5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 41 - Night 2 (Results & Review)

1. A Plodding, Badly Booked Main Event

John Cena said he wants to ruin wrestling, and he laid the first bricks Sunday night in a dud of a main event to close WrestleMania 41.

It’s clear Cena and Cody Rhodes were going for the big match feel in a stadium that was hot for everything they did, and they had to navigate a crowd that was going full Rock/Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8.

But the match was basic and plodding, with Cody wrestling at half-speed while Cena took about 75 percent of the offense. Rhodes, who ended an epic Roman Reigns title reign last year, lost to the slowest “run-in” in wrestling history from Travis Scott, a low blow and a title shot to the head.

That’s not to say that this should have been a technical display or a fast-paced match with dozens of counters. But the pacing was glacial at several points, with Cody selling for an exorbitant amount of time for a guy that tag team jobber Austin Theory beat two years ago. And then came Travis.

Scott’s saunter-in was the kind of ga-ga that required a suspension of disbelief, with Rhodes and Cena having to basically freeze in the ring while he slowly made his way to ringside to try to punch Cody again. Got that? A rapper, who potatoed a laid-out Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, was the big “interference” to aid Cena, and all he really provided was a distraction – and a huge interruption in the match.

All of this – along with Cody falling for Cena’s Ric Flair beg-off – made him look like the gullible Surfer Sting, which betrayed Rhodes’ character. This was a guy who spent more than a year battling the Bloodline, and he was duped by Cena’s bad acting and Travis Scott? It was an ignominious end to his title reign.

Yes, the crowd noise was off the charts. But if you weren’t in the stadium, you aren’t going back and rewatching this match over and over.