Wrestlemania 40 is next month in Philadelphia. Brother v. Brother, Sister v. Sister.
Here's the card.
WWF TITLE: CODY RHODES v. WALTER (w/Heyman)
IC TITLE: LADDER MATCH: JEY USO v. JIMMY USO
WWF TAG TITLES: KEVIN STEEN/SAMI ZAYN v. KINGS OF WRESTLING (JOHNNY GARGANO/TOMMASO CIAMPA)
WOMENS TITLE: TRIPLE THREAT MATCH: ASUKA v. IYO SKY V. KAIRI SANE
WOMENS TAG TITLES: BIANCA/BELAIR/BAYLEY v. NAOMI/DAKOTA KAI
ROMAN REIGNS v. DREW McINTYRE (Special Guest Referee-Chad Gable)
MILLION DOLLAR LEAVES TOWN MATCH: PRINCE DEVITT v. LOGAN PAUL (w/McAfee)
TYLER BLACK v. SANTOS ESCOBAR (w/Twisted Sun Gods)
LEGENDS LUMBERJACK MATCH: THE ROCK v. LA KNIGHT
No DQ: WINNER GETS DEFIANCE NAME: RANDY ORTON/ANDRADE/BECKY LYNCH v. DEFIANCE (DAMIEN PRIEST/DOM MYSTERIO/RHEA RIPLEY)
TRIPLE CROWN (AJ STYLES/REY MYSTERIO w/Nakamura) v. UNION OF CROWNS (PETE DUNNE/TYLER BATE)
STREET PROFITS (ANGELO DAWKINS/MONTEZ FORD) v. YOUNG MONEY (KINGSTON/KILLINGS)
1. Rhodes v. Walter
-Funny thing happened on the way to Brother v. Brother...the reason to put Walter/Lesnar together in the first place a year and a half ago now was to get to that match here, but something happened, who can recall really?
-So, the build here is Immovable Object v. Irresistible Force; Walter has been headed to this point for years, nearly unbeaten since signing his deal, 2 time Dark Ride Champ, Tag Champ and now, he's the last man standing in the Dangerous Alliance, he's gone over Roman, and its his time.
-Cody has not lost a singles match in his return - won the IC, only gave it up because of injury, won the WWF Title, holding it now for a year, won the Triple Crown, even has control over the Bullet Club name - hell, he even won the AEW Title from Punk, that was the barely subtextual storyline for the Rumble. Who voices all of that is Heyman - Cody is on a nearly unprecedented run - but yet - Walter.
-Heyman thanking Cody for getting rid of Punk once and for all.
-All babyface build, Heyman going back to Philly is part of the discussion, Walter doesn't talk very much (he will). The big angle happens at the go home RAW - there's a face to face between Walter and Cody thats booked in the main event slot, Cody has his hydraulic lift entrance - and he gets attacked like Tonya Harding, kneecapped with a glass tube by a figure all in black - there's chaos - Walter and Heyman and a million security/backstage personnel descend on Cody, there's a blood capsule for a pool of blood shot. Chaos.
-Throughout the rest of the week, there is doubt about the status of the main event, that doubt is satisfied in the main event spot for Fight Night when Cody sends in a video, he says if he has to come on one leg, he will defend his title against Walter at Mania.
2. Jey v Jimmy
-Each decade, at WM 10, 20, 30, WWF has the same Brother v Brother theme and the IC Title has always been decided in a ladder match - at 10, it was former stablemates Shawn and Razor, at 20, it was cousins Eddy and Chavo, at 30 it was former stablemates Nemeth and Sheamus - and here, its actual brothers, Jey defending against Jimmy.
