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The WrestleMania build is where WWE does its most important storytelling of the year. It is the stretch that can elevate talent into main-event fixtures for life—or expose the limits of others already on that trajectory.
WrestleMania 42 is no exception.
Which stars have risen since the Royal Rumble? Who has lost momentum when it mattered most? And who has been quietly sidelined or outright undermined in the final stretch to the “Show of Shows”?
As always, we start with the winners.
RISING STAR OF THE WRESTLEMANIA BUILD: OBA FEMI
From unknown to undeniable in record time
Oba Femi didn’t just debut at the Royal Rumble—he detonated onto the main roster.
Eliminating five opponents, including Bron Breakker and Brock Lesnar, Femi immediately positioned himself as a physical force unlike anything else in WWE. The following night on Raw, he single-handedly dismantled the War Raiders. Weeks later, he added a win over Rusev to his growing résumé.
The message has been unmistakable: The Ruler has arrived.
The escalation continued when Femi answered Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania challenge. Across two physical confrontations, he has done what few ever have—stand toe-to-toe with, and physically dominate, The Beast Incarnate.
Paul Heyman and the Raw broadcast team have fully embraced the rise, framing Femi as “the next big thing.” The audience has followed suit, with “Oba” chants echoing louder than any other reaction on Monday nights.
Then came the breakthrough moment: his first real main-roster promo.
Femi didn’t flinch. He didn’t hesitate. He declared himself the man who would end The Beast—and sold it with total conviction. It was the performance of someone not just arriving, but taking ownership of the main event scene.
In a matter of months, Femi has leapfrogged the so-called “future of WWE,” Bron Breakker, and established himself as a franchise-caliber presence.
Win or lose on Sunday, the message is clear: a new pillar has been built.
RUNNER-UP: TRICK WILLIAMS
The heel WWE can’t get fans to boo
Like Femi, Trick Williams has transitioned from NXT to the main roster spotlight with remarkable speed.
Unlike most call-ups, however, WWE has a problem: the fans refuse to boo him.
Despite being positioned as a heel—complete with cheating, arrogance, and the introduction of obnoxious mouthpiece rapper Lil Yachty—Williams remains overwhelmingly embraced by the audience.
“Whoop that Trick” has become a guaranteed reaction, not a manufactured one.
When he confronted Sami Zayn, the dynamic flipped entirely—audiences turning on The Honorary Uce for the first time in years.
WWE has clearly been swimming upstream in trying to shape Trick into a traditional villain. At this point, a double-turn at WrestleMania may be the most logical outcome.
Regardless of alignment, the WrestleMania build has achieved one thing: Trick Williams is a featured player.
He’s moved from prospect to midcard anchor—and looks increasingly destined for the main-event orbit in 2026.
SECOND RUNNER-UP: CM PUNK
Still the master of making it matter
Skeptics, including Roman Reigns, have spent the build reminding everyone that CM Punk is too old, too broken down, and too controversial to belong at the top of WWE.
The problem? The audience doesn’t agree.
Twenty years after his debut, Punk has achieved his long-held goal: a singles main-event at WrestleMania.
And he has maximized every second of it.
With Reigns frequently absent from Raw, Punk has carried much of the feud on his own shoulders—and turned it into one of the most compelling programs of the year.
Week after week, he’s done what he does best: cutting emotionally charged, razor-sharp promos that blur reality and storyline just enough to matter.
His final pre-WrestleMania address may have been his best yet—reflecting on his journey, his obsession with wrestling, and the improbable road that led him here.
Yes, questions remain about whether he can physically hold up in the ring.
But in terms of investment, emotion, and audience connection, Punk has already delivered.
When it comes to building anticipation for a grudge match, he remains exactly what he has always claimed to be: the Best in the World.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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FADING STAR OF THE WRESTLEMANIA BUILD: BRON BREAKKER
The collapse of “The Future”
Timing is everything—and for Bron Breakker, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Long protected and heavily promoted as “The Future of WWE,” Breakker had been positioned as the next dominant force on Raw. His rise from Seth Rollins’ enforcer within The Vision to its eventual leader seemed to signal a clear path to a WrestleMania breakthrough.
World title contention felt inevitable. A clash with Brock Lesnar felt even more so.
Instead, everything unraveled.
After being embarrassed by Oba Femi at the Royal Rumble, Breakker reportedly suffered an injury shortly thereafter and has not appeared on Raw since. His momentum vanished instantly, along with his WrestleMania trajectory.
Those expected marquee opportunities—world title contention, a Lesnar showdown—have all gone elsewhere.
What should have been Breakker’s defining WrestleMania moment has instead become a complete absence.
The Future, it seems, has been paused.
FIRST RUNNER-UP: CHARLOTTE FLAIR
From centerpiece to afterthought
Charlotte Flair has built a WrestleMania résumé unmatched in modern WWE history. Nearly every year since 2015 has featured her in a championship match or marquee spotlight.
If anyone has earned the title “Ms. WrestleMania,” it is her.
And yet this year tells a very different story.
Instead of a marquee singles spotlight, Flair has been folded into a crowded tag team scenario with minimal differentiation and even less momentum. Her previous high-profile program with Tiffany Stratton may have contributed to a noticeable creative step back.
For a performer widely regarded as one of the most consistent big-match workers in the division, the current direction feels underwhelming.
Even opportunities that could have stood out—like her singles match with Lyra Valkyria—have been sacrificed to distraction finishes and multi-layered booking clutter.
Instead of a defining WrestleMania presence, Flair enters as part of the ensemble.
The Queen, for now, is sharing the throne.
SECOND RUNNER-UP: CODY RHODES
A missed opportunity in plain sight
On paper, Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton had everything: history, emotional weight, and a built-in narrative stretching back nearly two decades.
On screen, none of it materialized.
Rather than lean into their shared past, WWE layered the program with distracting commentary and outside noise that diluted the core story.
The result is a feud that never found its center of gravity.
While the match itself was never expected to be a technical classic, the build had the potential to elevate it into something memorable—something on the level of the strongest WrestleMania programs.
Instead, it has drifted into inconsistency and missed beats, falling short of expectations set not only by this year’s standards, but even last year’s uneven efforts.
Cody Rhodes deserves better than this.
Far better.
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