दक्षिण के सुपर स्टार रामचरण तेजा को इंदौरी पहलवानों ने कराए जोर, फिल्म पेड्डी में शहर के पहलवानों ने कई अभिनेताओं को दी ट्रेनिंग
अभिनेताओं को कुश्ती के मूव्स सिखाने के लिए इंदौर के युवा पहलवानों की सेवाएं ली…
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#AEW #Double #full #review #match #grades">AEW Double or Nothing 2026: full review and match grades
Ahead of Sunday evening, if you had asked me to name AEW’s Mount Rushmore of shows, I would have said All Out 2021, Revolution 2020, All In 2023, and Dynasty 2024.
Double or Nothing 2026 would kick one of those shows off and take a spot on the mountain. No, I will not pick which one, and no one can make me.
In what was a banner show for All Elite Wrestling, fans were given five hours of banger match after banger match, and today, we’ll review each one.
FTR (champs) vs. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage, I Quit Match (AEW World Tag Team Championships)
I Quit matches tend to be formulaic and somewhat predictable, but all four men made this a fun car crash opener and gave the stipulation some new flare. Whether it was Christian saying “Go f—k yourself” or “I banged your mother” when asked if he would quit, or Cash Wheeler and Stokely Hathaway recreating the Edge-Mick Foley spot – which was such a chef’s kiss doing so in a match with the man formerly known as Edge and with Foley himself kicking off the evening in the pre-show – the match was exciting from start to finish. I can do without the wooden plank with nails in it named Spike – bit cartoonish for my liking – but to see Christian and Copeland holding tag gold together for the first time in 25 years was a great way to kickoff the show.
Kazuchika Okada (champ) vs. Kinosuke Takeshita (AEW International Championship)
This match has been building for the better part of a year. Both men in the Don Callis Family have made it blatantly clear that they don’t care for one another, which led to the International Championship match. Just based off who was facing off, you knew you were in for a classic strong-style fight, and both men brought their absolute best in bunches. A Rain Maker from Okada on the apron. A brain buster from Takeshita on the outside. A Rain Maker countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb by Takeshita. A kick out at one by Okada after a Power-Drive Knee. All culminating in Takeshita hitting Okada with a Raging Fire to finally get a big win on pay-per-view after a stretch of losses. The heel turn by Kyle Fletcher after the match puts us on a clear path for Takeshita vs. Fletcher at Redemption or at All In, and yes give me that match in multiple servings.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Athena vs. Mina Shirakawa
In the first quarter-finals match of the Women’s Owen Hart Memorial Cup Tournament, the longest-reigning Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion Athena clashed with Mina Shirakawa. The two put on a solid match, which was expected, but it also felt rushed. While it was far from a bad match, it also never got any legs under it to be considered a great one. Athena was also a very predictable winner.
Jon Moxley (champ) vs. Kyle O’Reilly (AEW Continental Championship)
Jon Moxley is comfortably one of the 20 most important wrestlers in history, and he continues to show that he is the ace of AEW with every pay-per-view outing. The story he and O’Reilly told was masterful. KOR’s kicks are one of his best weapons, so Moxley targeted his plant leg to riddle them nearly worthless. O’Reilly has been Moxley’s kryptonite, though, making him tap out on two separate occasions. It looked as if he was about to complete the hat trick, but Moxley refused to tap while in a seemingly never-ending ankle lock. The match ended by reversing roles, with Moxley making O’Reilly tap. The Continental Champion showed a sign of respect to O’Reilly after the match, shaking his hand in the middle of the ring.
Match rating: 4.25/5 stars
Will Ospreay vs. Samoa Joe
Will Ospreay and Samoa Joe rule so hard. Joe will go down as one of the best wrestlers of all time for ball-knowers, and Ospreay’s story with the Death Riders is incredibly enticing. The two faced off in the opener of the Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Tournament and put on a show. Ospreay kicking off the match with an Oscutter while Joe was still making his entrance began the sprint. The two paying homage to Joe’s match with A.J. Styles back in TNA, which was a lovely touch. Ospreay went for the arm bar, which he has been using as a finisher since becoming a sort-of-member of the Death Riders, but Joe kept his hands clutched to prevent it. Joe turned the match into a brawl with several punches, chops, and kicks. Ospreay targeted the left arm of Joe to weaken his strikes and eventually won with a Hidden Blade. Two one-of-one performers putting on a clinic.
Match rating: 4.5/5 stars
Swerve Strickland vs. Bandido
It’s not too often that a wrestling match gives us a something we’ve never seen, but the House Call from Swerve while he was standing upright on Bandido’s shoulders was such an innovative and creative spot. Bandido vertically pressing Swerve and throwing him out of the ring was also fantastic, as was a running senton to Swerve sitting in a chair on the outside of the ring and a reverse hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. Swerve won by reversing a 21-plex into a vertebreaker and advanced to the semi-finals of the Owen.
Thekla (champ) vs. Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter (AEW Women’s World Championship)
Thekla has been a much-needed jolt to the women’s division in the absence of Toni Storm and Mercedes Mone. Her reign as champion alongside Skye Blue and Julia Hart has been consistently entertaining, and this four-way was no exception. Each woman got to have their big moments, including but not limited to Hayter nearly knocking Thelma’s head off with a Hayterade. Statlander and Shida finally came to blows after the former hit the latter with a kendo stick, which led to a Philly Street Fight being announced for Dynamite. Ultimately, Thekla took advantage of the chaos and won after hitting Statlander with a curb stomp.
Team Jericho vs. Team Ricochet, Stadium Stampede
This really should have been called Anarchy in the Arena, as it didn’t take place on a field but that’s neither here nor there. This was exactly what you’d expect from a gimmick match like this, but the Reservoir Dogs introduction for Team Jericho was my favorite part of it all. Capped off with Kenny Omega looking like the utter badass he is smoking a cigar for his name-frame, before coughing and choking on the smoke. As usual, there were some fun spots. Jack Perry wrecking his bus into Mark Davis, both Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin showing they’ve lost zero steps to the chant of “We hurt people.” The Young Bucks doing Young Bucks things. Ricochet continuing to show that going to AEW was the best decision of his career. My only issue is that it went on a bit too long.
Match rating: 3.75/5 stars
Darby Allin (champ) vs. MJF (AEW World Championship)
Darby Allin and MJF are the present and future of professional wrestling. Allin’s world title reign was a sprint of chaos and carnage, defending the title seven times in his four weeks as champion. His all-or-nothing approach, though, is what ultimately cost him. Right off the bat, he landed awkwardly on his head while missing MJF on a tope to the outside. MJF then targeted the back of Allin’s head and his back with a litany of moves. A springboard cutter, a power bomb with his knee landing in the middle of his spine, a package pildedriver on the steps. Allin still had a few tricks up his sleeve, with a coffin drop from the scaffolding through a table on MJF looking like a potential swing, but he once again hit his head. MJF ended the match with a tombstone piledriver from the top rope and pinned Allin with a headlock takeover to become a three-time world champion. Allin’s brief but chatosprtophic reign as world champion goes down as one of the best in company history, and Max continues to build a legacy that would rival many of the greatest to ever do it all by the age of 30.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Ahead of Sunday evening, if you had asked me to name AEW’s Mount Rushmore of shows, I would have said All Out 2021, Revolution 2020, All In 2023, and Dynasty 2024.
Double or Nothing 2026 would kick one of those shows off and take a spot on the mountain. No, I will not pick which one, and no one can make me.
In what was a banner show for All Elite Wrestling, fans were given five hours of banger match after banger match, and today, we’ll review each one.
FTR (champs) vs. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage, I Quit Match (AEW World Tag Team Championships)
I Quit matches tend to be formulaic and somewhat predictable, but all four men made this a fun car crash opener and gave the stipulation some new flare. Whether it was Christian saying “Go f—k yourself” or “I banged your mother” when asked if he would quit, or Cash Wheeler and Stokely Hathaway recreating the Edge-Mick Foley spot – which was such a chef’s kiss doing so in a match with the man formerly known as Edge and with Foley himself kicking off the evening in the pre-show – the match was exciting from start to finish. I can do without the wooden plank with nails in it named Spike – bit cartoonish for my liking – but to see Christian and Copeland holding tag gold together for the first time in 25 years was a great way to kickoff the show.
