2023 Wrestlemania Write Up

[D Backs GM (Tyler)]

Wrestlemania Hollywood (39)

Welcome everyone to the annual Mania write up! The usual disclaimer: I don’t watch weekly anymore. I watch the PPVs mostly and I watch AEW weekly. Its better. I highly recommend it. But for the sake of this post, I won’t talk about it (except with Cody in the main event, you’ll see why). I will leave you with this only, and you can decide for yourself if you want to watch: www.tokyvideo.com/video/bryan-danielson-vs-mjf-full-match That is an Iron Man match between MJF (the best talker alive) and Bryan Danielson (formerly Daniel Bryan - the best wrestler alive). It is art. Enjoy it.

On to the write up!

Night one - Saturday

Most of the time, we do not know the match order. I’ll try to put them in the order I think they’ll go on or the ones they’ve already been announced.

John Cena vs Austin Theory for the US Title

The Cena vs Austin we all wanted all these years! Ok so maybe not, but Austin Theory is pretty solid. He was “Vinces new toy” once upon a time. Now that Vince is gone-ish and HHH is running the show, he is just another rip and coming talent but certainly still no slouch. Cena is a part timer now but doing a favor for Theory with this match to elevate him. They announced this would start off night one of Mania, so if you are here for Cena, tune in early!

In the build up to this one Cena completely obliterated Theory on the mic. I have to imagine that he is here to do the job but we’ll see.

Recommended watching:

Prediction: Theory squashes Cena and starts out with a shock. Cena comes back Monday to raw and admits he took him too lightly, thinking he could just swoop in from Hollywood and beat him, but he will be back and see him down the road when he has time to prepare.

Seth Rollins vs Logan Paul

Logan Paul is finally leaning in to being boo-ed. And yes, this is the douche from YouTube. HOWEVER, he is already an amazing pro wrestler. He was last seen doing this at the Royal Rumble:

One of the best spots I have ever seen. Him and Rollins will 100% be magic. No need for a story, just enjoy it.

Prediction: Rollins.. eventually. But once again Logan Paul will show how amazing he is in the ring. I hope he goes full time and signs a deal (this is his last match on his current contract). He is really really good.

6 Woman Tag Team Match
Trish Stratus, Lita, and Becky Lynch vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky)

The legends (plus the living legend Becky) vs the future. Everyone in this can go but Trish and Lita are there for star power obviously as they are a bit older. Classic old guard vs young guns match. Will be fun to see some legends out there again but Bayley, Dakota, and Iyo are fantastic.

Prediction: Damage CTRL be heel douchery after a 15 minute match that will be better than you think.

Braun Strowman and Ricochet vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis) vs. The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) (with Valhalla)

I honestly cant be bothered to write much about this match. There is no story. This is the “get everyone on the card” match. Very sad that the only match with no story is the one without any part timers. WWE has turned very much into celeb corner as it always does this time of year. For real tho, there is no story to recap. Get your popcorn during this match.

Prediction: No one remembers anything about this by Sunday. And I suppose we get Alpha Academy going over. I like Otis.

Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio

NOW we are cooking. Legend and hall of fame as of tonight, Rey has been doing great work his entire career. This is the match he was waiting to do before retiring. Putting his real life son over who has gone from doufus to bonafide star after joining Judgement Day and latching himself on to Rhea Ripley (more on her in a minute) is what he wants to do and they have played this absolutely perfectly. Dom is a complete dick who deserves an ass whooping, Rey is the legend everyone loves. The son rebels against the father. Here we are. He has been turned up to 11 ever since “going to prison” ( ) for about 45 minutes then cutting that masterpiece of a promo.

Prediction: The first of multiple Judgement Day wins on the weekend. Dom goes over. Rey puts his mask on the line in the rematch and wins, then they finally go career and Dom goes over at SummerSlam.

Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Rhea Ripley

Charlotte is established at this point but the real story here is Ripley. Doing the best work of her career and breaking out in a massive way, she could be showing up LEADING her faction with a title belt on Monday. She should be too. She is fucking awesome. For what it’s worth, this is rumored to be the night 1 main event, but I honestly don’t know how it can’t be the Tag match we are looking at next.

