The Honeymoon Phase is Over
WrestleMania 41 and its main event of John Cena vs Cody Rhodes marked the first important and undeniable creative misstep of Triple H’s era. There had been other missteps before but none had been as noticeable and important as this one. And that’s what Mania 41 is most remembered for now. A bad main event that revolved around Travis Scott. The rest of the show was fine. Some good. Some bad. But I’ll always remember it as the show that made me stop watching the weekly shows live, and only keep up on social media. So, with WrestleMania 42 in a couple weeks, I thought I’d look back a year and see how I would’ve changed WrestleMania 41 to build on WWE’s momentum, rather than halt it.
NIGHT 1
Charlotte Flair vs Tiffany Stratton (c) WWE Championship Match
I’d keep this mostly the same as real life but with it opening the show and with Stratton as a heel. Upon Tiffany’s call-up to the main roster, she got over with fans fast, starting at Elimination Chamber: Perth. WWE reacted to this by doing a paint-by-numbers Batista-Triple H style babyface turn with Tiffany and Nia Jax. They wanted to lean into Tiffy’s positive reactions so that the crowd reactions aligned with her moral alignment.
However, what they didn’t account for is that Tiffany just doesn’t have the juice to be a babyface, at least not yet. I commend them for trying but it was clear when she struggled with the (usually, easier) heel promos that she wouldn’t be able to pull off likeable face promos. Instead, she’s relied on repeating her catchphrase “It’s Tiffy Time!” ad nauseum. And in 2026, we’re starting to see her get quieter crowd reactions as the crowd tire of her lack of depth and range. So, in my version, we hide this weakness and never turn her babyface. Yes, she’ll get cheered as a heel which will cause faces that she works with to struggle, but it’s a trade off I’m willing to make.
Now, in real life, this feud and match with Charlotte Flair was messy, awkward, and way too real. Initially, I didn’t want to keep it but I feel the mess of this match is incredibly important to Charlotte’s character and sets up a new stage in her career really well. After this, Charlotte’s character hits rock bottom and in that develops an unlikely friendship with Alexa Bliss. This leads into Charlotte genuinely getting over as a likeable and relatable babyface which had always been a struggle with her character.
I think that this is the best possible match and story that could’ve been done here because the women’s main event scene was a bit weak in ‘24 and early ‘25. After DMG CTRL ends and Bayley leaves WrestleMania 40 as the WWE Women’s Champion, it’s a little difficult to see where the division should go. Bayley’s reign as champion was unfortunately met with tepid crowd reactions which the decreased screen time and rivalries with less credible opponents such as Piper Niven didn’t help. And putting the title onto Nia Jax to me just didn’t feel exciting or fresh, despite her showing some potential as a JBL style “true” heel. The rest of the women’s division such as Lyra Valkyria just feels a little too early by WrestleMania 41 to be in a big WWE Championship program.
Since Tiffany was very over at this point and felt fresh, I’d have her take the title from Bayley at Summerslam after winning the Queen of the Ring Tournament. Charlotte would then return at the 2025 Royal Rumble, failing to win, but would end up winning the Elimination Chamber to earn this match. Having Charlotte in the Elimination Chamber can also help to foreshadow her dynamic with Alexa Bliss that will get explored post-WrestleMania.
The Street Profits vs MCMG vs DIY vs The New Day (c) Tag Team Championship TLC Match
This one’s a lot simpler. Take the match from Smackdown that happened just after Wrestlemania 41 and put it here. It absolutely deserved to be on the card and should get as good a time here as it did on Smackdown. I’d also add The New Day as the defending champions (ideally, they never would have made the tag titles brand exclusive post-WM 40). The New Day heel turn on Big E was one of the best storylines of 2024 but failing to capitalise on this momentum was for me was one of the first big missteps of Triple H’s WWE. I get wanting to build up to the tag title win at Wrestlemania but, since there wasn’t much else to dig into with the storyline after the Big E turn (due to E being unable to get physical), instead of stalling, they should’ve just put the belts on The New Day ASAP. I picked The Street Profits to win because they really deserve a big Wrestlemania moment and this is somewhat of a torch passing to the new cornerstones of the tag team division.