Kazuchika Okada (champ) vs. Kinosuke Takeshita (AEW International Championship)
This match has been building for the better part of a year. Both men in the Don Callis Family have made it blatantly clear that they don’t care for one another, which led to the International Championship match. Just based off who was facing off, you knew you were in for a classic strong-style fight, and both men brought their absolute best in bunches. A Rain Maker from Okada on the apron. A brain buster from Takeshita on the outside. A Rain Maker countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb by Takeshita. A kick out at one by Okada after a Power-Drive Knee. All culminating in Takeshita hitting Okada with a Raging Fire to finally get a big win on pay-per-view after a stretch of losses. The heel turn by Kyle Fletcher after the match puts us on a clear path for Takeshita vs. Fletcher at Redemption or at All In, and yes give me that match in multiple servings.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Athena vs. Mina Shirakawa
In the first quarter-finals match of the Women’s Owen Hart Memorial Cup Tournament, the longest-reigning Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion Athena clashed with Mina Shirakawa. The two put on a solid match, which was expected, but it also felt rushed. While it was far from a bad match, it also never got any legs under it to be considered a great one. Athena was also a very predictable winner.
Jon Moxley (champ) vs. Kyle O’Reilly (AEW Continental Championship)
Jon Moxley is comfortably one of the 20 most important wrestlers in history, and he continues to show that he is the ace of AEW with every pay-per-view outing. The story he and O’Reilly told was masterful. KOR’s kicks are one of his best weapons, so Moxley targeted his plant leg to riddle them nearly worthless. O’Reilly has been Moxley’s kryptonite, though, making him tap out on two separate occasions. It looked as if he was about to complete the hat trick, but Moxley refused to tap while in a seemingly never-ending ankle lock. The match ended by reversing roles, with Moxley making O’Reilly tap. The Continental Champion showed a sign of respect to O’Reilly after the match, shaking his hand in the middle of the ring.
Match rating: 4.25/5 stars
Will Ospreay vs. Samoa Joe
Will Ospreay and Samoa Joe rule so hard. Joe will go down as one of the best wrestlers of all time for ball-knowers, and Ospreay’s story with the Death Riders is incredibly enticing. The two faced off in the opener of the Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Tournament and put on a show. Ospreay kicking off the match with an Oscutter while Joe was still making his entrance began the sprint. The two paying homage to Joe’s match with A.J. Styles back in TNA, which was a lovely touch. Ospreay went for the arm bar, which he has been using as a finisher since becoming a sort-of-member of the Death Riders, but Joe kept his hands clutched to prevent it. Joe turned the match into a brawl with several punches, chops, and kicks. Ospreay targeted the left arm of Joe to weaken his strikes and eventually won with a Hidden Blade. Two one-of-one performers putting on a clinic.
Match rating: 4.5/5 stars
Swerve Strickland vs. Bandido
It’s not too often that a wrestling match gives us a something we’ve never seen, but the House Call from Swerve while he was standing upright on Bandido’s shoulders was such an innovative and creative spot. Bandido vertically pressing Swerve and throwing him out of the ring was also fantastic, as was a running senton to Swerve sitting in a chair on the outside of the ring and a reverse hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. Swerve won by reversing a 21-plex into a vertebreaker and advanced to the semi-finals of the Owen.
Thekla (champ) vs. Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter (AEW Women’s World Championship)
Thekla has been a much-needed jolt to the women’s division in the absence of Toni Storm and Mercedes Mone. Her reign as champion alongside Skye Blue and Julia Hart has been consistently entertaining, and this four-way was no exception. Each woman got to have their big moments, including but not limited to Hayter nearly knocking Thelma’s head off with a Hayterade. Statlander and Shida finally came to blows after the former hit the latter with a kendo stick, which led to a Philly Street Fight being announced for Dynamite. Ultimately, Thekla took advantage of the chaos and won after hitting Statlander with a curb stomp.
Team Jericho vs. Team Ricochet, Stadium Stampede
This really should have been called Anarchy in the Arena, as it didn’t take place on a field but that’s neither here nor there. This was exactly what you’d expect from a gimmick match like this, but the Reservoir Dogs introduction for Team Jericho was my favorite part of it all. Capped off with Kenny Omega looking like the utter badass he is smoking a cigar for his name-frame, before coughing and choking on the smoke. As usual, there were some fun spots. Jack Perry wrecking his bus into Mark Davis, both Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin showing they’ve lost zero steps to the chant of “We hurt people.” The Young Bucks doing Young Bucks things. Ricochet continuing to show that going to AEW was the best decision of his career. My only issue is that it went on a bit too long.
Match rating: 3.75/5 stars
Darby Allin (champ) vs. MJF (AEW World Championship)
Darby Allin and MJF are the present and future of professional wrestling. Allin’s world title reign was a sprint of chaos and carnage, defending the title seven times in his four weeks as champion. His all-or-nothing approach, though, is what ultimately cost him. Right off the bat, he landed awkwardly on his head while missing MJF on a tope to the outside. MJF then targeted the back of Allin’s head and his back with a litany of moves. A springboard cutter, a power bomb with his knee landing in the middle of his spine, a package pildedriver on the steps. Allin still had a few tricks up his sleeve, with a coffin drop from the scaffolding through a table on MJF looking like a potential swing, but he once again hit his head. MJF ended the match with a tombstone piledriver from the top rope and pinned Allin with a headlock takeover to become a three-time world champion. Allin’s brief but chatosprtophic reign as world champion goes down as one of the best in company history, and Max continues to build a legacy that would rival many of the greatest to ever do it all by the age of 30.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Ahead of Sunday evening, if you had asked me to name AEW’s Mount Rushmore of shows, I would have said All Out 2021, Revolution 2020, All In 2023, and Dynasty 2024.
Double or Nothing 2026 would kick one of those shows off and take a spot on the mountain. No, I will not pick which one, and no one can make me.
In what was a banner show for All Elite Wrestling, fans were given five hours of banger match after banger match, and today, we’ll review each one.
FTR (champs) vs. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage, I Quit Match (AEW World Tag Team Championships)
I Quit matches tend to be formulaic and somewhat predictable, but all four men made this a fun car crash opener and gave the stipulation some new flare. Whether it was Christian saying “Go f—k yourself” or “I banged your mother” when asked if he would quit, or Cash Wheeler and Stokely Hathaway recreating the Edge-Mick Foley spot – which was such a chef’s kiss doing so in a match with the man formerly known as Edge and with Foley himself kicking off the evening in the pre-show – the match was exciting from start to finish. I can do without the wooden plank with nails in it named Spike – bit cartoonish for my liking – but to see Christian and Copeland holding tag gold together for the first time in 25 years was a great way to kickoff the show.
Kazuchika Okada (champ) vs. Kinosuke Takeshita (AEW International Championship)
This match has been building for the better part of a year. Both men in the Don Callis Family have made it blatantly clear that they don’t care for one another, which led to the International Championship match. Just based off who was facing off, you knew you were in for a classic strong-style fight, and both men brought their absolute best in bunches. A Rain Maker from Okada on the apron. A brain buster from Takeshita on the outside. A Rain Maker countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb by Takeshita. A kick out at one by Okada after a Power-Drive Knee. All culminating in Takeshita hitting Okada with a Raging Fire to finally get a big win on pay-per-view after a stretch of losses. The heel turn by Kyle Fletcher after the match puts us on a clear path for Takeshita vs. Fletcher at Redemption or at All In, and yes give me that match in multiple servings.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Athena vs. Mina Shirakawa
In the first quarter-finals match of the Women’s Owen Hart Memorial Cup Tournament, the longest-reigning Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion Athena clashed with Mina Shirakawa. The two put on a solid match, which was expected, but it also felt rushed. While it was far from a bad match, it also never got any legs under it to be considered a great one. Athena was also a very predictable winner.
Jon Moxley (champ) vs. Kyle O’Reilly (AEW Continental Championship)
Jon Moxley is comfortably one of the 20 most important wrestlers in history, and he continues to show that he is the ace of AEW with every pay-per-view outing. The story he and O’Reilly told was masterful. KOR’s kicks are one of his best weapons, so Moxley targeted his plant leg to riddle them nearly worthless. O’Reilly has been Moxley’s kryptonite, though, making him tap out on two separate occasions. It looked as if he was about to complete the hat trick, but Moxley refused to tap while in a seemingly never-ending ankle lock. The match ended by reversing roles, with Moxley making O’Reilly tap. The Continental Champion showed a sign of respect to O’Reilly after the match, shaking his hand in the middle of the ring.
Match rating: 4.25/5 stars
Will Ospreay vs. Samoa Joe
Will Ospreay and Samoa Joe rule so hard. Joe will go down as one of the best wrestlers of all time for ball-knowers, and Ospreay’s story with the Death Riders is incredibly enticing. The two faced off in the opener of the Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Tournament and put on a show. Ospreay kicking off the match with an Oscutter while Joe was still making his entrance began the sprint. The two paying homage to Joe’s match with A.J. Styles back in TNA, which was a lovely touch. Ospreay went for the arm bar, which he has been using as a finisher since becoming a sort-of-member of the Death Riders, but Joe kept his hands clutched to prevent it. Joe turned the match into a brawl with several punches, chops, and kicks. Ospreay targeted the left arm of Joe to weaken his strikes and eventually won with a Hidden Blade. Two one-of-one performers putting on a clinic.
Match rating: 4.5/5 stars
Swerve Strickland vs. Bandido
It’s not too often that a wrestling match gives us a something we’ve never seen, but the House Call from Swerve while he was standing upright on Bandido’s shoulders was such an innovative and creative spot. Bandido vertically pressing Swerve and throwing him out of the ring was also fantastic, as was a running senton to Swerve sitting in a chair on the outside of the ring and a reverse hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. Swerve won by reversing a 21-plex into a vertebreaker and advanced to the semi-finals of the Owen.
Thekla (champ) vs. Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter (AEW Women’s World Championship)
Thekla has been a much-needed jolt to the women’s division in the absence of Toni Storm and Mercedes Mone. Her reign as champion alongside Skye Blue and Julia Hart has been consistently entertaining, and this four-way was no exception. Each woman got to have their big moments, including but not limited to Hayter nearly knocking Thelma’s head off with a Hayterade. Statlander and Shida finally came to blows after the former hit the latter with a kendo stick, which led to a Philly Street Fight being announced for Dynamite. Ultimately, Thekla took advantage of the chaos and won after hitting Statlander with a curb stomp.
Team Jericho vs. Team Ricochet, Stadium Stampede
This really should have been called Anarchy in the Arena, as it didn’t take place on a field but that’s neither here nor there. This was exactly what you’d expect from a gimmick match like this, but the Reservoir Dogs introduction for Team Jericho was my favorite part of it all. Capped off with Kenny Omega looking like the utter badass he is smoking a cigar for his name-frame, before coughing and choking on the smoke. As usual, there were some fun spots. Jack Perry wrecking his bus into Mark Davis, both Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin showing they’ve lost zero steps to the chant of “We hurt people.” The Young Bucks doing Young Bucks things. Ricochet continuing to show that going to AEW was the best decision of his career. My only issue is that it went on a bit too long.
Match rating: 3.75/5 stars
Darby Allin (champ) vs. MJF (AEW World Championship)
Darby Allin and MJF are the present and future of professional wrestling. Allin’s world title reign was a sprint of chaos and carnage, defending the title seven times in his four weeks as champion. His all-or-nothing approach, though, is what ultimately cost him. Right off the bat, he landed awkwardly on his head while missing MJF on a tope to the outside. MJF then targeted the back of Allin’s head and his back with a litany of moves. A springboard cutter, a power bomb with his knee landing in the middle of his spine, a package pildedriver on the steps. Allin still had a few tricks up his sleeve, with a coffin drop from the scaffolding through a table on MJF looking like a potential swing, but he once again hit his head. MJF ended the match with a tombstone piledriver from the top rope and pinned Allin with a headlock takeover to become a three-time world champion. Allin’s brief but chatosprtophic reign as world champion goes down as one of the best in company history, and Max continues to build a legacy that would rival many of the greatest to ever do it all by the age of 30.
Match rating: 4.75/5 stars
Ahead of Sunday evening, if you had asked me to name AEW’s Mount Rushmore of…
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High School Wrestler Knocked Unconscious in Shocking Post-Match Altercation at NHSCA Nationals
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A high school wrestling match at the prestigious NHSCA Nationals turned…
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#Hulk #Hogan #documentary #works #hard #defend #racist">New Hulk Hogan documentary works hard to defend a racist
One of the most-watched shows on Netflix currently is Hulk Hogan: Real American, a four-part documentary series that sets out with the premise it’s going to unpack the complicated, messy nature of Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan), using it as a lens by which we can see all heroes as the flawed individuals they really are. Sadly, it once again fails in its primary task, following in the footsteps of 2024’s Mr. McMahon to turn out another WWE-sanctioned, selective version of history, which gently dips its toe into the promise of being genuine, before recoiling once more to present a sanitized version of history.
Across its nearly five hours of run time we’re presented with a version of Hogan which routinely positions the man as a victim. Whether it’s the era he grew up in, his upbringing, the pressures of being a star, or coping with time passing him by — it always stops just short of Hogan ever accepting that he was a trash human being for almost the entirety of his life, who caused damage both personally and professionally that can’t be erased simply because he says he was “saved” in 2023.
Hogan did steroids because everyone was doing them.
Hogan was a racist because that’s just the time he grew up in.
Hogan destroyed the careers of other wrestlers because he knew what was best for business.
Hogan lied in court, but it was only to protect a friend.
Hogan suggested to a Rolling Stone writer that he might murder his ex-wife Linda, and her new boyfriend like O.J. Simpson — but it was only because he was drinking a beer and thought the reporter was his friend.
Time, and time, and time again Hogan is let off the hook by the documentary. It sets up reprehensible story after reprehensible story, tantalizingly getting close to the truth — only to have Hogan hand-wave away with a fleeting excuse, never to be expounded again. It continually gives its subject the last word, rarely bringing in anyone else to counter his points or debate them. There’s also the incredible sins of omission, parts of Hogan’s entire life or career that aren’t even mentioned to ensure the best possible version of the wrestler remains.
- It’s never mentioned that a huge part of Hulk Hogan’s continued stardom in the 1980s was due to ratting out Jessie Ventura’s attempt to unionize the WWE locker room, earning him tremendous brownie points with Vince McMahon for helping him suppress worker rights.
- Hogan’s professional jealousy and creative control in WCW are barely touched on, which helped collapse the company.
- Hogan’s time in TNA in barely mentioned.
- Hogan’s entire second marriage, which lasted 11 years was glossed over — instead presented as him being single from when he divorces his first wife Linda in 2007, until he remarried in 2023.
- Brook Hogan, his eldest daughter, is not featured in the documentary at all — which is notable, because she publicly distanced herself from her father over concerns with his third wife.
- There’s no mention that Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker was funded by Peter Thiel, who specifically used is as a tool to bankrupt the company.
In addition, the documentary is quick to shame Linda Hogan for dating a man 30 years her junior immediately following the couple’s divorce, spending almost 10 minutes mocking her decision — but later presents Hogan’s third wife as a savior character, despite being 25 years Hogan’s junior when they were married. This is par for the course when Hogan is allowed to outwardly lie without being fact-checked, like his assertion that Arsenio Hall’s career was thanks to him calling in favors — clearly used as a rhetorical technique to present Hogan as not being racist.
It’s only fair to question the continued motivations of these made-for-Netflix “documentaries” by WWE, and the standards they’re being held to. Hulk Hogan: Real American follows in the spiritual footsteps of both Mr. McMahon, and WWE: Unreal for being narrow, barely-sourced or fact-checked examinations of professional wrestling, written, executed, and organized through WWE production. Each instance is less an attempt to document a story or time, instead trying to reshape history through WWE’s lens and leave it as a living record — which is extremely suspect in light of the $500M a year deal between WWE and Netflix to air Monday Night Raw.
In the end you need to accept these for what they are: Somewhat interesting, but tightly curated. They exist to ensure WWE never looks bad, the only stories mentioned are those which have been approved for airing, and they all result in being glorified puff pieces with just enough critique to have a veneer of impartiality that doesn’t really exist.
As long as Netflix keeps accepting this schlock to broadcast, we’re never going to get real stories of professional wrestling.
One of the most-watched shows on Netflix currently is Hulk Hogan: Real American, a four-part documentary series that sets out with the premise it’s going to unpack the complicated, messy nature of Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan), using it as a lens by which we can see all heroes as the flawed individuals they really are. Sadly, it once again fails in its primary task, following in the footsteps of 2024’s Mr. McMahon to turn out another WWE-sanctioned, selective version of history, which gently dips its toe into the promise of being genuine, before recoiling once more to present a sanitized version of history.
Across its nearly five hours of run time we’re presented with a version of Hogan which routinely positions the man as a victim. Whether it’s the era he grew up in, his upbringing, the pressures of being a star, or coping with time passing him by — it always stops just short of Hogan ever accepting that he was a trash human being for almost the entirety of his life, who caused damage both personally and professionally that can’t be erased simply because he says he was “saved” in 2023.
Hogan did steroids because everyone was doing them.
Hogan was a racist because that’s just the time he grew up in.
Hogan destroyed the careers of other wrestlers because he knew what was best for business.
Hogan lied in court, but it was only to protect a friend.
Hogan suggested to a Rolling Stone writer that he might murder his ex-wife Linda, and her new boyfriend like O.J. Simpson — but it was only because he was drinking a beer and thought the reporter was his friend.
