The Undisputed WWE Champion opened tonight’s episode of SmackDown, where he was interrupted by his longtime friend and the newest main roster member, Ricky Saints.
After some back and forth on the mic, the two friends agreed to face each other in a match. The bout surprisingly did not main event the show and it instead took place during the second hour of the episode.
The ending of the match saw Saints hitting a couple of big DDTs and going for the Roshambo. Cody, however, managed to counter the move and delivered a Cross Rhodes for the victory.
Before Cody Rhodes could recover from the punishments of the bout, Gunther appeared out of nowhere and locked the WWE Champion in the sleeper hold.
The Ring General left the ring once but climbed back in to lock an unconscious Rhodes into the hold again before the officials hit the ring and made the former World Champion retreat.
Paul Heyman was spotted talking to Nick Aldis in the background ? Could Heyman being on the side of Gunther for match against Cody be the favor they've talked about? #SmackDownpic.twitter.com/GMyFKkQDni
— Anutosh Bajpai | SEScoops (@AuthorAnutosh) May 2, 2026
Paul Heyman was spotted talking to General Manager Nick Aldis during an earlier backstage segment. With Heyman owing a favor to Gunther, the big question is whether the two segments are related and if Heyman could be helping the former IC Champion in his quest to win the Undisputed Title.
Trick Williams will defend the United States Championship against Sami Zayn at WWE Backlash 2026. The match was announced following a chaotic segment on the May 1 episode of SmackDown.
During the broadcast, Zayn attacked The Gingerbread Man with a low blow before punching him repeatedly and ripping off one of his arms. Williams rushed to the scene and attacked Zayn, who escaped the ring before further confrontation.
Williams checked on The Gingerbread Man and threw up the X sign, signaling a serious injury to the character.
In a backstage interview with Cathy Kelley, Williams was informed by a physician that The Gingerbread Man did not survive Zayn’s attack. Following the news, Williams announced he would defend his United States Championship against Zayn at Backlash 2026. Below is the updated card for the show:
Singles Match: Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker (with Paul Heyman)
Singles Match: Iyo Sky vs. Asuka
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu
WWE US Championship Match: Trick Williams (c) vs. Sami Zayn
Backlash this year will be taking place from the Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida on May 9.
The former Women’s Champion was seen walking backstage early on tonight’s episode of Raw when she was brutally attacked by the Judgment Day.
Raquel Rodriguez was the first to get a shot at Vaquer, and she sent Stephanie flying into a crate. Rodriguez then held her by the hair as Roxanne Perez took Stephanie out by ramming another crate into her.
Liv Morgan, who had been watching as her teammates finished off Vaquer, then grabbed the former champion by the hair and told Stephanie that the title belonged to her. The segment ended with Referee Jessika Carr calling for help.
The Judgment Day was in action later in the night with Rodriguez and Perez taking on Bayley & Lyra Valkyria in a tag team match.
Commentator Michael Cole announced, as the match started, that Stephanie Vaquer had suffered a second-degree AC sprain in her shoulder, and she could be out of action for a while.
It was reported after WrestleMania that Vaquer was banged up heading into her bout with Liv Morgan at the Show of Shows. Tonight’s angle will likely give her time off, so the former champion can recover from her injuries.
Multiple matches have been confirmed for Backlash.
Tonight’s episode of Raw from Sames Auto Arena in Laredo, Texas, opened with a Seth Rollins promo. The Architect talked about Roman Reigns winning the World Heavyweight Championship and his loss to Gunther at WrestleMania, blaming both these developments on Bron Breakker.
The Vision star, accompanied by Paul Heyman, then made his way to the ring. After some back and forth, Rollins called Breakker ‘Baby Steiner’ and announced a match between the two for the upcoming PPV.
Later in the show, we saw IYO SKY challenging Becky Lynch for the Women’s IC title. Asuka cost SKY the bout with her interference, and a match between the two was then announced for Backlash.
The main event of the show featured Roman Reigns calling out Jacob Fatu for his answer, after he gave the Samoan Warewolf a week to reconsider his challenge to the Tribal Chief.
