Wrestlepalooza 2025 Results & Reactions: Brock Lesnar Destroys John Cena, Cody Rhodes Retains

Brock Lesnar was first out from “Gorilla” rocking a ‘half up/half down’ tie back that gave him an almost Von Erich-esc baby face appeal as his golden blonde locks bounced up and down on his muscular delts and massive traps that have remained his most recognizable physique characteristic throughout his career.

For Cena, his entrance was one for the books as a few dozen children cosplaying as their hero accompanied him as his music popped, the crowd and little yellow Cena shirts swarmed the stage. The last time a stage full of rugrats ushered out Cena was a losing effort to Austin Theory at WrestleMania, so he was behind the eight ball before the bell rang.

Cena received his personal in-ring intro, the one that he started using after breaking the record for world title wins, though the narrative changed on it following his heel-to-face attitude adjustment (all puns intended). However, it was Lesnar’s intro that received the bigger crowd pop as ‘The Beast Incarnate’ went old-school with it.

Just as Alicia Taylor was about to introduce Lesnar (both men received intros despite zero titles being on the line), a familiar voice suddenly emerged, catching everyone off guard while remaining instantly recognizable. The voice belonged to Paul Heyman, and he was the longtime ‘advocate’ for Lesnar throughout his career.

It was conceivable why WWE wanted to start tonight’s show off with such a high-profile matchup, after all, Lesnar is a cross-over combat sports star that has graced the front page and prime time slot of nearly every ESPN medium across the board. The match was never going the distance, nor would it be judged on the technical prowess; this match was all business.

Cena hit several AAs in a row, but it would not be enough to keep Lesnar down (and only one legend would be successful using the 5-knuckly shuffle today). Lesnar managed to land his own set of F-5’s in succession, and he could feel the moment Cena had enough—going for a single pinfall in that offensive sequence.

Lesnar took the win via pinfall and then delivered an F-5 to the referee as commentary put over this lean version of Brock, ready for a real and sustained run.

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Drew McIntyre—WWE World Title

Before the match, there was an obligatory Undertaker segment (American Bad A** Undertaker, to boot) as he rode down to grab a ringside seat next to Stephanie McMahon. Although the segment was intended to announce Stephanie McMahon’s induction into next year’s Hall of Fame class, it worked as a potential viewer boost for the main event.

The pomp and circumstance felt a bit dimmer compared to the matches earlier in the night, but the intensity off the jump separated from the rest of the card. Drew played the “s**t heel” to perfection early on, managing to get the jump on him early. In the buildup, Drew said this would be a ‘bad night for Cody,’ and the meticulous nature of Drew’s assault spoke volumes because everything he did was done with a visceral hatred.

The violent abandon was on full display when Drew hit Cody with the ‘Alabama Slammer’ onto the steel stairs. Still, Cody managed to muster up the energy for offense in spurts—landing a suplex from the middle turnbuckle. But Drew’s intensity burned a more consistent fire as he used his body in every way he could think of to inflict violence against Cody.

There was a moment where Drew reversed Cody’s offense and pulled an improv pinfall attempt, but the ref was badly out of position, and the time it took for him to make a count, Cody found a way to break it. Moments later, on the outside, Drew injured his knee with the ref once again getting ‘in the way.’ The leg injury caused Drew’s knee to buckle, and Cody took advantage of the opening.

Cody hit a huge Cody Cutter off the middle ropes after getting headbutted on the first effort, and after landing the long rage cutter, Cody hit Drew with the ‘Cross Rhodes’ for the pinfall victory.

AJ Lee & CM Punk vs. Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins

It was the battle of the couples as man and wife teamed up to defeat, well, man and wife. In what is a fantasy scenario for contentious ‘game night’ couples, this feud has captured the imaginations of every generation of the WWE Universe©.

They had to walk the line between a solid match — the kind all four participants can deliver– and the comedy spots that are necessary in these kinds of segments. For example, they slow-played AJ Lee getting her hands on Becky, and the typical ‘hot tag’ was supplemented for a terrific spot where Lynch held on desperately to Punk’s foot to prevent him from making the tag.

