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WrestleMania 42 night one takes place tonight (Sat., Apr. 18) from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event begins at 3 pm ET with the free Countdown show, leading into the main course at 6 pm ET, which in the United States starts with two matches on ESPN2, before moving over to to ESPN’s new streaming platform. Internationally, the event is available on Netflix.
The main event of WrestleMania is so bad that Cody Rhodes is crying over it
After Cody Rhodes’ championship feud with Drew McIntyre lasted a little too long, it looked like WWE made a smart choice to move Rhodes into a program with Randy Orton (who won the Elimination Chamber) for the main event of WrestleMania 42. Considering how much history there is between Cody and Randy, this should have been an easy story to tell.
It kicked off in promising fashion after Cody said he wants to defend the WWE championship against the best version of The Viper, which led to Orton brutally turning on Rhodes (and getting cheered for it) during their WrestleMania contract signing. But the story quickly went to shit from there, as the main voice in Orton’s head was from a mystery caller who turned out to be…former NFL punter Pat McAfee.
McAfee revealed himself as the mystery man by punting Cody in the dick and balls, and then going on about how WWE’s business metrics suck with Cody on top. Randy is the only one who can save the business and apparently restore WWE to the glory days of the Attitude Era, even though he wasn’t on the roster at that time. McAfee talked trash about the dumb “IWC marks” who helped turn the business into the garbage it is today by enjoying it when 5’5” wrestlers have iron man matches for no reason.
What should have been a deeply personal story between Cody and Randy was now about Pat McAfee, IWC marks, and saving WWE’s shitty business numbers (even though WWE business is still very strong). None of this made any sense. It was soon reported that TKO CEO Ari Emanuel made the call to go over WWE creative and force McAfee into the main event angle of WrestleMania. It didn’t help matters that Jelly Roll also got involved in the angle to confront McAfee and get beat up alongside Rhodes. McAfee even went home with the WWE championship in his possession at one point, because why not? What a huge mess.
The main event story was mostly ruined, but Randy tried to save it with an excellent go-home promo where he took the focus off McAfee and back onto why he turned on Cody in the first place. Later in the night, though, Cody responded by losing that focus and practically crying during a heartfelt talk with CM Punk. It was just a few weeks prior when Stephanie McMahon slapped Cody in the face, encouraging him to hear the voices in his head and unleash his killer instinct at WrestleMania to beat Orton. That urgency wasn’t anywhere to be found when Rhodes was choking up while talking to CM.
I’m sure the match itself will be fine once the bell rings, because the focus can once again get away from McAfee and back onto what Orton and Rhodes do best. But McAfee will likely be involved in the finish, and maybe Jelly Roll will also show up for whatever overbooking is on the way. Pat has said he will never be seen in WWE again if Orton doesn’t walk out of WrestleMania as the 15-time world champion, which seems to give the winner away.
All of these performers are worlds better than what Travis Scott brought to the table in last year’s very bad WrestleMania main event, but McAfee’s addition to the angle is completely forced and illogical, bringing the whole thing down several notches.
Can Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton save the WrestleMania main event from this truly terrible storyline? Is The Rock staying as far away from this one as possible, or will he be revealed as the TKO higher power who is protecting McAfee in kayfabe? Tune in tonight during WWE’s biggest show of the year to find out.
The rest of the card
Here are the remaining six matches that are currently advertised for night one of WrestleMania 42.
AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental championship
Becky Lynch’s constant attacks on CM Punk brought his wife AJ Lee back into WWE last fall, after a decade away. Lee has since had The Man’s number at every turn. This includes wins over Becky at Wrestlepalooza, War Games, and beating her for the Intercontinental title at Elimination Chamber in Chicago. Becky has essentially been doing a Trump parody on social media where she uses juvenile nicknames and insults to blame everyone but herself for her own obvious failures and shortcomings in these moments. This time Becky says she’s the one who has the home advantage at WrestleMania, because this is her 10th such event, and she’s going to rid herself of AJ once and for all.
Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan for the Women’s world championship
Morgan won the Royal Rumble and used a violent attack to officially challenge Vaquer at WrestleMania. She stepped on the toes of fellow Judgment Day member Raquel Rodriguez along the way. There’s also a question of where Roxanne Perez’s loyalty lies after the man who brought her into Judgment Day, Finn Balor, was recently kicked out of the group. Liv has a giant bump on her head after Vaquer recently rammed her into Perez during a backstage ambush. Liv and Stephanie have exchanged heated trash talk along the way, which resulted in Morgan crying at one point (unless it was just dust in her eye), as well as the word “bitch” being thrown around a bunch.
Irresistible Forces (c) vs. Bella Twins vs. Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria for the WWE women’s tag team titles
There isn’t much depth to the story here, as this match is about getting most of the women’s division onto the card at WrestleMania. These women have fought each other in varying combinations on WWE programming over the last month or so, with a lot of meaningless bouts and/or title matches ending in disqualification. Nia Jax and Lash Legend have often stood tall over the field in post-match segments where they squash everyone around them, so I think there’s a good chance they get their comeuppance and drop the belts at WrestleMania. Bayley is especially desperate to win after missing out on last year’s Mania card. The most interesting aspect of this match is the latest rumor about a big name who is reportedly replacing the injured Nikki Bella.
Seth Rollins vs. GUNTHER
WWE creative seemingly didn’t have anything for GUNTHER at WrestleMania after he sent Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles into retirement. Luckily for the Ring General, Rollins needed an opponent for WrestleMania when Bron Breakker went down to injury after Royal Rumble. GUNTHER ambushed Rollins on a recent episode of Raw to set up this match, and has since let it be known that he is pissed off by this idea that Seth is the best wrestler in WWE. GUNTHER will prove that he’s better at WrestleMania, and Paul Heyman will owe him a huge favor for solving his Seth Rollins problem in Las Vegas.
Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned match (ESPN2)
Fatu had his teeth knocked out by a backstage mystery attacker in October. McIntyre denies doing it, but that hasn’t stopped the Samoan Werewolf from hunting him down ever since he returned to WWE in January. Fatu was a dumbass who accidentally helped Drew win the WWE championship from Cody Rhodes in January, but then later helped screw Drew out of the belt in March. McIntyre was irate about the main event of WrestleMania being taken away from him so close to the event.
These two guys have been trying to murder each other since then, and that includes them both taking a big plunge off the side of a building. WWE doesn’t want to be held legally responsible for what they do to each other at WrestleMania, so it is an Unsanctioned fight where anything goes.
LA Knight & The Usos vs. IShowSpeed, Logan Paul & Austin Theory (ESPN2)
It isn’t WrestleMania without some kind of celebrity match or involvement, and YouTuber IShowSpeed is filling that role for this year’s card. He accidentally hit LA Knight with brass knuckles and helped The Vision defeat The Usos to become the new world tag team champions on a recent episode of Raw. Jimmy, Jey, and the megastar now have their chance to rip Speed to shreds at WWE’s biggest show of the year. I’m sure that YouTube douchebag Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and Paul Heyman won’t abandon their reluctant celebrity teammate when the going gets tough…
In addition to the seven scheduled matches tonight, John Cena is already back in WWE to host WrestleMania, and it sounds like WWE’s hottest star Danhausen wants to meet him. On top of that, you never know which wrestling legends will show up for a huge pop and hopefully not crash an ATV into the fans while making their way to the ring at WrestleMania.
What will you be looking for at night one of WrestleMania 42? Let me know your thoughts on the card in the comments below, Cagesiders.
