Last night’s show was a very interesting mixed bag.
It was very newsworthy, and it featured what many are saying is the best Triple Threat in WWE history, but the overall reviews seem to say that the overall show wasn’t quite up to par for what a WrestleMania should be.
How will night two play out?
There seems to be more mystery surrounding tonight’s show, with two mystery wrestlers yet to be named, a wild main event, and much more.
Enough chit chat.
I’m ready.
Are you ready?
If we’re all ready, then I just need you to say it with me one time…
LESS DEW EET!!!
Iyo Sky vs Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley – Triple Threat Match for the WWE Women’s World Title
The complaints about Iyo being completely overlooked, even though she’s the champion, aren’t going to calm down now that she is making her entrance first for this match. People really get bent out of shape when champions don’t come out last for their matches.
Bianca’s stepdaughter is participating in her ring entrance. They share an embrace before Bianca makes her way down the ramp. That’s pretty cool. Of note, Bianca definitely had some noticeable heel heat during her entrance. Iyo and Rhea did not.
The sound of the opening bell is heard 18 minutes after the hour.
Bianca is playing to the heel reaction. During the match introductions, she cupped her hand to her ear as the crowd booed, causing them to boo more. Just now, she motioned for the crowd to kiss her ass as they rained boos down on her. That’s something to watch.
The crowd is already electric. Whether it’s simply because this is the first match of the night and who is involved remains to be seen, but they’re off to a great start. It seems to be adding some extra motivation to all three women, who are busting their asses in the early stages of the match.
We’ve already had multiple “this is awesome” chants. So far, I don’t disagree.
As Bianca is about to pin Rhea to win the match after a braid shot and a KOD, Iyo comes out of nowhere with an Over The Moonsault to “steal” the win. The champion retains her title. That was such a fun match to watch. Zero slow spots, allowing all three women to get their shit in, as the saying goes. Iyo wins, but nobody comes out of this looking bad. 4.25 Stars. Great start to the show. It also makes me realize that I may have underrated last night’s main event, as I think this was higher than 4.25, but that means last night’s main was higher than 4.5, but here we are.
Damian Priest vs Drew McIntyre – Sin City Street Fight
Time for some brutal physicality.
After Drew McIntyre’s entrance saw him cosplaying as a character from Doom, Damian Priest’s entrance sees him being played to the ring by metal guitarist Kerry King of Slayer. All week, there have been rumors that the entire band was going to play Priest’s entrance live, but instead, we just get one member.
LOL @ McIntyre hitting Priest with the ring steps at ringside, then grabbing a cell phone from his brother and posing for a selfie with Priest’s carcass in the background. Hilarious callback to last year.
The crowd definitely hasn’t been as involved here as they were in the first match.
A Razor’s Edge through a table has left Drew’s back with some bloody scratches and scrapes. Him delivering a Future Shock DDT atop the ring steps probably isn’t going to help his back any. That was silly.
Man, Drew’s back is battered pretty much all over, from damn near the nape of his neck down to right above his trunks.
Priest attempts the Undertaker Old School tribute, but Drew pushes him off the top rope, sending Damian crashing through two tables that were set up at ringside. Ouch.
Drew gets Priest back in the ring, then sets his head up against a chair propped in the corner. He delivers a Claymore, driving Priest’s head into the chair, for the win. That was fun. The crowd was pretty quiet for the early portions, but both men were able to win them over by the end. Hard hitting stuff, although you know these types of matches aren’t going to get TOO crazy in WWE. 3.5 Stars
Bron Breakker vs Finn Balor vs Dominik Mysterio vs Penta – Fatal Four-Way for the WWE Intercontinental Title
17 years ago, Scott Steiner made history with his “Steiner Math” promo leading up to his Triple Threat Match against Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle (who would be replaced by Kaz after suffering an injury ahead of the show) at TNA’s Sacrifice pay-per-view. That didn’t work out for Steiner, who would go on to lose the match.
Yesterday, Bron Breakker cut his own “Steiner Math” promo leading up to this match. Will he fare any better than his uncle?
The level of explosiveness that Bron Breakker brings to the wrestling world is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in all my years of watching the sport. He really seems like someone who was designed and built in a lab somewhere.
Dom Mysterio went on offense, and there was a clear-as-day portion of the crowd that was cheering for him. IT HAS BEGUN.
Dom went after Finn, putting him in position for a 619, and the crowd went crazy! They booed Finn for catching Dom’s legs and putting the boots to him. Wow. This is really happening.
