There can only be one grand, annual spectacle that unifies die-hard and casual professional wrestling/sports entertainment fans worldwide: Wrestlemania. The 32nd installment of World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship pay-per-view event will take place on April 3 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Although WWE’s best kept secret of staging predetermined results in each and every one of their matches and programs will still be in full effect this coming Sunday, we’re still just as committed to provide in-depth analysis and knockout predictions for each of the 10 matches on the star-studded slate below for a smash-mouth weekend of exciting betting action.
If scripted television is not really your cup of tea, then go on and check out our odds updates for the NBA, NHL, EPL and Champions League futures instead.
We kick off our Wrestlemania 32 coverage with what’s bound to be the opening match of the program: the seven-man ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Don’t be deceived by the massive number of participants for this contest, as only two men stand out as frontrunners for the title: reigning IC champ Kevin Owens and his old pal Sami Zayn. In the past few episodes of Monday Night Raw, the WWE did nothing but build up anticipation for a WM32 clash between the two former best buds until this past Monday’s edition, where the show announced the added stipulation of a ladder match involving Owens, Zayn and five other competitors suddenly thrown in the mix.
Dolph Ziggler and maybe even The Miz actually have a realistic shot at winning the Intercontinental title given their relatively decorated track record with the company, but that would only put all the effort into selling the much-awaited Owens vs. Zayn feud to waste. Consider Ziggler, Miz and the rest of the field to just be called on for some amazing, high-flying stunts with those ladders for wild spots to get the audience’s blood flowing right from the onset.
With the pretenders having been set aside from this discussion, we expect KO to hang on to his belt for one more night, and have Zayn continue their storyline together as the underdog who still can’t catch his big break for a little longer.
Writer’s Prediction: Win Owens, win!
WWE United States Championship
Kalisto (c) vs. Ryback
One of only two traditional singles matches on the card, the WWE United States Championship match between defending champ Kalisto and Ryback is quite honestly one of the more underwhelming bouts of the night.
Much of that sentiment falls heavily on Ryback’s shoulders. Since turning heel about a month ago, The Big Guy’s push for the belt feels very half-baked. The story was rushed, Ryback’s much worse with his mic work as a heel, and the fans have already grown tired of his repetitive move set regardless of the slight tweaks that he had shown within his hulking capacity.
On the flipside, Kalisto remains one of WWE’s best draws as an electric luchador from the same vein as all-time greats Eddy Guerrero and Rey Mysterio. The company also currently lacks diversity from their mid-card talent especially considering the Hispanic demographic, so it would still be in WWE’s best interest that David still prevails over Goliath.
Writer’s Prediction: We’re about to be fed with more high-flying athleticism than sheer brute force as Kalisto retains the US title.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
This Sunday will mark only the third-ever Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and this massive free-for-all in-ring brawl will only feature 20 participants instead of 30 from the past couple of years. And as of this writing, only six wrestlers have been announced as official entrants to the battle royal: the four members of The Social Outcasts (Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, Heath Slater, Adam Rose), Big Show and Kane.
We’re going to go out on a limb and pick one particular wrestler that – strangely – has not been added to the WM32 card just yet: Bray Wyatt. The Eater of Worlds and his Wyatt Family cohorts have been victims of poor booking by the WWE, but the ATGMBR could very well be the brooding faction’s launchpad for something better.
One dream scenario we’ve come up for this match is that the behemoth of the Wyatt Family in Braun Strowman will clean the entire house in a jiffy, only to hand the victory to his leader (Bray) without so much as a peep. Not only will that result draw expected ire from the crowd at Arlington for such a cheap finish, it will also reinforce the illusion that the Wyatt Family is still a top heel stable for the foreseeable future. And hey, Bray’s got that relatively massive physique too, much like the match’s past winners in Cesaro and Big Show.
Writer’s Prediction: Bray Wyatt will have the victory in his hands when all is said and done.
WWE Tag Team Championship: 4-on-3 Handicap Match
The New Day (c) vs. The League of Nations
First things first: is this still technically a tag team match if there are three men involved on one side and four in the other?
Well, the team of The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) successfully pulled off this gimmick about three guys equally sharing the rights to the tag team title. So why can’t Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Rusev and King Barrett of The League of Nations do the same with four members, right?
Let’s not forget that The New Day are pretty much being pushed as straight-up faces now instead of lovable heels. Bestowing the tag team titles unto The League of Nations this Sunday will not only give the rooty-tooty-booty gang more motivation to become your world-famous three-time tag team champs, it will also likely set up a gargantuan feud between TLON another four-man core: The Wyatt Family.
If the WWE is intent on creating better booking opportunities for its larger factions, crowning the League of Nations is the way to go. On a side note, we also noticed there are quite a lot of face-versus-face matches on the card, so this victory for the heels pretty much has to even out WM32’s natural order.
Writer’s Prediction: Play us a sad song, Francesca 2… The League of Nations become your new tag team champs.
WWE Divas Championship: Triple-Threat Match
Charlotte (c) vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks
In all seriousness, the triple-threat match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks for the WWE Divas title is what the devout professional wrestling fanbase expects to be the Wrestlemania 32’s best match of the evening.
All three extremely-talented women earned their brass with their now-timeless battles from NXT, WWE’s developmental center. The last one to jump aboard WWE’s main roster is Sasha Banks, who arguably draws one of the loudest pops from the crowd on a nightly basis, even more so than some of the company’s other top-tier superstars.
Sure, having real-life father and WWE Hall-of-Famer Ric Flair (whooo!) by Charlotte’s side had further reinforced the reigning champ’s villainous character to near perfection for an impressive title run. And yes, even lass-kicker Becky Lynch with her magnetic charisma makes for a fantastic swing-vote between the three competitors. However, the WWE Universe will probably tune out of the Divas picture altogether if Banks fails to walk away from Arlington without the championship belt between her waist.
