WWE WrestleMania 41 review: John Cena’s quest to ruin wrestling begins

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The best way to compare the two nights of WWE WrestleMania 41, strangely, is like comparing WCW and WWF pay-per-views in 1997.

Night one was like a WWF show. The undercard was underwhelming, feeling like an episode of Raw or SmackDown. But the main event, where Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and CM Punk had their Shakespherian story of love, trust, and betrayal, was excellent, ending the show on a strong note.

It was a typical, very well done, big time WWE main event match. Everyone kicked out of everyone’s finish, the timing to everything was great, and then it was time for Paul Heyman to make a decision. Would he stay with Roman, keep Punk’s favor and guide him instead, or go with Seth? He chose the latter, screwing over both of his former associates to side with someone completely new.

I liked what WWE did here. I think it was time to add a new wrinkle in the dynamic between these four. Heyman/Seth is something new and I’d like to see where they go with it. Based off the win, I think Seth needs to go after the World title with his first target being new champion Jey Uso, which I’ll get to later.

Night two, meanwhile, was like a WCW show. The undercard had some great matches, especially the opening three-way match for the Women’s World title. Then, there was the main event between John Cena and Cody Rhodes that stunk the joint up. We probably should have listened when Cena said he was going to ruin pro wrestling. He wasn’t kidding.

Nothing about the match worked. At this point in his career, Cena’s stuff doesn’t look good and he spent the first half of the match avoiding bumps. There was a lot of stalling. The ref was, in fact, bumped. Then came probably the goofiest, corniest main event finish I’ve seen in some while.

Travis Scott came out, slowly made his way to the ring, and attempted to help Cena. Rhodes managed to get the better of both men, eventually laying out Scott. Cena recovered, grabbed the title, and went to strike Rhodes, who grabbed the title. But suddenly, he DEBATED about striking Cena, making faces and looking conflicted. Dude, he left you a bloody mess at Elimination Chamber. This should not be something to struggle internally about like an afterschool special.

Cena, the smart heel, low blows goofy Cody and hits the AA to win his 17th World title, finally surpassing Ric Flair’s 16 to become the most decorated champion in WWE’s version history. And what a match to do it.

This match didn’t do anyone any favors. How are we supposed to get excited about Cena’s upcoming matches when he had this performance at WrestleMania? How do we get behind Rhodes who completely blew his chance? Of course, these will be answers given later as we start to build toward the eventual rematch but I’m hardly looking forward to it at this stage.

The rest of WrestleMania 41 night one

• Jey Uso scored the big one, defeating Gunther to win the World Heavyweight title. I didn’t think this was as good as their Saturday Night’s Main Event match from a few months ago as it took a long time for it to go into second gear. The last few minutes picked up with Jey scoring the SUBMISSION WIN. That was weird, but there’s probably a story to it we’ll soon see unfold.
• Tiffany Stratton defeated Charlotte Flair in a match that never clicked. Both looked sloppy and missed stuff left and right. They didn’t work well together and while Charlotte got great heat, there was nothing to the match beyond that. I figure there is an eventual rematch, but I hope it’s better than what we got here.
• El Grande Americano defeated Rey Fenix in a match that was perfectly alright, but didn’t get enough time. Fenix subbed for Mysterio who tore his groin the night before on SmackDown. I figure there will be a mask vs. mask match somewhere down the line where Fenix or whoever wins and Americano is unmasked as Gable.
• Jade Cargill got her revenge over Naomi in a match that was just okay. I really like Naomi’s new presentation, and she cut some great promos leading into this match. But there wasn’t anything here beyond a Jade win.
• The New Day defeated War Raiders in a perfectly fine match. I will note that Ivar looked great here and did some cool stuff. I figured a title change was coming as it was time, plus people like to boo Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods.
• Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight to win the United States title. This was probably the second best match of the evening. Knight seems to show up for the big shows and looked great here as did Fatu, particularly in the final minutes of the match where he dominated like a complete monster. Fatu has a great aura about him and this kind of finish adds to it.

The rest of WrestleMania 41 night two

• IYO SKY retained the Women’s World title in a fantastic opening match. This was your classic main event-style match where everyone was going for big moves and everything looked great. Bianca Belair even did her trademark hair whiplash spot, this time to Rhea Ripley. I like that after weeks of Bianca and Rhea getting into each other’s faces with IYO feeling like the odd woman out, she was the one that walked away WrestleMania as champion.
• Randy Orton beating Joe Hendry in a quick match was just that: a short match aimed at Hendry doing his entrance that always gets over. Everyone enjoyed this but, geez, how does this benefit TNA that their World Champion was pinned in such short order? 
• Becky Lynch made her big return, teaming with Lyra Valkyria to defeat Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez. This wasn’t anything special as the big story of the match was Becky making her return. We’ll see where they go as a team.
• Dominik Mysterio is the new Intercontinental Champion, defeating Bron Breakker, Finn Balor, and Penta in a great four-way match. Breakker was the star of the match, looking like a million bucks in overpowering everyone with traditional Steiner flair. I felt like this was the right move as Mysterio has really done well perfecting this persona over the last couple of years. It’s a hot act.
• The street fight between Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest was what you’d expect. A lot of tables were broken, stairs were used, and pretty much everything you’d see in a normal street fight. I thought it was pretty good, both of them always work hard. McIntyre won relatively clean, so I wonder if there’s more to him and Priest or if he moves to someone else.
• Logan Paul got the better of AJ Styles in what I thought was a good match. Paul is an incredible athlete and even though he is what he is, it’s still remarkable to see him have this kind of match where he’s holding his own against someone like Styles.