The story of Bash In Berlin starts and ends with Gunther. The World Heavyweight Champion has viciously and repeatedly slapped his fellow wrestlers and WWE fans across the chest with his throwback chops since he was called up in 2022, and in just a few short years, he’s already established himself as one of the biggest stars on the roster. Now, he heads into Berlin as a conquering hometown hero, an Austrian performing inside Germany where he’s maintained residency for decades.
WWE hasn’t announced if Gunther and Randy Orton will main event the show, but regardless of where it sits on the card, the crowd is likely to be white hot, even if this feud hasn’t been given that much time to build. I also expect a particularly raucous crowd for at least two other matches, as Drew Mcintyre vs CM Punk and Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley vs Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan are locked in a standoff for hottest storyline in all of professional wrestling right now. Throw in dueling fan favorites Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens squaring up in a rare face vs face WWE Championship Match and Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill trying to win their Tag Team Championships back from The Unholy Union, and it’s a pretty stacked card for a mid-tier PPV.
Before I get into what’s gonna happen, however, let’s run down how I’ve been doing at the prediction game.
CM Punk Vs Drew McIntyre In A Strap Match
CM Punk and Drew McIntyre is one of the hottest feuds in wrestling. Fans will be extremely into this match, maybe more into it than anything else on the card not involving Judgment Day, but a month ago, people were talking about this feud like it was one of the greatest non-title storylines in wrestling history. Go back and watch the introductions and opening bell to their match at SummerSlam. You only get that type of crowd buzz when fans are emotionally invested to a far greater degree than usual.
But over the last month or so, it just hasn’t had that same spark. There haven’t been moments wrestling fans were jumping on social, desperate to talk about. It’s been good but hasn’t approached great. So, the goal of this match has to be to get the momentum going in the right direction again. This feud needs something more than the stolen bracelet.
If Triple H, Bruce Prichard and the writers want to keep this going and find that magic again, they need to give CM Punk a clear one-up over Drew McIntyre that represents more than winning a match. We need something that will trigger Drew McIntyre and give him a reason to turn into the vindictive Scottish Warrior again. Maybe that involves doing something to his wife. Maybe that involves embarrassing him in a way he can’t laugh off. I don’t know what it is, but it needs to be great. If not, it’s likely this feud will continue losing momentum and ultimately be remembered very positively as highlights for these two men but not as an all-time masterpiece we’ll be talking about for decades.
Predicted Winner: CM Punk
Alba Fyre And Isla Dawn (Champions) Vs Bianca Belair And Jade Cargill For The Women’s Tag Team Championships
I don’t want to pat myself on the back too hard and have to get surgery like Randy Orton , but I’m typically pretty good at knowing where WWE is going. I have a solid record in predicting matches, and the ones I miss tend to be matches I go back and forth on and am very clearly not sure about ahead of time. But I have to admit I have no idea WTF WWE is doing with Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill.
Earlier this year, they won the Tag Team Championships, and I assumed they would have about a nine month run where they would dominate everyone before they lost the belts in some kind of scandal and started feuding with each other. I still think the goal is eventually to get them to that feud, but they unceremoniously lost the titles barely a month after winning them and haven’t been successful in winning them back. Even more strangely, we haven’t seen any internal friction either. So, what’s the plan here? Are they going to keep trying and failing at winning the titles before they turn on each other? Are they going to win the championships back and then lose them again, which will create the dissension?
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn are a perfectly nice tag team. I’m happy they’re getting a run at the top, and I’m sure they’ll put on a good match here. But the outcome of this match depends entirely on what WWE wants to do with Bianca and Jade, and I just don’t know what they want to do. I can’t see the vision yet in my mind; so, in the absence of that, I’m going to assume, since they’re far and away the bigger money team here, that they’re gonna recapture the titles.
Predicted Winners: Bianca And Jade
Terror Twins Damian Priest And Rhea Ripley Vs The Judgment Day’s Dominik Mysterio And Liv Morgan
I am very confident this feud will ultimately end with Rhea Ripley winning back her Women’s World Championship from Liv Morgan and Damian Priest getting the upperhand on Finn Bálor in a singles match. Ripley is on pace to be the biggest star in the history of women’s wrestling, and Damian Priest has been steadily winning over the crowd and turning himself into a main eventer since his cash-in at WrestleMania 40 . They’re going to ultimately come out on top of the larger storyline, but I’m going back and forth as to whether that success will start here or not.
In a more conventional feud, you’d have to favor Ripley and Priest here. After all, Dominik turned on Rhea at SummerSlam and cost her the match against Liv, and Damian lost his World Heavyweight Championship to Gunther at the same event thanks to Judgment Day interference. The rules of wrestling would say they need to get even, particularly since they’re the white hot babyfaces, but it’s very likely this feud is going to continue for a long time, with the real prizes being singles matches down the road. This mixed tag team match is more of a beat in the story, rather than the destination. That means anything can happen, as the outcome is merely intended to set the table for whatever comes next.
I’m going to cautiously pick Priest and Rhea, as they need a bit of good news, but all options are on the table here.
Predicted Winner: Terror Twins
Cody Rhodes (Champion) Vs Kevin Owens For The WWE Championship
Cody Rhodes is going to win this match because WWE loves long title reigns and because Cody seems destined to wrestle The Rock at some point in the future for his championship. WWE teased that very heavily prior to The Rock returning to Hollywood, but let the record show I’d love to see Kevin Owens win here.
That’s no shot at Cody Rhodes. I like Cody and have liked him way more than I ever expected I would when he first returned to WWE, but he needs a little bit of an edge added to his character. He’s felt a little dry since WrestleMania, and having him drop the title to Owens, particularly if it’s via some cheating, underhanded tactics that turns Owens heel, would be a great way to give us an energized and fired up Rhodes. In a perfect world, I’d love to see these two wrestle three times with Owens winning the first and Cody getting the best of him on the next two.
That would keep Cody hot for whatever is coming next, but it would also add in an element of surprise and build a new layer to his character, who has barely lost at all since returning at WrestleMania 38. Alas, that’s almost certainly not going to happen though.
Predicted Winner: Cody Rhodes
Gunther (Champion) Vs Randy Orton For The World Heavyweight Championship
My co-worker Mick Joest is fired up about the possibility of seeing Randy Orton face a returning John Cena for a World Championship. It would give Cena a chance to set a new record and would give fans a match they’re clamoring for . I get it. I can see the vision, but it feels a little too early to pull the trigger on that. Perhaps more importantly, it also feels way too early to pull the title off Gunther.
Gunther is perhaps the wrestler with the highest approval rating of anyone in the entire business. He feels modern enough and is skilled enough that younger fans love him, and he’s got enough of a throwback vibe and larger than life character look that fans of older wrestling love him too. He’s a throwback that also feels cutting edge, and I just can’t see him taking only his second singles, non-DQ loss , less than a month after winning the title and in front of German fans who will no doubt give him a huge ovation.
I believe Randy Orton will rise to the top again. Maybe it’ll be to do something with John Cena, which would be super cool, but I don’t think this is the way WWE gets there. Not at the expense of Gunther.
Predicted Winner: Gunther
You can watch Bash At Berlin free with a Peacock subscription this Saturday at a special afternoon start time.
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