Cody Rhodes Wins In What Was An Epic WrestleMania XL Main Event

Besides announcing a new Prime flavor called “WrestleMania Prime,” the big announcement was the King & Queen of the Ring in Saudi. Snoop Dogg came out late in the night to announce the night two attendance of 72,755, giving WWE a 145,298 total for the two-night affair.

Tonight’s card would be headlined by a rematch of last year’s main event between undisputed champion Roman Reigns and two-time Royal Rumble winner (consecutive) Cody Rhodes as he attempts to finish the story for his late father, Dusty Rhodes.

Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes (WWE Undisputed World Championship): Bloodline Rules

Cody Rhodes walked out wearing a mask version of his logo, accompanied by his wife, Brandi Rhodes. It was a big-time entrance for a big-time match, yet it paled in comparison to the “Tribal Chief’s” walkout, which featured his theme music being played by an All-City high school orchestra.

Reigns brought a huge presence to the ring, and with Charles Robinson refereeing the match, it was set up to be one of those memorable championship matches.

The two started fast and worked ringside almost immediately after the match began. Cody slapped on a figure four early, and Roman started to favor the knee. They eventually made their way into the crowd and landed in one of the most painful spots of the evening on a piece of production. Upon making their way to the ring, Roman Reigns began to assault Cody Rhodes verbally. “This is my company, little b***h,” Roman screamed into the face of Cody.

For a match being fought under ‘Bloodline Rules,’ the two men fought most of the match mano a mano. At one point, Roman hit Cody with his own finisher, the “Cross Rhodes.” Cody repaid Roman by delivering a spear to the undisputed champ before hitting him with the “Cross Rhodes.” This was when the first Bloodline member made it to the ring as Jimmy Uso disrupted Cody’s momentum. Jey Uso’s music was a hit, and the two brothers neutralized each other.

Cody set up Roman for the 3-peat “Cross Rhodes,” he hit him with all of them before Solo Sikoa came out to hit Cody Rhodes with his finisher (thumb). That is when Solo and Roman began beating Cody to pick up the cheap win. However, Cody kicked out and then kicked out again, and just when it seemed like Cody was defeated, that’s when John Cena’s music hit. Rumored to be in the building and possibly get involved somehow, Cena made his way to the ring to assist Cody. He took out Solo with the Attitude Adjustment through the announce table.

This is, perhaps, where opinions may differ in the booking of this match. Purists will say the match was overbooked, and casual fans looking for nostalgia pop will say, “Where was Stone Cold?” However, the bottom line is that you can’t please everyone. For my money, it was terrific. The numbers game was evened up with John Cena out there, but that’s when The Rock’s music hit, and the camera panned in on Cena’s reaction. His face was priceless, and the crowd became unhinged.

The Cena-Rock rivalry is well documented, and the two all-timers shared the ring when they headlined consecutive Manias against each other—WrestleMania 28 and 29, respectively. The Rock won the first contest, but Cena got the win back and for the strap the very next year. The idea of “doing the job” is sometimes a tough concept for casual wrestling fans to grasp, but the politics of that match mirrored the politics of this year’s main event in some ways.

The Rock ducked Cena’s punch and then landed the ‘Rock Bottom’ on Cena. Just as it appeared as though Rock would attempt a ‘People’s Elbow’ on his old foe, he grabbed the ‘Mama Rhodes’ weight belt and prepared to whip Cody. The Shield’s music hit—the faction for which both Seth Rollins and Roman belonged with Jon Moxley, known then as Dean Ambrose—and The Rock looked around the arena, clearly aware of the faction’s old gimmick.

If anyone had a worse WrestleMania than Seth, I’d need reminding because the moment he made it into the ring — decked out in full-on ‘Shield’ attire — Roman laid him out with a ‘Superman Punch.’ If anyone thought the pops were over, they were wrong, and when the Undertaker’s ‘gong’ hit, the Philly crowd went insane, along with millions watching worldwide. The lights went out, and when they came back on, Taker was standing behind The Rock. He delivered a chokeslam on Rocky, and the lights cut out again.

When the lights came back on, Undertaker was gone, and all that was left was to determine the WWE’s undisputed champion heading into the RAW after Mania. Roman grabbed the chair with both Cody and Seth on either side of him, and he decided to lay into Rollins, mirroring Rollins’ turn on the Shield years prior. Perhaps it was a calculated move, or maybe Reigns’ unresolved feelings over that moment in time allowed his emotions to take over his better judgment.

Cody took advantage of the rest and countered a Reigns’ spear before landing three “Cross Rhodes” and the eventual 3-count over Reigns. Cody finished the story and dethroned Roman after over 1,300 days as champion. Regardless of the booking, the right man won tonight, and the moment truly felt like the beginning of a new era in WWE—a theme promoted by Triple H all week.

