Wrestlemania 38 from Dallas is in April.
There’s an 11 match card. We'll discuss half this month, half next.
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP: SAMI ZAYN v. ROMAN REIGNS
IC TITLE: LADDER MATCH: WINNER GETS THE BULLET CLUB:
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA v. AJ STYLES v. TYLER BLACK v. ?
WWF TAG TITLES: HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (GABLE/LASHLEY) v. USOS
WOMEN’S TITLE: RHEA RIPLEY v. RONDA ROUSEY
OCTAGON MATCH: BROCK LESNAR v. MATT RIDDLE
NUMBER ONE CONTENDER: REY MYSTERIO v. DOMINIC MYSTERIO v.
KINGSTON v. WOODS
NUMBER ONE CONTENDERS: DEFIANCE (ORTON/PRIEST) v. STREET
PROFITS
INTERGENDER MATCH: CHARLOTTE FLAIR/BECKY LYNCH v. LOGAN
PAUL/PAT McAFEE
LEGENDS CARNAGE MATCH: EDGE v. STEVE AUSTIN (Special Guest
Referee-THE UNDERTAKER)
KEVIN STEEN v. DREW McINTYRE
SASHA BANKS v. BIANCA BELAIR
Lets start with the 3 Holy Roman Empire Matches:
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP: SAMI ZAYN v. ROMAN REIGNS
WWF TAG TITLES: HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (GABLE/LASHLEY) v. USOS
KEVIN STEEN v. DREW McINTYRE
-This makes back to back WM main events for Zayn – following
the footsteps of Steamboat (WM1-4)
Dynamite Kid (WM 2-4) Savage (WM
5-6) Bret (WM 7-13) Shawn (WM 11-12) Owen (WM 14-15) Cactus (WM 15-16) Benoit
(WM16-17) Angle (WM 17-21) Benoit (WM 20-22) Punk (WM 26-27) Danielson (WM
28-31) Styles (WM 32-33) Nakamura (WM 34-35)
-Zayn should, of course, be on top of the world, WWF
Champ/Triple Crown, vanquished, it would appear, his friend turned enemy Steen
– but the doubts continue to nag – even when they aren’t there, Zayn hears the
Steen talk “Steen’s why you won the title” and worse “Steen was right about the
mask” – for this build, that’s not really part of the program, it’s the main
event of WM, the babyface champion needs to be strong, so it’s the smallest
possible undercurrent – but Zayn doesn’t cut his hair, for example, and that
longer hair as manifestation of a troubled mind is a note we’ve played recently
with Danielson and Steen.
-Who has the steam is Reigns. For years, Reigns was the powerhouse member
of the Usos, in the middle of the card, in the same spot as Langston and then
McIntyre and Lashley. During Covid –
Reigns moved to a new level – and made explicit that he was the Head of the WWF
Table, that in a difficult time (Covid…but also a wrestling war) WWF needed to
get on his back. Reigns put out a
challenge to his proximate rivals to step up their games – and beat them
repeatedly to demonstrate that stepping up their games meant acknowledging him
as the leader of the promotion.
-That happened at Survivor Series with the formation of the
Holy Roman Empire – Lashley and McIntrye
abandoning their stables, Langston remained with his – and so Reigns
ended the New Day forever at the Rumble.
It’s a couple of years now of Reigns just being right about everything,
beating his rivals into a psychological submission.
-Reigns has made two basic arguments to his rivals (1)
you’re being held back by your stablemates and (2) the people above us on the
card need to go – and Reigns hits that second button hard in this build with
Zayn – Reigns makes the AEW war part of the text, says the day of all the GDI
guys has ended – Zayn, Steen, Styles, Black – they can all go join their
friends on Wednesdays if they want – the HRE was all bred in WWF and Roman is a
multigenerational WWF wrestler, it’s part of his bloodline. This WWF Title is his destiny – leading the
WWF to victory in the wrestling war is his birthright – and Zayn is just in his
way. Reigns goes over Strong hard in the build (Gargano and Ciampa are gone) taunting him about his friends all being gone.
