Greg WyshynskiApr 16, 2026, 07:48 AM ETCloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.Follow on XMultiple Authors
play1:19Stephen A. and Liv Morgan discuss impact of women in WWELiv Morgan tells Stephen A. Smith how big women’s participation in the WWE has become since the beginning of her career.
play3:59WrestleMania 42 card revealed on ‘Get Up’Joe Tessitore joins “Get Up” to reveal the matches that will take place at WrestleMania 42.
Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton. Two multigenerational stars with close to 20 years of history together, including their time with The Legacy stable that saw Orton mentor Rhodes. The Viper is seeking his 15th world title. Cody is battling to keep the title that defines him. What more could you want from a WrestleMania Night 1 main event?
Stephen A. and Liv Morgan discuss impact of women in WWELiv Morgan tells Stephen A. Smith how big women’s participation in the WWE has become since the beginning of her career.
Liv Morgan tells Stephen A. Smith how big women’s participation in the WWE has become since the beginning of her career.
WrestleMania 42 card revealed on ‘Get Up’Joe Tessitore joins “Get Up” to reveal the matches that will take place at WrestleMania 42.
Has Finn Bálor resurrected ‘The Demon’ to take on Dominik Mysterio?
What are the other nontitle matches at WrestleMania?
Why is Femi-Lesnar potentially the best match of WrestleMania?
Cody Rhodes: Pat McAfee is going to be in the deep end at WrestleMania 42 (2:01)Cody Rhodes joins “Get Up” to break down what to expect this weekend at WrestleMania 42 (2:01)
As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but haven’t watched a match since John Cena’s farewell, we’re happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to WrestleMania 42, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Anyway, these old friends met for an official contract signing, aka the most dangerous event in wrestling. True to form, Orton beat up and bloodied Rhodes.
On the “Raw” that followed the contract-signing mess, Orton was seen taking a mysterious phone call (Is there any other kind of call in wrestling?) from someone whom he credited with inspiring the attack on Rhodes. That caller? Former NFL punter and WWE announcer Pat McAfee, whom you may also know from a little “progrum” he hosts every weekday afternoon on ESPN.
McAfee apparently incited Orton to violence because the WWE has “gone in a direction that no one likes,” and he wants to bring back the glory of the Attitude Era. Symbolizing all that’s wrong with the business was Rhodes, the guy who bleeds in every match and famously said “go f— yourself” to The Rock last year. But he does often wear a tailored suit.
Musician-turned-in-ring performer Jelly Roll got involved in this nonsense by giving Rhodes a pep talk and getting an Orton beatdown for it. And so, we have Cody and Jelly and Randy and Pat all aligned and ready for WrestleMania — and a seemingly inevitable tag team match at Backlash in May.
Is this a better direction than simply having two dynastic wrestlers with a deep personal history battling for the belt? Speaking of the belt, Cody reclaimed the WWE title McAfee “stole” from him on “SmackDown” by showing up at the Thunderdome after-hours on Tuesday night. Thanks to the magic of closed-circuit television, the whole incident was captured and aired on Wednesday’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”
WWE fans have been, ahem, passionately debating this question since the McAfee reveal. Rhodes himself told Jimmy Traina on the “SI Media” podcast that it was “the most ill-received thing in the history of wrestling,” and obviously he’s not prone to hyperbole.
As for McAfee, fans were stunned when he was called a “buggy-whipped hillbilly” whose mouth was writing checks that his “narrow ass” couldn’t cash … by CM Punk, who has nothing to do with this match, but who will defend his world heavyweight championship against Roman Reigns in the main event of Night 2.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two former partners from more than a decade ago — one believes he mentored the other — have an extreme falling-out ahead of their championship match at WrestleMania. The difference between Orton-Rhodes and Punk-Reigns is the pure, uncut hatred that has fueled the latter feud.
Please recall in 2012, when The Shield — Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose — debuted as the hired goons for Punk, who claims he set the example for Reigns to follow. Reigns shot back by saying that Punk taught him “what not to do,” while mocking Punk’s decision to leave WWE for a decade. Reigns also claims the WWE asked for his OK when Punk made his dramatic return in 2023, as if a Tribal Chief doesn’t already have enough on his plate to have to make a human resources decision.
Reigns won Royal Rumble in January to earn this title shot and selected Punk as his opponent, saying in a bile-dripping promo, “I’m picking you because I hate you. I’ve always hated you. And WrestleMania’s going to be the day of my life, because in the main event, you will acknowledge me.”
