John Cena defeats Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania
Night Two offered a far more complete card–even if it was missing The Rock
With WrestleMania taking place this weekend, Undisputed ran a special series celebrating the event.
The Road to WrestleMania is a series of stories detailing some of the most defining moments throughout the history of WrestleMania, and it featured interviews and analysis all about WWE’s signature event:
Wednesday: Shawn Michaels on WrestleMania VIII
Thursday: Hulk Hogan on initial plans for the original WrestleMania
Friday: WrestleMania 41 predictions
WrestleMania 41: Night One takeaways
John Cena reclaims WWE gold, winning it for the seventeenth time
Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
John Cena is the new WWE Champion.
Cena defeated Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41, ending a career-altering run with the belt for Rhodes. But in the last WrestleMania match of his career, this moment belonged to Cena, who won the world title for a record-breaking 17th time.
By no means was this a masterpiece, but it’s likely the best we’re getting out of Cena, who turns 48 later this week. It was all about the build to the finish, which was seeing Cena regain the world title.
But it wasn’t completely perfect. A blemish on WrestleMania 41 will be the no-show from The Rock. After helping generate all sorts of interest following the turn on Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, Rock has been missing in action. The fact that he could not fit WrestleMania into his schedule is jarring, especially considering he is part of the biggest storyline in the company.
Cena’s victory capped off a complete show on Night Two, exponentially better than the opening night. A lot of that had to do with the show-opener, as the Iyo Sky-Rhea Ripley-Bianca Belair triple threat was otherworldly. There was more substance to this card, which offered some variety in match length, unexpected finishes, crowd-pleasing moments (hello, Dom Mysterio), and a return from Becky Lynch. Even Joe Hendry, the reigning TNA champ, made a surprise cameo, losing to Randy Orton in a short-but-effective bout.
We even got an appearance from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who added life to the announcement of the crowd (officially 63,226) after sending his four-wheeler into the barricade and knocking over a fan. Austin enjoyed a few cold ones in the ring, which served as the perfect break in the action before the main event.
The low light was the AJ Styles match. His story with Logan Paul was cold to begin with, and their match did nothing to change that.
Here are the results:
Iyo Sky defeated Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley in a triple threat to retain the Women’s World Championship
Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest in a Sin City Street Fight
Dominik Mysterio won the Intercontinental Championship, defeating Finn Balor, Bron Breakker, and Penta in a fatal four-way match
Randy Orton defeated Joe Hendry
Logan Paul defeated AJ Styles
Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria defeated Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez to win the women’s tag titles
John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes to win the WWE Championship
After an introduction from Stephanie McMahon, the women’s triple threat opened the card. This was superb, with outstanding performances from Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair. It was the perfect opener to engage an already fired-up crowd, and it exceeded expectations for its 14-minute duration. Belair, who has been a phenomenal babyface, was booed consistently here, and she seemed to enjoy playing into it. At some point in the future, she would be a very effective heel.
The finish was a surprise–Belair was pinned, which was expected, but it was Sky who made the winning cover. The sequence saw Belair hit the Kiss of Death on Ripley, then Sky hit a moonsault on Belair for the win. The only criticism here was the camera work. That was by design: WWE production wants to surprise its audience, but to the point where camera angles are zoomed in and a viewer purposefully cannot see what someone in the match is doing. So we didn’t see Sky set up the moonsault, instead just hitting it–even though it would have been far more meaningful had we seen it all unfold.
One of the most talented pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world, Sky’s reign with the belt continues. That story makes sense, as she was constantly overlooked in the storyline build to this match. She now takes her place as one of the best in the world with such a scintillating WrestleMania performance.
The second match of the night is typically a kiss of death at WrestleMania, but that was not the case in the Street Fight pitting Drew McIntyre against Damian Priest. Granted, it was a WWE version of no holds barred, so we weren’t about to see endless amounts of blood or gore. But that was pure physicality between two of wrestling’s best big men, and the finish felt like a reward for McIntyre.
McIntyre has been so integral to WWE’s success, especially over the past year, where he brought the very best out of CM Punk in their feud. This is a victory he needed, and he has to be on the short list of contenders for Jey Uso’s newly won World Heavyweight Championship.
