Wrestlemania 41 – live: Updates and match card for night one in Las Vegas ahead of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and CM Punk fight

Each evening of WrestleMania action this weekend will begin at 4pm PT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET. In the UK, that works out to 12am BST on Sunday and Monday morning.

And here’s a preview of the event in general: a look at how and why WrestleMania is more relevant than ever, and why it looks like it’ll only get bigger – with the help of Netflix, which this year streams ‘Mania for the first time ever.

Let’s go back to Cena for a second.

Here’s our own Greg Evans with a deep dive on how Cena, one of WWE’s greatest heroes, became one of its most complex villains…

Last year, he competed in the night one main event of WrestleMania 40, teaming with Roman Reigns to beat Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins. He also interfered in the night two main event: Reigns vs Rhodes.

He is not advertised as competing this weekend, but expect him to feature in some capacity – potentially helping Cena to win.

In pro wrestling, ‘good’ characters are called ‘babyfaces’ and ‘bad’ characters are ‘heels’.

Rhodes is WWE’s biggest babyface, while The Rock is a heel authority figure, given Dwayne Johnson’s real-life position on the board of TKO (WWE’s ownership group).

The specifics of WWE contracts have long been hard to ascertain.

However, WWE star-turned-executive Triple H (real name Paul Levesque) told The Athletic in 2022 that $250,000 is the minimum base salary for wrestlers in the company.

That figure might have risen since, of course, and it reportedly only applied to members of the Smackdown and Raw rosters – not wrestlers on NXT, which is WWE’s developmental show.

However, wrestlers’ wages are boosted by merchandise sales and, it is believed, by cuts of pay-per-view sales as well. Of course, merchandise sales are likely to be significant on a WrestleMania weekend, as well as pay-per-view sales, so 19 and 20 April could be the most lucrative days of the year for most WWE wrestlers.

In 2023, The Mirror reported some of the highest WWE wages as these: Roman Reigns $5m per year; Randy Orton $5m per year; Seth Rollins $3.5m per year; Cody Rhodes $3m per year; Logan Paul $2m per year. These figures reportedly don’t include bonuses

No titles on the line in the night one main event; this is simply a grudge match between former partners Reigns and Rollins – and Punk, who has issues with both men.

A key part of the build-up has seen Punk call in a favour from Paul Heyman (his old friend and Reigns’s manager), who will be in Punk’s corner for this one.

We think there may be a swerve that sees Heyman betray Punk and Reigns, joining Rollins and helping him get the win.

That said, WWE has telegraphed that move a bit in recent weeks, so maybe it won’t be much of a swerve if it does happen!

The last match to be announced for ‘Mania. The dastardly New Day may claim the World Tag-Team Titles here…

But will their betrayed teammate Big E try to thwart them?

Or could we see a swerve where he HELPS them, against the odds?

Another one that seems quite easy to call… After Naomi betrayed her friend and brutally attacked her last year, the returning Cargill should exact revenge – potentially in quick, emphatic fashion.

On the topic of Mysterios!

We spoke to Dominik Mysterio this week in Vegas, and asked him to blind rank five iconic WrestleMania moments…