WWE Wrestlemania 41 N2 (4.20.25) review 

 

Night 1 was bad. Let’s be real here. Aside from the performance of Jacob Fatu and some of the main event, the whole thing fell very flat for the biggest show of the year. So, all eyes are on the ladies and gentlemen of N2. Cody Rhodes, John Cena, AJ Styles, Logan Paul, Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair and Randy Orton’s mystery opponent.  

 

Let’s do it. We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Travelling Raiders stadium. The Raiders are the MK Dons of the NFL. Actually, half the NFL is the MK Dons. Hosts are Michael Cole, Pat McAfee and Wade Barrett. Comms were ok on N1, and it’s gotten more relaxed and normal since Vince fucked off, but they did miss a few things. Honestly though, that makes it feel more organic. Normally they just beat you over the head with the storyline. This is better. 

 

 

We start with Stephanie McMahon, talking about Wrestlemania IX. The last time we were in Vegas. Oh hey, that show sucked! It’s the Vegas curse. Maggle gets back pats for doing 28 Wrestlemania’s. Imagine telling someone that in 1999? Frosty tips is going to be on these for nearly 30 years? Get the fuck outta here. 

 

WWE Women’s World Championship 

IYO SKY (c) vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair 

Iyo comes out first, proving that she’s considered an afterthought. This is the only match, all weekend, where everyone is great and therefore it has potential to steal the show. I love them firing stats at me here. Make it feel like a sport. You could argue whoever wins this match is the Women’s Ace of WWE.  

The LOOK on this woman. Tell me that’s not a star. There’s beef between Rhea and Bianca, which immediately leads to Iyo being upset about being ignored. Iyo struggles to make an impact, due to the size difference. They also struggle with three-way stuff and the match is better when two of them pair off. Bianca vs Iyo is brilliant. Every pairing has the potential to be a banger. There’s no escaping the awkwardness of the three-way bits. 

 

Iyo celebrating a spot and being knocked into next week by Bianca is quality though and the match definitely hits a higher gear. The big moves are countered rather than kicked out of and saves are made. I love that the Riptide and KOD both get countered, and Iyo then nails Bianca with a moonsault after she’s finally got the KOD done. I loved the lack of BIG MOVE/KICKOUT stuff here. It was very well put together and executed. Three great workers putting together a cracker. ****¼  

 

Easily better than everything on N1. The way it escalated was perfect. Iyo catching the pin when the other two were fighting each other makes perfect sense from a logical POV. Hands down the best match of the weekend. 24 hours ago, I was considering the future of WWE’s women’s division. Well, this is it. Rhea, Bianca and whoever they poach from Japan.  

 

Sin City Street Fight 

Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre 

Drew pulls out his comedic chops again and takes a selfie. I respect it.  

McIntyre is an incredible combination of persona, look and insane moves for a guy his size. He’s probably been short changed at the top end in WWE. I believe he can beat anyone in the company. If that makes sense. The plunder in this is a mixed bag. There’s a little too much setting up of spots and the best stuff, like Drew dodging a chair and hitting the Claymore, barely involves it.  

 

This match doesn’t have the cleverness of the last one and instead it follows the BIG MOVE/KICKOUT formula. I had forgotten how exhausting that formula is. Priest takes a tumble through a few tables and the Claymore into a chair, set up by Priest a few minutes earlier, finishes. There was a little too much ‘set up’ for the pay offs. I did like the pay offs, but rearranging furniture isn’t a good watch. Points for effort and the right guy won so ***¼  

 

This suffered from having to follow the outstanding opening match. The result was a need for extreme escalation of high spots just to get the crowd back. While it eventually worked there’s no escaping the feeling that they tried hard without delivering something memorable. Maybe I’m being harsh. Drew looked great. 

