This weekend is WWE WrestleMania 41, their annual "buy one, get one extravaganza," as someone put it a few years ago. More on that later. Whatever you think of WWE's booking during this hot period, and I've personally been less than impressed with much of it, the general consensus for this year's build seems to be that Uncle Paul is running thin on ideas. Even social media accounts that praise everything the guy does are expressing dissatisfaction with this slate of matches and stories. I'll get into more detail as we go along, but there's a lot of wonkiness and general flatness to this WrestleMania lineup, and ticket sales are reflecting that (This will be the lowest per-night attendance for a non-COVID 'Mania show since 2006). "In the mud," amirite?
Night 1
WWE Tag Team Championship: War Raiders vs. New Day
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are the only two black male wrestlers on either night. AEW Dynasty had six on the main Dynasty card, including one in the main event. Just putting that out there. By way of a past WrestleMania for-instance, WrestleMania 13's seven matches featured three black male wrestlers - Rocky Maivia, Ahmed Johnson and Faarooq - plus the pre-show match included Flash Funk. Between shit like this and WWE inviting Trump's favorite racist comedian on RAW and the WrestleMania roast event, Paul's never beating those allegations. Ever. Anyway this match should be solid. War Raiders have had the titles since December so I could see New Day winning them here.
Pick: New Day
Rey Mysterio vs. El Grande Americano
Umm, yeah this is stupid. Chad Gable doing a questionable-at-best Lucha stereotype, is this all you could come up with for this feud? The match should be entertaining but the gimmick is dumb.
Pick: Rey
Jade Cargill vs. Naomi
It's Jade's first real test in WWE, as they're finally trusting her with a singles match on a PPV. I'm still not convinced she's improved since that one really good match with Kris Statlander in 2023, but we'll see. Jade is obviously winning.
Pick: Jade
US Championship: LA Knight vs. Jacob Fatu
Fatu is a fine wrestler, Knight is a mediocre one. This isn't likely to be any kind of classic but hopefully Fatu can carry it. Hey remember when Solo Sikoa was being groomed as this huge main event player? Now he's not even on the WrestleMania card but his second-in-command is? Kinda weird.
Pick: Jacob
WWE Women's Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair
Oh man, given how badly these two work together (Seriously, that promo segment was an epic trainwreck) I'm not sure what I'd be more entertained by, a great, athletic contest or an absolute shitshow where they're never on the same page. I'd say the only way these two fail to draw me in is if they just have a competent but unremarkable showing. Charlotte is obviously winning because this company is for some reason desperate to have her eclipse her father's made-up number of title reigns.
Pick: Charlotte
World Championship: Gunther vs. Jey Uso
I can't remember the last time a men's world title match at WrestleMania felt less important - wait, yes I do, it was Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton in 2017. Gunther's work stood out so much more when he was the Intercontinental Champion and made that belt feel like the workhorse title again. Jey is over because of his entrance and his catchphrase but as a singles star hasn't delivered nearly at the level of his tag team run. Dude won the Royal Rumble and still isn't in either night's main event (nor is Charlotte). Jey will win here but given how unnecessary this belt is in the first place I don't see him elevating it. Such is life when you create a new belt only because your actual world champion is hardly ever around - I will never not think the original plan two years ago was Cody beating Roman.
Pick: Jey
CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
This whole situation with Punk "finally getting his WrestleMania main event" is so fucking hilarious to me. He left eleven years ago partly because the company never saw him as the actual top guy. He was always second banana to John Cena and whatever part-timers were around, be they Brock, Undertaker or Dwayne (Seriously in 2012 there was PPV that featured CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Title, and John Cena vs. John Laurinitis - guess which match main evented the show). He went on AEW television in 2022 and made fun of the idea of "main eventing Night 1 of a buy one, get one extravaganza" (just like how with Trump there's always a tweet, with Punk there's always a video), and now here we are in 2025, and what's Punk doing? Eleven years after walking out, CM Punk is STILL playing second banana to John Cena, now an aging part-timer himself. And rather than giving either Royal Rumble winner or Rhea vs. Bianca the Night 1 main event, we have this convoluted three-way with nothing at stake, where the big story is a reference to backstage politics that occurred over a decade ago. Also Punk's "favor" that was set up during the Survivor Series build was, *checks notes*, asking Paul Heyman to.....be in his corner? Uhh....okay. Given that Heyman doesn't generally get physically involved in his clients' matches, how is this a coup for Phil? I mean, maybe Heyman somehow costs Roman the match and then Punk will be the heel? That would at least make Roman a sympathetic babyface as opposed to the nebulous "who are we meant to be rooting for" characters all three of these assholes are playing right now.
Pick: Part of me will be shocked if Roman loses two WrestleMania matches in a row, but I guess Punk wins?
Night 2
WWE Women's Tag Team Championship: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
Alright, these titles have been in existence for six years now. Quick, name any noteworthy feuds or matches involving them. Gotta be the most pointless set of tag belts this side of New Japan's trios titles. I guess Liv and Raquel hold onto them.
Pick: Champs retain
Logan Paul vs. AJ Styles
This should be a good match and maybe we'll see the old AJ again. This came together because Logan eliminated AJ from the Rumble, which is fine, but there's not much else to this story. AJ challenged Logan to a match on free TV, Logan said he had to get paid, so they made it for 'Mania. Hopefully the match itself will deliver.
Pick: Logan
Intercontinental Championship: Bron Breakker vs. Penta vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Finn Balor
Jesus, do we really need three multi-person matches in one weekend? This one just feels like they want to do a title change but don't want to beat Bron or Penta. So we have to have a punching bag like Balor to eat the pin. Penta was the early Vegas favorite but it's since changed to Dom. I guess if Dom pins Balor that sets up a feud between them?
Pick: Dominik
Randy Orton vs. Nick Aldis?
Man, the scheduled Orton vs. Kevin Owens match would've probably stolen the show or come close to it. Now we're likely stuck with Orton vs. the Smackdown GM. Quite the downgrade, ain't it? I know Sami Zayn is selling the unsanctioned match he and KO just had, but considering his last two 'Mania matches were really important it's sad he's not on the show this year.
Pick: Orton
Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest
Remember when Drew was in last year's hottest feud? And now he's in a less important 'Mania match than he was prior to that hot feud? Good times. This feud has a long history at least; Priest cashed in on Drew at WM40, Drew tried to do the same at Money in the Bank but came up short, and then Priest eliminated Drew at both the Rumble and Elimination Chamber. Plus Priest beat him in a scheduled match at Clash at the Castle. So Drew's owed one I think.
Pick: Drew
Women's Championship: Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair
Speaking of convoluted three-ways, how in the actual fuck do you have the two biggest women's stars of the last four years on a collision course for the biggest show of the year, and then add a third participant to their match to water it down? Much like when they added Charlotte to the Becky-Ronda match six years ago, this is a completely unnecessary move and indicates a lack of trust in the two main participants to deliver on the big stage. Iyo Sky is great, don't get me wrong, but the money match is Rhea vs. Bianca. And the way they got here wasn't any good either. Instead of Rhea simply demanding to be added to Iyo vs. Bianca via a former champion rematch clause, Rhea attacked both women during a contract signing and signed her own name instead, which RAW GM Adam Pearce made clear wasn't binding. Then Rhea got a rematch with Iyo anyway, which ended in a double DQ since Belair was the guest referee, prompting Pearce to just add Rhea to this match. So now you have another babyface vs. babyface vs. babyface triple threat with no clear protagonist and no clear antagonist. Bianca has become the de facto heel even though she got here through perfectly legitimate means, while Rhea threw multiple tantrums. I'm sure the match will be very good, but why couldn't we just have Rhea vs. Bianca as the Night 1 main event? How is Triple H even less forward-thinking than Vince when it comes to main roster women's wrestling?
Pick: Bianca
WWE Universal Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena
Jeezus, you talk about porking a big match build..... So they went from having a past vs. present babyface-babyface dream match to turning Cena heel so it would have extra juice to it (which was understandable, I didn't fault them for that). Cena didn't need to sell out to The Rock since he won the Chamber match and earned this title match without Rock's help. But he sold out anyway, and he and Dwayne (and Travis Scott, fuck that guy) beat up Cody to end the Chamber PPV. But rather than follow up on that properly, Cena made it about him vs. the fans who used to boo him. Nevermind that Cena hadn't been rejected by the crowd since like 2013, he was still apparently pissed about it. Dwayne vanished from the build entirely and then they pivoted to Cena and Cody doing worked shoot stuff, for some reason involving Cody's role in AEW. Oh, and Cena didn't bother to change his look or presentation at all, he's still wearing the same gear as always - gotta sell those t-shirts. Oh, and since Cena is retiring at the end of the year, regardless what happens this weekend you know he's turning babyface before he hangs it up. I assume he'll win the title at 'Mania and lose it back at SummerSlam, and graciously "pass the torch" to Cody so he can go out as a good guy. This all gobsmacks of "Cody vs. Cena is boring as-is, we need Cena to go heel, but we can't change his look because we'll have a buncha leftover merch sitting around, and we don't really have a role for Dwayne in this feud at all even though he was the impetus for it." Probably would've gone better if they'd just kept it simple. The match should be very good and will likely get way more time than it needs.
Pick: Cena breaks the Flair record
So yeah, not the best 'Mania build they've done by a longshot and actually feels more like the later Vince years. Triple H is really being exposed as not living up to his Booker of the Year accolades. Without Cody's "story" or the Bloodline, two long-term angles that started under Vince, Paul is struggling to find strong hooks to draw interest. I'm sure the shows will be solid with the talent involved, but the cracks are finally being spotted.
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