WWE No Mercy preview & predictions: Styles vs. Cena vs. Ambrose; Miz vs. Ziggler
Yes, we are back again with another WWE pay-per-view. Aren’t you all excited?
This week it’s No Mercy, a SmackDown PPV being held live in Sacramento, CA. The main event is a triple threat match pitting WWE World Champion AJ Styles against the former champion Dean Ambrose and a former 15-time champion in John Cena. All three have disdain for one another, cutting some great promos to build up to the main event. Everything on this show has been nicely built up, but with so many PPVs taking place now, it’s hard to get fully interested.
Here are the latest points following Clash of Champions:
Current prediction points rankings:
Steve Khan: (WWE SmackDown Live Recapper) (54 points)
Kyle S. Johnson: (Columnist) (52 points)
Bryan Rose: (New Japan/CWC Reporter) (52 points)
James Cox: (WWE Superstars Recapper & WWE DVD Reviewer) (50 points)
Jeremy Peeples: (Lucha Underground Recapper) (33 points)
Brian Hoops: (Daily Pro Wrestling History) (32 points)
Ryan Frederick: (UFC Reporter) (23 points)
PeachMachine: (University of Phoenix Online Mascot) (17 points)
Paul “Gramps” Fontaine: (MMA Writer and Recapper and new grandfather) (13 points)
Kevin LaRose: (WWE Main Event and Total Divas Recapper) (4 points)
JJ Williams: (NXT/CWC Roving Reporter) (3 points)
Jack Swagger vs. Baron Corbin
Bryan Rose: Corbin I guess? I mean if you really want to do something with Swagger you should give him momentum, but it’s obvious Corbin is the one they want to push to the moon.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Brian Hoops: Corbin gets the win here after Swagger won on TV. Corbin has been winning at house shows:
Winner: Corbin
Jeremy Peeples: Swagger won on TV, so Corbin wins on PPV. This feels like an odd use of both guys, but it is better than them just doing nothing.
Winner: Corbin
James Cox: Vince likes Corbin for some reason. They need to reboot Swagger, he has something to offer.
Winner Baron Corbin
Kyle S. Johnson: So, I guess they’re building up Swagger to establish Corbin as a threat to the top guys? Or something? I don’t know. Corbin wins; maybe he feuds with Swagger a bit more thereafter, maybe he doesn’t.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Ryan Frederick: I don’t know how I feel about this one. Baron Corbin should win, but who knows what they do. Coin flipping this one.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Paul Fontaine: Swagger won on TV, so Corbin wins on PPV. Basic WWE booking here.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Steve Khan: Corbin will likely get a cheap win after what happened on SmackDown.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Nikki Bella vs. Carmella
Bryan Rose: Nikki’s winning this one, unless they want to continue the feud. Given the lack of depth on this women’s roster, they probably have to. But let’s go with Nikkisawa anyway.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Brian Hoops: Since the Bellas show started, I will anticipate WWE will push her over Carmella.
Winner Nikki
Jeremy Peeples: With Total Bellas being a thing and Brie being pregnant, Nikki’s push is going to continue. Carmella could use the win more, but Nikki should win this one.
Winner: Nikki
James Cox: Nikki to win in four minutes or less. Those Total Bellas figures were poor, though, so who knows.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Kyle S. Johnson: Vince McMahon tweeted this week that Total Bellas is total entertainment. I don’t know that I trust his word on that, but the tweet itself should tell you what you need to know about this match’s result.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Ryan Frederick: I figure the fact that Total Bellas just started gives the outcome away. I don’t expect much from this.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Paul Fontaine: Carmella’s 15 minutes were up about two weeks ago. Nikki should win in a squash, although it will probably be a little more competitive than that.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Steve Khan: I wouldn’t be surprised with Carmella winning again, but with her new show out, Nikki will probably get her win finally.
Winner: Nikki Bella
WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler
Bryan Rose: I mean, I don’t think Dolph is going anywhere, so he has to win this time, right?
