Breaking Down WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 2

(Photo Credit: WWE)

After the success that was Night 1, the question was, can Night 2 deliver in a similar way? Now that the show is over, I can confidently say that Night 1 was the superior night. That isn’t to take away from some of the matches but a couple of the results were a bit strange, and the first couple of matches didn’t really do much.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

This was your standard Lesnar match, only difference was that they billed this as can Lesnar suplex or F5 the big guy. Well the match was short and it took just under five minutes to get a result. Lesnar hit three german suplexes, then hit an F5 and was done just like that. It was expected that it would be short and painless, and it was. Lesnar will be gone after this and Omos is just boring so I don’t see anything for him.

Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya & Shotzi vs. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green

This was the second of the two showcase matches, and its safe to say that the mens showcase match was far far better. Not really anything of note in this match, and it did feel like this was made to get these women on the card and that’s about it. Ronda and Shayna ended up winning to no ones surprise, it probably sets up a women’s tag title match once Ronda is healed from her injury, but Shayna seemed to be injured at the end of the match so that’s a concern. But they have a lot of work to do to make people care about the women’s tag teams.

Gunther vs Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre – Intercontinental Championship

Banger after banger after banger isn’t just a catchphrase, it is legit, and these three guys showed exactly that. Everything about this was fantastic, all three guys beat the hell out of each other and it was wonderful. Quite possibly the only surprising thing about this match was the result, but that didn’t stop this match from being what I think is the match of the weekend.

The chops in this match were wild, it was so insane that two minutes into the match Sheamus’s chest was red, unbelievable. It started out in a fashion where Drew and Sheamus took out Gunther right away. They went at each other early. Gunther got back into the match and his chops were brutal. Anytime you see those chops it is always incredible. Sheamus at one point had Gunther on the ropes for the 10 beats of the bodhran, with Drew chopping Gunther after every forearm shot. Sheamus later on in the match hit McIntyre with 28 beats, absolutely incredible, a huge stading ovation from the crowd, which happened multiple times during the match. And once again the commentary was on fire again. McIntyre and Sheamus kicked out of each others finishing moves. In the end though, Gunther hit a powerbomb on both guys one after the other and got the pin on Drew.

While it was slightly surprising to see Gunther get the win here, as this would have been the perfect moment for Sheamus to win the Intercontinental Championship for the first time and make a big moment. But I look forward to what more Gunther is going to do with this reign and because Sheamus didn’t get pinned, there is a chance for a rematch maybe at Money in the Bank in London. Either way, Gunther’s reign continues and is looking fantastic still. The thing that I want to see more or of is the rest of Imperium to get more of a showing in the tag team division, because Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci are one of the best tag teams WWE has on their roster.

Where does Drew McIntyre go? It is hard to say, maybe he gets drafted to RAW should there be a draft but he doesn’t really have a ready made feud yet coming out of Mania. Should that not happen, I think he could use a refresh, and that may be a heel turn, realistically I can’t see it, but it would be something fresh that we haven’t seen in a while.

Bianca Belair vs. Asuka – RAW Women’s Championship

These women had a tall task after Rhea and Charlotte put on a fantastic match the previous night but Bianca and Asuka had a great match. This match, like the Smackdown women’s title match had very little story behind it and the build was awful. However these ladies killed it and it was great. The only real puzzling thing was the result.

The match itself was fairly even there weren’t too many big moments in the match but it was just a very good match. But that last few minutes of the match was great, Asuka tried for the mist, but Bianca got out of the way. At first it looked like it was supposed to get the referee for a ref bump but obviously that turned out not to be the case. Asuka got her submission on Belair and that looked like the end. But the story of the match was Belair trying to get Asuka up for the KOD. This is where it happens where Bianca muscled up Asuka with the submission and hit the KOD and won the match.

The win means that it takes Bianca to a full year of being the champion. But it did really feel like Asuka needed this one, still not having won a match at Wrestlemania and with the new character it looked like she would win and we would get something new. I think this loss does hurt her momentum, even if the build for their match was non-existent. But if we are going to keep Bianca where she is, she needs a freshen up, her babyface persona is stale and I think going heel would be great. If not, she should lose the title to Rhea in a title unification match so we can merge the women’s divisions, which is something that should 100% happen.

Edge vs. Finn Balor – Hell in a Cell

The final match to end what has basically been a year long feud. It was a year ago that Edge started Judgement Day, then not so long after that Finn Balor joined the group and immediately kicked Edge out. Then he returned a Summerslam to get revenge on Judgement Day. Fast forward to Extreme Rules, and Judgement Day make Edge pay by taking out his wife. Then Edge returns at the rumble to set up a match at elimination chamber in a mixed tag, Edge and Beth win that which set up this final encounter inside Hell in a Cell here at Wrestlemania.

