WWE WrestleMania 42 Preview

WrestleMania, WWE’s flagship Premium Live Event (nee Pay-Per-View), returns for the second year in a row to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The road to the 42nd WrestleMania has been a bumpy one, including location changes (the event was originally set for New Orleans), championship changes, injuries and a match card that was still taking shape up to the week before the event itself.

Saturday night (4/18) begins with a tag team championship match between the Usos (brothers Jey and Jimmy) and reigning champs the Vision, Austin Theory and Logan Paul. The nine-time tag team champion Uso brothers seek their tenth championship, reunited after an acrimonious split that took them years to repair in and out of the ring.

Speaking of acrimonious, there’s no love lost between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre after the former cost the latter his Undisputed Championship earlier this year (costing him a WrestleMania main event in the process). After multiple violent collisions over the past few weeks, they seek to settle all scores in a brutal Unsanctioned Match (no disqualifications allowed).

A trio of women’s title match make up the middle of Night 1, starting with the Women’s World Championship. Royal Rumble winner Liv Morgan looks to dethrone reigning champion Stephanie Vacquer, who has held the title since winning it off Iyo Sky last fall. The Women’s Intercontinental Championship is on the line between current champ AJ Lee and the woman she beat for the belt, Becky Lynch. The rivalry between their respective husbands (CM Punk and Seth Rollins) spilled over to the two of them, with the livid Lynch desperate to regain the belt from Lee, who returned to the ring after a decade-plus absence, much to Becky’s fury.

A four-way tag team match will determine the winner of the Women’s Tag Team Championship. Current champions the Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax and Lash Legend) will take on the Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki), Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria. None of these tag teams are always on the same page with each other, so it will be a question of whether or not the likes of Flair and Bliss, Bayley and Valkyria, etc. can work together long enough to defeat Jax and Legend.

Returning from an extended injury to confront former Vision ally and betrayer Paul Heyman, Seth Rollins ran afoul of Gunther, who decided to do Heyman an unsolicited favor and take on Rollins at WrestleMania. The question remains two-fold: can Gunther defeat Rollins, and what exactly will he demand from Heyman in return? (Keeping in mind that the last favor Heyman owed a wrrestler led to him betraying CM Punk to join Seth Rollins. The WWE Hall of Famer isn’t exactly renowned for his loyalty.)

The main event of Saturday night is for the Undisputed WWE Championship. After winning the belt off Drew McIntyre (see above), Cody Rhodes found himself in the main event of WrestleMania for the fourth year in a row, this time against Elimination Chamber winner Randy Orton. But their friendship came to a sharp halt when Orton violently attacked Rhodes during the contract signing at the behest of Pat McAfee, who returned to the WWE in Orton’s corner, hoping to use Orton to return WWE to its Attitude Era glory days. If Orton loses, McAfee agrees to wrestling for good, and the two of them will undoubtedly stop at nothing to take the title from Rhodes, handing him his second WrestleMania defeat in a row.

Sunday night (4/19) opens with a match between longtime veteran Brock Lesnar and the up and coming Oba Femi. Lesnar, always eager for an opponent to destroy, issued an open challenge for WrestleMania which was answered by the 6’6, 310 lb. Femi. Not usually one to be intimidated, Lesnar has looked genuinely uncertain facing down Femi in recent weeks, and their match will be a literal clash of the titans to open the second night of WrestleMania.

The Men’s Intercontinental Championship will be won in a six-man ladder match between reigning champ Penta, fellow luchador Dragon Lee, Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, Rusev, JD McDonagh and newcomer Je’Von Evans. Expect all manner of chaos as everyone from the high-flying Evans to the imposing Rusev battle for the belt.

Next up is the Women’s Championship match, between reigning champion Jade Cargill and challenger (and former champ) Rhea Ripley. Cargill won the championship from Tiffany Stratton last fall, while Ripley won Elimination Chamber to earn a championship shot at WrestleMania. The Men’s United States championship is on the line between current champ Sami Zayn and newcomer Trick Williams, while former allies Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio will come to blows in the penultimate match of the night. Mysterio and his Judgement Day allies (including Liv Morgan and JD McDonagh) betrayed Balor and threw him out of their faction (in a move similar to how Balor joined the group in the first place). The betrayal has brought out Balor’s Demon persona, and the cowardly Mysterio may have gotten more than he bargained for.

The final match of Wrestlemania is for the World Heavyweight Championship. There are layers of resentment, envy and bitterness between current champion CM Punk and challenger Roman Reigns. The outspoken Punk considers himself a fighting champion, at odds with Reigns’ supposed part time status, both now and during his last championship run. Reigns in turn claims Punk wouldn’t even be in the WWE without his say-so, and that Punk is responsible for Paul Heyman’s betrayal of them both. Though the two men have showed mutual respect in the past, they’ve been on a collision course for a while now, and will likely give this championship battle everything they’ve got and then some.