WrestleMania 42 tier rankings: Who are the biggest stars heading into WWE’s biggest event?

WrestleMania 42 week is finally here, and with it comes an opportunity for dozens of men and women across WWE’s roster to experience the magic that comes with performing at the “Showcase of the Immortals.”

For the second year in a row, Uncrowned has created the “WrestleMania Tier Rankings,” a system that looks at every individual on the WrestleMania 42 card and groups them based on their previous ‘Mania performances and potential heading into the “Grandaddy of Them All.”

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Once again, we have four groupings — Riser, Superstar, Legend and GOAT — with the final group containing just one man and one woman across the more than three dozen names on this list. Last year, Seth Rollins and Bianca Belair were named into the WrestleMania GOAT category and both delivered incredible performances in triple-threat matches to close WrestleMania 41 Night 1 and open WrestleMania Night 2, respectively.

Naturally, we’re expecting that there will be some dissent (looking at you, Becky Lynch), so feel free to call us out, debate us or — checks notes — agree with our completely subjective rankings.

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iShowSpeed

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OK, I lied, there are FIVE categories. Speed is a fun addition to the WrestleMania card and will surely provide entertainment value and social media views for days, but he doesn’t warrant consideration as a full or part-time WWE talent.

The Risers:

There is an immense amount of talent in this section, arguably more than we had in the first running of this list a year ago. Vaquer, Evans, Femi, Williams and Legend are the total package, bringing a unique blend of charisma and physical ability that has made them can’t-miss stars less than a year into their main-roster runs. Unsurprisingly, four of them are involved in title matches at WrestleMania and the one who isn’t (Femi) may get a win that launches him into an entirely different stratosphere in WWE. We can’t predict the future, but I’d be stunned if all five of these names don’t move up a tier for 2027.

Cargill was in this tier last year, and despite having a solid match against Naomi at WrestleMania 41, still needs a defining moment on WWE’s biggest stage to move up into the superstar category. She has all of the tools at her disposal, is coming in as WWE Women’s Champion and has an incredible dance partner in Rhea Ripley. Cargill was one of the toughest to rank on this list.

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After strong debuts last year, Valkyria and Fatu find themselves in similar positions at Allegiant Stadium once again.

Valkyria, who now-famously teamed up with a returning Lynch last year, is in the Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. It will be hard for her to stand out with seven other women in the skirmish (including Legend), but if she can break through it’ll go a long way for her.

Fatu will get a chance to have a match that plays to his strengths, going against Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match. It’ll be a violent and physical contrast to many of the other matches on this weekend’s card. Fatu seemed like he could have been a player in the WWE Undisputed Championship picture for this event, but that will have to wait.

The Superstars:

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A ton of big-name veterans highlight this section, but you’ll notice that save for Morgan, there isn’t a wrestler on this list involved in a singles match for a championship. When you compare last year’s list to this one, you’ll likely notice that the “Superstar” tier serves as a launching point for many.

If we’re looking at the best candidates for this launching-point theory, I would say Morgan, Penta and Logan Paul stand out. Morgan finally got her Royal Rumble win this year and is going up against the wildly popular Vaquer for the Women’s World Championship. She’s already a major player in WWE, but a victory at Allegiant Stadium would catapult her even higher.

Penta walks — OK, saunters — into WrestleMania as the Intercontinental Champion for the first time and will be in a six-man ladder match. This is the perfect opportunity to continue the luchador’s ascent.

As far as Paul goes, anyone who says he isn’t supremely talented inside the ring is either a bona fide hater or simply lying to themselves. The Vision may not be what it was initially due to truly terrible injury luck, but Paul does special things in a WWE ring and that deserves credit, even if he isn’t quite into legend territory.

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Speaking of legends, the Bella Twins find themselves squarely in the Superstar camp, but could get a WrestleMania moment if they can capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship for the first time. Similarly, AJ Lee gets her first WrestleMania match in 11 years and her first singles contest on this stage ever. As much focus as there is on star ratings and immediate fantasy booking in pro-wrestling, there’s something to be said that these three women are getting this opportunity.

The Legends:

What a list. Twelve names, 12 future WWE Hall of Famers — all no-brainers for this tier.

Punk, who was in the Superstar tier last year, was an easy add to the Legend level after his instant-classic to close out WrestleMania 41 Night 1. He’ll get another opportunity to rise up the ranks as he closes WrestleMania 42 against Roman Reigns. Punk is at the peak of his powers right now, between his work on the microphone, skill in the ring and having been the biggest draw for “Raw” in the Netflix era.

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Elsewhere, you have last year’s GOAT in Rollins — enough said — as well as Rhodes and Zayn. I group these three together because you’d be hard-pressed to find three stars who have had better recent WrestleMania runs than the three of them.

“Cody Fatigue” may be a real thing fans are going through right now, but “The American Nightmare” is QB1 for a reason. Since his return in 2022, Rhodes has been in three WrestleMania main events and the total will reach four after his clash with Orton this weekend.

Even though he hasn’t challenged for one of the top men’s titles at WrestleMania and wasn’t on the card last year, Zayn has several signature moments in recent history. After his run-in with the “Jackass” cast at WrestleMania 38, Zayn teamed up with Kevin Owens to win the WWE Tag Team Championships from The Usos and defeated Gunther to capture the Intercontinental Championship at back-to-back ‘Manias. All three moments are or have been on Uncrowned’s list of top WrestleMania moments.

On the women’s side, the résumés of Flair, Lynch and Bayley speak for themselves. All three have reached the pinnacle on WWE’s grandest stage, having won singles championships, and Flair and Lynch were part of the first women’s main event in WrestleMania history. None of the Horsewomen will be competing for WWE’s biggest prize this time around, but that ultimately doesn’t matter when considering their legacies.

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The GOATs:

Since we just talked about Flair and Lynch, let’s turn our attention to the women’s WrestleMania GOAT, Ripley.

Ripley doesn’t have the same quantity of matches as Flair or Lynch, but she does own victories over both in very good matches at WrestleMania 39 and 40. She followed those matches up with Uncrowned’s Match of the Year at WrestleMania 41 last year alongside Iyo Sky and Belair. I didn’t even mention the fact that she also owns a championship win over Asuka at the “Showcase of the Immortals.”

While there’s certainly a case to be made for either “The Queen” or “The Man,” as it currently stands, “The Eradicator” runs the entire WWE women’s division — regardless of whether she has a championship around her waist. She’s as bankable a draw and as consistent a performer as WWE has on its roster, and could enter truly rarified air with another strong performance this weekend at Allegiant Stadium. If Belair is on next year’s WrestleMania card, we’re in for a heated debate.

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On the men’s side, while Rollins didn’t do anything specific to fall out of GOAT status — he was in the same barnburner with Punk and Reigns last year — at some point it’s hard to ignore the fact that this will be Reigns’ 11th main event and 6th consecutive WrestleMania where he’s closing out either Night 1 or Night 2.

Even after the Bloodline saga ended, Reigns has remained such a magnetic personality in WWE that he elevates every single moment to must-see television. He speaks and moves deliberately and in a way that gets the audience invested like few others can — or ever have ever been able to — do.

Rollins may be better in the ring and Punk may be better on the microphone, but Reigns is in the conversation on both fronts and brings an aura that sets him apart from those two. Last year, I called Rollins the spiritual successor to Shawn Michaels as “Mr. WrestleMania,” and if I had to make a similar — perhaps blasphemous — comparison for Reigns, it would be to The Undertaker.

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For that, he’s the GOAT this year.