WWE WrestleMania 39 is scheduled for April 1, 2023 and April 2, 2023 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California! Follow this page for WrestleMania Hollywood spoilers, information on the event's card, the lineup of matches advertised and news regarding the pay-per-view premium live event.
The following are my predictions for the WWE WrestleMania 2023 PPV. Check back for WrestleMania XXXIX results and review coverage here when the time comes for The Showcase of the Immortals on The Grandest Stage of Them All!
WWE WrestleMania 2023 Spoilers |
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
Yesssssssssssssssssss. Generations collide. Dynasties clash. Cody Rhodes has to go through The Head of the Table to realize his destiny. I'm pumped. Rhodes has to win this.
PREDICTION: Cody Rhodes wins the title.
SmackDown Women's Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
I have ZERO faith WWE had this all planned out when Triple H was talking about how it would eventually level out and be worth it when Charlotte Flair beat Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 36. There's no chance. They just happened to come back around to it.
With that being said, they absolutely, positively, definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, no debate whatsoever, MUST have Rhea Ripley beat Charlotte Flair here. If she doesn't, that forever and irreversibly forces her to always be on a level lower than Flair and never on equal footing.
Raw Women's Championship Match: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
I love both Asuka and Bianca Belair, and I really wish this would be the type of feud where I feel like it is a once in a lifetime "clearly the best possible match we can do with the two best women" and marquee above all marquees type WrestleMania contests—but I just don't feel it right now.
I hate to be that guy, but I'm just calling it like I see it. You want honest opinions from me and not for me to just beat around the bush and dodge that stuff. And the way I see it, Belair's had far too many months feuding with Damage CTRL where her title reign got cold. Asuka was in the mix with that as just a supporting player. Then, taking a few weeks off and coming back with a different set of face paint hasn't been enough to make me feel like she's back to the NXT Asuka of old.
I WANT her to be. But that takes time. WWE's spent the past FIVE years not treating Asuka like she's at that level. When she lost to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34, that severely hindered her status on the hierarchy. And while they've given her championship runs since then, she's never felt like the top star. Look at how they booked her Money in the Bank win and her subsequent title reign. She wasn't as prominently featured as the tag team champions, Bayley and Sasha Banks. Then, she ultimately lost the belt to Rhea Ripley in a match that felt like an attempt at undoing Ripley's negatives from losing to Flair, with Asuka taking another step back as the fall girl.
After five years of being on the second-best tier when they need her, a temporary guest at the top level but not THE priority, and normally, someone in tier level 3 in the meantime, it will take time to rebuild Asuka as the star we once saw her.
And since both are babyfaces (at least now, as of Elimination Chamber), that also means a potentially split crowd, instead of one unified boo/cheer mentality.
I have no doubts the match will be fine, if not good. Both Belair and Asuka are first-ballot HOF type talents and just amazing. But I have EXTREME doubts that WWE will be able to heat up this feud going into WrestleMania to the point where I'll believe it is what they wanted, as opposed to what they felt was the best possible option given the circumstances at this particular moment. IE, this doesn't scream to me "Man. I hope we can come around to Belair vs. Asuka." It screams to me "Who should Belair fight? Uh....shit...um....I guess Asuka? That's fine, right? Yeah, screw it. They've built up enough good will over the years. Fans will want to see them. We'll just tell them it'll be an epic match and spend the next 6 weeks repeating that, like we did with AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. As long as they have a good match, it won't matter what the feud is."
I don't want to feel like I need to hit the fast forward button for the next month just to get to the bell-to-bell action. Give me a hook, too. This is WrestleMania. Every match should be the top tier creative input with the best possible marquee value for everything. Not just one or two selling points and "good enough" elsewhere.
Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
Just as I said about the Lashley/Wyatt stuff, I see no reason why we're getting Omos against Brock Lesnar. That seems like such a waste of Lesnar. Just because Omos is a big guy doesn't mean he has marquee value—least of all to do this match at WRESTLEMANIA.
This is supposed to be the absolute top show of the entire year. Omos vs. Lesnar is something you do at SummerSlam at most. By no means is this a WrestleMania "best possible card you can put together" scenario, especially when you're taking such a random detour with this Lashley vs. Lesnar feud and just randomly inserting Omos and Wyatt in there.
I hate this haphazard booking philosophy. Things like this, as well as the cold Asuka vs. Belair and Flair vs. Ripley feuds, are really giving me vibes that nothing's changed about this regime and we're still in this mindset of "You've got your Roman Reigns match and Logan Paul here. Shut up. That's good enough for Mania."
I knew this was going to boil down to just "Can Lesnar get Omos up for an F-5 and German suplex? Eh? Eh!?" and it seems that's exactly what this feud will be.
The biggest show of the year. C'mon.
Is this just because WWE wanted to do some gimmicky Wyatt match, thought Lesnar would be the best fit for those sponsors, and then Lesnar rejected it, so they scrambled for a backup plan and inserted Lashley into the Wyatt feud as a "good enough" all around? It really feels like it. This couldn't possibly have been the direction they were planning a few months back, or where they thought they'd end up after Mania last year.
I miss when WWE used to try to plan out WrestleMania a year in advance and build up to matches that would make sense, instead of booking so much of it on the fly at the tail end of February.
United States Championship Match: Austin Theory (c) vs. John Cena
Here's the conundrum with this. John Cena absolutely should win this if you're looking at it on paper. But not only is he incredibly unlikely to defend the United States Championship even on the following episode of Raw (though it wouldn't be entirely nuts if he did, dropped it to someone, and that was that), Cena's also just going to be stealing the thunder from Theory if that happens.
Theoretically (ha), we need to see Theory win. But he can't win by straight-up beating Cena, or that will seem odd. So he has to cheat to win, but in a way that also doesn't entirely take the wind out of the sails of this match, the overall segment and Theory's potential to say he beat Cena going forward. Technically, even if he rolls Cena up and grabs his tights or hits a low-blow or whatever, he can just act like none of that matters and say "I beat John Cena at WrestleMania" and hang his hat on that, but it won't mean as much.
For now, I'll say Theory will win, but I'm not sold on that being a guarantee.
PREDICTION: Austin Theory retains.
Six-Woman Tag Team Match: Becky Lynch, Lita and Trish Stratus vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky)
At the moment, we still don't have anything going on with the tag titles. I think we'll get Becky Lynch and Lita pulling double-duty and wrestling this six-woman tag team match on the first night, followed by a title defense against Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler on night two.
That is, unless they don't just drop the titles on the SmackDown before Mania due to interference from Damage CTRL or something, instead. Maybe that's the plan and we'll see Rousey and Baszler against another team at WrestleMania.
In any case, I think it is smarter to have this be a three-on-three match than to try to do a singles match out of any of it. Becky Lynch has fought Damage CTRL so many times that that isn't the draw, let's be honest. The draw is to see Lita and Trish Stratus again. And since they aren't likely capable of having great singles matches at this point, sharing the spotlight and workload in a tag team match like this is a far better setup.
Logan Paul vs. Seth Rollins
This could very well be the sleeper best match of the weekend. We've seen good work from Logan Paul in the past. Rollins is naturally one of the most reliable in-ring talents on the roster. I think their styles are going to mesh really well and we could be in for a really fun ride. I'm 100% down for this. Good call, WWE.
Since Rollins is the babyface, I'm going with him being victorious. There's a chance they go with Paul and try to build him up for another title shot down the line against Cody Rhodes, though, so I wouldn't be entirely shocked if he manages to score the win somehow.
Hell in a Cell Match: Edge vs. Finn Balor
Over an entire year of this feud has led to this point. This is long overdue. I just wanted to see Edge against AJ Styles, rather than to spend the next full 15 months or so with Edge still fighting The Judgment Day.
While I know this will have its fun moments, I've LOOOOOOONG checked out regarding this storyline. They just kept having Edge fight these guys until he got sent away for a few weeks at a time. Rinse and repeat. There isn't anything that has hooked me into thinking "man, I really want to see Edge get his revenge" or "oh boy, Balor has Edge's number and this is going to be a hoot!"
Throwing Hell in a Cell in there helps, but to be honest, how many of those matches have been good in the past 25 years? They just don't have the same edge (no pun intended) anymore like they used to.
PREDICTION: Edge wins and hopefully still has enough time left to feud with some other people instead of having wasted a full year on just Balor, Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio.
Women's WrestleMania Showcase Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Match: Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville vs. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya and Shotzi vs. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler
This needs to at least be for a tag title shot. It really should have been for the belts themselves. Lazy.
Also, these teams...c'mon. Why are Natalya and Shotzi together when Natalya has been paired more often with Tegan Nox and has a better connection with Raquel Rodriguez (both second-generation)?
I still think there's a chance this is for the tag titles and we randomly get Becky Lynch and Lita inserted into the match, if not just to have Lita drop the belts.
Men's WrestleMania Showcase Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Match: Alpha Academy vs. Braun Strowman and Ricochet vs. The Street Profits vs. The Viking Raiders
Why is this a thing, when you have the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal? This is lazy and if they don't even make it a No. 1 Contender's match, that will be crazy. At least there are talented people involved, even if the match has zero build and will be potentially meaningless.
Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat Match: Gunther (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus
I think Drew McIntyre has a good chance to win this by pinning Sheamus, or Sheamus can win by pinning Drew McIntyre. Taking the belt off Gunther isn't a guarantee by any means, but if they want to do it without him looking weak with an actual loss, this is a good way to do it. I'd rather see Sheamus win the belt so that he can cross that off his list.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos (c) vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Ideally, this goes on the main event of night 1 or the opener of night 2. Let's get some new tag team champions and round this story out the best possible way. The crowd is going to be SO hot for this.
Dominik Mysterio vs. Rey Mysterio
Dominik has been far more interesting as a heel. This storyline, also, has been far more interesting in its simplicity than a good portion of this card, since WWE has done such a poor job setting up some of these matches. I don't expect this to be anywhere close to the match of the night, but I'll say I'm more invested in this than something like Bianca Belair against Asuka or the two Fatal 4-Way tag team matches, or the Lashley situation, or Edge against Finn Balor, despite how those have more in-ring potential.
Give the win to Dom. It will mean more. This feud can continue and Rey can get a win the next time around.
This page will be altered on a regular basis to reflect changes to the show including any new matches added to the lineup, adjustments to the card, revised predictions and any other information about this event. Stay tuned for the latest updates!
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