Monday, December 9, 2024

2024 WWE WrestleMania 40 — Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes: Card, date, rumors, matches, start time, location

2024 WWE WrestleMania 40 — Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes: Card, date, rumors, matches, start time, location

We are mere days away from the biggest wrestling event of the year. WrestleMania is set for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on April 6 and 7 and this year’s event truly has some old-school heat to it.

The Rock has returned to WWE programming as he has joined forces with The Bloodline to take on the team of Cody Rhodes and world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins. The Rock and universal champ Roman Reigns will battle Rhodes and Rollins in a tag team match that will headline Night 1 with major ramifications for Night 2. 

Rhodes is set to take on Reigns in the main event of Night 2, but if he and Rollins are successful on Night 1, there will be no interference from The Bloodline in that match. But if The Bloodline wins, anything goes.

Elsewhere on the card, Rollins will defend his championship against Drew McIntyre. Women’s world champion Rhea Ripley will defend her crown against Becky Lynch and Bayley will look to become a champion when she faces her former faction teammate Iyo Sky for the WWE women’s title. Former world champion Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens are all set to appear, as will dominant intercontinental champion Gunther.

Let’s take a look at the full WrestleMania 40 card, which streams live on Peacock on April 6 and 7 beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Note: these are not the official match order for each night, simply a list of which matches will take place on each day.

2024 WWE WrestleMania 40 Night 1 matches

Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins vs. The Rock & Roman Reigns: One of the biggest matches in WrestleMania history is official. There are so many story threads in this tag team match. There is a world champion on each side of the field. Reigns will team up with his cousin, The Rock. Rhodes unites with the first great rival of his latest WWE run, Rollins. Then there’s the long history between Reins and Rollins who started their main roster career together in The Shield. The outcome of the Night 1 main event will have implications on Night 2. If Rhodes and Rollins win, The Bloodline will be banned from ringside when Reigns and Rhodes go one-on-one for the undisputed title. If Rock and Reigns win, however, The Bloodline is free to interfere with Sunday’s main event as they please.

Intercontinental Championship — Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn: Zayn shed his recent losing streak but he has a huge obstacle ahead of him. Zayn survived a six-superstar gauntlet on the March 11 episode of Raw to earn a title shot against Gunther. But Gunther, deep into a record-setting intercontinental title reign, looks like an insurmountable challenge for anyone. The two will go one-on-one at WrestleMania, both coming off tremendous showings at last year’s tentpole event.

Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane): Welcome to WrestleMania, Cargill. The potential future main event player will make her second in-ring WWE appearance following her debut at the Royal Rumble in January in a six-woman tag team match. Naomi and Belair overcame weeks of friction and agreed to take the fight to Damage CTRL. The numbers disadvantage was evened out on the March 29 episode of SmackDown as Cargill saved her new allies from a three-on-two beatdown.

Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso: A match between the Uso twins has been a seemingly sure thing since Jey split from The Bloodline. They were the first two men in the ring at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania is a time for paying off big stories. It would be easy to get to this match by having Jimmy cost Jey the intercontinental title in a recently teased Jey Uso vs. Gunther match, allowing the two to become entangled as The Rock and Roman Reigns amp up the family aspects of The Bloodline story once again. Jey laid out the challenge to Jimmy on the March 11 episode of Raw and awaits an answer from his twin brother. Jimmy accepted the challenge in a heated promo on the following episode of SmackDown.

Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar: Rey enlisted young luchador Lee in his feud with estranged son Dominik and pupil-turned-rival Escobar. The masked superstars challenged their foes to a tag team match at WrestleMania 40.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship — Judgment Day (c) vs. #DIY vs. The New Day vs. Awesome Truth vs. A-Town Down vs. New Catch Republic (Six-Pack Ladder match): The Judgement Day have their plates full. Raw general manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis announced a six-pack ladder match for the tag team titles at WrestleMania 40. Three Raw teams and two SmackDown teams qualified for the match. #DIY, The New Day and Awesome Truth all qualified for the match by winning matches on Raw. A-Town Down (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) and New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate) won tournaments to qualify as representatives of SmackDown.

Women’s World Championship — Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch: Lynch has been battling confidence issues over the past few months, coming up short in big matches. That all changed when Lynch won the Elimination Chamber to earn her title shot. Ripley had to fend off a stiff challenge from Nia Jax at the Chamber event but pulled off the win in her home country.

2024 WWE WrestleMania 40 Night 2 matches

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship — Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes: For the second consecutive year, it’s Reigns vs. Rhodes at WrestleMania. After winning the Royal Rumble again, Rhodes made it clear he was coming for Reigns to “finish the story.” That plan was sidelined when Rhodes stepped aside and handed the Reigns match over to The Rock. Fan backlash to the idea of Rhodes’ two-year-long story was strong and it appears that pushed WWE to pivot back to Rhodes getting his match with Reigns. At the WrestleMania 40 kickoff, Reigns and Rock celebrated their upcoming match, with Rock suddenly on good terms with Reigns. Rhodes interrupted, said he got to make the decision, not Reigns, and said he was coming after the Tribal Chief. The Rock later announced Rhodes would never again receive an undisputed WWE universal title shot if he lost to Reigns.

WWE Women’s Championship — Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley: Bayley was the winner of this year’s women’s Royal Rumble. Now, she faces one of her former Damage CTRL teammates in Sky. Despite creating Damage CTRL, Bayley had been on the outs with the group for quite some time. While Bayley hinted at challenging Rhea Ripley for the women’s world title, Nia Jax stepped in and scared her off, leading to Bayley challenging Sky and fighting off all of Damage CTRL.

United States Championship — Logan Paul (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens: Paul is going to have his hands full. The U.S. champion shunned SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis for failing to find him a WrestleMania opponent, so Aldis found him two. Paul will defend his title in a triple-threat match against Orton and Owens. The social media influencer has long had issues with Owens. Paul got on Orton’s bad side after costing him a world title opportunity at WrestleMania by laying him out with brass knuckles at the Elimination Chamber.

LA Knight vs. AJ Styles: The rivalry between Knight and Styles has been simmering ever since Styles returned to action in December. Styles took issue with Knight’s rise to stardom, which coincided with Styles’ hiatus at the hands of The Bloodline. Styles accused Knight of stepping over his cold body and taking everything that he was entitled to. Styles cost Knight a world heavyweight title match at the Elimination Chamber. Knight has been on a manhunt ever since. Knight laid out the challenge to Styles on the March 15 episode of SmackDown. Styles accepted with a steel chair to the back.

The Final Testament (Karrion Kross & Authors of Pain) vs. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) (Philadelphia Street Fight): The two factions have been brawling for months. The Final Testament cost Street Profits a spot in the undisputed tag team title six-pack ladder match at WrestleMania. Kross berated Lashley for letting his pride get in the way of his pupils’ success and boasted about crushing Street Profits’ WrestleMania dreams. WWE announced a Philadelphia Street Fight between the two factions, an appropriate way to end their long-running feud.

World Heavyweight Championship — Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre: McIntyre has been on fire of late, taking issue with anyone and everyone who questions his methods. Those methods have involved increasingly opportunistic behavior as he looks to become a world champion once again. McIntyre took advantage of yet another situation when an already-eliminated Logan Paul knocked out Randy Orton with brass knuckles in the Elimination Chamber, allowing McIntyre to score the pin and punch his ticket to a match with Rollins at WrestleMania.

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