Welcome to the WrestleMania Stock Report. This annual five-part series looks at everyone on last year’s WrestleMania card and what they’ve been doing since to make a determination of whether they’re in a better position in April 2026 than they were in April 2025. Was it a good year? Was it a down year? Are they the definition of Even Steven?
Most folks who were not on last year’s card will not be included, though I made a few exceptions for those who I felt deserved some time.
We’ll go match-by-match
from Night One through Night Two. With many of the people on the WrestleMania 41 card, I’ll try to pinpoint their best and worst moment of the past 12 months. Sometimes that’ll be in-story. Sometimes I’ll focus more on booking/real life. Some folks didn’t do enough this year to really warrant much discussion of either, but that’s something for y’all to debate in the comments. Premium Live Event records are listed for each wrestler evaluated; in addition to wins and losses, that’s interesting information because it tells us how active someone was during the year (records include multi-person matches, including the Royal Rumble). These do not count Saturday Night’s Main Event.
I will make the call on how much everyone’s stock is up or down, or if it’s unchanged. Of course, such judgments are subjective, and feel free to debate those as well. If you want a reminder to where we left folks last year, feel free to check out last year’s edition here.
And a final note: When I use the term “last year” I mean since WrestleMania 41 and not calendar year 2025.
Becky Lynch & Lyra Valkyria def. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez to win the women’s tag team championships
Becky Lynch
PLE Overall record (4-5), one on one (3-2), championship (4-2)
Becky’s year was all about the Intercontinental title.
Her surprise return led to a quick tag team title win alongside Lyra Valkyria but that was short lived. The following night on Raw, they lost the belts right back to Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez. Lynch took that moment to attack her fellow Irishwoman and stake her claim to Lyra’s IC title.
She and Lyra (plus or minus Bayley) would feud for that title throughout the summer. Lynch won the gold at Money in the Bank and then won a street fight at SummerSlam that ensured Lyra was no longer allowed to challenge The Man for the title.
Big Time Bex soon decided to join her husband in his business with CM Punk, but that backfired big time. Because that led to the return of AJ Lee, who would be more than a thorn in Becky’s side. She was an Achille’s heel.
It started with AJ Lee & CM Punk defeating Becky & Seth at WrestlePalooza. Then AJ Lee helped Maxxxine Dupri defeat Lynch to win the intercontinental title on Raw. Becky would win it back, but only to lose it to Lee at Elimination Chamber. They’ll go again at WrestleMania.
The stock itself is tough for someone who pretty much wasn’t around the year prior. But I will say this: I think this is some of the best work of Becky Lynch’s career. Her heel run has been wildly entertaining, leaning into the heel side in a way she has never done before. You can argue her Donald Trump bit got tired or maybe just wasn’t for you, but that was always more online than on TV. She was always willing to eat some shit, which is crucial for a heel. She made AJ look like a million bucks while Lee was still knocking the rust off.
Bex still got it.
Best Moment: Claiming the IC title
Worst Moment: The loss to Maxxxine, who never really took off afterwards
Stock: Mild increase – based on the fact she’s doing some great work, but she’s one of those who are never going to move much.
Lyra Valkyria
PLE Overall record (1-4), one on one (1-2), championship (1-3)
Lyra and Becky’s path were intertwined until Lyra lost her title and the ability to challenge for it again as we covered under Lynch’s year.
While Becks would go on and do great things with the IC title & AJ Lee, Lyra returned to where we found her right before WrestleMania last year – teaming with Bayley.
It was shaky at first as they didn’t trust each other and Bayley was dealing with some split personality issues she eventually just seemed to get over. But they ended up meshing and they’re back together challenging for the women’s tag titles this year.
It’s an interesting year for Lyra, who seemed to be well positioned but lost that spotlight as the year went on. Almost everyone has bumps in the road during their time on the main roster. But it’s not always easy to find it again. And while I think she’s certainly talented enough, I wonder when we’ll next see in her in a prominent position.
