When WWE and AEW have pay-per-view events, I almost always post some sort of review column, barring some sort of unforeseen circumstances or emergency situations.
Every now and then, a show is big enough that a mere review column isn’t enough to hold all of my thoughts and opinions. WrestleMania is certainly one of those shows. It’s the biggest show in all of wrestling, and it’s a two-night event, so of course, there’s a ton to talk about.
Whenever I do these “Things I Think I Think” columns, I always have to give a shout-out to Peter King, who I borrowed the idea from. He used it as a section in his weekly “Monday Morning Quarterback” columns that he wrote for Sports Illustrated for a couple decades.
Everything listed in this column is listed in chronological order based on when things took place over the weekend, so keep that in mind if you’re wondering why something was mentioned before something else.
Let’s have some fun.
Sycho Sid Being In The “Legacy” Wing Of The WWE Hall Of Fame Should Be A Crime: There are a TON of legendary names in the “Legacy” wing of the WWE Hall Of Fame. Bruiser Brody, El Santo, Jim Londos, Rikidozan, Lou Thesz, George Hackenschmidt, Frank Gotch, and Mildred Burke are just some of the “Legacy” inductees that are icons of the sport, but didn’t get an “official” induction. No lengthy video package, no induction speech, nothing.
One thing that you’ll notice about those names I listed, and many of the other “Legacy” inductees, is that no matter how much they’ve accomplished in the business, and no matter how influential they are to the sport… most, if not all, of what they did came outside of the WWWF/WWF/WWE bubble. That’s not a knock on them, or to say that what they did is in any way “lessened” because it didn’t happen for one particular company. It’s just stating facts. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sycho Sid is an exception to that “rule.” He’s a two-time WWF Champion, and wrestled in the main event of two different WrestleManias, and that alone is more than a lot of people that have been given full-fledged inductions to make them “official” members of the Hall Of Fame. Throw in his two reigns as the WCW Champion, and you make a much stronger case for him.
No, he was never a technical wizard in the ring, and no, he didn’t always have the strongest drive and desire to be a full-time professional wrestler, but that never once stopped fans from loving the guy. He was always someone that could capture your attention from the first moment you saw him, and that connection carried him to great heights.
When you look at the entirety of the “Legacy” wing, there might not be a bigger crying shame than Sid being thrown in and largely glossed over. It’s also a shame that he had to make it in posthumously after he passed away in August 2024, as his speech could’ve been amazing.
iShowSpeed Could Do This Wrestling Thing If He Wanted To: Right off the bat, I have to admit there’s a catch to me saying that… his height. The man is listed as being 5’8″ tall, and while that wouldn’t be anywhere near the smallest man to ever become a pro wrestler, he would certainly be on the shorter side, especially in WWE.
On the current WWE main roster, only Akira Tozawa (listed as 5’7″), Tyler Bate (5’7″), Cruz Del Toro (5’7″), Dragon Lee (5’7″), Chad Gable (5’8″), Joaquin Wilde (5’7″), Rey Mysterio (5’6″), and Axiom (5’8″) are listed as that height or shorter.
Speed has the… speed… and athletic ability to get back in the ring again. I’m not sure if that lack of true size would keep him from being any sort of full-time wrestler like his buddy Logan Paul, but for special events like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or a Royal Rumble appearance? Yeah, I think he could do that, and might even be able to do it well.
Technical Issues Are Unacceptable For A Company This Big At A Show This Major: Look, I get that technology can be fickle sometimes, but it is absolutely, positively unacceptable for a show like WrestleMania to be riddled with technical issues and glitches.
We’re not talking about some low-budget independent promotion streaming out of a bar somewhere. WWE is a company that made $1.709 BILLION in revenue in 2025. They should be able to secure the biggest and best tech in every category that would make for a seamless and perfect viewing experience for anyone watching at home, no matter what device they’re using to watch or what streaming service they’re watching on.
I should be able to make out the individual pores on Liv Morgan’s arms when I watch WWE events, and I should be able to hear the deodorant evaporating on Oba Femi’s armpits when I tune in. WWE has the financial ability and stability to be, like, one step away from being able to laser transmit their shows into my eyeballs and brain without me even having to be awake.
Instead, for the company’s largest show of the year, I get video streaming issues in almost every match, with matches looking like they’re being slowed down to a frame-by-frame level. I had to back out of the ESPN stream so many times, returning seconds later to a normal stream, only for it to happen again minutes later. From the tweets I saw, it wasn’t an ESPN issue, as people were also complaining about the Netflix international stream. I saw complaints about audio and video not syncing up, and with people having tons of buffering issues. There were also numerous complaints about ad breaks ending, which triggered streams to automatically go back in time a few minutes.
