WWE Vengeance 2011 Preview: Predicting the Winners and Fashion of Victory

Vengeance is this coming Sunday, and as of right now we are once again subject to matches being thrown together at the last minute to fill up the card. 

In all fairness, at least they are trying this time around.  Their hands are tied with the walkout angle they have been trying to play up to engage the audience and make the top faces of the company even more popular and the top heels more dominant. 

With a few matches being placed this past Friday on SmackDown and a few announced at tonight's taped Raw Supershow from Mexico, we finally have a card full of matches that people want to see.  Of course, there are a few exceptions, but that always happens.

Here's a list of predictions for Sunday's event and how competitors will win their contests.

Tag Titles Match: ZigSwag Defeats Air Boom

For the second time in the span of three weeks, we get to see a quality tag-team match pitting tag champions AirBoom against their nuisance rival team of Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger (self-dubbed by me as ZigSwag).

Last time around at Hell in a Cell, and for the first time in recent memory, we were treated to a legitimate tag-team contest for the championships, with two teams who knew how to work together extremely well going head to head. 

It's been a few months as champions for AirBoom, and they have established themselves as one of the teams of the future. Their styles play off of each other so well it's hard to pick against them.

Not this time. ZigSwag are part of the new "stable" of walkout clansman who most have the issue how things are being operated in the company right now. 

Of course, they will not win the titles by their own merit, even though we all know they very easily can.

Style of Victory

Basic heel tradition states you win championships by being a little bit dirty.  Dolph did it to win the U.S. title from Kofi Kingston at Capitol Punishment, so why not go two for two taking titles away from him in less than six months? 

Swagger hasn't held a championship since losing the world title last year, and being part of the tag-team champions will keep him relevant for a while. 

Also, with the titles changing hands, we can be treated to furthering this feud until Survivor Series, giving Creative a chance to try and build up fresh tag teams to help out the division.

Divas Championship: (c) Beth Phoenix Defeats Eve Torres

Finally, Eve gets another shot at her gold she lost in not-so-amazing fashion to Brie Bella some time ago.  She has been the one who has defeated the Divas of Doom in her tag-team matches with Kelly Kelly when they do win, and Kelly has primarily been the one getting squashed in them. 

Beth just won the Divas title for the first time in her career, and in order to keep from having her fall back to mid-card diva, which is about as equal to being on Superstars on a regular basis as it gets, Beth needs to come out on top.

Style of Victory

 DQ victory to retain.  No, Beth is not going to use sneaky tactics to retain, nor is Natalya going to interfere in the match like last time.  Rather, much like the matches of Kelly and Beth, outside action is going to ensue between Natalya and Kelly.

This time, though, Kelly will get the best of Natalya and completely lose her mind again.  After taking care of Naty, Kelly will enter the ring and attack Beth to give her the victory due to interference.  Eve will see what's going on once she revives from the GlamSlam.  She'll be so shocked and upset at the result that she won't know how to react.  This will put a strain on her relationship with Barbie.

Seems like the company is liking the angry, aggressive Kelly angle right now, and this would put her over the top. Showing anger is one thing, but costing your best friend her shot at your gold will set off a firestorm of controversy in the Diva's division. 

Sheamus Defeats Christian

Sheamus took care of Christian at Hell in a Cell and looks to do the same thing again.  Christian is not only looking to avenge that loss, but he's also looking to make people realize that he and his new group of cronies are a force to be reckoned with.

Since the walkout, Christian has hung out a lot more with ZigSwag, Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett.  Whether or not they turn out to go somewhere as a group remains to be seen, but taking out the Great White would certainly plead their case about being taken seriously.

Style of Victory

DQ, what else can you expect these days? Sheamus is going to win this time not because he's the better man but because Christian's buddies will decide to entertain themselves the rest of the night and help out their group members. 

As Sheamus is about to put Christian away with the Celtic Cross, Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett attack Sheamus, giving the victory to Sheamus.  Beaten and furious, Sheamus won't let them get the best of him.  He will fight back with every fiber of his being and destroy the three of them in classic Warrior fashion. 

Clearing the ring after the beating will only further the assumption that Sheamus should be next in line for the world title and make him look intimidating to boot. 

Cody Rhodes Defeats Randy Orton

There is so much history between these two, both past and present, that this match basically writes itself.  Rhodes looks more and more like the man who will bring prestige back to the Intercontinental Championship as he beats all comers left and right. 

Orton is on a two pay-per-view losing streak and has lost his world heavyweight championship.  Now he's out of the title picture all together for the time being.  He's one angry fella after being attacked and bagged by Cody recently, and the Viper is looking to strike. 

Not completely sure if this match is for the IC strap or not, but the outcome should remain the same nonetheless.

Style of Victory

 Clean victory, depending on your definition.  Rhodes is being written up to be the next great thing in the company, and he has the ability to do so. He's made a name for himself as of late and is no longer living in the shadows of his former Legacy stable members Orton and Ted DiBiase. 

With Orton losing cleanly on back to back ppv's, maybe this is a sign that he's now more willing than ever to help put guys over.  He did a great job of it with Mark Henry, as he now is one of the more feared superstars on the roster.  Will he do the same for the up-and-coming Rhodes?

