6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 40 - Night 2 (Results & Review)

1. Melodramatic Overbooking

There are two lenses through which to view the Bloodline Rules main event: as an analyst who assesses the strength, logic, flow, and storytelling of a match, and as a fan who reacts to the emotional investment and journey they are taken on during a match – a sensation that is heightened when taking it in live.

This column will look at the main event through both.

The analyst side has to note that there were too many logic gaps and gaga to simply call the match a resounding, undisputed success. For starters, a Bloodline Rules match meant that everyone could be involved and just gang up on Cody Rhodes and put him away for good – The Rock had already decreed that he’d never get another title match if he lost.

Instead, Roman Reigns started out on his own against Cody, wrestling a solid 20 minutes in a back-and-forth that saw Rhodes score numerous two counts before Jimmy Uso finally ran in to help. This triggered a series of run-ins from Jey Uso, Solo Sikoa, John Cena, The Rock, Seth Rollins, and finally, The Undertaker. While all of this was happening, Roman and Cody laid on the mat playing dead as everyone got their sh** in.

Once the gaga concluded, the two wrestlers actually in the match got back up and quickly hit the finish, with Cody nailing three Cross-Rhodes for the win.

Why would you even have the tag match Saturday night to set up a stipulation where you could surround the ring with the Bloodline and just maul Cody from the jump, only to wrestle a normal Roman title defense for nearly a half-hour? Even if Reigns wanted to do it himself, the moment there was a hint of danger to the title – Cody’s first two-count came just a few minutes into the match – that should have triggered Jimmy and Solo for the save.

The sheer volume of gaga meant that in the biggest match of his career, Cody and his opponent became non-factors for nearly ten minutes as everyone made their entrances and laid each other out. The closest parallel has to be Rollins and Dolph Ziggler at the end of Survivor Series 2014, where they laid motionless in the ring for several minutes while Sting made his debut and laid out Triple H, then put Dolph on top for the pin.

This wasn’t that bad, but Cody and Roman went right to the finish seconds after the last interloper was taken out. It didn’t make the title win feel deserved or earned in that moment – it truly was, but it was all so sudden that it almost felt like an afterthought. Perhaps if there was a bit more back-and-forth before the finish, it would’ve cleansed the palate from the run-ins a bit.