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Greg Wyshynski
As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but might not understand how John Cena finally broke bad, we’re happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to WrestleMania 41, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
John Cena is in the main event, looking to break Ric Flair’s all-time record with a 17th world championship. Cena said this will be his last WrestleMania as an in-ring competitor. Fans’ throats must be raw from cheering him so passionately on the road to WrestleMania!
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John Cena turns heel in stunning moment at Elimination Chamber
John Cena turns heel and attacks Cody Rhodes after winning Elimination Chamber with the help of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Actually, they hate him now.
Well, a lot of them have always hated him, at least according to the chants during his entrance theme. But now the rest of the fans hate him, too, because he said “each and every one of you has been awful to me” for the past 25 years.
John Cena. ‘The Face That Runs the Place’ is now … a heel?
For the extremely lapsed among us, let’s run it back.
Cena helped his friend Cody Rhodes “finish the story” at WrestleMania 40 by sprinting into the ring to take out Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Then in July, Cena announced he would retire from WWE competition at the end of 2025, meaning WrestleMania 41 would be his final Mania. It also meant that the 2025 Royal Rumble would be his final Rumble. Cena made the final two in the Rumble only to have Jey Uso knock him off the apron.
It was in his postmatch news conference that things started to get a little dark for Cena. He talked about dedicating his career to doing “what’s best for business,” and had decided that appearing in the main event at WrestleMania was in fact “best for business.” Gone was the guy willing to wrestle anywhere on the card for the benefit of the show, replaced by desperate entitlement.
Meanwhile, things were getting weird between Rhodes and The Rock, who had returned once again as “The Final Boss.” He said he didn’t want Rhodes’ championship — he wanted Rhodes’ “soul” — which was very Undertaker of him.
What does The Rock mean by wanting Rhodes’ ‘soul’ exactly?
Nobody knows.
Flash forward to Elimination Chamber, where Cena has another chance at the WrestleMania main event. It was Cena vs CM Punk as the final two, with Punk seeking his first Mania main event. Seth Rollins, who had been eliminated earlier by Punk, returned to deliver a stomp on him. Cena took advantage of the interference, slapped on the STF and screamed “I’m sorry” as he choked Punk out for the win.
The closing segment of Elimination Chamber saw Rhodes confront The Rock about that whole “give me your soul” business. Cody memorably declined to hand over his soul by telling The Final Boss to “go f— yourself.” (The Attitude Era never died, it was just resting!)
Cena was in the ring for all of this and bounced over to give Rhodes a celebratory hug … before glaring over Rhodes’ shoulder at The Rock, who gave Cena an exaggerated throat slash gesture. Cena promptly delivered a punt to Rhodes that would have made Pat McAfee proud, and a prolonged beatdown of the champ began — one that included The Rock’s sidekick, rapper Travis Scott (!), delivering a punch so stiff it gave Rhodes a black eye.
So did The Rock and Cena plan this? Was he always the next option if Cody wasn’t down with the whole soul giving thing?
Nobody knows.
Let’s be honest: This epic heel turn might have made more sense if Cena realized that in losing the Rumble and needing help to win the Elimination Chamber, it was beyond his abilities to defeat Rhodes at WrestleMania. So in his most desperate, craven, “what’s good for the business is me in the main event” egomania, he turned on a friend and sold his soul to a former rival, who will offer him the power that comes with being a TKO board member to ensure Cena wins the championship in Vegas.
Except that’s not where the story went. For better or worse.
On March 17 at Raw in Brussels, Cena uncorked an all-timer of a promo, blasting the fans for what he called “an abusive relationship” for most of his career. “All you ever do is steal from me. You steal my personal moments. You steal my time. You’ve made me your freaking toy. I’m an object to you,” he said. “You have made me the butt of a stupid, invisible joke for 15 years, and you still think it’s funny. It’s not funny. It’s pathetic.”
John Cena. The “hustle, loyalty and respect” guy. The world record holder for “Make-a-Wishes” granted. Basically telling the WWE Universe that he resents them and was done with them forever.
Again, there’s an interpretation of this Cena turn that renders it completely ludicrous. What’s with the soul stuff and why was it never mentioned again? Why align with The Rock? Or Travis Scott? Why disparage and annihilate the same fans Cena credited and embraced in July during his retirement announcement? Wouldn’t all of this have made more sense a few years ago when Cena had actual “go away” heat instead of forcing this turn on the fans at a time when the majority of them enthusiastically wanted him to win a record-breaking title?
But there’s no arguing that Cena’s heel turn with The Rock was transcendent and among the best moments of surprise villainy in wrestling history. There’s no arguing that the promo Cena cut on his fans gave him supernova heel heat. In the end, Cena was right: Being in the main event of WrestleMania, as the loathsome baddie against beloved Cody Rhodes, is what’s “best for business.”
Also good for business: Rumble winner Jey Uso deciding not to chase Rhodes’ title and choosing Gunther instead. Which made sense from a storyline perspective, if not necessarily from a personal safety perspective.
