WrestleMania 41 Night 2 Review
- Linus O'Howell
- 16 hours ago
- 5 min read
Women’s World Championship: Iyo Sky VS Rhea Ripley VS Bianca Belair
Night 2 of WrestleMania 41 kicked off with the Women’s World Championship on the line as Iyo Sky clashed with both Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley in a Triple Threat Match! This was a great match, this was much more what we should be expecting at WrestleMania, all 3 women did a great job, and it could’ve easily gone either way! The crowd was into it, they cheered Iyo, they booed Bianca, and they treated Rhea like one of the biggest stars on the planet! Riptide’s and K.O.D.’s both came close to winning the match for Ripley and Belair respectively, but after The EST dropped The Eradicator with another K.O.D., Iyo Sky followed it up with an Over the Moonsault to pin Bianca Belair and retain her Women’s World Championship! I didn’t expect to see Iyo retain here so that was a very cool moment, and this was definitely one of the best matches of the entire weekend!
Grade: A-
Drew McIntyre VS Damian Priest: Sin City Street Fight
Both Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest got special entrances as they were set to go to war in a Sin City Street Fight! This was a lot of fun I thought, it got better as it went on, and that was mainly because the action became more and more hard-hitting! Both men used steel steps as a weapon, with Drew viciously dropping Damian onto the steps with a Future-Shock DDT, and Priest also sent McIntyre crashing through a table with a Broken Arrow! However, Drew fought back, sending Priest flying to the outside through a pair of tables before The Scottish Psychopath delivered a nasty Claymore onto a steel chair to put Priest down for the 3 count! Both Drew and Priest were two of the best things in WWE last year, and they did a very good job here!
Grade: B
Intercontinental Championship: Bron Breakker VS Finn Balor VS Dominik Mysterio VS Penta
The next match on WrestleMania 41 was a Fatal 4-Way as Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and Penta all tried to dethrone Bron Breakker for the Intercontinental Championship! This match was a lot of fun, I definitely think it was one of the best matches on Mania 41, and I think the crowd played a big part in that. For whatever reason, the Las Vegas crowd was massively behind Dominik Mysterio, to the point where they were cheering him and booing everyone else! Dominik even tried to nail his own Judgment Day partner with a 619, but Finn Balor reversed this before Carlito ran down to cause carnage! Carlito was ultimately wiped out by a ridiculous Bron Breakker Spear through the announce table before Breakker delivered another Spear to Penta! Balor then went on a tear, nailing Bron with a Coup de Grace, but it was Mysterio who broke this up with a Frog Splash and pinned Finn Balor meaning “Dirty” Dom is now the Intercontinental Champion! I don’t know how he did it, but Dominik Mysterio winning a Title was somehow one of the largest pops of the entire weekend!
Grade: B+
Randy Orton VS ?
After a video package followed by a promo, Randy Orton was waiting in the ring for an Open Challenge as The Viper was ready for his 20th WrestleMania appearance! Out of all of the guys that could’ve answered the call, it was none other than Joe Hendry, the TNA World Champion! The crowd went absolutely mental for this, they couldn’t believe it, and you could tell just how special this moment was for Hendry! Joe did his usual stuff, including his turn around to the camera pose, but this just led to Orton nailing an RKO (taking advantage of the great camera work) to get the win. This was very much a segment to make the crowd pop and the fans at home happy, and it delivered on both and then some!
Grade: B-
AJ Styles VS Logan Paul
After Logan Paul had a pretty cool entrance with a drone, The Maverick was ready for another WrestleMania contest as he went one-on-one with AJ Styles! Unfortunately, this is where the show started to drop off a little bit, this just didn’t work for me. I don’t want to call the match boring, but it was hard to be invested in it because nothing great was happening. The sad thing about that is both AJ and Logan are very talented in-ring competitors, so this should’ve been a lot better than the feud was, but it just wasn’t. Karrion Kross got a decent pop when he stopped Jeff from handing brass knuckles to Paul, but Styles wouldn’t listen to Kross’ request of using the brass knuckles himself. This just opened the door for Logan Paul to drop The Phenomenal One with the Paulveriser to get the win!
Grade: C
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez VS Lyra Valkyria and ?
The penultimate match of WrestleMania Sunday saw Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Lyra Valkyria and a mystery opponent. That “mystery” opponent was revealed to be none other than the returning Becky Lynch, and there’s a lot of layers to this, not only do Becky and Lyra have an Irish connection that also dates back to NXT in 2023, but we also haven’t seen Lynch since she lost to Liv at last year’s King and Queen of the Ring! The match itself, however, wasn’t that interesting, it was another match that felt quite meh, and it’s not really a surprise. Liv Morgan should’ve been doing an awful lot more than this given the 2024 she had, Lyra Valkyria should’ve been defending her Women’s Intercontinental Championship, and the fact that Bayley was pulled from this match for Becky Lynch was pretty disappointing! Also, Becky just came back and pinned Liv with a Manhandle Slam meaning Lynch and Valkyria are now Tag Team Champions together, and that just feels so rushed!
Grade: C
Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes VS John Cena
And in the Main Event of WrestleMania 41, John Cena looked to rewrite the history books as he faced Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship! The match started off on a slower note, but I don’t think that was much of a surprise given the fact that it’s John Cena! The match did pick up a little bit later on, with Cena hitting multiple AA’s (including a Super AA), and we also got a ref bump which led to no one being around to count to 3 following a Cross Rhodes! For the large majority of this match, the crowd was fully behind Cena, and it meant they were booing Cody Rhodes which is pretty insane. Things then got even more insane as Travis Scott’s music hit as the rapper came down to the ring with his custom Cactus Jack WWE Championship! After another ref bump, Rhodes demanded Scott to get into the ring, and this allowed Cody to get a big of revenge for Elimination Chamber as he dropped Travis with a Cross Rhodes! However, when it came down to it, Cody Rhodes couldn’t pull the trigger when it came to hitting John Cena with the Championship, and this allowed Cena to hit a low blow followed by a Title shot to The American Nightmare as the referee counted to 3 to crown John Cena as the record-breaking, history-making, 17-time World Champion! I have no idea what grade to give this match honestly, there were some bits that were alright, but it just felt flat, and that’s what John Cena matches have felt like for a while. Travis Scott coming out didn’t add anything, in fact it probably killed the momentum even more, and when you consider how WrestleMania 40 ended, this doesn’t come across well at all!
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