WrestleMania 29 Card Appearing to Take Shape
By Allen Tung
Credit: Ed Webster/Flickr
It appears the WrestleMania 29 undercard is finally appearing to take shape with just three weeks to go until the show.
Three matches have been announced thus far:
- The Rock (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship
- Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. Jack Swagger for the World Heavyweight Championship
- The Undertaker vs. CM Punk
A six-man tag-team match has been announced between the Shield and Sheamus, Randy Orton & Ryback was announced Friday on SmackDown, but that bout is almost guaranteed to change with the Big Show replacing Ryback. Big Show has been having run-ins with the Shield since the March 1 edition of SmackDown when Shield member Roman Reigns have shoved into him and he retaliated with his knockout punch.
They have also been teasing a Ryback and Henry match since March 4 edition of Raw and set it up this Friday when Henry hit Ryback with multiple World Strongest Slams to close out the show.
A match between Brock Lesnar and Triple H is all but official as well. Triple H issued the challenge to Lesnar on the March 4 edition of Raw and Lesnar revealed the following week that he would accept to the match if Triple H agrees to a stipulation of his choice that will only be revealed after the contract signing. There are reports that the stipulation might be a “MMA-style fight.”
According to WrestleZone.com and Rajah.com, the other rumoured matches are:
- Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) vs. Dolph Ziggler & Big E Langston
- Brodus Clay, Tensai & The Funkdactyls vs. Team Rhodes Scholars & The Bella Twins in an eight-person mixed-tag match
- Kaitlyn vs. Layla for the WWE Divas Championship
- Antonio Cesaro vs. R-Truth for the WWE United States Championship (on the YouTube Pre-Show)
- Fandango vs. Chris Jericho
The “feud” between Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler was setup on the March 8 edition of SmackDown in a backstage segment between Bryan and Ziggler’s girlfriend AJ Lee. In the segment, Bryan told AJ that when she was with him, she held more than briefcase as he was the World Heavyweight Champion. AJ responded by reminding Bryan he lost it in 18 seconds before Bryan snapped back saying, “With Dolph Ziggler, you should be use to things lasting 18 seconds.”
This led to a match this past Monday on Raw which saw a pinfall victory by Ziggler and a Big Ending from Big E Langston after the match was over. On Friday, Ziggler faced Bryan’s tag-team partner Kane and once again earned a pinfall victory and it led to Langston hitting the Big Ending on Kane.
On Monday’s episode of Raw, the Bella Twins made their return to the WWE by aligning themselves with Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes. On Friday’s SmackDown, the pair attacked the Funkdactyls Cameron and Naomi. Sounds like a YouTube pre-show calibre match.
A heel turn for Layla has been teased for awhile. She’s been giving Kaitlyn’s WWE Divas Champship a length look every time it is in her hands. On the March 8 edition of SmackDown, she cost Kaitlyn in a match against Tamina Snuka after distracting Kaitlyn. This week on SmackDown while participating in a tag match against Snuka and Aksana, Layla made a blind tag to pickup the victory. They are definitely building tensions between the two, but with three weeks to go, they will have to turn Layla soon so she can build up her heel character.
As for the Antonio Cesaro and R-Truth match, the two two had a feud going before Truth suffered a gash in their match at the WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay per view. They could the good old, “You injured me! I want a match!” angle to set it up. As far Fandango and Chris Jericho, don’t know how and why are they doing this.