Also good: Reigns’ and Punk’s last promo battle before ‘Mania at “Raw” on Monday added layers of pathos to their feud. Punk admitted to hating Reigns because he was born into a wrestling dynasty and also being envious of Roman’s elephantine title run and WrestleMania main events. Reigns admitted that he hates Punk because he’s envious of the champ’s connection with the fans. “I hope one day when I leave, they chant for me for 10 years straight,” he said.
Sometimes you just need good old-fashioned vitriol and a title on the line to sell a WrestleMania match. In fact, Punk’s wife, AJ Lee, is involved in one herself.
Ever since AJ skipped back into WWE last September on an episode of “SmackDown” in Chicago after a decade-long absence, she has infuriated “The Man.” She made Lynch submit to the Black Widow at Wrestlepalooza, Survivor Series and Elimination Chamber, where she won the Intercontinental title from Becky to the delight of the Chicago fans.
Lynch finally snapped last month on “Raw,” unleashing nearly six months of pent-up embarrassment and frustration in an attack on the IC champ. Key phrase: “six months.” Hopefully, after whatever happens at WrestleMania, they can both move on to other business.
Stephen A. and Liv Morgan discuss impact of women in WWE
Liv Morgan won the Royal Rumble and chose women’s world champion Stephanie Vaquer as her opponent by sucker-punching her in the face with the mic.
When she wasn’t calling Vaquer’s mother “trash” (!), Morgan was busy becoming an instant meme, looking like if Sydney Sweeney was cast in “The Alexa Bliss Story.”
Who wins the match? We’ll answer that question with a question: Which one of these wrestlers recently had a WWE-produced music video called “Trouble” released with all the sweaty choreography of a 2006 VMAs nominee? Hint: It’s not Stephanie Vaquer.
Flair and Bliss are fun because they remain utterly combustible. Flair called Bliss her “ally of convenience” on “SportsCenter” this week. Kudos to these two for making “Can they coexist?” last this long into their partnership.
No? Well, that might be why Damian Priest and R-Truth (WWE tag team champions) aren’t on the card and why Logan Paul and Austin Theory (world tag team champions) are involved in a charmingly convoluted six-man tag team match that was set in motion when Danhausen told IShowSpeed that he was cursed.
IShowSpeed, aka Speed, is a 21-year-old influencer and streamer who first appeared at 2024’s WrestleMania XL to support Paul while dressed as a Prime bottle in a nod to Paul’s energy drink company. Orton did the only thing one could do in a situation like that and RKO’d him on the announce table. Speed appeared again at the 2025 Royal Rumble, where Bron Breakker showed his speed before spearing the streamer into the thermosphere.
Last month, Speed appeared on “Raw,” where a new addition to the roster, Danhausen, “cursed” him, leading to Speed accidentally hitting LA Knight with brass knuckles during a match that saw LA’s buddies, The Usos, lose their tag titles to Paul and Theory. LA Knight would later invade IShowSpeed’s livestream, hurling him into his own webcam.
Danhausen emerged from a large wooden crate at Elimination Chamber with a cadre of similarly dressed women to a tepid crowd response. Over the next several weeks, he inexplicably became perhaps the WWE’s most popular performer, based on T-shirt sales? What’s indisputable: Danhausen has injected chaos and comedy into shows that have needed more of it.
Please note that IShowSpeed remains “cursed” as he teams with Paul and Theory against Knight and the Usos at WrestleManiahausen. We expect there might be a demon that pops up during this match. But if not, there’s another match that will allow WWE to hit its demon quota.
Hey, desperate times call for slathering your body in black paint. The implosion of Judgment Day was a storyline more than a year in the making. Friction between Bálor and “Dirty Dom” finally reached its logical end when the rest of the faction assaulted Bálor and ejected him from the group last month. This came after Bálor prevented JD McDonagh from assisting Dom in an Intercontinental title match loss against Penta, ending Mysterio’s second reign.
Much like Edge was attacked and kicked out when Bálor joined Judgment Day in 2022, Bálor was eventually attacked and kicked out himself. It’s poetry. It rhymes.
We haven’t seen Bálor go full “Demon” since losing a Hell in a Cell match to Edge at WrestleMania 39. Obviously, he’s the fan favorite here because of the cool makeup and a chance for vengeance. And there’s nothing a WWE crowd loves to do more than lustfully boo Mysterio — even as fans secretly respect Dom’s ability to draw heat like few others can.
Now this should be fun: Intercontinental champion Penta puts the title on the line against Rey Mysterio. OK, it also features Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, JD McDonagh and Rusev, but we’re getting Penta and Rey in a ladder match, and that’s chicken soup for the lucha fan soul.