Time, and time, and time again Hogan is let off the hook by the documentary. It sets up reprehensible story after reprehensible story, tantalizingly getting close to the truth — only to have Hogan hand-wave away with a fleeting excuse, never to be expounded again. It continually gives its subject the last word, rarely bringing in anyone else to counter his points or debate them. There’s also the incredible sins of omission, parts of Hogan’s entire life or career that aren’t even mentioned to ensure the best possible version of the wrestler remains.
- It’s never mentioned that a huge part of Hulk Hogan’s continued stardom in the 1980s was due to ratting out Jessie Ventura’s attempt to unionize the WWE locker room, earning him tremendous brownie points with Vince McMahon for helping him suppress worker rights.
- Hogan’s professional jealousy and creative control in WCW are barely touched on, which helped collapse the company.
- Hogan’s time in TNA in barely mentioned.
- Hogan’s entire second marriage, which lasted 11 years was glossed over — instead presented as him being single from when he divorces his first wife Linda in 2007, until he remarried in 2023.
- Brook Hogan, his eldest daughter, is not featured in the documentary at all — which is notable, because she publicly distanced herself from her father over concerns with his third wife.
- There’s no mention that Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker was funded by Peter Thiel, who specifically used is as a tool to bankrupt the company.
In addition, the documentary is quick to shame Linda Hogan for dating a man 30 years her junior immediately following the couple’s divorce, spending almost 10 minutes mocking her decision — but later presents Hogan’s third wife as a savior character, despite being 25 years Hogan’s junior when they were married. This is par for the course when Hogan is allowed to outwardly lie without being fact-checked, like his assertion that Arsenio Hall’s career was thanks to him calling in favors — clearly used as a rhetorical technique to present Hogan as not being racist.
It’s only fair to question the continued motivations of these made-for-Netflix “documentaries” by WWE, and the standards they’re being held to. Hulk Hogan: Real American follows in the spiritual footsteps of both Mr. McMahon, and WWE: Unreal for being narrow, barely-sourced or fact-checked examinations of professional wrestling, written, executed, and organized through WWE production. Each instance is less an attempt to document a story or time, instead trying to reshape history through WWE’s lens and leave it as a living record — which is extremely suspect in light of the $500M a year deal between WWE and Netflix to air Monday Night Raw.
In the end you need to accept these for what they are: Somewhat interesting, but tightly curated. They exist to ensure WWE never looks bad, the only stories mentioned are those which have been approved for airing, and they all result in being glorified puff pieces with just enough critique to have a veneer of impartiality that doesn’t really exist.
As long as Netflix keeps accepting this schlock to broadcast, we’re never going to get real stories of professional wrestling.
One of the most-watched shows on Netflix currently is Hulk Hogan: Real American, a four-part documentary series that sets out with the premise it’s going to unpack the complicated, messy nature of Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan), using it as a lens by which we can see all heroes as the flawed individuals they really are. Sadly, it once again fails in its primary task, following in the footsteps of 2024’s Mr. McMahon to turn out another WWE-sanctioned, selective version of history, which gently dips its toe into the promise of being genuine, before recoiling once more to present a sanitized version of history.
Across its nearly five hours of run time we’re presented with a version of Hogan which routinely positions the man as a victim. Whether it’s the era he grew up in, his upbringing, the pressures of being a star, or coping with time passing him by — it always stops just short of Hogan ever accepting that he was a trash human being for almost the entirety of his life, who caused damage both personally and professionally that can’t be erased simply because he says he was “saved” in 2023.
Hogan did steroids because everyone was doing them.
Hogan was a racist because that’s just the time he grew up in.
Hogan destroyed the careers of other wrestlers because he knew what was best for business.
Hogan lied in court, but it was only to protect a friend.
Hogan suggested to a Rolling Stone writer that he might murder his ex-wife Linda, and her new boyfriend like O.J. Simpson — but it was only because he was drinking a beer and thought the reporter was his friend.
Time, and time, and time again Hogan is let off the hook by the documentary. It sets up reprehensible story after reprehensible story, tantalizingly getting close to the truth — only to have Hogan hand-wave away with a fleeting excuse, never to be expounded again. It continually gives its subject the last word, rarely bringing in anyone else to counter his points or debate them. There’s also the incredible sins of omission, parts of Hogan’s entire life or career that aren’t even mentioned to ensure the best possible version of the wrestler remains.
- It’s never mentioned that a huge part of Hulk Hogan’s continued stardom in the 1980s was due to ratting out Jessie Ventura’s attempt to unionize the WWE locker room, earning him tremendous brownie points with Vince McMahon for helping him suppress worker rights.
- Hogan’s professional jealousy and creative control in WCW are barely touched on, which helped collapse the company.
- Hogan’s time in TNA in barely mentioned.
- Hogan’s entire second marriage, which lasted 11 years was glossed over — instead presented as him being single from when he divorces his first wife Linda in 2007, until he remarried in 2023.
- Brook Hogan, his eldest daughter, is not featured in the documentary at all — which is notable, because she publicly distanced herself from her father over concerns with his third wife.
- There’s no mention that Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker was funded by Peter Thiel, who specifically used is as a tool to bankrupt the company.
In addition, the documentary is quick to shame Linda Hogan for dating a man 30 years her junior immediately following the couple’s divorce, spending almost 10 minutes mocking her decision — but later presents Hogan’s third wife as a savior character, despite being 25 years Hogan’s junior when they were married. This is par for the course when Hogan is allowed to outwardly lie without being fact-checked, like his assertion that Arsenio Hall’s career was thanks to him calling in favors — clearly used as a rhetorical technique to present Hogan as not being racist.
It’s only fair to question the continued motivations of these made-for-Netflix “documentaries” by WWE, and the standards they’re being held to. Hulk Hogan: Real American follows in the spiritual footsteps of both Mr. McMahon, and WWE: Unreal for being narrow, barely-sourced or fact-checked examinations of professional wrestling, written, executed, and organized through WWE production. Each instance is less an attempt to document a story or time, instead trying to reshape history through WWE’s lens and leave it as a living record — which is extremely suspect in light of the $500M a year deal between WWE and Netflix to air Monday Night Raw.
In the end you need to accept these for what they are: Somewhat interesting, but tightly curated. They exist to ensure WWE never looks bad, the only stories mentioned are those which have been approved for airing, and they all result in being glorified puff pieces with just enough critique to have a veneer of impartiality that doesn’t really exist.
As long as Netflix keeps accepting this schlock to broadcast, we’re never going to get real stories of professional wrestling.
One of the most-watched shows on Netflix currently is Hulk Hogan: Real American, a four-part…
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#WrestleMania #review #Match #grades #hours #ads #wrestling">WrestleMania 2026 review: Match grades for 6 hours of ads and some wrestling
There was a time when WrestleMania felt special; it felt magical. An event that culminated a year’s worth of drama, storytelling, and feuds into one epic three-plus-hour display of the greatest professional wrestling on the planet. My first live WrestleMania was XIII, defined not by the ho-hum main event between The Undertaker and Sycho Sid — but the undercard no-holds-barred match between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, which left a blood-covered Austin passed out in the center of the ring, and regarded to this day as one of the greatest Mania matches ever.
Legendary WrestleMania moments kept rolling through my mind over the two-night course of WrestleMania 42, in equal parts nostalgia and utter despair. A near-constant reminder of how far this once-great event has fallen. The “Showcase of the Immortals” and “Grandaddy of Them All” is barely on par with a low-tier event from two decades ago. Nothing lasts forever, and after WrestleMania 42, we’re on the verge of that Old Yeller feeling where WrestleMania, at least the idealized version in our heads, needs to be put out of its misery.
Let’s establish very quickly that this has nothing to do with the talent. This was unquestionably two days of everyone doing the best they could in an absolute ass situation. Over the course of two nights and over six hours of “wrestling,” we only saw two matches last longer than 20 minutes. Meanwhile, we had SIX of the 13 matches end in less than 10 minutes. That isn’t enough to tell a story in the ring. It’s not enough to have an ebb and flow in the action. No performer can put a cap on a year-long rivalry with seven minutes in the ring.
But hey, at least we got advertising! Lots, and lots, and lots of advertising. If you’re into trailers and brand synergy, then WWE has got you covered! From deifying the Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix, to the Street Fighter movie, to Mortal Kombat 2, and everything in between — this was the Super Bowl of brand alignment. Everything is manufactured, nothing even has the slightest veneer of realism, and when someone brings out a table, you best believe it’s because Slim Jim is the official table sponsor of WrestleMania and some TKO executive promised them X number of showings over the weekend.
