Between Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg WWE has some well-established names competing for the main event spot at the upcoming WrestleMania 36 event. But in a new interview with Sportskeeda, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle listed three rising stars that he believes could be in the coveted spot at next year’s WrestleMania in Los Angeles. Angle famously had one of the best rookie years in WWE history, winning the King of the Ring tournament and holding the WWF, Intercontinental and European Championships all within the span of a year.
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“I think Andrade might main event WrestleMania, he’s ready,” Angle said. “The following year, I’d say Aleister Black. Those two guys are [readdy], and Buddy Murphy, don’t count this guy out. He’s going to come on strong this next year. Those three guys are changing the game. There’s a new style and if you watch them, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
The three men Angle listed are all in interesting spots on the Raw midcard at the moment. Andrade is still the reigning United States Champion despite an ongoing suspension for a WWE Wellness policy violation (which ends just in time for him to compete in a gauntlet match at Super ShowDown on Feb. 27). Black and Murphy recently had an excellent series of singles matches on Raw, and while Black won all of them Murphy wound up getting elevated up the card by joining Seth Rollins’ faction and quickly winning the Raw Tag Team Championships alongside “The Monday Night Messiah.” He also recently had his first name removed by WWE’s creative team.
Finally there’s Black, who has been positioned as an unstoppable force on WWE television for nearly a year. He originally made the jump to the main roster as a tag team wrestler alongside Ricochet, but the former NXT Champion kicked off his singles run by daring other wrestlers to “knock on my door” and “pick a fight with me.” Thankfully, he recently stated in a promo that he’s done waiting for challengers to step up.
WWE returns to pay-per-view on Sunday night with the NXT TakeOver: Portland event on the WWE Network. Check out the full card below:
- NXT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa
- NXT Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair
- NXT Tag Team Championship: The Undisputed Era vs. The BroserWeights
- NXT North American Championship: Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic
- Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox (Street Fight)
- Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano
