Wrestlemania XLII Night Two Preview
Well with that out of the way (because I’m absolutely writing this after Night One wrapped up and certainly not a few days in advance of course), we’re on to Night Two, which has the bigger and better main event, plus a rather interesting battle of the monsters. This show looks a lot better on paper, but that’s not how good wrestling is made. I’m hopeful going in so let’s get to it.
Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
We’ll start big here as this is an absolute showdown between a couple of monsters who have been teasing their big fight for about a month now. Lesnar issued and open challenge for Wrestlemania and Femi is trying his luck. That should be more than enough to make things interesting, but Femi has run through him a few times now and it has me wondering what we might be seeing.
At the end of the day, as hard as it might be to believe, I don’t see a reason to have Femi lose here so we’ll say Femi gets the huge win. Lesnar seems to be wrapping up his career (he’s 48 so it isn’t going to be much longer anyway) and having him lose to some up and coming stars like Femi on the way out is a good way to go. Lesnar is more than a made man so a loss isn’t going to hurt him (never has before) so yeah, Femi gets the big win.
Intercontinental Title: Penta(c) vs. Rusev vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rey Mysterio
It’s Wrestlemania so of course we’re seeing a big multi person mess of a ladder match. As usual, the best thing to do here is just eliminate a few names who aren’t leaving with the title. Therefore, Rusev, Lee and McDonagh are gone, as there’s pretty much no chance they’re winning here. That leaves us with the other three options and that’s not as easy as it should be.
Of the three remaining options, I think I’ll go with Penta to retain. He’s doing well enough as champion and save for Mysterio getting a title win that he absolutely does not need (a possibility), I don’t see anyone but Evans being a serious threat to win the title. Evans winning is absolutely in the cards, but I think they might wait for a bigger moment. Penta wins, with Evans as a legitimate second option.
Smackdown Women’s Title: Jade Cargill(c) vs. Rhea Ripley
Now here we have a match that has my interest, as I’m really not sure where it’s going to go. On one hand you have Ripley as one of the biggest stars women’s wrestling has ever seen, but at the same time you have Cargill, who shouldn’t be losing very often. You also have the Iyo Sky factor, as this whole thing seems primed for her to turn on Ripley and cost her the title. This really could go either way, but it’s only so interesting of a match in the first place.
I’ll go with Cargill to retain, though I’m not sure about Sky turning on her. It’s almost so much of a simple story that I don’t know if I can see it happening. Both Ripley and Cargill need the win, but Ripley can take a loss better than Cargill here. Cargill beating someone on Ripley’s level would help her a bit, as getting to brag doing doing her cocky pin on Ripley would be a big deal. Cargill wins, but it’s probably the least confident I am in anything all weekend.
Dominik Mysterio vs. Finn Balor
Here we have a straight up grudge match as they were partners in Judgment Day for the better part of ever and then Mysterio turned on Balor who wanted to do things the right way. As a result, Mysterio and company turned on him to set up this match. That’s enough to get going here, but Balor is also bringing back the Demon to make things all the more intense.
As much as it would seem to make sense to have Balor win here, I’ll take Mysterio to win. We’ve seen that one of the best things Mysterio can do is brag about his upset wins and this would be pretty high up on the list. Mysterio is someone who could very well wind up in the World Title picture someday and Balor has way too much of a history of choking in big matches. I’ll go with Mysterio to win in a heck of an upset, though again I’m far from sure about it.
US Title: Sami Zayn(c) vs. Trick Williams
This is another match where I’m not sure what is going to happen as it feels like we’re in for a big turn, or maybe even two of them. Zayn seems to be changing over to the side of evil (or at least the side of the middle) while Williams is already one of the most popular stars on the Smackdown roster. Zayn basically won the title to guarantee he’s on the show, but Williams wants to be a big star going forward.
I want to say that Williams wins the title here and becomes a hero, but there might be something bigger in having Zayn cheat to keep Williams from winning the title here and getting it later. I think that’s what we’ll go with here, as Zayn embraces more of the dark side to keep things going the right way, while Williams eventually becomes the cool hero that the fans want him to be.
Raw World Title: CM Punk(c) vs. Roman Reigns
This is the match that interests me the most and it makes sense that it’s the last match taking place over the whole weekend. Punk is the older champion who is trying to hang on against the former champion who wants the top spot back. That is more than enough to carry the feud but dang their promos have been great throughout. This is a match that feels like a tossup and I’ll absolutely take that in a Wrestlemania main event.
As possible as it seems that Reigns gets the title back here, I really don’t see the point in giving him the win. Therefore, I’ll take Punk to retain, with next to no idea who comes after the title next. The best thing I can say here is that this feels like a Wrestlemania main event, which is a lot more than you can say about some of them over the years. I don’t know where this is going and that’s a good feeling to have for a match of this magnitude.
Overall Thoughts
This is a show where the big parts are looking rather good, but the rest is quite a bit weaker. Hopefully there are a few strong surprises in there, though Lesnar vs. Femi and the main event should be enough to carry things. The potential is certainly there, but it’s going to need more than that to pull it off. That very well may be the case, but it’s no guarantee.
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