Best Moment: Getting a win over Becky Lynch in their IC title feud
Worst Moment: The SummerSlam match that WWE decided to highlight on UnReal as her having a real bad night
Stock: Two titles at one (brief) point to no titles in the tag division is not an insignificant drop
Bayley
PLE Overall record (0-3), one on one (none), championship (0-1)
We kind of covered Bayley, who was not on the WrestleMania card last due to an attack by Becky Lynch who then took her spot. But her journey was interesting enough and I felt it noteworthy to include her because of how much of a deal (in story and outside of it) was made about her missing the WrestleMania card.
The first half of her year was part of the intercontinental champion pursuit, which was set up by the Lynch attack but never the focus. The other half was teaming with Lyra.
Something that surprises me looking back is she only had one singles match against Lynch this year and it ended in a disqualification due to Lyra Valkyria. Becky cost her a WrestleMania match and they never even got a proper feud. Or even a match that had a more specific winner or loser. All seems like a waste to suddenly miss the biggest show of the year. It worked well for Becky. Not so much Bayley.
But the real thing I want to talk about is her split personality gimmick. That felt doomed to fail the moment it had to translate to TV. They first had her more unpredictable regarding which version her partner Lyra Valkyria would encounter at any time. Later it became a bit where if Lyra slapped her in a match, Bayley would find a more aggressive side and win the match. But then it just went away. That’s fine. It was never going to succeed.
It was the only attempt to do anything really interesting with Bayley this year if not longer.
This isn’t to say that Bayley hasn’t done very well for herself in WWE. Her pandemic run with Mercedes Moné was some great work. And she even won the title at WrestleMania just two years back against Iyo Sky. But it feels like right now, there’s nothing for a woman who still should have a lot to offer.
Could a change of a scenery help, such as joining her old friend Mercedes in AEW whenever her contract is up? Sure. But creative should be able to figure out how to feature her. Unfortunately of the remaining horsemen in WWE, it’s clear she’s a peg below the other two when it comes to who creative cares about.
Stock: Mildly up since she has a match, but not by much.
Liv Morgan
PLE Overall record (1-0), one on one (none), championship (none)
Last year, I used this space to talk about how Liv Morgan made a believer out of me. How she was someone I just never bought into when she was on the mic despite making strides in the ring. But that changed with her heel run the last few years.
This year is no different. Maybe not the leap that she had made prior, but that’s because she already covered so much ground. And this year she has the chance to cement herself as one of the top women on the roster.
Unfortunately for Morgan, this year she lost about six months to a shoulder injury. In that time, Finn Bálor kind of tried to replace her in Judgment Day with Roxanne Perez. That didn’t work because she returned at Survivor Series, kicked John Cena in the balls, and helped Dirty Dom win his intercontinental championship back.
The Judgment Day was clearly hers and Finn’s weak attempt at a takeover when she went down failed. Later she’d enjoy watching him officially get excommunicated.
Her biggest moment came when she won the Royal Rumble finally – for years she had been runner up. Now she finally claimed the prize. She’ll face Stephanie Vaquer in a match that became rather personal along its journey.
This is Morgan’s first title match at WrestleMania. It’s well deserved given the work she’s put in to get to this point. Win or lose (my guess is win), a big year could put her at the top of the women’s division. While I don’t think anyone can touch the popularity of Rhea Ripley at this time, I think Liv can cement herself just below that spot.
Best Moment: Winning the Royal Rumble
Worst Moment: The shoulder injury
Stock: Despite missing time, it’s another year of growth for Morgan. Finding herself in a title match as the Rumble winner is a big deal. Improved.
Raquel Rodriguez
PLE Overall record (1-4), one on one (0-1), championship (1-1)
Funny enough, the growth I spoke about last year with Liv I think somewhat applies to Raquel this year. She’s had her successes prior, but prior to this year, I’ve found myself thinking “Triple H sees something in her that I don’t fully get.” That changed this year.
It all started when she seemed to be working bigger in the ring – using her dominating size as part of in ring persona. (Kevin Nash has been an influence in that regard.) And because of that, she seems more like a threat. It feels that her personality has adjusted to her new dangerous side.
She hasn’t had some stellar year with wins and losses. In fact, she’s lost more singles matches than she’s won this year (4-7-1 in singles action). But there are matches with Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Charlotte Flair in there. (Rodriguez recently picked up a W against Sky as well.) Most of her wins this year were part of the Judgment Day tag team, whether it was with Liv Morgan or Roxanne Perez.
