PHILADELPHIA — WWE is Cody Rhodes’ kingdom now.
He is the chosen champion of the Paul “Triple H” Levesque era, finishing his story of winning the championship no Rhodes had ever held by defeating Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40 to become Undisputed WWE Universal champion at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
It ends Reigns’ historic 1,316-day reign as a world champion — the fourth-longest in company history — and Rhodes needed plenty of help from WWE legends to do so after losing to the Tribal Chief at WrestleMania 39.
The celebration was the crescendo fans clamored for to end an excellent weekend for the company in Philadelphia, as WWE backed up a strong Saturday with an equally impressive effort.
Drew McIntyre and Bayley received well-deserved WrestleMania moments. We got a perfectly timed Damian Priest Money in the Bank cash-in, thanks to some help from CM Punk.
Sunday’s card wasn’t perfect as the Philadelphia Street Fight was more about fun moments than doing anything memorable with the weapons at their disposal. And while LA Knight vs. A.J. Styles was solid, it will be one of the least-remembered matches of this weekend.
With another WrestleMania in the books, here takeaways from the six Night 2 matches:
The Endgame
The conclusion of Roman Reigns’ and Cody Rhodes’ stories was straight out of a Marvel Avengers movie.
Reigns’ Thanos and The Bloodline had terrorized WWE long enough that it was time for those wronged to finally team with Rhodes’ Captain America to win the battle.
The cameos began after about 20 minutes of deliberately paced wrestling between Reigns and Rhodes that saw each man use the other’s finisher on the other to no avail.
Hilariously, after Reigns used a Cross Rhodes and “The American Nightmare” kicked out, he said, “that move sucks, that move don’t beat nobody.”
When Rhodes went for the triple Cross Rhodes, Jimmy Uso came from under the ring and stopped it with a superkick. That brought out brother Jey to take care of him with a spear off the ramp.
Solo Sikoa was next to try to stop Rhodes with a Samoan Spike when Reigns was in danger again. The challenger then kicked out of the spike-spear combo from Reigns and Sikoa.
That fittingly brought out John Cena, who lost to Sikoa at last year’s Crown Jewel, to deliver an Attitude Adjustment to him and Reigns. Cena’s face was amazing when The Rock’s music hit and he knew he had to face his old rival one more time before taking a Rock Bottom.
Reigns saved Rock from being smacked with a chair by Shield Seth Rollins, prompting The Undertaker’s gong with The Bloodline in control again.
While Taker in street clothes choke-slamming Rock was fine, it felt like a moment tailor made for “Stone Cold” Steve Austin that we will never get back.
Reigns took his eye off the prize for one second, choosing to repay Rollins for his Shield betrayal with a chair shot instead of hitting Rhodes.
It opened the door for Rhodes to finally hit the triple Cross Rhodes and put Reigns down for good, as all the little moments came together.
WWE let you know things might end differently for Rhodes right from the start as his entrance included battlefield imagery, he wore a skull mask like his logo and was joined for the first time in WWE by his wife Brandi.
The celebration at the end was all about Rhodes’ family and the babyfaces, which included CM Punk, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Randy Orton in the ring with him. We got the true end to the story when Rhodes got to hand the championship to his mom Michelle as promised and got his hand raised by Triple H to signify him as the new face of the company — who still has unfinished business with The Rock.
Reigns feels destined for a babyface turn and date with The Rock at WrestleMania 41.
Gone in a Flash
Drew McIntyre’s third world championship in WWE didn’t last nearly as long as CM Punk’s second in AEW (three days) thanks to “The Best in the World” himself.
McIntyre finally got his true WrestleMania moment, and a deserved one for the character work he has been doing. It took four Claymores — the first coming right at the opening bell — to put down Seth Rollins, whose three successful stomps didn’t get it done in the opener.
It was McIntyre’s first world championship win in front of fans after two during the pandemic and the emotion was easy to see on his face as he celebrated in the ring and with his family. Rollins emotionally said goodbye to the belt he elevated for 316 days, but then McIntyre got greedy.
He walked over and started taunting Punk at the commentary desk. After McIntyre gave Punk the “suck it” gesture, Punk decked the champ, taking off his arm brace and beating him with it.
Then, Damian Priest’s music hit. A chokeslam later and we had a new World Heavyweight champion with McIntyre’s reign lasting just minutes.
