WrestleMania 42 Night 1 Recap

WrestleMania 42 took place as a two-night event on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19, 2026, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. John Cena was the host for the event. It was the first WrestleMania to stream on the ESPN app. Additionally, the first hour of each night were simulcast on ESPN2 and ESPN. This post will review Night 1.

WrestleMania 42 Night 1 – This Felt Like the B-Show

I don’t know how else to say it… Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 felt like the B-show.

Not terrible. Not unwatchable. But definitely not what WrestleMania is supposed to feel like.

Too many short matches, way too many ads, and not nearly enough that actually mattered.

A Note About PPV Dates | All photos courtesy WWE.com

The Usos and LA Knight Defeated The Vision and IShowSpeed

It was… fine.

Props to iShowSpeed for doing his thing, but this went like 7 minutes and I had zero investment in it. Felt more like something you’d see on SmackDown than WrestleMania. The stuff after the match was far more entertaining than the match itself.

Jacob Fatu Defeated Drew McIntyre

Decent match. But can we do away with the video game inspired entrances?

Hard-hitting, nothing wrong with it. But seriously—when’s the last time Drew actually won a feud? Feels like he’s been spinning his wheels for a while now. Fatu is clearly an up and comer, but there’s something about him that I just can’t get behind. He reminds me of the EARLY days of Roman Reigns when he was being pushed for seemingly no reason. Time will tell.

Brie Bella and Paige Defeated The Irresistible Forces, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria To Win The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Cool to see Paige back. Loved seeing Lash and Nia with the Demolition gear.

That’s about it.

Match itself was completely forgettable.

Becky Lynch Defeated AJ Lee To Win The WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship

I wasn’t a fan of Becky winning here but I completely get why she did. AJ’s return run has been pretty underwhelming and this didn’t exactly fix that. In fact, it begs the question of whether or not AJ will be around in a month. These two have chemistry, I just wish the match had more time. But do I really? How many times have we seen this match?

Gunther Defeated Seth Rollins

Match of the night. Easy.

This actually felt like WrestleMania. Physical, intense, everything you want.

I hate the finish though. I’m just not a fan of using WrestleMania matches to set up the next feud. Save that for literally any other show. That being said, I’d MUCH rather have an extended Rollins vs. Gunther feud instead of what we’ll most likely get – Rollins vs. The Vision. Meh.

Liv Morgan Defeated Stephanie Vaquer To Win The Women’s World Championship

Dud. The opening (pictured here) seemed to have more thought put into it vs. the match. Could it have been they were both injured going in and they didn’t have much in the tank?

Just a whole lot of nothing. If it got cut short because of an injury, that would make sense. Otherwise… yeah, this didn’t do anything.

At least Liv winning was the right call. She’s great as a heel, crazy hot and there’s still quite a bit left of the Judgement Day story to tell.

Cody Rhodes Defeated Randy Orton To Retain The Undisputed WWE Championship

This was a mess.

The Pat McAfee stuff made no sense going in, and it made even less sense once it started falling apart. Then Orton hits him with an RKO and… um… what?

The whole Cody/Orton dynamic was weird too. It felt like they were teasing something (maybe a double turn?) but never actually committed to it.

Just confusing. I would have really liked to have seen Orton win the title here but it wasn’t in the cards. The Punt after the match looked straight up legit.