WrestleMania 35 was the thirty-fifth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on April 7, 2019, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The event included the first-ever women's main event match in WrestleMania history.
The card consisted of sixteen matches, including four on the pre-show. In the main event, Becky Lynch defeated Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match to win both titles, becoming a double champion. Also on the card, Kofi Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan to win his first WWE Championship. Other prominent matches saw Seth Rollins defeat Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship, Baron Corbin defeat Kurt Angle in the latter's farewell match, and Triple H defeat Batista in a No Holds Barred match with his career on the line. Batista retired after the match.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Tony Nese defeated Buddy Murphy (c)
People were still filing into the arena, but this was a nicely paced match to hold people over as they found their way into their seats. I thought it was time that Murphy finally dropped the gold and move up to the main roster in a proper manner, much like Mustafa Ali did earlier this year.
WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal for the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal Trophy
Carmella won by last eliminating Sarah Logan
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| Carmella sneaks her way into another win. Yay, I guess? |
I still can't believe that there were people raving all over this match but shitting all over the G1 Supercard the night prior. I love to know what drugs those people were on...
(Laughs) The streak ends - 1 and 269. There's nothing much else to talk about here.
André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy
This was a massive waste of time, even more so than the two matches that proceeded it. It was just for a massive comedy spot between Strowman and those twats from Saturday Night Live. I honestly don't see what was the point, when SNL wasn't even promoting WrestleMania nor their own talents appearing on said show.
As soon as I heard "Real American" cue up I went to the bathroom. That should tell you enough there on how I feel about the Hulkster.
I honestly busted out laughing when Paul Heyman pushed past Hulk Hogan and Alexa Bliss posing on the stage to the sound of Real American. It made absolutely perfect sense to put Brock and Rollins on first if they weren't going to be closing out the show. Besides, do you actually think that Brock's going to just wait around in catering for 6+ hours when he knows he has to lay down for Rollins AGAIN to drop the title? Vince McMahon better be happy that he didn't kill Rollins (looked close enough to it to me before the shot in the dick) then threw the belt back at him like last year in gorilla.
After that low blow, Rollins promptly hit Lesnar with three consecutive Curb Stomps and picked up the win to become the NEW Universal Champion. God bless Crossfit Jesus for dying for our sins.
I heard about the "Turn The Lights Off" chants due to the bright lights in the arena obstructing the fans' view of the in-ring action.
As for the match itself, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary, but it seemed like they dialed things out a bit for this match, much like Styles and Nakamura's performance at WrestleMania last year. I guess we're going to see these two continue to feud throughout the summer as I was expecting a HUGE RKO counter to seal the deal and send everyone home happy but there was nothing like that here. I did like all of the RKO teases though. Not many people get hip to Orton's tactics and change up their game to avoid eating a RKO.
Outside of a few spots in this match, I felt that this was largely a match that we could have seen on SmackDown! Tuesday night. It just felt like a ton of spots without rhyme or reason, just because they could do it. While I did enjoy the Cesaro Swing spot on Ricochet, I can't say anything else here was widely something I remembered a few minutes later. No offense to the talents involved but I wasn't blown away by anything presented here. Like I said before, it just felt like your average run of the mill, RAW/SmackDown! tag team match.
I was surprised to see that the Usos retained, but I guess that was because they signed new contracts before this event came to pass. The Usos ain't going nowhere, folks. I guess we can cast away those hopes of Young Bucks vs. Usos or Usos vs. Lucha. Bros. feuds.
Falls Count Anywhere Match
I thought this match was bland as hell, even when they took things outside of the ring and started brawling into the crowd.
The finish didn't help matters either where it looked like Miz superplexed Shane onto the roof of a bouncy house.
After what transpired the night prior during the Hall of Fame with the random fan tackling Bret Hart to the ground, I'm glad that he wasn't so hurt that he couldn't share this moment with Nattie and Beth. Damn the police - they should've given the talent the free reign to beat the living piss out of that guy and break his legs for even considering to do that. Bret was paying tribute to his departed friends and family from the Hart Foundation. You have to be the lowest bottom-feeder on this planet to want to ruin that moment for him and Nattie.
I'm not even going to sugarcoat this. I thought this match was a massive disservice to the talents involved. That being said, Beth Phoenix looked like she never left the company and stopped wrestling, even though the bulk of this match came off as something you would see on RAW or SmackDown! every week. I hope this isn't the last time we see of her in the ring. I wouldn't mind seeing the Glamazon get one more run with the championship or even her and Nattie hold the Women's Tag Team titles once or twice.
Speaking of which, the IIconics of all people won the match off a blind tag spot following a top rope Glam Slam from Beth Phoenix to steal the win. I saw people on social media say that they never seen Beth do that before and I'm like where the fuck have you been?
Just ugh at the IIconics winning this. I guess WWE wanted to use the belts to help them get over, but man, that even stupider from how they even got into this match to begin with. I'm not a fan of the gimmick, nor their in-ring ability (or lack of). I just see them both as a waste of spot on the roster if they aren't being used to put over other talents like they were on NXT.
If the rumor(s) are true about Sasha Banks wanting to quit the company following that decision, I don't blame her. Her and Bayley didn't even get a chance to pick up steam with the belts only to end up losing them during their first big title defense.
I was going to write a completely different article about this Kofi thing before this PPV came to pass, but I'm going to rant about this here.
Let's get this out of the way first. Kofi Kingston is one of the hardest working veterans on the entire roster and a model employee for the past eleven years. The one time he was considered for a main event push in the past, he fucked that up in a match against Randy Orton and found himself floundering in midcard hell until he paired himself up with Big E and Xavier Woods to form the New Day faction. This was a faction designed to epic fail, but the trio turned it into a massive success. I'm not a fan of their antics - whether they were heel nor face - so don't come at me for acting like "black people can't have shit" when it comes to appreciating their hard work and success in WWE.
The thing is - and African-American fans like myself have noticed this for a long time - is that WWE allows their minority performers only to rise up to a certain point on their ladders of greatness in that company before they pigeon-holed into a niche role for majority of their careers. Case in point: R-Truth/Ron "The Truth" Killings returning to WWE following his success in TNA/Impact Wrestling as a main eventer, notably a former NWA Champion after defeating Ken Shamrock of all people.
So when Mustafa Ali got injured a few months ago at the crisp of his major push in a program with Daniel Bryan, fans rallied in support of Kofi Kingston taking his spot in the Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship. Kofi fell short, despite narrowly coming so close to defeating Daniel Bryan that everyone in that arena could taste it. From this point to the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, Vince McMahon would continue to "fuck with" Kofi with teases and false promises of a WrestleMania match against Daniel Bryan. WWE was clearly recycling the angle they pulled with Daniel Bryan in the same role leading up to WrestleMania 30, only to sprinkle a bit of Triple H's (not so) subtle racism in his WrestleMania XIX feud with Booker T. WWE made this feud about race and I thought that was really in bad taste, because it didn't need to be. Instead, WWE made this whole feud about damage control and an attempt to rectify their past mistake(s) with the black talent on their roster over the years. Mind you, they are doing all of this while welcoming back Hulk Hogan (who was blacklisted from said company for his racist comments a few years ago) back into the company for the event.
My biggest issue with all of this is that Kofi Kingston NEVER was part of their original plan/build for WrestleMania, much like Daniel Bryan a few years ago despite WWE are over the moon patting themselves on the back about it. WWE had to brought into this kicking and screaming in fear of fan backlash at their biggest event of the year. The difference being that this feels like a cheap "thank you for your participation" award than the climax to a proper WrestleMania build. I'll give WWE props on the hoops they had Kofi jump through to put him over as a legitimate threat and challenger to Daniel Bryan. That notion that anyone can beat anyone else in WWE has been lost in their mindset/logic for a few decades now and it's a breath of fresh air to see it effectively used here.
This whole thing just seems like an agenda to quell a part of their fanbase from speaking out before screwing them over again in the long run. Don't forget how many times in the past they've strapped the gold on minorities on their roster just to cater to a certain demographic and quell the negative reactions from that corner of their fanbase/viewers. Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and even Jinder Mahal about a year or two ago to sweeten their deal prior to going to India for their first Saudi show - just to name a few.
Want another case in point? Look at where both Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura are in comparison to their careers about a year ago. Both of them won the Royal Rumble to earn WrestleMania title matches (only for WWE to be able to say that they've had two Asian Royal Rumble winners getting to headline title matches for WrestleMania that year), only to lose at said even and WWE Creative stumbled and fumbled around on what to do with them in the months that followed. That resulted in Asuka losing her SmackDown! Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair a week prior to WrestleMania without an opponent in sight at all as her entire title reign - despite besting Becky Lynch at the Rumble this year - was treated like a mere afterthought. Shinsuke Nakamura didn't fair any better either. He was handed a string of losses against AJ Styles in their program of dick shots and low blows. He did win the United States Championship for a while, but even that was short-lived as he currently finds himself in mediocrity in a half-assed tag team with Rusev. I fear the same happening for Io Shirai and Kairi Sane getting called up to the main roster.
I admire Jay Lethal as Ring of Honor's World Champion with or without their top title because even when he's doing his comedy bit as Black Machismo, he's not adhering to negative stereotypes of black culture nor tossing pieces of chicken and watermelon slices into the crowd. That's what I want for the New Day in a sense. When I say things like "I wish the New Day would take themselves more seriously", I don't mean that in disrespect at all. They are the only African-American Superstars to be given such a high profile spotlight on WWE's programming on a regular basis and are in positions of being role models to men, women, and children of color watching and wanting to imitate everything they see them do. I just want them to be mindful of that. Before anyone gives me shit about it or revoke my black card (laughs), hear me out. I have seen the New Day's stuff for Be A Star and their efforts to give back to the black community. I applaud them for that, I really do. I don't want this to turn into this negative connotation that I'm shitting on them when I'm not. I can make the distinction to not like their act/gimmick but like them as individuals/in-ring talents. I just wished that they would have scrapped the pancakes, unicorns, and trombones ensemble, at least for one night, when their partner in arms was going for one of the top titles in the company. I'll flip it in perspective for a second. The current Elite members and former Bullet Club members, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega are all fun and games at times, but they know when and where to flip the switch and take things extremely serious instead of presenting themselves like a trio of traveling goofs.
