My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 3 - WRESTLEMANIA 35 RECAP

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

We've got a full on 'From The Top Rope' show this week with a slightly delirious Robbie Fox and Jared Carrabis, fresh off WrestleMania 35, who reveal what landed for them throughout the night, what didn't, their match of the night, their worst match of the night, and much, much more!!!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Joining me is Jared Karabas. Jared, it's 2.42 AM. We just got back to our respective apartments from WrestleMania 35. We just got back What a nightmare This is an absolute nightmare Bob This is We're doing from the top rope Here at 3 o'clock in the morning I have to be up in a few hours To do section 10 followed by starting 9

Followed by CCK This is My nightmare Bob And you know what else is my nightmare The finish to that Wrestlemania But we'll get to that in a little bit. We will get to the finish of Wrestlemania in just a bit.

Finding an Uber at a MetLife stadium was the most difficult thing I've ever endured and we actually never wound up finding an Uber. We left. The main event was what it was. We'll talk about it in a bit. We waited in this adult playpen full of thousands of human beings

waiting to get ubers i got a notification popped up on my uber said sorry all ubers are busy right now try again later i don't even know they made that notification i had no idea that that's never popped up in my in my uber feed we waited around we had like five ubers cancel on us the price kept increasing to a hundred something dollars per uber My credit card got declined in the middle of it. You got the bright idea. Let's just walk as far away from MetLife Stadium as we possibly can walk as it started raining. We did that. A cab arose from the heavens.

We got in that cab. Jared, that cab was $134. Back to the city. It dropped us off by the Port Authority. We both had to grab other cabs to our apartments what a fucking train wreck that was i mean it was insane that i mean they our uber driver was like yeah they're not letting ubers into the designated uber area so i was like oh so we were just standing here for two hours for no fucking reason? Like, that's... Sheesh.

But that's not what the folks are listening for. They're not. They're not the grapple fucks tuned in for to hear us complain about traveling. They want to hear about the Graps, Bob. They want to hear about WrestleMania. And they should want to hear about the Graps, because I will say, before we get into this match-by-match, I enjoyed

myself a lot at WrestleMania 35. I thought it was a very fun show. Our first WrestleMania together, great moment. The Grapple Fucks finally make it to WrestleMania, and there were a ton of Grapple Fucks at WrestleMania. If you came up to us, thanks. If you missed us, sorry. We met a lot of you. It was fun, a really fun time.

So we get in right after the cruiserweight match. So we missed that. We were getting food as that was going on. We saw the Women's Battle Royal for the uterus-shaped trophy. Yep. That was fine. Carmella won. She pulled the old duck out of the ring, let the Battle Royal go on.

A fine choice. Wait until there's one person. Yeah, it was a fine choice. We originally thought it was going to be Sarah Logan, which would have been a bit of a bizarre choice unless they were i didn't think that i i fucking i would have hated that i said i would have i would have hated that okay they didn't go with sarah logan i wish they would have went with live morgan live morgan was my pick for the royal rumble she follows you on twitter bob Twitter, Bob. You know who it should have been? Who?

It should have been Alexa Bliss, but she's been hurt. She was the host of the show. Did you know who you were going to say when you said, do you know who it should have been? It sounded like you were like, I have no idea who I'm about to say. No, it should have been Alexa Bliss. She was physically unable to compete, but did a fine job hosting the show, Bob. She did do a fine job hosting the show.

I forget what the segment was. She was wearing a dress, and whew, I will be going back to watch that. Jared's talking about jerking off, folks. That's right, brother. Right after the Women's Battle Royal, we actually got, looking back, this was actually one of the cooler moments of the whole show, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder versus The Revival. The streak is finally broken.

Curt Hawkins has won a match. This was a great match with a great payoff. One of the best pre-show matches in a while where you came out of the pre-show thinking, man, that was really worth something. That match set the tone for the rest of the night, at least for me on a personal perspective. I was like, this is going to be fun. I forget who.

Someone tweeted at me, and they were like, this is arguably the most feel-good WrestleMania of all time. And obviously it's because of the Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, and Kofi Kingston wins. But, I mean, it kind of all started with Curt Hawkins getting a dub and it happening at WrestleMania and it being for a championship. That was the first. Obviously, no one's going to include Curt Hawkins when you talk about the feel-good victories of the night. But you should. You definitely should. You should.

It was awesome. If you missed that, if you didn't watch the pre-show, I would say it's worth going back for. The moment itself, the moment where he gets the pin over one of the Revival guys, that was great. I wonder if the Revival was originally supposed to lose that match or if they're like, hey, Dash, don't punch a guy on his way out after he attacks Bret Hart.

Who knows? After that, we got Andre the Giant Battle Royal, which stunk. Braun eliminated the SNL guys last. I don't think it stunk. It was just like there were no surprises. There were no swerves. It was just like, yeah, I mean, if there

were an actual Battle Royal between these WWE superstars, Braun Strowman would be the guy who would win if it was real life. And he won. So, but he should win. Like, it's not like he's not deserving.

It's the only thing that I didn't like about it was the fact that Braun didn't have a fucking singles match at WrestleMania. Like, Baron Corbin had a singles match at WrestleMania, but Braun Strowman can't. But if there's going to be an Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, like that should be one of the things that Braun Strowman accomplishes in his career at some point. So I guess if you don't have anything for him at WrestleMania, then put him in it and have him win. But I feel like this isn't even an opinion. Braun Strowman right now is in the best shape of his life. Oh, my God, yeah.

