The “season” ended for WWE this weekend with WrestleMania closing all its longstanding storylines, and introducing new ones. There were title changes, stunning betrayals, and a few memorable matches in an event which otherwise, well, fell a little flat.
WrestleMania is often the canary in the coal mine to see what the direction of the company will be for the upcoming year, and here’s what we learned from the weekend.
WWE knew Cody Rhodes had become a stale champion
The decision to take the strap off Cody Rhodes was the correct one. Since WrestleMania 40 we’ve seen the core problem with Cody as champion, which is there’s just not much compelling about him when he’s not on a chase.
It’s bizarre to be excited about a John Cena title run in 2025 when he’s 47-years-old with an awkward hair transplant — but right now I’m far more invested in seeing what Heel Cena as a champion is, rather than continuing to see Cody trot out the same, tired schtick.
Hopefully during this time away from the belt someone can convince Cody to turn heel. He’s been eternally reluctant to do so, but he was a fantastic heel in NJPW butting heads inside Bullet Club — and could be absolutely incredible in WWE, especially against a Babyface Roman Reigns.
The story was finished last year, had been dead for the last 12 months — now I’m hyped to see what’s next.
Women’s wrestling in the WWE might be at its peak
I can’t stop thinking about the night two opening match between Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair. Three of the best wrestlers in the entire company going at each other for 20 minutes to open the crowd in what was arguably the best women’s WrestleMania match ever.
Sky came out on top, but I think overall it’s a reflection of how talented the women’s division in the WWE is. We got the return of The Man, Becky Lynch (although it coming at the expense of Bayley is kinda weird), a really hard fought battle between Jade Cargill and Naomi that saw Cargill establish herself as one of the top stars in the division, and a BRUTAL match between the old guard in Charlotte Flair and the new generation in Tiffany Stratton. On top of that, NXT (which we’ll get to later) has some of the most impressive women’s wrestlers in the world right now.
Evolution 2 is tentatively scheduled for July 5, and quite honestly I can’t wait for what they can work with.
It’s all about age demographics now
Watching WrestleMania this year was a little like seeing Minecraft with my daughter and being so confused why teenagers were screaming “chicken jockey!” I fully accept that WWE is moving in a different direction, but the whole weekend felt so transparently like marketing was checking off boxes.
- Kids love yelling “yeet,” so it’s time for a Jey Uso title run
- Little kids love The New Day, so they need the belts again
- Logan Paul appeals to … someone, so he needs to go over A.J. Styles
- Gotta get Travis Scott involved again for the 20-somethings
I don’t blame WWE for being all about fueling the capitalist machine, but I like it just a little less transparent than Dominik Mysterio winning the “Aviator Highlight of the Night [TM}” while continuing to get go away heat.
Hope you like UFC in your WWE
This was not a one-off for WWE, because it’s all about brand synergy now. Having Mania in Vegas was a means to an end, but we’re going to continue to see more and more cutaways to UFC fighters in the crowd as TKO-Endeavor tries to mix its audiences and play more off them.
WWE purchasing AAA objectively sucks
This was the big announcement on night one that WWE had acquired the legendary Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide as part of its global expansion — and it’s so bad for wrestling.
Monopolies are terrible, and this is feeling a whole lot like Vince eating up the territories again, but on a larger scale. I’m not going to pretend that AAA was great. Hell, Konnan as booker was running the company into the ground — but now the few remaining bright spots of AAA are going to be swallowed up under the guise of brand synergy.
We can kiss goodbye to Triplemania being a showcase of world wrestling with stars from all over heading to Mexico. Now it will be about throwing NXT talent down there, where they’ll likely go over the homegrown talent. This is a move designed to streamline a Lucha Libre pipeline into WWE, but the company routinely struggles booking Lucha stars correctly.
It’s a good move for the stock. Horrible for professional wrestling.
Seth Rollins is about to truly have his moment
It’s so weird to talk about Rollins only now ascending after 13 years on the WWE main roster and five world championship runs — but siding with Paul Heyman on night one just felt … special.
Rollins has it all. He’s been a consistent bright spot in the company for over a decade, but often when getting to the top he’s felt a little out of place. Heyman at his side changes that. It’s an evolution that turns him into the next CM Punk, and he absolutely has the ability to pull it off.
That main event on Saturday was my match of the weekend, and pulled off to utter perfection. It was long enough to breathe, didn’t overstay its welcome, and perfectly positioned Rollins as a conniving genius picking his spots without risking himself. This is the best version of Seth there’s ever been as an individual performer, and it’s going to be special.
NXT is one of the best wrestling programs in the world right now
Look, I get it. NXT 2.0 was supposed to be a true developmental program, the minor leagues to WWE’s majors. However, if we learned anything from WrestleMania weekend, it’s that NXT is one of the best wrestling brands in the game right now. All of the kids signed out of college to develop their skills in the ring and on the mic are all grown up, and what they showed at NXT’s Stand and Deliver was incredible. If you want your pure wrestling matches, the Fatal Four-Way match between Stephanie Vaquer, Giulia, Jaida Parker and Jordynne Grace was amazing, the triple threat match between Oba Femi, Trick Williams and JeVon Evans (who is only 20 YEARS OLD, by the way) was one of the best matches of the year and the NXT Women’s North American title ladder match was really fun as well. If you want storytelling, the saga of the D’Angelo Family and Stacks turning his back on the family was a jaw dropper, and the grind for Hank and Tank becoming tag team champions against Fraxiom was super cool.
NXT has caught a lot of flak for their NIL deals signing college athletes as soon as they graduate, but the plan has worked so far. NXT 2.0 feels authentic, full of people that look like me wrestling on the biggest stage. They’ve got something special there.
We gotta stop adding The Rock into things
Part of why John Cena-Cody Rhodes felt so flat is because the main orchestrator, the reason why the match is happening, wasn’t there. The Rock operates less as the Final Boss and more like a spectre, coming and going as he pleases while wanting to be integral parts of stories he might not finish. If he’s the Final Boss, and he’s pulling the strings behind Cena becoming heel, why is he not there when his champion is crowned? What was he doing during that entire match?
I get that he’s The Rock, and he’s a part of the executive board, but if he’s going to implement himself into stories, he needs to actually be there when the story is going on, at least at WrestleMania. Everything about the ending of the match would’ve been much better if it was The Rock taking that Cross Rhodes instead of Travis Scott, making the ending fall really flat.
Of course, it’s not all solely The Rock’s fault, I’m not trying to say that. But for him not to be present during a match where he is an integral part, that’s brutal.
