Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to unify the world heavyweight title and close out a two-night WWE WrestleMania from Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
Reigns and Lesnar had a 12-minute slugfest, very reminiscent of their two prior main events at WrestleMania, before Reigns hit one last spear for the clean victory.
Sunday’s four-hour show as a whole leaned largely on the “entertainment” side of sports entertainment, a marked difference from Saturday’s first night of more serious athleticism.
One short surprise match saw WWE owner Vince McMahon, at age 76, get into the ring to defeat former NFL punter Pat McAfee, only to be interrupted by former WWE champ Stone Cold Steve Austin in a mess of a segment.
Another saw “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville use all manner of props and interfering co-stars to beat Sami Zayn in a match that was fun for its sheer ridiculousness.
On the less silly side of things, Edge defeated AJ Styles after a distraction from Damian Priest; Sasha Banks and Orlando native Naomi won the women’s tag-team championships; and Randy Orton and Riddle (RKBro) kept their tag titles after a great match against the Street Profits and Alpha Academy.
Personally, I enjoyed Saturday’s show more than Sunday’s. The Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch and Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins matches from Saturday were better than anything Sunday had to offer. But it was overall a good weekend to be a WWE fan.
Here’s our live blog of play-by-play during Sunday’s event:
Triple H opens the show in a surprise, eight months after a cardiac event forced him away from day-to-day operations, on-camera work and active wrestling. The crowd erupts as he simply thanks the fans and welcomes them to WrestleMania. He leaves his boots in the ring, a tradition for wrestlers after their last match.
RKBro d. Street Profits and Alpha Academy: Randy Orton and Riddle won with a pair of similar RKOs off the top rope. A high-speed highlight reel and a great WrestleMania opener. All six men in the match had big spots, especially Montez Ford of the Street Profits. After the match, Olympic wrestler Gable Steveson was invited into the ring, then confronted by Alpha Academy’s Chad Gable (also a former Olympian). Steveson grabbed Gable in a bearhug, then threw him overhead for a big pop from the crowd.
Bobby Lashley d. Omos: Lashley won after a suplex and two spears. This went longer than I expected, but it picked up a bit after a sloppy start and Lashley bumped and carried Omos to a pretty good match.
Johnny Knoxville d. Sami Zayn: Words can’t do this justice. Not a mat classic, but super fun with tons of props and comedy. Knoxville pinned Zayn after being caught in a giant mousetrap. “Jackass” castmates Wee Man and Pontius got involved. If you think you’d love a “Jackass” themed match, seek this out. And even if you don’t, this was a spectacle.
Naomi and Sasha Banks d. Queen Zelina and Carmella, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan, Natalya and Shayna Baszler: Banks pinned Carmella after a sort of double-team codebreaker. The entrances for this match were all about the costumes/cosplay. With so many people in this match, it was all action but hard to focus. One big spot came when Ripley and Morgan executed simultaneous four-person “Tower of Doom” suplex spots.
Edge d. AJ Styles: Edge speared Styles in midair to get the pinfall. Styles was about to deliver a Phenomenal forearm when Damian Priest appeared at ringside to distract Styles. Priest and Edge signaled a possible union afterward. A long and dramatic match, slow-paced by design but too slow for my taste in spots.
Sheamus and Ridge Holland d. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods: The distraction of Sheamus/Holland’s ringside partner Butch led to Sheamus landing a brogue kick for the pinfall. After being taken off last night’s show due to a time crunch, this was squeezed for time as well. Too long to amount to much.
Pat McAfee d. Austin Theory: McAfee’s entrance included the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. McAfee was impressive in two prior matches in NXT, the last in December 2020, and his impressive streak continued here. McAfee pinned Theory with a cradle — afterward, Vince McMahon removed his business suit, got in the ring and confronted McAfee, leading to…
Vince McMahon d. Pat McAfee: McMahon got physical with McAfee — more than you’d expect from a 76-year-old — and didn’t take any bumps. He kicked a football into McAfee’s midsection before the pinfall. McMahon and Theory celebrated afterward.
Then, in the only possible way this interminable segment could end, Stone Cold Steve Austin entered, gave Theory a stunner (Theory’s selling of the move was priceless), faced off with McMahon, offered a beer toast, then gave McMahon a (very awkward, awful) stunner. … then stunned McAfee for good measure.
Roman Reigns d. Brock Lesnar: Exactly what you’d expect, big move after big move for about 12 minutes. Suplexes, spears, F5s and Kimura armbars. Reigns finally won after one last spear and left with both titles.
Contact Jay Reddick at [email protected] or on Twitter @runninjay. For more pro-wrestling coverage, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/prowrestling.
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