As I type this, it is Saturday night, approximately two hours after night one of WrestleMania came to a close. That means I have no idea what awaits me for night two. Perhaps someone, somewhere will be able to solve all of the technical issues, and night two will be perfect for everyone watching. At the same time, perhaps night two will feature even more glitches as (presumably) more fans tune in for the “bigger” night.
The fact that night one was so riddled with issues in the first place, even if those issues are solved before night two, simply doesn’t make sense to me.
(Writer’s Note: Everything seemed to run a lot better on night two. I didn’t see a ton of complaints on social media in regards to technical issues. Any issues I had were very minor, and most of that had to do with the TV in my office being on the older side. Whether someone in charge went the extra mile to improve things or not, things were a lot better after a very spotty first night.)
Nia Jax & Lash Legend Looked Amazing In Their Demolition Tribute Gear: If there’s one thing you know about WrestleMania, it’s that wrestlers are going to go all out with new ring gear, entrance attire, hairstyles, and so on.
Lash Legend and Nia Jax are the biggest, baddest tag team in the WWE women’s division, and they already stand out above any other woman on the roster. They could come to the ring wearing potato sacks, and they’d still capture your attention.
Their gear at WrestleMania… an all-white tribute to brand new WWE Hall Of Famers Demolition, with the leather, the masks, the chaps, and the spikes… looked incredible, and made Lash and Nia look like even bigger badasses, which is really saying something.
Sure, it didn’t exactly help them win the match and retain their WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, but they deserve their flowers, and I’m here to give them those flowers.
Poor Match Lengths Is Diabolical Work: WrestleMania Saturday clocked in at just under four hours from start-to-finish. In that four-hour span, there was just under 86 minutes of in-ring action, spanning over a total of seven matches. The first six matches combined for just under 63 minutes.
For the sake of comparison, I randomly selected a recent AEW pay-per-view… Y’All In 2025… and the final three matches on that show combined to have 90 minutes and 37 seconds of in-ring action, and the entire main show combined for a few seconds short of 227 minutes of in-ring action, which completely blows my mind. That’s almost as long as WrestleMania Saturday was on the air this year.
Of the seven matches on WrestleMania Saturday, four of them failed to reach the ten-minute mark, and three of those four were title matches. In what world does that make sense? If those matches took place on any random episode of Raw or Smackdown, you’d say they were too short, but the fact that they took place at WrestleMania really makes them stand out in a negative light.
In no way am I saying I wanted to see AJ Lee and Becky Lynch push each other for an hour, but having those short matches doesn’t do anything to help anyone involved. You’re not giving the competitors the proper time to go out there and tell the stories they need to be telling. They aren’t getting the right opportunity to show the world what they’re capable of doing.
WWE programming features a ton of advertisements and “filler” these days. I know that, you know that, we all know that. I’m not exactly a fan of it, but as I’ve mentioned in the past, I understand the business aspect of things. The entire point of having a business SHOULD BE to make as much money as possible, and that’s what WWE is trying to do with all of their ads and sponsorship deals. However, when you have a grand total of 12 minutes separating the amount of in-ring action on a show and the amount of ads on that same show, the ads become even more prominent. We saw more of Hulk Hogan, thanks to the non-stop ads for his upcoming documentary series on Netflix, than anyone on the entire card.
What the TKO Group has done to WWE, and what they are continuing to do to WWE, needs to be studied by scholars the world over. It’s sickening, frankly, and yet… $1.709 BILLION in revenue for WWE in 2025, as I mentioned earlier. Why would the company ever change any of their ways when they continue making money, hand over fist, breaking every record in the book?
Pat McAfee Served No Purpose: Outside of Ari Emanuel and maybe Pat himself, did anyone want to see Pat McAfee involved in the build for Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton? Then, after all the push back and the anger and the hostility, what happened at WrestleMania?
Pat gets taken out before the match even begins, shows up for a brief cameo at the end, but that’s it. He didn’t do much of anything at all. What the hell was the point of including him in the first place? Is it someone in a position of power realizing that the crowd reaction meant McAfee wasn’t a popular choice, so they changed any plans that were made? Was this the plan all along? I fail to believe that the plan all along was to insert someone into the story that made zero sense, and then follow it up by not delivering on anything even remotely resembling the hype of the involvement in the first place. If this was some midcard match, maybe, but in the main event WWE Title spot? Not a chance.
It was yet another instance of someone sticking their noses where they didn’t belong, interfering in Cody Rhodes’ Road To WrestleMania, and it was yet another instance where it backfired along the way. I have it on good authority that it will happen again next year, with Cody set to be attacked by his daughter, Liberty, who will be forming her own Legacy faction with Randy Orton’s daughter, Brooklyn, Triple H’s daughter, Vaughn, and Seth Rollins’ daughter, Roux. You heard it here first.
A Star Is Born In Oba Femi: Leading up to WrestleMania, there was a particular thought process for people who felt that Oba Femi needed to beat Brock Lesnar. He didn’t just need to win, but he needed to look strong. If Brock dominated 99% of the match, only to have Oba escape in the end, wouldn’t help him at all. I wouldn’t say he needed to SQUASH Brock, but he definitely needed to look great in a victorious effort.
I think I’m comfortable enough to speak for everyone in saying that he did, indeed, look great in a victorious effort. The match wasn’t long at all, not even hitting the five-minute mark, but Oba was able to bully Brock for a bit, withstand an attempted comeback, and basically got right back up after an F-5 and won the match with his own Fall From Grace finisher.
Even without the “Oba beat Brock so badly that Brock ran away from the business and retired” narrative that we got after the match, this was everything it needed to be for Oba. He stood up to the man who has been the biggest and the baddest man in pro wrestling for almost 25 years, and he looked like the physically dominant Alpha in the process. He took Brock’s biggest and best shots, shrugged them off, and kept pushing forward.
Now, Oba carries all the momentum in the world as we exit WrestleMania season. Live crowds have accepted him. They’re invested in everything he does. During the Mania post-show, it was heavily hinted that he and Roman Reigns are going to cross paths with each other this year, and that will be yet another excuse for WWE to print money.
Brock Lesnar’s Possible Retirement Came As Quite The Shock: Like many of you, I saw all of the rumors that Brock was ready to retire soon. Almost every rumor and report said the same thing… the likely spot for his retirement was this year’s SummerSlam, which takes place in Minnesota, which is where Brock went to college and has basically been called his adopted home from the start of his career.
Throw in the fact that Gunther has become the Grim Reaper for other people’s careers, and we all started putting two and two together that Brock and Gunther were going to face off at SummerSlam, and Gunther was going to win and take yet another career.
Immediately after Brock lost to Oba Femi, he broke down crying as he removed his gloves and boots, placing them in the center of the ring. It’s the universal sign for a wrestler walking away from the sport.
When it happened, I didn’t know how to react. I was waiting for Gunther to come out and set something up for that SummerSlam match, even if SummerSlam is still three-and-a-half months away. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and he just left. Commentary was very careful with the way they worded things, avoiding outright saying that Brock had retired, and there are rumors that the entire thing might still be an angle. Time will tell, of course, but for that moment, it was one of the real, genuine surprises in recent memory.
Je’Von Evans Has Everything Needed To Be A Future World Champion: He has the type of offense that makes everyone pay attention to his matches. His personality is effervescent, making him come across as a very likable person. The promos he cuts are very unique to big-time pro wrestling, and nobody else on the scene sounds like he does.
He’s also still a week away from celebrating his 22nd birthday.
His ceiling might be as high as anyone in the sport today. I don’t think WWE is in any hurry to push him to the top, whether you feel he deserves it or not, but his day is probably coming, and probably coming much sooner than later.
A Star Is Also Born In Trick Williams: While it might not be viewed on the same level as what went down with Oba Femi, WrestleMania was also the moment that Trick Williams truly “arrived” as a member of the main roster.
A gigantic crowd chanting “Whoop That Trick” in unison led him to the ring, and he proceeded to win the United States Title, giving him his first main roster championship. While it wasn’t a full-fledged double turn with him and Sami Zayn, it was basically presented as such. Sami worked as a heel on multiple occasions, and that only made the crowd cheer for Trick more.
They might not have a choice, but if WWE was smart, they would present Trick as a face moving forward. Crowds want to cheer for him, and they’re going to cheer for him, so give them more reasons to do it.
That Was The Best Singles Match Of Jade Cargill’s Career: Before anyone chimes in with the “that’s not a high bar to clear” comments, I realize that her track record isn’t exactly Dean Malenko-like. That’s fine. This is about raising her up, though. As it says, I think that was the best singles match of Jade’s career. She was a participant in some really entertaining tag matches with Bianca Belair, but if you wanted to say this was the best match, period, of her career, I wouldn’t argue with you.
She looked like the comic book character that she needs to look like, and she took control of the match, working on top for the majority of it. Whatever she was asked to do, she pulled it off, and she did it well.
It seems that the prevailing line of thinking is that she can’t wrestle, and that she hasn’t improved much since making her debut five years ago. I don’t agree with that, to be honest. To me, it’s more on the fact that she still doesn’t have a ton of experience. WrestleMania 42 was her 143rd listed pro match. It wasn’t all that long ago when a wrestler having 143 matches in a single calendar year was almost viewed as them having a “down” year. She has been viewed as an “attraction” for most of her career, not really working a full-time schedule, and wrestlers in AEW and WWE don’t have the luxury of working a regular house show run to hone their craft.
Could she be further along right now? Perhaps. Is she in a good spot right now? Yes. If WWE didn’t trust her, do you think they would’ve placed her in a high-profile WrestleMania match with the woman many view to be one of the cornerstones of the entire company?
Now that she has dropped the WWE Women’s Title, I’m curious to see the direction she goes in from here.
CM Punk vs Roman Reigns Was Everything It Needed To Be, And More: In my review column for Mania, I gave Punk vs Reigns 4.5 Stars, but based on a lot of the reactions I’ve seen on social media, it had be wondering if my score was too low.
I’ve seen reviews calling the match one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all-time. People like Mark Henry have said that it’s the best wrestling match he has seen, period, since The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels were facing each other at WrestleMania. Multiple people have given the match a five-star score.
Either way, it was a fantastic match, and to say that WrestleMania 42 needed that would be quite the understatement. There were some decent enough matches on both nights, and there were even some really good matches. Before Punk vs Reigns, though, there wasn’t a match that you could see people remembering as something extra special.
Now, we have just that.
Punk and Reigns delivered an incredible match, wearing each other down over the span of nearly 35 minutes. They had a ton of drama, creating suspense and having people question who was going to win. The story of pure exhaustion was a fun one, and it played into the finish of the match, with Punk collapsing when he attempted another GTS that could’ve ended things, leading to Reigns being able to land back-to-back Spears for the win.
These two are all-time greats, and two of the absolute smartest in-ring performers ever. They simply get it, and are able to connect with live crowds and tell stories like no other. Great, great stuff.
Let’s Never Mention Night One Of WrestleMania 42 Again: As I said in my review column for night one, it certainly wasn’t the worst edition of WrestleMania we’ve ever seen. If you’ve never watched some of those first few years of Mania, you missed out on some truly awful shows. They were fine at the time they aired, but they haven’t held up at all.
The first night of WrestleMania 42 was basically an episode of Raw or Smackdown that just so happened to be held in front of 50,000+ fans, only with WAY more commercials mixed in. Nothing truly awful, but really disappointing for what is supposed to be the biggest show in pro wrestling.
While night two wasn’t perfect, it was infinitely better than what happened the night before. With that happening, can we just forget about the first night? We’ll talk about what happened with Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar, the Intercontinental Title Ladder Match, Trick Willy winning the United States Title, and a legendary main event. Everything that happened on Saturday night will be treated like Pat Patterson becoming the very first Intercontinental Champion… no video proof that it ever happened.
What did you think of WrestleMania 42? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s get to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
CM Punk vs Roman Reigns
Darby Allin
Intercontinental Title Ladder Match
Jon Moxley vs Nick Wayne
Will Ospreay vs Hechicero
Jade Cargill vs Rhea Ripley
Kevin Knight vs Claudio Castagnoli
Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar
Trick Williams
Bianca Belair
Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton
The Young Bucks vs Zachary Wentz & Myron Reed
Lyra Valkyria vs Charlotte Flair
Seth Rollins vs Gunther
Liv Morgan
Iyo Sky vs Kairi Sane
Jacob Fatu vs Drew McIntyre
Tony D’Angelo vs “All Ego” Ethan Page
Becky Lynch
Brie Bella & Paige
This Week’s Playlist: “Straight From Da A” by Young Dro, Big Kuntry King, T.I. & DC Young Fly… “BLINDFOLD” by Wage War… “4×4” by Wage War… “Drag Me” by From Ashes To New… “Forever” by From Ashes To New… “Villain” by From Ashes To New… “Die For You” by From Ashes To New… “New Disease” by From Ashes To New… “Darkside” by From Ashes To New… “Nightmares” by Holywatr… “My Hood” by Young Jeezy… “Bonnie & Shyne” by Shyne & Barrington Levy… “I’m A Thug” by Trick Daddy… “Starting Over Again” by Saosin… “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls… “The Freshman” by The Verve Pipe… “If You Could Only See” by Tonic… “Allison Road” by Gin Blossoms… “Hey Jealousy” by Gin Blossoms… “Found Out About You” by Gin Blossoms… “Follow You Down” by Gin Blossoms… “Everything You Want” by Vertical Horizon… “Unwell” by Matchbox Twenty… “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three… “Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger
