Predicting the match order at No Mercy 2017

It's one thing to predict the winners and losers at No Mercy 2017, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced 7 different matches for the main card of No Mercy 2017, not counting the Kickoff match between Apollo Crews and Elias.

Here is my subjective view of how important each of these 7 segments rank on the No Mercy card, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
2. John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
3. Bliss vs. Banks vs. Jax vs. Emma vs. Bayley
4. Ambrose & Rollins vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
5. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
6. The Miz vs. Jason Jordan
7. Neville vs. Enzo Amore

It is important to come up with a list like this to get an idea of which matches are going to be placed in the key spots on the card or take up the most time, and which matches might end up in the cool-down spots or be given the least amount of time.

Main event

Lesnar and Strowman will battle it out with Reigns and Cena for the main event slot. Either match is a worthy selection to main event this card, but the championship defense gives Brock’s match the edge.

Opening match

The opening match of the night is usually one of the mid-level attractions with good work rate that normally doesn’t require a dedicated video package ahead of time to hype it up.

The Ambrose tag team match was one of the most prominent matches on the SummerSlam 2017 card and so it wasn’t really a great fit for the opening match of that night. Things have changed for No Mercy, as nothing new has really happened with the tag team championship feud, and WWE has just been filling time with basic matches and segments getting to this rematch. The match is less interesting than it was one month ago, but still retains strong enough star power to be worthy of opening No Mercy. It’s pretty much the ideal match for the opening slot this time around.

The women’s championship match or Balor’s match could give it a run there, but both of those matches are better suited for those dedicated video packages that typically aren’t attached to the opening match of the night.

Miz and Enzo are in matches that don’t feel important enough for the opening slot, though an Enzo promo can never be ruled out for the opening of any event.

I’m going to play it safe and stick with the tag team match.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Ambrose & Rollins vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

What about Cena vs. Reigns?

Cena versus Reigns will likely wind up in Segment 5 or Segment 6, depending on whether WWE decides to use one match as a cool-down between the two most important matches of the night.

Enzo and Jordan’s matches stand out as the potential matches that could be thrown into the death slot between Cena and Brock. These two fights are title matches and from my viewpoint could both see title changes, so the death slot doesn’t really feel like a good fit for either one. However it would probably give Miz more material for future promos where he rants about the lack of respect shown to him by WWE.

WWE just showed last month at SummerSlam 2017 that they are willing to end a show without using any cool-down match before the main event. My best guess is that WWE will probably throw in a filler Curt Hawkins defeat in between Cena’s match and Brock’s match. Therefore out of these 7 announced matches for the card, I’m going to place Cena in Segment 6 right next to Brock in Segment 7. I think the crowd will be hugely amped up for both matches and WWE shouldn’t hurt one of the other 5 announced matches by putting them into such a difficult spot in between. That’s why Curt Hawkins is on the roster.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Ambrose & Rollins vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
Segment 7: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

Everything else

One of the least important matches of the night usually lands in Segment 2, so that means either Enzo or Miz. I’ll pick the one that I expect to have a shorter match time for Segment 2, so that means Enzo and Neville get that spot.

At SummerSlam 2017 once WWE got past the opening match, they pretty much structured the card by laying out the matches from less important matches like Cass and Big Show, to mid-tier matches like Balor or Sasha, and placing the most important matches all at the end.

I think No Mercy should follow a similar structure. Once the opening match is out of the way, the matches should be placed in roughly increasing level of importance. With Enzo in Segment 2, that means Miz gets Segment 3.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Ambrose & Rollins vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
Segment 2: Neville vs. Enzo Amore
Segment 3: The Miz vs. Jason Jordan
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
Segment 7: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

That leaves Segment 4 and 5 for mid-tier matches featuring Balor versus Wyatt and the women’s championship match.

I’m going to put Balor in Segment 4 so there aren’t four consecutive championship matches to open the night; that leaves Segment 5 for Alexa’s championship defense.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at No Mercy, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: Ambrose & Rollins vs. Cesaro & Sheamus (16 minutes)
Segment 2: Neville vs. Enzo Amore (9)
Segment 3: The Miz vs. Jason Jordan (11)
Segment 4: Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt (13)
Segment 5: Bliss vs. Banks vs. Jax vs. Emma vs. Bayley (14)
Segment 6: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns (22)
Segment 7: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman (10)

That's my prediction for the match order at No Mercy. What's yours?