WWE WrestleMania 40 is coming up this Saturday and Sunday! Let’s run down everything you need to know about the upcoming pay-per-view and all the matches currently scheduled for WrestleMania XL.
Who is scheduled for the card? How interesting does the show seem? What’s going to happen with all the matches?
Here is a full preview of the WWE WrestleMania XL premium live event!
PPV EVENT INFORMATION
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2024 and Sunday, April 7, 2024
Start Time: 5 p.m. ET (kickoff), 7 p.m. ET (main show)
Location: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
MATCH CARD, PREDICTIONS & HEAT INDEX ANTICIPATION LEVELS
(as currently advertised; card is always subject to change)
Temperature Scale = Scorching > Hot > Lukewarm > Temperate > Chilly > Cold > Freezing
Heat Index is my assessment of how interesting the segment is, including how excited I am for the match and how intriguing the feud has been. The hotter, the better. Scorching translates to not being able to wait to see it, while Freezing means I couldn’t possibly care less and think it will be awful.
TAG TEAM MATCH:
Cody Rhodes and Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. The Rock and Roman Reigns
* If Rhodes and Rollins win, The Bloodline are banned from ringside during Rhodes vs. Reigns on Night 2. If Rock and Reigns win, Bloodline Rules becomes the stipulation of the title match *
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: The Rock and Roman Reigns win.
Thoughts: The heels need to win this. Obviously. You can’t dangle these two stipulations out there and go with the less interesting of the two on Sunday. The more you stack the deck against Cody Rhodes, the sweeter the victory will be. We’ll get some interference to allow for The Rock and Reigns to win and it’ll set the tone for the next night. Cody should take the fall by The Rock, too, for reasons I’ll explain in the next section.
UNDISPUTED WWE UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
Heat Index = Scorching
Prediction: Cody Rhodes wins…please…
Thoughts: I want the portal scene from Avengers: Endgame. Give me Jey offsetting Jimmy. Rollins offsetting Solo Sikoa. Drew McIntyre maybe even being involved. John Cena. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Triple H. Throw in Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and Randy Orton if you want to, but obviously, they aren’t needed. What I need more than anything, and the only thing that I REALLY need here, is for Cody Rhodes to win the title. If I’m booking this, I’m having Rock pin Cody on Night 1 and Roman failing here, so that on Monday Night Raw, The Rock can lambast Roman, say he’s the real High Chief and Roman proved he doesn’t deserve to be The Tribal Chief because he gave him that win on a silver platter. Have him appoint Solo the new acting Tribal Heir in the meantime while Roman goes away, and Cody can have his championship run while Roman is set up to return later in the year to fight Solo, Jimmy, and work his way up to a match with The Rock at WrestleMania 41 for “The Head of the Table” spot and no championship. But as I said…the most important thing here is Cody must win. He HAS to. If this is all just another gotcha, try again next year, third time’s the charm, we swerved you all type of thing, I’m going to be even more disheartened than I was last year. It will prove there’s no point in investing in WWE storylines throughout every month other than March/April.
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Drew McIntyre wins.
Thoughts: I’d rather have seen CM Punk against Seth Rollins, but McIntyre has been killing it with his promos as of late. He’s turned this around from a match that I’ve seen enough in the past few months to something where I’m sold that it deserves to be a world title match this year. Part of me thinks Damian Priest will cash in after Rollins successfully retains his title. Another part of me thinks it’s as simple as Drew winning outright (even if he cheats) and that’s that. Either way, I don’t think Rollins is going to be leaving this show with the title in hand, and that’s pretty interesting. I just hope losing it doesn’t lead to him turning on Cody for some reason, as I hate that idea with a passion. But the way I see it, SummerSlam’s got McIntyre vs. CM Punk on the marquee for this belt.
SINGLES MATCH FOR THE WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Rhea Ripley wins.
Thoughts: For a match involving two of my favorite women in pro wrestling history, I’m surprisingly not all that hyped about this. Maybe it’s just because it’s been a generic build. They had some stare downs over the past year, Lynch won the right to challenge, and that’s it. Maybe it’s because I feel like Lynch likely will win and I’m not sure I’d rather her be champion than Ripley. But I’m still going to toss it out there that Ripley retains. I don’t know why. There’s a 51/49 vote in me that’s leaning her way at this particular moment. Mami’s uber popular. Why paint by numbers and go with the title change for everything?
SINGLES MATCH FOR THE WWE WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP:
Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Bayley wins.
Thoughts: While the Ripley/Lynch match is up in the air for me, this one is set in stone. Bayley wins the title. The end. Sadly, I think that this is going to get lost in the shuffle on Sunday and it might have been better off happening on Saturday.
SIX PACK CHALLENGE LADDER MATCH FOR THE WWE UNDISPUTED TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP:
The Judgment Day (c) (Damian Priest and Finn Balor) vs. Awesome Truth vs. The New Day vs. DIY vs. New Catch Republic vs. Austin Theory & Grayson Waller
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Awesome Truth and A-Town Down Under both win.
