411’s WWE Unreal Season Three, Episode Five Report: ‘The Grandest Stage’

-Written: 7.23.26
-Source: Netflix
-Run Time: 1:00:55

-Plugs: Episodes One, Two, Three, Four

-We start with Cody Rhodes walking around The WWE Warehouse and he hopes more guys can come out and see it. He shows us a Steiner Brothers letter jacket, Dusty robe, Warrior denim jacket, and a Stunning Steve robe. I would love to walk around and see what’s in that place. Almost like they need a physical Hall of Fame. Ben Brown, WWE Archivist, is with Cody and they walk by the original WrestleMania painting featuring Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. You know the one.

-Cody talks about the build to Mania and he needs to beat Drew to get another WrestleMania Main Event. That’s what happens and we cut to Randy Orton, who is watching from Gorilla. No discussion about the decision for Cody losing the Title and then Drew losing it back. Just right to Cody vs. Randy. Cody talks about his first TV match being against Randy and getting beaten to death. He then joined Legacy with Randy. Now, Randy is coming for his Championship.

-Back to Ben and Cody as they look through the Cody Collection. He is blown away that they have Cody’s gear from WrestleMania XXVI. I was there! Cody says he wasn’t supposed to be in the match and Randy made the call to make it a Triple Threat (w/ Ted Dibiase). So it was supposed to be Randy vs. Dibiase? Cody says all these years later, the same guy is across the ring and it seems meant to be.

-We see Randy turn on Cody at the contract signing as Cody says what they do is violent and they need to remind people of that. We see Randy destroy Cody, leaving him a bloody mess. He calls the whole thing Old School and they needed to empty their pockets as it was the WrestleMania Main Event.

-Show opening!

-HHH calls the card for both night’s stellar and talks about the story they have been building towards with Liv and Stephanie. Liv says Stephanie and her are the most physical thing she has ever done in the WWE. We see their brawl from RAW where Vaquer shoved Liv, who cracked heads with Roxxane. That sound is sickening! Liv says everyone was horrified and checked on her immediately. We get a slow mo replay and then see the wicked bump on her head. She gives an update and says it’s still there, but is squishy and doesn’t hurt anymore. The blood is draining to her eyes and it’s a reminder of why she needs to kick Stephanie’s ass.

-Liv talks to Raquel as they make the drive to Allegiant Stadium. Liv says she is not a singer, but agreed to perform her theme song during her entrance. We see the rehearsal and Bayley is so happy for her. Lyra is crying because she is happy and Liv asks her if it’s better than Nickelback. Man, NB catching strays.

-Seth says his shoulder feels fine. It’s not 100% and he won’t know how good it is until he’s in there. He says this reminds him of his return at Mania after the knee injury, but then he had a brace. HHH says GUNTHER vs. Seth is big enough on it’s own, but they are also bringing back Bron Breakker. I am kind of bummed we didn’t get a discussion on how they decided to do Seth vs. GUNTHER. Also, when is GUNTHER ever going to get his favor from Heyman, or did I miss it?

-Bron is hidden in a room in the stadium and gets the plan from Jamie Noble. Bron says he hasn’t been with the new talent brought up and he hopes the audience hasn’t forgotten about him. We hear that a lot from people returning.

-Over to AJ Lee and CM Punk. AJ notes she has never had a singles match at Mania and she is excited for her entrance. We see the little girls that get to dress like AJ. She calls them The AJ Legion and Punk says hi to them and thanks them for helping. AJ wanted to create an image girls could recreate as she wanted them to feel like superheroes. She feels people know who they should be when they are 12-13 and we lose touch of that before finding ourselves. “We are all just kids at heart, who want to be superheroes.”

-WrestleMania Saturday: I will say again that the look of Night Two was so much better than Night One. We start with AJ Lee vs. Becky Lynch and Punk is smiling like crazy as AJ makes her entrance. AJ says her and Becky are going to have a knock out fight. DANHAUSEN is watching with Punk! We get highlights from the match and cut back to Punk’s reaction from Gorilla. Becky cheats to win and regains her Women’s IC Title.

