The Road to Wrestlemania 39 - 1

Rumble

Wrestlemania 39 is in Los Angeles in April; 12 match card, here, we'll cover the 5 title bouts.

WWF TITLE: ROMAN REIGNS v. CODY RHODES

IC TITLE:       PRINCE DEVITT v. RICOCHET

TAG TITLES: NO DQ:  DANGEROUS ALLIANCE (WALTER/LESNAR w/Heyman) v. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (MCINTYRE/GABLE w. Lashley)

WOMENS TITLE: BIANCA BELAIR v. RONDA ROUSEY (w/Heyman)

WOMENS TAG TITLES: FIGHT FOREVER (BECKY LYNCH/CHARLOTTE FLAIR) v. HORSEWOMEN (RHEA RIPLEY/SHAYNA BASZLER w. Stratton)

Reigns v. Rhodes: Roman's been telling the same story since Covid: Punk, throwing down the WWF title, GDI, all the home grown talent pushed down, the sleeper cell for AEW - and he's now defeated the 4 guys he centered: Zayn, Steen (in a tv tag) Styles, Black.  Roman thought that was it - he'd do that and maybe retire to a private island - but then....then one year ago at Wrestlemania, AEW came right up to the front door and won the IC Title.

Roman admits he was wrong - he tried to take it out immediately, send it back home - but now he sees that the better move is - on the sport's biggest stage - to mark his 1 year as WWF Champion, to beat AEW right in the middle of the ring.  

And he calls Cody out.  

As the build continues, it's clear Cody doesn't still work for AEW - but Roman's narrative has been that AEW is bad for WWF, bad for WWF fans, bad for WWF wrestlers - and Cody is as responsible as anyone for creating it.  Roman says Tony Khan isn't showing up to take his beating, so this is the next best thing.  

Cody's story is essentially his IRL story - his dad and brother never won the WWF Title - Cody is a WWF Title win away from the Triple Crown; he and Roman have a lot in common, both felt they hit a glass ceiling, Roman smashed through it to win the WWF Title - Cody smashed the entire sport, built another promotion and now he is going to beat Roman in the main event of Wrestlemania and win the WWF Title.  

Devitt v. Ricochet: This is the best rival either guy has had in his WWF career, a few years ago they had a long program spanning both main roster and Dark Ride, Ricochet taking Devitt's IC.  Now - here we are again, Devitt's taken on all comers in the run - and Ricochet presents his WM challenge.  Ricochet's a babyface; Devitt's a tweener, but given the number of wins, likely to get babyface reactions consistently at this point.  Devitt's formed an Irish alliance with McDonagh (there's a name coming and perhaps an added member or two, but that's a spoiler and not part of the build) and that can be part of the build with the other two members of Blood Warriors International (Alexander/Tozawa) supporting Ricochet.  It's a workrate program backed up by the history of the Ricochet/Devitt feud.  

Dangerous Alliance v. Holy Roman Empire: Walter and Lesnar are a superteam, they're the MegaPowers, they work once - say the Viking Raiders - and it's a squash.  They're an unstoppable force.  One would assume Roman  would be hot with his guys after the Rumble (Cody beat Gable, McIntyre/Lashley lost the tag belts) but instead he's warm - "hey, you guys were all in over your heads - this was my fault - go home, get some rest" - the return is midway through the build to set up a Gable match against Shelton Benjamin that occurs two weeks out from Mania.

Prior to the Rumble, came Nic Nemeth's last match, Gable beats him and at Roman's direction, McIntyre chairshots him while Lashley/Gable (Nemeth's former stablemates)  hold him (Gable didn't want to do this).

They do that again here - that should be seen as an escalation; Gable and Benjamin are both in the Angle lineage (part of the Angle tree) and were close as members of Shoot Nation. Gable demonstrably does not want to go along with this - and here is where Roman's attitude shifts 180 degrees as he goes off on Gable, fully screaming at him to show his loyalty or get out of the ring - once again, they do it - Benjamin is laid out - Gable exits without talking to his stablemates.

That writes Benjamin off - the other consequence, of course, is Lesnar is going to totally freak out, given that Benjamin is one of the only relationships he's ever had in WWF, and Gable's having been a part of this won't go unanswered.  

That turns out to be a set up - a week later is the go home RAW and in the main event angle, Roman's doing a Heyman Hustle, he and Paul together in the ring - when Lesnar arrives at the arena, he has to break down a door - kill a bunch of security guys - but it's a trap - waiting for him are the other 3 members of the HRE, they assault him in the back (Walter and Rousey are known not to be here for whatever reason) - on the video wall we see the 3 other members of HRE batter Lesnar down - Roman smiling/laughing in the ring -- when he's laid out by an entering Rhodes.  Cody holding the WWF Title aloft as the go home RAW ends.  

On Fight Night - we learn the actions of HRE toward Lesnar have led to the No DQ stip - which raises the likelihood that all 3 non Roman members of HRE will be involved in that match, which adds to the possibility the heels regain the titles.

Belair v. Rousey: All babyface match, the tension in the program coming from discussion that Rousey would have beaten Belair at Survivor Series if not for the concussion suffered prior to the event.  Eventually, that talk gets to Belair who says she'll prove to everyone that she's better than Ronda.

Fight Forever v. Horsewomen: A women's tag belt is launched, it appears that the importance of that will lead these two rivals to go "straight up" at each other - but a Lynch/Stratton match ends with a Horsewomen run in, they beat Lynch down - Stratton joining Ripley/Baszler to give the heels a third member of the stable.

Those are the title matches.

7 matches to come next month - it's Wrestlemania, so that means an opening tag and a legends match, which will feature a special guest referee.  We've got a Money in the Bank, a 2 of 3 Falls and a Trios Match - we've got an Emancipation Match, I say - an Emancipation Match- Coming next month, the rest of the card for Wrestlemania 39.