A review last night, a review this morning, and now, another review tonight. All that just to get me to another review tomorrow night, followed by my regular weekly column the following morning.
Folks, the time has arrived. WrestleMania 40 is officially here. Let’s rock and, perhaps, roll.
Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch – Women’s World Title Match
Whenever you see Rhea Ripley wrestling on pay-per-view, she looks almost completely different. She nails the look every single time. Zero “off” nights.
During the pre-match introductions, we were introduced to some new camera angles in what looked like some incredible picture quality. I’m really glad that Kevin Dunn is dead.
Early on, there’s a bit of a mixed reaction for both women. That says a ton about the work that Rhea has put in, and just how much the WWE Universe appreciates it.
In a continuation of what I just said, there were loud boos when Becky kicked out of a Riptide.
These are two of the best women in the entire business. They’re also two of the best “big match” performers in the business. Put that together, and you know you’re going to get a high quality match between them on the biggest stage that wrestling can provide. Rhea retains her title in a really fun match. It told a simple story, with the dominant champion squaring off against the tough-as-nails challenger, made even stronger by the fact that Becky has been sick all week long. She has been battling strep throat and high fevers, but she continued fighting back against everything Rhea threw at her. 4 Stars
Finn Bálor & Damian Priest vs Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs DIY vs The Awesome Truth vs New Catch Republic vs Grayson Waller & Austin Theory – Six Pack Tag Team Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles
That was a lot to type.
Each pair of titles is hanging separately, further fueling the speculation that one team is pulling down the Raw belts while a different team pulls the Smackdown belts down, giving us two sets of champions again.
R-Truth gets the crowd going CRAZY by calling for a hot tag, and Miz obliges with the dramatic diving tag, causing the crowd to explode. For the love of Joe Pesci, reward Truth already, WWE.
OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE, Grayson Waller climbs a ladder and pulls the Smackdown Tag Team Titles down. He and Austin Theory are the new champs on Smackdown, and it is clarified that, indeed, a different team can pull the other belts down and become the champions on Raw. Seriously, though, Waller pulling the titles down almost got no reaction, as nobody thought that was going to be it. Everyone was waiting for someone to make the stop, and it never happened.
YES! R-Truth dumps Damian Priest down and disposes of Priest with an Attitude Adjustment out of the ring, then climbs up the ladder and pulls the Raw titles down to a highly appreciative crowd.
A-Town Down Under are the new Smackdown Tag Team Champions.
The Awesome Truth are the new Raw Tag Team Champions.
It’s a new era.
That was a really fun ladder match, full of the types of dangerous spots that everyone wants to see in these types of things. The feel good ending was the icing on the cake. You could tell that Truth was emotional as he celebrated atop the ladder, joined by Miz, who gave him what seemed like a helluva speech. Truth could only muster up a simple “thank you, Miz” before they embraced again. I love it. 4 Stars
Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar
Normal entrances for both Mysterios this year. Pretty disappointing when you consider how amazing their entrances were at Mania last year.
Good stuff here. Andrade and Escobar looked like huge stars. Rey continues to defy every law, looking great at this stage of his career. Dom continues to get better and better in the ring. The Philadelphia crowd got to enjoy seeing a run-in from Philadelphia Eagles legends Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. Everyone wins. Well, except for Santos and Dom, who did not win the match.
3.5 Stars. Fun, perfectly innocent stuff.
Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso
I really like that the Usos have focused on wearing the opposite colors of whatever show they’re on. On Smackdown, the “blue” show, they wear red in a nod to The BLOODline. On Raw, the “red” show, Jey has switched to a focus on blue in his ring gear. It’s also a sign that Jey isn’t with that BLOODline anymore. Nice touch.
I saw a tweet earlier today that said we should take a shot every time a Superkick is landed in this match. The match isn’t over yet, but if anyone decided to follow through with that, my condolences to your family. Your death was a preventable one. These two are kicking the shit out of each other.
Realistically, there wasn’t a ton to this match. It was more to tell the story of Jey finally getting his revenge for everything his brother has done to him over the last several months. We got a whole bunch of kicks to the face, and… not much else. Really disappointing, considering what we all know these two are capable of. I can’t give this any more than 2.5 Stars, and I think that might be overselling things a bit.
Bianca Belair, Naomi & Jade Cargill vs Asuka, Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai – Six Woman Tag Team Match
Oh, Dakota. Dakota, Dakota, Dakota. My goodness.
