The road to WrestleMania is officially over! This year’s show had plenty of great matches and shocking moments such as Damian Priest cashing in his money in the bank contract and Cody Rhodes finishing his story by beating Roman Reigns for The WWE Undisputed Universal Championship. The overall show was a good premium event that set the course for the new era of WWE.
The general consensus about WrestleMania XL was that the show was essentially perfect following the second night. However, Night One is regarded as the weakest night of the two-part event. Still, the company is a shell of its former self when Vince McMahon ruled the WWE two years ago. Here are the five best moments at WrestleMania XL.
Sami Zayn Ends Gunther’s Legendary 666-Day Title Reign
To be honest, I wasn’t originally a fan of Sami Zayn winning the battle royale a few weeks back. The company had a brilliant story going with Chad Gable but sadly fizzled on the former WWE Tag Team Champion after his strong performance against Gunther last year. Sami Zayn felt random and there wasn’t a long enough build to make it feel that he was the right guy to beat Gunther. There’s still some doubt over allowing Sami Zayn to dethrone Gunther, but the match was a tremendous exercise in storytelling.
One negative is that it became obvious that Sami wasn’t winning when Gunther was going for punishment rather than the win. While the champion has always been cocky, he’s never pulled a stunt like that in any of his IC matches. Still, Triple H should be commended for the presentation of the match: from the pre-match following showing Sami Zayn’s interaction with his family and Kevin Owens, to the strong performance by him and his wife at ringside, the story within the match was nicely told.
It should be exciting to see where both men go from here. Gunther should be moving up the card following his incredible IC run. And hopefully, WWE does justice by booking Sami Zayn’s title reign.
The Rock Pins Cody Rhodes In The Main Event
Triple H has done an amazing job with the way he tells stories these days. WWE seemed to be in trouble when they opted to pivot to The Rock vs. Roman Reigns. However, the company made the right decision to let Cody Rhodes finish his story. A bonus that we got was an awesome heel run with The Rock. The former WWE Champion was tremendous throughout his latest stint, and his performance at WrestleMania XL was another stellar outing.
Did the tag team match need to go 44 minutes? No, and there were times when the match dragged, but it was still an entertaining bout that had multiple layers of storytelling throughout. The Rock abusing his powers was a preview of how Bloodline Rules for night two. It also put over the uphill battle that Cody Rhodes had to face when it came to the nearly impossible odds of trying to finish the story. The Rock pinning Cody set up a couple of compelling scenarios; it caused doubt on whether Cody would win the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship and teased a future match between Cody and The Rock. A good main event that had the perfect ending.
Damian Priest Cashes In His Money In The Bank Contract
Night two started with a bang as Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins was great! It was a Brock Lesnar-type match that used big moves and spammed the hell out of both men’s finishers. This isn’t something that WWE should do very often, but the explosive start got the night off to a strong start and Drew winning was the right call. Drew’s performance after the match was tremendous. His ego got the better of him, which allowed CM Punk to get a sneak attack in.
Again, it became obvious that Damian Priest would cash in since they were taking such a long time focusing on Drew. However, the execution was well done. Drew got in his own way and that cost him dearly. It should be interesting to see where both men go from here. CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre should be a great feud once the former heals. Priest on the other hand hasn’t been built well enough to feel like a proper champion. He’s certainly no Jack Swagger, but his title reign feels short-lived. Here’s hoping that the company books him well as a champion.
Bayley Beats Iyo Sky For The WWE Women’s Championship
The best women’s match of the weekend. Surprisingly, Rhea and Becky had the better build going in despite the rich history of Damage CTRL. WWE seemed to run out of compelling material a month after Bayley announced her desire to fight Iyo Sky at WrestleMania. Still, these two brought in their title match and it made you scratch your head on why WWE didn’t do more with Sky as champion.
The final minutes of the match were especially good, with Iyo’s clever counter to Bayley’s Rose plant being a notable standout. It would be great to get one more match with a longer time as these two deserve it, but if this is one and done, then these ladies can hold their heads up high.
Cody Rhodes Finally Finishes His Story
I still think it was a mistake to not give Cody the title at WrestleMania 39. The booking for both men stalled their characters at times, especially when the Bloodline saga jumped the shark at Summerslam. However, there’s no denying that waiting a year for Cody to finally finish the story paid off at WrestleMania 40.
These two had an emotional charge match that masterfully played off the Bloodline rules stipulation. The returns were fun and to see Cody finally getting the three count was an unforgettable moment. It was the end of an era that was carried by Roman Reigns. It’s impossible to hate Reigns after such a legendary title run. He stepped up to the plate in a big way and his Bloodline arc will go down as one of the best in company history. Cody has earned his status as the top guy in WWE and it should be a joy to see the second-generation star finally carry the company moving forward.
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