WWE WrestleMania 31 Matches: Best Possible Finish for Each Contest
The finish of any given match can be the difference between a major disappointment and an all-time great.
It can make stars or break them, immortalize the moment or lose it in the shuffle of every other match competed in by WWE Superstars and Divas.
When said finish occurs at WrestleMania, with the eyes of the wrestling world watching, the effectiveness of the ending becomes even more important.
Sunday night at The Showcase of the Immortals, the best and brightest performers will step into the squared circle hoping to grow their legacies with stellar WrestleMania performances, the likes of which will not only help them achieve greatness in the wake of the event but also etch their names into the history books.
A poor finish, a conclusion to a match that leaves the fans wanting more or, worse, groaning in disgust, can do irreparable damage to the quality of a match, story or character.
Want proof? Look no further than Bray Wyatt at last year's event and how poorly his defeat at the hands of John Cena was perceived and how far it set him back in the months that followed.
With The Showcase of the Immortals close at hand, take a look at the best finishes for each match on the monumental card.
Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship
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Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are two incredibly talented Superstars whose recent success in the tag team division has been a welcome sight for fans tired of seeing them so criminally misused by WWE Creative.
During this weekend's WrestleMania pre-show, they will defend their WWE Tag Team Championships against The Usos, Los Matadores and the New Day in a Fatal 4-Way match. The best finish would see the heels retain their gold over three babyface tandems.
A clean victory would help them gain momentum and further credibility as champions.
With WWE understandably wanting to keep The Usos strong, beating Fernando or Diego of Los Matadores would be the best finish for WWE Creative to book, especially when one takes into account just how inconsequential that team is in the grand scheme of things.
Kidd and Cesaro's title reign would be allowed the opportunity to continue, Jimmy and Jey Uso would lose nothing in defeat, and the one team who can withstand a defeat at this point would be sacrificed to put over the best workers in the contest.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
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The revelation that WWE has opted to move the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal to the pre-show suddenly has the contest meaning less than it did before. The decision has also left Ryback, Big Show, Mark Henry and Kane without spots on the main card, something that has to be incredibly difficult to those high-profile stars.
Regardless, the match was never hyped or promoted with the same sense of importance that last year's inaugural Battle Royal was, and there was a notable lack of excitement or anticipation for the match, likely due to the idea that it is little more than an excuse to get a bunch of guys on the card.
Ryback has been positioned as the favorite from the start, while Big Show and Kane are always capable of picking up a win, especially given their place in The Authority. Damien Mizdow is a dark horse to win, as is The Miz, who has one of the more sparkling WrestleMania win-loss records on the current roster.
Hideo Itami earned the opportunity to represent NXT in the bout by way of a tournament victory Thursday night during Axxess.
Though it is unlikely to mean much beyond a few stunning visuals with the winner holding the Andre the Giant trophy, The Miz winning the match by eliminating Mizdow would be the catalyst for the split between the two Superstars.
As Miz celebrates his win, Mizdow could pull a Bret Hart from WrestleMania IV and send Miz to the arena floor before breaking the trophy and solidifying himself as a clear babyface going forward, no longer under the rule of the Hollywood A-lister.
Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
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With seven talented Superstars waging war in a dangerous ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship this weekend, there are numerous finishes that could help re-establish the credibility and legitimacy of the title, but only one that would do so without doubt.
Daniel Bryan is a main event star disguised as a midcard attraction for the purposes of this match and could do a great deal to help elevate the IC title back to the heights it once enjoyed during the days of Macho Man Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.
Withstanding the challenge of Stardust, Luke Harper, Bad News Barrett, R-Truth, Dean Ambrose and the man who defeated him twice, Dolph Ziggler, to emerge victorious, Bryan (with 70,000 fans chanting "Yes!" in unison) would instantly help change the WWE Universe has regarding the secondary title.
That label, "secondary," would change under Bryan.
Thus, the best finish is for the Aberdeen, Washington, native to once again climb the ladder and achieve championship glory.
Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins
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Most would see the Randy Orton-Seth Rollins match as the perfect opportunity to bring The Viper back, put him over and jump-start what should be a major babyface run for him throughout 2015.
To those fans, a word of caution.
A babyface is only as good as the heels they have to work with, so if Orton were to defeat Rollins cleanly Sunday night, finishing him off with an RKO, it would seriously hurt one of the few legitimate, main event, full-time heels the company has left on the roster.
Furthermore, it would diminish the effectiveness the feud would have going forward. The feud is likely to continue given past booking methods when it comes to the Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
Thus, the best finish is for Rollins to pick up a tainted win over Orton, one possibly involving the same J&J Security that he shoved in harm's way Monday night during the handicap match against the Viper.
Rollins winning in that manner stays true to the character, allows Orton to save face and lays the groundwork for the continuation of the program.
