WWE WrestleMania 42 Night Two: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of WWE WrestleMania 42 Night 2, the show that closed with Roman Reigns defeating CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Championship! Do we have thoughts on that here at WINC? Honestly, not really! It was a great match, and that's all we have to say on the matter. Do we have thoughts on almost everything else that happened on Night 2, just like we had thoughts on almost everything that happened on Night 1? Oh, you'd better believe we do!

If you missed the show, please be sure to check out our Night 2 results page and catch up with all the happenings, from Oba Femi possibly retiring Brock Lesnar to Rhea Ripley ending the title reign of Jade Cargill. If you're looking for WINC's opinions on those matches and much more, you're in the right place. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE WrestleMania 42 Night 2!

They did it. The crazy b*****ds actually went and did it. Oba Femi slayed "The Beast Incarnate" and Brock Lesnar – a notably emotional Brock Lesnar – left his gloves and his boots in the ring. 

Now, it would be a categorical lie to say I wanted Lesnar to return, that I even enjoyed a moment of his latest run for reasons that are on record whether appreciated or not. But at the same time, no one was ever going to say with a straight face that the performance, however short it was inevitably going to be, was not going to be an attraction. 

Lesnar is Lesnar. Certainly not the most decorated combat sports athlete of all time like billed in WWE, but still a mostly genetic freak who did win the UFC Heavyweight title and run through the NCAA in legitimate wrestling. He is, objectively speaking, a legend in the business. But he is also, objectively speaking, well past his prime and a man with more questionable moments than moves in his arsenal. 

Enter Femi, a man who dominated to win the "WWE NXT" Breakout Tournament, then the North American Championship, then the NXT Championship, and left that title in the ring while still unbeaten. He has come onto the main roster and enamored the crowd from the get-go. An entire stadium bumped along to his entrance, chanted his name in a manner befitting one of the biggest stars in the business, a flow synonymous with another name who dominated in a way Femi has. He is and will continue to be one of the biggest stars in every physical and technical metric. 

This story was one told a few times before — this was not Lesnar's first loss, especially not his first WrestleMania loss. He is not the Lesnar that defeated the Undertaker and broke the streak. But this was one told a little bit differently. Each and every time before, Lesnar has either been scared, or vaguely resembling scared, of his opponent and overcame. Or he has been defiant, dominant, and surprised to get his loss. Or, you know, he wins. 

This time, Lesnar wasn't just depicted as something vaguely resembling scared. He was scared. He was scared each and every week he tried to get the better of his would-be usurper. He was scared in the match as he tried again. And when he overcame, suplexed the brains out of Femi and hit the F5, up popped Femi with a chokeslam, a Fall From Grace and the end. 

The epilogue saw Lesnar rise slowly, beaten. And it seemed as though he retired. Though if you'll forgive me, I will not be holding my breath.

Written by Max Everett

It's no secret that I love the most-recent crop of call-ups from "WWE NXT," and Trick Williams has absolutely crushed it since arriving on the blue brand. I'm so happy he got a major WrestleMania moment during his first-ever appearance at the "Showcase of the Immortals." Williams defeated Sami Zayn to become the new United States Champion in a solid match.

Zayn appeared to be working more heel as the bout went on, and he even hit a brainbuster to his challenger on the apron, and props to Williams for taking that one. That's also smart, not just for Zayn's character arc moving forward, but for Williams. He's been so incredibly over since setting foot on "WWE SmackDown," and there was no way he was staying heel for much longer. I didn't necessarily love his involvement with Lil Yachty on screen, but I did love the diss track the pair put out before "SmackDown" on Friday, and I also acknowledge Yachty probably just isn't for me. In the grand scheme of celebrity involvement this WrestleMania season, Yachty was nowhere near egregious and I doubt there's much of a chance we see him involved with Williams moving forward on weekly TV.

WWE has Backlash in Tampa, Florida coming up in just three weeks, and I think it's fair to say we're going to get yet another Zayn crash out, leading to a rematch. With such little time before the next premium live event, I don't think I mind that this is likely one that WWE will want to run back. I think these guys work really, really well together both in the ring and on the microphone, and I don't mind seeing it one more time.