Fatu ended up attacking Roman when Reigns claimed that allowing Jacob to challenge for the championship would be nepotism. As the former US Champion was making his way back up the ramp, the Head of The Table grabbed the mic and made the World title match official for the May 9 PPV.
Tiffany Stratton reacts to Brock Lesnar’s retirement.
The general belief before WrestleMania 42 was that the Beast Incarnate would retire at the SummerSlam PPV, which would be taking place from his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota this year. This is why fans were left surprised when the former UFC Champion left his boots in the ring after his loss to Oba Femi at the Show of Shows this past weekend.
The former Women’s Champion who hails from Minnesota as well, was asked how she was feeling about Brock Lesnar’s retirement during a recent interview with Adrian Hernandez. Tiffany Stratton mentioned how the former World Champion got very emotional at the event and claimed that she almost shed a tear herself:
“I don’t know. When I saw Brock unlace his boots, I almost sheded a tear. I was sad for him. He looked like he started crying a little bit too, and I was just… he’s just a boy. It’s his first time living too.”
Though Stratton later expressed the hope that we have not seen the last of Lesnar just yet and he will return to the ring one more time for a proper farewell:
“So hopefully it’s not his last match. Hopefully in SummerSlam in Minnesota, we’ll get to see him. I think that would be iconic—retiring in your hometown. But yeah, I’m really sad, but [also] happy for him.”
Paul Heyman assured Gunther on this week’s Raw that he owes one to the Ring General for taking care of Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. So there’s a way for Gunther to get a match with Lesnar still.
Reports suggest that the former Imperium leader will be entering a title feud with a different top star before that. You can check out more about it here.
The Samoan Submission Machine was put on the shelf with an unspecified injury back in January. He had been pursuing an AEW title rematch after dropping the belt to MJF at Worlds End and had defeated Mike Bailey in a Dynamite singles match before being taken off TV.
Tony Khan then announced the return of Joe on Twitter before this week’s episode of the Wednesday night show in Portland, Oregon.
Samoa Joe faced Cody Chhun in a singles match. Excalibur mentioned on commentary that the heavyweight star had been out of action after suffering an injury while training, but did not provide any further details.
The former WWE star went on to pick up the victory in his return match, defeating Chhun in less than three minutes. HOOK, who had been running The Opps in Joe’s absence, was waiting to give a hug to the returning star after his match.
Darby Allin defeated MJF to win the AEW World Championship on Dynamite last week. So we’ll have to see if Samoa Joe goes after the world title again now that he’s back, or if he tries to settle the score with MJF first.
The duo of Copeland and Christian Cage failed to win the AEW Tag Team Championships from FTR when they challenged the champs at the Dynasty PPV earlier this month.
Tonight’s episode of Dynamite then featured a backstage segment with Adam. He first addressed the events of last week, where the champions had said that Cope and Cage will never get another title shot.
Adam Copeland said that he thinks they deserve another shot at the belts, despite what FTR said. So he has come up with an offer that the duo of Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood will not be able to refuse.
The former World Champion proposed that FTR defend their title against the Attitude Era tag team in a New York Street Fight at Double or Nothing, and if E&C lose, they will retire as a team:
.@RatedRCope issues a challenge for the #AEW World Tag Team Championships at Double or Nothing… but the stakes just got higher!
The reigning champions did not respond to the challenge immediately. Though the next AEW PPV is over a month away, so there is plenty of time for the AEW stars to make their decision.
The former AEW star dropped the WWE Women’s Title to Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 42, ending her reign at 169 days. Since winning the title from Tiffany Stratton in November last year, she only defended the championship successfully once on TV, and had a total of 8 televised matches, including the encounter with The Mami.
The now former champion reflected on her reign during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. Jade Cargill revealed the one regret about her run at the top, stating that she wanted to be part of more matches to be able to showcase her skills better:
“I wanted to wrestle more. I wanted more competitive matches. I wanted more grit. I really wanted to sink my teeth into whatever was being thrown at me.
That’s all I wanted with my reign, but we didn’t get that as much as I wanted, and that’s fine. But now that I had a practice run, I’m gonna call it a practice run, I’m gonna say next time is gonna be totally different.”
Jade Cargill also talked about her match with Rhea Ripley, comparing it to her encounter with Naomi at the Show of Shows last year. She claimed that her superb match with Naomi did not get as much attention because it was not a title match.
Cargill then explained her role in making the match with Ripley good, saying that Rhea can’t go out there and have a stellar match is she doesn’t put on a show as well.
The incident with CM Punk having to step in to stop a fan from violating the personal space of AJ Lee and Bayley during WrestleMania week has started a debate about talent security. Since then, we have learned of other names facing similar incidents all week, including Booker T getting filmed in the bathroom, and Sean Waltman getting assaulted by a fan.
Fightful Select recently provided an update on the reason behind it and the talent reactions. They noted that talents are responsible for hotel bookings on most shows, but WWE provides accommodation for bigger events like WrestleMania. Wrestlers being grouped together, however, leads to an increased rush of fans and autograph hounds. Some talents do opt to stay at different hotels, but it makes WWE arranging travel services more difficult.
The almost unanimous sentiment among talent is that WWE and TKO need to do more to protect superstars. They believe that the company should be providing site security or paying talents to get security for themselves. One prominent female talent criticised the company for only doing damage control after the fact:
“It’s Vegas, we were fucked from the beginning. WWE never actually pre arranges good security. It’s like they wait until shit happens, then they do damage control or add security. We love the personal security teams, and they did as much as they could but hotel security was busy taking care of the problems you already have in Las Vegas.”
One talent believes that the rise in ticket prices under TKO management is a component fuelling the problem, as they feel like fans who would normally be willing to pay for meet and greets no longer find them financially accessible.
Though one wrestler did say that this kind of thing was to be expected during a busy weekend like WrestleMania. Another name thought that CM Punk should have handled things differently because of his past physical incidents.
The night 2 of the NXT Revenge special featured a number of noteworthy moments. This included Joe Hendry suffering a brutal beatdown as well as NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo receiving a mystery box of war.
Among these was also a vignette promoting the debut of the latest development star for next week’s episode of the show. Set to heavy metal music, the video package saw Rain noting that people claim her to be too loud, too gritty, and too unapologetic, but she will never apologize for being who she is:
Known as Rayne Leverkusen in the indies, Lizzy Rain made her wrestling debut back in 2021. The 28-year-old went on to compete for promotions such as EVE, Progress, and Sendai Girls in Japan before signing with WWE.
She was used as an extra for the Underground match between Lola Vice and Kelani Jordan at NXT Vengeance Day and Rain also competed in a dark match before last week’s episode of the show. There is no word on who will be facing Lizzy in her TV debut.
The night 2 of the NXT Revenge special featured Keanu Carver picking up a dominating victory over Joe Hendry, by knocking out the former TNA World Champion.
Later in the show, we saw the General Manager, Robert Stone, speaking with Tony D’Angelo. Right before this, D’Angelo was handed a mystery box with a Kanji character on it.
Stone told the NXT Champion that he will find a new challenger for him by next week. Keanu Carver then stepped into the frame, and Tony asked the NXT rookie if the box was his doing.
Carver said he had nothing to do with the box, but he then warned Tony. Keanu noted that the character on the box was a symbol of war, and he told the Don that the locker room was full of sharks and he should stay ready.
There is no word on how this latest mystery will unravel but we should get a better idea next week when Stone announces a challenger for NXT’s top prize.
Tonight’s episode of the development show featured a singles match between the former NXT Champion and Keanu Carver. This came after Carver attacked the viral star during his concert segment last week.
Hendry put up a good fight but his opponent showed his power, dominating the former TNA World Champion during multiple spots in the bout.
The ending of the match was a surprise one as Keanu Carver dropped Hendry with a lariat and started raining punches and elbow strikes on him. The referee finally had to step in to protect Hendry, and the 27-year-old was declared the winner.
