WrestleMania 40 – live: Updates, match card and results from night one

Lynch has reportedly been unwell this week, suffering from strep throat. She and Ripley circle each other then lock up. Ripley, the bigger athlete, shoves Lynch to the mat, but the Irishwoman stands and slaps the champion. Ripley responds in kind.

The pair fight by the ropes, before Lynch moves onto the apron and scales the corner. She leaps from the top rope with a dropkick! Ripley is soon back up, and the women trade strikes in the centre of the ring, before Ripley delivers a couple of impressive slams.

Ripley goes for a suplex, holding Lynch above her for some time, but the challenger reverses with a roll-up pin attempt! Ripley kicks out. In the ensuing striking exchange, Ripley lands a dropkick.

It’s Ripley’s turn to climb the corner and leap from the top rope, but Lynch reverses with an arm drag.

WrestleMania 40 begins with Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch!

Australian Ripley defends her world title against Lynch, a former world champion herself.

Ireland’s Lynch emerges first, after a recording plays of the superstar reading an excerpt from her autobiography (which was published a matter of days ago).

Now here comes Ripley, with a band – Motionless In White – playing her entrance music live!

Here we go, then… WrestleMania 40, night one, is under way!

The US national anthem is sung by Coco Jones to get things started. “U-S-A” chants follow in Philly…

And Triple H’s music hits! He makes his way to the ring and plays to the crowd.

“Man, I live for this,” he says. “Welcome to a new time, welcome to a new era, welcome to WrestleMania!”

A short and sweet intro from the former multi-time world champion, who is now WWE’s COO and head of creative.

The main card is 20 minutes away! Here’s one last rundown of tonight’s matches (working backwards from the main event):

The Bloodline (The Rock and Roman Reigns) vs Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins

Rhea Ripley (C) vs Becky Lynch – WWE Women’s World Championship

Gunther (C) vs Sami Zayn – WWE Intercontinental Championship

The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) (C) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) vs The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) vs A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) vs New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate) – Undisputed WWE Tag-Team Championship ladder match

Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill and Naomi vs Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Asuka, and Kairi Sane) – Six-woman tag-team match

Latino World Order (Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee) vs Santos Escobar and “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio – Tag-team match

As well as covering the topics seen in the posts below, Ollie asked Gunther and Bayley to preview a number of the biggest matches at WrestleMania 40.

Read Ollie’s full preview of the event, featuring Gunther and Bayley’s thoughts, here:

Ollie also interviewed former Women’s Champion Bayley, who challenges Iyo Sky for the gold tomorrow night:

Ahead of WrestleMania 40, our own Ollie Browning interviewed Gunther – the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time – who is preparing to defend his title against Sami Zayn this evening.

Here’s an excerpt from Ollie’s conversation with the Austrian:

Vince McMahon was recently ousted from his role atop WWE, amid serious allegations of sexual misconduct. They were not the first allegations aimed at the 78-year-old, and it was not his first ousting from a senior role at the company.

Ex-UFC champion and former WWE star Ronda Rousey recently weighed in on the situation…

In 2014, CM Punk made an acrimonious exit from WWE, also retiring from professional wrestling on the whole.

The fan favourite and former champion vowed never to appear in WWE again, and he cast doubt over ever competing in a wrestling ring full stop. However, Punk returned to wrestling in 2021, debuting in AEW, and he made an even more shocking WWE return last November.

Punk returned at Survivor Series before finishing second to Cody Rhodes in the men’s Royal Rumble in January. Nevertheless, the Chicago native was expected to challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania… but an injury sustained in the Rumble thwarted those plans.

However, Punk has been appearing on WWE TV in recent weeks, trading barbs with Rollins and the champion’s challenger Drew McIntyre. He is even going to be providing guest commentary for that title fight tomorrow night…

The Rock and Logan Paul won’t be the only celebrities involved at WrestleMania 40.

Rapper Lil Wayne confirmed his attendance while appearing on WWE Raw on Monday (1 April), and fellow rapper Meek Mill is reportedly opening this weekend’s event.

There have also been rumours that NFL stars Travis Kelce and brother Jason could appear, given their connection to the city as Philadelphia Eagles players. Jason retired in March, following the Eagles’ Super Bowl win in February.

Some wrestling fans have even speculated that pop star Taylor Swift, who is Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, may appear at WrestleMania.