Prediction: Rhea after a 30 minute banger. Both of them can wrestle and the future is now for Ripley and Judgement Day.

The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

Whew. This story has been told over about a year and a half. The Usos are part of the Bloodline. A multi year dominant faction with Roman Reigns. Sami Zayn spend the better part of the year with them as an “honorary Uce”. Peaking in both drama and comedy here when he said that Jay Uso “just wasn’t feeling very Ucey”

Comedy genius. I was also in the house for Survivor Series War Games live and the crowd is CRAZY into Sami Zayn. He later turned on Roman when Roman insisted he smack his long time best childhoodd friend when he was already unconscious with a chair. Instead he hit Roman and left the faction. After coming oh so close in Canada in his home town he is now back united with his best friend Kevin Owens and is making his way back to the top of the Bloodline to get to Roman… maybe for SummerSlam, who knows. They definitely have a plan though. It’s good storytelling.

If you have an extra hour:

Prediction: Sami and KO send Saturday’s crowd home happy with the win.

Post for night 2 on the way in an hour or so.

[D Backs GM (Tyler)]

Night Two! Lets go

Triple threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Gunther (c) vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre

If you want to see people beat the piss out of each other for real, this is your match. This is the sequel to last year’s WWE match of the year: That one was just Sheamus and Gunter. Adding Drew to this mix is just adding more carnage. It’ll be great. No story needed, just blood and meat all over the place. My chest hurts just thinking about it.

Prediction: Gunther. I love Gunther. He is on his way to the top and by Summerslam I think he will be in the title picture for the grand prize.

Hell In A Cell
Edge vs. "The Demon" Finn Bálor



Will Finn jump off the cell and stomp the chest of Edge? Will Edge recreate his ladder match spear? Even if just for the Demon entrance, this is worth the watch. Both of these men have been feuding over leadership of Judgement Day for a while (it used to be edge, then it turned to Balor). We haven’t seen Finn in the demon makeup in a while though and I’m all here for it.

Prediction: Balor. Keeping up with the “new and future” trend for winners this weekend. Edge can take another break before he comes back for one last match against someone. W number three for Judgement day. Thus enabling them to start gunning for the bloodline. Balor vs Roman is money.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya and Shotzi vs. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler vs. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville

Much like the mens tag match, there is nothing here. The two MMA ladies are bad guys this time around but they’re miles past the others. Rousey and Baszler going over here pretty easily IMO. Night 2’s popcorn special.

Prediction: a pee break for the crowd while RR and The Queen of Spades get the 8 minute pin.

Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

20+ minute banger incoming. Asuka is always up for it and she has the best dance pattern in the business. Nicknamed “Jane Cena” because she never ever loses, Bianca is in danger of people turning on her for the exact reason they did Cena. Winning all the time doesn’t work for the good guys. This isn’t 87 Hogan. That being said, Asuka isn’t the one that you give this bump too. If I had to guess we are heading for Belair vs Ripley title vs title at SumerSlam. THAT is when Belair loses, does some soul searching, and finally gets some character.

Prediction: Jane Cena and her whip pony tail.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

Fuck me Omos is tall. Legit 7’3” as a former basketball player, he is going to be the perfect freak for Brock to toss around like crazy. Something big for a spot is going down in this match. Definitely duplex city and F5s. Maybe a shooting star press, who knows. But there will be a crazy moment or two for sure. That being said, this is Brock and Omos cant really wrestle well enough for a 5 star classic. It’ll be fun, but over in about 6 minutes.

Prediction: Cowboy hat Brock Lesnar baby!

The main event gets its own post. Going to be a long one….

[D Backs GM (Tyler)]

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes for the title(s).

Alright everyone, buckle up. WWE has been telling this story on and off weather they knew it or not for about 40 years.

First - Roman Reigns.

If you've been reading these for years then you know already that Roman is Samoan. One of many in a family (along with the Usos, Solo Sikoa, Rakishi, The Rock, Rocky Johnson, etc). Hence "The Bloodline". His current faction that has been running things and ruling over all of WWE for literally years (He will have held the Universal Title for 941 days by Sunday... YEARS). The Usos also hold some gold for now as well and they have been the A storyline with the Sami Zayn / Bloodline saga for ages.