Joe Hendry had teased a main roster move recently. On this week’s Raw, WWE seemingly confirmed him as a regular for the Red Branded Show moving forward.
With the former TNA star being on his way out of the development brand, it seems likely that tonight’s match was his send-off and a way to write him off NXT TV.
The former champion has been announced for a concert segment on next Monday’s episode of Raw and we should get a better idea about his future then.
The former Imperium member was the last to join the faction on the main roster back in September 2022, and he was the first one to be kicked out of the group in April 2024. He was off TV for many months after this before WWE started airing vignettes promoting Vinci as a wealthy Italian snob, a character he had previously played in NXT.
He finally made his re-debut as a singles star on the September 6 SmackDown, where he lost a match to Apollo Crews in three seconds. After losing to Crews once again two weeks later, Vinci attacked the high-flying star. This proved to be his final appearance for the company as the 35-year-old was released from his contract on February 8, 2025, ending his bizarre run with the promotion.
After resurfacing on social media for the first time since his release last month, Giovanni Vinci spoke to Chris Van Vliet for his first interview since his WWE departure. Now going by the name Fabian Aichner, Vinci did not speak on the reasons behind his release. He did talk about his final WWE appearances, and revealed that he was told about the plans for the Apollo Crews loss only on the day of the show:
“I thought the plan was to get me going right away, and I didn’t find out about that till basically the day of the show. So at the end of the day, you’re a professional. Whatever the plan is, you try to make the most of it.”
Giovanni Vinci claimed that his entrance before the match was his favourite of all time, as he felt like he finally got to showcase his personality. The Italian star believes that he could have had great matches with the talents on the roster at the time if WWE had allowed him:
“If you look at the positives, it definitely got attention, definitely got people talking. The unfortunate thing for me is just that not more came out of it, because I feel like we could have done a lot of cool stuff with that character on SmackDown.”
The former NXT star was also asked if he was surprised on getting the call about his release. Aichner suggested that he was expecting the call after being off TV for months. The former Imperium member mentioned that he was trying to keep his thoughts positive. When SmackDown went back to three hours, he thought the company might bring him back, but it didn’t end up happening:
“I was and I wasn’t because, I mean, during the summer of the year previous, I wasn’t on TV, but I knew there was a plan to come back eventually. We did those vignettes and everything, but that didn’t last long, unfortunately. So after that, I noticed when some thoughts started to creep in. You don’t want to hear that call. But when it happened, I can’t say that I was really surprised at it. So it was kind of a weird mix of feelings.”
The former Evolve Champion also explained his absence from the wrestling world since his release. He noted that he decided to take a month off after working hard during his whole WWE tenure, which turned into this long break.
Randy Orton will never allow RKO to be used like other moves.
One of the major changes in wrestling over the past few years has been the use of finishing moves. Not only have talents started using each other’s finishing moves more often, but wrestlers having to use the finisher multiple times in a match to get the pin has become more common as well.
The Viper talked about his own finishing move during a WrestleMania week interview with The Schmo. Randy Orton first mentioned how Vince McMahon helped make RKO one of the deadliest moves in all of wrestling by protecting it early in his career:
“Vince had a huge hand to play because when I would be wrestling somebody and I was younger, they would want to kick out of my finish. Vince would pull me aside and say, ‘We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to let that happen.’”
Randy Orton then claimed that he will never allow RKO to be diluted so much that it has to be hit multiple times to get to the finish. According to the Legend Killer, it is always going to be a kill shot:
“I’ll never hit a guy with three RKOs to cover him and pin him. I’m not going to dilute my finish. That is always going to be a kill shot and I can hit it out of nowhere. Vince has a huge part to play when it comes to my finish and that’s a huge part of being a WWE superstar, what’s your finishing move.”
Cody Rhodes made an appearance on this week’s Raw, but Orton did not. It’s unknown if he will be taking a break from WWE programming after his WrestleMania loss.
