WrestleMania 41 - Nights 1&2 -- Results & Afterthoughts
WrestleMania 41 - Nights 1&2 -- Results & Afterthoughts
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WrestleMania 41, also promoted as WrestleMania Vegas, was a 2025 professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It was the 41st annual WrestleMania and took place as a two-night event on Saturday, April 19, and Sunday, April 20, 2025, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. This was the second WrestleMania to take place in the Las Vegas area, after WrestleMania IX in 1993, which was held at Caesars Palace. The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.
This was the first WrestleMania to livestream on Netflix in most international markets as the platform began a 10-year rights deal with WWE in January 2025. This was the first WrestleMania held during Easter weekend and the first WrestleMania to feature a match with CM Punk since WrestleMania 29 in 2013, which included the first WrestleMania main event of his career. The event also featured John Cena's final WrestleMania match due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.
The card comprised a total of 14 matches, evenly divided between each night. In the main event for Night 1, which was a cross-promotional match, Raw's Seth Rollins defeated Raw's CM Punk and SmackDown's Roman Reigns in a triple threat match, which saw Paul Heyman turn on both Punk and Reigns to side with Rollins. In other prominent matches, Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight to win SmackDown's WWE United States Championship, Tiffany Stratton defeated Charlotte Flair to retain SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Jey Uso defeated Gunther by submission to win Raw's World Heavyweight Championship.
In the main event for Night 2, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes to win SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship, marking his record 17th WWE world championship. In other prominent matches, Dominik Mysterio defeated previous champion Bron Breakker, Finn Bálor, and Penta in a fatal four-way match to win Raw's WWE Intercontinental Championship, Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest in a Sin City Street Fight, and in the opening bout, which was a cross-promotional match, Raw's Iyo Sky defeated SmackDown's Bianca Belair and Raw's Rhea Ripley in a triple threat match to retain Raw's Women's World Championship.
WrestleMania 41 Night 1 (April 19, 2025)
Match Results:
WrestleMania 41 Night 1 (April 19, 2025)
Match Results:
Singles Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Jey Uso defeated Gunther (c) by submission
Frosted Yeets cereal on sale over WrestleMania weekend.
I, much like a LOT of people, were expecting absolutely nothing but a stinker here in terms of match quality coming from Jey Uso, especially when we have his previous singles performances to use as a barometer to go by. Jey looked like he was gassed by the time he even got to the goddamn ring after running down all of those flights of stairs. This was passable in terms of a match, but I thought Gunther was FAR too giving in this match. The tale of the tape for this match had Jey wearing Gunther down with his own offense used against him. As a result, this story came off pretty lame to me and I could tell the audience wasn't feeling it either by the dead silence at multiple points during this match. I can’t speak for anyone else but I definitely didn't have Jey winning via submission on my WM41 bingo card. Gunther tapping out to Jey Uso of all people in three seconds officially stripped him of his WALTER status in my book. Big Homie is going to have to do something major to earn his WALTER name back with me.
To Jey Uso’s credit, this match wasn’t a trainwreck, so that’s something. That being said, we all knew Jey was winning this belt tonight or those fans in attendance would be lighting the seats on fire otherwise, so WWE didn’t have any conceivable way out of this without pissing people off to kick off WrestleMania. They already robbed “Main Event Jey Uso” of the main event on BOTH nights of this show, so it would have been the nail in the coffin if he lost to Gunther for the third time in a row. There was no way around this outcome, so I really can’t be mad about Gunther dropping the belt to Jey here. Let’s give the guy a chance, much like Kofi Kingston at the height of KofiMania and see where this goes. It’s nut cutting time now, Jey, so you can’t phone it in anymore. This is where you define how people are going to be looking at your first big singles run. I just hope for his sake that WWE doesn’t drop the ball with his booking going forward.
Alternatively, I wish WWE went with the story of John Cena having to find the means of dethroning the unstoppable monster and unmovable object that is Gunther for the coveted 17th World title. Sure, the heel turn that was at least a decade too late was cool to see happen but with the lackluster follow-up in terms of what we have gotten afterwards hasn’t been worth the effort in my humble opinion.
