A View From the Rafters: WrestleMania 42 Saturday Preview and Predictions

Five days out. Allegiant Stadium. Las Vegas. The Grandest Stage of Them All.

Eh, a little underwhelming on the build front this year. In fact, it’s been quite lacking and the “granddaddy of em all” almost feels like an afterthought this year, which is odd considering the amount of eyeballs that could be on the first hour of each night.

WrestleMania 42 is a two-night event streaming on ESPN in the United States and Netflix internationally. Saturday night kicks off at 6 PM Eastern with the first hour simulcasting on ESPN2. Seven matches on the Night One card, and there is not a throwaway among them (well, maybe one).

Let’s walk through the full Saturday lineup, talk about the stories, and then I’ll give you my predictions.

LA Knight, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso vs. Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and IShowSpeed (Six-Man Tag, ESPN2 Kickoff Hour)

This is the popcorn match. The one designed to hook channel surfers on ESPN2 before the main card rolls and I’m not sure that it will succeed in between overly captivating to those not already interested.

LA Knight is over enough to carry the babyface side on charisma alone, and the Usos are the Usos. You know what you’re getting with them. On the other side, you have Logan Paul (who, love him or hate him, bumps like a madman), Austin Theory (who has quietly become a reliable worker), and IShowSpeed, who is there because he is famous on the internet.

IShowSpeed’s involvement traces back to a Danhausen “curse” angle that has snowballed over the past few weeks. He cost the Usos the tag titles and caused Knight to lose a singles match to Theory. So now he’s an unwilling participant in this mess, which is actually not a bad way to get a non-wrestler into a match. Give the crowd a reason to want to see him get his, and then let the actual wrestlers carry the load.

If nothing else, it should be fun. It doesn’t need to be a classic. It needs to send the ESPN2 audience into the main card feeling good.

My Pick: LA Knight and the Usos win. The babyfaces are going over to pop the crowd early, and IShowSpeed is eating the pin (or getting pinned after something goes sideways for the heels). Knight gets his WrestleMania moment, the Usos get their Mania pop, and Paul eats an L that keeps his feud with Knight simmering. No controversy here.

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre (Unsanctioned Match, ESPN2 Kickoff Hour)

This is the one I’m watching the closest on Saturday, and it’s telling that WWE put it in the kickoff hour on ESPN2 because they know this match is going to be violent enough to hook anyone flipping channels.

The backstory here is ugly in all the right ways. This feud goes back to last fall when Fatu was found laid out backstage, and McIntyre claimed innocence. Fatu disappeared for months, came back, and cost McIntyre the WWE Championship by interfering in his title match in January. Since then, these two have been destroying each other and everything around them. An unsanctioned match is the only logical conclusion.

This is the kind of story the old days were built on. Two men who hate each other enough that the company won’t even sanction it. No rules. No official result on anyone’s record. Just two guys trying to hurt each other. Drew McIntyre is one of the best brawlers in the company, and Fatu is a wrecking ball who works with a recklessness that makes everything he does feel dangerous.

My Pick: Fatu wins this. McIntyre has been used as a stepping stone for years now (unfortunately), and Fatu is the guy WWE is building toward bigger things. The finish will be brutal, probably through a table or off something tall, and Fatu will walk away from Allegiant Stadium as the man who survived Drew McIntyre’s worst. McIntyre will be fine. He always is. He’s a Swiss Army knife. But this is Fatu’s night.

Women’s Intercontinental Championship Match: AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch

Eleven years. AJ Lee walked away in 2015. She came back and captured the Women’s Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber by making Becky Lynch tap to the Black Widow for the third straight time. That alone should be the end of the conversation, but Lynch is Lynch, and she attacked Lee after a successful title defense against Bayley in March. Lee answered by challenging her to a rematch at WrestleMania.

The story writes itself, and that is exactly the kind of match WrestleMania should have on its card. A returning legend defending gold she won after an impossible comeback, against one of the best women’s wrestlers of this generation who simply cannot accept that she lost. Lynch calling it a “trap” adds a layer of mind games, but the emotional core of this match is simpler than that. AJ Lee is back, she is champion, and Becky Lynch cannot let it go.