The former Universal Champion picked up a huge victory at WrestleMania. He defeated Dominik Mysterio in his demon avatar.
Tonight’s episode of Raw then featured a video package where Balor announced that he was not done with the Judgment Day just yet and confirmed that he will be facing JD McDonagh on the show.
The match took place before the main event segment involving Roman Reigns. It saw Finn Balor bringing back his OG ring gear, which he had abandoned after turning heel and joining the faction:
The match saw both contestants brawling outside before the bell rang. Finn picked up the victory over his former protege with a Coup de Grace in the end. Dominik Mysterio tried to attack his former teammate after the bout but Balor managed to fend him off.
This wasn’t the only Judgment Day story of the night as Liv Morgan celebrated her WrestleMania victory over Stephanie Vaquer elsewhere in the show. The segment led to the debut of a former NXT Champion. You can check out more about it here.
The Raw after WrestleMania 42 gave people a lot to talk about. This included the surprise debut of a couple of former NXT Champions and the return of the Street Profits.
Roman Reigns main evented the night after winning his 7th World Title at the Show of Shows. He was confronted by a member of his own family and challenged to a Backlash match.
While Joe Hendry did not appear in person, we also got an update on his future within the company. Before the main event, the commentators ran down a couple of segments confirmed for next week’s Raw.
The first was Becky Lynch’s return to the brand after winning the Women’s IC Title at Mania. The next graphic revealed that Hendry will be holding a concert on the Red Branded show next week. When Corey Graves expressed displeasure with the revelation, Michael Cole said “He’s on Raw for good now, I think.”
The former NXT Champion had teased a main roster call-up just recently and he was also included in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal on the WrestleMania go-home SmackDown.
Joe still has unfinished business in the development brand and we’ll have to see how long he sticks around after joining the Raw roster as a permanent member.
The Raw after WrestleMania 42 continued the tradition of surprises. The first one was former NXT Champion Ethan Page who showed up during a backstage segment with Penta.
Later in the night, we saw Liv Morgan making her way to the ring with the rest of the Judgment Day. The new Women’s Champion talked about her WrestleMania victory over Stephanie Vaquer. She actually thanked the former champion for reminding her of a feeling she hasn’t felt for a long time.
As Morgan looked to close her speech, however, she was interrupted by a debuting Sol Ruca. Adam Pearce showed up after tensions grew between the two female stars and booked Ruca’s in-ring debut for the brand against Liv.
The former NXT North American Champion managed to hit the Sol Snatcher on the champ after a hard-fought match, but Liv used her experience and rolled out of the ring.
Ruca took out the whole Judgment Day with a dive on the floor. Before she could take advantage, however, Zaria showed up outta nowhere and shoved her former tag team partner into the ring post.
Zaria warned Ruca about their match on tomorrow’s NXT before walking off. Sol then got back into the ring where Morgan was ready for her and Liv picked up the victory with Oblivion.
The big question coming out of WrestleMania 42 was who would be the first name to step up to Roman Reigns after his World Title victory in the main event of the show.
The Tribal Chief was once again the one closing the show on this Monday’s Raw. This time, he had the Usos accompanying him. Roman Reigns first asked his cousins to stand with him once more, and the twins assured him that they will be by his side whenever he needs it.
The trio then looked to end the show with the Bloodline gesture, but Jacob Fatu’s music hit. The Samoan Werewolf made his way to the ring and made his intentions clear.
The former US Champion said that he wants everything Roman has, including the World title so he can do more for his family. He then challenged the World Champion to a match at the Backlash PPV.
Though Reigns did not accept the challenge at once. He instead asked Fatu if he would be ready to acknowledge the Head of the Table if he loses the Backlash match.
The champ ended the standoff, telling Jacob that he had a week to think about this. While exiting the arena, Roman Reigns also asked Jimmy Uso to talk some sense into their cousin.
The Beast Incarnate was involved in a short but physical encounter with Oba Femi in the opening match of WrestleMania 42 Night 2. The Ruler was the one who picked up the victory in the end. After his defeat, the former UFC star left his gloves and boots in the ring, and he was visibly emotional as he made his way to the back after sharing a moment with Paul Heyman.
