Two AVFR’s in one week? Of course! It’s WrestleMania week and we have another night to preview and predict.

If you didn’t catch my predictions column for WrestleMania 42 Night 1, go check that one out too.

Sunday night’s WrestleMania will stream on the ESPN app in the US and Netflix internationally. The show kicks off at 6PM Eastern, and the first hour will simulcast on ESPN proper. There are six matches announced.

With that out of the way, let’s walk through the full Sunday lineup, talk about the stories, and then I’ll give you my predictions.

Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi (ESPN Kickoff Hour)

This is the match that opens Night Two on ESPN, and I think that’s a great decision. We’ve got two beasts colliding, and that’s exactly the kind of spectacle you put in front of a casual audience flipping past ESPN that might entice them stick around.

The story and build for this has been perhaps the most simple and effective of all the WrestleMania matches. Brock Lesnar issued an open challenge for WrestleMania. Weeks passed. Nobody answered. Then Oba Femi walked out and left The Beast flat on his back in a moment that has been a standout on the Road to WrestleMania. From the moment they stood face to face at the Royal Rumble, it was obvious that WWE had found someone who could physically match Lesnar, and that is not something you can say about many people in the company currently.

Femi’s rise has been meteoric. He was a dominant NXT Champion. Got called up and has almost immediately been positioned against one of the biggest names in the history of the business. WWE doesn’t put you across the ring from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania unless they believe you are the future. This is the coronation match, dressed up as a battle.

I don’t think Lesnar has many matches left. He’s been selective about when and where he works for years now. That means every match he gives someone should, in theory, carry weight. Femi answered the call, and established that he is not afraid of The Beast. Sunday night is where he proves he can slay one.

My Pick: Oba Femi wins, and this should be decisive. Not a fluke. Femi needs to overpower Lesnar in a way that leaves no room for debate. Hit him with everything, survive the suplexes, and then put him down. Lesnar losing clean does more for Femi’s career than anything else on this card does for anyone. If WWE is serious about making Oba Femi a main event player for the next decade, and they should be if you see his crowd reactions, then this is where it starts. Lesnar will shake his hand or nod in respect afterward, because that is the Brock Lesnar WrestleMania playbook when they want to make someone.

Penta (c) vs. JD McDonagh vs. Dragon Lee vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Rusev (Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, ESPN Kickoff Hour)

Six men. A ladder. The Intercontinental Championship hanging above the ring. This is the chaos match of the weekend, and it’s going to be a car crash in the best possible way. It’s also been awhile since we’ve had this kind of match at WrestleMania.

Penta is the defending champion and has been on a tear since winning the belt. Je’Von Evans is the high-flyer who could steal the show with one sequence. Dragon Lee and JD McDonagh are workers who will probably carry a bulk of the match. Rusev is the power element who can catch people and throw them through things, and a favorite of mine who I’d love to see win it. And then there’s Rey Mysterio, who announced himself for this match on the April 6 Raw after returning from a rib injury.

Rey being in this match adds legendary star power, but at his age, the question is not whether he can still go (he can), but whether WWE uses him to elevate someone else on the way down. This feels like a legacy spot for Mysterio, a chance to have one more WrestleMania moment in a multi-man environment where others can protect him.

My Pick: Penta retains. In a ladder match with this many bodies, the champion retaining is the play that protects the most people. Nobody takes a clean loss. The finish will be Penta climbing the ladder after everyone else has taken each other out, probably with one final sequence involving Evans or Dragon Lee that gets the crowd on its feet. Penta’s reign is still young, and there’s no reason to take the title off him here when the division is this deep. As much as I’d like to see Rusev win it, if Penta doesn’t, I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Je’Von get the nod.

Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley (WWE Women’s Championship Match)

This match should be a big deal, but unfortunately people just don’t care about Jade Cargill and her reign as champion. It’s nothing against Jade, I personally like her a lot, but she has barely wrestled since winning the title back in like November. She beat up Michin and B-Fab enough that they’ve joined her, and that’s about the most interesting thing she’s done.

The build to this match could’ve been two power houses who have never wrestled before, but instead it’s been built around the numbers game and IYO SKY getting beat down while Rhea was forced to watch.

I like Jade, and I think she has a ton of potential now as a heel with a little group, but she needs to be built back up without the title being on her.

My Pick: Rhea Ripley wins the title. This is Ripley’s fourth WrestleMania championship match, and she has won the previous three. She is the WrestleMania performer in the women’s division, and the moment of her taking the title from Cargill in front of a Las Vegas crowd is worth more than extending a reign that has already served its purpose. The only way that might not happen would be if Asuka can prevent IYO SKY from stopping interference by Michin and B-Fab. But let’s hope this doesn’t turn into a match with a bunch of interference.

Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams (United States Championship Match)

I like Sami, I think he’s great and he definitely deserved to be on the card. But he didn’t need to be United States Champion. He won the title just a few weeks ago, and I think that was the wrong decision. Carmelo Hayes should be in this match, defending the title against his former protege in NXT on the grandest stage. At best, Sami should’ve just been a third wheel in this.

Williams has the look, the charisma, and the crowd connection that WWE values. He broke out in NXT and the main roster call-up has been handled with care. This is his WrestleMania debut match, and getting a one-on-one title match at Mania is a statement of confidence from creative.

