The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
The Post Match Angle will return April 23
It’s time to acknowledge our “Tribal Chief” because Roman Reigns’ influence was all over WrestleMania 40 — providing the key ingredients to one of the all-time great editions of WWE’s marquee event.
“I feel like what we did tonight, it started in August of 2020 [when I returned],” Reigns said Saturday, after teaming with The Rock against Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes.
At the heart of many of the biggest moments and matches from Lincoln Financial Field over the weekend was a commitment to long-term storytelling — some linked directly to Reigns himself — and dominant champions.
They are things Reigns and his Bloodline story helped usher back into WWE.
“There are few guys that come along in our business where you say during the period of time they were in it they changed the industry,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque said. “I mean that in front of the camera. I mean that behind the camera. He’s changed the industry.”
Under Reigns’ watch, Sami Zayn rose to a new level of stardom during his Bloodline run. His story of striving to become a singles champion again dates back to losing to Reigns at Elimination Chamber in February 2023. All of it put him in a position to have fans invested enough in him to defeat Gunther and end the longest Intercontinental championship run ever at 666 days at WrestleMania 40.
Drew McIntyre’s quest to become a world champion again — this time in front of fans — and the bitter resentment he brought into the story stemmed from getting cheated out of beating Reigns at Clash in the Castle thanks to Solo Sikoa in September 2022.
The biggest reason there was a World Heavyweight championship to put around Seth Rollins’ waist for 316 days is because Reigns was dominant enough to have WWE unify the WWE and Universal championships.
Reigns’ cousins, Jimmy and Jey Uso, got to live their WrestleMania dream of a match against each other because of the storytelling and spotlight The Bloodline provided them. Lifting up his family was Reigns’ main goal in all of this.
And over in the women’s division, Rhea Ripley is working toward one of the more dominant main-roster women’s championship runs in company history at 374 days and counting.
Lastly, Cody Rhodes wanting to finish his dad’s and family’s story of becoming the first to win a world championship in WWE is incredibly compelling. But what Reigns built allowed it to be in the conversation for one of the greatest babyface moments ever because he was a historically dominant and nefarious champion, allowing Rhodes’ win to get a full year-plus build and a story compelling enough to interest Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — the biggest movie star in the world — to be a part of it to create a greater launching pad for the new face of the company.
“This had to be something greater than even Hollywood could offer because he does all kinds of stuff now. He’s that successful,” Reigns said of The Rock. “For him to be paying attention to us and want to be a part of what we’re doing, it just speaks on how special The Bloodline is and how we primed this place and made this place a destination for everybody. There’s no question now. This is the place to be and it’s because of us.”
The weekend was the perfect time to end Reigns’ run because from a creative and business perspective he’s helped lift WWE to a point where it’s as hot and fertile as it’s ever been.
It’s everything Reigns strived for when he returned during the pandemic to “change the game” as he watched WWE’s stars at an empty Performance Center wrestling the same way as if a crowd was there.
“It was time to use the silence and allow your voice to be boosted and allow yourself to take it to a different dialogue,” Reigns said. “Now we can tell stories, get into deeper dialogue, Game of Thrones style, where you better pay attention. You better listen up because next week more info is coming. We didn’t stumble upon this, we knew exactly what we were doing.”
Bryan Danielson, during an interview with The Post before his triple threat match as Daniel Bryan with Edge and Reigns at WrestleMania 37, saw the uniqueness of it all during the pandemic.
“I didn’t think of things that Roman thought of, which is telling your stories in your interviews with a softer tone, with a less pro wrestling interviewee-type way and just a more real-life speaking sort of way,” Danielson said at the time. “And then when he started doing the matches and the first one with Jey Uso, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, why didn’t I think of this,’ and it was the way he was telling the story audibly. He would talk to the guy he’s wrestling and, ‘You’re going to acknowledge me.’”
After the success of WrestleMania 40 in which Reigns’ elevation of WWE culminated with the crowning of its babyface star, it’s the perfect time to acknowledge the industry-changing run we just saw as the Tribal Chief gets set to write a new story.
Reigns and Paul Heyman shared a long embrace on the stage at WrestleMania with Rhodes and his family celebrating in the ring.
One day we may find out what was said, but I know what should have been.
“You did it my Tribal Chief. It’s done. Mission accomplished.”
The 10 Count
It’s a big risk for AEW if it is truly going to have The Young Bucks air and talk about the backstage footage of Jack Perry and CM Punk’s fight at All In on Dynamite. It better draw a rating, and it needs to show us something we don’t already know about the situation and help launch Perry into The Elite or it will be hard to shake the criticisms around doing it.
The Cody Rhodes-Rock segment on Raw accomplished the business it had to, but man it dragged. The best theory I saw for what Rock gave Rhodes — if it wasn’t something linked to Dusty — was the Brahma Bull sideplates he planned on putting on Roman Reigns’ title had he won at WrestleMania before Rhodes broke his heart and took the match. Also, if Rhodes wins the People’s Championship from Rock, can we make that the Winged Eagle belt?
WWE Speed looks like a great way to introduce the product to a young audience whose attention you should be able to hold for the three minutes the matches can last. Ricochet and Dragon Lee are great first picks.
I’m happy the AEW women’s division is getting more live promos, I’m not sure why Willow Nightingale was delivering one that leaned heavily on appreciation for the fans while not facing the crowd on Dynamite.
Paul Walter Hauser beat Matt Cardona, with help from Bully Ray, and also beat Sami Callihan over the weekend with the help of The Sandman. I’m sensing a fun trend here. Johnny TV appears to be his next opponent after the Emmy winner cost him his match against Dalton Castle at SuperCard of Honor.
If you were unaware of Paul Heyman’s immense impact, genius and staying power in professional wrestling, he sure unabashedly let you know in his all-timer of a Hall of Fame induction speech. Bravo sir.
SuperCard of Honor gave us two of the best non-WWE moments on WrestleMania weekend. We saw Billie Starkz finally embrace her full heel training from Athena and full-on fake an injury to win the first ROH Women’s TV championship. And we got Mark Briscoe finally becoming a world champion 11 years to the day his late brother did. Having him do it against a true heel instead of Eddie Kingston might have only made it better.
Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland nailed the close to Dynamite. The challenger Strickland showed the champ Joe just how far he would need to go to beat him by signing the contract in his blood to set up a compelling story for Dynasty.
If WWE is going to end Rhea Ripley’s title reign before next year’s WrestleMania, it should be Liv Morgan who does it.
I thought Stand & Deliver was a solid NXT show. Lyra Valkyria vs. Roxanne Perez was excellent and every time I watch Oba Femi perform he reveals new reasons why he will be a big star. I was expecting a little more drama and storytelling from Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams, but putting them in a steel cage match again next week might be the reason why.
Wrestler of the Week
Cody Rhodes, WWE
All Cody Rhodes wanted to be was the “quarterback” in WWE just once and the company handed him the ball in spectacular fashion at WrestleMania 40, as the son of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes ended Roman Reigns’ 1,316-day reign as world champion. What followed the night after on Raw was genuine emotion from Rhodes’ friends in WWE and the fans who pushed him to this point as being the company’s new uber-babyface champion for what it’s calling a new era.
Social Media Post of the Week
Match to Watch
Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable, Intercontinental championship on Raw, (Monday, 8 p.m., USA Network)
Gable did his part by helping Zayn train for his win over Gunther at WrestleMania. Now, the new champion returns the favor and gives him his shot at his first singles title in WWE. There is a lot of intrigue here as some fans were upset it was Zayn and not Gable facing Gunther. Does the Gable IC dream fade away here or do we start to see a character shift?
