WrestleMania 40 Sunday Review

For my Night One thoughts, click HERE! But enough of that, let’s get right into Night Two!


7:09pm: Last night we kicked the show off with Paul “Triple H” Levesque. Tonight, we get his wife. It’s weird to see her getting cheered after she spent the 2010’s being such a hateable heel. I get HHH getting cheered–he has been a hero due to his NXT days and has been a wildly popular wrestler at various points in his career–but what has Steph done besides have a monster of a father?

She declares this the first WrestleMania of the Pal Levesque era. Then puts over her husband again, saying no one understands the importance of the international audience as much as he does. She does an “Are You Ready?”, and then it’s time for WrestleMania Night Two!

7:15pm: SETH FREAKIN ROLLINS VS DREW MCINTYRE begins WrestleMania’s second evening. Drew gets performed to the ring by a bagpipe orchestra; Seth gets an introduction from, like, a Mardi Gras band or something. Michael Cole says this is the band who plays New Year’s in Philadelphia. Close enough!

7:22pm: Drew “kicks” off the match with a Claymore, and Seth kicks out at 2.9! Then we get an assault from Drew to Seth on the outside.

7:25pm: Within three minutes of the Claymore and the subsequent attack, Seth hits a Pedigree on the floor, then a Curb Stomp in the ring! He only gets 2 on the pinfall attempt.

7:27pm: And two minutes later, Rollins hits ANOTHER Pedigree and ANOTHER Stomp! And Drew kicks out again! Crap; I predicted Seth wins this match, and I’m about to be wrong as hell, aren’t I?

(I actually predicted Seth wins and then Priest cashes in, I could still be half right)

7:29pm: These guys are just spamming finisher attempts in the early going after all. Seth misses a Top Rope Stomp. Drew misses a Claymore. Seth misses a Stomp. Drew hits a Future Shock DDT. Drew attempts a Go To Sleep, but Seth reverses. Drew hits a Claymore! Seth kicks out!

SOMEBODY watched the Goldberg/Lesnar match a few years ago and took some notes!

7:32pm: Seth hits a Stomp onto the announce table! In the ring, Drew hits a Claymore. KICKOUT! Drew hits another Claymore, and that’s it.

WOW! What a sprint. A ten minute rush of a match.

7:40pm: Drew gets in CM Punk’s face at commentary and starts shouting about how he will end Punk’s career. Punk, after a few minutes of verbal abuse, attacks McIntyre with his arm brace.

HERE COMES DAMIEN PRIEST!

Priest cashes in!

South of Heaven, and Priest wins the World Heavyweight Title!

Wow wow wow! THAT is how you do the first 40 minutes of WrestleMania!

7:43pm: It’s time for BOBBY LASHLEY & THE STREET PROFITS VS THE FINAL TESTAMENT. Imagine being told you are following that opener! Damn. Bad luck. Anyway, Snoop Dogg gets introduced as the special guest commentator. Bubba Ray Dudley is out next as the special guest referee in Philadelphia.

7:50pm: The magic appearing upper left ad is back tonight, and this time it is for Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s Gin & Juice. Speaking of Snoop, he is having a blast on commentary, making Yogi Bear references. Damn, Snoop. Young people don’t know who that is! Aside from that, he’s pretty entertaining.

7:55pm: B-Fab Russian Legsweeps Scarlett through a table set up at ringside!

7:57pm: Karrion Kross makes the mistake of getting in Bubba Ray Dudley’s face, causing the ref to put on his glasses and go full-on in support of Team Lashley. The Profits hit a Wassup Diving Headbutt. Then it’s time to GET THE TABLES! The first table breaks before it can be used, but they get another. Montez Ford hits a Frog Splash through it, and that’s it for the 3.

7:59pm: Another wonderful little sprint with the added bonus of Snoop Dogg being a joy on commentary. This night is trending towards 10/10 territory, folks.

