This is finally the end of Roman Reigns

Night two of WrestleMania 40 takes place tonight (Sun., Apr. 7) from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main card begins at 7 pm ET live on Peacock in the United States and on the WWE Network elsewhere. You should also be able to watch the show on pay-per-view (PPV) if your cable provider is carrying the event.

This is finally the end of Roman Reigns

For the second year in a row, Roman Reigns will defend the WWE Universal championship against Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania. Cody has spent the last two years trying to finish his story by winning the WWE championship, and this could be his final chance to do so tonight.

The biggest problem Rhodes faces, of course, is that Bloodline Rules are now in effect for this fight after The Rock and Reigns defeated Cody and Seth Rollins in last night’s main event. That means anything goes during this match, and there will a ton of interference from Roman’s family to ensure the deck is stacked against Rhodes.

Looking outside of kayfabe, the setup last night with The Rock pinning Cody perfectly telegraphs the result of this match, which is that Cody goes over and Roman’s 1300+ day reign as champion is finally coming to an end. That’s what needs to happen tonight, and it almost certainly will.

How will Cody get the job done with Bloodline Rules in effect? Well, anything goes, and that means Cody can have his friends show up too. Is there any chance WWE brings in legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and John Cena to fight off the likes of The Rock, Solo Sikoa, and Jim Uso? It would seem to take a Herculean effort to finally cause Roman’s downfall, so that’s the kind of star power that might be needed to seal his fate. If that sounds too corny or convoluted, maybe some of Roman’s former victims like Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Brock Lesnar LA Knight will be the heroes who assemble to take out his family. Either way, Cody’s gonna need some help to finish his story tonight, and it will be very interesting to see how that plays out.

The rest of the card

Here are the five other matches that are currently advertised for WrestleMania 40 night two:

Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Championship

Drew McIntyre prayed for CM Punk to be injured at the Royal Rumble, and it happened at his own hands. Drew went on to win the Elimination Chamber match to earn this title bout against Rollins at ‘Mania. When Drew isn’t trolling Punk over his brittle body, he is singularly focused on winning the world championship in front of live fans at WrestleMania. Meanwhile, Seth has been paying more attention to The Rock and Roman Reigns than Drew in recent weeks, even stating that Drew is the last thing he’s concerned about this weekend. That will likely prove to be Seth’s downfall tonight, as he took a beating at the hands of The Bloodline last night and is now even more vulnerable tonight.

There’s also the matter of Damian Priest lurking in the shadows with that Money in the Bank contract, and this is the championship he’s most likely to target. For what it’s worth, Punk will be a special guest commentator during this match, so he could get physically involved at some point. I also wonder if “Bloodline Rules” will apply to this match at some point, with The Bloodline making an example out of Seth to set the stage for what Cody Rhodes will have to overcome later on.

IYO SKY (c) vs. Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship

Even though Bayley created Damage CTRL nearly two years ago, her role as the leader of the group came into question as soon as IYO SKY cashed in Money in the Bank last year to win the women’s championship. Kairi Sane and Asuka eventually joined up unbeknownst to Bayley, further widening the rift between her and the rest of the group.

Bayley was struggling to fit in with Damage CTRL, but she still tried to help them win all their matches. All she got for it was their ridicule in Japanese. It turns out Bayley knew exactly what they were saying about her, so she used her Royal Rumble win to finally leave the group and challenge SKY to this title match at WrestleMania.

Since then, Dakota Kai recovered from injury and quickly turned her back on Bayley to remain aligned with IYO and friends. If Asuka, Kairi, and Dakota can’t be in IYO’s corner after they got their asses kicked yesterday by Jade Cargill, Naomi, and Bianca Belair, then IYO is in a world of trouble going up against a pissed off Bayley by herself. However, if the rest of Damage CTRL makes it to ringside, Bayley will need some outside help to take them out of the mix and finally have her career-defining WrestleMania moment.

Logan Paul (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens for the United States Championship

Logan Paul has used brass knuckles and a very light work schedule to hold onto his United States Championship since winning it in November. Now he has two babyfaces coming for the gold at WrestleMania, and they are both former WrestleMania main eventers. Paul’s best chance of winning is to find a way to get Kevin and Randy pissed off at each other, so that the YouTube douche can then steal the pin at the end. Meanwhile, Randy has teased in media interviews that he’s going to try a never-before-seen RKO during this match, so that’s definitely something to look forward to.

LA Knight vs. AJ Styles

AJ’s issues with the megastar date back to last fall when Knight rose up to the main event spot while Styles was injured. More recently, AJ blamed LA for his own failure to qualify for the Elimination Chamber match. As a result, the Phenomenal One flew all the way across the world to Australia to screw Knight over in the Chamber and beat the shit out of him with a chair. Knight has been trying to get revenge on Styles since then, but AJ has tried to dodge him. Knight took matters into his own hands with a home invasion stunt that led to his arrest. LA then became a master of disguise to get his hands on AJ. These guys then brawled during media day on the eve of WrestleMania. The bottom line is that AJ and LA hate each other’s guts right now, to the point where Knight is choking on his gum over it.

Bobby Lashley & Street Profits vs. Final Testament in a Philadelphia Street Fight

Authors of Pain returned to WWE television in January by joining up with Karrion Kross and ambushing Lashley and the Profits. These two groups have been feuding since that point, but it’s a pretty cold story. That being said, the street fight stipulation should help this match stand out from everything else on night two as the match that will involve the most weapons and plunder. A win for the babyfaces could signify that it’s time for Bob to move on to bigger and better things after ‘Mania.

Summary

There’s potential for three major title changes on this show, with Cody Rhodes, Bayley, and Drew McIntyre (or Damian Priest?) all expected to bring home championship gold. Then there’s the megastar LA Knight, who will get a mega pop at WrestleMania. Randy Orton is there to hit a unique RKO on Logan Paul. The Final Testament’s match is really the only one that doesn’t feel like a big deal on this card, and even that has potential to be very good based on the stipulation. Overall, it looks like WrestleMania 40 is going to end on a high note, and with a changing of the guard as Roman Reigns finally loses his spot as the number one guy in WWE.

What will you be looking for at WrestleMania 40 night two?