WWE No Mercy airs this Sunday, September 24, live on WWE Network. The Raw exclusive event is headlined by two massive matches — Braun Strowman challenging Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship, and John Cena taking on Roman Reigns in a battle of the John Cenas — as well as four other championship matches.
Here’s the No Mercy card as we know it.
WWE No Mercy 2017 Card:
1. WWE Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman
2. John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
3. Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
4. Raw Women’s Championship Fatal 5-Way Match: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax vs. Emma vs. Bayley
5. Finn Bálor vs. Bray Wyatt
6. WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match: Neville (c) vs.Enzo Amore
7. WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (c) vs. Jason Jordan
As per usual, here’s our complete rundown of the show, featuring analysis and predictions for all seven matches. Be sure to drop down into our comments section to let us know who you think’s winning what, and what you think will happen.
Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz vs. Jason Jordan
What Should Happen: If they’re ever going to officially turn Jason Jordan into Rocky Maivia, now’s the time. The Miz should seriously be above the Intercontinental Championship again soon, and giving Jordan the strap now will allow that while maybe pushing J.J. over the edge from “guy whose push we aren’t enjoying as much as we’d like” to, “guy who we’re gonna start booing the shit out of for existing.” The Rock did that, and Kurt Angle did it in one match.
You don’t lose much from switching the title here, you possibly gain a main-eventer, the young guy gets put over by the vet, and we begin some newer, fresher IC title stories about an accidentally entitled blue chipper surviving on the good graces of his dad and desperately trying to prove himself in front of increasingly hostile crowds.
What Will Happen: Honestly, it feels like Miz will retain. Jason Jordan got a little respect bump from those singles matches with John Cena and Roman Reigns, but not enough to get him much of a reaction in the six-pack challenge that earned him this title shot. I can never fully tell if they’re trying to have Miz elevate the secondary championship or if they’re just jamming up a guy who worked his ass off to get back to the top after years of futility, or if they want him to keep it forever or keep losing it just to get it back. They change their minds a lot.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – Since this is the first official singles match between these two, I think the Miz-tourage will help Miz retain. Jordan will likely win the IC title soon enough, but it probably isn’t going to be at No Mercy.
Chris Trew – This Jason Jordan situation feels like an NFL team that’s invested in a new quarterback and they are 1-3 and have a couple of tough road games ahead on the schedule and everyone’s like “ummm, is everyone okay here did we make the right move”. Then everyone tells themselves “it’s fine that we’re 1-3 yet and the only team we’ve beat isn’t that impressive, right? We’ve got time.” Anyway, Jason Jordan loses this match and if WWE isn’t careful we won’t believe in him moving forward and that’s awkward.
John Canton – Jordan winning the IC Title will probably happen before the end of the year, but there’s no reason to do it yet. This will be one of those matches where Jordan ends up losing because of the cheating of The Miz and his Miztourage buddies that ends up being a learning experience for young Jordan. If WWE is smart (that’s questionable at best), they would have Kurt Angle get involved in this story by having him prevent the Miztourage from interfering and Jordan wins the title that way. That’s what I would do a few months from now, but not yet. This match should see The Miz retain in a close match that likely will have a cheap ending.
Scott Heisel – The crowd is finally starting to warm up to Jason Jordan, so there’s absolutely no reason to rush the IC title swap. Let him wrestle a competitive match against Miz before losing via Miztourage interference, giving him some roadblocks to work his way through on the way to a rematch (and title swap) at TLC next month.
Cruiserweight Championship Match: Neville (c) vs. Enzo Amore
What Should Happen: You can’t have Enzo Amore get DESTROYED by everyone he fights for months and months and monts and then put him over your dominant Cruiserweight Champion, especially if the only wins Enzo’s gotten have happened on 205 Live in front of the tiniest portion of the Raw pay-per-view audience. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, but it’ll be the final nail in the coffin of the cruiserweight division. Neville should absolutely truck him in like, 90 seconds. And then you should demote Enzo to Saturday Morning Slam, which doesn’t exist anymore.
What Will Happen: What I just typed. Please. I feel a lot of stress about this match. Enzo should not win under any circumstances. I’d go as far to say that Enzo shouldn’t be a wrestler at ALL. A wrestling personality, sure, but not anyone who can beat the Cocky Chicken King Neville.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – After getting absolutely murdalized for weeks on end, I think Enzo’s big reward and hero moment is going to be having a semi-competitive match against Neville. He’s not going to win or anything, but he’ll have a chance to look halfway competent. And sometimes … that’s enough.
Chris Trew – I hope Neville does to Enzo what Braun Strowman did to him on the entrance ramp Monday night. I hope Neville Red Arrow’s Enzo so hard it sends him back in time to where he was enjoyable. I hope I don’t brag about how I disliked Enzo so much before it was cool to dislike him.
