Wrestlemania XL Quick Thoughts

Johnny Legacy's Deep Thoughts

Wrestlemania XL Quick Thoughts

Like last year, this is just a bunch of bite sized thoughts immediately after the big show, plus some off the cuff ratings. I was watching at someone else's house with a (for me) larger group so things can certainly change whenever I go back to watch it over again. But hey, that's what full reviews are for.

Night 1

Women's World Title: Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch- A highly anticipated match that mostly delivered, though it's not on the same level as Ripley/Charlotte from 39. I'm going to assume the illness commentary talked about for Becky was legit and that might have affected her here, she did look unusually off at points. Ripley retaining was the right call, going into the show(s) she was the retention I was most sure about. She's the best in the ring on the women's roster in WWE right now, maybe the whole world, and this title reign deserves to keep going. ****

Raw/SD Tag Team Titles Ladder Match- The giant clusterfuck that was exactly what it needed to be. Even more impressive is that even with the huge number of guys involved they still managed to do some storytelling rather than just having a bunch of high spots. Though the high spots were certainly spectacular. The titles being split again was an expected "surprise", but it's still satisfying when it actually happens. Truth fully deserved getting his WM moment with all the great character work he's done since coming back. Side thought, with Vince gone it was nice not to have commentary shoving "WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT" down out throats every few minutes. ****1/4

Andrade & ReyRey vs Dom & Escobar- A fun enough match with lots of nods to these guys' lucha roots. The Jason Kelce run in was a nice enough bit of fun for the Philly crowd. As a Cowboys fan and Eagles/pretty much all Philly sports fans hater it didn't do much for me but that's fine. One of these days Dom needs to get a win over his deadbeat dad. ***

 

Uso vs Uso- The clear disappointment of the show. Hindsight being perfect these guys might have been better served by a semi-main or even main event on a B PPV rather than a WM midcard match as they didn't get much time to really do much. They got some good and necessary story bits in, but the match never hit anywhere close to high gear. **1/4

Damage CTRL vs Belair/Cargill/Naomi- This match existed for one reason: continuing the emergence of Jade Cargill. As a huge Asuka and Kairi fan I would have like more for them on the big stage, but for what it was it was fine. It's amazing how, based on what we've seen so far, Cargill has learned more from 4-5 months in the WWE PC than she did in two years with AEW. She definitely looks like a megastar on the rise. **1/2

Intercontinental Title: Gunther vs Sami Zayn- It was time. From the moment WALTER made his first appearance in NXT UK I was a fan. I'd heard plenty about him before then, but that was the first time I'd actually seen him and he didn't disappoint. But I knew going in this was Sami's night, and it should be. Gunther's done everything he can with the IC title and it's time to move on to bigger things. The entire presentation around this was amazing with Sami's family, Chad Gable, and KO all getting moments with him in his backstage walk. The match itself was fantastic, but also not *quite* on the same level as previous Gunther IC title defenses or, if you want to compare, Sami's NXT title matches. A minor quibble. The strangest thing to me was, I was the biggest Gunther fan in the room in our watch group, but I was the only one that picked Sami to win and was the happiest about it afterward. ****1/4

Cody/Rollins vs Rock/Reigns- Between the long video package, the even longer entrances and a long time of standing around "atmosphere soaking" when the crowd was clearly ready for the action to start it felt like it took FOREVER for this to get going, but once it did it was amazing. With Rock in and the way the story was going a full on Attitude Era style main event was expected, and that's pretty much what we got. Crowd brawl, check. Stage brawl, check. Announce table broken, check. All that was missing was the run ins, but as expected there was plenty of that on Sunday. I also want to give credit to the Rock. There were a lot of "Rock's gonna be blown up walking down the aisle" jokes in my group, including from me, but the tag match allowed him to pace himself and in the end he put in his best in-ring performance since probably the handicap tag match at WM 20. The result was also right, as now the deck's fully stacked against Cody going into Sunday. Cole's "Cody is screwed" as soon as the 3 count hit was perfect. ****1/2