But I have a feeling that may change this year. Especially with secondary titles for the women, I think it’s very likely Raquel holds gold this year.
Unfortunately, that degree of improvement was not rewarded with a WrestleMania match, but I don’t think that’ll be the case next year.
Best Moment: The conversation with Kevin Nash
Worst Moment: Losing her partner Liv
Stock: Technically, missing Mania after being on it is a decreased stock (and this is one I’m torn on). But I don’t think that’ll be for too long
Sami Zayn
PLE Overall record (0-1), one on one (0-1), championship (0-1)
Sami Zayn was not on the card last year but he deserves a moment here.
Zayn missed the card likely to sell his big no DQ match with Kevin Owens they had at Elimination Chamber the month prior. But he was back on the Raw After Mania and that looked to tease a big year for Zayn. He stood up to Seth Rollins in a way that teased a feud and maybe a title win down the road. Maybe WWE would give him a run like they gave Jey Uso.
Wins and losses early on didn’t pan out – a referee’s decision loss against Bron Breakker, a loss to Randy Orton in the King of the Ring final. But Zayn is a character who can usually survive losses.
Sami’s biggest run was ressurecting the US title open challenge. He’s a fantastic wrestler so that’s a good spot for him. But after losing that title to Ilya Dragunov, it all went downhill.
Zayn earned a title match against Drew McIntyre in Saudi Arabia. Given the hot shot of the title they had already done with Drew beating Cody, I actually thought Sami could win. But at worst, he’d have a great showing in front of a home crowd and possibly be protected in the loss, right? Right?
Wrong.
That was a squash match. One he would not recover from. Remember how I said he can survive losses? Not that one. Not a proper beating in front of a crowd that loves him.
In fact, they had no choice but to turn him at least partial heel after that. He needed to become an opportunist to win back his US title and then retain it. He’ll defend it against Trick Williams, but crowds won’t be cheering for him.
Best Moment: The US open challenge
Worst Moment: That awful loss in Saudi
Stock: Defending a title at Mania is much better than missing it. It is increased. There’s a plan for him creatively. That said, I was not looking for a heel turn of Zayn. I was hoping he could claim the world title, even if briefly, as a babyface. He’s actually a good heel so this could be fun, but I think any hope of him sneaking a main title win in any alignment has passed.
John Cena def. Cody Rhodes to win the WWE championship
John Cena
PLE Overall record (4-4), one on one (4-4), championship (2-2)
It almost feels like a rehash looking back at Cena’s final year. It’s been talked about plenty ad nasuem.
But we can take that final look back.
The heel aspect of his run, which never truly clicked after his initial turn and the series of promos right after, involved a feud with Randy Orton, R-Truth/Ron Killings, Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso (when Cena teamed with Logan Paul), and CM Punk.
He quickly turned face for his rematch with Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam and they had a banger. Then he finished the babyface portion of his run with Logan Paul, AJ Styles, Dominik Mysterio twice (John would complete his Grand Slam with an IC title win), and finally tapping out to Gunther.
There are two things you can debate. The caliber of the final run and then the final match.
The heel turn was a bold move and could have been successful. But that felt apart when the Rock only showed up for the turn itself but Travis Scott was inserted into the main event. It needed a good story mapped from start to finish to work because in realty, fans just wanted to cheer John Cena. It didn’t have that story so it didn’t click.
That’s why folks kind of accepted John’s “I’m not heel any more!” bit prior to the SummerSlam match. And I’d argue his babyface run to end the year was fun. It was a reminder of what we missed the first half of the year during the heel run. Crowds wanted to cheer him and they got to.
I think the final match opponent and result is going to be debated for awhile.
Gunther is a solid choice. He is that throwback heel and clearly creative sees a lot in him. You could do worse than Gunther. But maybe they could have done better too. Because Gunther really didn’t need it. He’s been very well established. He’s the longest reigning intercontinental champion. Multiple time world heavyweight champion. Could someone like a Carmelo Hayes have benefitted more?