Tag Team Match for the World Tag Team Championship
The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) defeated The War Raiders (Erik and Ivar) (c) by pinfall
Another average match but the longer this went on the more I felt sorry that MCMG were robbed of their first WrestleMania stage/moment. Did we REALLY need another New Day title reign tonight that couldn't wait until the week after WrestleMania? While I’m glad that the War Raiders have gone back to their War Machine roots that got them the attention of WWE to get hired in the first place and are far removed from that Viking Experience shit that Vince McMahon was booking for them, I didn’t feel like anyone would be losing any sleep over the lack of them on this card when the tag titles over on SmackDown actually had a bigger and better dynamic going on in terms of feuds over that title. WWE had several months to do something of merit with this New Day heel/relaunch after giving Big E the boot. Now wasn’t the time to give them the participation award to make up for their piss poor booking leading up to this point.
Singles Match
Jade Cargill defeated Naomi by pinfall
This match felt like on the job training for Jade at points of this match. Jade still needs some polish and work on her game. I get that they want to keep her on the main roster as you can’t deny someone with her star power and presence, but she really needs to be down at the Performance Center. She’s nowhere as bad as Lash Legend when she first started nor as abysmal to watch as Lei’D Tapa or Shaniqua, but if she is going to be on the main roster, she needs to be able to work matches without being guided through all of the steps as if all of her opponents are boy/girl scouts leading Grandma Moses across the street during heavy traffic. If they were going to insist on doing this, then I don’t see why they split her up from tagging with Bianca. She was clearly learning more in those matches and she was a lot easier to protect and hide the weaknesses in her game. A singles match like this - one that went on far longer than it should have - only puts Jade underneath the microscope and that is something you don’t need to be doing when she is obviously one of your next big stars from looks alone. Anyone with a pair of functioning eyes can tell that a lot of her spots are being rehearsed instead of her instinctively knowing what to do. Almost everything she does looks "staged" or mapped out/memorized. I will admit that Jade executed a very impressive falling powerbomb finish even though that could have gone SOO badly for Naomi if she didn't catch her in time.
Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t expect any involvement from Bianca here as I figured that they are saving the continuation of this storyline for AFTER WrestleMania.
Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship
Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight (c) by pinfall
I feel like a broken record saying that these first three matches weren’t bad, but I swear, after seeing Jade/Naomi literally minutes before this match, I was tired of seeing people trying to do convoluted spots on the top rope. It was even worse seeing people take an eternity on the top rope to get into the perfect position to perform said move without a margin of error and remove all doubt for the viewers that this is completely “fake” and choreographed with open cooperation instead of simulated violence with some degree of disbelief and illusion that these two guys actually hate each other and this is a competitive contest.
At this point, I believe that the US title is snakebit. Nakamura had a lackluster reign before LA Knight did him a favor and dethroned him for it now fast forward a few months later and now Jacob Fatu is extending the same courtesy to Knight. Knight needs a solid program/feud to sink his teeth into and this is clearly isn’t it. Nothing against either of these guys, but this match felt like something that should have been on free television the weeks leading up to this PLE instead of on the main card. At the end of the day, I’m glad to see Jacob Fatu winning singles gold, but at the same time, I’m wondering where the rest of the Bloodline go from here. That storyline hasn’t been colder than it ever has than it is right now. Sure, you got Jey Uso, Roman Reigns, and Jacob Fatu involved in these matches, but the bigger Bloodline storyline that was the focal point of everything going on in WWE is at a standstill outside of the dilemma with who Paul Heyman is going to align himself with.
Singles Match
El Grande Americano defeated Rey Fénix by pinfall
Rey Fenix was named as the last minute replacement for Rey Mysterio due to injury during the impromptu 6-Man Tag Team Match from SmackDown on the night prior. It was a solid match for both performers with Grande stealing the win with a "loaded" mask after he snuck in a steel plate to protect himself. First he got a cheap shot by blocking an incoming kick from Fenix and promptly laid him out with a loaded headbutt then a Diving Benoit style one for the finish. AAA Superstar Vikingo would help Fenix up to his feet post-match. IMHO this was the best pure wrestling match up to this point until the gimmicky stuff for the finish.
