WWE WrestleMania XL 2024 Day 2 Sunday PPV Live 4/7/24 April 7th 2024
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WWE WrestleMania 40 Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights of Night 2
- Zazi Balouch
- Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre (World Heavyweight Championship)
- Iyo Sky vs. Bayley (WWE Women's Championship)
- LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
- Logan Paul vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens (United States Championship)
- The Pride vs. The Final Testament (Six-man tag team Philadelphia Street Fight)
- Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes (Undisputed WWE Universal Championship)
Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.WWE
Saturday's event saw new champions crowned in the intercontinental and tag team title bouts, but the match with the biggest implications was the main event.
The Rock and Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, making the undisputed WWE universal title bout between The Tribal Chief and The American Nightmare a Bloodline Rules match.
Here is a look at the card from Sunday's show:
Let's take a look at what happened on Night 2 of WrestleMania.
Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre (World Heavyweight Championship)
1 OF 7- A special music video opened the main show.
- The camera didn't show McIntyre's pyro on the stage at all, but we saw it when he was posing in the ring.
- Both men had awesome entrances, but Rollins' was more memorable.
- Catching and powerbombing a guy the size of McIntyre was a huge display of power from Rollins.
After a rendition of "America The Beautiful," we got a surprise appearance from Stephanie McMahon. She called this the first WrestleMania of the Paul Levesque era.
When it was time for Drew McIntyre to make his entrance, a large band on the stage began playing Scottish music The challenger made his way past a few dozen men holding up swords. Rollins had a much more colorful band playing his music.
McIntyre nailed a Claymore as soon as the bell rang for a close two-count. Rollins rolled out of the ring, but the challenger followed and hit a suplex before taking some time to send a message on X.
The Visionary was able to hit a Pedigree on the floor but at a cost to his own knee. He hit a Stomp but barely got a two-count.
This was all in the first couple of minutes, so you could tell these guys were not planning on holding back. The Scottish Warrior even survived a powerbomb, Pedigree and Stomp sequence.
This match was all big moves and near-falls, but it was done in the best possible way. They didn't try to trade holds or chain wrestle. This was about both men taking kill shots until one of them finally worked.
The Scottish Warrior hit one more Claymore to a defiant Rollins to get the pin and win the World Heavyweight Championship. The emotion on his face as he took the title looked real. This was a special moment after not getting his big win in front of fans during the pandemic.
This match was exactly what it needed to be. Both men put on a great performance and the crowd gave them a lot of energy. McIntyre may be a heel but he got a hero's response. He tried talking trash to CM Punk but ended up getting tripped on top of the announce table.
The Straight-Edge Superstar kept attacking him until Damian Priest ran down with the Money in the Bank briefcase. He struck McIntyre with it, the match started, and he hit South of Heaven to get the win and become the second new world champion in one night.
This gave us an emotional moment for McIntyre followed by a surprise win for Priest.
Now, Punk and McIntyre can feud while Priest holds the title on Raw.
Result: McIntyre defeated Rollins, then Priest defeated McIntyre
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
The Pride vs. Final Testament (Street Fight)
2 OF 7- It's wild to think this was Paul Ellering's first WrestleMania.
- Snoop Dogg was on commentary and seemed to be in a great mood.
- Ford legitimately almost ended up going over the barricade when he hit a dive from the top turnbuckle.
- B-Fab ended up going through a table.
- One of the tables they used broke before they could use it. The crowd booed until a new one was brought in.
Karrion Kross, Akam and Rezar came out for their first-ever WrestleMania match, against Bobby Lashley, Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford.
The Street Profits and Lashley sent all three opponents out of the ring right away to get the match started. With Bubba Ray Dudley serving as a guest referee, Dawkins and Ford made sure to get a table as soon as they could.
B-Fab and Scarlett ended up getting physical because there were no rules. We saw kendo sticks, trash cans and chairs brought into the ring and used by both teams at various points.
Kross ended up getting in Bubba's face when he counted a near-fall, but Lashley used the opportunity to hit a Spear. Ford and Dawkins did some signature Dudley Boyz taunts and moves, much to the delight of the Philly crowd.
After one failed attempt, Ford hit a big frog splash to put Kross through a table to get the win.
This was a fun bit of chaos that didn't overstay its welcome.
Result: The Pride defeated The Final Testament
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
3 OF 7- Knight was shown arriving at the stadium in the Slim Jim car.
- The way Styles took a bump out of the ring looked great. He went over the top rope quickly but didn't slam into the apron on the way down.
- Every time WWE showed a wide shot of the ring, the Slim Jim logos became very distracting.
- The German suplex from Knight on the top rope was awesome.
The third match of Night 2 was LA Knight vs. AJ Styles. There were no titles and no special stipulations, so this was one of the only bouts from this weekend that was just a standard singles match.
Styles debuted a new theme song but didn't give it much time to play. He ran to the ring, and the match got started right away.
They did a good job making this feel like a grudge match right from the start. Knight had every right to be upset after Styles flew to Australia to attack him inside the Elimination Chamber in February.
This was one of the more unpredictable contests heading into Sunday. Neither man had a clear advantage or more to lose, so neither outcome would have been surprising. Instead, the surprise element was how well this match was structured.
Both of these guys are talented, so nobody expected a bad performance, but they seemed determined to make sure their performance was not overlooked.
After countering the Phenomenal Forearm, Knight won with the BFT.
Result: Knight defeated Styles
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton (U.S. Title)
4 OF 7- The tributes to Bray Wyatt will always be beautiful.
- It looked like Paul was streaming from an old smartphone during his entrance. The footage was especially grainy.
- Paul trying to turn Orton and Owens against each other only for them to team up on him again was hilarious.
- Paul's Swanton into a frog splash was a good sequence.
