7 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 1

WWE delivers on its promises and puts on a great show paying off several angles.

WWE WrestleMania 39 Rhea Ripley Charlotte Flair
WWE.com

WrestleMania 39 is only halfway in the books, but it already is making a case for being a top-tier show in the company’s history.

Saturday’s offering saw WWE pay off several of the biggest angles in the company during the past year, and rather than trying to swerve fans or make them second-guess themselves, they just followed logical storytelling and delivered the results fans expected and wanted, which were the ones that made the most sense.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn needed to strike a blow against the Bloodline on Saturday night. Losing the Tag Title match to the Usos would have been a colossal downer for fans who had spent months investing their time and hopes into Sami’s journey. But WWE paid it off in epic fashion.

Rhea Ripley needed a statement win to solidify her standing on the roster, something that would establish her on the same level as a Bianca Belair or (her opponent) Charlotte Flair. But you worried that WWE wouldn’t want Flair to lose or would somehow have a change of heart about another match, even if it didn’t make sense.

Thankfully, none of that happened. What we got Saturday night was a tremendous show with only one serious negative and a couple small ones. The positives were mostly over the moon. So yeah, Sunday’s card has its collective work cut out for WWE.

Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.