#paul got booked for a cagematch

[punkitypunker]

CM Punk ABC's

K is for Kendo Sticks CM Punk brutally pushes off a severely injured Paul Heyman off his wheelchair and destroys him with a kendo stick

[blueskyerising]

Fantasy Booking WrestleMania 39 & the 4/3/23 Monday Night RAW

Before we get to Part II of how I’d book the Fall of the Bloodline, I thought it’d be appropriate to touch over on how my version of WrestleMania 39 and the post-Mania Raw would go down like, since I only briefly mentioned the main event. It won’t be a complete wholesale change of the two nights, but the changes made will hopefully make sense.

A lot of the changes will be more evident on the post-Mania RAW, which notoriously got a 0.63 rating on Cagematch and was plagued by being changed wholesale by Vince McMahon. Again, my version of things

Night 1

- John Cena def. Austin Theory to win the US Championship: this result would set up something for Cena on the post-WM Raw (which I’ll discuss later) and push Theory into accepting the open challenge for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship that I mentioned in Part I of the Fall of the Bloodline booking.

- Street Profits def. Viking Raiders, Alpha Academy, & Ricochet/Braun Strowman: basically plays out the same as it did in real life.

- Seth F. Rollins def. Logan Paul: ditto with this match, though Seth gets the win after he does the tree of woe Stomp.

- Damage CTRL def. Becky Lynch, Lita, & Trish Stratus: The heels win here largely due to Becky accidentally hitting Trish, leading to her getting pinned. No heel turn from Trish just yet.

- We get a backstage segment with the Usos and Paul Heyman. Jimmy and Jey want to take care of the Sami & KO “problem” on their own and refuse to let Heyman or Solo Sikoa accompany them for a match.

- Dominik Mysterio def. Rey Mysterio: I love the idea of Dom winning this match, just so he can have something to brag about over his dad. Some cheating and interference from Damian Priest is how that happens. Then, after the match, Dom & Priest look to continue beating down Rey, but Bad Bunny steps in to stop the attack. 

- Rhea Ripley def. Charlotte Flair to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship: the actual match was one of my favorites of the weekend so it just pretty much stays as-is, untouched in the fantasy booking.

- Pat McAfee def. The Miz short and sweet. No changes.

- Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens def. The Usos to become the Undisputed Tag Team Champions: Again, this plays out the same way as it did in real life.

Night 2

- Brock Lesnar def. Omos: Remains the same.

- Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez win the Women’s Tag Team Showcase: Liv ends up getting the win after she counters an attempted Ronda Rousey armbar into a surprise crucifix pin.

- Backstage, Roman Reigns & Paul Heyman are with Solo Sikoa, having tasked him to accompany his Tribal Chief for the main event later. It’s briefly mentioned that the Usos haven’t arrived at the arena yet in the wake of their loss last night.

- Gunther def. Sheamus & Drew McIntyre to retain Intercontinental Championship: Another of my favorite matches in the actual WrestleMania 39, so you can’t really change things.

- Bianca Belair def. Asuka to retain Raw Women’s Championship: I was strongly tempted to change the result here, but the story about the young contortionist from Bianca’s entrance having lost her mother the day before would make things seem like bad optics if Bianca lost. That said, I’d still have Bianca win here, but in a way to help set up a rematch. She never hits the K.O.D. successfully on Asuka, and the win comes after Bianca reverses the Asuka Lock into a pinfall win.

- Instead of the whole Miz/Snoop Dogg/Shane McMahon fiasco. We instead get LA Knight appearing and talking about how he’s mad that WWE would dare have an LA WrestleMania without LA Knight. Bobby Lashley shows up and we get an impromptu match that Lashley wins.

- Finn Balor def. Edge in Hell in a Cell: It’s hard to book around an injury that happens during the match -- in this case, Finn Balor suffering a rather painful injury after a wrongly-placed ladder shot in the real match. That said, the finish here would see Damian Priest sneak in the cell as one of the “medics” as he helps Finn get the big victory.

- Cody Rhodes def. Roman Reigns: I went into great detail about how this match goes down in Part I of the Fall of the Bloodline booking, which you can read here.

RAW after WrestleMania (April 3rd)

Hour One

- The show opens with Triple H’s address, announcing that the WWE Draft will be coming next month. He then introduces the new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Cody Rhodes. The new champ cuts a promo about how he finished the story and how he wants to proudly represent WWE as its new top champion. That’s why he’s holding an open challenge tonight to see if anyone can beat him. It’s answered by Austin Theory and that’s your main event.

- Match 1: Asuka vs. Mia Yim: Just a fun opener match to re-establish Asuka as a threat after her Mania loss. She wins, but it’s not the end of her night yet...

- In the Bloodline’s locker room, we see Paul Heyman talking to the Usos and Solo Sikoa. This is where we first hear Roman Reigns has gone on a bit of a sabbatical and has essentially left Heyman in “charge”. Heyman says that while the weekend for the Bloodline was a nightmare, the Tribal Chief isn’t angry about it. He tells the Usos and Solo that they just need to take care of some things real soon.

- Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens bask in the celebrations of the RAW after Mania crowd cheering them on after their big championship win. Chad Gable & Otis interrupt, which Sami & KO see as a sign that they want a fight, so we get ourselves a match...

- Match 2: Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens vs. Alpha Academy: Sami & KO get the victory in a great 10 minute match, as this and Asuka/Mia Yim take advantage of hour one of RAW being commercial free. During the match, we see the Usos watching from the crowd, clearly not done with Sami & KO just yet...

Hour Two

- New U.S. Champion John Cena enters the ring and discusses how he taught Austin Theory a little bit of respect at WrestleMania and that he’s ready to take on all comers as the U.S. Champ. Enter Bron Breakker, who accepts Cena’s challenge. It should be noted that Bron is showing some heel tendencies here, which will continue on NXT the next night, when he attacks Carmelo Hayes. As for Raw...

- Match 3: Bron Breakker def. John Cena to win the U.S. Championship: I know what you’re thinking. A sudden title change seems too abrupt, but newly-turned Bron taking the U.S. Title with a dominant showing, then parlaying that into continuing his feud with Carmelo Hayes before graduating to the main roster proper would make for fun stuff.

- Match 4: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Carmella & Chelsea Green: the first of four women’s tag team contenders qualifiers. Liv & Raquel win, setting up a match with the winner of one of the other two women’s tag matches on SmackDown.

- Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair addresses the crowd about her hard fought title retention at WrestleMania. She says she’s ready for a new challenge, but that’s when Asuka catches her by surprise and sprays her with the green mist! It’s clear that Asuka is far from done w/ Bianca and this leads to a rematch for the Raw Women’s Title at Backlash.

- Becky Lynch and Lita are being interviewed backstage as they try to brush over the little miscommunication between Becky and Trish Stratus at WrestleMania. They talk about how they’re ready to face whoever wins the women’s tag team contender’s tournament, as Trish just walks off without saying a word.

- Match 5: Damage CTRL vs. Shotzi & Natalya: The second of the four women’s tag team contenders matches. Dakota & IYO Sky win this one.

Hour Three

- Seth Rollins is out in the ring to celebrate his win over Logan Paul. He talks about how he’s the best wrestler there is and that Logan Paul now knows how it feels to be on the business end of a Stomp. That’s when he’s interrupted by Grayson Waller from NXT. Waller takes exceptions to Seth’s bragging and notes that Logan Paul was a personal friend of his. We get a tense staredown, but Waller backs off, stating that he’ll fight Rollins on his time. Seth ends the segment by getting the fans to serenade Waller with his favorite song in the entire world. Waller leaves in a huff, plugging his ears to drown out the fans singing Seth’s theme.

- Match 6: Damien Priest vs. Rey Mysterio: Rey wins with a 619, but after the match, Dominik Mysterio gets into Bad Bunny’s face at ringside, sparking an altercation. Judgment Day get the upperhand, as Priest chokeslams Bad Bunny through the announce table.

- It’s announced after this that at Backlash, Dominik & Priest will fight Rey Mysterio & Bad Bunny in a special tag team match.

- The whole Bobby Lashley/Bronson Reed/Mustafa Ali segment happens here, which leads us to...

- Match 7: Bobby Lashley vs. Mustafa Ali: Lashley wins this match, obviously. But after the match, Bronson Reed blindsides Lashley and beats him down for a bit before Lashley fights back. Bronson manages to avoid a Spear and cooly backs up the ramp, simply laughing and clearly not thinking much of his new foe.

- The Miz complains about how his weekend turned out at WrestleMania. He’s sick of the surprises, and that’s when he’s interrupted by a returning Randy Orton. He flattens Miz with an RKO. 

- Main Event: Cody Rhodes def. Austin Theory to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Standard TV main event with Theory looking to make a name for himself after the biggest loss of his career at Mania night 1. Goes about 15-20 minutes (plus commercial break) w/ Cody retaining via Cross Rhodes. RAW concludes with Cody celebrating, as we can see Solo Sikoa watching the match backstage, flanked by Paul Heyman.

Conclusion

And that’s basically my version of WrestleMania 39 and the RAW After Mania to set up how things go down in the Fall of the Bloodline. Part II of that fantasy booking will be coming soon.