Official WrestleMania 41 - Night 1 Review

this was an event that was really, really underwhelming. I even went to the point where I figured, hey, this is a good case for why WrestleMania should be one night, not two, and we know that won't happen. This was certainly and this is certainly a format that they are not going to get rid of. The two night format is here to stay, and in fact they're expanding it

as we see with SummerSlam. This year, but the two night event, and it was full of celebrities and advertising, advertising all over the mat, the sacred space of the mat, which I still just can't stand. I understand they're in the business of making money, but every time you look at the mat, every time you look at your screen, you can't look at anything at all in the product and not see some kind of sponsor. And it does take away a little bit from the event because it's

constantly in your face all the time. It's not so focused on in ring. It's the prime or it's whoever's you know, spent thousands and thousands of dollars to get their logo on the mat of a WrestleMania. It's all over the place. And I'm not a fan, but I understand it from a business perspective. However, this event, after sleeping on it, I've appreciated it and do appreciate it a little bit more than I did when I went to bed. And that's not to say I thought it

was a great night one. In fact, I still think it was average. It was okay. Now, that's not to say the main event wasn't spectacular. That's not to say that we're in a match or two in between that between the start and the show and the main event that weren't really good. In fact, I, unlike a lot of others, really liked the Tiffany Stratton Charlotte match. Many of many of you guys, including prominent reviewers and streamers,

really didn't like it. Thought it was clunky and it was guard I to be honest with you, charl I thought Charlotte over delivered. I was concerned about her motivations going into this that she did seem just very underwhelmed and just bothered by Tiffany, And so honestly, that match over delivered from my perspective. The United States Championship match Jacob Fat two and La Night, that one I think

really brought the crowd back to life. It's the first match that I thought the crowd really you could hear the crowd. And I heard from some people that went to the event. They messaged me and they said, you know, because I had been concerned that is this just the quiet crowd? Is it the acoustics or is it that WWE hasn't given them anything to be excited about? And I had some people tell me, no, it's the acoustics of the building, and they've gone to NFL games there

and it's kind of the same way. So while you have sixty thousand people yelling, screaming, it gets lost into the ether the way that the building is structured. And so that's what I've been told and I'm gonna go with that. But the crowd did come alive and overcame the acoustic issue when d l A. Knight and Jacob Bot Too match happened, which I thought was very good, very good, and it felt more WrestleMania esque, because to be honest, for the first hour of the show, I

felt like I wasn't watching WrestleMania. Didn't feel like WrestleMania. The bill to WrestleMania, as many of us have said, didn't feel like WrestleMania, and it felt very much just kind of like any other pl and for the first couple of matches, and we'll dive into it in a minute, it felt very much like even dare I say, a SmackDown or raw no big returns, no big swerves, and not every match needs to have it. But the stories going into them, we were okay. They didn't really feel

like they were peaking at the right time. Although Jay and Gunther did do a nice job the last couple weeks. I think everybody knew the outcome, but the finish of Jay and Gunther, which we'll get into, was atrocious, an atrocious decision. Despite the fact that they are trying to get Jay over into a real legitimate champion, the crowd

seemed to be behind him. I was a little bit skeptical that the crowd wasn't going to be that they decided to back Gunther and that that j was was going to have an issue with the crowd supporting him throughout the match, and that didn't seem to be the case.

And I'm happy for Jay. We'll get into that, and we'll get into the tag team title match and the I mean that was that could have been a house show match, and it look Look, war Raiders and New Day, no disrespect to them, They're not exactly the hottest thing going on in w right now. And especially with the fact that there was no Big Eie, no Big Ee return, you know, it was very disappointing in that respect. Almost

no reaction for the war Raiders and New Day. Yeah they're a heel team, but they have cooled off immensely since turning on Big E, which you thought, Okay, they're building to something here and it'll blow off at WrestleMania, and WrestleMania came and went and no Big Ee. So Big Ee apparently was just being used as a pawn to get them over, with no actual payoff of Big Eie getting involved or screwing them over in any way.

Even if Biggie. Here's the thing, even if Big e was not medically cleared to compete, he could have still screwed them over in a non wrestling role. He didn't have to do anything physical to screw them over. Just come out and distract them, stand on the apron, act like you might do something and then don't and just cause a distraction. War radios retain. Now Biggie still maybe slotted for down the line, but it was very disappointing

for him not to appear use many. If he was cleared in any capacity, WrestleMania is the spot to do it, have a come out and just lay waste to them, But he didn't, and that was to me, the one thing that would have saved this segment from being otherwise looked at as kind of any other part of any other show. This was not a very interesting match. It was all to me. It was all about Biggie. Despite

the fact that the title changed hands. The titles changed to the New Day, which is about as interesting as you know, a cloudy day. I mean, I'm sorry. So let's get into it though as we get on. But oh wait, first, I want to thank you everybody. I did pop in the discord Chat a little bit at the beginning of the show, and many people thought I was a bot. So I did pop in the discord chat on our Patreon. I'm going to try to do a little bit more of that tonight. I don't know

if I'll do doing a live show. I say I'll do it, and then I get to eleven o'clock and I don't want to be fogheaded going into the show, so I might be doing it on Monday, but the way, I will be doing it as soon as I can get a review out. I did an instant reaction video yesterday right after the show, give you guys a little bit of something of my opinion, So check that out. Also, if you want to join our Patreon, good time to

do it. If you want everything AD free, you've already heard ad throughout the show, well, get rid of those Patreon dot com slash WW podcast. You can also foind me on Twitter. I do a lot of updates there, or on X Rather search for me on X the WW podcast. I'm right there, all right, Jay Uso and Gunther. Now, we had, yes, jelly Roll, who was apparently just required by law to be at every WW event. I don't

know why they have an obsession with jelly Roll. I'm not quite getting it, but fine, he's there and the event starts. So this match was pretty much what you'd expect it to be. Kickouts of finishes. I think there were three or four finisher kickouts in that match. Hard work. I mean, this is not never a referendum under their efforts.

This is almost never a referendum on anybody's efforts. How often do you come in here and have me say even though the match sucked, or that the match was underwhelming, that it was a lack of effort. Sometimes it just isn't there that night. But this match was fine. I don't think it was even their best of their series of matches. Now, Gunther went in three to zero against Jay, but I don't think this was their best match that

they have ever had. Certainly not. I think their previous one was actually better, and that was on raw, I believe, despite the fact there's kickouts of finishes and now you have both men using each other's finishes, which again is fine. I didn't expect that to happen. Gunther did not really look as dominant as I'd hoped he would. This was all about Jay. We knew where this was going. Most of us did predict Jaya win, and he did. And

that's not really the problem here. As many of us have pointed out, Jay winning right now has about I think thirty something thousand dislikes as of this recording for WWE's clip that they put about Jay winning, and so a lot of dislikes, a lot of dislikes for this this win here, I think a lot of that win though. Those dislikes though, are not because Jay one, but how he won, which was just just a it was just bad the normal way they put it. Why would you

have a guy like Gunther who comes in. His whole deal is he's all business, he's dominant, he doesn't cheat to win, but he's unlikable, so people hate him and he loses like that. He loses with a sleeperhold. Yes, it was Gunther's move that he turned on him. Fine, but not only did Gunther tap out, but he tapped out faster than Vince McMahon against Brett Hard at wrestleming A twenty two. If you remember that Brett Hart put the sharpshooter. I mean, before Brett even fully applied the

sharp shooter, Vince McMahon was tapping out. I mean, it was that quick, And why would you have gun Through do that. Maybe it could have been and I've heard people say and I missed it apparently the referee telling Gunther tap tap, tapped or h Yeah, there was something about the referee telling Gunther to tap right now. Maybe it was a time issue, maybe it was maybe it was a hey, we got to grap this up, but

you couldn't have waited an extra twenty seconds. Maybe have Gunther pass out and win the match that way, that would know, that would have been a little bit more acceptable. But for Gunther, this is the if I was to find a way and someone said, hey, you need to find a way to damage a character by the end of this match, you need to find a way to damage Gunther. This is the perfect way to do it. This is how you do it is by having him tap and tap quickly to a sleep for hold. What

