My predictions for the show of shows, WWE Wrestlemania 35 due to be held in NY/NJ at the MetLife Stadium on April 7, 2019.
1 Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins;
Singles match for the WWE Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar is the beast incarnate who does not seem to be defeatable by anyone, Seth Rollins has one up against the beast at Wrestlemania 31, when SR cashed in his MITB contract for the WWE Championship. What could have been a perfect build up has been a lacklustre one, all thanks to the part time status of the beast, Brock Lesnar who has been carrying around the Universal title on his shoulder for the better portion of the last 2 years, having first won it after defeating Goldberg at Wrestlemania 33, in 2017.
With the top title missing from the so-called flagship show for such a long time, I guess Raw misses its champion and its about time that it got a full-time superstar as a champion.
My prediction here would be the Beast/King Slayer who needs to Burn it Down now, Seth Frickin Rollins.
2 Ronda Rousey (Raw) vs. Charlotte Flair (SmackDown) vs. Becky Lynch.
Winner takes all triple threat match for the WWE Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships
The first ever women's main event of Wrestlemania history, this is the match to look forward to the most, with 3 of the best of the best of the current crop of WWE Superstars (male and female combined) competing for the bragging rights, with both brand's titles being on the line here.
This is a difficult one to choose, with the multi-time WWE Raw and SDLive Women's Champion Charlotte Flair aka The Queen being the corporate choice, having the blessings of the McMahons, per storyline, Becky 'The Man' Lynch being the clear fan-favourite and having been built as the outlaw (like Stone Cold Steve Austin from the Attitude Era) challenging the Raw Women's Champion, and a legitimate fighter (former UFC Champion) Ronda Rousey!
Charlotte is an 8-time champion, Becky has won the title 3 times and Ronda has never been defeated for the title ever since she won it from Alexa Bliss last summer. Charlotte's win does nothing for her character, as she takes one more step towards her father's record 16 World Titles (gotta say Woooo! here), same could be said for Ronda, who does appear to be towards the end of her contract with the WWE and this would be a good time to take the title from her. Character wise Becky is the most suitable for the win, with the way she has been built up, ever since her bloodied Raw before Survivor Series picture circulated on the world-wide-web for everyone to see. It is important for Becky to win this one, as losing it absolutely demolishes all the momentum that she has made up, and this would be a good story to tell for generations of women to come.
My pick: Becky 'the Man' Lynch! Also, just to take it a notch further, I would say that she would be pinning Charlotte for the win (we gotta protect Ronda dammit!).
3 Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Tony Nese Singles match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Background (from Wikipedia): On the February 19 episode of 205 Live, General Manager Drake Maverick scheduled an eight-man single elimination tournament with the winner facing Buddy Murphy for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35.
The tournament occurred over the next few weeks. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, Oney Lorcan, and Cedric Alexander advanced to the semifinals by defeating Kalisto, The Brian Kendrick, Humberto Carrillo, and Akira Tozawa, respectively.
Nese and Alexander then advanced to the finals, which was won by Nese.
My prediction for this one: Tony Nese, being the hardworker (and a babyface) that he is, he needs momentum going forward. He has never won the Cruiserweight title and a win having a run with the title is much needed.
4 Triple H vs. Batista; No Holds Barred match
If Triple H loses, he must retire from in-ring competition
This is a real important match here, and perhaps would be closing the show of shows had the decision to put the women up last not taken. The story here is that Batista had been quite vocal about having a final farewell match in the WWE, and he wanted it to be happening against the COO and his Evolution team-mate/mentor Triple H. As has been heard on the Chris Jericho podcast and numerous others that he was never contacted again after he had pitched the idea to Hunter and was being ignored for all these years.
The seeds of this feud was finally sown on Smackdown’s 1000th episode last October, where Evolution had their reunion and Batista mentioned that Triple H had done everything there was to do in the WWE except defeat him. They had a little stare-down right there and soon enough they shook hands and left for the night. Fast forward to February this year, and it was Ric Flair’s birthday being celebrated on Raw, but before Ric could appear through the curtain, it was shown that Batista had attacked Ric Flair to anger Hunter and the next week on Raw asked for a Wrestlemania match against him so Hunter could avenge that assault on their mentor Ric Flair.
The story is good, and personally for me, I have been a big fan of both these guys ever since I saw them fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship back at Wrestlemania 21, with Batista going over and winning his first World title on WWE.
I would like to predict that Triple H wins this one. There’s just no way that he could lose with the stipulation that he would retire from in-ring competition if he does. I would have gone with Batista being my clear favourite in an ideal case, since it is his final match.
5 Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin; Singles match
Angle’s farewell match
Nothing special happening here, with a less than average build up, this could have been a great match with everything to look forward to, and “Career-threatening match” stipulation being added to it, but Kurt Angle merely calling out Baron Corbin for no special reason just made me lose interest in this one.