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Brian Hoops: Ziggler putting his career on line makes you think he has to win.
Winner: The Miz
Jeremy Peeples: This has easily been the best-built WWE feud of the last few months, and the Spirit Squad stuff was unexpected. They’ve been building Dolph up as the ultimate underdog here, so he has to win it and retain his career.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
James Cox: I’m not sure Ziggler is leaving, Miz has been great on the mic in the built up to this, which is what he does best. Should be a decent match.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Kyle S. Johnson: Kudos to both guys for making this feud feel like it means something. Right at the point where Miz seems to be hitting his stride as IC champ, it seems like Ziggler has to take the belt off of him. He’s been tweeting about his post-WWE bookings, which seems too on the nose to mean anything other than him winning, and I would rather see him lose just because that would take the story in a potentially more interesting direction. Things being what they are, Ziggler will just win, and the feud will continue.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Ryan Frederick: The fact that Ziggler is putting his career on the line screams swerve to me. This has been built very well and I’m actually very interested in this match.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Paul Fontaine: Buh bye, Dolph. He’ll probably come back under a mask but I hope he actually leaves. Miz is one of the top three acts in all of WWE and Dolph sucks.
Winner: The Miz
Steve Khan: They did a good job rebuilding this, as I previously had no interest in seeing these two wrestle again. I also have no idea who’s going to win. I’ll go with Ziggler if only because I don’t know how they get out of this otherwise.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss
{Editor’s note: These picks were made before we reported that Becky Lynch will miss the show due to injury)
Bryan Rose: Miss Bliss I think will miss, allowing Becky to get the win and retain her title.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Brian Hoops: No way they change the title here.
Winner Becky Lynch
Jeremy Peeples: This started out with promise, but they’ve been on auto-pilot. Becky lost on TV, so she will win the PPV match and retain the title.
Winner: Becky Lynch
James Cox: No need to beat Lynch yet. Expect this to be short and poor.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Kyle S. Johnson: Bex wins, no question.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Ryan Frederick: It is way too early to take the belt off of Becky, though I think Alexa gets it before the end of the year.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Paul Fontaine: I’m going with Bliss to win the match but Lynch to keep the belt so this feud keeps going. I really like these two together and Bliss has done far better than she had any right to.
Winner: Alexa Bliss
Steve Khan: I like these two, but they don’t seem to work well together. Hopefully they can pull it off. It’s too early for Lynch to lose, so I’ll go with her.
Winner: Becky Lynch
SmackDown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater and Rhyno vs. The Usos
Bryan Rose: The Rhyno/Slater team seems to be de-emphasized over the last couple of weeks, and more focus has been given to the Usos becoming the more dominant team. I think the real goal here is to have Usos and American Alpha feud over these titles, so I’ll go with my gut and say Usos will win the titles here.
Winner: The Usos
Brian Hoops: I think ultimately they are building to Usos vs. American Alpha, but too early to change title from Slater/Rhyno.
Winners: Slater/Rhyno.
Jeremy Peeples: The Usos have been doing way too many TV jobs to American Alpha to justify a title win right now. I’ll go with the Usos losing, but not clean.
Winners: Heath Slater and Rhyno
James Cox: I think The Usos win but the titles stay on Rhyno and Slater. Too early to change the titles, but good to keep the program going.
Winner: The Uso’s (no title change)
Kyle S. Johnson: The direction is clearly The Usos vs. American Alpha, but there’s no reason to rush to get there. Having Slater and Rhyno hold onto the belts for another month is the right thing to do, but I would not be the least bit shocked if they just put the belts on The Usos, either.
Winners: Heath Slater and Rhyno
Ryan Frederick: I wouldn’t be shocked at all if they put the titles on the Usos as that seems the eventual direction. It is way too soon to take them off of Heath and Rhyno. The team is working and they are super over. Keep it going!
Winners: Heath Slater and Rhyno
Paul Fontaine: Times up for Beauty and the Man Beast. The Usos win so they can start feuding with American Alpha over the belts.