Priest is the first Puerto Rican-born world champion in WWE since Pedro Morales 50 years ago.
Judgment Day truly run “Monday Night Raw” now with he and Rhea Ripley holding gold.
With no official news that McIntyre has re-signed with WWE the conspiracy theory might start, but this appears to lock him and Punk in an immediate feud once Punk is cleared to wrestle again.
Oh Bay-by
It had been about five years since we have seen a true babyface Bayley and we got a reminder of the level of connection she can foster with the audience. Outside of the main event, there was no match the crowd was invested in more as Bayley — who got a superb-looking Egyptian Goddess entrance — defeated Iyo Sky for the WWE women’s championship in her first-ever singles match at WrestleMania.
Sky and Bayley built things to a crescendo once the challenger began working a knee injury after rolling Sky hard into the corner. It only garnered more of the crowd’s sympathy as Sky delivered back-to-back bridged German suplexes.
Sky kept going for moonsaults to mixed results. Bayley got the knees up on the first attempt. And when Bayley went to the top rope, Sky countered into a cross-face and later put Bayley in an STF.
It was then Bayley’s time to mount a comeback, beginning with a Bayley to Belly that she used less as a heel. Sky blocked a Rose Plant attempt and the two exchanged slaps and blows, but the champion just couldn’t seem to put the challenger away.
Bayley finally had to pour on the offense with a suplex, a top-rope elbow and finally a Rose Plant to earn the title.
Bayley began Damage CTRL in July 2022, putting her own star on the backburner, but now we get a babyface version of her for the first time since 2019.
A Paul Order
There were more brass-knuckle shenanigans from Logan Paul, but in the end, he retained his United States championship in a more traditional manner in what was the right call.
As expected, Kevin Owens was in this match to take the pin and give WWE the chance to get to a Randy Orton and Paul singles match next.
The Viper looked like he had the match won when he hit a second RKO on Owens as a sick counter to a pop-up powerbomb. But Paul was able to intercept the Viper before he could go for the pin and toss him out of the ring. A frog splash later and Paul retained.
This match was about moments. There was Orton trying to sneak in an RKO after he and Owens loosely agreed they weren’t going to stop focusing on Paul.
Later in the match, Paul finally did go for his signature brass knuckles. Orton stopped them initially, but when Paul did land a right hand Orton kicked out.
After an RKO, Orton had Paul set up for his signature punt kick, but the champ was pulled out of the ring by friend and YouTuber IShowSpeed, who was wearing the Prime mascot outfit. Orton proceeded to RKO Speed through the announce table.
Owens did get to perform at a WrestleMania but it’s unclear if he will be in a championship picture any time soon again after this.
Table Talk
We got some simple fun booking and a solid end, even if the spots in the match itself were a little clunky in the Philadelphia Street Fight.
After Karrion Cross DDTed Bobby Lashley onto a chair, he questioned special guest referee Bubba Ray Dudley’s count.
Then, things got a little silly.
Angelo Dawkins pulled off D-Von Dudley’s “Wassup” dive from the top rope and then with Bubba Ray involved in the chest slaps they got a table — but needed a second after the first one broke under Cross’ weight.
Ford smashed Cross with a kendo stick for good measure and then hit a frog splash on the table as Lashley picked up the win.
B-Fab and Scarlett did two spots in the match. B-Fab took out Scarlett when she threatened Lashley with a kendo stick, and the two went crashing through a table on the outside via a Russian leg sweep from the apron.
Whose Game is it?
LA Knight’s push appears to not have stalled, just taken a detour as he won a quality match against A.J. Styles in his WrestleMania debut.
This one was workman-like.
Styles, who changed his music for the first time since he debuted in WWE, targeted Knight’s knee. The “Megastar” took a chance by stripping up the padding outside the ring and ended up getting back-body dropped onto it and just beat the count of 10.
The finish kind of came out of nowhere as Knight countered a Styles Clash attempt and then thwarted Styles going for a Phenomenal Forearm.
Knight turned it into his BFT finisher for the win to keep his momentum alive and solidify Styles a heel.
Biggest Winner: Cody Rhodes
Biggest Loser: Kevin Owens
Best Match: Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns
Best Entrances: Cody Rhodes and Bayley
Predictions: 6-0 (Total: 9-1-3)
Grade: A
