By Staff Writer James Mellen.
WrestleMania 35 changed wrestling history, as it was the first WrestleMania main event to be headlined by the women of WWE. This followed the WWE’s Women’s Revolution.
Formerly, female superstars were referred to as “Divas” and were more known for stripteases in the middle of shows rather than their wrestling skills. Now a days, the women of WWE often main event shows every week. With Becky Lynch being the hottest rising star in the company, Charlotte being the most historic and accomplished woman in WWE history, and Ronda Rousey being a household name, the main event of WrestleMania 35 was scheduled as a triple threat match between the three over both WWE Women’s Championships.
The show was full of feel-good moments, as Kofi Kingston also became the second African American and first ever native African to hold the WWE Championship in industry history.
The event lasted for over seven hours with over 15 matches, as well as 7 of the 9 championship belts changing hands. While this WrestleMania had plenty of new aspects and faces to it, it also featured feuds and characters that were over 10 years in the making. By far the most comical (and infuriating) of which was John Cena returning as his former and significantly better character, “The Doctor of Thuganomics”.
If you’re not a Wrestling fan this might sound dumb (it is dumb) but a lot of fans literally stopped watching WWE for years because the industry’s refusal to give him a heel turn, so when he got in the ring and rapped, “you standing in the ring and John Cena about to turn heel,” I nearly shed a tear.
The Triple H vs. Batista match was 15 years in the making, starting in 2003 with the formation of WWE outfit “Evolution”, consisting of Randy Orton, Triple H, Ric Flair and Batista. The outfit ended when Batista dropped Randy Orton on Triple H’s request.
This iconic moment in WWE history has resulted in some of the most brutal moments ofthe sport, such as Randy Orton kicking Triple H in the head, Randy Orton kicking Triple H’s brother in law in the face and the RKOing Triple H’s wife, and now finally Triple H pulling Batista’s nose ring out during their Wrestlemania match.
The match ended with icon Ric Flair handing Triple H a sledgehammer in the moments of the ring. Followed by Triple H hitting a huge pedigree after a brutal sledgehammer shot to the face, finishing Batista.
While most matches centering around the Mcmahan family end up with some interfamily assault, in the case of The Miz vs Shane Mcmahon, it was actually The Miz’s father who ended up getting targeted by the match. Shane attacked Miz’s father while he was in the stands, to which the Miz responded to by hitting a huge skull crushing finale on the money boy. The match ended with Shane apologizing to The Miz before the Miz suplexed him off of a broadcast tower.
The Daniel Bryan Kofi Kingston match also called back old WWE history in a way slightly different than the other matches of the night. Kingston’s character arch before his match with Daniel Bryan almost perfectly mirrors the storyline of Daniel Bryan’s rise to fame in 2014.
This was an excellent match with few big stunts, which ended on a heartwarming not as Kingston’s two sons and his fellow “The New Day” teammates entered the ring and celebrated the moment with Kingston, this is what wrestling is all about folks (and hating Roman Reigns)
The Main event triple threat match was definitely the most grueling event in wrestling history as far as matches that follow traditional WWE rules. The match lasted almost a full hour, and ended with all three women having noticeable injuries due to the effort they collectively put into this match. In the end Becky Lynch rolled Ronda Rousey up, pinning her shoulders to the mat for the three count after Rousey attempted the Piper’s Pit.