What matches do you think will be left off WrestleMania?
 

And put on the pre-show?


<table class="wikitable"><tbody><tr><th>No.</th> <th>Matches</th> <th>Stipulations</th> </tr> <tr> <th>1</th> <td>Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns</td> <td>Singles match for the WWE Universal Championship<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference">[57]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>2</th> <td>AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura</td> <td>Singles match for the WWE Championship<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference">[58]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>3</th> <td>The Miz (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor</td> <td>Triple threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship<sup id="cite_ref-59" class="reference">[59]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>4</th> <td>Randy Orton (c) vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Rusev</td> <td>Fatal four-way match for the WWE United States Championship<sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference">[60]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>5</th> <td>Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax</td> <td>Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference">[61]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>6</th> <td>Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Asuka</td> <td>Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference">[62]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>7</th> <td>Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Braun Strowman and TBD</td> <td>Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference">[63]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>8</th> <td>The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/or Xavier Woods) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)</td> <td>Triple threat tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference">[64]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>9</th> <td>Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali</td> <td>Tournament final for the vacant WWE Cruiserweight Championship<sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference">[65]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>10</th> <td>Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon</td> <td>Mixed tag team match<sup id="cite_ref-66" class="reference">[66]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>11</th> <td>WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal</td> <td>TBD-number-woman battle royal<sup id="cite_ref-Women'sBattleRoyal_67-0" class="reference">[67]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>12</th> <td>André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal</td> <td>TBD-number-man battle royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy<sup id="cite_ref-AndreBattleRoyal_68-0" class="reference">[68]</sup></td> </tr> <tr> <th>13</th> <td>Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn</td> <td>Tag team match<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference">[69]</sup>
If Owens and Zayn win, they will be reinstated to SmackDown. If they lose, they will remain fired.</td> </tr> <tr> <th colspan="4" style="font-weight: normal;border-top:solid 2px #aaa; font-size:100%;">

• (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

</th></tr></tbody></table>

The two battle royals and Alexa/Nia should be on the pre-show. Everything else I think personally is worthy enough, and important enough, to be on the main show.

I can see the women's battle royal being on the main card though so they can further shove down our throats how important the women's revolution is, and I can see the Smackdown tag title match being on the pre-show.

Cruiserweight Title
One of the battle royals
One of the tag title matches

Would be pretty shitty for the Usos to end up on the pre-show again given their promo about that very subject a few weeks ago...but I can't see the US Title being moved to the pre-show because Orton is involved nor the Raw tag title match because of Braun. And I don't think they're going to hold both battle royals on the pre-show, either.

I think it will be (in this order):

1. The ATG Battle Royal
2. Cruiserweight Title Match
3. The last one is the hardest to place but I am going to say the US title match purely because of Uso's promo.

Probably will be just the Cruiserweight Championship match.

DAMN iNATOR, They never have more than 10 matches on the card so I think that is unlikely.

This. But having Randy Orton on the pre show doesn't work for me. So I'm going to say....


AG Battle Royal
Cruiserweight
Alexa/Nia

Nonsense. There's been several that have had 12 matches. WM XX springs to mind just off the top of my head.

W/ Taker vs Cena, we're looking at 14 matches so I could see 4 of those put on the 2 hr preshow this year:


Cruiserweight Title
Andre Battle Royal
SD Tag Title Match (The Uso's on the preshow again!)

and either the women's battle royal or the U.S. Title Fatal Fourway

Would be kind of funny if the two people feuding over the World Title at WM 33, Bray and Randy, both ended up on the preshow this year.

Off-Topic too but I could see the participants in the IC Title and US title matches switching brands completely after WM in the next draft: Jinder, Roode, Rusev & Randy to RAW and Finn, Seth & Miz to SD.

I would hope Rusev stays on SDLOh I forgot about that match... It guess I would add Nia vs Bliss to the pre-show then aswell.

They seriously need to shorten the length of the show. When I was at WMX18 that ended a little after 11 and there was one pre show match on Sunday night heat. WM23 and 24 weren't too excessively long either. Last year, holy shit. Was at the stadium at like 7:15 and matches were already going. The Roman Reigns/Undertaker match didn't start until about 11:45. Ridiculous. Cut some of the matches. 14 is way too many

It is way too many. But I must say, that after getting into NJPW and watching all of the shows lately, 4 hour plus shows are just the norm these days. But of course WWE is gonna top it and go 7 hours. smh

If they are going to keep having so many matches/making the show so long just split WM into a two-day event and sell the double the tickets

HOF - Thurs
NXT - Fri
WM day 1 - Sat
WM day 2 - Sun

Let each show be 3 hours if they really 'need to get everyone on the card'

Nothing gets left off and the battle royals and cruiserweights are on the pre show.

They could also just keep a lot of the matches around 10 minutes and only have two matches near the 20 minute mark (which would make those matches feel special).

