WrestleMania 42 Night 1 Was A Disaster

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WrestleMania 42 Night 1 was supposed to be the Showcase of the Immortals… and instead, it played it safe. Way too safe.

Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton had EVERYTHING. Legacy. History. Emotion. An easy story to tell. And somehow WWE fumbled it. Completely.

And then you’ve got Pat McAfee… saying the right things, pushing that “Attitude Era energy,” talking about what wrestling SHOULD feel like… but he’s the wrong messenger in the wrong spot. Because instead of elevating the match, it turned the main event into something it was never supposed to be.

The rest of the card?
Safe. Predictable. By the numbers. Nothing that felt like WrestleMania.

We’re told every year to get hyped. To believe this is the biggest show of the year. And then when it doesn’t deliver, somehow that’s on us?

The craziest part? The most memorable moment of the entire night might have been Bianca Belair announcing her pregnancy. Think about that.

That’s not a knock on Bianca. That’s a problem for WrestleMania.

This is a full hot take breakdown of everything that went wrong, why this show missed the mark, and how WWE took a guaranteed win… and ruined it.

#WrestleMania42 #WWE #CodyRhodes #RandyOrton #PatMcAfee


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Transcript

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7 minutes and 10 seconds. That's how long the eye show speed vision versus Uso's LA night match. Jacob Fattu, Drew McIntyre, 14 minutes, 10 seconds. The women tag match, Fatal 4 way, whatever that was, 8 minutes 35 seconds. Becky Lynch, AJ Lee, you know who's been fighting and feuding since Russell Palooza, eight yo, last year, months and months ago, eight minutes 15 seconds. Duther versus Seth Freaking Rollins, 15 minutes 45 seconds. Liv Morgan, Stephanie Fakir for the World Heavyweight Championship of the Women's Division. The Royal Rumble winner got nine minutes. I've heard as low as seven minutes and 50 seconds, but we'll err on the side of caution. They got nine minutes. Hashtag give divas a chance. Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton, 22 minutes 55 seconds. A yeah, yeah. That was our WrestleMania. So that means we got a grand total of what is that? One hour, 25 minutes, 50 seconds. I'm a big proponent of shorter matches on SmackDown and Raw. But but the caveat to that is longer matches, better payoff on big events, especially WrestleMania. Boy howdy. Boy howdy, what was that last night? You know, I got a confession to make a couple of months ago. I was telling you guys how I would fly to Australia, but I wasn't. I wasn't. I was actually using a VPN. I was using a VPN and I didn't have to deal with ads. But like they started cracking down, and I and my VPN got caught so many times, I just I just had to cave in and start start watching on ESPN like like all the other peasants in the United States, and just commercial after commercial after commercial. Then we cut back and then we see brought to you by Ram Truck, and then and then we get an overhead shot, and I see I see the the ring mat just littered with ads. It's like okay, okay, but then one hour, 25 minutes, and 50 seconds of wrestling on a four-hour WrestleMania program. Oh my gosh. Vince McMahon, why did you have to sell to TKO? Why did you have to sell? God. TKO sucks. Vince McMahon selling sucks. Triple H is creative sucks. I want to, I want to love WWE. I try so hard. I really do. I don't crash out for the clicks. I promise you I don't, but like, I'm not even sure if I'm mad, just disappointed. Just disappointed with the state of things. Oh, TKO, you suck. Tony Khan, please, please bring AEW to the mainstream. Get AEW where it needs to be because we need an alternative product. This just, this just, uh, but I'm not giving up. I'm not giving up. We've had dark days with WWE before, and maybe, maybe there's another billionaire out there. Maybe there's another billionaire out there who will like buy WWE. Anyone? Is there any? Mark Zuckerberg. Are you a WWE fan? Or I can start a GoFundMe. Who wants to do a GoFundMe? If I get 9 billion fans to send me a dollar, maybe I could buy TKO or I have WWE back. Oh, geez. Okay, so let's uh I I got a belt. I got a belt. You want it? I'm doing a giveaway. If you if you haven't left, if you haven't left the wrestling, the wrestling world, I'm I'm trying to be a wrestling YouTuber, make it a full-time job. You can win this belt on my shoulder at 20,000 subscribers. I said I would give it away, and next Saturday I am gonna give it away. And then and then we're gonna do a 30,000 subscriber giveaway. So just subscribe and comment because that's how you win. Comment, subscribe, you can win. Not a toy, replica belt. Night one hot takes. Let's go. Tracy Woods says every match was wham bam. Thank you, ma'am. Not one wrestler had to dig deep down to find the strength to