WWE WrestleMania 42 weekend concluded with World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk defending against Roman Reigns in the main event.
This was Punk’s first-ever WrestleMania main event singles match, and he entered Allegiant Stadium to “Miseria Cantare (The New Beginning),” a song that holds significant importance to his career. Punk and Reigns threw everything at each other — a far cry from Saturday’s main event where Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll got involved, muddying an otherwise straightforward story.
Punk won the championship back in November at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Reigns hasn’t held a championship since losing to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. He’s had various stints in WWE since, but has taken a lot of time off to film his Hollywood projects.
THE ORIGINAL TRIBAL CHIEF ROMAN REIGNS IS THE NEW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!!!
#WrestleMania@WWERomanReigns pic.twitter.com/bV2cwqBICZ
— WWE (@WWE) April 20, 2026
Punk played this match rather dirty. Distracting the ref to deliver a low blow, disrespecting Reigns’ family heritage by wearing the ula fala (not Reigns’, this one he snatched from a fan at ringside). After some back and forth Punk hit Reigns with a GTS but it was only for a two-count. Later on in the match, an exhausted Punk attempts the GTS again but his body gives out on him. Reigns capitalizes on the moment, hitting him with back-to-back spears for the win.
It was also an unusual match from Reigns. Normally, he’d have interference from his Bloodline. Tonight, there was none of that. Reigns picked up the win with a Spear. After the match, his wife and children celebrated with him in the ring.
Now that Reigns is a champion again, where does he go from here? Oba Femi, who just retired one of Reigns’ longtime rivals, is certainly one option. He’s moving into the main event at an extremely fast pace. There’s also former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther who fought Seth Rollins on night one. There’s also Demon Finn Balor who picked up a huge victory over Dominik Mysterio. Long term, Jacob Fatu is there if they want to play on the Bloodline connection again.
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