The ‘boys in the back’ came out to co-sign Cody’s new reign as champ, a sort of throwback to when the faces would come out to congratulate the new face champion. The faces hoisted Cody on their shoulders, which was a call back to when Lex Luger and Razor Ramon lifted Bret Hart on their shoulders following his title-winning victory over Yokozuna at WrestleMania X.

Cody Rhodes celebrated with his wife, Brandi, and eventually grabbed the mic to make a speech at the show’s end—a very AEW thing to do. Instead of taking all of the glory for himself, Cody brought out Triple H to acknowledge his role in ushering in a new era for WWE—a post-Vince era.

Bayley vs Iyo Sky (Women’s World Championship—RAW)

Iyo Sky dominated early, from an angle that was based on Damage CTRL turning on their former leader and the woman who started the faction in Bayley. The match was technical at times, but they did exchange hard strikes that highlighted the personal nature of this match. The winner of the 2024 women’s Royal Rumble, Bayley, landed Belly-to-Bayley for a near fall, but Sky was in peak form and was able to showcase her own impressive offense.

After some high-risk maneuvers from Iyo, specifically a beautifully executed Moonsault off the top turnbuckle for another near fall. Bayley was able to gain momentum and survive the stiff offense from Iyo. After Iyo impressively countered the Rose Plant, Bayley was able to land a suplex and then a ‘Mania moment’ elbow drop. That offensive run softened up Iyo for a final Rose Plant and Bayley got the pinfall victory.

Logan Paul (c) vs Kevin Owens & Randy Orton (United States Championship)

Kevin Owens came out with an ECW theme at his entrance and then came out in a golf cart. KO got as far as the ring before Orton’s music hit. That is when KO reversed the cart all the way back up the ramp to give Orton a lift to the ring. Logan Paul came out ‘Primed’ and ready to go in a Monster Truck, donning the logo of his beverage company. With all of the Prime bells and whistles, Logan clearly understood the assignment when it came to upping the ante for WrestleMania.

The match was well booked, but Logan’s heat helped raise the stakes early. Paul was impressive in the match in multiple aspects. Offensively, he hit a Swanton Bomb on Owens before rolling through it to land a grounded version on Orton. KO and Orton worked well together against Logan, but the moments they exchanged offense with each other were special. They exchanged some of their greatest hits, and you couldn’t help but consider what could have been had this program been a singles feud between Owens and Orton.

The final moments of the match revealed that the Prime bottle mascot, last year played by KSI, was streamer iShowSpeed. Speed got into Randy’s face and paid the price by getting kicked halfway across the outside and RKO’d onto the table. The table did not break, which made for a much stiffer bump. When it seemed like Orton was trending towards a win, Paul neutralized him before hitting KO with a huge splash for the win and successful defense of his US title.

LA Knight vs AJ Styles

The match labeled potential ‘show stealer’ was Knight vs Styles. The pace was deliberate from the offset, but Knight was prepared to fight his fight. This match had no special stipulation, nor was there a belt on the line, but the match was still important for both men. For Knight, he needed to perform on the big stage and keep the momentum he has enjoyed over the past year. Styles, on the other hand, needed a win to jumpstart the momentum missing since returning from injury earlier this year.

Knight displayed great ring generalship by commanding the in-ring real estate, but it was the way he countered Styles at every corner of the match. Knight had Styles’ number like he was telegraphing almost every move. The match was not the show-stealer fans hoped, but Knight managed to pick up the victory and head into the RAW after WrestleMania.

Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins (WWE Heavyweight Title—RAW)

With CM Punk on commentary, the match loomed with him at ringside as if his interference was imminent. McIntyre received the big entrance we were promised. For Rollins’ part, he was successful on offense, managing to land two different ‘Pedigrees’ and two separate stomps. It wouldn’t be enough to keep McIntyre down, and he was able to rally.

Rollins’ knee caused him issues the entire match, and it seemed to have enough after landing a stomp outside on the commentary desk. There were so many finishers in this match, and while most were executed well, timing-wise, the overabundance made the ending a bit stale. McIntyre essentially hit the Claymore and could not get the win before hitting another Claymore and putting Seth down for the count.

If the ending to the match was a bit stale, it was only because the action wasn’t over and the title picture was not yet set. During this week’s episode of Infighting Podcast, FightsATW editor Abraham Gonzalez predicted that we’d get a cash-in from The Judgement Day’s Damian Priest, who lost his undisputed tag titles he held with Fin Balor on night one.

The boss called it perfectly as Priest’s music hit and he indeed cashed in on the newly crowned champ. Before the cash-in, McIntyre was in the middle of confronting CM Punk at commentary. That is when CM Punk swept McIntyre’s legs out from under him and began to attack him with his arm brace. Priest hit Drew with the MITB suitcase before landing the South of Heaven for the win.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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