Taking stock two weeks out from WrestleMania 33 – ESPN

The journey from best friends to bitter enemies has made the United States championship match between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho a must-see attraction at WrestleMania 33.

Tim FiorvantiESPN.com

We are just over two weeks away from WrestleMania 33. Take that in for a second. We've gone from one match on the card to 11 (with a few more likely additions) in the past couple of weeks, and it feels like now is as good a time as any to take one last breath and take stock of where things stand.

The WWE on ESPN staff got together to answer three big questions -- what we're most excited about, what's the biggest problem and what realistic change we would make to make the biggest positive impact on the show.

Here's what we came up with, and we'd love to get your opinions as well, so tweet your answers to @WWEonESPN and get ready for the home stretch on the "Road to WrestleMania."

With personalities as big as their in-ring skills, the battle of former best friends will unquestionably arouse the crowd from start to finish. Few other performers in the business can entertain and captivate the way Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho can, and the soap opera between the two is that much more fascinating after their acrimonious split during the Festival of Friendship. Whatever the outcome, there's a good chance it will be the highlight of the show. -- Matt Wilansky

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KO vs. Jericho. It's going to be the best match of the night. I also expect the video package that runs before the match to be Oscar-worthy. -- Steve Braband

I think I'm most excited to see the Seth Rollins versus Triple H match ... if that's ever officially announced. While the storyline has been disjointed with a lack of air time by Triple H for most of the winter, and then the injury to Rollins, I think the build and emotion is there to make this one of the must-see matches of the night. It's likely a payoff that leads to much of what we'll see going forward between the two of them, and whoever else gets pulled in by proxy. -- Andrew Feldman

Since their poorly received WrestleMania match back in 2011, The Miz and John Cena have both shown significant improvement in the ring and on the microphone. Combined with the seemingly real-life hostility between Maryse and Nikki Bella, the foursome's mixed tag team match should be very entertaining. With Cena and Nikki's mainstream popularity and the rumored possibility of a postmatch marriage proposal, look for this match to gain headlines well outside the world of sports. -- Nick Irving

Say what you will about pairing AJ Styles with Shane McMahon, but they have the potential to create multiple WrestleMania moments built upon risks and acrobatics in this encounter. Could Styles have put on a classic five-star match with a superstar who had more of a prototypical wrestling style? Of course, but that's not what this is about. It's about the spectacle and the moments. It's about the memories, and I'm certainly excited about it. -- Sean Coyle

There have been two long-term stories that have been properly set up for big payoffs at WrestleMania, but I'll single out the Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton match for the WWE championship. At times the story of the Wyatt Family got a little rocky in the past few months, but the big moments -- their Survivor Series win, the tag title victory, all of the acrimony involving Luke Harper and finally Orton committing Arson in burning down the Wyatt compound -- all rang true. Wyatt's further decent into madness will be fun to watch in the coming weeks, and I don't think this match will be the end of things by a long shot -- Tim Fiorvanti

The main event, plain and simple. If it's Brock Lesnar-Goldberg, there is a serious risk of ending the show with a dud of a match, a la WrestleMania 20, especially since Goldberg hasn't competed in a bout that has gone longer than 90 seconds since his comeback. If it's Roman Reigns-Undertaker, the final image cannot (I repeat, cannot!) be the self-proclaimed Big Dog standing victorious over his fallen opponent. Just imagine that particular crowd's reaction. The best option seems to be Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, but I'm not sure that has the same cachet as the other two matches to close out the biggest day of the wrestling year. -- Wilansky

I'm nervous that the WrestleMania main event will be the shortest one in WrestleMania history. If Goldberg and Brock Lesnar close out the show -- and that seems likely at this point -- there's a good chance the match doesn't reach five minutes in length. That would be a major disappointment. The WrestleMania main event should be geared toward magnificence; the Goldberg/Lesnar outcome seems to be more geared toward making a definitive statement. -- Coyle

There was minimal significant in-ring action on SmackDown Live, but AJ Styles' efforts outside of the ring resulted in a WrestleMania match against Shane McMahon.

