The second night of WrestleMania 41 saw John Cena make history, becoming WWE’s first-ever 17-time world champion.
Like Night 1, the card here still featured a handful of matches that didn’t quite feel like they belonged at WrestleMania but the vibe and overall energy was definitely up compared to the previous night.
Women’s World Championship – Iyo Sky (c) def. Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley: Opening the show, these three performers were determined to set the tone for a much more exciting second night of WrestleMania festivities. This triple threat ran at top speed from the opening bell and kept the live crowd absolutely hooked. The fitting in-ring story here was that this was anyone’s game because Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley are all unique super athletes.
In addition to this being a stellar bout and perfect opener, the wider program has also served everybody really well going forwards. Retaining at WrestleMania definitively solidifies Sky as champion, a gentle parallel to Stratton the night before. Having garnered a few boos through this story, Belair’s begun to lean into them – and her prodigious athleticism could easily lend itself to a killer cocky heel presentation. Ripley likewise, despite still being adored by fans, has shown a clear uptick in entitled and erratic behaviour. Her constantly-evolving capacity for character work would make a fall from grace must-see TV.
Sin City Street Fight – Drew McIntyre def. Damian Priest: This match ran a pretty brutal 14 minutes with some crowd-pleasing spots and a good level of intensity throughout. What was fascinating here was that McIntyre was able to keep up his (brilliant) egotistical shenanigans, borrowing a cell phone from his brother at ringside to snap another wild selfie, without it costing him as it so often has. Despite his antics, McIntyre simply brought more anger and more preparedness to do violence than Priest.
This should lead to some storyline reflection for Priest, the self-professed “street king”, that sees him return more vicious than ever. Priest also fell victim to the amusing age-old secret adage that if you get your dream WrestleMania entrance, you’re probably going to get beaten! For more, see Living Color playing CM Punk to the ring on Night 1.
Intercontinental Championship – Dominik Mysterio def. Bron Breakker (c), Finn Bálor, and Penta: As with Jacob Fatu’s US Championship win on Night 1, the crowd was genuinely clamouring for the surprise Mysterio win here. And like the triple threat opener, everyone came out of this fast-paced frenzy looking good.
With Bálor and Mysterio working in tandem for much of the match, the crowd was hotly anticipating the possibility “Dirty” Dom would go into business for himself. The pivotal moment where Mysterio signalled his intent through his ring positioning and expression behind Bálor as they both faced the hard cam marked one of the weekend’s finest WrestleMania moments from a production standpoint. Excellent work from all parties.
Randy Orton def. Joe Hendry: Although a short match in the event, this was a fantastic showcase opportunity for the reigning TNA World Champion. A pair of RKOs will always make a live crowd happy, and Orton riffing on Hendry’s signature pose was a treat.
Logan Paul def. AJ Styles: Here at The Beat, we all saw this one coming. What I didn’t anticipate though was that Paul would beat Styles without actually resorting to major shenanigans himself. Although Styles found himself distracted by one of Paul’s lackeys and then Karrion Kross, Paul did not need to use the brass knuckles that were briefly in play.
The final sequence of the match saw Paul capitalizing on a distracted Styles, who had refused Kross’s invitation to use the brass knuckles. So, the thrust of the story here was that AJ Styles, who has had more than 2300 career matches, probably needed to cheat to beat Logan Paul, who has had less than 20 career matches. Choices, as we say, were made.
Women’s Tag Team Championship – Lyra Valkryia & Becky Lynch def. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c): Becky Lynch sure does like to return and win a championship in her first match back! In all seriousness, it’s great to have Lynch back on the roster. She’s amongst the best character workers in WWE and her pairing with Valkyria will hopefully help the Intercontinental Champion find her voice.
The match itself was decent, organised around Morgan’s dismay at Lynch’s return – a cat and mouse story that paid off as Lynch eventually captured Morgan for the manhandle slam and the win. From a storyline perspective, Valkyria and Lynch taking the belts here was unexpected and seemingly more about producing a feel-good return moment for Lynch that would play well with the live Mania crowd, which it did.
The following night’s episode of Raw went on to restore balance and move Lynch and Valkyria in another, very promising direction.
Undisputed WWE Championship – John Cena def. Cody Rhodes (c): This was a classic John Cena match. The babyface eats dirt, takes a mountain of finishers, and of course encounters interference and dirty tricks. The difference here is that Cody Rhodes, so the story tells us, is no John Cena. Brutal.
There is something quite powerful about Cena wielding that setup and knowing that Rhodes couldn’t overcome it the way Cena himself always used to when he was a face. And his expressiveness and body language throughout communicated that confidence really brilliantly. Taking his time to move methodically and unhurried through his signature sequence of moves was a highlight and one of those rare WrestleMania moments where it felt like time had stopped.
And because there was an opportunity to take a shortcut that Rhodes, like Styles earlier in the evening, declined to take, there is a way forwards from here for Cody. It’s in keeping with his character arc of the last few months where he’s become increasingly mean spirited in order to keep hold of the title. CM Punk peppered a few notes of this in the last time he faced Rhodes on the mic, and it was also in the air with something Michael Cole said about Cena breaking the title record on the night: “Ric Flair didn’t win 16 world titles being a nice guy”.
I’m not sure I love the potential underlying message, that to succeed in the long term you have to become a jerk, but let’s let it play it out in full first. I am curious to see how WWE and Cody execute this story, especially as Cody has just begun to encounter the same sudden and seemingly unprompted turn in fan response as he did in AEW.
Compared to the catharsis of last year’s massive, cameo-laden Rhodes victory over Roman Reigns, this match felt a little flatter all in all. The Rock didn’t show, and the only run-in was from Travis Scott.
As a Night 2 headliner, this was a much simpler match production than last year’s – but by design, I feel. The finish being considerably less overbooked was intended to contribute to the stark outcome here. Which worked and also didn’t work – because the live audience was genuinely thrilled to see John Cena do the thing.
The contrast also raised the question for me of “do we now expect WrestleMania main events to be shenanigans-fests, and is that good or maybe a problem?”
Curtain Call: Compared against last year’s WrestleMania XL, this year’s offering only occasionally managed the same level of red-hot energy. Over the two nights, there were probably too many matches that didn’t feel like Mania matches. But I think it’s inevitable that the two-night format will sometimes produce some strain.
That said, WrestleMania 41 had its share of great matches, great surprises, and of course, history making. I think the major accomplishment here is that the show undoubtedly served its dual purpose as both a season finale and season premiere – which has never been of clearer importance than now, in the Netflix era.