Even at its very best, this show made very little sense. Before I depress myself anymore, remembering what WrestleMania used to be, let’s get on with reviewing this year’s debacle.
The USOs and LA Knight defeat The Vision and IShowSpeed
This match is only going to be remembered for the fact that IShowSpeed was better in the ring than he had any right to be. This isn’t going to be some Logan Paul-esque turn to wrestling, because Speed doesn’t have the WWE size to ever work in this company. Still, the match had some high spot fun. At the end, I was more wondering why the hell LA Knight is resigned to the celebrity show opener when he’s one of the most organically over wrestlers in the company.
Jacob Fatu defeats Drew McIntyre
Easily one of the bright spots of the weekend in terms of match quality, but this really got on my nerves. Fatu and McIntyre worked a hell of a match, made even more impressive by the fact that they were only given 14 minutes of ring time. Still, if you bill something as an “Unsanctioned Match,” it comes with a tacit understanding that things are going to get violent. There was no blood, no high stakes, nothing that told us why this match was so dangerous. It was all pretty ho-hum on the extreme-o-meter, but at least Fatu managed to put McIntyre through the Slim Jim table for the win.
Brie Bella and Paige defeat The Irresistible Forces, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
This match was decided the second Nikki Bella came out on crutches, and Paige was her replacement. Just an utter waste of time as a match that took many of the best women’s wrestlers in the company, put them all in one match, and gave them seven minutes to decide a tag championship. It ended up being a total affront where everyone was more concerned with getting their moves in than having a cohesive match. Paige is back… and the crowd goes mild.
Becky Lynch defeats AJ Lee
It’s a match that happened. Full disclosure: I wrote about all of night one, then realized I totally missed this match on the card, so I double-backed to write about it. That’s how unmemorable it was. This was clearly about the ends justifying the means, because the only point of this was to get the belt on Becky. They did that, and nothing that led to it happening is worth thinking about ever again.
Gunther defeats Seth Rollins
This was the best match on the card for the night, and for the most part, it lived up to the billing. Gunther is incredible, Seth is fantastic — and while this match should have gone for longer, they did the most with the 17 minutes they had. I don’t love getting Bron Breakker involved, because Gunther and Seth can carry this match without an additional pop, but the aim was to clearly keep Seth looking strong in defeat, so he can start a long program with Breakker. I’m not sure what Gunther’s role is anymore. He is unquestionably the most talented, technical, brilliant big man WWE has had in forever — but he’s going to be totally passed on for someone we’ll talk about on night two. It’s a shame.
Liv Morgan defeats Stephanie Vacquer
I had high hopes for this, and maybe there’s an alternate timeline where it worked — but in this universe, the women only had six minutes to work a match for the FRIGGIN’ WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, telling us how little WWE regards this best, or its female wrestlers. I’ll buy that perhaps Liv still isn’t 100% healthy, but that doesn’t excuse how rushed this match felt.
Cody Rhodes defeats Randy Orton
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I can safely say that I have never seen an important wrestling match operate for 20+ minutes and manage to make absolutely no sense the way this shit show did. There was absolutely no internal logic to the match, as if it were conceived by 20 different people at once, and they shared everyone’s ideas.
It seemed like we were going to get the overbooked mess out of the way early with Rhodes taking out Pat McAfee and then Jelly Roll dropping an elbow on him. Unfortunately, we were wrong.
The weirdest part of this match was that, whether real or not, Randy Orton displayed a back injury for the entirety of the match. This was weird because he was supposed to be the heel. Then Cody worked his back with forearms, delivered a low blow, poked Randy in the eyes — which are all heel tactics. If the idea was that Rhodes was willing to do “anything to win,” it missed the mark. Yet, that still wasn’t the weirdest part of all this.
Orton, who for 25 years has been renowned for his instincts and awareness, RKO’d the referee when it made zero sense. McAfee came down the ramp as the replacement, but then SLOW COUNTED an Orton pinfall — which made no sense. Then Orton RKO’d McAfee — which made no sense. Cody won, and maybe, just maybe, we were going to get a heel turn from Rhodes as Orton tried to hand him the belt?!
Orton punt kicked the champion to establish that he’s the heel, Cody is the face, and the crowd was cheering that Rhodes got his head kicked in because they’re so tired of him holding the belt. This was the single worst WrestleMania main event of all time.
Oba Femi defeats Brock Lesnar
This was the obvious result we all saw coming, but I don’t think anyone thought this would be four minutes long. One of the most anticipated matches of the weekend fell flat because there was just no thought put into this. There’s a very real chance Brock can’t physically go for more than five minutes at this point, but it was still just a little sad. We got some good power moves, and a predictable ending. Femi is a future megastar, and this match established it.
I’m giving an extra half-grade for Femi winning in dominant fashion, and another half-grade for Brock retiring.
Penta defeats Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, JD McDonagh, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio
FINALLY we get a match that actually felt worthy of WrestleMania. This was the obligatory “hungry young guy match,” albeit with the realization that half the guys in this match were over 40. It doesn’t matter, though, because they really put everything into this match. It might not have had the once-in-a-lifetime moments as past ladder matches at WrestleMania, but that didn’t matter — because for the first time in the weekend, we got a match that felt worthy of the spotlight.
To be honest, I’m grading kindly here because this was one of the few matches worth a damn. Truth be told, this would have been a mid-tier match in the past, but during this WrestleMania it was a standout.
Trick Williams defeats Sami Zayn
It’s really cool to see Trick Williams get his first main roster singles title, and it was much deserved. Williams has been an NXT standout who recently got the call up, and there deserves to be a rocket strapped to him. That said, there were two big issues I had with this match construction: Firstly, Williams entering second just because Lil Yachty was with him was stupid. I don’t care that they landed a celebrity to be ringside; you don’t alter the basic wrestling convention that the champion enters second.
The other is that AGAIN we just didn’t get enough time. The pacing of this match went directly to it appearing that Zayn was going to squash Trick, then he turned around and won. It needed a first act that had a little back-and-forth to raise the stakes. The end result was a match that just felt flatter than it should have been, but the storytelling was decent.
“The Demon” Finn Balor defeats Dominik Mysterio
Nothing about this match really made sense from a booking perspective. I don’t know why this was barely given a one-month build. I don’t understand what precipitated this match that required Finn Balor to bring out “The Demon,” and it’s still not really clear why Dom hates Balor as much as he does.
This absolutely typified the weekend. A lackluster build, nonsensical storytelling, and a justification only to have “The Demon” for a WrestleMania entrance, not because the story necessitated it. Aside from the logic, this was another mediocre contest. Dominik isn’t a good enough worker to have an elite match with Balor, which required him to slow things down a little.
One of the few times this weekend, a match only went 10 minutes but felt too long.
Rhea Ripley defeats Jade Cargill
Two great things happened here: Firstly, Cargill looked better than most of her matches (which isn’t saying much), and secondly we got the damn belt off her.
It’s high time we had the biggest prize in WWE women’s wrestling put back on someone who can actually work. When we get down to brass tacks, WWE pushed Cargill far too early as an eff-you to AEW for signing her away — which is fine, but then they pushed her into a place where they were backed into the corner. Jade has the look, she can talk — but the wrestling quality isn’t really there. Thankfully, it came somewhat together for this match, which managed to make it work.
Also don’t like that Jade came out first before Rhea, which seemed to spoil the finish.
I don’t love throwing interference into the finish when it didn’t need to be. It’s okay to have a title match end clean, I promise.
Roman Reigns defeats CM Punk
Michael Cole tried his damndest to gaslight the audience by calling this “one of the most anticipated WrestleMania main events of all time,” even though nobody cared about it. Thankfully, this match had logic, which is more than we can say for most of the weekend — but it was also really, really bad.
Reigns and Punk don’t have good chemistry in the ring. Conceptually, this should have been about Reigns using strong, methodical offense, then Punk breaking through with some quick, rapid-fire strikes to even the score. The issue is that Punk looks and wrestles old. Any rapidity he once had was gone. Reigns already works slow outside of his Superman punch and spear, so this whole match just felt slow. It was given 34 minutes of time, and it felt like every bit of a 30+ minute match.
This was typical heel work from Punk, using every trick in the book to try and get the win. Roman as the face who prevailed through it all. The best thing to say is that at least the match actually felt epic and like it really belonged on the WrestleMania stage, but the downside was that it was still a pretty poor match. The weird part is that it felt incredible, simply because everything else around it was so mediocre.
Also, please let’s not lose sight of the irony of having CM Punk working a main event with the ad boards all covered in Saudi Arabian tourism ads. It’s just too delicious.
