WrestleMania 42 Weekend has wrapped up, with a memorable WrestleMania Sunday in which The Ruler took down the Beast, The Tribal Chief is once again back at the Head Of The Table as Roman Reigns became the New World Heavyweight Champion, and the Eradicator Rhea Ripley became the Women’s Champion. Here are the takeaways from a memorable night inside Allegiant Stadium.
The future of WWE shone bright.
The three superstars who were called up to the main roster permanently at the start of the year all made their debuts at WrestleMania on Sunday Night. It was a great night for all three of them, too. Je’von Evans had an amazing showing in the six-pack ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, getting a WrestleMania moment of his own and something that will play in his highlight reel in the years to come, with an amazing OG cutter to Rusev.
Trick Williams, meanwhile, in his Mania debut, won his first championship gold, in the form of the United States Championship and hung with Sami Zayn. Williams has won the crowd over quickly, to the point that Zayn was booed out of the stadium; that’s a testament to the charisma of Trick Willy.
Then we get to the ruler, Oba Femi who came out looking like an even bigger star after standing out with Brock Lesnar, having a five minute matches and looking dominant, like he had done throughout the building, having a star making moment in front of a large crowd in Las Vegas, leaving Lesnar laying on the mat, having gotten up after a F5 and hiting a Fall From Grace to Lesnar.
WWE set the tone for their future megastars, with all three having star-making moments, and the future was on full display.
Keep the Demon for special occasions.
On Sunday Night, the Demon made its return, and it was special, but it must stay that way. The Demon persona of Finn Balor lost its mystique under Vince McMahon, having lost twice, three years ago against Edge inside Hell In A Cell and in 2021 against Roman Reigns.
The Demon needs to be protected, as it’s the jaw-dropping character that recaptured its mystique and the spectacle of what it is. It comes out on big occasions and when a certain rival pushes Balor to bring out his demon persona. If you had it every week on Raw, it would lose all its meaning.
It worked well back in NXT, and Balor brought it out for special occasions and when a rivalry called for it. Triple H was the head of NXT around the time Balor was having his run in WWE’s third brand, so he is aware of how special Demon Balor is, so it should continue to be for big occasions.
Penta’s reign deserves to continue.
On the March 2nd episode of Raw, Penta defeated Dominick Mysterio to win the Intercontinental Championship and has been on a stellar run with it ever since he won the title in early March. The Six-Pack ladder match on Sunday was brilliant, with six incredible superstars and crazy high spots delivered by the most talented superstars currently in the Raw mid-card scene.
But there was only one winner, and it had to be Penta. His title reign still has a lot more to come and is only getting started. We talked about how many years Rey Mysterio has been WWE’s biggest and fan favourite luchador, with there being no one able to replicate.
After spending a year in WWE, he has reached that spot; the fans love him, and all do the Ziero Miedo with him; he is a fan favourite. Again, it’s his charisma and how exciting he is to watch inside the squared circle, rarely having a bad match, becoming one of the superstars to watch on Monday Nights on Netflix.
Brock Lesnar establishes a new star on his way out.
In what was likely Brock Lesnar’s last appearance as a performer at WrestleMania, he established the future in a big way. If it wasn’t clear before, it will be now: Oba Femi is the next big thing, leaving Lesnar lying flat out on the mat after he failed to nail Femi down with the F5, instead getting right back up and delivering a chokeslam and a Fall From Grace.
After the match had ended and Femi had finished celebrating and exited, Lesnar took his boots off, leaving them in the ring along with his gloves, likely indicating his exit, and if that is the case, then Femi being the person to end the career of Lesnar is a huge way of establishing the future.
Lesnar made his debut in 2002 and went on a dominant run in his first year, winning the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. Being billed as “the next big thing” at the time, it was a passing of the torch moment on Sunday night as he made way for the “next big thing” of the modern generation. Throughout the build, he got the better of Lesnar, and on Sunday, it was five minutes of perfection; WWE could not have booked it any better.
