WrestleMania 42 Night 2 Review

Linus O'Howell
12 minutes ago
5 min read

Brock Lesnar VS Oba Femi

After John Cena returned to hosting duties, Night 2 of WrestleMania 42 kicked off with the mammoth collision between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi! I firmly believe that this has been the best feud leading up to this year’s WrestleMania, with it simply being a mega battle between two different generations! That made this match feel big, and that’s why this match lasting less than 5 minutes isn’t a bad thing! In fact, it’s exactly what it needed to be as it was just two guys going all in to win as quickly as possible! Oba started off strong, leading to Brock rallying back with multiple German Suplexes before delivering an F5! However, Femi no-sold this, getting straight up and delivering a Chokeslam/Fall From Grace combo to score a pretty monumental victory! I was pretty worried that Oba Femi was going to lose here; I’ve seen it so many times before with new up-and-coming superstars, but for me, this is the best that WWE has made any NXT star look since Finn Balor (10 years ago)! After the match was over, Brock Lesnar shockingly left his gloves and boots in the ring, signalling an end to one of the greatest Professional Wrestling careers ever!

Grade: B+

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Penta VS Dragon Lee VS Je’Von Evans VS JD McDonagh VS Rusev VS Rey Mysterio

The second match on ESPN saw Penta, Dragon Lee, Je’Von Evans, JD McDonagh, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio all look to climb the ladder to become the Intercontinental Champion! This match was absolutely insane, like I was thoroughly entertained throughout! There’s an argument to be made that this was the match of the weekend, at least in terms of bumps that were taken! I’ve probably forgotten over half of them already, but the ones that really stand out to me are when Rusev and Rey Mysterio went crashing through a ladder, when Je’Von Evans delivered an amazing O.G. Cutter to Rusev, and Penta’s ridiculous Mexican Destroyer to JD McDonagh onto a ladder! In fact, this whole match was a highlight reel, and everyone deserves an awful lot of praise! Like, I literally can’t single anyone out as they were all excellent, and ultimately, after another ridiculous Mexican Destroyer to Evans, Penta climbed the ladder and successfully retained his Intercontinental Title in sublime fashion!

Grade: A-

United States Championship: Sami Zayn VS Trick Williams

The “Whoop That” nation were in full force for the next match as Trick Williams made his WrestleMania debut by challenging Sami Zayn for the United States Championship! As expected, the crowd cheered Trick whilst they booed Sami, and it’s absolutely insane to think that at WrestleMania Weekend 3 years ago, Zayn was winning Tag Team Gold in the Main Event of Mania Saturday (to an amazing reaction) whilst Williams was helping Carmelo Hayes become NXT Champion! How things change! Anyway, the match itself was totally fine, although it probably could’ve gone a lot longer than just 7 minutes, especially given the talent involved! Anyway, we won’t complain too much as this all did at least end with Trick Williams dethroning Sami Zayn for the United States Championship, a moment that was very cool to see!

Grade: C+

Dominik Mysterio VS The Demon: Street Fight

After Adam Pearce changed his mind on the Countdown Show, Dominik Mysterio was forced to go one-on-one with The Demon in a Street Fight! Firstly, I have to point out that both guys’ entrances were absolutely awesome! I loved Dominik entering on a throne; he truly is The King of the Luchadores, whilst Finn Balor bringing back the classic Demon entrance is always mesmerising! The match itself was a little bit strange for me, as I don’t feel like it was as good as the Drew McIntyre-Jacob Fatu match from yesterday, despite this actually staying true to its stipulation! There were some wicked chair shots, particularly when Finn was hammering Dominik, but I’m just not sure if I enjoyed this or not, mostly because it felt less important than it actually should’ve been! The final spot was good, however, with The Demon delivering a Coup de Grace to Mysterio through a table, and whilst I wish that this is the end of this feud, I sort of doubt it!

Grade: C+

WWE Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill VS Rhea Ripley

The penultimate match of WrestleMania Sunday saw Jade Cargill put her WWE Women’s Championship on the line against Rhea Ripley! I have not enjoyed this feud at all, and I didn’t exactly enjoy a lot of this match either. It felt odd to see Rhea Ripley have such a normal entrance coming into this match, given it’s for a World Championship, whilst having Michin and B-Fab interfere is never going to make it feel special! The referee was also annoying me with his constant antics, before Iyo Sky got her WrestleMania moment by taking out Cargill’s lackeys! This opened the door for Ripley to smartly reverse a Jaded into a Riptide to get the win, meaning Rhea Ripley is now the brand-new WWE Women’s Champion! We so should’ve gotten Asuka VS Iyo this weekend!

Grade: C

World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk VS Roman Reigns

After a ridiculous segment between John Cena, The Miz, Kit Wilson, and Danhausen (truly remarkable this was), it was go time as CM Punk and Roman Reigns clashed for the World Heavyweight Championship in the Main Event of WrestleMania 42! Everything about this felt big; honestly, what makes WrestleMania so special is when a Main Event feels like the top two guys in the industry are facing off! Roman Reigns bringing back his “Head of The Table” theme was awesome, whilst everything about CM Punk’s entrance felt special! This match also got 34 minutes, making it easily the longest match of the weekend, and that’s sort of how it should be, given that this was the biggest match at Mania 42 (as much as I loved the build between Brock and Oba)! There were no shenanigans here, no Usos or other Bloodline interference, just two guys going all out to be recognised as the World Heavyweight Champion! The elbow drop that Punk did through the announce table was very cool; that was probably my favourite moment of this entire match, and I liked how it kept building up to the eventual finish! Speaking of the finish, that came when Reigns delivered a pair of Spears to Punk, getting the win to end WrestleMania 42 back on top! I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this was the greatest WrestleMania Main Event of all time, and I feel like that’s only being said in comparison to the rest of this show! However, I still enjoyed this match; I thought it was very good, and I personally have no problem with Roman Reigns becoming Champion again!