I’m not overly crazy about this El Grande Americano stuff with Chad Gable as of late, but it’s getting great matches and exposure for both Gable AND the lucha libre talents on the roster, so I guess that’s something. To say that this was a zero hour decision to give Rey Fenix a WrestleMania spot on this card due to Rey’s impromptu injury, he definitely made the most of the opportunity. Watching live I was questioning the decision of having Grande go over, but after reflecting on it in the days after the fact, it works. Given WWE’s new acquisition of AAA, maintaining heat with this character will gardner a wealth of new opponents for him to face down the road.
Singles Match for the WWE Women's Championship
Tiffany Stratton (c) defeated Charlotte Flair by pinfall
I thought Tiffy was losing for sure as she had "boo boo job face" on during Charlotte's entrance but then when they got into the ring, Charlotte was looking depressed or something. Whatever is going on with her she definitely needs help - therapy or whatever needed to get her head back into the game and her life back in order. She obviously has some demons to work through. I hate to say it but this match suffered a lot as a result, much like the build leading up to it. Whether you love or hate her, Tiffany Stratton is the future and Charlotte Flair needs to be doing her part to groom her for that role. Charlotte is the veteran and supposed to lead this thing to the best of her ability, but this match fell apart in a lot of spots, especially during the end where it was clear that Charlotte was sandbagging in terms of final moments of the match.
This was another match where I didn’t think that it was god-awful, but it was just passable enough to keep things interesting. I think more people were interested in seeing this match after their shoot interview and in-ring promos just to see if this was going to devolve into a legitimate brawl and shoot fight between the two ladies. In one aspect, I feel sorry for Tiffany when this was supposed to be one of her biggest dream matches in terms of WrestleMania opponents and it has been a disaster in terms of booking and delivery of these segments. This match was nowhere as bad as could have been, but it definitely wasn’t as good as it should have been either.
WWE made the right decision to keep the title on Stratton as we don’t need to have yet another WrestleMania where Charlotte walks in, beats the next up and coming star and kills their confidence - along with the confidence and faith from the fans in the process. Rhea Ripley showed amazing resilience to bounce back from her loss to Charlotte during the COVID-19 era. If that was any other woman on that roster at the time, I dare say that she would not have been able to bounce back as well as she did nor as quickly and as a bigger star than she was then. I still feel like Asuka hasn’t been the same since their encounter, even though Asuka is still one of their most formidable women on that roster.
Triple Threat Match
Seth Rollins defeated CM Punk (with Paul Heyman) and Roman Reigns by pinfall
Before I talk about the match itself, I have to talk about the entrances for this main event. Seth Rollins came out first in a black attire and carrying a flamethrower to set things on fire to the theme of his “Burn It Down!” lyrics to his entrance theme. The lights fade to black only to illuminate in blinding white lights to reveal that Rollins has changed into his iconic white “CrossFit Jesus” attire for this match. In comparison, Roman Reigns’ entrance is pretty standard fare, even though I was shocked at the lack of boos for his open support for current President Donald Trump. I was expecting the live Vegas crowd to turn on him much like they did to Hulk Hogan (and rightfully so for his racist remarks) during the Monday Night RAW Netflix debut. The Tribal Chief was welcomed with open arms like usual, but it was painfully aware that he was alone coming into this match. It was down to the point where Roman had to crown himself with the ula fala and remove it on his own once he got into the ring. It’s very ironic that Cody’s prophecy for Roman Reigns one year ago has come to pass in every capacity following this match. Before CM Punk even came out, WWE aired an excellent video package chronicling his rise from his beginnings in ECW to his career highlights in WWE and returning back two years ago for this current run. In Living Color plays CM Punk to the ring, who is wearing his classic yellow/black/white attire while walking out with Paul Heyman.
