Wrestling fans, the biggest show of the year is right around the corner. WWE WrestleMania 42 will take place in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas again (it did last year), and it will be over two nights: Saturday, April 18th, and Sunday, April 19th. The show will kick off at 6pm each night. It will be streaming on ESPN Unlimited in the US and on Netflix internationally. The extravaganza will be hosted by retired legend John Cena.
This WrestleMania has had a ton of bumps in the road. The bookings have come in late. Some just don’t make any sense. The ticket sales have been lukewarm at best. The tickets are EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE, and many people are starting to feel like the WWE is starting to rely on star power instead of wrestlers and their wrestling skills to perform and entertain.
NIGHT ONE
- Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton for the Undisputed WWE Championship – This is a big one! The people are getting tired of Cody Rhodes. He is a darling, but they seemed to love it when Orton recently beat the shit out of him during the match signing on SmackDown. It was a bloody mess. Orton is supposed to be the “heel” and they can’t force the fans to hate him. They are all rooting for “The Viper” to win his 15th WWE championship. My prediction: Orton wins the belt and gets #15.
- Jade Cargill vs. Rhea Ripley for the WWE Women’s Championship – The WWE could not figure out what to do with Cargill. Nobody seems to really like her. They moved Ripley over (splitting up her tag-team situation with Iyo Sky) from RAW to SMACKDOWN just to set her up for this title run. My prediction: Personally, I think they did this specifically to have Rhea win the title. She is sooooo over with the fans that I think this is what they will make happen.
- Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi – The battle of the mammoths!! This may be the match that everybody is waiting for. Brock was a GOD. Keyword, was a GOD. Oba Femi is the WWE’s biggest star-to-be. They have made him massive and fast. He has the energy, the look, the size, the gimmick, the strut to the ring, and more. My prediction: I never would have thought that they would set up Lesnar to take such a fall on a PPV. They did. And he will. It would make ZERO SENSE to build Femi up to lose this one. He won’t. Femi wins!
- Seth Rollins vs. Gunther – This match makes no sense. This booking was a total throw-in just to get these two guys on the card. They waited and waited forever for what to do with Gunther, to the point he was looking like he wasn’t going to even appear. With Rollins, they carried the stupid masked man gimmick for way too long. The WWE made Gunther the hero when Paul Heyman was getting his ass kicked. This was all done just to piece this strange match together. This match has no backstory. It was completely forcing a square peg into a round hole. And while Gunther has been on such a roll, and they were building him up so well. The fans HATED this guy! They had him retire two huge stars back-to-back. It was all working. Then he disappeared from the airwaves. My prediction: This tells me that there is no way they will let Gunther beat one of their biggest OVER stars. The fans love Seth FREAKING Rollins. He has been re-habbing forever, and this would be a huge welcome back to the WWE present. Rollins wins.
- Penta vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. Rusev vs. JD McDonagh in a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship – This one is pretty simple. You can throw out Rusev, McDonagh, and Dragon Lee. They have absolutely no shot. They are “mid” wrestlers at best. So it comes down to Penta and Je’Von Evans, honestly. Now here is the issue. Penta just won the belt. The fans love him, and he totally deserved it. But he has not had it for very long. They have built him up for so long. He gets a crazy “pyro” show every appearance, and he puts on an amazing performance every time. But Evans has been a huge surprise, and has gotten over with the fans BIG-TIME. Maybe even bigger than Penta. My prediction: This is a coin toss on who wins this match. The smartest thing they can do is have Penta win, so he still looks good and then have the two keep battling and stretching the rivalry out for as long as possible.
- Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley and Lyra Valkyrua vs. Nia Jax and Lash Legend vs. Brie Bella and Nikki Bella in a Fatal-4-Way for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – This falls under one of the matches that are the least cared about, if you ask me. The fact that they have forced the Bellas back into the WWE tells me exactly what they plan to do here. My prediction: The Bellas win, even though it is completely unfair to the stars that have been there, scrapping and working for this shot at gold, who have been there while the Bellas were basically “retired”.
- Finn Bálor vs. Dominik Mysterio – This had to be. The Judgement Day angle is totally stale IMO. Bálor was very popular standing on his own without this group. It made sense to fracture him off. They took Dominik’s IC belt, leaving him with the AAA Mega Championship. He seems to be on the decline if you ask me. My prediction: Finn wins because the WWE can do much more with him by having him win and move forward.
NIGHT TWO
- CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship – All I can say is WOW! I don’t care what anybody says. The in-ring interviews with these guys have been personal and GOLD leading up to this match. I truly believe that these two superstars HATE each other. Many guys backstage hate CM Punk. Roman Reigns is so huge that maybe, just maybe, he has become a little bit of a “diva”, showing up when he wants, doing what he wants, and feeling entitled. Like acknowledging him. My prediction: I think Punk has had a nice little run. And I think it ends at WrestleMania. The belt will go back to The OTC, and maybe they will keep going at it after WrestleMania for weeks to come.
- Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan for the Women’s World Championship – Vaquer had a great run. They made her a star. But she is extremely weak on the mic. She has a very thick Spanish accent that makes her hard to understand much of the time. And as you know, the ring action is less important than the mic skills. The exact opposite is true for Liv Morgan. She excels on the mic and comes across as a “total bitch”. My prediction: Liv Morgan takes the belt. This one seems like it’s a no-brainer.
- AJ Lee vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship – This is another coin toss match. The fact that the WWE gave AJ Lee the belt the moment she came back after a 10-year absence makes no sense. And she beat Lynch for the belt!!!! It actually was very unfair to Lynch. So, now they have the rivalry, and maybe they will stretch it out. Who knows. My prediction: I can’t see why they would have Lee beat Becky just to have Becky beat her and take the belt back so quickly. However, I can see them giving the belt back to Lynch as they helped Lee get over once she came back with the win over Lynch at Elimination Chamber. Total coin toss.
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre in an “Unsanctioned Match” – This was a forced match as they had no idea what to do with Drew Mack. The fact that it is unsanctioned means it will be no rules, no holds barred, weapons allowed, etc. This match is literally only on the card for total carnage. It will be fun. It will be bloody. My prediction: I lean toward McIntyre in this one, but if Fatu won, I wouldn’t be shocked. There is talk that Drew is taking time off after this match and will be gone for a bit. Now that I realized that, I think Fatu will win, as he will still be around. Why hurt his status?
- Sami Zayn vs. Trick Williams for the United States Championship – This one is another no-brainer. They gave Zayn the belt, only so he could lose it to Trick Williams. Trick is so over with the fans. Sami is “old news”. There is not much to even say here. My prediction: Trick Williams wins the belt easily.
- Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and IShowSpeed vs. LA Knight, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso – This match is interesting. While “The Vision” has the Tag Team belts (Raw), this has nothing to do with the titles. Much like Gunther, the WWE had to squeeze LA Knight into WrestleMania. They totally botched and bumbled his booking. They manufactured a stupid hook to include IShowSpeed in a storyline, and this is what you got. The Usos are definitely getting stale. There seems to be a backlash to the YEET phenomenon. Hopefully, it has jumped the shark. My prediction: I don’t even think there will be a winner in this match. There will be interference by someone or a disqualification. This could be where Bron Breakker pops back up. Who knows?
There you have it. All of my predictions. If you disagree with them, let me know who and why.