Winners: The Usos
Steve Khan: I like the Usos here. They can extend this program with a win and keep building to a rematch with Jordan & Gable, this time for the titles.
Winner: The Usos
Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt
Bryan Rose: Ugh, I really don’t care. The spooky time stuff they do with Wyatt is so bad. Orton wins so we can all move on.
Winner: Randy Orton
Brian Hoops: Orton needs a win after getting killed and left for dead with no revenge by Lesnar. Orton has been going over at all the house shows.
Winner: Orton
Jeremy Peeples: This feud has fallen off the rails. Bray lost to Kane at the last PPV, so he really shouldn’t lose here — but he never wins, and Orton needs to be kept strong for title matches. I’ll go with a Bray win after Luke Harper returns.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
James Cox: Wyatt loses a lot, Orton lost to Lesnar and then they stick them together and do a terrible job with it. At this stage, Wyatt can lose and it won’t mean anything, but it depends what’s next for Orton.
Winner: Randy Orton
Kyle S. Johnson: Last time these two were scheduled to meet, I said that both men really needed a win, but Orton needed it more since he had just been killed by Lesnar. Orton was concussed, the match never happened, and somehow, Bray lost clean to Kane, a character who debuted 19 years ago. Fair to say that Bray now needs that win just a bit more. Harper will probably return to secure the win for Wyatt.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Ryan Frederick: Too much outlandish stuff being put into this feud. And I think it’s all just for Bray to lose. Again. I’m so lost as to what they want to accomplish with him, and with this feud.
Winner: Randy Orton
Paul Fontaine: Who could possibly care? Certainly not me. Let’s go with Bray with help from the returning Luke Harper, which is what I called for their last scheduled match.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Steve Khan: Orton seems in line for the next title shot, so he should win.
Winner: Randy Orton
WWE World Champion AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose vs. John Cena
Bryan Rose: AJ’s winning this. Will probably be a great match, too.
Winner: AJ Styles
Brian Hoops: Would be a huge mistake to take the title off Styles at this point. The Cena storyline is good, but could be terrific if it was the focus of WrestleMania.
Winner: Styles
Jeremy Peeples: AJ is riding a huge wave of momentum since winning the title. Cena is embracing the worn-down veteran role, while Dean always looks like he’s on day 14 of a two week bender. AJ should win, but I can see Cena winning at another show — probably Mania, to tie the official flair record. An Ambrose heel turn would make sense here too since they’re building him up as unstable and unpredictable.
Winner: AJ Styles
James Cox: Ultimately I think Cena is taking the belt back, but not yet. It’s only a matter of time before he equals Flair’s record. I think Styles will pin Ambrose. Should be a great match, what an absolutely crucial acquisition AJ Styles has been.
Winner: AJ Styles
Kyle S. Johnson: Too early to take the title off of Styles. He’s been great, and this feud has been pretty great all around. Styles wins; if they’re looking to keep both opponents relevant, Ambrose could have Cena cold before AJ takes him out, and then AJ opts to pin Cena again for more bragging rights.
Cena could survive another loss, and it builds a natural reason for him to chase AJ after Dean drops out of the picture. Or they could just have him beat Dean because that’d be easy enough to do. Either way, this should be a good match.
Winner: AJ Styles
Ryan Frederick: Again, it is way too early to change the title. Taking it off of Styles would be a huge mistake. He’s the best all-around performer in the company right now. The only way they take it off of him is to give it to Cena, but now is not the time for that.
Winner: AJ Styles
Paul Fontaine: I said last month that AJ would keep the title until the Rumble and I’m sticking with that. I would have AJ and Cena do a one-on-one match at Survivor Series and then do a rematch at the Rumble, which is where Cena wins the belt. Ambrose should probably take the fall.
Winner: AJ Styles
Steve Khan: Should be really good, but seems somewhat obvious that AJ Styles is winning.
Winner: AJ Styles