WWE Extreme Rules 2017 Matches: Full Projections for Each Champion at Event

The Raw brand presents WWE Extreme Rules 2017 this Sunday at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore.

While this event is similar to Payback 2017 in that the most important championship on the show—the Universal Championship—isn't on the line, there are still four other titles being defended that could all potentially change hands.

In a swirl of kendo sticks, steel cages and more, every belt save for Brock Lesnar's will be up for grabs.

Which of those titleholders will be able to hold onto the gold and which of the challengers will be crowned the new champions?

Let's gaze into our crystal balls and give our predictions for how these title matches will play out.

Raw Tag Team Championship: The Hardy Boyz Defend Against Cesaro and Sheamus

Credit: WWE.com

Over the course of the past few weeks, the WWE Universe has seen a number of changes in Raw's tag team division.

Going into WrestleMania 33, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were the champions, having beaten Cesaro and Sheamus earlier in the year at the Royal Rumble.

They would drop those titles to The Hardy Boyz in WrestleMania's Ladder match before strangely being very quickly pushed to the side.

WWE clearly wanted The Hardy Boyz to feud with Cesaro and Sheamus instead, starting a storyline where The Celtic Warrior and The Swiss Superman would repeatedly lose and show respect for Matt and Jeff.

Then, they turned heel, adding a new element to the feud and raising a lot of suspicion.

Since WWE obviously had plans for a while to turn them heel and pushed Gallows and Anderson aside to go straight into this program, are there also plans to put the titles back on them?

The Hardy Boyz are an act that can survive well enough without the belts, but after Cesaro and Sheamus lose another title shot, they aren't going to have the same impact.

Ignoring The New Day's historic title reign, most runs with the Raw Tag Team Championship from the past few years have only lasted an average of roughly 50 to 60 days, which is the time frame The Hardy Boyz are currently in.

Stylewise, ladder matches have always been the gimmick most synonymous with The Hardy Boyz, not steel cages, so they are also in an element that may not yield positive results.

With all these factors weighing in, there is a good chance Cesaro and Sheamus recapture the belts at Extreme Rules, even if they do so by one of them escaping the cage, making them come off as doing it by the skin of their teeth.

Cruiserweight Championship: Neville Defends Against Austin Aries

Credit: WWE.com

Austin Aries has had two opportunities to defeat Neville for the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania and Payback, but he came up short both times.

Some may say the third time is the charm, but there may be some underlying elements to this story that point in another direction.

Although it is not always a guarantee, it's applicable more often than not that the person who loses or is made to look weak on the go-home show before a pay-per-view tends to win that match.

Generally speaking, this is a storytelling device WWE loves to employ: convincing the audience that person can't win and then trying to shock everybody when they're able to pull off a victory.

This week on Raw, Neville was seen not only losing his tag team match but specifically tapping out to Aries in the process.

Already, there is a certain level of satisfaction to be able to point back to that to say Aries proved he was the better man, meaning WWE has an out to justify Aries not winning the title.

Neville has incorporated the Rings of Saturn as a finisher for quite some time, which is a submission move he's won plenty of matches with as the commentators have built it up as devastatingly painful.

Not only does he have that in his arsenal, but he also has an alliance with TJP, who could easily insert himself into the match on Neville's behalf to inflict more damage on Aries.

To cap it all off, Aries has been working the angle of being injured, which paints a target on a specific body part that can be given significant attention to.

The more it's discussed as being a weak point, the more convincing it is that Aries went into the match not at 100 percent and was justified in tapping out.

It isn't impossible for Aries to win, but the track record and the story being told up to this point seem to indicate Neville will be retaining his title once again.

Raw Women's Championship: Alexa Bliss Defends Against Bayley

Credit: WWE.com

At the very least, the one projection everybody should agree on in regards to the Raw Women's Championship match is that when Alexa Bliss and Bayley clash, it will be much more entertaining than their train wreck of a segment from this week's Raw.

It's a shame the "Bayley: This is Your Life" promo was so awful, as it does nothing but hurt the perception of this feud, which has been rather shoddily put together almost every step of the way.

Somehow, a segment like that, which was trying way too hard has run parallel to a gimmick stipulation, screams of not wanting to put any effort into the creative aspects of WWE.

We see this happen every year, where coincidentally around the time frame of a pay-per-view, certain elements that fit that event's theme will just magically appear.

At no other point on the calendar will we likely see Alexa Bliss pull a kendo stick out to attack the person she's feuding with, but since the Extreme Rules event was coming up soon, this was the easiest way to set up that completely random gimmick.

None of this was particularly necessary, as Alexa's nasty persona would have meshed well as an opposing factor to Bayley's do-gooder attitude since their profiles are starkly different.

Despite all the problems leading up to the pay-per-view, Bayley and Bliss should be trusted to at least entertain the fans when they get inside the ring for the match itself.

As far as the future of the women's division on Raw is concerned, much more effort needs to be put into crafting better stories for Alexa Bliss, who should be remaining champion as she brings something fresh to the table rather than going back to Bayley, who had her run for the past few months.

Intercontinental Championship: Dean Ambrose Defends Against The Miz

Credit: WWE.com

In a standard match, there is something called the champion's advantage, wherein titles do not change hands if the champion loses by being counted out or disqualified.

Every match on this card nullifies that concept as they are being contested under Extreme Rules scenarios, but the Intercontinental Championship match actually goes one step further by flipping the script and making it a challenger's advantage.

Dean Ambrose can only retain his title by pinfall, submission, count-out or if The Miz gets himself counted out or disqualified.

If The Lunatic Fringe lives up to his name and introduces any kind of weaponry or goes against the rules in any way that the referee deems over the line, The Miz will take one step closer to etching his name in the record books for most Intercontinental Championship reigns.

This disqualification stipulation gives WWE a great out to be able to change champions without making Ambrose look bad, as he won't be legitimately beaten for the title. Rather, The Miz will win on a technicality.

Once the belt changes hands, it will be easier to justify keeping it on The Miz than it would be to put it on him to begin with.

The negative to this is that it takes an accolade away from Ambrose, but the positive is that The Miz was doing a fantastic job with this responsibility on SmackDown, so he can be trusted to return the title back to that glory once more.

Of all the belts, this is the one that seems the most likely to change hands at Extreme Rules.

Who do you think will walk out as the champions by the end of the show? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.