WrestleMania 41 is over, and the Las Vegas hangover begins.
Like night one, night two was a mixed bag. There were sensational matches, big returns, and some absolute stinkers. The main event’s ending will be the most talked-about portion of the night, for better or worse, slightly overshadowing the return of the most popular woman in the industry.
Io Sky vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship
WWE capped off their trio of excellent triple-threat matches this weekend with the best one. Io Sky, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley opened up night two with a barn burner. The match started quickly and never slowed down. It felt quicker than its 15-minute runtime due to the excellent pacing.
All three women performed up to their sky-high expectations and by far exceeded the convoluted build that led to the match. Belair can get more involved with Jade Cargill and Naomi’s feud, while Ripley can explore her faults to evolve as a wrestler and character. Sky’s options are limitless, and it’s nice to see WWE get behind such a talented worker.
Final Rating: ***3/4
Drew McIntyre vs. Damien Priest
Even a Sin City Street Fight wasn’t enough for Drew McIntyre to be excited for work. McIntyre and Damien Priest went to war and broke out plenty of weapons. The stairs and table spots looked great, and the Claymore Kick into the chair in the corner, ultimately hitting Priest’s head, was a top-tier finish.
This match should mark the end of a feud that hit its first beats last WrestleMania and elevated Priest to a main-event level talent. The loss shouldn’t hurt Priest much, and McIntyre should make for a good first feud for the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion, Jey Uso.
Final Rating: ***1/4
Bron Breakker vs. Penta vs. Finn Bálor vs. Dominik Mysterio for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
129.2% chance of winning wasn’t enough for Bron Breakker to retain the WWE Intercontinental championship. The last-second four-way match came together nicely. “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio won the WWE Intercontinental championship with a frog splash on his stablemate Finn Bálor. The win is well deserved for the Latino Heat magnet, and his ensuing feud with Bálor should help catapult Mysterio up the card.
The Judgement Day infighting swept up Breakker and Penta because neither wrestler had any plans for WrestleMania leading into the show. The results were great, including another nasty spear, this time on Carlito, that is quickly becoming a highlight of Breakker PLE matches. Breakker and Penta can go on to Money in the Bank to fight for the briefcase with some momentum.
Final Rating: ***
Randy Orton vs. Joe Hendry
Say his name and he appears. After Kevin Owens unfortunately bowed out of his WrestleMania match with Randy Orton due to injury, it was announced that The Viper would face a mystery opponent. Some speculated his opponent was a recently AEW wrestler rumored to return to WWE, like Miro or Aleister Black. Some thought it was a vehicle for Nick Aldis to receive a well-deserved WrestleMania match.
The actual opponent was unexpected and historic. Joe Hendry, TNA World Champion, wrestled at WrestleMania. Hendry received the second biggest pop of the night, more on that later. Watching Hendry walk down the ramp and soak in the adulation from the WrestleMania crowd was enough to make you cry. All his hard work over the past year paid off like he always knew it would. While TNA die-hards would’ve liked Hendry to receive more offense, the match was worked well, and the finish was the funniest thing WWE has had on their program in a while. As a comedy break towards the end of a long weekend, and with Orton putting Hendry over as best as he can at the end of the match, it was everything it should be.
Final Rating: **1/2
Logan Paul vs. AJ Styles
The first horrid match of the night came from an unlikely source. AJ Styles and Logan Paul seemed like it should be a decent match-up on paper. Styles deserved more than his role as an excellent in-ring talent tasked with carrying Paul to a good match. The talent between the two men should’ve meant that it should’ve been at least watchable. It wasn’t.
Styles and Paul slogged through a slow and clunky match. It included none of the things that helped Paul excel in previous outings. There was no viral high-spot and the flying portions flowed poorly, something both men usually do well. The involvement from Jeff and Karrion Kross added nothing and was a poor finish to a flat match. I wonder if the babyface stupidly not using a weapon against a dastardly heel is foreshadowing for something later?
Final Rating: *
The Judgement Day vs. Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
The Man is home. Becky Lynch made her triumphant return to WWE, helping Lyra Valkyria battle The Judgement Day’s Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Morgan and Rodriquez dominated Valkyria for much of the match, keeping the crowd begging for Lynch to finally enter. The hot tag was great, and Lynch’s return was the biggest pop of the night. The win and working with Lynch should help Valkyria’s popularity with the fans. WWE continues to paint her as the heir apparent to Lynch, mirroring her two-belt status from years ago.
The match was fine but unspectacular, but the real problem comes with the booking. If the plan was for Lynch to tag with Valkyria from the beginning, why derail Bayley and Roxanne’s Perez? Leaving the latter on the NXT preshow and the former off the weekend entirely is unfair to two exceptional performers. Why have Valkyria and Bayler decimate the entire tag division if the team wasn’t even going to compete together for the titles? Both women are fine, ultimately. One or both may play into the story, but it’s a bad piece of booking and doesn’t do any of the women any good to treat their stories like this.
Final Rating: **
Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship
WWE needs to separate itself from celebrities. While WrestleMania is known for its celebrity involvement, Travis Scott playing a major role in the main event of WrestleMania is an insane piece of booking. It was nonsense when Jon Stewart cost John Cena his match against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2015. It was the worst part of Cena’s turn at Elimination Chamber in March. It’s the worst part of an already dreadful match here.
Cena embraced his new heel role well during the entrance and worked at a pace befitting a man who wants to ruin wrestling. The two men aren’t the greatest in-ring performers, but the already low expectations weren’t met. While there weren’t any egregious botches in the match, the two seemingly had no chemistry whatsoever. The nearly 22-minute runtime moved at a glacial pace, especially compared to other matches on the weekend.
The booking of the finish was atrocious. Scott appearing instead of The Rock is already a nonsense choice, but if it must be done, then the execution needs to be better. Scott took forever getting to the ring, exacerbating the frustration the fans felt with seeing him in the first place. He sold the Cross Rhodes well, and it was nice to see him get some comeuppance for his actions at Elimination Chamber, but everything else he was involved in looked like garbage.
The title belt spot mimicked the Paul/Styles match and was even more nonsensical and poorly executed here. Why, after his feud with Owens, and with the stakes and the intensity of the match so high, would Rhodes feel any hesitation about using the title to hit Cena? If he wasn’t going to use the title, why did he waffle for ages with the belt in his hand, making himself look like an utter idiot when Cena inevitably fought dirty in the process? This is how Rhodes’ first reign with a world title, a cathartic year-long reign that began after slaying the unconquerable beast that was Roman Reigns, ends? It’s an unsatisfying and, based on the prices and hype of the event, unacceptable way to end WrestleMania.
Cena facing Cody Rhodes for the WWE championship should’ve been the ultimate passing of the torch. The former face of the company is putting over the new top dog on the way out. It can still be that in the future, or Cena can put over a new star, but if the match is going to be as poor as this one was, does anyone even want to see it?
Final Grade: 1/2
Final Grade
Night two of WrestleMania 41 was fine. If night one and night two were episodes of RAW and SmackDown!, they would be below-average episodes of their weekly programming. That’s not good enough for WWE’s biggest show of the year. In a week mired with bad PR, WrestleMania needed to be great, but it didn’t even come close. The honeymoon for Triple H’s time at the head of WWE is over.
Final Rating: **
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