WWE WrestleMania 40: Predicting Most Likely Swerves

WWE rolls into Philadelphia this weekend for WrestleMania 40, a two-night extravaganza and the biggest show on the company's schedule.

Night 1 on Saturday will be headlined by a high-stakes tag team match pitting Cody Rhodes and world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins against The Rock and undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns.

Night 2 on Sunday will feature Reigns defending his title against Rhodes.

As is the case most years, swerves in booking decisions will help define the event, for better or worse. Such moves catch the crowd off-guard and put an exclamation point on the weekend's festivities, all while providing a new path for top storylines to take.

WrestleMania 40 could see three swerves that do all of those things.

Rhea Ripley Ruins Becky Lynch's Return to the Pinnacle

From the moment a match between Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley for the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania 40 was teased, the storyline has seen The Man attempting to prove to the world and herself that she is as good as the titleholder.

She failed to win the women's Royal Rumble match to set up the contest, but she rebounded and emerged victorious from the women's Elimination Chamber match in February to earn her shot at The Eradicator on wrestling's grandest stage.

Throw in Ripley's personal attack on Lynch mentioning her daughter, and you have several indicators that The Man will pay off her journey back to a prominent title match at WrestleMania by winning her first singles championship on the main roster since 2022.

Not so fast, though.

Ripley has been the top women's competitor in WWE since capturing the world title a year ago by defeating Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39. She has built her star to rival that of her male counterparts and is still fresh off headlining the Elimination Chamber PPV in Australia.

Mami is massively over and feels like she still has plenty to accomplish as champion.

For that reason, and the fact that Triple H has exhibited a partiality to dominant heel champions, Ripley will defeat Lynch and continue her monumental run until The Game and the rest of the creative team have a babyface who can benefit from ending her reign.

The Rock Betrays Roman Reigns

Make no mistake about it: The Rock has been a truly despicable heel on this Road to WrestleMania.

He has made pointed attacks at both Cody Rhodes and his mother, bloodied The American Nightmare, and he joined Roman Reigns in lashing him and Seth Rollins with a weight belt on Monday's WWE Raw.

There has also been just enough tension between him and Reigns at times throughout this journey that suggests The Final Boss may not be all-in on supporting and acknowledging his cousin as The Tribal Chief.

It was apparent when Reigns demanded The Rock recognize him as the Head of the Table in The Bloodline. While The Great One acknowledged him, it was not without hesitation. We also saw it when Reigns took credit for setting up Rock's brutal beatdown of Rhodes, a moment that proved how vile The Great One can be.

There have been other subtle and not-so-subtle hints that The Final Boss is not falling in line with Reigns and could be readying to turn on him.

The biggest swerve would be that it is not Rock who turns babyface in this scenario but, rather, Reigns.

The Great One has been presented as such an intensely dislikeable villain, an egotistical member of the board of directors who can hurl threats around and flex his power, that it's not out of the realm of possibility that he remains the bad guy and is the emphasis for a Tribal Chief babyface turn.

That would arguably lead to a more interesting direction post-WrestleMania when the focus will be on getting us to the match most expected to occur in Philadelphia.

Regardless of who is heel or face, Rock seems destined to lay out Reigns with a Rock Bottom at some point throughout WrestleMania, providing us the first look at the next chapter in The Bloodline story.

CM Punk Costs Drew McIntyre the World Heavyweight Championship

Drew McIntyre has been red hot as a heel in WWE, largely thanks to his expert trolling of top babyfaces and a justification for his actions that makes sense.

The Scot has been undervalued, overlooked and never had the opportunity to achieve the career highlight of winning the world title in front of an arena full of fans.

He is so over at this point that it appears to be a given that he will capitalize on Seth Rollins, who has already competed in a monumental tag team match, and defeat him to win the World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday evening.

However, there is the added element of his enemy and the target of his trolling, CM Punk.

The Straight Edge Superstar will appear on commentary for the match and given his issues with both men, will tease involvement that directly costs one of them the match.

As much as Punk has a back story with Rollins, it is the Scot who put him out of action and has mercilessly targeted him with tweets, one-liners and disrespectful comments about his torn triceps.

His intense dislike for McIntyre and vow to get him back for costing him the main event of WrestleMania, will fuel Punk to interfere on behalf of Rollins and ensure The Visionary wins at least one of his two matches on the grand stage.

McIntyre can always earn the win and title back in France at Backlash on May 4 or in his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland on June 15 at the Clash at the Castle PLE.

It intensifies the feud between Punk and McIntyre until the former can get back to action, all while swerving fans and providing them with an unexpected outcome, something that is always appreciated by diehard WWE fans.

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