The year of Oba Femi begins, plus other Wrestlemania 42 thoughts

Image courtesy WWE

Oba Femi first popped up on my radar last December during the buildup for his match against Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night's Main Event. Painfully late for a lot of loyal wrestling fans, I know, but since getting back into the sport on a regular basis two years ago, I had confined a lot of my wrestling viewing to the main WWE roster. Luckily, the buildup to that match against Cody got me hooked on Oba pretty quick. I'm no Dave Meltzer, but it was pretty obvious that Oba had just the right sauce to get over quick and get over big.

My feelings were corroborated by his call up to the main roster in late January, followed by his dominant performance in the 2026 royal rumble. As he proceeded to tear through competitors on raw, mainly via squash segments instead of sanctioned matches, I tried to get an idea of where WWE would slot him into Wrestlemania's card. When a meeting with Brock Lesnar at 'Mania became inevitable in mid-March, I was a bit nervous. Despite the potential that a match between two behemoths from different generations could provide, WWE's sluggishness when it comes to letting go of longtime talent left me skeptical with how well they'd let Oba get over, while Lesnar's presence in WWE despite his appearance in recent lawsuits have left a bad taste in my and many other fans' mouths.

However, Night 2's opening match between these two behemoths was probably the best-case scenario for my above concerns. Oba looked powerful, confidently dispatching Brock Lesnar in just under 5 minutes with a massive power bomb. Following the match, Lesnar removed his gloves and boots and threw up the X to Paul Heyman, indicating that he really intends to retire from in-ring action. On the post show, Oba and newly-minted World Heavyweight Champion Roman reigns traded barbs in their respective interviews, setting Femi up for an immediate path to a world title.

However long it takes (I'm hoping for SummerSlam after Oba is crowned King of the Ring), I'm glad WWE is ready to quickly prop up this future Hall of Famer.

Some other quick Wrestlemania 42 takes

Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton was weird: At one point during the main event of Night 1, I swear I heard Cody say "I'm sorry" while brawling with Randy outside of the ring. If directed to the fans, I assume it's due to how Orton clearly looked like he was performing in spite of a pretty significant back injury. There were definitely some fun spots throughout this match, but the weirdly sluggish tempo indicated to me that something was off.

Liv Morgan vs. Stephanie Vaquer is the rematch we should get at Backlash: Liv Morgan embracing her dependence on the Judgement Day really stuck out to me during the post show. I honestly commend her for taking that angle. Hopefully, Stephanie Vaquer can target that as a potential weakness to force a rematch in a few weeks.

Punk vs. Reigns delivered: I assumed this match was going to be great, but the way in which both of these guys left literally everything out on the mat was really special. I think we're still a ways away from Punk hanging it up, but man, if there was a perfect way for him to hang it up, that was it.

A fun final Segmenthausen: I do not want to get cursed, so I will also highlight Danhausen and his crewhausen dispatching the Miz and Kit Wilson. It was very evil, very nice.