Super Spear from the Spanish announce table to the English announce table, with Bron killing Carlito yet again. Poor guy just keeps dying.
Holy shit, this crowd has gotten COMPLETELY behind Dominik Mysterio. This is insanity. After Balor lands his finisher on Bron, Dominik hits a Frog Splash on Finn and pins him to become the brand new Intercontinental Champion. The crowd went nuts!
Another fun match. 3.5 Stars. Bron lost his title (maybe Steiner Math is a jinx), but he looked like a million bucks during the match. Penta and Finn got their chances to look good, too, but Dominik Mysterio was the real star and the story here. We have entered a new era, folks.
Randy Orton vs ???
“The Viper” comes out with ring gear that almost looks to be paying tribute to his very early days on the main roster, with the blue and yellow color combination.
SAY HIS NAME, AND HE APPEARS! Joe Hendry is here! The crowd is singing his theme. This is cool. The TNA World Champion is wrestling at WrestleMania.
Is Michael Cole trying to be a heel? Woi Bar-ruh is on commentary, praising Joe Hendry for being a very talented veteran that isn’t some flash in the pan. In response, Cole basically brushes Hendry off and talking about the names that Orton has already defeated at WrestleMania.
Well… at least Hendry got to appear at WrestleMania. There wasn’t much of a match. He did his patented “turn to the camera and smile” and popped the crowd, but that led to Orton flying in from out of the shot to drop him with an RKO for the win. People complained at how quickly Hendry was eliminated from the Royal Rumble three months ago, and they were certainly complain at how quickly Hendry was defeated here. If the match cracked the three-minute mark, it barely did so, but I’m not 100% sure that it did. I’m not rating it. It was more of a “WrestleMania moment” thing than a match.
Hey, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been Solo Sikoa facing Randy.
I’ve already seen people complaining that Nick Aldis wasn’t the one facing Orton. Come on, people. Aldis hasn’t wrestled in nearly two years, and while you can say an Orton vs Aldis match would’ve been booked to be longer and better, you can’t seriously think Aldis would’ve gotten anywhere near the same reaction that Hendry got. Again, this wasn’t about trying to deliver a classic. It was about getting the big pop and getting the people buzzing. Joe Hendry did that.
After the match, Orton tells Hendry to soak in the crowd reaction, putting him over to the crowd… and then hits him with another RKO. As the crowd chants “one more time,” Orton does Hendry’s pose, hitting his own pose in the process.
AJ Styles vs Logan Paul
The early stages of this match are on the more methodical side, which is really surprising when you consider who is wrestling here.
Man, the methodical pace is still continuing on. I wouldn’t say the match has been bad at all. It’s just a bit slow, and outside of booing when Logan poses and taunts, the crowd is reacting to it as such.
One of Logan’s entourage members comes out to interfere and hand brass knuckles to Logan, but he is intercepted by Karrion Kross. The doofus entourage member is thrown to the side, and Kross unsuccessfully tries to convince AJ to use the knucks himself. The distraction is enough for Logan to connect with a punch, followed by a Paulverizer, for the pin and the win.
I’m so sick and fucking tired of these lame ass people coming out to interfere in Logan’s matches. It’s tiring already. Can we stop going to the same well again and again and again?
This may have been Logan’s “worst” singles match, which is weird. Again, it wasn’t bad. It was just slow, and frankly, kind of boring at times. 2.75 Stars
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs Lyra Valkyria & ??? – WWE Women’s Tag Team Title Match
Before the match, it is revealed that WWE: Unreal will be premiering on Netflix this summer. The show is a docuseries that will take us into the WWE writer’s room. That’s either going to be an incredible show, or a complete train wreck. I don’t think there’s an in between.
Who will Lyra’s mystery partner be? I still think it’s insane that Bayley was removed from WrestleMania, no matter who the new partner ends up being. Bayley deserves better.
The rumors are true… Becky Lynch has returned to the company for the first time in 11 months, and the crowd at Allegiant Stadium has welcomed her back with open arms. It’s great to see Becky back. She looks amazing. It’s still sad that Bayley didn’t get a WrestleMania spot, though. You could’ve had the originally scheduled tag match here, had the champions win, and then had Becky make the save after a post-match beatdown or something.
Unless, of course, we’re going with the lazy writing that Becky was the one who attacked Bayley backstage so that she could replace Bayley in the match. We don’t need that immediately after what went down with Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, and Naomi.
Smart layout for the match, keeping Becky out of things and allowing Lyra to handle most of the heavy lifting in the early stages.
She didn’t need to do much, but when it mattered most, Big Time Becks shined. Manhandle Slam on Liv gets the pin and the win, and we have new Women’s Tag Team Champions. I REALLY wish WWE would stop with the double champion thing, but I’m not expecting this tag reign to be a lengthy one.
3 Stars. It was more about Becky’s return, and the build to her entering the match, than anything else. It seems like that type of thing is becoming the norm, unfortunately.
Before the main event can get underway, the glass shatters, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin has arrived! Again! Since he was at the Hall Of Fame, and at last night’s WrestleMania!
LOL @ Austin riding his four-wheeler around the ring, and then crashing it into the ringside barricade. He CLEARLY pissed off a woman who was in the front row. I don’t know if it’s because the crash made the barricade hit her, or if it ruined her dinner, but whatever it is, she was so mad and had some choice words to say to Austin.
Actually, upon further review, the barricade did hit her and knock her back into her seat. The fall itself looked very tame, but if she barricade hit her while she was standing up against it, she really could’ve gotten hurt.
Austin is here to announce the attendance. Okay then.
Before Austin leaves, he walks back over to the woman at the barricade, who is already speaking with WWE President Nick Khan. That lady just won the wrestling fan lottery. She’s either going backstage, getting a bunch of free stuff, getting tickets, or a combination of everything.
Cody Rhodes vs John Cena – Undisputed WWE Title Match
Main event time.
You can tell Cena’s a heel because his big screens are completely black with plain white letters that spell his name. No “bowl of Fruity Pebbles” here. Not even a hint of a special WrestleMania entrance. Just the shit you get in WWE 2K when you create your wrestler but forget to finish customizing their entrance.
Cody’s entrance begins with a bunch of dirt bike riders. You know, because AMERICA.
During the pre-match introductions, Cody receives a ton of heel heat. That’s interesting, but especially because Cena also received a ton of heel heat. It’s all sure to change before the night is over, so we’ll see what happens.
These two have barely been physical in the first few minutes, but the crowd doesn’t seem to mind. They’re absolutely on fire.
Cena is wrestling as if he doesn’t care about anything or anyone, and I mean that in the best possible way. He also doesn’t care about being seen or heard calling spots in his matches, but we’ve known that for years now.
Cody interrupts a Five Knuckle Shuffle attempt, and the crowd hates every bit of it. Cena milked it for everything he could, but he gave Cody too much time to recover.
This heel version of Cena is a psychopath. He just hit Cody with an Attitude Adjustment, but when Cody kicked out of the pin attempt, Cena just sat and laughed to himself before going about his business.
Ref Bump! Bring on the shenaniganery!
Someone in the crowd has a sign that says “Dishustle, Disloyalty, Disrespect.” Education is important, folks. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Technically, no shenaniganery.
Well… just as I finished typing that, Travis Scott’s music hits, bringing the rapper out. He takes his sweet ass time getting to the ring. Referee Chad Patton is back up, though. Travis breaks up a pin attempt from Cody by pulling the ref out of the ring. While the ref is out of action again, Cody hits Travis with a Cross Rhodes, then breaks up an attempted belt shot by Cody. Cody grabs the title from Cena, who begs Cody to show him mercy. Cody decides to do the “right” thing and he gets kicked in the Little Codies for his trouble.
We have a brand new Undisputed WWE Champion! Cena has broken Ric Flair’s record!
The match was done tremendously well from a storytelling standpoint, even if it wasn’t always tremendously done from an in-ring quality standpoint. Cena dared Cody to do what was necessary to win, but Cody refused, allowing Cena to do what was necessary. 3.5 Stars
What is unbelievable to me is the absolute lack of Rock involvement since Elimination Chamber. We went almost two months without his name even being mentioned, even though he orchestrated the biggest heel turn of the modern era, and we never saw him, not even at WrestleMania. That’s about as dumb as it gets.
Night two of WrestleMania 41 gets a recommendation from me, but it was more of the same as what we got last night. Some good, some not-as-good, a metric fuckton of ads and sponsor spots, and an overall vibe that has many feeling this isn’t on par with what WrestleMania should be.
I only have a brief period of time to take a break, but I’ll be back again tomorrow morning/afternoon with my usual weekly column. Thank you to everyone who took time to read what I’ve had to say this weekend. I appreciate you all more than you know.
