*By Request*
Last week, I wrote a column where I looked ahead to what I want to see from AEW once Revolution is over and done. Naturally, I started getting requests for something similar with WWE and WrestleMania, but the main request I got was to make predictions on the WrestleMania card itself. I had multiple people message me on Facebook and ask for my Mania predictions, and I also had a few DM me on Twitter to ask for the same thing. I don’t do requests all the time, but if more than two people request the same thing at about the same time, I figure it’s fine if I run with it. I was approximately 2,000 words deep into another column for this week, but in the grand scheme of things, that topic simply stopped being relevant, so here we are.
WrestleMania 39. April 1st and April 2nd. SoFi Stadium. Inglewood, California. What are we going to see that weekend?
First things first, you have to look back at how many matches took place at WrestleMania during the “two night” era.
WrestleMania 36 saw 19 total matches, with two of them being pre-show contests and one being the dark match that saw the brand new WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre, defend the title against Big Show in a match that would air the following night on Raw.
At WrestleMania 37, there were 14 matches, with all of them taking place on the main show, with seven happening on each night.
WrestleMania 38 saw 16 matches, with one match on each night (“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs Kevin Owens on Saturday, Pat McAfee vs Vince McMahon on Sunday) being unannounced, “impromptu” bouts that were added as the shows happened.
16, 14, and 14 gives me a pretty good target to aim for, so I’ll try to keep everything around the 14-16 match mark. There’s really no need to have more or less than that unless you plan on having some ridiculously long cards, or some ridiculously long matches.
For the most part, the matches will be listed in no particular order. I’ll split them up, putting matches on Saturday or Sunday, but other than the main event of both nights, this isn’t going to be the order I predict the matches to happen or anything along those lines. I’m also going to try and keep this based in as much “reality” as possible, using the storylines that we’ve actually seen and the rumors that are already floating around. Sorry if you’re wanting to see me craft a Bullet Club invasion where Kenny Omega and “Switchblade” Jay White make their debuts alongside a returning AJ Styles, but that won’t be happening. Not… yet. Just for fun, I’ll even throw in picks for who wins some of the matches. Exciting!
WrestleMania Saturday
Rey Mysterio vs Dominik Mysterio: I’ve seen some people predicting that this match will be the perfect place for Dom to beat Rey and end his father’s career, but I don’t agree with that. Yes, Rey just celebrated his 48th birthday and probably doesn’t have too much time left before he retires, but I think he still has some more to give in the ring before that time comes. You can throw the retirement stipulation in, but if that’s the case, Rey can pick up the win. It would probably end up being something where Dominik wants Rey’s career on the line, but Rey wants it in writing that Dom (and Rhea Ripley) have to completely leave him alone if Dom loses. That type of thing. If Rey’s career isn’t on the line, that opens the door for a Dominik victory, probably through nefarious means. Something tells me that Rey won’t mind doing the j-o-b for his son on pro wrestling’s biggest stage, and Dom could use the win. He has done such a phenomenal job of character work and getting heat, but he hasn’t won a televised singles match in two-and-a-half months now. Forget the fact that he hasn’t had a televised singles match in two-and-a-half months now. My point remains, and it is valid.
Liv Morgan & Tegan Nox vs Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs Natalya & Shotzi vs Piper Niven & Nikki Cross (Winners Get A WWE Women’s Tag Team Title Shot): I will freely admit to randomly throwing the teams in here. You usually see at least one or two matches like this at WrestleMania, with 6-10 people involved at once to get as many people on the show as possible. As much shit as I give Ronda Rousey, she’s still a big star and she needs to be on the WrestleMania card if she’s physically able to be. Because the two women’s singles titles are occupied here, and because I have the WWE Women’s Tag Team champions doing something elsewhere on the show (more on that later), this was the best way I could add Ronda to the show. Two years ago, we saw a Tag Team Turmoil match on WrestleMania 37 Saturday, with the winners earning a Women’s Tag Team Title shot on the following night. Because of how the dominoes fell here, the winners will have to wait a bit longer for their title shot, but not too much longer. Let Ronda and Shayna pick up the win here, and have them get their shot on the Raw or Smackdown after WrestleMania. Boom. Easy.
Montez Ford vs Angelo Dawkins: Okay, I stretched the truth a little bit. In the intro to this column, I said that I was going to build the WrestleMania card based in as much reality as possible, without dipping into any sort of fantasy booking scenarios. This is kind of sort of in the “fantasy booking” category, but still based in some of the rumors that have been floating around for a while. After his performances in singles matches over the last year or so, it seems clear… to me, at least… that Montez Ford has what it takes to be a singles star, and it sure seems like WWE believes that, too. His performance in the United States Title Elimination Chamber answered any questions that people had left. Austin Theory is the current United States Champion, but he doesn’t need that title at all for what it looks like he’ll be doing at WrestleMania (more on that later), so… why should there be a guarantee that Theory would even be in possession of the title by the time WrestleMania rolls around? Would it really surprise any of you if Montez was the United States Champion before then? Tez has said that, if he were to win the title, Dawkins would be first-in-line for a shot. That’s where this match comes in. The best part about the inclusion of Ford vs Dawkins? It doesn’t need the title, either, so a switch wouldn’t be completely necessary if the company has plans to keep the belt with Theory for longer. We’ve seen stories in pro wrestling history where a tag team ends up having a match against each other for multiple reasons. Say Dawkins gets jealous over Ford’s success and the attention he’s getting… boom… heel turn, and you get a match between them at WrestleMania. Also, say Tez gets a big head because of his skills and how good he knows he is… boom… heel turn, and you get a match between them at WrestleMania. Another option would simply be one of them (probably Dawkins) wanting to face his partner to “prove something to himself” and see if he can pick up the win. Even that has options, because you could do a heel turn after the match if one of them loses and gets pissed off, or they could just have the match, with the best man winning, and then they shake hands and hug, moving forward as a team. For now, I don’t have the United States Title attached to this match, and simply have the Street Profits facing each other on the grandest stage of them all.
Edge vs Finn Balor (Hell In A Cell): Yes, the feud between Edge and The Judgment Day is still going. No, it shouldn’t still be going. Here we are, though. Finn Balor’s reaction to his loss at Elimination Chamber, and saying that he was going to get Edge, tell me we’re going to get another match. Well, a few months ago, the rumor was that Edge and Balor were going to face off inside Hell In A Cell at the Royal Rumble. Obviously, that didn’t end up happening, but perhaps that was because the company was waiting to have the match on a bigger stage. Remember when Hell In A Cell was the ultimate “feud ender” and would only be used when two competitors had been at each other’s throats for too long and needed some finality? Let’s do that here and give the WrestleMania crowd a chance to “ooh” and “aah” with the grandiose nature of the Cell, then have Edge and The Judgment Day move on to new things once Mania is done. Sounds good to me.
Gunther vs Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus (Intercontinental Title Match): Admittedly, I fell in love with the idea of Gunther facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, but I don’t think that is in the cards anymore. I would still love to see it, especially after they teased something in the Royal Rumble match last month, but this isn’t exactly a poor option to go with. Sheamus has been actively campaigning to get another shot at Gunther and the Intercontinental Title. He is a former WWE Champion, World Heavyweight Champion, United States Champion, Raw Tag Team Champion, Smackdown Tag Team Champion, King Of The Ring, Royal Rumble winner, and Money In The Bank winner. The Intercontinental Title is pretty much all he needs to cap off his first-ballot WWE Hall Of Fame career. Even though Sheamus is currently on friendly terms with Drew McIntyre again, they’ve made it pretty clear that their friendship won’t get in the way of a good fight when one comes up. Gunther and Sheamus? They’d beat the shit out of each other. Again. Gunther, Sheamus, AND Drew McIntyre. Oh, they would beat the shit out of each other, times like infinity, or something like that. This is something that could make the crowd lose their minds.
Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley (Smackdown Women’s Title Match): No need for any speculation here, because we know this match is happening. I was initially disappointed when this match was put together, but only because I wanted to see Rhea face Bianca Belair. I have no doubt that this will be a lot of fun. It just wasn’t going to be my first pick. Bianca and Rhea have really been kept away from each other for the most part. Since they made it to the main roster, they’ve faced each other in singles competition once on television, and that was as part of a Gauntlet Match on the Valentine’s Day episode of Raw last year where the winner would get to enter the Elimination Chamber last. If you don’t remember, that was the Gauntlet where Rhea was in from the beginning, eliminating Nikki A.S.H. before eliminating Liv Morgan and Doudrop before finally losing to Bianca. Overall, Rhea wrestled for almost 45 minutes that night, and the final 20-plus minutes were against Bianca. Sorry, I’m rambling a bit. My point is that they’ve been kept away from each other really well, so WrestleMania seemed like the logical place for them to have a huge match. It still might be, but it just won’t be this particular WrestleMania. One thing to watch out for with Charlotte and Rhea is the crowd reaction. Despite what their face/heel alignment currently indicates, this has “mixed reaction” all over it. I’m not saying we’re going to get a double turn out of them or anything, but I do think Rhea ends up with a lot more of a face reaction than she’s had in a while. I also think this one could very well be the main event on Saturday. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was the final match on the first night of Mania, but I think that recent events have pushed another match to the forefront for that spot…
The Usos vs Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens (Undisputed WWE Tag Team Title Match): We’ve been hearing about this one for a long time. There were times when it didn’t look like it would happen, or at least had some hurdles that needed to be cleared before it could happen, but now, those hurdles have pretty much been eliminated. After the events of Elimination Chamber, this one should still be a strong option on the table. Sure, Jey Uso has some major issues with Roman Reigns and the way that the Tribal Chief runs his operation, but as we saw with The Usos defending their titles against Braun Strowman and Ricochet on Smackdown two weeks ago, those issues Jey has are with Roman and Roman alone. He can continue to be loyal and true to his twin brother while still not declaring his devotion to Roman, at least for now. When you picture this match playing out in your head, you can probably already see at least one moment where the role of “Sami Zayn’s last few months in The Bloodline” is played by Jey Uso, while the role of “Kevin Owens over the last few months of The Bloodline” is played by Sami Zayn, with Jey being torn between that loyalty to his brother and his friend that he very clearly cares about. Sign me the fuck up if we have the chance to witness more high drama and the absolute art of storytelling.
WrestleMania Sunday
Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley (No Disqualification Match): Silly us, thinking Elimination Chamber was going to be the end of this feud. It didn’t turn out to be much of a match at all, but the use of the disqualification finish makes it seem pretty clear that we’re going to get one more match out of this rivalry. Not only that, but it will be some sort of match where neither man can be disqualified, which should really allow for a lot of chaos, madness, and destruction. I’ve seen some predictions of a Last Man Standing Match, which would normally make sense, but Brock just had one of those against Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. There has also been speculation that this match, and not Edge vs Finn Balor, could be where Hell In A Cell becomes a factor. While it would be fun to see these two lock it up inside the Cell, I still think “I hate you because you because you guys turned your backs on me and then tried to murder my wife” trumps “I hate you because you won the WWE Title in a match I was in and then kicked me in the balls 13 months later” when it comes to why a match should have the Cell gimmick attached. No matter what the official stipulation ends up being, these two will be able to use all types of plunder as they try to end each other. As far as the winner, and Bray Wyatt unofficially challenging said winner to a match, I think that means Lashley gets the win. Selfishly, though, I want to see Brock win just so that he can go on to no-sell all of Bray’s mumbo jumbo bullshit.
John Cena vs Austin Theory: In the last few months, Theory has mentioned Cena, either directly or indirectly, approximately 174 times. On-air promos, social media posts/comments, and so on… all teasing something between John Cena and the “new John Cena.” As I said earlier, this is a match that doesn’t need the United States Title involved at all. You could have the match be a non-title contest, or simply have Theory defeat Cena in a title match. I’m cheating a bit and keeping it ambiguous by not including the title here, just like I didn’t include the title in my Montez Ford vs Angelo Dawkins listing. This match seems more and more like a sure thing with each passing week, though. Someone might need to be on standby when it happens, though, because Vince McMahon might need some sort of medical attention seeing these two in the same place at the same time.