He is a physical specimen. We knew that before when he debuted. He was never fat. He was never fat. It was just like he had a little bit more weight on him. But it was before he was lifting like a power lifter. Now he's lifting like a bodybuilder. So he looks phenomenal. I think he – if you were to present Braun Strowman with,

do you want to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal or have a singles match at WrestleMania, I'm sure he'd pick the singles match. But, again, something that belongs on his resume. I agree with that. I think it's cool that a lot of the WWE's giants have that Andre the Giant Battle Royal accolade. I would have preferred a singles match, obviously. I also would have just preferred if we got the SNL guys out of there. The Colin Jost wearing an

Odell Beckham jersey, good troll, but I'm just never a fan of the celebrity involvement, like the forced celebrity involvement into WrestleMania. It very rarely hits its mark for me. Well, just in wrestling in general, like the John Stewart interference at SummerSlam. The worst.

The worst. I saw a gif of that today, and it put disgust through my fucking whole mindset, because I was like, man, I know it's WrestleMania Day, but that would have been a five-star match if it had a regular finish. The best celebrity involvement in WWE history belongs belongs to you're gonna say pete rose yeah uh it's i have two in mind pete rose is one of them see person on a personal level i like hugh jackman hosting raw which is a weird thing but he's wolverine for me so him hosting raw and getting to like team up with zach rider i thought that was. I'm sure I'm forgetting a massive one. Stephen Amell was always good

whenever he came in. The answer is Drew Carey. Move on. Oh, Drew Carey is a great one. Okay, now we start the official show. Alexa Bliss comes out as the host of WrestleMania

looking phenomenal. And she says, all it takes to have a WrestleMania moment is for me to snap my fingers. So, and she snaps her finger, and it fucking comes crashing down, and it hurts inside, Jared. Hulk Hogan comes out.

Huge start to the night. Huge. He cuts a great promo. He said, happy to be back here in the Silverdome playing off his WrestleMania 30 promo. And then he says, I'm just kidding around, brothers. I'm here at the MetLife Center, which is actually not the name of the stadium. It's MetLife Stadium. We're going to let that one slide because that's just the Hulkster being the Hulkster.

Yeah. As they're celebrating Alexa Bliss and the Hulkster, they're making poses on the top of the ramp. Paul Heyman struts his little walrus ass down to the ring and says, if my client Brock Lesnar is not in the main event of WrestleMania, we're not wasting our time. We're getting this over with right now, and we're getting

back on a plane to Las Vegas where my client gets the respect that he deserves. Brock Lesnar comes out, and right away we're like, holy shit, we're doing this right now, right here, right now, Universal Title match. It was definitely the right call.

I think because I loved the way they structured the whole match. So Seth Rollins comes out afterwards, has kind of a cool Beast Slayer titantron. They do a beatdown where Brock attacks him during the entrance, really takes it to him for, I don't know, five minutes on the outside. Maybe more.

Throws him through some announce table shit. They finally get in the ring. They start the match. Brock hits a few suplexes. Gets pushed into the referee. And then Seth hits a low blow. Three curb stomps. Match over. New Universal Champion.

Great WrestleMania moment to start off the show and honestly it was cool seeing this sort of brock match because it didn't follow the general structure of his you know it wasn't a squash and someone goes over it wasn't the goldberg type sprint it was somewhere in the middle and it was fun yeah no it was a it was a fun match and i it kind of made me a little nervous when you see – because I think when we talked about our preview of WrestleMania, I was like, okay, so you have these three matches where Kofi absolutely has to go over and Becky absolutely has to go over. And I ranked them to be like, all right, well, if there's one match where the guy that absolutely should go over will not go over, it would be this one. So I was like, wait a second.

All right, so if Seth Rollins just went over over Brock, does that mean that we're kind of iffy about Kofi and Becky later on in the night? I don't know. You did get nervous. I did because I was like, there's no way. I would say maybe two or three years ago, I would have been way more nervous.

Oh, I agree with you. Yeah. But now they're like loosening to the fans. Which is maybe a crock of shit. Yeah, because Jinder wasn't in the main event. But I think if there was a moment where i was like fuck i don't know okay i think i think the swerve would have came not there's no chance zero percent chance kofi wasn't going over i said going into the main event i looked at you and i was like i get a weird

feeling about this this main event here with like with becky i don't know if they're gonna put her over i don't know yeah so it was it was a feel-good mania, and the feel-goodness continued with AJ Styles versus Randy Orton was the matchup next. It was actually a very good match. It kind of flew under the radar, probably.

We haven't really been on Twitter tonight because it's 3 a.m. as you just said, but it was a really well structured match. Two pros pros. They did a few really cool like looks like he's going to get hit with the RKO. Doesn't. He actually got hit with the RKO.

AJ Styles kind of out of nowhere. Kicked out. They did a few finisher kickouts. A few cool like submission transitions. I enjoyed the match throughout. Not much else to say about it though. Nope. Up next, we had the Usos versus Aleister Black and Ricochet versus Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura versus The Bar in a Fatal 4-Way Tag Team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

Another one where I feel like the match was good. There's not much to say about it other than that. I would have preferred just the Usos versus Aleister and Rico ricochet i get that you got to put everyone on the card but it seemed like every time those any combination of those two teams were in the ring the crowd was into it it was really exciting it was really good and i would have just preferred them to get more one-on-one time with each other whereas this match i'm looking at the card right now, this match got 10 minutes, 10 seconds. I would have preferred that all to be allocated towards the Usos

and Aleister Black versus Ricochet. But the match wasn't bad by any means. Yeah, no, it was a good match. But the Usos going over, I feel like, I don't want to say have the Usos as heels run its course. Because I remember when they were having those matches with the New Day, I was like, I don't give a fuck if this goes to like a six-part series. Like, I don't give a fuck. Like, I would love to watch these guys just keep going at it. But the Usos as heels, way better as babyfaces,

but it's like, what more is there for them to do at this point? That's a good point. And Aleister Black and Ricochet, a win here, would have elevated them to such a huge level, especially someone like Ricochet. If you let him hit the 630 and pick up the win, I'm sure a lot of casual fans... But I feel like this is the only match of the night

where the titles were retained. Was it? It might have been. Samoa Joe retained his title, actually. I think those were the only two. Samoa Joe was what, the U.S. champion? Yeah. And that was it. I'm looking at the card right now. That was it. So I guess

to your point, you can't have every championship change hands on WrestleMania, especially now that there's so many championships. Next on the card, we had Shane McMahon defeating The Miz in a Falls Count Anywhere match. A good gimmicky match for WrestleMania. Maybe went on a little longer than it should have. When you get a Falls Count Anywhere match...

