The 2026 Spring/WRESTLEMANIA 42 thread! Also feat: AEW Dynasty & DoN, BOSJ 33! Celebs! Other bollix!

[Severed799]

Well it’s that time again, it’s WRESTLEMANIA SZN BAYBAYYY!

Booking has been largely a mess (or safe and predictable, both can be true I guess) but the weekend has the potential to be a classic “it’ll be alright on the night” show. Tri will be praying for as much given after two excellent Mania’s last year’s was a bit of a dud so he’s either looking at a reputation straightening 3-1 lead or a shaky, bottling it 2-2.

With the card largely set, bar a couple smaller matches still to be confirmed, let’s see how Paul tries to get back on track…

CELEBRITIES! EACH MORE SURPRISING THAN THE LAST!

The obvious stand out is Brock (fkn booooo) hopefully getting jobbed out by Newcastle legend Oba Femi (yaaaaaay) but there should be lots of good stuff elsewhere, hopefully Gunther kills Seth and goes onto a main event feud.

Elsewhere, AEW have had a stellar start to 2026… so right on queue to be ruined by Chris Jericho’s return (we’ll see). So far next weekend’s Dynasty show is surprisingly focused, so expect another 6 needless matches to fill Tony’s excesses in the next week:

Shortly after we get one of AEW’s biggest shows in Double or Nothing, after which we will be on the road to the Wembley build.

Over in Japan spring is generally the quieter period but we do have the Battle of the Super Jrs kicking off next month, before we get to Dominion in the summer.

Ok graps fans lets do it to it, wrestling that is! Let us know what matches you’re looking forward to or most dreading!

[Mert]

Damn night two has all the good stuff

[Jamos]

build has been haphazard and sometimes (often) a bit shit, but on paper that’s not a bad line up

[paulo]

Didn’t book the Monday off after Mania and I always do. Might message Trips and tell him. He’ll be devastated.

[Yesiamaduck]

I know its a nothing burger but my god i cannot stand the name placements on those match card graphics

[Severed799]

Quietly hopeful Vaquer vs Morgan will be a banger, Jade vs Rhea really depends on if Jade’s been putting the work in backstage…

[Bandy]

The only match on night 1 that I think might be good is Gunther vs Seth and it’s had no build up and I hate Seth Rollins. Really weak night really.

Night 2 looks stacked tbf though

[Ruffers]

Is Fenix injured or are they benching one the best workers they have intentionally?

[Funkhouser]

Not sure if anyone’s been following this but what a nice story

[Severed799]

Doesn’t look like it, he’s been mostly AAA recently but also dark shows, killers row here like

They were on the verge of reuniting Lucha Bros last year and then UNREAL came out with a focus on Penta and now all the attention has gone to him

[colossalhorse]

Warning: NJPW Sakura Genesis spoilers

In New Japan news they’ve put the heavyweight belt on Essex lad and youngest champ ever Callum Newman. Discourse in the west seems to be ‘New Japan so washed lol’ but it seems to have gone down well in Japan. And the boy can work. He’s won Meltzer over already, for whatever that’s worth. He compared him to a prime Harley Race. Not sure I see that but ok, sure.

Callum and former United Empire leader Will Ospreay are setting up some interesting cross-promotional stuff with AEW. Will asked Callum if United Empire could help with his Death Riders problem so expect them on Dynamite soon. Which will be fun, though a face bringing in a heel team to face off with a heel team led by a face is all a bit messy. It’s all leading to a blatantly telegraphed turn by Callum on poor old trusting human Labrador Will. That’ll be a hell of a match. The worry is of course this kind of exposure in the west will have TK turning on the money hose sooner or later. But they’ve got him locked down for 3 years at least.

Between that and Gabe also turning up and declaring war against New Japan it seems there might actually be some meat to the Forbidden Door build this year. Which will be a nice change.

[Severed799]

Fucking hell I totally missed this, particularly funny given I absolutely would have watched this weekend had I known

[Severed799]

I was wondering why there seemed to be a bit of a gap in the schedule, turns out I’m just out the loop

[colossalhorse]

Bit of a weird show tbh - a stack of nothingy Road To style multi-man matches and then 3 stellar matches. The KoB v ZSJ & Oiwa being the stand out. Those 4 are throwing out MOTY candidates for fun atm.

The BOSJ blocks look interesting/weird. They’ve ignored the division entirely since the last one so I’m hoping for a reset this year.

[Funkhouser]

Vaquer v Liv, Finn v Dom and Oba beating Brock will be good, not bothered by anything else tbh. They’ll add Carmelo Hayes to the US title match and that might be alright.

[TKC]

thoughts are with Pete Rose for Wrestlemania, hope he manages to avoid Kane’s wrath again

[TKC]

oh he’s dead haha. nothing to worry about then

[Severed799]

Always find it a bit harder to get invested once I know the results

Putting the strap on Newman is fascinating, thought he was a terrible Ospreay knock off but only a couple years ago, fair play to him he’s worked his bollix off and improved greatly… feels a bit of a shame to cut Tsuji off so short mind

[colossalhorse]

Tsuji still has the global belt and a proper NJPW vs AEW storyline going on so he’ll do fine. They could definitely have given him some better wins though.

Really impressed with Callum since his match with Goto. I do worry the stuff with Will might overshadow the story of Uemura and Umino watching this kid overtake them and getting desperate to get to the top. But having too many good stories to tell at once is a pretty sweet problem to have.

None of this is as exciting as Chase Owens getting a shot at Takeshita though. That’s the dream match we’ve all been dying for.

[Bandy]

Being dead didn’t save Katie Vick from him