This year’s WrestleMania took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at Lincoln Financial Field, April 6-7.
The two-night event had a combined attendance of over 145,000 people, including Vanessa Hudgens, Druski, Wale, George Kittle, and other celebrities. The theme of the week was a new era, and this weekend definitely felt like that took place.
The six-team ladder match for both Tag Team Championships was an early show-stealer. A culmination of dominance from Judgement Day led to having to take on five worthy tag teams, which led to the split of the belts. Fans have been clamoring for months for this to happen, so for this to be the result made a lot of people happy, myself included.
Grayson Waller and Austin Theory took down the Smackdown Tag Team Championships first, about halfway through the match. The Awesome Truth was the other team that climbed the ladder and pulled down the Raw Tag Team Championships. It was R-Truth’s first win on the big stage, and it was also a very cool moment for him and his teammate, The Miz, as this became their first set of titles together.
Gunther’s 666 days as Intercontinental champion was on the line as the challenger, Sami Zayn looked to reprise his role as the underdog. Gunther boasted about his performance to Zayn’s wife, which sparked an offensive flurry from Zayn, resulting in him winning his fourth Intercontinental Championship. I do feel WWE missed out on the making of a star. The storyline for the ending of this title reign seemed like it was made for Chad Gable. Ultimately, this match was hard-hitting and entertaining.
In the main event of night one, the heavyweight matchup of Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes against Roman Reigns and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, finally took place. The Rock, who had not wrestled an actual match in over a decade, had the crowd enthralled, and this match delivered. The Rock played the role of an evil boss perfectly, threatening to fire the referee if he counted anyone out or disqualified anyone. This led to a brawl around the arena and a very chaotic match. In the end, Rhodes was down, and Reigns tagged in his cousin. The Rock would spike Rhodes in the middle of the ring with a Rock Bottom, followed by the People’s Elbow to pick up the pinfall.
The match was so well done. Seeing The Rock perform and not play it safe made the night. Everyone in the match shined. The decision to have the main event the following night between Rhodes and Reigns be Bloodline rules and Rhodes getting pinned to end the tag match led to all the doubt that Rhodes could actually win the big one.
To open night two, Seth Rollins defended his World Heavyweight Championship against Drew McIntyre. McIntyre would go on to hit four Claymores to defeat Rollins. After the match, McIntyre decided to celebrate in front of the injured CM Punk. However, Punk was less injured than he had led on, and he beat down the new champion. Poetically, as Punk blew a kiss to McIntyre’s wife, the theme music of Damian Priest hit, and he cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase and defeated McIntyre to become the new World Heavyweight Champion.
In a rematch of the main event of WrestleMania 39, Cody Rhodes took on the Undisputed Universal Champion, Roman Reigns. There was no interference for a good 20 minutes until Jimmy Uso saved his cousin from a Cross Rhodes. Prompting former Bloodline member Jey Uso to even the odds, he speared Jimmy off the ramp through two tables. Solo Sikoa was the next to try to save Reigns. Sikoa’s interference was answered by John Cena. After Cena took out Sikoa, The Rock came down next. The stare down ended with a Rock Bottom. A battered Rollins tried to make a save, but Reigns caught him. Finally, a bell rang and the lights went out. When they came back on, the Undertaker was in the ring, and he drove The Rock down with a choke slam.
After all the run-ins, Rhodes hit Reigns with a trifecta of Cross Rhodes and got the victory. This ended Reigns’s 1,316-day reign as champion and finished Rhodes’s story. This was the match of the two nights. All the wrestling, surprises and finishes came together to put on a perfect match.
I was very excited about this WrestleMania. The buildup for this show felt very in order, and it was well executed. The Rock’s slogan as of late has been “Pro Wrestling is cool again,” and honestly, right now, it is the biggest it has ever been.
“Pro wrestling is beautiful!” Pat McAfee exclaimed at the end of WrestleMania, and there is no better way to sum up the end of the WWE’s biggest event.