Austin Aries won a five-way elimination match Tuesday on 205 Live to seal his spot in a match against Neville for the cruiserweight championship at WrestleMania 33.

After the early part of Monday Night Raw followed a familiar pattern, the second half created the perfect kind of chaotic energy that should be abundant with two weeks before WrestleMania 33.

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I could write an essay about the downfall of the tag team division, but in honesty, my biggest disappointment is the disappearance of Luke Harper in the past few weeks. He was on the precipice of what could have made for a very interesting dynamic in a triple threat match for the WWE championship, but after losing in a very entertaining qualifying match with Styles, he has completely disappeared. Harper played a big part in making Wyatt-Orton so special, and he deserves more than a run-in or a token spot in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

I think there are a number of disappointments, but the Braun Strowman omission in a significant match is probably on the top of my list. He's been built so well since the draft, only to be used as a stepping stone for Reigns on his path to The Undertaker. Strowman has earned his WM spotlight and deserves to be booked better in Orlando, so we'll have to see how the next couple of weeks go. -- Feldman

For the second WrestleMania in a row, Styles will be in a midcard match. At nearly 40 years old, how long can he maintain his exciting in-ring style? His match with Shane should be fun, but the WWE could be wasting one of AJ's prime years in which he could have easily produced a match of the year candidate against someone like Wyatt, Cena, or even a debuting Shinsuke Nakamura. -- Irving

My biggest concern is how Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, American Alpha and other young superstars are used. They need to get their moment, and at this point it does not look like that will happen. -- Braband

I'm stating the obvious, but a legitimate Reigns heel turn would send the crowd into a frenzy and set up months of fresh, compelling storylines. Ironically, it might also help garner the fan support the WWE brass has long wanted for Reigns down the line. True, many have hungered for this character change for a long, long time to no avail, but, c'mon, it's WrestleMania -- bring on the swerve. -- Wilansky

Shane. McMahon. Dude went through a car window on an episode of Smackdown. Imagine what's next. He's going to win the "top moment" of Wrestlemania for the second straight year. -- Braband

The realistic change I'd like to see in the next few weeks is adding Strowman into the WrestleMania match between Reigns and The Undertaker. He deserves to be in the spotlight and has the agility to make this match shine, and can help patch over some holes that might otherwise show in a match between just Reigns and Taker. On another note -- can we make Shane versus AJ Styles a no-DQ match? -- Feldman

The SmackDown Live women's division has been one of the highlights of the show Tuesday nights, but the multiwoman match at WrestleMania seems a bit thrown together. NXT women's champion Asuka puts her title on the line the night before at NXT TakeOver: Orlando and could lose it on the one-year anniversary of her championship victory. Insert her into this match the next night as a surprise entrant, give her the title and create a memorable moment. -- Coyle

The Styles-Shane McMahon match should be filled with a ton of aggression and will undoubtedly include some exciting spots. But what if Styles attacks Shane again on SmackDown next week, sending him to the hospital and no longer allowing SmackDown's commissioner to fight at WrestleMania? Needing a replacement, GM Daniel Bryan announces that Styles will have to instead fight someone he knows very well from his time before the WWE -- Nakamura. -- Irving

While the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will get a lot of guys on the card, I think the cruiserweight division deserves a little more love than (the admittedly exciting) title match between Neville and Austin Aries. What about including six-to-eight of them in a ladder match to conclude the kickoff show and amp up the crowd heading into the main card? It could be for the next in line to be the No. 1 contender for the cruiserweight title, or their own version of Money in the Bank. Akira Tozawa, Rich Swann, TJ Perkins, Brian Kendrick, Mustafa Ali, Ariya Daivari, Jack Gallagher, Noam Dar and Tony Nese could each benefit from the showcase, and any of them could be the next one up, and it would be a shame to end the streak of entertaining ladder matches at WrestleMania. -- Fiorvanti

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Taking stock two weeks out from WrestleMania 33 - ESPN