The road to WrestleMania is always an interesting one. ‘Mania is the biggest pro wrestling show of the year in terms of live attendance, PPV viewers, and DVD sales. It’s a show that inevitably becomes a part of the historical record for WWE, meaning that, unlike the average TV show or B-PPV, whatever happens there—for better or for worse—will be remembered by the fans.

Given this level of importance, it’s logical enough that fans would get invested in what will happen at the show with the rumor mill often getting fired up a year out or even earlier.

WrestleMania forecasts that come out so far in advance, though, often can’t take into account injuries that will take performers or the way that one wrestler might catch fire with fans while another might totally stall out in the eyes of the fans. Even just one month ago, Batista vs. Triple H was widely expected for New Jersey, and the general consensus was that Roman Reigns would work his record fifth WrestleMania main event, probably in either a Shield Triple Threat or dream match with The Rock. Between Hunter getting hurt at Crown Jewel and Reigns’s battle with leukemia, everything we knew about the early ‘Mania build seems to have short-circuited.

So what can we expect between now and WrestleMania 35? We still can’t know for certain, but based on current trends, reports, and the talents available to WWE, this article speculated about 20 storylines that may well take shape in WWE on the road to WrestleMania.

20 Braun Strowman Wins The Royal Rumble

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Braun Strowman is a unique attraction. His size and look make him an instant draw. Moreover, WWE has booked him as a dominant force whom only Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns can compete with. The big hole that remains in the Monster Among Men’s resume, however, is that he has yet to capture a world title.

It looked as though Strowman might have been lined up to capture the Universal Championship at Crown Jewel. However, WWE wound up going with Brock Lesnar instead. Some reports suggest Strowman is working hurt, while others have indicated that there uneven perceptions of him from management. Another possibility? WWE is waiting to give its next big star—particularly in the absence of Reigns—his WrestleMania moment.

There are a number of possibilities for who wins the Royal Rumble and the requisite title shot at WrestleMania. Strowman may be the most obvious choice among them.

19 The Miz Wins The WWE Championship

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The Miz has had a terrific run these past few years, standing out from the pack on both SmackDown and Raw. His feud with Daniel Bryan may have been the most intriguing rivalry SmackDown had going, and with Bryan's recent heel turn, a Miz vs Bryan feud in a reversal of roles can be in the works.

While The Miz seems to have a storyline going with Shane McMahon, with Bryan rejuvenated as a heel champion, the WWE can provide a fresh take on the feud, with Miz turning face and challenging Bryan for the title at WrestleMania.

18 Batista Vs. Randy Orton

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Batista has publicly expressed an interest in one more run with WWE. Moreover, his appearance on the 1,000th episode of SmackDown seemed to plant the seeds for a match between him and Triple H, after they teased a confrontation during the Evolution reunion segment.

However, Triple H got hurt at Crown Jewel. WWE could wait on Batista coming back for one more match, but The Animal isn’t getting any younger and he has a movie schedule to work around now. WWE may well go ahead with his last WrestleMania and if so, Randy Orton makes sense as his substitute opponent.

Orton came up with Batista as the young guns of Evolution. While they have clashed before the pairing would still feel relatively fresh for the years in between, and Orton is one of the few full-timers with the credibility to make sense against Big Dave.

17 Charlotte Flair Wins The Women’s Royal Rumble

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Charlotte Flair was notably absent from the first women’s Royal Rumble on account of holding the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the time. It only makes sense that WWE would want to book one of its chosen one top stars into the next iteration of this match. Moreover, with Asuka having won the first Rumble only to lose at WrestleMania and get lost in the shuffle, WWE is likely eager to have a winner who accomplishes more important things this second time around.

Flair could use her Rumble win to justify coming back to challenge arch-rival Becky Lynch. Alternatively, she might use it to hop to Raw to challenge Ronda Rousey if WWE doesn’t sign a special attraction part time talent for that purpose at WrestleMania 35.

16 Dean Ambrose Sidelines Seth Rollins

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Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose has the potential to be a special storyline. The two guys are top tier talents who are over with fans and can go in the ring. Moreover, while we have seen this match quite a few times, it feels fresh with Rollins as the face and Ambrose as the heel.

However, given Ambrose and Rollins are already feuding, could WWE reasonably stretch this feud to WrestleMania as reports suggest? One way of getting there would be an angle with Ambrose taking out Rollins for a month or more to justify keeping them apart in the interim, besides adding a little extra fire to the rivalry as The King Slayer battles back from a kayfabe beating.

