This is Part 1 of our WrestleMania recap series, in which wrestling is taken over, rained out, and changed forever.
Charlie Davis: Guysā¦ please. There is so much wrestling. Help.
Forrest Hollingsworth: Sorry, canāt help, I have never felt more alive.
Vishal Gullapalli: This is my time to shine! Give me the wrestling! I need it!
Mikey Zee: ADRENALINE! IN MY SOUL! SOMETHING SOMETHING–shit, wrong promotion. But I do have a lot to say about music-related wrestling.
Robert Secundus: [points at the “Mandated Cody Distance” sign vigorously]
MZ: Oh, right. Sorry.
Takeover Night 1
CD: I had a lot going on on Wednesday, so I cannot say that I got to the first night of Takeover.
VG: I, on the other hand, watched Takeover Night 1 and it was really great! My predictions were all off but I had a very good time. Pete Dunne and KUSHIDA had a very nice technical match that Iām still puzzling over the finish of. Colossal Bronson Reed won the Gauntlet Eliminator in a match that made him look great – I love really big guys, and Bronsonās a really big guy. The tag team triple threat match was something I expected to be a bit of a cooldown but it was a real banger – happy for MSK! My personal favorite match of the night involved Ciampa doing the most damage to WALTER that any of us have seen, but still not being able to get the job done. WALTERās one of the best wrestlers in the world, and brings such legitimacy to his style that I feel like has been missing from a lot of modern wrestling. And of course, in the main event, Big Mami Cool Raquel Gonzalez beat the best womenās wrestler on the planet to become the new NXT Womenās Champion. Iāmā¦ worried about Io getting called up to the main roster, because sheās been so great at NXT, but Iām glad Raquelās getting that shine.
CD: Iām not gonna lie, Vishal. I am a little sad I didnāt get to see Walter v Ciampa, but I was having an emotional collapse on the other channel so I am unsure I could have handled it.
FH: I canāt overstate how much I adore Io, she was my wrestler of the year last year (trash can off the WarGames cage!) and I have always loved the rumor that she played chicken with NXT to get her much deserved title reign. That being said, she was running out of opponents and angles quickly, and while Iām a little sad Dakota probably wonāt be getting the shine I want for her anymore, Raquel is big and tall and cool and I think itās a genuinely surprising and good choice.
WALTER is also big! Stats are your thing Vishal, but I believe heās the first champion to hold a WWE title continuously for over two years since Hulk Hogan which I think speaks both to NXT UKās unfortunate stagnation, and to how singularly impressive of a wrestler he is. Man what I would give to see WALTER chop Hogan today…
Takeover Night 2
CD: I DID tune in for Takeover Night 2 at least! This was the night that I was jazzed for because it actually had the match whoās story I have been the most invested in in NXT. Ever since Takeover Vengeance Day when Adam Cole melted down because Kyle OāReily showed that he might look up to Finn Balor just a littleā¦ they have been at each otherās throats. An Unsanctioned match was booked between them and I have been salivating at the idea of an unhinged Adam Cole. Sadly though, within the confines of WWE, they could only take it so far.
Itās actually making me more unhappy the longer and longer I think about it. WWE has a habit of wanting to have its cake and eat it too with wrestlers’ history. They want to use it to leverage emotion, but they never want to weave it into the story in a meaningful way.
FH: TakeOverās second night was a celebration of NXTās ability to set up the best ideas, and a condemnation of its inability to execute on them for me:
- I love Shotzi Blackheart, and I want to take a moment to celebrate her being the first Filipino woman to hold a title at WWE, but the womenās tag match was lackluster, lacking any sense of pathos or narrative.
- Bronson Reed and Johnny Garganoās match was compelling, but as new talent like Reed impresses, it becomes apparent that Gargano would now better serve NXT without a title.
- Karrion Kross and Finn Balorās match was the best of the night, a stunning David vs. Goliath story as Balor effortlessly and athletically baited Kross into making mistake after mistake in the first half before Karrionās bulk and endurance carried him into a devastating, decisive finish — the argument can be made that Balor is the best wrestler in the world simply because of how good he makes others look. Itās immediately undercut by knowing that Karrion, and many like him there, are devout Qanon supporters, COVID deniers, and anti-vaxxers that NXTās production and management apparatus canāt get a handle on appropriately, even for the auspiciousness of a new champion reign.
