It’s WrestleMania Day!
This Sunday, April 7th, WWE presents WrestleMania 35 from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Here are my thoughts on who should win each match, and who will ultimately win each match.
André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Who should win?
Braun Strowman
Strowman needs something to get his heat back after the WWE squandered any momentum he had last year. While a comedy angle with Colin Jost and Michael Che from Saturday Night Live isn’t exactly the best way to do it, can Braun at least avoid being eliminated by them?
Who will win?
Rob Gronkowski
According to Wikipedia, only 29 entrants have been announced for the battle royal. These things traditionally have 30 participants, so it seems that a spot has been left open for a surprise entrant. Gronk recently announced his retirement from pro football and has helped his good friend Mojo Rawley win this exact event in 2017 at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando. Vince loves celebrities (see Jost and Che) and having Gronk win would bring in all sorts of mainstream media attention.
WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal
Who should win?
Asuka
The Empress of Tomorrow got screwed out of her WrestleMania moment when Vince decided that the Smackdown Women’s Championship would be better served as part of the main event instead of being defended against a random challenger with no storyline build up. That kind of booking is reserved for that tag team division.
Who will win?
Lacey Evans
The Sassy Southern Belle hasn’t done much since getting called up to the main roster, other than the occasional walk down the ramp to interrupt matches. This would be a good spot to give her a high-profile win and make her an instant contender in the women’s division. Plus, Vince loves attractive blondes, so don’t be surprised if Mandy Rose gets the win, since Evans is not technically announced for the battle royal.
The Revival (c) vs. Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins – Raw Tag Team Championship
Who should win?
The Revival
After asking for their release from the WWE, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder were given the Raw tag team belts and tasked with making the Raw tag division relevant. The Revival have certainly done their best, having fantastic matches against the makeshift teams of Bobby Roode/Chad Gable and Ricochet/Aleister Black, but WWE has continued to book the division as an afterthought. In fact, this match was made AFTER the go-home Raw on Monday. The challenge was issued and accepted on a video that was made for WWE.com.
Who will win?
Ryder and Hawkins
First off, the match is in the general backyard of the former Major Brothers (Ryder and Hawkins came up together in the Long Island indy scene) and it would give Vince an opportunity to make up for that time in 2011 when he (allegedly) promised Ryder an opportunity to appear on Raw in
Second, Curt Hawkins has not won a match since November 8th, 2016 (0-269). The WWE loves WrestleMania moments, so winning a championship to end a two and a half year victory drought is just the sort of thing they might do.
Third, they really don’t seem to care about the tag team division on either show, so this really seems like the kind of match where Vince would just throw a dart to decide who wins.
The Usos (c) vs. Aleister Black and Ricochet vs. The Bar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev – Smackdown Tag Team Championship
Who should win?
The Usos
The Usos should just keep the titles until Undisputed Era gets called up, then wrestle them on every pay-per-view for the rest of the year.
Who will win?
Black and Ricochet
The unlikely tandem of the Dutch Destroyer and the One and Only have been a lot of fun to watch, recently winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and competing against War Raiders for the NXT Tag Team Championship at NXT TakeOver: New York. They also challenged The Revival for the Raw titles this past Monday, so they will become the first team to compete for all three sets of tag team championships in the span of a week. I think the WWE will put the belts on them and just let them run for a few months, until Black turns on Ricochet to set up a one-on-one match at SummerSlam.
Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Tony Nese – WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Who should win?
Tony Nese
Honestly, the only reason I think Nese should win is so that Buddy Murphy gets called up to the main roster.
Who will win?
Buddy Murphy
I don’t think that Buddy is getting the call just yet and Tony Nese is probably not going to be the guy to dethrone him.
Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin – Kurt Angle’s final match
Who should win?
Baron Corbin
Corbin should win the match because it would give him something to hang his hat on since he is no longer the Constable of Monday Night Raw. It is also tradition for a retiring superstar to go out on his back and put over the younger talent.
Who will win?
Kurt Angle/Mystery Opponent
I’ll admit that I’m hedging my bet a little here, but I get the feeling that Baron Corbin won’t actually be Angle’s final opponent. If he is, then I think the WWE sends Kurt out with a win.
However, John Cena does not have an opponent and it just seems crazy that a WrestleMania might happen without the the 16-time world champion. Cena just so happened to have his first WWE match against the Olympic gold-medalist back in 2002, a losing effort that kicked off the Ruthless Aggression era. How poetic would it be for John to give Kurt his final loss, 17 years after Angle handled him his first one?
AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton
Who should win?
AJ Styles
AJ is still one of the best workers in all of professional wrestling and a win over another WWE legend would go a long way to cementing his place in the company.
Who will win?
Randy Orton
It’s a WWE homegrown talent vs. a guy who made his name on the indies. We know how Vince leans in those situations.
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre
Who should win?
Drew McIntyre
The Scottish Psychopath is a beast and should be built up as Raw’s number one heel to replace Brock Lesnar. He’s had a good showing lately, defeating Dean Ambrose in a Last Man Standing match and decimating Reigns on Raw, but that is usually a bad sign heading into a pay-per-view. Plus, not to be insensitive, but Roman literally just returned from cancer treatment. From a story aspect, I wouldn’t expect for him to have returned to the same physical shape he was in before he started treatment.
Who will win?
Roman Reigns
It’s Roman. He’s going to win, especially after having just put his leukemia into remission.
The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) (c) vs. The Divas of Doom (Beth Phoenix and Natalya) vs. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) vs. Nia Jax and Tamina – WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Who should win?
