Bayley makes her WrestleMania decision. B-Fab joins Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits. Tiffany Stratton debuts. Jade Cargill and Bron Breakker weigh their decisions on SmackDown or RAW contracts.

Not happy about The Rock butting in to the main event of WM.

From what I've been seeing, it's only because CM Punk is injured as he was Seth's planned opponent at WrestleMania. Rock vs. Reigns was planned for either Saudi Arabia or WrestleMania XLI.

Oooh yes, Rock/Reigns absolutely sounds like a Saudi Arabia match. No idea why I never thought of that.

They should not go with another part-timer for the champion and Reigns should not continue as champion.

The way to do it is Cody vs Reigns for the championship. Rock demands Roman wins clean or he must face him for the title of Head of the Table.

Yus, I heard that concept ('the title' being head of the table rather than a proper one) the other day on the cultaholic pitches video, and really like the idea. Your idea has the added bonus that Roman loses, BUT despite Solo Sikoa's (who acts on his own accord, to get rid of Reigns to become his own man and so on, and we got a post-Bloodline story for him going as well) interference, so the Rock/Reigns match happens.

Garcia/Cage perfectly chosen opener. My goodness, the Matt Menard pop! I really like the guy. That Mother Wayne (that they found a role for her is a gigantic accomplishment. Absolutely not a camera person, but around Cage in Patriarchy, as a statuesque and icy cold mother figure she works).



Kingston/Danielson was possibly the match of the night for me. A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend who doesn't follow wrestling (unless it's Mercedes Moné) about how I often find it difficult to root wholeheartedly for a wrestler to win a match and not at all for the opponent. That's often not the case, because in many cases I like both of them. I don't know about you, but there are very, very few wrestlers that I really don't like. And even with those, it happens that I have to admit several times in the match itself: "wow. He/she was really good there now". There are some wrestlers where the character concept just doesn't click with me. For example, I find the Timeless Toni Storm character extremely problematic. She's like the Fiend - a big attention magnet and you always wonder "what's she going to do next?", but as a wrestler - when it comes to in-ring stuff - the character just doesn't work for me at all (unfortunately, the vignettes usually don't either). Which is a problem, because wrestlers should convince in the ring, right? Not to say that either Wyatt or Storm were bad wrestlers - it's just when the character stuff interferes with my enjoyment of the matches I'm not that happy. Then I see her in the media scrum after the PPV, and ....yeah, she's got the character stuff down and she's got a lot of humor and has really put a lot of work into this character.



To get to the point - with Eddie Kingston matches, most of the time I know I want Kingston to win and no one else. He's just a gem.





All-Star Scramble Match - When it was announced that the Meat Thingy match had to be cancelled I was really sad because this thing sounded really good. Especially after the Miro/Hobbs match last year. Instead, it was an All-Stars match, and it was great fun. Very entertaining, first a MEAT! segment (finally Lance Archer again!), then the same with the smaller participants [that really looked like a Jericho idea]. No one in the world gets stuck on ropes as often as Dante Martin. But then straight back up between the ropes, up onto the turnbuckle - he's a freak athlete. Magnus also cut a good figure. It was predictable that Wardlow would win, but that's okay. He just shouldn't wear backwards baseball caps anymore. Noone ever should.

Cassidy/Strong for the Continental title - This went basically as expected. Totally ok.

BCC/FTR - Super. Which is to be expected, considering the people involved. Funnily enough, Moxley and Castagnoli used a spot that I've only seen before (but exactly like this) with the tag team of Miyu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi - one tag partner does a Giant Swing, the dropkicks the swingee in the head. GNARLY. (it looked even gnarlier on Watanabe and Tatsumi, but everything always looks worse on more delicate ladies than with a melange of Mox, Dax and Castagnoli).

Timless Toni Storm/Deonna Purrazzo - As mentioned above: Timeless Toni Storm isn't my bag. Had to giggle the other day at the way she pronounced Collision on Dynamite, but that's about it. And apart from the fact that Deonna Purrazzo has a funny voice, I think so far I liked her better in theory than in practice. I found the short fake-out at the beginning with Maria May as the old Toni Storm funny [Maria May doesn't give me anything either. Maybe I'm just boring.]. Storm wins, and rightly so. She can keep the title until Jamie Hayter comes back and then she can give it to Yuka Sakazaki in autumn.