8:09pm: LA KNIGHT VS AJ STYLES is the third match of the evening. LA Knight’s entire ring entrance is all about Slim Jims. He gives the keys to a Slim Jim car to a fan who won some contest. We see the Long Boi Gang section, which is a bunch of people eating Slim Jims.

Not gonna lie: I do love me a Slim Jim. I am getting hungry for one. Curse you, advertising!

8:12pm: This match starts off right away, as this feud has been hot and full of brawling. AJ runs down the ramp for his entrance and dives in the ring to get it started immediately. Screw ring introductions! You know what other match started off that blisteringly?

Jimmy Uso vs Jey Uso.

Uh-oh!

8:19pm: The match that just had a TOP-ROPE GERMAN SUPLEX is the “cool down” match after two really big smash matches.

8:25pm: Knight wins a perfectly serviceable match with the BFT, which remains the worst finisher currently in WWE. So far, everything on Night Two has been at least Very Good. We are trending in a very positive direction at this point.

8:37pm: After the Hall Of Famers get introduced to the crowd, we are told that LOGAN PAUL VS KEVIN OWENS VS RANDY ORTON is our next match. But for those of us without Peacock Plus, we get to watch commercials for the umpteenth time instead of the build video.

I already have a home warranty! Quit telling me to buy one, Lady Who Used To Be On SNL!

8:42pm: Logan Paul enters as the, oh let’s say, twentieth wrestler between the two nights to be wearing Philadelphia Eagles colors. Look, I get it: They are in The Eagles’ stadium, but the city has more than one team, and they all have different colors. Where is someone wearing Phillies colors, I wonder?

No one should wear Flyers colors, though. Nuts to them!

8:45pm: Sami Zayn returns the favor to Kevin Owens from last night by meeting him in gorilla with the Intercontinental title. He tells KO that it’s his turn.

8:47pm: Kevin Owens rides to the ring in a golf cart, then reverses back up the ramp to let Randy Orton hitch a ride to the ring. Opponents, ladies and gentlemen!

8:51pm: After several minutes of working together and helping each other do Randy’s spots, KO and Randy finally mutually decide it’s time to fight each other. Well… kind of mutually. Randy tried a sneak RKO that KO blocked, then they decided to go at it.

8:53pm: “Gatorade” chant from the crowd to taunt the maker of Prime, and what is this? The movie The Waterboy?

8:55pm: The loudest this crowd has gotten all weekend is to jeer a celebrating Logan Paul.

8:59pm: KO KICKS OUT OF THE RKO, WOW! I was really expecting Paul to break that up, but Owens got out on his own.

9:00pm: And then Randy kicks out of the brass knuckles shot! This is a night of kick outs so far!

9:02pm: The Prime mascot unmasks to be… some guy who keeps swearing and getting bleeped out. WWE consistently overestimates how much I know any of Logan Paul’s friends. Commentary sees his face and goes “Oh, it’s [name of guy]!”

Sure. Sure it is. Good for that guy, I guess.

Anyway, he gets RKO’ed on the announce table.

9:04pm: Orton kicks out of Kevin’s Stunner. MORE KICK OUTS.

9:05pm: Logan Paul pins Kevin Owens after Orton reverses a Pop-Up Powerbomb into an RKO. Paul slams Randy into the ring post, then hits a crazy Frog Splash for the 3. Just… you gotta see this Frog Splash to believe it. It’s wild.

9:07pm: That was another fantastic match in the books! Night Two is a joy, guys. And we still have BAYLEY VS IYO SKY and The Bloodline Rules matches.

9:15pm: Bayley with an Egyptian goddess ring entrance with four dudes in Anubis masks carrying her to the ramp. Then her music hits and she walks down the rest of the way.

9:18pm: Damage CTRL escorts Iyo out to the ramp for her entrance, but they end up leaving and not following her to the ring, so the match will at least start without the specter of them at ringside.

9:23pm: Iyo Sky starts working over the RIGHT knee of Bayley, and you don’t see that super often. Don’t they work the right limbs in Japan historically? Maybe they are just going to Iyo’s wheelhouse.

9:24pm: The crowd has been relentlessly singing for Bayley since the start of the match.

9:27pm: They are STILL singing.

9:32pm: And Bayley kicks out of the Over The Moonsault! Kick-outs aplenty! This match took a few minutes to get going, but the last few have been great!

9:33pm: Iyo sky counters the Rose Plant with a front flip! Very impressive! They wrestle a few seconds more after that spot until Bayley ends up hitting a Rose Plant for 3! It was not exactly abrupt, but the Rose Plant is akin to LA Knight’s BFT: it’s not quite a spectacular move. I was hoping Bayley would go back to the Bayley To Belly as her finisher. That’s a much bigger crowd popping move.

9:41pm: The two-night attendance across WrestleMania is 145,298. However! Snoop Dogg is the man who gets to announce the figure, so he announces it as 145,420. Which… that even got a chuckle out of me.

9:48pm: Brandy is part of Cody Rhodes’ introduction!

10:00pm: I just want to take a moment to say that Samantha Irvine has been absolutely KILLING IT across both nights of WrestleMania. She is making every single competitor sound like a Greek God returned to Earth.

10:01pm: Cody should instantly get a small package and win before The Bloodline can get involved.

10:07pm: Aside from Roman using a kendo stick at one point, this has started really slow and not too Bloodliney. I was expecting Roman’s gang to escort him to the ring and just start the shenanigans early.

10:13pm: Roman Reigns busts out a PERFECT-PLEX for 2! Never seen him use that before.

10:17pm: Haha Roman smashed cody with the Cross Rhodes! Roman is doing everything new tonight. Roman then tells Heyman “I just wanted to rub it in his face. I love kicking his ass”.

10:21pm: The finisher gift exchange continues as Cody hits a Spear for 2. He starts going for multiple Cross Rhodes, and Jimmy Uso gets involved for the first real interference spot of the match. Jey Uso is out soon after to neutralize his twin. Jey Spears Jimmy off of the entrance ramp! In the ring, Cody kicks out of the Spear! Things are picking up!

10:24pm: Cody Spears Roman through the Spear Your Opponent Here barricade spot!

10:26pm: Cody hits two Cross Rhodes, then Solo Sikoa nails him with the Samoan Spike (after Cody hesitates to look around for where Solo was coming from). Solo and Roman hit the Speak/Spike combo, and Cody kicks out. JOHN CENA IS HERE! Cena tosses Solo, then gets the AA on Roman. AA through the other announce table to Solo! THE ROCK IS HERE! Rock Bottom to Cena!

10:31pm: Seth Rollins in the Shield gear and Shield music, but Roman Superman Punches him down. THE GONG HITS AND THE LIGHTS ARE OUT! THE UNDERTAKER IS HERE! Chokeslam to The Rock! Lights back out, and they come back on, it’s just Cody and Roman in the ring. Roman has a chair. Oh wait, Seth is still in the ring, and Roman chairshots Seth. Trio of Cross Rhodes, and CODY WINS THE TITLE! Samantha Irvine can barely get out that Cody won!

10:37pm: The babyfaces are out to celebrate with Cody! With have Brandy, LA Knight, KO, Sami Zayn, Cena, Orton, and Jey Uso. CM Punk ends up joining them.

10:39pm: Cody asks for a microphone. He calls out HHH and Bruce Pritchard to thank them for bringing him back to WWE. CODY GETS THE HHH POINT!

10:44pm: You know, after the Seth/Drew match, I thought something looked wrong with Seth’s left eye, but seeing him, during the celebration tonight, that eye is swelled shut. Something in the opener really smacked him hard in the face.


What an odd note to finish on.

Anyway, I loved Night Two here. Everything was the right result, and almost all of it was entertaining as hell the whole way through. What a GREAT night of WrestleMania.

But what do YOU think? Let me know in the comments. How was Night Two? How did you like the whole show? Give me your thoughts!

And until next time… take care!

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