WrestleMania 39 Sunday Review
After a really fun show the day before and reporting looming overnight of the WWE being sold to Endeavour, this second show has the potential to be under the shadow of its circumstances. However, with one of the most anticipated main events of a WrestleMania in the last decade (with Cody Rhodes’ and the Bloodline’s long-term stories culminating in a big finale), a Hell in a Cell match, and Gunther vs Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre - this has a potential for an even higher ceiling than the previous night.
Let’s see!
Match #1 – Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
The draw of this one was just seeing two massive individuals in the ring together, this was never going to be a classic (sorry Omospaiens).
Omos does his two moves over and over (generic throw and a bear hug) for a few minutes until Brock pretty easily mounts a comeback, hits a few Germans and hits an F5 for the win.
2 stars – This was inoffensive, but also did absolutely nothing, skip.
Match #2 – Natalya & Shotzi vs. Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
This might be the least built, least interesting on-paper match of either WrestleMania night. It is very transparent that this only exists to give Rousey a WrestleMania win without messing up the booking of stories that matter.
The work was slow and awkward, the crowd didn’t care. Raquel was responsible for the few interesting moments in this match (including powerbombing Liv Morgan onto a group of people outside of the ring), and Shotzi also did good work here. Shayna was decent glue trying to hold this together.
But Sonya Deville, Ronda Rousey, Chelsea Green, and Natalya were all actively terrible in this match, with the latter being the worst offender. The WWE has an entire training facility of rookies who look equal to or better than this alleged multi-decade ‘veteran’.
Ronda gets the armbar on Shotzi for the predictable win in a terrible match.
1 star – This was actively bad. Skip at all costs.
Match #3 – Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus - WWE Intercontinental Championship
As expected, this ruled. In a nice refreshing change of pace for this show and this promotion, these three guys just went out there, were stiff, and decided to beat the hell out of each other. When a WWE gives you an early-match standing ovation (the first of many in this match) for a chop exchange, you know you’re onto something. Turns out you don’t need home invasion storylines and midmatch melodramatic promos to make something good for this audience. Turns out, wrestling fans just like good wrestling.
Sheamus’ late-career resurgence is something to behold, becoming a genuinely incredible worker. To be the standout wrestler in a match that also includes Gunther takes some serious skill, and to have reached that level at 45 years old is remarkable.
Not only was the striking wildly impressive, the counters were fluid and they kept their foot on the gas in terms of pacing. There was a fantastic nearfall on Gunther after Sheamus hit an avalanche White Noise followed up by a High Cross. Others include Sheamus countering the Claymore with a Brogue Kick after a huge Tope con Hilo by Drew.
Drew and Sheamus trade finishers, Gunther breaks up with pinfall with a diving splash. Gunther then powerbombs Drew onto Sheamus, and then another powerbomb wrecks Drew for the pinfall victory in a spectacular match.
4.5 stars - An absolutely breathtaking brawl that represents exactly what modern wrestling should be. Highly Recommended.
Match #4 – Bianca Belair vs. Asuka
This was in a hard position on the show to follow such an amazing but draining match, however Bianca has a history of show-stealing WrestleMania matches so it still stood a chance.
The work here was very good, but the crowd seemed tuned out here which is a right shame. Bianca hit a great powerbomb on the floor that rocked Asuka and injected a bit of energy. Unfortunately this match never felt like it kicked into its top gear. It just meandered around and then into the finishing sequence.
Bianca dodges the mist, they trade strike counters, Asuka locks in an armbar, but Bianca stands up into the KOD and gets the pinfall for the win.
3.5 stars – A well-worked match that struggled to engage the crowd until its closing moments.
Match #5 - Edge vs. Finn Balor - Hell in a Cell match
The Judgement Day are awesome, and one of the few legitimately cool things regularly on WWE programming.
So why does it always look so geeky whenever Edge is involved? Edge walks down to the ring while his tron screens say ‘BROOD EDGE’ (the WWE is as subtle as a sledgehammer), and Michael screams about him living the gothic lifestyle. Finn comes down covered in tassels and doing some interpretive dance with smoke flares, making me forget that the Demon character was ever considered cool. They use colour-coded WWE-Branded™ weapons. This whole thing feels like some theatre nerds cosplaying as wrestlers and it’s lame as hell.
This was built as the big finale to a year-long grudge in their most violent match type. Having weapons that are gimmicked to look like Fisher-Price toys just doesn’t match the story being told. Not to mention pausing the match when Balor gets some colour. Nothing says ‘blood feud’ like stopping the match for blood!
There are some positives though. The back-and-forth weapon gimmickry is fun if you ignore the storyline leading up to this match. Balor diving from halfway up the Cell and attempting a Coup de Grace through a table was visually spectacular. Edge winning with a con-chair-to (a canon death blow) was a fitting end, though I’m not sure this was how to definitively beat the Demon character for the first time.
2.75 stars – Overly contrived and trying a bit too hard to appear cool, but a fun enough car-wreck match if you turn your brain off to it existing in any kind of bigger picture story.
Match #6 – Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes - WWE Undisputed Championship
Despite my quibbles with how it was executed (hokey Disney Channel-tier backstage segments, awful acting, unnecessary in-ring promos during plodding title matches), there’s no doubt that the Bloodline storyline has been a long burn that culminated at just the right time to make this match one of the most anticipated WrestleMania main events in recent memory.
Cody’s long-term story, while less compelling, has also been singular since his debut a year ago - to win the championship his father never did.
These two stories come to a head, and I haven’t felt the goosebumps during the entrances of a WrestleMania match like this since Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 26. In that realm, this match has already won.
The in-ring story here was Roman buying into his own lies of domination (despite only winning big matches thanks to interference or dirty tactics) and using his usual bag of tricks, only to be thwarted at every turn by Cody. That is, until Solo begins to interfere whenever the ref’s back is turned to get Roman back on top - until he tries one too many times and gets ejected.
This solidifies that the entire point of the Bloodline storyline is that Roman is nothing without his family fighting his battles for him. Roman is Scar from the Lion King, an ineffective, opportunistic coward convinced of his own greatness (a point missed by the average WWE-stan Twitter poster who tweets the finger point emoji and sees Roman as some dominant conquering champion).
From here, Roman’s reign (lol) starts slipping from his fingers. Cody hits all his big moves, and kicks out of Roman’s signature offence (including a spear and great Superman Punch counter to a Cody Cutter). Right as Cody counters the Guillotine choke and is on the cusp of winning, a ref bump gives way to the Uso and Sami/Kevin Owens interference spot. It was easily predictable that the new tag champs would run off the Usos, but Sami picking up Roman and giving him the Helluva Kick was a beautiful moment of catharsis that led to the biggest nearfall of the night.
Cody hits one Cross Rhodes and goes for the second, but Heyman distracts the ref to set up the Solo interference once again. Roman hits the spear for the win.
4 stars – An emotionally draining match that proves Roman’s positioning as the pathetic patriarch of this tale, even if the ending feels a bit flat.
AVERAGE RATING: 2.96 of 5 stars (or 5.92 of 10)
SUMMARY: This wasn’t nearly as good as the first night of WrestleMania 39, but still had some good moments. Definitely check out the Intercontinental Title match, and the main event if you have time. The rest can be skipped with a clear conscience.
