RHEA RIPLEY (C) VS. CHARLOTTE FLAIR
NXT Women’s Championship
Charlotte Flair won the Royal Rumble for the first time, but her options afterwards didn’t seem so exciting. Would she challenge Becky Lynch or Bayley? She’s battled both of them to death. NXT’s Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley wanted to make the decision for her by suggesting she prove herself against someone she hasn’t had much success against.
Charlotte eventually got back to Ripley by attacking her post-match after a successful title defense at NXT TakeOver. Charlotte agreed to challenge Ripley, being the first person to use their Rumble win for an NXT championship match.
THE STREET PROFITS (C) VS. AUSTIN THEORY AND ANGEL GARZA
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
Recently, Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford defeated Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy for the tag titles. Now they’re defending them against…those guys. Yeah, there’s no real storyline for this one. Should be fun, at least!
EDGE VS. RANDY ORTON
Last Man Standing
Edge made his surprise return at the Royal Rumble after years of being on the shelf due to injury-induced retirement. During that match, he briefly reunited with his old Rated RKO partner Randy Orton. The two backstabbed each other with Edge winning out.
On the following Raw, Orton acted friendly towards Edge, but laid him out with an RKO and brained him with a Conchairto. He spent weeks, silently refusing to explain his actions in response to the crowd’s endless booing. Finally, he told Edge’s wife Beth Phoenix that he merely did what he did to keep Edge from returning to wrestling. He wanted Edge to be a family man and live the good life. Blaming Phoenix for his actions, Orton knocked her out with an RKO.
A furious Edge returned to Raw and was interviewed by MVP. Orton tried to use this situation as a way to ambush Edge, but it failed. Orton was chased off and a furious Edge smashed MVP’s skull with his own Conchairto.
JOHN CENA VS. THE FIEND
Firefly Funhouse Match
John Cena appeared on SmackDown to announce that he had no intention of competing at WrestleMania. On his way to the back, The Fiend appeared and pointed to the WrestleMania logo. Cena then agreed, okay, sure.
Bray Wyatt claimed that he wanted redemption for his match against Cena from WrestleMania XXX. Cena won and it caused such a downfall to Wyatt that he eventually let The Fiend corrupt him from the inside.
Much like Undertaker vs. AJ Styles, this is expected to be a very bizarre, cinematic type of match.
OTIS VS. DOLPH ZIGGLER
For a while, Otis had a budding will-they/won’t-they romance going on with Mandy Rose, much to the chagrin of Mandy’s partner Sonya Deville. When the two were supposed to go on a Valentine’s Day date, Otis was saddened to see Mandy with Dolph Ziggler instead. Things went south between Otis and Mandy after that, plus Otis and his partner Tucker were constantly crossing paths with Ziggler and his partner Bobby Roode.
Ziggler, repeatedly bullying Otis and rubbing the situation in his face, challenged him to a match at WrestleMania. Shortly after, some mysterious hacker revealed that Otis and Mandy’s date was actually sabotaged in a conspiracy between Ziggler and Deville.
ALEISTER BLACK VS. BOBBY LASHLEY
There’s no actual storyline behind this match. If anything, it appears to exist because the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is off the table due to health concerns. Black and Lashley would have been likely contenders to win said battle royal, so might as well have them fight it out instead.
Check back for more information on WWE WrestleMania 36!
