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WWE enters WrestleMania 42 with more pressure to deliver than any show in a long time after completely muddying up yet another build to its main event with Cody Rhodes.
Wrestling fans are perplexed and annoyed by Pat McAfee being revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery caller and cutting promos that were at times illogical while trying to help boost the lackluster ticket sales after WWE chose to bring WrestleMania back to Allegiant Stadium for the second straight year.
WWE had a mentor-student layup with decades of history between members of two of wrestling’s iconic families and chose a worse route. Now they have to validate why.
With plenty at stake and plenty of titles on the line, The Post’s Joseph Staszewski does his best to predict how it will all go down in Las Vegas on Saturday night, April 18, for the WrestleMania Night 1 card (6 p.m., ESPN Unlimited. First hour also airs on ESPN2.)
Drew McIntyre vs. Jacob Fatu (Unsanctioned match)
This feels like it has to be Fatu’s time, as McIntyre is coming off a short-lived run as WWE champion. The two have beaten each other up all around the arenas in the weeks and months leading up to this match, and now they can do whatever they want to each other to get us a winner, with the match unsanctioned. It feels like a perfect match to put on the first hour, which will air on ESPN2.
Fatu, the babyface here, has a story to immediately lean into with tensions between him and Solo Sikoa growing with Toma Tonga’s loyalties hanging in the balance. He can do so with the momentum of beating McIntyre after they both pull out all the stops. Maybe Tonga gives him a slight assist.
Pick: Jacob Fatu
iShowSpeed, Logan Paul and Austin Theory vs. LA Knight, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso
The Usos need to get a little bit of payback for Paul and Theory beating them for the World Tag Team championships at Madison Square Garden in late March. Danhausen’s curse is still on iShowspeed, so that should play a role here to get the budding Very Nice, Very Evil star on the show on ESPN and make for some great social content for WWE in a match clearly booked for casual fans. Speed’s bad luck will either lead to him or Theory taking the pin and give the Usos some momentum heading into a tag championship rematch on Raw or at Backlash. Paul’s signature brass knuckles won’t be enough here as fans go Yeeting their way into the ESPN Unlimited portion of the card.
Pick: LA Knight and the Usos
Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
Guther has done a great job making the reasoning for this impromptu match make sense after he attacked Rollins out of nowhere on Raw. He is doing Paul Heyman a favor and expects a favor in return — likely a retirement match with Brock Lesnar. The Ring General also wants to put to bed once and for all who he feels is the best World Heavyweight champion after he feels Rollins avoided him during their reigns. WWE has too much invested in Gunther after he ended John Cena’s career to have him lose now. His win will most likely come with the help of a returning Bron Breakker, so he and Rollins can start the feud we thought we were getting at WrestleMania. A win lets Gunther have more power in asking Heyman for his repayment.
Pick: Gunther
Nia Jax and Lash Legend (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair vs. Lyra Valkyria and Bayley vs. The Bella Twins for the WWE Women’s Tag Team championships
These four teams have been going at it for months to get to this point, allowing WWE to hold off on crowning the reunited Bella Twins with the tag team championships that didn’t exist in their primes. What better place to do so than at WrestleMania, given the mainstream attention they garner? There have been reports that Nikki Bella is not cleared after her ankle injury and WWE has signed Paige to replace her, so keep an eye out for that. If there is one team that breaks up after this, it feels like it should be Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. The partnership has served both well, especially Flair’s connection with fans, but it’s time for her to get back into the singles title picture by SummerSlam.
Pick: The Bella Twins
AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental championship
Lee, who is having her first singles match at WrestleMania, has already made Lynch tap out three times since returning from a 10-year hiatus from wrestling. A fourth time seems to be in the cards. There is no reason to take the championship off Lee so quickly, even if she isn’t likely to be a regular on TV. Lynch has already held it twice for a total of 200-plus days. If anyone can survive these losses and find her way into something new, it’s The Man. It leaves Lee to have fresh championship feuds with a whole roster of talent she’s never faced, or it gives WWE a chance to bring Paige back, something Lee has pushed for.
Pick: AJ Lee
Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan for the Women’s World championship
Let’s be honest here, Vaquer’s title run has been average at best, with only Raquel Rodriguez as her long-term feud before Morgan — who just released a music video — won the Royal Rumble. Morgan is by far the bigger star and has far more intriguing places to go with the title than Vaquer does — starting with fellow Judgment Day member Roxanne Perez.
Morgan and Vaquer have done a fantastic job trading insults about the other’s path to the top and selling this match on just the intensity of their scraps. Vaquer held nothing back when she shoved Morgan into Perez backstage, leading to Morgan and Perez each getting a sizable bump on their forehead. Morgan also looked crazed as she was held back from Vaquer by security on the go-home Raw. Either Morgan is too resourceful or the Judgment Day’s numbers do in Vaquer in the end.
Pick: Liv Morgan
Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton for the Undisputed WWE championship
No match may have more eyes on it this whole weekend than Rhodes versus Orton because of how much people are talking about Pat McAfee’s awkward inclusion into this feud that wasn’t needed. It’s been something almost universally hated by wrestling fans, which could at least lead to quite the pop when Rhodes gets his hands on him.
McAfee pretty much gave away the finish by telling fans they will never see him again in wrestling if Randy Orton does not leave Las Vegas with world championship No. 15 and move closer to WrestleMania host John Cena’s record 17. The Viper needs to be hoisting gold to make this all worth it and you don’t put McAfee in this spot just to pull the plug after a few weeks. There has to be a larger story at play and hopefully we find out what that is on Saturday night.
It will be interesting to see how much in-ring time Rhodes and Orton get alone without McAfee or Jelly Roll getting involved because they sure weren’t given enough promo time together in the buildup. They will still find a way to tell a fantastic story on their end.
The story running in the background of the other shenanigans is whether Rhodes will listen to the dark voices in his head and go to the place he must to beat Orton. The answer for now is no. But we either leave WrestleMania’s first night with Rhodes facing a juggernaut heel force — potentially led by TKO and The Rock — that keeps screwing him over and reignites fans’ babyface feeling for him, or Rhodes is left in such despair that he has no choice but to start unleashing some of his heelish or grittier side to win his title back.
Pick: Randy Orton
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