Sunday, April 2nd, 2022
SoFi Stadium
Inglewood, California
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Jimmie Allen (? Part 2) is here to sing "America The Beautiful". We then go back to another Kevin Hart opener. They don't change much up here tonight because we are now bringing it back to Miz and Snoop Dogg. This was much quicker than last night and less fun.
Omos vs. Brock Lesnar
The staredown at the beginning reminds me of Undertaker/Giant Gonzalez. Omos tosses Brock early and hits him with a headbutt. I know others have said it, but it should truly be noted that Brock is very good at selling and he's doing a good job making Omos look good here. Omos slaps on my favorite move, the bear hug. Brock breaks out of it, but Omos hits him with a chokeslam for a 2 count. Unfortunately for Omos, he still has that big guy lack of speed and it hurts him worse now than it would have in the Hogan era. Lesnar hits a couple of suplexes, but the back is bothering him. He puts him up for the F5, but his back gives out and Omos goes for a double chokeslam. Lesnar gets him up for a F5 and that's all. Lesnar looks like maybe he legitimately injured himself, as he looks a little disappointed. I'm not really sure what this did for either guy.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Women's WrestleMania Showcase Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Match
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shotzi & Natalya vs. Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
It is completely bizarre to me that Ronda Rousey is in this throwaway match. From the little I've seen, Chelsea has been killing it as a character so far in her return. The crowd is dead silent for this so far. Natalya, Raquel and Liv hit a triple powerbomb onto Baszler. Chelsea and Sonya clear the ring and Shotzi hits a top rope crossbody. She then hits a dive through Natalya's legs to the outside. Chelsea knocks Natalya out and tells the crowd to get her cameras out. She hits a dive to the outside to get away from Raquel. Raquel then powerbombs Liv onto the whole crowd. Raquel still telegraphs her moves too much to really be a top star. Chelsea and Sonya team up to take out Raquel. Natalya and Shotzi come from behind and hit the Hart Attack on Sonya. Natalya stacks them up and goes for the double Sharpshooter and then Liv Morgan comes in to hit a Codebreaker off the top rope. Baszler and Ronda finally come out of nowhere and tag themselves in. Ronda slaps on the Arm Bar and picks up the victory. This was...not as good as the showcase match yesterday. This was just to get you to hate Ronda more, which she definitely was booed. This was on the sloppy side and they just never won the crowd over.
Match Rating: *1/2
To get things off to an even less important start, they have Bobby Lashley out to get his Andre The Giant Battle Royal trophy.
Triple Threat Match For The Intercontinental Championship
Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus vs. Gunther
Everything from here on out has the opportunity to be great. Titus O'Neil is back out as guest commentator after earning rave reviews last night. As you would expect, these three are just destroying each other. I'm just going to watch and be thankful I'm not in the ring with them. After an entire first segment of clubbing blows and chops, Gunther levels Sheamus with a clothesline. He goes for one on Drew, but he ducks and hits a neckbreaker. Drew hits a suplex on Sheamus onto Gunther and then the Future Shock on Gunther. He goes for the Claymore Kick, but Gunther ducks and he hits a powerbomb on Drew for 2. Sheamus battles with Gunther on the second rope and hits White Noise. He has him up for the Celtic Cross and he hits it, but Gunther kicks out. Sheamus hits a Brogue Kick on Gunther, but McIntyre pulls him off. Drew then hits a somersault dive over the top rope to the floor on Sheamus. Sheamus comes in and hits the Brogue Kick, but McIntyre kicks out. They battle some more and this time McIntyre hits the Claymore Kick and Sheamus kicks out. Gunther is back in and we get a frantic segment that leads to Gunther hitting a powerbomb on Sheamus on top of McIntyre and then another one on McIntyre to retain his title. That was quite the intense match and they resisted the urge to have Gunther lose the title and not take the pinfall.
Match Rating: ****
Raw Women's Championship Match
Asuka vs. Bianca Belair
Bianca has a fun entrance with a group of young girls dancing. Bianca hits a couple of dropkicks as soon as the match starts and takes it to Asuka in the corner. Bianca hits a suplex and rolls over, but Asuka gets out of the second one and hits her with a kick. Asuka counters a handspring moonsault into a submission, but Bianca battles through it into a pinfall attempt. Asuka puts on the Asuka Lock, but Bianca is by the ropes. They battle outside the ring and Bianca hits a sit down powerbomb. She throws her back in the ring, but Asuka kicks out. Bianca misses in the corner and hits her shoulder on the ring post. They do a weird zoom out in the middle of Bianca doing a handspring, so I'm thinking she maybe messed up. When they zoom back in, Asuka is trying to put her in an ankle lock. Bianca has been able to escape quickly out of the submission holds so far. Bianca hits a superplex and Asuka kicks out. Bianca hits a blockbuster and then a moonsault, but Asuka kicks out. Bianca goes up top, but Asuka hits her with a right hand. Bianca gets her up on her shoulders, but Asuka fights out of it. They start battling over her braid and Asuka hits a Codebreaker. Bianca slams Asuka face first into the top turnbuckle and gets her up for the KOD. Asuka hangs onto the ropes to get out. Asuka sprays the mist, but Bianca ducks it and has her up for the KOD again. Asuka counters it and gets her into the Arm Bar. That was awesome. Bianca rolls out of it and dead lifts her back up again. She hits the KOD and retains her title. That was a fantastic finish. The match didn't quite live up to my high expectations, but Asuka did everything in her power to make Bianca look like a star.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Miz and Snoop are back out to announce the attendance again. Miz confronts Snoop about putting him in an impromptu match in an expensive suit. He then brings out Shane McMahon to a bigger pop than I would expect after his last run. It should be said that Shane and Miz had an underrated WrestleMania match a few years back.
