-WrestleMania RAW landscape will probably look something like this:

Finn Balor has returned and inserted himself on Seth Rollins’s side of the Triple H-Rollins feud. Triple H has begun amassing a faction of destroyers, and wants to recruit Balor, but Finn is moved by Seth’s heartfelt apology a few months back on RAW. Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar has beaten Goldberg for the WWE Universal title – it makes sense, given that Goldberg is unlikely to be a long term prospect in WWE, whereas Lesnar is more likely to draw larger crowds for longer, and generate longer, higher quality matches.

With that in mind, Payback’s main event will be Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. No, this isn’t the main event a lot of people will want, but it’s a logical step for WWE. Roman will have just had a match against the Undertaker at WrestleMania, and the Deadman serves as the perfect common denominator between Lesnar and Reigns. Perhaps Heyman continues to babble on about how the new champion broke Taker’s streak, only to be interrupted by Reigns, who is outraged by Brock’s lack of respect for The Undertaker, a man Roman has either just beaten, or fought to a valiant loss against.

At any rate, Roman Reigns is pretty much the only person on RAW’s roster (outside of maybe Braun Strowman) who could realistically go toe-to-toe with Brock Lesnar.