All week, we here at Sports Al Dente will be previewing all 14 matches on the WrestleMania 34 super card. This is shaping up to be one of the biggest WrestleMania’s in recent history, as every title will be defended on the card for the first time since 2001. Back then, though, there were only six active titles in WWE. This year, the ‘Mania card features nine title matches.
One of those title matches is The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) vs. Braun Strowman and a mystery partner for the Raw Tag Team Championship. This is one of the more peculiar matches on the card, as we don’t know who Strowman will choose as his tag team partner. There are a lot of rumors as to who this person will be, but WWE is keeping its decision close to the vest with this one. Let’s take a quick look at how we got to one of four tag matches announced for WrestleMania.
The Match
Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Braun Strowman and TBD for the Raw Tag Team Championship.
How We Got Here
Cesaro and Sheamus won the tag team titles from Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan at the Royal Rumble event back in January. The win made The Bar five-time tag team champions, which is crazy given how this tag team started out almost two years ago. Rivals that were forced to be tag partners, Sheamus and Cesaro have proven to be a formidable team since winning the titles for the first time in December 2016.
Meanwhile, Braun Strowman hasn’t been in a 2v2 tag team match since he tagged with Erick Rowan at a live event in July 2016. While he has been in Survivor Series tag team elimination matches, 8-man tag and 12-man tag matches, The Monster Among Men has mostly gone it alone in his WWE run. With no set plan for WrestleMania, though, Strowman decided to take matters into his own hands on the March 12th edition of Raw. Strowman entered himself into the tag team battle royal, winning the match and setting up a date with The Bar at WrestleMania.
The History
These three men actually teamed together at TLC, joining The Miz and Kane in a 5-3 handicap match against Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Kurt Angle. The five-man team couldn’t keep their cool, though, eventually shoving Strowman into the back of a garbage truck. Since then, the paths of these men have not intertwined…until now.
The Feud
Since winning the battle royal, Strowman has insisted that he could beat both Sheamus and Cesaro by himself at WrestleMania. However, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle said that for Strowman to challenge for the tag team titles at ‘Mania, he must find a tag team partner.
Cesaro and Sheamus have been trying to find out who Strowman will pick to team up with him at ‘Mania but to no avail. Strowman has defeated Cesaro and Sheamus in separate singles matches over the past few weeks to assert himself as a legit threat to the tag team championships.
Expectations
There is a lot of intrigue as to who Strowman will choose to be his tag team partner. A lot of signs point to it being either Elias or Samoa Joe. An NXT call-up could also be a potential partner for The Monster Among Men. People love Strowman, Cesaro, and Sheamus, and this tag match between the three of them should be an entertaining contest.
WrestleMania 34 takes place from The Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on April 8 with a special start time of 7 pm eastern/6 pm central. The show is streaming live on the WWE Network.