-AJ says the comeback was originally supposed to be the goodbye she never had with her fans, but she soon realized, “I am really fucking good at this. So, we will see how far we can go.” She gets flowers and a hug from Punk in Gorilla. She says they are 0-1 and hopefully Punk can make them 1-1 and if not, maybe she will get him flowers. She then jokes the flowers are like being Miss USA.

-Seth Rollins vs. GUNTHER: Seth says they are two of the best wrestlers over the last 30 years and they are battling on The Grandest Stage. Seth wanted to do something different as this was his first match back since the injury. He has the black-out contacts as part of his entrance. He had contacts for a long time before he got Lasix in 2015. He needed to get them out before the match and was able to get them out clean while turning around during the entrance. We get highlights as Seth talks about how physical it was and that first powerbomb was a shock to his system. He admits he was blown up due to the pace.

-Bron Breakker: He says he needs to remind everyone who he is. He gets a hug from Heyman backstage and then runs to the ring and SPEARS the shit out of Rollins. GUNTHER puts Rollins to sleep and gets the win. Bron sprints all the way down the ramp in a great visual and hits another SPEAR. HHH tells him it was good shit, so VINCE IS COMING BACK, or something. Bron gets a little emotional as he says he worked really hard to get here and it’s great to be back.

-Seth has a moment with his daughter backstage. That’s great! Seth says he was beat to shit. He gets ice taped to his shoulder. He thinks they stole the show.

-Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan: Women’s World Title: Dom wants to know if she is going to wrestle in her entrance gear. He then smiles and calls the entrance bad ass. Stephanie makes her entrance and says it represents her. Her soul is like fire, so she went with Vaquer’s Inferno. Liv again says the feud is the most physical of her career and they have the welts and marks to prove it. Stephanie just wanted to have a good match because for her, it’s not just a business, it’s her life. Devil’s Kiss because again, it has to be shown. I always have Booker’s reaction in my head when she hits that move. Liv gets the win and says she knows the work she had to put in to get to that moment. She took a five second moment for herself and for the little girl at five that watched WWE in the chaos going on in her life. She starts to cry as she wanted to soak in the moment.

-Interesting as she meets up with HHH backstage and he gives her all the praise. She asks, “we made up some time.” HHH says yes and thanks her for doing that. So, they did have their time cut. I assumed they went short to try to protect both ladies as they had injuries, but it seems that wasn’t the case. He tells her to keep doing what she is doing and gives her a hug.

-Stephanie says today was the perfect time to lose the title. She starts to get emotional as she says her body is asking for a break. Someone give her a hug! She apologizes for getting emotional. She admits she never took care of her body as she pushed hard for 10 years to get here. She says they are flesh and blood and if she had to draw her scars with makeup, she would have no body left. Man, I didn’t realize she was that beat up.

-HHH talks about injecting Pat McAfee into Randy vs. Cody. Oh yeah, now that is where we needed a camera to catch that discussion. Cody says Pat is a massive star, but knew fans would be pissed that Pat was put into this spot. Hayes and HHH discuss the match and how Cody needs to be aggressive with some of the heat. HHH agrees and knows the crowd might turn Cody heel tonight. They are fine with him leading into it. Hayes tells Cody that HHH is cool with anything he wants to do. Cody tells Hayes he won’t be sneering, but he will give back what Randy gave to him.

-Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton: WWE Championship. HHH tells Orton to breath and enjoy this. “You are Randy fucking Orton. Go have a good time.” He thanks “H” and they shake hands. Cody says he never got frustrated as they were given ingredients and it was up to them to make it special. McAfee attacks Cody before the bell in a nice dick move. Cody says he enjoyed this Mania more than any other since he returned. He loved being given the task of keeping things on track. Oh yeah, Jelly Roll was part of this as well. Cody admits Jelly and Pat were all in and were there to take each other out, so we could reset to Cody vs. Randy.

