The Inside Scoop On An INSANE WrestleMania 35 Weekend

It didn’t matter, when the pulsating match unfolded in front of me. Black is such a great super-worker and character that he restored his stoic aura in a superb exchange of legitimate-looking combat opposite Rowe. This was so well-worked, this intense, almost privately stoic battle between a martial artist and a viking, that it resonated with the spectacle of a movie scene.

That match itself was insane—a super-energetic powerhouse battle of respect and oneupmanship—and since two gigantic specimens outdid the athleticism of two premier athletes, it invited slack-jawed screams of “This is awesome!”

Everything else was awesome, too; Matt Riddle’s “F*ck your chants, I’ll just kill your fave” command of the conflicted crowd; WALTER’s Brock Lesnar-like aura and selling ability; Io Shirai’s explosive cameo…

…and, of course, the last 15 minutes of Johnny Gargano Vs. Adam Cole. This was the most dramatic 15 minutes of pro wrestling I’ve ever seen. I was falling asleep, literally, during the first fall. I had to nip my arm. I had also made sure to sit next to somebody I knew was going to join me in the “ADAM COLE, BAY-BAY!” call-and-response bit (thank you Andy Murray), because I’m a huge Cole fan. So were most of the crowd, and yet, the sheer power of the storytelling and our inclination to lose ourselves in it softened our allegiance. The closing act was just so scintillating and dramatic that, in the end, we received Gargano as the pure of heart babyface we fell for last year.

Watching it live was something else. The energy at a TakeOver show is off the godd*mn map. It makes everything feel more important, more believable. It raised me from the ostensibly dead.

I left the show buzzing and anxious. There was much content to produce, in an unfamiliar city and on so little sleep, but that’s what I was there for. I took the option of sleeping immediately for three hours, waking up, writing a list, and filming two videos. This wasn’t even a first-world problem; the passion pushed me through it, ultimately, and I’ll never lose my perspective. It’s a stupidly charmed life I lead, and while I’m here, I’d like to thank you for enabling it.

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