Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

The first-ever WWE Clash in Paris is officially upon us, with no fewer than six WWE matches ready to wow the crowd in France’s capital city! Three titles are on the line — WWE tag team, women’s Intercontinental, and World Heavyweight — two sets of brawlers will collide — Roman Reigns vs. Bronson Reed and Sheamus vs. Rusev — and John Cena will bid Paris farewell with a singles match against Logan Paul.

So how easy is this one to predict? The WINC staff are fairly sure we know what’s going to happen in several of these contests (and the tag title match was actually announced too late for us to vote on it) but there are a couple that have us split. Which Clash in Paris matches do we think could go either way, and which do we think are already set in stone? Let’s get to the picks!

It will be a battle for supremacy, Samoan pride, and the Shoe-la Fala on Sunday, as Roman Reigns and Bronson Reed are slated to collide in singles action at Clash in Paris. Reed has been antagonizing Reigns for weeks, but a majority of us at Wrestling Inc. believe our “Original Tribal Chief” will get his revenge, with 71% of our writers predicting an incoming Reigns victory.

SummerSlam should have been the end for Reigns, Jey Uso, and the Vision, but Breakker and Reed are persistent. After some classic Vision interference in Uso’s Philadelphia Street Fight, Reigns challenged Reed to a match, and Adam Pearce soon made the match official for Clash in Paris. Reigns and Reed have been at each other’s throats ever since.

Both Reigns and Reeds are explosive performers. Nobody would expect a man of Reed’s build to move with such agility, but size is no obstacle for the Australian’s intense, airborne move set. Many competitors have fallen to Reed’s Tsunami, including Braun Strowman, Sami Zayn, and Penta. If Reed plays his cards right, Reigns might be next.

Reed may be good, but Reigns is legendary. A competitor in a league of his own, Reigns has multiple world championships, years of experience, and an aggressive move set to back him up in Paris. Should Reed’s inexperience open him up to a Spear or a Superman Punch, we fear it will be “one, two, three” for him.

Sunday will undoubtedly see outside interference, with Breakker being the most likely culprit as Uso and Rollins contest Rollins’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Candidates for Reigns-oriented interference are unclear, but Jimmy Uso or Zayn could be contenders. Regardless, Clash in Paris will see an all-out war, and while Reed is a fine soldier, we believe he will acknowledge Reigns by the end of the night.

Written by Angeline Phu

John Cena’s first singles bout since losing the Undisputed WWE Championship back to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam is due to come against the man he teamed up with earlier this year to “ruin wrestling,” Logan Paul, at Clash in Paris on Sunday. 

Paul and Cena teamed in defeat to Rhodes and Jey Uso at Money in the Bank in June, and with Cena abandoning his heel quest ahead of SummerSlam they have themselves turned from allies to adversaries in the aftermath. Paul has staked his claim to being the future of WWE, seeing the retiring Cena as a bastion of the past, and as such wants to assert himself over the “Greatest of All Time” to legitimize that. 

However, in the poll put to the Wrestling Inc. team, it was Cena that got the unanimous vote of confidence with 100%. It is a tough picture to paint, the vision of Paul going over Cena in what is very likely his final appearance in Europe, and with a Brock Lesnar feud on the horizon it feels like a bad idea to have Cena lose back-to-back singles matches. It is worth considering that a babyface Cena hasn’t picked up a win in major singles action since 2018, and the fact that Lesnar has already shown an interest in Cena and could find himself involved one way or the other. But on the face of it, it certainly seems the chance to give Cena the opportunity to bounce back from SummerSlam and bid au revoir to France in victory.

Written by Max Everett

Becky Lynch looks to make her sixth Intercontinental defense in 83 days as she faces Nikki Bella in the latter’s first title match in seven years at Clash in Paris. 

Thus far, Lynch has managed to hold off Bayley, Lyra Valkyria, Maxxine Dupri, and Natalya as only the second-ever holder of the title, and Bella has not even held a title in 10 years: the WWE Divas Championship, which has since been retired. So it certainly seems like a tall task for the veteran to be the one to stop “The Man’s” run as champion. Such has been reflected in the poll put to the Wrestling Inc. staff, with 100% backing Lynch to keep her title when they go one-on-one in Paris. 

This will be the first time they ever face one another in singles action, having only feuded as part of the PCB vs. the Bellas storyline in 2015 and then both pursuing the SmackDown Women’s Championship after the brand split in 2016, thus wrestling in tag team and multi-person matches. Bella’s last title run came at an end as Lynch was coming up to the main roster, with Charlotte Flair succeeding her and Lynch winning her first title the next year. 

Written by Max Everett

After two months of nonstop brawling, Sheamus and Rusev are set to put their rivalry to an end this weekend when they enter battle in a Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybrook Match. Although Clash In Paris will mark Rusev’s first match at a premium live event since returning to WWE, 64% of the Wrestling Inc. staff believe that this story concludes with Sheamus emerging victorious to finally bury the hatchet.

The former League Of Nations members first kicked off their feud this past June, when Rusev pinned Sheamus after a heated 20 minute bout on “WWE Raw.” The next month, “The Celtic Warrior” got his revenge on Rusev and evened the score between them at one a piece. Just two weeks later, both performers competed in a rubber match in order to put their feud to rest, but the contest ended in a double count out, leading Rusev and Sheamus to brawl throughout the entirety of the night. Both “Raw” stars have be unable to stop attacking each other leading up to Clash In Paris, but with the Donnybrook Match being a stipulation Sheamus is more than familiar with, we expect his hand to be raised this Sunday.

Additionally, Sheamus has failed to secure a victory at a PLE since 2022, with his most recent win coming at WWE Extreme Rules 2022 when he and the Brawling Brutes defeated Imperium in a Donnybrook Match. There’s no doubt that a win for Sheamus is overdue, but Rusev prevailing could also be beneficial, as his character has struggled to get over since returning to WWE this past April.

Furthermore, it could be argued that the winner of this match may be elevated into the Intercontinental Title picture, and with Sheamus being in pursuit of the gold for the last three years, a victory at Clash In Paris will hopefully push him closer towards winning the one championship that’s eluded him his entire career.

Written by Julien D’Alessandro

WWE tends to book a lot of multi-person matches when it comes to its championships to get as many big names on the card as possible, and that seems to be what’s happening for the World Heavyweight Championship match at Clash in Paris. Seth Rollins will be defending his gold against CM Punk, Jey Uso, and LA Knight, but 100% of us here at WINC believe that Rollins is leaving Paris with the championship in tow.

Because of the fatal four-way rules, there will presumably be no disqualifications, which means interference by The Vision. While Rollins may not have Bronson Reed at ringside, as he’s set to take on Roman Reigns, likely earlier in the night, Bron Breakker will be fresh and waiting to get involved, and Paul Heyman is always up to no good even if he doesn’t get physical. Not many other people, outside of maybe Jimmy Uso, could interfere on a babyface’s behalf and prevent Rollins from getting the “W.”

Rollins also just won the title back at SummerSlam in “The Ruse of the Century,” so it doesn’t seem likely to us that he’ll lose it in a multi-man match when WWE can run singles programs with the champion and every one of these men. The big match is going to be between arch-rivals Rollins and Punk, after “The Visionary” cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Punk after he held the title for just a few moments. We don’t think there’s any way Rollins loses this match, and we’re all entirely on the same page about it.

Written by Daisy Ruth