WWE WrestleMania 41 Night 2: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s annual review of WWE WrestleMania, where after Saturday's highly-opinionated rundown of Night 1, the WINC staff is back for more with Night 2 of WrestleMania 41. The biggest headline, of course, was John Cena's 17th WWE Championship victory — and believe us, we have things to say about that — but we also had more title changes, the return of one of WWE's biggest stars, and an appearance from the TNA World Champion!

We'll talk about all those things here in the column — in fact, the only thing we won't be getting to is the match between Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre (which we all really enjoyed but didn't love with all our hearts) and Steve Austin possibly injuring a fan in the front row with his ATV (which we've been advised to avoid for legal reasons). You can read about the entire show in uncorrupted, entirely objective form by going to our WrestleMania 41 Night 2 results page; to see our personal opinions on what went down on Sunday, from IYO SKY retaining her title to Logan Paul beating AJ Styles, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE WrestleMania 41 Night 2.

Last night, I was pleasantly surprised by Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair's WrestleMania match for the WWE Women's Championship. It seems that lightning struck twice in Vegas, because the Triple Threat for the WWE Women's World Champion had me out of my seat.

Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, and champion IYO SKY took to the opening match of WrestleMania 41 Sunday to contest SKY's WWE Women's World Championship, and they did not disappoint. Their contest was equal parts a masterclass in in-ring storytelling and a certified spotfest. Their Triple Threat match was death-defying, high-energy, hair-rising — all of the two-word descriptors under the sun. I cannot lavish enough praise on the three women who were involved in this match, nor can I single out one moment or performer who pulled the entire match together. Each performer did absolutely amazing, and this match did everything it needed to do — in the scope of their feud up until now, and in regards to their careers as it will move on from here.

You might think that "Mami" is overrated or overexposed, but on Sunday, Ripley showed everyone exactly why she is everything she says she is. Ripley played the role of the powerhouse wrestler well, but don't get it twisted. She's not just *any* powerhouse. Typically, when you have tall and muscled wrestlers like Ripley, to get them to sell (and sell *well*) is like pulling teeth. Not with Ripley. Ripley was willing to flip, roll, defy gravity, and do just whatever it took to make her opponents look like a hundred bucks.

Belair's performance was nothing but incredible. Between this feud and her involvement with Naomi and Jade Cargill, I am so glad that Belair has been able to expand her character, and really sink her teeth into these more negative emotions. She was especially aggressive with Ripley, who has definitely been the target of her ire in this feud. What I'm most impressed with, however, was Belair's willingness to eat the pin in this match — not just lose her WrestleMania streak, but *eat the pin.* It shows Belair's quiet confidence; she knows she doesn't have to have this undefeated streak to be taken seriously. She knows that there are things bigger than herself, but that doesn't diminish her own value. Huge, huge respect to Belair for her work both in- and out of the ring. There's a reason she's one of the best alive.

SKY 100% deserved this win. SKY is one of the best women to *ever* do it. Her incredibly agility makes her high-flying moves look absolutely flawless, and she sells everything her opponents give her with such passion. Like, I struggle to put into words just how good SKY is — you just have to watch the match (again). After spending this whole feud as an afterthought, SKY showed up and showed out. Her performance was super satisfying after she spent this entire feud being treated like a third wheel.

Wow, what an opening match. I'm gonna watch it again.

Written by Angeline Phu

The last five years of WWE programming have mostly been about the development of Dominik Mysterio, with WrestleMania a consistent check-in to see how the young scion of the Mysterio Family Tree. If Sunday's victory was any indication, the young sapling is becoming a strong tree.

Mysterio is now the second child of a former WWE Intercontinental Champion to win the prestigious title, behind Curtis Axel, who won the title in 2013. Mysterio just looks right with the new title, and his showing the Fatal-4-Way Match was especially impressive when you remember that the young talent was holding his own against the likes of Penta, Finn Balor, and the insanely quick and powerful Bron Breakker. Mysterio has grown into a good wrestler and a great character, and balanced both on Sunday, showing out athletically, while also bringing his simmering rivalry with Finn Balor to a boil, ending the match in dramatic, electric fashion.

