Smark Out Moment

The WWE WrestleMania 36 pay-per-view is scheduled to take place as a two-night event on April 4, 2020 and April 5, 2020 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida after having been moved from the original location, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

WrestleMania will be presented in front of no audience, as per quarantine rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Follow along here for spoilers and information on the event's card, lineup of matches and news regarding the pay-per-view.

The following are my predictions for the WWE WrestleMania 2020 PPV. Check back for WrestleMania XXXVI results and review coverage here when the time comes.

CORONAVIRUS NOTE: Obviously, this event has been severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic regulations and precautions. Quite literally every day, multiple things change. It's impossible for me to fully keep up with adjusting this page to reflect each and every piece of information, especially as we have no idea what else is going to change and how this is going to work out. Please keep that in mind when reading this breakdown below if anything seems out of date and be patient, as the predictions will be updated at some point, eventually.

WWE WrestleMania 2020 Spoilers and Predictions Rundown

WWE Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Drew McIntyre

Is this what I would have booked? Absolutely not. First off, Lesnar wouldn't be my champion, but even if that were the case, I'd have leaned more into Kevin Owens.

However, don't mistake that nitpicking with me burying the lead that I'm SOOOOO happy that this is the match we're getting over the multitude of other possible scenarios that were out there. I had zero interest in wasting the WWE Championship with someone like Cain Velasquez, Tyson Fury or Daniel Cormier, so this is a major, major step up.

I sincerely hope WWE's plan is to put the belt on McIntyre. We've had far too many people build up steam and then lose to Lesnar. He can drop the belt and it does him no harm while in the process, completely makes McIntyre forever as this is a big deal to win the Royal Rumble and then beat The Beast Incarnate at WrestleMania for his first world title.

Do the right thing, WWE, even if it's not in the environment that should have made this a bigger moment than it will be in front of nobody. Don't fall into the temptation of saying "it's not big enough to crown him champion like this, so let's have him lose and then we'll do the rematch later down the line."

PREDICTION: I was leaning toward McIntyre. Now, with the event changes, I'm leaning more toward Lesnar retaining and WWE pulling that crap where they want to do a rematch at SummerSlam or something.


NXT Women's Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair

It's very, very interesting that they decided to give so much spotlight to NXT's title. However, I almost take that more as them wanting to spotlight Ripley, rather than the NXT women's division. Of course, giving NXT a bump helps with that ratings issue, too, so that's another positive.

I just can't see Flair winning that title and going down to NXT on a weekly basis (assuming we even still have NXT in the future with the way things are shutting down). I have to imagine this is a vehicle to put Ripley over, instead.

PREDICTION: Rhea Ripley retains the title.


Raw Women's Championship Match: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Shayna Baszler

They wasted an Elimination Chamber match on a foregone conclusion and it was lackluster. But whatever. I hate to admit that WWE's taken a match that I was interested in seeing and made me not excited about it, but it's true.

PREDICTION: 60% Shayna Baszler wins the title. 40% Becky Lynch retains.


Universal Championship Match: Goldberg (c) vs. Braun Strowman

This title is cursed. Time for a rant.

The first champion, Finn Balor, gets injured and relinquishes it within 24 hours. The next champion, Kevin Owens, is pushed aside in favor of Goldberg winning it, just so he can drop it to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33. Then, Lesnar holds it an entire year and beats everyone who could have possibly won it from him just to lost it to Roman Reigns in a rematch people didn't want to see, and WWE decides not to pull the trigger, making that whole year worthless. Then, they have another rematch at Greatest Royal Rumble and STILL don't pull the trigger. When they finally do, at SummerSlam, they make the mistake of turning Braun Strowman heel in an attempt to give Roman someone big to beat. It doesn't go over well. Then, Roman has to relinquish the title due to leukemia. Then, they decide not to put the belt on Strowman, so they give it to Lesnar again. He holds it until Mania, loses it to Rollins, who gives it back to Lesnar, who gives it back to Rollins, only to lose it to The Fiend, who has problems with the title. Meanwhile, Kofi Kingston dropped the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in a few seconds so they could swap the titles...only for Bray Wyatt to lose the title to Goldberg to set up a Roman Reigns match...only for Reigns to pull out right before WrestleMania.

Then...WWE says they're replacing Reigns in a "unique" way, and what happens? They just put up a graphic and say never mind, Goldberg against Strowman. Commercial break.

