WWE No Mercy 2017 Matches: Best Finish for Each Match on Raw PPV Card

WWE offers up its September supercard with WWE No Mercy, which will feature a double main event when John Cena takes on Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar takes on Braun Strowman. 

It will be interesting to see how WWE books each of these matches to end, as both have a lot riding on their finishes. Is Strowman too hot to be beaten at this time? Will another one-sided loss hurt Lesnar in the long term? Will fans roll their eyes at yet another signature win? Will Reigns begin to endear himself to his detractors by losing and essentially starting over?

WWE can tell a handful of great stories through its finishes at Sunday's pay-per-view, and this is not only limited to its main events.

Apollo Crews vs. Elias

Apollo Crews magically returned to television after weeks of dormancy when he extended Curt Hawkins' losing streak. Ironically enough, Hawkins seems to be in a better place than Crews because he at least has a storyline.

WWE did a disservice to Crews by bringing him up to the main roster without a plan. He has had little to no purpose on the main roster since his call-up in April 2016 despite being every bit as talented as any Superstar.

Crews vs. Elias contrasts two glaring examples of failure and success in NXT transitions. Crews continues to tread water on Raw, while Elias instantly caught on though his antagonizing guitar act. Elias has been protected since his debut, as he rarely loses on television. It would be surprising if he came up short in this match.

Best Finish: Elias wins with the Drift Away.

Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro and Sheamus

Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins continue to revive their careers through the tag team ranks but have leveled off a bit because of limited competition. The two have had a series of great matches against Cesaro and Sheamus, but with one more win it would be overkill to go back to this well.

Cesaro and Sheamus have done a great job of evolving from strange bedfellows to a cohesive tag team, but as is the case in the entire division, they are suffering from a lack of competition.

WWE has switched a lot of titles lately, and it wouldn't be surprising to see Cesaro and Sheamus come away with a victory that leads to a babyface chase.

Best Finish: Sheamus and Cesaro win clean in a competitive matchup.

Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt

Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt has the least exciting tagline in recent memory, as it is being billed as Man vs. Man.

With no facepaint, none of the supernatural and nothing that makes either of them remotely interesting, fans are being made to sit through another match between two men at career standstills.

Wyatt's side feud with Dustin Rhodes was far more interesting than almost anything he's done with Balor, and many fans seem ready for this rivalry to end.

Finish: Bray Wyatt cheats to defeat Finn Balor.

Neville vs. Enzo Amore

This is not a story about the Cruiserweight Championship, which is being used as a backdrop for the extended public execution of Enzo Amore.

WWE has systematically booked this feud to put the focus on Enzo's bad behavior backstage instead of getting behind one of the most organically popular characters it could have ever asked for. Amore has been dressed down during scathing promos and attacked by everyone from The Miztourage to Braun Strowman.

Neville, the champion in all this, has been made to sit back and only further his conflict with Enzo on 205 Live, when nobody's watching.

Best Finish: Who cares? I'm supposed to get behind this feud when you have spent weeks telling me the babyface is a bad person? No thanks. I'll be getting popcorn with everyone else. 

Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax vs. Bayley vs Emma vs. Nia Jax vs. Emma

The Raw women's division has become every bit the logjam that this Fatal 5-Way suggests it is. Title switches and too many contenders have watered down the meaning of the championship. At the same time, this match could represent a turning point in women's wrestling for the Raw brand.

Should the rising Nia Jax win the title and proceed to dominate as champion for the next several weeks or months, this creates an opening for Asuka to debut and be the one to slay the giant. Jax as a monster heel with a championship would be a welcome change of pace from the Bayley-Alexa Bliss-Sasha rotation that has defined Raw since April's Superstar Shake-up.

Best Finish: Nia Jax wins by pinning Emma.

The Miz vs. Jason Jordan

I don't want to be like all these people with no patience or ability to wait for things to pan out, but I'm starting to get the feeling WWE has no clue what it's doing with Jason Jordan.

In a perfect world, the plan is for Jordan to turn people off with his ever-present grin and his tireless execution of a default setting from a 1980s-style babyface. The hope is he—and for that matter, Raw GM and father Kurt Angle—eventually turns heel and succeeds through nepotism.

But shockingly, WWE seems to think it can get Jordan over as a generic babyface with otherwise outstanding wrestling ability.

This will never work. It didn't work for The Rock, and it won't work if the plan is to keep Jordan a babyface. I'll be fascinated to know what the plan was for Jordan when all is said and done.

In the Jason Jordan documentary 10 years from now, will WWE officials describe how surprised they were that Jordan's initial rollout didn't catch on so they had to turn him heel? Or will it be telling the story of how they knew what they were doing all along?

It had better be the latter.

Best Finish: The Miz defeats Jason Jordan with help from The Miztourage.

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman will be a heavily anticipated matchup because WWE has done a great job of the type of basic storytelling that still works.

As was pretty much suggested in a recent Paul Heyman promo, WWE has put two monsters in the middle of a ring and said "Fighters! Are you ready?!" 

Lesnar has shown just as much, if not more, vulnerability to Strowman as he did to Goldberg. These signs seem to be pointing to the Beast Incarnate possibly getting squashed, which would be a shrewd choice headed into a Raw that will go head-to-head against the Dallas Cowboys in prime time. 

Best Finish: Braun Strowman defeats Brock Lesnar in shockingly quick fashion.

John Cena vs. Roman Reigns

John Cena and Roman Reigns have succeeded in creating the illusion there is bad blood between the two. Insider terms have been used to underscore animosity between WWE's two biggest stars, and it will be interesting to see who gets the upper hand in the ring.

Reigns has received wins against everyone from The Undertaker to Triple H, yet he is still a polarizing star, albeit one who has brilliantly vacillated between babyface and heel.

A win over Cena after which The Cenation Leader shakes Reigns' hand and endorses him seems to be the likeliest yet worst possible outcome in front of a Los Angeles crowd—ensuring a larger amount of hardcore fans—that will instantly reject it.

Reigns' loss and ensuing journey back is a far superior story than a relatively conflict-free march toward a likely main event at WrestleMania.

Best Finish: John Cena defeats Roman Reigns as The Big Dog begins to question his own greatness.

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.