As for this match, this was easily the best thing of the entire evening. It was a strong contender for best of the entire weekend if the ladies triple threat that opens Night 2 wasn’t in the conversation. On the surface, this was booked like any Roman Reigns match over the past 2-3 years if we can be perfectly honest as most were waiting on the angle/story twist at the end. WWE made it bloody obvious that Paul Heyman was going to screw over Roman Reigns AND CM Punk in some capacity, we just needed to see how it was going to pan out in this match. I have to give credit where it’s due as Busted Open Radio called it several weeks ago by pitching a scenario where Heyman aligns himself with Seth Rollins. I never scoffed at the idea as I went into this show wondering what was left for Rollins in terms of direction once this feud/match was over. Roman and Punk have at least 101 potential feuds. If they didn’t do something with him here, then he was going to be just twisting in the wind, much like Drew McIntyre following his last feud with CM Punk.
I will say that I was disappointed in what Punk’s favor ended up being during the build to this match after all of the hype and secrecy behind it. I had the same reaction of Reigns when he revealed that he merely wanted Heyman to accompany him to this match and uttered, “THAT’S IT!!!???” Did anyone think about the scenario of how this could have played out if Rollins and Roman weren’t even in this match to begin with? Remember, Punk made this deal with Heyman BEFORE the Rumble and Elimination Chamber, so there was absolutely no way that he knew that he would lose both of those opportunities to main event WrestleMania nor how this would work out in the end for him in the first place. On top of that, if Rollins has been in league with Heyman all of this time, then why did he agree to including Punk in this main event in the first place? Last but not least, why does having Heyman standing in the corner of his enemy threaten Roman now when he allowed Paul to stand with Solo when he was abusing his power in the New Bloodline last year? Roman cares more about that ula fala more than Heyman, with their relationship showing that Heyman is in service/in-debt to Reigns and his Bloodline above all else. Once you start thinking about all of this, it doesn’t make not a lick of goddamn sense if we don’t kid ourselves.
Much like a lot of WrestleMania builds and feuds this year, all of that story really didn’t matter in terms of getting us here. When the bell rang and they started this dance, that’s where this match was firing on all cylinders. This was a match that played to everyone’s strengths and called back to all parties’ respective histories while at the same time, containing all of the components for a WrestleMania classic. For a lot of this, I honestly forgot that Heyman was even standing at ringside since the near-falls were so good. That Spear being countered into a Pedigree from Rollins was a thing of beauty. When we got to that infamous three way knockout sequence that resulted in Punk, Reigns, and Rollins all being laid out is where this story concluded. We saw Heyman grabbing a steel chair, only to be conflicted with who he was going to hand it to. He would slide it over to Punk and help him to his feet, only to low blow him before Punk could strike down Roman Reigns. Roman beams with pride and beats the hell out of Punk with the steel chair. Rollins began to stir and Heyman directed Roman’s attention to him. Roman lines up the chair shot, only for Heyman to low blow his Tribal Chief in the same manner, only to hand the steel chair to Rollins. And we get that infamous Shield betrayal chair shot to Roman Reigns’ spine for literally the second time in the past 3-5 years. Like bruh, start wearing the vest again if this many people are going to keep giving you raw unprotected chair shots to your spine like that. Rollins picks up the win here shortly thereafter and that’s the end of Night 1.
Even though Heyman’s betrayal was predictable and heavily telegraphed, I was pleased with this match as a whole. Punk seemed to be pleased with it too as he was smiling while speaking to the referee who was leaning over to check on him following the finish.
WrestleMania 41 Night 2 (April 20, 2025)
Match Results:
WrestleMania 41 Night 2 (April 20, 2025)
Match Results:
Triple Threat Match for the Women's World Championship
Iyo Sky (c) defeated Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley by pinfall
Going into this show, this was the match I was dreading in terms of fearing that WWE is going to throw Iyo underneath the bus in terms of either scrapping Rhea AGAIN or keeping Bianca's undefeated streak at WrestleMania intact. I'm glad that WWE didn't go with either of them as Iyo has been a complete afterthought in this feud and build from the start since she pulled the upset to dethrone Rhea in the first goddamn place on the Monday Night RAW after Elimination Chamber.
