LAS VEGAS – It looked like Randy Orton was going to take the high road on Saturday night, refusing to pin an all-but-finished Cody Rhodes after his cohort Pat McAfee ran into the ring as a replacement ref. With McAfee’s professional wrestling career hinging on an Orton win, it made sense that the first ballot Hall-of-Famer would want to get a “tourist” far away from the industry he loves despite their alliance during the build up.
Rhodes took advantage of the opportunity of course, landing his signature Cross Rhodes to end the match and McAfee’s wrestling career once and for all. It was Orton who got the last laugh, however, turning on Rhodes with an RKO and a vicious boot to the head. With blood soaking Rhodes’ bleach blonde hair, Orton stood over the newly-crowned champion with the belt he clearly believed still rightly belonged to himself.
Morgan back on top, Belair reveals big surprise
The co-main event saw Elmwood Park, New Jersey’s own Liv Morgan become a three-time WWE Women’s World Champion with her defeat of Stephanie Vacquer by pinfall just under seven minutes into the match. Morgan is now the fourth three-time holder of the belt, joining Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Naomi in the exclusive club.
Morgan also stole the show with her entrance, doing her best Tate McRae at Coachella impersonation by performing her new ring song Trouble with the assistance of an ensemble of scantily clad backup dancers. In a way, it didn’t feel completely unlike something we would have seen from one of the Divas during the Attitude Era.
Following the match, Bianca Belair accompanied WrestleMania 42 host John Cena in the ring and revealed to the 50,000+ crowd and the millions watching at home that she was expecting
Gunther and Rollins Go For Instant Classic
Gunther vs. Seth Rollins was a war that any purist would love, with Gunther earning the win by choke-out in what was surely the match of the night and potentially the entire weekend. Despite the relatively bare history between the pair, they delivered nearly 17 minutes of highly technical and tastefully violent action and had the notoriously hard to please Vegas crowd in their back pocket the whole time.
It appeared Rollins was in prime position to win the match after curbstomping Gunther’s head on the announcer’s table, but a timely interference from Bron Breakker knocked the wind out of Rollin’s sails and allowed Gunther to capitalize shortly after with the finishing submission. As Breakker was about to make his way back to the backstage area, he and Rollins engaged in an Old Western style staredown.
Predictably, that staredown ended with Breakker turning around and sprinting down the ramp to hit Rollins with a legitimate nuke of a thunderbomb, with the encouragement of none other than Paul Heyman.
Lynch downs Lee, Paige’s surprise return saves Bellas
AJ Lee’s first WrestleMania match since 2015 certainly didn’t end the way she would have liked. Becky Lynch ended Lee’s 49-day reign as WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion, earning the belt after incapacitating Lee by smashing her head off the ringpost before landing a chokeslam and the pin. The win marks Lynch’s 13th title within the WWE/NXT ranks and made her the first two-time Women’s Intercontinental Champion since the belt was introduced in November 2024
The pay-per-view portion of the show opened with the confirmation of some unfortunate news, as Nikki Bella announced she was unable to compete with her sister Brie in the fatal four-way tag team match also featuring The Irresistible Forces, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax and Lash Legend.
That, of course, meant Brie needed a tag team partner in order to stay in the match. It presented the perfect opportunity for the return of former Divas champion Paige, who returned to a raucous fanfare and made good on her first WWE appearance since 2022 by landing the match-winning pinfall on Bliss to become WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Brie and Nikki.
iShowSpeed, Jacob Fatu highlight opening hour
The night began unlike any other in WrestleMania history from a broadcasting perspective, with the first hour of the event airing for a nationally televised audience on ESPN2. The action itself began with a six-man trios match that saw The Usos and LA Knight make relatively quick work of Logan Paul, Austin Theory and iShowSpeed before Paul turned on his fellow internet icon and partner. Knight and The Usos eventually came to Speed’s assistance, propping him onto the announcers table so Speed could execute a devastating frog splash off the ringpost. As it turns out, Paul ends up
The free-for-TV window continued with one of the most genuinely intriguing matches on the card, an unsanctioned match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre. The match mostly lived up to the hype, with Fatu earning the win after plowing McIntyre through the table successfully after a lengthy set-up. It was a poetic moment for the Sacramento native Fatu, who spent extended time in the Las Vegas based-indie Future Stars of Wrestling