The crowd showed all their love to R-Truth at the end of the Ladder Match, and they’ve been quiet ever since.
You know what wasn’t quiet? Bianca hitting Asuka with her braid, which sounded like yet another gunshot going off in the city of Philadelphia.
If we’re going to be honest with each other, there wasn’t a ton to this match, either. It was basically five women killing time for a few minutes until Jade Cargill tagged in to hit a few power moves and get the win for her team. It wasn’t bad. 2.75 Stars. I just wish there was more to it. If it wasn’t for Jade, you could’ve had this match on television, and it would’ve fit in perfectly.
Gunther vs Sami Zayn – WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Here’s to hoping that this one ends the mini-streak of matches that didn’t exactly end up being completely worthy of WrestleMania.
We start with a shot of Sami backstage, where he is greeted by his wife and son, who give him a pep talk. He walks a bit before being met by Chad Gable, who also gives him a pep talk. Then, he walks to Gorilla, where he is met by Kevin Owens, who also gives him a pep talk. We then follow him through Gorilla, and out onto the stage for his entrance. WWE is better in every possible aspect of production and presentation. Fuck Kevin Dunn. I’m glad he’s dead.
In regards to why the crowd has been so quiet over the last few matches, I just saw a tweet from someone in attendance that said what the commentary team has been saying all night. It’s really cold in the stadium. 40 something degrees out there. The wrestlers are being somewhat protected by heaters and things like that, but the crowd is on their own.
BRAINBUSTAHHHHH~! After taking a hellacious beating from Gunther, Sami was able to hit him with El Generico’s old Brainbuster on the turnbuckle, followed by another Helluva Kick, and we have a brand new Intercontinental Champion. THAT got the crowd going again. Nice touch from Samantha Irvin, who almost sounded emotional herself as she announced Sami being the new champion. Sami had tears in his eyes. His wife was crying.
The match told the perfect story that needed to be told. Gunther looked like the unstoppable horror movie villain that he always is. Sami looked like the scrappiest, toughest underdog, never quitting and fighting back time and time again. Congratulations to Gunther for having the greatest Intercontinental Title reign of all-time, but it was Sami’s night. 4.5 Stars
Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins vs The Rock & Roman Reigns
A reminder… if Cody and Seth win, tomorrow night’s Undisputed WWE Universal Title match will feature no Bloodline interference, but if Rock and Roman win, tomorrow’s match will be contested under Bloodline Rules.
From the end of the previous match to the beginning of this match, we went nearly 40 entire minutes. That is hilarious on so many levels. Easy for me to say, I guess. It’s 68 degrees in my office right now.
Not only did we go nearly 40 minutes between matches, but after the opening bell rang here, we literally went a few minutes with all four men just standing in the ring and staring at each other, then another minute or two with Roman and Seth staring at each other after it was decided they would start the match.
To the surprise of nobody, Rock seems to be in great physical shape. Lord knows he works out enough. He’d better look like a million bucks.
If you thought we were going to get a fast paced match, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Those of you who have been complaining about Roman’s matches aren’t going to like this at all. It probably doesn’t help that his tag partner is less than four weeks away from his 52nd birthday, and is working his first real match in 11 years.
You know… with WrestleMania being a two-night event, we really didn’t need night one to go four-plus hours. That’s highly unnecessary, especially if you do four-plus hours again tomorrow.
Okay, so we have a lot to unpack here. When the stipulation for this match was announced, I think just about all of us assumed Rock and Roman were winning, giving Cody an extra obstacle for tomorrow night. That’s what happened. The story makes sense there.
Was this match too long? Absolutely. It could’ve shaved ten minutes off and done the same job. This had to have been closing in on the 45-minute mark. That’s crazy.
Was it slow paced? Yes. There was never any reason to think it would be anything otherwise, though. Did you think Roman Reigns and The Rock were going to work a Stardom tag style match here?
With all that said, it was fun. The crowd was into everything that happened. Rock hasn’t looked that good in the ring since Vengeance 2002, when he faced Kurt Angle and The Undertaker in a Triple Threat Match. Cody and Seth were given something to fight for, and they busted their asses. Roman continues to look like someone who can’t be stopped. 4 Stars. A shit ton of drama, building for what should be an epic main event tomorrow night.
Nothing fell below the “average” mark for me, with four matches getting a grade of 4 Stars or higher. I’ll take that every single day of the week. Night one of WrestleMania 40 is in the books. Let’s do it all again tomorrow, shall we?