My pick for this match: Kurt Angle, being his last match, I would want him to win this one as he rides into the sunset.
6 Shane McMahon vs. The Miz; Falls Count Anywhere match
The best in the world Shane O’ Mac vs almost-the-best-in-the-world The Miz. This story started at the WWE World Cup tournament, where The Miz won 2 rounds of the tournament but was unable to compete in the finals where Shane replaced him and won against Dolph Ziggler (who, according to me is the true best of the current roster, if not the Miz) to become the winner of the World Cup. The following nights on SDLive, the Miz convinced Shane to form a tag team since it was a team effort to win the world cup and called the 2 of them “the best team in the world” instead.
The Miz and Shane even won the SDLive Tag Team Titles from The Bar, Sheamus and Cesaro. They held the titles for 3 weeks but finally lost to the Usos. After losing their rematch for the titles as well, Shane turned on the Miz and the only babyface member of the McMahon family also turned a heel.
This setup their match at Wrestlemania for The Miz to have the ultimate redemption, with Shane insulting the Miz’s father as well in the weeks leading upto `Mania. Gonna be interesting to see how they tell their story, with the Miz being a babyface this time at Wrestlemania!
My pick: The Miz!
7 AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton; Singles match
As great as the names in the match are, and I am sure this is going to be a classic 5 star match, I just do not see why I should be interested in the match itself. These are the 2 top guys on SDLive and have built the brand for SDLive in their own different ways over the years that they have been there.
This match is being built as who is the real top-dog on SDLive, since Raw already had its own (*cough* Roman Reigns *cough*). So what if none of them is holding the top male title of the brand, although it would be easy money to bet that the winner of this match would be challenging for the WWE title real soon (maybe the next Tuesday or the next PPV?) and would definitely have bragging rights to call Smackdown the brand that they have built. I would love to hear your thoughts on this one.
I would like to predict the phenomenal, AJ Styles to win this one, and I have no idea what to say about it from a business or character development stand, but I just love the AJ Styles character and would be backing him here.
8 André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal;
Battle royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy
This is a wild one, with only Braun Strowman and the Saturday night live hosts being hyped for this match. This match is for the superstars who could not get a place on the card and needed to have their own Wrestlemania moment, and the participants consist of tag teams majorly, the Hardys, Gallows and Anderson, Lucha House Party, Titus and Apollo, the B-Team, the Ascension, Heath Slater and Rhyno, Bobby Roode and Chad Gable as well as Jinder, No way Jose, Ali, Shelton Benjamin and EC3.
My pick: (Mustafa) Ali, having the biggest momentum going into the show and needing a win to continue moving forward.
9 Samoa Joe (c) vs. Rey Mysterio ;
Singles match for the WWE United States Championship
My pick: Samoa Joe, needs a win against a veteran like Rey Mysterio, and retaining his title would give him a much needed push on SDLive. He is a monster and defeating a legend and smaller guy like Mysterio could really help him out.
Also Mysterio is a legend and does not need a US Title run, and winning does nothing for his character anyway.
Update: Rey Mysterio is rumoured to be injured on this week’s Raw and the only good replacement I would wish for should be Ali.
This changed everything, I would easily back Ali for the US Title win if this were the case for Wrestlemania, we could only wait and watch what happens with this one, and if Ali does indeed replace Mysterio.
10 Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Finn Bálor;
Singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
The demon is back! After 3 long years being thrown around in the mid-card, Finn Balor has brought back the demon persona as could be seen this past week on Raw and in the graphics being done for WrestleMania.
The last time we heard from the Demon was back in SummerSlam in the summer of 2016 fighting for and winning the Universal title.
Bobby Lashley has been built up as a strong guy and is getting a major push on Raw with Lio Rush as his spokesperson cum aide.
This has got to be Finn Balor’s time now, and the Demon would be my prediction to win the Intercontinental Championship and get his long due WrestleMania moment!
11 Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre; Singles match
Drew McIntyre has been claiming to be the reason the Shield disbanded this past year, after Roman left because of Leukemia, and Dean and Seth started feuding. As soon as Roman got back, with Dean coming towards the end of the road with his contract with the WWE and Seth involved with Brock Lesnar, Roman was the chosen one to fight against the chosen one (see what I did there?) at WrestleMania. Drew has been amazing ever since he got back into the WWE and after first being paired up with Dolph last summer, he has eventually started his singles journey and has been dominating the Raw brand.
Roman looks to recover from leukemia and as much as he could claim, I just think he was brought back in time for WrestleMania to sell tickets, with the absence of John Cena as well as the Undertaker this year, the poster boys of the WWE looked to be missing.
This would be a difficult sell, but my pick to win this match would be: Drew McIntyre!
I think Roman has got back into the fold only to put up his name on the `Mania card and Drew picking up a win from Roman would cement him as the next guy to challenge for the Universal title, and who better to play the heel than Drew?