Bell-to-bell, this was easily the best match of the entire night. Absolutely no contest. If I had any minor complaint about this match is that they were going for the same amount of convoluted spots on the top rope as people in the matches on Night 1 that was taking far too long to ruin my own suspension of disbelief. Stuff like that annoys me and ruins my immersion into the match. I get that people have to take their time and do this stuff safely but if it's that complicated then maybe they shouldn't be doing it at all. That being said, the whole setup exchange for the finish was done masterfully. As soon as they left Iyo on the top rope, I knew where they were going and LOVED it.
Sidenote: WWE should be ashamed at that statistic that Iyo FINALLY broke the curse of Japanese talents losing at WrestleMania for 27 years straight until now.
(Laughs) With this loss, I think NOW Bianca will finally return Naomi's calls. I still don't believe that Bianca is so innocent when it came to orchestrating the attack on Jade. They left it open on SmackDown that there's more to this story. Jade is coming off as a dumb ass for not questioning Bianca sooner and getting to the bottom of this.
Sin City Street Fight
Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest by pinfall
Everyone who I spoke to while watching this match live seemed to love it, but I was pretty indifferent to this match as I wasn't personally invested either way. Drew and Priest deserved something more on this card in terms of their success over the past calendar year, especially in McIntyre's case, but this was already a stacked card to begin with. Sadly, this felt like a nothing match even with the grudge match build and stipulation attached to it. I thought the finish fell flat, but reports online are saying that Priest was legitimately injured at some point of the match hence why they rushed the finish.
I'm fine with not seeing another match between these two as they should be gunning for more singles gold. This match wasn't a stinker, but much like everything with Priest following his split from the rest of Judgment Day, it's not clicking. Unlike with Rhea Ripley, she HAD to distance herself from the rest of the group as she was overshadowing the rest of them with her star power. In Priest's case, he was already standing in her shadow and stepping away from the rest of the Judgment Day just magnified his shortcomings since he didn't have anyone else to fall back on. In all honesty, I don't know what he can do to fix it either. He definitely doesn't need to be joining another group already, but it wouldn't hurt that he has some time off television for a while with this potential injury. It would give him sometime to figure out how he wants to proceed forward.
Fatal Four-Way Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Dominik Mysterio defeated Bron Breakker (c), Finn Bálor, and Penta by pinfall
This was my second favorite match on Night 2. This combination of Superstars made for some exciting exchanges in this match. I thought Penta definitely shined in his first WrestleMania appearance while Breakker doesn't lose any of his luster in a loss here. I thought that ringside spear spot on Carlito was hilarious even though he didn't get all of it on the impact, but Carlito sold it like death anyway. Dom and Finn working together contributed well to the story as Dom's pending betrayal wasn't as blatantly obvious as the deciding factor to the match that Stacks' own was on NXT Stand & Deliver. Penta didn't feel like an afterthought either and managed to hold his own to prove that he belonged in this environment. Ultimately, this was Dom's match to win when he screwed Finn out of the win to take it for himself. Let's be honest here. Dom, Liv, and Raquel staying with Judgment Day this long was more for Finn's benefit more than anyone else in that group, especially after Rhea and Priest left. Finn and JD could easily form their own group while Dom, Liv, and Raquel could do their own thing with Carlito possibly as their 4th member unless they want to continue playing up the comedy bits with him. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this iteration of Judgment Day split up. I think the only person who is going to be broken up about is going to be R-Truth.
Singles Match
Randy Orton defeated Joe Hendry by pinfall
This was an open challenge, due to Kevin Owens' removal from this match due to injury.
This was the second thing that was NOT on my WrestleMania 41 bingo card: the TNA World Champion competing on a WrestleMania card. Boy do we live in crazy times currently with wrestling. First, WWE announces that they have "acquired" AAA and doing a Worlds Collide event with them where NXT and AAA talent will be going head to head and now we have this. I'm not even going to sugarcoat this but this was pretty much a burial - all in good fun. Not going to lie though, I'm surprised that TNA would even sign off on this, especially when it buried their World Champion six feet under. This was up there as bad as that time FTR got jobbed out to all of the members of D-Generation X during one of their many reunions on WWE programming. That being said, Joe Hendry got his WrestleMania moment - another in the line of many appearing on WWE programming over the past year, first on NXT, then Royal Rumble, and now this show.