Two brilliant entrances, Edge entered as “Brood Edge”, and had Slayer for that part of his entrance, it was badass, absolutely fantastic. This then transformed into his regular entrance as he made his way to the cell. Then we got the entrance of Finn Balor as The Demon. It has been a long time since we have seen this and it was awesome, the only thing that took away was the daylight, but outside of that it was great. The other thing is that finally we get the classic cell and not the stupid red cell.

The match didn’t skimp on things, kendo sticks and chairs early. Edge had Balor in the corner of the cell and dropkicked him from the apron back into the cell. Edge grabs a table and sets it against the wall of the cell and gets put through the table he set up, it looked great. The low point of the match was when Edge literally threw a ladder straight into Balor’s head, now this busted him open. The match was then stopped for a couple of minutes, which to be honest, took away a little bit from the match. Now obviously it was important to make sure Balor was okay but with the nature of the match and Balor playing his demon character, it just looked a bit ridiculous and out of place.

They set up a table inside the ring and Balor had the upper hand, he laid Edge on the table and then jumped onto the cell, climbed onto a random platform that was there, it was really strange for the platform to be there but it served its purpose as Balor went for a coup de grace through the table, but Edge moved out of the way and Balor went right through the table. It was then Edge to the finish, he got Balor down eventually for a conchairto, no hesitation and picked up the win from there.

A fantastic Hell in a Cell match, and the feud definitely warranted it. With the feud finally over, Edge can move on to something else, what he does is anyone’s guess as he may end up taking a couple of months away. But Balor is going into a feud with Legado del Fantasma alongside his Judgement Day brethren. That will probably be the next big faction warfare for the next few months, as I think they will be moved over to Smackdown.

Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes – Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

Finally the main event of the show, and a match that had a big fight feel which was brilliant. Crowd was going nuts and the entrances were pretty good too. Especially Roman’s, where he had about 6 or 7 pianists playing his theme, absolutely epic. Cody had his family in the front row and gave his weight belt to Brodie Lee’s son who was also sitting there too, and that was a lovely gesture.

The match was phenomenal, so many things happening in the match that made you think it would go one way or the other. It was so unpredictable that it kept you on the edge of your seat the entire time. During the match there were multiple great moments, but Roman was in control until Cody sent him through the announce table with a back body drop. This is where he started to come back with a Cody Cutter, and eventually a Crossrhodes which Roman kicked out of. A disaster kick attempt from Cody turned into an awesome superman punch from Roman. It was soon after when Roman hit his first spear which Cody kicked out of.

Probably one of the biggest moments of the match was Roman having Cody in the guillotine submission and this is where I thought it was over and Cody would pass out, but Cody kept fighting and ended up breaking out of it, and therefore becoming the first person to break out of it I believe.

Later on there was a ref bump when Roman avoided Cody’s move. So this is when the shenanigans started, The Usos got involved with superkicks to Cody, then Sami and KO came out to even the odds and get rid of The Usos. Probably the biggest moment here was Owens hitting the stunner on Reigns leading to Sami hitting a helluva kick on him to follow up. After this they were all gone and it was Cody who covered Roman after he came to, but only got a 2 count.

Soon after, Cody is looking like he’ll win the match, where he hits one, then two crossrhodes, and as he goes for a third, Heyman gets up on the apron to distract the ref, which allows Solo Sikoa to give Cody a Samoan Spike and enable Roman to hit a spear and get a third straight win in the main event of Wrestlemania. It was a pretty poor ending to an otherwise amazing match. Roman winning is fine, no problem it is what it is. The issue is the distraction and the interference again like a normal week. The reaction was deflating as well too, I do believe part of that was the finish. I think if Roman was winning, have him win clean, no need to have him win via interference.

Now that Roman has retained, he will most definitely hit 1000 days as champion. Now I think at Backlash, we’ll get a 6 man tag with The Bloodline against Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Then once Roman hits 1000 days, he will lose the titles at some point, maybe even this year. But after Cody, then who? It is hard to say, the only guys that I think would be worth it are Gunther or Seth Rollins. Gunther because he should definitely be in the world title picture between the next 6-12 months. And Rollins, well the story writes itself, Roman never having beaten Seth one on one, and their history together as well. Either way, the story of Roman continues to be compelling, and we seemingly moving onto the next chapter of The Bloodline story.

What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.