WWE Wrestlemania Recap
The city of Los Angeles turned into the hub for all things WWE this past weekend. Over the course of two nights, 160,000 plus filtered through Sofi Stadium including San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, Snoop Dogg, Al Michaels and more.
The action in the city of stars was white hot, beginning on Saturday night when John Cena made his return to the Wrestlemania stage to take on United States Champion Austin Theory in the opening match. Theory toppled Cena and saw his way to victory, giving the 25-year-old a win over one of the sport’s best.
After a thrilling entrance from Seth Rollins that saw a crowd of 80,000 plus singing his theme in unison, the showman was set to go toe to toe with the social media star turned combat athlete Logan Paul. Rollins and Paul demonstrated top-tier athleticism with some instant highlight moments, but after Paul accidentally put his rival turned business partner KSI through the announcers table, Rollins capitalized to come out victorious.
The opening night then came to a boiling point, boasting four straight instant classics from that point on.
Legends, Lita and Trish Stratus teamed with Becky Lynch to go head to head with “Damage CTRL,” and the legends and budding star came out victorious in the six woman tag match. More “bad blood” came to a head at the biggest stage when Rey Mysterio finally fought his son, Dominik Mysterio, who had been tormenting him for months.
Rey toppled Dom and did it emphatically with a few belt whips for good measure. This, capping off a weekend that saw him named a WWE Hall of Famer. Back to back title changes wrapped the evening when Rhea Ripley beat Charlotte Flair to win the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship and Sami Zayn and longtime “freinemie” Kevin Owens took down the Usos ending their reign as the unified WWE Tag Team Champions.
After a night that saw so many stories come to a head, night two posed even more anticipated encounters, with the main event, decades in the making, still to come.
Brock Lesnar and Omos opened the second night with a short, but powerful match where Lesnar took down the “Nigerian Giant” Omos, who stands at 7-foot-3 and over 400 pounds. Then, two certified BANGERS came shortly after, when Drew McIntyre, Sheamus and Intercontinental Champion, Gunther, delivered an all-time clinic in big man wrestling that saw Gunther keep his crown.
Edge and Finn Balor capped their year-long feud inside a cage full of destruction. Balor nearly had Edge when he leaped off the cage, his intention was to put Edge through the table, instead, Balor’s plan failed and Edge capitalized to take the win.
Theatrics occurred throughout the weekend with Pat McAfee and Shane McMahon making their returns to the squared circle to take on the Wrestlemania host, The Miz, but after McMahon suffered a legitimate injury mid match, Snoop Dogg stepped in and delivered in a big way, defeating The Miz and joining McAfee as victors over the former WWE Champion.
The night culminated with WWE’s Universal champion, Roman Reigns, who entered the night with his reign as champion nearing 1,000 days fighting the 2023 Royal Rumble Winner and son of Dusty Rhodes, Cody Rhodes, who went in looking for his first Universal championship. After an instant thriller that saw both men drag each other to the deep end in an all out war, Reigns will continue his reign at the top of the company.
WWE now enters its next year that will include a new owning company as Endeavor, the same company that owns UFC will be acquiring 51% of the company and merging UFC under one roof, both companies will still operate independently.
Next year’s Wretlemania takes place in Philadelphia as the city will play host to the 40th installment of the event.
Dylan Price is a second-year majoring in journalism. To contact him, email dvp5625@psu.edu.
