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It’s WWE WrestleMania 40 weekend and that means Les Thatcher and I are making our predictions for both nights of WWE’s biggest shows of the year.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
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An angle building up one of the matches for WrestleMania 40 went down on Friday morning.
At WrestleMania media day, AJ Styles and LA Knight got into a brawl ahead of their WrestleMania match. Styles had a bloody nose from the brawl, which was broken up by security.
LA Knight & AJ Styles just DESTROYED Media Morning!!! đąđąđą Shit just got real!! #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/X85iyDYdQV
— Gorilla Position (@WWEGP) April 5, 2024
“I’m going to f*ck you up,” Styles told Knight. “Sunday.”
“Sunday? Tonight,” Knight responded. “Are you going to be at SmackDown, p*ssy? Are you going to be there?”
Styles and Knight have been feuding with each other for months. The story has escalated in recent weeks, including a segment that aired on SmackDown two weeks ago where Knight showed up at Styles’ house and fought with him. It was said that Styles declined to press charges after Knight was “arrested.”
Styles then threatened that he wouldn’t show up to SmackDown last Friday if Knight was there. Knight disguised himself as a staff member and attacked Styles.
Tonight’s SmackDown is being held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Styles vs. Knight is part of the lineup for WrestleMania 40 night two this Sunday.
WWE has continued an annual tradition with the set reveal for WrestleMania 40.
In a video posted Thursday night to its YouTube channel and social media platforms, WWE unveiled the set and stage for Saturday and Sunday’s WrestleMania 40 event taking place in Philadelphia at Lincoln Financial Field.
This year’s reveal video was hosted by Jackie Redmond and Kayla Braxton, and featured an appearance from media personalities Ninja Kidz.
With Philadelphia serving as this year’s WrestleMania host city, the set features a color scheme similar to that of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, who play their home games at Lincoln Financial Field.
WrestleMania 40 takes place over two nights, with kickoff shows streaming on Peacock/WWE Network beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, April 6 & Sunday April 7, with the main cards kicking off each night at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
This year’s set reveal is in the embedded video below:
Singer and actress Coco Jones is set to open night one of WrestleMania 40 with a musical performance.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque revealed today that Jones will perform the national anthem to kick off night one of WrestleMania 40 this Saturday. The event has a start time of 7 p.m. Eastern.
Levesque wrote:
Excited to welcome Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter @TheRealCocoJ to #WrestleMania XL this weekend, where sheâll perform our countryâs National Anthem to kick off @WrestleMania Saturday.
Jones was nominated for five awards at this year’s Grammys. She won the award for Best R&B Performance and was also nominated for Best New Artist, Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album, and Best Traditional R&B Performance.
As an actress, Jones stars on the Peacock series Bel-Air. It’s a reimagined version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
America the Beautiful has traditionally been performed at the start of WrestleMania. This is the first time in WrestleMania history that Vince McMahon has had no involvement with the event.
WWE hasn’t announced who will be singing the national anthem on night two.
Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia is hosting WrestleMania 40 this Saturday and Sunday. Both nights are airing live on Peacock/WWE Network. Leading into the action, there will be a pre-show from 5-7 p.m. Eastern each night.
WWE WrestleMania 40:
Night one (Saturday, April 6) —
Night two (Sunday, April 7) —
Though an injury provided a brief scare, Seth Rollins is at full strength for WrestleMania 40.
Rollins is set for two big matches this weekend. He’s teaming with Cody Rhodes against The Rock & Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40 night one this Saturday. On the second night, Rollins will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Drew McIntyre.
A knee injury that Rollins suffered on the road to WrestleMania threatened to prevent this all from happening. Rollins hurt his knee while facing Jinder Mahal on the January 15 episode of Raw. But the injury wasn’t as bad as Rollins initially feared. He suffered a torn MCL and partially torn meniscus but did not tear his ACL. Rollins was cleared to return to the ring this March.
In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Rollins discussed the injury:
It was not as serious as it could have been. My biggest fear when I felt my knee go in the direction it wasnât supposed to go was that it was going to be a repeat of 2015 [when he tore the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee during a match]. Iâd have had to vacate the title, miss WrestleMania, all the hard work from the past few years was going up in smoke, and Iâd have to start all over. That wasnât the case. I was able to continue to work on the injury, continue to tell stories and continue to build rivalries. I always looked at it from a glass half full situation.
The fact that we missed out on a few Seth Rollins matches on Raw breaks my heart as much as it does yours, but in the grand scheme of things, itâs all working out in the way it was intended to. Iâm happy at full strength and ready to go for not one but two nights of WrestleMania.
This Monday, Rollins wrestled on WWE television for the first time since his knee injury. He had been working house show matches since being cleared to return.
Rollins faced Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match on Raw. It ended without a finish after The Bloodline got involved. Following the match, there was an angle where The Rock and Reigns beat down Rhodes and Rollins and whipped them with a weight belt.
The match order for WWE WrestleMania 40 may have been revealed.
On Monday, WWE confirmed the full cards for both nights of this weekend’s event. WrestleMania is being held at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia this Saturday (April 6) and Sunday (April 7).
Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that, while things could change, this is the order that the matches were listed internally when he received the WrestleMania lineup last week (listed from opening match to main event):
Night one —
Night two —
Lynch had said in an interview last week that she was hoping her match against Ripley would open night one of WrestleMania. As it stands now, she’s getting her wish.
Airing live on Peacock/WWE Network, both nights of WrestleMania have a 7 p.m. Eastern start time. There will be a pre-show airing from 5-7 p.m. Eastern each night.
One of the most popular rap artists of all time will be at WWE WrestleMania 40.
During Raw’s WrestleMania 40 go-home show, it was revealed that Lil Wayne will be in attendance at this weekend’s event in Philadelphia. WrestleMania is being held at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday (April 6) and Sunday (April 7).
BREAKING: @LilTunechi will be at #WrestleMania XL this weekend! pic.twitter.com/gvpjVgO7PH
— WWE (@WWE) April 2, 2024
Wayne was also at Monday’s Raw in Brooklyn, appearing in a backstage segment with Jey Uso. Wayne confirmed that he’ll be at WrestleMania and said he has a new single that will be making its world premiere at the event.
The 41-year-old Wayne is a five-time Grammy Award winner. Four of those wins were in 2009, including his acclaimed album “Tha Carter III” winning Best Rap Album.
Rapper Meek Mill, who is from Philadelphia, is also will also be involved with WrestleMania. Mill’s song “Dreams and Nightmares” has become a Philly anthem.
Mill is voicing the opening video for WrestleMania 40.
The full cards for WrestleMania 40 have now been announced. Each night has a start time of 7 p.m. Eastern. There will also be pre-shows airing from 5-7 p.m. Eastern on both nights.
Triple H talked about calling audibles when it comes to making plans in pro wrestling.
The Chief Creative Officer of WWE spoke to ESPN about the evolving WrestleMania plans. Initially, Cody Rhodes gave up his chance to face Roman Reigns in order to allow The Rock to challenge Reigns. However, the negative response by fans led to a change in plans, which involved The Rock turning heel after Cody Rhodes said he would challenge Reigns after all.
âNow it’s a different time, and the way I do things is slightly different,” Triple H said, comparing himself to what Vince McMahon may have done in a similar situation. “My career, I learned from being here, but there were things along the way that I always thought I would do differently. In this time now, I get to make those calls and with a large team of people. Whether people will want to believe it or not, I think we were sort of looking at this as here’s where we’re going to go to get this started and it has the opportunity of going this way or that way.”
“We always have to call audibles every single week,” he continued. “Everything you do is dependent on reactions. That’s what we do as an industry….The beautiful thing with this group and with Cody and Roman and Rock especially, everybody’s got their ear to the ground….and then we all just get together and figure the s*** out.”
In the same article, Cody Rhodes talked about the negative reaction to him stepping aside, saying The Rock entering the picture may have come at a strange time.