carry on. It was like getting on a roller coaster only to find yourself on a kitty roller coaster. That's it, right there. That is actually that is actually the perfect statement. That's what it was missing. Not one wrestler had to dig deep down to overcome anything. And I mean, I guess, I guess Cody Rhodes did, but the story was just all over the place. Was it the Pat McAfee story? Was it was it Randy's turning heel story? Was it Cody turning heel story? Was it a story between between the two of them and their history together? You're absolutely right. Everything everything else, like, yes, Jacob Fatou winning was the right decision. Gunther even winning was the right decision, but did they have to dig deep? LFC says the only reason why Cody won is because Triple H is too arrogant to let Randy Orton overtake him on title wins. Yeah, because uh Randy Orton and Triple H, they're tied at 14. So the thought is that would Triple H ever let Randy Orton and in the history books be better than him? I wish I could say that I think you're overreacting, but there's a part of me that also believes that. Yes, wise marks also says, unfortunately, Triple H's big ego is still there. He will never let Randy win the 15 times. Like, why is this such a thing that so many people believe it? There must be like a little bit of truth in it. I love AEW Wrestling, says, is Cody now a heel? And I'm 100% happy that Randy lost at WrestleMania, so we don't have to see Pat McAfee ever again. I don't I don't think Cody is a heel. At first I thought he was, and I was enjoying his heel performance last night until I realized it was just that a performance. He's not a heel, it looks like. I think he's just a heel he was a heel last night, and that sucks because I I just baby face Cody Rhodes just bores me to tears. Yeah, I was enjoying like Cody Rhodes wiping the blood of his enemy on himself. Like, just turn heel, Cody. Just turn heel. Come on, dude. Everybody's booing you out of the building now. The only time they cheer for you is when you whoa. Whoa! Like, turn that guy heel. And as for the Pat McAfee, I know a lot of people feel the same way as you, but like surprisingly, I'm kind of like, I want to hear more of what Pat had to say. I just wish they would have put Pat McAfee in the main event program. If he had just been in the mid-card saying everything he said, I think more people would have listened. The product sucks right now. What Pat McAfee was saying is literally echoing the things we say. It's just because it's coming from him, we don't want to hear it. Kid Wilkes says Paige joining the Bellas at WrestleMania 42 is the same as the NWO helping Sting at WrestleMania 31. Changed my mind. At WrestleMania 31, Sting fought Triple H and DX came to help Triple H and the NWO came to help Sting. Well, well, Sting and NWO are arch nemesis. It made no sense for NWO to actually come and help Sting. Unless it was red and black, because red and black Sting did join, but he wasn't even part of Red and Black for a long time. But it was the black and white. It was the the the top three of the NWO that came and helped him. And here's the thing about that, you're you're kind of right from that perspective, because the Bellas and Paige never really were on the same page. Now I think there is a historical difference between the NWO and the Bellas in regards to impact on the business, but just from a like, why are these two people helping each other? The only reason I can think of is you know, NWO and Sting, it was more of a WCW thing. And here it's not necessarily Paige and the Bellas, it's more of a D. But yeah, that said, maybe we can have a Divas faction where you have AJ Lee, Page, and the Bellas talking about how great the Divas division was and how they're they're just they're they're mad that they've been buried for so long, and so now they've come to run amuck over the current generation. And GT Wrestling says, I did not expect Cody to win that match, but I'm sure people will be happy that Randy lost because now Pat is gone forever. You know, Pat McAfee, if he's like a total heel, what if he just lied? I don't think it's in the contract, so he could just lie. Or what if I I think I heard this on WrestleTalk. What if he said, I'm done with wrestling, but I'm a sports entertainer. So I will stay and make this into sports entertainment once more. Or, or if they really want to do social media stuff, just have Pat McAfee say, I'm true to my word, I'm true to my word, but then on his on his uh show, he just badmouths Cody Rhodes for like like he has like a segment, I'm gonna just talk smack about Cody Rhodes for five minutes every show. He does that for a month and it gets under Cody's skin where Cody says, You know what? I don't care. You can come back. I'm giving you permission to break your word. Come back, let's wrestle. And so there's ways, there's always ways to get someone to backtrack on what they said. Uh boss says, This