411’s WWE Wrestlepalooza Preview

Hello folx and welcome to 411’s Wrestlepalooza Preview! I’m Hel. I am only two books away from my reading goal this year, and the WWE is at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, for Wrestlepalooza! This is the first WWE Wrestlepalooza and the fifth overall. This will also be the first WWE PLE to be broadcast on the new ESPN DTC service. Wrestlepalooza started as an ECW event in 1995, with the last one being held in 2000.  I’m hoping Vaquer finally gets her first main roster championship, though I won’t be upset about Sky winning and hopefully getting a better run. The Usos vs The Vision should be another fun brawl (with hopefully a shorter beatdown at the end). Rhodes vs McIntyre is going to be a great match for sure; they both know how to do these big-time matches well, and I expect it to be a bit of a violent match. The same can be said for Punk & Lee vs Rollins & Lynch. While it’s Lee’s first match in a decade, I don’t think that will be a problem, as she is surrounded by three of the best in the business. Then we have Cena vs Lesnar, which should hopefully be good, but with Lesnar not having wrestled in two years, and Cena only just getting that ring rust off, we will see how it goes. And with that, let’s get into it!

John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar

Image Credit: WWE

I have been lucky enough, and old enough, to see the entire history of these two men’s careers. Lesnar and Cena first feuded way back in 2003, with Cena debuting the Attitude Adjustment (then called the FU) as a parody of the F5. Since then, the two have had six matches, including SummerSlam in 2014, in what was a one-sided beatdown of Cena. I posted an article about my feelings regarding Brock Lesnar’s return for this match, which you can check out here. Needless to say, I’m not a fan. I can see it from a “Cena’s biggest rivals” view, but AJ Styles is right there and would provide a better match. If Cena requested it, fine, I suppose, but really, there were many other options available that might not have been as predictable. Cena isn’t going to lose this. He is down to his final few matches, and they should be used to put over rising stars. I’m sure the match will be fine, we will see Cena visit Suplex City, we will see multiple F5s and AAs, and in the end, Cena will vanquish the only person who ever was able to destroy him like Lesnar has. I just hope the remaining limited dates on Cena’s calendar are better used to help put over younger talent and maybe one more AJ Styles match.

Winner: John Cena

The Usos vs. The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed)

Image Credit: WWE

Much like the other tag match on this show, this can all be traced back to Heyman turning on both Punk and Reigns and siding with Rollins at WrestleMania 41. Ever since then, The Vision has been a thorn in the side of both men, as well as most of the main event scene of Raw. Which is how Jey Uso got involved, as the World Champion, coming out of WrestleMania, he was in the crosshairs of Rollins and the rest of The Vision. Through repeated attacks, they have injured Uso’s ribs as well as worn down his resolve to be a good guy. We’ve seen Uso go from the guy who wants to help everyone to someone who is seeing that doing that costs him his World Championship and his chances of getting it back. At Clash in Paris, he attacked Knight when they were working together to put out Rollins, and ended Raw a couple of weeks ago with a spear to Knight. As Jimmy said, Jey is starting to act and sound like Roman Reigns. Are we going to see Jey turn heel? Or maybe more of a grey area face, like Steve Austin’s DTA era? Time will tell on that. For now, we have an interesting wrinkle to Jey’s story that hopefully can keep him relevant and bring a new fire to him.

Bron and Bronson have been running through the top guys on Raw for months now, but do tend to come up on the losing end of their PLE matches (losing to Reigns and Jey Uso at SummerSlam and Reed losing to Reigns at Clash in Paris), a win here will help them both look even stronger while continuing to push Jey to the dark side, even more so if that loss involves an “accidental” attack by Knight. This will also probably help to continue the build towards WarGames in November, so losing due to Knight can add more intrigue if the face team can work together to put down The Vision. So, I’m calling this for The Vision due to mistimed LA Knight interference.

Winners: The Vision (Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker)

WWE Women’s World Championship
Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer

Image Credit: WWE

I had Vaquer winning the belt from Naomi at Clash in Paris, and I still want to go that way. But she has been off-screen for the past month or so, only showing up in backstage promos and not being able to get in the ring. I am assuming it had to do with her work visa and also being in a holding pattern after Naomi had to relinquish the title due to her pregnancy. I think Vaquer needs the win more here; it will help to re-establish her momentum, and she can go on a good run until at least the Royal Rumble.

Sky deserves a better run than what she got earlier this year. She has a built-in feud with Asuka that would make a great story leading into the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. I think it would be a bit of a letdown to have Sky win it back so soon after losing it, without getting to beat Naomi for it. It would feel like they just pushed the reset button on the result of Evolution and SummerSlam. I think the bigger story would be for Vaquer to win here, have Asuka win the Rumble, and then have Sky beat Vaquer either later that night or in the lead-up to WrestleMania. Then we still get Asuka vs Sky at WrestleMania and Vaquer gets a solid run with the title.

Winner and New WWE Women’s World Champion: Stephanie Vaquer

Undisputed WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre vs Cody Rhodes

Image Credit: WWE

This feud has been in a weird spot. It started with McIntyre taking out Rhodes, with a Claymore through the announce table, which put Rhodes out for over a month. We actually didn’t see Cody again until last week’s SmackDown when he returned to attack McIntyre. Now I know Rhodes was off for the birth of his new kid and to film Street Fighter, but that has left us with very little build for what should be a big match. This is Cody’s first defense since winning the belt at SummerSlam, it deserves a bigger build than this. McIntyre has been feuding with Orton for the past month, and they’ve dropped in mentions of Cody, but the focus has been on the two of them, not on McIntyre wanting to win the Undisputed WWE Championship. Again, I know Cody had a movie to shoot, but then maybe this match could have been pushed to Crown Jewel, and we could have gotten a tag match with Cody & Orton vs Paul & McIntyre here. Or slot in a title defense for Sami Zayn, Giulia, The Wyatt Six, Dominik Mysterio, or The Judgement Day.

Regardless of the build, this should be a good match. I love watching McIntyre work, and Cody is always good at bringing that big match feel. I’ve seen a lot of people wanting McIntyre to win here, and I do understand it. The man has more than earned another run with the belt. The fact that his championship runs happened during COVID, and he hasn’t had another actual run since then, is a shame. I also don’t think Cody losing it in his first defense is a good decision, booking or business-wise. Cody is over and sells a crap ton of merchandise; he is the face of the company currently, and having a second solid run with the belt will only help solidify that further. I think he will keep it until at least the Rumble, if not WrestleMania. As far as McIntyre, I can see him finally getting another run next year, whether he is the one to dethrone Cody or not, I’m not sure on, but I don’t think his time is now.

Winner and still Undisputed WWE Champion: Cody Rhodes

CM Punk & AJ Lee vs Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch

Image Credit: WWE

This feud has been on a slow burn since Punk came back to the WWE; that’s almost two years now that this thing has been cooking. Punk getting injured at the 2024 Royal Rumble delayed the original plans, which, honestly, I think has worked out better. Punk got to have that amazing feud with Drew McIntyre last year, which culminated in one of the best Hell in a Cell matches we’ve seen in a long time. Rollins was able to take some time off to heal up, and then we got the epic WrestleMania Triple Threat match to start The Vision and kick this feud into high gear. The main event scene on Raw has probably been the best booked part of the company over the last year. The Vision has created enemies out of damn near the whole main event roster and even brought in LA Knight from SmackDown. But they haven’t just made enemies; they’ve used those enemies against each other to help solidify their position as the top dogs. Rollins has used Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker to weaken his opponents and keep himself on top. And when he couldn’t use them, he enlisted the help of his wife to hold onto his title at Clash in Paris. Which is how we got here. Lynch made the mistake of getting in Punk’s face, and that was enough to bring AJ Lee out of retirement.

The return of Lee has been a lot of fun to watch; the crowd reactions have been great (I never thought I’d hear a WWE crowd chanting for therapy!) Lee hasn’t missed a step in her promo work, and I’m the same can be said for her in-ring work as well. There is the worry that she might have lost a step after taking 10 years off due to a neck injury, but she is going to be in there with three of the best wrestlers today. I’m sure she has also been doing in-ring training to minimize ring rust and get used to taking bumps again, so we are hopefully getting an AJ Lee that’s as close to her prime as possible.

The build over the past few weeks has also been amazing, not just with Lee returning, but the promo and character work of all four wrestlers involved. Punk has been playing the proud husband who is just as excited to see his wife back as the fans are. Rollins has been the slimy ass, talking down and mansplaining to Lee, and Lynch has played her usual over-cocky self. And it’s all blended beautifully. I am probably the most excited for this match over anything else on the card tonight.

With all that said, I am going with Punk & Lee for the win here. I can see the argument for the heels to get a sneaky first win, but I am betting on Punk & Lee getting the win, and then transitioning that into title matches at Crown Jewel: Lynch vs Lee and Punk vs Rollins. Rollins would get the sneaky win at Crown Jewel, and Lee would beat Lynch for the Intercontinental Championship.

Winners: CM Punk & AJ Lee