With a total runtime of over six hours across two nights, WrestleMania 42 had two hours and 47 minutes of in-ring action. The rest of the time was made up with entrances, in-ring segments, bragging about the attendance, and lots and lots of ads.
Neither of wrestling’s two major companies has figured out how to pace a PPV show. AEW still loads their card with 25-minute epics for mid-card rivalries that could be told in half the time. WWE doesn’t give any room for talent to tell a story, cutting them off in under 10. It’s important to discuss time as an element of this show because WrestleMania 42 was supremely disrespectful of the audience’s time. This was engineered as six hours of marketing, with just enough wrestling sprinkled in to stop people tuning out.
The match quality wasn’t up to the standards of WrestleMania. The segments weren’t particularly entertaining. There was no logic, no consistent storytelling — just a field of ‘blah,’ which won’t be thought about in a month, let alone place this year’s iteration in any “greatest” lists.
Everything about this generation of WWE is about playing it safe. The product is designed to appeal to a TikTok, YouTube Shorts generation with no attention span for anything lasting longer than 10 minutes. Business deals have been made in such a way as to ensure there’s zero pressure from ratings or networks to improve the product. Hell, even veteran reporters are being blocked from obtaining credentials to cover events like WrestleMania over thin-skinned concerns that they will criticize the product. The audience doesn’t matter, the fans don’t matter, the quality of the product doesn’t matter — so long as the money printer keeps on ticking, and sponsors keep lining up to put their branding on everything under the sun.
But hey, at least we have Michael Cole to lie to us about why this was the “most anticipated WrestleMania of all time.”
Final Grade: 4/10 — A soulless, mess of a WrestleMania that will rival WrestleMania IX for the worst of all time.
There was a time when WrestleMania felt special; it felt magical. An event that culminated a year’s worth of drama, storytelling, and feuds into one epic three-plus-hour display of the greatest professional wrestling on the planet. My first live WrestleMania was XIII, defined not by the ho-hum main event between The Undertaker and Sycho Sid — but the undercard no-holds-barred match between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, which left a blood-covered Austin passed out in the center of the ring, and regarded to this day as one of the greatest Mania matches ever.
Legendary WrestleMania moments kept rolling through my mind over the two-night course of WrestleMania 42, in equal parts nostalgia and utter despair. A near-constant reminder of how far this once-great event has fallen. The “Showcase of the Immortals” and “Grandaddy of Them All” is barely on par with a low-tier event from two decades ago. Nothing lasts forever, and after WrestleMania 42, we’re on the verge of that Old Yeller feeling where WrestleMania, at least the idealized version in our heads, needs to be put out of its misery.
Let’s establish very quickly that this has nothing to do with the talent. This was unquestionably two days of everyone doing the best they could in an absolute ass situation. Over the course of two nights and over six hours of “wrestling,” we only saw two matches last longer than 20 minutes. Meanwhile, we had SIX of the 13 matches end in less than 10 minutes. That isn’t enough to tell a story in the ring. It’s not enough to have an ebb and flow in the action. No performer can put a cap on a year-long rivalry with seven minutes in the ring.
But hey, at least we got advertising! Lots, and lots, and lots of advertising. If you’re into trailers and brand synergy, then WWE has got you covered! From deifying the Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix, to the Street Fighter movie, to Mortal Kombat 2, and everything in between — this was the Super Bowl of brand alignment. Everything is manufactured, nothing even has the slightest veneer of realism, and when someone brings out a table, you best believe it’s because Slim Jim is the official table sponsor of WrestleMania and some TKO executive promised them X number of showings over the weekend.
Even at its very best, this show made very little sense. Before I depress myself anymore, remembering what WrestleMania used to be, let’s get on with reviewing this year’s debacle.
The USOs and LA Knight defeat The Vision and IShowSpeed
This match is only going to be remembered for the fact that IShowSpeed was better in the ring than he had any right to be. This isn’t going to be some Logan Paul-esque turn to wrestling, because Speed doesn’t have the WWE size to ever work in this company. Still, the match had some high spot fun. At the end, I was more wondering why the hell LA Knight is resigned to the celebrity show opener when he’s one of the most organically over wrestlers in the company.
Jacob Fatu defeats Drew McIntyre
Easily one of the bright spots of the weekend in terms of match quality, but this really got on my nerves. Fatu and McIntyre worked a hell of a match, made even more impressive by the fact that they were only given 14 minutes of ring time. Still, if you bill something as an “Unsanctioned Match,” it comes with a tacit understanding that things are going to get violent. There was no blood, no high stakes, nothing that told us why this match was so dangerous. It was all pretty ho-hum on the extreme-o-meter, but at least Fatu managed to put McIntyre through the Slim Jim table for the win.
Brie Bella and Paige defeat The Irresistible Forces, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
This match was decided the second Nikki Bella came out on crutches, and Paige was her replacement. Just an utter waste of time as a match that took many of the best women’s wrestlers in the company, put them all in one match, and gave them seven minutes to decide a tag championship. It ended up being a total affront where everyone was more concerned with getting their moves in than having a cohesive match. Paige is back… and the crowd goes mild.
Becky Lynch defeats AJ Lee
It’s a match that happened. Full disclosure: I wrote about all of night one, then realized I totally missed this match on the card, so I double-backed to write about it. That’s how unmemorable it was. This was clearly about the ends justifying the means, because the only point of this was to get the belt on Becky. They did that, and nothing that led to it happening is worth thinking about ever again.
Gunther defeats Seth Rollins
This was the best match on the card for the night, and for the most part, it lived up to the billing. Gunther is incredible, Seth is fantastic — and while this match should have gone for longer, they did the most with the 17 minutes they had. I don’t love getting Bron Breakker involved, because Gunther and Seth can carry this match without an additional pop, but the aim was to clearly keep Seth looking strong in defeat, so he can start a long program with Breakker. I’m not sure what Gunther’s role is anymore. He is unquestionably the most talented, technical, brilliant big man WWE has had in forever — but he’s going to be totally passed on for someone we’ll talk about on night two. It’s a shame.
Liv Morgan defeats Stephanie Vacquer
I had high hopes for this, and maybe there’s an alternate timeline where it worked — but in this universe, the women only had six minutes to work a match for the FRIGGIN’ WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, telling us how little WWE regards this best, or its female wrestlers. I’ll buy that perhaps Liv still isn’t 100% healthy, but that doesn’t excuse how rushed this match felt.
Cody Rhodes defeats Randy Orton
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I can safely say that I have never seen an important wrestling match operate for 20+ minutes and manage to make absolutely no sense the way this shit show did. There was absolutely no internal logic to the match, as if it were conceived by 20 different people at once, and they shared everyone’s ideas.
It seemed like we were going to get the overbooked mess out of the way early with Rhodes taking out Pat McAfee and then Jelly Roll dropping an elbow on him. Unfortunately, we were wrong.
The weirdest part of this match was that, whether real or not, Randy Orton displayed a back injury for the entirety of the match. This was weird because he was supposed to be the heel. Then Cody worked his back with forearms, delivered a low blow, poked Randy in the eyes — which are all heel tactics. If the idea was that Rhodes was willing to do “anything to win,” it missed the mark. Yet, that still wasn’t the weirdest part of all this.
Orton, who for 25 years has been renowned for his instincts and awareness, RKO’d the referee when it made zero sense. McAfee came down the ramp as the replacement, but then SLOW COUNTED an Orton pinfall — which made no sense. Then Orton RKO’d McAfee — which made no sense. Cody won, and maybe, just maybe, we were going to get a heel turn from Rhodes as Orton tried to hand him the belt?!
Orton punt kicked the champion to establish that he’s the heel, Cody is the face, and the crowd was cheering that Rhodes got his head kicked in because they’re so tired of him holding the belt. This was the single worst WrestleMania main event of all time.
Oba Femi defeats Brock Lesnar
This was the obvious result we all saw coming, but I don’t think anyone thought this would be four minutes long. One of the most anticipated matches of the weekend fell flat because there was just no thought put into this. There’s a very real chance Brock can’t physically go for more than five minutes at this point, but it was still just a little sad. We got some good power moves, and a predictable ending. Femi is a future megastar, and this match established it.
I’m giving an extra half-grade for Femi winning in dominant fashion, and another half-grade for Brock retiring.
Penta defeats Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, JD McDonagh, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio
FINALLY we get a match that actually felt worthy of WrestleMania. This was the obligatory “hungry young guy match,” albeit with the realization that half the guys in this match were over 40. It doesn’t matter, though, because they really put everything into this match. It might not have had the once-in-a-lifetime moments as past ladder matches at WrestleMania, but that didn’t matter — because for the first time in the weekend, we got a match that felt worthy of the spotlight.
