wrestling / Columns
411’s WrestleMania 39 (Night One) Preview
Image Credit: WWE
Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s WWE WrestleMania 39 Night One preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas, here as always, and today WWE presents part one of its biggest PPV of the year. WrestleMania has a ton of hype around it this year for several reasons, and the company has put together a very good card on paper. I never want to put it past the company to be able to screw it up (remember Clash at the Castle?), but as it stands this first night of a two-night show has something for pretty much everyone to enjoy With all that said, let’s hop right in!
Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy
We’re kicking off the preview with night one’s WrestleMania Showcase match, which will see four teams do battle for — something? The glory of a WrestleMania win, I guess. These are the traditional “let’s pack as many people as we can on the WrestleMania card” matches, and honestly… sure, I suppose. It’s not like it won’t be a fun match at least, with some great teams in the mix here. Braun Strowman and Ricochet is exactly the tag team I didn’t know I needed, while the other three have been part of keeping the division going while The Usos have had their stranglehold on the titles. There isn’t a storyline build to this match to rely on and honestly, none of the teams winning would surprise me here. But with Street Profits and Alpha Academy both seemingly geared toward potential splits and the Viking Raiders not really having a lot of momentum, this seems like Strowman and Ricochet’s match to win.
WINNER: Braun Strowman & Ricochet
Becky Lynch, Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Damage CTRL
If any group’s momentum has sputtered in WWE over the last several months, it has to be Damage CTRL. Bayley, IYO SKY and Dakota Kai came in strong at SummerSlam and they haven’t been treated poorly necessarily, but they have been languishing a bit as the company continues to not really know what to do with the Women’s Tag Team Championships and Bayley has been locked out of the two brand Women’s Titles. Their feud with Becky Lynch wasn’t awful by any stretch, but the start-stop nature of it has meant it hasn’t had a chance to be as memorable as it could have been. That leads into this six-woman tag match, with Trish and Lita joining Becky to take on the heels. I’m never going to complain about seeing these two Hall of Famers back and while they aren’t at the absolute top of their game anymore, they have some talented performers in here to work against. The conventional wisdom is that when Hall of Famers are back for WrestleMania, they probably have the edge in terms of picking up the victory. In this case, I’m going against that wisdom. Damage CTRL really needs the win here, and Lynch doesn’t lose any shine if she loses this match alongside Trish and Lita. I think this should be a solid if not great match, with Damage CTRL using some sort of shenanigans to pick up the win.
WINNER: Damage CTRL
Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
Speaking of WrestleMania matches where someone has the edge just based on who they are… Logan Paul has had a indisputably successful run in WWE, especially compared to what most people thought he’d accomplish. Since he debuted at last year’s WrestleMania, he has put on entertaining performances in the four matches that he’s been in and delivered in the promo department to build his matches. Paul is 2 – 1 in his WWE in-ring career (not counting the Royal Rumble), but what most people will remember is that he’s coming off his loss against Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel. Meanwhile, Rollins has spent most of the last several months locked in a feud over the US Championship, which he came away from empty-handed. So there’s a lot of potential for both men to win this match.
The build has been pretty fun and a Paul win would not at all surprise me; after all, he’s someone WWE is probably going to want to keep on board, no matter what he says about his contract almost being up. And after his loss to Reigns, WWE may well want to give him a win at WrestleMania. On the other hand, Rollins would benefit far more from the win, and Paul doesn’t really lose anything from the loss. There’s no reason to believe that they won’t deliver in the ring, and while it could go either way, I’m predicting a Rollins victory because Paul can take some time off and when he returns he won’t have been hurt by the loss.
WINNER: Seth “Freaking” Rollins
Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
Okay, so real talk here: how is it that Dominik Mysterio has managed to become one of the most entertaining people on the WWE roster? I realize that might be a hot take to some, but Dom’s story has positioned him in a way that utilizes him perfectly. Is the kid polished on the mic yet? No, and he’s not unbelievable in the ring. But being paired with Rhea Ripley and going to “prison” has led to the younger Mysterio being able to lean hard into the delusional aspects of the character, which has been incredibly funny and yet not diminishing of his spot on the card. You can see why WWE considers him an important part of the roster and a future star, because this arc is doing a lot to establish him while he continues to improve.
