Results, Recap, Review of WWE Wrestlemania 35

This weekend we have seen the future take over, we have seen outsiders invade Madison Square Garden, and we saw chaos breakout at the Hall of Fame. All of led you up to the biggest and longest night of the year for WWE. I have always loved Wrestlemania, but this year the run time was expected to be seven and a half hours between the pres-how and main card. I love watching big wrestling shows, but going into tonight it seemed more like a chore then watching the show with anticipation and excitement. When you do chores there can be some benefits. You feel productive, you feel like you accomplished something and sometimes you’re rewarded. Before I begin with whether or not I feel rewarded, here are the results of Wrestlemania 35:

-Kickoff Show: Tony Nese defeated Buddy Murphy to become the new WWE Cruiserweight Championship
-Kickoff Show: Carmella won the Women’s Wrestlemania Battle Royal
-Kickoff Show: Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder defeated The Revival to become the new Raw Tag Team Championships
-Kickoff Show: Braun Strowman won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
-Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar to become the new WWE Universal Champion
-AJ Styles defeated Randy Orton
-The Uso’s defeated The Bar, Aleister Black/Ricochet and Rusev/Shinsuke Nakamura to retain the Smackdown Tag Team Championships
-Shane McMahon defeated The Miz in a Falls Count Anywhere Match
-The IIconics defeated Sasha Bank/Bayley, Tamina/Nia Jax, and Beth Phoenix/Natalya to become the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
-Kofi Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan to become the new WWE Champion
-Samoa Joe defeated Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE United States Championship
-Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre
-Triple H defeated Batista in a No Holds Barred Match
-Baron Corbin defeated Kurt Angle
-Demon Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley to become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion
-Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to become the new Raw and Smackdown Women’s Champion

I usually do not discuss the Kickoff show on the other WWE shows, but this is Wrestlemania and there were some major names involved on the Kickoff Show and not the main card. The opening match of the Kickoff Show was for the Cruiserweight Championship and once again the 205 Live stars get shaft even though they are some of the most talented in the company. Nese and Murphy really opened up the show strong and it resulted in a new Cruiserweight Champion. The Women’s Battle Royal featured all the main roster women but it was good to see Candice LeRae and Kairi Sane up from NXT. Ember Moon also came back from injury to compete in this match. In the end it was the hometown girl Carmella winning the Battle Royal. The Third match that was added last minute was for the Raw Tag Team Championships. The Revival accepted the challenge of Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, which backfired in the end because the hometown boys won the Tag Team Championship. The kickoff show ended with the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and the obvious happened with Braun Strowman winning the Battle Royal.

The main card opened up with the WWE Universal Championship between Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins. It all started because Heyman interrupted an awesome moment between Hulk Hogan and Alexa Bliss and said that Lesnar wanted to handle his business and go to Vegas. Lesnar absolutely crushed Rollins before the bell even rang. However, once the match started Rollins took everything Lesnar had and came back to win the Universal Championship. This was the absolute right decision to move the company forward for the future. I cannot wait for Raw to have a champion every week and for more stars to be in the main event picture. Speaking of main events, the biggest non title match of the night was Randy Orton and AJ Styles. These two have been great for many years and they don’t age. You would never think they are both as old as they are with how well they do in the ring. This match could have gone either way, but AJ Styles defeated The Viper on the grandest stage of them all. This was such a classic match between two veterans that I feel the feud is going to continue on for a while.

One thing that WWE has lacked on for a very long time is the tag team division. Even though the Smackdown Tag Title Match was thrown at the last minute all four teams deserved to be on the show. It also had a lot of international flavor as well with Sheamus, Cesaro, Aleister Black, Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev. I do not agree with The Uso’s retaining the title especially when you have already had Ricochet and Aleister Black lose two tag team title matches before going into this match. How do you buildup future talent by having them lose three tag team championship matches in a row and in one week? The matches they were in were excellent, but the results were very disappointing. One match I was very disappointed in as we headed into Wrestlemania was Shane McMahon and The Miz. It’s been very hard for me to believe Shane as a heel and The Miz as a face. For what the match was it was really entertaining to watch. I really hope that The Miz can move on from this rivalry and go on to to some better things. Unfortunately, the way the match ended makes me think that this is far from over.

The Women’s Division had to mega matches tonight on the show. The first of the night was the Fatal Four Way Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Sasha Banks and Bayley went in as champions but had three interesting challengers in the form of The IIonics, Divas of Doom, and the team of Nia Jax and Tamina. It was great to see Bret Hart is good spirits as he came out with Natalya and Beth Phoenix. I absolutely loved the tribute to the Hart Foundation with their matching gear. This was such an intriguing match because of the styles and the legacies. I honestly was really shocked that The IIconics won the because of how underutilized they have been since they arrived on the main roster.  One man that’s been underutilized for nearly eleven years is Kofi Kingston. He got this match and moment by unusual circumstances, but he has made the most out of it. This match was a fantastic WWE Championship match that had me on the edge of my seat. Kofi Kingston absolutely deserved this moment and he made me a believer once again. I cannot wait for the fall out of his title win and what direction they go with it.

Smackdown kept things rolling with the United States Championship Match and it was an absolutely squash match. I don’t know if Rey Mysterio is injured or they are just really building Samoa Joe up to be an absolute monster. Either way it was really disappointing. After that travesty, we switched gears to Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre. Several months we didn’t know if he would even be on Wrestlemania, but he came back and had a stellar performance against McIntyre. My biggest problem with this is that McIntyre really needed to win to regain some of his momentum. I think a move to Smackdown to would Drew some good right now. Elias promised a performance and a Wrestlemania moment we would never forget and we sure never will forget it. The Doctor of Thuganomics returned and embarrassed Elias in a way will never forget. It has been a long time coming for the return of the character that brought him to his rise to fame.

Going into Wrestlemania, the match I was least interested in was Batista and Triple H. I really felt like this match shouldn’t have taken place for many reasons. I will say this that in terms of storytelling they still are great storytellers. Unfortunately in this day in age a lot of people hate the slow and methodical style, but for the veterans of this business it still works. This match exceeded my expectations and I feel like I owe both of them a huge apology. It was very rewarding to see Ric Flair come out and help Triple H at the very end. I truly believe that this was the last time you see Batista in the ring. He came back and went out the right way and on his terms. Speaking of going out the right way, there was a lot of disappointment about Kurt Angle’s opponent for his match. I don’t believe Baron Corbin was the appropriate choice. I think there were so many more deserving. This was as an absolute joke of a away for a legend of his stature to go out. I really hope that they do something Corbin after this win. You don’t get a win of this magnitude and have it not be for nothing.

Last year Finn Balor came up short in his Intercontinental Championship match, but this time he came out as the Demon. This match last a little bit longer than I thought it was going to, but it was good to see neither man getting squashed in this match. In the Main Event, the Raw and Smackdown Women’s titles were on the line in a Winner Take All Match. These three women literally beat the hell out of each other in this match. All three women took different paths to get here over the last year, but all three of them deserved to be in this match. People can say what they want about Charlotte Flair, but she is a ring general and carries herself just as well as anyone in the ring. Ronda Rousey has always has haters and that’s because she carries herself with confidence and not caring what anyone thinks of her. She is one of the most gifted athletes and combat fighters that we have ever seen. In my opinion, I don’t think people will really appreciate what Rousey did until her career is completely over. As for Becky Lynch, it’s been here time for a long time now. She has had to fight so hard to get to where she’s at and that is something everyone should be respect. At the end of the night, Becky Lynch stood tall as the new Raw and Smackdown  Women’s Champion. The ending was really shocking and left me speechless. Then again, it’s Wrestlemania and it should leave you speechless.

This year’s Wrestlemania really made a lot of wrongs into rights. There are guys who have been held down and held back for a very long time, but tonight was the night most of them got their chance to shine. I truly believe that WWE is slowly starting to move in the right direction with their decisions. I also like the fact that Money in the Bank now follows Wrestlemania. It’s a good way to reset and start the new “season.” Also with the Superstar Shakeup happening in one week there is a lot to look forward. Other than a couple of mishaps and three bad booking decisions this Wrestlemania was really great. I am going to give Wrestlemania 35 an 8 out of 10 for great storytelling, and the high profiled matches living up to the hype. I hope they can keep the momentum they built tonight going for lengthy period time. Tonight careers ended, legends were made and multiple some became immortalized. It was a Wrestlemania that made me a believer once again.