is a weird tot take, but I watch a lot of different entertainment from basketball, football, cartoons, etc. So I see a lot of ads all the time. However, I will say I don't like the ads, but WWE has some very tolerable and more watchable ads. So I like that you are willing to share a take that goes against the grain of most people because myself included, I'm just like, oh, I hate the ads. I will say though, this the difference between what you just said and and the ads on WrestleMania is that the the basketball programs that you watch and the cartoons you watch, those are on free TV. I'm assuming I pay 30 bucks a month to watch WrestleMania already, and then I have ads on top of that. So that's there is a there is a difference. Now, if this was raw or smackdown, I could be like, yeah, too many ads, but I understand that it's just a part of watching TV. Raina Rep says the song is cringe, but Liv totally killed it with the 2000 Britney Spears look performance. She seemed like she was having so much fun out there. Treble, treble. Like, no joke. I wish that I could get all of you to send me like 10 second clips of you all singing Trouble Trouble, how it spliced it together. Third Fleet Lance says we saw more footage from the Hogan documentary than wrestling. This was the Hulk Hogan documentary brought to you by WrestleMania 41 42 night one. TTJC says Pat should have counted faster or brought out an official in their pocket. Yeah, absolutely. Like, why Pat went down there and just maybe, maybe it was just a rookie mistake on his part, but like it was just a normal count. Why did he go one, two, three? For a second, I thought Pat was about to align with Cody Rhodes, but then he didn't. I guess that's a way to bring back, I guess that's a way to bring back Pat McAfee. What if Cody, what if Cody is a heel? What if Cody does come out and he does come out and be a heel and he says, you know what? I'm bringing out my new manager and it's Pat McAfee. And he's like, Pat, when you didn't actually count me out with a fast count, and then I started reflecting on everything that you had said after I got punt kicked, I realized you were right. You were right. So I absolve you of your of your promise. I know everybody's unsubscribing from this channel right now because I'm not a total Pat Machafee hater. And but don't, don't, because they can't win the belt. The final wagon says they overcomplicated it for the sake of trying to seem deep and complex, and they always end up looking like morons. Definitely overcomplicated this. Like, it's crazy to me that they knew how to build Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi by get by just drip feeding that feud and making it just very simple. And yet they had one of the most simplest, simplest stories they could have told with Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and like what a convoluted mess. What a convoluted mess. With TKO's involvement or not, like they could have told the story so much easier and better. Wrestle Down says they were so close to saving an otherwise mid-WrestleMania. They told this in-ring story perfectly with Randy getting color and Cody not hesitating at all. But then they doubled down on trying to make Cody a face, and it just made the show worst. We should have had a Cody heel turn. Triple H has for two years now told us that the internet crybabies are just like in in the basement versions at their mom's house, and it's all that matters is the butts in the seats. But now when the butts in the seats, who can't even sell out the WrestleMania, when they're actually booing Cody Rhodes, it's like ah well it's OTW says this was just not fun to watch. Guther versus Seth was good, but everything else kind of just fell flat, uninspiring booking. Yeah, it was just very much, it was just very much like yeah, okay, that person can win. That person can win. And it's it's it's like the right people for the most part even won. Like, I can totally see why Jacob Fatu beat beat Drew McIntyre, but even that was like, yeah, just so by the numbers expected. Like they shouldn't have called this an unsanctioned match. An unsanctioned match makes you makes you believe that it's gonna be a bloody violent affair. And it was just kind of what, if anything, this was more of a tables match. They tell us all year long, WrestleMania, the showcase of the mortals, they hype it up, they tell us to get hyped for WrestleMania. So when we do get hyped, it's kind of on them when they don't live up to the expectations. It's hop says, I wonder if Randy is legit injured from that match. He called it during the match because he knew how bad it was. So the ending was changed for Randy to lose. If Randy was injured during the actual match, then yes, I guess I could see why they did that. However, at the same time, the fact that he still went and did a punt kick, I would have just said, okay, let him win it and then vacate the title, vacate the title after