Singles Match
Logan Paul defeated AJ Styles by pinfall
In terms of match quality, this was a great match as Styles and Paul have great in-ring chemistry. Then again, if you can't have a great match with AJ Styles then something is CLEARLY wrong. This was another great match among many on this card, but the only thing that ruined it from me ranking it higher among the best that we saw over this weekend was the finish.
Karrion Kross coming out and offering the brass knuckles to Styles after stealing them from Paul's cohort was a massive waste of time. I don't get what WWE has been doing with this whole "devil on your shoulder" gimmick for Kross following his Final Testament faction being dissolved, but it screams of WWE not knowing what to do with him. He and Scarlett have a presence and aura that demands that should be doing something of value in this company and it's a shame that they aren't higher on this card. I don't know what know what they should be doing either, but maybe a move back down to NXT would be in order, especially when that roster is lacking in quality main eventers. Do like Jim Ross was known for telling talents, "Go away for a while and learn a new hold."
As for Styles, a loss to Paul doesn't hurt him at all as I could see CM Punk in this spot in a few more months or better yet, even next year. They teased it in the Royal Rumble and I'm honestly surprised that he didn't end up in this spot this year if I'm perfectly honest. If he wasn't sidelined last year and missed out on his WrestleMania main event for plans to be reshuffled to work that out this year, then him and Paul could have been doing this dance instead. It's scary on how good Paul is to say that he only does this part-time. Imagine how good he would be if he would committ himself to professional wrestling full-time. I don't have to like Logan Paul as a person to respect that guy's incredible knack for this.
Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch defeated Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez (c) by pinfall
I had several friends inform me that Bayley was "injured" (kayfabe) due to an attack and Lyra was given 24 hours to find a new partner for this match. The obvious choice was Becky Lynch, especially when she was shown on camera attending the 2025 Hall of Fame ceremony Friday evening. I honestly groaned when she came out because this was another one of those faux returns after said talent said that they are "done" wrestling. The return of The Man put WWE in a rough spot as they couldn't make her lose her first match back, so Liv and Raquel had to drop the titles to Lyra and Becky. This match wasn't god-awful or anything, but I didn't see the point in having Lyra pick up ANOTHER title when WWE's booking hasn't had her do all of shit with that Women's Intercontinental title that she won earlier this year. Let's not forget that NEITHER Lyra nor Chelsea Green (the current reigning Women's United States Champion) did NOT defend their titles on this show. Instead, they saddle Lyra with another title just hammer home that WWE doesn't give a damn about any "established" teams in this Women's Tag Team division and prefers these makeshift half-assed teams that are cooked up on a whim. I hope they lose those titles right back to Liv and Raquel this following week after 'Mania or at the next PLE.
I will add this much though. Charlotte Flair came back looking like she was hit by gamma rays while Becky Lynch came back here looking as frail as she did when she left eleven months ago. I'm not trying to be funny but is she sick or just not putting on muscle weight anymore like Adam Cole?
Bayley revealed in a recent interview that she was pretty much snubbed off the WrestleMania 41 card in favor of Becky Lynch. Talk about disrespecting the hardest working woman out of the Four Horsewomen. Bayley only has a year and a half remaining on her current WWE contract, so I wouldn't be surprised if she joins Sasha/Mercedes Mone over in AEW once that's up. It is painfully obvious that this company isn't going to respect her as highly as Charlotte and Becky in any capacity.
As of this posting (4/23/25), Lyra and Becky lost the titles right back to Liv and Raquel anyway on Monday Night RAW the following night, so I really don't see what was the point of having them win even more. Becky Lynch turned heel following their loss and viscously attacked Lyra. My idea following the Rumble was Becky coming back and feuding with Lyra over that title she's obviously not doing anything with. I guess that's the plan for those two now. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if The Man ends up being the female addition to Heyman's new iteration of the Dangerous Alliance.