Jacob Fatu vs Solo Sikoa
A little bit of Bloodline context: After Roman Reigns loses at WM 40, the next year he loses everything, not just his tribe but his title as Tribal Chief. I’d commit to the downfall even harder and have Solo Sikoa beat Roman Reigns in Tribal Combat on the first RAW on Netflix. I felt the ending to that feud in real life was incredibly flat as I just didn’t buy Solo enough as a credible and believable threat to Roman.
Solo was just the imitator who stole the Ula Fala so the feud was surface-level with a practical focus of Roman needing to literally get the Ula Fala back from Solo. It was a boring climax because the emotional conflict was resolved by Roman being better at wrestling than Solo rather than there being any emotional character beats. But, what if Solo actually rightfully won it? That’s a lot more interesting to me. This way, we can learn a lot more about both characters.
So, Solo here is coming off of the biggest win of his career and is the new Tribal Chief having won it in Tribal Combat, he needs a Wrestlemania match that feels big. To give Solo a meaningful match at Mania, I’d do the Jacob turn earlier. Once Solo becomes Tribal Chief, the power goes to his head immediately and he takes Jacob’s blinding loyalty for granted, mistreating and insulting him. This causes the “I hate you, Solo!” moment and turn, building to this match.
After Jacob wins, I’d have him take the Ula Fala but not bring it to TV. Solo goes after Jacob for this, wanting to find out where he took it butJacob says that he buried it in Samoa, sick of how it’s been corrupting the family. I’d do this as a way to write it off for a while as it’s served its purpose and I don’t want it to outstay its welcome, especially since some fans are particularly prickly about custom jewellery being used in stories. This marquee victory also sets Jacob up well to chase the US Title after Mania, and beating the guy who beat Roman Reigns makes him more believable as a main event contender.
Logan Paul vs LA Knight (c) United States Championship Match
Just one… more fight. I’m kidding but not really. These guys just keep orbiting around each other forever and I’ve never seen anyone else mention it. I think the “LA” nature of their characters just makes them feel like a natural fit against each other.
In my ideal world, Logan wouldn’t have won the US Title in 2022. I think he should only get a championship once he’s closer to full-time like he is now in 2026. Hell, in an ideal world, Logan just wouldn’t be on the roster but I get it from a business standpoint and he’s sometimes entertaining.
So, I’d have Knight win the US Title around WrestleMania 40 and have a nice, long reign to try and build up some prestige. Then, I’d just have the feud they did in real life for Summerslam ‘24 but do it here and have Logan win. This works nicely with the previous match as Jacob can be the one to beat Logan for the title while Knight moves into the main event scene (preferably not feuding with The Vision for an entire calendar year).
Jade Cargill vs Naomi
Exactly the same as real life. This match and story were good and served its purpose perfectly well. Jade looked like a good powerhouse here – especially with the finishing sequence – and Naomi’s new heel character was lots of fun. No changes.
Jordynne Grace vs Chelsea Green (c) United States Championship Match
We capitalise on Grace’s Rumble pop and impressive performance by having her dominate Chelsea for the title. Chelsea can sell Grace as a big threat and, hopefully not take all the shine for herself. But I think this would be a fun match and would help balance the tone of Night 1.
I don’t know why they sent Grace to NXT in real life. She already knows how to work on TV thanks to being in TNA forever. Maybe it’s because her character and promo skills aren’t good, but you don’t really need to be a complete wrestler to be on the main roster. If that were the case most of the main roster would still be in NXT. Going up against a character-heavy wrestler like Chelsea can also help to bring out some character in Grace. Also, having the US Title on the show helps to establish it so that it’ll feel like a bigger deal when Grace eventually loses it.
Roman Reigns vs CM Punk
Somewhat the same as real life with the catalyst of the feud being Paul Heyman’s favour to CM Punk. At WARGAMES, no one wants to team with Roman to fight Solo’s Bloodline, not even the OG Bloodline (it was too early for a reunion). Roman’s forced to work with untrustworthy rivals like CM Punk who Heyman gets on board but only if he owes Punk a favour.
