Roman Reigns is trying to take his place at the top of WWE with the stubborn CM Punk standing in his way.
Their Sunday night main event clash for the World Heavyweight championship may have been the best booked story heading into the two-night WrestleMania 42 this weekend at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — and the outcome may have a lasting impact on WWE’s creative direction.
Sunday night as a whole feels like it could be the more predictable of the two nights as far as match outcomes, with some pretty logical directions for WWE to go. It’s also a chance to further cement the company’s future with Oba Femi, Je’Von Evans, Trick Williams and Jade Cargill. We will see if that’s the direction Triple H and Co. go.
The Post’s Joseph Staszewski does his best to predict how Night 2 will shake out in Sin City (6 p.m., ESPN Unlimited, first hour on ESPN).
Femi is a force of nature right now, riding a rocket ship of fan interest and people loving to do his strut to the ring. He has been allowed to physically manhandle Lesnar in a way we have seen few ever be allowed to do. This match will be part of the first hour televised on cable on ESPN. If there ever were a chance to absolutely make someone, this is it. WWE cannot mess it up.
Lesnar shouldn’t go down easily, but having someone of Femi’s stature beat a household name such as Lesnar will have an immeasurable effect on his career moving forward. If WWE, for some reason, wants to make this a trilogy, let Lesnar win a second meeting. This needs to be Femi’s night.
Winner: Oba Femi
Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. JD McDonagh vs. Dragon Lee vs. Rusev vs. Rey Mysterio in a ladder match for the Intercontinental championship
Evans has come so close, time and time again, to winning gold in NXT and WWE. It’s time for it to finally happen on the Grandest Stage of Them All. WWE loves Penta, and he may retain to keep his momentum going. But new champions are often crowned in these ladder matches at WrestleMania, and Evans should be able to shine and leave an impression on fans tuning in for free on ESPN with his bouncy and high-flying style in the most unpredictable match of the night. This could steal the show early.
Winner: Je’Von Evans
Balor and Mysterio have told one of the better long-term stories through all their ups and downs in the Judgment Day until Mysterio stopped listening to Uncle Finn and only cared about his own success. They went from brothers to enemies with the faction siding with Mysterio.
Fans have been clamoring for the Demon’s return, and this will be the first time we see this persona from Balor since his inexplicable loss to Edge at WrestleMania 39. There is no way you can beat the Demon here, no matter how many Judgment Day members want to get involved.
The entrances here should be big and bold, and the win for Balor could finally be a jumping-off point to his first world championship win since 2016.
Winner: Finn Balor
Zayn answered the open challenge and beat former champion Carmelo Hayes, who has a ton of history with Williams from NXT, to win the title on April 3. In the short term, this seems to have launched an angle where the usual fan favorite Zayn no longer cares what the fans think. A notable portion of the audience voiced its displeasure with his win taking Hayes off WrestleMania after Hayes had been one of the best parts of “SmackDown” over the past year.
Williams, even as a heel, just oozes star quality, and fans are digging him. Hayes could come out and try to keep Williams from cheating to win, only to see it backfire and have his former manager become U.S. champion. Zayn can then go on and on about being screwed and further invest in a heel turn if fans are happy about the result. Williams and Hayes can eventually reignite their old rivalry.
Winner: Trick Williams
If you want to solidify Cargill as one of your absolute top stars, you have her beat someone such as Ripley at WrestleMania and get the best possible match out of her.
Only three years ago, it was Charlotte Flair helping make Ripley at WrestleMania. Now she can return to the favor — even if this has been one of the weakest builds I can remember to a Mania match. There were lots of clichés about who was bigger, stronger, hungrier, until WWE put Cargill in a faction with former foes Michin and B-Fab that resembled her Baddies from AEW. Instead, they called them “henchwomen.” Iyo Sky’s help won’t be enough to keep Ripley from losing here and heading back to “Raw.”
Winner: Jade Cargill.
Reigns has kept himself out of the world championship picture for two years since losing to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. That feels long enough for WWE’s biggest star. The Tribal Chief has talked about making WWE relevant again by reclaiming gold, and boy, could the company use a little more Bloodline cinema right now. Punk is potentially only in this spot because of the injury to Seth Rollins.
Reigns and Punk have done a tremendous job trading barbs and going deep into their history, hatred and respect for one another in the build to this match. Reigns needs to prove he’s not a “youngboy” anymore when Punk didn’t even want him as part of The Shield. For Punk, it’s proving he’s still at the top of the industry and that Reigns would never have had the success he did if Punk didn’t leave WWE.
What’s critical is if Reigns uses the help of cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso here, proving Punk right that Reigns can’t do anything on his own and may force “The Best in the World” to find help of his own if this feud moves forward. Maybe Punk already has the backup ready to go for Sunday?
If Reigns wins clean on his own, you can put a pin in this story for now — unless it’s revealed Reigns and Randy Orton are working together on parent company TKO’s behalf, leaving Punk and Cody Rhodes to fight together against them for team WWE.
Winner: Roman Reigns
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