WWE WrestleMania 42 is four months away, and the WWE is on the road to the Royal Rumble in January. Survivor Series was reportedly supposed to be a major indicator as to what feuds and matches fans will see at WrestleMania. Many match ups, especially Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns, have been rumored in the past few months, and everyone is now wondering who could be on the Mania card this year. Before the Royal Rumble winners are officially established, the following will provide some early match card predictions for Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 on April 18, 2026.
Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed (c) vs. The Shield [World Tag Team Titles]
Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed are prime candidates to dethrone AJ Styles & Dragon Lee. Instead of winning the world title from CM Punk and leaving Reed directionless, Breakker can team with him to defend those titles against the two men they took out commission: Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. They took Reigns out of commission at Clash in Paris, and he has not yet got his revenge. Similarly, they betrayed Rollins as their leader in the Vision and took him out of commission when he vacated the World Title. The writing is on the wall for a Shield reunion to take down common enemies.
Prediction: The Shield
Kabuki Warriors (c) vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. Judgment Day vs. Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky vs. Nia Jax & Lash Legend [Undisputed Tag Team Titles]
Kabuki Warriors have been feuding with these teams the past year, so it is likely that WWE will merely put all the teams in a tag team turmoil match for the tag titles. The heel teams of Judgment Day and Nia Jax and Lash Legend have the lowest chances of dethroning the heel champions. As for the two babyface teams in this match, Bayley has history with Damage Control and was supposed to win the tag titles with Lyra Valkyria at last year's Mania, but Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley have the best storyline reason to dethrone the Kabuki Warriors, who betrayed Sky for befriending Ripley earlier this year.
Prediction: Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky
Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Oba Femi vs. Sami Zayn vs. Solo Sikoa vs. Damian Priest vs. Aleister Black (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre [U.S. Title: Ladder Match]
Ilja Dragunov has been performing in U.S. Title Open Challenges against random opponents on SmackDown, so he will likely defending the title in a ladder match to reflect the randomnees of his opponents. As former U.S. Champs in 2025, Zayn and Sikoa have to be in the match. Black and Priest currently have a long term mid card feud, so they should be here for the payoff. Oba Femi should be called up by Mania to perform in the title picture. Fatu is also a former U.S. Champ who has a mystery attacker storyline, and Drew McIntyre will be revealed as the attacker and achieve his Grand Slam.
Prediction: Drew McIntyre
Becky Lynch (c) vs. AJ Lee [IC Title]
Becky Lynch and AJ Lee will inevitably battle on the biggest stage possible to put an end to their feud, and it should be for a championship. Since the plan is for Stephanie Vaquer to walk into Mania with the World Title, the best bet is that WWE will book Lynch to win the IC Title back from Maxxine Dupri on the first Raw of 2026 after fully implementing her lawsuit for referee collusion. Although Lynch and Lee deserve a world title program, the IC Title will be enough for AJ Lee to win, acclimate to this new era of wrestling in WWE, and get her feet wet with the young, rising talent on the roster.
Prediction: AJ Lee
Austin Theory vs. Main Event Jey Uso [Mystery Man Match]
Austin Theory was buried by Jey Uso on the Raw before WrestleMania 41 last year, where he lost to Uso in less than 10 seconds. Coincidentally, Austin Theory is being rumored as this masked man, who screwed Team Punk at Survivor Series. Team Punk was a team that had Jey on it, so it is not surprising to see that Theory would help the Vision win that match. At some point, Theory will help the Vision win the tag titles at the expense of the Usos, and Jey will have to get his revenge against Theory for doing that. However, he will lose, as Theory must solidify himself as the masked man.
Prediction: Austin Theory
Jade Cargill (c) vs. Bianca Belair [WWE Women's Title]
When Bianca Belair returns to in-ring competition, her main target will be Jade Cargill due to the storyline they had with Naomi. Belair will be puzzled at Cargill's new villanious attitude, as Cargill has been bullying all the women backstage. As the babyface, Belair will call Cargill out on this, but Cargill will bounce back by justifiably being angry at Belair for suspiciously teaming with Naomi for the tag titles after Naomi heinously attacked her on the windshield of a car last year. This is a WrestleMania worthy match up, and Belair should put Cargill over, as her winning streak at Mania is already ruined.
Prediction: Jade Cargill
CM Punk (c) vs. Brock Lesnar [World Heavyweight Title]
Assuming Punk gets through Breakker, Reed, and Paul, Lesnar will be the only one left in the Vision to take Punk down. The last time these two battled was SummerSlam 2013, where Lesnar won. Due to the controversies Lesnar has in his name, it would not be wise for him to win the World Title, so Punk getting his lick back on Lesnar as well as Heyman would be a wiser decision in the main event of the show. Punk has not won at WrestleMania since returning to the WWE. After the engaging storylines he has delivered, it would be a well deserved payoff for him to be on the list of the "Beast Slayers."
Prediction: CM Punk
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