WrestleMania 39 night one preview: This is the beginning of the end for Roman Reigns

Night one of WrestleMania 39 takes place tonight (Sat., Apr. 1) from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The main card begins at 8:00 pm ET live on Peacock in the United States, on the WWE Network elsewhere, as well as on pay-per-view (PPV) if your cable provider is carrying the event.

This is the beginning of the end for Roman Reigns

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have been unable to take down Roman Reigns and The Bloodline on their own, so they are finally working together tonight to execute the first step in toppling the Tribal Chief. That first step is to end Jimmy and Jey’s record-setting run as WWE tag team champions that goes back almost two full years.

Sami and KO always have a complicated relationship, and it took Sami quite a long time to finally convince Owens to abandon his lone wolf approach. Their relationship was in desperate need of repair after Zayn spent months as a beloved member of The Bloodline and chose loyalty to Reigns over Owens at WarGames last November. However, once Zayn made it clear to Owens what his friendship truly means to him a few weeks ago, they shared a hug and knew what they had to do at WrestleMania.

Meanwhile, Sami also has a complicated relationship with The Usos, particularly Jey. Everyone knows that Roman Reigns has been gaslighting Jey for years now, and Sami has tried to open Jey’s eyes up to the truth. Jey maintains that he will always be loyal to his blood, but Zayn reminded Jey that Roman has never reciprocated that loyalty. Roman is just using The Usos for his own selfish gain.

It’s clear that those words were not lost on Jey, but for now he is still falling in line and doing Roman’s bidding. Will Jey’s perspective begin to change if The Usos finally lose the tag team belts tonight? Zayn and Owens taking down The Usos is a necessary step for planting the seed that this will be a completely disastrous weekend for Roman Reigns and The Bloodline.

The rest of the card

Here are the six other matches that are currently advertised for WrestleMania 39 night one:

Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio

Dominik Mysterio’s mind was warped by The Judgment Day last September. He turned on his father, the legendary Rey Mysterio, and found a new home in the arms of Rhea Ripley, Finn Balor, and Damian Priest. Dominik devolved into a little shithead who worked with Ripley to ruin all of the Mysterio family holidays. He quickly became a hardened criminal after serving hard time for a couple hours, and he’s more insufferable than ever as a result.

Rey’s heart was broken and he refused to lay a finger on his son since the betrayal. Dominik took advantage of Rey’s reluctance by continuing to attack him and daring his father to step into the ring with him at WrestleMania, knowing Rey would refuse. Dom eventually crossed the line last week when he disrespected his own mother (and Rey’s wife) on live TV. Rey finally loaded up and punched his punk ass kid in the face, knocking him on his ass, and accepting this fight at WrestleMania.

Will Rey be willing to go all the way and do whatever is necessary to defeat his son, or will will his hesitance to strike Dominik end up costing him this match? Legado del Fantasma will be representing the LWO to neutralize the rest of The Judgment Day and ensure that Rey has the best chance possible to cap off his induction into he WWE Hall of Fame with a victory over his ungrateful, shitty son at WrestleMania 39.

Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley

When Rhea Ripley won this year’s Royal Rumble match, she knew with 100% certainty which women’s champion she wanted to face at WrestleMania 39. Ripley called out SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair, because Rhea needs to redeem herself after losing to Flair three years ago at WrestleMania Empty Warehouse. Since then, the story has established that Rhea won’t be a star in WWE unless she defeats The Queen tonight.

That little shithead Dominik Mysterio has been by Rhea’s side most of this time, and his obnoxious presence helped instigate a wild brawl between Flair and Ripley a couple weeks ago. Will Rhea’s stablemates in The Judgment Day be ringside to give her an unfair advantage over Charlotte tonight?

Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul

Seth Rollins can’t quite figure out how to get the upper hand on YouTube douchebag Logan Paul. Their issues began when Logan eliminated Seth from the Royal Rumble match in late January. Paul then showed up at February’s Elimination Chamber to screw Seth over in that match too. Since then, Logan has delivered his lucky knockout punch to Seth’s face on two separate occasions, leaving The Visionary laying in a heap on the mat.

That’s the point when Seth finally dropped the laughing shtick and made it clear that the only joke will be himself if he can’t beat Logan Paul at WrestleMania. It happens to be Logan’s birthday today, for what it’s worth.

Austin Theory vs. John Cena

John Cena used to criticize certain WWE legends for coming back in part-time roles, but now he has become what he used to hate. Cena has a busy Hollywood schedule and only had time to make one episode of WWE television to build to this title match with Austin Theory.

Theory is the United States champion and he welcomed Cena back to Raw with an offer for a title shot at WrestleMania. Austin explained that he idolized Cena growing up and respects him, so he wanted to offer him the gift of a WrestleMania match. Cena responded by verbally burying the guy and telling him that he’s not ready for this fight. Cena argued that Theory will lose everything if John beats him, and even if Theory wins the match, he’ll still lose because the fans will eat him alive on the following Raw.

Cena’s logic on the latter point didn’t make much sense, so Theory kept pushing for the match. Cena finally accepted after appealing to the audience. He then made a joke about Theory not having heart or balls. There you go.

Becky Lynch, Lita, Trish Stratus vs. Damage CTRL

Becky Lynch has been feuding with Damage CTRL ever since she brought back The Man gimmick last year. Even a victory over Bayley’s crew at WarGames wasn’t enough to end this story. The numbers game caught up to Lynch earlier this year, but Lita surprisingly returned to WWE to watch her back. They won the women’s tag team titles from IYO SKY and Dakota Kai thanks to an assist from Trish Stratus, setting up this six-woman tag team match. Will Becky and the legends steamroll the heels tonight, or will Trish Stratus betray The Man?

Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders vs. Alpha Academy

WWE says this Fatal 4-way tag match is a WrestleMania showcase for these four teams. Erik and Ivar defeated Strowman and Ricochet on the March 10 episode of SmackDown, but the babyface teams finished strong this week. Strowman, Ricochet, and the Street Profits prevailed over the Viking Raiders and Alpha Academy in an 8-man tag team match on Raw, while Ricochet picked up the win over Chad Gable, Erik, and Montez Ford in a Fatal four way match on SmackDown. If the law of reverse momentum holds, Strowman and Ricochet probably won’t have their hands raised in victory tonight.

Summary

WrestleMania 39 night one is highlighted by the emotional story of Sami Zayn and Jey Uso, as well as the Mysterio family drama. The rest of the card looks good on paper too, where even the filler fatal four way tag team match has potential to captivate the audience if it gets enough time to be an actual showcase for talented wrestlers like Montez Ford, Chad Gable, Ricochet, and Ivar.

The Miz will make regular appearances throughout the night as the official host of the show, and there’s at least a chance that Bobby Lashley or LA Knight make a WrestleMania moment of their own. This is Triple H’s first (and maybe last?) WrestleMania as head of WWE creative, so there should be plenty of surprises as well to make this show worth remembering when all is said and done.

What will you be looking for at WrestleMania 39 night one?