On Saturday, April 18th, WWE returned to Las Vegas for Night One of their biggest event of the year, “WrestleMania 42.” The event was headlined by Cody Rhodes putting the Undisputed WWE Championship on the line against his long-time friend-turned-bitter-rival, Randy Orton. Orton was accompanied to the ring by his new mouthpiece, Pat McAfee. Cody Rhodes was joined by his friend, Jelly Roll.
We also saw Stephanie Vaquer put her Women’s World Championship on the line against Liv Morgan, Gunther met Seth Rollins in an instant classic, AJ Lee put her Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line against Becky Lynch, The Irresistible Forces put their Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, Bayley & Lyra Valkyria, & Brie Bella and a mystery partner, Jacob Fatu square off with Drew McIntyre in an unsanctioned match, and The Usos team up with LA Knight to face off with The Vision and iShowSpeed to kick it all off. So, what were the top three moments of the night?
Honorable Mention: Bianca Belair’s Major Announcement
While the show may not have seen a ton of wrestling for the total show time allotted, there was no shortcut to major moments. As a matter of fact, there were so many that three moments alone wouldn’t be enough. Right before the main event took place, John Cena, who was hosting the event, took to the ring to share the attendance number. He was interrupted by Bianca Belair, who was making her return after well over a year. She dropped a bombshell on her WWE family, sharing that she was pregnant with her first child. While of course this means we’re still a ways away from seeing Belair return to the ring, this is life-changing, incredible news. Wrestling will always be here when Belair is ready to make her return in the future. Congratulations to Montez Ford and Bianca Belair.
3. Liv Morgan Wins The Women’s World Championship
One of the biggest matches announced for Night One of WrestleMania 42 saw Stephanie Vaquer put her Women’s World Championship on the line against Liv Morgan. Morgan called her shot after winning the 2026 Women’s Royal Rumble match, last eliminating a returning Tiffany Stratton. Morgan and Vaquer have had quite the rivalry on Raw in recent weeks, and one that has turned very personal.
Things took a turn when Morgan was knocked out by Vaquer, forcing her to collide with her Judgement Day counterpart, Roxanne Perez. This left a major ball on Morgan’s head and bruising on her face. After this happened, we saw Morgan act a bit more violently and unhinged. She even brought up Vaquer’s mother on more than one occasion, calling her a bad word in Vaquer’s native language of Spanish.
The two women had a solid nine-minute-long WrestleMania match for the Women’s World Championship. The conclusion of the match saw Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez, Morgan’s Judgement Day stablemates, come out to help her out and get into the mind of Vaquer. While Vaquer took them out, Morgan was able to capitalize on them being there and hit two oblivion’s to win the title and get her WrestleMania moment. I’m interested to see where Morgan goes from here. One thing we know for sure is that RAW has a new woman sitting on top of its women’s division.
2. Two Major Returns Shake-Up The WWE Going Forward
Bianca Belair wasn’t the only one to return tonight to the WWE. While Belair’s return was something to share some great news with the audience and provide a little bit of an update, there were also two more major and shocking returns on Saturday. It all started in the very first match when the show switched over to ESPN Unlimited for the United States watchers. This part of the show was kicked off with The Irresistible Forces putting their Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Charlotte & Alexa Bliss, Bayley & Lyra Valkyria, and The Bella Twins.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck, and Nikki Bella injured her ankle to the point where she was wearing a boot and using a crutch to get around. However, have no fear, Bella called in a favor to an old friend. After eight long years, Paige made her return to the WWE and made her return home. The fans lost their collective minds as this was one of the best and most unexpected returns we’ve seen in ages. Paige and Brie Bella won the Women’s Tag Team Championships, cementing that they are back and on a mission to rule the tag team division. Welcome back to the WWE, Paige. You were sorely missed.
Paige was not the only major return tonight. However, she was the one who spent the longest time away from the WWE. In Gunther and Seth Rollins classic WrestleMania match, we saw these two go at it like it was nobody’s business. They absolutely threw all they had and more at each other. However, a return at the end of the match would all but seal it for Rollins, allowing Gunther to choke him out.
Bron Breakker made his return after an ulcer, which caused him to not be ready in time to work a full-blown match at WrestleMania. He speared Rollins out of his boots on the outside and followed it up with a second spear after the match had concluded. Breakker looked as dangerous, quick, and amazing as ever. While he wasn’t able to get his shot at Rollins tonight, it appears we are once again on a collision course to hopefully get that match sooner than later, perhaps at SummerSlam.
1. Randy Orton Snaps, RKO’s Pat McAfee, But Loses To Cody Rhodes
The main event of Night One of WrestleMania 42 saw Cody Rhodes put his Undisputed WWE Championship on the line against this new, more dangerous, and more sadistic version of his former best friend, Randy Orton. This story had a lot of outliers to it, including the placement of Pat McAfee in a role where he really shouldn’t have been put. However, he was quickly disposed of before the bell even rang, or so we thought.
Before the start of the match, McAfee jumped Rhodes with a microphone and started attacking him with Orton’s help. Rhodes quickly regained strength and sent Orton to the outside before hitting McAfee with a cross Rhodes. He then placed McAfee on the table when his buddy, Jelly Roll, showed up and sent McAfee through it with a huge elbow drop. This caused McAfee to be taken out on a stretcher, and this became a one-on-one match, or so we thought.
Somehow, McAfee made his way back into the ring, wearing a neck brace but moving completely fine (…great selling…) while wearing a referee shirt after the real referee was knocked out. He tried to count the three for Orton, but Rhodes kicked out in time, which pissed Orton off. Orton hit an RKO on McAfee, seemingly kicking him to the side. While this night didn’t go in Orton’s favor, one thing that changed is that he’s now working by himself. He remained a heel, attacking Rhodes after the match and laying him out with a punt kick. However, this time, he’s going at it by himself, which is how it should have been the whole time.
Overall, this was a pretty bad opening night for WrestleMania 42. The matches were fine, the moments were there, but the timing was terrible. The amount of ads placed by ESPN, and the amount of time the matches had, truly didn’t even add up. This was borderline unwatchable. Such a shame for WWE’s biggest show of the year. TKO and ESPN suck.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next time
– Scott Mitchell
You can follow me on X (Twitter) and Instagram @Scott44Mitchell
