What a night.
After being somewhat underwhelmed by an entertaining Saturday night, Wrestlemania XL Sunday night absolutely rocked.
Cody Rhodes finished his story by defeating “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns in a dramatic main event that saw the Usos, Seth Rollins, Solo Sikoa, The Rock, John Cena and the Undertaker get involved. Emotions were everywhere as the “American Nightmare” finally won the title that his legendary father “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes could never win.
But that was not the only major title that changed hands tonight. Kicking off the show, Drew McIntyre defeated Seth Rollins for the World Championship. Drew went to taunt CM Punk, who was on commentary, and got jumped by Punk. This led to Damien Priest cashing in his long awaited Money in the Bank contract to become the new World Champion. Then Bayley defeated Iyo Sky for the WWE Women’s Championship.
LA Knight defeated AJ Styles in a competitive match. The Pride defeated the Final Testament in a Philadelphia Street Fight refereed by Bubba Dudley. Logan Paul pinned Kevin Owens in the triple threat after KO took an impressive RKO from Randy Orton, who reversed the pop-up powerbomb.
Great night in the WWE as a new era gets underway…
Cody Rhodes celebrated with “Mama Rhodes” and the rest of his friends.
This could be, arguably, one of the best Wrestlemanias of all time. They kept saying that this would be the greatest Wrestlemania of all time and it always felt like hyperbole. However, I think this is in the consideration.
The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway, pulls back the curtain of the character, a character that has been protected for decades. One of the major draws of this documentary was the chance to hear about the career of the Undertaker in the words of the Undertaker himself.
Each episode looked at a moment of his career and dove into the trials and tribulations of the event. It is not strictly chronological in its storytelling narrative. For example, as the last episode was dealing with the internal struggle of the Undertaker deciding if he would return again to Wrestlemania to take on A.J. Styles, they went back to the WWE Attitude era to focus in how the Undertaker’s character changed with the times from the “Dead Man” to the “American Bad Ass” character.
If you have ever been a fan of pro wrestling or the WWE, The Last Ride is absolutely a thrilling look into the world behind the camera, and there is no better man to star in the series than the Undertaker, one of the most respected performers in the locker room.
The two teams have been having filmed vignettes competing against one another in “Anything you can do, we can do better” challenges. Bowling. Sword fighting. Axe throwing and the such. They were tied at 2 each and split events at their “Decathlon” last week on RAW so it made sense that they would break the tie with a championship match.
As they were facing off, a group of motorcycles pulled up and WWE wrestler Akira Tozawa stepped up and pulled off his ninja mask. It was ninjas on bikes.
Then, Tozawa unleashed the giant ninja who had a sword. Eric wanted to take him on but wiser heads came through and they ran away.
Yes, this was ridiculous, but I laughed many times. It breaks up the show and it gives these four talented men a chance to show off their comedic timing. I liked the shots, I liked the music. Was it stupid? Of course. Was it a good stupid? I think so. I liked this more than the last cinematic match between Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream on NXT Takeover: In You House.
The fact is that this match was absolutely spectacular and should be in consideration for the Match of the Year at the end of 2020, but did it reach the status of “Greatest Ever?” I don’t know, that is all subjective. And because it is subjective, the fans had their opinions already made up.
The best part of the enhancements was the inclusion of the ring introduction from Howard Finkel, who passed away earlier this year. The lights dimmed and there was an MSG microphone dangling in the ring and we heard a recorded intro for both wrestlers in Howard Finkel’s distinctive voice. It was a truly wonderful honor for “The Fink” and gave the match that extra gravitas.
In the end, Randy Orton won with a low blow and then a Punt, a move we have not seen Randy use in years. It was a dramatic finish to a match that went over 40 minutes and had two men work extremely hard. The match started slowly (which people on Twitter also complained about) but built up to the ending very well. And after the pinfall, Randy got down into Edge’s face and told him to go home to Beth and their children and for Edge to tell them that “Uncle Randy says hi.”
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 