John Canton – Good luck to Neville trying to get a good match out of Enzo. It won’t be easy. At least the crowd cares about Enzo, so there will be more fan interest than normal. Keep the title on Neville and hopefully somebody else is built up to beat him for the title rather than Enzo.
Scott Heisel – Enzo isn’t going to win a match until 2018 at the earliest. Sorry, bro. Enjoy your merch checks while you have ’em.
Man Vs. Man Match: Finn Bálor vs. Bray Wyatt
What Should Happen: Man, I don’t want to watch this.
What Will Happen: I still don’t know why they booked this feud in reverse. You can’t start with The Demon and then work backwards to “the man.” If they were gonna do that, they should’ve slash could’ve had Wyatt make the “wrestle me without the paint” challenge at SummerSlam, not done a clean pinfall right before that, and had Finn have to go to the well for the rematch. And then Bray could bring something equally spooky, and we could get a crazy creepy supernatural guy fight on pay-per-view.
As it stands, what’s the end game? If Bray beats Finn, he’s beaten Finn twice and proved that Finn isn’t strong without the gimmick. If Finn wins, he’s the latest in a seemingly endless string of dudes who lose to Bray Wyatt once and then beat him a bunch of times in a row. I get the value in putting over “the man,” but if Finn doesn’t struggle without The Demon, is there a point to The Demon anymore? He’ll have beaten the “scariest” guy.
I don’t know. “Man versus man” has gotta be the least appealing sounding match stipulation WWE’s come up with since “stairs match.”
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – This is reaching Ziggler-Miz and Miz-Ambrose levels of soul-crushing repetitiveness, and I’m hoping against hope that this is the end of the feud. The one thing you can bet the farm on when it comes to Bray Wyatt matches is: Bray Wyatt loses.
Chris Trew – What if Bray Wyatt wins this match and then the rubber match is both Finn and Bray in Demon Costumes? Anything less than that and I’m upset.
John Canton – My interest in this feud is so low right now. Can we move Balor to Smackdown with Gallows & Anderson, turn him heel, have him win the WWE Title and then feud with AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura for the next two years? That would be better than this. It’s amazing how bad Wyatt’s feuds have been this year. He’s another guy I like, but the repetitive promos and poor booking of his matches have hurt him a lot. Balor will win and hopefully move on to better things.
Scott Heisel – FINN BALOR:
I reflect on my reflection
And I ask myself the question
What’s the right direction to go?
I don’t know
Am I a man or am I Muppet?
If I’m a Muppet, then I’m a very manly Muppet
Am I a Muppet…
Or am I a man?
If I’m a man, that makes me a Muppet of a man
BRAY WYATT:
I look into these eyes
And I don’t recognize
The one I see inside
It’s time for me to decide
Am I a man or am I Muppet?
If I’m a Muppet, well I’m a very manly Muppet
Am I a Muppet…
Or am I a man?
If I’m a man, that makes me a Muppet of a man
FINN and BRAY
Here I go again
I’m always running out of time
I think I made up my mind
Now I understand who I am
FINN BALOR:
I’m a man!
BRAY WYATT:
I’m a Muppet!
FINN BALOR:
I’m a Muppet of a man!
BRAY WYATT:
I’m a very manly Muppet!
FINN BALOR:
I’m a Muppety man!
FINN and BRAY:
That’s what I am
(Eh, Wyatt wins, who gives a shit.)
Fatal Five-way for the Raw Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax vs. Emma
What Should Happen: Emma wins, somehow, and Asuka debuts on Monday to attemptedly manslaughter her and becomes Raw Women’s Champion for life. The women’s division has to get their shit together to figure out how to beat her, causing Nia and Alexa to actually pair up and further dividing Sasha Banks and Bayley until one of them gets interesting again.
What Will Happen: WWE loves to add a bunch of people to a championship match, talk a lot about how the champion now has an X-percent chance of winning and how that means there will DEFINITELY be a title change, then not do a title change. So the smart money in my jaded brain is on Nia dropping a big leg on Bayley or Emma, Alexa stealing the win somehow, and Sasha Banks having some kind of problem with it, presumably aimed at Bayley.
Then you build to the Nia/Alexa title match you kinda farted away with a non-title match this week on Raw, Sasha and Bayley finally do something other than congratulating each other every time they talk, and keep Emma treading what you’re pretending to be “water” because of your hate-on for her.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – Poor Emma. Poor, poor Emma. She’s only here to get squashed by Nia Jax and then allow Alexa Bliss to steal the pin and retain, but Emma didn’t even get to be on television as Bayley made her return on Monday and got added to the match to make Emma even MORE of an afterthought in a match where she was already an afterthought. The only other thing I can imagine might happen here is a Bayley surprise title win, but regardless, my point stands: poor Emma.
