WWE WrestleMania XL - Night One Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
WWE WrestleMania XL - Night One Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
Here we are folks. Night one of the biggest show of the year!
Tonight, WWE brings us night one of WrestleMania XL live from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Our card for tonight includes:
Tag Team Match
Andrade & Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar
Six Man Tag Team Match
Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane)
WWE RAW Tag Team Title / WWE SmackDown Tag Team Title Six-Pack Ladder Match
The Judgment Day (Damian Priest & Finn Balor) (c) vs. Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs. Awesome Truth (R-Truth & The Miz) vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs. New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate)
Singles Match
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Women's World Title Match
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch
Tag Team Match
Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins vs. The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & The Rock)
and more!
The show will start tonight at 7ET/4PT live on peacock.
I'll probably just wait until tomorrow to watch so I can just get to the matches. I don't need to see 15-25 minutes of ads and video packages in between each match. I hope to be proven wrong, but I ain't holding my breath.
To quote my SLF during last year's 'mania.
"For a show called Wrestlemania, there's not a lot of actual wrestling."
“For a show called Wrestlemania, there’s not a lot of actual wrestling.”
Ain't that the truth.
You still won't necessarily get away from the ads, for NXT it seemed every match had a sponsor, Fallout TV Series, Knuckles TV Series, and some others with graphics on the wall and floor. They didn't hype it up or talk a lot about it though so it wasn't horribly done, but UFC-style ads are coming sadly.
Have they really booked matches which are Latino tag team vs Latino tag team, and 3 black women vs 3 Japanese women?
The greatest rapper in the world.... Lil Wayne
May God that had me rolling with laughter, he's not the worst by a long shot and up there in the ranks, but greatest in the world?
The greatest rapper in the world…that we could get to hype up Jey on the way out. Works for me!
To be fair tho they could have gotten a lot worse, thankfully MGK does pop punk now, and thank fuck they didn't let him play guitar.
I expected the Dr. of Thuganomics
I would give just about anything for the Dr. Of Thuganomics to come back, thick gold chain that vanilla ice style cut dropping rhymes on people left right and centre.
I'm just gonna toss my NXT Stand & Deliver comment here... WWE saw us thinking AEW/ROH had too many titles and decided to join the add more titles party, like why does NXT need a secondary women's title? They introduced the WWE NXT Women's North American Championship. Main roster, it might could work they have a lot more tv hours to work with, NXT has 2 hours, like why?
(Considered making a discussion thread but wasn't sure if it would be used, so do feel free to use this one for it too)
ugh they did? I'm in the same boat thought wise. I don't watch NXT since they did NXT 2: Rainbow Boogaloo a long while back but is the NXT women's roster anywhere near deep enough for a midcard title?
So I'm guessing that The Final Boss Rock is going to be the replacement for the Power tripping ego filled Mr McMahon character.
Threatening to fire a ref mid match for doing his job is text book Mr McMahon.
Edit: pulling the ref out the ring mid count [✓]
He just needs to beat the shit out of a ref and have his daughter come down in a ref shirt.
He has said he won't just disappear going forward, so I would think that is highly likely, maybe not around a lot, but a lot more than we are used to from The Rock.
I'm kinda hoping he takes the heel boss route, Mr McMahon Was a great character and the rock is a natural at that overly over confident ego filled narcissistic asshole.
Triple H would have been great but I don't want to see him in the ring taking bumps anymore, plus everyone knows he's a big softy who loves his wrestlers like his own children.
I'm down for this. As you said HHH can't bump anymore and (any problems aside) he's too face right now and should remain so as long as he's around. Rock can do the things that are needed for an evil boss character real well (as long as he doesn't overstay his welcome. Don't leave, but don't be on every episode for 30 mins either.)
Having an asshole boss who gets what's coming to him is how you get the older viewers back, it's what made Austin V McMahon so popular, most workers have had the thought of fighting their terrible boss and got to live vicariously through Austin beating his boss up every single week., that and the fact Austin is the greatest crowd worker in WWE history.