 

WWE Intercontinental Championship 

Bron Breakker (c) vs Finn Balor vs Dominik Mysterio vs Penta  

As with last night and Rey Fenix, it’s crazy seeing Penta lining up in the WWE. He’s an incredible talent but he just never felt like his crazy style would be a WWE fit. Hopefully they don’t tone these guys down. How many luchadores has this company fumbled over the years?  

 

Bron is the focal point of the match, as both the champ and the biggest stud in there. Given his moveset and presence, they could build around Bron as a star in this company. I would put him over Jey Uso tomorrow. Penta has unfortunately brought all his thigh slaps with him from the Indies. Given how they’ve stopped a lot of WWE guys from doing it, it’s even more obvious now.  

 

Dirty Dom is an interesting case study because he used to stink and now he moves like Eddie Guerrero. It’s a shame he’s never worked in Japan because he’s got potential to be really good. Dom going after the 619 on Finn gets a huge pop. Carlito interferes here and it makes sense because it stops silly kick outs. Balor looks like he’s going to win with several soft versions of his moves but Dom frogsplashes him for the win and the title. ***½ 

 

This was a fun match, and the right guy won, again. You just had to listen to the crowd to know who should have won. It boggles the mind how long the Judgement Day angle has been going. About time it ended. Bron should move on to bigger things. The match was well put together, on the whole, but occasionally went wonky.  

 

3/3 so far. A huge improvement over N1.  

 

Randy Orton vs.??? 

This was supposed to be Kevin Owens, who’s out for a year with a neck injury. Where the fuck is Sami Zayn by the way? He’s very conspicuous by his absence here. This is here to celebrate the career of Randy Orton. He’s a guy who I’ve criticised a lot over the years. Mainly for being boring. However, I do like how clinical he is in the ring. Not a lot of wasted movement. Everything looks clean. In the generation that followed him, things got a lot messier, and he looks better as time goes by. A mystery opponent has enormous potential to be tremendous fun.  

 

Randy Orton vs. Joe Hendry 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  

 

I’m sorry. I was expecting someone good. BWAHAHAHAHA. HE’S TNA CHAMPION? What nonsense is this? I thought they bottomed out with Moose but I’m happy to be proved wrong. I would legitimately have Orton squash him in a few seconds here. Just to prove that you cannot trust Cagematch, btw, Hendry’s rating on there is 7.86. If there’s ever a 4/10 wrestler in the business today, it’s Joe Hendry.  

 

Hendry, naturally, embarrasses himself. He looks so out of his depth. He was always passable as a joke wrestler but that’s the ceiling brother. The crowd are into him, for reasons I will never understand. RKO finishes in short order. DUD.  

 

The music that’s been playing all show, which I HATE, is by Travis Scott. I don’t know who that is* but happy to avoid him like the plague.  

 

*Just to reiterate I’m not doing a bit, I have no idea who this is. I had to google him to find out he was a rapper. When I heard the name mentioned with regards to the Cena heel turn, I thought he was a worker who’d been rebranded or something.  

 

AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul 

AJ has been in WWE for a decade now. A DECADE. It’s mad. Some people may even think of him as a “WWE guy”. I still think of him as an NWA Wildside guy. Logan Paul is a guy that amazed people when he first went into wrestling because he was a natural. He was doing things that looked fantastic for a beginner. Has he progressed? Seeing as he’s only had 18 matches, it’s no surprise that he’s not moved.  

 

Sign of the times: “Prime makes me gag”. Cole thinks people don’t like Logan Paul because they’re jealous. “Mediocre people love to fall in line” says Pat McAfee. Basically these cunts are saying the fans are to blame. It’s an American mentality that Wade Barrett clearly doesn’t understand.  

 

Anyway, AJ, despite his reduced mobility, wrestles circles around Paul. It makes Logan look like the one trick pony he is. AJ just walks Logan through everything. There is a distinct lack of trust. I don’t blame Styles. AJ is two years older than Orton. What’s really sad about Logan Paul is he’s had 18 matches, and he still looks like a better flier than Jey Uso.  