-Match highlights and Orton gets to bleed. Cody talks about being a little more devious. “If anything, Randy is the babyface in this match,” and he wanted the fans to boo harder. He says the fans are part of this so he doesn’t care how they react as long as they react. Cody says Orton bleeding was part of the show, but him bleed was not. The scar on his head never healed and it opened. Hayes is popping backstage for the ref eating the RKO as he notes they got the crowd. We see Brandi watching backstage. Cody with a low blow and we see Pat getting his ref gear on. He rushes down with the a neck brace and makes the count, but Cody is out at two. Roode: “Randy and Cody are our story.” Pat eats a RKO, but Cody hits a Cross Rhodes and gets the win. Cody says he loved the match, but then it fell apart. He says the title shot opened up the cut more and then The Punt. Gorilla freaks out as Cody’s eye is swollen and his head is bleeding. “His eye is really swollen, holy shit.” Roode notes that Cody didn’t move his head with the punt and took it full force. Cody admits he could have moved but it’s WrestleMania. Randy’s reaction backstage seeing Cody on the monitor: “Wow, look at his fucking head. I did that to him?” Randy thinks his ankle bone caught Cody on the punt. Cody says he was happy as he got to show the world WrestleMania when two guys who don’t want to pull punches.

-Randy tells Cody he thinks that last minute was rough on him. Cody isn’t sure where he got busted. He apologizes to HHH for ruining the canvas with blood. We get close up shots of the eye and you can see the bruising from where Randy’s boot caught him. He apologizes to Brandi, who jokes she can’t have anything as she got hurt last week. Cody just had to top her. Cody gives Pat a thumbs up and thanks him for bringing the heat. Cody is on cloud nine even if he may lose his eye because they got through it and closed Night One. I am glad he’s happy with it.

-WrestleMania Sunday: CM Punk is working out in the ring and wonders the last time he jumped from the top rope to the floor. He thinks it was 2013 and we see it happen during his fantastic match with The Undertaker at Mania XXIX. I love that match! I don’t recall him doing anything like that in AEW, so he may be right with how long it has been. He talks to Hayes about the idea of teasing the dive and getting knocked into the Tree of Woe. Lots of f bombs from Punk as he throws out his idea. It seems Roode is another producer on the match. Punk is pumped as it’s The WrestleMania Main Event and he is here. “We will paint a masterpiece tonight.” Truth!

-Oba and Trick run into John Cena backstage and he congratulates them. He tells them they earned their spot and he tells them to have fun. He thanks them for allowing him to watch and tells them to show them who they are. That’s awesome! Again, bring Cena back and just have a camera follow him backstage to get his interactions with the roster.

-Trick Williams runs through his entrance with Lil Yachty. That fur coat train is obscenely long, but it’s AWESOME. HHH then has a moment with Oba Femi. He tells him that Mania is just a bigger box. He gives him the Hoosiers speech as the ring is the same size as the one in NXT.

-Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar: Oba is getting ready in Gorilla and he has another moment with Cena. Smart decision to open Night Two with his match. As we know, if Brock isn’t closing, then he is opening so he can get out of there. Hayes in Gorilla: “Tell me a story.” Oba eats Brock’s early offense and that freaks out Brock. Oba says Brock is everything they say he is. “I’ve never been thrown like that ever before.” We hear that a lot from people who wrestled Lesnar. Lot of MEAT SLAPPING in this one. They delivered exactly what was needed and Oba gets the dominant win. Who knew it would lead to the feud continuing for four more months? Oba can’t believe he hit Fall from Grace on Brock Lesnar. HHH tells him it was epic and Oba calls is the greatest moment of his career. Oba: “Destiny fulfilled.”