So I really didn't like. While we all kind of knew the outcome and accepted it, and most people don't hate it, I think per se that Jay's champion, they hate the way that he won it. And let's be honest, if they had taken even just half of jay USO's entrance and put it at the end of the match, you would have had, I think a little bit more of an acceptable finish or Gunther fine, okay, even if he taps out, which I still would never do. You have him fight through it a little bit, and instead

he taps, you know, but in seconds. So that was a bad finish to a match that was fine and to a program that was fine overall. Still feeling kind of sour about this program as a whole now that it's wrapped up. And I'm sure Gunther may get his rematch, but he's not going to win because how often does a major title change hands at WrestleMania only to have that person drop it at WrestleMania. Almost never, So we can pencil that match in as a rematch, but we

all know I think the outcome before it happens. And to speak on Jay USO's entrance, what are they thinking? Was Jay Uso in the bathroom? I mean, where was Jay? Was he in the bathroom and he's getting like notifications on his phone. He's just sitting there. You know, he's scrolling through TikTok and you know he's getting texts from from uh Gorilla and they're like, hey, hey Jay, Jay You're you're up. You're up, bro? You know he's is he? Is he in the bathroom on the other side of

the stadium. What happened? And then he takes forever to walk down. I understand it's a long every everybody's entrance is going to be expanded by like four x because of how long they have to walk from the stage to the ring. There was no need for Jay's entrance to be that long. It's sucked up in an unnecessary

amount of time. I did not like that. I don't think anybody did, and said to myself, I tweeted this out to us, said, look, if Jay's entrance is this long, they need to set aside about forty minutes for Roman Reigns' entrance that is already long, even when there's no you know, extended ramp to the ring. So that was not a good tone to set right off the bat. But yeah, again you get your finisher kickouts, and again the effort was there. I'm not trying to disparage either man.

And then you saw if you saw the Jay Uso p press conference, he was drunker than a skunk. I mean, the dude was. He was in his Yeat mode promo voice, but in a drunk Yeat mode promo voice. It was a bad, bad look. Look, I have no issue you want to drink your drink, man, but it was just sloppy. I don't even know what he's saying. You have to

really have subtitles. He should just walk around with some somebody who has subtitles under If we could somehow super impose subtitles under what he says, I need them half the time because I don't know what he's saying. I know he's capable of speaking normally like a human being, but when he gets in his yeat promo voice and then is drunk on top of it, it's a little challenging to understand what the hell are you saying. So

I know he's excited and he deserves it. Look, Jay Usso does not have a ton of time left in front of him. People forget, like most of his career he was a tag team guy, and then he was in the Bloodline for several years, and now he's a singles guy finally making it to the top, and I'm I congratulate him. He's deserving of this. But again, the fans don't seem super excited when you look at the

dislikes on YouTube. But yeah, sure that's not the only metric, but I guess it's those damn internet fans on Triple h those those imaginary fans that aren't real life who are clicking that button. Must be all those bots, huh.

All right, So that's what I think I mean. If I was to give a star rating, you have like as far as this match goes, like a two and two quarter two and a quarter stars out of five, maybe even a two out of five, just because the finish really just was the worst finish you could imagine for Gunther. It was damaging to Gunther. That's the issue, all right. So the next match here that we have is the World Tag Team Championship match. As I said,

the War Raiders a New Day. I don't have a whole lot to add to what I've already said about this match. It it was a bit I mean, it was standard. It was your standard matchup, no biggie, no interference, no big returns, no nothing. And again, not every match needs to have that, Not every match needs to be unpredictable. But when a match is that was on Wrestlemedia and you are watching it and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, this could eat easily just be a middle of the

show SmackDown match, that's not good WrestleMania. I will continue to say, if it's truly the super Bowl of wrestling, should be the best of the best. The best storylines get the placement on the show. It's not a everyone gets a jersey show. They've turned it into that, and I'm sure the guys and gals love that because they get a spot, and I'm happy for them, and I'd probably feel that way too if I were in their shoes.