I thought it was appropriately timed, because you can't just rush to a spot like what the finish was i think like the slow build because that's true i think like i think both of us were doing the same thing we once it was false count anywhere and the match started i just started looking around the arena to be like where are they going to fall off of yeah yeah we we did do the same thing, especially with Shane. If it's Falls Count Anywhere, you start doing that anyway. When it's Shane, you're like, okay, where's the big table setup that they have? For me, the only thing was once, and it's kind of an issue of the stipulation, not even the match itself.

When you have a Falls Count Anywhere match especially in a stadium and not an arena and they start fighting in the crowd as someone in the crowd it's always hard to follow along with so I'm sure at home it was better than it was in the arena I thought it was fine

but I didn't think it was anything special the final spot was cool I didn't love Shane McMahon going over for whatever reason but it was such a babyface heavy Wrestlemania gotta put some heels over. The Miz's dad spot was funny, and the Miz's dad being one of my favorite memes of the night is great, so we got that out of it.

Yeah, he was an instant meme. But Shane going over, it's like, did he? Yeah, they did the won the battle, lost the war. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah i had no problem with the finish i thought it was uh it was a clever way to not uh snuff out because i thought that was super cool when when when miz's entrance first happened i think i turned and looked at you and i was like i think that this is awesome awesome that Miz is finally getting his due because he's an awesome heel, but he's been a heel forever. And when you are a heel, when you're a permanent heel, you don't really get your due.

Like you're not going to get the appreciation that you deserve for putting on awesome, consistent matches for over a decade. So he's also not the kind of guy that has ever tried to play the cool heel no he's always tried to how can i get the most booze out of the fans possible so he does the cheap heat stuff he does some cheap tactics and what have you so i'm with you him getting his do is awesome and seeing shane omack back in that heel role and the whole thing he pulled with the entrance where he made them repeat the entrance over and over and over again. Loved it.

So great. Like, Shane McMahon, him and Daniel Bryan, a tag team from last year's WrestleMania, two of the most beloved babyfaces on last year's card, both were able to pull massive boos out of the crowd. And that is, you know, says something about how great they are as performers. Up next, this one was near and dear to your heart, Jared. The Iconics defeated the Boss and Hug Connection, Nia Jax and Tamina,

the Botch Squad, and the Divas of Doom. What? The Divas of Doom? Beth Phoenix and Natalia? Has that always been their tag team name? I've never heard that before. That's the first time I've ever read that. The Divas of Doom. What? The Divas of Doom. Beth Phoenix and Natalia, has that always been their tag team name? I've never heard that before. That's the first time I've ever read that, the Divas of Doom. Bret Hart walked them out to the ring

after getting attacked at the Hall of Fame. I guess we could touch on that very briefly. That was fucked up. Some maniac attacked Bret Hart at the Hall of Fame. And by maniac, it's not even just like, oh, who would be crazy enough to attack Bret Hart? No, no. This guy, if you go look at his Twitter account, is an actual insane person.

Yeah, if you dig around, you could find it. I forget what it was, but we found that he's a psychopath. He wears Joker face paint and has been tweeting incessantly at Vince McMahon and Triple H that women should not be in the main event of WrestleMania and he would do something about it. Apparently, tackling Bret Hart at the Hall of Fame was and he would do something about it. Apparently, tackling Bret Hart at the Hall of Fame was his plan to do something about it. But Bret Hart comes out, huge pop from the crowd. It was nice seeing him. Good, we're all happy that he's safe, he's good.

This match was fine. It was another shorter one, it was 10 minutes. Nia Jax and Tamina, no major botches from them that we could tell, at least. They kind of didn't give them the opportunity to. There was a point in the match where they both got up on the top rope and it was foiled. The plan was foiled.

The plan was foiled. The logic made no sense because I don't know who knocked Nia off the top rope, but because Nia got knocked off the turnbuckle, Tamina just kind of got down. Yeah, she probably could have, you know, in kayfabe, hit a splash and a pinfall and been the women's champions right now, but she didn't do that. She was like, oh, Nia's not doing it? All right, then I'm not doing it.

Yeah, yeah. And finally, the finish of the match. Okay, I thought you were just going to move on to the next fucking match. I thought I was, the finish of the match. Okay. I thought you were just going to move on to the next fucking match. I thought I was hitting the main event there. No, the finish of the match was Beth Phoenix hitting a glam slam, like an avalanche glam slam off the top rope to Bayley. Both of the IIconics rushing into the ring, super heel move,

throwing Beth Phoenix out of the ring and just pinning Bayley for themselves. You were on cloud nine. You were on cloud nine. I was on cloud nine. I remember the first time that I saw the Iconics. This had to have been the summer of 2016, but it was at the Lowell Arena there that you went to for what, Ring of Honor? Yeah, I went there for when Cody won the ring of honor title over christopher daniels yeah so i think like if you're a diehard wrestling fan it is really cool to see nxt when they do travel because it's basically like the minor leagues it's

like you go down to the minor leagues and you get to watch you know like the blue chip prospects of your favorite team and then they come up through the system and it's like hey i saw him way back then and like that's that's basically what the connection that i had to them i was like oh they're gonna be fucking you could tell back then like they're gonna be something and then you know you fast forward two three years later here they are winning the women's tag titles at wrestlemania the first ever uh women to win the women's tag team titles at a WrestleMania. So, yeah, it was a really cool moment. Huge pop from the crowd, too.

The crowd was very into that finish. Yeah. Now, I think at this point, the guy in front of us, nice enough guy, turns around and he says, Oh, God. Did you hear the rumor about The Undertaker? And the two of us say, You know what? No, we didn't hear the rumor about The Undertaker? And the two of us say, you know what? No, we didn't hear the rumor about The Undertaker.