To be honest, I’m grading kindly here because this was one of the few matches worth a damn. Truth be told, this would have been a mid-tier match in the past, but during this WrestleMania it was a standout.
Trick Williams defeats Sami Zayn
It’s really cool to see Trick Williams get his first main roster singles title, and it was much deserved. Williams has been an NXT standout who recently got the call up, and there deserves to be a rocket strapped to him. That said, there were two big issues I had with this match construction: Firstly, Williams entering second just because Lil Yachty was with him was stupid. I don’t care that they landed a celebrity to be ringside; you don’t alter the basic wrestling convention that the champion enters second.
The other is that AGAIN we just didn’t get enough time. The pacing of this match went directly to it appearing that Zayn was going to squash Trick, then he turned around and won. It needed a first act that had a little back-and-forth to raise the stakes. The end result was a match that just felt flatter than it should have been, but the storytelling was decent.
“The Demon” Finn Balor defeats Dominik Mysterio
Nothing about this match really made sense from a booking perspective. I don’t know why this was barely given a one-month build. I don’t understand what precipitated this match that required Finn Balor to bring out “The Demon,” and it’s still not really clear why Dom hates Balor as much as he does.
This absolutely typified the weekend. A lackluster build, nonsensical storytelling, and a justification only to have “The Demon” for a WrestleMania entrance, not because the story necessitated it. Aside from the logic, this was another mediocre contest. Dominik isn’t a good enough worker to have an elite match with Balor, which required him to slow things down a little.
One of the few times this weekend, a match only went 10 minutes but felt too long.
Rhea Ripley defeats Jade Cargill
Two great things happened here: Firstly, Cargill looked better than most of her matches (which isn’t saying much), and secondly we got the damn belt off her.
It’s high time we had the biggest prize in WWE women’s wrestling put back on someone who can actually work. When we get down to brass tacks, WWE pushed Cargill far too early as an eff-you to AEW for signing her away — which is fine, but then they pushed her into a place where they were backed into the corner. Jade has the look, she can talk — but the wrestling quality isn’t really there. Thankfully, it came somewhat together for this match, which managed to make it work.
Also don’t like that Jade came out first before Rhea, which seemed to spoil the finish.
I don’t love throwing interference into the finish when it didn’t need to be. It’s okay to have a title match end clean, I promise.
Roman Reigns defeats CM Punk
Michael Cole tried his damndest to gaslight the audience by calling this “one of the most anticipated WrestleMania main events of all time,” even though nobody cared about it. Thankfully, this match had logic, which is more than we can say for most of the weekend — but it was also really, really bad.
Reigns and Punk don’t have good chemistry in the ring. Conceptually, this should have been about Reigns using strong, methodical offense, then Punk breaking through with some quick, rapid-fire strikes to even the score. The issue is that Punk looks and wrestles old. Any rapidity he once had was gone. Reigns already works slow outside of his Superman punch and spear, so this whole match just felt slow. It was given 34 minutes of time, and it felt like every bit of a 30+ minute match.
This was typical heel work from Punk, using every trick in the book to try and get the win. Roman as the face who prevailed through it all. The best thing to say is that at least the match actually felt epic and like it really belonged on the WrestleMania stage, but the downside was that it was still a pretty poor match. The weird part is that it felt incredible, simply because everything else around it was so mediocre.
Also, please let’s not lose sight of the irony of having CM Punk working a main event with the ad boards all covered in Saudi Arabian tourism ads. It’s just too delicious.
With a total runtime of over six hours across two nights, WrestleMania 42 had two hours and 47 minutes of in-ring action. The rest of the time was made up with entrances, in-ring segments, bragging about the attendance, and lots and lots of ads.
Neither of wrestling’s two major companies has figured out how to pace a PPV show. AEW still loads their card with 25-minute epics for mid-card rivalries that could be told in half the time. WWE doesn’t give any room for talent to tell a story, cutting them off in under 10. It’s important to discuss time as an element of this show because WrestleMania 42 was supremely disrespectful of the audience’s time. This was engineered as six hours of marketing, with just enough wrestling sprinkled in to stop people tuning out.
The match quality wasn’t up to the standards of WrestleMania. The segments weren’t particularly entertaining. There was no logic, no consistent storytelling — just a field of ‘blah,’ which won’t be thought about in a month, let alone place this year’s iteration in any “greatest” lists.
Everything about this generation of WWE is about playing it safe. The product is designed to appeal to a TikTok, YouTube Shorts generation with no attention span for anything lasting longer than 10 minutes. Business deals have been made in such a way as to ensure there’s zero pressure from ratings or networks to improve the product. Hell, even veteran reporters are being blocked from obtaining credentials to cover events like WrestleMania over thin-skinned concerns that they will criticize the product. The audience doesn’t matter, the fans don’t matter, the quality of the product doesn’t matter — so long as the money printer keeps on ticking, and sponsors keep lining up to put their branding on everything under the sun.
But hey, at least we have Michael Cole to lie to us about why this was the “most anticipated WrestleMania of all time.”
Final Grade: 4/10 — A soulless, mess of a WrestleMania that will rival WrestleMania IX for the worst of all time.
There was a time when WrestleMania felt special; it felt magical. An event that culminated a year’s worth of drama, storytelling, and feuds into one epic three-plus-hour display of the greatest professional wrestling on the planet. My first live WrestleMania was XIII, defined not by the ho-hum main event between The Undertaker and Sycho Sid — but the undercard no-holds-barred match between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, which left a blood-covered Austin passed out in the center of the ring, and regarded to this day as one of the greatest Mania matches ever.
Legendary WrestleMania moments kept rolling through my mind over the two-night course of WrestleMania 42, in equal parts nostalgia and utter despair. A near-constant reminder of how far this once-great event has fallen. The “Showcase of the Immortals” and “Grandaddy of Them All” is barely on par with a low-tier event from two decades ago. Nothing lasts forever, and after WrestleMania 42, we’re on the verge of that Old Yeller feeling where WrestleMania, at least the idealized version in our heads, needs to be put out of its misery.
Let’s establish very quickly that this has nothing to do with the talent. This was unquestionably two days of everyone doing the best they could in an absolute ass situation. Over the course of two nights and over six hours of “wrestling,” we only saw two matches last longer than 20 minutes. Meanwhile, we had SIX of the 13 matches end in less than 10 minutes. That isn’t enough to tell a story in the ring. It’s not enough to have an ebb and flow in the action. No performer can put a cap on a year-long rivalry with seven minutes in the ring.
But hey, at least we got advertising! Lots, and lots, and lots of advertising. If you’re into trailers and brand synergy, then WWE has got you covered! From deifying the Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix, to the Street Fighter movie, to Mortal Kombat 2, and everything in between — this was the Super Bowl of brand alignment. Everything is manufactured, nothing even has the slightest veneer of realism, and when someone brings out a table, you best believe it’s because Slim Jim is the official table sponsor of WrestleMania and some TKO executive promised them X number of showings over the weekend.
Even at its very best, this show made very little sense. Before I depress myself anymore, remembering what WrestleMania used to be, let’s get on with reviewing this year’s debacle.
The USOs and LA Knight defeat The Vision and IShowSpeed
This match is only going to be remembered for the fact that IShowSpeed was better in the ring than he had any right to be. This isn’t going to be some Logan Paul-esque turn to wrestling, because Speed doesn’t have the WWE size to ever work in this company. Still, the match had some high spot fun. At the end, I was more wondering why the hell LA Knight is resigned to the celebrity show opener when he’s one of the most organically over wrestlers in the company.
Jacob Fatu defeats Drew McIntyre
Easily one of the bright spots of the weekend in terms of match quality, but this really got on my nerves. Fatu and McIntyre worked a hell of a match, made even more impressive by the fact that they were only given 14 minutes of ring time. Still, if you bill something as an “Unsanctioned Match,” it comes with a tacit understanding that things are going to get violent. There was no blood, no high stakes, nothing that told us why this match was so dangerous. It was all pretty ho-hum on the extreme-o-meter, but at least Fatu managed to put McIntyre through the Slim Jim table for the win.
Brie Bella and Paige defeat The Irresistible Forces, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
This match was decided the second Nikki Bella came out on crutches, and Paige was her replacement. Just an utter waste of time as a match that took many of the best women’s wrestlers in the company, put them all in one match, and gave them seven minutes to decide a tag championship. It ended up being a total affront where everyone was more concerned with getting their moves in than having a cohesive match. Paige is back… and the crowd goes mild.