- Kyle and Adamās match brought two of the most aggressive, deserving, determined men in the company into the ring and refused to let them use any of the narrative connective tissue to tell the story the match was predicated on. Kyle and Adam can go at it, they can bring all the tools — chains, wrenches, more — they can slam through referees and television monitors, through the very construction of the arena, but without anything that tells the story of Adam stealing Kyleās soul without remorse, without the story of the Undisputed Era turning to dust in their hands (and I mean literally, not weirdly spray painted, logo bearing chairs) of Roddy and Bobby and Adam and Kyle together, it quite honestly means nothing to me. A technically good match that nonetheless felt like two men who know better going through the motions.
VG: I donāt think I can say anything about the matches Forrest talked about better than they did. They did skip the opener for moral reasons that I respect, but having watched it I did have some takeaways.
- Jordan Devlin and Will Ospreay feel like the same wrestler to me, and itās not just because theyāre both from the British Isles and mistreat women. Everything they do in the ring feels over-choreographed. There was a spot in Io vs Raquel where Raquel picked Io up for a powerbomb and Io quickly clapped Raquelās head with her feet to prevent it. It was dynamic and memorable, and all the things that I want from quick, agile wrestlers. Devlin instead starts rolling for moves before heās supposed to take them, and expects his opponents to do the same. Wrestling is more like ballet than sports, and I know that, but a Devlin or an Ospreay make the artifice visible in a way that tangibly takes away from the end product for me.
- Itās also darkly funny that WWE (or NXT in this case) made a better decision than New Japan by having Escobar take the title. Ioās been the MVP of NXT for the whole pandemic era, but Escobar has low key been right behind her this whole time. Heās been an incredible heel champion, made Legado Del Fantasma look like stars even when they lose out every week, and is bar none the most attractive unmasked luchador to have graced WWE – including Andrade! His charisma is always on full display and Iām very happy to see him get the shine he deserves, unblemished by any Irish manās claims of being the ārealā champion.
- The womenās tag match was disappointing and lackluster. Shotzi and Ember should be a great team – Shotzi makes up for Emberās lack of charisma and Ember makes up for Shotziās lack of refinement in-ring. But instead it feels like theyāre taking each otherās worst qualities – Shotzi feels like she has to carry the weight of two wrestlers with only one wrestlerās personality, and Emberās gotten sloppier. I donāt know, maybe this match was just a dud, but Iām hoping the womenās tag championship gets some amount of prestige soon.
- Johnny and Bronson Reed was fantastic, but my takeaway was different from Forrestās – I think Johnny holding the North American Title for as long as he has is deliberate and an attempt to pull the record for longest reign away from someone who WWE would love to not acknowledge. But more importantly, itās letting him showcase different styles to his wrestling. In his big feuds with Ciampa or Adam Cole, it was always his smaller man style up against smaller men, so they got to just do everything they normally do. Against big men like Damian Priest or Bronson Reed, Johnny has to adjust significantly, and it leads to matches that genuinely feel new, something Iām always in favor of. I expected Reed to win because I worried heād look weak otherwise, but honestly? I think Johnny did a great job selling him as someone who is deserving of the championship and could easily get it another day.
- Iām unhappy with the result of Balor vs Kross, but it cemented that Balor is the best wrestler in the world today. Kross has mostly looked like crap since he debuted on NXT, because theyāve tried so hard to book him as a monster that his squashes just feel pointless and not fun to watch. But this match was a masterclass in how to make a monster challenger take on the most dominant champion in NXT history. Balor at no point looked weak, at no point looked like he couldnāt win – he just pushed Kross one step too far and paid the price for it. I hope Finn stays on this tear heās had since he came back to NXT – heās hit the best part of his career and I hope it lasts.
- The further I get from the real main event, the more disappointed I am with it. Kyle OāReilly and Adam Cole are both very able to tell stories in the ring, and both able to bring emotion and fire to everything they do. But they didnāt here, and I donāt know why. The match felt like it was just them going from spot to spot, weapon to weapon, but not like anything was happening between these spots. Are either of them different men coming out of that match? Because I donāt think so.
CD: Vishal said something very important to me last week concerning my disappointment with Adam v Kyle. The Elite turned heel finally, somehow 2 years into the promotion, accepting their destiny. Adam Cole is their Portrait of Dorian Grey. One cannot flourish without one suffering. I wanna know why I cannot have ALL the nice things. Seems unfair.
FH: Kross seems like the champion that needs the win to legitimize his main roster debut, Santos seems like the one to become their next fighting, long reigning champion in the model of Gargano, Ciampa or Cole.
FH: That sums us up for TakeOver! Letās have the new power group of Shotzi Blackheart, Scarlett Bordeaux, and Harley Cameron play us into the rest of the week with their new single Indestructible (Good for them! Itās not good!)
Smackdown
CD: Because I didnāt know exactly what I was getting into with this one, I didnāt watch Smackdown. Welp.
FH: A very, very solid go home show (or pre-pre-show?) Hereās some quick takeaways:
- Jey Usoās Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was his first win in five months.
- The Tag Team fatal fourway was the Dirty Dawgās first defense of the titles since they won them three months ago.
- Not enough talk about how the Edge-Roman-Bryan match is a hot dad triple threat.
- WWE selling Undertaker NFTs after the bubble has burst is the most hilariously, sadly on point thing they could possibly do.
- Sasha and Biancaās Night One main event will be the first ever WWE main event with two Black wrestlers, and if Iām not mistaken, the first ever main event for two black women from a major wrestling promotion. I have no doubt they will deliver.
MZ: I watched this with a friend in the background as I took some much-needed time to deal with personal administrative stuff after a long week. It was nice to have wrestling that was fun, not super high-stakes, and still emotional. It let me chat with a friend, while still being able to follow the action. AEW, on the other hand, tends to be very moment-to-moment to the point where if I tear my eyes away from the screen for just a second I miss something. Two very different tastes, obviously, but I think itās worth pointing out that difference and the appeal of Smackdown. Itās my āLo-Fi Beats to Wrestle To,ā if you will.
I was glad for Jey Uso to get the win, even if the prestige of the Andre the Giant trophy is a little dubious to me given the slate of previous winners. Roman actually cut a promo himself, rather than Paul Heyman speaking for him, which is the first time Iād seen him do that in a while. I almost have to wonder if theyāre setting up some kind of stable for him? Only time will tell, I suppose.
WM Night 1
Pre-Show
CD: Please. Please. There was a weather delay for night one of WrestleMania which made the kick off for the first fan filled wrestling event for WWE in a year…very strange. Ponchos, dripping wet structures, a very uneasy looking Titus OāNeil. Goodness.
FH: The sheer outpouring (heh) of memes about this mess during that first half hour made the anticipation all the more electric for me. Vince was clearly in the back just naming talent he knows can talk — a genuine word of appreciation for Kevin Owens who cuts 99% truthful promos on his best friend Sami Zayn by just replacing the word āloveā with āhateā — and the random cuts to Michael Cole and Samoa Joe looking miserable in ponchos created this kind of cathartic, chaotic atmosphere that made the return of fans to WrestleMania feel well…auspicious with few reservations.
RS: If we were going to delay, maybe we could have just skipped over the segments involving noted racist and accessory-to-online-journalismās-destruction Hulk Hogan to catch up? MAYBE? Maybe we could stop trying to appeal to the 80s nostalgia of ancient, ancient men?
FH: Youāll be happy to find the crowd booed him into next week, Rob:
WWE Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre
CD: I love Drew. I think Bobby is pretty good sometimes! But…something about this did not click for me. I have come to a realization over the last few months that I just…donāt like slow, plodding and methodical wrestling. It just doesn’t get it done for me. Plus, the opener is such a big deal. You have to get the crowd energized. This did not do that. Plus, the ending? Ending on Bobby putting Drew to sleep for the finish? Not big in the Charlie demographic.
FH: I was disappointed by this one at the moment for similar reasons, and as an opener to WWEās return to fan attending shows, but the more distance I get from it the more I like it. Drew was the stalwart pandemic era champion, I celebrate him and I appreciate him more than words can say, but that also means we saw…a lot of him. That also means, as WWE might be keenly aware, that itās hard to look at him right now and not see the Performance Center, the Thunderdome, the masks and the artifice. We need time away from him to allow him to exist outside of that. Choking, not tapping protects him. It gives the almighty mountain before him to climb again. Knowing how important it is to both MVP and Bobby Lashley to have a Black champion hold this specific title for a little longer also helps.
VG: I missed the opening 3 matches for Mania but I did go back and watch this one and Rollins v Cesaro, because I was excited for both going in. I liked this match a lot. Forrest really hit the nail on the head with their thoughts as time went on – Bobby Lashleyās presence as champion means a lot, and it means even more when heās able to legitimately and genuinely defend his title at the biggest show of the year. He didnāt cheat to win, he didnāt get a lucky break – the only thing that could be construed that way was MVP pulling him out of the way of the Claymore, but it felt clean. Drew will come back for sure, but Bobby deserves his moment in the sun. Er, or rain, I guess.
Womenās Tag Team Turmoil
CD: I am unsure I even have words for this. The Riott Squad is the only real tag team in here since WWE simply cannot understand the appeal of a real team. Yay for ladies wrestling, but not like this.
RS: Iām glad for a lot of these women getting at least a Wrestlemania moment; Naomi always deserves a Wrestlemania spot. Billie Kay has been putting so much work into making the most out of the nonsense situation she was placed in when the WWE broke up, for no reason, one of the best tag teams in the business; Mandy and Dana have, I think, actually become an interesting team, and started to find some creative success after the former experienced a nightmare and after the later finally begun to be recognized after years of being ignored; and then yeah, the Riott Squad are the one real tag team left in the womenās division, and theyāre a wonderful team, and theyāre fantastic wrestlers. I watched the match and, again, I was glad that they got a moment, because they deserve it, but itās hard not to be bitter because they deserve so much more. It ended with, for me, the least interesting choice for winner, and so Iām really not looking forward to Night 2ās Tag Champ match.
FH: This was disappointing not because these women arenāt talented, but because WWE refuses to give them the tools or structure with which to showcase their talent. When thereās no real tag teams outside of the Riott Squad, as you all have said, whatās the story for even them? At the very least Iām happy that Carmella seems to have reverted to the Ms. Money in the Bank character to tag with Billie Kay as her previous heel turn wasnāt working for me at all (Mella is funny! Let her be funny!), those two could take the company over given the right opportunities.
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
CD: Sethās been going through a bit of an identity crisis for a long while now that I have been attempting to reconcile. Ever since losing his status as an over babyface in 2019 and pivoting to a myriad of different takes on a cult leader…I just havenāt been able to enjoy much of what heās been doing. Finally though, and I think the remix of his theme helps, its slotting into place. This match was always going to have the potential to steal the show and I found my love for Seth as a wrestler returning as I watched this match. Cesaro, when able to let go, is someone almost no one can top. I am SO glad this got the time it deserved even if the build was nothing special. Which just seems like a running theme for this WrestleMania if I am being honest.
RS: Iām in a weird spot, as I entered wrestling post-Shield, so Iāve never had strong feelings about Seth Rollins, apart from when he posts something goofy on social media. I started to enjoy the Monday Night Messiah gimmick, but then they just never embraced it, and it descended into an endless mess that I only remember as The Eyeball Saga. But this? Charlie, you say the build was nothing special, but I think thatās what got me to love it. Seth giving an absolutely absurdly silly political attack style ad about Cesaro because he got swung around a bunch? A feud that is entirely centered on āyou didnāt just swing me around, you swung me around A LOT. I got LOTS of swings. That is EMBARRASSING.ā? I love it. Iāve always heard Cesaro was someone that people loved, but he was never involved in any major plotlines while I was watching that allowed him to shine. Here we just have two men, who are, I can now see, extremely good at their jobs, put into something low-stakes, but low-stakes and fun. Something where clearly they can have fun. No expectations: just two creative people having a blast and getting the spotlight the deserve. I canāt wait to see what both of these men do next.
FH: The stomp into the uppercut sequence was good enough to carry the rest of the night and that was before the UFO. A dominant Cesaro reaffirmed what every fan already knew about him, that given the right time and place you could build an entire company around him, and Seth attested to the idea that all of WWEās worst writing impulses canāt dampen how impressive he can be in the ring. I also finally figured out what Sethās character is meant to be: the wrestling equivalent of Hillary Clinton saying āPokemon Go to the pollsā.
VG: This match was fun! I didnāt love it for reasons itās hard to articulate, but I did still enjoy it. These are two very good wrestlers with a weird story going in that I generally found enjoyable in clips I saw on the internet, and Cesaro got to show off just how fantastic of a wrestler heās always been. It was the perfect pick up after a Tag Team Turmoil that just never had any chance to be good.
