You know, maybe, just maybe, wrestling is cool again!

I’ll admit, I haven’t been the biggest WWE fan in recent times. The main reason is that I wasn’t a huge fan of WWE being PG because they feel very watered down and restricted. On top of this, the product felt very corporate and felt more like a drama show than a wrestling show as the wrestling was a bit secondary.

However, recently, it seems like WWE has found the right mix of the two and it has resulted in a great product. Evidence of that is WrestleMania 40. What a great night it was for professional wrestling fans and a fun couple of nights just to sit back and enjoy the Mania shenanigans. What a night it was and I kind of want to talk to you about some of my favourite moments from the weekend.

Before I get into things WWE has been doing well and shedding a positive light on them, I feel like I should mention something before I do that. While WWE is doing well right now, we can’t forget and ignore the ongoing Janel Grant lawsuit. This is a very serious lawsuit with many names involved and many that haven’t been named and we cannot excuse them just because WWE has a good product. This is something that should not be brushed off and WWE needs to take these things seriously and I hope the fans make sure they don’t forget.

So, now let’s take a hard right turn into the things I enjoyed about WrestleMania 40. Let’s start with the opening match which was a great way to open the show. The show opened with Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre which was a pretty solid match all the way through but this match seemed pretty clear with a goal of letting McIntyre have his moment. After Drew McIntyre won the WWE championship in front of no fans, it was his time to have his WrestleMania moment in front of a big crowd. And he got that moment as he won the World Heavyweight Champion from Seth Rollins. Well, for about 5 minutes. McIntyre was showboating in front of CM Punk and then got attacked by Punk which allowed Damien Priest to swoop in and cash in Money In the Bank to win the championship.

This was such a fun way to kick off the show as it creates a ton of drama, some fun and unforgettable moments, and continues on a rivalry with CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. It’s also great to see Priest get a shot at being world champion. He mentioned in the press conference that he used to be homeless and now he’s world champion. It’s great to see how far he has come and I’m excited to see what he will be able to do with a big role as a now main eventer.

Let’s move on now to the match that had the best wrestling of the night in my opinion. Bayley vs Iyo Sky was exactly what I wanted it to be which was two wrestlers just doing what they do best, put on a great show. I still think this should’ve main evented night one and I get why Roman Reigns and the Rock vs Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins ended up taking that spot, but it would’ve been nice to give the women their flowers by giving them the main event spot because these two deserved it with the work they put in for this feud.

Nonetheless, they did their job and put on a damn good performance. Iyo Sky is one the most athletic wrestlers in the industry and it’s an absolute joy to watch her perform. Her moonsaults never fail to impress and it makes you realize just how unathletic you are. Bayley was also so good in this match. She brought the emotion but she also brought out a top-notch performance. Again, I think this should’ve main evented night one as these two put on a great match and the story going into was really interesting. It was great to see Bayley get a big WrestleMania moment by getting the win and I’m interested to see where they go from here. I would love to see Bayley go up against Dakota Kai at some point and it seems we may get it at some point in the near future.

Alright well, I think it’s time to get to the main event of night two and boy was it a crazy one. I went into this match thinking that Roman Reigns would retain his championship over Cody Rhodes which I was wrong about, but gladly wrong about. However, I did know this match would be incredibly overbooked and have some crazy shenanigans and I am all here for that. The appearances from legends were silly but they were incredibly fun. I wasn’t expecting to see the Undertaker but it was a welcome surprise. This whole thing felt like the ending of a superhero movie and they did a good job of making Cody Rhodes feel like a superhero.

This match overall was really fun and Reigns and Rhodes deserve their flowers for making this story so interesting and having a great payoff with Cody Rhodes finishing the story. Hats off to Roman Reigns too for such an incredible title reign. It seems as though Roman will be back soon as well as he’s already training for another run.

The match itself was good but can be a bit overshadowed with the run-ins from other people but that’s fine because it was entertaining regardless. One issue I have with this match which seems to be an issue all across wrestling is how it seems like everyone kicks out of finishers nowadays. I get why they do it because there’s way more shock of kicking out of a finisher than some regular move, but it does feel like it diminishes some finishers. The Cross Rhodes feels like a weak finisher because of how many people kick out of it, but I suppose it’s hard to make it intriguing to make a dramatic ending if they don’t kick out of it. It’s probably hard to make it work like Kenny Omega does with the One-Winged Angel where no one has kicked out of it, but what they could do is just not use the finisher as much as they do to have fewer kick outs. Maybe two or three times a match maximum and that’s it. It’s a small issue, but one they could try to fix if they want to. This is very minor though and I don’t really care but thought I’d be nitpicky a bit just to mention it.

Regardless of all of that, this felt like the ending of a chapter in WWE and the start of a new era which WWE seemed to be emphasizing quite a bit during the weekend. Cody Rhodes is the perfect guy to lead this company forward and I’m glad he was able to finish his story.

WrestleMania felt like a storybook ending and it just might be the greatest WrestleMania of all time. In terms of entertainment value, I would say it is. WrestleMania 40 is a 10/10 in my opinion and it was a blast to watch.

It’s such a fun time to be a wrestling fan and I hope you’re in for the ride because it’s only going up from here.