Cody and Roman reign as The Beast bows out

WrestleMania 42, held across Saturday and Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, drew a combined attendance of 106,072 over its two evenings — numbers that reflect the scale of what WWE has built around its crown jewel event. But for much of Saturday, the scale felt bigger than the spectacle. The crowd that had travelled from across the world to Nevada seemed to be waiting for something that never quite arrived. Then Sunday happened.

There are moments in professional wrestling that feel unscripted even when they almost certainly are not. Brock Lesnar's exit from Allegiant Stadium on Sunday night was one of them. His match against Oba Femi was brief and brutal, which was exactly the point. Femi absorbed an early suplex and was dragged into the ring post, only to get straight back to his feet. Lesnar landed an F5, and Femi stood up from that too. He then picked Lesnar up and put him down with a Fall from Grace. It was swift. It was emphatic. And what happened next made the result feel almost secondary.

Lesnar did not leave immediately. He sat in the ring, removed his gloves and his boots, and waited. Paul Heyman climbed in to meet him. The two men — advocate and beast, a partnership that has defined a generation of WWE programming — embraced at the centre of the ring as Heyman whispered something in his ear. Then Lesnar rose, waved to all four sides of the stadium, and walked out.

 No confirmation, no announcement. Just the quiet choreography of a goodbye that felt earned. Whether WWE allows it to stick is another question entirely, but in that moment, Allegiant Stadium understood what it had witnessed — a man who made part-time feel like a privilege rather than an absence, taking his leave on his own terms. If it was the end, it was the right kind.

The Intercontinental Championship ladder match delivered the evening's purest shot of adrenaline. Six men — Penta, Je'Von Evans, Dragon Lee, JD McDonagh, Rusev, and Rey Mysterio — produced the kind of acrobatic chaos the format exists to generate. Evans drew the loudest gasp with an OG Cutter off the ring post onto Rusev, who was halfway up a ladder at the centre of the ring. Penta, wearing the mask of Mortal Kombat's Shao Kahn, retained after launching McDonagh off one ladder and into another with a Mexican Destroyer. It was the match that finally drew a genuine, sustained "This is awesome" chant — the first of the weekend, which said something about the Saturday just passed.

Elsewhere, Trick Williams dethroned Sami Zayn to claim the United States Championship in a match that had the crowd firmly against the champion from the opening bell. The Demon Finn Balor, face painted and thoroughly unnerving, dispatched Dominik Mysterio in a street fight that ended with a Coup de Grâce through a table. Dom, to his credit, looked genuinely terrified throughout. Whether that was acting or not, it worked.

The women's championship bout between Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley was a collision of two of WWE's most physically imposing performers. Early exchanges were a test of raw strength, with neither woman willing to concede an inch, and "Let's go Rhea" chants ringing around the stadium throughout. The involvement of Cargill's ringside entourage and the timely arrival of Iyo Sky ultimately tipped the scales. Ripley hit the Riptide and reclaimed the title she never really seemed to have stopped owning in spirit.

Then came the main event. CM Punk versus Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship was always going to be the hardest match on the card to live up to. Both men arrived carrying the weight of months of build, and the crowd — genuinely split between the two — gave the contest the atmosphere it deserved. 

Reigns put Punk through an announce table, opened him up with the ring steps, and at one point gave him a GTS of his own. Punk locked Reigns in the Anaconda Vice, hit a GTS that Reigns somehow kicked out of at 2.99, and even paused to ask the crowd to acknowledge him. They refused, mostly. It ended as it perhaps always should have: a final spear, a pinfall, and Reigns lifting the belt. He had promised to leave WWE if he lost. He will not be leaving.

What WrestleMania 42's second night ultimately offered was a reminder of what the event does best when it commits: stars being made, legacies being cemented, and a crowd that arrives sceptical and leaves converted. Night Two gave them their moment. That, in the end, was enough.