Miz vs. Shane McMahon Snoop Dogg
Shane does a leapfrog and legitimately hurts his knee. It's Royal Rumble 2005 part 2. Snoop calls an audible and hits Miz with a right hand. He gets on the mic and then hits him with another one. Snoop hits an elbow drop and that's enough. You can't make this stuff up. After the match, they're basically pretending as if Shane was never even there.
Match Rating: 1/4* (I guess?)
We get a movie tie in with The Pope's Exorcist as the cell is being lowered.
Hell In A Cell Match
Edge vs. Finn Balor
I hope they realize that this match does not need to be 30 minutes long. Edge rises up with a mask that would make Triple H jealous. He takes off the mask and we get the classic Edge music. We get a red steel cage and a purple kendo stick being used early in the match here. So the red cell is gone, but we have multi-color weapons in its place. Edge "traps" Balor in the corner with some purple and red kendo sticks and hits him with a missile dropkick. Edge then goes after the crowds hearts and pulls out a table. He leans it in the opposite corner, but then Balor throws him into the steps. Edge ends up going through the table, but I can guarantee there will be something bigger than that. Edge eventually brings in a ladder, so that may be it. Edge chucks the ladder at Finn and the referee calls for the medical staff. Edge looks for more weapons and sets up the ladder. Finn eventually is back up and he comes back and hits a stomp on Edge. Balor leaps over a Spear attempt and Edge runs into the ladder. We get a zoom out and an ad for the movie again. So we've had Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Mike's Hard Lemonade and The Pope's Exorcist. Finn climbs up top and hits the Coup de Grace, but Edge kicks out. It's WrestleMania, so of course he can. Finn is climbing the ladder, but Edge hits him with a kendo stick. Edge climbs up and hits Edgecution from the ladder/top rope and now Finn gets the shoulder up. Edge grabs another table and throws it into the ring. Balor climbed up the cell and went for Coup de Grace and missing through the table. Edge hits a Spear and Finn kicks out. Edge hits a one man con-chair-to and that's enough to end it. That was kind of anti-climatic and I felt like Finn should have gone over here. This had some good moments, but I didn't like it as much as some of the other matches this weekend.
Match Rating: ***1/2
We get a quick backstage interview with Bianca and then her dancers come out to chant "E-S-T".
They bring out the Hall Of Fame class and then we get our WrestleMania 40 commercial.
So...many...commercials...
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match
Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns
Cody gets the ultimate babyface entrance, as he goes up to his family and holds his son. He then presents his weight belt to Brodie Lee's son. Cody and Roman's stories are two of the more interesting ones and not just for second generation talents. Roman gets 6 piano players on the stage for his entrance. Both men get huge reactions for their ring introductions and this feels like a WrestleMania main event. The bell rings and what feels like 45 minutes since the Edge match ended, we finally have a match. It seriously may have been 45 minutes. Cody gets in some offense early on, but after Roman catches him and hits a powerbomb, he begins to toy with him. Cody tries to gain some momentum, but he ends up eating the ring apron. Roman throws him up on the entrance ramp and then hits a body slam. Solo gets a cheap shot in on Cody and then gets hit by a Drive By. They battle up on the announce table and Roman goes for a powerbomb. Cody counters and hits a back body drop through the table. Cody gets a burst and hits the Cody Cutter for a 2 count. Solo hits Cody with the weight belt, but the ref heard it and throws him out. Roman now has it and the ref tries to take it away. The distraction allows Cody to hit a superkick and a Cross Rhodes, but Roman kicks out. Roman catches Cody as he tries to skin the cat and hits a Rock Bottom. Roman goes for the Superman punch, but Cody avoids it and hits a Pedigree for another 2 count. Roman hits a Superman punch and kicks out despite being knocked "out cold". The timing on that move was very well done though. Cody now has Roman in the Figure Four in the middle of the ring. Roman is able to reverse it, but Cody gets to the ropes. We go back and forth and it leads to Cody leaping over Roman and Roman hitting him with a Spear, but it's not enough. I would just once love to see when someone kicks out of a big move for the wrestler to not be surprised and just go back to work. Roman puts on the Guillotine and Cody is fading. He gets a second wind and possibly is the first person to break the hold? We get a ref bump and then a double clothesline. Cody is to his feet first and he looks up. He goes for the Cross Rhodes, but in come the Usos and hit him with a double superkick and a 1D. They drag Roman on top, but out comes Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Owens hits a Stunner on Roman and Zayn hits the Helluva Kick. The Usos come back and they start brawling into the crowd. The referee is miraculously back and Cody rolls on top, but Roman gets the shoulder up. The two competitors battle and we get a Dusty Rhodes tribute from Cody. He sets him up for Cross Rhodes. He holds on and brings him back up for a second one. He pulls him up for a third, but Heyman is on the apron. Solo is back out and hits a Samoan Spike. Roman hits a Spear and gets the victory. Holy crap. I had a feeling they would go this route, but I definitely got lost in the story of the match and was convinced Cody would do it. I think I would have preferred a finish where Roman cheats his way out rather than have Solo do it, but that was a very good main event for the second night in a row.
Match Rating: ****
Last night was probably the better show top to bottom, but not by much. This one just had the two weakest matches on it, but they were over quickly and then we got the good stuff. The two night decision continues to be a great move, even if the shows should still be closer to 3 hours both nights.
Overall Rating: 81%
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