Last weekend, WWE held its biggest annual event of the year: WrestleMania. The 42nd WrestleMania took place in Las Vegas at the same venue that last year’s event was held in. This WrestleMania, like every one since the year 2020, was split into two nights, April 18 and 19.
While there were many great matches on both cards, some stood out more than others. Some prime examples include Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar, CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship and Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton for the undisputed WWE Championship. Most of the results that came from this match card were expected; however, there were some matches that surprised fans. For example, AJ Lee vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship received tremendous praise.
These matches proved to be crucial for the show, each having a unique appeal. Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi’s match on Sunday served as a passing of the torch. In the buildup around this match, Femi and Lesnar showed no fear of each other. They first faced off at the Royal Rumble, where Lesnar eliminated Femi, who lasted approximately 40 minutes in the match. Femi and Lesnar developed a heated rivalry, which included many brawls on Monday Night Raw. They eventually came to grips with each other at WrestleMania, where Femi defeated Lesnar in convincing fashion with a chokeslam and his fall from grace powerbomb. After the match, Lesnar left his boots and gloves in the ring, potentially indicating his retirement. If it is the end of the road for Lesnar, he has definitely had a great career.
CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship was a standout match from the weekend. After winning the Royal Rumble, Reigns and CM Punk had a tumultuous feud leading up to WrestleMania. Things got personal in a Raw segment when Punk mentioned the deceased father of Reigns. While Punk eventually said that he regretted the insult, there was no turning back. In the match itself, Reigns defeated Punk, winning the World Heavyweight Championship. With this victory, Reigns begins another world championship streak after previously holding the Universal Championship for 1,316 days.
The main event of Saturday, Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, is also worth analyzing. Rhodes and Orton have quite a bit of history together as they were both originally part of the faction Legacy. In the run-up to the show, Orton was portrayed as the heel to Rhodes’ face persona, pulling sneak attacks and sabotaging Rhodes. He eventually found out about a mysterious caller who had been advising Orton to attack Rhodes, and that person was Pat McAfee. He helped Orton all the way up until WrestleMania, even attacking Rhodes before the match started. Rhodes ultimately defeated Orton, retaining the WWE Championship, but was attacked by Orton after the match. In the post-match ambush, Orton delivered his signature punt kick to Rhodes.
WrestleMania 42 proved to be a mixed bag compared to other recent WrestleManias such as 30, 37, 39 and even 40. WrestleMania will always be the pinnacle of wrestling excellence for fans worldwide. As per the WWE, they have finally decided to take the brand global, as WrestleMania 43 next year will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Certain aspects of next year’s WrestleMania will probably center around integrating into the Saudi Arabian fanbase while having excellent matches. One could argue that if you want to drive up viewership, you would have to include matches to the caliber of Punk vs. Reigns or even Lee vs. Lynch, like we had this year. If WWE wants to continue their efforts at expansion, that is what they will have to do.