After losing the title of Tribal Chief to Solo, the only thing Roman has left is Heyman. But, the tension of what this favour is and the fact that his Wiseman owes loyalty to someone else causes Roman to go after Punk. Their rivalry deepens in the build to Mania with Punk touching on him being the brain behind The Shield and Roman being chosen as the face of the company over Punk. Roman calls Punk jealous until it eventually exposes both men’s core insecurities: Punk never becoming “The Guy” and now being too old for it, and Roman being chosen to be “The Guy” not by fans but by management, never fully earning it on his own.
To continue Roman’s downward spiral, I’d have Heyman betray him here, helping Punk win (also, the favour stays the same of Heyman managing Punk during the match). Now, Roman has lost everything and must climb back up the mountain himself. Can he prove that he’s good enough to do it on his own?
The next night on RAW, Punk and Heyman have a celebratory promo together before Punk hits a GTS on Heyman, knowing not to trust a rat like him and proving that Punk was just using him to win.
Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair vs Iyo Sky (c) World Championship Match
Now for the main event. These three are some of the biggest stars in the company, especially Rhea so they more than deserve the main event. I also am a strong believer in the Royal Rumble being for a main event of WrestleMania spot, so having one men’s and one women’s each year feels right to me (in most cases).
In this version, Bianca Belair wins the Royal Rumble and sets her sights on the dream match with Rhea. This is where Iyo inserts herself by shockingly beating Rhea for the title on RAW. I’m going with Bianca as the Rumble winner as Charlotte’s win felt incredibly flat and predictable. Bianca at least still had some goodwill at this point. Plus, the appeal of the Rhea match would make people excited.
The Mania triple threat was lots of fun and with ten more minutes could’ve been even better, so I’d give them that extra main event time and let them make a classic. I’d keep the story mostly the same as I really bought into this build and rooted for Iyo. Although, a few minor changes would be 1) having Bianca hit Rhea during the match where Iyo wins the title and 2) giving the build segments on RAW a little more variety.
The first change would give Rhea more of a viable reason to be in the match so that she comes across less protected and whiny. The second change is because the segments of Rhea and Bianca ignoring and pie-facing Iyo were good at first but they kept doing them over and over, hammering us over the head with the story.
I know it’s risky and Triple H doesn’t like doing this, but doing one or two matches instead of one of these pie-facing segments could help to mix up the build a little. Maybe they could’ve done a dreaded “can they coexist?” trios match where Bianca and Rhea don’t tag Iyo in, showing how they’re ignoring her and not taking her seriously. Only for Iyo to tag herself in and win the match on her own.
Anyway, Iyo would win just like in real life and this catapults her into the tippy top of the main event scene with Rhea and Bianca. I did have some reservations about ending a Wrestlemania Main Event with Iyo Sky winning the World Title – does that feel big enough? I think it does. To me, a 5 star match with a star-making victory featuring some of the biggest stars in the company feels bigger than a non-title triple threat with Paul Heyman on a pole.
NIGHT 2
Seth Rollins vs Cody Rhodes (c) WWE Championship Match
This was the other option for what could’ve been the Night 1 Main Event. Because Cody is the biggest star in the company so not having him in the main event following WrestleMania 40 does feel a little like a relegation. But, ultimately I went with the Rumble winners getting the main event. If you feel like this fits the main event better, then you can imagine it that way but for me right now, I feel like this is what’s best.
For the story of this match, I feel it’s a very natural evolution following the events of WrestleMania 40. One of my favourite parts of Cody vs Roman II that I don’t see mentioned enough is during the celebration, Seth Rollins watches from outside the ring with tears in his eyes. A lot of people saw happiness and maybe Seth being proud of Cody but I saw something else. I saw Seth sad that he helped and now has to watch someone else live out his dream. Seth’s made it very clear throughout his career that he wants to be the undisputed top guy of the WWE – the face of the company. But it’s just never clicked with the audience like it did with Cody, despite a couple attempts.
So, I’d build off of that moment. Have Seth return from the injuries sustained at Mania 40 and acknowledge that he helped Cody win and he wants his spot. Cody accepts the challenge and he faces Seth at Summerslam ‘24 in the main event. After an epic, Cody wins clean. Seth is visibly upset and struggling to accept that when he tries to do the right thing, he can’t achieve his goal. He refuses a handshake with Cody.