He said, apparently, he's going to come out interrupting Elias. And then Sting's going to come out, challenge him to a match at Crown Jewel. That was what he told us. In some world, and as soon as he was saying it, I was like, I want it to be like, that's bullshit coming out of your mouth right now. This is a rumor that you made up and you're,

you're just, you're trying to will it into existence right now. Not even, I think he was trying to like, the fuck would Elias be doing in the ring with sting and undertaker just being like, uh, this is awkward. They have that match.

I mean, we've been talking about, I remember I used to like watch, uh, I don't even know. It was probably like, uh, this is awkward. Why would they have that match? I mean, we've been talking about it. I remember I used to like watch, I don't even know. It was probably like 2006, 2007. There was like a mashup on YouTube of like Undertaker clips and Sting clips. Like we've been talking for well over a decade. And the opportunity to do it was when you brought Sting in to face Triple H at 31.

Not even. No, that was when you... If there was any realistic time to put it together, you had to do it then because you could have played the angle of Sting being like, hey, Taker,

I know the streak's over, but there's one last thing that you haven't done. Face me at WrestleMania. Like, the fact that they did Sting versus Triple H and Undertaker versus Bray Wyatt was so dumb. That was just dumb. But they're not going to do it now.

They're just not going to do it now. They're not going to do it now, but why didn't they do it then? I don't understand that. Like, someone, like, one of the two had to have not wanted to do it like that's just the most obvious choice thing comes to wwe you have a match with the undertaker immediately or if it's not the first year then you use that first match to set up undertaker the year after and they didn't do that either yeah one of the all-time like bad decisions of just not making that match i i think that their fear was probably that, you know,

that is the dream match of all time. It's like Sting and The Undertaker number one, CM Punk, Stone Cold Steve Austin somewhere up there. But, I mean, how he— Rock and Michaels will always be up there. Yeah. I remember seeing a fake poster the year after Undertaker retires Shawn Michaels at 26. A fake poster that was like Sting and The Undertaker at 27.

Down like NoDQ.com. Like, leaked poster. I don't know. Something crazy. But, like you said, we've been talking about that forever. The guy in front of us wound up not being right. alert for the rest of this podcast we did not get the undertaker versus sting or a confrontation between the two and speaking of people in our section the ace hiroshi tanahashi was sitting like one row behind us like a little down the aisle and this is going

back a little earlier in the night but we like sat down and we were in a family and friends type section for the WWE and I'm like kind of looking around I see like Dominic I see Rey Mysterio's son I see Zack Ryder's dad and I'm like trying to just see like who I recognize and I look down I'm like

oh my god that's Tanahashi and I turned to you I was like I gotta go take a picture right and I ran up and I like tapped him on the shoulder and I was like excuse me Mr. Tanahashi I'm like, I gotta go take a picture, right? And I ran up, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and I was like, excuse me, Mr. Tanahashi, I'm a huge fan, can I take a picture? And he was just like, yeah, yeah, it's fine.

He threw up the pose. I was on cloud nine. The night could have ended then, and I would have been like, I'm all good, I just met Tanahashi at WrestleMania. Like, what a weird sentence. Up next on the card, though, this is the match that I am the most excited to talk about, and I, this is the match that I am the most excited to talk about, and I think it's the match that

you're the most excited to talk about. Sure am. Daniel Bryan versus Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. Jared, we had such high hopes going into this match. We had such high hopes. The highest. When is the last time

that you had such high expectations for a match, and then it just met your expectations, possibly exceeded them? Fuck, I don't know. I don't know, because as we discussed last week, the two of us kind of fell out on wrestling for a little bit. I'm sure it was something in NXT. You know, NXT always delivers, but main card talking. This match delivered on every level. It was sure it was something in NXT. You know, NXT always delivers, but main card talking. This match delivered

on every level. It was so friggin' good throughout. The crowd was so hot. This is the hottest the crowd was all night by a long shot. Going wild. Kofi, Kofi, doing the Kofi rocks. New Day was perfect. Ringside, they reminded me a little

bit of... That was another one. They reminded me a little bit of how the Young Bucks treat Kenny Omega matches they didn't really interfere or do anything where it was match changing they hit the New Day tag team finisher on Eric Rowan after he interfered which is fine

but they just came off as the two most supportive managers of all time Daniel Bryan put on a heel masterclass. Kofi Kingston put on an underdog masterclass. And just all of the stars aligned, finally culminating in this big, grandiose finish where Daniel Bryan hits the running knee.

Kofi Kingston kicks out. They do kind of a Hulk up moment with Kofi Kingston in the middle of the match where he's getting fired up. The whole crowd's getting fired up behind him. They do the yeah boo spot, which the crowd adapted into a yes no spot. Daniel Bryan started doing the yes chant, and the crowd was, you know, knowing along to it. Finally, Kofi Kingston hits a Trouble in Paradise. Gets the one two three he's presented with the actual WWE title

not the new Daniel Bryan WWE title by his brothers in the new day everyone's crying it was an emotional moment a heartfelt moment a genuine moment the celebration I tweeted was pretty much as good as the match if it was just such a good a feel-good moment. Yeah, and you can vouch for me here. This was my hot take that didn't – this was my hot take that went on to not be so hot by the end of the night. But I said Kofi, Daniel Bryan should have been the main event. That should have been the end of the show. Maybe, but it's kind of like a butterfly effect. It's like, all right, so if that's the main event, is the crowd...

The crowd was exhausted by the end of the night. So exhausted. Seven-plus-hour show. The main event started at midnight. Yeah. That's ridiculous. That can't happen again. Does the crowd react the same way if that match is further down on the card?

