Each year, WrestleMania marks the culmination of the WWE storyline arcs. The winners of the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches are given an opportunity to defeat their respective world champions.
Videos by FanBuzz
Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble, and successfully defeated Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 35. Becky Lynch won the women's Royal Rumble, and successfully defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to become both Raw and SmackDown Live Women's Champion.
Since WrestleMania, Rollins has lost the Universal Championship back to Lesnar, who won the Money in the Bank match and successfully cashed it in at Extreme Rules. For Rollins' real life girlfriend, Lynch, she maintains her Raw Women's Championship, but lost her SmackDown Live Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair at Money in the Bank, who lost it the same night to Bayley.
RELATED: WWE Extreme Rules: The Seth Rollins-Becky Lynch 'Power Couple' Storyline Isn't Working
As far as the WWE Championship picture, Kofi Kingston achieved his dream after 11 years, defeating Daniel Bryan. Since then, Kofi has retained the title against WWE superstars Dolph Ziggler, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and Samoa Joe, among others.
As pro wrestling continues to become competitive with the advent of AEW, and AEW's acquisition of Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose), here are five storylines that WWE is using that may draw a boost of interest.
Kofi Kingston's Next Opponent
After the list of opponents Kofi Kingston has defeated since becoming WWE Champion, Randy Orton defeated him in a tag team match on the recent episode of SmackDown Live to put him at the top of the list. The feud between Orton and Kingston is 10 years in the making since the two were involved in a heated storyline back in 2009.
Since many rumors have circulated over the years that Kingston was a key contributor in ending Orton's push, this could have some real-life undertone to it with a good amount of authenticity.
Is the Undertaker Done with WWE for Good?
At the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, Undertaker redeemed his match at Super ShowDown against Goldberg by teaming with Roman Reigns to defeat Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre. After the match, Undertaker proverbially passed the torch to Reigns by hitting his chest and giving him an encouraging word about being the new Big Dog in town.
While this would be a good sendoff for The Phenom, there is always the chance of making an in-ring return. Ideally, a match against Drew McIntyre at either SummerSlam, WrestleMania, or even both, could happen from the aftermath of the match at Extreme Rules.
Is Kevin Owens the New CM Punk?
One of the most engaging storylines currently is Kevin Owens' rebellion against Shane McMahon. From what started during an episode of The Kevin Owens Show has now turned into a full-blown rivalry, which has also included Dolph Ziggler, who is feuding with Owens as well.
Based on the weekly hurdles that Shane gives Owens, along with the CM Punk-style pipebomb promo about numerous wrestlers being held back by Vince McMahon and the WWE Creative team. Most likely, this will lead up to a match between Owens and Shane at SummerSlam, reigniting a feud from 2017, which led to a Hell in a Cell match.
Could an NXT Call-Up Be Looming Before or After SummerSlam?
With the exception of Ricochet, Aleister Black, Lacey Evans and recently Nikki Cross, the majority of the NXT call-ups have not been properly utilized. While Heavy Machinery is starting to get more exposure and television time, others such as EC3, Robert Roode, Apollo Crews, Tyler Breeze (who returned to NXT), AOP, and several others are being grossly misused.
Seemingly, the anticipation of a call-up from NXT is not as exciting as it used to be, especially when the talent is being used better on the black and yellow brand. Right now, names such as The Velveteen Dream, Johnny Gargano, and current champion Adam Cole (and the Undisputed Era) are on the top of the list of transiting to the main roster. If any or all of these names get called up to the match roster before 2019, it would be interesting to see the direction WWE takes them.
Possible Opponents for Brock Lesnar
With Brock Lesnar commencing his third reign as Universal Champion, there are now many names on the WWE Raw brand who could be next in line if he gets past Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. As seen in the No. 1 contender battle royal on Raw, names such as Braun Strowman, Rey Mysterio, and Roman Reigns could be next in line. Others, such as Bobby Lashley and Bray Wyatt, would be interesting names to compete against Lesnar, but they would need to turn babyface.
Currently, based on his return, Wyatt is being booked as a heel after attacking Finn Balor. However, with a tweet apologizing for what he did, Wyatt could be playing his split personality gimmick from the Firefly Funhouse. Lashley against Lesnar would be a dream match, but unfortunately it does not seem like he will be turning babyface anytime soon.
With the advent of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff now being respective heads of Raw and SmackDown, it will be interesting to see where the direction goes for the rest of 2019. The "Raw Reunion" Show, which will feature names such as Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Steve Austin, would be a trip down memory lane, but it also could be a good start for a fresh start in WWE storylines.