Becky Lynch defeats AJ Lee
It’s a match that happened. Full disclosure: I wrote about all of night one, then realized I totally missed this match on the card, so I double-backed to write about it. That’s how unmemorable it was. This was clearly about the ends justifying the means, because the only point of this was to get the belt on Becky. They did that, and nothing that led to it happening is worth thinking about ever again.
Gunther defeats Seth Rollins
This was the best match on the card for the night, and for the most part, it lived up to the billing. Gunther is incredible, Seth is fantastic — and while this match should have gone for longer, they did the most with the 17 minutes they had. I don’t love getting Bron Breakker involved, because Gunther and Seth can carry this match without an additional pop, but the aim was to clearly keep Seth looking strong in defeat, so he can start a long program with Breakker. I’m not sure what Gunther’s role is anymore. He is unquestionably the most talented, technical, brilliant big man WWE has had in forever — but he’s going to be totally passed on for someone we’ll talk about on night two. It’s a shame.
Liv Morgan defeats Stephanie Vacquer
I had high hopes for this, and maybe there’s an alternate timeline where it worked — but in this universe, the women only had six minutes to work a match for the FRIGGIN’ WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, telling us how little WWE regards this best, or its female wrestlers. I’ll buy that perhaps Liv still isn’t 100% healthy, but that doesn’t excuse how rushed this match felt.
Cody Rhodes defeats Randy Orton
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I can safely say that I have never seen an important wrestling match operate for 20+ minutes and manage to make absolutely no sense the way this shit show did. There was absolutely no internal logic to the match, as if it were conceived by 20 different people at once, and they shared everyone’s ideas.
It seemed like we were going to get the overbooked mess out of the way early with Rhodes taking out Pat McAfee and then Jelly Roll dropping an elbow on him. Unfortunately, we were wrong.
The weirdest part of this match was that, whether real or not, Randy Orton displayed a back injury for the entirety of the match. This was weird because he was supposed to be the heel. Then Cody worked his back with forearms, delivered a low blow, poked Randy in the eyes — which are all heel tactics. If the idea was that Rhodes was willing to do “anything to win,” it missed the mark. Yet, that still wasn’t the weirdest part of all this.
Orton, who for 25 years has been renowned for his instincts and awareness, RKO’d the referee when it made zero sense. McAfee came down the ramp as the replacement, but then SLOW COUNTED an Orton pinfall — which made no sense. Then Orton RKO’d McAfee — which made no sense. Cody won, and maybe, just maybe, we were going to get a heel turn from Rhodes as Orton tried to hand him the belt?!
Orton punt kicked the champion to establish that he’s the heel, Cody is the face, and the crowd was cheering that Rhodes got his head kicked in because they’re so tired of him holding the belt. This was the single worst WrestleMania main event of all time.
Oba Femi defeats Brock Lesnar
This was the obvious result we all saw coming, but I don’t think anyone thought this would be four minutes long. One of the most anticipated matches of the weekend fell flat because there was just no thought put into this. There’s a very real chance Brock can’t physically go for more than five minutes at this point, but it was still just a little sad. We got some good power moves, and a predictable ending. Femi is a future megastar, and this match established it.
I’m giving an extra half-grade for Femi winning in dominant fashion, and another half-grade for Brock retiring.
Penta defeats Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, JD McDonagh, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio
FINALLY we get a match that actually felt worthy of WrestleMania. This was the obligatory “hungry young guy match,” albeit with the realization that half the guys in this match were over 40. It doesn’t matter, though, because they really put everything into this match. It might not have had the once-in-a-lifetime moments as past ladder matches at WrestleMania, but that didn’t matter — because for the first time in the weekend, we got a match that felt worthy of the spotlight.
To be honest, I’m grading kindly here because this was one of the few matches worth a damn. Truth be told, this would have been a mid-tier match in the past, but during this WrestleMania it was a standout.
Trick Williams defeats Sami Zayn
It’s really cool to see Trick Williams get his first main roster singles title, and it was much deserved. Williams has been an NXT standout who recently got the call up, and there deserves to be a rocket strapped to him. That said, there were two big issues I had with this match construction: Firstly, Williams entering second just because Lil Yachty was with him was stupid. I don’t care that they landed a celebrity to be ringside; you don’t alter the basic wrestling convention that the champion enters second.
The other is that AGAIN we just didn’t get enough time. The pacing of this match went directly to it appearing that Zayn was going to squash Trick, then he turned around and won. It needed a first act that had a little back-and-forth to raise the stakes. The end result was a match that just felt flatter than it should have been, but the storytelling was decent.
“The Demon” Finn Balor defeats Dominik Mysterio
Nothing about this match really made sense from a booking perspective. I don’t know why this was barely given a one-month build. I don’t understand what precipitated this match that required Finn Balor to bring out “The Demon,” and it’s still not really clear why Dom hates Balor as much as he does.
This absolutely typified the weekend. A lackluster build, nonsensical storytelling, and a justification only to have “The Demon” for a WrestleMania entrance, not because the story necessitated it. Aside from the logic, this was another mediocre contest. Dominik isn’t a good enough worker to have an elite match with Balor, which required him to slow things down a little.
One of the few times this weekend, a match only went 10 minutes but felt too long.
Rhea Ripley defeats Jade Cargill
Two great things happened here: Firstly, Cargill looked better than most of her matches (which isn’t saying much), and secondly we got the damn belt off her.
It’s high time we had the biggest prize in WWE women’s wrestling put back on someone who can actually work. When we get down to brass tacks, WWE pushed Cargill far too early as an eff-you to AEW for signing her away — which is fine, but then they pushed her into a place where they were backed into the corner. Jade has the look, she can talk — but the wrestling quality isn’t really there. Thankfully, it came somewhat together for this match, which managed to make it work.
Also don’t like that Jade came out first before Rhea, which seemed to spoil the finish.
I don’t love throwing interference into the finish when it didn’t need to be. It’s okay to have a title match end clean, I promise.
Roman Reigns defeats CM Punk
Michael Cole tried his damndest to gaslight the audience by calling this “one of the most anticipated WrestleMania main events of all time,” even though nobody cared about it. Thankfully, this match had logic, which is more than we can say for most of the weekend — but it was also really, really bad.
Reigns and Punk don’t have good chemistry in the ring. Conceptually, this should have been about Reigns using strong, methodical offense, then Punk breaking through with some quick, rapid-fire strikes to even the score. The issue is that Punk looks and wrestles old. Any rapidity he once had was gone. Reigns already works slow outside of his Superman punch and spear, so this whole match just felt slow. It was given 34 minutes of time, and it felt like every bit of a 30+ minute match.
This was typical heel work from Punk, using every trick in the book to try and get the win. Roman as the face who prevailed through it all. The best thing to say is that at least the match actually felt epic and like it really belonged on the WrestleMania stage, but the downside was that it was still a pretty poor match. The weird part is that it felt incredible, simply because everything else around it was so mediocre.
Also, please let’s not lose sight of the irony of having CM Punk working a main event with the ad boards all covered in Saudi Arabian tourism ads. It’s just too delicious.
With a total runtime of over six hours across two nights, WrestleMania 42 had two hours and 47 minutes of in-ring action. The rest of the time was made up with entrances, in-ring segments, bragging about the attendance, and lots and lots of ads.
Neither of wrestling’s two major companies has figured out how to pace a PPV show. AEW still loads their card with 25-minute epics for mid-card rivalries that could be told in half the time. WWE doesn’t give any room for talent to tell a story, cutting them off in under 10. It’s important to discuss time as an element of this show because WrestleMania 42 was supremely disrespectful of the audience’s time. This was engineered as six hours of marketing, with just enough wrestling sprinkled in to stop people tuning out.
The match quality wasn’t up to the standards of WrestleMania. The segments weren’t particularly entertaining. There was no logic, no consistent storytelling — just a field of ‘blah,’ which won’t be thought about in a month, let alone place this year’s iteration in any “greatest” lists.
Everything about this generation of WWE is about playing it safe. The product is designed to appeal to a TikTok, YouTube Shorts generation with no attention span for anything lasting longer than 10 minutes. Business deals have been made in such a way as to ensure there’s zero pressure from ratings or networks to improve the product. Hell, even veteran reporters are being blocked from obtaining credentials to cover events like WrestleMania over thin-skinned concerns that they will criticize the product. The audience doesn’t matter, the fans don’t matter, the quality of the product doesn’t matter — so long as the money printer keeps on ticking, and sponsors keep lining up to put their branding on everything under the sun.
But hey, at least we have Michael Cole to lie to us about why this was the “most anticipated WrestleMania of all time.”
Final Grade: 4/10 — A soulless, mess of a WrestleMania that will rival WrestleMania IX for the worst of all time.
There was a time when WrestleMania felt special; it felt magical. An event that culminated…