Chris Trew – This doesn’t seem fair at all to America’s Most Deserving Champion Alexa Bliss. She doesn’t have to even be involved in the decision to lose the belt is something I heard 12 times on Raw so my guess here is that Bayley pins Emma? Sasha pins Nia? Nobody pins anyone because Asuka is coming? My gut says Alexa escapes.
John Canton – The infatuation with multi-women matches is annoying because they happen way too often and every time they happen they end up doing one of those repeated finishes whether it’s “heel steals the pin” or “face wins by not pinning the champ” leading to the inevitable rematch. Why is Emma in the match? The easy answer is to say “to take the pin” because that’s really the reason, but WWE has been going against the obvious a lot in terms of the women’s division, so it may not be that finish exactly. Bayley getting a title shot after missing about two months is pretty silly, so maybe she’ll get beat by Bliss. Banks can blame Bayley for losing and we can finally get heel Banks. Bliss to retain is my pick leading to an eventual match with Nia Jax that will probably suck like their match on Raw did.
Scott Heisel – Going with the ultra-dark horse here and picking Emma, only so she can gloat about how she is the best the women’s division has to offer, only to be immediately trucked by Asuka. Nothing like publically humiliating your talent for being an integral building block of what is now your corporate-mandated buzzword of a women’s division! Wrestling is so dumb sometimes.
Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins (c) vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
What Should Happen: Ambrose and Rollins retain. Strowman beats Lesnar and becomes Universal Champion. Ambrose and Rollins help Reigns defeat John Cena, then a reunited Shield promises to take the title from Braun for Roman. Braun gets Bray, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan back together to be his backup. All-out war.
(Every one of these predictions columns has to have a hopeless Shield reunion fantasy booking, right?)
What Will Happen: The Raw tag team division is a lot like its Smackdown counterpart right now. The title scene is a total of two (2) teams who are very good and are capable of very good matches with one another, so WWE just books them together over and over. And every few matches they switch the title, so they can use “rematch clause” as a reason to do a bunch more. On Smackdown, it’s the New Day and the Usos. On Raw, it’s these teams.
If I could decide what would happen, I would go with my old stalwart fantasy booking trope, “have the champions retain, ending the string of rematch clauses and allowing another team to challenge.” Not that I’m clamoring for another Club match on pay-per-view, but division are divisions of talent, not a pairing going around in circles.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – Ambrose and Rollins will retain and move on to … The Club? That can’t be right. The Revival needs to return in the most emphatic way possible. Or maybe Smackdown can loan Raw’s tag division some of the teams they aren’t using. Or maybe it’s time to remember Heath Slater and Rhyno work here! Nah, probably not that last one.
Chris Trew – The only reason Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose should be cool with each other is because we’re building to a Shield reunion. The only reason Sheamus and Cesaro should be teaming with each other is because we’re building to a League of Nations reunion with Cesaro replacing Del Rio, Tank Rusev replacing This Rusev, and Michael Tarver replacing Wade Barrett. Shield over League of Nations in an unfortunately forgettable match.
John Canton – It’s too soon to take the titles off Seth and Dean. They work very well as a tag team although I feel like Rollins has by far the most untapped potential of anybody on this show and at some point they need to give him a massive singles push again. This tag team thing is fine for a few more months, I guess. The only reason to do a title change is to have Sheamus and Cesaro drop them to the Hardys again, but we’ve already seen that feud. I don’t know what team will beat Rollins and Ambrose for the titles and when that may be, but a title change here seems unlikely. Seth and Dean for the win.
Scott Heisel – Is the Revival cleared to return yet? If so, Team SAD (Seth and Dean, try to keep up) retains and moves on to face the Top Guys. If not, they still retain, only they will continue feuding with the Club, so let’s hope the Revival is cleared to return.
John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
What Should Happen: Roman Reigns wins the dick measuring contest by spearing John Cena so hard it slices him in half diagonally like he’s in an anime.
What Will Happen: Are we doing another version of this at WrestleMania, or are we gonna give Roman the strong win, send John Cena off to film Transformers The Gathering or whatever, and book Roman vs. The Rock? How great would it be if Roman beat Rock in Rock’s official “retirement match,” then did the same thing to Cena next year? Then the same guy will have retired the three most popular guys with hair in WWE history in three consecutive years. Rock can grow out his hair a little for it.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – Cena’s dream match tour continues, and I’m very excited to see how this one shakes out. The promos leading up to this have been the dribbling poops, but Cena and Reigns are two of the best WWE pro wrestlers around, and I’m hoping they turn in an epic encounter. I think they will. I have high hopes they’ll deliver a four-star match. No matter who wins, no one’s going to be happy about the result online, so let’s just say … Reigns wins. Why not.