?!!!?!?!!??!!?!??????!!!!!!!

Look. We all need to give WWE some flack when it comes to WrestleMania not working out the way that it should have. I get that. But this is ridiculous.

PREDICTION: Since absolutely nothing has been established for this match, I'm saying Goldberg wins. He just beats Strowman, cause they never want to put that title on him, and it's just a means to make Goldberg look even stronger. Then, they can drag out Goldberg/Reigns until whenever they can film again, even if that's SummerSlam.


Firefly Fun House Match: Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena

The Fiend absolutely has to win this if there are any plans on him being a main event serious title contender in the future. He dropped the Universal Championship, so he can use a big win to offset that. Cena is a legend who never needs to win another match in his career as he's perpetually made. And when Roman Reigns or a babyface Braun Strowman beats Goldberg for the universal title, if Wyatt comes out of this victorious, that will make the case for Reigns vs. Wyatt post-Mania. That's all up in the air, too, with the Reigns situation.

The way they did this, with Cena saying he shouldn't take up a spot at WrestleMania, only for Wyatt to point at the sign and Cena to tip his cap, was stupid, and I've already seen these two fight at WrestleMania, so I'm not actually all that into this. However, I'm curious what this Firefly Fun House Match gimmick will end up being.

PREDICTION: Bray Wyatt wins.


Last Man Standing Match: Randy Orton vs. Edge

As with everything on this card, it's a damn shame the coronavirus has messed this up. This feud has been one of the best things going for a while and it would have been epic to see these two lock up in front of thousands upon thousands of people.

Last Man Standing made sense, originally. I don't know how they're going to do that at the Performance Center. On the bright side, though, I'm so glad Edge is healthy enough to wrestle again. That's just wonderful. I really hope he gets to perform at a lot more shows with some actual people in attendance.

PREDICTION: Edge wins.


Boneyard Match: AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker

A couple years ago, this would have been amazing and it pains me to say that I'm not holding out a lot of faith that it will be all that good. The Phenom vs. The Phenomenal One sounds like a recipe for success based on how great they are, but The Undertaker isn't in his prime and I'm worried. This is a WrestleMania of "on paper, this looks good, if you ignore everything that came before it and don't think about the logistics and blind yourself to how the matches might underwhelm" and this is indicative of some of that. However, I'll still get a smile on my face when Taker's music hits.

Granted...I wanted this to be a casket match and now, it's a Boneyard Match...whatever the hell that is...and it's happening in front of nobody, which sucks...but I'm trying not to be too down on it.

PREDICTION: The Undertaker wins.

Take Dana Brooke out. She's in quarantine.

SmackDown Women's Championship Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match: Bayley (c) vs. Lacey Evans vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks vs. Tamina

Wow. What a massively underwhelming match this is. Imagine how lackluster this would have looked at Raymond James Stadium compared to all the other big matches happening.

WWE botched this whole thing with Bayley so much. They had her beat every single person on the roster only to say "Well, we didn't set up anyone to challenge her, nor did we bother turning Sasha Banks to feud with her, so let's just throw a bunch of people in there and hope that quantity comes off as quality."

The sum of its parts doesn't matter. The only interesting thing is if Banks wins the title and that causes a split between those two. If anything other than that happens, be it Bayley beating everyone again or someone winning the title in bland fashion, it will be a waste. But even still, WWE never should have been in a situation where this was their game plan.

Why was Paige part of this? We know now by Carmella wasn't involved and why Dana Brooke was taken out, but why was Tamina considered someone worth investing in? Nobody cares.

PREDICTION: Sasha Banks wins, I guess.


Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins

They made it seem like this was going to be a gimmick match of sorts, with Rollins saying Owens could "even pick the stipulation". Instead, they did the worst case scenario: they kept these two fighting in tag team matches from November until April only to have the culmination be a regular singles match.

As much as I'm a fan of both (particularly KO) this is massively underwhelming. The only reason it's not going to come off even more problematic is because there will be a lot of leeway with this year's WrestleMania, but if this were the normal show as scheduled, it would be a dud no matter how great these two are in the ring, because the feud was stretched out too lazily and the big payoff was just a regular match we've seen before and could have seen on any episode of Raw over the past 5 months.

PREDICTION: Kevin Owens wins.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Miz and John Morrison (c) vs. The New Day or The Usos

I'm fully expecting this to be a Triple Threat match, rather than one team winning the title shot outright. However, if that's the case, it'll be The Usos who get the shot.