Raw Tag Team Championship: The New Day vs. AJ Styles and Omos
CD: Not going to lie. I loved this match. I loved it a whole lot. Itās something different than what WWE presents and honestly, it felt a lot like something youād see in AEW or NJPW. Some fun spots, some great comedy and character work from all involved and the story of keeping this horribly large man out of the ring because Xavier and Kofi knew it meant destruction. Loved this. More of this please.
RS: Iām not caught up on RAW recently; are the New Day comedy heels now? Or are they people who we love so much that theyāre able to just do fun Comedy Heel Matches while staying face? Regardless, this was literally the most fun Iāve had watching an AJ match the entire time Iāve been watching WWE, with the single exception of that one cinematic match where the Undertaker murdered his Bullet Club buddies and then teleported on top of a tractor to shove AJ into a Big Hole of Dirt.
FH: Itās interesting that you brought up the heel/face conversation, Rob, because I saw a lot of it online during this match. Iām, respectably, confused by it. Whatās inherently heelish about the New Day recognizing a threat in Omos and refusing to let AJ capitalize on it? Twerking intro dropkicks isnāt subverting the power of positivity necessarily, itās celebrating it as the reason Kofā, Woods and E are where they are both as athletes and characters, none of it was really about belittling AJ so much as it was about rightfully fearing Omos. It seemed to me more like they were inviting AJ, Omos, and us to have fun with them at the show of shows. I love that, and it’s why I love them honestly.
RS: Itās not the tactic that I read as heelish, but the way the joke is set up/ the turning point of the matchā the move from two people who are extremely dominant and laughing about it, to that tag where Omos finally steps into the ring, and they realize, oh shit. Weāre screwed. You have a crowd excited to see him finally get into the ring and destroy everyone, and you have a comedic beat where you laugh at the look of horror on the New Dayās faces. That energy is what read to me as positioning them as heels; structuring the match so people are excited to see that tag rather than dreading it.
FH: I can see that! I can also say that them successfully creating that moment for Omosās debut speaks to the kind friends, colleagues, and performers they are both in and out of the ring. If they go full heel at SummerSlam to recapture the gold, Iāll rescind my point. For now, I celebrate the nuance, especially as we move towards a night two main event that arguably has THREE heels headlining.
VG: I was very (pleasantly) surprised at how genuinely excited the crowd was for Omos joining the match. When AJ managed to tag him in there was a genuine pop, and he felt like a big deal. I donāt watch Raw, so the last time I saw Omos he was just this stoic dude beating people up on behest of AJ, but here he was genuinely really fun. The New Dayās antics could be framed as heelish, and in the moment I guess they were, but they were hilarious and sold Omos to be the strongest guy on the roster. Great stuff from everyone involved, even AJ who had a delightful Phenomenal Forearm off of Omosā shoulders.
Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman
CD: Had the least expectations for this one, considering the previous slime antics. But! Shane fell off something AND Braun did a cool spot by ripping the cage. Good cool off match.
RS: This match defined Night 1 for me, because I absolutely had low expectationsā and then it ended with such a fun, memorable, and creative finish. I think the overall story of Wrestlemania 37 for meā there were problems leading up to this event, there was every reason for so many things not to workā but the people involved hurdled those obstacles to give us something special anyway. I absolutely did not and do not care about this weird Braun VS Shane feud about bullying? Or? Whatever itās supposed to be about? But Iām always going to remember how delighted everyone in the room was when we saw Braun rip that cage open.
FH: The inclusion of Jaxson Ryker, a Q-supporting racist, sure highlights some of the points I made higher up. That being said, this was fun! Shane came across looking significantly less selfish than he has with his previous Mania moments, and I honestly feel like thereās a clearer direction for Braun out of this than his Universal Championship win last year.
VG: This bullying PSA match was dumb and the video package couldnāt even make it look good, but Braun ripped the cage and it ruled. I didnāt love the match, but it was good enough to keep the momentum of the event going, which is all I can ask for. Shane really is an idiot though, why would you lock yourself in a steel cage with this dude?
Bad Bunny & Damian Priest vs. The Miz & John Morrison
CD: Bad Bunny is a delight and I could not stop smiling the entire time he was in the ring. Someone whoās cool as a cucumber, loves wrestling and flips gender norms getting a huge WrestleMania spot is incredible. I am so glad everyone finally saw what a star he is.