15 Shawn Michaels Gets Called Out

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Shawn Michaels made a big time return to WWE for Crown Jewel. The jury is still out on whether he’ll work another match, but with Triple H and Roman Reigns out, WWE may well feel as though it needs his star power and credibility for WrestleMania.

There are plenty of dream matches awaiting Michaels against the likes of AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, and a number of others. On the road to WrestleMania, we may well see a younger talent lay down the challenge to lure HBK onto the Grandest Stage of Them All one more time.

14 Cyborg Arrives In WWE

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Like professional wrestling, MMA has its dream matchups between stars that build tremendous anticipation among their fans, but may or may not ever actually come to fruition. Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg is one such fight that between being signed to different promotions and fighting in different weight classes never came together. Maybe it would have had Rousey’s UFC career not come to an abrupt in with back to back devastating losses, the fight would have materialized. Instead, Rousey left for WWE.

Rumor has it WWE is interested in bringing this confrontation to their own ring, and given the talents crossing over between UFC and WWE in recent years, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Moreover, WWE is quickly running out of credible opponents for Rousey, so drawing in Cyborg for this unconventional dream match could be quite the story in the build to ‘Mania.

13 The Authors Of Pain Dominate

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The Authors of Pain were a tremendous act for NXT. Like The Ascension before them, they were a dominant big man team, with the added bonus that Akam and Rezar were quite good in ring talents as proven in stellar matches with #DIY and The Revival. The monsters proved themselves surprising adept at selling and playing de facto faces, too, opposite The Undisputed Era.

The AOP found itself directionless and largely lost in the shuffle for its first six months on the main roster, but now that the upper card teams of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre both appear done with the tag titles for now, the AOP look like they’ll have the chance to run with the gold. For the time being, no regular team on Raw really looks like it could challenge them, and the team may well hold onto the titles straight up to WrestleMania.

12 Aleister Black Debuts On The Main Roster

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Aleister Black has been a unique and well protected act in NXT. He assembled an impressive run of matches in winning his way through the ranks and capturing the NXT Championship. Once he finishes his business with Johnny Gargano (and potentially Tommaso Ciampa) one has to assume WWE won’t hesitate to call him up to the main roster.

The conventional way of doing business would see Black move up after WrestleMania, and that’s certainly a possibility. He’s a big enough deal on a stacked enough NXT roster, though, that WWE may well cash in on him on the main roster sooner, potentially with a debut in the Royal Rumble match.

11 Drew McIntyre Turns On Dolph Ziggler

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Many fans balked at Drew McIntyre returning to the main roster as Dolph Ziggler’s sidekick. In the months to follow, they proved an able tag team as McIntyre transitioned to more equal and arguably greater footing on the roster as compared to The Show Off. The next stop for the duo looks like a split.

For McIntyre to thrive as the main event level talent he seems earmarked to become, he probably won’t stick with Ziggler for long. Meanwhile, Ziggler’s style lends itself at least equally well to playing a face as opposed to a heel role. Look for McIntyre to turn on his running buddy, and likely as not set up a WrestleMania confrontation between the two of them.

10 Asuka Vs. Becky Lynch

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A year ago, when Asuka was still new to the main roster, it looked as though she might be the next big thing for women’s wrestling in WWE. The bloom is off the rose now for Charlotte Flair beating her at WrestleMania 34 and Carmella fending off her challenges in the months to follow.

Asuka is, however, still mostly protected and positioned such that WWE could believably spot her back in either title picture without much rebuilding. While she’s unlikely to challenge for a title at WrestleMania this year, she’d be a totally reasonable challenger to tide a champ like Becky Lynch over until the biggest show of the year.

9 Finn Balor Moves To SmackDown

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Finn Balor finds himself in the awkward spot of being an upper card guy with a big glass ceiling over his head on Raw, positioned squarely behind the former members of The Shield and Braun Strowman.

WWE has shown glimmers of wanting to push him, including the dominating fashion in which he beat Baron Corbin this summer. However, the best opportunities to make the most out of this special talent look to be innovative SmackDown where he is on more even footing with the brand’s top stars and could get a fresh start. His issues with Corbin as an authority figure could provide a storyline out to get the Demon King exiled from Monday nights.

8 Brock Lesnar: Dual Champion

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Many fans were critical of WWE’s choice to put the Universal Championship on Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel. The general consensus was that his part time champion gimmick had grown tired, not to mention that most of the matches from his preceding reign weren’t all that great.

