WWE Wrestlemania 42 N1 (4.18.26) review

April 18, 2026

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #14

We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada at Allegiant Stadium.

A quick look inside and they’ve been papering the arena so it doesn’t look as bad. You could still buy tickets for near the ring for $200 when the show started. The pricing structure was wrong. As was running Vegas two years in a row. We should be in New Orleans, having a nicer time. Hosts are Michael Cole and Wade Barrett.

Promo Time: John Cena

He’s the host of Wrestlemania this year. I watched his Mania match last year and told him he should retire and he did. Cena refers to “chaos” and claims tonight’s show is “polarising”, which means everyone thinks the card sucks.

Usos & LA Knight vs. Austin Theory, Logan Paul & IShowSpeed

Last year I saw Jey Uso’s singles push reach a climax, and I said he sucked and should go back to the tag teams and here we are. Can’t wait for next year as I’m predicting the main event of the show will be Max Fosh vs. Beard Meets Food. The more celebrities get on the show the less likely I have to sit through shit like the Usos and LA Knight though.

“We make movies”. Urgh. It’s ok to want to make your product cinematic, but this is awful looking shit. NWA in 1984. That was cinematic pro-wrestling. I like that when Speed tags in here he gets bullied. Make the non-wrestler look like a non-wrestler. Make this a challenge. It’s supposed to be hard. Speed does pull off a nice flying headscissors but it’s a defensive move. LA Shite then decks Theory with his finish with Speed just there not knowing what to do. Yeah, this wasn’t very good. *¼

Post Match: Logan Paul punches Speed and the babyfaces encourage Speed to put Logan through a table. It’s a bit early in the night to break the Spanish announce team’s table boys. What are they supposed to put their notes on for the next four hours. Twats.

You may wonder why I didn’t do this live. It’s because on the replay I can skip all the adverts and shit. About a quarter of the show is adverts. I ain’t watching that shit. I know what a Snickers is, I don’t need to be told about the peanut butter flavoured one. I literally trimmed an entire hour off the show this way.

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre

This could potentially be MOTN as it’s the only time the Fed have managed to put two good workers in the ring at the same time*. This match is “unsanctioned” but there’s a referee. I think the term they’re looking for is “no DQ”. Fatu goes for the SLIM JIM PRESENTS TABLE early. Selling space on your tables for spots is as bad as using doors instead because they’re cheaper.

*Main event aside but you know Pat McAfee and creative is ruining that shit.

Drew stops off to film himself kicking ass. That’s three Manias in a row he’s live tweeted. Take that, influencers. That’s how you do socials. They spend a lot of time faffing about with props without using them before the match kicks into a higher gear. The spot where Fatu gets pushed off through the table is a long time coming. It would have been better if they’d had the first guy out here setting stuff up while the other guy did his entrance. Instead of having them do goofy early selling. Moonsault through SLIM JIM PRESENTS TABLE finishes for Fatu. ***

That’ll probably be match of the night! A match that looked good on paper did deliver. I have a few issues with how they structured it but once it got going it was very good.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Nia Jax & Lash Legend (c) vs. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. Bella Twins

STEVEN FLOOOOOOWE. THOUGHTS ARRIVE LIKE BUTTERFLIES!

Nikki Bella wasn’t cleared to wrestle, and I assumed they’d just replace her with some random person. “Snatch that brass ring, brother”. “Ruthless aggression”. But no, instead we have…

To be fair, that gets a great pop. Her last match was October 2024. I would be immediately concerned about rust. She’s not been a regular pro wrestler in a decade. This is very untidy. At least Bayley & Lyra is an effective team. Charlotte looks very out of sorts. They give Paige a great sequence where she clears everyone out. It makes her look like a million bucks. RamPaige then puts Alexa Bliss away and holy shit, they put a belt on Paige on her first night back. A throwback to her original debut. The match was a right old mess.

Too many moving parts and it didn’t appear to have a coherent plan until they just gave up and let it become the Paige Show. Which, to be fair, worked. **¼. I wonder what the original plan was here? Bellas winning for a nostalgia pop?

