WrestleMania 38 is here. Wrestling fans around the world are gearing up for the biggest weekend of pro-wrestling action on the calendar – and there’s two whole nights of drama to savour.
The two-night schedule leaves plenty of room for chaotic matches, huge showdowns, big surprises and even bigger celebrity names entering the ring in 2022.
RadioTimes.com caught up with Cultaholic.com presenter and expert Jack G King for his highlights and top predictions as Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns prepare to face off once more on the biggest stage in front of a 100,000-capacity crowd in Texas.
Jack runs through some of the most hotly-anticipated matches on the card, including the return of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, who retired in 2003, and looks set to blow the roof off AT&T Stadium this weekend.
Check out Jack’s WrestleMania predictions below as WWE prepare to launch “The Most Stupendous WrestleMania Week In History”.
WrestleMania predictions 2022
With Cultaholic presenter Jack G King
WWE WrestleMania Night One predictions
Seth Rollins versus TBA
JK: Seth Rollins versus an opponent yet to be announced. Nobody knows for certain who it’s going to be. The rumour mill suggests it will be Cody Rhodes who, in the past few years, has been one of the figureheads of AEW, which is the first pro-wrestling promotion to really challenge WWE. It’s a very controversial move if it is him because he’ll have jumped from this exciting new upstart that he was a part of back to the big boys.
There’s no doubt he’ll get cheered because he’s a huge name, people would be very excited to see him back. If that match does go ahead, Seth versus Cody, then you’ve got to think that Cody is going to win because of his level of momentum coming in. It would make no sense for him to lose his first match. The other name suggested as a possible opponent for Seth is Vince McMahon’s son Shane which, with all the build-up around Cody Rhodes, would be a huge disappointment.
The reason it’s going to be announced on the night is because they’ve been doing this storyline with Seth Rollins which has been about him trying to get onto the WrestleMania card. He’s been trying to hijack other people’s matches and take other people’s spots. And he’s failed every step of the way which has only just ramped up the anticipation that it will be Cody Rhodes.
‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin versus Kevin Owens
JK: It’s not really a match. The whole mystery surrounding this pick is whether or not it is going to be a full match. Kevin Owens is going to have a confrontation of some sort with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, an all-time legend of the wrestling business, one of WWE’s biggest ever stars. He’s not wrestled for about two decades when he retired from in-ring competition. He’s going to be there in his home state of Texas for what isn’t officially billed as a match with Owens, but it’s going to be some sort of confrontation which almost certainly will get physical. The big question that people have is: will it be an official match?
The reports coming out this week suggest it’s going to be the main event for Night One, it’s going to be the big headline slot on the show. That has led some people to believe that it will be an official match. If that does become a match, Stone Cold is going to win 100 per cent. If it’s not a match, and it’s just a confrontation, Stone Cold is still going to come out on top. There’s almost zero chance that Stone Cold would be humiliated in his comeback in his home state. Owens plays the role of a very intense and very sarcastic bad guy. He’s someone who will play off really well against Austin, who is one of the best talkers in wrestling history.
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WWE WrestleMania Night Two predictions
Johnny Knoxville versus Sami Zayn
JK: Every year since WrestleMania became this gigantic spectacle has had celebrity involvement, often in the ring. That’s a tradition that goes back a few decades but really now you can consistently rely on there being at least one celebrity match. There’s a couple this year: Logan Paul is involved again in a match on the card.
Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass fame, has a one-on-one match against Sami Zayn with an ‘anything goes’ stipulation, which has led a lot of us to predict that there’s going to be Jackass-style shenanigans. If there’s no rules, they can get away with skits and that sort of thing. There’ll probably be a lot of physical comedy.
Any other celebrity you can bank on winning because that’ll send the crowd home happy, and Zayn’s a bad guy so you want to see him lose, but because it’s Johnny Knoxville, who has made a living off doing terrible things to his own body, I’m wondering if there’s a slight possibility he could actually lose because he’s one of the few celebrities willing to take that sort of punishment. I’ll still go for Johnny Knoxville purely because he’s the good guy in this storyline but I wouldn’t be too surprised if he takes a few bumps and bruises along the way.
Brock Lesnar versus Roman Reigns
JK: Both guys hold one of the two main championships in WWE. You’ve got the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship. The winner of this match is going to be the owner of the unified title, it’s going to unify the belts and the winner is going to be the undisputed champion.
This match is hard to predict because Roman Reigns has been on this incredible run of form as the No.1 bad guy in all of wrestling worldwide. He’s been fantastic; he has come on leaps and bounds. As a good guy, they were trying to force him down the fans’ throats, whereas now he’s embraced this more natural, dark character. Ironically, now that they’re not trying to get people to cheer for him, the fans seem to appreciate him a lot more. He’s a far more compelling character than before.
Then you’ve got Brock Lesnar, who is obviously a star in the world of MMA as well. He’s one of the few WWE names in recent history who has had true crossover mainstream appeal. He’s back now and remains as terrifying and destructive as ever. They’ve headlined two previous WrestleMania events before, 31 and 34, so a few people are critical of that because it’s the same match again, but I disagree with them because this is a different dynamic previously. Brock was the bad guy, Roman was the good guy but now that’s totally flipped and it seems to suit them far more naturally.
It’s also a hard one to predict because they have both got so much momentum heading into this. If I had to guess, I’d probably say that Roman is going to win. I read our interview in the build-up to last year’s WrestleMania and I confidently predicted that Roman would not win because they wouldn’t want to end the show on a on a sad note. Yeah, I was totally wrong: They are willing to do that. And I think they’re going to do it again. Roman will probably win, but this is one of the harder marches to predict on either night. It should be really hard-hitting as well. They’re both quite big boys!
For more WrestleMania 38 predictions, build-up and coverage, check out Cultaholic.com and the Cultaholic YouTube channel.
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