The Main Events For WrestleMania Are Set
The WrestleMania main event picture came together on Friday night as CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins put pen to paper on the contract for their match at the Showcase of the Immortals. Fittingly it would the Wiseman Paul Heyman who would inform CM Punk that their match would main event Night 1 of WrestleMania. This will be CM Punk’s first time main eventing a WrestleMania in his storied, complicated career with WWE. For Seth Rollins it will be his 3rd main event spot and for the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns it will be his 10th main event spot breaking his own record he set just last year.
Leave it to CM Punk to continue ruffling feathers and sowing distrust between The OTC & his Special Counsel:
CM Punk letting Roman Reigns know that he’s still owed a favor from Paul Heyman will play heavily in their main event match on Saturday night.
Then there’s still the main event for the Undisputed WWE Championship on Sunday night with Cody Rhodes defending his title against John Cena. John Cena made his intentions known what he plans to do:
There’s still the question of if The Rock has more planned to try and take everything away from Cody Rhodes. Could Cena have an ally that will help him dethrone the WWE champion?
Both storylines for the main event matches have intrigue and big stakes involved. I wish I could say that for most of the other matches.
The Wrestlemania Card Is Underwhelming
Outside of the two main event matches and the impending triple threat for the Women’s World Championship between Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley, the rest of the card is shaping up to be a bit mid.
Both winners of this year’s Royal Rumble will not have main event matches marking the 1st time this has happened since 2018(more on that in a bit). Jey Uso’s surprising win in the men’s Royal Rumble didn’t translate to a main event spot partly due to a) bigger stars in Cena, Rhodes, Punk, Reigns & Rollins having a bigger spotlight and better storylines and b) Gunther not having any heat with his current World Title run. That’s not all on Gunther as he is a fantastic in-ring performer with a classic heel character that unfortunately doesn’t have the aura and charisma of The Big 5. Jey Uso also suffers from the classic underdog story that will quickly fade once the mission is completed. Jey’s underdog story also hasn’t had the magnitude of the Yes Movement with Daniel Bryan back in 2014 or with Kofi Kingston and Kofimania back in 2019. Yes, Jey Uso is moving merch like no one’s business and has the best intro and catchphrase in WWE but it still wasn’t enough to warrant a main event spot.
The other winner, Charlotte Flair, is just coming back from injury and she’s going up against a relatively young superstar and champion in Tiffany Stratton. WWE is trying to go with the heat Flair has received from winning the Rumble but it’s not resonating with fans. Simply put, the fans don’t want to see Charlotte Flair in a prominent spot – again. I also think Tiffany Stratton works best as a heel and this babyface run has exposed her mic work. Stratton, while popular with the fans, doesn’t have nearly the star power of a Bianca Belair or Rhea Ripley to carry a match to a main event.
The other problem WWE has is the other matches advertised have little to no heat going into WrestleMania weekend. Here is the match card as of today:
- Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes(c) vs. John Cena
- Triple Threat Match: Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins
- World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther(c) vs. Jey Uso
- Women’s World Championship: Iyo Sky(c) vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley
- WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton(c) vs. Charlotte Flair
- Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
Other matches that will probably be set soon:
- Intercontinental Championship: Bron Breakker(c) vs. Penta vs. Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
- Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Lyra Valkria(c) vs. Bayley vs. Roxanne Perez
- Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest
- US Championship: LA Knight(c) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Jacob Fatu
- Naomi vs. Jade Cargill
- WWE Tag Team Championship: The Street Profits(c) vs. DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Pretty Deadly
There just isn’t enough time to microwave these other feuds in time for people to be truly invested in them.
Does Winning The Royal Rumble Matter Anymore?
While the Royal Rumble remains one of the 5 tent pole WWE PLEs, its purpose has sort of lost its way over the past few years. It used to a guaranteed trip to the main event of WrestleMania for the winner but in recent years that has not been the case. Here’s a list of winners since 2017 & whether they main evented the Show of Shows:
- 2017: Randy Orton – Did not main event
- 2018: Shinsuke Nakamura – Did not main event
- 2018: Asuka – Did not main event
- 2019: Seth Rollins – Did not main event
- 2109: Becky Lynch – Main evented WM 35 in Triple Threat match
- 2020: Drew McIntyre – Main evented WM 36 Night Two
- 2020: Charlotte Flair – Did not main event
- 2021: Edge – Main evented WM 37 Night Two
- 2021: Bianca Belair – Main evented WM 37 Night One
- 2022: Brock Lesnar – Main evented WM 38 Night Two
- 2022: Ronda Rousey – Did not main event
- 2023: Cody Rhodes – Main evented WM 39 Night Two
- 2023: Rhea Ripley – Did not main event
- 2024: Cody Rhodes – Main evented WM 40 Night Two
- 2024: Bayley – Did not main event
- 2025: Jey Uso – Did not main event
- 2025: Charlotte – Did not main event
I get that storylines sometimes dictates who gets the two coveted main event spots at WrestleMania but winning the Royal Rumble should mean something. For the men, 56% of the winners since 2017 went on main event but for the women it’s much worse – only 25% of the winners main evented the Super Bowl of wrestling.
WWE has to get back to making the Royal Rumble winners be the centerpiece of the main event matches for WrestleMania less they risk making the Rumble matches itself sort of meaningless.
Final Thoughts
- Naomi is embroiled in a feud with Jade Cargill and IMO is sitting at #4 on storylines for me behind Rhodes/Cena, Punk/Reigns/Rollins and Iyo/Bianca/Rhea. Naomi cut a promo on SmackDown this past Friday that upped the ante on her feud with Jade:
- It was clearly Naomi’s best promo of her career and this heel run she’s embarking on is set to easily eclipse her heel run in 2016. A run with the US Women’s title should be heading Naomi’s way.
- Since winning the Women’s Tag Team titles, much hasn’t happened for Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez outside of Liv Morgan handing Jade Cargill her 1st singles loss. That match played more as a backdrop to the Naomi/Jade Cargill feud. I’m not sure if the tag champs are going to find themselves a spot on the WrestleMania card.
- Speaking of tag team champions… has anyone seen The War Raiders lately? You remember them, right? They’re the current World Tag Team Champions. It doesn’t look like there are any plans for them or The New Day which is really a shame seeing as how much heat Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods had after they turned on Big E.
- I’m also not confident the women’s US title will find a spot on the WrestleMania card. As over as Chelsea Green is she doesn’t have a competitor who is compelling enough to warrant a match. Her biggest nemesis will end up being the two women protecting her – Piper Nevin & Alba Fyre.
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