Dom’s feud with his dad has obviously been a long time coming. No matter how many times Rey said that he didn’t ever want to fight his son in the past few years, we all had to know this was coming eventually. The feud has been quite entertaining, leading up to Rey finally hitting his delinquent son last week and accepting the WrestleMania match. I have no doubts that Rey can carry Dom here; the question is just down to who wins? Rey going into the Hall of Fame adds an interesting wrinkle here; he’s been open about the fact that he’s not retiring yet. That means this isn’t a retirement match where he either puts his son over or goes out on a high note. It feels like now is a point for the feud to end, at least for now, and the logical conclusion to this storyline is Rey coming out on top over his son.
WINNER: Rey Mysterio
WWE United States Championship Match
Austin Theory vs. John Cena
A lot of people thought that Austin Theory would be dumped down well into the lower card after Vince McMahon’s exit from the company. Instead, Theory’s managed to regain his momentum all the way to a match with none other than John Cena at WrestleMania, and one that will kick off the show at that. That’s not to say that Theory hasn’t had his challenges, but his feuds with Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley, as well as his title defense at Elimination Chamber inside the titular structure, have done him quite a bit of good. Getting a match against Cena at ‘Mania is quite a statement in favor of Theory’s future, especially since it has to be clear there isn’t a big reason for Cena to win here. If the US Championship weren’t on the line that would be one thing, but WWE doesn’t seem like it would be eager to have one of its secondary titles put into a “rarely defended” fashion — and Cena isn’t gonna be coming back for regular matches any time soon. Theory is a talented enough guy that even if Cena has some ring rust, this should be a fun match. In the end, I don’t see a way that Theory doesn’t retain the title, which will be a huge feather in his cap (or at least something he’ll be able to brag about on the mic for a long time).
WINNER: Austin Theory (STILL WWE United States Champion)
Smackdown Women’s Championship Match
Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley
While it’s tough to predict what will happen in Dominik and Rey Mysterio’s match, it isn’t nearly as hard to guess what will happen when Dom’s Mami battles Charlotte Flair. Flair returned to WWE TV on the December 30th episode of Smackdown and promptly won the Smackdown Women’s Championship that night from Ronda Rousey. Flair has been a babyface since, and the transition has been a tad rough for the natural heel. Ripley, on the other hand, has been on a major role since she joined the Judgment Day. She is one of the most over women on the WWE roster and all the stars seem perfectly aligned for her to get her revenge on Flair, who beat her at WrestleMania 36 for the NXT Women’s Championship. Ripley will provide some heat to the Smackdown women’s division that is frankly lacking. I have no doubts that the two will be able to deliver in the ring, but it’s not hard to guess that this match will end up seeing us with a new champion.
WINNER: Rhea Ripley (NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion)
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match
The Usos vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
Look, no matter what the last match of night one ends up being — with all due respect, we know what this is the main event. Sami Zayn and The Bloodline’s story has been the most compelling story in WWE in a long time, and it’s turned Sami from a fan-favorite midcard guy into a guy who can legitimately be a top name in the company going forward. When you add the long-time build of Zayn vs. The Bloodline to the Zayn & Owens friendship, and factor in Owens’ own past issues with the heel stable, it all just comes together into that once in a generation-style storyline where everything is clicking. It’s been a glorious sight to behold.
That brings us to the match itself, which is sure to be a fantastic one. All four of these guys can of course go in the ring, and the storyline will give them plenty to work with. But when it comes down to the result, I feel like this has to be a slam dunk. How do you have Sami Zayn go through all of this and not beat The Usos? The Usos have held the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships for over 300 days, and specifically the Smackdown side of that for over 600. It’s time for someone new on top, and I can’t think of a clearer choice for who finally topples them than Zayn and Owens. Not only does it finally shake up the tag division, it adds more intrigue into night two’s main event when Reigns gets extra storyline pressure to fight for his family’s hold on the top. This has to be the biggest slam dunk prediction of night one, and perhaps the whole PPV.
WINNER: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (NEW Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions)
And that’s all we have for WrestleMania 39 Night One! It’s a great card to start off the two-night PPV and should provide plenty of action to prime people for an exciting night two. Thanks once again for reading and remember that we will have live coverage of the show courtesy our own Scott Slimmer right here on 411mania.com. Now if you’ll excuse me, Roman Reigns is already waiting for his Night Two acknowledgment and I don’t want to piss him off…
