With one episode of Raw and SmackDown left before WrestleMania 42, it somehow feels like things could still get worse right before WWE’s biggest show.
The road started hot after the Royal Rumble, with a fiery face-off between Roman Reigns and CM Punk that felt Mania main-event worthy. Even with Drew McIntyre catching a few stray shots, the energy was there.
Then it got weird. Punk brought up Reigns’ deceased
father. Reigns fired back by calling Punk old. The delivery was strong, but the insults were straight out of elementary school.
On the same show, Liv Morgan called Stephanie Vaquer’s mother trash. Still, hearing them trade “puta” — a quick way to get shanked where I come from — cracked me up.
Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar, through Paul Heyman, declared himself the true main event and issued an open challenge to any son of a bitch brave enough to face him.
Enter Oba Femi, who answered emphatically by dropping Lesnar with a thunderous powerbomb. Simple, direct, effective. No nonsense, no detours from kayfabe. Just two forces colliding. Easily the cleanest build on the card.
And then there was Cody Rhodes.
It took a few years, but wrestling fans started turning on him. Again. WWE pitting him against another beloved legend for the second year in a row, this time against Randy Orton, hasn’t helped. Predictably, fans sided with Orton, even as he brutalized the Undisputed Champion and dropped Jelly Roll with an RKO.
Even with fans taking up their pitchforks against WWE’s allegedly well-endowed ice cream man, that program, and WrestleMania as a whole, still looked promising.
Then came Pat McAfee, and the entire show fell into the abyss, as McAfee (with the help of TKO and WWE’s booking) buried Rhodes and the entire product.
For a moment, it felt like Punk salvaged things on Raw. But McAfee’s reemergence on SmackDown flipped that. He took a steaming wet dump on the company, its stars, its fans, and WrestleMania itself, all while promoting discounted tickets for the same show he was crapping on.
I’m trying hard, real hard, to tune it out, especially with my Tribal Chief poised to reign once more. But when McAfee calls WrestleMania Sunday, Reigns’ night to shine, “ass,” it’s hard to picture a scenario where Reigns exists in a universe far from this stain, especially with Punk so close to its orbit.
On a scale of one to five, before McAfee, my interest in this year’s Mania was a four. After him, it’s a 2. On the bright side, at least I’ll be in a theater, getting a real-time, visceral read on what’s shaping up to be an opening-night shitshow.
Ahead of what may be one of the most critically panned shows in its history, I ask you: what is your level of interest in WrestleMania 42? Are you still high on the card, or has your interest hit rock bottom? Let’s chat in the comments section.
