Before I get into the actual review, I’d just like to say that the production set of this year’s WrestleMania is nothing short of outstanding. The entrance ramp really made the superstars feel like they are larger than life. It was kind of reminiscent of WrestleMania 33’s set. No pro wrestling company can touch WWE when it comes to production. Just a spectacular job. With that, here’s a review of Night 1 of WrestleMania 39.
Austin Theory (C) def. John Cena – United States Championship
Just off-rip, I wasn’t feeling this one. The winner was highly predictable, but this just did not have the energy I thought it needed to have. Not that it was actively terrible, but the energy was just barely above house show level. Cena is far from a spring chicken, but it never felt like this match got out of second gear. Cena is a legend that has transcended the business, so the crowd will still react highly to his greatest hits, but there wasn’t really any urgency to them.
My other big issue with the match is Theory winning via a low blow. I just see no reason why Theory couldn’t go over completely clean over a basically retired, balding movie star who turns 46 in a couple of weeks. Maybe it’s because they brought the Make-A-Wish kids out to the stage and that he still needed to be protected?
I don’t know. Theory getting the win is most important, but this wasn’t the big moment, career-defining win it felt like it should have been. Perhaps it was an uphill battle since Cena is past his prime and already buried him on the microphone in this match’s build-up, essentially telling Theory that he’s the loser regardless of the match’s outcome.
So overall, the match wasn’t actively bad and Theory won, but for what this match needed to be, he might as well have been the loser. **1/4
Street Profits def. Braun Strowman and Ricochet, The Viking Raiders and Alpha Academy – Fatal 4 Way WrestleMania Showcase
Now this was a match that had the proper energy for a WrestleMania. The thing about these multi-tag matches at WrestleMania is that there’s no story. There’s no added emotional element to follow in this story. So all the superstars are encouraged to simply let loose and make a WrestleMania moment for themselves. And they came by the boatload in a sub-10 minute match, with a good deal of them coming at the expense of Braun. Chad hit a rolling German on him while and Angelo Dawkins absolutely trucked him with a Ray Lewis like tackle. Combine that with your clever variations on your typical Tower of Doom spot and your crazy high flips, and you have yourself a crazy spotfest that will captivate any WrestleMania crowd.
You could say that with the fast pace of the match, you may not have the time to appreciate each spot, but all I know is that non-stop action, especially for a WrestleMania crowd, is hardly a bad thing. I liked this one. ***1/2
Seth Rollins def. Logan Paul
Few points I wanted to make here. First and foremost, Logan Paul was built to be a WWE superstar, not a Youtube celebrity. End of story. That man and a WWE ring is a match made in heaven. Say what you want about him, but Logan Paul has delivered in every capacity he’s been asked to work in since his WrestleMania debut last year. Whether it’s against The Miz, Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins, he’s just been great in every capacity, and he knocked it out the park once again.
First, you have the Shawn Michaels esque-entrance. That should already tell you where WWE stands on him that they saw it fit to give him such an honor. Then you have how well he is able to control the pace of a match. He’s an athlete, which goes a lot in carrying WWE matches, especially when you want to keep pace with someone like Rollins. And his character work combined with his ring acumen engaged the crowd gradually before the high spots came. And then you have the dramatic nature of the finishes of his matches. How he sells injuries. He just does the little things at a remarkably elite level. Certainly better than any celebrity I’ve seen work in WWE.
Then you have Seth Rollins. At some point, we’re going to need to have discussions about Seth being the Mr. WrestleMania of this generation. Between the historic title wins, big moments and the high quality matches, Seth has become the model of consistency on WWE’s grandest stage in the modern era. He’s shown the ability to work against anyone and get a great match out of them. He’s just a generational superstar. Nothing more needs to be said. Overall, just an outstanding match and another high-quality performance from both of them. And shoutout to KSI for the bump. ****1/4
Lita, Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch def. Damage CNTRL
I thought this was a little better than what I was expecting. In fact, Trish and Lita got in more offense than I was expecting, and they held surprisingly well, even though their moves looked overly choreographed at times (of course there’s no surprise there). But I thought the pacing held up surprisingly well and Trish and Lita more than held their own.
I really think Damage CNTRL needed a win here for the sake of their credibility, but I guess they’ve never been up to winning the big one anyway. What I have to wonder, however, is what the future of the women’s tag team titles look like. Does Damage CNTRL just win the titles back? I don’t know. But this was a well worked, and well-paced tag team match. ***
Rey Mysterio def. Dominik Mysterio
This was the first match on the card tonight that had WrestleMania-caliber emotion simply because it was one of the longer-term storylines that led up to this moment. This is a match that was built up from September of last year and was the truest first time ever match in every sense. First, I have to address the entrances here because they were so well done. Dominik was brought in like he was El Chapo. I’m sorry, but the prison look on Dominik is so cringe it’s actually entertaining. You can tell that he’s fully bought into his character, and he has evolved exponentially from his first match at Summerslam 2 and a half years ago.