To be fair, the New Day have come a long way from initially being handed what looked like a trio of mock preachers gimmick that was doomed to fail right off the bat as people were passing it off as Nation of Domination 2.0. Over time, the New Day turned the gimmick into their own, winning fans over with their sexual innuendos and insider jokes about unicorns and pancakes. There's moments where I think they are absolutely hilarious and others where I'm just cringing or rolling my eyes with disgust.
Fortunately, this wasn't one of those times. Over the past few weeks, we saw three black men rally together in support to see their "brother", or rather partner-in-arms and best friend, win the coveted WWE Championship. They can do "serious" and we saw that with their imitate promos as WWE Exclusives on the WWE YouTube channel talking about how much this opportunity meant to them and whether or not staying in WWE was worth their while or not throughout the course of the narrative with Vince McMahon fucking around with them. Is it too much to ask for more of THAT? The WWE Championship was a white whale that many African-Americans Superstars have been chasing for a very long time but have been denied that elusive title until now. Kofi Kingston joins an exclusive club where very few African-American wrestlers have ever been a part of in the history books of black world champions in wrestling.
Bobo Brazil - first African American to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Ron Simmons - First ever African-American WCW Champion. Booker T - WCW & WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Bobby Lashley - ECW & WWE World Heavyweight Champion & even Impact World Champion, Mark Henry - WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Ron "The Truth" Killings - NWA-TNA World Champion, and now finally Kofi Kingston - WWE Champion.
I'm sure that I'm forgetting a few others, but those are the ones off the top of my head...
All in all, this was the best match of the whole night without question. The narrative and drama/suspense was here and WWE delivered on the feel-good ending to send people home happy. Unfortunately, that what was the problem with the rest of this show. People were ready to go home after this moment that it was hard to revitalize the crowd to care about anything else as passionately as this for the rest of the night. I applaud WWE for NOT making this a repeat of what happened to Booker T against Triple H at WrestleMania XIX.
Throughout all of this, let's not forget to give props to Daniel Bryan. I'm sure at this stage of his career, especially since returning to the ring after being forced to retire, that he has a lot of leverage on who he wants to work with or who he wants to drop the title to. It was looking like he was going to give that honor to Mustafa Ali, but he ultimately laid all down for Kofi Kingston tonight. Daniel Bryan was the perfect villain for Kofi here, facing against his mirror opposite from exactly what he was five years ago - the babyface underdog willing to put it all on the line. I hope we haven't see the end of evil environmentalist Daniel Bryan here.
I'm still sad that we didn't get him come out to a remix to the Captain Planet theme or something along of those lines for a big elaborate WrestleMania entrance.
At the end of the day, this was the highest point of the night in my honest opinion - for a multitude of reasons (narrative, cultural significance for African-Americans, match quality & pacing, etc.) and gave everyone that feel good moment that could have closed out this event. Sadly, this wasn't the main event and the crowd didn't get behind anything else as highly as they did here.
At this point of the show, I went to get a sandwich from the fridge and by the time I came back this was over. All that talk about bringing in Rey's son Dominic to watch and all that for nothing. At the same time, I understand why they went with a quickie finish since Rey's knee was probably still messed up and they just wanted to give a quick win to Samoa Joe and move on to save time on this card.
I'm pretty sure my black card is going to be revoked (if it wasn't already) after I admit that I marked out for this more than anything else on this card tonight. Long story short, this was the Cena verbal burial session live and in color. Damn, this was a sweet surprise to see this version of Cena here tonight.
As much as I enjoyed that, I'm still irked that they couldn't have him come out later and wrestle Kurt Angle in his final match. It's not like he was doing anything else important on this show.
I was half surprised to hear the crowd half-boo, half-cheer Roman after beating cancer. I guess that the WrestleMania crowd already wasn't buying into Roman's babyface push. If WWE were smart they would have turned Roman heel the next night on RAW, but I guess they want to milk his babyface comeback from beating cancer for as much as it's worth. It just seemed like the crowd wasn't into either of these guys. Not a bad match, it just suffered from being placed too far deep into this marathon of a PPV.
I'll say this much though. If Drew isn't a World Champion or at least in the main event conversation for WrestleMania next year, then this company is fucking stupid. If WWE has nothing but more plans of shoving Roman Reigns down our throats following Dean Ambrose's departure, then they are going to get the same result as before Reigns' leukemia flared back up or fans just reverting back to booing him out of arenas.
This match was TOO DAMN LONG for this late into the card. They could have accomplished this match in a fraction of the time that this dragged out going past 11PM. This was the point where I was getting pissed off that this card was still dragging along with three matches left.
As for the match itself, I'll give HHH and Batista props on some of the spots, but those tables weren't having any of it in terms of cooperation and wanting to break. I'm sure BotchaMania is going to have a ton of "I AM THE TABLE" memes ready for this one. The spot where HHH forcefully pulled out Batista's nose ring was a nice touch, but I could've sworn Dave stopped wearing those ages ago. I'm sure I wasn't alone in being distracted by his back tattoos that made it look like he was more fucked up than he actually was throughout this match. It's the same effects that I find myself being distracted with Bray Wyatt's arm tattoos colored with bright red ink that I mistake as blood at times.
Oh yeah, props to whoever made this meme. I'm still laughing my ass off at this.
