“Should Have Been The Main Event” – CM Punk Looks Back At IYO SKY vs Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair At WWE WrestleMania 41

Published: Apr 19, 2026 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Apr 19, 2026 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

“Should Have Been The Main Event” – CM Punk Looks Back At IYO SKY vs Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair At WWE WrestleMania 41

CM Punk has looked back at IYO SKY vs Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair from WWE WrestleMania 41, saying it should have been the main event.

With his WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Roman Reigns being the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania 42, CM Punk has looked back on the match from last year’s show, which he feels should have been in that position.

In an episode of Complex Sport’s GOAT Talk, AJ Lee asked, “What is the GOAT WrestleMania match?”

Naming IYO SKY vs Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair – the Women’s World Championship match which opened WrestleMania 41 Sunday – CM Punk stated:

“There are matches at WrestleMania that you look back on and you’re like, ‘Man, that should have been the main event,’ and that’s one.

“Three of the top stars, a title on the line, and they opened the show.”

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AJ Lee would also share her praise of the match, with the pair noting they had watched it recently, saying:

“To me, that’s not only my favorite WrestleMania match, it might be one of my favorite matches of all time.”

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Taking place at Allegiant Stadium, the home of this year’s WWE Premium Live Event, WrestleMania 41 Night 2 was, indeed, opened by the Triple Threat match for the Women’s World Championship, with IYO SKY retaining.

The main events for WrestleMania 41 saw Seth Rollins defeat Roman Reigns and CM Punk on Night 1, with John Cena defeating Cody Rhodes to become Undisputed WWE World Champion on Night 2.

It’s A Man’s World: The Main Event At WrestleMania

Since 2022, WWE WrestleMania has been a two-night Premium Live Event, with both shows having their own distinctive main event.

Now five WrestleMania events in, Night 1 of WrestleMania 37 in April 2021 featured women in the main event, in the form of Sasha Banks vs Bianca Belair for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship.

In the now forty-two event history of WrestleMania, there have only been two shows to have women in the main event, with WrestleMania 35 seeing Becky Lynch beating Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a Winner Takes All match for the Raw & SmackDown Women’s Championship back in April 2019.

Becky Lynch has recently noted that the main event scene has been dominated by “two, maybe three, four dudes constantly” over past years, with this criticism not being unique to WrestleMania.

There are opportunities for WWE to correct this disparity, especially with the focus being places on the women’s championships across both Raw and SmackDown, and the growing number of stars who have been elevated to prominent positions on the card in recent years.

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