A bloody Cody Rhodes walked out of WrestleMania 42 still the WWE Champion, but it was Randy Orton who attempted to send the fans home happy following a lacklustre first night.
Headlining WrestleMania Saturday, Rhodes took advantage of the chaos to pin Orton with a Cross Rhodes to retain his title. As Rhodes looked to celebrate, the fans in Las Vegas made it clear that they were not happy with the result as they heavily booed the man who calls himself QB 1 of WWE, a far cry from how things were just 2 years prior.
Even though Rhodes retained the title, after the match, Orton attacked Rhodes and hit a punt on The American Nightmare, holding the championship to close out the show.
The pre-match started of chaotically as Pat McAfee introduced Orton before hitting a cheap shot onto Rhodes. With McAfee later sent out of the ring, Jelly Roll appeared and hit an elbow drop onto McAfee onto the announce table. Although McAfee was stretchered out, he would return later.
The match finally got underway with both men getting buted open, finishers being kicked out of, and Charles Robinson getting hit with an RKO. Orton hit another RKO onto Rhodes, leading to McAfee running down to the ring in a referee shirt, but Rhodes kicked out at 2. McAfee was then hit with an RKO, followed by the aforementioned Cross Rhodes that led to the Rhodes retention. As a result of the stipulation, Pat McAfee has promised he will never be associated with wrestling again.
Cody Rhodes Headlines WrestleMania 42 – A Show Of Short Matches And So Many Ads!
It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that many of the 50,000 fans in attendance may have felt short-changed by what they got at WrestleMania 42 night 1, especially with the amount they paid for tickets. While fans in Vegas and around the world got to see Paige make her return to WWE and Bianca Belair’s pregnancy announcement, WWE really tested fans with the lack of wrestling on the biggest wrestling card of the year. 4 of the 7 matches were under 10 minutes, and the main event was the only one to go over 20. Fans online have calculated that of the near 4 hour show, advert time and in-ring time were virtually equal. On demand viewers can at least skip straight to the action, but this would have been a challenge to watch live.
With less than 30 minutes of women’s wrestling, fan barely seeing Cena [no pun intended] as host and Cody Rhodes set to remain as champion until further notice, WWE have not exactly set the bar high for night 2.
Featured image: WWE