The United States Championship was on the line when Logan Paul defended the belt against Randy Orton and Kevin Owens in a Triple Threat match. He rode a big truck into the arena and had a Prime mascot accompany him to the ring.
Zayn was waiting backstage to wish KO luck just like Owens did for him on Saturday. He drove a golf cart to the ring. When it was time for Orton's entrance, he backed the cart up and gave The Viper a ride to the ring.
Orton and The Prizefighter turned this into a handicap match at first and took turns suplexing Paul onto the announce table over and over. They eventually realized only one of them could win, and The Viper almost hit an RKO on Owens. When KO avoided it, they had a hilarious exchange.
Once again, WWE picked the perfect people to book against Paul. The three men worked together to put on a match that was more entertaining than anything else we had seen up to this point in the show.
We got some great spots, funny moments and creative offense from all three competitors. Any complaints one could pinpoint would be minor and insignificant. Whether you like or hate Paul, you have to respect the work he puts into his matches.
After he interfered, Orton pulled YouTuber IShowSpeed out of the Prime costume and hit an RKO on an announce table. After taking an RKO, Owens ended up taking a frog splash from Paul to give him the win.
Result: Paul defeated Orton and Owens
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
Iyo Sky vs. Bayley (WWE Women's Championship)
5 OF 7- Bayley's entrance was Egyptian-inspired, and she had four men carrying her on their shoulders.
- Ring announcer Samantha Irvin showed real emotion in her work through this weekend.
- There is such a thing as chanting too long and it happened in this match. It's fun, but it can be a bit distracting when it just keeps going and going.
- The way Sky countered the Bayley-to-belly was perfect.
The WWE Women's Championship match was contested between two former allies. Bayley and Iyo Sky used to be close friends in Damage CTRL, but now The Role Model finds herself out of the group and fighting alone.
Both women had great entrances but were all business when they got into the ring. They locked up, and the challenger scored the first takedown to send Sky out of the ring to regroup.
Once The Genius of the Sky took control, she began to focus on the same leg Bayley has had problems with for years. This was a competitive back-and-forth fight with a few standout spots.
After all the mayhem and chaos we saw in every other match, it was impressive how these two Superstars made a normal contest with no weapons or interference feel important. That is how good these women are at their jobs.
Both women had some creative counters to finishers, but when the dust settled, it was Bayley who got the pin to become the new women's champion.
This was great from start to finish.
Result: Bayley defeated Sky
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes (Undisputed WWE Universal Title)
6 OF 7- Before the match, Snoop Dogg was in the ring with the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders to announce the attendance of 72,755.
- Rhodes and Reigns both had great entrances with a lot of bells and whistles. The American Nightmare's skull mask was great.
- It took almost 20 minutes from the time WWE began the hype video until the match began.
- Reigns randomly using a Perfectplex was a nice surprise.
- Orton hugging Rhodes in celebration at the end felt like a full-circle moment.
The main event of WrestleMania 40 saw Cody Rhodes challenging Roman Reigns for the second year in a row.
Both men had epic entrances fit for an event of this magnitude, and Brandi Rhodes made an appearance with her husband. Reigns had an orchestra play him to the ring.
Once they finally got going, they circled each other until Rhodes pushed Reigns to the corner. Despite this match being under Bloodline Rules, they worked a standard match at first with holds, counters and takedowns like we would see in any other bout.
Once The Tribal Chief was sent into the ring post, Rhodes decided it was time to pull out a table. Reigns hit a drive-by dropkick and put the table back under the ring just to make the crowd angry.
They battled in the ring, at ringside and in the crowd. They used weapons, parts of the set and anything else they could find that would inflict damage.
This was much better than their tag match on Saturday and illustrated why these two men deserve to be in this spot. They combined good wrestling with storytelling to make a compelling main event.
As with any main event world title bout, there were several false finishes to build anticipation for the pin that would eventually end the contest, including near-falls with both men using each other's finishing move.
Both Usos showed up and ended up crashing through a bunch of tables next to the stage to take each other out. Solo Sikoa showed up and almost cost Rhodes the match, but John Cena ran down and fought Sikoa off before hitting Reigns with an Attitude Adjustment.
The Rock walked down to give us the Black Adam vs. Peacemaker showdown we will never get in the movies. He hit a Rock Bottom before The Shield's music hit. Seth Rollins showed up with a chair, but Reigns cut him off with a Superman Punch.
The crowd erupted when The Undertaker's gong sounded. He appeared in the ring behind The Rock and hit a chokeslam before exiting in the dark as quickly as he arrived.
After Reigns took out Rollins with a chair, The American Nightmare grabbed him and hit three Cross Rhodes to finally defeat The Tribal Chief.
This was overbooked in the best possible way and provided a satisfying conclusion to the 40th annual WrestleMania. As the new champion celebrated, several members of the roster joined him in the ring.
Result: Rhodes defeated Reigns
Grade: A
Notable Moments and Observations
The Final Word
7 OF 7WrestleMania 40 was two nights of fun action, but Night 2 was definitely the more entertaining show from start to finish.
Seeing Priest, Bayley and Rhodes all win titles on Sunday, in addition to the new IC and tag champs from Saturday, helped this year's show feel like a reset in a lot of ways.
The PPV ended with Triple H embracing the new champ before he continued to celebrate with his friends and family.
Every match on Sunday ranged from good to great, but the main event was the most entertaining contest we saw all weekend. The wrestling, the storytelling, the cameos and the callbacks all worked. It's hard to think of a better way this event could have ended.
Rhodes finally triumphed and finished the story in a spectacular main event against The Tribal Chief to close out WrestleMania 40 as the new universal champion.
It's hard to think of a better way this all could have ended.
Grade: A