-As Roman not selecting them when he created his stable was the impetus for the Usos split, that Roman interfered on Jey's behalf to aid him in taking the IC from McIntyre at the Rumble is the primary talking point. Roman is in the angle, he apologizes to Jey, part of the build with Jey/McIntyre was Drew saying Roman had impressed upon him that Jey was the weak link - Roman makes clear that was a lie. Roman says he made a mistake not selecting Jey and he apologizes (is Roman on the square, is it manipulation - fair to interpret either motive, but crucially, Roman doesn't run down Jimmy)
-Jimmy feels betrayed by any embrace of Roman - the Usos arent just a tag team that split up, they are twin brothers, 4 time WWF Tag Champs, Yeet (Jimmy gets the Yeet gimmick, he's the babyface, and after Jimmy wins that big Elimination Chamber at the Rumble, that starts to build momentum) they have been together every step of their lives and Roman tore that apart - and now, Jey is cool with him?
-We get a tag as part of the build, Jey/Roman v Drew/Jimmy - Jimmy's the only babyface there, Drew eventually loses on a countout, he attacks Roman on the outside when Drew is the legal man, Jey aids Roman in fighting him off - Jimmy also pulls Drew back and goes nose to nose with him, we're left with the painful distance between the two brothers only able to be traversed with use of a ladder on the biggest stage of them all.
3. Steen/Zayn v. Gargano/Ciampa
-Ex stablemates collide at Brother v Brother Mania; as discussed in a spoiler in the Rumble write up, the night after the Rumble, Zayn and Steen are set to reform GDI with the Kings of Wrestling - but KoW turns on them.
-The bitterness is evident - when Steen/Zayn split from Claudio/Pac, Gargano and Ciampa, as the GDI representatives in Dark Ride (or whatever it was called then) felt like they had to pick a side - they went in opposite directions leading to a bitter feud between the two of them - leading to multiple injuries, Ciampa broke his neck - they blame Steen specifically for costing them years from their careers.
-Even after the attack, Steen attempts a form of apology - Zayn won't let him, fuck those guys - climate change isn't Steen's fault, inflation isn't Steen's fault, and Ciampa breaking his neck isn't Steen's fault - if they want to go, then we go.
-They split singles matches in the lead up, full on 50/50; workrate expectations are off the charts for the blowoff match for the belts at WM
4. Asuka v Sky v. Sane
-Asuka and Sky were tag partners years before coming to WWF, aligned in the ring and out; with Sane, they formed an alliance in WWF - as much behind the scenes as in the ring; Asuka turned on Sky, leading to their long feud that seemingly ended a year ago when Sky beat Asuka at Mania -- but Asuka subsequently brought Sane back from Japan, used her aid to win the belt from Rousey - Sky viewed that as a betrayal and the twists and turns lead us here - it's one fall to a finish, and another big time workrate match at WM 40
5. Belair/Bayley v. Naomi/Kai
-Naomi and Kai have really been organizational depth as opposed to featured PPV upper card workers, but here we are - they build a sister v. sister storyline, Naomi going to her longtime friends Belair and Bayley to see if she and Kai could get a title shot, they do - and it starts off as all babyface, but Naomi and Kai eventually just turn on the champs in the build
Those are the title matches - the Dark Ride title will be contested in the pre show, Dragunov defending against the newest member of the Culture, Cedric Alexander.
6. Reigns v. McIntyre
-More ex stablemate collision; Romans stable blew up when Roman lost the title a year ago, Lashley got fired from the stable and never returned to the promotion, Gable turned face and McIntyre (those three brawled during the Gable/Roman Summer Slam match) started his own heel faction with Dunne and Bate and won the IC - losing it to Jey when Roman aided Jey.
-Real bitterness from both these guys about the breakup, about all the chatter afterward, who gets credit for the Roman stable succeeding, who takes the blame for the breakup - who will be the man going forward. We find out at Mania.
7. Devitt v. Paul
-Paul retired Cena and ran Edge out of the promotion; following Devitt's losing his feud with Cody, including a stip that he can never wrestle for the WWF Title again, Paul set his sights on ending his WWF career as well. Paul beat him at the Rumble and so we raise the stakes - if Devitt wins, he gets a million dollars (some combo of cash and bitcoin and NFTs and stock in Paul's energy drink and whatever - its all placed in some sort of very expensive designer bag that will be at ringside. And if Paul wins - Devitt leaves WWF.
