4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 41 - Night 1 (Results & Review)

1. An Underwhelming Underperformance

This really needs to be said: WWE is the biggest wrestling company on the planet. They have more resources and some of the best talent in the world. WrestleMania is their Super Bowl, their World Cup. It’s the most important show of the year, when all eyes are on them and when everything is supposed to come together in a culmination of angles and athleticism.

When that doesn’t happen, it raises significant questions and concerns. And the first night of WrestleMania 41 overall was not good. Sure, there were several entertaining moments and some decent-to-good matches, but 'Mania should be WWE’s best effort for every match, not just “eh, it was fine.” (This is not referring to star ratings either.)

The stories and booking leading up to WrestleMania 41 had not been as good as recent years, which meant diminished interest from fans heading into the show. That put more pressure on the performance on the night, and it just wasn’t up to snuff. Outside the main event, even the matches that were “good” underperformed where they could have – and likely should have – landed.

Collectively, this was a pretty big disappointment for WrestleMania. For a B-show PLE, it might have been fine, but this did not scan as a WrestleMania-caliber offering. It wasn't even the best wrestling show of the week, with AEW Dynamite far eclipsing it.

Let’s reserve final judgment until Sunday’s show is in the books, but this was not what you want to see out of the gate.