WrestleMania 39 night two preview: Let’s do it all over again

Night two of WrestleMania 39 takes place tonight (Sun., Apr. 2) 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.

WrestleMania is awesome, so let’s do it all over again

Night one of WrestleMania 39 delivered on the hype, particularly when it came to the final three advertised matches of the night. Rey Mysterio finally beat the shit out of his punk ass kid, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley silenced the critics with their masterful performance in the ring, and tears were flowing when Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens finally ended the 600+ day championship reign of The Usos. It was all an instant reminder that WrestleMania is awesome, especially if you are a hardcore fan of professional wrestling.

Can night two of WrestleMania 39 meet or exceed the standard set last night? It won’t be easy, but if WWE finds a way to get megastar LA Knight onto the card, it might just happen.

The full card

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

Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes grew his legend last year when he defeated Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell while wrestling with a torn pectoral muscle. Cody was forced to miss the rest of 2022 due to surgery, but with his timeline for a return set around January, he suddenly looked like a great candidate to win the Royal Rumble match and headline WrestleMania 39 against Roman Reigns.

And what do you know, that’s exactly what happened. Not only did Cody win the Royal Rumble, but he also became the first wrestler on the main roster to defeat Solo Sikoa. In fact, Cody is undefeated in WWE since he returned to the promotion one year ago. The Tribal Chief and his Bloodline never even laid out Cody at all during the build to this match. Everything in 2023 has seemed a little too easy for Rhodes, especially given his family’s history of dealing with Hard Times.

One of the smartest things Cody did during this time was attempt to broker a reunion between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. They did get back together and managed to end the 600+ day tag team championship reign of The Usos yesterday at night one of WrestleMania. The Usos have saved Roman’s ass time after time, but it’s not clear what their availability will be tonight to help the Tribal Chief beat the American Nightmare.

After a nearly three year run of dominance, is WWE going to completely topple The Bloodline in one weekend? Or will Roman Reigns look ahead to 1000 days as champion after he prevents Cody from finishing his story in Hollywood?

Edge vs. Finn Balor

It’s Edge in another Hell in a Cell match, so this could very well be the longest bout of the night. Edge and Balor have been going at it ever since Finn joined The Judgment Day and booted Edge out of his own group last June. Beth Phoenix joined Edge to get a measure of revenge on The Judgment Day at Elimination Chamber, but now it’s just The Devil and The Demon going at it in hell to end this war.

This is Balor’s first match in his Demon form since losing to Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules 2021 when the rope broke under his feet for reasons that were never explained. If Edge is truly the ultimate opportunist, he’ll totally make sure to sabotage those ropes again.

Bianca Belair vs. Asuka

Asuka went back home to Japan towards the end of 2022 and returned to WWE at Royal Rumble 2023 as a Murder Clown. She went on to win an Elimination Chamber match in February, so now she gets to challenge Bianca Belair for the Raw women’s championship tonight at WrestleMania.

Ever since then...not much has happened. Asuka has sprayed mist at some people. She briefly grabbed Bianca’s title and played keep away with it for a minute, frustrating the champ. Yeah, it’s been pretty bad. Thankfully Asuka and Bianca are both great workers and this is a fresh match, so once the bell rings, the garbage build can quickly be forgotten and these two wrestlers can keep us glued to the story they are telling in the ring.

Belair has been the champion for one full year, and nobody has been able to beat her in a fair fight. But is she ready for Murder Clown Asuka?

GUNTHER vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus

GUNTHER is on his way to becoming the longest reigning Intercontinental champion of all time. But if he wants to get there, he’ll have to withstand the double penetrating action of the Banger Bros at WrestleMania.

Sheamus has never won the Intercontinental title and has been trying to win it from GUNTHER since they tore the house down at Clash of the Castle last September. The Celtic Warrior doesn’t appreciate his old pal Drew McIntyre trying to crush his dream by winning the title for himself. Drew thinks it’s time for someone new to get a shot at GUNTHER after Sheamus has failed in the past. Sheamus has a history of stabbing Drew in the back, so it’s hypocritical for him to suddenly resent Drew for having championship ambitions at his expense.

Meanwhile, GUNTHER is frustrated that Adam Pearce is forcing him to defend the title in a triple threat match, where he can lose the belt without being involved in the fall. But this is what GUNTHER deserves after he tried to prevent both men from earning a singles match against him.

No matter who walks out as the champion, this match is guaranteed to be a banger.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

Brock Lesnar’s feud with Bobby Lashley was expected to culminate at WrestleMania 39, but they instead wrapped it up in February at Elimination Chamber. It’s not really clear what was going on behind the scenes, but rumors indicate WWE was considering Bray Wyatt or Steve Austin as potential opponents for Brock at ‘Mania. He was instead called out by Omos for a fight in Hollywood, so that’s what’s going down tonight.

It’s not hard to see why Brock would want a match against Omos. Omos can’t do much in the ring, so the match has to be kept short by default. Omos hasn’t beaten anybody that matters since last summer, so he’s not much of a threat to Brock in kayfabe. It seems clear that this match exists just for the impressive visual of Lesnar getting the gigantic Omos up for an F5. Brock is going to get paid a ton of money to basically do one move; that’s not a bad gig at all.

Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan vs. Shotzi & Natalya vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville

As 2022 came to a close, Ronda Rousey decided that she had enough of singles wrestling and wanted to do more tag work with Shayna Baszler. After taking a break from WWE in January and skipping the Royal Rumble, Rousey returned to the ring in February with tag team gold in her sights.

Unfortunately for Ronda, she fractured her elbow at a house show about five weeks ago. It suddenly wasn’t clear if she would be able to compete at WrestleMania, so WWE put her story on ice. By the time the dust settled, WWE must have decided there just wasn’t enough time left to tell the proper story of Rousey going for tag team gold. So now she is in this four way tag team match with nothing at stake.

Even without gold on the line, this match still feels like it is all about Ronda, so I’d be shocked if her team loses. Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan are really the only other formidable duo in the match. That’s because Shotzi is a lower card wrestler, while Sonya is a late replacement for Carmella.

Summary

Unlike last night’s card, there is one clear match here that can make or break the entire show. Roman Reigns has been the focal point of WWE’s main event scene for nearly three years as the Tribal Chief, and WWE has generally nailed the most important parts of his story. The finish of his match with Cody Rhodes may very well overshadow the entire show, depending on which direction WWE decides to go with it.

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