It’s cold in Philadelphia. For god sake, WWE! It’s early April. In Philadelphia! Who’s dark, twisted idea was this?! The petition for warm weather WrestleMania host cities only starts now and it’ll only help these events moving forward. More on that in a second.
Despite a frigid night at Lincoln Financial Field with the upper deck of the stadium engulfed in a wind tunnel, Paul Levesque, Nick Khan, and the other WWE wizards put on a memorable first night of WrestleMania 40 that was loaded with spectacle. The pro wrestling wasn’t cast aside, but spectacle was the name of the game.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it. Period.
Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch - WWE Women’s World Heavyweight Championship
A good opener. Ripley and Lynch both got star entrances — Lynch with a specialized video hyping “The Man” and the band of Ripley’s entrance theme playing her out. It set the tone for the night out of the gate. The match did too. Though slow to start, the women picked up pace toward the end and the crowd was invested. Ripley was more over as a babyface than Lynch, so the definitive finish without Judgement Day or Dominik Mysterio interference played to continue solidifying her in that role. This had another gear if they wanted to take it, but it served the rest of the show well by not going there.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Judgement Day vs. DIY vs. Grayson Waller & Austin Theory vs. Awesome Truth vs. New Catch Republic vs. New Day - WWE Raw and Smackdown Tag Team Championship Six Pack Ladder Match
Your car crash match for the night. This had it’s moments with some big moves off the ladders and through tables. Moments you’d expect, though, so nothing overtly special to this show and this match. R-Truth securing the win for his team to become Raw Tag Team Champions was a nice feel good ending to the match. Waller and Theory securing the Smackdown titles earlier was what it was. Same with the match.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar
A fine match with a rough finish that was totally out of the blue. This story between Dominik and Rey Mysterio is too personal to include celebrities like Jason Kelce. That’s what we got and not only did we get it, but it led right into the finish and cost Team Dominik the match. You need to pick your spots with the celeb involvement. This wasn’t the right spot. The only good thing here is that Dominik getting a win over his Dad eventually is still out there when WWE wants it.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
Very disappointing. The action was slow and plodding throughout. Because that didn’t click, the drama they attempted to build at the end of the match didn’t work either. The audience simply wasn’t hooked. On top of that, c’mon Jey. You really thought Jimmy was real there at the end? The audience didn’t buy it, so Jey looked foolish for accepting his brothers hand. This match didn’t get the build it needed and the match seemed to suffer because of it. Also, there didn’t seem to be much interest from an audience perspective in seeing these two brothers duke it out. A miss.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/2
Jade Cargill, Naomi, & Bianca Belair vs. Damage CNTRL
Bottom line? We needed to see more from Jade Cargill in this match. It was a fine little match with big time entrances for the babyfaces, but went out of its way to not really showcase Cargill in the ring at all. People are going to wise up to what WWE is doing with her if they don’t get her into something more substantial after the introduction she got into the company. What she did was good, but it wasn’t enough. No surprise to see the babyfaces go over here.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
Gunther vs. Sami Zayn - WWE Intercontinental Championship
The match of the night. Nobody puts on a fighting underdog match quite like Sami Zayn and he pulled out all the stops to get this over. Gunther was dominant and strong. Zayn just kept fighting and had the full crowd on his side. Zayn as IC champion now keeps the title elevated to the level Gunther got it to. Gunther can now elevate up to the world title picture. Thumbs way up.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 3/4
The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins
Big time spectacle. Huge spectacle. Massive, massive spectacle. The entrances for this were essentially another match with those clocking in at over 15 minutes. That said, they were awesome and fitting for the show thematically. The Rock’s was tremendous and grabbed the attention from the fans right away. Same with Cody. That said, the audience was also freezing at this point during the show. This impacted crowd reaction and participation negatively.
As for the match, well, it had lots of bells and whistles designed to keep Rock from having to bump too much, while at the same time, making sure that it felt as epic as it needed to as the “biggest tag team match in WrestleMania history.” They walked that line well. The big spots like Rock going through the announce table, Roman spearing Rock, and Rock pinning Cody, all got strong reactions from the audience. I got the sense that people leaving felt they saw something very cool and know (or think) they are in for a treat tomorrow night as Cody tries to vanquish The Bloodline and capture the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
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