Joe Hendry Recalls How He Felt Before First WWE WrestleMania Match

Joe Hendry admits he wasn’t sure how the WWE fans would react to his WrestleMania debut.

The former NXT and TNA World Champion Joe Hendry recently joined the WWE Monday Night Raw roster.

Since joining the red brand, he has targeted the hated Logan Paul with physical attacks and has also sung a song about how he wants WWE to fire Paul.

At WrestleMania 41 in 2025, Joe Hendry was the surprise opponent of Randy Orton. Orton was supposed to face Kevin Owens at WM41, but with KO out of action due to a neck injury, WWE went with a surprise opponent instead.

When Joe Hendry showed up, and a familiar theme song played, the fans went wild for Hendry, who was the TNA World Champion at the time. Orton won the match decisively, but Hendry certainly felt like a bigger star for being in a WrestleMania match.

During and after the match, Orton also did some of Hendry’s signature poses, which came off as if Orton was a fan of Hendry and was endorsing him. That’s certainly a good thing for Hendry since Orton is a WWE legend.

Joe Hendry’s WrestleMania Debut Was Surreal

While speaking to Insight’s Chris Van Vliet about his WrestleMania 41 match, Joe Hendry emphasized the importance of appreciating those big moments.

“I mean, that is hard to put into words. I was standing there for what felt like a long time. When all this is going on, it feels pretty surreal. There were definitely a few moments where I was like, This is real life, isn’t it? This isn’t like some elaborate dream that I’m having. But I remember being in Gorilla, I was watching the video package for Randy’s 20th WrestleMania and I was like, this is a really good video package.

I was like, ‘This is great.’ Then I was like, ‘oh, it’s me, all right.’ I’m about to go out. Just a moment where I kind of got lost in it. And then they were like, right, go. And then so I’m standing in front of the video wall, I’m doing my pose, and I’m just like, ‘This is nuts.’

I was there the whole time he was doing the promo, it’s almost impossible to put it into words. The door opens, I do the spin, and it was just like this wall of energy and noise. I was just like, wow. I still remember exactly what I saw. That’s one of the things about wrestling, is I don’t know if, like, fans realize this, this is kind of a wrestler thing, but sometimes, if you have a moment in wrestling, if you watch it back on YouTube or whatever, you kind of don’t remember it from the first person point of view, through your own eyes, you’d remember it as you’re watching two people wrestle or whatever.

But that’s why I make sure, with these big moments, to just really try and take a mental picture of what’s going on. I’ll never forget making the walk at WrestleMania. It was surreal. It was incredible.” (H/T Chrisvanvliet.com)

Also Read: Joe Hendry Admits Crucial Mistake That Cost Him WWE Deal Earlier In Career