And of course, Rey Mysterio’s tribute to Eddie Guerrerro was very well done. The atmosphere of a father/son match was here, and the match lived up to expectations. Dominik showed that he was more than ready for the moment. And with someone of Rey Mysterio’s experience, it would have been pretty hard to screw up.
They introduced the external elements of Judgement Day and Mysterio’s family. They had Dominik look increasingly desperate after each failed heel tactic, whereas Rey was fighting to protect his family’s honor while disciplining his renegade son. I thought Dominik should have gotten the win, but I thought Dominik looked really good in defeat. I liked the storytelling, I liked the pacing, and I think the way the match went built up to a satisfying conclusion. I’m not convinced this is over between the two, however. I’d like to think Rey puts over Dominik at least once before he retires. ***1/2
Rhea Ripley def. Charlotte Flair (C) – SmackDown Women’s Championship
Just wow, man. This was one of the rumored matches to get the main event slot for Night 1, and while the tag team title match made more sense as a main event, you can’t tell me that the match wasn’t deserving of such an honor after what we had the privilege of watching these two women too. They basically ran back what they did in an empty arena WrestleMania three years ago and dialed it up even more in front of a sold out Sofi Stadium.
The match started out a little methodical, but I think the turning point of the intensity of the match came when Charlotte countered the Riptide into a nasty looking DDT. After that point, things just kicked into high gear, and each move that was hit was impactful and hit with purpose. The chops, the spears, the dives, the German suplexes. It was just brutal, but it was absolutely incredible to see in real-time all the near-falls. Especially highly protected moves such as Natural Selections and Riptide.
Rhea and Charlotte just have a unique chemistry with each other that likely led to Charlotte smiling after the match. That’s not a look of a woman who’s sad that she lost. That’s a woman that’s been through everything, has won everything, and has done everything a woman can do in the industry, and was proud of the performance she just put in.
In my opinion, Rhea put on a generational performance. A performance that I believe will cement her to one of WWE’s top female draws for years to come. If you ask me, Rhea’s 2023 is shaping up to be the equivalent of what Bianca’s 2022 looked like. A dominant Royal Rumble win from the 1 spot, and then a clean victory over WWE’s most accomplished female superstar in the co-main event of WrestleMania.
Just an outstanding performance by both women that met, and to an extent, exceeded my expectations. And congrats to Rhea, who got redemption from a big moment that was stolen from her three years ago at WrestleMania. Bravo. ****1/2
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn def. The Usos (C) – Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships
This match was the epitome of how to tell and culminate a story. It’s like a volcano’s eruption. Slowly things crumble, and then when the dam finally breaks, all hell breaks loose. And dammit, this was just one incredible, heart-stopping, emotional WrestleMania main event. Did you guys see how well done the interactions between Jey and Sami were? The Usos’ best attributes were at play as well. Isolating Sami and torturing him just like they did to Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble. Putting Owens through the table. Just the sheer emotion and heft of that alone.
And then through each suplex, each near-fall and each big moment, you slowly felt that The Usos could actually lose because Sami was so damn resilient. And Kevin Owens was there for his friend, and the two of them were able to come together and deal a heavy blow to the Bloodline. It’s matches like these that make you appreciate the genre of pro wrestling. Because it’s not just a bunch of muscular, athletic, sweaty guys kicking the crap out of each other. They are telling you a story and trying to reach a conclusion, and dammit was this ever a satisfying ending. It’s the perfect way to end The Usos’ legendary reign while simultaneously being the perfect way to give two lifelong friends a WrestleMania moment many will never forget.
Here’s the the thing guys. This was an ambitious main event, as it is the first time a tag team match main evented WrestleMania. And I’m sorry in advance because I’ll say something pretty bold. But do I speak out of turn to suggest this was one of the top 7-8ish main events in WrestleMania history? Maybe higher? You have Taker/Michaels at WrestleMania 26. Rock and Stone Cold at WrestleMania 17. I mean, I’m sorry, but there’s not many WrestleMania main events off the top of my head I’m taking over this one when you consider the broader context behind this match. At this moment, I’m thinking of a reason why this wasn’t a perfectly done match, and I can’t find one. So here’s the bottom line. This was one of the greatest main events in WWE history. One of the greatest tag team matches in WWE history. And all four men who did battle at Sofi on this night ought to be proud of themselves for giving us a memory that will live on for quite some done. Absolutely outstanding job. *****
Conclusion:
Well, can’t say I’m not impressed. Everything from the atmosphere, to the production, the promos, the entrances and of course the matches, all made this feel like a WrestleMania. Even if every match wasn’t top tier, we still had some absolute bangers, and we got plenty of WrestleMania-worthy moments to boot. Every single man and woman tonight kicked butt in one fashion or another (even if the opener was kind of meh). And I think superstars tomorrow will be even more motivated to turn in an even better collective performance tomorrow. I cannot wait to see them try. If Night 2 was anything like tonight, we’re approaching potentially a top 5 WrestleMania ever. We’ll see how tomorrow goes before I give me final rating for WrestleMania 39.
Oh, and Pat Macafee defeated The Miz. That’s cool, I guess. At least Miz got a match.
