WWE Stomping Grounds: 5 Things you need to know before tonight's PPV

WWE Stomping Grounds is just hours away from us and I won't be shocked if most of you are not excited about the show tonight. WWE has to be blamed for it as they haven't built up the card properly, and the lack of freshness in WWE programming is clearly visible.

It is always a problem when you have major PPVs every other week and I don't get why WWE needs to do so many PPVs in a year. Too much of anything is a problem, and it is about time Vince McMahon realizes it.

Coming to the card, there are nine matches announced for the show, with seven championships on the line. The chances of any of them changing hands are low, but WWE has been known to pull out surprises at the last moment.

In this article, let's take a look at the five things you need to know before tonight's PPV- WWE Stomping Grounds. Let us know your predictions for the PPV in the comments section below.

---

#5 Ricochet gets his first United States title shot

Can Ricochet win the biggest match of his career?

In the latest WWE NEWS, The United States Championship has improved so much in the last few months, especially after Samoa Joe got his hands on the title. After having a very personal feud with Rey Mysterio for the championship, which might not have ended completely, Joe will be facing a new opponent tonight at Stomping Grounds - Ricochet.

The One and the Only won a fatal-five-way match this past week on RAW to earn himself a shot at the United States Championship. While Ricochet will certainly go into this match as the underdog, the guy possesses enough talent to take away the title from the Samoan Submission Machine. If Ricochet is successful in doing so, it will be his first main roster championship victory. The superstar has previously won the North American Championship in NXT.

This match, if done properly, has the potential to be the match of the night as both of these wrestlers are two of the best in the world at what they do. One major surprise that we can get is the involvement of Rey Mysterio or his son Dominic in the match to cost Joe the title.

With Joe injuring Mysterio at Money in the Bank and then attacking him again a few weeks ago on RAW, this might well be the chance for Dominic to avenge his father and give one back to Joe. The rumors suggest that Dominic has signed an official deal with WWE and if that is true, we might see him in the ring soon.

#4 Poor ticket sales for the PPV

This is an alarming situation for WWE!

It is no secret that WWE has been fighting a battle with TV ratings for the past several weeks. But this issue has taken a whole new level now as the ticket sales for the Stomping Grounds PPV has been extremely disappointing. It has come to such an extent that WWE has been selling the ticket as low as $20 and is also running a two-for-one scheme.

While many fans are giving All Elite Wrestling the credit for taking fans away, in reality, this is more of a mistake from the side of WWE than anything else. The card has been filled with rematches and many feuds haven't had proper build-up, leading to the lack of interest from the fans.

Apart from a couple of matches like Samoa Joe-Ricochet and Kofi Kingston-Dolph Ziggler, fans are not excited to witness the other matches, and that is something WWE needs to take care of in the future.

#3 WrestleMania rematch

Can the Big Dog put Drew down once again?

Roman Reigns has been involved in yet another authority feud for the last couple of months with the so-called Best in the World, Shane McMahon. The special part of this feud has been the involvement of Drew McIntyre as Shane-o-Mac's sidekick.

After interfering and assisting Shane in winning his match against Roman Reigns at WWE Super ShowDown, The Scottish Psychopath is all set to lock horns with the Big Dog once again after their WrestleMania encounter earlier this year.

The chances of McIntyre winning this match clean are as high as R-Truth becoming the Universal Champion, but one can never count out the outcome of Shane interfering to put down Reigns twice in a month.

The rumored match card for the next PPV, WWE Extreme Rules has been advertising a handicap match with Roman Reigns taking on the team of Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre. If that is indeed true, brace yourself as this rivalry is not looking to end anytime soon. Let's just hope Drew can recover from this and get back to being the monster that he was not long ago.

#2 Who will be the Special Guest Referee?

Who will Corbin choose?

Arguably, the biggest question heading into Stomping Grounds tonight has been that who will be the special guest referee for the Universal Championship match between Seth Rollins and Baron Corbin.

This past week, we saw Rollins lay waste to every aspiring referee for the match by viciously attacking them all with a steel chair. With no referee finalized yet, it does seem like WWE has a huge surprise up their sleeves for us.

There have been speculations of the Beast in the Bank, Brock Lesnar ,taking up the job, but with Baron supposed to name the referee, it does not make sense for him to choose Lesnar for this job. Paul Heyman is another name that has been thrown into the mix, and while the advocate mentioned on RAW that he would not be the referee, you can never trust him, right?

There also have been some out-of-the-box speculations of Bray Wyatt being the special guest referee, but the chances of that happening are very low. Who do you think will be the guest referee tonight?

#1 The Fiend has been unleashed

The last episode of Firefly Funhouse had many indications of it being the last segment of the series. With Bray Wyatt/The Fiend disappearing at the end of the last episode, all signs point towards the evil monster being unleashed.

Although Wyatt has claimed that The Fiend is here to protect us and he has control over him, don't be surprised if that's not the case. It's evident that this new Bray Wyatt is even more demented and cryptic than his former self and believes in the ideology of "hurt and heal".

There are high chances of Bray Wyatt appearing on this week's RAW or SmackDown, but we could get an early surprise if he decides to show up tonight at Stomping Grounds. If he does indeed make an in-ring appearance, it would be interesting to see who does he go after first, and also what happens to his Funhouse friends - Mercy the Buzzard, Abby the Witch, Ramblin' Rabbit, and Huskies the Pig Boy.