 

The match plods along, waiting for the next high spot. Logan doesn’t know what to do between them and AJ looks out of sorts. Unsure of how to bump for the unorthodox Logan spots. AJ isn’t as bad as Randy Savage in latter WCW years, but he has that same reduction in mobility and it shows in his spots. Styles is out of position for the Afterburner and he’s just not on it here. Yoga has done wonders in extending wrestlers careers and making their backs more flexible so they can keep taking bumps. However, when your knees go, you’re done. Ask Hiroshi Tanahashi.  

 

The match drags. We get a weird angle with “Jeff” one of Logan’s entourage and Karion Kross. Logan then hits his finish and puts AJ out of his misery. The crowd seem to have had enough of Logan Paul, and he should probably get out while the going is good. ** 

 

I don’t think you can blame Paul for having the worst match of his career here. AJ wasn’t on it, and they didn’t have much chemistry.  

 

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship 

Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs Lyra Valkyria & (not Bayley) 

Bayley is hurt and off the card. So, for the second time tonight we have a mystery worker. It isn’t Sasha Banks because she was wrestling in Doncaster this weekend. I wish I was joking. Based on earlier I’m guessing Jordynne Grace. However… 

 

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship 

Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs Lyra Valkyria & Becky Lynch 

Oh shit. That’s quite the mystery partner.  

Wade suggests Becky might be rusty and the opening exchanges look like proving him right. Luckily, Lyra looks great and is the star of the match. Becky is beaming looking at her perform. I love the mentor relationship. Lynch’s presence helps to make sure the crowd doesn’t sleep on the semi-main. This is the death spot they regularly dump the ladies into.  

 

Liv Morgan impresses me here. Her timing has improved, and her spots look a bit cleaner. She also does a good job of selling her fear of Lynch. Her bumps are still bad, but you can’t have it all. Lyra’s timing on her save of Becky is perfect though. She’s genuinely good. Not on the level of the three in tonight’s opener but she could provide competition for them. While I’m typing Lynch pins Liv for the belts. *¾  

 

A scrappy contest in the death spot. Using Lynch certainly gave it a boost, and it was nice to see two Irish gals celebrating. I’ve seen enough Irish celebrations to know that’s genuine.  

 

To warm the crowd up they bring out Steve Austin. He gobs the quad bike into the guardrail. Revenge for the Rikishi car attack. He has PTSD. Steve announces the attendance as 63,226. Up a couple thou on last night. Thankfully Austin doesn’t drive the quad bike out of here after sinking a few Steveweisers. He crashed it sober, he definitely shouldn’t be drink driving. Also, if I was comms, I wouldn’t sink a beer before the main event. Unless you’re wearing adult diapers. 

 

WWE Championship 

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. John Cena 

Cena turning heel perplexes me. They finally wanted him to be a babyface, in his last year in the biz, and he’s heel. I’m also looking at the time left on this show and there’s a LOT of time left. 40 minutes to be exact. Cena, at a push, has 15-20 in him MAX. Which means shenanigans.  

It doesn’t help that he looks like a confused old man out here.  

A marked contrast to “happy to be here” Cody Rhodes. Champion for the last year. Cena has 16 world titles, which means a win here puts him top of all time. Ahead of Ric Flair, who also sits on a (disputed*) 16 world titles. It’s a good start, as the crowd is molten, so the hard work is already done. They care. Let’s go. 

 

*WWE don’t include world title switches where Flair jobbed on house shows at the start of a tour and won it back at the end. They should. I have him at 20 world titles. 10xNWA, 8xWCW and 2xWWE. You could argue for 22, as he also held the WCW World International Championship x2, which was (kinda) a continuation of the NWA belt after WCW quit the NWA.  

 

Cena’s first bump is a concern. It looks bad. Cena has never been particularly good in the ring but at least his basics were ok. If AJ looked a little immobile earlier that’s NOTHING on Big Match John. He looks finished. He’s got nothing. Cody has to do everything. He’s throwing himself into bumps with multiple rotations, just to make clotheslines look passable. It’s a huge challenge for Cody.  

