WWE WrestleMania Goes Hollywood Saturday
Saturday, April 1
SoFi Stadium
Inglewood, California
WWE WrestleMania Goes Hollywood Sunday
Sunday, April 2
SoFi Stadium
Inglewood, California
In all the excitement of WrestleMania Weekend and the numerous dream and first-time matchups on many of the cards spread across Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it can be pretty easy to forget about the biggest attraction of the weekend, WrestleMania itself. It’s particularly easy to overlook WrestleMania when WWE’s production style and storytelling annoy you the way it annoys me.
Here’s the dirty secret though, there are matches on these shows that if WWE can just get out of their own way should range from good to Match of the Weekend contenders. That is not to say that the matches have been well built because I don’t think many of them have been, but there are outstanding wrestlers in matches up and down the card, and I can only hope they will be allowed to deliver on the biggest stage of the year for WWE.
So because it is Wednesday evening when I am writing this preview and we still don’t know which matches will be on which day I am going to preview the matches in order of how I view their importance.
Women’s WrestleMania Showcase Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Match
Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan vs. Shotzi & Natalya vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville
Men’s WrestleMania Showcase Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Match
The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy vs. Viking Raiders vs. Ricochet & Braun Strowman – Mens Fatal Four Way Tag Team Match
I think it’s easiest to lump both of these matches together because they are both serving the same purpose, to get as many people on the show as possible. It’s extremely lazy booking to do the very same match for both the men’s and women’s divisions. Why couldn’t they have had a Women’s #1 contender gauntlet? I very much doubt anybody including the participants care about the results of these matches. My fingers are crossed for another star-making performance. Prediction: ApathyÂ
Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
WWE fans will tell you this story has been well-built. I will tell you that Dominik has dragged down Rhea Ripley and the segment of Dominik telling his mom to shut up was the cringiest, least believable segment since the last time we had to endure the Mysterio family on TV together. Rey will work hard and 10 years ago he could absolutely have gotten a memorable match out of a Dominik but in 2023 I have my doubts. Most of all though I just don’t care about Dominik. Prediction: Eddie Guerrero will be the most over person in the matchÂ
Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
The most intriguing thing about this match is which Brock Lesnar is going to show up. Does Brock respect Omos? Is he going to bump and fly around for the big guy like we have seen him do before when motivated? Or will we get the Brock that showed up at WrestleMania against Dean Ambrose? I almost hope this match goes off the rails just to see how Brock reacts. Prediction: Brock wins and disappears for many many monthsÂ
Hell in a Cell
Edge vs. Finn Balor
I am not into Edge. I am not into this recent retconning of The Brood as a pivotal part of Edge’s career. The Judgement Day is some real cringe-channel-changing shit 90% of the time. All that said, do I think Edge and Finn Balor can have a fantastic Hell in a Cell match? Yes, I do. Balor is still a top WWE worker and Edge for all his faults is without a doubt one of the best WWE gimmick match workers of all time. This is one of the matches that has a low floor and high ceiling, it won’t stun me if it’s a shitshow or if it’s a WWE MOTY contender. Prediction: Edge goes to that place, and we can finally move on from this never-ending feudÂ
Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
I am surprised that this match doesn’t seem to be getting even more mainstream attention. Maybe the general public is over the Paul brothers? Let’s hope so. Seth Rollins has become such a caricature of himself that I find it impossible to invest in anything he does. However, WWE fans are into him and love singing his terrible entrance music. I just want these two guys to go there and do some crazy shit for 15 minutes. This has the potential to be the match I hate the most at the end of the weekend. Prediction: Seth Rollins makes some funny faces while Logan Paul drinks a PrimeÂ
WWE Intercontinental Championship
Gunther (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus
I’m so disappointed that WWE felt the need to make this a Triple Threat match. Gunther has been a rare bright spot of WWE in the past 12 months, and a one-on-one versus either of his two opponents here would have been a potential show-stealer. Gunther seems destined for bigger things in 2023 while McIntyre and Sheamus are in a slow decline down the card so Gunther losing his IC Title without being pinned does make some sense. Sheamus winning the only singles title to have alluded him in his WWE career could be an actual #WrestleManiaMoment if treated correctly. Prediction: Sheamus gets his momentÂ
Becky Lynch & Lita & Trish Stratus vs. Bayley, Iyo Sky & Dakota KaiÂ
