Will the Women Main Event Wrestlemania Again? – Guest Feature
In the lead up to this year’s Wrestlemania, WWE was going viral for all the wrong reasons.
Following the acquisition of WWE by TKO in September 2023, criticism towards WWE’s superfluous sponsorships and branding, increased number of ads (including during PLEs), and sky-rocketing ticket prices had started to mount. The build up to Wrestlemania 41 felt like the final nails were being screwed into the coffin of WWE’s ‘boom’ period, and for good reason.
For the third year in a row, Cody Rhodes, WWE’s top babyface since John Cena, had to deal with external influences screwing up his Wrestlemania storyline. In retrospect, it could be said that The Rock’s involvement at Wrestlemania 40 allowed for Cody Rhodes prevailing over Roman Reigns to feel like an even bigger moment, and that the highly-criticised involvement of Travis Scott at Wrestlemania added a chip on the shoulder of both men to deliver their acclaimed match at Summerslam that year. However, after Pat McAfee was revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery caller, on top of Jelly Roll acting as Rhode’s top confidant in the lead up to Wrestlemania, fan investment in the storyline, and the product as a whole, felt like it was at an all time low.
A week prior to the company’s flagship show, the hashtag #LivVsStephanieMainEvent started trending on social media – and for good reason. Despite receiving only a fraction of TV time that both Rhodes and Orton had received to develop their build, both Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer had put their all into making it must-see. The intensity of their brawls, the quality of their promos, and the real-life tension that seemed to simmer beneath their social media exchanges only made their eventual clash at Wresltemania 41 that much more enticing. Given that the men’s WWE Championship program was being actively hijacked by TKO and all its hype flushed down the drain, it seemed only appropriate, based on fan investment and meritocracy, that the women should main event N