After Summerslam, Seth is written off by Bronson Reed and six Tsunamis (this being met with cheers from the crowd also helps to further Seth’s downward spiral since the audience doesn’t love him as much as Cody). Seth returns in the build to Survivor Series, being the final member of Roman’s team against Solo’s Bloodline. Seth is eerily quiet in the build to the match, barely speaking a word if at all. The tensions are very high between him and Roman. Cody, still believing that he’s friends with Seth, tries to calm everyone down. No one trusts Seth or each other for that matter.
At WARGAMES, Seth enters last and betrays his team, beating down Cody, Roman, and Punk with a steel chair. This allows Solo’s Bloodline to win. Afterwards, Seth demands a WWE Championship rematch and Cody accepts but Nick Aldis doesn’t make the match, not wanting to reward Seth for throwing WARGAMES. So, Seth tries to win the Rumble and fails. He finally gets his match with Cody by winning the Elimination Chamber.
In the build to the Mania match, Seth and Cody touch on what it means to be “The Guy” and discuss both their histories and relationships with the idea of being the face of the company. Seth is seething with jealousy and admits it, but his sticking point is that Cody isn’t worthy of the spot. Cody left. Seth stayed, he’s been here day in and day out wrestling through injuries and missing time with his family. He feels like because of that, he deserves the top guy spot. Cody says that lots of people deserve it but the people choose it.
At WrestleMania 41 in real life, Cody was in a weird spot against a freshly heel John Cena. The crowd were 50/50 on who they supported. Then, during the actual match, Cody got booed. Because everyone who went to that show paid hoping to see John Cena and they didn’t care if they were supposed to boo him, they wanted to see him win because it was the last time a lot of them would ever see him wrestle. Unfortunately, for Cody, this started a wave of momentum that slowly built into him getting booed somewhat regularly. This isn’t something you want to happen to your top babyface, obviously. Maybe it’s inevitable, but I’d at least delay it by putting Cody against Seth instead of Cena. Also, the Seth match just has a lot more story meat to chew on and would be a lot more exciting between the ropes.
During the match, it’s wrestled fairly clean as Seth wants to prove that he deserves to be “The Guy” and the only way he can do that is by winning clean. Cody ends up with the upper hand after a long and brutal match. He’s hit Seth with three Cross Rhodes but, instead of going for the pin, he picks Seth up for a fourth, wanting to finally put away Seth Rollins and prove definitively that he is and always will be better than him.
Think about it from Cody’s perspective Seth and him have fought so much and Cody has always won. Seth’s like a pest at this point. But, this costs Cody as the moment he took to think about it and the time it takes to lift up Seth’s dead weight allows Seth to use his last bit of energy to run Cody into the ref. After the ref bump, Seth hits a low blow, a shot with the title, and a stomp to win the WWE Championship. No matter how much Seth celebrates or states the opposite, there’s an asterisk on this victory.
The only reason I’d have Seth win is that it opens up a lot more story opportunities for the Mania 41-42 road. Seth can be a paranoid Macbeth-esque champion while Cody has to deal with the idea that if he’s gonna be the top guy, he needs to be able to pick himself up after huge defeats. And this time, he doesn’t have a lot of friends to help him to the top because they all turned on him.
AJ Styles vs Drew McIntyre Sin City Street Fight
AJ’s last WrestleMania shouldn’t have been against Logan Paul. I love everything AJ does but his match and feud with Logan just did nothing for me and was so predictable. Instead, I’d use him to keep Drew somewhat hot coming off the CM Punk feud. I feel like AJ works better here than Damian Priest did because Priest by this point was cold as ice and only served to cool down Drew. I get wanting to try and push some new faces but it just didn’t work with Priest once he was moved to SmackDown. I think keeping him on RAW still able to interact with The Judgement Day would’ve been better for him.
Anyway, pretty much the same as real life, just swap Priest out for Styles and the match would probably be better too. At least, it would feel more important than what both Drew and AJ actually did, since crowds care a lot more about AJ than they do Priest.
Dominik Mysterio vs Bron Breakker vs Penta vs Jey Uso (c) Intercontinental Championship Match
I loved when Dom won the IC Title here and so did the crowd so I’d keep it. Instead of Bron being the champion, I’d keep it on Jey. Maybe he could swap it a couple times with Bron in late ‘24-early ‘25 but I think giving Jey a decent length singles title reign might help him be more ready for the World Championship. Penta was over as soon as he debuted so I think he should be in this match so it feels a little fresher.
Sorry Finn Balor fans but he’s the odd man out. You could go with a 5-way here but that feels a little too jumbled to me and I don’t want to do more than one multi-man ladder schmoz. They can do the Judgement Day tension with Dom pinning Balor on RAW to get into this match. I’d accelerate his and Finn’s breakup to just after Mania as well. Missing Mania because of Dom can be part of Finn’s motivation for the turn.
Becky Lynch vs Lyra Valkyria (c) Intercontinental Championship Match
In real life they had Becky return as Lyra’s mystery tag team partner in the tag title match. That was fine but it didn’t grip me. For some reason, Becky has a couple of these surprise returns on these big shows. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t all that gassed to see her. Either way, there’s nothing wrong with it and the crowd loved it, so I’ll keep it.
My changes are Bayley, who’s set up as Lyra’s Mania opponent, gets taken out mysteriously on RAW. Lyra makes an open challenge for Mania which is answered by Becky. Shockingly, Lyra wins. Then you can do the Becky heel turn on the Raw after Mania.
Lyra winning feels right to me to establish her and the IC Title. This would also make a lot of sense as to why Becky turns heel as she’s afraid of being overtaken by younger wrestlers and can’t fairly compete with them anymore.
Unfortunately for Bayley she misses the show but it’s ok as she’s got a storyline loaded with Becky and Lyra. I’d just do her and Lyra a little more justice in that storyline to make up for it. Also, some key wrestlers missing Mania makes the show feel more prestigious. Wrestlers like Bayley, Sami Zayn, and Finn Balor have had lots of WrestleMania appearances so they can afford to miss one every now and then, especially if it’s to get younger talent on the card.
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson vs Valentina Ferroz & Yulisa Leon (c) Tag Team Championship Match
This one’s interesting and might look a little weird but hear me out. So, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill are the Tag Team Champions when Jade’s attacked. I’d vacate the title instead of freebirding it to Bianca and Naomi. There’s a tournament for the vacant titles. Bianca and Naomi fail to win and Naomi, seemingly out of character, is very angry about it – kicking the barricade and shoving a cameraman.
The winners of the tournament end up being Valentina Ferroz & Yulisa Leon. I don’t know if anyone else remembers this team or feels the same way as me but I thought these two were an excellent exciting babyface team in NXT and definitely deserved a shot on the main roster. Especially since the women’s tag division is often so shallow. So, I’d have never released them and had them be a team on the main roster for a year before finally pulling off the upset title win.
Another team that did well in this tournament, eliminating Bianca and Naomi, is Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson. Again, a team in NXT that I thought was really fun but never got a shot on the main roster. Yeah they’re both green but they can pull off matches and Lash’s size, power, and aura can help to structure matches around taking down the giant and can easily get the crowd involved. Hell, recycle the Otis bodyslam spot but this time on RAW.
So, Lash & Jakara can feud with Ferroz & Leon for the first few months of ‘25. Then, after losing the World Title to Rhea, Liv Morgan re-enters the tag division with Raquel Rodriguez. This is mainly to get Liv a spot on the card after being champion for most of ‘24 but it also makes sense in kayfabe. Rhea’s moved on to other competitors, Adam Pearce told her there’s no rematch coming, so she wants gold again and sets her sights on the tag titles.
Liv and Raquel win after some sneaky tactics. This just feels a little stronger to me than having Liv & Raquel randomly win the tag titles on RAW before Mania, and then hot potato them a little with Becky and Lyra. Instead, this way they get a strong title win at WrestleMania while the less experienced teams get some showcase on the big stage.