Night 2

World Heavyweight Title: Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre (Priest cashes in)- There's no denying the influence of Brock Lesnar's post-2012 style on the WWE main event scene, as his "go straight to the big stuff/finisher spam" style match is seen regularly there now. This was the latest example, but in context of the story it worked. McIntyre knew Rollins was hurt from last night and went right for the jugular. They even did the nod to the Sheamus/Daniel Bryan WM 28 debacle, something I was expecting might happen. Rollins was absolutely amazing in this match, selling everything like a maniac and fighting to get his shots in, probably knowing it was going to be his last turn at bat for a while. McIntyre finally got his well deserved title win in front of fans, especially with all the work he's been doing the last few months, though personally I think he's been a little *too* obsessed with one CM Punk. But, once again, all part of the story. Instead of celebrating his title win, McIntyre decided continuing to troll Punk was more important. Unfortunately for him it was in Punk's face, and finally Punk decided enough was enough. Enter Damien Priest. Just the second ever WM MITB cash-in, and it was spectacular. There's all kinds of avenues this can go from here. ****

Philly Street Fight: Final Testament vs The Pride- Bubba Ray Dudley being the special guest ref for this was a great touch, and turned an otherwise bland match into something fun by the end. He even looked the part. Tucked in shirt, earpiece in, all of it. Hire him as a full time ref. I'm not sure if anyone's really connected with the overarching story that's going on here but they sure are trying. **3/4

AJ Styles vs LA Knight- I have a feeling this is the kind of match that will be better on subsequent viewings, without the weight of everything that's coming after stifling it a bit. That said, they did a much better job in this spot than the Uso boys the night before. They'd done a lot of work to put together almost an old school blood feud, and the match was very physical reflecting that. Knight rightly gets a big win in his first WM, while Styles, in my opinion neck and neck with Bryan Danielson as the best wrestler of his generation, continues his late career wind down while still being able to go. ***1/2

US Title Triple Threat: Logan Paul vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens- As I've mentioned before, I had no idea who Logan Paul was before he came to WWE because online streamers are not something I pay attention to. I still watch Angry Video Game Nerd, that's about the closest I get. Since getting to know him through WWE, I've come to regard him as a total douche that I can't stand, but as much as I hate it there's no doubt he's a natural in the ring. What might be even more impressive about this match is he didn't have to rely on one of his huge high spots to make it work, just pure heel psychology. Being in there with KO and Orton certainly helped too. KO is still a main event level wrestler that strangely almost never gets main event spots (and still one of my personal favorites), and while I've never been an Orton fan there's no denying the clear blast he's been having since coming back. Paul's run continuing is probably the right call al things considered. ***3/4

Women's Title: Io Shairi Iyo Sky vs Bayley- I almost expected Bayley's old music to hit during her entrance, or the resurrection of the Bayley Buddies. This was the best women's match of the weekend. Great performance, hard hitting for the women, amazing storytelling. Joshi legend Shairi/Sky should get a ton of credit for a long run no one expected her to have and hopefully it's not the last one. I'd been worried for a long while that Bayley's injuries had finally caught up to her in the ring, but when it mattered she delivered here. I have a feeling that Damage CTRL is not done with her yet. ****1/2

WWE Championship BLOODLINE RULES: Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes- With apologies to everyone else, in pure old school wrestling style this is what the entire weekend was about. Cody's win is an instant immortal WM moment. The one on one portion of the match went on longer than I expected to, and it was phenomenal on its own. These two guys work fantastically together. But, we all knew after last night the run-ins were coming, and boy did they not disappoint. I kind of wish that most weren't done modern style with the music hitting, but the music is what gets the pops. Rollins was the quiet MVP here, coming in with the old Shield gear on. Yes, Reigns destroyed him as soon as he hit the ring, but the psychological impact of seeing Rollins in that mode again threw him off his game just enough to give Cody the opening he needed. Rollins kept his promise. Having Rock, Cena and even the Undertaker (instead of the expected Steve Austin) involved made this the most epic interpretation of the classic Attitude Era style overbooking. I hope it doesn't become a regular thing, but as a one off it was spectacular and a fitting end to one of the biggest stories in WWE history. And hey, Reigns wanted Bloodline Rules. ****3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I'm a cynical old man so I have a real hard time putting anything new on the top of any lists. Right now I'm not sure if WM 40 *quite* gets into the group of my absolute all time favorite WMs with 17, 19 and 20. At worst it's definitely made the next group down of my "also favorites" along with 3, 7, 8, 18, 28 and 30. The Triple H era is here, and I'm so excited to see what the future holds. I'm a Paul Levesque Guy. A