Wrestlemania 39 Quick Thoughts

Johnny Legacy's Deep Thoughts

Wrestlemania 39 Quick Thoughts

A few Twitter-style quick thoughts on this past weekend's big show, here on the blog just because I don't want to deal with Twitter length limits.

Night 1

US Title: Austin Theory vs John Cena- Good use of Cena at WM and the old out of shape man manged to get through a match better than the Rock did under similar circumstances. His elbow turned more colors than Brock's face though. Right guy definitely won, but I've been high on Theory since his EVOLVE days. I get the ref bump rubbed people the wrong way, but in this instance it didn't bother me because it fit Theory's heel character perfectly. He's got people booing him like crazy, he's in the right place. Now the trick is to get them all to cheer for him within the next 5 years. **3/4

Men's "WM Showcase" 4 Way Tag Match- The tag division is as alive and well as WWE wants it to be. This was the nice surprise of the weekend, a very fun spotfest match with most everyone doing their thing just how they should be. Gable and Ricochet are utterly amazing at what they do, Otis has found a good niche, the tag division is the best place for Strowman with a partner like Ricochet, and Dawkins continues to be one of the most underrated guys on the planet, partially because he's got superhuman athlete Ford next to him. But man I do miss the days of War Machine murderizing people in ROH and New Japan. ***1/2

Rollins vs Paul- I'm extremely disconnected with a lot of mainstream culture, intentionally and happily. I had no idea at all who Logan Paul was before he showed up in WWE (same for pretty much every music act WWE brings in). After seeing his big promo on Raw during the build for this match I concluded I agreed with my cousin that he was a grade A certified douche. But my God can he go in the ring. I almost hate that he's so good. And of course if you get in there with Rollins you're going to have a hell of a match but Paul held his own for sure. Once again the right guy won, Rollins' WM losing streak needed to end and he needs a world title on him again pronto. But then again so do about a half a dozen other guys thanks to things being the way they are with the title scene. ****1/4

Becky & The Legends vs Damage CTRL- I still can't wrap my head around Lita being a champion in 2023. If you had to do it I would have put the belt on Trish and Becky. This was the first result I disagreed with, but it sure wasn't the last. Damage CTRL are a good group with a ton of talent, but they've been floundering from inconsistent booking. Bayley absolutely needs to recapture the spark and get back into the title picture. Becky is almost too big for the division which makes it difficult, and Io continues to be the second best women's Japanese wrestler on the roster, which is high praise considering who the other one is. The character work was fun throughout. **1/2

Dominik vs Rey- Father/son family blood feud, BROUGHT TO YOU BY CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH! The match was good with Dom once again killing it on the character side (what an entrance), but this is another result I strongly disagree with. If you're going to be serious about making Dom a big time heel star, and he's getting there with the mega heat he's getting, and it's not go away heat anymore, he's got to put his dad away. I expect there'll be a rematch at Backlash in Puerto Rico and maybe that will be Dom's time. ***1/4

SD Women's Title: Ripley vs Charlotte- Hell of a match. Incredible. Charlotte had her best match in years and was clearly working her ass off to make Ripley look like the next big star. In-ring wise Ripley is probably the hottest woman in the company right now. ****3/4

 

The impromptu match was what it was. It's always good to see McAfee whether he's wrestling or commentating, and give me Kittle over Gronk as the celebrity TE any day.

Tag Titles: Usos vs KO/Sami- Another absolutely incredible match to close out the first night, with the Bloodline story starting to reach its natural conclusion.......or so it looked at the time as Saturday ended. This was awesome for the tag titles too, getting a spot like this at WM for the first time. I've been saying for 4 years now KO needs another world title run, but he's had some great WMs the last few years even without being in the world title scene, and Sami has truly been the company MVP the past 6 months. ****3/4

Night 2

Brock vs Black El Gigante/Black Giant Gonzales/Zeus 2.0- This was as good as it possibly could have been. Omos rolled through the four moves he could do and Brock sold the shit out of them before giving Omos the biggest bumps he's ever taken and, rightly, winning. I wish Brock was this motivated for most of his matches back in his long titles runs, he's having way more fun now than he did then. **1/2

Women's "WM Showcase" 4 Way Tag Match- Easily the weakest match of the weekend. Rousey was working hurt and Baszler appeared to hurt herself during the match so it was up to everyone else to cover before that team won. There's talent here, Morgan's title run was probably too soon but she's still developing into something solid and I've been high on Deville for years, but there's just not enough talent depth on the women's side to carry a full tag division. Hate me all you want, the matches are the proof. *3/4

IC Title: Gunther vs Sheamus vs McIntyre- The match of the weekend. WALTER/Gunther has brought the signature hard hitting style that made him a legend in Europe to mainstream WWE, found two other guys willing to work that stiff, and they all went to town on each other in a glorious symphony of beautiful violence. The reaction from commentary is all you need to know. I was thrilled Gunther retained to keep the long IC title reign going. I don't know if he'll get all the way up to Honky Tonk Man but 3rd longest behind him and Savage would be a fine stopping point. He also needs to get in the world title picture. Little did I know this was the last time I'd be happy all night. *****

Raw Women's Title: Belair vs Asuka- The first of three straight booking misfires. Belair's had the title for the year with up and down success in the ring but she's definitely become a star, but this was absolutely the time to give Asuka one more run after her transformation back to her old pre-WWE character Kana in all but name. The match was really good but not on the same level as the SD one the previous night. ***3/4

Once again nothing much to say about the impromptu match stuff other than both LOL Shane and poor Shane. That's a moment that will live forever.

Hell in a Cell: Balor vs Edge- Balor really needed to get the win over the legend here, whether he's ever going to get back to main event level or not, just to keep Judgement Day going strong as a top faction which clearly they want to do. I was a bit annoyed at the blood stoppage, but after seeing Balor's pic of the gash in his head from the ladder I get it with no complaints. DAMN. Regardless of result it was still another gread HIAC match despite the medical stop and rush to the finish. ****1/4

Undisputed Title: Reigns vs Rhodes- I'm going to try to keep this short because the emotion is still really fresh for me. I respect what Reigns has done, I really do, but I've never been a fan and I'm so sick of him as champion and so beyond ready for someone new it's almost physically painful. I really, truly thought last night was the night. It absolutely should have been. The story was set up perfectly on both ends. It was Cody's time. The Usos losing the tag titles was the perfect first act to the full fall of the Bloodline. The match itself was trending in the right direction with Solo thrown out and KO and Sami cutting off the Usos interference. Then....it didn't happen. Solo comes in again, interferes, and yet again Reigns keeps his run going thanks to outside help from his family. Bad bad bad bad bad call. Horrible. Atrocious. But the match was good. ****1/2

OVERALL THOUGHTS- With this many snowflakes you almost can't help but have it be an all time great WM, and it was certainly trending that way until everything crashed and burned in the last five minutes. It's still great, but the final grade has to be bumped down a little because the final booking call in the main event, the most important match, was so hideously wrong. B+