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WWE
WWE Unreal is back for a third series, available now as part of the company's deal with Netflix. The controversial reality TV show has had a hit-and-miss response from fans, but this new season concentrates on some enormous stories and angles.
Covered as part of Season 3 of Unreal, John Cena's retirement match and his farewell tour take center stage in the opening few episodes. Bron Breakker, Liv Morgan, Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Stephanie Vaquer are given special coverage, while Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton's controversial WrestleMania 42 main event and AJ Lee's return to wrestling are given the WWE Unreal treatment.
As has been the case in the first two seasons, WWE Unreal has moments of genuine revelation interspersed with the company's need to protect its decision-making process. With the stakes as high as they've ever been, how well does WWE's in-house reality show cover one of the most controversial periods in the company's recent history?
Downs...
4. Expectations Around Unreal Are Met, For Better And For Worse
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WWE
When the first season of Unreal aired, it was can't-miss TV. For the first time, WWE was set to acknowledge the complexities of its backstage workings, secrets that had been kept for decades, and bring us access to the people behind the characters they play on TV. Across the show's first two seasons, fan expectation has been tempered. Unreal is part of the company's mission to be seen as entertainment that overcomes any adversity to deliver flawlessly to its fans, who are wowed by WWE's every move.
Fans have begrudgingly accepted the show is an exercise in PR, but Season 3 has a harder job of portraying WWE's ability to please its audience than in its first two seasons.
This year's WrestleMania was controversial for all the wrong reasons, as constant adverts made for a disjointed viewing experience, shortened matches were panned, and poorly executed angles came to largely unsatisfying conclusions. The John Cena retirement tour was also considered a disappointment, with his final match against Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event causing weeks of hot takes about the man who never gives up tapping out. Season 3 of Unreal concentrates on trying to discredit these negatives with pretty unsatisfactory results.
Everything else is business as usual. Fly-on-the-wall footage is fun, and fans feel like they get a better idea of the personalities they follow. AJ Lee, Liv Morgan, and Trick Williams benefit best from this, while Stephanie Vaquer and Bron Breakker's coverage is a little disappointing, with the discussion around Breakker not being the right fit to win the 2026 Royal Rumble being one of the only moments that feel like you're getting any genuine look behind the curtain. Paul Levesque is worried fans might feel like they're having Breakker rammed down their throats, instead plumping for a man who's never been pushed down their throats: Roman Reigns. Sure.
3. Rhodes Vs. Orton Shows Unreal's Flaws
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WWE
From what news cycles have told us, TKO's meddling in night one of WrestleMania 42's main event is why the story around Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship went down like a fart at a wedding. By making Pat McAfee the focal point of their feud, adding in Jelly Roll for some celebrity spectacle, and ignoring a 15-year history between Rhodes and Orton, fans were bewildered by how a feud that felt like it couldn't fail went so spectacularly wrong.
Unreal does a better job of selling the history of Randy and Cody in the first five mins of episode five than the six weeks that led to their match in Las Vegas. As Cody walks around the WWE Warehouse, looking at famous artifacts of years gone by, he is shown his trunks from his first 'Mania, a triple threat with The Viper and Ted DiBiase Jnr. He speaks expertly of their long-running history together, as clips amplify the story he's telling.
Cody Rhodes is one of the best talkers in wrestling, and he understands every facet of the business, so when he tells us WrestleMania 42 is his favourite WrestleMania match since he came back, he will surely know that not a soul will believe him. Fans everywhere know that TKO drove Rhodes and Orton’s main event into a wall, but there’s no way WWE's "QB1" is going to blast its parent company on the world's biggest streaming platform. One of WWE's biggest stars lying through his teeth does not make for great reality television.