Baby Yoda can’t bring himself to watch this.

WWE Women’s IC Championship

AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch

I must admit I didn’t even know they’d developed a women’s midcard belt. It’s mad that the Bellas, Paige and AJ Lee are all on this card. Immediately comms hit us over the head with a hammer regarding the booking as attention is drawn to the referee; Jessica Carr. Becky has accused her of bias. Lee hasn’t been a regular performer since 2014. The match quickly becomes about Lynch and Carr with AJ, who’s at her first Mania in 11 years, an afterthought.

It’s credit to AJ Lee that she looks very good here. It’s not easy to come back after a long time off. If anything it’s Lynch who looks off the pace. But then she has for a while now. Becky drags Jess in the way of a spot, runs AJ into the exposed buckle and hits the Rock Bottom for the win. Apart from grabbing the referee, which is a DQ, the timing on the finish was nice. **½. AJ Lee took some lovely bumps in this, including the finish. Legs over the head, landing square on the shoulders. Proper bumps.

Gunther vs. Seth Rollins

I love that Gunther just fucking kills Seth right from the bell. Rollins hasn’t worked a match in six months. He does look a bit rusty, and Gunther clonks him with big shots. Seth gets some hope spots but the strucure of the match is off. It’s too long, for starters. So, they have to artificially extend it with overselling way too early on. Barrett mentions it won’t be a “five star classic”. Why are we talking about star ratings on TV? Are you fucking nuts? I know RVD did it on ECW TV, but that was a very niche crowd.

Rollins has his big moment with a Pedigree, which looks ugly as sin, and the curb stomp gets two, because Wrestlemania. Seth tries a few stupid looking discus elbows so Gunther just smacks him with a lariat. I like Rollins getting his stupidiest shit shut down. Seth gets the choke and this time, unlike against Jey, Gunther doesn’t tap out like a little bitch. They do a really dumb powerbomb/pedigree spot on the announce table. The following curb stomp makes more sense and at least the crowd are into this.

Bron Breaker runs in and one spear on the floor has more impact than everything Gunther has done. Not to mention Gunther just took Seth’s finish into a table and just pops back up because it’s not the finish. Rollins gets choked out. Match is over. Some of this was very good but littered with stupidity. ***¼. Rollins has been consistently like this his whole career. Good matches that should be better because he can’t control his urges to do dumb stuff. Gunther has consistently had better matches than this in the fed because the other guys follow his lead. Seth just thinks he “knows better”.

Hall of Fame

Bad News Brown and Sid both went in this year but because they’re dead no one cares. Very sad. Demolition is fine, I guess. They only were around for a few years but had a big impact in the fed. Dennis Rodman? What the fuck? AJ Styles is fair. He went to the fed late in his career to get this spot. Stephanie McMahon though? Isn’t she still involved in this shit? Apparently, her speech was AN HOUR LONG at the ceremony. No one watches that shit anymore.

WWE Women’s Championship

Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan

Alarm bells were ringing the second they booked this. Liv has never been any good and shouldn’t be anywhere near a world title but especially not at Wrestlemania. Look at the matches the women’s division have put on in recent years. They’ve been show stealers. The division is so deep with so much talent in it. Why is Liv in a title match? I get that she tries hard, but everyone tries hard.

I’m also surprised they put Vaquer in this spot so quickly. Vacquer goes through the motions. Her in ring is very good but she’s lacking in personality. Even in selling a spot, she’s looking to get into position for what’s next. We’ve barely gotten going when we start getting run in’s. As someone who doesn’t watch their show, what’s happening here? Liv then accidentally hits a tope on her “colleagues”. What the fuck is that shit? Liv with a Codebreaker and Oblivion finishes. 6:51 on the clock. The entrances were longer. *

This was a badly put together match. Vaquer tried to carry her end and her execution was fine. So was Liv Morgan’s but the match just wasn’t very good. Did something overrun? It feels like this was rushed. What’s really annoying is that they did have the chemistry. This could have been a showstealer, which would have shut my mouth, but instead the company screwed them.