WrestleMania 42 Night 1: The Good, The Bad, And The McAfee Of It All

WrestleMania 42 Night 1 is officially in the books, and the big question on the minds of every wrestling fan leading into this weekend was: "Could they salvage a bad build with a good card?" We've seen it before, with a show like WrestleMania 31 (one of the most underrated WrestleManias of all time) - but it's certainly easier said than done. Let's talk about how they did!

The Good

-IShowSpeed's Frog Splash: This pretty much kicked off the show, and did exactly what it intended: got a pop outta the crowd and a HUUUGE response on social media. Perfect celebrity involvement right here.

-Paige's Return Pop: Awesome moment for Paige, and the best way they coulda made chicken salad from the chicken shit they were dealt, considering Nikki Bella's injury. What a bittersweet experience this must've been for Nikki, speaking of - Paige and Brie Bella get their "Mania Moment" while she has to excitedly announce it in crutches. I definitely felt bad for her there.

-The Mandalorian and Grogu: The Mandalorian and Grogu were just in the front row at one point. I think if I ran into the Mandalorian at WrestleMania I'd assume I had died and gone to heaven. What a fever dream visual.

-Seth Rollins vs Gunther: As expected, this match was awesome. It was the first match all night that truly felt WrestleMania caliber to me, and it injected a ton of energy into Allegiant Stadium. Unfortunately I think a lot of us expected we'd get a fuck-finish involving Bron Breakker, given how last minute Rollins/Gunther was thrown together (and how neither Rollins or Gunther should be taking a clean loss tonight) - but that didn't really ruin the match for me.

-John Cena Adds One (1) To The Attendance Number After Bianca Belair Reveals She's Pregnant: I just thought Cena throwing one more onto the attendance was kind of a funny bit. I dunno. Congrats to Bianca Belair and Montez Ford!

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The Bad

-Ads/Commercials: I couldn't believe they took a four minute commercial break right after the first match tonight. Little did I know, we'd be seeing AT LEAST four minutes of commercials after every single match on the card. WrestleMania used to have a few Snickers ads, sure - but a lot of the downtime was spent backstage with fun legends segments, or throwing to old WrestleMania highlights; it used to be fun stuff to look forward to! Tonight it was mostly just insurance commercials. It's not enough to have Capital One on the turnbuckles, Slim Jim on the tables, and a dozen other logos on the mat - we now have a Monday Night RAW level of commercials on the biggest "premium live event" of the year! 

I cannot overstate enough how much this truly impacted the vibe, pace, and my enjoyment of the show.

-The Wonder Years' Attempt At Lip Syncing: I fucking love The Wonder Years, and they're one of my favorite bands to see live because of how incredible their energy and sound is in concert. Clearly they were forced to lip sync tonight, on the biggest stage of em all, and Soupy unfortunately forgot to hit the first line until halfway through. Tough.

-Bron Breakker's Big Spear On Seth Rollins: Alright, I told you I didn't hate the ending of the match - but I did hate this in the aftermath. Bron has delivered some ALL TIME spears after sprinting down the ramp….

….and this was supposed to be a huge exclamation point on the angle, but obviously fell very flat. I don't know if it was the timing, the aim, the sell, the spear - it just didn't look great. Oh well!

-Entrances Overall: WrestleMania entrances usually are one of the best parts of the show; they're certainly something I always look forward to - but tonight's were kinda weak and minimal! Not a ton of set pieces, if they had extras they didn't have many….I just thought it was strange. I don't think there were any (besides Cody's at the very end - that was great) that we'll look back on fondly a decade from now. I know the daylight aspect hurts a lot of them, as well, but I'm still holding out hope for a better showing tomorrow.

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The Fine

-John Cena As Host: John Cena came out to kick the show off and welcome everyone to WrestleMania, and then once more to announce the attendance. I woulda liked a backstage segment or two (with Danhausen!) - but there's always tomorrow.

-Usos/LA Knight vs The Vision/IShowSpeed: Fun Mania opener, nothing too special/memorable. Did what it had to do.

-Jacob Fatu vs Drew McIntyre Unsanctioned Match: Another pretty fun one that did its job, although I wish they did a bit more with the "Unsanctioned Match" stipulation. I just felt like a couple more creative weapons spots could've pushed it over the edge, especially as one of the longer matches on the card. Not bad by any means though.

-Paige/Brie Bella vs Charlotte/Alexa vs Nia Jax/Lash Legend vs Bayley/Lyra Valkyria: I don't have anything bad to say about this match, but I also don't really have anything to say about it in general. It was just a bridge to get to the happy moment at the end. 

-Becky Lynch vs AJ Lee: Another decent match I'm just not sure was super memorable! I liked the finish with the exposed turnbuckle at least!

-Liv Morgan vs Stephanie Vaquer: Liv/Stephanie were put in a tough spot in the card - right after the match of the night, right before the main event - and I felt like they delivered with the small amount of time they were given. Vaquer became the first person to ever kick out of the ObLIVion, they had a hell of a finish with a top rope Codebreaker/ObLIVion combo, and they just had fun with the sprint that it was.

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The Confusing

Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton (And The Aftermath): I don't really know what happened here. They had Pat McAfee attack Cody before the bell rang, and then had Jelly Roll take him out (lol) so the celebrities didn't have to be apart of the match….

….and then they built the match around Randy Orton's rumored real-life back injury. Cody beat Orton down for the majority of the main event, busted him open, and just generally had the better of him the whole time. Cody even leaned into the nasty side of his character, raking the eyes of Orton and hitting him with a low blow while the referee was down - which made me think they were teasing a double turn of some sort! I know I wasn't alone in this, either, based on my social media timelines during and after the match - and I thought that was really interesting!

They eventually got in a groove with one another, and I think it turned into a pretty good match at that point. Pat McAfee came back out to help Orton once more, Orton RKO'd him - further pushing my double turn theory - and then Cody Rhodes shockingly hit a quick Cross Rhodes for the 1-2-3. He hoisted the title over his head in celebration, and Orton pulled it down and attacked him - ending the night with a vintage Orton punt….

So there goes the double turn theory!

Again - I didn't hate the actual main event, I just thought the structure of it and booking of the aftermath was a bit confusing now that we can see the full picture. Like I appreciated getting McAfee/Jelly Roll outta there quickly, but it was sorta strange to immediately remove the guy the whole feud has been about. And then Orton turns on McAfee in the end but stays heel and then loses but gets one over on Cody so it's all a wash? It felt more like the ending of RAW or Smackdown than Mania. A lot of this show felt the same - more RAW/Smackdown than Mania. 

There's always potential for Night 2 to blow us away tomorrow, because the card is pretty great….

….but Night 1 doesn't get a super high grade from me personally. Nothing was truly horrible (or even really that bad) - there was just tons of "moderately okay" to "decent" moments and matches throughout the night.