Triple H has already made his Godfather trilogy, and WrestleMania 42 is a Part IV no one wants
If you want to understand where I think WWE creative sits right now, think about The Godfather trilogy. The first two films are widely regarded as among the greatest ever made and the third is considered a disappointing mess that tarnished the legacy of what came before it.
WrestleMania 39 and 40 were Godfather Parts I and II. WrestleMania 41 was Part III and because of how much of a mess that show was, 42 feels like the Part IV that nobody wanted, because ‘Mania 42 is arriving off the back of a year that fundamentally damaged confidence in Triple H’s longterm creative vision and ability to do anything meaningful beyond The Bloodline storyline that started while Vince McMahon was still in charge.
It’s worth remembering just how good 39 and 40 actually were, because the contrast with where we are now is really stark. Having Cody Rhodes not win at 39 was a genuinely bold creative decision, the kind of creative you only make when you know exactly where you’re going and you trust that you can keep an audience happy after years of terrible Vince McMahon stop-start booking decisions.
The payoff at 40 delivered. Roman Reigns, The Rock, John Cena all folded into the conclusion of the Cody story in a way that felt genuinely earned. For the first time in a long time, WWE felt like it had a vision and the conviction to actually see it through.
Then came 2025, and the wheels came off.
The John Cena Retirement Tour
The John Cena retirement tour should have been one of the easiest briefs in wrestling history. Book him against former rivals and use the platform to elevate some newer names. Give one of the greatest careers in WWE history a send-off that felt worthy of it, simple isn’t it? What we actually got felt like a week to week scramble from start to finish. Cena’s retirement tour felt like it was booked as a reactive, directionless mess that seemed to have no idea where it was going from one month to the next.
The Cena tour exposed something really glaring about creative that we already really knew…the ambition that drove 39 and 40 was largely built around one story and there’s nothing beyond that. Once that story was told at WrestleMania 40, there wasn’t a clear next chapter already in place. WrestleMania 41 became The Godfather Part III, so not just a disappointment in isolation, but something that tarnished beyond the sum of its parts.
Where the hell is Gunther?
Nothing illustrates where Triple H’s creative bankruptcy currently sits better than the Gunther situation heading into 42. The former World Heavyweight Champion has in very recent times retired AJ Styles, John Cena and Goldberg. These are three of the most significant names of the 90s, 00s and 2010s, all put to bed by the same man. By any reasonable measure, Gunther should be one of the marquee stories of WrestleMania 42.
He currently has nothing of significance for the show. Like how? How does that happen in a company that makes money based on writing stories?
That is not an injury problem. There is no bad luck excuse here. That is a creative team that handed themselves one of the most compelling narratives WWE has produced in years, gave him three genuinely historic moments, and then had absolutely no idea what to do with him next.
Part IV
Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton and CM Punk vs Roman Reigns are perfectly serviceable main events, but neither feels like the destination of a journey that began with genuine long term intent behind it. They feel like matches that were assembled because WrestleMania is on the calendar and something needed to fill the top of the card. Even with Randy and Cody having so much history, this feels like something cobbled together at the last minute. That’s almost impressive levels of dropping the ball.
Triple H’s Godfather trilogy is done. The problem is WWE still has to continue to produce shows every week, something that feature films don’t need to, and right now they’re doing it without the creative vision that made that trilogy, well, two thirds of it, genuinely so compelling in the first place. The blueprint from 2023 and 2024 still exists, the bones of something great are still there.
But until the creative team starts building stories with patience and destination again, rather than just reacting to whatever is in front of them week to week (or what fans are saying online) WrestleMania 42 is exactly what it looks like right now, a Part IV that exists because it has to, not because anyone had a great idea.
Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.