On Saturday, the Superstars of WWE will set foot on to the grandest stage in professional wrestling for WrestleMania 37, the promotion's first pay-per-view spectacular in front of a live audience since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and officials will be looking to deliver outcomes that generate positive feedback and unbridled excitement from fans.
It will be more imperative than ever before for the company to sit back, look at what it has planned for the event and deliver the best possible ending for each contest on the card.
What are those outcomes, and why are they the best option at the company's disposal?
Find out now with this look at every announced match on the card.
Sheamus has enjoyed a career renaissance of sorts over the past five months, returning to relevancy after a subpar SmackDown run and engaging former WWE champion Drew McIntyre in one of the most physical feuds in recent memory.
You almost want to see the underrated Irishman win the United States Championship and pay off his long journey back to prominence.
Almost.
For the long-term sake of WWE, Riddle needs to continue building momentum for himself. Like him or not, he is young and has a personality that will appeal to young fans in a way that others do not. He's on a roll both in terms of character and in-ring productivity and could well deliver one of the show-stealing matches of the WrestleMania card against The Celtic Warrior.
Sheamus has had his time, even if his recent work suggests that time is not over. This is Riddle's opportunity to shine, and he should defeat his toughest challenger to date on wrestling's grandest stage.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are destined to fight forever.
Theirs is a rivalry that predates their time in WWE and will probably postdate it too, but WrestleMania marks their most prominent match to date.
Zayn enters the encounter a conspiracy theorist, believing there is a deep scheme to cost him championships and matches. Owens is the annoyed friend, tired of listening to his buddy spout nonsense as excuses for his own shortcomings.
After enduring a meaningless appearance from YouTuber Logan Paul on SmackDown, Owens suffered a sneak attack by Zayn backstage. Common sense suggests Owens drops the heel with a stunner and beats him.
This feels like the start of a longer feud. If that is the case, the only option is for Zayn to defeat Owens by hook or crook, enhancing his heat and making fans want to see him get his comeuppance at a later date.
The only acceptable finish to Cesaro's match with Seth Rollins is for the Swiss Superman to defeat The Architect and continue his climb to the top of the card on Friday nights.
Otherwise, the effort put into establishing Cesaro as a singles competitor was for naught, accomplishing nothing and serving only to set up a babyface for Rollins to get a win over.
That outcome would be crippling, and in his second decade of in-ring competition and at age 40, there would almost certainly be no recovery for Cesaro. Nor would there be a realistic hope for another opportunity of this magnitude.
Apollo Crews challenged Big E to said match at WrestleMania, with the Intercontinental Championship at stake. While Big E has yet to accept, one can assume he will and that the match will be made official in time for the biggest event of the year.
At which time it will be imperative that Crews wins both the match and title.
Whether or not you like the direction the character has taken, there is no denying Crews is in a far better place than he was six months ago. He is relevant again, a genuine threat to win the second-most important title on the blue brand.
Another loss to Big E in a championship encounter, though, would effectively end any chance Crews has of being a credible challenger moving forward. After all, there are only so many times a Superstar can lose before fans stop believing in them.
Crews is at that point.
One more loss devalues him and renders this latest push, character change and heel turn meaningless, so a victory over Big E via nefarious means for one of the most storied titles in WWE history is the only outcome that makes sense.
There are some fans who will always balk at the idea of a celebrity entering the wrestling world and beating a full-time Superstar. It's a cheap marketing ploy, an attempt by WWE to generate new viewers by having a recognizable star come in and defeat one of its own. We saw it at WrestleMania XI, when Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow.
We are about to witness it again this year as Grammy award-winning rapper Bad Bunny battles The Miz in a singles bout. When the musician pins Miz's shoulders to the mat, it will be the right outcome.
Miz is a two-time WWE champion but is as recognizable for being an insufferable loudmouth and reality TV star. He has eaten losses to competitors far less accomplished than himself and still managed to bounce back and remain relevant.
That will be the case come WrestleMania too, when he puts over Bad Bunny in the most logical outcome of their match but still manages to recover and move on to championship victories and high-profile roles on television.
Oh, and Bad Bunny will impress between the ropes, proving that celebrities who take the industry seriously will always thrive come their big moment.
Braun Strowman will battle Shane McMahon inside a steel cage at WrestleMania in what might be the least anticipated bout on the entire card.
Born of McMahon's references to Strowman as "stupid," the match figures to be an overbooked mess that could also involve Elias and Jaxson Ryker as McMahon seeks to defeat the former universal champion and prove his claims correct.
Shane-O-Mac winning would devalue Strowman to such an extent that the memory of him winning the universal title a year ago becomes laughable.
Strowman needs the win and should bulldoze McMahon in a brief squash match because that is the best possible outcome for both his and the viewers' sakes.
Ideally, Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley would be one of the hottest matches on the WrestleMania card, a battle between one of the most decorated stars of the past five years and the most promising young badass in the women's division.
Instead, Asuka is a lame-duck Raw women's champion who has repeatedly been overshadowed by her opponents thanks to a creative team that has never given her much of a story to sink her teeth into.
Ripley, on the other hand, arrived accompanied by video packages putting her over as an incoming force of nature. She immediately stepped up and challenged The Empress of Tomorrow and will look to dethrone her on Night 2 of the monumental event.
After coming so close to defeating Charlotte Flair to retain the NXT women's title a year ago, the best outcome for this match is for Ripley to finally get over the hump and defeat Asuka to win the title.
