Night one of WrestleMania 41 takes place tonight (Sat., Apr. 19) from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card begins at 7:00 pm ET, live on Peacock in the United States and on Netflix elsewhere. You should also be able to watch it on pay-per-view (PPV) if your cable provider is carrying the event.
The main event of WrestleMania night one is a babyface triple threat match between Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins. Most of the drama here is centered around Paul Heyman, whose loyalty is being tested between being Roman’s wiseman and Punk’s best friend.
Rollins played a key role in Roman’s WWE championship loss last year at WrestleMania, and he’s still trying to do what he can to prevent Roman from returning to that kind of power. That’s why Seth used a brutal two foot curbstomp to try to injure Reigns after Punk eliminated Roman from the Royal Rumble match.
Meanwhile, Punk and Rollins hate each other and have been going at it ever since Punk returned to WWE over one year ago. Seth suffered one of the worst losses of his career when Punk beat him on Raw’s Netflix debut. However, Roman became an integral part of their drama in their rematch at Madison Square Garden when he returned from Seth’s attack to beat the shit out of both men for what they did to him at the Rumble.
The triple threat match was set for WrestleMania, but with one loose end left to tie up. Roman’s wiseman Paul Heyman owed Punk a favor after he helped The Bloodline win at WarGames. That favor appeared to be repaid during the WrestleMania contract signing when Heyman announced that Punk finally achieved his dream of being in the main event of WrestleMania.
However, Punk later revealed the actual favor, which is that he wants Heyman in his corner at ‘Mania. Heyman couldn’t say no to his best friend, which was perceived as a betrayal by his Tribal Chief. In some ways this match is like a three way tug-of-war over Heyman, as even Seth got in on the fun by saying Heyman owes him a favor too for not taking him out with a curb stomp.
Rollins can’t hide his disdain of Punk and Reigns. He believes this is the most important triple threat match in history, because the future of the industry is in danger with cancers like Punk and egomaniacs like Reigns running things. That’s why Seth will sacrifice everything he has in order to win this match and move the industry in the right direction.
The winner of this match could depend on what actions Paul Heyman takes late in the bout. Whose side is Paul Heyman really on when he walks CM Punk to the ring for his first ever WrestleMania main event match? Tune into the biggest pro wrestling show of the year to find out.
The rest of the card
Here are the six other matches that are currently advertised for WrestleMania 41 night one:
GUNTHER (c) vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship
Jey Uso shocked the world when he eliminated John Cena and won the Royal Rumble match in February. A lot of fans couldn’t believe that WWE was going with an Uso world title chase story at WrestleMania, and there was some backlash online. However, all you have to do is watch WWE fans lose their minds Yeet’ing during any Jey Uso entrance to see how ridiculously over he is and why WWE put him in this position.
GUNTHER is the big bad guy standing in his way at WrestleMania. Uso lost to GUNTHER at Saturday Night’s Main Event but decided to try his luck against the Ring General one more time at WrestleMania. GUNTHER made things deeply personal by using zip ties to force Jey to watch him beat the shit out of his twin brother, Jimmy. GUNTHER was practically covered head-to-toe in Jimmy’s blood when all was said and done.
Jey now has all the motivation he needs to whoop this guy’s ass, take his world championship, and celebrate with 60K fans at Allegiant Stadium. This will be the opening match of tonight’s show, probably because Uso’s entrance is one of the coolest things to witness on WWE programming.
Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Championship
Flair was gone from WWE for over one full year due to injury, but she returned at Royal Rumble 2025 and won the titular match to earn a championship shot at WrestleMania. I think The Queen expected sympathy and love from WWE fans after coming back from such a devastating injury, but she was met with even louder boos than before, probably because fans are sick of her being shoved down their throats when WWE books her to do things like immediately win a Royal Rumble match upon return.
