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).
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.
And a final note: When I use the term “last year” I mean since WrestleMania 41 and not calendar year 2025.
Drew McIntyre def. Damian Priest
Drew McIntyre
PLE Overall record (3-2), one on one (1-1), championship (0-2)
This has been another year of Drew McIntyre working on the top of his game. This time last year, he was working to elevate Damian Priest in a feud some folks thought may have been beneath him. (We can talk in a moment if we think they succeeded in elevating Priest.) While Drew won this match, he eventually lost to Priest in a cage match where he needed medical attention. In essence, he lost the feud to Priest.
This served as a write off to let Drew rest up and recover from some lingering injuries.
He’d return and immediately lose to Randy Orton at Saturday Night’s Main Event. (Feels like a theme with Drew.) But it wasn’t all bad because he did nail Jelly Roll with a Claymore afterwards. This led to a tag match with Logan Paul against Jell and Randy at SummerSlam. Surprisingly, Drew’s team and not the celebrity picked up the win.
Then Drew would enter the final act of the year: His never ending feud with Cody. It was a program that saw Drew time and time again unsuccessfully challenge Cody for the WWE championship. But 50th time the charm because in a Three Stages of Hell match in Germany, with some unintentional interference with Jacob Fatu, Drew McIntyre successfully defeated Cody to win the WWE title for the first time since the pandemic. (He held the world heavyweight title for a few minutes two years ago.)
It was a feel good moment for the bad guy. Fans appreciate what he’s brought to the table the last three years while also understanding his first title run during the pandemic was a shitty situation. Even in a hot potato situation, he earned a run with the WWE gold.
The run itself was unremarkable. He dominated Sami Zayn at the Royal Rumble, but that was his only defense. The Friday after Elimination Chamber he was forced to defend his title against Cody Rhodes. SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis made that call after McIntyre cost Rhodes both the Royal Rumble & the Elimination Chamber.
To bring things full circle, Jacob Fatu cost Drew the title.
Those two will have an Unsanctioned match at WrestleMania.
Best Moment: Finally winning the WWE title and being able to take it to Scotland
Worst Moment: Losing the feud to Damian Priest
Stock: Elevated – it’s not a title match, but this feud with Jacob Fatu feels way more important than last year’s feud with Priest.
Damian Priest
PLE Overall record (0-2), one on one (none), championship (0-1)
As we covered with Drew, Damian Priest continued to feud with McIntyre and defeated him in a cage match at Saturday Night’s Main Event. That was a rather big win for the Archer of Infamy. And we asked when we covered it under Drew whether that win helped elevate Priest. Feels like the answer is a firm no.
His biggest feud of the year was a long one with Aleister Black. He technically won the last match – an Ambulance Match. But outside a mixed tag match that featured Rhea Ripley (who quickly elevated that feud for one night), he lost the rest of the matches along the way.
Going into WrestleMania, Priest is a champion. But it’s a tag champion with R-Truth that’s mainly been used for comedy.
Listen, there’s inherently nothing wrong with that. They found a spot for him on the weekly show when there wasn’t an obvious one. He has a history with R-Truth they can have fun with. But it’s extremely hard to say that’s a better spot than a feud with someone the likes of Drew McIntyre. One of those spots made the Mania card. The other didn’t.
Best Moment: Winning the Drew feud
Worst Moment: All the Ls to Aleister
Stock: Decreased
Dominik Mysterio def. Bron Breakker, Penta, & Finn Bálor to win the Intercontinental championship
Bron Breakker
PLE Overall record (2-2), one on one (none), championship (none)
This loss was the beginning of something big for Breakker.
The following night on Raw, the initial Vision stable was revealed – Seth Rollins, Paul Heyman, and Bron Breakker. A fantastic learning tree for the second generation wrestler. This ensured he would be front and center on every Raw. Even if the larger story still belonged to Seth Rollins, Breakker would be there.
Maybe unfortunately for Breakker, Seth Rollins got hurt in the fall and they had to speed up whatever plan they eventually had for Breakker to set out on own. He speared Seth Rollins to end their relationship. Bronson Reed and Paul Heyman decided to put their lot in with Bron.
It wasn’t too bad for Breakker. I’d argue he showed he was ready to be the top dog of the Vision and eventually, a strong solo act. After expelling Rollins, he & Reed went on a good run of tag wins, including a WarGames victory where Breakker pinned the champion CM Punk.
