Biggest Winners And Losers Of The Week — 4/21/2026

A pair weeks ago, we debuted our recent feature, Winners and Losers of the Week. Well, rather a lot has happened since then, including AEW Dynasty and WWE WrestleMania 42! And yes, you possibly can click those links and browse in regards to the winners and losers from each those events on their very own — but who won (or lost) the last week overall?

That is the query we here at Wrestling Inc. aim to seek out out on this column. Did WWE or AEW come on on top during the last — oh, let’s call it nine days? Did anyone or anything see their stock particularly raised or lowered? Listed here are your WINC winners and losers for the week of 4/21/2026!

It has been a rough few days for Kenny Omega’s hyper-protected finisher. First, MJF technically kicked out of it at AEW Dynasty, though admittedly after being down for several seconds while a referee got into position to count. Then at WrestleMania, Jade Cargill broke it out during her match with Rhea Ripley, with Michael Cole referring to it because the “Sandstorm.” After which Ripley kicked out of it, too.

Now, it must be mentioned that Omega — never one to fire up tribalism — appears to be high-quality with Cargill using the move, and it did technically get a WrestleMania moment, if one cares about that sort of thing. But we’re not used to 2 people kicking out of the One-Winged Angel within the space of eight days. Not less than at Dynasty there was reason for it; at WrestleMania, Cargill used it as almost a transitional move, though it stays to be seen how often she’ll bust it out. All in all, you have got to confess it’s lost a bit little bit of luster this week, and seems just a bit bit less unstoppable than it once did.

This one is clear, but sometimes winners are. And once you beat Andrade El Idolo at Dynasty and win a world championship in your hometown, with the locker room emptying to have fun with you and a legend like Sting supplying you with his official endorsement (not that Allin did not have that already, but whatever) it’s hard to be anything.

Will Allin have a very long reign as world champ? Probably not. Most AEW fans are of the assumption this will probably be a brief run on top for Allin, who will quickly drop the title back to MJF. But AEW clearly desired to have their very own version of a WrestleMania moment this week, and Allin delivered that feel-good story — one other of the vaunted pillars capturing championship gold. Allin probably feels pretty good too, a loyal AEW soldier being rewarded for literally planting the corporate’s flag on the best of all peaks. You would possibly not agree with the choice to crown Darby on an only-a-little-random Wednesday TV broadcast, but you possibly can’t deny him as a winner of the week.

Regardless of how anyone tries to spin it, WrestleMania Saturday was not night for WWE — at the very least not when it comes to public perception. The matches were too short, the ads were too long, and the primary event made no sense. Afterward, the web wrestling community was ablaze with criticism, with many calling out the show for having a soulless, corporate feel to it while highlighting celebrities like Jelly Roll and IShowSpeed over actual wrestlers. There was also a robust sense of disconnect between WrestleMania 42 Night 1 and the construct leading as much as it, as if the 2 things simply had nothing to do with one another.

It’s often been said which you could tell when WWE has a rough night by the frequency of Tony Khan’s promotional posts, and he sure was posting on Saturday. For at the very least one night, AEW gave the look of every thing it advertises itself to be: the house of real skilled wrestling in an industry where the choice is Pat McAfee. For that to occur on the primary night of WWE’s supposed biggest event of the 12 months was nothing wanting disastrous, regardless of what the attendance figure actually was.

And yet, here we’re. For all that WrestleMania Night 1 felt like a PR nightmare, Night 2 (and the “Raw” after WrestleMania) brought WWE immediately back to the winner’s section, and albeit, it is going to be very easy for plenty of people to forget that Night 1 even happened.

Night 2 was a triumph in some ways, most notably within the opener — which saw the complete ascension of white-hot recent megastar Oba Femi, who seems to have retired the controversial Brock Lesnar — and the primary event, which was almost universally agreed to be the most effective wrestling matches WWE had placed on in recent memory. You possibly can dispute that when you want, but the actual fact of the matter is that on Saturday, WWE wasn’t even a wrestling promotion anymore, and on Sunday, CM Punk and Roman Reigns placed on a spectacular wrestling match that has functionally laid those accusations to rest (at the very least for now). Add to that the proven fact that the “Raw” after WrestleMania was pretty good overall, featuring quite a few “NXT” call-ups and elevating rising star Jacob Fatu into the pole position for Reigns’ newly-won World Heavyweight Championship, and Night 1 appears like a distant memory, even when the criticisms it garnered are still entirely valid.

It’s all about perception, and from a perception standpoint, WWE is already back on top after stumbling briefly on Saturday. You didn’t see any Tony Khan promotional posts Sunday or Monday night, and there is a reason for that.