I don't know. If you swapped the main event and Brian and Kofi, does Becky get Kofi's reaction and Kofi gets Becky's reaction? No, because the finish to that match, which we'll get to, was a fucking flop. I'm with you. We discussed this a little bit while we were waiting for our Uber, but I still think on paper, even with hindsight being 2020, on paper, I still think Becky, Ronda,

and Charlotte deserve to main event. No, they didn't. Well, I don't know. It's like, all right, so... I thought that match had the most behind it, a storyline starting in early November. Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston's storyline, albeit not as drawn out,

like it wasn't existing for as long as the Ronda Becky one, and it didn't sort of spill over into social media like that one did. I think the story there and the payoff because it's like okay it's not about a kofi daniel bryan feud it's about a a career and a legacy being fulfilled so it's a really an 11 year story versus however long he's been feuding with daniel bryan for why I think, you know, nothing against Charlotte, Becky, Ronda. That match had all the potential in the world. But I just feel like they main evented because, like, the women's revolution started a couple years ago, and it's like, all right,

they keep trying to top it. It's like, all right, so we do a Hell in a Cell match, and we do a Money in the Bank match. It's like, how right, they keep trying to top it. It's like, all right, so we do a Hell in a Cell match, and we do a Money in the Bank match. It's like, how do we keep topping it? Like, the first this, the first that, the first this, the first that. Then they just kind of get to like, oh, we got to do the first ever women's WrestleMania main event. Like, that's how we top it.

And it's like, yeah, but. For me, it felt like the time was right to do that. It did. But, again, like the fucking kofi daniel bryan match came out of nowhere so maybe that main event was talked about before this this kofi thing came together i don't know oh it definitely was yeah i know that's a fact it was yeah it's almost like they they promised them the spot without even really knowing what the fuck was going on. But yeah, it's not the wrong decision. It's just looking at it now,

the most emotional response that you got from that crowd was Kofi and Daniel Bryan, which says to me that that should have ended the show. Like, you have Kofi going over 11 years, WWE champion, New Day in the ring. I was going to say, not even that. It is a culmination of the New Day story. Looking back on so many interviews with Big E and Xavier Woods,

when people say, what is your biggest goal in WWE? Their answer is always being by Kofi's side and somehow being a part of him winning a WWE championship. To see them in the ring with him, they brought Kofi Kingston's kids in the ring. It was such a crazy, emotional WrestleMania moment. It'll definitely be, when we look back at WrestleMania 35, that will be the first thing that comes to mind.

Yeah, of course. Undoubtedly. When they show video packages of WrestleMania history, that'll be in there. That's an all-time wrestlemania moment and i'm sorry but there weren't any all-time wrestlemania moments in that in that women's main event there just weren't like you might have like a video of becky lynch holding up the two titles with the pyro going off in the back, yeah. But, like, that's just not, like...

Kofi and Daniel Bryan should have went on last. I really enjoyed this match. It lived up to all of the hype that I had for it. My guy Daniel Bryan came up on the losing end, but I guarantee you he feels very, very satisfied with what they did in the ring. After this, I really came down from my high when Samoa Joe choked the life out of Rey Mysterio in two seconds.

So I'm sorry if I'm fumbling my words, folks. By the way, it's 3.14 in the morning. Yeah, that's just how it's going to be. But Rey Mysterio comes out finally dressed as Mysterio himself, a Spider-Man villain that will be in the upcoming Far From Home. I really thought he was going to do something Endgame related. I wonder if him and Johnny Gargano had any chats. Top ten wrestler of all time, Bob.

Top ten wrestler of all time. Bro. He'll get choked out in two seconds. No doubt he's a top ten wrestler of all time. He's not. It was tough to watch, and you were ugly about it afterwards. You were in my face about it. You were laughing.

That was your worst take of all time. I didn't like watching it. I didn't. But I don't know. Maybe his ankle. He fucked up his ankle on Monday Night Raw. Maybe his ankle wasn't good enough to do a whole match.

It was just... When we did the video after that match, I don't know if you caught it, but I called him Ray Mysterio Jr. I did catch that. It felt like it was out of disrespect. It wasn't out of disrespect. It was out of habit from, like...

From back in the day? Yeah. All right, then I'm cool with that. Yeah. After this, Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre had a match. This is when I feel like the crowd started to be like, all right, guys, we're getting tired. Let's start making these matches a little shorter.

This match, I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing about. It was kind of the most cookie-cutter, lackluster. So Roman Reigns comes back against Drew McIntyre. Two great stories on both sides so you have roman reigns overcoming leukemia drew mcintyre overcoming uh 3mb and then you have a situation where um with roman did he come back too soon it doesn't look like it it doesn't look like it I think it felt weird at the timing felt weird because you know all this talk about ratings and they're plummeting and this and that and the the Ambrose heel turn was terrible and that was sort of at the forefront of the ratings plummet and Roman's gone then he comes back and then there's sort of

just this forced storyline with Drew McIntyre but you may not remember a single part of that match but what I'll remember after the match was over I saw a Roman Reigns that I don't think any of us have ever seen before like he's usually the badass. Sometimes he smiles. Sometimes he cracks jokes. But this was a guy that without saying a single word, just looked like he was thankful to be alive. Like he was looking up at the sky. He used to look like he was crying in the turnbuckle for a bit. Yeah, he went over to the turnbuckle.

He was saying something to somebody. He was over, had his head down on the turnbuckle, was saying something, and then he hits the turnbuckle and acknowledges the crowd. And you see him looking around, you know, like he was looking into the stands, and not for anybody in particular, but it was probably just one of those moments where it's like, fuck, like I'm just thankful that I'm alive. Yeah, let me not take this for granted probably. Right, exactly.