-There’s a Zayn gets beatdown segment (no Reigns) where
Steen, who wouldn’t have been seen since the Rumble (he and Zayn got beaten
down by HRE to close the Rumble) saves Zayn – full babyface action for Steen. Zayn, however, is angered, he makes it clear
he and Steen aren’t brothers, partners or friends and he doesn’t want his help,
doesn’t need his help, has never needed his help. Kevin should go his way, Sami will go his
way.
-There’s another beatdown segment on Zayn in a subsequent
show (no Reigns) and that’s where the Usos, in their first appearance since
Survivor Series, run in for the babyface save.
As will develop – Jimmy is hurt about Roman’s betrayal – Jey is angry – consider
this from their perspective – they are Roman’s family, they’ve been together
for years – he went behind their backs to create a new stable without them and
then took their tag belts. We get a face
to face promo segment with Roman, Jimmy/Jey – he tells them they weren’t asked
to be in the HRE because they aren’t good enough, and they will find that out
at WM.
-The IRL dynamic that Roman has with the Bloodline we look
to replicate here – he rules by fear, so even though you don’t think of
McIntyre or Lashley as being easily cowed – they just spent the last couple
years with Roman proving over and over that he’s better than they are, that he
can call his shot – and so they have fallen in line and his “you teach my
family a lesson” browbeating generates a real fear in Lashley and Gable.
-There needs to be enough physicality between Steen and
McIntyre, from the end of the Rumble through this build, that it makes sense
that they are matched together – we’re gonna end with an 8 man in the go home –
HRE v. Zayn/Steen/Usos – Zayn wants nothing to do with Steen, they have no interaction, Zayn won't tag him in or stand next to him on the apron; there’s as little
physicality as possible between Zayn and Reigns, but any other matchup in the
whole build is fine – finish is Steen taking a bullet for Zayn, say shoving him
out of the way of a Superman punch – Steen eats the punch, Reigns pins him.
Lets do the other two title matches.
IC TITLE: LADDER MATCH: WINNER GETS THE BULLET CLUB:
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA v. AJ STYLES v. TYLER BLACK v. ?
WOMEN’S TITLE: RHEA RIPLEY v. RONDA ROUSEY
The build here, for most of it, has Devitt in the spot of
the mystery opponent, which is what makes the most sense – get all 4 of these
guys, get a ladder, get a bullet club flag – one guy comes down with the whole
thing. But – just a couple weeks before
the show – Devitt is not cleared to wrestle, he is given a future IC shot, somewhere
down the line, as a consolation – so the replacement is mystery opponent, from
anywhere in the world – the only stip, he has to be a current or former Bullet
Club member, given the stip. Messaging
the stip is a little intricate – we don’t want fans to think that on RAW the
night after WM the Bullet Club is coming out, it’s more that the winner has the
intellectual property rights for the WWF chapter of the Bullet Club, that if it
ever returns to the WWE, he will be in charge – that’s a little convoluted, so
figuring out good messaging will be important.
This is the blow off – the build makes that clear – these
guys have fought all year and it comes to an end here, no more fighting over
who is the IC champ for these 4 guys, no more fighting about the Bullet Club, it
ends at Mania – so given that, given the quality of the wrestlers, given the
Ladder stip – and given the wrinkle of the mystery opponent who can come from
anywhere (and, fans know the rumors, they’re pretty loud) there’s probably a
lot of interest about this match. Given that the BC has been postioned as an outsider stable, that the original WWF version was an invasion, that element of "who is coming" becomes part of the speculation.
And then there’s Rousey.
Ripley and Baszler are the remaining members of the Horsewomen, Ripley’s
had the women’s belt for a year – Rousey has come back with a vengeance to
destroy her former stable – and she’s got Heyman and Walter aligned with her in
an ass kicking, no bullshit, stable. Ripley’s
been a wrecking machine – Rousey is a shooter, she’s Brock Lesnar – it’s
immovable object v. irresistible force at Mania.
That’s half the card – Zayn/Reigns, the Usos return to
battle the HRE, the Bullet Club ladder match with a mystery entrant, Ripley v.
Rousey, and Steen takes on McIntyre.
6 matches left to discuss next month – the Lesnar/Riddle
rematch, this time in the Octagon, an intergender tag, two number one
contenders matches, Belair v. Banks – and the return of Stone Cold Steve
Austin.