Paige and AJ Lee vs. The Bella Twins
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The Divas tag match at WrestleMania 31 benefits from what has been a strong bit of booking from WWE Creative, which relied on traditional wrestling storytelling rather than focusing on reality shows and celebrity involvement.
The Bella Twins have ruled over the Divas division with an iron fist since late last year, leaving Paige and AJ Lee with no other alternative than to put their issues behind them and focus their attention on beating the sisters and halting their momentum.
That should be the case Sunday as the babyfaces get one over on the heels, setting themselves up for a shot at Nikki's Divas Championship, perhaps as soon as Extreme Rules.
While WWE Creative may be tempted to go with AJ as the winner, probably with the Black Widow submission hold, they should opt to put Paige over. After all, AJ is a made woman, a performer with a wealth of backstory to help keep her over with fans, while the Brit is still trying to make that all-important connection, which has been interrupted thanks to inconsistencies with her use by the writing staff.
The Ram-Paige to Nikki, allowing Paige to pick up the pinfall win for her team, would go a long way in helping establish the second-generation wrestler as the face of the Divas division.
United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Rusev
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From the minute Rusev embarked in an impressive win streak beginning the night after last year's WrestleMania, everything that he has accomplished and has been booked in has been in hopes of setting him up for John Cena to knock down.
While some fans may be critical of that statement, it is the truth, and for once, that is not a bad thing.
Rusev has a bright future ahead of him in WWE, but Sunday night, he will suffer his first pinfall or submission loss at the hands of Cena, and it really could not have worked out any better.
Like Umaga before him, Rusev proved critics wrong, showcasing his ability to move around the ring with the speed and agility of a cruiserweight, despite possessing the size of a heavyweight. He defeated former world champions on his path of rage, but come WrestleMania, Rusev will run into the unstoppable force in the form of Cena, who will defeat him and regain the United States Championship for the first time in a decade.
A pinfall win following the Attitude Adjustment (or three of them) would much better suit Rusev than a submission defeat.
The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt
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There are many who will point to The Undertaker's match with Bray Wyatt as a chance for redemption following The Phenom's loss to Brock Lesnar at last year's event, but should it be?
Bray Wyatt, if everything goes according to plan, is a star of WWE's future. Ten or 15 years from now, he will be in the same role that The Deadman currently has, that of an older, wiser, respected veteran and locker room leader, a performer who is perpetually over thanks to his ability to change things up when necessary.
He will be seen as a legend who shows incredible commitment to his character.
The Undertaker winning would make sense and serve as a nice "thank you" for agreeing to put Lesnar over at WrestleMania XXX, but it would also hurt Wyatt, who has picked the right time to become motivated again and deliver some of his finest promo work to date.
This is the one case where WWE should rethink its obsession with providing fans with the happy ending at WrestleMania and book toward the future. Wyatt could prove his claims right and cement himself as the new Face of Fear with a win, all the while having the proverbial torch passed his way by one of the greatest performers of all time (in any form of entertainment).
A pinfall win over a beaten Undertaker, courtesy of Sister Abigail, would be a defining moment in young Bray Wyatt's career, one that could catapult him to the top of the card, a spot he has sniffed in the past but been unable to successfully hold onto.
Sting vs. Triple H
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There really is only one way that Sting vs. Triple H can conceivably end, and that is with the face-painted, baseball bat-wielding icon pinning The Game and picking up the victory in his history-making first match in World Wrestling Entertainment.
After 14 years of watching and listening as fans speculated on his potentially going to WWE, Sting finally made his debut this past November at Survivor Series.
To waste such a monumental moment like Sting's first WWE match, just to put Triple H over, would be a booking decision so incredibly stupid that WWE Creative would deserve the aforementioned baseball bat upside the head.
A pinfall victory following the Scorpion Death Drop would be nice, but even better would be a tapout win, the result of the Scorpion Death Lock that he, not Bret Hart, popularized in North America.
WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar
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For a year, World Wrestling Entertainment has placed Roman Reigns in the position to become the next big breakout star, the face of its bright future.
Everything that WWE has done with him and, more importantly, WWE world heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, has been done so that the former powerhouse of The Shield could knock off The Beast Incarnate and ascend to the top of the proverbial mountain.
Fans have not been as receptive to Reigns, though, creating questions as to whether or not he is the right guy at the right time.
The answer is up for debate, but what is not is the fact that Lesnar has been an incredibly effective champion, the unconquerable Beast Incarnate whose eventual defeat will catapult some lucky young competitor into the stratosphere.
"Eventual" is the key word.
At WrestleMania, the best finish for everyone involved would be for Lesnar to destroy Reigns with three F5s, only for Reigns to kick out each time. After a fourth, and with Lesnar reeling from a series of Superman Punches and spears, he just barely squeaks by with the win.
That scenario puts Reigns over as a hellish competitor who kicked out of everything Lesnar threw at him until his body could not take more. It would earn the respect of the people rather than giving him the Super Cena push to the top of the company, suffering boos and jeers along the way.
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