We are staring down the barrel of WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, and the card is taking shape with all the predictability of a mid-90s Nitro. Paul Levesque has earned his flowers for steering the ship away from the chaotic Vince McMahon era, but his obsession with long-term storytelling is starting to feel like a trap.

When everything has to mean something six months from now, the immediate payoff suffers. WrestleMania used to be the season finale; now, it feels like we are just setting up backlash.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. The WWE Championship match between Cody Rhodes and The Rock is the biggest box office draw possible. It’s also a creative mess.

We spent two years building Cody as the undisputed face of the company, only to have him play second fiddle to Dwayne Johnson’s ego project.

Rock looks gassed after three minutes in the ring. The tag match at WrestleMania 40 hid his limitations, but a singles main event is a different beast entirely. Expect a lot of stalling, a lot of trash talk, and a ref bump at the 18-minute mark.

Cody retains, but it's going to be an overbooked slog designed to protect a 52-year-old part-timer from taking flat bumps.

The World Heavyweight Title picture is actually working

Conversely, the World Heavyweight Championship clash between Gunther and John Cena is exactly what WrestleMania is built for. Gunther has been an absolute machine, chopping the soul out of everyone from Chad Gable to Randy Orton. He brings a terrifying legitimacy to the ring.

Cena chasing his 17th world title against an indestructible Austrian boss is pure wrestling storytelling.

Cena’s limited schedule means he shouldn't win here, but the crowd will buy every near-fall. The visual of Cena struggling to lift the 265-pound champion is going to play perfectly to the cheap seats.

Gunther reversing an Attitude Adjustment into a sleeper hold is the finish we need. It cements Gunther as the final boss of WWE and gives Cena a dignified, brutal exit. Gunther retains via referee stoppage.

The Bloodline saga needs to end

I am begging WWE to wrap up the Bloodline Civil War. We are getting Roman Reigns and Jey Uso against Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu.

Jacob Fatu is terrifyingly good—his top-rope moonsault looks like a glitch in physics—but the overall storyline is running on fumes. How many times can we watch Jimmy Uso stare pensively in the background while Paul Heyman cries?

Roman and Jey win this because WWE refuses to let the original Bloodline fully die. But Solo has been booked so weakly over the last few months that a loss here completely buries him as a main event threat.

He lost clean to LA Knight on a random episode of SmackDown. Why should we believe he can beat Roman Reigns on the grandest stage? It’s a booking mistake that will haunt the blue brand until SummerSlam.

CM Punk finally gets his moment

CM Punk versus Seth Rollins is the most emotionally resonant match on the card. Rollins has carried the company on his back, working through a torn meniscus and half a dozen other injuries, while Punk's return has been a massive commercial success despite his fragile triceps.

The build has been intensely personal, blending real-life animosity with excellent promo work. Rollins is going to bump like crazy to make Punk look like a killer. We are going to see a lot of callbacks to their Ring of Honor days.

Punk hits two GTSs to finally get his WrestleMania main event victory. It’s the right call, even if Rollins deserves a vacation more than anyone on the active roster.

The Women's Division clash

Rhea Ripley defending the Women's World Championship against Jade Cargill feels like two freight trains colliding. Jade looks like a superhero, but she still struggles transitioning between spots. Her match against Nia Jax at the Royal Rumble exposed some serious pacing issues.

Rhea is good enough to lead her to a great match, but WWE is pushing Jade too fast. Rhea needs to retain here.

Putting the belt on Jade right now would expose her greenness in longer title defenses. Expect a hard-hitting, 12-minute brawl where Rhea wins clean with the Riptide. If WWE pulls the trigger on Jade, it’s going to be a rough summer for the women's division.

The Midcard Stealers

If you want to know what the best match of the weekend will be, look no further than Bron Breakker defending the Intercontinental Championship against Ilja Dragunov. These two beat the absolute hell out of each other in NXT, and doing it in front of 70,000 people is going to be special.

Dragunov’s Torpedo Moscow against Breakker’s spear is a spot built for a viral replay.

Breakker should retain. He is the future face of Monday Night Raw, and keeping the workhorse title on him allows Dragunov to chase him into the fall.

Give them 20 minutes, let them hit each other as hard as possible, and let the crowd go crazy.

Then we have Drew McIntyre against LA Knight. McIntyre has been doing the best character work of his career as a miserable, justified hater.

Knight remains incredibly over with the live crowds, even if his in-ring work is fundamentally just a greatest hits compilation of 1998 Stone Cold.

McIntyre needs this win more. Knight is bulletproof—he can lose every major match and still sell a million t-shirts because of his catchphrases. McIntyre losing on a big stage again risks turning him into the boy who cried wolf.

A Claymore Kick to counter the BFT makes the most sense. McIntyre gets his hand raised, complains about his spot on the card anyway, and moves on to challenge Punk in June.