12 The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) (c) vs. Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) vs. Nia Jax and Tamina;
Fatal four-way tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
Now this is the match that I am looking forward to the most! I absolutely loved the Divas of Doom, namely Beth Phoenix and Natalya back in the day (~ 2011-12) when they were feuding against AJ Lee and Kaitlyn. Their reunion was long over due with the return of Beth as an in-ring competitor in the Women’s Battle Royale in the last year’s event and further at the 2019 Royal Rumble event.
The IIconics have been absolutely amazing ever since they debuted on SDLive last year after `Mania, and thus would be my pick as the underdogs and least favourites heading into this match.
13 Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kofi Kingston;
Singles match for the WWE Championship
The real main event! As much as the Raw title match is supposed to be the real world title, I would say that the title holder makes the title worthy, and Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston feud in recent times is the best thing to happen to the WWE Championship scene.
They say what goes around comes around, and after having been labelled as a B+ player himself by the Authority circa 2014, and winning the WWE Championship, exactly 5 years ago to this date at WrestleMania XXX, Daniel Bryan proved to the world that he is more than a B+ player and was well deserving of the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
This time around, the tables have turned and Bryan has become the villain in the story and has termed Kofi as a B+ player, who only had Vince’s blessings when the New Day defeated multiple superstars in back to back weeks in gauntlet matches both Kofi in singles competition and Woods and Big E in tag team matches to earn the spot on the Wrestlemania card to compete for the WWE Championship.
Since we all love an underdog story, I am more than happy to be rooting for Kofi Kingston as my pick for the neeewwwwww WWE Champion!
14 WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal;
Battle royal for the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal Trophy
The last minute plans of the WWE surprise me and I bet this was an afterthought especially with the majority of the women involved in the fatal-four-way match for the Tag Titles. It’s a tough call for this one, but I guess Asuka or Mandy Rose could have a nice face-off and have their WrestleMania moment.
Ruby Riott and the Riott Squad are some others who are missing from the main card of `Mania this year, and a winner from one of them could use a little push coming out of Wrestlemania.
My pick: Carmella! Absolutely love the dance breaks and the talk show segments Carmella has been doing alongside R-Truth in the recent months. I would have even loved R-Truth being involved in the main event title scene competing for the WWE title.
15 The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev;
Fatal four-way tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
This is another after thought with the match being made at the last minute on this week’s SDLive. With absolutely no build up to the match, the six-time champs and definitely my favourites heading into this match, the Usos, should retain the titles.
I am still quite confused with the status of Ricochet and Aleister Black since they are also supposed to be fighting out for the Dusty Rhodes’ Tag Team classic for the NXT Tag Titles this weekend at NXT Takeover, so I would be more than happy to win one of these matches. Both are excellent singles players and its amazing to see what all they can do in the ring, individually as well as a tag team.
Prediction: The Usos retain!
16 The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) (c) vs. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder
Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
Until I started researching for the card for Wrestlemania 35, I did not even know we had a Raw Tag Title match this year. I have no idea when this was decided and why would this even be a match to look out for.
I am a big fan of the Revival as well as the Edge-heads (Ryder and Hawkins) but find no reason why the Revival should not retain, although I did see them pose with a guy wearing an AEW T-Shirt which sure must have pissed off some people backstage. So unless, the producers and Vince himself looks to punish the amazing team of Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson for doing so, I find no reason for them not retaining.
My pick for the winner of this match and still the Raw tag team champions: The Revival!
Other Stuff to watch out for:
1. Appearance of John Cena, the Undertaker, maybe the Rock and Steve Austin?! Also making an appearance would be this year’s HOF’ers.
2. Cena has been rumoured to be a part of Kurt Angle’s farewell match, so maybe Corbin goes over without a clean win over Kurt Angle, with the help from a former ally (Dolph Ziggler/Jinder Mahal?) interfering and John Cena (if its 2 superstars interfering maybe even the Undertaker) coming to his rescue.
3. Elias concert. Who do you think would be interfering during this segment this year? Jeff Jarrett has already had his share this past year, and with the Honky Tonk Man going into the HoF this year, I have been hearing strong rumours of the newest HoF’er being a part of this segment at WrestleMania this year.
4. Connor McGregor? There have been rumours about Connor McGregor being involved in some capacity at this year’s WrestleMania but I would take such talks with a pinch of salt and not put much thought into it. Although Connor’s involvement against Bryan/Kofi after the title win would be much talked about in the upcoming weeks and give the mainstream media a reason to talk about the event.
5. Saturday night stars being involved in the Andre the Giant memorial battle royale. I have nothing to say about this one, does not get me even a tiny bit excited about them. We all know they are nothing but a one-time appearance and Braun Strowman, being the present-day Big Show is the one to feud against.
HAVE AN AMAZING TIME WATCHING WRESTLEMANIA, AND PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS.
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