But from a fans perspective, this is a strong case for why WrestleMania should be one night and not everybody should get a jersey. All right now, it'll never go back. I am accepting of that, and it is cool to have two nights of WrestleMania where it's the whole weekend. But you know, a four hour show that's felt like three quarters of it could have been put on a regular SmackDown or raw. Not a good feeling. And again it's not because of effort, it's just who's just that's it,

all right? But anyway, the match ended with the New Day hitting the Daylight finisher and woods pinning Ivar, which Ivar man, I mean, he almost killed himself. Can we talk about that? Ivar literally almost unlived himself when he did that moon salt. It was scary, man. And look, I appreciate that he can do those things. I know that he does things that cruiser weights can do, and that's extremely impressive. But it's the old adage, just because

you can doesn't mean you should. Okay, sometimes if you're a big dude, you should work like a big dude. And it's not just because it makes the match feel different, but it's just safety. Inherently, because of physics, you're going to put yourself and your opponent at a higher risk because you're a bigger guy. But all right, let's move on. Jade Cargo and Naomi another match that I have to be honest, I did not have high expectations for in this match, but I did say it was Jade's by

far biggest match of her entire career. Naomi in some respect too, because she has for the first time gone heel and she's really reinvented herself. And it was a good spot for both women to show what they can do and make a case for their runs to continue. And the story was pretty good. I have to give

this build. The build for this pretty pretty good, despite the fact that Jade had limited interviews and we still don't know who she is really other than just she was a victim of a of a blind side assault, so I guess that was really how they were going to garner sympathy here. And I was a little worried too for Jade that she wasn't going to get a big reaction, and from what I heard, she didn't. She didn't get really boozed, but people still it just was

par for the course. It's like a mild acceptance, you know, it's not it's not rejection. She didn't get dueling chance, she just got kind of the oh cool, it's Jade, we're still you know, we're still on board with you. But time's ticking, you know, And she still got that reaction. But this match overall, before I get into the finish, in specific spots here I thought was I thought it was better than it probably better than I expected it to be. All Right, this match did what it needed

to do. It was a little clunky, those some spots where you could tell, like very obviously Jade waited a little bit too long for Naomi to hit her spot or yeah, it was clear that they had rehearsed it a little bit, and the timing of Jade was a little off. And she doesn't work like the rest of the girls, so the pacing is a little different as well, and that's not a bad thing. I don't expect her to work at the rate of you know, anyone else in the division, right, But Naomi had to slow herself

down to meet Jade, and that's fine. You don't need everybody looking and feeling the same in the ring. Differentiation. Differentiation is good, and so Jade, it's like she was being extra careful, though I feel like she could ramp it up. But her style is one that because she's a muscular woman much more than any of the other women. She does have to slow down a little bit and not work at a crazy high spot pace because you know, number one, it's a little unsafe, but number two, it

doesn't really fit how she looks. So it felt like a time she was thinking too much and thinking about her spots next instead of just working. And look, she's still green, you know in terms of especially in a singles role. But this match delivered and she is a powerhouse of a woman. My god, the spot that she picked Naomi out of the air on a souplex that was incredibly impressive. That's what see, that's a good thing here the fans, as we all talk about all the time,

and w B loves to say, it's about moments. I think all the clunkiness of this match that happened, fans will put that aside for the moments that Jade really showed what she can do and that's a great thing for her. So I think coming out of this people most of the most people will say it was good enough. That's why I think what this was and Jade getting the victory was the right move. She needs a kind of a staple victory Naomi will be just fine. That power bomb that she did at the end was awesome.

Only to have her hit her finish jaded and gets the victory. That was great. Nine minutes and twenty seconds. I kind of figured it'd be about ten minutes and that's what they gave her. So good a breaking news. Cardi b is going to be hosting Summer Slam. Guys, the big deal here, or at least we're supposed to believe again all lea, if my personal opinions decide, this doesn't get me excited in the lead, but fine, So anyway, we get Only Night and Jacob font two for the

United States Championship. Here's where the fans woke up. I would have liked this match school a little bit longer. I thought it would go fifteen. It went ten minutes and forty seconds, and the match was really good, exceeded my expectations and the right person won. The BFT that was done in the middle of the air wasn't exactly perfect, but it was as good as you could expect someone to do without retakes. That was a hell of a spot. Fans really popped on that one. And you know again,

kickouts and finishes happened here, and that's fine. It was. It's WrestleMania for at least these two. I don't believe anyone has anyone ever kicked out of the BF. I'm sure Roman did, but BFT seems to be a pretty protected finish that, you know, no one really talks about it in these days where finishes are not protected at all. It's, you know, a pretty protected finish, So having Jacob to kick out of one, especially one that was caught mid air, was a big deal. Uh And so the finish though,

was Fatu Soup lexing Knight. He hits a Moon Salt, a double Moon salt and got the three count. No weirdness, no no sloppy finish, no outsider interference, just a straight up Fatu victory, which is exactly what this should be. Now. Myself and others had suspected that Solo could be involved here. He didn't. Solo so was not involved. So they're clearly just still building that on the back end, and that's fine.