8. Rock v. Knight
-This starts of course, with Barry Windham.
-Windham lost to Steamboat in the first main event and he will return as a guest at 40, Knight clowns that announcement, if Windham were any good, Knight would be doing one of his old moves better than he ever did.
-That brings out Shawn. The last time we saw Shawn in storyline, Knight superkicked him and tossed him through a plate glass window. Shawn is hot at the disrespect to Windham, Knight says Shawn can get it too - if he wants to come to the ring and eat a superkick - Shawn attempts to do that - stopped by Hunter.
-Hunter says Shawns medical is clear, he is not fighting again, not wrestling again, Hunter will not let him. Shawn says he knows - but maybe there's someone who might be able to put Knight in his place.
-That person turns out to be the Rock. And here's where the simmering "big changes coming, the McMahons are gone, WWF is merging with UFC, who knows what the future holds" element that was set up by Linda after last year's Mania comes into play. Rock will be on the board of the new WWF, essentially Hunter's boss - Hunter and Rock have never gotten along, and that friction is evident here, and Hunter now gets heated at Shawn for bringing Rock into it.
-The result is a legends match is set up, Rock v. Knight, with Shawn obviously supporting the Rock - and Hunter now supporting Knight (its really anti-Rock, as opposed to "I love LA Knight" - but some element of this is Hunter is what's happening today - and the Rock is both upholding yesterday ('cause Knight's a cosplayer) but also tomorrow (because of the coming merger and some level of creative shift...now, that's really a proxy for the end of the Counterfactual, but that gets us into a really meta place).
-And what that allows us to do is bring back 40 (well, 38, 'cause Shawn/HHH are 2) former wrestlers, ideally all in pairs, with one of the pair supporting Knight and one supporting Rock (like, Rick Steiner sends a video saying he's pro Rock and Scott Steiner sends one saying he's pro Knight, that sort of thing). At WWF 100, we brought back basically every wrestler who was ever on one of the prior 99 PPVs who could come back - at WWF 150, we are not doing that, it's really a small stripped down show - the big show is here, so this is the equivalent of that, 40 (because its WM 40) wrestlers from the past (ideally all former champions if we can swing it) and the divide allows us both to keep that Brother v. Brother storyline and do a lumberjack stip.
9. Black v. Escobar
-Last singles match on the card, Black's a babyface, Escobar the head of a heel stable, Black beats the other guys in singles matches, the stable beats him down, it's what you expect.
10. Orton/Andrade/Lynch v. Priest/Dom/Ripley
-Almost 2 years ago now, Priest struck first, killing Orton before the inevitable (if history is a guide) happened and Orton killed him (Orton eats his tag partners). Orton was gone a year, they are 1-1 in this feud and this is for the stable name
-Ripley quit the Horsewomen, joined Defiance, they killed Lynch/Flair, with Reed wiping out Flair in a way to egregious that Andrade quit AEW to return to WWF and get his revenge - he did and now he and Lynch, who returned at the Rumble to help Orton, join together. Andrade cults multiple "you hit a woman, you are a coward" promos, Reed is down with injury at his hand, but he is still fueled by vengeance.
11. Street Profits v. Young Money
-The Profits have a Mania slot, they want to pay respect to those who paved the way, they tell Kingston they want he and Killings to reunite for one night; Killings thinks he and Kingston have been a team all along. At some point, the switch flips and Killings cuts a "maybe I know whats going on but as a defense mechanism I push away knowledge of the dying embers of my career" serious promo - he is largely just a backstage presence and Kingston largely is a twitch streamer, this might be their final WM and they are gonna dig deep against the Profits
12. Styles/Rey v. Dunne/Bate
-Styles/Nakamura are Triple Crown, they added Rey in the build to the Rumble and Rey slides in here against the rest of McIntyre's stable.
Wrestlemania 40. Philadelphia. Brother v. Brother. Sister v. Sister. Coming in April