“I think he might just have come back at a strange time, which is wild [for] the most popular wrestler of all time and one of the most recognizable faces on Earth,” Rhodes said. “Just the fact that one person is booing him out there throws me. It means we’re doing something special here. And I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, [Disco Inferno] and those [podcasters], they get real mad at it, but we’re doing bigger business than the late ’90s. And the business in the late ’90s was incredible.”
Rhodes taking on Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship will headline night two of WrestleMania 40 on Sunday. On night one, he will team with Seth Rollins to take on Rock and Reigns in a tag team match,
WWE has revealed the match lineups for WrestleMania 40 nights one and two.
Chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque unveiled the matches for this weekend’s two-night WrestleMania event in a series of social media posts on Monday night. The shows will take place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Seven matches will take place on night one on Saturday, April 6, with six matches official for Sunday, April 7.
Each night will include four championship matches.
Both shows will stream live on Peacock/WWE Network starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on their respective nights.
Night one (Saturday, April 6) —
Night two (Sunday, April 7) —
A stipulation match has been made official for WWE WrestleMania 40.
WWE confirmed today that Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits will clash with The Final Testament’s Karrion Kross & AOP in a Philadelphia street fight at WrestleMania 40. Dave Meltzer first reported over the weekend that the match was planned to take place at WrestleMania.
â ď¸WRESTLEMANIA ANNOUNCEMENTâ ď¸@WWE pic.twitter.com/IyRWZlIcbo
— Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) April 1, 2024
SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis said the street fight will take place at night two of WrestleMania 40 this Sunday.
The Final Testament was formed when The Authors of Pain and Paul Ellering returned to WWE this January. Since Kross & AOP attacked Lashley & The Street Profits that night, the two factions have been at war.
On SmackDown last Friday, The Street Profits lost to Grayson Waller & Austin Theory after being distracted by The Final Testament. It was revealed on the video screen that Kross and Scarlett had attacked Lashley and B-Fab backstage during the match. The Final Testament then beat down The Street Profits as well.
Lashley cut a post-SmackDown promo where he promised to destroy The Final Testament.
Lincoln Financial Field is hosting WrestleMania 40 this weekend. Here are the 13 matches scheduled to take place over the two-night event:
WWE WrestleMania 40 —
Night one (Saturday, April 6):
Night two (Sunday, April 7):
Night to be announced:
Before WrestleMania, WWE is holding a kickoff event in Philadelphia.
It was announced during SmackDown last night that a WrestleMania 40 kickoff fan event will take place next Friday (April 5). The event will feature wrestlers speaking in advance of their WrestleMania matches.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Michael Cole, Pat McAfee, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Gunther, and Sami Zayn are advertised to appear.
The kickoff event is being held outside of the Wells Fargo Center and is free for fans to attend. It begins at 5 p.m. Eastern time and will stream live on Peacock and on WWE’s social media platforms.
Cole and McAfee are hosting the kickoff event.
SmackDown and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony are both taking place at the Wells Fargo Center on April 5. Lincoln Financial Field will then host WrestleMania 40 on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7.
It was also announced last night that Cole, McAfee, CM Punk, Big E, Jackie Redmond, and Wade Barrett will be hosting WWE’s Countdown to WrestleMania pre-shows leading into both nights of WrestleMania 40. The pre-show broadcasts will air from 5-7 p.m. Eastern time on April 6 and April 7.
7 p.m. Eastern is the start time for each night of WrestleMania.
Rey Mysterio has issued a challenge to Santos Escobar & Dominik Mysterio for a tag team bout at WWE WrestleMania 40.
In a segment on Friday’s SmackDown, Mysterio appeared alongside the LWO and declared his intention to face Escobar & his son Dominik in a tag team match at WrestleMania with a mystery partner.
Rey then revealed Dragon Lee as the newest member of the LWO, and as his planned partner for the WrestleMania contest, and the LWO brawled with Escobar’s Legado Del Fantasma.
WWE has yet to officially announce that tag bout for WrestleMania.
A faction warfare storyline between the LWO (Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee, Carlito, Joaquin Wilde, Cruz Del Toro, Zelina Vega) and Escobar’s Legado Del Fantasma (Escobar, Angel Garza, Humberto Carrillo, Elektra Lopez) got an added twist on last week’s SmackDown as Dominik seemingly temporarily aligned with Escobar’s group. Dominik is part of The Judgment Day faction on Raw, but was without a clear WrestleMania direction prior to his inclusion.
Following up on Friday’s segment, Vega vs. Lopez is set for next Friday’s SmackDown, the go-home show for WrestleMania 40.
Jade Cargill will make her WWE WrestleMania debut in a six-woman tag team match.
WWE announced following an angle at the close of Friday’s SmackDown that Cargill, Bianca Belair, & Naomi will face Damage CTRL’s Asuka, Kairi Sane, & Dakota Kai at WrestleMania 40 in a trios bout.
Belair defeating Kai in a singles match main evented Friday’s SmackDown, then Damage CTRL jumped Belair after the match. Naomi, then Cargill made the save, and the trios bout was officially announced on WWE’s digital channels by GM Nick Aldis:
#SmackDown GM @RealNickAldis makes it official:@Jade_Cargill, @BiancaBelairWWE & @TheTrinity_Fatu will battle @WWEAsuka, @KAIRI_official & @ImKingKota at #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/f9kwwzjBGa
— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2024
Cargill made her first official appearance as a member of the SmackDown roster earlier in Friday’s episode, officially signing with the brand in an in-ring segment with Aldis.
After signing with WWE late last year, Cargill made her in-ring debut for the company in this year’s women’s Royal Rumble match in January.
Here is the officially announced lineup for WrestleMania 40, which streams live on Peacock/WWE Network on Saturday, April 6 & Sunday, April 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern time:
WWE WrestleMania 40 —
Night one:
Night two:
Night to be announced:
We now know the full lineup for the six-pack Undisputed WWE Tag Team title ladder match at WrestleMania 40.
On Friday’s SmackDown, Grayson Waller & Austin Theory and Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate became the final two teams to qualify for the ladder match. Damian Priest & Finn Balor will be defending their titles against DIY, The New Day, The Miz & R-Truth, Waller & Theory, and Dunne & Bate.
Waller & Theory and Dunne & Bate qualified through a tournament that’s played out on SmackDown. Waller & Theory defeated The Street Profits to secure their spot in the ladder match. Dunne & Bate defeated Angel & Humberto.
There was an angle where The Street Profits were about to win their match against Waller & Theory, but Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford were distracted by the revelation that Bobby Lashley and B-Fab had been attacked backstage by Karrion Kross and Scarlett. Waller & Theory took advantage of the situation to win the match.
Priest & Balor have been Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions since October 2023. It’s their second reign with the titles.
Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia is hosting WrestleMania 40 on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7. Here’s everything that’s been made official for the event so far:
WWE WrestleMania 40 —
Night one:
Night two:
Night to be announced:
WWE has teased a WrestleMania 40 performance from Grammy-nominated rapper Meek Mill.
A WrestleMania ad featuring Meek Mill aired during Monday’s Raw, and the artist posted the video to his social media channels with the comment:
Wrestlemania Philly about to be turnt turnt!!!!!
Meek Mill will be at WrestleMania 40 pic.twitter.com/Daqo05hLUr
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod đ¸đ´ (@big_business_) March 26, 2024
Meek Mill is a native of Philadelphia, the host city for WrestleMania 40 on Saturday, April 6 & Sunday, April 7. WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque quoted Meek Mill’s X post with the following comment:
Game onâŚthe whole worldâs on notice. @MeekMill #WrestleMania
Monday’s teaser follows a social media exchange between Meek Mill & Triple H on social media on Sunday where the rapper mentioned that his sons were hoping to attend WrestleMania, and Triple responded by telling Meek Mill to clear his schedule.
Meek Mill teased a performance of his Dreams and Nightmares song:
Triple h they want dreams and nightmares at wrestling!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meek Mill was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Back of my Mind in 2021, and nominated for Best Rap Album for Championships in 2019.
