Viva Las Vegas! Epic WrestleMania featured something for everyone

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WrestleMania 41 is in the books, with more than 120,000 fans entertained by incredible matches, compelling storylines, surprises and title changes aplenty, including in the main event on Sunday, when John Cena captured a record 17th world championship during what was his 20th and final WrestleMania, with a planned retirement at the end of 2025 drawing nearer by the day. 

The weeklong celebration has evolved into one of the biggest sports/entertainment attractions of the year anywhere.

For reporters, there is access to talent, half a dozen live wrestling shows, after-parties, press conferences, the hall of fame induction ceremony, WWE World and more attractions than any one reporter can possibly cover in such a short span. 

This year’s event, held in Las Vegas for the first time in more than 30 years, left no stone unturned in terms of things to cover. 

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Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, the company’s chief content officer, teased even bigger things to come as WWE wrapped its “season” with the WrestleMania shows and started its new season on Raw on Monday night. 

With Cena, now a heel character carrying the company’s top title, having more than two dozen appearances planned between now and his retirement in December, the central focus of main events will revolve around the wrestler-turned-actor. 

In fact, less than 24 hours after winning the title, fellow WWE legend Randy Orton emerged as Cena’s first rival during the run. 

Orton, himself a 14-time world champion, and Cena have a long history together as two of the biggest names in all of pro wrestling in the past two-plus decades.  

The expectation is that Cena eventually will return to his good-guy persona before retiring as the most decorated and successful — arguably the greatest — wrestling stars of all time. 

But in the meantime, fans are being treated to his first significant run as a bad guy. If what they’ve been treated to so far is any indication, it should be an entertaining year.  

… and new!

Six different WWE titles changed hands during WrestleMania 41 weekend in Las Vegas, none bigger than the Cena win over Cody Rhodes. 

Jey Uso captured his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Guther, women’s star Becky Lynch made a surprise return to team with Lyra Valkyria and defeat Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, Dominik Mysterio upset Bron Breakker, Finn Balor and Penta in a fatal four-way match to capture the Intercontinental title, The New Day defeated The War Raiders to capture the World Tag Team Championships and Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight to win the United States Championship.  

Title changes typically signify changes in direction for both the winner and loser. In Uso’s case, he’ll get the chance to be a major player in storylines and during premium live events. For Gunther, a move to the Undisputed WWE Championship picture at some point seems inevitable.

Lynch and Valkyria’s title run was short-lived as they lost on Raw a night later in a rematch with Morgan and Rodriguez before Lynch turned on Valkyria. It would seem the plans for Valkyria are to have her become a prominent part of main-roster talent, while Lynch will undoubtedly land back at the top of the women’s division. Morgan and Rodriguez remain a part of the fractured Judgment Day stable.

Mysterio’s win was somewhat of a surprise, but so well-deserved and a signal that the company values his hard work and patience in getting his opportunity. Immediately, it feels like he’ll feud with Judgment Day member Balor, perhaps defecting from the group. For Breakker, he immediately moved to the top of the WWE roster when he aligned with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman on Monday Night Raw.

The New Day will get the chance to grow as heels for the first time, with the likelihood that Big E at some point becomes part of the story. The War Raiders reset yet again and will look to continue to build on their two title runs.  

Fatu, meanwhile, might be the fastest-rising star on the WWE roster not named Bron Breakker. The Samoan superstar in the making will now have the chance to establish himself as a solo performer, much as Roman Reigns did early during his rise to mega-stardom.

For Knight, it’s hard to say what’s next. He’s a terrific talent, excellent on the mic and in the ring, plus he’s a veteran, so something meaningful should present itself sooner than later. 

It really was all about The Game 

Levesque himself headlined the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Las Vegas on the weekend, a class that also saw Michelle McCool, Lex Luger and The Natural Disasters inducted. Also honoured was the legendary WrestleMania 13 match between ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, as well as Kamala, Dory Funk Sr., and Ivan Koloff. 

Levesque’s hour-long induction speech was arguably among the greatest — and longest — of all time. Rather than talk about himself, his achievements and his career, Levesque spent the entirety of his speech honouring those who have helped him along his journey, including his parents, his wife Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, his mother-in-law Linda McMahon, and his children, all of whom were in attendance. 

Levesque paid tribute to teachers, fellow talent, legends who inspired him, fellow employees who work behind the scenes and his best friends from the so-called Kliq — Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman and Scott Hall.

Perhaps most significant were Levesque’s acknowledgements of the late Joanie Lauer, aka Chyna, with whom he once was in a relationship, and longtime WWE chairman Vince McMahon, whose public legal battles forced the company to distance itself from him.

While the long speech made for a late night, every single word of it came across as genuine, heartfelt and uttered with love and respect.

Viva Las Vegas

The city of Las Vegas lived up to its reputation over the week leading up to WrestleMania 41. Its billboards were adorned with advertisements, its casino at Fontainebleau Las Vegas — which hosted the WWE roster and several events — featured customized WWE craps tables and other specialized items, and celebrities from the world over gathered to party like only Vegas can. 

Show stealer 

Cena’s epic 17th title may go down as the most memorable part of WrestleMania 41, certainly the record books will indicate that as such, but the best match of the weekend went to Saturday night’s main event, which featured CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in a triple-threat match, with manager Paul Heyman’s loyalty on the line. 

Before the match even started, fans were treated to three incredible ring entrances for the ages. Rollins entered with a flame thrower and even managed a wardrobe change. Reigns, a proud Samoan, walked slowly down the long ramp, below huge video boards suspended from the ceiling, each projecting different members of his family lineage, a powerful statement and a visually stunning masterpiece befitting some of wrestling’s royal family. Punk then entered and, after a video montage, Living Color appeared on stage and played his entrance theme, Cult of Personality, while he walked to the ring to main event WrestleMania, a career-long dream. 

If that weren’t enough, the bout itself was fantastic, with all three having an incredible match, telling a terrific story, pulling out all the stop to keep the crowd on their feet the entire time. 

Then came its conclusion, which saw Heyman turn his back first on Punk, his longtime friend, then on Reigns, his longtime tribal chief, before aligning himself with Rollins, much to the shock of the capacity crowd. 

Riveting stuff, to say the least. A WrestleMania moment for the ages.

Jan Murphy is the editor-in-chief of The Kingston Whig-Standard, a journalist and longtime copy editor, as well as worn out from four days in Las Vegas