Hiya!

Before I go talk about what happened during the first night of Wrestlemania 40, I have to voice my displeasure at Disney+ Philippines. While I do appreciate you carrying all of the WWE pay-per-views, I don’t appreciate you being so late with Wrestlemania 40! This is supposed to be the biggest night for the WWE and, as of this writing of Tuesday evening, Philippines time, both replays for Night 1 and Night 2 are not available! What gives, Disney+ Philippines? So, guess what? I had to resort to watching the Showcase of the Immortals using rather uncouth methods. That’s on you, Disney+ Philippines!

Anyway, let’s go check out what went down at Night 1 of Wrestlemania 40.

The first match of the night had Rhea Ripley defending her RAW Women’s Championship against Becky Lynch. This was a match I was looking forward to as these two had the potential to bring the house down. However, I really didn’t need a live performance of Rhea Ripley’s entrance music. I mean, all I actually here is the “This is my brutality” part and I just tune out. There were some really cool moves, like The Man trying to reverse an electric chair by flipping to the outside but the Eradicator held on and hit the electric chair on the outside anyway. There was also the smooth floatover by Lynch from a superplex to her Dis-Arm-Her submission. Some neat close 2-counts with each Rhea and Lynch hitting their high impact finishers where included as well.

The finish came after Rhea tried to set Lynch up for a superplex of her own. Lynch blocked the move and then set up for an avalanche Manhandle Slam from the 2nd rope. Ripley landed on her feet and clocked Lynch with a huge right before slamming Lynch into the top turnbuckle with her Riptide pumphandle slam finisher. The Eradicator hit another Riptide in the center of the ring for good measure and she still retains her RAW Women’s Championship.

This was a good match but it did feel a little too much. I’m one who believes if WWE Superstars kick out of finishers too often, finishers lose their effect. This happened here a couple of times so I wasn’t a big fan of that. I also think it went on just a minute or so too long. Still, the action was really good and a good way to start off Wrestlemania 40.

The next match of the night had The Judgement Day trying to retain their Undisputed WWE Championship from breaking up against The Awesome Truth, The New Catch Republic, The New Day, A-Town Down Under and DIY. Some cool spots, like Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate hitting moonsaults from the top of a ladder to the crowd below, Kofi Kingson hitting an awesome looking Trust Fall to the outside, R-Truth getting the hot tag when it wasn’t needed, Tomasso Ciampa doing an air raid crash from the top of a ladder. Johnny Gargano connecting with a wicked DDT to a table to the outside and JD McDonagh falling through two tables set up on the outside. They essentially made full use of this ladder match being a ladder match!

There were actually two finishes as the match culminated with RAW and Smackdown getting their tag team belts back. On the Smackdown side of things, it ended when The Awesome Truth formed an alliance with DIY for each team to get belts. However, A-Town Down Under spoiled it by knocking each team off the ladders and Grayson Waller successfully climbing up to retrieve the Smackdown Tag Team belts. For the RAW tag belts, Damien Priest tried to hit his South of Heaven finisher on The Miz but couldn’t hit it fully due to the ladder being damaged. Damien retrieved another ladder and tried to climb it but R-Truth tipped the ladder over, sending Priest to hit the top rope. R-Truth then hit an Attitude Adjustment to send Senor Money in the Bank to the outside. R-Truth then got to finish his story by retrieving the RAW Tag Team belts for The Awesome Truth.

This was an extremely fun and chaotic match. While there were some rather obvious botches, like the one involving the broken ladder, that doesn’t change how good the action was overall. I actually do like how The Judgement Day isn’t saddled with the Undisputed WWE Tag Team belts as it allows them to move onto bigger things, if you know what the Money in the Bank stipulation means.

The next match had lWo members Rey Mysterio and Andrade take on Santos Escobar and Dominik Mysterio. Wait, why is Andrade with Rey Mysterio and not Dragon Lee? Well, I guess he was shoehorned in at the last minute during the Smackdown before Wrestlemania. Anyway, this wasn’t exactly a tag team match technically as both lWo and Legado Del Fantasma members got involved. Some cool moments, like Rey Mysterio and Andrade hitting a stacked crossbody to the outside and Joaquin Wild getting slingshotted from the second rope to some Legado Del Fantasma members.

The finish came after Escobar posted Mysterio and then ordered Dominik to get a chair. However, while Dirty Dom was doing so, a couple of bruisers with Rey Mysterio masks came in and assaulted Dom. Rey then hit both Dom and Escobar with a 619. Andrade hit his finisher on Dominik while Mysterio connected with a top rope splash to get the pinfall victory for his team.

I was fine with the match but the finish really ruined it for me. Ooh, a couple of Philedelphia Eagles were under the masks? What you just told me is that Rey Mysterio and Andrare couldn’t get the job done without outside help! At a certain point, the match just got too chaotic and it didn’t help that some spots, like Zelina Vega’s moonsault, didn’t connect cleanly. It started out good but got lousy at the end.