She chose Stratton as her WrestleMania opponent, and their story has been a trainwreck. It culminated in a promo battle on SmackDown that went completely off the rails when both women took personal shots at each other that were not part of the script. Tiffany even went in on Flair’s divorce from Andrade, while Flair alleged that Stratton’s boyfriend Ludwig Kaiser is in her DMs. Yeah, this thing is a mess.
Flair snapped in kayfabe after that and attacked Stratton in the parking lot. This feud has been better when fists are flying instead of words, so hopefully they will keep the microphones far away from both Charlotte and Tiffany during this title match.
LA Knight (c) vs. Jacob Fatu for the United States Championship
Fatu has dominated WWE since he debuted as a member of Solo Sikoa’s new Bloodline last June. He recently capped off nearly a year of destruction by putting down Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing match, which is how he earned this title shot at WrestleMania. The megastar just won the belt back from Shinsuke Nakamura last month, but it feels like he’s a big underdog heading into this one.
Knight’s best bet to retain the gold relies on the increasing tension in the relationship between Fatu and Sikoa. Solo’s stock has plummeted ever since he lost his status as Tribal Chief, while Jacob has clearly passed him by. Does Solo genuinely love Jacob, or is he jealous of Fatu’s success and prepared to stab him in the back?
War Raiders (c) vs. New Day for the World Tag Team Championship
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods did the unthinkable last December when they turned heel by kicking Big E to the curb during New Day’s 10th anniversary celebration. Kofi and Xavier were suddenly on the receiving end of thunderous boos whenever they tried to speak into a microphone on Raw.
WWE didn’t follow up on that angle in any kind of significant way until recently when New Day picked up some wins on Raw to earn a world tag team title match against the War Raiders. Kofi and Xavier got themselves disqualified and tried to break Erik’s neck after the match, because fuck Big E, I guess. The championship rematch is now scheduled for tonight at WrestleMania 41.
Jade Cargill vs. Naomi
Naomi orchestrated a plan last fall to seriously injure Jade Cargill and take over her spot as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion. It worked like a charm. Naomi went on to defend those belts with Bianca Belair for a few months while Jade remained on the sidelines. Naomi also pointed the finger for Jade’s mysterious attack at Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.
Naomi’s plan finally crumbled all around her when Cargill made her surprise return at Elimination Chamber and beat the shit out of her. Belair forced a confession out of Naomi a few weeks later and then broke up with her after seeing that her partner was a monster. Now Cargill and Naomi will settle their issues once and for all at WrestleMania. It’s rare that a non-title women’s singles match makes the cut for ‘Mania, but this one features the best women’s story of the weekend.
Rey Mysterio vs. El Grande Americano
After his repeated failures against WWE stars like Penta and Dragon Lee, Chad Gable decided to go away for a few weeks to master the dark arts of lucha libre. A mysterious luchador named El Grande Americano suddenly showed up in WWE and has been making a mockery of lucha libre ever since. He’s also been winning matches of late by loading his mask with a foreign object before headbutting his opponents.
It’s up to legendary luchador Rey Mysterio to beat this goofball and take off his mask to expose that it’s been Chad Gable the whole time. Unfortunately, Rey appears to have suffered a leg injury on last night’s go home episode of SmackDown, and this match may be in jeopardy as a result. Gable / Americano did start an angle with Rey Fenix on the same episode, so perhaps the Lucha Bro can fill in for Mysterio if needed.
Summary
Tonight’s card is carried on the strength of the top three matches (Punk, Flair, Uso), with WWE going hard on promoting the main event as the most important triple threat match in history and a fight that will shape the future of the industry. Neither of those things are true, but it doesn’t really matter considering how popular Punk, Reigns, Rollins, and Heyman all are. Meanwhile, Jey Uso’s entrance may very well end up being the coolest moment on this show, while there’s a decent amount of intrigue in seeing how the mess that is Flair vs. Stratton will play out.
What will you be looking for at WrestleMania 41 night one?