Mysterio has been earmarked as a future star for many years now, and winning the WWE Intercontinental Title feels like a truly watershed moment for the young dirtbag. Like Bron Breakker, he is proving himself to be more than a nepotism hire. The future is bright for the multi-generation luchador, especially with the WWE/AAA Worlds Collide cross-promotional show coming up.

Written by Ross Berman

I feel like those of us here at WINC who made our predictions and were fantasy booking Randy Orton's mystery opponent ahead of his WrestleMania match thought of everyone but TNA Champion Joe Hendry. I had seen some rumblings online that it could be a possibility, but I just kind of shook my head at it, assuming that was too big of a stretch, even with WWE and TNA's partnership, as it feels more related to "WWE NXT" and TNA. I am so glad I was wrong, because the pop for Hendry in the arena (as well as here in my living room) was incredible. This man even had an official WrestleMania t-shirt made. As someone who was initially super annoyed by Hendry when he started popping up in my social media feed, I've grown to love him so much for committing to the bit. He just seems like a cool guy who's really made it far, and it was so neat seeing him on the WrestleMania stage.

Of course, he was going to lose to Orton. But, I feel like we saw the version of Orton who's been having a good time during this run after his major injury and surgery. He was dancing along a bit to Hendry's song when he came out, and he even hit Hendry's pose after winning the match. While it was no banger against Kevin Owens, this served what it was meant to do – pop the crowd and give them a feel-good WrestleMania moment. Hendry is now etched in the history books as Orton's opponent for his 20th WrestleMania, and that's absolutely insane and really great for him.

This was entirely harmless, didn't take up too much time on the card, but also didn't make Hendry look silly. It also got the TNA Championship on the WrestleMania card, which is absolutely wild. This was so fun and such a feel-good moment. While, of course, I wish it would have been a grudge match between Orton and Owens, this was the replacement we needed. No returning or debuting star lost to Orton, and Orton didn't take the loss at his 20th 'Mania. I really loved this, and this is one major thing that will stick with me from this WrestleMania.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Outside of the fact Logan Paul has a sizable digital footprint and AJ Styles is, well AJ Styles, there was very little reason for this match to exist – and everything that came afterward just served to prove that point. Paul is a wrestler who does really well in perfecting other wrestlers' moves with very little understanding at how to weave it all together, and Styles for all of the phenomenal talent he possesses just couldn't bring Paul into doing anything different to any other match you have seen from him. Even the celebrity spot that we've come to expect from Paul was nigh-on missing, with his manager Jeff Levin filling the role of trying to give him the brass knuckles; Karrion Kross emerged to prevent him from doing so, urging Styles to use them on Paul, which he didn't do and ultimately lost. 

As said, there was little reason for the match to exist outside of WWE wanting to getting their influencer on the 'Mania card, but the very little narrative they tried to present came in the pre-match promo package – a ballad dedicated to Styles' hard-fought success and Paul's rapid ascent through the algorithm to this point – that literally said the bout was a tale of which of the performers' paths were true. And the moral of that story turned out to be don't cheat and you will be cheated out of victory, and it doesn't matter how hard you fight you're still going to lose to those handed everything. I don't know about you, but I like a bit of escapism in my storytelling, and knowing this story is unlikely to continue beyond this night removes the potential for any redemption. If it was anyone else as "talented" as Paul, putting all other questionable metrics aside, then they would not be on the WrestleMania card, and they certainly wouldn't be beating legitimately one of the best wrestlers of all time.

Written by Max Everett

It really pains me to write this.

No, really, it does. While Bianca Belair was my gateway drug into wrestling, Becky Lynch was the wrestler who really made me love this performance medium. I can recite her promos from her original "The Man" run from heart, and I remember setting my profile picture to "Becky Two-Belts" on my favorite messaging apps. Lynch was my hero, and it wasn't because I loved her hair or her aesthetic. She represented everything that was important to me: standing up to authority, being fiercely yourself, being the underdog, being rough around the edges but still wholly authentic. Even during her year-long heel run against Bianca Belair around WrestleMania 38, or her revival of "The Man" against Bayley and Damage CTRL — when she started becoming less of the scrappy underdog she was in 2019 — I still loved Lynch, because she just felt so real. She still felt like she was, to a degree, punching up.