I don't know if they'd be able to pull it off, but it would be cool if they could make this a ladder match with all three teams.

Update from 3/27: Some reports say The Miz is no longer able to wrestle here and this could be anything from a Triple Threat ladder match with just Morrison involved to...somehow...a singles match between Morrison and ONE of The Usos and NEITHER member of The New Day. If this seriously went from a 2-on-2-on-2 ladder match to just Morrison against Jimmy or Jey...good lord is that a disappointment.

PREDICTION: This entirely depends on what is actually happening. We don't even know as of the end of SmackDown. I can't pick a match that has no match. If this stays the triple threat, I say The Usos win. If anything else happens, I have no idea.


Intercontinental Championship Match: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Daniel Bryan

This has yet to be confirmed, but it'll happen. They wouldn't have set it up like that only for Drew Gulak to lose to Shinsuke Nakamura and go in a different direction for WrestleMania.

Unfortunate as hell for Braun Strowman that he was given the belt just to have it taken away from him so quickly, but at least this is what we're getting out of it. It's also a shame this isn't happening in front of a crowd, as I'm sure these two will wrestle a damn good match that the audience would have eaten up.

PREDICTION: Daniel Bryan wins the title.


Elias vs. King Corbin

Why? At least this won't seem as bad considering how weird this WrestleMania is, but on a regular version of this event, this wouldn't be worth 5 minutes (and I'm fond of both guys).

Update: They did an injury angle. Then, they've been teasing that Elias may not wrestle. Of course, they're not bothering to make a decision on that, as they want people to be curious and tune in. That means they'll probably have Rob Gronkowski replace Elias.

PREDICTION: Elias or Rob Gronkowski wins, depending on who competes.


Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Street Profits (c) vs. Austin Theory and Angel Garza

Um...what?

To be fair, I didn't think these belts would be defended. I originally thought we'd get The Street Profits against AOP against The Viking Raiders against The O.C. in a Fatal 4-Way. Then, Rezar got injured, The O.C. focused entirely on The Undertaker and the pandemic happened, limiting the amount of people who can appear at events.

But I definitely didn't think the United States champion would be fighting for the Raw tag titles.

Then, I didn't expect Andrade to get injured and replaced by Austin Theory. This is all over the place bonkers.

To be honest, I think as great as Austin Theory is, they missed an opportunity. I think I would have had a surprise Humberto Carrillo heel turn to join Garza.

PREDICTION: The Street Profits retain.


Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley

Why is this a thing? They aren't feuding. This is stupid.

PREDICTION: Aleister Black wins.


Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler

Obviously, this and everything else on this card is not happening the way they wanted it to go down.

Ideally, I think this could have been interesting as a mixed tag team match. Without the virus stuff and without WWE doing a poor job planning things to begin with (as not all of this is COVID-19 to blame), they had the potential to do something interesting.

This could have been Otis and Tucker and Mandy Rose against Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode and Sonya Deville. They could have told a story that Sonya sent the text message and either tried to sabotage Mandy's relationship with Otis or tried to get her to date Ziggler, for whatever reason (looking out for her own good despite herself, maybe?) Then, Mandy, pissed about it, turns to Otis's side and teams up with Heavy Machinery and that gives you 3-on-3.

Or, they could have had Otis vs. Ziggler with Tucker and Roode on the outside, Sonya on the outside, and Mandy in the middle of it all.

It's a shame this couldn't be more.

Update from 4/3: Well, at least they got to somewhat tell the story that Sonya did the text messaging. It's not as good as it could have been, but it's still coming along.

PREDICTION: Otis wins.


Women's Tag Team Championship Match: The Kabuki Warriors (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross

I'm curious if there were any plans to do anything more than this before COVID-19 became an issue. I highly doubt that's the case, which is even more disappointing than if something good was taken away.

For example, if we find out that they did want to have Natalya and Beth Phoenix win the titles here, then that sucks. But doesn't it suck even more to think that the only thing WWE planned to do, with months in advance to figure something out, was always just to have a rematch from Hell in a Cell?

I don't doubt that these past few weeks, with WrestleMania going down the drain, have been hard to figure out. But if that was their game plan from the start, they shouldn't be paid to be "creative" as that's just copying and pasting something from October and saying "good enough!"

PREDICTION: The Kabuki Warriors retain.