The road to WrestleMania 42 officially kicked off Saturday evening with the WWE Royal Rumble 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Roman Reigns and Liv Morgan punched their respective tickets back into a WrestleMania main event, Drew McIntyre took care of business to retain his Undisputed WWE Championship, and Gunther claimed the career of yet another beloved 20-year veteran.
Let’s break down our four biggest takeaways as we kickstart the sprint back to Las Vegas.
1. There’s only one man for the job
There was something telling about Roman Reigns’ comments Friday that played a great deal of foreshadowing into how this weekend’s events would go. Reigns shared on “The Pat McAfee Show” rather directly how the business hadn’t evolved since he handed over the reigns (no pun intended) to WWE’s next generation. He talked about leaving an opening to get new stars over, but shared frustration that the business hadn’t kept up creatively compared to his run with the Bloodline.
Fast-forward 24 hours, and Reigns is back in the driver’s seat for the WrestleMania 42 main event, in what is anticipated to be a showdown against World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. Without Paul Heyman or Seth Rollins around, it’ll be interesting to see how Punk and Reigns build their story. Nearly nothing is guaranteed over the coming months, but directionally this makes the most sense for a big-money match come April.
At the same time, it appears McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu are on a collision course for the other major title, with McIntyre taking Rhodes’ elimination into his own hands in Saturday’s men’s Rumble match. The trio have done just enough to keep things interesting in recent months, and this elevation of Fatu is the perfect maturation needed to get “The Samoan Werewolf” to the next level.
That being said, after dispatching of AJ Styles earlier in the evening, it was slightly surprising to see Gunther fall short with his second-place finish — unless the “Career Killer” has grander ambitions for this year’s Showcase of the Immortals. He’s spoken at length about his dream matchup being Brock Lesnar, and it wouldn’t be a surprise at this point to see the two monsters face off in April.
2. The end of a (Phenomenal) era
This is the Gunther we’ve needed all along.
I can understand WWE playing the long game in the sense of being unable to embrace this gimmick before he retired John Cena. But Gunther never should’ve tapped to a sleeper hold against Jey Uso at WrestleMania 41, and he certainly never should’ve had a competitive match against Pat McAfee. But this vicious Gunther, who occasionally oversteps and gets caught in a move like the Calf Crusher at the hands of AJ Styles — that’s a logical moment that could transpire, and one more rooted in a villain’s overconfidence than weakness. All things considered, Saturday’s ending was perfect, with Gunther choking out another legend in what is hopefully a long-term character arc for “The Ring General.”
It wasn’t as much shocking as it is surreal that the WWE career of AJ Styles is over. Ten years after he debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble, calling it quits on a career that candidly should’ve started much earlier in WWE — it’s a heck of a way to go out.
The prevailing thought is that Styles’ WWE career is over, but his wrestling career has at least through the end of this year to continue. There’s endless opportunities for Styles on the open market, from a return to NJPW, to joining AEW, and perhaps even a short stint to tie up loose ends back home in TNA.
3. Out-Liv-ing the Judgement Day
What might be the best Women’s Royal Rumble in its short history expertly moved numerous long-term stories along in the build to WrestleMania.
The chess board type maneuvers saw Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss further break down the trust the duo had developed in their run up to becoming Women’s Tag Team champions, Tiffany Stratton made her grand return, Sol Ruca and Lash Legend took steps toward legitimacy as major players on the main roster, and perhaps the biggest story of them all was Liv Morgan eliminating Raquel Rodriguez to win the Women’s Royal Rumble.
With Rodriguez already slated to face off with Stephanie Vaquer in a Women’s World Championship match, there’s a real element of Diesel-Shawn Michaels in Morgan and Rodriguez’s sudden breakdown and the way the muscle might match up against a world title contender. The Judgement Day has been right on the cusp of a full implosion for about a year now, so what better way to tear it down than handing Rodriguez the title and squaring her off against Morgan at WrestleMania 42?
4. Sami falls just short
I’ll admit, this one was slightly shocking. I wasn’t sure how they’d pair a potential Sami Zayn win with the WrestleMania story that was — and still is — unfolding between Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu, but it felt like destiny (or maybe wishful thinking) for Saudi Arabia’s favorite to finally win the big one.
The prevailing narrative across recent months cast Zayn as the ultimate underdog, a guy who’s accomplished so much but never won the world title. And with WWE holding back-to-back shows in Montreal and Saudi Arabia, it felt nearly predetermined that the Canadian veteran would end Saturday evening holding the Undisputed WWE Championship.
But perhaps that’s emotions driving my thought process and not reality.
Drew McIntyre retaining shouldn’t be a surprise, considering there’s already a fully-baked story with him ready to ship to WrestleMania alongside one of WWE’s biggest stars (Rhodes) and the guy who’s next in line to become one of WWE’s biggest stars (Fatu). This was a moment in time designed to provide just enough doubt at a major event, before seeing McIntyre defend his belt at the biggest show of the year.
The question for Zayn, though, is after coming this close, where does he go from here — and how can he find another moment in 2026 that’ll feel like it matters as much as this one did?
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