Outside of Zayn and the likely rematch, I'm very excited for what's to come for Williams on "SmackDown." In "NXT," he had amazing matches and feuds with both Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov, and we've already seen the tension begin with "Melo." I think Williams will have a strong reign with a few solid defenses before dropping the belt to probably Hayes, and I'd be shocked if the United States title picture didn't remain a major high point of Friday nights with Williams holding the gold.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One of my least-anticipated matches on the entire WrestleMania card was "The Demon" Finn Balor against AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio. This should have felt like a bigger deal, with Judgment Day kicking Balor out of the group, but for whatever reason, it didn't feel like much on the grand scheme of this card across the weekend. And the crazy booking, kind of out of nowhere, around the match didn't help the excitement factor, as strange as that may sound.

Balor announced in a backstage segment, a pre-recorded video, of all things, toward the beginning of the month that he'd be bringing out his demon persona for this match. Sure, the demon is cool and all, but it was announced in such a flat way. Not during a heated promo against Mysterio and the rest of the faction, he just kind of came up with it unprompted. It was absolutely one of WWE/TKO's plays to try and sell more tickets to WrestleMania, and that's just kind of odd, if you really think about it. I'd be interested to see how many people were brought into that venue by the idea of Balor in intricate face and body paint.

It was also announced to be a street fight during the pre-show ahead of Night 2. I'm usually someone who loves a good stipulation match, and overall, the action in this match wasn't bad at all, but adding yet another thing that felt kind of thrown in there as an afterthought wasn't my favorite. We joked here at WINC that it was only because there was a quota of Slim Jim table spots that WWE had to fill that Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre didn't hit yesterday.

Mysterio was right in his thought that he didn't sign up to face "Demon" Balor, only Finn Balor. It's human Balor who has issues with Judgment Day and Mysterio, and despite the few beatings he's taken at the hands of his former "family," I just don't know if the demon needed to be brought out of retirement. This was meant to be a grudge match between Balor and Mysterio, and now that the demon has already been brought out and won the first match, it feels like this feud between Balor and the Judgment Day overall has wrapped pretty quickly.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Jade Cargill might have wrestled her best WWE match to-date.

On WWE WrestleMania 42 Saturday, WWE Women's Champion Cargill and challenger Rhea Ripley had a tall order to fulfill. Not only were they the only female performers to take to the ring on Las Vegas' second day of WrestleMania festivities, but they came into Allegiant Stadium with some of night's the lowest expectations. Ever since she won the title, Cargill's championship reign and underwhelming in-ring performance have been heavily scrutinized — including her WrestleMania program with Ripley. Cargill and Ripley weren't just responsible for delivering a quality match. They were tasked with showing people that their WrestleMania 42 feud wasn't a complete waste of time.

If you're reading this, they succeeded.

Cargill is far from the best in-ring performer WWE has to offer, and at some points in Sunday's match, it was clear that she still has quite a ways to go. However, this might have been the best Cargill's looked to-date. That's not in a "oh, Ripley's selling her offense" way (though Ripley was making every big boot, clothesline, and strike from Cargill look nasty). Genuinely, Cargill has never looked better in a WWE ring, on her own accord. Where Cargill once bumbled and stumbled in the ring, she moved with confidence, power, and purpose. Where she once looked stiff and incorrigible in the ring, Cargill flowed. The One-Winged Angel is not the most intuitive move to set-up, but she hoisted Ripley onto her shoulders and slammed her down into the mat with assuredness. Is she the best in-ring performer WWE has to offer? Far from it. She had some moments of awkward hesitation that threatened to make the match unwatchable. They didn't, however — that is a testament to how drastically she has improved from her previous WWE Women's Championship defenses. The growth is something to celebrate.

Ripley, of course, is a must-watch performer, and she somehow just continues to get better. That reversal out of Jaded was a thing of beauty, and Ripley's not a short competitor. She didn't have much room, literally, to mess up that counter, and she absolutely nailed that match-ending Jaded-into-Riptide transition. I know that Ripley is now a four-time women's world titleholder on the WWE main roster, but she doesn't feel overrated at all. She is constantly improving, even when she is already as good as gold, so that she remains compelling to watch. You're looking at one of the best in-ring performers WWE has to offer.

