The two main events for WrestleMania 42 are set. The lineups for both nights of this year’s Showcase of the Immortals have been announced, and while the cards are stacked with an abundance of potential montage-worthy moments, it feels as if the biggest moment of all has been missed.
While Pat McAfee pours lukewarm beer on Saturday night’s main event between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, the women’s division has once again been left with the task of attempting to steal the show from the undercard.
WWE’s 2025 was carried by their women
At WrestleMania 41 last year, Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair took top honors with a jaw-dropping triple threat match for the Women’s World Championship. The bout raised the curtain on night two of 2025’s show.
IYO SKY & Rhea Ripley | Netflix
Understandably, the women were never going to usurp the marquee of John Cena’s final ever WrestleMania match.
But, considering night one was headlined by a triple threat that had no titles on the line (unless you consider ‘who does Paul Heyman like more?’ a WrestleMania main event worthy accolade) perhaps Rhea, IYO and Bianca — three world class, hugely over acts who have been positioned as so for years prior — should have been entrusted to bring the curtain down on night one?
CM Punk himself, one of the three men who headlined the first night at 41, said ahead of last year’s show that he believed the women’s triple threat should have headlined.
In the intervening year between WrestleMania 41 and 42, the women’s division has done the bulk of the heavy lifting for WWE’s main roster.
While John Cena’s heel run and retirement tour strongly divided opinion and Paul Heyman’s vision was scorched by injuries, it was WWE’s women who carried Raw and SmackDown.
Evolution proved to be the company’s finest Premium Live Event offering of 2025. A (gasps) seven-match show featuring only female talent, Evolution delivered in spades and left fans wondering why a second all-women’s show had taken seven years to arrive since the inaugural Evolution in 2018.
Veterans and newcomers have stolen the show over the last year
Speaking of evolution, Becky Lynch’s Raw-after-WrestleMania heel turn once more breathed new life into one of the company’s biggest crossover stars. Another reinvention of The Man, Lynch helped to elevate both her countrywoman Lyra Valkyria and the freshly minted women’s Intercontinental Title over the last 365 days.
Not content with merely shifting a whole heap of spotlight onto Valkyria’s myriad of talents, Lynch also showcased Maxxine Dupri’s in-ring developments with a series of Intercontinental Title bouts throughout the fall of 2025, dropping the title to the Alpha Academy starlet at Madison Square Garden in the process.
The Man would regain her IC gold from Dupri just over a month later, before dropping it to a recently returned AJ Lee, at Elimination Chamber, in Chicago, in March. Lee’s comeback, after 10 years away from WWE, was one of the most eagerly anticipated returns of the modern era and will continue when she defends her title against Lynch at ‘Mania, this weekend.
Becky Lynch and AJ Lee | Netflix
The former Divas Champion is often heralded for her work in laying the groundwork for the women’s revolution in WWE, but was not around to see the division flourish over the past decade, departing the company in 2015 after announcing her retirement.
Within a year of Lee’s comments, the Divas’ Title was no more and the WWE Women’s Title was returned in its place. There were no more pink butterflies and the women were focused on as talents capable of carrying major shows and television time.
With Lee now back in the fold on WWE television, her presence serves as a reminder for how far the female-driven product has come over the last 10 years.
Lee publicly criticized WWE while still under contract in 2015, highlighting how little the female workers were paid in relation to their male counterparts despite driving huge merchandise revenue and generating highly rated TV segments.
Her foundations are now built upon immensely by talents, some of whom have gone on to become crossover phenomenons, and Lee can reap the rewards of the stand she took over a decade ago. Yet since downing Lynch in Chicago over a month ago, it has felt as though their rivalry has been put on the back burner.
Once treated as a main-event-level worthy program, Lee and Lynch’s heat appears to have cooled, with the men’s programs preferred as more worthy of TV time.
Given the fame and fortune Lynch has built for herself outside of the ring and the original hype and emotion surrounding Lee’s return, last year, had a World Title been added to their equation, a main event in Las Vegas would have been a very worthy culmination of their eight-month rivalry.
Similarly to Lynch, the Lass Kicker’s long-term rival and fellow Four Horsewoman, Charlotte Flair, fresh off an awkward, controversy-laden WrestleMania 41 program with Tiffany Stratton, took time away from World Title fixation to develop her character alongside new bestie Alexa Bliss, fanning the flames of the women’s tag team division in the process.
Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair | Netflix
While 14-time World Champion Flair stepped back from the top of the women’s card, a new star was born in her place. Stephanie Vaquer made her ascent from NXT and put her devil’s kiss on the Women’s World Championship, winning the title only five months after debuting on Monday Night Raw.
Vaquer will now defend her title against Liv Morgan, whose star has never shone brighter than it has over this past year.