MZ: Holy. Shit. Yāall. I realize Iāve talked quite a bit about Bad Bunny before, and thereās a reason for that. I feel like I should give a little bit of backstory for both Bad Bunny and the match to explain how truly incredible this was. Bad Bunny went from uploading songs on SoundCloud in between bagging groceries and studying in university in 2016, to winning a Grammy for his 2020 album YHLQMDLG just a month ago. He also works to break down gender barriers, misogyny, and harmful stereotypes of masculinity within the genre of reggaetĆ³n and Spanish trap, as well as do political outreach in Puerto Rico.
But it wasnāt enough for Benito MartĆnez Ocasio to do all that. A lifelong WWE fan, heās collaborated with WWE legends, most recently on the hit single Booker T. After a brief performance of Booker T plus a cameo in this yearās Royal Rumble, WWE realized they had something. So much like Bad Bunny crammed English 8 hours a day to do interviews in English, he dedicated himself to training at the WWE Performance Center for a Wrestlemania match to tag team with Damian Priest. The connection there is more than just tag partners, too. āI was raised in the same town he was born in,ā Damian told TVinsider in an interview this past February. āHe loves wrestling. We hit it off immediately when we met. There was a bond.ā And if you were following his Instagram, wellā¦ youād see he was putting in the work in the gym.
So. Miz and Morrison tease and make fun in the entrance like Bad Bunnyās nothing, with grotesque bordering on terrifying bunny costumeād dancers, Priest gets his entranceā¦ and Bad Bunny rides atop his signature black semi truck like a steed, license plate emblazoned with YHLQMDLG (Spanish for āI do whatever I wantā). Itās Stone Cold on steroids, and I screamed with glee. A Wrestlemania moment indeed.
And then. And then!!! As if that wasnāt enough, the match was legitimately incredible! The storytelling! The tandem vertical suplex! The Canadian Bunny Destroyer!!! This match was everything I hoped for and more.
RS: In the room where I was watching we all lost our minds at the Bunny Destroyer. It was just an incredibly fun match, and it was so wonderful to see someone like Bad Bunny get this moment. I canāt wait to see him again. I know heās not going to become a full-time professional wrestler, but if thatās the match he can put out with that brief time training?! I canāt imagine what fun stuff weāll see in the future when he returns.
FH: Iāll say what weāre all thinkingā¦ Bad Bunny is the greatest celebrity wrestler of all time. Thatās a huge compliment to Miz and Morrison and Damian Priest, too, of course as they all worked safely, impressively, and succinctly to tell a simple but really compelling story. I almost found myself wishing Bunny was the full time wrestler and Priest was the celebrity. So good that they should had ended it with a cut to:
[BAD BUNNY WILL RETURN]
MZ: They didnāt do a teaser like that, but HHH did give Bad Bunny a send-off on Night 2 that I thought was appropriate (and of course, very cool).
VG: I hate to be the odd one out, and I especially hate it when the only difference is that the magnitude of my enjoyment was less, but I thought Bad Bunny was decent and the match was alright. The Canadian Destroyer definitely popped me, but the entire match I was just completely sold on how great Miz and Morrison are. Iām basically the heel of the group and I know it, so this is just consistent for me. Very happy that Bad Bunny got to get his moment, and very happy for all his fans like Mikey who got to see him achieve one of his biggest dreams.
SmackDown Womenās Championship: Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
FH: This was the best Mania event of, at least, the last ten years. Bianca crying, Sasha meeting the moment with acknowledgement but also vindication — they deserve this, theyāll take nothing less — as they stood there for just a minute longer with the audience. There were no seams, trading in both raw athleticism and storytelling prowess as they moved from meteora to carry to hold to lock to high spot and back, meeting each other with answers for every single thing that had gotten them here. The growing desperation of the match as Sasha realizes that Bianca isnāt going to yield, pulling at her hair and shoving before Bianca hits her with that ear shattering, confirming hair whip. Really, really masterful.
Bianca has never held a single title in WWE before, but this match was a confirmation that she deserves nothing less as Sasha looked on from the floor, smiling in her defeat, proud of what they had accomplished, a celebration of women in the sport, of each other, of selflessness:
CD: I was absolutely floored by this main event. Itās hard to think up words for the emotions I was feeling at times. This was perhaps the purest distillation of wrestling joy I’ve felt since last year’s Stadium Stampede. The bones of those things are different, but as someone who feeds off and feels emotions so deeply, the moment you mentioned Forrest, before the match, the quiet, shaking and humbling determination of the woman in front of me left me speechless. I am tearing up a bit just thinking about it as I type. Brilliant in ring story, brilliant work rate, brilliant women.