It's gonna happen. Maybe backlash or the uh you know, the uh pl e after that, or maybe they'll wait till Summer Slam. This could be a slow burn for Fatu and Solo so CoA. We're all just hoping. I think that it's not Solo so CoA who answers the call tonight for Randy Orton. I don't think anyone wants to see that. That would be a snooze fest. I think Nick Aldos would be a guy that actually people would want to see Over Solo. Solo has really faded

into the background here after his massive victories. It really all fell downhill after the Survivors Series War Games match. You could point to that as really where things just went off a cliff. Remember, he disappeared for a while, then he comes back, but Jacob Fatu is now the star, and then there's tension with Jacob Fatu and Solo, and that's kind of where we're at now. It's been a massive downslide over the last five months for Jacob Fatu. I'm sorry for Solo, so I thought there was a

chance he could come out here. But either way, Jacob Fantu is probably gonna win this, and he did. It was a nice win for Fatu. There were some chance for Fatu, and I kind of figured that as well, with the support he had had from the crowd. Even as a heel over the last couple of months, and that's exactly what we got. It wasn't a fifty to fifty.

It was more of an eighty twenty, I would say in support of Ella Knight because people still love Night and him coming out in the Lambeau was fun, although everyone seemed to get a how many car entrances did we get? I mean we got Charlotte, we got Night. I mean was there somebody else that? Am I just overstating? But yeah, so Ellena comes out in the Lambeau and yeah, the crowd still really loves him and rightfully. So I

don't know where Ellen Night goes from here. Probably a rematch, but maybe Llen e gets pushed into the title picture in a serious way. We'll have to wait and see, all right, But again, really nice victory here for Fatu. We had at the end Haku appear at ringside and congratulated Fatu. So that was that was really cool, all right. We then had Ray Phoenix versus Al Grande Americano. They did mention how there was a change where he's from of Gulf of America now he's the Gulf of Mexico.

And the reason that that they gave per Pat McAfee on his show, was that, well, he's from Gulf of Mexico because he was born when it was still the Gulf of Mexico. So yeah, that's still that's not how things work, right, you Like, people can change the names of states, change the name of countries. I mean, you just can. You can change names of things. But that doesn't mean that because you were born in a place where it was had a previous name, that that name

sticks with where you were born. No, because the name of the place changes, it doesn't stay static because of when you were born, right that. I know they're trying to me. It's just a cowardice that they decided to do that. I think that he would have got a lot more And it's not I shouldn't say the success depends on the naming of where he was from. But I'm glad they at least acknowledged it. I appreciate that.

But I think that him being from the Gulf of America would be it would just just add to his character in the heat for his character because of the renaming of the body of water. So I mean, people can say whatever you want it, I mean, it is the Gulf of America. Like that's the name. It doesn't change where it is, it doesn't change what it is. It just changes the name that we arbitrarily give it. So I mean, but officially on the books it is

the Gulf of America. Lover hate it, so it's it's inaccurate. The Gulf of Mexico doesn't exist because it's not a thing. It did exist, right, it did, but it doesn't anymore. Well, I lover hated I mean, not getting into politics, just facts, all right, But this match was too short. I mean, by the time they really started to heat up here,

they cut it short. And this is where the entrances and the propaganda and the I don't know if propaganda's right where, but the constant celebrity shots and the video packages and the back stage, like they could add take that time, even just a little bit of it, a fraction of it and added to the matches, and I think we would have gotten a a little bit more time, at least three four to five minutes for this match. This was seven minutes and fifty five seconds. That's that's

just unacceptable. I know Grande got the victory, as I think he probably should have, despite the fact that Ray Phoenix has debuted, and also given the fact that they just acquired Triple A the Lutidor promotion, they probably should have given this match a little more time, given the fact that you had the Triple A owners ringside. It's it was, you know, it's a bit of an issue here where you know, it's like, oh, we're really happy to have you guys, but by the way, we're going

