All Roads Lead to WrestleMania WWE @ London’s O2

On the road to WWE’s much anticipated flagship event WrestleMania, the show embarked on a tour of Europe kicking proceedings off in Barcelona, then on to Brussels, Bologna and Glasgow for SmackDown and RAW. The final leg of WWE’s European tour took place at the world famous O2 Arena in London for which I had the pleasure of attending both nights.

First up was Friday Night Smackdown, main evented by a contract signing between fierce rivals Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and CM Punk for their match at WrestleMania. Two titles were also on the line, LA Knight would defend his US title against Braun Strowman whilst the Street Profits would put their tag titles on the line against hometown favourites Pretty Deadly. For the most part the crowd was lively, especially in the big moments however certain matches and parts of the show that were filler showed through the crowd’s reactions which were tame. 

This was my first televised WWE event that I’d attended and it certainly takes some adjustment. The main difference being you cannot hear the commentators at all. Whilst this may sound obvious, commentators in the WWE often carry you through matches and segments that you don’t truly appreciate until they’re gone. For some people I imagine this could take away from the live experience, however for me I actually enjoyed it more in person than on TV.

The show opened with Cody Rhodes, the current top champion, talking to the crowd when he was interrupted by Randy Orton who received a huge reaction. The crowd loved him and Cody, showing their appreciation through song. Drew McIntyre would later interrupt Orton to another huge reaction, ultimately making a match for later in the show. The tag title match between the Street Profits and Pretty Deadly was up next which was fun and kept the crowd going strong with the Profits retaining their titles. Up next was a women’s tag team match between Kayden Carter and Katana Chance up against the Secret Hervice (Alba Fyre and Piper Niven) in which the heel team was cheered whilst the face team was booed. The crowd especially loved Chelsea Green (the women’s US Champion) who accompanied her Secret Hervice. 

LA Knight was up next, defending his US Title against Braun Strowman which ended in a disqualification after Jacob Fatu attacked Braun Strowman. Jacob Fatu was very popular with the crowd who encouraged Fatu’s attack on Strowman. Next up was what unfortunately felt like filler and got little crowd reaction, the exception being the booing of Charlotte Flair. Flair would face off with Michin who got attacked pre match by Naomi. Flair picked up the win. Orton and McIntyre would then face each other in their match which ended in Orton losing after being distracted by his WrestleMania opponent Kevin Owens, they then brawled after the match outside the ring. The final bit of filler before the signing everyone had come to see was up next, Jimmy Uso against The Miz which was a good match and did what it needed to do. 

Finally we had the main event, the highly anticipated contract signing for the WrestleMania triple threat match between Seth Rollins, CM Punk and Roman Reigns. The crowd was electric throughout the main event, serenading all three men on their way to the ring, Roman Reigns clearly the crowd’s favourite. The crowd became even more elevated when it was revealed that this match was going to main event night one of WrestleMania. For CM Punk it would finally be his first WrestleMania main event after joining WWE in 2005, albeit he had a nine year “hiatus”, whilst for Reigns it will be his tenth Mania main event. SmackDown ended with a lively crowd excited for both WrestleMania and Monday Night RAW.

If SmackDown was good, RAW was even better. Compared to SmackDown, RAW has virtually no ad breaks as it runs live on Netflix whereas SmackDown can leave you sitting in the dark for a minute or two. Before RAW was a WWE show called Main Event which is effectively a show for shorter matches between people who aren’t being used in-ring on RAW that day. Main Event did a good job of exciting the crowd and after the commentary team made their entrance it was time for RAW to begin, and it started hot. The biggest story in WWE right now, John Cena, made his entrance into what was the liveliest crowd I’ve seen at an event like this.

Most of the arena let Cena know how much they hated him, although some people simply couldn’t boo their hero no matter what he did. Before Cena could get a word in, Cody Rhodes would enter to a somehow even louder welcome, even to the point of singing his song acapella to him in the ring long after it had finished. This segment for me was worth the ticket price alone, Cena and Rhodes perfectly worked the crowd into their hands with Cena even briefly turning the crowd against Rhodes. Their words to each other cut deep and ensured that everybody knew how much this meant to both men. Finally as Cena looked to walk away from Rhodes again, he’d fail a sucker punch on Rhodes and be hit with Cody’s signature move – the Cross Rhodes. Cody Rhodes stood tall over a layed out John Cena as the moment came to an end.

The first surprise of the night would follow, a very unpopular New Day (Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston) would face off against the UK’s own New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate). Tyler Bate had been out injured since July 2024 and got the welcome back he deserved. The match was entertaining and showed off some real good tag team wrestling. The New Day would ultimately pick up the win before a stare down with the champions post match. 

Next up saw World Heavyweight Champion Gunther face off with the brother of his WrestleMania opponent Jimmy Uso. This match drew some impressively funny and foul mouthed chants from the London crowd that I can’t repeat here but really sold Gunther as an evil person. Gunther picked up the win comfortably but what happened after was by far more important. He initially attacked Jimmy after winning but he was saved by his brother Jey Uso. Gunther soon returned however this time cable-tying Jey Uso to the ring ropes and assaulting his already defeated brother just out of reach of him. Gunther seemed evil and the crowd certainly let him know, but he simply lapped it up or shut it out depending on the moment.

What followed was a tag team match involving the makeshift team of Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker and Penta teamed up against The Judgement Day (Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio). The makeshift team were largely in control until Bron accidently hit his finisher, the spear, on Penta which the Judgement Day took advantage of and stole the victory. Logan Paul then got destroyed by the London crowd who wouldn’t let him get a word in as he tried to make his match against AJ Styles for WrestleMania official. AJ Styles has been incredibly popular all across Europe and nothing changed in London, if not for his presence this segment likely would’ve never finished properly.

Finally it was time for the televised main event, Rhea Ripley would face IYO SKY in a rematch to try and win back her Women’s World Championship. Bianca Belair served as special guest referee and will face the winner at WrestleMania. The crowd was on fire, especially and surprisingly for IYO with Rhea Ripley receiving a Cody-like reaction. The match was a blast from start to finish but one thing the match didn’t have was a winner as referee Bianca Belair disqualified both competitors due to them hitting her at points in the match. This meant the match had no winner and IYO retained her belt despite not winning, both competitors however were not happy and lashed out at both each other and Bianca. The crowd meanwhile chanted as if it was a poor decision at a football match with suitable referee based chants for Bianca Belair. Rhea Ripley ultimately stood tall after laying both women out much to the crowd’s pleasure, to see the episode out. The actual main event however was a dark match between CM Punk and Ludwig Kaiser. Punk easily took the win before ending the night thanking the fans and singing Queen’s ‘Fat Bottomed Girls” along with the crowd in tribute to his wife, who he was looking forward to seeing following the end of the tour.

The two nights were a fantastic spectacle to visit and experience and I would highly encourage anyone (even non-wrestling fans) to experience it at least once in their lifetime. The prices may be high for tickets and some merch but finding a good resale or taking advantage of online deals can easily counter both of these problems. I can’t wait for WWE to be back in London town, hopefully next year, but for now it’s back to Netflix in the early hours of the morning. 

James Inglis