WWE WrestleMania 41 Night One Predictions: Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

WWE WrestleMania 41 is officially upon us, with seven scintillating matchups featured on Night One this Saturday in Las Vegas! Four titles will be on the line during this first evening of action, as the New Day, Jacob Fatu, Charlotte Flair, and Jey Uso all attempt to win title gold at "The Show of Shows." Elsewhere, Rey Mysterio defends the honor of lucha libre against "El Grande Americano," Jade Cargill seeks the ultimate revenge agains the treacherous Naomi, and CM Punk finally steps into the WrestleMania main event to take on former Shield brothers Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns — with Paul Heyman's true allegiance as the wild card.

So who's going to win? It's a tricky question. The WINC staff seems to be fairly confident about the title matches when making our predictions — though the recent messiness between Flair and WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton seems to have thrown that one into complete chaos. The non-title matches though ... well, let's just say our collective agreement on those ones are considerably below 100%. But hey, as we've seen before far too many time, wrestling shows are usually more fun when they're unpredictable. With that in mind, let's get to the picks!

He may not have got a main event spot on WrestleMania 41, but we believe that Royal Rumble winner "Main Event" Jey Uso is going to take the World Heavyweight Championship from GUNTHER and "YEET!" into the Las Vegas night. Here at WINC, 88% of us are going with Uso, in what very well may open WrestleMania. While the build to this match wasn't always great and didn't make it feel like Uso had a chance against "The Ring General," the events of recent weeks had many of us change our minds about this match, or at least how excited we are for it.

We were really won over by the excellent segment where GUNTHER beat down Jimmy Uso on an episode of "Raw," while Jey was tied to the ring ropes, unable to help his twin as GUNTHER bathed in his blood. The segment was the catalyst needed to push this feud into second gear ahead of "The Showcase of the Immortals" and did wonders for Uso's character. Gone, at least for the moment, was the happy, "YEETING" Uso, replaced by a much more serious man with a mission to avenge his brother and take the title off the vicious GUNTHER.

Before his Royal Rumble win, Uso was so close to dethroning GUNTHER at Saturday Night's Main Event back in January, and we think he's finally going to do it this weekend. There's always the possibility he'll have help from a returning Jimmy, as no big event is truly complete these days without a Bloodline member returning, dressed in a black hoodie. Help from his twin or not, 88% of us believe Uso is getting the job done.

Written by Daisy Ruth

After missing out on WrestleMania last year and appearing at the previous two alongside Otis for tag team action, "definitely not" Chad Gable will be wrestling his first singles match at the "Show of Shows" as El Grande Americano against arguably the greatest luchador of all time, Rey Mysterio, in his 10th solo outing at the event. 

Americano reared his head at a time when Gable was on a losing streak to luchadors, with him taking a sabbatical while American Made continued their feud with the Latino World Order. Ahead of Gable's return Americano appeared to allow the Creeds to score a win over Mysterio and Dragon Lee, with the LWO seemingly justified in complaining to Adam Pearce that Gable was obviously under the mask; Gable has maintained that he is not the man under the mask all the while. 

There appears to be a hope of some catharsis in the loss of Americano with 53% of Wrestling Inc. staff predicting the true luchador to emerge victorious, with one of the potential outcomes a win for Mysterio and a potential unmasking of the LWO's foil – or a way of truly exonerating Gable from such scandal if he is actually beneath the mask. But at the same time, that does leave almost half believing Americano will have another trick in his singlet. One that has become his signature in recent weeks has been the use of a metal plate within his mask, so the referee will have to be diligent for the weaponized flying head butt.

Written by Max Everett

The New Day turned their backs on Big E and the WWE Universe at large last December, during the 10-year anniversary of the group's founding. While the new attitude has refreshed the once-plucky act, it has yet to translate into tag team gold. The team hasn't been tag champions since 2023, when they were NXT Tag Team Champions for a brief spell.

According to 88% of the Wrestling Inc. Staff, the dry spell ends at WrestleMania 41.

It's not that The War Raiders are bad champions; they just feel like placeholders. The former Rowe and Hanson are a seasoned tag team who carry the titles with aplomb, but there is a certain chutzpah missing from the tag division, and the newly villainous New Day would be the perfect shot of adrenaline the tag scene needs. A run with the tag titles would certainly help contrast this version of New Day with the plucky heels-turned-babyfaces they were when they were racking up tag titles in the 2010s. It also needs to be mentioned that former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston hasn't had a big WrestleMania moment since his coronation at WrestleMania 35. Seven years later, he feels overdue for a celebration, even if it will be to the boos that come with a heel victory.

Written by Ross Berman

One of "WWE SmackDown's" hottest stars is competing in his first WrestleMania and the vast majority of us here at WINC believe he's walking out of Las Vegas with gold. A total of 93% of us who cast our votes in 'Mania predictions believe Jacob Fatu is defeating LA Knight for the United States Championship. Fatu defeated Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing Match for his shot at Knight, and if he can topple "One Big SOB" in a stipulation match where he had to lay the man out so he couldn't get up by the count of 10, we think Knight has no chance against the most recent WWE addition to the Bloodline.

