My predictions for this year’s #Wrestlemania :

My predictions for this year’s #Wrestlemania :

Pre-Show:

— Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (c) (with Natalya) vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) (with Xavier Woods) vs. Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito) vs. The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) (with Naomi):

They’ve been trying to find the right niche for Cesaro for a couple of years now, and I think he’s got a good thing going with Tyson Kidd, so they’re my favorite to win tonight.  Kofi is still a personal favorite, and I like Big E as well, but they don’t seem to be getting any decent booking.  Los Matadores are a comic relief team, even if not exactly presented as such, and the Usos are solid in the ring, but need to do more to enhance their characters.

— The 2nd Annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal — The announced participants are: The Miz, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Fandango, Adam Rose, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, Titus O’Neil, Darren Young, Big Show, Kane, Erick Rowan, Damien Mizdow, Sin Cara, Goldust, Heath Slater, Mark Henry, Konnor, Viktor, and NXT’s Hideo Itami:

This might be Golddust’s swansong, so they might give him the win as a farewell gift.  Damien Mizdow could also really benefit from a win here, especially if they incorporate his inevitable breakup with Miz into the match.  Beyond that, my third choice to win would be Hideo Itami, who is unquestionably ready to move up from NXT to the big leagues, even if NXT is a better product overall these days.  If nothing else, Itami should get a prominent showing.

The main show:

— Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins (with Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble):

Gotta go with Rollins for this one.  They’re trying to develop Orton as a face, and a loss against a dastardly cheating heel like Rollins will help build sympathy for him with the crowd, so long as Orton is allowed to look strong in the process.  But Rollins also needs to win and not be too beat up, so that he can be hovering around the main event as a wild card, courtesy of his Money In The Bank briefcase.

— Rusev (c) vs. John Cena

Rusev has been all but unstoppable, but if there’s a time and a place for that to come undone, it’ll be here, and it’ll be against John Cena.  It’s time for Cena to have a high-profile win, and having him defend the US Championship is a good way to elevate that belt’s status.  It keeps John Cena on television (as he does have plenty of fans) while keeping him out of the main event picture, which is currently being used to elevate younger talent — which is the right move.  He shouldn’t crush Rusev outright, because then that makes Rusev’s months of dominance seem pointless.  BONUS PREDICTION:  Cena cuts a promo on Rusev and Lana, mocking their “fearless leader” Putin for disappearing from the public eye for the last several weeks, and possibly getting overthrown for real.

— AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki Bella):

The main question on this match isn’t “who will win”, but rather “will the match be any good?”  The Bella Twins are inconsistent in the ring — great one minute, stinking up the joint the next.  AJ and Paige are solid, thankfully, but if the Bellas are on a bad day, their opponents may not be able to cover for ’em.  As for who wins, I’ll go with AJ and Paige for this one, with the match being used to develop their rivalry with each other.

— The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt:  At any other venue, I’d give this to Bray Wyatt, but this is Wrestlemania, and until last year, Taker NEVER LOST at Wrestlemania.  Wyatt’s been without direction of late, and I don’t see this one-off match changing that.  Taker will put on a great match with Wyatt, both will come out looking strong, but Taker will get a win to make up for his loss to Lesnar last year.  I don’t see this being Taker’s last match, he’ll probably show up at WM for another couple of years before retiring for good.

— Bad News Barrett (c) vs. R-Truth vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Daniel Bryan, in a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Belt:

This is a no-brainer.  Barrett has been a dull champion, so there’s no way he’s holding on to this.  R-Truth and Harper are there to get beat up, Stardust is there to develop his vicious heel persona outside of his interactions with Golddust, and Ambrose and Ziggler will be the strong competitors… but I’m giving the victory to Daniel Bryan.  After getting shunted aside for the main event in favor of Reigns, giving Bryan the IC belt is something of a consolation prize — and like Cena with the US belt, he’s a good person to use to elevate that belt’s status.  With any luck, we’ll see a feud between Bryan, Ziggler (who I think could make a great heel counterpoint to Bryan, the Ric Flair to Bryan’s Dusty Rhodes), with Ambrose as the wild card.

— Sting vs. Triple H:

This one’s a no-brainer.  Sting will win in the end, although Triple H will of course get some good hits in, and there will likely be some sort of Steel Bat Vs. Sledgehammer moment in the fight.  Sting has resisted being recruited by WWE for decades, and I just simply can’t imagine him finally allowing that to happen, only to get his ass kicked at the biggest show of the year.  

— MAIN EVENT:  Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns:

This one’s for the WWE World Championship Belt, and until recently, it was 99.9994% certain that Reigns was going to overcome “The Beast” and take the strap for himself.  When that became clear at the end of the Royal Rumble, fans revolted, basically complaining that Reigns was getting crammed down their throat.  Reigns had the best match of his career against Bryan a month later, which helped considerably to allay those worries and make Reigns look credible, but with Lesnar set to leave the WWE right after Wrestlemania, there was still no drama whatsoever to this match.  Then Lesnar re-signed with WWE, and now all bets are off.  I think the stronger move will be to keep the belt on Lesnar, and let Reigns and Lesnar snap at each other for another couple of months, maybe with Reigns getting his eventual win at Summerslam.  

That being said, WWE management still seems to be high on Reigns at the moment, so he might be booked to win anyway.  Either way, this is going to be an intensive brawl.  Look for Seth Rollins to tease a run-in, or maybe actually interfere directly — and for some reason, I suspect that we may see Daniel Bryan or Dean Ambrose run in to help out Reigns after Rollins jumps in.  But in the end… I’m gonna call Lesnar as the winner this time, as I suspect him retaining at Wrestlemania was something that WWE had to throw to him in order to convince him to stay.

Anyone else?  Your thoughts?