Goldberg/Brock showed last year you can still have a great WM match that's shorter.

Isn't out of the question to have a squash match. I remember a fan favourite losing a world title in like 19 seconds.

This...

Cena should squash Taker... really piss the fans off.

Could have THE BIG DOG squash Brock since fans will boo Roman winning no matter what

SQUASH matches:

Braun and The Bar
Nia and Alexa
Roman and Brock

Might as well make the battle royals short since there is two of them, 10 minute tops each

Keep Orton/Rusev/Roode/Jinder 10 minutes as well

SQUASHAMANIA PPV ONLY

LOL @ #3


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If I scheduled the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WrestleMania?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WrestleMania</a> card. <a href="https://t.co/JvEMYxl493">pic.twitter.com/JvEMYxl493</a></p>&mdash; 17ABay �� (@TicketDrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/TicketDrew/status/979000894153949185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
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lol if that's true sorry uso's

Usos are so going to be on the pre show. What makes there match special? The Bar probably would have been on the pre show but now they are going against BRAUN. And Braun isn't going on the pre show.

Cruiserweights lol. Ya, pre show. Pre pre show would be better. Or just not at all.

Battle Royal since it has no star power. Prefer the women one too. Men would be the first match on the pre show and the women would be the last to bridge people into Mania.

Maybe the Bliss match but I hope not. Hopefully they put her on the main card. Even if it is a 3 or 4 minute squash match. Plus you need a couple filler matches right? This match and the US title matches will probably be used for that purposes (Randy has fallen so far from last year).


Does any of this really matter though since everything is on the Network though?

This card is def not 5/7

The matches and entrances aren't what eats into the time, its every single recap package that has already played on the preshow and weeks leading up to the event....

In my eyes, the only "long" packages that should be shown in the actual event would be a Hall Of Fame recap before they are all introduced on the stage and obviously a Ronda one.... save all the other recaps for the preshow, that's what it is for

PPV is dead, fans are already watching the event and are not stumbling across it when they pay $9.99 a month

Are we saying 2 hour pre-show/5 hour main card? Just split the difference and say 1.5 hr pre-show/5.5 hour main card so they can say that whichever 3rd match (assuming Cruiser and ATGBR are a lock for the pre-show) was on the “main show”.

RAW Women's title
Andre Battle Royale
Toss up between Cruiser and Smackdown Tag even though neither should be on the pre-show. Would be terrible if both went on the pre-show because of the Cena-Taker match still needing to be added.

Braun and Randy's status are the only reason why I don't see the RAW Tag and US title being on the pre-show. US title has arguably the worst feud going into Mania.

Cruiserweight Title
Smackdown Tag Titles
Andre Battle Royal

There’s a few more reasons I can see keeping the US title match on the main card; I’m imagining a big entrance for Roode with 75,000 people singing along. As tone deaf as WWE can be there’s a reason they’ve added Rusev to this match. And of course the Indian dollar from having Jinder in a prime position :shifty:

Rusev should enter in a tank again

I really don't want the cruiserweight match to be on the preshow. They've been working so hard, 205 has been really great lately, and Ali vs Cedric will be incredible.

It really deserves to be main card.

Jinder will not be Hindered

2nd from last match on the card, no doubt

Lesnar v Reigns should go on the pre show

Two schools of thought on this:

1) despite the work they’ve been doing on 205Live they’ve been absent from Raw until this week, the only people that are watching are the “hardcore” fans who will watch the pre-show if they want to catch the match. Nobody (including that group of people) is buying Mania to watch Cedric vs Ali. This is not a match for the “casuals”

2) showcase the match on the main card where it will get the most (potential) eyes on it in the hope that the work they put in garners some interest for the 205Live show.

It's really awesome WWE is able to have so many important matches/stories going on though.

Also,

Hopefully they add Sasha vs. Bayley to the main card as well. I don't really care to see either battle royal, Bliss-Nia, or the Cruiserweight Title Match, would be great if all those got shoved to the pre-show. I know the SmackDown! tag title match will be good but I'd be fine with that on the pre-show too.

I think these are the conventional wisdom answers. It's the first Women's Battle Royal -- I mean since the Miss WrestleMania one Santino won -- so it seems safe to predict that it will get a main card slot.

Buuuuuuuut -- my bold prediction is that the WWE get cold feet about the Battle Royal because they know it will suck and that the crowd won't give a shit if they try and make it important and they may even anticipate some crowd backlash because of the Moolah shit. This seems like the place the crowd will shit on women's wrestling and chant random and possibly offensive things. Alexa/Nia gets promoted to the main card and the Battle Royal also happens on the Kickoff and they just try to treat it like a big deal even though it debuts in the dirt. It wouldn't surprise me if the concept is scrapped like Women's Hell in a Cell and they find a different first or they put Women's Money in the Bank on at Mania.

Just put all the Women's shit on the Pre Show. Get the boring stuff out of the way.

If Sasha/Bayley happens, it will be Kickoff. The ones I struggle with are the Tag Title matches. Braun Strowman seems like an obvious choice for the main card, but I wouldn't be so sure. It seems like this match is kind of happening just because they didn't need to put Braun in the main event. He could win the Tag Titles on the Kickoff and then maybe they do the Battle Royal on the main show and he wins that too? I don't know, I'm just skeptical that Cesaro gets another main card WrestleMania spot.

The Usos vs. The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers is one that I hope makes the main card, because The Usos have been killing it and Harper is great, but it's a multi-team Tag Title match. Historically, those have not been showcased on the main card. They usually have four teams though.

I'm leaning towards both making it onto the main show, but I'm not going to be shocked if either or both get bumped. Then you've got the issue of two secondary title matches. It seems silly to imagine Seth and/or Orton on the Kickoff, but it seems silly that they have found themselves in these positions anyway.

I'm going with CW Title, Andre Battle Royal, Sasha/Bayley and Women's Battle Royal. Everything else makes the main card. Fuck it.

Lol, I know you're trolling, but I'm actually curious to see Charlotte/Asuka and Ronda perform. Not to the point where I can say that my interest in the outcomes is high, but the matches themselves are curiosities to me. I agree about the rest though.

Sasha and Baley are both in the battle royal. They w9nt have their own match.

Okay, then take it off. Open with the Andre Battle Royal, CW Title, Women's Battle Royal as the "Kickoff main event."

Lol for once I'm not

I'm curious as to how good Charlotte vs. Asuka is. Everyone seems to have pretty high expectations of it, but imagine if they don't click it and sucks. Charlotte is good for what she is, but she's not exactly Manami Toyota. Asuka is great in her environment, but what if it's not her environment? I can see it being somewhat of a train wreck. That is being cynical. It would be kind of funny if every women's match at WrestleMania sucked though, haha.

Considering they are calling it the "Wrestlemania Womens Battle Royal" I think it's making the main card.

I think it's going to be ...

Crusierweight Championship, Andre Battle Royal followed by Nia vs Alexa.

I know that seems a little crazy to put Nia and Alexas on the pre show but I don't support putting Orton or Miz on the pre-show ever again.

Well how many Auska matches have sucked? How many Charlotte? It's the two best in the business, it's going to be insane and potential match of the night. I have more faith it it being good than band, history shows that when it comes to these two.

I’m more interested in Alexa Vs Nia than I am any Randy Orton match

Have you no respect sir!?

They generally advertise everything for WrestleMania until it ends up on the pre-show. The Battle Royal could also change its name more times between now and then. You're probably right, but I'm not going to go "Whaaaa?!" if it's bumped down. It really doesn't matter.

Sucked for Asuka is tougher, as I've yet to see her work on the main roster. Charlotte has been in plenty of underwhelming things. Not a knock on her, but she's still learning. I think it will be "good," don't get me wrong, but I think the expectation is that this will be the greatest women's match in WWE history. They seem to have more expectations put on them to deliver in an in-ring sense than, say, Taker and Cena. It seems to me anyway.

Cruiserweight Title and both Battle Royals have been confirmed for the Kickoff.

Io Shirai is in the match?

I think those are good picks. Like it or not, noone is paying to see the 205 guys. Maybe next year, but this year, it has come too early in their "renewal"

Both battle royales are trash to get everyone on the show, and ultimately meaningless "fun" matches. Kickoff is right place for them and means all the matches with main roster titles and/or stories get to be on the main card

Technically you pay as much for the Kickoff as you do the main card.

If Neville and Aries didn't make the main card why would anyone from 205 even have hope? Get out of here.

There is zero chance the IC Title match isn't on the main card, that's a legit contender for show stealer.

Id assume Nia vs Alexa is preshow too.

That's the feud with the most TV time on the Road to WrestleMania and second isn't even close.

...Fuck.

Lesnar vs Reigns

The way Vince treats his main championship, I honestly wouldn't be a bit surprised if they put AJ (C) v. Nakamura not on the pre-show but way earlier than it deserves, like curtain jerking the proper show.

Let's not forget Vince isn't quick to always embrace former TNA/Impact talent, and AJ was in the curtain jerk match last year v. Shane ( 😒 ).

I don't think being a curtain jerker is a huge insult, they want something that will fire the crowd up.

Which is why you'll never see Orton vs Shaemus open WrestleMania

I don't think Styles vs. Nakamura opens, just because I think they know it is going to be tough to follow. They surely can't be dumb enough to do a match because they think it's going to be a Match of the Year contender for the whole purpose of doing that, just to have it open the show and set an impossible standard. Surely? Right?

IC title match will probably open the show.

I don't think they will either, but then again there is still a 72-year-old man largely in control of the main roster shows. Hopefully Trips can talk him out of it if he is crazy enough to want it to open, though.