Watry’s WWE WrestleMania 35 Review

Tony Nese vs. Buddy Murphy – Predictable to start the Kickoff Show with the Cruiserweight Championship match. Every time that happens, fans freak out and act shocked. I have no issues with it and guess what? If any bout is to be placed on the Kickoff Show, this is it. I do not watch 205 LIVE. However, I did have a little scoop on Murphy’s title run last month and also hinted at it on my podcast last week. This is the end result. He was dropping the belt. If you followed me on Twitter, you would have already known. Nese gets the hometown (area) love, so it works out. Good opener. Is a title change a sign of things to come tonight?

Womens Battle Royal – Nice to see Ember Moon back. No hype or anything? BOO! Bye Lana Wonder Woman. Hey, Kairi Sane is in there. I think I saw Candice LaRae for five seconds too. I can definitely say Carmella was NOT my pick. I figured Asuka was a little tooooo obvious, so Lacey Evans made the most sense in my book. Whatever, I didn’t care for Naomi winning last year not do I care about Ms. Dance Break winning this time. Just for the little pose afterwards. Fake out with Sarah Logan winning was a throwback to 2018 Bayley and Sasha Banks. Still, big thumbs down from yours truly.  I mean, Carmella is a face, right?  Super feisty and loud. Who knows? Not a good battle royal if we are being blunt. Ugh. Make these mean more! Please.

RAW Tag Team Title Match – The man, the myth, the legend Dash Wilder! What a WWE Hall of Fame, huh? Scott Dawson was there too. Kinda surprised to see this on the Kickoff Show but fits. Not like there is really a story or any build. Cool thing for Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins to have this opportunity in the northeast market. Curt Hawkins won, Curt Hawkins won, Curt Hawkins won! Fairly big news here. It remains to be seen what this all means to The Revival. Personally, I was fine with any outcome. It is all about a WrestleMania Moment remember. You can always course correct the next night or whenever. Fun stuff so far.

Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal – Two of the guys at my WM Party said if Braun lost, they were leaving. It was pretty much a joke and clearly not seen as prestigious or anything like that. Total comedy. Wish the win meant more going forward. Not just a throwaway. Speaking of, The Hardys deserved more. Apollo deserves more. Poor Mustafa…injury at the worst time ever. The Saturday Night Live Clowns did their role I suppose. Just not a strong two hour Kickoff Show, minus the upset victories and two new champs. Hoping for a much more entertaining main show. Four face wins in a row…

Alexa Bliss Opens – Hulk Hogan showing up counts as a WM Moment. Posing with Bliss I will count, to be fair. That counts.

Universal Championship – Paul Heyman is not waiting around. I like the idea of starting the pay-per-view with a huge match. Works as a part of the story. Works as a part of the promo. It works. Awesome entrance for the Beast Slayer. The timing for Seth Rollins is ideal. Brock Lesnar is likely heading to UFC, so the stuff about hopping on a place to Las Vegas is probably true. Flashback to Survivor Series 2003 with Brock starting a PPV. I am ready for a full-time champ to be on RAW again. I picked Rollins to win the Royal Rumble in January, just as a I picked him to win at WM35. Big fail for all the ‘stand tall on television, lose on PPV’ conspiracy theorists too. That has been proven to be false a million times over; no clue why it is still brought up. Congrats to Rollins. Cool opening.

AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton – Good match.  I had higher expectations, not going to lie. The entire build was centered around the RKO. Of course, that meant Randy Orton was going to hit it at some point…but lose. All the usual BS about “WWE will embarrass the indy scene by having AJ lose.” Yep, more internet junk that you just have to laugh at. The dude spent a year as WWE Champion. I guess all of that means nothing again. Always hilarious. Remember the SMART fans are online I’m told. This was about AJ Styles claiming the blue brand as his, hence the veteran Mr. RKO taking the clean fall. Speaking of Orton, he is one to look out for in the Superstar Shakeup. Yet another good guy wins at WM35.

Smackdown LIVE Tag Team Titles – The Usos retaining was a pretty easy call. Process of elimination when you break it all down. The Bar already had their time. If WWE is ready to separate the two, I would be all for it. No problem. Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura were never going to win. Lana can now cry and whine on Twitter about their loss. That left Ricochet and Aleister Black. Do we even know if they are sticking together? Staying on the same show? That left The Usos to keep the belts, and I am cool with that. Ricochet flew all over the place, looked like a star, as did Aleister. That is much more important than getting the tag titles.

WWE Hall Of Fame Inductees – Nice of them to always give the new WWE Hall of Fame guys/gals a chance to be cheered in front of the WM crowd. As for the previous night, I am not a fan of the new ring set up for the ceremony. I do not have a lot to add to the entire Bret Hart attacked scene. The dude clearly got what he deserves with a few upper cuts to the jaw and some criminal charges as well. Might ruin for the rest of us that might want to attend next year. Guessing WWE will change up the rules. We shall see.

The Miz vs. Shane McMahon – Shane McMahon has not won a singles match on pay-per-view since August 2003 against Eric Bischoff. Also a Falls Count Anywhere battle. Certainly shocking to see him win here. I know the story will be The Miz was more worried about inflicting pain than getting a victory but wow. Wow. I am at a loss for words in the Shane O’ Mac win, even as cheap as it was. Good brawl. Tons of fun. I am just a little stunned by the finish.  THE single biggest “Huh?” moment of WrestleMania 35.

WWE Womens Tag Team Titles – IIconics! Oh yeah, that is what I’m talking about. A genuine upset but also one that is logical and works within the grand scheme of things. I was hoping for IIconics vs. Bayley and Sasha Banks in a two on two anyways. Adding Natalya/Beth Phoenix and Tamina Snuka/Nia Jax was really just piling on. Super cool moment to end a fairly solid bout. Throw out all the ideas about the Four Horsewomen of WWE ending the show posing with belts. Some interesting title changes tonight.

WWE Title Match – KofiMania! I know I have said it before, but it must be painful to be Mustafa Ali these days. Absolutely has to sting. I do not care what he says. That being said, life goes on. Life goes on for Daniel Bryan. Life goes on for Kofi Kingston. Life goes on for WWE. They took a bad situation and made the best of it, all the way to WrestleMania 35 at Met Life Stadium. High drama throughout the build (that never dragged despite the antsy fans thinking it was getting stale). High drama throughout the match. WWE knew what they were doing all along. Give the seven billion dollar company just an ounce of credit. Please. Big congrats to Kofi Kingston on the achievement. After 11 years, he did it. Now, PLEASE ditch the pancake power crap and be a champion.

United States Title Match – Before the injury, I was picking Rey Mysterio. After the injury, no way can you trust Rey Mysterio with any kind of gold. Sucks too because this could have been a great back and forth contest. Oh well.

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre –  A part of me wanted Drew McIntyre to finish his mission of destroying The Shield. Another part of me knew that this was all about Roman Reigns getting his comeback victory. Poor Drew just so happen to be the generic heel in his way. Decent bout to give the live crowd a breather after the WWE Championship bout. One of these two is going to the blue brand next week.

Elias Concert – I admit it. I laughed at the fact that his band performance was done all by himself. Funny. Most of us were probably waiting for The Undertaker or John Cena, so seeing The Dr. Of Thuganomics come out was not entirely a surprise. What was a surprise was to see old school Cena show up and cut a little freestyle rap on Elias. That was a true WM Moment and more than worthy of a ten minute segment. Without a story line or match, it is the best WWE can do within Cena’s schedule. Perhaps a Saudi Arabia one on one bout at some point? Officially means no John Cena vs. Kurt Angle later.

Triple H vs. Batista – As good as it was going to be. The No Holds Barred stipulation was added for a reason. Let the smoke and mirrors kind of thing speak for itself. I think the entire world knew that HHH was going to get his win back, but it took 14 years, so we can all be done now. Batista came back for this. I hope he enjoyed it. Same with Triple H returning after surgery. If these two were paired with any other stars, I would have a lot more to say. Since it was just two buddies going at it, sure. It was fine. Nice touch with Ric Flair. Ending it where it started. Show fatigue definitely set in at this point.

Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin – Look, here’s the deal. You lose your last match. Ric Flair, Batista, Stone Cold and all the other greats have gone out on their back. Especially at WrestleMania. If you count Shawn Michaels from 2010. A veteran goes out on his back. Explains why Kurt Angle was winning on his farewell tour. I know MANY who were holding out hope for a John Cena or Undertaker run in, but again, it was never announced or teased on television in any way. This is the way it is. I did not like it, just as I am sure many of you didn’t. However, everything I wrote about three weeks ago still stands. Angle is done; we know that. If the company really wants Baron Corbin to ever be a top star, this is a nice feather in the cap. Thank you Angle, thank you.

IC Title Match – Thus far, the show peaked with KofiMania. They are clearly trying to run through these matches in record time. Finn Balor as The Demon is the new IC Champion. I mentioned this before, but watch out for Bobby Lashley come Superstar Shakeup time. Quick bout. For what it is worth, my brother tapped out at this point and said he was going to bed. Super duper casual fan who last watched WWE at last year’s WM34 event. 

Dance Break – Announce the live attendance number and get in some comedy. Sure. Next year’s Mania will be in Tampa Bay, Florida. Will I go? Stay tuned.

Winner Take All Womens Title Match – Sweet looking entrances from Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Ronda Rousey. A helicopter, Joan Jett, and wild hair. This triple threat bout deserved the main event spot and despite a completely wiped out live audience, they delivered. It was worthy and got us to the correct finish. Becky Lynch left WrestleMANia double champion. That was the end game all along, and we got there. Best of all, it was over Ronda Rousey clean as a whistle. Not Charlotte Flair as some feared. Becky beat Ronda for the title(s). In the main event of WM35 ladies and gentlemen.

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7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Lots of good, solid wrestling but nothing memorable or historic inside the squared circle. Bell to bell, it was a middle of the road WM. In terms of all the title changes and the show lasting 4,545 hours, it will indeed be very talked about. That is without even saying the women main evented Wrestle FREAKIN' Mania! for that alone, this will be remembered forever. WWE gave us Seth Rollins winning. WWE gave us Kofi Kingston winning. WWE gave us Becky Lynch winning. WWE gave us a Lacey Evans cameo! WWE gave us the goods, whether you want to admit it or not.