WrestleMania 39: A tale of two shows
The two-night extravaganza known as WrestleMania 39, took place on Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2, at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The first night was the main event, a tag team match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship between The Usos and the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. On night two, Roman Reigns defended the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes in the main event for the night.
WrestleMania 39 was truly a tale of two completely different shows. Night one was fantastic, to say the least. While the first match of the night, pitting Austin Theory – defending the WWE United States Championship – against John Cena, was “okay” at best, the rest of the card delivered in more ways than one.
The men’s WrestleMania Showcase fatal four-way tag team match was entertaining from start to finish, with high flying moves and all the wrestlers involved showing up on the greatest stage of them all. In the next match, Seth Rollins faced Logan Paul in a highly competitive and entertaining contest – to no one’s surprise. The match also had a special guest appearance by social media star KSI.
Afterward, a six-woman tag team match got underway and, while the match wasn’t on the level of most of the other events throughout the weekend, it was still a solid contest overall. The next match of night one saw Rey Mysterio defeat his son Dominik Mysterio in a story-driven match that had the crowd red-hot from start to finish.
Taking place next – arguably the match of the entire weekend – was Charlotte Flair defending the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship against Rhea Ripley. This match was awesome. The crowd, despite being somewhat quiet in the beginning of the match, immediately turned hot and were heavy behind Ripley throughout. The crowd got what they wanted as Ripley became the new Smackdown women’s champion.
The next match was an impromptu one between WrestleMania host The Miz and Pat McAfee. Thankfully, the match was short, though it was still a fun way to try and get the crowd calmed down before the main event. That main event was the aforementioned Undisputed Tag Team Championship, and that match was incredible. All four men brought it, as Owens and Zayn became the new tag team champions among a chorus of cheers and applause from the crowd.
On the other hand, night two was a mess. Brock Lesnar faced Omos in a five-minute match that saw Lesnar pick up the 400-pound competitor for the win. The following match was the Women’s WrestleMania Showcase fatal four-way match. This match was, to put it nicely, not good, very messy and botchy. It was slow, too-obviously choreographed and had a crowd that was justifiably flat for the match.
Thankfully, the triple threat match between GUNTHER, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus for the WWE Intercontinental Championship was sensational. The match was physical, with each competitor sporting brutal beatings and wounds to their chest after the match. GUNTHER, the incumbent champion, retained his title.
The only other good match on the night two card was the WWE Raw Women’s Championship between Bianca Belair and Asuka. The two talented superstars delivered in a rock-solid match that implemented technical wrestling abilities and showed off both of their pure strengths in the ring. Belair eclipsed 365 days as champion with the victory.
The Miz once again held another open challenge, this time accepted by a returning Shane McMahon. When the bell rang, McMahon instantly went down with an injury, grabbing his leg. It was later revealed that McMahon suffered a torn quad. Snoop Dogg, the other WrestleMania host, seemingly improvised a match with The Miz, pinning him for the victory in a quick but painful segment.
The penultimate match of the night was a Hell in a Cell match between Edge and Finn Balor, which while good, was impacted by an injury by Balor. Edge went on to win the match.
In the second night’s main event, Reigns successfully defended his title in the Undisputed Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes. The match was great up until the very end, when due to interference, Reigns retained the title. Leading up to the match, Reigns was sitting at 945 days as champion, the longest title run in the modern era of WWE.
Outrage poured out onto every social media platform, though WWE CCO, Triple H, defended the decision to have Reigns retain. In a post-WrestleMania press conference he said, “The story never ends in WWE; this is just the start of the next chapter.”
