Here’s what matters today in wrestling 👇
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One of the main features of WWE programming since Paul Levesque took over creative is a tendency to take time telling stories. Sometimes it takes too long, and weeks go by without much happening at all, but the payoff will typically keep fans interested enough to stick around. We saw the opposite of this on Monday night’s Raw, where several new matches for WrestleMania were set up and made official.
In a battle of guys that had other WM plans get derailed due to various injuries, Seth Rollins will take on Gunther. The four teams that have been feuding over the Women’s Tag Team Championship will face off in a Fatal 4-Way. Penta announced a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, and several challengers have agreed to participate. Finn Balor will face “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio. These four matches were announced on Monday night. Friday, Jacob Fatu & Drew McIntyre were booked for an unsanctioned match. Over the weekend, they announced that new United States Champion Sami Zayn would be defending the title against Trick Williams. In addition to all of this, John Cena was announced as the host of the whole shindig.
WWE put all their cards on the table over the last few days. There are a few reasons I can see for them doing this. We’ve heard about ticket sales not moving as briskly as some would like. Yes, it’s not like they aren’t selling any tickets, but one has to realize that the expectations of TKO & stockholders for WWE are even higher than the expectations of wrestling fans & writers. I expect a show that’s fun to watch and write about, TKO expects a butt in every seat. There was a period where the name “WrestleMania” basically guaranteed to sell out a football stadium, but when you’re running two nights in a market that hosted two nights of WrestleMania last year, it’s harder to fill the joint up. Oh, and things are super expensive and even though there are enough stupidly rich wrestling fans out there to tour Cody Rhodes’ bus for $10,000, most of us aren’t in that position. I know “it’s the economy” sounds like a cop out, but the economy is absolutely part of it.
Will all this result in a spike in ticket sales? Sheesh, if I’m WWE I’m sure hoping so! If this doesn’t work, they might as well put all the titles on Danhausen and hope for the best. People seem to like him.
WRESTLING HEADLINES 👊🏽
•Backstage Update on Speculation Around The Rock Being Randy Orton's Mystery Caller
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Rock would have made sense, but that would have involved Rock wanting to be part of the situation, and he’s got other things going on.
Here’s where I’m going to throw out some wild speculation that’s based on nothing other than what I’ve seen on television. You might recall that Cody Rhodes & Stephanie McMahon opened last night’s Raw episode so Stephanie could warn Cody about a new version of Randy Orton and point out that Cody wasn’t his father. Part of Cody’s response was noting that Stephanie wasn’t her father either. I’m still not sure how that’s supposed to be anything other than a compliment, but it leads me to a question: Who has been the biggest voice in the head of WWE Superstars for the past four decades? I’m not saying I want to see it, and I’m also not saying it’s a good idea, but you have to figure that this voice encouraging Randy during his recent path of destruction has to be a pretty sick, demented, twisted, evil son of a gun. I hope I’m wrong, but why else would Cody Rhodes even allude to the existence of Vince McMahon on WWE television in the Year of Our Lord 2026?
Hey, at least this newsletter writer admits when he’s just throwing out some wild speculation.
Image Credit: WWE
This is one of those situations where everyone can have a correct opinion. Goldberg is absolutely right to feel disrespected with how his retirement match was handled by WWE. It wasn’t the best! WWE can feel ok that they at least gave a 58 year old one last moment in the sun, and they didn’t have Gunther absolutely squash the guy & make him look like garbage. Goldberg fans can be mad over how it went down, and non-Goldberg fans can be mad they had to sit through the whole thing. Everybody’s justified to feel however they want about this.
MORE MUST-READ LINKS FROM 411MANIA
→Hall's WWE Raw Review 3.30.26
→Everyone Has a Price: The Rising Cost of Being a WWE Fan
→411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction: Is CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns a Dud Main Event For WrestleMania?
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– Steve Cook