Anticipation is building for WrestleMania 42, which emanates from Las Vegas in less than three weeks. The matches that will presumably headline both nights (Punk/Reigns, Cody/Orton) and Gunther’s seeming disappearance have dominated the discourse this ‘Mania season, but there are some wrestlers lower on the card that may be at a pivotal crossroads (no pun intended) in their career. If we were talking sports, for many, the Showcase of the Immortals serves as the end of one season and the Raw after
‘Mania serves as the beginning of a new one. Here are 5 WWE stars whose trajectories may be just a few weeks away from drastically changing course:
Finn Balor
Historically, when a heel faction turns on one of their own, the aftermath for the victim goes one of two ways. Either they get a babyface push and get a chance for revenge on their former stablemates….. or they get buried and used to raise the stock of the group that just kicked them out.
WrestleMania is this kind of fork in the road for Finn Balor this year.
Finn is arguably one of the most underutilized wrestlers the WWE currently employs, and has carried that distinction for years. When Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley were removed from the Judgment Day, it seemed like it could be Finn Balor’s time to become the leader of the faction, but that just never really materialized. Finn has consistently played second or third fiddle to Dirty Dom and Liv Morgan, and in recent months (or maybe years?) has seemed like he had outgrown the group.
When the dam finally broke and the Judgment Day attacked Finn on a recent episode of Raw, a WrestleMania showdown with Dominik Mysterio seemed like a logical next step for him. If that match ends up being signed, which could happen as early as tonight on Raw, Finn’s future might be at stake.
On one hand, Dom has proven himself to be pretty resistant to setbacks. He can take losses and still not lose his ability to elicit a strong reaction from the crowd. On the other, Finn hasn’t really had a sustained babyface run on the main roster and starting this one off with a loss to Dom could stop Finn’s momentum in its tracks. The result of this presumed ‘Mania match should show us a lot about how Triple H and company view Balor’s standing in the company going forward.
Jacob Fatu
Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre’s inevitable WrestleMania match was made official on Smackdown last week in the form of an Unsanctioned Match. These two have been circling in the orbit of the WWE Championship for the past few months, with rumors of both being involved in a multi-man match for the company’s big prize in Vegas never coming to fruition.
In some ways, Drew McIntyre is a made man. While his most recent WWE Title run left a little to be desired, he has been at the very top of the card on both main roster shows almost constantly over the past few years. He’s feuded with the very biggest stars in the company and immediately adds a level of gravitas to anything he’s involved in that only a select few are able to right now.
Jacob Fatu is coming to a crucial fork in the road as he looks to pick up what could be a signature win at WrestleMania in a few weeks. After outgrowing Solo Sikoa’s New Bloodline, Fatu broke off on his own, even winning the United States Title off of LA Knight at WrestleMania last year. He was ascending towards the top of the card before spending sometime on the sideline late last year. Now that he’s back and in a prominent spot on the ‘Mania card, the Samoan Werewolf’s career trajectory could skyrocket if he’s able to take down the Scottish Psychopath in Vegas.
Sami Zayn
Sami Zayn somewhat unexpectedly won the United States Title this past Friday on Smackdown, defeating Carmelo Hayes. Sami had been toiling for weeks, with stars such as Aleister Black, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton all getting in his head. Being in danger of getting left off the WrestleMania card, Sami forced his way onto it by accepting Melo’s open challenge. GM Aldis almost immediately informed Sami that he would be defending his newly won US Title against Trick Williams in Vegas.
There are a lot of moving parts to this story, and my hope is that they all add up to Sami coming to a fork in the road at WrestleMania.
Taking the title off of Carmelo Hayes, who has arguably been putting on one of the best matches in WWE every week for the past few months with his open challenge, so close to WrestleMania doesn’t seem fair to H1M. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Trick/Sami match ends up involving Carmelo, and maybe Ilja Dragunov before all is said and done. I just refuse to think they would do Carmelo dirty like this so close to the biggest show of the year.
The other character in the story here is Trick Williams, whose transition to the main roster these past few months has been just as seamless as any in the last several years. Despite his character being that of a cocky heel, Trick has almost immediately become a fan favorite and has held his own both in the ring and on the mic with all of the top stars on Smackdown. You don’t even have to squint to see Trick transitioning into a babyface role sometime in the near future.
So where does that leave Sami?
Taking the US Title off of one of WWE’s ‘Mania season MVP’s and having his first defense against one of the best NXT callups in recent memory doesn’t seem to be setting up Sami for another run as a babyface champion. After winning the title because of Trick’s interference on Friday, is Sami finally convinced that being the white meat good guy he’s been recently is actually not the way to go?
Tiffany Stratton & Giulia
There’s a reason I lumped these two ladies together, and it’s not just because their WrestleMania fates seem to be intertwined. Both women have taken different paths to get to where they’re at, but both of their careers seem to be primed to change course in Vegas.
2025 was a banner year for both Tiffany Stratton and Giulia. Tiffany kicked off the year winning the WWE Women’s Championship by cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase and came up with the biggest win of her career when she knocked off Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 41. She lost for the first time in 2025 at Crown Jewel in October, and then lost her title to Jade Cargill on November 1st, ending her title reign at 302 days.
Giulia made her main roster debut in 2025 after a short but successful run in NXT. She then participated in Money in the Bank and won the US Women’s Title within just a few months of her callup. She’s now a two-time US Champion, but the aura she had during her brief time in NXT hasn’t quite translated on the main roster, and her sidekick Kiana James has seemed like the bigger star on multiple occasions.
After Giulia beat Tiffany with a little help from Kiana on Smackdown, the stage seems to be set for the two to run it back at WrestleMania with some gold on the line. The problem is that both of the obvious paths forward seem would lead to one of them being buried. If Giulia wins, Tiffany’s stock plummets, and it would be hard to see her as a top star without some concerted damage control. But if Tiffany wins, Giulia moving up on the card would be a tough sell as well.
An interesting thought I had, and a way for both of their characters to be somewhat rejuvenated is for Tiffany to turn heel and join forces with Kiana at WrestleMania. While this is similar to the double turn I think we could see in Trick and Sami’s match, this change could be beneficial to both women. A pairing of Tiffany and Kiana could be a natural fit if Tiffany leans into the character she debuted with in NXT, and a Giulia face turn could allow her to restore some of her aura and go back to being the quiet ass-kicker she was in her own stint in the developmental brand.
So there you have it Cagesiders. Do you agree that these 5 stars are coming to forks in the road at WrestleMania? Is there anybody that I missed? Let us know in the comments below!