to give you the shortest match of the night. You know, in terms of lutrador wrestling or I know Grande people, you know, it is what it is with El Grande. He is a faux lutador we all know. But Ray Phoenix legit, right. I guess we can also understand how El Grande Americano was brought into WWE. The mystery has been solved, right, He came from Triple A. So now people are asking how did he get to w B. Well,

there's your answer. I think we finally know why. The mystery has been solved as to how we acquired El Grande Americano. All right, so yeah we have Steven Emmel, I don't care. Just look at the notes here. Shawn Michaels came out and he you know just listed now the attendance at sixty one thousand, pretty good pop for HBK d X music played. He did a second thing

that he's been doing for twenty five years. So let me get Tiffany and Charlotte for the Women's Championship, and I will say the entrance for Tiffany was pretty cool. The Charlotte Flair entrance is exactly what you always think. I don't know if it was a worlds Royce or whatever. She came out in the Tiffany's Barbie doll box thing. Really cool. I don't know anyone. Did anyone actually think that the other two on the sides of her were

possibly her? I know they were trying to fool you as to what one and it was pretty good quality, but you could still tell like which ones which. But still nonetheless a really fun entrance for her and this match boy physical a little clunky at times. Tiffany I think has a chip tooth, and you know, so she'll

get that repaired. A bump on her head, a bruise on her head, so she hit it some at some point and yeah, again the clunkiness where she you know, Charlotte went for the swinging neck breaker and she couldn't quite hit it on on Tiffany, which was it looked like Tiffany's fault. But yeah, the clunkiness was there, but this seemed like a It was just a gritty wrestling match, and that's what I loved about this. It went nineteen minutes, but it didn't feel like nineteen minutes. It felt like twelve.

And Tiffany beats Charlotte to retain. Now, the finish had Stratton going for the prettiest moon salt, but Flair put her knees up. That was just an excellent spot. She got the near fall. Flair sold her knee as Tiffany did attack the knee. That was a great, great part of the match here, but Flair did the same to attack Tiffany's knee. Flair hit a natural selection from the top rope. Again if they are not exactly the cleanest

natural selection. Natural selection is a difficult move to make look really good because like Charlotte's flipping over and that the person taking the move has to hit just right. It's a difficult move to make look clean, especially also when you're coming off of a second rope or a top rope. Even more difficult, So it wasn't the cleanest look, but fine, I just don't ever put that in slow mo. You ever put that in slow mo? I mean you shake your head. But in real time it was fine.

And then Flair grabs Stratton's head trash talktr Flair went for her finish again, the figure eight, but Stratton avoided it, and Stratton used in Alabama slam to send Flair into the corner and then hit a rolling sent on and hit the prettiest moon Salt ever for the victory. And I really thought that this was right up there with Fatu and Night better in some ways too, didn't feel

as rushed like a lot of the matches did. There's also another reason why we shouldn't have two nights or everybody on the card, because then you have too many matches, and then if you run out of time, everybody's match has to suffer with time being taken away. So fewer matches usually is better. But this match, again, gritty is

the perfect word for this. Tiffany was beaten up. Charlotte looked really good despite all the criticism that I've given her that we don't want to see her, don't need to see her, it's still not going to change the fans opinion. But I think even the people that really, really really hate Charlotte Flair and don't ever want to see her again can't deny that she is just awesome in the ring. She just is. She understands psychology, pacing, helping get her opponent over. She gets it. She has

put all the pieces together. And I can say that while still also saying that if Charlotte Flair left tomorrow and we put her in the Hall of Fame, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be chanting one more match. But

she's damn good. She looked great. I know that. I said the other week that she looked kind of sickly with how thin she was, But last night, maybe it was the outfit she was wearing that particular night, because I think she looked really good, you know, still on the thin side, but not to the point of Mike I'm concerned for her, But boys, she good. She is

damn good. So the victory here, Charlotte Flair losing actually surprised a lot of people and wonder if that was the last second decision or fall along that they thought that Flair or New Flair was going to lose and Tiffany was going to retain, but it was the right decision, and Cole saying that you know, you hit her here first. This may be a bold prediction, but she that Tiffany has the potential to, you know, or likelihood to have a Charlotte Flair esque career. I think that's very possible.

