Predicting Winners for WrestleMania Saturday (Night One))
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Wrestlemania weekend is here, as the two-night extravaganza hits its 40th anniversary. The card for both nights is stacked from top to bottom, but who seems likely to win the matches on Night 1?
Rhea Ripley (C) vs Becky Lynch
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On Night One of WrestleMania XL, WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley puts her championship on the line against “The Man” Becky Lynch.
Lynch got the opportunity to face Ripley back in February when she won the Elimination Chamber, which was the right decision because there have been hints between the two for the past two years for a big match, and a match of this magnitude belongs on the grandest stage of them all.
It has gotten more personal recently, with Ripley mentioning Lynch’s daughter in a verbal attack on Lynch during the March 25th edition of Monday Night Raw. Brawls have ensued, and the two have engaged in brawls.
The rivalry feels personal, which it needed to be to get people even more invested. They engaged on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this past Monday, getting into a scuffle and then engaging in another brawl on Raw.
They might be the first match on the Night One Card. But who walks out with the title on Saturday Night? Well, in my opinion it will be Ripley because she is still building up a more prominent presence and standing out more, making her title reign even more special in a similar way to Roman Reigns and his Undisputed Universal Championship, meaning the person who eventually beats Mami becomes a bigger star.
Whilst a win for Lynch would be great, especially with the release of her new autobiography and the fact that she could elevate other talents in the women’s division, I can’t see how a loss would benefit Ripley unless WWE does a double turn similar to Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13.
GUNTHER (C) Vs Sami Zayn
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Three weeks ago, on the March 11 edition of Raw, Sami Zayn won a gauntlet match to earn an Intercontinental Championship title fight against Gunther.
In the weeks leading up to Mania and before the gauntlet, Zayn has been doing interview segments on the show about how he is trying to prove himself to be a contender. On the other hand, Gunther has just been continuing his dominating run as the IC Champion and has mocked Zayn in backstage segments by simply laughing at him.
A week later, Chad Gable said that Zayn can’t beat Gunther, and the week after, Zayn lost to Bronson Reed. Gable lost to Zayn in the gauntlet and then offered to be his coach, a motivator for Zayn. However they both were laid out by Gunther this past week on Raw.
This story has been rushed to get both men a high-profile match on the card. Therefore, Gunther alone will retain his championship because they could tell more of a story post-mania. Still, Zayn should focus on the World Heavyweight Championship, considering he has never won a World Championship during his time on the WWE main roster.
Bianca Belair, Naomi and Jade Cargill vs Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Auska & Kairi Sane)
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Naomi and Bianca Belair have been the targets of attacks from Damage CTRL members for the last few weeks on Friday Night Smackdown. The numbers have been stacked against them.
That was until last Friday when Jade Cargill appeared on the same night she made her official Smackdown debut, helping out Naomi and Belair. This match is a way of getting all three on the card and a showcase for WWE’s next biggest female star, Jade Cargill.
It isn’t ideal that Damage CTRL fall short on big Premium Live Events, but you don’t want Cargill to lose her first full match in WWE. At the same time, you want to protect Bianca Belair’s unbeaten streak and finally give Naomi a win, which is why I can see Cargill, Naomi, and Belair winning at Mania.
Six-Pack ladder match for Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Judgment Day (Damian Priest & Finn Bálor) vs. Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth) vs. DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs. New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) vs. A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller)
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The tag team division currently in WWE is building up momentum, which is a nice change because so many great wrestlers make such good teams. Plus, this ladder match allows WWE to highlight as many teams as possible.
Generally, in these matches where two belts are involved, you must pull both down together to win. The caveat this time is that if one team pulls down the RAW Tag Titles, then the match continues, so it seems like we could be heading for separate tag divisions again, which is a nice change because of how many teams there are now on each brand.
Now, as for who wins each set of belts, this sets up for R Truth to get his first WrestleMania Victory and become RAW Tag Team Champions with the Miz. As for who grabs down the Smackdown tag team titles, It goes to Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne, as they have the most momentum of the two Smackdown Teams in the match.
Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee vs. Santos Escobar & Dominik Mysterio
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Dominik Mysterio is back meddling with his father’s life once more and has allied with Santos Escobar, or maybe something more. Escobar has grown a hatred for Rey Mysterio since he betrayed him in November because he grew jealous of how Rey operated the LWO.
Mysterio was then written off television for a few months to get surgery on his knee and made his return to Smackdown on March 1 to get payback. Dragon Lee also has unfinished business with Escobar, as he is on the scene for an attack by Escobar and the rest of his crew.
This has led towards this big tag team showdown on WrestleMania Saturday; Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee are looking to get payback against Dominik and Santos, who will look to finish off Rey and the face of Mexican wrestling in the future Dragon Lee.
Considering the people in the match, it is a hard one to call, but with the way this feud has panned out over five months, Rey and Dragon Lee will win on Night One. It seems set up for the babyfaces to get their revenge finally.
Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso
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Out of the 40 years that WrestleMania has been going, there have only been three brother-vs-brother battles. At WrestleMania 10: Bret Hart vs Owen; at WrestleMania 25, it was Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy; and now at WrestleMania 40, it is going to be Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso.
It is a dream match for the twins who started their wrestling careers together but, over the past year, have started breaking off into singles competitors.
2023 post-WrestleMania saw a civil war within The Bloodline, which started in May at the Night Of Champions in Event when Jimmy Uso finally cracked and super kicked Roman Reigns in the head. Fast-forward a month, and you had the tag match at Money In The Bank with Jimmy and Jey against Roman and Solo.
The Twins won against The Tribal Chief and The Enforcer, with Jey pinning Reigns in the match. Then, a month later, at SummerSlam, Jey competed with his cousin again in Tribal Combat when a man in a black hoodie came out and decided to cost him the match; it turned out to be Jey’s older brother, Jimmy.
It has been the same pattern. Jimmy fell back in line whilst Jey went over to Raw and has become one of the most beloved stars on the WWE Roster, with the YEET movement becoming popular. The same cannot be said about Jimmy, who suffered loss after loss.
Jimmy has not been taken seriously, though if you look online at their WrestleMania Vlog, we finally get a severe version of Jimmy, which has been needed to tell more of the story.
There has been jealousy and an emotional heat between the two, and it is all going to boil over Saturday Night, a dream match for both of them, which they will be excited about behind the curtain. But it is Jey who will be walking out the winner of the brother vs brother battle because with Jey right now, he is soon on course to win a major championship and has proven to be a ready main event talent.
The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins
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This is the biggest WrestleMania Tag Team Match in the history of WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes is on a mission to finish his story, while Seth Rollins wants to be free of The Bloodline once and for all and protect the future of the WWE.
But for The Rock and Roman Reigns, it is about making it as difficult as possible for Rollins and Rhodes with the threat of Bloodline Rules on Night Two of WrestleMania in the main event, as well as making it a difficult night for Rollins in his World Heavyweight Championship title defence.
There is a lot on the line in their tag match and a lot of history and story to tell—Rollins’ history with Reigns in the shield. Rhodes is looking to get revenge on The Rock for the slap at the WrestleMania kickoff during the week of the SuperBowl in Las Vegas and his bloodied attack on the March 25th Monday Night Raw. Meanwhile, for The Rock, his angle is doing everything in his power as the “final boss” to ensure Rhodes and Rollins do not have a successful WrestleMania Sunday.
If Cody is to win on Sunday Night, it has to be within Bloodline Rules to make his victory seem more fitting to his story the past year, which has been overcoming obstacles and hurdles. Thus, it sets up a scenario where Cody will have to try and fend off all of the Bloodline to finish his story on Wrestlemania Sunday.
Prediction: Rock and Roman
WrestleMania Night One is Live Saturday, April 6 on TNT Sports Box Office and available on the WWE Network with a special start time of 00:00 BST
