Backstage Notes On WrestleMania Matches, Rumors About The Updated Card, AEW's Influence

WrestleMania season is upon us, and this year's card is turning out to be a packed show with rumor circulating that 17 or more matches may be featured at the event.

As of WWE's Fastlane PPV, the main event matches for WrestleMania 35 were determined as Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar for Lesnar's WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship and Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey for Rousey's WWE RAW Women's Championship.

Apart from those high-caliber matches, we found out last night that Kurt Angle's opponent for his retirement match has been set as Baron Corbin. It was announced that Braun Strowman will be a part of the annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, as well.

On this morning's edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that the annual women's battle royal will indeed still be taking place at WrestleMania 35. Not only that, but there will apparently be 3 or 4 added matches that haven't been talked about on WWE TV.

This increase in length for WrestleMania is a trend that has been proven true every year, and it's an idea that has carried over in to the other annual PPV events. WrestleMania 32's main card ended around the 286 minute mark, WrestleMania 33 reached 305 minutes, and last year's WrestleMania 34 had a runtime of 314 minutes. If those are any sign of what is to come, Forbes.com may be correct when they say that this "will likely become the longest WWE pay-per-view of all time."

Forbes.com also noted that superstar morale in WWE is what has inspired this "all hands on deck" mindset with the WrestleMania 35 card, and with the forthcoming launch of All Elite Wrestling, employee morale is important as ever.

WrestleMania 35 takes place on April 7 from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Below is the updated card:

WrestleMania 35 Host: Alexa Bliss

WrestleMania 35 Special Correspondents: SNL's Michael Che and Colin Jost

WrestleMania 35 Featured Musical Act: Elias

WWE Universal Title Match
Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar (c)

Triple Threat for the RAW Women's Title
Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey (c)

WWE Cruiserweight Title Match
Cedric Alexander or Tony Nese vs. Buddy Murphy (c)

No Holds Barred Match
Triple H vs. Batista

Farewell Match for WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin

6th Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Braun Strowman, TBA

The Miz vs. Shane McMahon

AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton

Below are rumored matches for WrestleMania 35:

WWE Title Match
Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan

Multi-Woman Match for the SmackDown Women's Title
TBA vs. Asuka

Multi-Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. Tamina Snuka and Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks and Bayley

Multi-Team Match for the RAW Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. The Revival

Multi-Team Match for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. The Hardys vs. The Bar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev vs. The Usos

WWE United States Title Match
John Cena or TBA vs. Samoa Joe

Multi-Man Match for the WWE Intercontinental
TBA vs. Bobby Lashley

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

2nd Annual WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal