WWE WrestleMania 39 Recap & Reaction

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WrestleMania 39

Finish the Story

The two Night WrestleMania from Hollywood California, SoFi Stadium was based on Cody Rhodes finishing the story, by winning the one belt his legendary father Dusty Rhodes never could.  That championship being the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.  It was a year long buildup that everyone thought would end in a Rhodes celebration with the belt, it didn’t happen.

One of the greatest matches of all time, had one of the worst endings.  There had never been a more perfect set up for Reigns to drop the belt, then it was tonight against Cody Rhodes, a yearlong build up, and they went in a different direction.

The crowd was ready to erupt, the match was amazing, they did everything right, until the very end when Reigns needed help from Solo Sikao to win.  Much like they did with Clash in the Castle when the setup was right there for Drew McIntyre to beat him, it was laid out on a silver platter.  Maybe the pending sale of the WWE had something to do with it, I don’t honestly know.

But it was Cody’s time, and the only worry the WWE had was if the WWE Universe would get behind it, and they did, and then they pulled it from them.  I don’t know what else to say, Rhodes did everything right in this match and deserved a better outcome in the end.

You didn’t let “The Demon” beat Reigns, you didn’t let Edge or Daniel Bryan even come close.  You didn’t have Drew or Zayn win in their hometowns, and for each of those, I could make a case on why it was the smart thing to keep the belt on Roman.  I have no case this time.  Just sad that one of the greatest matches I have ever seen, was nearly ruined by an idiotic ending.

Austin Theory retained his United States Championship versus John Cena.  As much as I love John Cena, this was the right move to give Theory the “rub” needed with his first huge win over a major name.  Cena looked a little rough but it is always fun to see him and I truly enjoyed the “Make A Wish” moment for the kids.

Seth Rollins defeated YouTube Sensation turned wannabe wrestler Logan Paul.  As much as I hate Logan Paul, I have to admit, he knows how to tear down the house and Seth Rollins has been stealing the show for years. There was no way they would book Rollins to lose 4 straight years, but with the way the match played out, it gave the illusion that he may actually lose again.  A tremendous match as Rollins continued to shine in the big moment when given the chance to do so.

Hall of Famers Lita and Trish Stratus returned to team with Becky Lynch.  They took on the up and coming red hot heel group Damage CTRL consisting of Dakota Kai, Io Sharia and Bayley.  The legends along with “The Man” came out on top in this one.

It had so some slow spots as Becky and then Lita stayed in the ring a little too long for a tag match.  Eventually it got moving along and we saw a patented Io Sky moonsault to the outside. Overall a pretty cool bit of nostalgia having Trish and Lita in there, but the wrong team won.  Booking should have realized how crucial that win would have been for Damage CTRL.  With the defeat, they lost all steam losing to a couple of part timers.

A four-way tag match saw The Street Profits vs Alpha Academy vs Viking Raiders vs Braun & Ricochet in which the Street Profits came out on top.  Each team had their big guy come off the top rope at some point.  This included an Ivar Moonsault, a Strowman Belly Flop and a Otis Vader Bomb into a moonsault.  A tremendous job of booking as everyone got over!

For only the second time in WrestleMania history, it was father versus son as the newly christened Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio took on his foul mouthed and disrespectful son Dominik.

WWE WrestleMania is known for excellent entrances, and this match was no different.  Dominik came out in a paddy wagon like a hardened criminal, sporting a luchador mask that he promptly took off. Meanwhile Rey came out in a lowrider, paying homage to Eddie Guerrero with his music blaring. A magical moment!

The match itself had a few botches on Dom’s end, which almost led to Rey snapping his head on the bottom turnbuckle.  Despite the few ugly moments, the match itself was overall good and saw plenty of high spots.

It was now time for the Greatest Women’s Match of all time as Rhea Ripley defeated WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair in an instant classic. These two women took every seriously dangerous move you could think of for nearly 30 minutes and just kept coming.  Charlotte Flair actually landed on her face, her neck, and her head, and just kept coming.  Ripley was sensational and the crowd ate up every second of it.

I cannot do this match justice by just writing about it, you need to go back and watch it if you haven’t yet.

A early year long build up of Sami Zayn with and then against The Bloodline found it’s long awaited payoff as he and his best friend Kevin Owens defeated the multiyear tag champions.

It rebounded from a bit of a slow start, to have an amazing stretch run of close calls.  There may have been a bit of an overuse when it came to the super kicks landed on Zayn’s face, but all in all, it told the story it needed to tell and having Zayn get the pin on Jey, was the perfect ending to the incredible storyline.

The long-awaited Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley dream match at WrestleMania, once again didn’t happen and fans had to settle for Lesnar versus Omos which turned out to be a total dud.  This led to a Lesnar squash match and the few to be never again revisited.

Later in the night, Intercontinental Champion Gunther defended his title against Sheamus and Drew McIntyre.  The match was a banger, and went a strong 16 plus minutes of action.

The sentimental pick for many was Sheamus, as they had been playing the entire “he needs this belt for his collection” storyline for quite some time.  The match was still pretty good despite horrendous commentary from Titus O’Neil.  I’m completely fine with the strap staying on Gunther as he has earned it!

The match itself was an instant classic as each man delivered and survived finishing move after finishing move.  The crowd was behind every moment, and the drama started from second one and never let up. Claymore kicks, Brogue kicks, flying dives, it had it all! What a gem! The five-minute stretch of just Sheamus and McIntyre being in there was tremendous too, until Gunther showed up at the last second to secure the win.

Another nearly yearlong feud also came to a head as Finn Balor as “The Demon” took on Edge in a Hell in a Cell match. It got going early as Balor got busted wide open with a wicked smash to the face from a launched ladder by Edge.  He literally caught it with his face. Meanwhile, Edge went and checked under the ring for more weapons because he knew he needed more to slow down the Demon and also kill time while the medical staff patched him up.  This led to more and more violence on both parts until Balor scaled the cage and goes went feet first through a table.

Hell in the Cell matches may be tough to live up to the hype, and plenty have failed over the years, but this one delivered.  The only surprise was having Balor lose while in full Demon garb.  This very easily could have been the swan song for Edge had the decision went the other way.

Bianca Belair for became the first women to win or successfully defend a World Championship in her first three WrestleMania’s as she defeated Asuka.  These two had their work cut out for them trying to compete with the Charlotte vs Ripley match from last night, and hung tough for a pretty good showing.

Belair is one of the best pound for pound women in the world, and proved it again with this convincing win over a red hot Asuka.  The Empress of Tomorrow fell to 0-3 in singles matches at WrestleMania, and 0-4 overall.

It was a fantastic two-night WrestleMania as the Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte, Uso’s vs Zayn and Owens and Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns matches will be talked about for decades to come. One could only wonder what would happen on Monday Night RAW.

WWE Monday Night RAW took place tonight at the Crypto Arena in LA.  This was less than 24 hours after WWE shocked the wrestling world by having Cody Rhodes lose one of the biggest title matches, if not the biggest, in WWE WrestleMania history to Roman Reigns.  How everyone would respond and where we would go from here was anyone’s guess.

HHH started off the night by thanking the fans, the crew and everyone who makes the WWE special.  It was earlier in the day that the story broke about WWE being bought out by Endeavor and merged with the UFC. After 10 minutes of thanking everyone and having the feel good moment, he brought out the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns.

Reigns wasn’t long into his spew until Cody Rhodes cut him off and challenged him to a rematch on this very night.  To no one’s shock, the Tribal Chief denied him the shot, but did end up agreeing to a tag match with his cousin Solo Sikoa by his side. His condition was that Cody would have to choose someone who fought on the WrestleMania card, and that same person have to forfeit ever challenging for the championship as long as Reigns held it.

For a moment, it appeared that Rhodes was completely screwed, but then out of nowhere and to the shock of everyone, the one and only Brock Lesnar made his way down to the ring as the crowd came unglued.  Lesnar hadn’t had a match on RAW in two decades, so this was huge!

Following a pointless Omos squash match over Elias that no one cared about, they flashed to a backstage scene with Paul Heyman standing outside of the Bloodlines door. When the Uso’s showed up, Heyman lied and told them that Reigns and Sikoa had left to prepare for their match, and for them to take the night off.  Fans knew he was lying because as they walked away, Heyman was heard saying, “ I took care of it. “

Many fans had been calling Austin Theory, the next Randy Orton with his youth, good looks and apparent rocket to the top strapped to his back.  This was never more evident as he came out to challenge Rey Mysterio to a match.  Theory went on to win which also led to a sneak attack post-match by The Judgement Day.

Dominik then turned his attention to Bad Bunny, who had a role in his loss at WrestleMania.  Damien Priest and Dom proceeded to kick the crap out of the artist, going as far as having Priest put him through a table. It was a cool moment as Corey Graves attempted to act shocked and appalled during commentary, going as far as to apologize for the WWE.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn came out to celebrate their big WrestleMania win and were promptly joined by the Street Profits.  WWE had flirted with the idea of turning The Street Profits several times over the past year, and teased it again tonight as they demanded and were granted a match against the new champs.  Not shockingly, Owens and Zayn won in a pretty decent match.

Bobby Lashley, still pissed that he didn’t have a match at WrestleMania, decided to take Ali from the backstage area to the ring, and maul him. No other real reason to have that match other then remind everyone that Lashley is still pretty good.

Bianca Belair come out next and did the EXACT SAME THING for the third straight year, bopping around and all excited about her most recent win. It wasn’t long before Rhea Ripley joined her and talked about who had the more impressive win, before they teased a match for down the road between the two,

Welp, 2 and a half hours into a show that constantly promotes returns, turns and debuts, we finally got our first of the night as “Riddle” returned fresh out of drug rehab.   This gave a moment for all Riddle fans to get up and cheer as Riddle got the best of The Miz, pretty quickly.

The night closed with the dream main event of Roman Reigns and Solo versus Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar.  The WWE went “ go big or go home” on their first night under a new banner. Just when it seemed we’d get through the entire episode with no marque moments, or major swerves, we finally got one when Lesnar attacked Rhodes.

Lesnar proceeded to destroy Rhodes for 10 straight minutes.  He put Cody through steps, tables, anything he could find.  The WWE creative machine was doing everything they could to make Rhodes as beloved as possible, which only leads one to think a world title victory down the line should be a sure thing, but, we’ve thought that before.

1 turn – Brock Lesnar

1 return – Riddle

0 NXT Calls up