Brock Lesnar leaves his gear in the ring. What's next for The Beast?
Triple H, who skipped the WrestleMania post-show in favor of an appearance on ESPN SportsCenter, was asked if we have seen the last of Brock Lesnar. The WWE Executive suggested that he doesn’t know the answer either, as he did not get a chance to speak with the former World Champion after his loss:
“It certainly seemed that way. Brock is not a walk back through the curtain and have a long conversation guy. Brock is a walk back through the curtain, very angry, and go to his bus and that is the end of it. So there was not a discussion had after.”
The Game then mentioned that the intelligence of Brock Lesnar is an underrated trait, as people gravitate more towards his destructive power. Triple H explained that the 48-year-old leaving his boots might be his acceptance of the changing of the guard, after meeting a force that cannot be stopped:
“There comes a point in time when somebody comes along that’s bigger and badder and just pushes you to a place that you can’t come back from. The smart ones know when that happens and they call it a day. I don’t think that was a planned thing. I think Brock went to the ring. He walked into a wall called Oba Femi. Brock walked up to the next big thing and ran into a brick wall, and the intelligence in him said, ‘maybe I should call it a day.’”
WWE has been careful not to promote Brock’s actions as a definite retirement, and some fans have tried to connect the dots between Paul Heyman owing a favor to Gunther and rumors of Lesnar having his retirement match at SummerSlam this year from his hometown.
Do you think we will see Brock Lesnar inside a WWE ring again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The former World Champion has confirmed multiple times that he is not leaving the company after his retirement, and instead, he is looking at new opportunities within the promotion. He also referred to this new role during his Hall of Fame speech on Friday, saying that his job is to find the next Phenomenal One.
The wrestling legend was interviewed by Sam Roberts and Megan Morant as part of the WrestleMania recap edition of WWE Now. Among other things, he was asked what the future holds for him in the context of wrestling. AJ Styles explained that he is currently trying various things in the company and has yet to decide the role that fits him the best:
“I’m wearing a couple of different hats right now, and we’ll see which one sticks, and things change quite often, and so, when I get too busy to do all these different hats that I’m trying to wear, and I have to focus on one, I’ll let you know which one that is.”
Though AJ Styles later confirmed that he is doing some work in the WWE ID program, trying to help indie talents looking for experience and money to support themselves:
“But it is recruiting, it is working with WWE ID. That’s a big part of the things that I know a lot about, the independents, and I know there’s a lot of talent like me who didn’t have a lot of money. So if we can get them a little bit more experience and a little bit more cash in their pockets, they’re able to get that, it’ll be a big thing for them.”
John Cena had recently revealed his thoughts on if AJ Styles has really retired from wrestling. You can check out his comments here.
Night two of WrestleMania 42 featured only one women’s match, a title fight between Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley. Before the bout began, the cameras panned to the commentary desk to reveal an unknown third person sitting alongside Michael Cole and Wade Barrett.
Cole introduced him as Adam Weitsman, a Priority Pass VIP guest, but did not provide any further details. Despite wearing a headset, Weitsman also did not speak once during the whole match, leaving fans confused.
Adam Weitsman is the CEO of a company called Upstate Shredding which does scrap metal processing. There is apparently a lot of money in scrap metal processing, because Weitsman is recognized as a billionaire.
Though he also has other ventures, including Krebs restaurant, an 1899 establishment he purchased in 2010, and Viridium LLC, a crypto mining company he founded.
He appears to be a big fan of WWE, as Weitsman was also in attendance for Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. He posted a video of iShowSpeed’s big dive in the opening match of the PPV on his socials:
Both Michin and B-Fab got involved in the Women’s Championship match, leaving Ripley at a disadvantage. This was until IYO SKY made an appearance to save her tag team partner from defeat. After SKY took out Jade’s associates, Rhea hit Riptide on Cargill for the victory.
Pat McAfee’s wife has reacted to the turn of events.
