Winners And Grades On Night 2

WrestleMania 39 advertised a monumental main event as Roman Reigns took on Cody Rhodes. Many fans, oddsmakers and even WWE Superstars expect Cody Rhodes to end Reigns’ historic run. WrestleMania also advertised Edge vs. The Demon Finn Balor inside Hell in a Cell, Bianca Belair vs. Asuka, a women’s tag team Fatal 4-Way and Brock Lesnar vs. Omos to open the show.

In a shocking, deflating main event, Roman Reigns retained the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes with help from The Bloodline.

Last week’s broadcast of WWE Raw averaged 1.843 million viewers. SmackDown this past Friday night garnered 2.389 million viewers per the Fast National ratings. Final numbers will be available Monday as WrestleMania SmackDown was once again No. 1 across all television.

WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 2 Results on April 2, 2023

• Brock Lesnar def. Omos
• Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler Women’s Fatal 4-Way
• GUNTHER def. Sheamus and Drew McIntyre—WWE Intercontinental Title
• Bianca Belair def. Asuka—WWE Raw Women’s Title
• Snoop Dogg def. The Miz
• Edge def. Finn Balor
• Roman Reigns def. Cody Rhodes—WWE Undisputed Universal Title

• WWE WrestleMania 39 Venue: SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, not Hollywood, Calif.)
• WWE WrestleMania 39 Tickets Distributed: 67,134
• WWE WrestleMania 39 Tickets Available: 88

WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 2 Winners And Grades

Brock Lesnar def. Omos

Within seconds, Omos tossed Brock Lesnar like he was a child, and Lesnar sold it perfectly.

This was an old-school style match where Omos and Lesnar built intense heat with bearhugs and basic strikes. What’s old is always new again in this business.

The internet wrestling snobs thumbed their nose at this match, but there are few human beings who could get the type of heat that Brock Lesnar and Omos just got for a basic opener. This crowd went crazy for this match and nobody had to snap their ankle in half to get there.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos Grade: B

Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler Win Women’s Fatal 4-Way

There was an awkward start to this match, with some mistimed spots, but it picked up once Raquel Rodriguez tagged in (to a huge pop), and thwarted a flying missile dropkick from Chelsea Green.

Shotzi performed a dive to the outside through Natalya’s legs, and the entire stadium held its breath until she (thankfully) landed safely.

The spot of the match was a double sharpshooter by Natalya on Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville.

Shayna Baszler was being attended to by the trainers off camera as it seemed she suffered a legit injury. She came back in the ring with her right ankle taped, limping badly. The match promptly ended shortly thereafter as Ronda Rousey trapped Shotzi in an armbar.

Women’s Fatal 4-Way Grade: C

GUNTHER def. Sheamus and Drew McIntyre

WWE brought out Bobby Lashley with the Andre the Giant trophy, but he did not issue an open challenge as had been suggested.

There was a handful of vignettes from the Fatal 4-Way to the start of the Triple Threat Intercontinental Championship match.

There was a loud roar from the crowd when it was finally time to start this match.

Despite there being two babyfaces in the match, the biggest babyface was arguably GUNTHER.

Drew McIntyre surprisingly got the better of GUNTHER in a heated chop-off. Sheamus and Drew then took turns exchanging blows to GUNTHER with alternating beats of the Bodhran from Sheamus and chops from Drew.

Sheamus elicited a standing ovation with a whopping 28 Beats of the Bodhran on McIntyre. Boy was this match ever as advertised.

Fans were strongly behind Sheamus during a “boo/yay” exchange with Drew McIntyre, but they came alive for both the more they pummeled each other.

Off camera, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre shared an embrace and raised one each others’ hand. SoFi Stadium went nuts for it.

Read Related Also: Markets Correct Following PMI Exuberance

Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre Grade: A+

Bianca Belair vs. Asuka

Bianca Belair had another excellent entrance where an all-Black, girl’s dance team performed an excellent routine—including a child contortionist. Asuka’s entrance was great as well, with Asuka clones appearing.

The only glitch of this match had nothing to do with the women, it came when the screen temporarily went out, a recurring theme during both nights. Fans popped huge when it returned.

There were dueling chants for Asuka and Bianca Belair as the match reached its climactic portions.

WrestleMania announced a two-night total was 161,892.

Bianca Belair vs. Asuka Grade: A+

Shane McMahon def. The Miz

Shane McMahon returned to an enormous reaction, because it’s not like Vince McMahon was coming back to the company alone.

Shane McMahon immediately began unloading punches, and the heat temporarily died. Fans came alive when Shane leap-frogged Miz, but the nShane legitimately blew his knee out. Snoop Dogg came in to save the segment by knocking out The Miz and giving him a People’s Elbow. Fantastic save.

Shane McMahon vs. The Miz Grade: D

Edge def. Finn Balor

There was a vignette showing lit candles, seemingly for Edge’s entrance, but it turned out to be a trailer for The Pope’s Exorcist. SoFi booed it furiously. All other on-camera references to this movie were also booed, and that movie spent all that money on marketing for nothing.

Edge walked out to Metallica with an awesome mask. Finn Balor used his vintage theme music/entrance and was cheered like a babyface.

There were red kendo sticks, red chairs, and even the top of Finn Balor’s head was red as he bled the hard way and the ref stopped the match temporarily. Welcome to Hell in a Cell in 2023.

Everything in this match was red except the Hell in a Cell cage, which was an improvement.

Finn Balor had an awesome spot where he tried the coup de grace from the middle of the cell, but came crashing through the table with nobody home.

Edge finished his story with a con-chair-to for the win in an awesome match.

There was a long waiting period, including commercials and an announcement for WrestleMania Philadelphia, all of which were booed by an increasingly impatient live crowd. Given how restless this crowd was getting, if WWE beat Cody Rhodes tonight there might be a riot in Los Angles. And not one of those empty threat IWC riots, but more like when the Lakers won in 2001.

Edge vs. Finn Balor Grade: A-

Roman Reigns def. Cody Rhodes

Roman Reigns walked out with Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman, but conspicuous by their absences were The Usos.

Cody Rhodes acknowledged his wife Brandi, his sister Teil and his baby daughter during an incredible babyface entrance. Roman Reigns, meanwhile, was played out by a grand piano symphony.

This felt like as big of a match as I’ve ever seen at a WrestleMania. When they stared each other down in the beginning, all I could think of was every great Rocky movie.

Solo Sikoa received a lot of heat for delivering a shot to Rhodes while the referee had his back turned. Sikoa would go on to interfere again and again, with more heat every time. When he was kicked out, I swear I could feel the building shake.

This was an unbelievable heated match, and a great main event, but one that simply had the wrong finish. WWE is a whore for its statistics, and Roman Reigns was the beneficiary for it.

Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes Grade: A