Cargill and Ripley had a rough storyline going into WrestleMania, but really, Ripley was the perfect person to help Cargill improve. This WrestleMania program was far from a waste of time. It was a Sunday night highlight.

Written by Angeline Phu

Now technically this is a Hated column dedicated to the segment where John Cena announced the kayfabe attendance numbers, the Miz (and Kit Wilson) came out to do his annoy Cena routine that he so rarely gets to do now, and Danhausen left his blimphausen to see what the craic was in the ringhausen (I'll stop now). 

Danhausen brought some guests with him, as this spot normally requires to not be a TV spot, and those guests just happened to be little people dressed up as him. Nothing inherently amiss, little people have still got to work and are just exactly what that terminology entails, just smaller people. 

But revered and tenured play-by-play commentator Michael Cole wanted this to be his soap box for the terminology of the past. Naturally, eventually Wade Barrett chimed in with his own local pub soundbites. But it was Cole that chucked on his cape and led the crusade against the censorship against the word "midget." But it's okay, he continued, giddily telling the viewers that he had a hall pass and was bringing the word back – like it was a discontinued snack or something. 

That word, in case anyone cares enough to know why it would be considered derogatory, was once used in the same way as "minstrel" back in Victorian-era freak shows. You know, the ones that used to play on the stereotypes of people that just happen to look different. And the word itself is believed to be derived from the midge, an insect. The "-et", unlike the one in etymology, because that would mean true sense, is also used to denote something small. Words can be fun when you know which ones to use. 

Anyway, getting on from that, because Cole like any human is prone to his many, many flaws. They came out, and Cole was still trying to get the word over, and then Barrett as promised by his mere presence joined in. The innovator of WrestleMania 42 calls like "A lot of people want Dominik's juice, he's a lothario," added to his rather impressive resume with a grossed out asking, "How old are they?" and then when he was told they were adults proceeded to say "Grubby little fingers." It was like he became JK Rowling for the segment, and then when checking back on Cole he was... still getting worked up by the idea he could use the word again. So I guess he became the uncle you never want to talk to but always manage to hear, one way or another. Just call them Minihausens, it's not that hard.

Written by Max Everett

I have to be honest — Night 2 of WrestleMania was pretty good overall, so there wasn't a whole lot to complain about. However (and this might sound like a weird one) I did have one issue looking over the results as a whole. Maybe it's just me, but did fan favorites really have to win every single match?

Obviously Roman Reigns and CM Punk are both huge fan favorites, so there was no other option in the main event. But Night 2 sent the fans home happy at every opportunity, from Oba Femi to Penta to Trick Williams (maybe still a heel but definitely a fan favorite) to Finn Balor to Jade Cargill. Speaking personally, I like it when heels win at the big show sometimes — see Becky Lynch and GUNTHER last night — as it tends to break up some of the monotony and predictability that can set in when good guys win every time. Plus, it can often elevate talent unexpectedly or provide stories with new and interesting places to go. I'm not say I wanted Femi to lose or anything, but it felt like there were some missed opportunities in this regard. Cargill beating Rhea Ripley would have felt like a huge vote of confidence in her. Hell, imagine Dominik Mysterio somehow beating "Demon" Finn Balor and being able to annoyingly brag about it on "Raw" tomorrow night. That would be interesting! As opposed to Balor winning, which just feels like the end of something with nowhere to go afterward.

Probably the biggest missed opportunity was the chance to do the much-anticipated double turn with Williams and Sami Zayn, which could have seen Zayn cheat to retain his United States Championship. You extend the feud, make Zayn a full-on heel, and make the fans love Trick even more than they already do. Instead, Trick just won, and there aren't very many creative places to go from there.

Again, this show was overall very good, and I'm probably reaching a bit for a "hated" here. But personally, I would have loved to see villainy prevail at least once or twice.

Written by Miles Schneiderman