The former NFL star had promised that he would leave WWE for good if Randy Orton did not win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. The Viper himself then gave him an RKO when McAfee failed to help him earn his 15th world title at the Show of Shows, signaling the end of their partnership.
Another sign that Pat might be done with the company for a while came in the form of an Instagram story from his wife, Samantha McAfee. She posted a photo of her husband in a neck brace on Sunday, and claimed that it was the first morning since 2017 when he was completely out of the wrestling business:
It was originally reported that Randy Orton would win the WWE title at the show and Pat McAfee would be involved in a big match at Backlash.
Plans seem to have changed in the last few weeks, however, with the largely negative reaction to the former Raw commentator’s involvement in the feud between the two former friends.
Though Orton still ended Night 1 of WrestleMania by giving Cody Rhodes a nasty injury. So it appears that the feud between them would continue, or at least be revisited down the line, but without the celebrity involvement.
Roman Reigns might be facing his toughest challenge yet after WrestleMania.
The Tribal Chief picked up a big victory in the main event of the Show of Shows tonight, defeating CM Punk to win his 7th World championship in the company. Reigns then proclaimed that he will be a full-time champion and told fans to get ready to see him through the summer.
The company teased a rivalry between the new champion and Oba Femi after the PPV, but they indicated that it’ll be some time before these two come face to face. With this revelation comes the question of who could be stepping up to Roman in the immediate future.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer provided an update on the plans for Roman Reigns after WrestleMania. He noted that the idea is for Gunther to challenge the Head of the Table in coming times:
“The plan is Roman Reigns as champion against Gunther, that was as of a week ago, midweek even. I don’t think it’s for Backlash, maybe SummerSlam, maybe something else.”
After retiring both John Cena and AJ Styles in the last few months, the Ring General picked up another big victory at WrestleMania. He defeated Seth Rollins with some help from a returning Bron Breakker.
The win gives him momentum to go after the title he previously held for 258 days in 2024. How WWE kicks off this rivalry remains to be seen. Reigns has confirmed that he will be at Raw tomorrow, so it’s likely we will get some answers on the Red Branded Show.
Despite scrapping the press conference format of WWE PPV post-shows, the WWE Chief Content Officer has not been spared embarrassment. The Game has been faced with negative crowd reactions in his last few appearances.
The fans were especially unhappy with the top brass leading into the WrestleMania 42. The high-ticket prices, overwhelming amount of ads on shows, and the TKO officials forcing storylines that did not fit the top matches had led to a lot of criticism for the company before the Show of Shows.
With no record attendance to announce for this year’s event either, it was no surprise that Triple H made the decision to skip both nights of WrestleMania post-show. Though the fans still made their voices heard.
In absence of the King of Kings, Roman Reigns was the final guest of the Mania post show. The crowd booed loudly when the new World Champion mentioned TKO in his speech and loud ‘Fuck TKO’ chants followed:
Though the Tribal Chief knew how to win back the crowd and he received huge cheers as he ended his interview with a big announcement. You can check out more about it here.
Roman Reigns says he’s going to be around a lot more.
The Tribal Chief made an appearance on the WrestleMania post-show. This came after he defeated CM Punk to win his 7th World Title in the main event of the PPV.
The OTC talked about his victory, and he also responded to Oba Femi’s challenge after the Ruler claimed that he’d be coming after the World Champion at the end of the year.
The Head of the Table ended his remarks on a high note. Roman Reigns, who had promised to show what a real champion looks like after defeating CM Punk, claimed that he’s going to fix ‘all this part-time crap.’ The World Heavyweight Champion confirmed that he’s going to be around all summer:
“I’m gonna take you all to Monday Night Raw tomorrow night. I’ll see you all tomorrow night. That’s where we’ll see you. All this part-time crap, we’re gonna fix that. Y’all better make some room, cause y’all gonna see my ass all summer.”
The Oba Femi match seems to be something the company is saving for a bigger event down the line. So we’ll have to see who emerges as the immediate contender for Reigns after WrestleMania.