 

What Cena has always been lousy with is protecting the business. You can see him talking to Cody. The man has no craft, and he never has had any. I do like the ‘call it in the ring’ mentality because you can vibe off the crowd and it looks like less of a dance. However, at least TRY and hide it. Bret Hart spent the entire of the main event of Summerslam ‘92 talking to Davey and you can barely see it.  

 

The crowd are very pro-Cena as McAfee calls him “slow motion” because he’s so “methodical”. It’s clear the crowd are going to cheer him. Might as well have done a babyface match and had Cody work heel. Cena’s abysmal bumping continues. He looks beyond finished here. You’ve seen Wrestling with Shadows now watch Wrestling in Treacle.  

 

This match has all the BIG MOVE/KICKOUT nonsense that you normally associate with Wrestlemania. I guess it doesn’t matter with Cena, who is finished anyway, but there’s no building blocks in between. Cena’s mobility gets even worse as the match progresses. He’s so bad now. To follow the bad in-ring we get a terrible ref bump. Like everything Cena has done it’s in slo-mo.  

 

That shitty music kicks in and Travis Scott walks out here for some reason. Who is this guy? What on earth is this nobody doing in the main event of a Wrestlemania? This match is so bad that Antonio Inoki would run out here and call for the bell and send them to the back. It’s Luke Gallows bad. Cross Rhodes for the rapper. STOP PANDERING TO THESE Z-LIST CELEBRITIES. Chad Patton must have developed brittle bone syndrome to sell for this long.  

 

Cena with the low blow and the belt shot for the win. Claiming his final and record-breaking title number 17.  

 

This was one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen. Steve Corino and Al Snow had a match that was a parody of WWE matches in 1PW, and it lasted 45:00 and was the worst match I’ve ever seen. This gives it a run for its money by being a parody of big WWE matches at Wrestlemania.  

 

If we’re talking all-time awful, I’d probably still have to go Cage Tyler vs Kriss Sprules (“The Big Un in Wigan”, OPWO, 2005), which is much the same vein of match style. I would hate Cage, a close personal friend, to lose that top spot on my list. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to be compared to John Cena in any manner, although he was definitely the Cody Rhodes in that match. If Cody Rhodes loved recreational drugs instead of America and eagles and such.  

 

I feel bad for Cody who was the only competent person anywhere near this. I’ve always been a supporter of Cena. I liked him when he was being booed by people in his prime. He was always a decent worker. In putting on this match, he has done legitimate damage to his legacy. Whatever they had planned for him they should immediately jettison it. Have him retire. Tournament for the belt. As for creative; why did they think Cena could go for 25 minutes here when he’s been effectively retired since before Covid? Bizarre decision.  

 

The 411: 

If memory serves correctly, this started out pretty good, didn’t it? The opener was fire, and the first three matches all landed. Joe Hendry, Logan Paul and Travis Scott later and well, it’s not leaving a pleasant taste in the mouth. Coupled with the poor show yesterday and this has been a weak Wrestlemania overall. Only tonight’s opener will be going down in notebooks listing ‘all time good matches’ from Mania weekends and the overall feeling is that WWE has stopped caring about the product. Maybe because whatever they put on the WWE marks will cheer for. They cheered TRAVIS SCOTT here. Have a long hard look at yourselves in the mirror, lads.  

 

The suggestion that John Cena had a match that bad ON PURPOSE because he’s here to “ruin wrestling” beggars belief. He had a match that bad because he sucks now. It’s that simple. Anyway, hope you enjoyed Wrestlemania. It is a wonderful time of the year. I’m sad I didn’t get to experience the whole shebang in 2025, but circumstances were against it. I have promised to review Joey Janela’s Spring Break so there may be a few reviews coming from me during the week but I’m not watching 32 shows this year. Apologies. Maybe 2026.  

 

Much love,  

AF