As SOON as I saw Kurt go for that Diving Moonsault that never hits shit, I knew he was going to lose. Corbin hit the End of Days shortly thereafter and unceremoniously pinned Kurt for the three count. Kurt asked the crowd to rally in support for his final request - "You Suck" chants to the sound of his entrance theme.
I won't lie but I thought this was a sad way to have Kurt Angle go out. I understand that he left his best years competitively back in TNA/Impact Wrestling, but this is was a weak ass way to see a legend of his caliber go out. I'm sure he wanted to put over Corbin on his way out, but I'm sure he was a far cry from who he wanted as a final opponent. Those chants fired at John Cena the night prior of "Fight Kurt Angle" during the Hall of Fame was a clear clue on who should have retired Kurt Angle instead.
I would love to know what was WWE's reasoning behind having Baron Corbin of all people be Kurt's final opponent instead of giving Cena that honor after getting his start from facing him. I guess that story will come out in interviews sooner more than later. Everyone was disgusted with this decision - in and out of WWE, from fellow wrestlers, fans, friends, and even his own family, including Kurt's own wife. No one can't say Kurt isn't a class act as he even put Corbin over on the way out.
Intercontinental Championship
At this point, I mentally checked out once the bell rung. I was happy that Finn Balor was able to get to do a WrestleMania entrance as the Demon for once, but boy, I didn't want to see a match recycled from Monday Night RAW for the past few months rehashed here tonight, especially at this point in the evening as we were gunning towards midnight and this show isn't over yet. My best friend (who I was chatting and watching with over Facebook) pointed out that Lashley was wearing the Riddick (Pitch Black) contacts, but we both have no idea why.
Glad Finn got the Intercontinental title back, but this match definitely couldn't hold a candle on Naito and Ibushi from the night prior for the IWGP Intercontinental title during the G1 Supercard. That goes double, even if it wasn't at this ungodly hour on this card.
Winner takes all triple threat match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship and the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
For the most part, the ladies proved here that they deserved to be in this spot in terms of match quality and build. As for the finish, I felt that it tainted an otherwise great match. Ronda's shoulders were nowhere near the mat during the three count and you could tell by the reactions of the crowd live that there was some kind of a fuck-up/botch somewhere. If you listen to/read the reports the following day, it was allegedly all part of the plan to make it look like there was some kind of controversy to set up a rematch between Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch.
Ronda broke her hand during this match and I'm pretty sure it was during the awkward landing she suffered as a result of the spot shown in the gif above. That didn't look fun at all there. To Ronda's credit though, she's had the best rookie year out of ANYONE in this sport in recent memory or if ever.
I read the reports that WWE fined the referee who made the count during this decision, but I feel like multiple people are at fault here. Becky Lynch is the one who has Ronda's arms locked up in that vise without anywhere to go. Ronda spent too much time looking clueless in this situation rather than shifting her body weight backwards to roll out of it until too late, making this look even more botch-worthy than it already was. Even commentary was to blame for questioning the call as well as they looked back at the replay. You could tell that the fans in attendance didn't know what to make of it by the reactions on their faces until they went, "Fuck it, Becky won anyway, let's go home."
It was just a bad look overall on WWE's behalf to end WrestleMania on that questionable manner. You know WWE knew it looked bad as they didn't even show the replays on RAW and SmackDown! over the past week of the finish.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder defeated The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) (c)
(Laughs) The streak ends - 1 and 269. There's nothing much else to talk about here.
André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy
Braun Strowman won by last eliminating Colin Jost
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| Man, I felt that bump there that Ali took into the commentary table. Hope he's alright. |
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| Another meaningless win for Strowman at WrestleMania for the second year in a row. Who's girlfriend did this guy see naked for Creative to fuck him over this bad royally? |
The Hostess of WrestleMania, Alexa Bliss, introduces Hulk Hogan
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| Bliss posing with Hogan like she's a damn Make-A-Wish kid... |
As soon as I heard "Real American" cue up I went to the bathroom. That should tell you enough there on how I feel about the Hulkster.
WWE Universal Championship
Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman)
I honestly busted out laughing when Paul Heyman pushed past Hulk Hogan and Alexa Bliss posing on the stage to the sound of Real American. It made absolutely perfect sense to put Brock and Rollins on first if they weren't going to be closing out the show. Besides, do you actually think that Brock's going to just wait around in catering for 6+ hours when he knows he has to lay down for Rollins AGAIN to drop the title? Vince McMahon better be happy that he didn't kill Rollins (looked close enough to it to me before the shot in the dick) then threw the belt back at him like last year in gorilla.
After that low blow, Rollins promptly hit Lesnar with three consecutive Curb Stomps and picked up the win to become the NEW Universal Champion. God bless Crossfit Jesus for dying for our sins.
AJ Styles def. Randy Orton
I heard about the "Turn The Lights Off" chants due to the bright lights in the arena obstructing the fans' view of the in-ring action.
As for the match itself, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary, but it seemed like they dialed things out a bit for this match, much like Styles and Nakamura's performance at WrestleMania last year. I guess we're going to see these two continue to feud throughout the summer as I was expecting a HUGE RKO counter to seal the deal and send everyone home happy but there was nothing like that here. I did like all of the RKO teases though. Not many people get hip to Orton's tactics and change up their game to avoid eating a RKO.
