With the final casting announced for the SMACKDOWN part of the ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV, many speculations have risen regarding what might happen inside that dreaded cage, and who might come out of it as (New) World Heavyweight Champion, ultimately facing Sheamus at WRESTLEMANIA 28 on April 1st 2012.

The following analysis takes into account the recent SmackDown episodes, as well as some… uh… strange House Show event which occurred recently.

On the HEEL side: Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes and Daniel Bryan (those of you who still saw D.Bryan as a Face, really need to learn what Hypocrisy & Manipulative B*st*rd mean).
On the FACE side: The Big Show, Randy Orton (though if you say you rather see him as a Tweener, I promise: you won’t be sent to the stake), and The Great Khali (in replacement of Heel(?) Mark Henry, injured).

Sheamus hasn’t chosen yet which champion (WWE or WHC) he’ll face at WrestleMania and keeps the suspense, teasing both RAW & SMACKDOWN side. But with the probability to have a Chris Jericho vs CM Punk for the WWE title at WrestleMania, Sheamus will most likely choose to face the SmackDown champion for the WHC title.

Now, in the picture below, RED = the tension/hatred relationships & GREEN = the alliances

A quick glance can teach you several things:
- The Heels are much more organized than the Faces. Though it will be “every man for himself” in the cage, alliances created by Wade Barrett clearly announce that the Faces might have a really rough time at the beginning if they don’t temporary put aside their difference and gather.
- Randy Orton - the one who claimed he would be a 10-times champion (WWE & WHC) soon – starts with some bad omens as he obviously managed to get on everybody‘s nerves!

.As Sheamus is a FACE, his SmackDown opponent at WrestleMania 28 would most likely be a Heel (or a eventually Tweener in Randy Orton’s case):
- Daniel Bryan: he announced last year that he would main event WrestleMania and leave as the World Heavyweight Champion. But this was back when he had promised not to cash his MITB contract before WM (false!). He’s also busy building/confirming his Heel-turn as the one manipulating AJ’s feelings and adding to The Big Show’s guilt. If the outcome of that storyline (AJ waking up, or making a Heel-turn) isn’t brought in a hurry, Daniel Bryan is going to be busy for a few more weeks with the Big Show. Thus, he woudn’t be 100% focused on a feud with Sheamus preparing their WM28 match.
- Cody Rhodes: he has improved a lot these past months, but is actually in a feud against Justin Gabriel for the Inter-Continental title. Even if he lost his IC title on Smackdown 2012.02.17, passing directly to WH champ would be too soon for him.
- Wade Barrett: after being buried for many months, he has come back with an impressive victory streak, he nicely offered a few all-expenses-paid Holiday weeks to Randy Orton (even after the latter angrily refused to buy his book: “How to Fly Safely over Steel Stairs”), he got a new tee-shirt, a new theme… And even if his Barrett Barrage has suffered a bit recently, it is still holding on. What doesn’t kill him, will only make him stronger.
- Randy Orton: actually in “career-maker” mode, involved in a feud with almost anything that moves over the Mid-cart level, actually pushing Wade under the spotlights, but also starting to get involved with Daniel Bryan (now, that someone wants to kick D.Bryan’s arse is completely understandable…). He displayed a few impressive RKOs lately and more than ever (esp. since his injury), the crowd is behind him.

.On Marketing level: What kind of a match would make people most likely pay to see WrestleMania?

#1- WHC title: Sheamus vs Randy Orton: those two are at the top of the food-chain on SmackDown. Orton is one of the key marketing asset for the WWE. The public would be totally unable to guess who’d be winner of such a match. And to a public (live crowd & TV viewers) mostly american: one of the fighters is from USA. As both are (+-) Faces, such a match would be placed more for Sport/Stunt performances rather than just for a storyline.

#2- WHC title: Sheamus vs Wade Barrett: those two are getting a huge push, they have been opposed quite often in the past (TV & House shows), and matches from House Shows are reported as “Really Good”. Yet, even if Wade scored a few victories over Sheamus, people would probably most likely imagine such a match ending with a brogue kick through the Barrett Barrage. Here at wade-barrett.com, we are – of course – crossing fingers & toes for an ending such as: World Heavyweight champion Wade Barrett keeping his title at WrestleMania by defeating Sheamus with an impressive and memorable Wasteland through the ring (preferably just before John Cena’s match, so that he’ll be pissed off again…). The only problem – regarding American audience – is that both competitors are “foreigners”. The lack of any patriotic icon for the public to identify themselves to, could play against such a match.

#3- WHC title: Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan: It’d be the case where the “bad guy” is american, and the “good guy” is from… uh… some place announced on the world map as “Here Be Dragons”. Yet, the way Daniel Bryan’s heel-turn has been built recently, the crowd would probably root for the one whom John Cena once called the “human jar mayonnaise”, cheering Sheamus as Hero (and totally justifying that he’d strip Daniel Bryan from that belt).

The advantage in this 3rd case for the WWE: it would leave an open spot for another interesting – and totally storyline-justified – match: Wade Barrett vs Randy Orton into something like a “Breaking Career” match, ending their feud, and having one of them taking holidays/WWE-promos for a few weeks after that. This would be a bit deja-vu for Randy Orton. He already had a similar brutal type of match last year at WrestleMania27. Against another Nexus leader: CM Punk.

.But now, regardless of all the probabilities above, at Wade-Barrett.com all we want is our favorite Jackal to fulfill his dreams and become the first British-born World Heavyweight Champion!