My Pick: AJ Lee retains. I could see an argument for putting the title on Lynch here (WrestleMania moment, recapturing gold), but WWE brought AJ Lee back for a reason, and that reason was not to have a two-month reign that ends as a transitional footnote. Lee retains, probably clean, and the Black Widow gets its WrestleMania moment. Becky doesn’t need the lesser women’s title, but if AJ wins I’d hope WWE does something more with her in the future.

Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way: Nia Jax and Lash Legend (c) vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria vs. Brie Bella and Nikki Bella

Four teams. One fall to a finish. This is the one match on the card where I expect controlled chaos, and not necessarily in a good way. You have the champions in Jax and Lash Legend (the Irresistible Forces), you have the returning Bellas getting what is almost certainly a nostalgia run, you have Charlotte and Alexa as an oddball pairing, and then you have Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, who are surprisingly the most cohesive actual team in this thing.

The Bellas are not winning the titles at WrestleMania in 2026. That’s not happening. Charlotte and Alexa have been a fun team, and the pairing has done wonderings in refreshing both women, but they don’t need the titles again. Jax and Lash Legend have been ok champions, but they’re not the story here.

My Pick: Bayley and Lyra Valkyria take the titles. They are the team with the most long-term upside, Lyra gets a WrestleMania title win that legitimizes her on the main roster, and Bayley adds another accolade to an already impressive resume and a make good for how she was treated last year. The Bellas eat the pin (probably Brie), Charlotte turns on Alexa after the match to set up a future singles feud, and Jax and Legend move on to something else. This is the booking that makes the most sense for everyone involved.

Women’s World Championship Match: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan

Stephanie Vaquer is 200-plus days into her reign. She has not been pinned. She won the vacant Women’s World Championship by beating Iyo Sky at Wrestlepalooza in September, and she has beaten everyone put in front of her since. Liv Morgan won the Women’s Royal Rumble and chose Vaquer after the champion got under her skin by saying Morgan hadn’t earned anything.

There has been some concern about this match actually happening after Morgan and Roxanne Perez collided heads on Raw two weeks ago, but all reports say Morgan will be cleared and the match is still on. Good. This needs to happen.

Morgan is a member of The Judgment Day, which means she won’t be alone. Vaquer is a technical wizard who has been the best women’s champion (on either brand) for the better part of a year. The Rumble winner challenging the dominant champion at WrestleMania is a story as old as the event itself.

My Pick: Liv Morgan wins, and it pains me to say it because Vaquer has been outstanding. But the Women’s Royal Rumble winner has to mean something, and Morgan winning her third Women’s World Championship gives her character a legitimate claim as one of the top women in the company. Vaquer losing doesn’t hurt her. She had a dominant reign and will get the title back eventually. Morgan’s Judgment Day connections also open the door for a rematch where Vaquer can chase. The story is richer with Morgan as champion going forward than it is with Vaquer holding the belt past Mania.

Seth Rollins vs. Gunther

This match was not supposed to happen. Rollins was supposed to face Bron Breakker. Gunther was supposed to face Rey Mysterio. Injuries derailed both plans, and WWE pivoted by putting two of its best workers together with about three weeks of build. And you know what? It might be the best in-ring match on the entire card regardless.

The connective tissue is Paul Heyman. Rollins had been terrorizing Heyman for weeks after returning from injury, stomping him with a steel chair at every opportunity. On the March 30 Raw at Madison Square Garden, Gunther yanked Rollins out of the ring mid-stomp and choked him unconscious. The following week, Heyman thanked Gunther for the save, and Gunther told him he now owes him a very big favor. That favor is the real story here. Gunther is collecting debts, and whatever he cashes in with Heyman is going to have ramifications well beyond WrestleMania.

Gunther has retired Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles over the past several months. They’re calling him the Career Killer, and that’s not an empty nickname. This is a man on an unprecedented run of dominance. Rollins is coming off a shoulder injury that forced him to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship in the fall. He made it back for WrestleMania, and that story alone carries weight.