It may be that the prospect of Lesnar reigning as Universal Champion in WWE and Heavyweight Champion in UFC was too intriguing for Vince McMahon to turn away from. A fight between Lesnar and Daniel Cormier has been shaping up for the Octagon. It’s hard to call the Beast Incarnate a favorite in that scenario, but the prospect of Lesnar walking into WrestleMania with titles from both promotions certainly would be a spectacle. Moreover it would make it an even bigger win for whoever does take Raw’s top title off him.

7 The Bludgeon Brothers Challenge The Bar

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Between The Bar, The Usos, New Day, and The Good Brothers, one could argue the tag team picture on SmackDown is stacked. The trouble is that these teams have worked each other a lot and it’s hard to imagine any permutation of them feeling fresh going into WrestleMania season.

The Bludgeon Brothers could be waiting in the wings, though. Harper and Rowan were rolling as dominant champs before Rowan got hurt. If the team can get back in time for ‘Mania, they could freshen things up as instant title threats, maybe even with a face turn to challenge Sheamus and Cesaro.

6 Kevin Owens And Sami Zayn Team Up Again

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Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have spent most of their time under WWE contract playing enemies. However, for the last half year or so before Zayn went down to injury they formed an alliance as heels who played a lead role on SmackDown before transitioning to Raw.

In Zayn’s absence, Owens largely floundered, got lost in the shuffle and edged toward a face turn once he found himself needing time off.

Despite being a former Universal Champion, he could certainly use a lift and Zayn returning to team back up might be just the ticket, be it as heels or faces. WWE may well hold off Zayn’s comeback until after WrestleMania, but if he’s back sooner, it could be in both performers’ best interests and perhaps they could even be slotted opposite the Authors of Pain in the tag title picture.

5 Ronda Rousey Vs. Natalya

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Ronda Rousey has largely dominated the women’s roster on Raw and it seems like only a matter of time before she’s booked against Natalya.

At this point in their respective careers and given how they’ve been booked, there’s no reason to think Natalya would beat Rousey. However, The Queen of Harts is both a skilled enough worker to deliver one of Rousey’s best matches to date, and the story WWE had told of their friendship would at least put the Rousey character into some emotional peril.

Rousey vs. Natalya could be the program to tide us over until WrestleMania or, if prospective opponents with more star power don’t materialize for the Baddest Woman on the Planet, thus pairing could work for ‘Mania itself.

4 Mike Kanellis Captures The Cruiserweight Championship

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After getting a spotlight debut, skipping NXT for the main roster, and first appearing unannounced on PPV, ROH alumnus Mike Kanellis looked like he had a bright future ahead of him. However, he was promptly booked into oblivion before taking time away to deal with substance abuse issues and prepare for the birth of his first child.

Kanellis debuted on 205 Live recently and this might be just the fresh start needed for a guy with good personality, accustomed to working smaller, more athletic talents from the indies. On this smaller stage, it’s entirely possible he’ll collect his first WWE gold between now and a WrestleMania.

3 Jinder Mahal Disposes Of The Singh Brothers

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The Singh Brothers were in the right place at the right time, working in developmental when WWE decided to give Jinder Mahal the push if a lifetime, straight to the WWE Championship. It’s tell that neither Singh got any kind of singles push or even inserted into the tag team mix, but were rather strictly assigned to the role of Mahal’s sidekicks.

Now that Mahal himself is sliding further and further back toward his lower mid-card role, the clock seems to be ticking on the Singh Brothers. As a way of writing them off and perhaps as one last attempt to fire up Mahal’s character, keep an eye out for him to take out his henchmen to run solo going into WrestleMania.

2 Paige In A Proxy Feud

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Paige has largely succeeded in her transition from wrestler to on air authority figure. One piece missing from her work thus far, though, is actively working a sustained program from her SmackDown GM post.

No, Paige can’t work a match herself at this point, but she can work a proxy feud with someone representing her and someone representing a fellow non-wrestler whom Paige can have a war of words with.

Angles like this can be clunky, but they can also add more substance to an authority figure’s character while adding some weight by association to the performers actually working matches.

1 A Face Turn For Samoa Joe

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Samoa Joe exceeded expectations in his NXT run and has gone on to largely thrive on the main roster including repeatedly finding his way into world title programs and feuds with top tier talent.

Unfortunately, on both Raw and SmackDown, Joe has repeatedly found himself on the losing end of his high profile programs.

For him to stay relevant in the upper card much longer he may well need a character change. A face turn could set him up nicely for his first WrestleMania match. Not to mention, turning Joe could open up many more possibilities in terms of potential opponents.