The 5 WWE Stars Who Must Win At WrestleMania 42
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Oba Femi answered Brock Lesnar's open challenge on Raw. (Credit: Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images)
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WWE via Getty ImagesWWE highlights its biggest stars during WrestleMania season, but the company’s flagship PLE is also a turning point for its next generation of stars.
That is once again holding true at WrestleMania 42, where a new crop of former NXT talents are getting a major spotlight in Las Vegas. Among the key newcomers confirmed for or expected to have a major WrestleMania match are Trick Williams, Oba Femi and Je’Von Evans, a trio that carried WWE’s NXT brand in 2025.
WrestleMania will be a defining moment in their young careers and potentially set them up for main event success in both the short and long-term futures. Likewise, there are plenty of established veterans and surefire future Hall of Famers who are hitting the apex of their career inside Allegiant Stadium.
For stars like AJ Lee, CM Punk and Randy Orton, WrestleMania 42 will go a long way toward keeping them at the top of the card and cementing their legacies. Just being featured in a high-profile WrestleMania match is a career achievement, but there are a plethora of WWE stars who must leave WrestleMania 42 with more than just a WrestleMania match on their resume. They need a big win, too.
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WWE has only officially confirmed five matches for WrestleMania 42, but there are expected to be at least 14 bouts across the two-night event:
- World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. CM Punk
- WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton
- WWE Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
- Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan
- Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi
WWE Stars Who Must Win at WrestleMania 42
Jacob Fatu
Jacob Fatu is expected to face Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 42 in a match that’s been building since 2025 and could temporarily write McIntyre off TV.
The Scottish superstar is reportedly set to take time off after WrestleMania in order to film the movie Highlander, which also stars former WWE star Batista. That makes the outcome at WrestleMania 42 a no-brainer: Fatu should win handily to send McIntyre into his hiatus from SmackDown.
In a way, both Fatu and McIntyre have been shafted by the creative team on the road to WrestleMania 42. McIntyre, of course, lost the WWE Championship to Cody Rhodes last week while Fatu, who’s been right on the cusp of the title scene for months, has yet to get that coveted first world title despite being oh so close to it.
The least WWE can do for Fatu is give him a signature WrestleMania win over McIntyre.
Oba Femi
There have been conflicting reports about whether or not Brock Lesnar is refusing to lose until his retirement match, which isn’t expected to take place at WrestleMania 42.
But latest indications are that Lesnar is not guaranteed to go undefeated until he calls its quits. Nor should he be. If ever there was a match that can be perfectly described as a “passing of the torch,” then Lesnar vs. Oba Femi is it. Lesnar is likely going to retire in the near future, and at 27 years old, Femi is the closest thing to an heir apparent to Lesnar that WWE has.
In mere months on the main roster, Femi has quickly won over the masses, and he has anything and everything WWE could want out of a future world champion and top star. If Femi doesn’t wipe the floor with Lesnar at WrestleMania 42, that’s essentially booking malpractice.
Liv Morgan
The Women’s World Championship has taken a bit of a backseat since Stephanie Vaquer won the title at WrestlePalooza last September after Naomi had to vacate it.
That’s not necessarily Vaquer’s fault, though. Becky Lynch and AJ Lee have been feuding over the Women’s Intercontinental Championship while most of WWE’s top women’s stars, ranging from Iyo Sky to Rhea Ripley to Charlotte Flair, have spent much of the past several months in the tag team division. That’s left Vaquer floating around without any top challengers.
As a result, the Women’s World Championship doesn’t feel quite as important around the waist of Vaquer as it would around a more high-profile star. Enter Liv Morgan, the 2026 Royal Rumble winner and one of WWE’s biggest stars. As the Judgment Day looks to regroup following the exit of Finn Balor, Morgan should be pushed strongly.
A WrestleMania title win for Morgan would set Judgment Day back on the right path and put an overlooked world title on a major star.
CM Punk
Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk is the biggest match at WrestleMania 42 by a fairly significant margin, so the ramifications of its outcome will be wide-ranging.
Yet, the booking of this match should come down to the answer to this question: will Reigns stick around if he wins the World Heavyweight Championship? If the answer is no, then Reigns, quite frankly, has no business winning a world title now or anytime soon.
Punk has been absolutely tremendous as world champion and is arguably on the best run of his Hall of Fame caliber career. While Reigns rarely loses matches, this is one he shouldn’t win if he’s going to remain a seldom-seen part-timer. There’s nothing wrong with that role for Reigns at this stage of his career, but that should largely preclude him from constantly fighting for world titles.
Because Punk is such a great champion, he should only drop the World Heavyweight Championship to someone who can truly benefit from beating him for it. That someone is not Roman Reigns.
Randy Orton
Officially a three-time WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes recently admitted that he’s now a “polarizing” wrestler in the same mold as John Cena.
Sometimes, that can be a good thing, but on that same note, it’s also a very polite way of saying that the fans are starting to turn on Rhodes. Of course it hasn’t gotten to a point that Rhodes is being booed out of the building, but WWE’s booking of his character in recent months hasn’t done him any favors.
Most notably, the way that Rhodes swooped in to win the WWE title from a hard-working Drew McIntyre just before WrestleMania 42 really didn’t sit well with a very vocal portion of WWE’s fan base. While WWE shouldn’t get so desperate that it turns Rhodes heel yet, the creative team does need to seriously reevaluate how it’s been booking him.
That starts with Rhodes losing to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42, which both puts the WWE title on a deserving Orton and ensures that Rhodes avoids becoming Super Cena 2.0.