History states that he won't, but logic states that he can and still come out powerful in defeat.  Rhodes loves using his face mask to get victories now, so that is one way to come out on top.  Even if it is a somewhat fudged victory for Rhodes, the W alone will help him skyrocket his place in the company. 

After the match, Rhodes will be joined by his group of walkouts mates in attacking Orton further, setting up Orton to join the five-on-five match at Survivor Series.

World Heavyweight Championship: (c) Mark Henry Defeats Big Show

Mark Henry is a monster.  He has taken out everybody left and right and had a grand old time doing so.  Big Show just so happens to be one of those guys that Henry took out on his way to the world title, so now he's looking for payback.  Or Vengeance, if you will.

Even though Henry personally denied Show's request for a title match, Teddy Long gave it to him in order to prevent him from taking out his champion with steel steps.  Show comes back from his second vacation  due to "injury" this summer alone, and putting him immediately into the title picture seems a little forced.  WWE is trying to write up Henry as the next big monster to destroy the competition every time he gets into the ring.

Style of Victory

 Straight up clean.  It makes no sense to have Henry lose the strap at this point after taking him out and defeating Orton on consecutive pay per views.  Having Show win would state they want him to be the top dog over Orton, and that's not about to happen. 

Also, even though Henry is a heel, he's not one to go out of his way to cheat to win a match.  He's the type of heel that will deal with you personally rather than running away from you any time he gets a chance. 

This feud should continue, but Henry will win this one the way a monster should.  By pure and utter domination. 

WWE Championship Last Man Standing: (c) Alberto Del Rio Defeats John Cena

I know, it surprised me when I came to the conclusion that Cena would lose this match, too, but that's how it's going to go.  Spare me all the talk of "Del Rio needs to be champion because they are touring in Mexico."  I don't want to hear it.  Fact of the matter is, Del Rio could be jobbing to Jinder Mahal and WWE would be okay with that regardless of where they are touring. 

Del Rio has been a key piece to the heel scene since stepping foot in the door.  He's one of the biggest heels in the company and has in-ring ability to back it up.  He's smart, conniving and will do anything to make sure he wins.  Cena has had the title plenty, and his having it yet again doesn't make sense to even the most naive of fans. 

Cena holding the championship again does nothing to build his character, because he's done it so much anyway.  A victory for Del Rio will further cement his place in the main event scene of Raw, which at this moment is spilt between the WWE title and the conspiracy theorists.  With how much focus there is around Triple H and his problems, Del Rio needs to win in order for the title to stay relevant.  Cena winning the title again will only turn more people off to the title and more onto conspiracies and propaganda. 

Style of Victory

 Del Rio wins while Cena is locked in the trunk of Del Rio's car.  What better way for Del Rio to make Cena suffer than locking him in the trunk of the very car that Cena keeps making fun of?  This will be Alberto's way of retaliating to Cena's theft of Del Rio's car at Night of Champions. 

Obviously it wouldn't be too hard to him to accomplish this with the help of Ricardo Rodriguez and potentially Christian's group of renegade superstars, whom Del Rio has also been associated with in recent weeks. 

Del Rio remains champion, and his group helping him furthers the potential five-on-five Survivor Series match that we've all been waiting to see who will be involved with. 

AwesomeTruth Defeats CM Punk and Triple H

Talk about a tag-team match with the fate of the company on the line. 

If Triple H and CM Punk win, the same order of business we've all grown tired of can only move forward.

If AwesomeTruth wins, they establish themselves as real players on Raw and continue to do the work of figuring out the conspiracy that's been keeping them down for so long now. 

Does anybody else see these four potentially joining forces at one point or another?  Think about it.  Truth and Miz have spoken of a conspiracy around the WWE with the boss, Punk did the same thing trying to figure out who wants to keep him from being WWE Champion and Triple H is trying to find out who sabotaged his COO job.  All four of these guys are fighting the same war, just in different fights. 

Anyway, this match actually has a lot more riding on it than meets the eye.  This can be Triple H's full-time return to the ring, if not for just a short while.  Punk looks to avenge the beatdown he suffered at the hands of Miz and Truth at Hell in a Cell.  What else can we ask for?

Style of Victory

 Surprise, Kevin Nash will stick his nose in on this one again.  Every time Punk and Triple H have been involved with the same match, Nash has been around.  SummerSlam, Triple H was the referee when Punk won his WWE title match, Nash attacked Punk.  Night of Champions, Punk and Triple H were in a fight against each other and... you guessed it, Nash was spotted again. 

Expect from this point on for Nash to run around with Miz and Truth, possibly being their mentor of sorts, giving him the right to not have to show up every week so he can work on his "movie."

In Closing

Vengeance does have that one extra week of buildup that Hell in a Cell never received, but overall the pay per view will suffer because of it.  They lost an entire week to the walkout and angle, and now the tour in Mexico is proving to not help anything move along.

This is one of those pay per views that isn't going to impress many people.  The matches themselves have the chance to be pretty good, but the storyline status isn't going to do much.  There's going to be a lot of outside interference and disqualifications to go along with them, making most of the matches on Sunday irrelevant in the long run. 

As of now, I'll predict this ppv will get a C+ from me by the end of the show, but we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.