You are just as likely to see Morgan dominating your Instagram feed on one major media channel or another as you are to see her on Monday Night Raw or one of WWE’s Premium Live Events. The New Jersey native is beloved by the new media crowd, with the likes of Complex and Netflix clamoring for her inclusion on their programming.
Morgan now has Hollywood on her horizon, too. The former Women’s World Champion spent time in Japan filming Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo in early 2025. It is a role that is unlikely to be her last on the silver screen, with Dominik Mysterio’s ‘Güerita’ dropping her debut music video ‘Trouble’ in the build to her title showdown in the desert with La Primera.
Which once again begs the question: Why could the crossover star, who you have made a focal point of your programming over the last two years, who is a darling of youth media and is also in the crosshairs of Hollywood, not be positioned as a WrestleMania main eventer?
WWE’s female stars believe the WrestleMania 42 main event belonged to the women
Speaking exclusively to The TakeDown on SI during this week’s WrestleMania 42 media junket, Morgan’s Judgment Day stablemate Raquel Rodriguez explained that the women’s division has proven time and time again that they are worthy of the main event of WrestleMania, as well as every other major WWE show.
“I can’t speak for all the women, but I will say that this is something that obviously has been the topic of conversation in the women’s locker room. Not just for WrestleMania but for multiple shows.
“There’s multiple opportunities where we can main event and we should be showcased a little bit more. But the good thing about it is we keep going out there and we just keep proving why we are, who we are. The women’s triple threat last year wasn’t the main event but it was still the match of the year. It felt like the main event and it still made a big impact.
Raquel Rodriguez
Similarly, former Women’s United States Champion Chelsea Green also told the TakeDown that she believed Morgan and Vaquer should have been headlining one night in Las Vegas.
“Personally, I know I’m biased and I’m always pro-female and everything, but I think Liv and Steph should be the main event. Their storyline has been incredible and Liv has worked her way up, scratched and clawed to get to the top. She deserves the main event of WrestleMania.”
Chelsea Green
“I think that’s what is most important. Even if we can’t be main event on the card, it’s what kind of impact and story can we tell?”
How about the other Women’s World Title match on the card this weekend? Defending WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill is putting her gold on the line against Rhea Ripley. While much has been made of Cargill’s lack of title defenses since winning the title in November and of her in-ring talents, there is no denying The Storm’s star power.
And if you cannot deny the star power of Cargill, then how do you possibly ignore the supernova that is Rhea Ripley? The Eradicator is not only a multiple-time World Champion, but somebody who has regularly stolen the show whenever given the opportunity at WrestleMania; Twice with Charlotte Flair (WrestleManias 36 and 39) and with Iyo and Belair, last year.
Even after suffering a pre-match panic attack before her title defense against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40, Ripley opened the show in a freezing cold Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and had the crowd roaring by the time she pinned Lynch’s shoulders to the canvas.
Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky could have produced the perfect ‘Mania main event
Ripley’s history with her tag team partner Iyo Sky seemed destined to become a saga that would culminate with the Australian finally scoring the victory over The Genius of the Sky, who has regularly had Ripley’s number in previous encounters.
Given the electricity of the pair’s Evolution main event, last summer, and the crowd reactions that followed them wherever they appeared inside a WWE ring together, Ripley and Sky could have been entrusted with a WrestleMania main event that would have rivaled or surpassed many of those that have come before it.
Yet Sky now finds herself without a match of any description at the Showcase of the Immortals. A bona fide superstar who, on the Netflix docuseries WWE Unreal, Chief Content Officer Triple H declared he would build a new roster around if he had to start his own promotion.
Would a dramatic finale between Sky and Ripley at the biggest show of the year not have WrestleMania main event written all over it? Would Ripley finally conquering Sky after so many losing efforts in classic matches not have been an all-time WrestleMania moment?
With all due respect to Jade Cargill, the current champ should not have been Rhea Ripley’s opponent at WrestleMania 42. Iyo Sky should have been. And the pair should have leveled up from last year’s opener to this year’s closer.
Instead, as the Road to WrestleMania left Chicago following Elimination Chamber, the men’s matches were prioritized. Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll were prioritized.
While it is difficult to argue against Roman Reigns and CM Punk closing night two with the World Heavyweight Championship on the line, is the McAfee-sabotaged main event really more worthy of airtime in recent weeks than the women’s programs that could have been built so much more significantly in place of the former Indianapolis Colts kicker?
As always, the women will do what they have been doing best for the last 12 months, and will likely go out and remind everybody, whether they are sitting in the stands at Allegiant Stadium, in front of screens around the world, or in backstage areas in Las Vegas this weekend, why they should have been on top this year.
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