Bron eventually received a one on one championship match against the Punk to headline the first Raw of 2026. In the build to it, the young Steiner held his own on the mic against the Voice of the Voiceless, which is not some easy feat. He was unsuccessful in the match but it felt like only a matter of time until he’d be holding the gold.
Unfortunately, a masked man (one of the many in Seth Rollins’s employ) attacked Breakker before he entered the Royal Rumble, costing him to get immediately eliminated by Oba Femi. In a fit of rage the next night, Bron flipped the announce table causing a hernia that will keep out of action through Mania. Likely he would have faced Seth Rollins if healthy.
It’s an unfortunate end to a year he got plenty of TV time and continued to raise his stock. While is time under Seth Rollins’s led Vision didn’t allow too many marquee solo wins, he was featured weekly. And then the time came to step into the spotlight, he did so in a way that made it easy to believe he’ll be a top guy in the not so distant future. He’ll likely be back soon after Mania and it’ll be interesting to see what this next year has in store
Best Moment: Holding his own in a war of words with CM Punk
Worst Moment: Getting injured right before Mania
Stock: Injured
Penta
PLE Overall record (0-3), one on one (0-1), championship (0-1)
Penta is very popular and often on TV. But until his intercontinental win just last March, his year has been rather forgetful.
He chased the intercontinental title early after Mania but wasn’t successful. He wasn’t successful in the Money in the Bank match. He had no memorable feuds. But he’s popular enough that they decided to have him holding the IC belt heading into WrestleMania.
Even though he hasn’t had inspiring creative, he does have undeniable charisma. And in this business, that will get the reward of a midcard title.
He’s gone from a challenger in a multi-man IC match to the champ in that scenario.
Best Moment: Winning his first singles title
Worst Moment: Losing his Last Time is Now tournament match due to injury (though not serious and maybe didn’t change the outcome)
Stock: Mild increase
Dominik Mysterio & Finn Bálor
Dom PLE Overall record (4-0), one on one (4-0), championship (4-0)
Finn PLE Overall record (0-1), one on one (0-1), championship (0-1)
I opted to cover these guys together for a couple reasons, the main being they’ve found themselves back together at WrestleMania. The other being that for most of the year, Finn was a side character in a story that was mainly Dominik’s.
Last year at Mania, Dominik won the Intercontinental title to raucous applause. And he did so at the expensive of his Judgment Day mate Finn. We don’t know initial creative plans, but it really looked like this would quickly spin into a feud that could position Dom as a mega babyface and Finn as the heel who quickly takes his title.
But that didn’t happen. Maybe it was never supposed to happen. However, I think the purchase of AAA and their use of Dominik there changed any plans they had for Judgment Day. Dom would not just hold on the Intercontinental title, with defenses against Penta, Octagon Jr., & AJ Styles, but would eventually win the AAA Mega Championship as well.
All this time, Finn was kind of just there. They’d tease Judgment Day issues – Finn & Dom, Finn & Liv. But they never came to anything.
Finn watched as John Cena defeated Dom for the IC title. He watched when Liv Morgan returned from injury to help him win it back.
Bálor finally tried to take what he felt was his, staking a claim for CM Punk’s world heavyweight title. He was unsuccessful. He went the heel route to get a rematch but lost again.
It seemed like he realized the villainous path wasn’t the way forhim and wanted to allow Dominik realize the same. So he refused to let JD McDonagh help Mysterio cheat to defeat Penta an IC title match. Because of that, Penta defeated Dom to win the gold.
A week later, Finn refused to apologize and when things got heated between Bálor & Mysterio, the rest of Judgment Day attacked the Irishman, kicking out the oldest member of the group.
Things have come full circle. We are getting that Bálor/Mysterio feud that was hinted at a year ago. The alignments are opposite what I guessed, but it works. I still think Mysterio has a massive babyface run in his future but for now, he’ll be the rudo in this story. You could argue that this version of Dom is getting a bit stale (I would) and that a change would help energize him. But maybe he has some heel juice left.
Finn Bálor:
Best Moment: Getting his old music back as part of his needed face turn
Worst Moment: Not just getting kicked out from his stable, but also his protege JD McDonagh help leading that charge.
Stock: He’s no longer a JD background character and looks posed for a babyface singles run. Elevated.
Dominik Mysterio
Best Moment: His WrestleMania IC title win
Worst Moment: Losing to John Cena in Boston
Stock: He held championships in two promotions this year (even if both under the WWE umbrella) so it has to be elevated. I’d argue maybe it should have been higher than it ended up, but this year could be big for him.
