It was noted earlier that the plan for Night 1 at WWE WrestleMania is for the show to conclude with the SmackDown Women’s Championship match between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley.
For weeks, it had been rumored that the first night would end with the Tag Team Championship match featuring The Usos defending against Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. However, Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the tag match won’t headline due to “political reasons.”
Meltzer wrote, “When we had asked about Usos vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn headlining night one, since at the time Zayn was the company’s hottest babyface character, we were told that there were political reasons in play to where Flair vs. Ripley would most likely get that spot.”
At this point, it’s unclear if the Tag Team Title match will happen on the first or second night. It’s also not clear what the “political reasons” are but, as WrestlingNews.co first reported months ago, the original idea for WrestleMania was to split the World Titles and crown a new champion. WrestlingNews.co was first to report that Night 1 originally had Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre or Cody Rhodes in the plans for a title match on night 1. There has been no hint in that direction so plans may have changed or it’s possible that something unannounced is planned. A lot has changed in recent months, especially after the company was informed that The Rock would not be available to wrestle this year.