Chris Trew – Roman Reigns squashes John Cena because John Cena stays John Cena no matter what. Roman Summerslam 2014’s John Cena to pieces and then it’s on to the next one. Rock vs. Roman in New Orleans or bust.
John Canton – I have loved the build for this match. Too soon? Probably, but if “Big Match John” is going to be off filming movies the rest of the year and if he heads to Smackdown whenever he comes back then I see why WWE would do this. I think complaining about big matches happening too soon is a bit silly. The atmosphere should be great for this match with a torn crowd that will convince themselves they hate both guys, yet they paid money to see it. Wrestling fans are f’n weird. There’s a chance it could get clunky in spots because they haven’t worked together in years since Shield tag matches and both guys can get sloppy. I expect the finish to be a punch of nearfalls and kickouts of signature moves. They should get a lot of time too. Going with Reigns to win because he’s the younger guy that’s the “future” of the company while Cena recently put over Shinsuke Nakamura in another “too soon” match.
Scott Heisel – This match reminds me of a joke on the inside of a piece of Laffy Taffy I ate today:
Q: Why couldn’t John Cena wrestle Roman Reigns inside of a steel cage?
A: Because they would shatter the fourth wall!
Thanks, I’ll be here all week. But seriously: Cena loses here, then beats Roman in the rematch (probably at Royal Rumble, following a Survivor Series “can they co-exist?” kerfuffle when they’re on the same team), then Roman “retires” Cena at WrestleMania 34 next year. Hooray, I guess?
Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman
What Should Happen: By the end of the match the ring should be destroyed, the arena should be in ruin, and thousands should be dead. Or Braun takes 16 German suplexes and no-sells them all, forcing Brock to try a different move for the first time since 2014.
What Will Happen: I’m so excited for this, you guys. I hope they pull the trigger with Braun. He’s grown into the most popular character on the show, his work has been great, he’s charismatic on the microphone and in real life, and he’s a young, giant, new thing for WWE to play with. Lesnar goes out on his back for once, spends a while getting UFC out of his system again, and eventually returns for quadruple the money. And Braun Strowman should still be champion when he gets back.
Staff Picks
Bill Hanstock – Boy howdy do I want Braun to win this title. If they’re not going to make this a first-time match at WrestleMania, this is probably the right time to make that move, but sadly I think WWE is going to stick to their guns and have Brock retain all the way til next year’s Mania, when Reigns finally defeats him. The match EVERYONE wants to see! I’m going to hold out hope that Strowman will win, but it’s seeming more and more like a pipe dream.
Chris Trew – WWE is at its best when we’ve got a handful of people who can effectively pull off “this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me” moments when they win the heavyweight title. See Edge after the cash-in. See HBK’s first title. Braun is close but he’s not there quite yet. If Brock squeaks by here, that eventual Strowman title win is going to feel huge. I vote for the pleasure delay.
John Canton – This needs to be a No Holds Barred or Street Fight type match so they can brawl around the ring and break stuff like they did at SummerSlam. The match itself should be one of the biggest matches of the year with a hot LA crowd (unlike at their NFL games, go Rams) that will likely be going nuts the entire time. I hope we get the Lesnar we got at SummerSlam where he bumped his ass off and made Strowman look like a million bucks. If they have the proper match they should have then it could be outstanding since they really don’t have to do a lot to get a big reaction. What WWE should do is have Strowman win the title here. He has been built up better than anybody on either show over the last 14 months since the brand split and it should end with a Universal Title victory. Having Strowman lose this match would hurt him. Who cares if Lesnar loses? I like the guy, but he’s 40 and is probably taking the rest of the year off anyway. If Grandpa Vinny Mac wants Lesnar vs. Reigns for the Universal Title so badly at WrestleMania then have one of them beat Strowman for the title at Royal Rumble and he can do it that way. I’m picking Lesnar because that’s what I think WWE will do, but I want Strowman to win.
Scott Heisel – Listen: I literally bought a plane ticket to L.A. just to see this brutality in person. I do not give a f*ck who wins this match as long as I get to happily clap my hands like a cymbal-banging monkey as two gigantic man-beasts pummel each other for 20 minutes. I’m happy with either outcome, but I think it would be rad if Strowman got the strap, only so he has a new accolade to list on his Tinder profile.
That’s what we think. Now let us know what you think! And be here on Sunday for our open discussion thread, breaking news and results. Without any mercy!
