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We are officially on the Road to Wrestlemania. Shinsuke Nakamura has punched his ticket for a meeting with the WWE Champion AJ Styles on April 8 following his memorable victory at the Royal Rumble, whereas Asuka continued her undefeated streak by winning the first ever Women's Royal Rumble Match, and now has the opportunity to face the Women's Champion of her choice. Filled with memorable moments, surprising returns, and impressive performances, this year's Rumble finally gave fans something to be excited for walking into the Wrestlemania season; something that had been missing in the past few years.
Speaking of impressive performances: how about the Iron Man and Iron Woman of the two Rumble matches? Finn Balor and Sasha Banks produced the best performances of their respective careers so far, with each of them starting their respective matches and being the third to last participant to be eliminated. With Wrestlemania only two months away, it is the right time these two get the necessary rewards for their marathon performance, which is nothing more than a meaningful feud, leading to a high profile match on the main card of Wrestlemania.
Sasha Banks, ever since her main roster debut along with Charlotte and Becky Lynch, has been the best overall female superstar, and among the best in the whole roster. Her matches with Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Alexa Bliss over the last two years have been the best matches in the women's division. Even then, she has not yet received a lengthy reign with the red brand's Women's title, with Charlotte holding the title for the major part of 2016, which later became Alexa Bliss' property ever since her transfer to Raw. Hence, The Boss was mostly an after thought for most of 2017.
Now, with a teased heel turn at Royal Rumble and a performance like the one she gave, it is the perfect time for Sasha to make a strong climb up the ladder. Asuka is the Rumble winner and is essentially guaranteed to face the Raw's champion, but the Alexa-Asuka showdown has already been done so many times that the excitement for the Goddess-Empress match has cooled down. Alexa has had a long run with the Women's title, and with the scheduled Elimination Chamber match at the namesake event, WWE should have Banks overcome the odds and become the champion again. Not only will this give Sasha the Wrestlemania feud she deserves, it will also add more intrigue to the red brand's women's division, with the showdown between the heel/tweener Banks and the undefeated Asuka would generate a lot more buzz and craze. Even better, if the rumoured match between Charlotte and Ronda Rousey is going according to the plans, why not have Sasha challenge the perennial underrated Smackdown woman superstar, Becky Lynch. She, too, deserves a meaningful feud now, and the heel/face dynamics, along with the brand supremacy stake, could elevate this matchup to a different level.
Finn Balor's 2017 was disastrous. Barring the excellent dream match again AJ Styles at WWE TLC, Balor was involved in a horrendous feud with Bray Wyatt for majority of the year. Just when things started to look promising for him after TLC, WWE had him pinned cleanly in the middle of the ring by, of all people, Kane. To make things worse, he was robbed of his Universal title rematch from the planned match at Royal Rumble because Vince McMahon thinks he is not "over enough" with the fans.
Well, if his Rumble performance is a sign, he is definitely over with the fans, atleast more than Roman Reigns. Balor is an all around great performer who has been a victim of some weird WWE booking. Wrestlemania season is the time when WWE builds megastars out of superstars. With the kind of performer Balor is, he deserves to be in the ring with the big guys of WWE like John Cena or Brock Lesnar. Inserting Balor into one of the speculated World title matches wouldn't be a bad idea as triple threat matches are always impressive (look no further than Wrestlemania XX or Wrestlemania 31). How about a match with 'Big Match John' himself? He doesn't deserve to be part of worthless multiperson tag matches or pre-show battle royals now, not after his performance at the Rumble. Finn Balor is a bonafide star. It's high time WWE starts realizing that.