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) def. Aleister Black and Ricochet, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura (with Lana), and The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus)
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| I guess this was the boys' attempt at the forming their own Megazord. |
I was surprised to see that the Usos retained, but I guess that was because they signed new contracts before this event came to pass. The Usos ain't going nowhere, folks. I guess we can cast away those hopes of Young Bucks vs. Usos or Usos vs. Lucha. Bros. feuds.
Falls Count Anywhere Match
Shane McMahon def. The Miz
The finish didn't help matters either where it looked like Miz superplexed Shane onto the roof of a bouncy house.
WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) defeated The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) (c), Nia Jax and Tamina, and Beth Phoenix and Natalya
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| Pretty cool to see Bret Hart walk out with the Divas of Doom. |
I'm not even going to sugarcoat this. I thought this match was a massive disservice to the talents involved. That being said, Beth Phoenix looked like she never left the company and stopped wrestling, even though the bulk of this match came off as something you would see on RAW or SmackDown! every week. I hope this isn't the last time we see of her in the ring. I wouldn't mind seeing the Glamazon get one more run with the championship or even her and Nattie hold the Women's Tag Team titles once or twice.
Speaking of which, the IIconics of all people won the match off a blind tag spot following a top rope Glam Slam from Beth Phoenix to steal the win. I saw people on social media say that they never seen Beth do that before and I'm like where the fuck have you been?
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| The IIconics' emotions here were real and I'm happy for them as fans turned wrestlers living their dreams, but as part of the direction for this division, I didn't agree with them winning the titles here, especially when they were shoehorned into this match to begin with by some stupid fluke win. |
If the rumor(s) are true about Sasha Banks wanting to quit the company following that decision, I don't blame her. Her and Bayley didn't even get a chance to pick up steam with the belts only to end up losing them during their first big title defense.
WWE Championship Match
Kofi Kingston (with Big E and Xavier Woods) defeated Daniel Bryan (c) (with Rowan)
I was going to write a completely different article about this Kofi thing before this PPV came to pass, but I'm going to rant about this here.Let's get this out of the way first. Kofi Kingston is one of the hardest working veterans on the entire roster and a model employee for the past eleven years. The one time he was considered for a main event push in the past, he fucked that up in a match against Randy Orton and found himself floundering in midcard hell until he paired himself up with Big E and Xavier Woods to form the New Day faction. This was a faction designed to epic fail, but the trio turned it into a massive success. I'm not a fan of their antics - whether they were heel nor face - so don't come at me for acting like "black people can't have shit" when it comes to appreciating their hard work and success in WWE.
The thing is - and African-American fans like myself have noticed this for a long time - is that WWE allows their minority performers only to rise up to a certain point on their ladders of greatness in that company before they pigeon-holed into a niche role for majority of their careers. Case in point: R-Truth/Ron "The Truth" Killings returning to WWE following his success in TNA/Impact Wrestling as a main eventer, notably a former NWA Champion after defeating Ken Shamrock of all people.
So when Mustafa Ali got injured a few months ago at the crisp of his major push in a program with Daniel Bryan, fans rallied in support of Kofi Kingston taking his spot in the Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship. Kofi fell short, despite narrowly coming so close to defeating Daniel Bryan that everyone in that arena could taste it. From this point to the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, Vince McMahon would continue to "fuck with" Kofi with teases and false promises of a WrestleMania match against Daniel Bryan. WWE was clearly recycling the angle they pulled with Daniel Bryan in the same role leading up to WrestleMania 30, only to sprinkle a bit of Triple H's (not so) subtle racism in his WrestleMania XIX feud with Booker T. WWE made this feud about race and I thought that was really in bad taste, because it didn't need to be. Instead, WWE made this whole feud about damage control and an attempt to rectify their past mistake(s) with the black talent on their roster over the years. Mind you, they are doing all of this while welcoming back Hulk Hogan (who was blacklisted from said company for his racist comments a few years ago) back into the company for the event.
My biggest issue with all of this is that Kofi Kingston NEVER was part of their original plan/build for WrestleMania, much like Daniel Bryan a few years ago despite WWE are over the moon patting themselves on the back about it. WWE had to brought into this kicking and screaming in fear of fan backlash at their biggest event of the year. The difference being that this feels like a cheap "thank you for your participation" award than the climax to a proper WrestleMania build. I'll give WWE props on the hoops they had Kofi jump through to put him over as a legitimate threat and challenger to Daniel Bryan. That notion that anyone can beat anyone else in WWE has been lost in their mindset/logic for a few decades now and it's a breath of fresh air to see it effectively used here.
This whole thing just seems like an agenda to quell a part of their fanbase from speaking out before screwing them over again in the long run. Don't forget how many times in the past they've strapped the gold on minorities on their roster just to cater to a certain demographic and quell the negative reactions from that corner of their fanbase/viewers. Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and even Jinder Mahal about a year or two ago to sweeten their deal prior to going to India for their first Saudi show - just to name a few.