The third match of the night was the four-way for the IC title, and it served as a reminder of just how much the crowd loves Dom Mysterio.
Mysterio was victorious, pinning Judgment Day partner Finn Balor–a finish that caused the Vegas faithful to explode. Everyone shined here, including Bron Breakker and Penta, and Breakker will have a built-in story to go after the belt he never truly lost. It will be fascinating to see how WWE decides to book Penta moving forward, as whenever there is even a brief pause in his momentum, the temptation will be to move him into a tag with Fenix. Not that that would be a negative, but Penta–and Fenix–both have a lot to prove in WWE as singles wrestlers.
But this was all about Mysterio, who entered WWE as a dull babyface. As a heel, he slowly emerged into one of the most compelling personalities in all of wrestling, and his greatest payoff thus far occurred in Vegas at WrestleMania 41.
Randy Orton got his surprise opponent in Joe Hendry. This made a lot of sense, as it was a well-received, unexpected WrestleMania debut for the reigning TNA champ–but it was also someone that Orton was destined to beat. Had Rusev or Aleister Black returned here, it would have been very hard to have them come back and lose. Yet that wasn’t an issue with Hendry.
Wrestling at his twentieth WrestleMania, Orton played all his greatest hits, finishing the night fairly quickly with an RKO (again, I wish the camera angle showed it all come together–instead all we saw was the finishing blow). It was only a shade over three minutes, but it is absolutely necessary to have variety in match time. This was a good use of Orton and Hendry (the TNA title was not on the line), and Orton raised Hendry’s arm after the match before hitting another RKO. With Cena defeating Rhodes and becoming world champion, Orton is destined to have a title feud against his old rival for the belt.
Logan Paul and AJ Styles was the one low light. For starters, it was a cold story that ran long. After nearly 18 minutes, we saw a convoluted finish that included Jeffrey Levin (“Manager Jeff” from Paul’s show) and Karrion Kross, who implored Styles to use a pair of brass knuckles. Styles didn’t take Kross’ advice, then lost cleanly to Paul, even though it was tailormade for Kross to interfere. It feels sacrilege to have Styles–one of the greatest to ever grace the ring–lose in a nondescript manner to Paul at WrestleMania, yet that is exactly what happened. Considering the whole card had been solid, it was due for a swing-and-a-miss–and this was a whiff.
Following the storyline that Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez injured Bayley to the point where she could not compete at WrestleMania, Lyra Valkyria needed a new partner. And a new partner she received, as Becky Lynch returned to team with her–and win the tag titles.
A healthy Bayley missing the biggest show of the year has to hurt, but hopefully it is the start of a heel turn that brings her back into the title picture. It is also a massive benefit for WWE to have Lynch back on the active roster. A major star, her return instantly injects new excitement into the product.
The main event told a very effective story. Try as he might, Cena could not beat Rhodes. The crowd was firmly behind Cena, and the two wrestled an entertaining back-and-forth bout. At the 19-minute mark, the referee was knocked down, and Rhodes’ Cross Rhodes would have got the win–had the referee been able to make the count. Cena got a thrilling near-fall after his fourth AA of the night, but Rhodes kicked out at two-and-three-quarters.
That’s when Travis Scott got a mid-match music introduction. As ridiculous it was to stop the match for this, it was likely a necessary break for Cena. Scott then interfered on Cena’s behalf, which the crowd loved. With the ref out again, Rhodes had his chance to go one-on-one with Scott, and hit a Cross Rhodes on Scott. That opened the door for an attack from Cena, which was blocked by Rhodes. But instead of hitting Cena with the belt, Rhodes threw it aside–allowing Cena to hit a low blow that was followed by knocking out Rhodes with the belt. That was good enough for the win, allowing Cena to reset the wrestling landscape.
Cena ends WrestleMania in familiar fashion–as world champion. This was the only way WrestleMania could end, and it opens up a plethora of options with a new heel champion. It needs to be noted that Rhodes was absolutely phenomenal as champ, and he answered every question and cast aside every doubt.
Rhodes isn’t done, and he’ll eventually regain the title. Right now, however, it is Cena’s part of the story to shine.
For one last time, The Champ has arrived.