Randy Orton vs. Joe Hendry
Joe Hendry
No main roster PLE matches in the past year
I am not going to evaluate Joe Henry here given he wasn’t really on the roster at this time. He was TNA champion. He has since joined the NXT brand and held their title. We’ll see when he makes his next step.
Randy Orton
PLE Overall record (1-4), one on one (0-2), championship (0-1)
It was a pretty eventful year for a man who I’d consider part time.
He had John Cena’s first title defense in his home town of St. Louis, where he was unsuccessful.
Randy made it all the way to the finals of the King of the Ring where he’d lose to his future WrestleMania opponent Cody Rhodes.
Heading into SummerSlam, he found himself anchoring the celebrity match, partnering with Jelly Roll against Drew McIntyre & Logan Paul. In a rare occurrence, that would be the losing side.
Things slowed down a bit in the fall until 2026. He was unsuccessful in the Royal Rumble but won the Elimination Chamber, pinning Cody Rhodes (with Drew McIntyre interference). However, Cody would regain the title, which caught Randy off guard.
Orton was already prepared to turned to his most violent version of himself to face McIntyre, and he’d have no problems doing that. But then his opponent was suddenly Cody and Orton was conflicted. However, Rhodes gave him permission to be his best version so Randy took that and ran. It wasn’t the level of permission Cody had in mind. He took quite the beating.
This was more than a solid WrestleMania title story. Unfortunately, then Pat McAfee was introduced to it. And now it’s a mess. But for Randy, it’s still a title match. One he very well may win.
Best Moment: The Elimination Chamber win
Worst Moment: Answering the phone
Stock: Randy can’t move too much. He’s Randy. But he went from a surprise Joe Hendry match (to be fair, it was meant to be Kevin Owens) to a world title main event. That’s at least a small increase.
Logan Paul def. AJ Styles
Logan Paul
PLE Overall record (2-4), one on one (0-1), championship (none)
The first half of this year, Logan Paul was still part time. Even then, he was booked as a guy you can probably guess is getting a world title in the next couple years.
He received a title match against Jey Uso (and not the first title match he’s ever received) where he was unsuccessful. But what I found most telling is he had a spot on John Cena’s retirement tour twice. He teamed with him when John was a heel and faced him when John was a babyface. For a retirement tour that had limited dates and John didn’t face guys he had history with Sheamus or Rusev or Rey Mysterio or the Miz, he faced Logan Paul twice.
That tells you a lot of how they feel about him.
The second half of the year he (surprisingly) because full time, joining the Vision. With numerous injuries to that stable, it made sense putting him in it. He got to participate in their WarGames match on the victorious side. He and Austin Theory represent them as tag champions.
That’s where we find him in WrestleMania – with Theory & iShowSpeed against the Usos & LA Knight.
Best Moment: Sharing the ring with Cena twice during the retirement tour
Worst Moment: Watching the Vision get injured around him, leaving him with Austin Theory
Stock: While the match itself isn’t really better than a one on one with AJ Styles, given he’s full time now, I still think his stock has risen.
AJ Styles
PLE Overall record (0-3), one on one (0-3), championship (0-1)
The last year of AJ Styles’s career spent a lot of time feuding on and off with the Judgment Day. He challenged Dominik Mysterio for the intercontinental title twice successfully. But he did defeat Finn Bálor & JD McDonagh to win the tag team titles alongside Dragon Lee. They later lost them to the Usos.
Styles was part of John Cena’s retirement tour in a match they presented as something the fans pushed them to do (though it possible that was always somewhat a plan).
He’d soon find himself on a very shortened retirement tour himself when a feud with Gunther that started due to Gunther’s attitude after defeating John Cena. The Ring General won an initial match with the Phenomenal One by sneakily tapping out in a way the referee couldn’t see it, tricking his opponent to release the Calf Crush. This allowed Gunther to steal the win.
In order to get a rematch, Styles was convinced to put his career on the line. Because of that, he had a very mini-retirement tour that included a no contest match against CM Punk and a victory over Shinsuke Nakamura. He was pinned by the Ring General at the Royal Rumble, ending his career.
He was announced for the WWE Hall of Fame a few weeks later.
Best Moment: The Hall of Fame bid
Worst Moment: Gunther cutting his retirement run short
Stock: Retired
You can catch up with what we’ve done so far here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Tomorrow, we’ll bring it home with a discussion if Cody Rhodes is above Roman Reigns and look at the final numbers.