Singles Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship
John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes (c) by pinfall
The match leading up to the finish was fine, despite Cena clearly trying not to do much at all. The man has Hollywood commitments after all, so I don't blame him for going all out and forcing those films/television shows to be postponed/delayed like The Rock ended up doing when he got hurt during their Mania encounter(s). Cena's thing has been more about milking these small moments and making less seem more, hence why people still try to say that he can't wrestle because he doesn't do a million moves in a single match. Cena's older and more likely couldn't do his staples anymore even if he wanted to. That being said, they made this work for the most part leading up to the finish.
When Travis Scott's music hit, that's where this match fell apart and where they lost me completely. Travis Scott came down to the ring ALONE - with The Rock painfully absent in terms of his involvement in this match. What killed me was seeing both Cena and Cody freeze their actions in the ring as if someone paused the video game while Travis Scott walks to the ring at a glacial pace. He interferes by pulling the referee out of the ring when Cody had the match won and gets into the ring to confront Cody, only to get his receipt for his shoot slap back at Elimination Chamber. With Travis Scott disposed of, Cena returns with the title belt, only to engage in a silly looking tug of war with Cody. Cody snatches the belt away but refuses to use it like a fucking nerd and eats a low blow from Cena. Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment/F-U for the win and wins #17 in the most anticlimatic manner imaginable for the end of Cody's title reign after everything he went through to get it at the end of WrestleMania 40.
I want it to be known that I'm fine with Cena breaking Flair's record of 16 World Championship wins as Flair's record has been bullshit anyway. He's had more than that due to dropping and winning titles for various promotions at non-televised house shows, but WWE only recognizes 16 of them. Giving Cena this distinction is appropriate and very well deserved after the career he's had.
The lack of The Rock's involvement here is baffling, especially when he was the catalyst for John Cena's heel turn and determined to make Cody's life a living hell after crossing The Bloodline last year. Just sending Travis Scott to do his dirty work felt like a copout, especially when he couldn't find a moment in his busy schedule to contribute some sort of payoff to this story that he has orchestrated. I'm sure Triple H and the rest of the creative team hate him with a passion for his absence in this storyline. It seems like the rest of the Bloodline (not named Roman Reigns and Jey Uso) are in limbo until he lays out the ground work for the next chapter of that story. I saw people saying this finish was worse than Hulk Hogan defeating Yokozuna at the end of WrestleMania IX, but I wouldn't go that far. It's comparable to Cena's own loss to Kevin Federline, but at least that wasn't for a championship and it wasn't a WrestleMania main event nor PPV/PLE headliner. For every home run that Triple H has with his booking/creative, there's stupid decisions like this that make me think that Vince McMahon is still pulling the strings and/or possesses some sort of creative input behind the scenes.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson should be ashamed for his absence on this entire two-night event, especially when he inserted himself as a pivotal player in this storyline since last year's WrestleMania season yet is NOWHERE to be found since John Cena's heel turn at Elimination Chamber. Instead, he sent Travis Scott's whack ass as his substitute. I can EASILY see why the folks at Warner Bros. considered him a pain in the ass to work with when he pretty much tried to throw his weight around and take over the DC Comics' cinematic universe all on his own. He's singlehandedly put WWE in a tough position to continue telling this story when he's nowhere around to contribute to it.
I'm not getting into a deep-dive analysis about why The Rock wasn't at WrestleMania as he's explained his side of the story in an interview on the Pat McAFee Show. He claimed that he was brought in for Elimination Chamber when ticket sales were "down" to bump up interest in that show. This is already proven to be false when he wasn't even announced for that show and WWE had absolutely no problems selling tickets for that PLE. People are speculating that the John Cena heel turn was supposed to happen at WrestleMania 41 and The Rock brought in Travis Scott of his own accord and did it prematurely, thus throwing a monkey wrench into WWE's plans going into WrestleMania. This would make sense as it would explain this awkward span of weeks where John Cena didn't address nor explain why he turned heel without any mention of The Rock. A babyface vs. babyface build for Cena and Cody would have been tame in comparison, but it couldn't have been any worse than what we got. If this rumor/speculation is true, then it would be obvious to see that The Rock was setting Triple H and his creative team to fail in terms of booking this storyline for WrestleMania. It would be a petty move on his behalf to set WrestleMania to fail without his involvement. The Rock says that he thought he was "done" with the storyline makes absolutely no sense, especially when fans saw that WWE had tons of those The Rock FINALLY Returns To Las Vegas shirts made. They were expecting him to be there and he didn't show up for whatever excuse he gave TKO's top brass. At this point, I rather The Rock stay far, FAR away from these storylines if he's going to take his ball and go home if things don't work out EXACTLY to his specifications. This company already hired his talentless daughter and gave Nia Jax a considerable push over the past year or so. As far as I'm concerned, TKO doesn't owe him anymore favors. This incident is another example in a long line of unnecessary hurdles that his involvement and lack of thereof has caused in terms of booking these storylines for WrestleMania for two years in a row.