It's telling that Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll aren't interviewed for Unreal, and neither is Randy Orton. McAfee's role in the feud is almost entirely ignored, in exchange for showing close-ups of fans smiling and high-fiving as the match unfolded. It is a stark contrast to how people feel about the feud and match, and is one of the reasons Unreal is quickly becoming a point of ridicule for wrestling fans everywhere. It is, at best, a dishonest appraisal of how fans felt about a match they'd waited years for, and, at worst, a rank piece of propaganda.
2. John Cena's Final Run
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WWE
For fans coming into Season 3 of WWE Unreal, the biggest question revolved around "how is WWE going to spin the John Cena farewell tour as not a disaster?"
The most considerable way WWE combats that perception is to lean into John Cena, the man. It is no secret to WWE fans that Cena has always been a one-of-one when it comes to being the model professional who personifies everything you could ever want as the face of a billion-dollar, publicly traded enterprise. Unreal's job is to let the outside world know who Cena is, which is done by his faultless soundbites and general selflessness.
To nobody's surprise, Cena is all class, all the time. John himself is keen to sell himself as just a man who did the most with his opportunity. From working with kids to sharing his knowledge with members of the roster, to giving a pep talk to Trick Williams and Oba Femi at their first WrestleMania, this is great PR for letting the world know what a good example John Cena sets for others.
From his long-running affinity for CM Punk, how gracious he is with Liv Morgan on her big return, to giving fans what they wanted between him and AJ Styles, the relationship he’s shared with WWE cameraman Stew, and how that’s a mechanism to share his joy with the people watching at home, there is a notion that John Cena’s farewell tour was all about giving back. Unreal furthers that narrative every step of the way.
There's an enjoyable look at the creativity of Cena too, as he wanted to really ruin wrestling for fans during his heel turn. By making his appearances and matches as unsatisfying as possible, John was succeeding in being a "true heel". It's an interesting take, and one that Levesque has to force him to reconsider, as it was working so well that fans were getting mad at WWE as a result.
The decision around TKO board member The Rock vanishing from our screens after being the catalyst for Cena's heel turn and the complete disappearance of Travis Scott after WrestleMania 41 is completely ignored. As fans, we can't magically forget that this happened, and if Unreal is to have more value as a "Reality TV show", it has to do a better job of addressing the big questions that exist for fans around the incidents that they cover.
1. Injuries Are Central To Season 3 of Unreal
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WWE
WWE feels determined to let fans know just how hard they have been rocked by injuries over the course of the last year. Paul Levesque tries spinning that injuries for some are opportunities for others, but the soundbites gathered around Seth Rollins's course-altering injury at Crown Jewel suggest that WrestleMania 42's plans were enormously impacted by his absence in the months leading up to the event.
It could be reading between the lines a little, but Unreal seems to show WWE holding its hands up and admitting that The Vision has not worked due to everybody getting injured. Bron Breakker is one of the series' main focus points, but his hernia injury curtails his impact on the product that was intended to be captured. Bronson Reed and Austin Theory are caught in candid conversation after Bron tore his bicep, with both suggesting that The Vision is cursed.
When fans follow the product every week and judge a show like WrestleMania on what happens on the night itself, it can be easy to forget that WWE has had a nightmare year with injuries to some of its marquee talents.
Ups...
3. Larry Talbot, RIP
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WWE
For a show justifiedly belittled for the lack of reality in its Reality TV, the love story around CM Punk and AJ Lee, and the heartbreaking passing of their dog Larry, is incredibly moving viewing.
The first few episodes concentrate on AJ's return to wrestling, and the love that exists between herself and Punk. They both glow when talking about one another, their affection doesn't ever feel performative, and Lee reveals that they agreed to do an angle on camera together because after “12 years of privacy, it felt like the right time to celebrate my awesome husband and what we’ve done in wrestling.” Her return to the ring and her enjoyment in the current WWE system is satisfying, considering the unequal landscape she was formerly part of.
