WrestleMania 42 Night 1 Review
- Linus O'Howell
- 12 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Vision and IShowSpeed VS The Usos and LA Knight
After John Cena welcomed everyone back to Las Vegas, WrestleMania 42 properly kicked off with LA Knight teaming up with The Usos to take on The Vision and IShowSpeed! I enjoyed the interactions between LA Knight and IShowSpeed, with LA’s no-selling actually making total sense! The wrestling itself was quite basic, with the match barely going 7 minutes, and that seemed to be a theme throughout the night! In the closing stages, Speed accidentally shoved Knight into Logan Paul, infuriating Austin Theory so much that Theory got distracted, opening the door for Knight to deliver a BFT to get the win! After the match was over, Logan Paul attempted to take his anger out on IShowSpeed, only for The Usos and LA Knight to make the save! Speed then closed the segment by delivering a ridiculous Frog Splash to Paul through the announce table, and fair play to Speed; he nailed that move!
Grade: C+
Drew McIntyre VS Jacob Fatu: Unsanctioned Match
After a cool-looking entrance, Jacob Fatu headed down to the ring to take on Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match! Given that this was an Unsanctioned Match, it wasn’t exactly the most extreme bout that you’re ever going to see! It sort of feels like this could’ve just been an Extreme Rules match, because the actual action here was good, it was just weirdly built up as something more than it actually ended up being! To be fair, the bump that Jacob took through a table on the outside was pretty cool, whilst both men were able to kick out of one another’s finishers! In the end, though, a second Moonsault to McIntyre through a table was enough for Jacob Fatu to score the win, ultimately putting an end to this months-long feud!
Grade: B
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: The Irresistible Forces VS Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS Bayley and Lyra Valkyria VS The Bella Twins
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships were the first piece of gold up for grabs at WrestleMania 42, as The Irresistible Forces aimed to successfully retain their Titles in a Fatal 4-Way that also included Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, and The Bella Twins! However, before the match could begin, Nikki Bella came out to confirm that she’s not medically cleared to compete, which is why Brie Bella’s partner for this match would be none other than the returning Paige! Paige hasn’t been in WWE for quite some time, but the crazy thing is that she’s still younger than over half of the people in this match! The crowd were excited to see her, and she definitely added the most intrigue when she got into it with Charlotte Flair! However, nothing else really happened in this match, with Bayley and Lyra Valkyria not getting a real chance to shine, whilst Lash Legend and Nia Jax felt like the fourth wheel in all of this, despite being the Champions! Ultimately, after Nikki Bella stuck her nose in, Paige delivered a Paige Driver to Alexa Bliss to get the win, meaning Paige and Brie Bella are now the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions! It was very cool to see Paige back, but every other part of this match (and feud) was missable!
Grade: C+ (boosted because of Paige)
Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee VS Becky Lynch
A feud that’s lasted 7 months came to a head in Las Vegas as Becky Lynch challenged AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship! Both women got a special entrance ahead of this match, with Becky having her entrance theme sung, whilst AJ showed up skipping with a bunch of little girls. In fairness, Lee’s entrance did look quite cool, but it was hard to ignore the fact that WWE once again allowed Jessika Carr to referee this match, despite everything that she’s done to Lynch over the past year! Clearly, someone in WWE really likes building this feud between Lynch and Carr, and honestly, I actually find it to be far more interesting than what we’ve got between Becky and AJ! After failing to successfully remove the turnbuckle pad earlier in the match, Becky Lynch was able to do so successfully towards the end of the match, using this to her great advantage after initially putting the referee into harm’s way! This opened the door for Becky to throw AJ Lee head-first into the exposed steel, before The Man floored Lee with a Manhandle Slam to get the win! Becky Lynch is now a 3-time Women’s Intercontinental Champion, whilst AJ Lee will probably disappear again! Personally, I’m just glad that this feud is finally over!
Grade: C+
Gunther VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins
The next match saw Gunther go one-on-one with Seth “Freakin” Rollins in a battle between two of the industry’s best! For me, this was easily the match of the night, like it wasn’t even close! Due to this match being thrown together due to neither guy having anything to do, the drama heading into this match was non-existent in comparison to some of the other big matches this weekend! However, Seth and Gunther easily made up for that by just reminding everyone why they’re so highly rated in the wrestling business, with this being one of the best technical wrestling matches I’ve seen! Seth was hitting all of his big hits, from the Pedigree to his amazing Falcon Arrow, whilst Gunther kept trying to lock in his “Career-Killing” Sleeper Hold! The sequence where Gunther’s two nasty-looking Powerbombs were followed up by both a Pedigree and a Stomp onto the announce table was awesome, whilst I also didn’t feel like this match was ruined by the return of Bron Breakker! In fact, that just protected Seth Rollins in defeat, with Gunther successfully locking in his Sleeper Hold to get the win! After the match was over, we got an insane “100m run-up” Spear from Breakker to Rollins, and yeah, Seth “Freakin” Rollins really is Mr. WrestleMania!
Grade: A-
Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer VS Liv Morgan
After a pair of elaborate entrances, Stephanie Vaquer and Liv Morgan clashed for the right to be called Women’s World Champion! Whilst Liv’s entrance was questionable (I don’t mind the song, though), I really liked Stephanie’s entrance; it felt really simplistic, but it looked amazing! However, like a lot of the matches on this show, it was quite short, with the ending feeling quite anticlimactic! It was actually a shame, as this feud + the entrances made Stephanie VS Liv feel like a really big deal, and yet, it didn’t quite deliver that way! Vaquer delivered an SVB early for a 2 count, whilst Morgan was forced to kick out of an ObLIVion! Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez then showed up to try and help Liv win, leading to Vaquer herself kicking out of an ObLIVion, before a second ObLIVion from Morgan to La Primera was enough for Liv to become a 3-time World Champion! I’m more than happy to see Liv Morgan win this match; she’s deserved to have a WrestleMania moment for a while now, but the interesting part is going to be where this leads to moving forward! What is Stephanie Vaquer going to do, and more importantly, who out of Raquel or Roxanne are going to turn on Liv first?!
Grade: B- (Vaquer’s entrance was great)
Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes VS Randy Orton
After Bianca Belair announced her pregnancy (congrats), it was time for the Main Event of Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 as Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton finally collided for the Undisputed WWE Championship! Firstly, Randy’s entrance was far too long; it literally lasted longer than some of the matches on this show, but secondly, Cody Rhodes’ entrance was pretty awesome! Before the match could begin, Pat McAfee assaulted Cody from behind, only for Rhodes to floor Pat with a Cross Rhodes! Then, Jelly Roll appeared from out of nowhere to deliver an elbow drop through the announce table, taking McAfee out of the match completely (or did it?)! Unfortunately, I found the large majority of this match to be quite dull, with the slow pace not working for me at all! It didn’t surprise me, particularly as Randy was selling a back injury throughout this match, but yeah, I just found it to be a little bit dull! However, what I did like is that after the referee went down and Orton nailed Rhodes with an RKO, Pat McAfee returned as a referee, something that I’m not convinced is allowed! Ultimately, though, Randy Orton floored McAfee with an RKO to seemingly end that storyline, before Cody Rhodes dropped The Viper with a Cross Rhodes to get the win! I knew that Cody Rhodes was going to retain here; I just knew it! However, we need to talk about the post-match angle, where Randy ended the night standing tall with the Undisputed WWE Title in hand after Punt-Kicking The American Nightmare! This isn’t SmackDown, this isn’t Backlash, this is the Main Event of WrestleMania; an event that’s supposed to be the culmination of feuds, not just a setup!
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