-Sami Zayn vs. Trick Williams: US Title: Yachty and Trick talk backstage about family. Trick says his mom tells him he is a king created by God and people can’t break him. Lash greets him in Gorilla. Then his music hits and again, BANGER of a theme. We see his mom in the front row and she is just coming off a knee replacement. His family marks out over the fur coat train. That’s great! Sami did what he does and made Trick look good before taking the loss and giving Trick his first WrestleMania moment. Trick says the roar from the crowd felt like it came from the heavens. He admits to nearly crying when he saw his mom crying in the crowd. We get a great moment as they hug and he thanks her. Moms are the greatest! They meet backstage and hug again. Trick: “I’m a big tough guy and you nearly had me crying out there.”

-CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns: World Title: Rhea Ripley hugs Punk backstage and tells him to have fun. Punk thanks HHH for the opportunity and HHH tells him this is his house: 55,000 people out there. Right to the spot with the stairs and Punk is bleeding! Gorilla tells the ref to wipe some of the blood from Punk’s face. This match was amazing and had me losing my mind in my house. Punk says the table spot from the corner went how he drew it up. He touched Larry’s paw print before making the dive. He talks about falling on the concrete in the rain and holding Larry on the way down. Larry hated the rain, so he wanted Punk to carry him. Tonight was him remembering Larry and picking him up again. He says the table spot was a bad idea, but like his other bad ideas, it somehow ended up being golden. Roman gets the win because Punk is old and exhausted from the match. Again, just an amazing match! They delivered and probably even over delivered. Night Two absolutely saved the weekend. My friend and I have been watching Mania together since 28 and since it went two nights he only stops over for one show. He has had a habit of always showing up for the weaker of the two nights.

-Punk says part of the story is that he is old. In six months when he turns 48 he will be in better shape and will be the best 48 year old wrestler on planet Earth. HHH calls Punk’s performance magical and if he waited his whole life for that moment he did it justice. Punk says it felt like this was vindication and where he belonged. “It feels like it should have happened 15 years ago, and I won’t wait fifteen years again. I will see you next year.”

-HHH talks about WWE following life. They cut to all the people featured on this season. HHH talks about things changing and how you can just live in that current moment. The time in the ring at Mania is not a lot and it needs to be enjoyed while it lasts. “Wrestling is life and life is wrestling.” That’s a heck of a quote to end this season.

-I really enjoyed this season. You can see they are finding what works for them with each season they film. The first season there was a lot of explaining to newer fans what they were seeing. This season felt more personal and intimate. With everything WWE, they are only showing is what they want us to see which is fine. I will take what I can get, but I also don’t think they are just playing things up for the cameras. Things are happening in real time and the cameras are there to catch what happens. That means we do get to see them in tough times and in times of triumph. With this episode I was hoping to get more on how they pivoted to Rollins vs. GUNTHER and how McAfee was inserted, but I figured we wouldn’t get too much on the later.

-I think they covered as much as possible while giving those they wanted to feature enough shine. I loved the inclusion of Oba and Trick as they are the future. It was interesting seeing Bron going from the next big thing to injuries taking that away (for now) and Oba organically taking that spot. I enjoyed seeing the relationships that were prominent this season whether it was Punk/AJ, Seth/Becky, Trick/Lash, and even the brief glimpse into the lives of Chelsea/Cardona. I do agree with Cardona that WWE needs to give them their own show. I would recap the shit out of that show every week.

-Of the entire season, I think episode four was my favorite and the one I will remember the most. It had the most emotional weight and I appreciate Punk/AJ and Stephanie sharing their emotional stories. That episode had a lot of sad tears, but also happy tears. As HHH noted, “wrestling is life.” I love he said “wrestling is life,” and not WWE is life. I love WWE, but wrestling is a universal language and people can be divided into tribes, but at the end of the day, it’s all pro-wrestling and I love it so much.

-I assume we will have a Season Four covering post Mania to SummerSlam and if so, I will be back for that. Thanks to everyone who read, shared, or commented on any of these recaps. I enjoy doing this even if it means sacrificing some sleep. For one last time during this season, thanks for reading!