Not only does it ignite the Ripley era of women's wrestling on Raw, but it also brings an end to a title reign that should have been so much better and meant so much more to Asuka's legacy but was undone by subpar booking.
After Randy Orton lit a match and burned The Fiend alive, The Viper fell prey to Alexa Bliss' magic and witchcraft, enduring misfortune and ill will until Little Miss Bliss resurrected the masked maniac of WWE.
The Fiend's re-emergence at Fastlane, with his mask seemingly burned to his face a la zombie Jason Voorhees in Friday The 13th, Part VII: The New Blood, understandably leaves most to question how the hell Orton can be expected to defeat him at WrestleMania.
Quite simply, he should not.
Other than Strowman squashing McMahon inside the steel cage, there is no match on the card that should be more one-sided than this. The longer it goes, the greater the recipe for failure. Let The Fiend destroy Orton, put him away with Sister Abigail and stand tall with Bliss by his side.
Short, sweet and to the point is exactly what the proverbial doctor ordered for this match because the longer it goes and the fancier WWE Creative tries to get, the greater the chance for a repeat of the WrestleMania 33 disaster between these two, which ranks as a colossal failure given the lengthy backstory that preceded it.
The Raw Tag Team Championship match pitting The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods against AJ Styles and his massive bodyguard, Omos, has little to do with the champions or Styles and everything to do with the big man in what will be his first official match on the main roster.
Expect utter dominance from an individual who has not taken kindly to The New Day's attempts to keep things light-hearted. He has been stone-faced during game-show challenges and appears ready to show the world what he is capable of.
Considering New Day defeated Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander to win the tag titles specifically to set this match up, anything but Omos and Styles winning the gold would be a disappointment.
Especially when you consider that loss was the start of The Hurt Business' decline and, ultimately, its break-up.
While there are a decided lack of babyface teams to challenge Styles and Omos, that still feels like the right call as WWE Raw looks to form some sort of identity within its tag division.
Bianca Belair, a world-class athlete with charisma for days,is the future of WWE's women's division. She looks like star, carries herself like one and is one of the most likable performers on the roster. Her win in the 2021 women's Royal Rumble match sparked an outpouring of love, admiration and respect from fans and fellow Superstars alike.
She should win the SmackDown Women's Championship from Sasha Banks at WrestleMania.
But that would not be the best possible outcome.
A win for Belair would risk backlash from fans who feel as though she is being shoved down their throats. We have seen it in the past as everyone from John Cena to Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair to Bayley has faced similar backlash because WWE dictated to the audience that they were to be considered the top star rather than fans organically choosing them.
Not only is that a concern, but so too is Banks' status on the blue brand.
The champion recently underwent a heel turn, which changes the dynamics of the roster. The Boss has always been a more convincing heel, and the potential for a lengthy feud between her and The EST has the potential to be defining for both women.
Belair benefiting from the chase rather than winning the title in her first shot at it feels like a more rewarding scenario that better positions her for the long run than expecting fans to be totally OK with her waltzing in and defeating the uber-respected Banks.
The veteran champion winning, even via dubious means, would be the best outcome and one that allows a feud that has yet to hit its stride to continue.
The best possible outcome for the WWE Championship Match at WrestleMania is for Bobby Lashley to retain his title in a hard-fought match that sees him pin Drew McIntyre after relying on King Corbin or another Superstar to aid him in victory.
WWE Creative has already planted the seeds, with Lashley offering a bounty in the form of a guaranteed title opportunity for anyone who takes out McIntyre. With Corbin likely to fail miserably on the go-home episode of Raw on Monday night, it would make sense for someone to step up during the title bout and assist The All Mighty in picking up the successful title defense.
Why beat McIntyre on a night that should be his, when he has the opportunity to hoist the WWE title in front of fans and enjoy the celebration he was robbed of a year ago?
Simple: Raw lacks genuine main event heels outside of Randy Orton, and we have already seen McIntyre battle The Viper far too much for that to be a valid option coming out of WrestleMania. The brand needs Lashley to be strong and to continue to build momentum. That does not happen with a McIntyre win.
Introducing another heel to the mix by having them conspire with Lashley to help the champion pick up the victory feels like the best way to keep that section of the roster strong while giving McIntyre an out for not winning the gold.
The most interesting match on the WrestleMania card is the Triple Threat Match for the Universal Championship, if only because there are three possible outcomes, all with their own degrees of validity.
Roman Reigns could retain his title and continue his incredible run as the best, most engaging heel in WWE. The Head of the Table has been extraordinary as the overconfident, arrogant villain who takes far too much credit for the company's success and relies way too much on Jey Uso and Paul Heyman to get him out of sticky situations.
His run feels like it is just beginning.
Assuming WWE wants to the title to switch hands, there is the potential for the reawakened Rated R Superstar to seize the gold. Edge returned a year ago to a ton of fanfare, but his recent return from injury has lacked that same spark. Now a heel again, a win would allow him to run as the Ultimate Opportunist, a Superstar who embraces his ability to take advantage of every opening en route to championship triumphs.
A heel leaving WrestleMania as champion has never particularly gone over well, though, which brings us to the best possible outcome.
Is Daniel Bryan as hot now as he was in 2014? Absolutely not. Is there a groundswell of support for him winning the title? No. But he is the most beloved babyface in WWE and a guy who will always generate a considerable amount of cheers.
Fans appreciate his hard work, love him for his toughness and heart and will gladly cheer his victory in this year's main event.
It might not be the flashiest outcome given how strong the other two competitors are, but it feels like WWE's best option heading into the event.