As for the tap out, I maintain I’m a fan of it. It’s the biggest way for that character to go out on his back. But I understand people who wanted him to lose but maintain his “Never Give Up” message. I felt that he actively knew it was time to move on so the giving up was acknowledging his time was up as opposed to actually giving up in the heat of battle. But I get it.
It seemed like Gunther had some good heat from this early on. But that kind of died out due to no WrestleMania direction.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed your last year of Cena because you’ll have to wait a long time day until you see him again.
Stock: Retired
Cody Rhodes
PLE Overall record (4-4), one on one (3-1), championship (2-0)
The most interesting thing in assessing Cody’s year, to me at least, was he actually lost the title twice this year and yet’s he’s still walking into the main event of the first night of WrestleMania as the champion.
That means he’s the company’s the guy. He may lose the title if it makes the journey more interesting, but they’ll always find their way back to each other.
After losing to John Cena last year, he took some time off before winning of the King of the Ring and winning the title back from him at SummerSlam.
The second half of his year was pretty much feuding with Drew McIntyre. They ended up going to the feud a bit earlier apparently due to the Fatu injury, but it wore out its welcome. Some life was breathed into it when McIntyre surprisingly won the title in a Three Stages of Hell match, which some unintentional assistance from Fatu. But Cody won it back right in time for Mania and a feud with Randy Orton. For the forth straight year, he’s in a WrestleMania title main event.
And for the third straight year, it sounds like like initial creative was derailed. Two years ago it was changing his main event to Rock vs. Roman Reigns before fan backlash forced them to turn back. Last year it was inserting Travis Scott and a brief Rock appearance. This year, it was a last minute addition of Pat McAfee in a complete creative that really derailed a good story.
Cody Rhodes is the guy still. As long as he’s full time and Roman isn’t, he will be. The question is whether he’s above Roman. And I’d say he’s not. Because Cody and Randy isn’t Night Two main event material. But Roman and Punk is. And if you swapped the challengers, I think Cody/Roman would be Night Two. So while Cody is the top guy, if Roman wanted to work a full schedule, I don’t think that’d be the case.
It’s not a bad thing. He’s still the top guy. He may be until he decides to back off his time commitment more. But that’s because Roman as opted not to be that guy.
There’s a very good chance he loses tomorrow. There’s also a good chance he’s walking into WrestleMania 43 with WWE championship.
Best Moment: His SummerSlam match with John Cena
Worst Moment: Pat McAfee entering his Randy Orton feud
Stock: Unchanged. I don’t think just because he’s on a different night, he’s actually a lower stock in WWE. John Cena was his opponent and Roman didn’t have a title. If those things were different, maybe he would have been closing Night One instead. He and Reigns haven’t changed since last year and Cody is just a tick below him.
OK, let’s crunch some numbers.
Of folks on the card last year that we looked at (meaning not including Bayley & Sami Zayn)
- 13 increased stock
- 15 decreased stock
- 2 unchanged
- 2 injured
- 2 retired
- 1 on maternity
I included the New Day & The War Raider, the only true tag teams on two nights last year, individually so those two teams counted as four.
So what do we think?
First, this is all subjective. We’ve debated in the comments already on some we disagree on, such as Charlotte (and I hear what you’re all saying but still stand by my evaluation).
When it comes to the ups and downs, that’s pretty even. What I find more interesting is that with a such an even split, it’s surprising to me that there are 19 people on the this year at WrestleMania 42 that weren’t on the card last year.
That’s somewhat because eight of these dropped stocks dropped far enough that they aren’t on the card this weekend. That’s also because there are more multi-person matches than there were last year. In fact, the most people in one match last year were four – New Day vs. War Raiders, Lyra/Becky vs. Liv/Raquel, & Penta vs. Dominik vs. Finn vs. Breakker. This year there are two “get folks on the card” matches: a 4-way women’s tag match (that has six people in that match that wasn’t on the card last year) and a 6-man Intercontinental ladder match (five of those men were not on the show last year).
In the end, there’s going to be some equilibrium. Some folks lose their spot to make up for all the new talent. Some get on via multi-person matches.
It’s surprising folks like Tiffany Stratton & Iyo Sky aren’t on the card and they probably both will next year.
Let us know your take aways in the comments below.
You can catch up on the other installments here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