I didn't want out-of-ring politics to blind me from enjoying her WrestleMania 41 return, but I just can't shake it. Becky Lynch has started to punch down, and I hate it.

To cover all my bases, I don't actually know what happened backstage to make Bayley step down and cede her WrestleMania spot to Lynch. I don't think we'll know in the imminent future, and I don't think we'll ever know. However, with the circumstantial evidence that we do have — reports of sympathy towards Bayley in the locker room, Mercedes Moné's stirring of the pot (especially as a person who walked out of WWE over being disrespected), and the last-minute-but-also-several-weeks-in-the-making nature of it all — I can't help but think that Bayley was shoved aside to make room for Lynch. I struggle to talk ill about my former (?) idol, but I just hated this return. Truly, genuinely, hated it. I wanted to be happy that Lynch returned, but knowing that she took Bayley's position — whether actively or inactively, by passively accepting the easy way out — just didn't sit right with me. Lynch was given the easy way into WrestleMania when she absolutely hadn't worked for it this year. How is this different from Charlotte Flair walking in and winning the 2025 Royal Rumble? It's not.

Her return match wasn't even good! It wasn't bad, but it just felt like a match they could have had on "WWE Raw." Nothing particularly stood out — no crazy spots, no particularly inspired storytelling beats; honestly, Liv Morgan was the highlight for me in the match. Morgan was the highlight for me because she is just so animated and entertaining; ven when she at the top of the women's division, it feels like she hasn't stopped putting in effort (unlike somebody, unfortunately). Becky, why push down another wrestler to make your return, just to have a run-of-the-mill match?

Lynch built her career off of slapping the blonde out of someone who was handed a "WWE SmackDown" Women's Championship opportunity at SummerSlam 2018. What changed?

Written by Angeline Phu

I didn't have any issues with Cody Rhodes and John Cena's match when it was just Rhodes and Cena in the ring together. I didn't have issues with Cena working as a heel, or the first silly referee bump, and honestly, as a lifelong Cena fan I have no real issues with him dethroning Rhodes for his record-breaking 17th championship, as this story isn't over and Rhodes is obviously going to get it back by the end of the year. However, everything else in this match, and the glaring Dwayne Johnson-sized omission ruined this main event for me and even soured me on Cena's win.

I knew Travis Scott was at WrestleMania, but his stupid song (I'm just so tired of hearing it after this weekend, so apologies to all his fans out there) hitting was like a jump scare. When he took forever to make his way down to the ring, I thought for certain we were going to get The Rock's music remixed in there somewhere for him to come out as well. But, nope, we got the most awkward interactions with Scott possible. I'm aware he's apparently been training for a match of some kind, but this man is no Bad Bunny by any means. Thankfully, Rhodes made relatively quick work of the rapper and got back to Cena and all the regular heel-ish things ensued for Cena to get the victory, including the low blow, smashing Rhodes with the title, and it was all fine.

What I really hated about this all when it all comes down to it is the fact that The Rock seems like he didn't even bother. He didn't bother to see this storyline HE started through. It was Rock who wanted Rhodes to sell his soul initially. Even if his plan wasn't for Cena to sell his soul, whatever happened at Elimination Chamber really made it feel like Rock and Cena were aligned in some way. When Scott was paraded out there in front of everyone, it felt like he needed some backup, and I think everyone expected to see Rock at that point. If he's not there, don't bring Scott out.

And, while not part of the match, Rock didn't do himself any favors by posting to his Instagram account about being home in Hawaii. That's all well and good, but everyone, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez included, thought was a textbook swerve and that he would be at WrestleMania. I suppose he could show up at "Raw" tomorrow like he did last year, but I honestly think I would hate that, as well. Rock needed to see this story through on "The Grandest Stage of Them All," and while I'm glad Cena and his heel antics got the time to shine at his final WrestleMania, he really needed to either lose the assistance from Scott, or have both the rapper and The Rock alongside him.

Written by Daisy Ruth