Plus, and this is an honest yet biased opinion on our part: Sasha’s the best female wrestler on the planet right now, hands down.
Writer’s Prediction: There can only be one legit boss, alright. Sasha Banks is your new WWE Divas Champion.
No Holds Barred Street Fight
Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar
This hardcore match has Suplex City written all over it. WWE would look foolish by not giving Brock Lesnar another win at Wrestlemania, as the former UFC heavyweight champ would lose all the luster he already has as the company’s ultimate badass.
That notion doesn’t even really take away anything from his challenger, Dean Ambrose, who already has the WWE’s full confidence at possibly becoming the company’s next flag-bearer. As a matter of fact, a clean loss to Lesnar will only put The Lunatic Fringe in better position as the madman who simply would not lay down and die even after another Brock beat-down, which is fantastic material to work with in terms of another WWE World Heavyweight title shot with either of his ex-Shield brothers Seth Rollins or (spoiler alert!) Roman Reigns.
Even if we take a look at this at a purely a non-kayfabe level, Ambrose is the epitome of that “company man” who’ll take the fall to gain better fan reception, character build and story arc for the future. Meanwhile, Lesnar as anything less than a total juggernaut on-screen is simply unfathomable at this point given his professional fighting career beyond the squared circle. A win would also technically put him right back in the WWE World Heavyweight title hunt, which is just gravy.
So if there’s one match on the Wrestlemania card whose outcome is already set in stone upon its announcement, it’d be this one. Well… maybe this and the final match that we’ll cover later on.
If not for nothing, the Hell in a Cell Match between Shane McMahon – WWE Chairman and CEO Vince’s MCMahon’s very own son – and wrestling icon The Undertaker is definitely the most intriguing bout on the card. Both Shane-O-Mac and The Deadman are two of the company’s most widely-respected performers of all-time, even if the former was just a part-time wrestler with balls the size of grapefruits. *wink*
Longtime fans already know that this will be a plodding yet literally bloody feud between two men well over their prime. What makes this affair oh so intriguing is the quirky stipulation in the aftermath. If Shane McMahon wins, he gets “full control” of Monday Night Raw to put and end to the Triple H-Stephanie McMahon regime. Consequently, if The Undertaker does lose the match, he’ll be forced to retire from the business.
For the smarter WWE viewer (pardon the lack for a better term), a win for Shane and a loss to Taker is a huge deal. It signifies that the company is willing to part with Taker’s highly-esteemed Wrestlemania legacy once and for all, all the while creating a new and exciting narrative now that Shane’s will be at the helm of Raw. And with executive, front-office power in his hands, Shane doesn’t even have to wrestle again. (He really shouldn’t!)
Plus, we know how WWE “retirements” pan out further down the line (yes, most performers eventually come back to wrestle for another day). A Taker comeback at the next edition of ‘Mania will still be widely received and appreciated by the fans, and we’re also not sold that Shane is even the “right guy” for The Deadman’s true send-off match. That honor deserves to go to a real wrestler, someone like Brock Lesnar (a good friend of Taker outside the ring) or John Cena, who was The Undertaker’s original opponent before he suffered an untimely shoulder injury in January.
Alternatively, if The Undertaker wins on Sunday, we really don’t know how far or in what manner will the WWE stretch his involvement in its weekly programming schedule, let alone Shane’s at that.
Writer’s Prediction: Here comes the Shane McMahon era of Raw!
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H (c) vs. Roman Reigns
Ahh, finally… The ever-divisive Triple H vs. Roman Reigns match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
If you’ve followed the developments as for how the Roman Empire had fallen, risen and fallen again, you already know what’s in store. Yup, just give Reigns his belt already and let’s see how he inevitably evolves into the next John Cena. It’s no secret that the company had pushed for Reigns and not Seth Rollins – last Wrestlemania’s “surprise” prized-title winner – as its next top babyface. He already has the look, the build, the third-generation WWE superstar lineage and the “kids love him!” thing all down pat.
Unfortunately, Roman is horrible on the mic, especially for a guy that’s supposed to be the alpha dog of the company. His in-ring work and move set has grown tiresome for many viewers as well, which explains why the boos tend to drown out the cheers more often than not during his typical entrance from the lower box seats of any given arena.
If not for Rollins’ ill-timed injury, we wouldn’t have Triple H as the obvious placeholder of a WWE World Heavyweight Champion to pose as the final test for Reigns at Wrestlemania. Not that we’re arguing, but Trips already had an illustrious career, which made his title victory over Reigns at the Royal Rumble a couple of months ago all the more predictable and forced, simply for narrative’s sake. Reigns had no other daunting mountain to climb except for Hunter and The Authority, and that’s where we’re at now.
At least with a healthy Rollins in the main event in lieu of Triple H, the WWE Universe would’ve been totally psyched for a showdown between two former best friends that each has a unique fan base (Cena-Punk, anyone?), and the match could actually be billed as a 50/50 contest with a straight face. But that was until the injury bug struck. Now we have a WWE World Heavyweight title bout that has a champion who’s also the actual EVP of the WWE penciled-in to lose to the company’s next main attraction, mainly because in reality, it simply is “best for business”.
Writer’s Prediction: Roman reigns supreme. Duh!
Predictions for the rest of the Wrestlemania 32 card
(AKA: bathroom breaks)
The Dudley Boyz def. The Usos (tag team match)
Natalya and Paige def. Team Bella, Team B.A.D., Lana and *TBD* (8-Diva tag team match)
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