People were fantasy booking Zayn into the main event, and some still are, for months. The story has been so compelling and Zayn and Roman are SO over that it is crazy they didn't alter the original plans and pivot to that. Instead they pulled the trigger in Canada and that ship has sailed a bit. Preventing the crowd from taking over like they did for Daniel Bryan's "Yestlemania" run has been masterfully done by HHH and creative this time around though. They give Sami his shine and keep the story on Roman and the title. But Cody won the rumble, so he gets the title shot.

Roman is the big bad. The best big bad they have built up in a while.

There is one more detail looming for Roman. His cousin, the obvious one who would take umbrage with him calling himself "the head of the table", the great one himself, The Rock. Especially with his daughter making her debut on NXT. Especially with Mania being in Hollywood. Especially with him needed some publicity for the XFL. The Rock has been heavily rumored, then shut down, then back and forth like that for months but never through official channels. Only rumors. Will he show up? Who knows.

Now - Cody

I would like to look at two things from last year's write up.

I would urge you to refer back to what I wrote when Cody made his comeback last year at Mania: "No one from WCW ever won a returning match, there is no way AEWs star goes over Rollins. 0% chance."

Way wrong.

"This would signal a new era of competition and hopefully cause WWE to start actually booking enough interesting things without calling on 1997 nostalgia 25 years later to do something interesting once per year. Here’s hoping."

Way right.

It was far and away the biggest thing at Mania last year and it was clear that Cody would be the one to take on Roman as the next big babyface. Unfortunately, he got brutally injured and STILL wrestled a Hell In A Cell match against Seth Rollins (watch at the 55 second mark) to a top match of the last year. Then he went away for surgery and recovery until his return and victory at the Royal Rumble to earn his way into this match.

There are two stories with Cody here. One, the most obvious one, and the one that WWE is telling is that this is the title his father (The American Dream - The Son of a Plumber - Dusty Rhodes) never won. And it has always been on him to climb the hill that his father never could. The subplot here is that Dusty was never really involved in Cody's upbringing due to being on the road. When he was a pro, Dusty was busy working for WWE training the next generation of wrestlers. Guys like Zayn, Sasha Banks, Gargano, and that entire generation of WWE stars we are currently enjoying were actually nicknamed "Dusty's Kids". And that included Roman Reigns. Roman got the fatherly advice from Cody's own father that Cody never got. Roman was trained so well that he conquered Dusty's dream instead of his own son, who was ignored by his father growing up.

Cody was so discarded by Dusty and the brass at WWE he was literally let go, started his own company (AEW) on a bet that he couldn't, turned it into a legitimate weekly TV, PPV, competition to WWE (side note: its better) just to prove to the industry that he was every bit of his father and more. He was exactly what they told him he would never be.

I would be an idiot not to refer back to my previous point that I started Cody's section with. Still, a year later, Cody is the only one every to have defected from AEW to WWE. WWE was notorious for burying those from other companies back in the WCW war days. Is this new treatment due to HHH taking over for Vince after all his misconduct and dismissal (in real life)? Is this because Cody was a former WWE guy before he was even in AEW? Is this a flag being planted in the ground for the future that says "if you come from AEW to WWE, we will treat you well" trying to get guys like MJF and The Elite and Kenny Omega to sign with them in the future when contracts come up for renewal? All of which have been heavily rumored. We don't know. We don't even know if Cody is going over this weekend. But you cannot deny that it has been anything but the royal treatment for Cody since he returned.

Prediction: A dusty finish. (definition: The Dusty Finish is the nickname given to a specific ending to a wrestling match in which one wrestler appears to have scored a win only to have the decision reversed, often on some small technicality. Named after and made famous by Dusty Rhodes.)

Roman Cheats-ish, The Rock shows up (integrity and that) and fucks Roman over maybe with a chair or something. Cody. 1-2-3. Pandemonium. Ref figures it out. Maybe even HHH reverses the decision himself. "We aren't ending the night like that, Cody, if you want this, earn it. Restart the match" or something. Roman wins.

Cody gets his moment (although fleeting). Roman continues on and now has beef with The Rock. The ultimate homage to Dusty. Wrestling has more than one royal family indeed.