Wrestlemania 42 N2 (4.19.26) review 

 

April 19, 2026 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #16 

 

We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada at Allegiant Stadium. Hosts are Michael Cole and Wade Barrett. John Cena comes out, but it’s just to introduce the opener. We ain’t fucking around here. Good. Let’s have a tight 2h show boys.  

 

Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar 

Oba is a big fella, but Brock has obliterated lots of big fellas. We get a pleasing amount of LARGE MEN BARRELLING INTO EACH OTHER. Brock starts to run through his usual, but Oba no sells the F5. Boy, I bet Undertaker is thrilled watching that. Sit out powerbomb from Oba and he actually beats Lesnar in less than five minutes. I had a great time here. Is this better than anything on N1? **½  

 

As in better booked, not star ratings etc. I want my matches to be quick and cool. This served the purpose. To be honest, Brock Lesnar is an old man now. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that.  

Brock leaves his boots in the ring. It’s over. Go out while you can still go. He got to go out on a good match too. One can only assume he’ll be doing a retirement speech tomorrow then heading into the Hall of Fame next year.  

 

Ladder Match 

WWE Intercontinental Championship 

Penta (c) vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Je’von Evans vs. JD McDonut vs. Dragon Lee vs. Rusev 

I generally hate ladder matches. Your mileage may vary, but once you’ve seen a bunch of dumb ladder spots, you’ve seen them all. My highlight is Cole accidentally saying “fart” on commentary. Credit to Rusev, he does one of the most natural ladder set up spots I’ve ever seen. Dropping the ladder as he’s caught, it falls propped up on the ropes and then backdropping McDonut onto it. As Evans nails a springboard to take out a quickly climbing McDonut and Rey hits a ladder sandwich 619, I’m suddenly enjoying myself. What are the odds?  

Rusev then starts setting spots up and, ok, it sucks again. He should have just climbed the ladder. The obvious usual issues of guys just lying around doing nothing while two people work proliferate the match. Evans’ big moment requires Rusev to dive off a ladder to take a cutter in mid air. If he’d just stayed on the ladder Evans would have ate shit on that. Anyway, Penta pulls his belt down to retain. This is one of the better ladder matches of recent years. A lot of well thought out spots. Some obvious issues still, but it gets a pass. ***¼  

 

I need logic to be applied to these things, and one of my main beefs is with moving furniture around. I did like that they tried to avoid that, but Rusev setting up a ladder when he could have just gone up and got the belt made no sense. The spot work was clean and crisp. Two for two on the show, which is nice. N2 was much better last year too.  

 

We get some clips from last night and I’m only talking about it because of Cody getting hurt. Orton accidentally caught Cody in the eye near the end of the match and then helpfully belt shotted him and punted him in the same spot. His eye was swollen shut, which I didn’t notice because of the blood. He’s got a broken orbital bone and is going to miss substantial time.  

 

WWE United States Championship 

Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams 

For a moment, I thought we were getting a wedding ceremony. And here comes the blushing bride. Trick is a very dancey, thigh slappy worker. I didn’t like him in NXT, and I was hoping they’d train some of the crap out of him, but it didn’t happen. He’s not remotely convinving. Sami decks Lil Yappy, a rapper who corners Trick. I’m sure this leads to a tag match or something. The selling in this is diabolical. Sami runs into Trick’s high knee and that’ll do it. This fucking sucked. Sami tried really hard, but you can’t polish a turd. ½* 

 

Dominik Mysterio vs. Finn Balor 

Balor is working as the demon here, a throwback to the last time he was cool. I can sum this up with one spot. Dom doing stomps on Balor. He misses two of them, out of four. That just demonstrates that they’re not on the same page. There’s a lot of other moments where they don’t click, for whatever reason. All the plunder spots feel clunky. Dom has a little trouble with SLIM JIM PRESENTS TABLE. Coup de Grace (which Michael Cole still cannot pronounce) through a table finishes. Yeah, this didn’t work at all. Much like the Balor-Edge HIAC at Mania the one year. *¼  

 

WWE Women’s Championship 

Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley 

The champ goes out first. Historically, that’s bad news Jadey. Although Cargill is currently unbeaten at Wrestlemania. Cargill has always had the aura, the presence and the persona to be one of the biggest stars in wrestling history. However, her in-ring has never been very good and isn’t getting better. She just can’t get the timing down. Rhea is almost able to work around her. She waits for Jade to get into the right position and then busts out the freaky athleticism. Whenever it’s on Jade, the match struggles to reach a minimum standard for this level.  

 

She has so many flaws, it’s hard to know where to start the criticism. Her movements around the ring, basic wrestling stuff, aren’t good enough. Her bumps are bad. With the match sinking fast we get run ins on the floor. Jade just looks confused by it all. Jade struggles with the reversals at the end, and Rhea gets Riptide to win the belt. Hopefully that’s the end of that experiment. Jade isn’t good enough to be in this spot. It is painfully obvious. Great carry job from Rhea here but still not a good match. * 

 

Promo Time: John Cena 

He’s out here for the attendance announcement. 55,255. It’s up 5k on yesterday but still down on N1 last year let alone N2 last year. The Miz joins us because he wants a Wrestlemania moment. Cena no sells the guy in pink. I actually don’t know who he is. They’re interruped by Danhausen. Oh no.  

