WWE WrestleMania 41: Night 1 (2025)

WrestleMania is undisputedly the biggest, grandest, and most watched wrestling event annually, and the event we, as wrestling fans, look forward to the most all year. It has the biggest crowds, the biggest matches, and the most attention. This year's opener, the first of two nights, looked to be yet another action-packed wrestling event on the 'grandest stage of them all'. I could not wait to see what was in store over the course of three-or-so hours of high stakes wrestling.

GUNTHER and Jey Uso's World Heavyweight Championship match opened proceedings, which seemed like a good move, considering that it wasn't going to be the main event. The early part of the match was slow and rather laborious, and threatened to lose the crowd, but when the pace picked up, so did the crowd. The ending was weird, but the result was deserved and the crowd went with it. I really hope the fallout from this match produces something special.

The World Tag Team Championships were on the line next, with the War Raiders defending against the New Day. The match did not get off to a great start, for me at least, with the champions gear looking pretty tacky. The crowd also didn't seem to care much about the match for large portions of it. The story had been fairly weak coming into WrestleMania, which I don't think helped. The crowd did pop for some of the bigger spots, but it was a quiet match, both in terms of crowd volume and exciting in-ring action. The ending was a little cheap, but I think the team people expected to win did so.

Up next was quite possibly the most unexpectedly hyped matches on the card; the viscious blow-off match between Jade Cargill and Naomi. The rivalry here has been exquisite, and I couldn't wait for this one. Both women looked the part and played the part excellently. I really loved this match. Cargill looked the best she has so far in her WWE career, and Naomi justified her place on the show, and used her experience to guide her relatively green opponent along. This was a really fun match with a very cool finish that the crowd, and I, very much loved.

The fourth match of Night 1 saw 'The Megastar' LA Knight defend his United States Championship against 'The Samoan Werewolf' Jacob Fatu. This was my dark horse match for the evening - I really thought it could steal the show. Both men have been on fire for months now, and the crowd love them. I enjoyed the back and forth of this one, and the high pace made every move feel a little more important and pivotal. The final two minutes of the match were brilliant, and the finish had the crowd going bezerk. I was a big fan of this one.

This was followed by another match I was excited for, albeit on the backdrop of a rather goofy rivalry. With the injury to the legendary Rey Mysterio, fellow legendary luchador Rey Fenix stepped into his spot to face the weird El Grande Americano, aka Chad Gable. Regardless of the strangeness of it all, I knew both men were very good wrestlers, which excited me greatly. The match started with a cool but brief cameo from Mexican wrestler Vikingo, to mark the acquisition of historic Mexican wrestling company AAA. The match was electric, exciting, and entertaining. The only element of it I didn't like was the finish, which felt deflating. It worked with the storyline at least, but I was kind of hoping for a different ending.

One of the marquee matches of the event saw the young WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton defend her title against the hugely established and successful Charlotte Flair. The build to this one has been unexpectedly personal, which gave it a little bit of an edge that I was quite keen to see play out. Things really did feel personal, as the two ladies went to war with each other. Flair was particularly aggressive, which was either good acting or a sign of real anger. Either way, it made for good television. There were a couple of good false finishes before the final moment, which was admittedly a little out of nowhere, but still cool.

After the usual moment to recognise the Hall of Fame inductees of the year, it came time, at last, for the Night 1 main event, which saw Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns juke it out in an intense and dramatic triple-threat match, with legendary manager Paul Heyman as a centerpiece to the story. The crowd were warmed up very nicely by an all-timer promo video, followed by three epic entrances, including an epic montage to the career of CM Punk for his first main event, along with a live performance of his iconic theme by Living Colour. It was violent, it was personal, it was complete wrestling mayhem in all its glory. The crowd was hot, the wrestlers were on fire, and the story could not have been more personal. There were so many false finishes and major spots - it felt like a Mania match of old. The end provided a twist few saw coming, but it was worthy of the stage and provided something exciting, thrilling, and new. It was awesome.

Overall, this was a night of real highs and strange lows for Paul 'Triple H' Levesque's WWE. There was some great wrestling, some strong storytelling, and some thrilling drama, but these positives were flanked by odd creative choices, last minute changes and the occasionally botched spot. Title changes helped this odd night of wrestling go down easier, but there were still those nagging issues left in the mind at the end of the night. My hope, and expectation, is that the second night will far exceed the first. In any case, this show ended on a very strong and memorable note, which will surely set up a summer of excellent wrestling drama.