So, like, that's what stood out to me in that match. It had nothing to do with the match. It was more his reaction afterwards. So I'm glad he went over, and I'm glad that he had that moment. New York booed him big time during his entrance. That music hit, and they booed him. Roman Reigns definitely had more pyro than anyone else on the show, too. That guy was... They were spewing

out pyro for Roman Reigns like Jericho in the... Who was it? Jericho or was it Kevin Nash that had that ridiculous pyro setup in WCW? New York. Never change, you know? As soon as we showed up, by the way, you got yelled 27 rings in your face

within two seconds. We had been on the premises for less than 30 seconds. Yeah, we hopped out of the Uber. Someone was just like, 27! After this match, we got an all-time WrestleMania moment. We got an Elias concert. Oh, wow. It's a little bit weird for a bit. Elias has like a

kind of a setup where he's talking to himself on the titantron and he's like playing the piano in one, he's playing the drums in one, he's playing the guitar in one, and then he finally starts playing whatever his Wrestlemania song was.

And still, I don't really understand this, but a whole babe ruth calling his shot vignette plays i think it's because he john cena was trying to say like i'm the babe ruth of wwe that's fine it was strangely long i guess they wanted it to be like who could who could it be who could it be who could it be i pop huge you pop huge when we don't get your time is now hitting we get basic thugonomics yeah and we get the doctor of thugonomics john cena phd coming out in a babe ruth jersey in a backwards yankee cap and with the old school chain to basically just roast elas via rap battle.

John Cena versus Roan in a rap battle is now my all-time dream match. I think Roan would probably body bag him, but the Doctor of Thuganomics, you can never count out. He told Elias he's not going to hit him with the attitude adjustment. He's going to hit him with the FU. He did hit him with the FU. The place loved that. He called him a shih tzu. He called him

a piece of shih tzu. That's a good way to get around, calling someone a piece of shit. He had some good bars. He had some good bars in there. He hasn't lost it. He also verbally acknowledged a heel turn. Oh yeah, yeah. He said, seen about to turn heel. Which is the second time. There was that one time where he's like

you know, he like put his foot on the mat and he was like, look, it's a heel turn. Yeah. But he also like, that was the most cheered Cena I've ever heard. He was universally cheered. Universally. There wasn't a single soul in that building booing him because they were all, everyone was just like, oh my god, the Doctor of Thuganomics. We have 2002 John Cena. Who would have ever expected this? Right.

That was really cool. And then afterwards, oh boy. We had Triple H versus Batista in a no holds barred match. If Triple H lost, he was retired. We all knew he wasn't losing. And nobody reacted to any of Batista's pinfalls as if it could have been the end of Triple H's career. I wish that stipulation wasn't on the match in the first place, because it felt like it just told us the winner right away.

This match was, far and away from me, the worst match on the card. It was a dreadful sit-through. I love Batista. I have nothing strongly against Triple H. He gives us NXT, so, you know, love him for that. I need Triple H to never wrestle again at WrestleMania. This was... This is a bad take, Bob.

It was so slow and plodding from the start. Batista tripped on his way into the ring, old Drax the Destroyer. Triple H has a Mad Max Fury Road entrance about five years too late. His entrance was, like, five minutes long late. His entrance was like five minutes long. This match went like 25 minutes. They were selling like death at the beginning of it.

They went into some weird death match shit where Triple H was like going to cut off one of Batista's fingers and then he ripped the nose ring out of his nose with pliers. It was fucking weird. The whole match was weird. They did a thousand table bumps, and the table didn't break, and then Triple H hit a spear

through a table on Batista, and the finish was like, they were dueling sledgehammers, and Ric Flair gave Triple H one, and he was like, go get him, and he just happened to get to Batista first. I don't know.

I hated the whole thing. I didn't hate it. I just was not super into it, and I wanted to be. It felt like this killed the crowd for me. Yeah, it went too long. Like, I feel like if there was going to be one of those just, like, high-intensity banging out in, you know, 10, 15 minutes, it would have been that match but it was

literally the longest match on the card um yeah i kind of agree with you too about the stipulation giving it away although i wasn't 100 sure about it as you were i i mean i'd like you know triple h just gives us you know hall of fame speech the night before with DX, it would kind of make sense if this was like a weekend of, you know, this is it, I'm kind of, you know, I'm in the Hall of Fame. That was the other thing that I realized, though. Triple H has the potential to be a five-time Hall of Famer. Yeah, we discussed this. We watched the Hall of Fame together on Saturday night.

So he would go in with DX, click uh a singles wrestler evolution and he fucking created nxt so he could go in as an executive as well he would be a five-time hall of famer god i hope that happens i would just love to see it happen because you know it pissed some people off he would be like he married the boss's daughter and whatever. But he would absolutely deserve it. I mean, if we're putting factions in, if we're putting the click in, if we're putting DX in, eventually Evolution has to go in. Coco B. Ware is in the Hall of Fame. You want fucking Ric Flair to be able to have that moment? That's true.

He'd be what? What, a three-time Hall of Famer in that? Yeah, he's singles and four horsemen right now. Yeah, so he would go in with Evolution, and then you could have Triple H go in a six-time with, what is it called, the two-man power trip or something? Him and Stone Cold? Oh, yeah.

That would be unbelievable. We start putting in, like, random raw tag teams like that. But this was, by the time this match finished up, it felt like we were already 11, and the crowd, we were pretty much ready to go home. I'm lying on a heating pad, cranked up to the highest setting right now, because my back is just in shambles from sitting in a stadium seat for seven hours. This is my main issue with, not my my issue with your point but my main issue

with this show and overall this is a net positive show for me i'm a thumbs up on wrestlemania 35 had a great time you cannot put on a show this long ever again you just can't do it that's why i think the main event got the lackluster response it did. That's what we'll get into in just a sec. We're close. That's why I think the crowd was dead by the time this match started, but my god, you can never let this happen again. The show is so long, and at this point you and I were looking at each other going,

there's three matches left. You have to cut one of them, if not two. They didn't cut either of them. They probably cut both of their time, because Baron Corbin vs. Kurt Angle went six minutes and Finn Balor versus Bobby Lashley went four minutes. Corbin and Angle, I enjoyed. I didn't think I would enjoy it all.