While live crowds still love "The Megastar" and chant along with him, both of his reigns with the championship have left a lot to be desired. He got the title back from Shinsuke Nakamura on an early March edition of "SmackDown" and really hasn't done too much with it at the fault of his booking. Fatu emerged as a fast fan-favorite after he made his debut last June and most of us think his time is now. The Bloodline storyline has fallen off, almost completely, since Solo Sikoa lost the ula fala in the family feud against Roman Reigns, and putting gold on Fatu is one way to invigorate it, possibly leading to a feud with Sikoa in the future.

Those of us who don't think Fatu is winning aren't haters of the "Samoan Werewolf," however, it's the Sikoa factor we're thinking could work to Fatu's detriment. Sikoa could cost Fatu his title opportunity, but the majority of us don't think that's happening. If Fatu and Sikoa are meant to feud, we believe it's because Fatu was victorious at his first WrestleMania.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One year on from teaming together alongside Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 40, Jade Cargill and Naomi will be wrestling an intense grudge match at WrestleMania 41 on Saturday. It will be Cargill's first singles match at the "Show of Shows" and comes as she looks for revenge against the women who sidelined her in the midst of her reign as Women's Tag Team Champion. 

In November, Cargill was found to have been attacked by an unknown party in the parking lot and was ruled unable to compete until her return at Elimination Chamber this year; Naomi took on Cargill's half of the Women's Tag Team Championship during her absence, until they were lost to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. When Cargill did return at Elimination Chamber, she attacked Naomi to effectively confirm it was Naomi who had attacked her all along, and Naomi herself admitted to doing it in a subsequent TV segment. Since then, Naomi has continued to lean into her villainy while Cargill has continued to swear revenge. 

The poll put to the Wrestling Inc. staff reflects that 65% see Cargill getting that vengeance in the form of a win at WrestleMania, although that does leave 35% believing Naomi will get her chance to shine in her first one-on-one match at the "Grandest Stage of Them All" – there was also a late deluge of votes to change the trajectory of the poll, with the early figure of 60% favoring Naomi to win the bout. That should say that either has a good case to emerge with their hand raised, but only time will tell.

Written by Max Everett

The fact that the rivalry between Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton has grown rather messy makes it more difficult to pick a winner here, but most of us still believe Flair will begin her 15th world title reign on Saturday.

After making a comeback and winning the Women's Royal Rumble earlier this year, Flair has been presented once again as the top of the food chain in the WWE women's division. Ideally, this feud against Stratton will be used to make the younger performer into an even bigger star, but that doesn't mean Stratton needs to pick up the immediate win.

By winning on Saturday, Flair can capture the WWE Women's Championship and give Stratton some adversity to struggle against before, hopefully, winning the title back. It's a win-win situation for WWE, as they'll pad Flair's stats while also utilizing a basic but effective storytelling pattern that's been used countless times before. The key here is follow-up. The feud should continue after WrestleMania, and Stratton should win the title back sooner rather than later.

All of that being said, it really is impossible to say what happens for sure on Saturday, considering the last several weeks of this feud. The performers involved clearly want to keep viewers guessing, having shifted direction into "worked shoot" territory. Still, assuming everybody sticks to the plan at WrestleMania, we believe Flair will end up with her arm raised.

Written by Nick Miller

Paul Heyman came into this WWE WrestleMania 41 feud representing his longtime client, Roman Reigns. He'll enter WrestleMania by the side of his best friend, CM Punk, who cashed in the favor he earned at Survivor Series to compel Heyman into his corner. And while the WINC staff is too divided on this match to have reached a true majority, Seth Rollins has more support than any other candidate to leave Las Vegas with Heyman's services secured.

Because that has to be how this ends, right? Whoever you pick in this match, you're presumably picking them because you think Heyman will ultimately side with that person and help them win. That's what this feud has been about, that's what this match will be about, and 41% of us here at WINC think Heyman betrays both men currently fighting over him, instead coming over to the side of a now fully-heel "Visionary." For one thing, it just feels like a very Heyman thing to do, similar to previous occasions throughout his career. It also feels like the only balanced ending for the storyline that has made Rollins come off like something of a third wheel — especially coming 10 years after "the heist of the century" that also saw a heel Rollins sneak away from a WrestleMania main event triple threat with a win nobody expected him to pick up. Furthermore, Rollins feels like the one of the three who could benefit most from having Heyman by his side in 2025, as a heel run with Heyman could conceivably elevate his stock even further — whereas his opponents have already benefitted from that particular boost.

Still, if we've learned anything along the road of this year's WrestleMania, it's that just because there's a seemingly obvious direction, doesn't mean WWE will take it. The 59% of the WINC staff who didn't pick Rollins is split straight down the middle between those who favor Punk (perhaps presuming he's not losing his first-ever WrestleMania main event) and those who favor Roman Reigns (perhaps considering the fact that he's never lost two consecutive WrestleMania matches in his career). With what is essentially a 40-30-30 split, the Night 1 main event is truly anyone's game — but that extra 10% of us are doggedly manifesting a Rollins win.

Written by Miles Schneiderman