Want another case in point? Look at where both Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura are in comparison to their careers about a year ago. Both of them won the Royal Rumble to earn WrestleMania title matches (only for WWE to be able to say that they've had two Asian Royal Rumble winners getting to headline title matches for WrestleMania that year), only to lose at said even and WWE Creative stumbled and fumbled around on what to do with them in the months that followed. That resulted in Asuka losing her SmackDown! Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair a week prior to WrestleMania without an opponent in sight at all as her entire title reign - despite besting Becky Lynch at the Rumble this year - was treated like a mere afterthought. Shinsuke Nakamura didn't fair any better either. He was handed a string of losses against AJ Styles in their program of dick shots and low blows. He did win the United States Championship for a while, but even that was short-lived as he currently finds himself in mediocrity in a half-assed tag team with Rusev. I fear the same happening for Io Shirai and Kairi Sane getting called up to the main roster.
I admire Jay Lethal as Ring of Honor's World Champion with or without their top title because even when he's doing his comedy bit as Black Machismo, he's not adhering to negative stereotypes of black culture nor tossing pieces of chicken and watermelon slices into the crowd. That's what I want for the New Day in a sense. When I say things like "I wish the New Day would take themselves more seriously", I don't mean that in disrespect at all. They are the only African-American Superstars to be given such a high profile spotlight on WWE's programming on a regular basis and are in positions of being role models to men, women, and children of color watching and wanting to imitate everything they see them do. I just want them to be mindful of that. Before anyone gives me shit about it or revoke my black card (laughs), hear me out. I have seen the New Day's stuff for Be A Star and their efforts to give back to the black community. I applaud them for that, I really do. I don't want this to turn into this negative connotation that I'm shitting on them when I'm not. I can make the distinction to not like their act/gimmick but like them as individuals/in-ring talents. I just wished that they would have scrapped the pancakes, unicorns, and trombones ensemble, at least for one night, when their partner in arms was going for one of the top titles in the company. I'll flip it in perspective for a second. The current Elite members and former Bullet Club members, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega are all fun and games at times, but they know when and where to flip the switch and take things extremely serious instead of presenting themselves like a trio of traveling goofs.
To be fair, the New Day have come a long way from initially being handed what looked like a trio of mock preachers gimmick that was doomed to fail right off the bat as people were passing it off as Nation of Domination 2.0. Over time, the New Day turned the gimmick into their own, winning fans over with their sexual innuendos and insider jokes about unicorns and pancakes. There's moments where I think they are absolutely hilarious and others where I'm just cringing or rolling my eyes with disgust.
Fortunately, this wasn't one of those times. Over the past few weeks, we saw three black men rally together in support to see their "brother", or rather partner-in-arms and best friend, win the coveted WWE Championship. They can do "serious" and we saw that with their imitate promos as WWE Exclusives on the WWE YouTube channel talking about how much this opportunity meant to them and whether or not staying in WWE was worth their while or not throughout the course of the narrative with Vince McMahon fucking around with them. Is it too much to ask for more of THAT? The WWE Championship was a white whale that many African-Americans Superstars have been chasing for a very long time but have been denied that elusive title until now. Kofi Kingston joins an exclusive club where very few African-American wrestlers have ever been a part of in the history books of black world champions in wrestling.
Bobo Brazil - first African American to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Ron Simmons - First ever African-American WCW Champion. Booker T - WCW & WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Bobby Lashley - ECW & WWE World Heavyweight Champion & even Impact World Champion, Mark Henry - WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Ron "The Truth" Killings - NWA-TNA World Champion, and now finally Kofi Kingston - WWE Champion.
I'm sure that I'm forgetting a few others, but those are the ones off the top of my head...
All in all, this was the best match of the whole night without question. The narrative and drama/suspense was here and WWE delivered on the feel-good ending to send people home happy. Unfortunately, that what was the problem with the rest of this show. People were ready to go home after this moment that it was hard to revitalize the crowd to care about anything else as passionately as this for the rest of the night. I applaud WWE for NOT making this a repeat of what happened to Booker T against Triple H at WrestleMania XIX.
Throughout all of this, let's not forget to give props to Daniel Bryan. I'm sure at this stage of his career, especially since returning to the ring after being forced to retire, that he has a lot of leverage on who he wants to work with or who he wants to drop the title to. It was looking like he was going to give that honor to Mustafa Ali, but he ultimately laid all down for Kofi Kingston tonight. Daniel Bryan was the perfect villain for Kofi here, facing against his mirror opposite from exactly what he was five years ago - the babyface underdog willing to put it all on the line. I hope we haven't see the end of evil environmentalist Daniel Bryan here.
I'm still sad that we didn't get him come out to a remix to the Captain Planet theme or something along of those lines for a big elaborate WrestleMania entrance.
At the end of the day, this was the highest point of the night in my honest opinion - for a multitude of reasons (narrative, cultural significance for African-Americans, match quality & pacing, etc.) and gave everyone that feel good moment that could have closed out this event. Sadly, this wasn't the main event and the crowd didn't get behind anything else as highly as they did here.
WWE United States Championship Match
Samoa Joe (c) def. Rey Mysterio
At this point of the show, I went to get a sandwich from the fridge and by the time I came back this was over. All that talk about bringing in Rey's son Dominic to watch and all that for nothing. At the same time, I understand why they went with a quickie finish since Rey's knee was probably still messed up and they just wanted to give a quick win to Samoa Joe and move on to save time on this card.
Elias in Concert crashed by "Doctor of Thuganomics" John Cena
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| Oh shit, son. The Doctor is IN. |
As much as I enjoyed that, I'm still irked that they couldn't have him come out later and wrestle Kurt Angle in his final match. It's not like he was doing anything else important on this show.