Braun Strowman vs Karrion Kross: Before you start typing out an angry response to this, I just want you to know one thing… I don’t want to see this match, either. This isn’t about what I want to see, though. It’s about what I think we’ll end up seeing. Neither one of these guys was included in my final drafts for the WrestleMania card, but I just have a bad feeling about this. Both men are favorites of Triple H and continue to get plenty of television time. Whether those two things are connected or not doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that this could be another one of those “Wrestler A and Wrestler B simply go out there and beat the piss out of each other” types of matches. Say whatever you want about Strowman and Kross, but that could actually end up being fun to watch. When it comes to who should win, I don’t know that it really matters. I would say that Kross certainly needs the win more, but again, I don’t know that it really matters. Short of Kross coming out and absolutely decimating Strowman in two minutes like an old Goldberg squash from WCW, I don’t think the needle will be moved with crowds at all. Entirely too much damage was done to him in his first main roster run, and he still hasn’t recovered from it, even after being back with the company for six months.
Seth Rollins vs Logan Paul: After Elimination Chamber, it sure seems like a lock that we’ll be getting this one. I guess WWE has clearly given up on trying to make Logan Paul a face, and really, that’s probably for the best. WWE has been very careful with putting Logan in matches, choosing the right moments and the right opponents to help him look great. He has done more than his fair share, coming across as someone who has been training to do this for years. If there’s someone on the WWE roster who can help make anyone look tremendous, it would be Seth Rollins. This has all the makings of a match that we’ll be talking about for the rest of the year, and I’m all for it. A win would be really important for both men. Rollins is 1-4 in 2023 when it comes to televised matches where he doesn’t have any sort of tag partners, while Paul’s infrequent in-ring schedule means he hasn’t been involved in winning a wrestling match in almost seven months now, and that will be over eight months by the time Mania rolls around. It really comes down to future plans for both men. You have to think that Rollins returns to challenging for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title, or whatever the title that ends up on Raw will be called, sooner than later. It would be nice if he can get some momentum before that happens, and picking up a win at WrestleMania is a pretty good way to get that started. Seth has been in a bit of a WrestleMania slump, too. He hasn’t won at the event since 2019 when he beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title. Could this be the year he bounces back? It could.
Becky Lynch, Lita & Trish Stratus vs Damage CTRL: The whole thing seems pretty random, but it would get a lot of attention. Becky Lynch and Bayley are still two of the biggest stars in all of women’s wrestling. Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky are the current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Trish Stratus would be returning for her first match in nearly four years, and her first WrestleMania match in 12 years. Lita would be returning for what would be only her second-ever match at WrestleMania, and her first since 2002 when she and Trish were unsuccessful in taking the WWF Women’s Title from Jazz in a Triple Threat Match. Becky and Bayley are way too good, and way too important, not to be on the WrestleMania card. Putting them on the show is great, and everything else I mentioned in this match is just icing on the cake. If you’re looking for a winner here, I think you almost have to have Becky, Trish, and Lita win, don’t you? That’s a lot of ammunition to bring back for a match just to have them lose. By the way, I do know about Dakota Kai’s injury. We haven’t seen any word about how long she’s going to be out of action. If she isn’t able to return to in-ring competition by then, just remove her and Trish from this match, and go with the women who are already available and currently involved in the storyline. Becky and Lita vs Bayley and Iyo Sky. That’s not quite as appealing, but should still be fun nonetheless.
Bianca Belair vs Asuka (Raw Women’s Title Match): At WrestleMania 37, Bianca had a Match Of The Year candidate with Sasha Banks, and then followed it up with another Match Of The Year candidate against Becky Lynch last year at WrestleMania 38. Can she have another Match Of The Year candidate this year? I fail to see why she couldn’t. She is a true “prizefighter” that steps up the most when the lights are the brightest, and the lights are never brighter than they are at WrestleMania. Asuka has more momentum now than she has in a long time, and dipping into her past with the Kana/Dark Asuka character seems to be doing wonders for her. These two only have two televised singles matches against each other, and one of them was three minutes long and ended in disqualification. This, however, is an entirely new matchup because of Asuka’s character shift, and I think that’s what will end up being the difference here. They can certainly extend Bianca’s streak of classics at WrestleMania, but I don’t think that Bianca’s winning streak at WrestleMania continues.
Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes (Undisputed WWE Universal Title Match): Well, here we are. Will Roman Reigns make it through his 945th day as champion, or will Cody Rhodes finish his story and reach the top of the mountain? With Sami Zayn seemingly out of the picture for the time being, the focus of the Undisputed WWE Universal Title picture is a lot clearer, and the spotlight is on these two men. Cody seems to have the momentum needed, as well as the story backing him up, to come out victorious here. The company has spent so much time and effort in crafting him as THE threat to Roman’s era-defining title reign. Then again… you could say the same thing about what the company did for Drew McIntyre at Clash At The Castle, Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber, Daniel Bryan or Edge at WrestleMania 37, Brock Lesnar on three different occasions since October 2021, and more. Roman has been the champion for so long now, but come on… whether you want to see Cody win here or not, how shocked are you going to be if WrestleMania comes to an end with Roman still holding those title belts? I would be stunned. Not quite jaw-on-the-floor shocked like, say, Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, but still pretty shocked. It seems like all the signs are pointing to Cody winning here, but let’s say Roman retains. What in the world is he supposed to do then? There is almost literally nobody left for him to face. I guess you could have Cody win a rematch, or you could have Sami Zayn win a rematch, but those moments would be so much less “special” than they would be at WrestleMania for Cody or Elimination Chamber for Sami. There’s always the possibility of pushing someone new to the top and having them dethrone Roman, but who fits that bill? Austin Theory? Bronson Reed? Damian Priest? Montez Ford? Ricochet? For one reason or another, all of them are a long way from being “ready” for that type of spot. How about Randy Orton? He’s injured, and there’s no timetable for him to return to the ring, but Orton isn’t a name on Roman’s list of victims over the last 900-plus days. They haven’t even faced each other one-on-one since May 2015. Orton is certainly over enough with the WWE Universe for a spot like that. What about Sheamus? They haven’t faced each other one-on-one since February 2018, and Sheamus is certainly someone who could take the fight to Roman. How about Gunther? That’s a very intriguing option. The only time Roman and Gunther have ever been in a match together was the Raw vs Smackdown vs NXT elimination match at Survivor Series 2019, but they were never in the match at the same time because Vince McMahon is a fucking moron that had Gunther (then known as WALTER) be eliminated from the match in under three minutes. If not Gunther, could it be someone that isn’t even on the WWE roster right now? Pardon me while I make the assholes of a lot of people pucker up… what about someone like Kenny Omega? There is a ton of buzz surrounding his AEW contract status and just how bad WWE would love to sign him when the time comes. How about Bron Breakker? Most people are expecting him to drop the NXT Championship to Carmelo Hayes at Stand & Deliver on WrestleMania weekend, with a main roster call up to follow soon thereafter. The company is clearly high on him, but how long would it take until he’s “ready” for that spot? Next WrestleMania? Are we really going to see Roman’s reign zoom beyond the 1300-day mark? That would put him fourth on the list of the longest World Title reigns in company history, behind only Bruno Sammartino’s 2,803-day reign, Bob Backlund’s (company recognized) 2,135-day reign, and Hulk Hogan’s 1,474-day reign. Stranger things have happened, but you’re running the risk of burning everyone out… Reigns and fans alike… by doing something like that in this day and age, fantastic storytelling or not. Like I said, it would truly be shocking if Cody didn’t win here.
Your turn. I want to hear about some of your picks for WrestleMania matches. You can do what I did and try to be as realistic as possible, or you can go nuts and fantasy book something off-the-wall. Either way, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Weekly Power Rankings
Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn: It was every bit of the emotional roller coaster ride that it needed to be. Enough said.
Montreal: If you’ve been watching wrestling for a long time, it comes as no surprise that the city of Montreal is a great place for wrestling and has some of the loudest and most passionate fans you’re going to find. They really showed out for Smackdown and Elimination Chamber, though. Obviously, their love for Sami Zayn was the driving force, but if you watched both shows, they were loud for just about everything. A great showing. They’ve proven that they deserve more shows. It might behoove Tony Khan to see about bringing AEW there, too.
Sami Zayn’s Smackdown Segment: Sure, you can complain that the non-PG chants screwed things up a bit on television because the censors had to cut audio and video multiple times. However, it was still an amazing moment watching Sami return home and get the hero’s welcome. He could’ve gone the entire segment without saying a single word, and it still would’ve made this list. The fans showed their love for him, and he was clearly emotional about it. Simply put, it was great television.
Sami Zayn & Cody Rhodes’ Promo: This was also really good television. Sami played his role well, but this was Cody’s opportunity to shine. His passionate motivational speech had me fired up and thinking I could get in there and beat Roman Reigns myself. Whether or not you believed Sami was going to win at Elimination Chamber was irrelevant. WWE was smart to have a segment with both of these guys, potentially leaning into the idea that Sami could win and face Cody himself at WrestleMania.
Men’s Elimination Chamber Match: Counting Logan Paul’s interference, there were seven men involved in this match. Of those seven men, you have one who won the match and six that came out of things looking better than they did going in. That is how you put a match together, folks. There was something for everyone here. The most important thing, though, is that you could’ve seen some star-making performances here, and some of the people who lost this match could still have chances to shine once WrestleMania comes and goes, when WWE tends to shift directions and hit the reset button a lot.
Dustin Rhodes vs Swerve Strickland: Rhodes is less than two months away from his 54th birthday, but he continues to show that he deserves a bigger on-screen role with AEW. They don’t use him on television that often, but when they do, he continues to turn back the clock and deliver entertaining performance after entertaining performance. At this point, AEW fans would love it if Dustin was involved in the TNT Title picture, or even the Tag Team Title picture with someone. He deserves it, and he has earned it, even if it doesn’t end up happening.
Tyler Bate vs Grayson Waller: Bate is Bate. You know he’s going to deliver high quality matches whenever he’s in the ring. Waller continues to get better and better, showing how bright his future might be. I’m not sure where all of the Shawn Michaels teases are going. HBK didn’t exactly have a great, legacy-enhancing performance the last time he came out of retirement. He went back on his word to stay retired because he was given a big check to wrestle in Saudi Arabia. The man can do whatever he wants. I’m not holding that against him. Even he knows that the match at Crown Jewel was piss poor, though, and he has said as much in the years since. I don’t think he would come back out of retirement for a random match at NXT, but we’ve seen wilder things happen, for sure.
Mercedes Moné: I’m still trying to find the time to actually sit and watch New Japan’s Battle In The Valley event, but I did see that Mercedes defeated Kairi to win the IWGP Women’s Title. While it’s a shame that Kairi’s title reign was just under three months, with only one successful title defense in that span, putting the title on Mercedes is going to do a lot for the prestige of a brand new entity in wrestling. Mercedes brings attention to whatever she’s doing, and she’ll be able to travel with the title and potentially defend it in a lot of different places.
Drew McIntyre & Sheamus vs The Viking Raiders: A lot of effort has been put into the latest attempt at revamping Erik and Ivar’s characters, but it hasn’t led to a lot of wins. Some really fun matches, yes, but it would be nice to see the new look, new vignettes, and the return of the newly-named Valhalla lead to something.
The Elite vs Top Flight & AR Fox: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but… AEW had a trios match that fit in as much action as possible from bell-to-bell. I could REALLY do without the corny basketball shit that The Elite have been doing recently, though. Doing it in promos and backstage segments is one thing, but when it starts happening in matches… again and again and again and again… that’s something different entirely.
Bianca Belair vs Bayley vs Becky Lynch: A WrestleMania-caliber matchup. I like the addition of the stakes, where Bayley or Becky could’ve been added to the women’s Elimination Chamber if they won here. As I’ve said a bunch of times in the past, it really goes a long way when there’s actually something on the line in a wrestling match. For far too long, it was just random matches with random wrestlers doing things for random reasons. Yet another reason why Vince McMahon fucking sucked at what he did “creatively” for WWE.
Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs Rush & Preston Vance: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but… AEW had Jon Moxley in a match that featured blood, but was also a lot of fun to watch. Fans haven’t exactly been given any reason to feel Rush and Vance had a shot in hell of winning this match, but that doesn’t matter a ton in AEW. Mox and Claudio are so good, and so popular, that it doesn’t matter who they’re facing. You could put them in a tag match next week against me and any one of you reading these words right now, and the AEW fans would still be amped up and excited to see the match. We’d still make Moxley bleed, too.
Christian Cage: He’s finally healthy and has returned to AEW. Good. Perhaps we can get this feud with Jungle Boy wrapped up now so that both men can move on to something else.
Women’s Elimination Chamber Match: While it wasn’t on the same level of quality as the men’s Chamber, I still enjoyed this. Lots of crowd-pleasing spots, plenty of high-energy performances from the women, and a really fun way to get the pay-per-view started.
Gunther vs Madcap Moss: Gunther is able to have some good matches even when there is a negative percent chance that he’s going to lose. His Intercontinental Title reign recently surpassed the eight-month mark, and he has the longest reign with the title since The Rock held it for 264 days from December 8th, 1997 to August 30th, 1998. If Gunther makes it to WrestleMania as the champion, he will sail past that reign from The Rock, then Mr. Perfect’s reign from November 19th, 1990 to August 26th, 1991, and then Greg “The Hammer” Valentine’s reign from September 24th, 1984 to July 6th, 1985. WrestleMania will mark his 295th or 296th day (depending on which day he wrestles), and even if he loses the title at the event, it would be the fourth-longest reign in Intercontinental Title history.
Jacy Jayne: While I continue to dislike her facial expressions and (over)acting ability that are worse than anything you’ll see in a high school Drama Club, I can’t deny that she cut a good promo on NXT last week. All of the comparisons to Shawn Michaels turning heel on Marty Jannetty were already made, so it’s good that they’re using that on-screen, as well. It feels like most fans still feel Gigi Dolin will end up as the “Shawn Michaels” of this split, but Jacy has already had more time and effort put behind her than we got to see out of Jannetty back in 1992 because of Jannetty’s legal issues, but a start is a start.
Movie Parodies Returning For WrestleMania In “Hollywood”: One of the more well-received parts of WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles were the movie parodies that WWE filmed. Whether it was John Cena and JBL’s version of A Few Good Men, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero’s version of Pulp Fiction, Triple H and Ric Flair’s version of Braveheart, or any of the others that were filmed, fans really enjoyed the work. With WrestleMania returning to the Hollywood area this year, we were hoping to see a new round of parodies, and that’s exactly what we’re getting. The first reveal was Seth Rollins as Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, with an appearance from Becky Lynch as The (Bat) Man. More parodies are to come in the following weeks, and I’m excited.
Natalya & Shotzi vs Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler: Easily Ronda Rousey’s best match in a long time. All four women worked really hard here, and it showed.
Roxanne Perez & Meiko Satomura vs Katana Chance & Kayden Carter: Another really fun women’s tag match, used to set up the next NXT Women’s Title match between Roxanne Perez and Meiko Satomura. A random stat that amuses me but doesn’t mean much of anything… Satomura was ten days away from her 21st birthday when Perez was born, and already six-and-a-half years deep in her pro wrestling career.
Keith Lee: It’s good to see him back in action, but man, his new look that showcases his natural gray hair is going to take a lot of getting used to. In a sport where image has mattered for decades, wrestlers are constantly trying to look as young and youthful as possible, so it’s almost jarring to see a wrestler with that much gray, especially when that wrestler is only 38 years old. He can wrestle in a neon pink mohawk for all I care. All that matters to me is him putting Mogul Affiliates to an end. Please, for the love of everything that is considered holy.
This Week’s Playlist: Multiple podcast episodes from the likes of Mick Foley, Dax Harwood, Jim Ross, and Shea Serrano.