Angle locks in an ankle lock at the very beginning of the match. I was like, please, God, tap out. Please just make this a quick squash. I wound up enjoying the match. It didn't do a ton for me, but I was like, all right, that was good on both ends. Baron Corbin put up enjoying the match. It didn't do a ton for me, but I was like, alright, that was good on both ends. Baron Corbin put up a good fight. Kurt Angle put on a good

last match. Went for the moonsault. What we all found very weird is Baron Corbin went over. I guess you know. I didn't find that weird at all. I mean, like, if this is last match, that's how you go out. You go out on your back. That's what everybody does.

I'm with you. On the other hand, it very much felt like this was the match for Kurt to go out on a high note. And it's also like it's Baron Corbin, which is... Yes, that's right. The reason why it was surprising was because it was Baron Corbin. And it's like, is this really the guy

we're going to put over in Kurt's farewell match? If they had done the right thing, they would have put John Cena in that match, and no one would have been surprised with Kurt Angle going out on his back against John Cena, the guy that, you know, when Cena made his debut, it was in Kurt Angle's face, it was the start of the Ruthless Aggression era, yada, yada, yada, you know the story. But that would have made more sense but having baron corbin just randomly in this match with kurt angle it's like um okay first of all this is a mismatch so maybe kurt's just gonna go over get a nice little pop and send off but i mean baron corbin going

over didn't like i feel like that's one of those things it's just like that's not gonna really do anything for baron corbin in the long run because that's true which is weird him like the moment was about kurt angle and kurt even like got on the mic afterwards and he was like i want to hear those two words that i love so much so play my music and 80 000 people paid the ultimate respect to him as he left by chanting, You suck. Yeah. Which is hysterical. It wasn't like it was a brutal match, and he hits the end of days. Yeah, it was six minutes.

And was out of the ring within two seconds, and then Kurt kind of just popped up and started making a speech. I saw someone tweet. It made me laugh. I forget who it was, but they were like, did Kurt Angle really just lose his farewell match to someone dressed like a waiter? Up next, we had the demon Finn Balor

defeating Bobby Lashley in what was more or less a squash match. It was four minutes. Finn Balor got the upper hand the whole time, which I enjoyed. It didn't feel like a squash match. It felt like a hurry the fuck up it's almost midnight match yeah and the demon should be overpowered over someone like Bobby Lashley

the demon you know we've seen only a few times when he's the demon it should be against people like Brock Lesnar or something like that like huge names Bobby Lashley maybe not deserving of it but it was cool to see the entrance at WrestleMania. He looked cool. I'm glad they didn't cut his match after he got all that makeup done, but at the time I was thinking, like, you've got to cut this match. Really what I think a big solution would have been if you put one or two more matches on the pre-show

and just rushed those, would have been a little better. Finally, we can speak on the main event. This is what everyone wants to hear, I think. Becky Lynch, the man, finally got her WrestleMania moment, and she defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a winner-take-all triple threat match for the WWE Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. We have differing opinions on this match.

I mean, there's the correct one, which is mine, and then there's the wrong one, which is yours. So during this match, as it started, it felt like the crowd was a little fatigued, but all kind of with the same attitude of like, all right, you know, we're tired, but we're going to get behind Becky right now, and we're going to cheer for her.

The tone was set right away, because Becky didn't even get that crazy of a pop. She kind of didn't, which was weird. But she got a good reception when they did the ring introductions. By the way, Charlotte did the Ric Flair Great American Bash 85 entrance. Weird being, like, the way they set it up, but kind of a cool homage to her dad. You can drop it down in the helicopter. Obviously a pre-tape, but... Joan Jett performed Ronda Rousey out to the ring,

which was really cool. Joan Jett sounded awesome. This match starts off super stiff. Super brutal. These chicks were laying everything in. Maybe the most stiff match of the night and i got into it very quickly because of that there was a few like cool um becky and charlotte teaming up on ronda things where they hit like that power bomb thing on her then ronda caught charlotte in

the arm bar on the ropes and becky drop kicked her through the rope shear on the ropes, and Becky dropkicked her through the ropes. She landed on the outside pretty brutal. That's, for me, I was very into the match at that point. Were you not? I was, I mean, I was kind of just, I was waiting for the moment where it's like, okay, here we go. Like, in any big match, there is slow building. We definitely got that, to your point, in Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan. I remember a moment in that match where maybe it was a little bit before Kofi kicked out of the running knee where we were like, okay, this is in high gear now. They just kicked this into high gear and they're stepping on the gas.

Right. And with this particular match, it was it was like okay they kind of just they started hot right out of the gate and um i was just sort of waiting for that change of pace where there's there in any big match there's an indicator it's like all right we're in the home stretch and i never really felt like we got there. Like, it was almost like it started hot, it stayed hot, they bring out the table, and, I mean, for the second time... It kind of went downhill from there. Yeah, the fucking table didn't break, and I was like, god damn it.

I know, and they bring out the table, and they set up the table, and it looks like we're going to get... They set it up in a very general, like, it looked like a power bomb off the top rope through the table. Rhonda throws the table, and they set it up in the corner, and you and me looked at each other like, what the fuck? It's not going to break. Have we not learned

that tables are not only very difficult to break in the corner, just in general, they always break, as you put it to me, in the bottom 10% of the table itself. The lower 10%. Yep. With the ladies, it's always harder to break tables. They have much lighter bodies. And we saw at Hell in a Cell, the first ever women's main event,

Charlotte Flair versus Sasha Banks. They tried to break that table in the corner 25 goddamn times. It didn't happen. It just didn't happen. So who in their right mind made the booking decision to put the table in the corner for the big table spot? Of course, it barely breaks. It gets some weird, like, boos from the crowd

because we were all expecting a big table break. We didn't get it. And then it felt like as soon as the match was starting to kick into that high gear, it just ended. It very abruptly ended. Which kind of is what happened in the Hell in a Cell match, now that I think of it.