Boss ‘n’ Hug
Sasha and Bayley have been built up to be the faces of the women’s tag division, so I don’t see any reason to have them lose on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
Who will win?
Boss ‘n’ Hug
WWE just introduced these titles and they aren’t going to start bouncing them around already. Boss ‘n’ Hug keep the belts to start them off with some legitimacy.
Triple H vs. Batista – No Holds Barred (If Triple H loses, he must retire from in-ring competition)
Who should win?
Batista
Hollywood Dave is undefeated in his career against Hunter. I think it should stay that way. Plus, with the added stipulation of Triple H having to hang up the boots, a Batista win means that Hunter can give all of his focus to NXT.
Who will win?
Triple H
This is likely a one-off appearance for Batista, there is no reason for him to win. Triple H doesn’t want to give up his annual over the top WrestleMania appearance, and I’m sure that he needs to be available for future shows paid for by the Saudi royal family.
Shane McMahon vs. The Miz – Falls Count Anywhere
Who should win?
The Miz
Who knew The Miz could work as white-meat babyface? They tried before to make him a face, but it was that cocky, WWE-style face that’s a lot closer to an ’80s-style ski movie villain. Needless to say, it failed miserably. That’s why they need to capitalize on the success of the run this time by giving Miz a big-time victory over Shane McMahon.
Who will win?
The Miz
Shane doesn’t need a win here. He needs to just go back to being a heel authority figure. Of course, since this match added the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation, it’s pretty much a given that McMahon is going to jump off of something very tall, as is tradition. It’s also traditional for Shane to miss when he does this, which should hand the victory to The Miz.
Samoa Joe (c) vs. Rey Mysterio – WWE United States Championship
Who should win?
Samoa Joe
Joe just got the belt and should fight off all comers until finally dropping it to Ali at SummerSlam.
Who will win?
Samoa Joe
There is no reason for Rey to win here, especially with the likelihood of multiple other championships changing hands.
Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Finn Bálor – WWE Intercontinental Championship
Who should win?
Finn Balor
Balor is the kind of babyface that could bring some importance back to the Intercontinental championship. He could go out and defend it on every show and have a great match, but it currently sits with quite possibly the most boring big man to enter a WWE ring. Balor also should win it without needing to pull out the Demon persona, but it looks like that is already out the window.
Who will win?
The Demon
The Demon will win because the Demon always wins, which is a wonder why Finn (in kayfabe, of course) would decide to use it here instead of his Universal championship match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. WWE is just doing it so they can have a cool entrance at WrestleMania without giving any regard to the actual story.
Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kofi Kingston – WWE Championship
Who should win?
Kofi Kingston
There just aren’t enough words to describe how wonderful Kofi Kingston is. He’s a company man that has done whatever has been asked of him for 11 years and this will be his first one-on-one shot at the WWE Championship. The WWE Universe willed this match into being (and Kofi’s performance as an injury replacement for Ali leading into the Elimination Chamber event didn’t hurt) and for it to occur against Daniel Bryan is just beautiful. To have the New Daniel Bryan trot out all of the same tropes that were used against him leading up to his match at WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans is perfect storytelling.
Who will win?
Kofi Kingston
It has to be Kofi, right? Vince can’t afford to have a repeat of WrestleMania 19 and the Booker T/Triple H angle, especially not in today’s political climate. Plus, this has WrestleMania moment written all over it.
Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship
Who should win?
Seth Rollins
The Architect has taken over as Raw’s number one babyface in Roman Reigns’ absence and has earned the right to be the one to dethrone Brock Lesnar. Since Dean Ambrose still seems on track to leave WWE once his contract expires this month, it would be a great opportunity for him and Reigns to come out and help the Kingslayer, celebrate after the match, and give us the Shield fist pose one last time.
Who will win?
Brock Lesnar
The Beast will take Rollins to Suplex City and there is nothing we can do about it. As much as I’d like to see Brock go back to UFC and for the Universal title to actually make an appearance on Raw, I think there are already too many title changes that have to happen on this card. Plus, I think WWE is convinced that Roman Reigns is the only one who should dethrone Lesnar.
Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (c) – Winner takes all (Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championships)
Who should win?
Becky Lynch
After a build up that was kind of all over the place, we have finally gotten to first women’s match to main event WrestleMania. And I think it is the right choice. I was one of the people who really thought it should have been Becky vs. Ronda in a singles match, as the original story was about who was the better competiter of the two. But the addition of Charlotte Flair definitely added an extra dimension to the feud, especially when it comes to competing with Lynch on the mic, which Rousey has had issues with.
Who will win?
Becky Lynch
The Man is the biggest star the WWE has had since Stone Cold Steve Austin and they realize it. To give the win to anyone but Lynch would be asking for a riot.
Bonus: A special musical performance by Elias
Elias has promised us an unforgettable music performance at WrestleMania, but Elias segments are known for being interrupted by other superstars.
Who should interrupt?
Honky Tonk Man
HTM is part of the 2019 Hall of Fame class, so he will be in the building. Elias is carrying on his tradition of being a guitar-wielding grappler, so the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion may have something to say about that (although since both are heels, it is more likely that Honky will come out and join him in a duet).
Who will interrupt?
The Rock
Dwayne Johnson always loves to pop in for a WrestleMania appearance, even having an impromptu match against Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32 in Arlington. He also has a background in strumming and slamming, often performing “Rock Concerts” on WWE TV. I don’t think Vince could say no to the pop that The Rock would receive when interrupting Elias.
Which match are you most excited for? Let me know in the comment section below.