There was another spot where Rollins lifted Lynch over his head to use his wife as a weapon, but Punk rolled out of the way by the time Seth launched her. In the end, Rollins succeeded in delivering an overhead press body slam on his own wife— an appropriate amount of comedy.

There were tributes from Punk to Lee and Lee to Punk, utilizing each other’s signature moves, and that led to the moment that Lee locked in the “Black Widow” on Lynch at the same time Punk held the sharpshooter on Seth. Eventually, Lee latched onto Seth with the Black Widow, but Lynch and Rollins managed to gain enough momentum to deliver dual Pedigrees—the finisher of Punk’s career nemesis.

Lynch managed to sink in a sharpshooter on Punk, but he eventually reversed it and held Becky in Bret’s famous finisher. It seemed like Seth had it wrapped before Lee broke up the near fall following the ‘stomp.’

The final sequence saw Lee thrown into Punk and Rollins, effectively taking the men out of the match, and that left Lee to tap Lynch in the center of the ring. Punk watch on with pride, and the image was actually very heart-warming—even the cringe moments where Punk impersonated his wife by skipping around the ring.

Stephanie Vaquer vs. IYO Sky—Vacant Women’s World Title (RAW)

These two women had been circling one another for several weeks, and ever since Naomi relinquished her title in preparation for her next major program: motherhood. There is a strong argument that Iyo Sky and Stephanie Vaquer represent the very best of the WWE’s women’s roster, but it goes further than that because there is a debate to be had that the winner of tonight represents the best in all of women’s wrestling—this at a time where the depth of women’s wrestling suggests we are in its greatest era.

They told a great story, and they slow-played very early in the match only to change gears quickly with superior aerial moves and creative maneuvers. They pulled out some terrific sequences, but Sky was conscious of the finer details not lost on the ‘educated fan.’ That said, there were enough “Spanish Flies” and “Moonsaults” for the social media clips.

Sky dug deep by lowering her kneepads at one point in the match and landing multiple ‘knee-oriented’ moves intended to finish Stephanie. Vaquer managed to survive the onslaught long enough to gain momentum back on her side.

Stephanie landed a ‘Spiral tap’ (corkscrew flip off the top turnbuckle) for the pinfall victory over the former world champion Sky, and the crowd reacted loudly as Vaquer could not help her emotions being on full display—it was incredibly enduring. With this win, Vaquer enters very elite air as a top promotional champion for yet another top company (the biggest, in this case), but it will likely be her first defense—a program with Rhea Ripley is in the works—that elevates her even further amongst the division’s top stars.

Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed vs. Usos—Tag Team Match (w/LA Knight as Referee)

Paul Heyman made his return to ring duties after being injured at the hands of Roman Reigns, but the match’s storyline was packed with intrigue beyond a returning wiseman. LA Knight and Jey Uso, steeped in beef that has seen each of them get the jump on one another in a battle of who can “turn heel” harder over the past couple of weeks on RAW.

Stuck in the middle of all this, Jimmy Uso has had a difficult time learning from his past ‘Bloodline’ mistakes, and despite reuniting as the legendary tag team ‘The Usos’ just recently, he does not seem to have a handle on ‘the plays’ his twin bro appears to be running. In fact, Jimmy felt forced to remind Jey this week on WWE TV that he does not ‘wear the Ula Fala.’

With LA Knight as the referee in this matchup, you were forced to question how he would call it, considering his recent ‘Uso issues’ on top of his long-running ‘Vision issues.’

Breakker stood out in the match as he often does, but the intensity that Jey showed was one of the major subplots in this one. Jey wielded weapons with more abandon than the rest, and even after he was split open with a nasty cut in the match. For his part, Jey did show some restraint when it came to nearly smashing Knight with a steel chair, but it was that hesitation that allowed for Breakker’s exploitation.

The final segment had Knight in the corner, giving the businesses to both Jimmy and Jey while Breakker geared up for a spear behind him. Breakker started full steam ahead as Jey pushed Knight out of the way at the last minute and was left to share the brunt of the spear between him and his brother, Jimmy.

Reed landed a Tsunami, and ‘The Vision’ took their second victory this week in a high profiled tag team match—Reed demanded Knight raise his hand in victory.