Won’t Gunther take Jey Uso, chop him up and devour him like so much Austrian goulash?
Hey, Jey Uso almost took out Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event back in January! Granted, after two spears, a superkick and an Uso splash from the top rope, Gunther still put Jey away with two powerbombs, but the big man broke a sweat and more importantly, the crowd completely bought the possibility of the Uce-pset.
But then, what isn’t the crowd buying from Jey these days? They’re buying a metric ton of “YEET” merch bearing Jey’s catchphrase, while chanting “YEET” when he enters the arena and running “YEET” back when he hits a big move in a match. The WWE apparently learned from the “YES movement” that when the fans lean this hard into a character, it’s time to ride that wave until it crests.
To that end, it’s no surprise he won the Rumble.
The impetus for this feud was actually Gunther referencing Jey’s fan support, calling him “the company mascot” and fortifying the big man’s reputation as the WWE’s most underrated insult comic.
But we’ve seen a fan favorite underdog trying to win his first heavyweight championship against a sentient mountain so many times before. So they decided to throw a bucket of his brother’s blood on the storyline to change the formula.
On Raw this month, Gunther zip-tied Jey to the ropes and bludgeoned Jimmy Uso with the championship title, busting him open. Gunther eventually spread Jimmy’s plasma on his torso like a macabre spa treatment.
So it’s no longer an underdog story — it’s literally a blood feud as Jey seeks revenge “for his family” with the crowd passionately behind him, making this thing a heck of a lot more compelling than when Jey first challenged him.
Although perhaps not as compelling as another match Saturday night: What can affectionately be called “The Paul Heyman Bowl featuring CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.”
CM Punk finally gets his WrestleMania main event and it’s a triple threat match?
According to Seth Rollins, it’s the most important triple threat match “in the history of his industry,” so there’s that.
He’s framing this thing as trying to save wrestling from Punk (who runs away from the WWE when things don’t go his way) and Reigns (the dreaded “too famous to wrestle full-time” affront). But this three-way feud boils down to two things: personal history and Paul Heyman.
Punk and Rollins have had beef since Punk returned to the WWE, including an eliminated Rollins returning to screw Punk out of an Elimination Chamber win. Rollins and Reigns have a complicated history dating to their days in The Shield. Punk teamed with Reigns at Survivor Series WarGames but things got a little messy at the Royal Rumble, when Punk eliminated both Rollins and Reigns simultaneously before being eliminated himself. But the real tension between Punk and Reigns is over Heyman, the “Wise Man” advisor to Reigns in his glory years and someone whose relationship with Punk tracks to their days in ECW together. Reigns is the Original Tribal Chief. Punk might be the Original Paul Heyman Guy.
For appearing in WarGames, Heyman owed Punk a favor. That favor? Being in Punk’s corner at WrestleMania rather than Reigns,’ which the Tribal Chief felt was a betrayal because he’s essentially paying the tab for Heyman’s favor to Punk. But the favors don’t end there! Rollins also believed that Heyman now owes him a favor for opting not to stomp him on two separate occasions. Which isn’t how favors work but is very much how extortion does.
Paul Heyman is such a determining factor in this match that it almost feels like a waste to just have him in Punk’s corner. Paul Heyman on a Pole match! Paul Heyman in a Shark Cage Above The Ring match! C’mon, give us something!
Besides Heyman’s loyalties, Punk’s chance for a WrestleMania main event win is the headline here, in a triple threat match with some real animosity. But their enmity doesn’t hold a candle to that between Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair, which has gotten very, very personal.
How nasty is the Stratton vs. Flair feud?
Oh, quite nasty.
Flair, 14-time champion, won the women’s Royal Rumble after a year away due to injury and decided to challenge Stratton for the strap. This seemed like a rather predictable match heading into Mania: Charlotte Flair, a belt on the line and a 25-year-old champ who turned face after Flair attacked her and wouldn’t be derailed with a loss.
And then they started talking.
On SmackDown, Stratton and Flair stood in the ring for a promo. Stratton said Flair will never live up to her father Ric’s legacy. The crowd in Chicago booed Flair heavily during her retort about Stratton having “a squeaky voice.”
Stratton decided to go for the jugular: She compared Flair’s WrestleMania record to her record in marriages (0-3, with her marriage to Andrade having just ended) and said she’ll be “alone” inside and outside the ring after WrestleMania. The segment was already a train wreck when Flair tried to land one last low blow by asking if “that’s why Kaiser’s in my DMs,” a reference to Stratton’s relationship with WWE star Ludwig Kaiser.
This off-script segment created several news cycles in the pro wrestling “dirt sheets,” to the point where the WWE had to address it on-air with announcer Joe Tessitore admitting lines were crossed and that Flair and Stratton were facing “disciplinary actions,” whatever that means.
It wasn’t pretty, and it was cringingly personal, but the Flair vs. Stratton match became exponentially more fascinating because of it.
What about the other women’s championships?
Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley are in a triple threat match for the women’s world title. Belair won the Elimination Chamber match to set up a WrestleMania title fight with Ripley … until Ripley dropped the belt to Sky on Raw. At the contract signing for Belair and Sky, Ripley attacked both of them and signed her name to the document. (They should really stop holding these in the middle of the ring. Find a notary public or something.)
Anyway, that’s not how contracts work, and Raw GM Adam Pearce refused to let Ripley into the match. But as our exploration of contract law continued, the WWE announced that Ripley’s “rematch clause” in her contract would set up a bout between her and Sky with Belair as the referee. She ruled it a no contest. Pearce then decided to make the WrestleMania match a three-way dance anyway. It’s the destination, not the journey, in this case. It should be a banger.
The WWE women’s tag titles are on the line as Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, now members of Judgement Day, take on Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, the latter of whom holds the women’s Intercontinental championship. That might be the most important part of this matchup: Bayley, a former heel, has talked about not having won the IC title, which was unveiled in late 2024. Valkyria has also talked about growing up a Bayley fan and loves being her tag partner. Uh-oh.
The other women’s match at WrestleMania is Saturday’s showdown between Jade Cargill and Naomi, who made a tearful confession to Belair that she was the mystery parking lot assailant who put Jade out of action for several months. Although Cargill sort of figured that out already, which is why she beat the stuffing out of Naomi at Elimination Chamber. This is one of two matches at Mania set up by parking lot fights. But only the one between Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre has been labeled a “Sin City Street Fight.”
What is a Sin City Street Fight?
Do they hit each other with giant frozen beverages from Fat Tuesday? Do they stop the match to take selfies with showgirls in front of the Bellagio fountains? The only thing we know is that Drew McIntyre needed something to do now that his mortal enemy, CM Punk, moved on to other things and Damian Priest choke-slammed him through the windshield of a car already, which sets the table for more innovative violence.
What’s up with the rest of The Judgement Day?
Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio are in a fatal four-way for the Intercontinental championship, currently held by Bron Breakker. The other competitor in that match is Penta, a spooky-looking luchador with a catchphrase: “Cero Miedo,” translated as “Zero Fear,” and something you’ll likely hear around 186 times during the match from the crowd. Penta rules.
Dirty Dom tried to recruit Penta to Judgement Day but was rejected. He also had some creeping tension with Balor, which wasn’t helped by Dom botching his interference in Balor’s match against Breakker for the title. Dom recently said that Finn is an incredible inspiration for him and is “the dad that stepped up” in his (kayfabe) life. And obviously Dominik Mysterio would never turn on his own father.
Speaking of which, is Rey Mysterio competing at WrestleMania?
Yes, he’s wrestling El Grande Americano.
He’s wrestling a menu item at El Starbucks?
No, El Grande Americano is a luchador who recently debuted in WWE and is absolutely 100% not Minneapolis-born Chad Gable under a mask having gone to extremes in his feud against the Latino World Order.
What are the other title matches at Mania?
On Saturday, LA Knight defends the U.S. championship he won against Shinsuke Nakamura last month, taking on Jacob Fatu. This had a real by-the-numbers build: Fatu wins the right to face Knight, beats him down something vicious and poses with LA’s belt before Mania. What’s going to be more over with the Vegas crowd: LA Knight’s “yeahhhhh!” or Fatu’s jump-up, top-rope moon-sault?
Also Saturday, the world tag team titles are on the line as the champions, The War Raiders, face The New Day, who turned heel in December when they kicked the injured Big E out of their group during an anniversary celebration. That’ll do it. No offense to the current champs, but putting the belts on The New Day probably opens up more storyline opportunities than keeping them on the Raiders.
They have heat. Not, like Logan Paul heat, but heat.
Oh, right, Logan Paul. What’s he up to?
The IRL version of Johnny Cage from “Mortal Kombat” is wrestling The Phenomenal AJ Styles after Paul eliminated him in the Royal Rumble. There’s been trash talk between the two — or as Logan Paul calls it, “talk” — and the match should be an athletic spotfest. The twist has been the involvement of Karrion Kross, doing yet another variation of “I’ll fight you until the dangerous you emerges, because that’s who you need to be in this match!” thing.
Although Kross’s declaration that the boys in the back need Styles to defeat Paul has potential.
That’s a lot of matches. Does this stack up as a classic WrestleMania?
Every two-day WrestleMania has three types of matches: Those made to fill out the card and get more paydays for WWE talent; those championship or grudge matches that received a minimal but sufficient build; and those soap operatic feuds that demand your attention. The success or failure of a WrestleMania rests on how much the main attractions entertain and surprise you and how many matches in that second tier outkick their coverage.
So, to that end: Rhodes vs. Cena can’t miss. The Punk-Rollins-Reigns triple threat won’t either. Jey Uso vs. Gunther and Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair are undeniably enticing. And the mid-card has enough matches that could rise to the level of show stealer.
To put it in Vegas terms, there are enough promising bets on the table that WrestleMania 41 could hit the jackpot.
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