Wrestlepalooza 2025: Vaquer and Sky Deliver; WWE's ESPN Debut Mostly Doesn't

Wrestlepalooza opens by asking whether nostalgia can still shock you when it repeats itself almost exactly. Lesnar dominates Cena, Cena finds the familiar burst with three Attitude Adjustments, and Lesnar responds by turning the F-5 into a subscription service. The visual language is SummerSlam 2014 without the historical surprise. Back then, WWE destroying its invincible superhero felt almost impossible. In 2025, everybody already knows Brock Lesnar can do this.

There is a coherent idea underneath the disappointment. Cena is nearing retirement, Lesnar has not wrestled in more than two years, and a decisive result immediately restores the Beast aura. The execution is safe, simple and short enough that it never becomes boring in the conventional sense. The problem is what the match does not create afterward. This was promoted as the final Lesnar-Cena meeting, and the victory is not subsequently transferred to a younger wrestler through this specific story.

Cagematch currently rates the match 2.18 from more than 500 votes, while the Observer gave it 2 stars. Bleacher Report and CBS both landed at C; Forbes was dramatically warmer at A-minus. WrestleFile chooses C- / 5.9. The match accomplishes its narrow goal. The narrow goal is the problem.

The Usos and The Vision give the show the recovery match it needs. Jimmy and Jey still move like a tag team that shares one nervous system, while Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed supply the simpler attraction of two very large problems arriving at high speed. LA Knight is technically the referee and functionally a permission slip for the match to become a brawl.

The weapon use adds energy more than logic. Jey's chair shot rebounds and cuts him, an accident ugly enough that the final stretch immediately feels more dangerous than intended. Breakker then restores the planned violence with the double spear through the table, and Reed finishes Jey with the Tsunami. The Vision winning is the correct result because the younger team is supposed to become a long-term threat rather than a one-night obstacle for an Uso reunion.

Cagematch currently sits at 6.11, while IWNerd’s Observer-ratings summary lists 3.25 stars. Bleacher Report gave it B, CBS B-minus and 411Mania 3.5 stars. WrestleFile lands at B- / 7.4. It is good, useful faction wrestling, but the guest-referee machinery and accidental chair injury keep it from becoming something cleaner.

This is the match Wrestlepalooza spends the rest of the night trying to deserve. Vaquer and Iyo begin with respectful counters and gradually remove the politeness as each discovers that the other can keep pace. The crucial choice is Vaquer's attack on the knee. Dragon screws stop being isolated moves and become the mechanism that changes how Iyo can wrestle the final third.

Iyo sells the damage without turning into a passenger. She still reaches the Spanish Fly and the running knees, but every burst costs something, and the exposed-knee offense becomes a wonderfully reckless decision because the joint is already compromised. When Over the Moonsault misses, the landing feels like the final bill arriving. Vaquer answers with the corkscrew splash and wins the vacant championship cleanly.

The external record is nearly unanimous. Cagematch currently has the match at 8.42 from more than 550 votes, the Observer gave it 4.25 stars, ESPN graded it B-plus, Bleacher Report and CBS went A, and 411Mania went even warmer at 4.5 stars. WrestleFile lands at A / 9.4. It is excellent championship wrestling, an excellent coronation and the one part of Wrestlepalooza that needs no business-deal context to feel important.

The mixed tag understands that AJ Lee's first WWE match in more than ten years is the attraction and spends the opening phase weaponizing impatience. Rollins and Lynch keep Punk trapped, steal cheap shots and repeatedly prevent the tag. It is basic tag-team architecture applied to an unusually emotional circumstance, which is exactly why the eventual AJ entrance lands so well.

Lee looks rusty in small places rather than alarming ones. Some strikes are light and a few timing moments expose the decade away, but her movement and character arrive intact. The match becomes much better once all four personalities are allowed to collide: Black Widow and Sharpshooter combinations, stolen Pedigrees, Stomps, table spots and enough spousal interference to make a marriage counselor close the laptop. Lee finally catches Lynch in the Black Widow for the submission.

The flaw is duration. Nearly thirty minutes is too much for a match whose biggest emotional beat is the hot tag around the midpoint. Cagematch currently rates it 6.54, the Observer 3.5 stars, Bleacher Report B-plus, while Forbes and Smarkdown were much warmer. WrestleFile goes A- / 8.6 because the return works and the final third is fun. Ten fewer minutes might have pushed it into a straight-A score.

Cody and Drew wrestle a good main event while the building waits for it to become a great one. McIntyre targets the damage established on television, Cody sells disorientation, and the match develops around Drew's belief that ordinary victory is not enough. He does not merely want the championship. He wants to hurt Cody the way he hurt him before.

That obsession becomes the finish. A referee scramble costs Drew a visual pin, Cody survives the Claymore, and McIntyre eventually tries to drive Cody through the front of the announce table. Cody moves, Drew's leg crashes into the structure, and the injured limb later gives out on another Claymore attempt. Cody follows with the elevated Cutter and Cross Rhodes to retain.

The logic is clear but the heat is modest, and yet another Drew near-miss makes the challenger feel trapped in a loop. Cagematch currently rates the match 6.28, the Observer 3.75 stars, Bleacher Report B-plus, CBS B-minus and TJR 4 stars. WrestleFile lands at B / 7.8. It is solid championship wrestling and a sensible chapter, but a show sold as a new era needed a closer that felt less like next month's setup.