It's very possible. But now we get the Hall of Fame ceremony before the main event with Triple H, Brett Hart, Steve Austin, Michelle McCool typhoon, and the family of the late John Earthquake Tenta. They were introduced on stage. That was fun. I will say seeing Austin out there on stage unceremoniously, just without his music, it felt wrong. I don't want Austin out there like it's kind of like, oh, we all know he's here, is he going to come out tomorrow night? And then you see him last night

he just walks out, calmly with a suit. It felt like sacrilegious. I didn't want, like, that's the last way I want to see Austin is kind of calmly walking out with a suit, just to you know, be presented

in an award for a match that he had. It's just I don't know, especially with what could happen tonight, and I hope still happens tonight, but it's kind of like taking the air out of the room when you see a guy like he's already there and he's it's like, oh, well there you are, you know, instead of that big

moment when you know, crash and he comes out. Anyway, so him and him and Brett Hart absolutely deserving of their award for the match they had to WrestleMania thirteen and Triple H doing his water thing if fine, you know, it was a it's the the moment that all of those men deserve, all right, So Seth comes out. Cult of Personality plays live for Sampunk. I'm never a fan.

I don't care who it is, whether it's Triple H's motor Head, Cult of Personality here rear Ripley's last year, which I mean, I don't like her music as it is, But anyway, no matter who it is, whatever band they bring in they think is like cool to have the music. It never sounds right, it never sounds like how you want it to sound. How we all remember their entrance music sounding so I don't. I'm not a fan of the bands coming out and performing the entrance music live.

I understand, Oh it's cool. To me, it's like I just want the original, Like, just give me the recorded version. It always one hundred percent of the time sounds better. But nonetheless I know why they do it. I just I don't like it. So this match, my god, twenty I'm sorry, twenty thirty three minutes, but deserving of every minute.

This match had everything. Yes, it had finished your kickouts and yeah, as always too many, but the synchronicity of these three men, the timing the spear into a pedigree by Rollins, when all three men went down towards the end, with all three men, you know that the GTS was hit on Rollins, a spear was hit on Punk but then a stomp was hit on the Reins and all three men went down. Just it was awesome. I didn't think it would be this good. So this match, to me,

saved the night. Yes night, and Fatu was a shining star. Yes for me, Charlotte and Tiffany, I'd like to even see a rematch. Was a shining light on the night. But this one was like a pillar to hold up the whole night. If this main event had been a flop, to me, this would be a highly negative review of Night one. The main event saved. It was a saving grace of Night one. Again, not the only one, but the this is far and above all of the other matches,

and it was a pillar of the night. So awesome, awesome, awesome match here. I mean the GTS reversals. Everybody was clean, everybody was on point, the timing, the pacing, everybody had their moment where you thought they could win. And then they go for a finish that's a false finish, that's a false finish. For the false finish, it was awesome. And then the finish, the real finish, of course, had Punk.

And when everybody went down, you had Paul Hayman, who you knew was you don't know where his loyalties lie. And that was the whole story. He comes out or he was there already and he had the chair and Rains wanted it, but he handed it to Punk and once he handed it to Punk, Punk or Hayman gets in the ring, Low blows Punk and you're thinking, Okay, I guess he's back with Roman, and I guess he could turn on Roman, but it doesn't look like it.

He could have just been turning up Punk. And then he ends the chair to Roman, who's laughing at this point, and just as Roman was about strike Seth rollins, Roman gets a low blow, kind of a weird one, but

gets one nonetheless from Paul Hayman. And that's when you realize, Okay, they're going with the most interesting potential outcome here, and I know that there's so many people, even though even the big streamers who are just so shocked by this moment or pretending to be for for likes or reviews, we all knew there was only three outcomes here, only three outside of the yeah, the brock Lessner one, which I threw out as a wildly a wild potential, but

one that is not likely. So there were really only three, and that led to the most interesting of the three. You either knew Paul Hamm was going to turn on Punk, turn on Reins, or turn on both and join Seth. We all knew that. So the idea that this was totally out of nowhere and no one saw this coming is it's just wrong. I mean, we all knew there was only three possibilities here, but they went, but the woman's that was the most interesting, and they did it.

The execution was just perfect. That's where we really should appreciate it here. Is not that they didn't they did something that no one expected. I mean, if you pay attention to wrestling, you knew this was a possibility. But the execution of this was just perfect. And the fact that this is still about the services of three grown men fighting for the services of a sixty year old man is quite wild. I mean, it's it's just logically,

it's kind of crazy, but one that I understand. I mean, it's Paul Hayman, who is the greatest of all time when it comes to managers, and if he were able to ever get in the ring and have a match, and he would have been a legend in the business in ring performer wise. But he ends up low blowing both guys, turns on Seth and rains, so we have a heel Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins gets the victory after a chair shot to Roman Stomp one two three, and Rollins is now a heel with Paul Haman and we

haven't seen this pairing before, so it's new. Some people who for some reason didn't see this coming, are now surprised and are like, oh my god, and you wonder what this is going to look like. But Seth Rollins needed a change. He's been a babyface now for what four years? I mean it's been a while. Maybe we never have to hear his song again. I want his entrance music to just change. Please, I never hear it. Need to hear the woes again. So hopefully that changes.

But Paul Hayman Seth Rollins are a team that leads you to believe, okay, Punk and rains. Where does that leave them? Do they team up? You would think that in some way they do. But if they do, and they're going after to get their hands on Hayman, you know, Rollins is going to have somebody who so who joined Seth Rollins. I know there's even talk of tonight Seth Rollins and Paul Hayman getting involved in the main event. So there's a big faction of sorts of John Cena,

Rollins and Paul Hayman, maybe Drew McIntyre. I mean, there's wild things going on, but it's not impossible that tonight we see Paul Hayman and Seth Rollins appear in the main event tonight and do something to screw over Cody Rhoades. So I think that that's an absolute possibility, one that is going to be just discussed for for a long time.

So overall, a really an excellent, excellent main event that would have otherwise been kind of a low, kind of a sinking feeling coming out of WrestleMania, one that is absolutely going to be looked at, I think as a one of the greatest main events in recent memory, just in terms of execution, not in terms of unpredictability. To be honest with you, I know many people are somehow shocked by this, but execution was just ten out of ten. The rest the main event here, I mean, I'd give

it four and a half out of five stars. You know, if I was to give it a star rating, maybe four and three quarters. In terms of execution, just awesome, just incredible. So a great way to end the show. Despite the fact that it wasn't the most unpredictable night, it did have the most interesting of the three possibilities with Paul Ayman joining Seth. What does that mean? What does that look like? What what does this new heel Seth look like? So many great questions to come out

of it. But again, if you're going to main event this and have Paul Hayman do what he did and you're going to have the most interesting outcome, this deserve I mean, this deserved to be the main event. I know that Charlotte and Tiffany could have still main invented, but you knew that if they main invented this with no title on the line, nothing really other than the services of a geriatric man, you had to have big

consequences in this match. It couldn't just be oh, Punk wins and then Roman is back with Paul Hayman and then off we go. You had to have something big and tonight, I think you're going to have very similar outcome with the main event of Cody and with John Cena. Is it bad that I'm mostly looking forward to Austin stunning the Rock like that is the thing, the cornerstone that I am looking forward to tonight, And if it doesn't happen, I am going to go into a deep

dark place in my life. So just because I've built it up for years now of this happening, last year we got screwed out of it because of money, and this year I hope it's not the case because Austin's there. There's no excuse, there's no excuse, there's no more well, you know, I had a project. Yeah, I had this pre you, I had a you know something else that I you know, a pre commitment or whatever. No, No, we saw you last night. You're here and you live

in Vegas. So there is absolutely no reason that when the Rock comes out to try to screw Cody that

Austin is the neutralizer. Ultimately, Cody's gonna lose. But I think that to me is the number one thing I'm looking forward to of for tonight, And I think tonight actually as a whole, not previewing it again, but I think as a whole it'll be a better night than it was last night from just in terms of match to match, there's bigger matches, bigger stars, and of course the main event that we're all looking forward to that I think is going to be wild. So that'll do it.

Thank you everybody for listening. He's always you can go add free, Patreon, dot com, slash ww podcast. I'll be doing, at the very minimum a instant reaction for Night two, postiting it on Patreon. If you want to become a patron. It's a place to go and do it. Patreon dot com slash ww podcast. I'll be also tweeting throughout the show. I'll try to pop in the discord chat and if warranted, and if I have enough energy, I'll do a post show immediately following, but I don't want to promise it

because I want to be not tired. I feel like I'm much sharper when i'm not tired. So all right, that'll do it. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll talk next time.