Review for WWE Wrestlemania 39

Wrestlemania 39 is (as it has been for the last few years) a tale of two nights. I understand that no one could sit through all this event in one go and so by splitting the event in two makes perfect sense.

HOWEVER

I will be the last person to say that this was a perfect event and though I understand why WWE did certain things, some are just not what I would have wanted to watch. There are definitely some great moments, definitely some bad moments and a lot of in-betweens, but Wrestlemania is supposed to be the Best of WWE. Is it? Not so much.

Night One

Starts with what could have been the main event with Austin Theory putting his US Championship on the line against John Cena. This match had its moments, but it just felt forced and I really don’t think Austin Theory was ready (or worthy) of this kind of a rub at this time. The Wrestlemania Showcase: Fatal 4-Way Tag Team which put Braun Strowman and Ricochet vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy vs. The Viking Raiders was a mess of a match and I really didn’t expect anything less. This was just an excuse for WWE to show the world that the tag division wasn’t just The Usos and whatever version of The New Day was wrestling that month.

The match between Seth 'Freakin' Rollins and Logan Paul was great and had some really crazy moments. Logan Paul could almost be the new Shane McMahon with no care for putting his body on the line and I must say I did enjoy the match. The same could be said for the 6-Woman Tag team match between Becky Lynch, Trish Stratus and Lita vs. Damage CTRL. All six were perfect and it was so great to see Stratus and Lita in the ring again.

Rey Mysterio against Dominik Mysterio could have been better. It wasn’t a bad match and the feud and story going into it was fabulous, but I just found at times it wasn’t the epic end of the story that I expected. Maybe if there had been a stipulation like ‘Retire’ or ‘Mask vs. Hair’ it would make it mean more.

The Smackdown Women's Championship between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley was one of the best of the night. The problem is that everyone loves Ripley in this match and yet she was the Heel and so it was a little off because of it. Great showing from both, but I understand why this wasn’t the main event.

Instead we got the Undisputed Tag Team Championship between The Usos and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in what could possibly be the best and most satisfying tag team match I have seen in years. By the end of the match the crowd was ecstatic with what they were watching and rightly so.

Night Two

The match between Brock Lesnar and Omos was abysmal. Neither seemed to know what to do with each other and Omos is simply not good enough to be in the ring with Lesnar. Again the Wrestlemania Showcase: Fatal 4-Way Women's Tag Team with Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya and Shotzi vs. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler vs. Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green was a waste of the tag division and I was stunned at how much Ronda Rousey had fallen away from the main event scene.

The Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat between Gunther, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre was possibly the best match of the night. All three were amazing and I was stunned by how brutal and yet how magical it was watching this match.

The Raw Women's Championship between Bianca Belair and Asuka had its moments, but did not give me the ending I was expecting and felt like another slap in the face of Asuka. The same could be said for the Hell in a Cell between 'Brood' Edge and 'Demon' Finn Balor. This was a spectacle, but again an absolute waste of Balor’s ‘Demon’ character and after this match I doubt we will see him again.

Finally, we have the Undisputed WWE/Universal Championship between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. This match had so many wonderful moments and yet by the end I felt so disappointed. It wasn’t who won, it was how they won it. This felt cheap and the fans showed the WWE how they felt. Compare the end of the both nights and you will see why Night One won in regards to reaction and aftermath.

My heart sank when on the main screen I saw ‘Special Feature’. I knew what they would do. It would either the Press Conference (which for some reason WWE think we want to watch) or it was going to be the Rey Mysterio Hall of Fame Induction, which of course it was. I am not going to say it doesn’t deserve a highlight, but with so many ‘Movie Vignettes’ I expected them to at least include them, stretch it to three disks and include the rest of the Hall of Fame stuff. This just felt cheap and unless you are a huge fan of Mysterio (and to be fair most of us are) you won’t care about this.

Wrestlemania 39 is an odd event. At times it was the best (Usos/Zayn/Owens, Gunther/Sheamus/McIntyre) but then it was at its worst (Omos/Lesnar, Reigns/Rhodes, Tag Matches) there is very little on the show that I would want to watch again. This is not a good thing. I could probably cobble together a great PPV across the two nights, but with so much average things on show here I am not sure whether WWE showing everything is a good thing anymore. The PPV used to be the time when the best of WWE got a time to shine, but not it seems like those shining moments are being lost in a lot of nothing. I do hope they look at this and realise that unless we finish the PPV with a smile, we will likely not come back to it.