Oba Femi’s rise is just beginning.
Rhea Ripley is SmackDown’s last hope at reviving its women’s division
The SmackDown Women’s division could use all the help it can get, considering top stars such as Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss are busy in the tag title scene. Then, there is Tiffany Stratton, who is currently chasing the United States Championship. The blue brand could do with a huge name to carry the title from now on.
Now that isn’t a knock on Jade Cargill and her run as champion, but Ripley is a talent that seemingly gets the best out of whoever she works with, and I think SmackDown needs someone like her to help elevate some of the other names within the division. I mean, this was Cargill’s best match since she signed with WWE, just needed the perfect partner for it.
Also, with a huge name like Bianca Belair, who shared amazing news on Saturday Night and will be taking time off for it, they need someone to fill the void. Ripley is only 29 and is one of the biggest names in the company. The programme with Cargill could continue to Backlash, and then you move on to Ripley to work with other talents, maybe someone such as Lash Legend, who might be ready to move into the Women’s Championship scene.
Roman Reigns vs CM Punk was the perfect example of keeping a main event simple.
Roman Reigns and CM Punk had one of the greatest main events in WrestleMania history and delivered a match-of-the-year contender. You know what the best thing about it was? They kept it simple, no run-ins, no celebrity interference or other shenanigans.
It was just two guys who hate each other, wrestling inside that squared circle, beating each other up, simply telling the story that has been played out on Raw in the lead-up to their main-event match, and it had a clean finish. The match, the fans had been dreaming of, the rivalry the fans had anticipated, and they got their wish.
That’s all we need sometimes, keeping it simple is what fans ask for, and on Sunday night, we witnessed one of the greatest matches at WrestleMania. Everyone will continue to sing the praises of this match in the months and years to come.
The world heavyweight championship is in danger of losing its meaning with Roman Reigns as champion.
Roman Reigns is now a 7x world champion after pinning CM Punk in the main event of WrestleMania to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career, and his first title win after losing the WWE Championship two years ago, also at WrestleMania.
Now, the World Heavyweight Championship is known as the workhorse title ever since its return in 2023 and what Rollins did with it in his first run as champion, defending it often, similar to what Punk recently did to give back its meaning, defending it often and being on TV most weeks.
Towards the end of Reigns’ 1,316, he was appearing less, and he defended the title irregularly, or even on TV, leaving some main event angles stranded, if you will. Given Reigns’ status and how he isn’t full-time as much, there’s concern about him becoming World Heavyweight Champion, especially with fans praising Punk’s run with it.
There is a slight risk to Reigns holding the title, given his part-time status. However, he did say on the post-show Sunday night that he is going to be around for the summer and that he will be a full-time Tribal Chief, so we’ll see if he sticks to his word to it, because if so, and he is fully locked in, we could be in store for another legendary run.
If he doesn’t, then the decision to put the title on Reigns will look bad on WWE and could hurt the main event scene on Raw.
WWE rebounds with a successful night two
It’s safe to say that WWE started the weekend off on the wrong foot, with a poor night one, rushed matches, and a confusing main event with odd celebrity involvement. Pressure was on night two to deliver, and it did, right from the opening to match all the way to the main event.
Night two felt more like a WrestleMania, albeit advertisements in between the show were annoying to most wrestling fans; the main thing was that the matches were allowed to go a bit longer; yes, you can debate that some of them could have done with a few more minutes, such as Zayn vs Williams, or Ripley vs Cargill.
But the programming was normal, not at a frenetic pace as it was on Saturday night; no matches on Sunday night jumped right into the finish. There were memorable moments, capped off by a great ladder match and a main event that is an early contender for match of the year.
The two-night balance keeps finding the WWE position where one night is stronger than the other, and this year, Sunday night delivered the feeling fans wanted out of WrestleMania.
