15 Things We Learned From WWE Unreal
1. They Acknowledge ‘Mania’s Main Event Wasn’t Great
Many fans agree that the 'Mania 41 main event pitting Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena was a disappointment bell to bell. It was slow, turgid, came across more like a WCW pay-per-view headliner from the 1990s than anyone would care to admit, and the aforementioned Travis Scott interference was frankly unwanted. At least WWE had the decency to admit this on Unreal.
Kind of.
Towards the end of episode 5, Triple H called the bout “everything it needed to be” story wise. Still, the boss acknowledges that it wasn’t anywhere close to the twin Triple Threats across the rest of that WrestleMania 41 weekend (Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair vs. IYO SKY and Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins were both vastly superior matches). Hunter didn't necessarily think Cody vs. John had a hope in hell of topping those in terms of pure wrestling quality, to be fair.
After coming back through the curtain afterwards, Rhodes said it “felt good, felt different”. Meanwhile, Cena said: “That’s top 3 for me”. It's unclear whether or not John was joking slightly, 'cause he did raise his eyebrows and share a laugh with Trips about the whole thing. If he's serious, then some will be a tad worried!
Personally gratifying due to a 17th World Title win? Yes. Excellently executed and a match most would revisit time and time again? Not quite. It's fun that WWE and Netflix kinda/sorta/almost relented that the final match on the most important weekender of the year failed to hit the heights fans expected it to.
It's also interesting that WWE didn't have those same expectations before 20 April.
What else did you learn from WWE Unreal on Netflix? For more wrestling, check out 15 WWE Break-Ups That IMMEDIATELY Backfired and 10 New Directions For WWE After SummerSlam 2025!