he won. Because if he was legit hurt and the match had to stop in the exact moment that he got hurt, then fine, whatever. You can't you can't do that. But the fact that they went ahead with the punt kick, I would say that then just let him win. Do the match, let him win, and then vacate the title. At the end of the day, I hope he's not hurt. At the end of the day, I hope he's not hurt. I will always put the health and well-being over a storyline. Tiz Mickey says, This didn't really feel like mania, and I'm glad that this year I didn't waste my money going. And dang, first Naomi, now Bianca will never get that big triple threat. Yeah, that sucks. No triple threat. Sad face emoji from both me and Tiz Mickey. I want Jade. Jade, Bianca, Naomi. This is why you don't wait. This is why you don't do the your long-term booking for every single outcome. We should have had Jade Naomi Bianca at WrestleMania 41. Straight up should have had it there. Like Rhea Ripley and EOS Guy could have had their one-on-one match, and we could have got we could have got our our triple threat match with with the big three triple threat match. But you're right, it did not feel like WrestleMania. And good job, not wasting your money. You called that one. God, please, let tonight be different and and be it uh feel like WrestleMania. Like, come on, Roman. Come on, Roman, come on, Oba. We need you, we need you. I feel like I feel like Princess Leia right now saying to Obi-Wan Kenobi, like, Roman, Oba, you're our only hope. Nick Nick says Paige and Brie winning the tag belts was a crappy decision and takes away from the actual talented women that deserve them more. The entire show was extremely predictable and extremely boring. So, like, Paige and and and Nikki, Paige and uh Brie, I believe, are actually talented. I believe they're talented, but I I don't like the fact that we've had this, like the women's tag team division has been very, very stacked all year long and treated very much like well-booked divisions, well-booked divisions. And it feels like Bailey, it was Bailey and Lyra's time to do it, and we just throw together a tag team and give them the belts. I mean, I understand because it's like, oh, look, a returning, a returning hero. Let's give them a belt. But at the same time, it does kind of rub me the wrong way. W potato, wrestling is ruined. The golden boy always wins. Let me ask you this, W potato. Like, you say this comment, and like I I don't know if I would say wrestling is ruined, but it is it is at a lull right now, definitely a lull. But do you agree or disagree with the things that Pat McAfee are saying? Or are you one of the people that are like, wrestling sucks, but I hate Pat McAfee. Get him out of wrestling. Because literally Pat McAfee is saying wrestling sucks also. So, like, where do we fall? I need to like, I need, I would like love opinions on this. If you're one of those people that say wrestling sucks, but what's your opinion on what Pat McAfee was saying this whole time? Hartbuckle says, with Pat McAfee gone for good, I think the main event and the return of the pump cake was the official start of the long-term blood feud between Randy and Cody, and I'm excited for it. I mean, like, I don't understand why this is official, this is a 20-year story. Like, why did we have to use the night one main event of WrestleMania for it to be the official start of Randy versus Cody? Lucy Ramier says, garbage! The WWE I know is dead. Man, I wish, I wish I could like I wish I could argue with you, but there's a part of me that it's like I'm I'm like scared. There's a part of me that kind of feels that way. And I'm just like, are we just are we just continuously going down, are we just going through the motions until TKO sells to Saudi Arabia? Is that what we're doing here? It's like, I wish Lucy, I could tell you, no, no, just head up, it'll get better. But I I don't know if it will. Like, does the does The Rock have the money to buy TKO? I don't think he does. Viper Leo says, not a hot take, but glad LA Knight got the pin. Yeah, heck, I'm just glad LA Knight did not take the pin. At this point, that's how low the bar is set for being an LA Knight fan. Please don't let LA Knight get pinned by Austin Theory or YouTuber. BMITC says, can we all agree that triple fraud is a one-trick pony at this point, and not even a good trick at that? Return pops until the one-star fizzles and on to the next one. CM Punk, AJ Lee, Matt Cardona, and now Paige. T has to have another trick. Is he a one-trick pony? What other tricks? No, he has the have a baby face kick Cody in the balls trick. So there you go. Two, two trick pony. All right, boys. All right, girls. So night one was was definitely lacking of luster. Hopefully, we got night two ahead of us. I think night two, with the exception of Jade and Andrea Ripley, I think night two is is a stacked card. So all our hope now lies in the tribal chief and obafemi. See you bye.