It’s formally WrestleMania Season, a time of untamed hypothesis and pleasure for wrestling followers. This 12 months’s annual spectacular takes place April 6 and seven from Lincoln Monetary Subject in Philadelphia.

Now that the Royal Rumble is within the rear-view, with Cody Rhodes and Bayley rising as this 12 months’s winners, we are able to flip our consideration ahead to what could possibly be in retailer for the largest stars of Uncooked and SmackDown at WrestleMania 40. What’s coming for superstars corresponding to Rhodes, Bayley, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and others?

This an particularly unsure time in comparison with earlier years, with a number of accidents and a intercourse trafficking lawsuit towards now-former TKO govt chair and WWE president Vince McMahon rocking WWE’s plans simply months forward of the largest present of the 12 months. However after the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber occasions have the 4 world title matches for WrestleMania set, there are nonetheless a lot extra matches to be made.

With all that in thoughts, let us take a look at what we may anticipate from a lot of WWE’s greatest stars at WrestleMania. We are going to hold this text up to date because the WrestleMania image continues to develop within the coming weeks and months.

Cody Rhodes: After profitable back-to-back Royal Rumbles, Rhodes has as soon as once more punched his ticket to a world title match of his selecting. Whereas the plain path could be a rematch with undisputed WWE common champion Roman Reigns, and Rhodes went as far after his Rumble win as to level to Reigns within the crowd to let him know it is coming, Rhodes was thrown a curveball on Uncooked. World heavyweight champion Seth Rollins made a powerful pitch for Rhodes to problem him as an alternative. After Rollins’ pitch, Rhodes was conflicted over whether or not to hunt revenge towards Reigns — and “end the story” of profitable the title his father by no means may — or go after the “working man’s championship” towards Rollins. Rhodes mentioned he would give it some thought and make his resolution at a later date. From there, issues obtained bizarre. Rhodes appeared on SmackDown and appeared to have given up his shot at Reigns so Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson may face Reigns as an alternative. This was met with large fan backlash because it appeared Rhodes was being bumped from his “story ending” spot to a match with Rollins. In the long run, Rhodes reversed course — probably due to WWE seeing an sudden vitriolic response to Rock vs. Reigns, which was considered a can’t-miss match — and introduced that he could be dealing with Reigns in the course of the WrestleMania Kickoff occasion in Las Vegas.

Seth Rollins: As talked about above, Rollins made a pitch to Rhodes for a WrestleMania match, just for Rhodes to finally decide on a match with Reigns. The important thing to Rollins’ scenario is that he suffered a significant knee harm, tearing his MCL and meniscus however is selecting to intestine it out by way of WrestleMania earlier than present process remedy. The fact is that the harm doubtless means Rollins has to drop the title at WrestleMania. CM Punk was the following logical alternative for Rollins, however Punk suffered a torn triceps muscle within the Rumble and was sidelined as quickly as his WWE comeback started. Drew McIntyre emerged as the favourite to face Rollins, and that has come to fruition after McIntyre received the Elimination Chamber match to safe his shot on the belt. Rollins additionally used the Elimination Chamber occasion to announce that he was practically “medically cleared” for motion.

Gunther: There have been stories that the longest-reigning intercontinental champion in historical past was set to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in what would have been Gunther’s greatest match ever. Gunther was additionally one of many favorites to win the Royal Rumble and go on to face Rollins at WrestleMania. That did not occur, clearly, and with Lesnar not returning on the Rumble amid his assumed involvement within the current intercourse trafficking lawsuit towards Vince McMahon, you possibly can doubtless strike Gunther vs. Lesnar as a chance for WrestleMania. Having already defended his intercontinental title towards most worthy challengers, he might have a contemporary challenger for the largest present of the 12 months. One potential opponent could possibly be Bron Breakker, who reportedly took Lesnar’s spot on the Rumble, although Breakker has signed on with SmackDown.

Roman Reigns: Reigns’ run as champion has been a curler coaster experience of ups and downs. In its finest moments, Reigns’ time as champion has carried the complete firm. At its worst, Reigns has been an absentee champion who has held up the highest of the cardboard with repetitive matches the place he cheats to win whereas handled as an all-time dominant champion by the commentary workforce, an usually distracting disconnect. For the second consecutive 12 months, Reigns’ WrestleMania match shall be towards Rhodes. It definitely seems like the best time to take the titles off of Reigns, however he is additionally near passing Hulk Hogan’s longest reign as champion, which WWE may resolve is a mark value taking down. No matter occurs to Reigns at WrestleMania will set the stage for the following six months — no less than — of WWE programming.

Rhea Ripley: The ladies’s world champion has been a dominant pressure on the Uncooked roster for over a 12 months whereas additionally serving because the “actual” chief of Judgment Day. Whereas it was hinted Bayley was able to problem Ripley after profitable the Royal Rumble, that concept was shortly reduce off within the type of Nia Jax, who misplaced to Ripley in a title match on the Elimination Chamber occasion. At that very same occasion, Becky Lynch received the ladies’s Elimination Chamber to earn a shot at Ripley in what shall be an enormous match on the WrestleMania card.

Bayley: The 2024 ladies’s Royal Rumble winner, Bayley was instantly put right into a tough place when Jax made it clear that Bayley was in peril if she challenged Ripley. The opposite possibility for Bayley could be WWE ladies’s champion Iyo Sky, which is an issue contemplating she is Bayley’s teammate in Injury CTRL. The story of Bayley being on the outs with the group has been within the works for fairly a while, so it solely made sense when Bayley did, in reality, announce her intention to face Sky at WrestleMania. Bayley mentioned she was conscious of how the group talked about her behind her again earlier than taking out the opposite members of Injury CTRL earlier than a staredown with the champ.

Logan Paul: As a part-time wrestler, the social media famous person has been a smash success. Paul’s athleticism permits him to placed on matches stuffed with large spots and he has proven a pure expertise for participating in large stage matches. The simplest plan for Paul could be a rematch with Kevin Owens. The pair met on the Royal Rumble, with Owens utilizing Paul’s personal brass knuckles towards him solely to be caught and disqualified. That is not a great way to finish a wrestling story and Owens will little question be looking for revenge towards Paul, to not point out desirous to take Paul’s United States championship. After all, Paul additionally price Randy Orton the Elimination Chamber match by hitting him with brass knuckles, so choices stay open for Paul going ahead.

Jey Uso: It feels just like the time has lastly arrived for Jey Uso to go one-on-one together with his twin brother. Jimmy Uso was the No. 2 entrant to the Royal Rumble, instantly pairing off together with his brother, who entered No. 1. The lengthy story of Jey leaving The Bloodline and Jimmy staying has been constructing to the twins assembly in a match finally, at the same time as they have been neatly break up between Uncooked and SmackDown. There’s loads of time to complete the construct to Jimmy vs. Jey, together with how they really set the match up. But when the match is ever going to occur, there isn’t any alternative that is sensible apart from WrestleMania 40.