Los Angeles held the most successful Wrestlemania of all time by their terms in sales, attendance, viewership, and social media activity.
Night 1: At the end of night 1 the general feeling on social media was that it was a huge success. From booking, to match quality, to presentation.
Here are the quick rundown results from Night 1:
Austin Theory retains over John Cena (United States Championship match)
Street Profits defeat Braun Strowman/Ricochet, Alpha Academy & Viking Raiders (Showcase Fatal 4 Way tag team match)
Seth Rollins defeats Logan Paul
Becky Lynch, Lita & Trish Stratus defeat Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota and Io)
Rey Mysterio defeats Dom Mysterio
Rhea Ripley defeats Charlotte Flair to become the new Smackdown Women’s Champion (Smackdown Women’s championship match)
Pat McAfee defeats The Miz (surprisematch)
Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens defeat The Usos to become the new Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions (Undisputed Tag Team championship match)
Night One Of WrestleMania Is All About Redemption
The big takeaways from Night 1 were all the correct outcomes came together and really gave us the night of redemption. Rey Mysterio finally confronts his son, Dom, to Rhea Ripley conquering and avenging her WrestleMania loss to Charlotte just a few years ago. To possibly be the biggest storyline in wrestling, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens finally defeated The Usos in one of the most emotional main events in recent history. Night 1 was one of the best if not the best nights of WrestleMania since they began running it as a two-night event. As is in Hollywood, the first one is always better than the follow-up.
Here’s the quick recap of NIght 2 matches:
Brock Lesnar defeats Omos
Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler defeat LIv Morgan & Raquel Gonzalez, Natalya & Shotzi, Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green (Showcase Fatal 4 Way Tag Team match)
Gunther retains over Drew McIntyre & Sheamus (Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat Match)
Bianca Belair retains over Asuka (Raw’s Women’s Championship match)
Snoop Dogg defeats The Miz (Shane McMahon was intended to be the opponent for Miz but an injury mid-match halted it)
Edge defeats “Demon” Finn Balor (Hell In A Cell match)
Roman Reigns retains over Cody Rhodes (Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match)
Night Two Doesn’t Work As Well As Night One
For everything Night 1 hit out of the ballpark, Night 2 did its best to undo and pigeonhole itself. Most of the fanbase was expecting different outcomes on 2 of the big matches. We had another makeshift match with The Miz which could have been used to propel another wrestler like LA Knight or the Andre The Giant Battle Royal winner Bobby Lashley. One outcome I was indifferent to but after another viewing understood is Bianca Belair over Asuka. With her win, Bianca is now 3-0 at WrestleMania while Asuka is 0-5. Bianca now has held the Raw’s Women’s championship for a full year plus, which she is deserving however now Asuka is essentially the jobber when it comes to WrestleMania matches.
The next outcome that I found myself confused with is the decision to have Edge win over “Demon” Finn Balor. If this was the case from the beginning, why have the “Demon” appear after having this persona as a highlight in NXT? This loss almost effectively buries it as this version of Finn now holds loses to Edge and Roman Reigns while during his first run in NXT, this persona did not lose until he was called up to the main roster.
Lastly, the most talked about outcome was having Roman Reigns retain. Going into this match, everyone wanted Cody to finish the story. He left the company for 6 years, came back at last year’s event, had a fantastic trilogy of matches with Seth Rollins, tore his pectoral, and returned at the Royal Rumble and won it. After all this, he still was not the victor. WWE has had two opportunities to end the historic run of Roman and has yet to pull the trigger. Was this the right decision? Only time will tell.
Night 2 will go down as one of the less-liked nights since WrestleMania adapted to the two-night show. Social media was left with a bad taste in their mouth mainly for the Roman/Cody outcome. Hopefully, WWE knows the endgame for this historic run whether it’s Cody, Jey, or someone else ending it.
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