WWE WrestleMania 31: Biggest Unanswered Questions Going into Event

What WWE fans are unsure of leading up to WrestleMania 31 goes beyond winners and losers. Questions swirl around the event about the decisions the company has in front of it.

WWE may be about to change how the audience views the Intercontinental and United States Championships. It may have Undertaker follow up a 21-0 run at WrestleMania with a losing streak. The biggest, most pressing questions, though, center around Roman Reigns.

He's a lightning rod at the moment, a portion of the crowd throwing doubts and disdain his way. 

Fans don't know what to expect from Reigns at WrestleMania. WWE doesn't know what to expect from its fans regarding Reigns. The pay-per-view will allow us to watch a man run to the edge of a building and either watch him tumble to the ground or take off in the air like the superhero his supporters have always believed him capable of being.

Is WWE Serious About Restoring Its Midcard Championships?

Announcers have often inserted the word "prestigious" into the discussion of the U.S. and IC titles as of late. The men set to battle for the latter belt have spoken about its history, greatest champions and its future.

Is this all talk, or is WWE going to take the IC title more seriously?

It appears that the company is heading in the right direction with that strap. It has the beloved Daniel Bryan and highly popular Dean Ambrose challenging for it in a ladder match that many guess will steal the show. 

As for the U.S. gold, John Cena has a chance to win it. He would make one of the most high-profile champions to ever wear that crown. It's not often someone puts together a Hall of Fame career and then becomes U.S. champ. Usually, it's the other way around.

Match time will partly answer how intent WWE is on elevating these titles. Should Cena vs. Rusev and the IC Ladder match get a big cut of the pay-per-view, that's a positive sign.

Who wins those contests is key as well. Pinning the belts on Bryan and Cena would be an emphatic statement of WWE's intentions. Stardust coming out as the victor just won't have that same power.

What is Sting Capable of in the Ring?

Sting is 56 years old. He hasn't wrestled since January of 2014. He hasn't been in a classic match in years. 

Despite all that, he is one of the featured performers at WrestleMania, where he is set to make his WWE in-ring debut.

Credit: WWE.com

What kind of match can he and Triple H have exactly? What kind of shape is he in? How will he perform in this pressure-packed situation? Those are the questions that surround Sting's first WWE outing.

Uncertainty has even invaded Triple H's mind, who is 10 years younger than his WrestleMania opponent. Of what to expect in the upcoming match, The Game told Bleacher Report's Jonathan Snowden, "I don't know what I've got. I don't know that he knows what he's got. So, we're going to see. I guarantee you this, though—we will leave it all out there."

The two men will certainly attempt to craft greatness, but fans can't be sure if they are set to see something awkward instead. Sting, at this point in his career, is an uncertain commodity.

Will Undertaker Lose Again?

Bray Wyatt wants to be the only second man ever to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Whether WWE allows the storyline to unfold that way is a big question mark.

The creative team is in a no-win situation. If it scripts a win for Undertaker, Wyatt is hurt. He becomes another in a long line of victims rather than something special a la Brock Lesnar. This would make The Eater of Worlds 0-2 at WrestleMania, likely with no chance to have a rematch against Undertaker.

If Wyatt wins, though, it cheapens the accomplishment that was Lesnar ending the streak.

For now, Lesnar feels like an immortal among men. He is the only man in history to do what he did last year. A Wyatt victory doubles the "I beat Undertaker at WrestleMania" club. It would feel odd for The Deadman to be on a losing streak after that great run.

While it doesn't matter who wins some of WrestleMania's clashes (e.g. The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee and Paige), this decision will be a difficult one. Fans go into this WrestleMania more unsure about Undertaker's chances as they ever have been. 

Is Reigns Ready?

Reigns is a fantastic athlete with a great look. There's an electricity crackling around this emerging star, this member of the famed A'noai family. Is all that enough for him to be a headliner at this early stage of his career?

That has been the center of a debate that began when WWE had Reigns continue to tear his way up the company hierarchy, a debate that exploded after the Royal Rumble.

WWE is in search of its next megastar, someone to take John Cena's spot. Is that Reigns? The company has to have its fingers crossed, hoping that its projections of greatness are right.

Fans aplenty have doubted this move. And so has Steve Austin, saying on his podcast (h/t Ringside News), "If you're trying to earn the fans respect, you're really starting in the hole because people feel like he's being forced down their throats. He's not ready."

Count Bret Hart among those who disagree with Stone Cold. In an interview with Live Audio Wrestling (h/t WrestleZone.com), Hart said,  "I think Roman Reigns is ready and he is really good, I think he is a really great talent and has a lot of potential."

Which of these Hall of Famers is right and whether Reigns can ride that potential to become a bonafide main eventer is only half of what fans are wondering with regards to The Juggernaut.

How Will the Fans React to Reigns?

Boos rattled the arena at the Royal Rumble. Even having The Rock at his side couldn't stop the crowd from crapping on Reigns. 

Credit: WWE.com

WWE misjudged how much fans love Daniel Bryan and want to see him be WWE champ again. As a result, Reigns became the scapegoat, the symbol for WWE wanting to do things its way despite what the audience has told them.

Reigns may be entering the final bout at WrestleMania as a babyface, but there is no certainty that they aren't going to treat him like they did Sgt. Slaughter when he sided with Iraq.

Will folks root for Lesnar instead? Will having Bryan win the IC title pacify that fanbase enough that they don't hijack the main event?

WWE has to be nervous. It doesn't know the answers to those questions.

Bleacher Report's Dan Pecoraro asked Reigns about potentially getting booed and the powerhouse said it would produce mixed emotions:

It's not a certainty that the crowd rejects him, though. Reigns has been a hit in many a town. As Chris Jericho told Matt Fowler of IGN, "We did house shows in Calgary and Edmonton and it was like Beatlemania. They were going nuts for him."

On some editions of Raw, he gets a big positive response. On other nights, the fans openly reject him.

How the people who travel to WrestleMania react to Reigns, how he responds to that and how WWE adjusts the match to combat that is as intriguing a subplot as anything the WWE writing team could come up with.