My Pick: Gunther wins, and it’s not close in terms of booking logic. They are building Gunther as a supervillain for a reason, potentially pointing toward a collision with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. A loss here would undercut everything they’ve built. Rollins is protected in defeat (probably through Bron Breakker interference or some Heyman shenanigans), and the Visionary moves into the Breakker feud that was always the plan. Gunther walks out of Vegas with his streak intact and Heyman’s marker in his pocket.

Undisputed WWE Championship Match: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton 

This should have been the easiest story WWE told all year. And somehow, they managed to complicate it.

Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton go back to 2008. The Legacy. The mentor and the protege. Rhodes’ first match in WWE was against Orton. Their careers have been intertwined for nearly two decades, through partnerships and feuds and the full arc of Cody leaving WWE, building himself on the independents and in AEW, and then returning at WrestleMania 38 to eventually finish his story against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL.

Orton won the Elimination Chamber, originally lining up for a shot at Drew McIntyre, but creative shifted when McIntyre dropped the title to Rhodes on SmackDown. The contract signing saw Orton go full heel for the first time in a while, turning on Rhodes and fully embracing those voices in his head again. Student becomes the master. The protege now carries the gold that the mentor wants one more time. World title number 15 for Orton. This is a WrestleMania main event that writes itself.

And then they inserted Pat McAfee.

I’m not going to belabor this point, but the decision to shoehorn a celebrity into the Orton/Rhodes storyline threes week before WrestleMania is baffling. McAfee revealed himself as “the voice in Orton’s head,” attacked Rhodes with a low blow, stole his championship belt, and has been cutting promos about how WWE has declined under Rhodes. Jelly Roll got involved on the babyface side. Orton and McAfee closed the penultimate SmackDown standing tall over a beaten Rhodes and an unconscious Jelly Roll.

I understand why they did it (ESPN deal, McAfee’s connections to TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, eyeballs from outside the wrestling bubble), but this is a match that did not need help.

Orton and Rhodes had 18 years of history to draw from, and instead of letting these two masters of their craft tell that story, they turned the final stretch into a celebrity sideshow. The fans are not happy about it, and that frustration is warranted.

All that said, the match itself will deliver. Orton and Rhodes are two of the best to ever do this. When the bell rings and the celebrities clear out, these two will put on a WrestleMania main event worthy of the stage they’re standing on.

My Pick: I think Cody Rhodes retains, and here’s why. Orton doesn’t need the title to be relevant. He never has. Orton as a 15-time world champion is a nice accolade, but it doesn’t change what people think of him or his legacy. Rhodes just got the title back from McIntyre a few weeks ago. Having him drop it immediately to Orton, especially with McAfee involvement, would feel hollow and rushed. The smarter play is Rhodes overcoming the odds (McAfee interference, Orton at his most dangerous, and who knows what else) and walking out of Vegas with the championship intact. That gives them a rematch at Backlash or Money in the Bank if they run the tag team match at Backlash, and it protects the main event from feeling like a transitional title swap.

But I’ll say this (and it’s the only hedge you’ll get from me in this column): if there was ever a WrestleMania where Orton could win the big one with an RKO out of nowhere while McAfee distracts the referee, this is it. I just think the smarter long-term play is Cody, but that doesn’t usually translate to what WWE actually does. I could see Randy winning, and wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m sticking with Cody and hoping WWE does too.

Final Thoughts

Saturday’s card is stronger than it looks on paper despite lackluster build for most matches. Fatu/McIntyre will be a war. Rollins/Gunther could be match of the night. AJ Lee’s return story is the kind of thing WrestleMania was made for even if it has been seemingly an afterthought. And even with the McAfee noise, Rhodes and Orton have 18 years of history that the bell won’t erase.

The Pat McAfee situation is a further stain on a disappointingg build, and it speaks to a larger problem in WWE right now where corporate relationships are influencing creative decisions. But WrestleMania has survived worse. Rhodes is good enough and Orton is smart enough to make Saturday’s main event work despite the baggage.

Sound off in the comments below or come argue with me in the Vortex Effect forums.