Ospreay/Takeshita - Yeah, insane. Ospreay is over like rover and rightly so. Takeshita can do it all, these two put on one hell of a match.

3-Way for the AEW title. Samoa Joe/Swerve Strickland/Hangman Page - Here's another one of those situations where I like all of them. Hangman for sentimental reasons (and as an on-and-off misguided babyface, he's perfectly utilized), Strickland because he's THE guy right now (and I'm enjoying Prince Nana's dancing immensely. Not sure why, because I'm picky about dancing and wrestling combined, but this works for me.), and Joe because he's Joe. Cool match, whack, whoop, slap, correct result.



Sting& Darby Allin / Young Bucks - First time I saw Sting in action was at Wrestlemania. It was the first Wrestlemania I ever watched too. Then from his bad injury until his AEW run I didn't see anything of him. I never watched WCW. BUT considering 1.) the little vignette before the match and 2.) his excellent AEW run in general ..... I like Sting. He's a good guy, and good guys you can relate to are crazy important. Is he like Bret Hart? I never really watched much Bret Hart stuff, but he's (basically) always been the proper babyface who wants to do things right, on screen at least. Anyway. The entrance was great too, with the two sons. My goodness, can Wolfpack Sting Jr. jump. The match itself was a rollercoaster, with a nice speech from the nice Sting at the end. All the best. Had a great time. The Young Bucks as heels also work much better than as faces. Especially in 2024. That was a really, really fun match. "We're NOT sorry. We HATE you!" is the most Young Bucks moment you could think of.

In the beginning, a loooong promo sequence with a Swerve face-turn. Oh well. Was to be expected, but I was very afraid for the first half of the show that this thing was going more in the direction of RAW 2017. First 30min of talking, evil GMs doing bad things, then 2min of matches with no tension. But then it got better.

Statlander/Riho match! If there's one thing you can count on at AEW, it's that Riho always gets the crowds going. I have no idea why, maybe it's the music. I mean, Riho is really good at the wrestling too of course. Nice story about Statlander and Stokely Hathaway, hopefully there'll be a Kris Statlander Heelturn.

And then: The EVPs do bad things, break up The Elite. Eddie Kingston complains, gets punched. Then: OKAAADAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Cool. And as a heel, too. As the chosen one of the EVPs; perfect. I'm looking forward to it.

At the very end, a short video with Julia Hart. "Where is the House of Black anyway? Is she even still there?" I ask myself. Instantly, a second video comes on, AGAIN Julia Hart, this time alongside the House of Black. Interesting sequence, but ok.

Main Event: Ospreay against Matt Taven. Super. Ospreay wins, a feud with Brian Danielson is announced. Everyone is happy and happy, and good night.

Yuka Sakazaki makes her return! FINALLY. She graduated from TJPW in...early December I think? Now she's on American soil and will take all the titles. Starting with the women's title. To put some PRESTIGE on that belt. Toni Storm can be funny as your outrageous aunt, but I don't think she's a particularly good champion. Also: I want to see Yuka shove Riho. Make a feud out of that for a bit before she goes for gold.

FINALLY!!!!!!!

New THEN-NOW-FOREVER! Not as good as the first one I remember (stadium, fireworks), better than the one before (always seemed like a narrow tunnel).

The singing of the hymn was pleasantly un-annoying.

The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins -Cool match. The double pedigree was the most self-indulgent thing I ever saw. Pretty sure it was a little thing by Cody and Seth to Pop The Boys, but it still came across as very self-indulgetly "new era":

World Women‘s Title Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch - Supercool match. Haha, band singer looks exactly like Rhea.

Intercontinental Title Match: Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn - Sami Zayn is the heart and soul of everything. And he's got the most babyface family in the whole world, which helps. And then there's lovely KO. Gunther is great. I still liked husky Walter better, but okay. He's got a better face now though. Good promo.

WWE Tag Team Title Ladder Match: The Judgment Day (c) vs. DIY vs. The New Day vs. New Catch Republic vs. Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs. The Awesome Truth - Now that was fun, wasn't it. Lots of green in this wrestlemania, not sure why. Surely something american sports related. R-Truth's shennanigans are always funny, no matter how silly. Finn Balor bumped like a maniac.

Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso - Straightforward, good guy won, my prediction was wrong.

Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL - What a presentation. Bot teams do look the part, right? Naomi knows that she's the least interesting, hence: huge golden hat. People I watched with claimed that Cargill still seems a bit green on the wrestly side of things, which I agree with. Not sure why they always put EVERYTHING on Kairi Sane. And still, Asuka looks more impressive. Always.

Rey Mysterio & ANDRADE EL IDOLO CIEN ALMAS vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar - Excellent match. Some insane spots. I love Andrade.

America the Beautiful was rather grating.

Stephanie McMahon! I love how they caught the one guy in the audience who went nuts when her music hit. I like her. She's good. And I'm very happy she didn't say anything about women's wrestling because I did not like her taking credit for any of that back in ....2017? 18?

]World Heavyweight Title Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre - Rollins must be banged up proper. That was really appearant after the main event. Hope he goes away for a while to heal up and stuff. This became very clear to me especially after his entrance. What the heck was that. The friends I watch with LOVE dress-up Rollins, I don't. I don't get the appeal of dressing up like a clown. But okay, I'm the least fashion-aware person in the world. But I also suspect that this isn't really fashion, it's just ....loud, isn't it?

WWE Women‘s Title Match: Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bayley - This is one of the biggest feel-good matches of a feel-good wrestlemania. And look, US audiences also do the song now. Which is nice. Bayley is great, she's amazing, she can be the purest babyface, but also a rather good heel. Sure, she can do an egyptian-themed entrance if she wants. No idea why and wings are always tricky, but okay. I'm a bit burnt on both, because only time I saw wings work was when Marty Scurll did it in New Japan, and let's better not mention Kenny Omega's egyptian-themed entrance for Wrestle Kingdom. Anyway, this Iyo Sky/Bayley thing. First off, the match was great, the outcome is great. Everybody loves Bayley and everybody SHOULD love Bayley.

All that being said - it felt so weird seeing Iyo Sky moving from being insanely cheered (mostly anywhere outside the US mainland) to being booed. And I'm not very sure if that Sky heelturn/Bayley faceturn serves anybody that well. Both were over as a faces anyway. I very much enjoy the moment, and I'm a huge fan of Bayley as a babyface, but the whole thing I'm not sure on on a theoretical basis.

WWE United States Title Match: Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton - Now that was just plain fun, wasn't it. Paul's stupid car with his stupid drink on top, KO's lovely car, going to pick up Orton, then speeding down the ramp.. Then the first half of the match with KO and Orton taking turns beating up Paul.... good stuff. WWE know where we stand on Logan Paul.

LA Knight vs. AJ Styles - That match was in a tough spot to begin with, and they handled themselves great. This was the piss break match, but they did it so well, and it as so fast that it was just really, really entertaining as well. Good to see Knight getting a win for once.

The Pride (Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits) vs. The Final Testament - I'm not big on any of the competitors (maybe except Lashley), but this was also looooooooads of fun. It's silly to say, but in large parts due to the special ref, Bubba Ray Dudley. I know that he spews some ...opinions on his podcast and that many wrestlers dislike him, but I listened to him talk on Jericho's podcast years ago, and he really impressed me with his insights. So I kinda like the guy, or at least hold him in high regard in terms of 'getting it' (as far as I can tell).

WWE Undisputed Universal Title Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes - This rocked. Cody is SO good. Roman is SO good. The story of this match was SO good. Building slowly, Roman talking funny trash (Roman Reigns is just a proper cool guy, isn't he.), Cody being a babyface, then interferences commence; at two points I actually thought for a moment that Roman might win this again. More and more top people came in, culminating in the DONG, which made us all laugh out because THAT we didn't see coming.

Then Cody wins, everybody's happy, Cody's celebration was the most wholesome thing I've ever seen in a wrestling ring in WWE. Cody gets some people in (who were those kids? I assume one of them was Negative 1, right?), people who had been done wrong by the Bloodline in the past enter, and then - this made me laugh hysterically - CM Punk enters the ring as well. For no reason, only to be in the shot. Best Phil in the world. Prichard is called in (gets showered with boos), HHH is called in (gets cheers), Cody celebrates some more.