“How can you not like Danhausen?” – Cole. Oh, very, very easily. Miz is all like “what the fuck is this shit?” Pink trunks jobber guy gets beaten up by midgets. Miz ends up getting carried out by the little people. This was shithausen.  

 

WWE World Championship 

CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns 

Holy shit, they stumped up for Punk’s ROH entrance music for the video package! That’s pretty cool. You can see Punk in the back smiling. He got Miseria Cantare by AFI.  

This might actually be the coolest entrance in Mania history. It’s amazing. I wonder if they asked Pepsi Phil on his input for that.  

Barrett thinks Punk is always in the head of his opponents. Two words for you, mate; “real glass”.  

While this feels slow paced, like yesterday’s main event, they explore the ringside area and there’s no dumb injury stuff. They also have a great spot where Roman does his whole “OOOOHHHHHAAAAA” and Punk running knees him in the face. I’ve often wondered why no one did that. Roman even gives out that loud warning that it’s happening. 

Punk also takes too long on an obvious dive spot, and they cut it off. There’s some logic at play. I respect it. Punk blades and we have juice in both main events! Yes! Bring back blood and guts wrestling. They go to the near falls and fatigue selling. The crowd like it. It’s fine. It’s what people expect from an epic Wrestlemania main event now. The only rough part is Punk lifting the Superman punch. Look, it’s a terrible spot already.  

The match feels tense. Like it has real weight to it. Like the outcome matters. The crowd are biting on everything. There’s a nice sustained reaction to everything, which is how you know you’ve got them. The selling gets a bit wonky here, but such is wrestling. I like how they’re both fucked after the table spot. Punk selling the blood loss and exhaustion. Roman hits a spear and that’s it.  

 

I like that Punk got to have this match. A genuinely good, well structured Wrestlemania main event. It made sense, mostly, and kept the bullshit at arms length. No run ins, no nonsense. Just two guys beating on each other until one just couldn’t stand anymore. ****¼.  

 

 

The 411: 

Way better than N1. The main event being the best match of the weekend is ideal. The undercard was a mixed bag but with more useful stuff than bad stuff. I could have done without Trick Williams and Jade Cargill but with no women to steal the show, the focus was fully on the main event, and it delivered. It had to. I get the feeling Punk could have done an even better version of this match a few years ago. There’s no disguising his shortcomings now, but they had a damn good try, and it played into the psychology of the match.  

 

Show Ranking:   

WWE Wrestlemania N2 7.8  

NJPW Death Vegas 7.5  

Wrestlecon Supershow 6.3   

HOG Culture Clash 6.1 

MLP Multiverse 5.9  

Dragon Gate USA: Gate of Sin City 5.8   

Progress 5.6   

Bloodsport 5.5  

Spring Break 5.2  

Ladies Night Out 16 4.5   

Hybrid x PWU Midnight Xpress 4.1   

MDK Fight Club 4.0   

Wrestlemania N1 3.8  

CCW High Rollers 3.4   

Podermania~! 3.1  

Juggalos 2.2   

  

Best Matches:   

Tremont & Gage vs. Takeda & Yamashita vs. Desperado & Kasai (NJPW Death Vegas) ****¼   

Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk (Wrestlemania N2) ****¼  

Bandido vs. Amazing Red (HOG Culture Clash) **** 

Zack Sabre Jr vs. Fuminori Abe (NJPW Death Vegas) ***¾   

Mark Davis vs. Masato Tanaka (Wrestlecon Supershow) ***¾   

Man Like Dereiss vs. Michael Oku (Progress) ***½   

Tim Thatcher vs. Charlie Dempsey (Bloodsport) ***½  

Gisele Shaw vs. Persephone vs. Killer Kelly vs. Shotzi Blackheart (MLP) ***¼  

Gunther vs. Seth Rollins (Wrestlemania N1) ***¼  

Manders vs. Thomas Shire (Hybrid/PWU) ***¼   

IC ladder match (Wrestlemania N2) ***¼  

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre (Wrestlemania N1) *** 

Bandido vs. Galeno del Mal (Wrestlecon Supershow) ***  

Hechicero vs. Jonathan Gresham (MLP) *** 

Perry & Stunt vs. Stackhouse & Orso (Spring Break) *** 

Charles Mason vs. Michael Oku (HOG Culture Clash) *** 

Ben K & Hyo vs. Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr vs. Jordan Oliver & Alec Price (DGUSA) ***  

Fuminori Abe vs. Erick Stevens (Bloodsport) *** 

 

Sandman vs. Invisible Man (Spring Break) 

  

Matches watched: 131 

Number of coffees drunk; 10 

Number of Geoguessr seeds played as a welcoming distraction: 9 

Number of motivational/tactical Irn Bru’s drunk: 5