Monday, April 8, 2024

Now, what do you do for an encore?

 Wrestlemania is in the books, the first without former WWE CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon, who is continuing to sell off his stock shares.

Son-in-law Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, ran the show this year, and, in the eyes of many, hit a home run right off the bat. By the time they signed off around 10 pm (ET) on Sunday, WWE was ready to write some new stories.

Sunday's highlights:

McMahon's daughter, Stephanie, who turned up at the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, opened Sunday's show. You could see there was a sense of relief, knowing her father wasn't there, but, as she admitted, she'd been to every Wrestlemania, either as a performer, creative team member, or just as part of the McMahon family, since the first one in 1985 at Madison Square Garden. The Philly crowd loved her.

4 years after winning the WWE title during the COVID pandemic, Scotland's Drew McIntyre dethroned Seth Rollins, only for Judgment Day's Damian Priest to cash in the Money in The Bank briefcase, and claim the title himself. Online commentators speculated that McIntyre could challenge for the title in his native Scotland at Clash at The Castle in June.

After her Damage CTRL teammates fell in defeat on Saturday, Japan's Iyo Sky (formerly known as Io Shirai) dropped the WWE women's title to Bayley, which will have supporters of the faction fuming about how the team has failed again at the big dance.

Finally, and most importantly, Cody Rhodes "finished his story" by overcoming the Bloodline Rules, with help from John Cena and the Undertaker, to dethrone Roman Reigns.


Ever since winning the Universal title (now simply the WWE title) in 2020 at Summerslam, Reigns' title defenses have been overbooked for whatever reason, but this time, because this trope had long passed its expiration date, Rhodes got some much needed backup.

This morning, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson moved back onto WWE's alumni page, as he will be off making or promoting movies for the next 3-4 months. When he does return, will he still be the "Final Boss", his new heel persona, or does he revert back to being the beloved icon he was before? We'd have to find out.

Meanwhile, job 1 for Levesque and WWE is to heed the advice of Bob Seger and "Turn The Page":



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