Monday Night RAW on Netflix (WrestleMania 41 Fallout, April 21, 2025)
HiGhlights:
Monday Night RAW on Netflix (WrestleMania 41 Fallout, April 21, 2025)
HiGhlights:
I want it on record that I didn’t see RAW last night since I don’t have Netflix and I work late nights anyway, so I was stuck reading results online and watching social media. Cena came out gloating about his 17th title win, only for Randy Orton to make his presence known as the first challenger to his title reign in the way that only he could - by hitting this LEGEND with the RKO. I can’t speak for anyone else, but even in 2025, I’m over Orton and Cena matches. The only saving grace about this is that they are giving us that first so we don’t have to dread that coming later on the remainder of this retirement tour that Cena is on.
Even though Big E spoiled it on the multiple kick-off shows over the past weekend, but Rusev (formerly Miro during his brief time in All Elite Wrestling) has returned to WWE. He laid out the members of the Alpha Academy after they came out to challenge the New Day for the tag titles. (Laughs) I wonder if Rusev ever resolved his beef with God in AEW before he decided to come back.
For those wondering about Lana/CJ Perry, she has signed a WWE Legends deal from what I have been reading this morning.
NXT Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer made her RAW debut by coming out to challenge Iyo Sky to a match. The match resulted in a no-contest after Roxanne Perez and Giulia interfered. Both women went running after Rhea Ripley came out for the save, only for Rhea to lay out Iyo Sky. I guess that feud isn't over then.
I did have to laugh at Giulia and Roxanne's choice of attire for this appearance, dresses as if they were going to be filming music videos for MTV's TRL if that's still a thing anymore.
Last but not least, Seth Rollins left both CM Punk and Roman Reigns laying again when he was joined with Bron Breakker as it seems that they are forming a new "dangerous alliance" with Paul Heyman. This is some good shit, pal.
Closing Thoughts
Closing Thoughts
I think a lot of people will agree with the sentiment that Night One was bland show with an awesome main event while Night Two was an awesome show with a flat out rotten main event. The critiques on this year's VERY weak and piss poor WrestleMania builds across the board for roughly everything that didn't involve CM Punk, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns. The Jade Cargill/Naomi feud was booked better than the two women's title builds going into this show and that's just sad. I will admit that they started off poor with the Jey Uso and Gunther build, but they finished strong in the weeks going into WrestleMania. I just can't ignore that a lot of these matches had easily forgettable builds or nonexistent ones to begin with, only to have matches that either barely paid off those said feuds or surprised everyone that they exceeded all expectations. After the highs that WrestleMania 40 ended on, it's a shame to see that WrestleMania 41 ended with more people pissed off than thoroughly entertained with what transpired. After sending everyone happy at the end of WrestleMania 40 to "finish Cody's story" after all of the hurdles he had to jump through to accomplish that task and FINALLY dethrone Roman Reigns, it's a damn shame to see his reign and John Cena's crowning achievement in his last WrestleMania appearance no less for his record-breaking 17th world championship win end in this lackluster manner. Triple H and The Rock BOTH deserve every shred of negative criticism on the handling of this year's WrestleMania. Sure, WWE is in full "damage control" mood with the booking of the RAW after WrestleMania and the upcoming Friday Night SmackDown, but the damage has already been done. For the sake of the fans and future WrestleManias, I hope these two can put their differences and pettiness aside for we can get something better in the years to come because this ain't it, fam.
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