Roman Reigns def. Drew McIntyre
I was half surprised to hear the crowd half-boo, half-cheer Roman after beating cancer. I guess that the WrestleMania crowd already wasn't buying into Roman's babyface push. If WWE were smart they would have turned Roman heel the next night on RAW, but I guess they want to milk his babyface comeback from beating cancer for as much as it's worth. It just seemed like the crowd wasn't into either of these guys. Not a bad match, it just suffered from being placed too far deep into this marathon of a PPV.
I'll say this much though. If Drew isn't a World Champion or at least in the main event conversation for WrestleMania next year, then this company is fucking stupid. If WWE has nothing but more plans of shoving Roman Reigns down our throats following Dean Ambrose's departure, then they are going to get the same result as before Reigns' leukemia flared back up or fans just reverting back to booing him out of arenas.
No Holds Barred match
Triple H def. Batista
Had Triple H lost, he would have been forced to retire from in-ring competition
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| I'm sure BotchaMania is so happy that this match gave them so much material for those "I AM THE TABLE" bits until it finally broke here. |
This match was TOO DAMN LONG for this late into the card. They could have accomplished this match in a fraction of the time that this dragged out going past 11PM. This was the point where I was getting pissed off that this card was still dragging along with three matches left.
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| Dafuq is this shit, a Superman Punch with the Sledgehammer? |
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| Y'all are so wrong with these Avenge the Fallen memes, I swear. |
Baron Corbin def. Kurt Angle
This was Angle's farewell match
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| #ThankYouKurt You deserved MUCH better than this shit. |
As SOON as I saw Kurt go for that Diving Moonsault that never hits shit, I knew he was going to lose. Corbin hit the End of Days shortly thereafter and unceremoniously pinned Kurt for the three count. Kurt asked the crowd to rally in support for his final request - "You Suck" chants to the sound of his entrance theme.
I won't lie but I thought this was a sad way to have Kurt Angle go out. I understand that he left his best years competitively back in TNA/Impact Wrestling, but this is was a weak ass way to see a legend of his caliber go out. I'm sure he wanted to put over Corbin on his way out, but I'm sure he was a far cry from who he wanted as a final opponent. Those chants fired at John Cena the night prior of "Fight Kurt Angle" during the Hall of Fame was a clear clue on who should have retired Kurt Angle instead.
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| Sadly, what could have been... |
Intercontinental Championship
Finn Bálor def. Bobby Lashley (c) (with Lio Rush)
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| That was as good at that hit Lashley gave Pope and EC3 back in TNA a few years ago. |
At this point, I mentally checked out once the bell rung. I was happy that Finn Balor was able to get to do a WrestleMania entrance as the Demon for once, but boy, I didn't want to see a match recycled from Monday Night RAW for the past few months rehashed here tonight, especially at this point in the evening as we were gunning towards midnight and this show isn't over yet. My best friend (who I was chatting and watching with over Facebook) pointed out that Lashley was wearing the Riddick (Pitch Black) contacts, but we both have no idea why.
Glad Finn got the Intercontinental title back, but this match definitely couldn't hold a candle on Naito and Ibushi from the night prior for the IWGP Intercontinental title during the G1 Supercard. That goes double, even if it wasn't at this ungodly hour on this card.
Winner takes all triple threat match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship and the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
Becky Lynch def. Ronda Rousey (Raw) and Charlotte Flair (SmackDown)
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| I'm guessing Almas showed that off to Charlotte in bed last night... |
For the most part, the ladies proved here that they deserved to be in this spot in terms of match quality and build. As for the finish, I felt that it tainted an otherwise great match. Ronda's shoulders were nowhere near the mat during the three count and you could tell by the reactions of the crowd live that there was some kind of a fuck-up/botch somewhere. If you listen to/read the reports the following day, it was allegedly all part of the plan to make it look like there was some kind of controversy to set up a rematch between Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch.
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| As cool as that spot looked live, I know that had to be the spot where Ronda got hurt off of. |
Ronda broke her hand during this match and I'm pretty sure it was during the awkward landing she suffered as a result of the spot shown in the gif above. That didn't look fun at all there. To Ronda's credit though, she's had the best rookie year out of ANYONE in this sport in recent memory or if ever.
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| As you can clearly see, Ronda's shoulders were NOWHERE from being pinned to the mat. |
It was just a bad look overall on WWE's behalf to end WrestleMania on that questionable manner. You know WWE knew it looked bad as they didn't even show the replays on RAW and SmackDown! over the past week of the finish.
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| WrestleMania ended with Becky Lynch becoming "Becky Two Belts", holding both RAW and SmackDown! Women's Championships with pride. |
Afterthoughts:
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| In a bizarre twist of fate, WWE gave fans not one, not two, but all three of the marquee title changes for the babyfaces up and down the card tonight. I think everyone had them pegged for two out of three tops, not ALL babyface wins for the major title changes going into this show. |
I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't think that WWE would give us all babyface wins for the three marquee major title matches booked on this card. I thought Charlotte Flair was going to walk out with both titles while Rollins would be the last member of the Shield that Brock Lesnar had finally vanquished in singles competition. I was afraid that WWE was going to be stupid and repeat the same mistake that they made with Booker T during WrestleMania XIX in his feud with Triple H, but I'm glad they had the foresight and common sense to not repeat that mistake.
