The ‘BIGGEST TAG MATCH OF ALL TIME’ main events night 1.
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch for the WWE Women’s World Championship
The right choice for an opener of the two days and a great titan v titan battle in the women’s division. Ripley is the obvious favourite with her strength and explosive impact, but Lynch’s heart and courage while wrestling with illness is played up huge here giving us a great story told. Becky tried to even it up by going after the arm setting up some great near-submission spots with the Dis-Arm-Her later in the match. The first round of finishers weren’t enough and we got an awesome spot where Rhea had Becky up for an Electric Chair, they tumbled to the floor and Rhea still had Becky in position to hit the move on the floor. That looked really good. It became clear that a super finisher was the way to win and Becky went for a Manhandle Slam off the top. Rhea squirmed away though and HIT A RIPTIDE ONTO THE TOP TURNBUCKLE. A second Riptide puts Becky away. Really fun match as expected. ****
Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Balor) vs. DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano) vs. New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate) vs. Awesome Truth (R-Truth and The Miz) vs. A Town Down Under (Grayson Waller and Austin Theory) vs. New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) for the WWE RAW and Smackdown Tag Team Championships
Organised chaos as usual from these style of ladder matches. Interestingly, both sets of titles were held up separately so we’d have two pairs of champions at the end and a tag division for each brand again which is good. We got a bit of Bate v Balor which was super fun and Finn ended up being airplane-spinned and dropped onto a ladder in a nice spot. Truth worked an actual tag into the match in a funny bit and teamed up with DIY (who were doing a DX cosplay) to take out Judgment Day. A Town Down Under took their moment to take down the Smackdown titles and become champions. Obviously, the match continued and we got more cool spots like Gargano hitting a DDT from the ring out through a table on the outside to Dunne. After dispatching New Day, it looked like Priest would win for his team but R-Truth stopped him to a pop. R-Truth pulled the RAW titles down and Awesome Truth were champions. HUGE REACTION for Truth winning in a nice moment. ***1/2
Dominik Mysterio and Santos Escobar vs. Rey Mysterio and Andrade
Solid tag match to showcase Andrade and continue the long-running father v son rivalry between Rey and Dom. I liked how they let Santos shine for a few minutes but the heels were NEVER winning here. Two guys in masks turned up and attacked Santos leading to Andrade and Rey winning with a splash on Dom. The masked men were football players who got a pop for their celeb involvement. ***
Jimmy Uso vs. Jey Uso
A total disappointment and it comes, partly, from how poorly booked this feud has been from the start. Jimmy turning on Jey at SummerSlam was never really explained, was too flip-floppy and when they tried to heat this up after Royal Rumble, Jimmy had been booked so badly for so long that nobody cares. That’s a bit of the issue here: NOBODY thinks Jey is losing. The other issue this match is quite boring – it’s not like awful but it’s not the WrestleMania match you’d want them to have. Jimmy feigned begging for forgiveness at one point before Jey put him away rather easily with a superkick (one of many in the match), spear and an Uso Splash. ***
Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane) vs. Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair and Naomi
Pretty average match but a nice moment with Jade getting a big star push on the big stage. Bianca, Jade and Naomi getting to win together at WrestleMania is cool for them (I’m clearly not the target audience) and should set up some form of a tag feud with Damage CTRL. **1/2
Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
A really great match as you’d expect with these two. Gunther is uber-confident but that actually is his weakness as he underestimates Sami. This starts with plenty of strikes as Gunther tries to assert his dominance and while Sami stays in the fight, he’s clearly mismatched in that department. But importantly, he keeps fighting and starts to really both Gunther who is thinking this will be easy. Gunther even takes his eye off the ball and talks trash to Sami’s wife at ringside which is something he never does. They really play up the bully part of his character which is smart with Sami being the ultimate underdog. Zayn fights back with more impact-style wrestling (suplexes, DDTs etc) so Gunther pulls out his Powerbomb but Sami kicks out in a big near fall. Gunther doesn’t listen to the warning signs here and continues to play games. He delivers a Helluva Kick of his own at one point and gets rocked with Sami’s original move for a two count. Gunther does get to hit a couple of powerbombs and this match is over, if it’s a normal opponent. He takes the time to goad Sami’s wife more because he thinks this is done. But it’s not because it’s Sami FUCKING Zayn. He fights BACK with BRAAAAAINBUSTAH on the turnbuckle. HELLUVA KICK! A RUNNING HELLUVA KICK. 1. 2. 3!!!!!! Zayn beats Gunther and wins the title. THAT FUCKING SHOCKED ME. ****1/4
The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins
The trademarked Big Fight Feel to it as Rock returns to the ring for the first time since 2016 (since 2013 in a proper match). He’s shown how good he is at this with this heel run and Cody and Rollins have been elevated to super-stardom even more because of it. The match itself is pretty good – made better because of a hot story and a molten crowd. Rock actually tries to wrestle a normal-style match for the first bit and didn’t look terrible so that’s a win. It quickly turns into a Tornado Tag style brawl with Rock threaten to fire the referee if he DQs or count-outs and I appreciate them making it make sense at least. There was even a point where Rock hit a low blow and the referee just shrugged at Cody like what the fuck can I do? It telegraphed the finish though as there’s no way this referee counts a Rock loss. The main issue with this is it’s SUPER long at 40+ minutes. If you shave off 10-15 minutes, it’s much better but I appreciated it for what it was. Rock pinning Cody was brave but it helps stack the deck against him and potentially sets up Rock v Cody in the summer? The main thing to say: This. Was. Fun. ***3/4
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