Rocky is so jealous of Roman he had a replica belt made to carry out lol.
I love it lol. He's gonna guaranteed keep carrying it around like an actual title to make himself feel bigger than Roman.
That is the first match I completely disagree with the winner of. I absolutely do not believe Sami was the right choice to take down Gunther's long-ass reign, it should have gone to somebody up and coming, who I don't know, but not an established upper card star.
I feel the same way with the caveat that I can’t think of anyone in the short term that fits that bill and Gunther should also be moving up the card. Great match regardless, but I was rooting for Gunther to retain as well.
Also shoutout to JD, he's great at what he does. I'm always happy to watch him eat shit
Those crazy spots always scare me a little, but JD really does great at being the ragdoll of the group, I wasn't sure I liked him joining but they proved me wrong with him.
@Brain @Travon333 JD has so much more potential than we've seen yet. At NXT he was always a top contender. On the main roster he's a clown. I'm disappointed, but he's a professional.
He took one of the best bumps of the match and he wasn’t even a participant!
Due to NXT having several major sponsors on things today, I kept track of Mania as best I could... it's a new day, yes it is, in terms of advertisements.
Becky vs Rhea
Dude Wipes - Ring Post
Prime Energy - Turnbuckle
Prime Energy - Ring Mat center
Replay - Snickers
Official Energy Drink of WWE - C4
Sneak Peak - Something on Netflix hyped up a bit by announce team before trailer.
Six Pack Ladder Match for WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship (Each set is up for grabs according to the rules the announce team read. So splits?)
Steady Cam brought to you by Xfinity
Wheatley Vodka - Apron, Posts, and Walls
Prime Energy remains on turbuckles and mat for remainder of show.
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SmackDown tag team champions are now A Town Down Under... match continues...
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Awesome Truth win the RAW Titles. The titles are officially split apart.
Replay presented by Wheatley Vodka
Sky Cam is presented as Sky C4M for the C4 Energy Drink.
LWO vs. LDF
Minimute Maid Aguas Frescas Presenting, plus WWE 2k24 & Snickers logos in each corner for announcer hype and graphic about upcoming LWO vs. LDF with Dom.
Announcers announce the Match is presented by Minutemaid Aguas Frescas refreshing AF. They are also sponsoring the match apron, mat, posts.
Snickers Replay
Uso vs. Uso
Dude Wipes sponsoring the Usos match, walls, apron, posts.
Wheatley Vodka sponsors Cody Rhodes' bus and WrestleMania!
Six Women's Tag (Jade, Bianca, Naomi vs. Damage Ctrl) Match will be presented by WingStop! Snickers logo in corner of graphic.
3 on 3 Women's Match
Wingstop Apron, Wall, Posts.
Gunther - Sami Zayn
Prime Hydration Station at Ringside, announce team pimping the energy drink.
Dude Wipes on the ring post.
Telestrator brought to you by Xfinity recapping Eagles players interference helping Rey.
Run down of tomorrow's card... Slim Jim presents LA Knight AJ Styles... Gin & Juice something I couldn't read presents Bobby Lashley's group vs Testament. Snickers/WWE2k24 on all the others but it doesn't say specifically presented by.
Rollins Cody - Rock Reigns
American Home shield pimped by announce team as Rollins enters.
American Home Shield logo apron, mat, post.
Prime Hydration station used by Rollins, announcers say he needed a little prime.
WWE 2k24/Snickers replay of superman punch
American Home Shield logo appears in corner of screen for a few seconds after match has been going on about 20-30 minutes or so. I also just realized these ads were on the arena banners too.
Replay of Rock winning presented by American Home Shield.
That closes out the ads of Mania. It truly is a new era in advertising for WWE as TKO gets into the full swing of things.
Oof, christ. Really goes to show how little I've come to notice them over the years, I think I'm just autoblurring em in my mind but that's a big list..
The steady cam was Verizon not xfinity.