The next match of the night was Jey Uso taking on his brother, Jimmy Uso. This should have had a big match feel. The classic tale of two brothers at each other’s throats, beating the heck out of each other. It didn’t. Not really much to say about the action here. Jey Uso took control at the start then Jimmy started to beat down on his face brother. Yadda yadda yadda.

The finish came after dueling Uso signature moves with Jey getting the advantage after a couple of superkicks. Main Event Jey hit a massive dropkick to Jimmy head in the corner. Jimmy then begs off and Jey relents. This allows Jimmy to sucker superkick Jey and hit a Samoan Splash for a 2-count. Jey rallies with a limp looking spear and then gets the pinfall victory over his brother with a Samoan Splash.

This just didn’t work. I didn’t feel the bad blood they were supposed to have. The moves didn’t really look like they were connecting. Even the fake apology didn’t feel earned. It certainly didn’t help that the crowd were just as apathetic as myself as they were quiet for most of the match.

The next match of the night had Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair and Naomi taking on Damage CTRL’s Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane and Asuka. I’m actually kind of upset the Women’s Tag Team titles aren’t up for grabs at this Wrestlemania and instead the Kabuki Warriors were shoehorned into a 3-woman tag match. Feels like a missed opportunity. Then again, this is more of a vehicle for Jade Cargill to show off what she can do. The only person who did some really showstopping moves was Bianca Belair as she hit a moonsault pinning attempt on the entire Damage CTRL team. Otherwise, nothing really happened until Jade Cargill got the hot tag.

The finish, obviously, came after Jade Cargill was finally made the legal woman for her team. She cleans house and tried to pin Dakota Kai with a Michinoku Driver but was broken up by the Kabuki Warriors. Things break down and Asuka tries to spray green mist at Belair but the EST ducks so the mist hits Kairi instead. Naomi takes our Sane and Belair hits Asuka with her ponytail with the loudest crack I’ve ever heard it generate! Belair connects with the KOD, taking out Asuka. Cargill then hits the Glam Slam to Dakota Kai to get the pinfall victory for her team.

Back-to-back nothing matches, Wrestlemania? I’m fine with this being a showcase for Jade Cargill… but she hardly got to showcase anything here! She was in for something like the final 3 minutes of the match and even then, she only hit a few moves. The match felt like something which should’ve been on RAW instead of the Showcase of the Immortals.

The next match saw Sami Zayn taking on GUNTHER for the Ring General’s Intercontinental Championship. As this was a classic underdog match, the heel GUNTHER generally had control of the match, with Sami Zayn getting little to no offense for the majority of it. However, no matter what The Ring General did to Zayn, the challenger kept getting up. Nice little touch of having Sami’s wife ringside so GUNTHER can taunt her from time to time.

The finish came after Sami Zayn started wailing on the floor after GUNTHER started yelling at Zayn’s wife. GUNTHER went up for another splash but Zayn beat him to it by hitting his Helluva Kick before he got up. Zayn then hit a wicked brainbuster from the top rope to the turnbuckle to stun the Ring General. Zayn then hit a couple of Helluva Kicks to take out the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion and pin him to become the NEW Intercontinental Champion. Zayn then went to his wife to celebrate his victory.

Now, that’s some good storytelling all around. The buildup to this match was great and the in-ring storytelling of Zayn managing to get fired up just enough to finally take down GUNTHER was great. I know it’s wrestling and it’s not real but this felt real to me. This was a fantastic match with a great ending. Hands down, my favorite match of the night.

The final match had Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins taking on Roman Reigns and The Rock, with the winning team deciding the stipulation for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Night 2. After what seemed like forever because of how long the ring entrances were, the match eventually boiled down to a No Holds Barred match as The Rock threatened the official with being future endeavored if he was disqualified. This led to all kinds of shenanigans, like brawling in the audience and Seth Rollins and The Rock doing their best Triple H impression with several spit takes.

The finish came after Cody hit The Rock with the Rock Bottom through the announcer’s table while Reigns speared Rollins through the barricade. Cody drags The Final Boss into the ring but get hits by a drive by kick by Reigns. A slugfest ensues between Cody and The Tribal Chief with Cody getting the upper hand and connecting with a couple of Cross Rhodes. Cody goes for a third but The Rock hits Cody from behind with the Mama Rhodes weight belt. The Rock is tagged in and The Final Boss hits Cody with a Rock Bottom and a People’s Elbow to get the pinfall victory for his team.

This was good if you only watched the latter half of it. The first half was kind of dull. The super long entrances just dragged on for me! Things only really got good after everyone returned to the ring after the action spilled into the audience area. If they trimmed off a few minutes from the start and just established this was a No Holds Barred rules match at the start, I would’ve been more on board. Then again, I guess The Rock isn’t quite in wrestling shape so they had to do it this way to hide that fact.

Overall, I did like Wrestlemania 40: Night 1. There were a few dud matches, like the Jade Cargill 3-person tag match and the Uso “blood feud” match. The Intercontinental match more than made up for both of them, though. All-in-all, a really good start and I hope Disney+ in the Philippines allows me to watch Night 2 without having to dive into the deepest recesses of the Internet to watch it!

Byee!

What did you think of Wrestlemania 40: Night 1? Let me know in the comments section below!