Making the Toughest Picks on the WWE WrestleMania 38 Match Card

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Credit: WWE.com

WrestleMania is the biggest extravaganza on the WWE calendar and the most exciting event for fans. It can also be the least predictable, as evidenced by the last few years.

The annual spectacular has left the audience in awe, from The Undertaker losing for the first time at WrestleMania 30 to Roman Reigns stacking and pinning Daniel Bryan and Edge in the main event of last year’s show, there is no such thing as a sure thing come bell time.

This year is no different.

While there may be an understanding of what will play out in certain, key matches, there is also a cloud of uncertainty hanging over other blockbuster encounters, including The Tribal Chief’s Winner Takes All match against Brock Lesnar.

Who leaves that one with the title and three other high-profile contests?

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The Usos have been one of the bright spots of the SmackDown brand alongside cousin Roman Reigns. The Bloodline has dominated, becoming a successful heel faction as dominant and over as The Shield, Evolution and the Four Horsemen. 

Jimmy and Jey will defend their SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs on WrestleMania Saturday and while it may look like a mismatch on paper, this year’s event does not appear poised to produce many title changes outside of the two women’s matches.

WWE likes to switch belts, give the perception of change and generate excitement for the coming weeks and months on television. What better way to do that than by putting the gold on a proven popular act and set the Usos up for the scorn of their cousin and Tribal Chief when he realizes they failed to hold up their end of the bargain?

It has been a while since we have seen Reigns angered or annoyed by the twins and a return to that plot, after months of everything being swell between them, would be an effective way to freshen things up on Friday nights.

Besides, Nakamura and Boogs is a pairing that should never have worked but it did. They are massively popular and can easily carry the tag titles for a month or two until the story dictates The Usos win them back.

     

Prediction: Nakamura and Boogs win the gold

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Raise your hand if you had the multi-team match for the Women’s Tag Team Championship being one of the toughest matches on this year’s card to predict.

Liars!

The introduction of Liv for Brutality (Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley) and the team of Natalya and Shayna Baszler to a title match originally scheduled to pit Sasha Banks and Naomi against Carmella and Queen Zelina has opened up a number of possibilities for the outcome of the contest.

We saw a year ago that Natalya can capture gold with anyone when she partnered with Tamina on back-to-back nights and left Tampa with the same championship. This year, The Queen of Harts will look to run it back, this time with Baszler as her partner. They have to be considered the least favorite to win the match based on their booking if nothing else.

At one point, it felt like Banks and Naomi were the runaway favorites, and still might be. They are the most popular tandem in the match and with nothing else going on, a run as tag champions where they elevate the titles would be welcome. Ripley and Morgan have been a great team thus far, though, and showed as much in their match with The Boss and Naomi Friday night on SmackDown.

All signs would seemingly point to one of the babyface teams winning but this feels like the perfect setup for the heels to retain. Carmella and Queen Zelina have hardly had a quality run, which can be blamed on WWE Creative rarely booking them in title matches. There is also teased dissension among them, the latter frustrated with her partner being distracted with fiancee Corey Graves rather than focused on their upcoming title defense.

All of that should point to the champions dropping the titles and going their separate ways after WrestleMania but with so many moving pieces, do no be surprised if and when The Most Beautiful Woman in WWE and the 2021 Queen of the Ring find a way to steal a win.

      

Prediction: Carmella and Zelina retain

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Arguably the most difficult to predict of the entire WrestleMania card is the dream match between Edge and AJ Styles.

The Rated R Superstar underwent a character makeover, a heel turn that has seen him abandon the pomp and circumstance for a darker, more ominous persona. He is a different Edge, a more interesting one than we have seen in quite some time.

Styles is the freshly minted babyface after a couple years as one of the top heels in the company and will be seeking revenge after a beating that put him out of action for a few weeks.

It would seem that Styles would enter WrestleMania, beat up on Edge and emerge victoriously. The question is whether this is a one-and-done feud or if the two former world champions will continue their rivalry beyond the Showcase of the Immortals.

The hope that is the case is what drives this writer to think Edge picks up the win in Dallas, most likely through nefarious means, thus setting up a rematch with Styles as soon as WrestleMania Backlash or, perhaps, as late as SummerSlam.

Either way, this feels like a feud destined to continue, especially since it would be counterproductive to introduce this new Edge persona only to beat him a few weeks later and ruin the mystique.

     

Prediction: Edge

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On the surface, the Winner Takes All Match for the Universal and WWE Championships between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns does not seem like that difficult a match to predict. Common sense would suggest Reigns would do exactly as he has promised: smash The Beast and leave Dallas with both titles.

Except, the layout of the feud does not necessarily point in that direction.

Lesnar has been screwed over numerous times by The Tribal Chief and his special counsel, Paul Heyman. He was beaten down and bloodied in Madison Square Garden. The build to his championship clash with Reigns has been defined by his desire for revenge.

If he rolls into WrestleMania and loses to Reigns, the story goes unfulfilled. The bad guy wins, the hero is conquered and the WWE Universe is left wondering what is next for both. Not out of some overwhelming excitement but, rather, because the story ended with the villain victorious.

But this is not some Marvel superhero movie where the good guy wins and all is right with the universe. This is reality.

Reigns has been utterly dominant over the last two years and while he is most definitely going to take a WrestleMania-sized ass-whooping at the hands of the baddest man in WWE, he will do as he has done numerous times since his return in August 2020: he will absorb and endure en route to the biggest and most definitive victory of his career.

It may go against the narrative the company has told to this point, and fly in the face of the common sense that would suggest Lesnar wins to send everyone home happy, but Reigns is in God Mode right now and sacrificing that would be a disastrous bit of booking because credible heels you can book an entire show around do not walk through the door every day. 

Reigns is one of them. Maybe the best of them. He continues staking his claim to that title April 2 inside AT&T Stadium.

     

Prediction: Reigns takes all