Damage CTRL, unfortunately, has never been booked as a formidable unit. This match is just typical WWE WrestleMania booking of “Here are two stars that never really went away, back again to pin our current stars.” If Trish is no longer capable of doing a singles match to put over a current star, I only hope that one of Damage CTRL gets the pin on Trish in this match. Prediction: Trish pins Dakota clean, and we are told that it’s a moment.Â
WWE United States Championship
Austin Theory (c) vs. John Cena
Okay, let’s get this out of the way quickly, John Cena is not winning the WWE US Title in 2023. This match is the largest flashing neon sign that Vince McMahon is 100% back and running things to his tastes. Austin Theory is going to beat John Cena at WrestleMania. Just let that sink in. Prediction: Vince McMahon’s pet project pins Vince McMahon’s best friend, and still the feckless wrestling media will refuse to acknowledge that Vince McMahon is back in control of creativeÂ
WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship
Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Rhea RipleyÂ
WWE RAW Women’s Championship
Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
I am going to put these two matches together because, really the booking of the women’s division has been an absolute mess. Rhea Ripley won the Royal Rumble in January and decided to challenge Charlotte Flair for WrestleMania. This match was only put together to try and salvage Paul’s bullshit from a couple of years ago of WWE having a long-term story for Charlotte and Rhea. Charlotte is so incredibly miscast as a face, and yet WWE keeps insisting on trying to get her over as a beloved champion. Their first match together wasn’t anything to write home about, and I don’t anticipate this will be either.
So because Rhea chose Charlotte, that left Bianca without an obvious challenger. To their credit, WWE has tried to heat up Asuka, but Asuka vs Bianca does not feel like a huge WrestleMania-level Title match, and that’s a problem. It’s been a continuous problem that Bianca feels like an afterthought in the wider picture. Hell, the Becky Lynch-led six-woman tag feels more important than Bianca’s Title defense.
That problem would have been easily solved if Rhea had chosen Bianca as her WrestleMania opponent, which could conceivably have been built as the clash of the two stars of the division now and for the next number of years. WWE has a Charlotte Flair problem. As long as they continue to insist that she is a top star, they will continue to make bad decisions that will effect the whole division. There are a number of incredibly talented women in WWE who deserve much better than what they have been given recently, and unfortunately, I can’t see that changing any time soon. Predictions: Bianca and Charlotte both retain their titles, and nothing changesÂ
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships
The Usos (c) vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
I have no doubt that this will be a very well-worked match involving four very good wrestlers. This should be an incredibly heated feud involving a tag team in the middle of an all-time lengthy tag team title reign and a newly-reformed long-time workrate favorite tag team. But I just don’t care. WWE had lightning in a bottle with Sami in the run-up to Elimination Chamber, and they killed him dead. They then dragged out the reunion of Owens and Zayn to the point that I didn’t care about their reunion any longer either. Sami vs. Jey is the feud here, and Owens and Jimmy are just secondary pieces along for the ride. I expect Zayn & Owens to win so they can have their #WrestleManiaMoment but what happens then? I’m on record as saying I expect them to be feuding with one another again by SummerSlam. I wish I cared about this, and I want to care about this, but WWE has botched everything involving Sami Zayn in 2023 to the point that this all just feels somewhat disappointing. Prediction: Zayn & Owens
WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes
This can potentially be the best WWE Championship match in WrestleMania history. Roman and Cody are both top professional wrestlers capable of delivering in the big moment. Cody, Paul Heyman, and Roman have done a decent job of heating up their issues heading into this match, coming off the fan disappointment of Sami losing at Elimination Chamber. Cody feels like a massive star in WWE, and WWE deserves some plaudits for not fucking that up, yet realistically, if it isn’t to be him that ends Roman’s run as champion now, then who could it possibly be?
Roman, as we all know, has been Vince’s guy since 2014. This Tribal Chief run has been the first time he has truly lived up to the mantle of being the top guy in WWE. The million-dollar question is now whether Vince is willing to sacrifice Roman’s reign as Undisputed Champion to put over the guy from the other company? We know from history that Vince has not always been willing to do so. Has he changed? Is he willing to end his Flagship PLE with the AEW Wrestler holding his WWE Championships above the fallen body of the face of WWE since 2015? No matter the decision that is made I expect this match to deliver. There will be WWE drama, and Roman may have a speech or two to give during a beatdown, but at the basis of it all, this should be one of the best bell-to-bell main events in WrestleMania history, and anything less will be a disappointment.
Prediction: A leopard never changes its spots and do you really believe the AEW will pin the WWE guy? Roman Reigns winsÂ