It did, because she hit natural selection. Yeah, just out of nowhere, it's the natural selection, and then it was like one, two, three. Everyone kind of looked at each other, and they're like, really? Yeah, so that was the weirdest thing, where Charlotte, at some point, gets thrown out of the ring. Charlotte put on a great performance in the main event, I thought. Her Spanish Fly was great.

A lot of her moves looked stiff. They came off great. I thought Charlotte put on a really good performance. But she gets thrown out of the ring. Ronda hits her kind of spin around. I don't even know what kind of slam it is. It's kind of like a spin around, Samoan drop type thing, into a crucifix that Becky just pinned her in.

And Ronda Rousey clearly got her shoulders up during the pinfall, which is weird. I could tell right away that it was fucking... It was botched. Yeah, I thought it was botched, but I didn't know the extent of it where, as of

3.33am, the latest we've heard from a lot of credible sources is that this was not the finish at all. Ronda was meant to kick out and her shoulders getting up was apparently a kick out. The match would continue for a little bit more and then Becky Lynch would eventually tap Charlotte Flair out for the victory. That obviously didn't happen making for becky lynch's massive main event wrestlemania moment to feel underwhelming and we all were just like oh becky wins fireworks right all right that was the thing was i give becky all the credit in the world because you know you're talking about sports entertainment, which is predetermined.

She knew that she was going to go over, but that wasn't the finish. And it's WrestleMania, and it's the main event, the first women's main event in WrestleMania history. There's a big major fuck-up at the end, but you're a performer. You're in the ring and millions and millions of people are watching this. You have to act surprised and excited and happy that you just won the fucking women's title, both of them. But in your head as a human being,

you're like, well, that wasn't supposed to fucking happen. And that the the ending to the show just got ruined uh but you have to you know put yourself in your character shoes and be like holy shit i just won the championship and you know it's it must be a nightmare but either way i mean it's it would have been much better had the intended ending happened because now you're talking about uh charlotte was the intended person to to tap to becky but it would have been nice if it were ronda it would

have it would have made more of a statement um perhaps that's that was their approach to continue an angle being like yeah like ronda lost her title but she never tapped she never got pinned by becky so you can continue that because that was the main feud was between those two yep um but yeah it was it was just disappointing i it doesn't ruin the night for me like you said it's still an awesome wrestlemania it still was a great time there were a lot of really good matches on the card uh they tried to send the fans home happy they really did they did and the fans i feel like went home happy but all with the sense of like man we wish that ended a little

bit differently right it's almost like getting the best bj of your entire life and then right at the end she bites your dick off it's like i don't know about that and then i mean it's like still a great bj i had an awesome time i don't think they bit the. I mean, it's like still a great BJ. I had an awesome time. I don't think they bit the dick off. I mean, it's like getting a good BJ and then like. She pukes on your dick. It's like you still have your dick. That still feels harsh.

That still feels way harsh on the main event. No, I think that's fair. I think that's fair. All right, I guess. Like, to your point, I want Becky Lynch to sign a book deal right now. Daniel Bryan signed his book deal right after he won the title at WrestleMania 30.

I just want to hear Becky Lynch's side of the story and what went through her head when she pins Ronda Rousey 1-2-3 in the middle of that ring and is like, Oh, fuck. I just won the titles. Yeah. That's about it for us, though. Final closing notes on the titles. Yeah. That's about it for us, though. Final closing notes on the show.

I guess we kind of touched on this. We both had a fun time. First WrestleMania together. It was a blast. I was happy to be there with you, pal. We're both a bit delirious. I hear it in both of our voices right now. We're trailing on.

We're going on. We're just going in circles here. Yeah. We got to wrap this podcast up. It's 3.40 in the morning. It took us like two or three hours to get back to our apartments after Mania itself. Thank you for listening, everybody. And actually, we want to hear – I want to hear your favorite moments from WrestleMania.

Well, my closing thought here though, Bob. All right. all right. Because we were talking about... Maybe I wrapped up too early. We got a Karabas closing thought. I got a closing thought. You got a closing thought. I got a closing thought.

You got one. I got one right here. Close this out, brother. I got to fucking close this thing out. Last episode, we talked about how we've kind of disconnected from wrestling and sort of asked each other, like, what could bring you back? And I had the answer to that, and it was Seth Rollins winning the Universal Championship. A, having the title on TV every week. That's the biggest thing for me.

That does big things for me. But just B, I'm interested in seeing what a baby face title run looks like for seth rollins and still having that shield connection um i just think that he is not not as a knock to him so i'm not going to go and say he's significantly improved from the last title run with the authority and triple h like aligning with triple h i'm not saying he sucked back then i'm just saying i thought he was great back then and he's great now but it's just a different i just view him in a different light now that he's you know he's been around longer and he's had great matches and you know it's that's what i'm interested to see is before

when he secedes from the shield and he's uh the wwe champion it's like all right we're seeing a guy who's been in the business for a long time but this is really his true first run as a champion i think he's much uh in a much better position to have a very memorable title run, and I'm really looking forward to see how they book him. I agree with that completely, and I hope the idea is him as the workhorse champion reminding fans how cool it is to have the title on Raw every week and just going out there and putting on phenomenal match after phenomenal match with a bunch of different contenders.

I'm interested to see a bunch of different people challenge him for that title, and I would like to see him hold it for a long time. Yeah. That does it for the From the Top Rope WrestleMania recap. Thank you so much for listening to us two sleepy, delirious idiots discuss the grandest stage of them all, the show of shows. Until next time. Wait, give it a grade.

Huh, give it a grade, give it a grade. We did this for our last WrestleMania show, which is on the From the Top Rope feed, and I don't remember what grades we gave that. I do think it was a better overall show than the last couple years of WrestleMania. Best show since 31 for me I will give it a

in honor of Kofi Kingston I'll give it a B plus took the words right out of my mouth so I'm going to go with an A minus now alright fair