RS: Itās weird to think that just two years ago, Sasha Banks disappeared, and we all thought she might leave WWE, or wrestling all together. Since her return, sheās been, imo, the #1 throughline of the company, the one person at the center of the most consistent, clear, and well executed booking at the company. She and Bayley reunited, dominated the division, and then fell apart. She then proved what a force she could be alone, as she was finally able to defend a title. And that reign only ended with this incredible, incredible match. Bianca Belair, meanwhile, has proven just how deserving she is of this title. This match, I think, will be remembered as one of the greatest matches of any Wrestlemania. Weāre all going to remember that sharp sound, that incredible crack of the braid as Bianca left a mark on Sashaās side, but also on history.
VG: I canāt put into words how special this match was. How absolutely deserving both of these competitors were of the moment they were given, and Bianca in particular. Sashaās no stranger to putting someone over in their first ever title win [Flashback to Takeover Brooklyn], and put on just as great of a performance as she did nearly 6 years ago. Bianca not getting the NXT championship was one of NXTās greatest sins in the pre-pandemic times, but this moment was worth it. This was, in my opinion, the best main event that Wrestlemaniaās ever had, and Iām still buzzing from the high the Monday morning after.
Final Thoughts
FH: Thereās really nothing like WrestleMania is there? For all the chaos and nonsense, it feels celebratory. This is my first year watching with a live audience, and I felt this kind of mutual understanding, connectedness, and openness with everyone there — performer and not — thatās really hard to dismiss even when things donāt go the way you want them to. For all its highs and lows the first night delivered in ways I think WWE very obviously meant for it to, and in hilarious, affirming ways it didnāt mean to. Just look at Game Changer Wrestling deathmatch performer Jimmy Lloyd who was in a hard cam ringside position in his GCW shirt before WWE provided him with a Hurt Business shirt of his very own…that he promptly wore to his own match later that night:
RS: Night one, taken by itself, is the best PayPerView WWE has put on in a long while. I know that shouldnāt sound like muchā itās Wrestlemania, so of course it should be something specialā but going in, I honestly didnāt know if they were going to pull it off. There were so many matches on this first nightās card that I had no expectations for, that then really, really wowed me. And then it ended not just in a great match, but in an historically great match.
CD: I try and leave my expectations at the door because itās a lot to expect so much from people, but itās WrestleMania and while I was a little afraid as the night unfolded that this may just be a weird disaster, of course everyone pulled it together. I found myself laughing with you all after the show as we decompressed and realized that for all the times I wish WWE was different from what it is, that the weirdness, the chaos and the artifice that is the WWE is justā¦ there isnāt anything like it, is there?
MZ: There really isnāt. This was my first WrestleMania watching all the way through, and honestly? Even when itās not great, the experience alone of watching through it with friends and being able to laugh and cry and scream and joke together is worth it. I get it in a viscerally-deep way that I just truly did not before watching. Last year I cherry-picked my matches, and there werenāt crowds, so the vibe was just different. This year I was dubious, but Night 1 ended up delivering for me… especially for those last two matches.
If youāre reading this and you havenāt watched any of the matches from Night 1, you honestly owe it to yourself to watch Sasha v Bianca. That is a match, like Sashaās title match at Takeover Brooklyn before it, that I would show to anyone as the best of wrestling. The story was communicated so well throughout the match, and the finish? Iām getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. Iāll be riding that emotional high for a long time, and I was only watching on TV.
VG: If Mania was just this night, Iād have been satisfied. There was so much really fun wrestling, and there was maybe the most triumphant and impactful moment in the history of the event at the end of it. Becky vs Charlotte vs Ronda was a frustrating āfirstā for women main eventing Mania (Not at all Becky or Charlotteās fault), so seeing the āfirstā Black wrestlers main eventing Mania tear the house down like they did felt like vindication. Maniaās the one that you watch with your non-wrestling friends, and this was the perfect indication of that – even the matches with bad builds looked good, and all the failures of the road to WrestleMania get washed away in the event itself.
Charlie Davis is the worldās premier Shatterstarologist, writer and co-host of The Match Club.
Mikey is a writer, graphic artist, and tabletop roleplaying designer based out of Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he watches wrestling and indulges in horror media. Find him on Twitter @quantumdotdot.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
Robert Secundus is an amateur-angelologist-for-hire.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