Randy Orton vs Joe Hendry
Same as real life. I loved this and felt so happy for Joe. It’s the best that can be done after Kevin Owens’ injury. It doesn’t need to be long and can give some levity before the intense main event.
John Cena vs Gunther (c) World Heavyweight Championship Match
Here we go. The real meat and potatoes. John Cena beating Gunther for the World Championship to end WrestleMania 41. No matter what WWE tried, Cena was always going to be the main character of 2025 which is why I feel okay with demoting Cody a little temporarily. Nothing could overshadow this Cena run.
I’ll do a whole write-up about how to book Cena’s entire retirement tour but this is just a slice. Cena wins the Royal Rumble, has a filler feud with a heel like Logan Paul at Elimination Chamber, and then moves onto Gunther. No heel turn. I get that Cena probably wanted to retire without any “what if’s” and I respect that but, it just wasn’t the right time. No one was going to boo Cena and it was a death sentence for all the babyfaces he went against, especially Cody. I also feel like they didn’t have enough dates to really get deep on Cena’s heel character so I just wouldn’t have done it at all.
Instead, I’d do the traditional veteran on his last legs trying to win one last time against the younger, more vicious champion. No need to overcomplicate it, the weight of Cena’s retirement tour itself can carry all the emotion needed.
I would add a little spice to the build though with Gunther demanding a stipulation that if Cena loses, he would retire then and there. No more retirement tour. It ends at WrestleMania. This is because Gunther despises the sports entertainment and commercial aspects of Cena’s retirement tour, believing it distracts from the true appeal of what happens in the ring. Cena, always one to rise to a challenge, accepts.
A concern I had with this stipulation is that it would telegraph Cena’s win as WWE has already advertised and sold tickets for shows after Mania featuring John Cena. To fix this, I’d not announce the limited dates of Cena’s run until after Mania. Keeping it all under wraps would mean that most people would logically conclude that Mania is the end of Cena’s career. And, since it’s for the title, they’d think he’s definitely losing as he won’t be around afterwards to defend it. This would make it all the more shocking and emotional when Cena pulls off the impossible and beats Gunther.
The match would be like their one in real life. Really driving home the dread of the situation and how outmatched Cena is. At the climax, Cena’s getting choked out for minutes. The crowd are chanting “Super Cena!” trying to will their hero on. A real All-Might vs All-For-One moment. The ref checks his hand once, twice, three times. Cena puts up the “OK” sign. Hulks up. Breaks the hold. Lifts Gunther into the AA with a scream. Hits it. Locks in the STF. Gunther taps. Cena wins the World Heavyweight Championship to a massive pop. We end WrestleMania with an all-time feel good ending.
Doing the Gunther match here, also helps to provide some much needed context to Cena’s final match, which I’d still have be against Gunther at SNME in December with Gunther winning. But this way, with Cena having got one already over Gunther, fans would be able to stomach Cena’s loss a bit better and it would make his retirement tour feel more happy.
In real life the run was surprisingly drab. He was a heel for a good chunk of it. And when he wasn’t heel, he was just losing all the time. I think that context made fans (and me) feel upset at his final match because there wasn’t much joy in the run at all. So, this way, there’d be a peak of happiness that contrasts well with the sadness of the final match and makes his loss easier to accept. Also, getting tapped out at WrestleMania gives Gunther his motivation for the year: chasing John Cena and retiring him out of revenge.
That’s how I would’ve booked WrestleMania 41. I’m sure your version is different but that’s the fun in rebooking. You get to see other people’s perspectives on wrestling. Ask me tomorrow and I’d probably make a couple tweaks. Ask me in a year and I’d change the whole thing. But for now, I think this WrestleMania would’ve been a lot stronger and provided a lot of satisfying emotional climaxes along with just some good ol’ wrasslin’. To me, it also feels like a realistic card that could’ve actually been booked if there was a little more long-term vision and if the writers had clairvoyance.
Oh, I also forgot something. What to do with Travis Scott! How could I forget? I guess it’d be better to have him accompany Seth Rollins to the ring, maybe Seth accepted The Rock’s offer as a way to catapult himself to the top spot. And that comes with Travis Scott, for some reason. Or, hear me out, we just ghost him.