Seeing it listed out like this, I feel less weird for feeling a bit overwhelmed by ads while watching. It’s probably the most ads I’ve seen watching something in a long time. I was happy to see the mat ad wasn’t distracting though.
Yeah I'm thankful the ring ad is just the outline really and not some big coloured in logo with a text tagline under it, it could be much worse even if I don't like it.
The really bad ones to me were when the ads were white, like Minute Maid and American Home Shield really stood out and were somewhat distracting to me.
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Wow. This has flown by so far. Assuming this match is 15-20 with intros and Sami/Gunther is 30ish, the main could feasibly go for an hour!
I know it's a tag match and will have Bloodline interference but I'd be concerned about The Rock trying to go that long, depends on how long he's known he was wrestling and how long he's been training for it I guess.
Smoke and mirrors should help to cover some of Rock’s cardio but I tend to agree that I’m wary of him holding up for 30+
Everytime I see a Lucha style match with super talented wrestlers, I'm just in awe at how they can do it, always something memorable in those matches for me.
Lucha was never my favourite type of wrestling, but growing up with WWF, WCW and ECW I can never argue that Luchadores have always been some of my favourites.
You got this Sami!
*checks who his opponent is*
You don't got this Sami!
Edit: I was wrong.
HE DID HAVE IT! MY BOY HAD IT!
A STORY HAS BEEN FINISHED!
The Rock is comically large
I forget which game it was like...maybe within the last 10y, but was a wrestling game that came out and all the wrestlers were 90s Rob Liefeld Captain America-esque no matter who they were, and when I see Rock all i think of is the wrestlers in that game.
Probably WWE All Stars. He really is a throwback though. I'm sure guys are still juicing but for the most part all that bulky muscle is useless.
Crazy to think him and Billy Gunn were like average sized guys once upon a time
Prime Logo's on the turnbuckles, Dude Wipes logos on the ring posts, Giant Prime Enegery logo on the mat... the replay presented by Snickers... the ads are taking over...
I can't believe they opened with Rhea and Becky, They are doing great and will take some great wrestling to follow up with.
Makes sense, if your not the main event the opener is the best spot
Exactly. We're a ways away from ye-ol-jobbers opening the show, that opening slot has become almost as prestigious as the main event over the years.
Also: good damn match!
Is Gunther going to ruin another family?
I don't know who needs to know this but Cody and Seth look coordinated, like a Royal Wedding motif...
I like to think that Seth busted into Cody's bus dressed like this, threw Cody his attire while singing "I made this for you" then struts off cackling to himself.
I may be the only one, but I legit feel like Gable is somehow costing Sami this match.
I have been wondering about that too, the story looked like it was going to be Chad's to me, then they injected Sami into it, I really wonder if Chad is turning on him.
You got this Sami!
*checks who his opponent is*
You don't got this Sami!
The Miz out there making a Snickers ad that doesn't annoy me lol, mAyBe YoU nEeD a SnIcKeRs!
😂😂😂😂 I love R-Truth
Truth is the best.
If Logan retains, that trio is going to be insufferable on Smackdown
Expect to suffer, because I just don't see them taking it off of him yet.
Yep. Seems like they’re still working towards Knight being the one. If he beats AJ tomorrow, that’s a good sign, if you’re a Knight fan that is.
I truly didn't want Judgement Day to retain thanks to them being dicks to Truth so this is a double feel good decision
Same, I popped hard.
Dom really teamed up with the neighborhood thugs against his Dad
A hope Rey doesn't think he's not getting turned on tonight
The real question is how many turn on him, my money is on Carlito.
Me screaming at Jey:
This Rock entrance sure is something.
Wife subbed to Peacock last night to watch some trash tv, so I guess I might check this out. Don’t think I’ve seen one since maybe 2018 or 2019.
I'm interested in Jimmy/Jey, Rhea/Becky and the main event, but def in a 'skip to 3 mins before the end of each match while waiting for OBS to open and hit record' kinda way.
Happy for Jade, wonder how they're going to use her. She still has a few things to cleanup
Jimmy is such a hater man