In episode four, these feel-good moments come to a gut-wrenching halt with the death of their dog, Larry. Larry was well known to the wrestling community, and his passing is something that will resonate with fans of all ages, races, genders, and sexualities. The mourning of Phil Brooks and April Mendez is uncomfortable to watch, just because the grief in their loss weighs a ton. It’s bold and brave for them to share the loss of their family member, and it redresses the balance of a world that doesn't do enough to recognize that the passing of our four-legged family members can hurt every bit as much as those who walk on two.
Punk’s valiant attempts to stop his grief becoming “just part of a reality show” are crushing to behold, as he doesn't want to talk to Netflix's crew about the pain he's going through. When talking about getting Larry’s paw print tattooed on his chest, he describes the day Larry left Earth as “the worst day of [his] life”. There is some relief as WWE, Punk, AJ, and fans around the world donated in their thousands to PAWS dog shelter in Chicago in Larry's honor, but this segment of the show is one of the few Unreal moments that fans feel part of a real-life look into the performers' lives.
2. Liv Morgan Shines
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WWE
Liv Morgan is maybe the most enjoyable story told by Unreal so far. Including enough storytelling to endear her to any Netflix viewer watching through curiosity, Morgan’s rags-to-riches story of busting her ass to go from Hooters waitress to one of the best wrestlers today is magnetic. Factor in her infectious laugh, a personality that is radically different from her on-screen persona, and her wholesome home life with cows, chickens, and other assorted animals, and fans get a snapshot of the real Liv Morgan that’s more valuable than the WWE propaganda that fills most of the show’s runtime.
The goodwill Liv builds makes it all the more affecting when she tearily tells the story of her big 2025 injury, and how she had to miss a stadium show in her hometown of New Jersey for last year’s SummerSlam. This is contrasted by her victory in the 2026 women's Royal Rumble, the fun she has performing her new entrance music at WrestleMania 42, and her coronation as Women's World Champion in Las Vegas.
Elsewhere, Trick Williams and Lash Legend's romance is heart-warming, as is the pride of Trick's mum (The Anointed Mum, if you will) in the aftermath of his US Championship victory at WrestleMania 42. Oba Femi's inevitable ascension is shown in a writer's room that is brimming with praise about his future, and Bron Breakker's dedication to fulfilling his destiny is a welcome aside.
1. Cena's Last Stand
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WWE.com
Unreal does a good job of capturing the enormity of John Cena's final match against Gunther at 2025's final Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington. The emotion of the evening is personified by Charles Robinson bawling his eyes out before the match, CM Punk and Bayley bouncing around and hugging like fans while they enjoy Cena's finale, Michael Cole choking back tears on commhttps://whatculture.com/wwe/tom-brady-wwe-in-ongoing-conversations-over-future-appearance-wwe-newscelentary, and Al Green’s beautiful ‘For The Good Times’ soundtracking his final moments as he tapped out.
WWE could have just sold Cena’s final night as an in-ring talent as a beloved triumph, but they address people’s bemusement and anger in the booking of his final moment. Cena takes ownership of the story, saying that he knew his final moment tapping out to Gunther would not be universally liked. He explains why he decided to tap out, citing that some people are lucky enough to die surrounded by loved ones with a smile on their face, and that’s how he wanted to end his in-ring career.
The idea is that Cena's retirement in this particular way was done to make Gunther a bigger heel as a result. That worked for a few weeks, as Gunther went on to retire AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble, but fans can be forgiven for questioning this long-term, given his booking in 2026. He is about to fight SmackDown's GM at SummerSlam after being thrown haphazardly into a match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 42 that held little weight with fans whatsoever.
Unreal also addresses fans' displeasure with the booking of Cena’s retirement directly at Paul Levesque. Levesque says he considers Cena’s farewell run as “a success on all levels”. This is where Unreal falls apart. Through the opening two episodes, Cena’s failed heel run is barely mentioned, and the role Travis Scott and The Rock played in that run falling apart is not mentioned at all. This reality show too often ignores the biggest questions and criticisms fans have of WWE, in the name of making the company look like it always finds a way to succeed (despite all the evidence to the contrary).
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