On the latest episode of The Masked Man Show, David Shoemaker and Dave Schilling broke down every matchup for Sunday’s No Mercy card. Who will win? The guys made their predictions:
The Miz vs. Jason Jordan
Shoemaker: The Miz
Schilling: The Miz
Schilling: It would be foolish to put the belt on Jason Jordan right now. It would hurt the Miz’s momentum, [and] Jason Jordan’s not ready to have the belt.
Shoemaker: If the Miz loses, then he’s got to seek vengeance, and then that sort of subsumes the whole Jason Jordan, Kurt Angle son story line. That would seem like a weird choice.
Women’s Fatal 5-Way Match
Shoemaker: Alexa Bliss
Schilling: Nia Jax
Shoemaker: This could go in a lot of different directions, obviously. It could go in five different directions. Normally in these multi-party matches you sort of default to the champ, so you’d say Alexa Bliss.
Schilling: This is a tough one, because my inclination is to put the belt on Nia Jax and build her up to then be beaten again by Asuka. That’s what I would do.
Neville vs. Enzo
Shoemaker: Neville
Schilling: Neville
Shoemaker: Is Enzo going to do it?
Schilling: No. I don’t think that they want to tell the story where he finally wins a belt. I really don’t.
Shoemaker: Enzo’s been doing a masterful job of making the 205 weight division matter more than it did before. I think he can continue to do that without the title belt. I’m with you.
Finn Bálor vs. Bray Wyatt
Shoemaker: Finn Bálor
Schilling: Bray Wyatt
Schilling: They’re making a big deal about it being “man vs. man,” so I’m going to go with Bray Wyatt, because the Demon doesn’t lose, but Finn Bálor does.
Shoemaker: That’s a really good call. Does that mean this goes three months? Are we going to the next pay-per-view?
Schilling: I don’t think they have plans for either of them, so yeah, we’ll do a third. A rubber match at TLC.
Ambrose and Rollins vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
Shoemaker: Ambrose and Rollins
Schilling: Sheamus and Cesaro
Schilling: There’s nowhere for Rollins and Ambrose to go if they keep the belt. So let’s do the switch.
Shoemaker: It does feel like them having the belt is a really good look going into a No Mercy that they’re hyping as one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year. You know, put the best on these two giant stars. It makes the show feel that much more impressive. I’m 50–50 on this one. I’m going to go with Ambrose and Rollins only because I don’t know what the next step is if the Bar wins.
John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
Shoemaker: Roman Reigns
Schilling: John Cena
Schilling: John Cena is one of the safest professional wrestlers that there is, sometimes to his detriment with the smart mark crowd. And I don’t think that he’s looking to get potatoed. He’s a movie star.
Shoemaker: [Reigns] cut one of the best promos of his career on Monday night. Total heel promo. By the end of the promo, the crowd was behind him. He got out of the ring and slapped hands, and it wasn’t even like, “Oh, the smart marks are happy.” Everybody in the crowd was like, “Yeah, you made a really strong point there, Roman Reigns! Congratulations, solid debate skills!”
Schilling: Because it’s not real heel heat that he has. Roman Reigns has this strange amalgamation of frustration with the booking and frustration with the fact that he’s not a heel. But everybody always says, “When he’s a heel, people are going to love him.”
Shoemaker: There’s a preconception that he doesn’t deserve the position that he’s getting. And then he wrestles a good match or, like on Monday, he cuts a great promo and by the end of it you’re like, “Oh, he does deserve this. It’s hard for me to boo right now.”
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
Shoemaker: Brock Lesnar
Schilling: Draw
Shoemaker: I’m just going to get it out of the way, my prediction is Brock Lesnar. I think it’s a straight line from here to WrestleMania for Brock. And I think that Braun has potential to open more eyes, as if he hasn’t opened enough already, but I don’t feel like he’s going to play a big role in Brock Lesnar’s life over the next few months. I hope I’m wrong, I could be totally wrong.
Schilling: I would love for this to be an Attitude Era–style main event, where it’s 15 minutes and five of that is just wandering through the crowd punching each other and going up onto the stage and doing spots up there. That’s probably not going to happen because it’s not a no-DQ, no-count-out match. I would say this is going to be seven minutes of some testing and some suplexes in some high spots and then a finish that’s going to involve someone being hurt very badly. I think that’s the best way to end a match like this, but someone takes a huge bump and cannot continue.
