Tribal submission, tag team alliance - 4 Things fans did not expect from The Rock and Roman Reigns but got it anyway
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About WrestleMania 40
WrestleMania XL
WrestleMania XL is the 40th edition of the annual WrestleMania event which is scheduled to be held on two nights starting from Saturday, April 6, 2024, to Sunday, April 7, 2024. The event will take place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennslyvania. Lincoln Financial Field holds a capacity of around 68,000 spectators and it is fine to assume that the stadium will be sold out on both nights.
This will be the first WrestleMania in WWE History without the McMahon family in the majority control of WWE. The promotion was sold to Endeavour as a part of WWE-UFC merger and is now working under the brand of TKO Holdings.
WWE released the WrestleMania XL teaser on 11th February on their YouTube. The video features Roman Reigns, The Rock, Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Cody Rhodes.
WrestleMania XL Matchcard
WrestleMania XL Night One
Match
Stipulation
Roman Reigns and The Rock vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth 'Freakin' Rollins
Tag Team Match - If The Bloodline wins, then Night Two main event will be Bloodline Rules match, else all Bloodline members will be barred
WrestleMania XL Night Two
Match
Stipulation
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Other Announced Matches
Match
Stipulation
Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley
WWE Women's Championship Match
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch
Women's World Championship Match
Gunther vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) (c) vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) vs. The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) vs. 2 TBD
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Six-Pack Ladder Match
LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
Singles Match
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
Singles Match
Logan Paul (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
WWE United States Championship Triple Threat Match
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match - Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes
At the Royal Rumble 2024, Cody Rhodes eliminated CM Punk to punch his ticket to the main event of WrestleMania in a world title match. He had two options - either to go after World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins or after the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. On the SmackDownafter Royal Rumble, Rhodes said that he won't go after Reigns at WrestleMania and instead introduced The Rock as a potential opponent.
However, In the WrestleMania XL Kickoff press conference on February 8, 2024, he chose Roman Reigns as his opponent and the match was then officiated by Triple H.
The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins
Cody Rhodes chose Roman Reigns as his opponent at WrestleMania XL. This invited the anger of The Rock who had been eyeing a match against Reigns. This was further fuelled after Rhodes let out a remark about his family. Thereafter, The Rock joined The Bloodline and started insulting Cody Rhodes, his family and his friend Seth 'Freakin' Rollins. In March, The Rock and Roman Reigns challenged Rhodes and Rollins to a tag team match at WrestleMania XL. They further stipulated that if The Bloodline wins that tag team match, the main event of Night Two will take place under Bloodline Rules. But if not, then all the members of the Bloodline will be barred from the ringside.
WWE Women's Championship Match - Bayley vs. Iyo Sky
Bayley won the 2024 Women's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Liv Morgan. She had stated that she would go after RAW's Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley to bring all the gold to Damage CTRL. On the February 2 episode of SmackDown, she heard Kairi Sane, Iyo Sky and Asuka talk to each other in Japanese. Bayley then revealed that she knew Japanese and knew that the other three wrestlers were making fun of her. The three superstars then went on to attack Bayley and kick her out of the faction. Thus, a match between Bayley and WWE Women's Champion Iyo Sky was made official for WrestleMania XL.
Women's World Championship Match - Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch
Rhea Ripley won the 2023 Women's Royal Rumble and then went on to beat Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 to become the Women's World Champion. She would go on to hold the belt until the next WrestleMania as well. The winner of 2024 Royal Rumble winner, Bayley, went after Iyo Sky at the Grandest Stage of Them All and thus a Women's Elimination Chamber match was announced for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event to find the challenger for Rhea Ripley.
Becky Lynch won the match to become the title contender. The same night, Ripley defended her title against Nia Jax.
World Heavyweight Championship Match - Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre
The 2024 Men's Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes chose Roman Reigns as his WrestleMania opponent. Thus, an Elimination Chamber match was contested to decide the contender for Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship between Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, LA Knight, Kevin Owens and Logan Paul. McIntyre won the match to set up a rematch with Rollins for the title after failing to win the gold at WWE RAW Day One.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match - Gunther vs Gauntlet Winner
Gunther broke the record for being the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWE history. During the Road to WrestleMania, a number of superstars claimed to be the best contenders for his title. This lead to a gauntlet match to decide Gunther's opponent at WrestleMania. This gauntlet match took place on the March 11, 2024, episode of Monday Night RAW between Bronson Reed, Chad Gable, JD McDonagh, Ricochet, Sami Zayn, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Sami Zayn won the match by last eliminating Chad Gable to punch his ticket to WrestleMania.
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match - Six-Pack Ladder Match
On March 11, 2024, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis and RAW General Manager Adam Pearce announced that the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) will defend their titles in a Six-Pack ladder match at WrestleMania. In the following weeks, #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa), The Awesome Truth (Miz and R-Truth) and The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) earned themselves a spot in the match.
The Usos Clash
At Money in the Bank 2023, The Usos defeated Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa where Reigns was pinned after more than three years. At SummerSlam, Jey Uso was just half a count away from becoming the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion when he was betrayed by his twin Jimmy Uso. Since then, the brothers have always been at clash with each other.
Their feud got to real heat at Royal Rumble 2024 when Jey entered #1 and Jimmy entered #2. After already screwing Jey at SummerSlam, Jimmy cost him the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in late-2023 and the Intercontinental Championship in 2024. Their feud elevated on the Road to WrestleMania with The Main Event Jey Uso challenging his brother to a match at WrestleMania. On the March 15, 2024, episode of SmackDown, Jimmy accepted the challenge.
LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
At Royal Rumble 2024, Roman Reigns defended his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles in a fatal four way match. Throughout the match, the excess animosity between Styles and Knight was evident as they seemed more focused on bringing hell to each other than actually winning the match.
