LAS VEGAS – John Cena became an American immortal on Sunday, beating Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41 to break Ric Flair’s all-time WWE record with his 17th world championship.
If you’re reading this without having watched Sunday’s event, the understandable presumption would be that it happened as a result of a singularly iconic moment in WWE history. Yeah, this outcome became predictable when Cena turned heel and aligned with The Rock and Travis Scott (yes, the artist) at Elimination Chamber, but the idea that Cena would break Flair’s record by selling his soul and becoming everything he hated seemed like it had plenty of potential as a storyline.
In theory, not in practice
The reality is that Cena’s moment on Sunday fell flat. Perhaps that was the intention, considering the fact that Cena has insisted his upcoming run will “ruin wrestling”. The outcome was decided thanks to an interference from Scott after what was an incredibly dragged-out entrance in the heat of that match.
The fact that a history-defining title win for Cena came at the hands of a cheap interference from a skinny, unathletic musician didn’t particularly go over well with the online wrestling fans. It was also a less-than-dignifying way for Rhodes’ title reign to end, a run that saw him end Roman Reigns’ rule of terror with a classic dish of revenge at WrestleMania 40 before serving as an honorable face of the company over the last 12 months and change.
Cena made it clear he had no interest in playing his usual role as the face for his record 17th title reign. He did enough of that the first 16 times. Cena answered every question he received in the post-match press conference with some variation of “That seems like a clickbait question and lazy reporting.”
He also peppered in an occasional “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Sky beats Belair, Ripley in classic opening triple-threat
One match from WrestleMania 41 that will go down as an all-timer was Sunday’s opener, a triple-threat match that saw reigning Women’s World Champion Iyo Sky retain her title over former belt holders Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. It’s already being argued as the best opening match in the history of WrestleMania. I’ll go a step further and say it was one of the best opening matches in any WWE PPV/PLE and it may very well be remembered as a Mount Rushmore match in women’s wrestling history.
It’s high praise, I know, but it was a match that was executed to the nth degree by all three participants on the biggest and brightest stage in sports entertainment. It’s not easy getting a daytime crowd in Las Vegas going but Sunday’s opener brought some of the loudest pops of the whole weekend.
“You want to open a show like this,” WWE CCO Triple H said. “ I don't know that I could have selected a better opener than Iyo, Rhea, and Bianca. They just tore it up, I cannot say enough good things about all three of them. They proved why they are three of the biggest stars in WWE, period. Not women's division, period. The reactions showed it and proved it.”
Dirty Dom’s moment in time
Perhaps the most memorable moment from WrestleMania 41 Night 2 was Dominik Mysterio winning the Intercontinental Championship in a fantastic fatal four-way match against Bron Breakker, Finn Balor and Penta. While on his way back to gorilla position, Mysterio decided to turn around and run back into the ring for a much-welcomed curtain call celebration with the fans.
“If you would have told people a few years ago when Dominik was standing next to his dad walking in the door, or Roman was throwing him across the arena during the pandemic that this kid will be on fire for the next few years, I don't think very many people would have believed it,” Triple H said.
“If you said to them that he'll be one of the most hated heels in the business, and then at WrestleMania that will somehow flip and everybody will love the fact that he wins the Intercontinental title, I think people might have told you that you were hanging out with Travis Scott too long and that it would never happen. And here we are