Just because WWE gave fans mostly what they wanted on this show in terms of these babyface victories, I wouldn't dare say that this was a WrestleMania caliber show. The vast majority of this card came off as the same blandness that we see week-in, week-out on RAW and SmackDown! Live with little to nothing presented here coming off as a PPV caliber match period. That's the result of a lot of poor, weak builds going into this show, outside of the builds for the women's triple threat and KofiMania, even though those storylines had their stumbling blocks too. I'm happy for Rollins, Becky, and especially for Kofi, but at the end of the day, I'm still walking away from this year's WrestleMania with a huge 'meh' impression as I reflect back on it.
As I post this, we're in the swing of the Superstar Shake-Up/WWE Draft, so I hope that we get some significant changes to the rosters of both the red and blue brands as WWE really needs to liven things up a bit going forward to keep these title changes made at WrestleMania continue to mean something.
Ronda Rousey's out with a broken hand and has hinted on her social media that she's taking time off to have her first child, so Becky's without a dancing partner for at least one of her two titles. I don't think they want to rehash Becky vs. Charlotte so soon after 'Mania, so that's out too. Not to mention that you don't want to waste Becky's first title defenses on handing someone who she could have a lengthy program with down the road during the down time of the post-WM months. Kofi's in a similar boat. Daniel Bryan was reported hurt after this event, but word is that it's not too severe. Kofi's going to need another strong, capable villain to challenge him much like Bryan did to get the crowd behind him in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania or this reign is going to be as forgettable as Jinder Mahal's. He also has the added challenge of establishing that he can carry the gold on his own without having to rely on his New Day brothers to carry him in segments/promos. The pressure is on both Kofi and Becky to either sink or swim in this post-WrestleMania landscape.
I don't fear for Rollins in this position as he's been here before. In his case, my primary concern is who are they going to throw at Rollins to challenge him next? Rollins does better chasing than being the champion. A heel turn would definitely be the wrong way to go with the "burn it down" catchphrase so over right now and he's the savior to a lot of fans after dethroning Brock Lesnar for the title - hence the "Beast Slayer" moniker. I know I don't want to see another stale Roman vs. Rollins feud, so they definitely going to have to deliver something good if they want to hold fans' interests. Post-Shake-Up, I wouldn't mind seeing Rollins in programs with AJ Styles or even Andrade "Cien" Almas, but they don't have to jump the gun on either of those right off the bat.
Everyone else seems to be in this state of flux for post-WrestleMania where WWE Creative (or rather Vince McMahon) is going to start throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks for the next few months.
Just because WWE gave fans mostly what they wanted on this show in terms of these babyface victories, I wouldn't dare say that this was a WrestleMania caliber show. The vast majority of this card came off as the same blandness that we see week-in, week-out on RAW and SmackDown! Live with little to nothing presented here coming off as a PPV caliber match period. That's the result of a lot of poor, weak builds going into this show, outside of the builds for the women's triple threat and KofiMania, even though those storylines had their stumbling blocks too. I'm happy for Rollins, Becky, and especially for Kofi, but at the end of the day, I'm still walking away from this year's WrestleMania with a huge 'meh' impression as I reflect back on it.
As I post this, we're in the swing of the Superstar Shake-Up/WWE Draft, so I hope that we get some significant changes to the rosters of both the red and blue brands as WWE really needs to liven things up a bit going forward to keep these title changes made at WrestleMania continue to mean something.
Ronda Rousey's out with a broken hand and has hinted on her social media that she's taking time off to have her first child, so Becky's without a dancing partner for at least one of her two titles. I don't think they want to rehash Becky vs. Charlotte so soon after 'Mania, so that's out too. Not to mention that you don't want to waste Becky's first title defenses on handing someone who she could have a lengthy program with down the road during the down time of the post-WM months. Kofi's in a similar boat. Daniel Bryan was reported hurt after this event, but word is that it's not too severe. Kofi's going to need another strong, capable villain to challenge him much like Bryan did to get the crowd behind him in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania or this reign is going to be as forgettable as Jinder Mahal's. He also has the added challenge of establishing that he can carry the gold on his own without having to rely on his New Day brothers to carry him in segments/promos. The pressure is on both Kofi and Becky to either sink or swim in this post-WrestleMania landscape.
I don't fear for Rollins in this position as he's been here before. In his case, my primary concern is who are they going to throw at Rollins to challenge him next? Rollins does better chasing than being the champion. A heel turn would definitely be the wrong way to go with the "burn it down" catchphrase so over right now and he's the savior to a lot of fans after dethroning Brock Lesnar for the title - hence the "Beast Slayer" moniker. I know I don't want to see another stale Roman vs. Rollins feud, so they definitely going to have to deliver something good if they want to hold fans' interests. Post-Shake-Up, I wouldn't mind seeing Rollins in programs with AJ Styles or even Andrade "Cien" Almas, but they don't have to jump the gun on either of those right off the bat.
Everyone else seems to be in this state of flux for post-WrestleMania where WWE Creative (or rather Vince McMahon) is going to start throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks for the next few months.