In the weeks leading to Elimination Chamber 2024, Styles failed to qualify for the match after Knight interfered in his qualifying match. At the event in Perth, Styles sneaked inside the Elimination Chamber with a steel chair to cost Knight in the hellish structure. After a few more weeks of tension, their match for WrestleMania was officiated on the March 15 episode of SmackDown.
WWE United States Championship Match - Logan Paul (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
At Royal Rumble 2024, United States Champion Logan Paul's friend sneaked a brass knuckle in the ring which was picked by his opponent Kevin Owens. He used it to hit Paul and then get the cover. However, the knuckles were noticed by the referee who awarded the win to Paul via DQ. The feud between Paul and Owens only got heated thereafter.
At Elimination Chamber 2024, both Paul and Owens entered the Elimination Chamber match to get a chance at Seth Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship. They both were eliminated by Randy Orton. However, Paul hit Orton with brass knuckles which caused the Viper's elimination. In the coming days, Orton attacked Paul's friend KSI. On March 15, 2024, Nick Aldis announced a triple threat match for WrestleMania for the United States Championship between Logan Paul, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens.
WrestleMania XL Kickoff Press Conference in Las Vegas
WWE booked a press conference on Thursday, February 8, 2024 in Las Vegas. It was billed as the face-off between the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and his cousin The Rock. A week earlier on SmackDown, Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes came out to confront Roman Reigns and had declared that he was not going to challenge Reigns at WrestleMania. The Rock then came out to stare down the champion. Thus, it was believed that the match between Roman Reigns and The Rock was to be officiated at the Press Conference.
In the press conference, World Heavyweight Champion Seth 'Freakin' Rollins entered first, followed by Roman Reigns, The Rock and finally Cody Rhodes. In a shocking turn of moments, Cody Rhodes announced that he was going after Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. The match was then made official by WWE COO Triple H.
What is WrestleMania?
WrestleMania is considered to be the biggest event in all of pro wrestling and is often dubbed "The Superbowl of Sports Entertainment" and "The Grandest Stage of Them All". It is the first ever PPV ever produced by the company.
It was first organized in 1985 and is currently the longest-running pro-wrestling PPV in history. On July 27, 2022 it was announced that the 40th edition of WrestleMania will take place live from Lincoln Financial Field in Pennslyvania on April 6 and 7, 2024. It is the first WrestleMania since WrestleMania XXX to use Roman numerals in its title, a practice that the company had used up until the 2014 event.
Road to WrestleMania XL
Road to WrestleMania is the name given to the buildup to WrestleMania every year. It usually starts at the time of Royal Rumble of that year. It includes a couple of more Premium Live Events in addition to the special WrestleMania RAW and SmackDown episodes just before the event. WWE uploaded the official poster of Road to WrestleMania 2024 in November 2023. The poster included only one superstar - Cody Rhodes. Rhodes had previously won the 2023 Royal Rumble and headlined WrestleMania 39.
The Road to WrestleMania XL officially kickstarted at Royal Rumble 2024. The event featured the much-anticipated Women's Royal Rumble and the Men's Royal Rumble match. Bayley won the former match and then went on to challenge her former friend Iyo Sky for the title. Cody Rhodes won back-to-back free-for-all to book his place for WrestleMania. He was adamant on challenging Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the event. On the February 2, 2024, episode of SmackDown, he said that he was not going after Reigns at WrestleMania, and it was heavily hinted that The Rock will face Roman Reigns instead. However, he changed his decision and instead announced Reigns as his opponent, officiating their rematch.
The next stop in Road to WrestleMania was Elimination Chamber: Perth. Drew McIntyre won the Men's Elimination Chamber Match to earn a match against Seth 'Freakin' Rollins at WrestleMania. The same night, Becky Lynch had won the Women's Elimination Chamber to become Rhea Ripley's opponent at the event for the Women's World Championship.
Where to buy WrestleMania 40 tickets?
Tickets for WrestleMania 40 went live on August 18, 2023, around eight months before the event. While no match has been announced so far, the event sold more than 90,000 tickets on the first day of sale across the two nights of the event. The Lincoln Financial Field has a capacity of around 67,500 fans and thus a combined capacity of around 1,35,000 tickets for the complete event.
Selling about 2/3rd of the total tickets, on the first day of sale, eight months before the event, is a feat like nothing else. WrestleMania Hollywood set the record of selling $21.6 Million worth of tickets. It did not take WWE long to break its own record as WrestleMania XL topped the chart within one day of tickets going live. While getting a ticket for the event is now not very easy, fans can still try their luck by booking their tickets on WWE's official partner Ticketmaster.com. One must know that the tickets for the event are selling at a quick pace and only limited packages still remain to be booked.
Where is 2025 WrestleMania?
The location for WrestleMania 2025 has not been confirmed yet. It is generally confirmed on the date of the last year WrestleMania, thus the same is likely to be made official at WrestleMania XL.
Braun Strowman and Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis)
The Street Profits
Men's WrestleMania Showcase Fatal-4-Way Tag Team Match
WrestleMania XL will take place on Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7, 2024.
Yes, The Rock will team up with Roman Reigns to take on Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes at the Night One of WrestleMania XL.
Roman Reigns will face Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania XL. The main event for Night One is yet to be announced but it is believed that the tag team match between Reigns, The Rock and Rhodes, Seth Rollins can headline the show.
No match or segment featuring John Cena in WrestleMania XL has been announced so far. In reality, there is almost a 50/50 chance of Cena appearing at WrestleMania XL.
WrestleMania 2024 is the 40th edition of WrestleMania. It is also known as WrestleMania XL.
Yes, Cody Rhodes will face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL.