The first night of WrestleMania 42 is in the books, with memorable moments for Liv Morgan and a returning Paige, and a messy build that played into the main event of the night, which ended with Cody Rhodes retaining, and we witnessed the best match of perhaps the entire weekend. Here are the takeaways from Night One in Las Vegas
IshowSpeed shows out
With the likes of Bad Bunny, Logan Paul, and, heck, even Jelly Roll recently coming in from the outside world, showing how well they have adapted to the world of WWE and being able to hang with the superstars who do this week in and week out. Speed was part of a six-man tag match teaming with The Vision against the Usos and LA Knight. The 21-year-old hung in there and impressed.
Speed’s passion and work ethic were on full display, doing a tilt-a-whirl or even a bodyslam to Knight. Now, obviously, he did that match for his YouTube channel, but to see him hang in there in this six-man tag was a nice surprise. The frog splash was even crazier, but it showed he’d put in the work and impressed on Saturday Night.
Speed is showing his passion and dedication to the wrestling business, even with the Danhausen match and the recent selling of the curse’s effects. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll start winning more fans over and earn their praise for his efforts.
Jacob Fatu’s next step is entering the WWE Championship scene
Jacob Fatu went to war with Drew McIntyre on Saturday Night, with both he and McIntyre taking a lot of brutal hits. But in the end, Fatu walked out as the survivor and can now put McIntyre in the rear-view mirror. So now his next step should be to consistently enter the main event scene.
There isn’t anything realistically left for Fatu to do with McIntyre, so now it’s time to ignite new rivalries and start to branch into the WWE title picture, in which he’s ready. His mic work is stellar, and in the ring, he is just as much of a fan favourite to watch as anybody else that’s already in that WWE title scene.
It’s the only logical option, really, because he’s past the U.S title scene, considering he has already held it, and anything else would seem like a backward step, especially if this is billed as a major win. So, he could get involved in the saga between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, especially given Fatu’s recent history with Rhodes, and it has yet to be revealed that Orton was Fatu’s attacker.
The Women’s division deserved more time.
On the same weekend that Stephanie McMahon touched on the Women’s Revolution in her Hall of Fame speech, on Saturday night, the women’s division was shafted of their match time, as Pat McAfee’s and Randy Orton’s entrances went longer. So the women’s matches had their time cut.
That isn’t a good look and will fuel further fan backlash, because movie trailers, various sponsors being advertised, and the number of commercial breaks meant the women suffered the most during their matches. Now, Paige’s return was a cool moment, but I can’t help but think the Women’s tag title match could have had more time. Also, why is a Women’s World title only getting six minutes?
For everything Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer put themselves through, to sell the intensity and hatred to come with this rivalry, they could only get six minutes, and for Vaquer’s first Mania as well, it’s something we’d see in a previous era where WWE didn’t take women’s wrestling seriously. There is serious ground to make up ahead of night two.
Bron Breakker’s interference for Gunther’s story
Gunther vs Seth Rollins was exactly what everyone expected it happend to be: the best match of Saturday Night and quite possibly the best match of the weekend. Now there is criticism going around Bron Breakker’s interference mid-match and spearing Rollins.
However, it makes sense for the story they will eventually tell with Gunther as “The Ring General” who believes Paul Heyman owes him, and that’s exactly what he said to Heyman on the April 6th edition of Raw. This is where Breakker was the logical step in this story, as that won’t be what Gunther was referring to in terms of being owed by Heyman.
What it likely leads to, is Gunther wanting a match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam in Mineapolis, with him being referred to as the career killer, it could be that he wants to end the career of Lesnar, hence why Breakker spearing made sense for the interference as this story will reach that point of where we get the “Ring General vs “The Beast Incarnate”.
Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes was a fine main event, but left with confusion
The match between Rhodes and Orton took its time to get going, picking up later when both guys settled into their roles, with Orton as the babyface and Rhodes as the heel, similar to The Rock and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8, as indicated by the crowd reactions.
The match improved as it went on, even though it started slowly. It did help that they did get the celebrity nonsense between Jelly Roll and Pat McAfee out of the way before the bell rang, so it could be left as a one-on-one between the two guys fighting for the WWE Championship, which is how everyone wanted it to be.
Although the McAfee interference at the back end of the match left a lot to be desired, when it came, and wanted to count the pin, then receiving an RKO for his troubles, and, in doing so, Rhodes capitalised with a Cross Rhodes on Orton, retaining his title, the finish was slightly messy. Still, it made sense in the story of The American Nightmare, which needed to find a killer instinct.
The post-match Punt kick assault from Orton to Rhodes is where some of the confusion lies, and I think that is because WWE put themselves into a corner with the McAfee involvement to begin with and have to had to course-correct the direction of this feud, putting the focus back on Orton and Rhodes, hence the punt kick at the end, because all the build going into this match, was McAfee taking up unecssary screen time.
The confusion is understandable, and you can only hope that it can be salvaged; it is a big ask, though.