My Pick: Trick Williams wins the United States Championship. Williams winning here establishes him as a legitimate main roster champion and gives Sunday’s card a feel-good moment outside of the main event. Zayn will get a hero’s ovation after the match, because the Las Vegas crowd will know what they witnessed. But still, and I think this will be a fantastic match, I’m just not a fan of short transitional championship reigns ending at WrestleMania with no real build.

The Demon Finn Balor vs. Dirty Dominik Mysterio

The Judgment Day implosion match. This one has slowly been building since late 2024, with Bálor and Mysterio’s relationship deteriorating inside the faction despite attempts to keep the peace. The breaking point came on the March 2nd Raw when Bálor wanted Mysterio to defend the Intercontinental Championship without help, Mysterio called for interference anyway, and the distraction cost him the title. The following week, Bálor told Mysterio he was a “spoiled little prick,” got beat down by the Judgment Day, and here we finally are.

Bálor is coming out as The Demon, which means the face paint, the elaborate entrance, and the elevated version of the character that WWE reserves for big moments. We haven’t seen it something like three years or so.

Mysterio is not the same wrestler he was two years ago. Dirty Dom has grown into a legitimate heel who can work a match and draw real heat. The Judgment Day has been his safety net for years, and this match strips that away. There should be no JD McDonagh to interfere (he’s in the ladder match). I think if Liv Morgan tries to get involved, she’ll probably get taken out by Roxanne Perez siding with Finn Balor. So in the end, it’s just going to be Dominik and the consequences of every shortcut he’s ever taken.

My Pick: Finn Bálor wins. The Demon shouldn’t lose here and if he does they should never use the gimmick again. This is the match where Mysterio pays for years of hiding behind the faction. Bálor gets his WrestleMania moment, and hopefully back on track to move back up the card where he belongs. A clean Coup de Grâce finishes this, and the visual of The Demon standing over Dirty Dom in Las Vegas is the kind of image WWE builds highlight packages around.

CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns (World Heavyweight Championship Match)

This is it. The match that closes WrestleMania 42. The match that, if you told someone in 2015 it would happen, they would have laughed in your face.

Roman Reigns won the 2026 Royal Rumble. He could have challenged any champion on any brand. He chose CM Punk, and the reason is hatred. Not strategy. Not title opportunity. Hatred.

Reigns has hated Punk since Punk left WWE in 2014 and made comments on Colt Cabana’s podcast that turned fans against Reigns and made his job exponentially harder for years. Punk claims he is the reason Reigns exists in WWE, that he brought The Shield to the main roster and that everything Reigns accomplished was built on a foundation Punk laid. Reigns counters that he was the one who greenlit Punk’s return at Survivor Series 2023, that management consulted him before bringing Punk back, and that Punk should be thanking him instead of antagonizing him.

They teamed together at Survivor Series WarGames last November and showed each other begrudging respect. But respect is not the same as peace, and Reigns decided that whatever truce existed between them was over the moment he won the Rumble.

The promos have been outstanding, sadly the best build on the Road to WrestleMania (outside of the Brock/Oba stuff). Both men have gone to deeply personal places, bringing up The Shield, the podcast, Heyman’s betrayal at WrestleMania 41, and the fundamental question of who is truly responsible for the other’s success. This is the kind of feud where the words carry as much weight as the moves, and both men understand that.

Punk retained the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber, confirming he walks into Vegas as the defending champion. He won the title from Gunther at SummerSlam 2025 and has been on a run that has silenced anyone who doubted whether the 47-year-old still had it in him. Reigns has not held a world title since WrestleMania XL when Cody Rhodes ended his historic three-year reign, and the hunger to reclaim that spot is palpable.

My Pick: CM Punk retains. This is the hardest call on the entire card, and I could see it going either way. But here’s my logic. Punk’s title reign has been the best thing on Raw since he won the belt. Taking it off him to put it on Reigns (who doesn’t need the title to be the biggest star on any show he’s on and more importantly isn’t a full timer) would feel like a lateral move creatively. Punk retaining, even if it’s dirty, keeps the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw’s most compelling performer and gives them somewhere to go after Mania.

Reigns losing doesn’t hurt him. Nothing hurts Roman Reigns at this point. He is beyond titles. He is the attraction. If Punk retains, they can run the rematch at some point, maybe. If Reigns wins, what’s next? He’s held the title before. We’ve seen that movie. The more interesting story is Punk surviving Reigns and then facing whoever comes next (Gunther’s “favor” from Heyman comes to mind so he can get his rematch).

That said, I will not be shocked if Reigns wins. The Rumble winner losing the WrestleMania main event is rare, and WWE might decide that Reigns reclaiming the gold is the bigger moment for the live crowd. This one could go either way, and I won’t pretend I have supreme confidence in my prediction. But I’m going with Punk. I expect, as with most Roman matches over the past few years, this one will have all sorts of shenanigans and interference. Just please, no surprise celebrities.

Final Thoughts

Night Two is the better card. Punk and Reigns is the kind of WrestleMania main event that people will talk about for years regardless of the result. Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar is the star-making spectacle. Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill is the collision the women’s division has needed. The ladder match will be pure chaos. Even the undercard (Zayn/Williams, Bálor/Mysterio) has clear stakes or compelling stories.

Saturday has the better build drama (for better and worse). Sunday has the better matches. If WWE delivers on what’s in front of them, Night Two of WrestleMania 42 could be one of the best WrestleMania nights in recent memory even if the build has largely be rather nonexistent.

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