Thoughts: Especially now that we know the match ends with both sets of titles being pulled down, WWE absolutely must split these championships. They’ve gone all this time without creating a single set of belts to represent the undisputed nature of the championship. If you want to keep it cross-branded, stop having both red and blue ugly belts and just make one single WWE Tag Team Championship. I’m anticipating Awesome Truth and A-Town Down Under to grab the Raw and SmackDown titles respectively. Or, maybe there’s a plan to have Theory and Waller grab the Raw titles and send them there while a team like DIY wins the SmackDown titles and we have an impromptu brand trade. In any fashion, this match will be total chaos, and I’m down for that; especially since I’ll be cool with any team winning.
SINGLES MATCH FOR THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP:
Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Gunther wins.
Thoughts: Maybe I’m being dumb saying Gunther retains. They’re doing the underdog story with Sami, after all. But I just don’t see the reasoning behind having Zayn be the guy to beat Gunther. He doesn’t need it. It’s a step down, if anything, since he’s already won that IC title multiple times before. The one to beat Gunther should be someone who’s never won it and can really benefit from it, like either Chad Gable or maybe Bron Breakker. Since we already saw this last year, it also doesn’t stand out to me as having the potential to really steal the show in any significant way. It’ll be good, of course, but I’m expecting it to become an overall forgettable part of the show when it’s all said and done.
TRIPLE THREAT MATCH FOR THE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP:
Logan Paul (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Kevin Owens wins.
Thoughts: My brain tells me the title is changing hands and to lean more toward Owens capturing it. However, my gut is telling me that if Gunther drops his belt, Logan Paul might retain his. I don’t think Orton is walking out with the title by any means. Personally, I’d rather see LA Knight win the United States title from Paul at Backlash.
SINGLES MATCH:
AJ Styles vs. LA Knight
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: AJ Styles wins.
Thoughts: Speaking of LA Knight, I think the winner of this match depends on how much they want to extend this feud. There’s a VERY strong chance Knight and Styles have a gimmick match at Backlash. If that’s the case, I think Styles is coming out on top. A win for Knight would signal to me that this was more of a “give them both something to do” scenario and less of an investment in this storyline, wherein the feud is probably over, and not having a stipulation here was mostly because the two nights were loaded up on gimmicks as it is. Philly is going to pop for those YEAH moments.
SINGLES MATCH:
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Jimmy Uso wins.
Thoughts: I’m going rather heel-heavy here, but as much as Jey winning puts the feud at rest and he gets his revenge, I think the Cody narrative is more important, and a win for Jimmy helps set that tone even more. It also gives Jey another reason to come out to help Cody fight off Jimmy in the main event. Make this the match that Solo interferes in and then, when he tries to do the same to Cody, he comes up short. I’m excited to see what Jimmy and Jey do together, as they’ve been preparing for this match their entire lives. This should be a lot of fun.
TAG TEAM MATCH:
Dragon Lee & Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Dominik Mysterio and Santos Escobar win.
Thoughts: That’s it? Dom randomly gets thrown into this and it’s just a tag match? Kind of lame, to be honest. Again, I’m going heel-heavy, and I think we could see Carlito turn on the Latino World Order as a result of not being picked here and Dragon Lee usurping his spot, similar to what happened with Carlito joining LWO in the first place and that setting off Escobar. This “the anti-Rey guy was right” thing can continue.
SIX-WOMAN TAG TEAM MATCH:
Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane)
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill and Naomi win.
Thoughts: I’m heel-heavy for a lot of this, but not here. Cargill shouldn’t lose her first WrestleMania match. Belair shouldn’t have her streak ended in this fashion, either. The women’s tag titles aren’t even on the line. Have Iyo Sky come out to try to help Damage CTRL win, only for Bayley to even the odds and help the babyfaces be victorious. Not the biggest match we could’ve gotten by any means, but whatever.
PHILADELPHIA STREET FIGHT
Bobby Lashley, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford vs. Karrion Kross, Akam & Rezar
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: The Pride wins.
Thoughts: I’m really glad this is a Street Fight. That’s going to help it out tremendously. The Pride and The Final Testament can brawl in a way that puts WrestleMania 13’s Chicago Street Fight to shame. Time for another babyface to come out on top. Lashley and The Street Profits have been having more losses than wins in this feud, so this will help them offset that.
OVERALL PPV:
How excited am I for the event as a whole?
Heat Index = Scorching
Thoughts: It’s WrestleMania. Even if some of the matches could be tweaked to get them individually higher on the scale, the overall picture of this event is that it’s The Showcase of the Immortals and it will go down in history. We just have to hope it is one of the good ones and not a disappointment like what the second half of last year ended up being.
What do you think is going to happen at WWE WrestleMania 40? Which matches are you most excited to see? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
