WrestleMania 39, Night 1: My Experience

The WrestleMania experience is always going to be one that is unique to each and every fan. “The Showcase of Immortals” is one that, even 39 years into its existence, is constantly evolving.

After all, it took the COVID-19 pandemic to turn WrestleMania into a two-night event, after which I campaigned on this site for that to become the new normal. Someone of rank in WWE obviously reads this site, because that is exactly what happened in the years that followed. Let’s face it, it’s probably Bruce Prichard. If you know, then “weeeeeeeeeeeell, you know.”

When WrestleMania finally returned to Los Angeles, it had become a two-night event and stands out as the fourth two-night ‘Mania and third in front of fans.

Full Circle

For me, it was a homecoming of sorts – even if I didn’t live in LA at the time of WrestleMania 21. That was 18 years ago; I was just 12 at the time, less than a year into my wrestling fandom.

That’s right. The city that served as the setting for the first WrestleMania I ever watched also happened to be the same city I attended my first WrestleMania. Surely, WrestleMania 39 was 18 years in the making, at least for me. I had to be there.

I would have found my way to the event even if both WrestleMania 39 cards sucked. However, wrestling fans had a minor miracle this WrestleMania season when Vince McMahon, forced to abdicate his position as the sole creative force behind WWE for…reasons, gave way to his son-in-law. Triple H ushered in a series of compelling storylines manufactured throughout the year, many of which came to a head at WrestleMania 39.

This piece is not meant to be a referendum on WWE booking. There are things I enjoy about Triple H’s vision and there are clear areas of improvement as well. My point is, there was plenty to see at WrestleMania 39. Some of these storylines included Dominick Mysterio goading his father, one of the most influential wrestlers of all time, into a match, Sami Zayn coming full circle with Kevin Owens in hot pursuit of one of the greatest tag teams of all time in the Usos, and Cody Rhodes looking to fulfill a promise to his father, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, by knocking off arguably the most dominant champion in promotional history, Roman Reigns.

Wrestling fans were spoiled for choice at this year’s WrestleMania, and 12-year-old Jack would have been as emotionally committed to this card as he was to WrestleMania’s last trip to Tinseltown.

A Bachelor Party on… Vitamins

Over the last year or so, I connected with my girlfriend’s best friend’s fiance, who I learned loves pro wrestling (almost) as much as I do. Considering his favorite era of wrestling is mid-00s Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerilla, the Sami Zayn-Bloodline storyline could not have been better fare, even if we disagree over whether or not Zayn should have been in Cody’s spot on Night 2.

We made a pact to go to WrestleMania when it came to LA in 2023, but naturally, he decided to make WrestleMania the backdrop for his bachelor party just weeks out from his wedding day. All of a sudden, WrestleMania became a group outing with a bunch of his closest friends and myself.

It was the perfect crime. Moreover, it was the perfect day.

Steve-a-Mania

With our hotel located in Hermosa Beach, we were less than a half hour away from So-Fi Stadium for WrestleMania Saturday. On our way in, we decided to stop at El Segundo Brewing company, the brewery responsible for Steve Austin’s line of alcoholic beverages. Of course, I knew of Broken Skull IPA as an avid listener of The Steve Austin Show back in the day. I even had it once. That didn’t end well for me, but the bigger lesson there is to avoid mixing booze if you can. “If you can” is the key phrase. Sometimes, it is unavoidable.

I did get to try Steve Austin’s American Lager for the first time, and sure enough, it was delicious. The brewery itself is small – always has been. However, the power of Steve Austin’s gravitational pull turned what would be a simple little brewery into a full-blown “Stone Cold” Steve Austin bar with “Stone Cold” paraphernalia littered on the walls and patio. While the big man himself did not make an appearance, we had to assume he was getting ready for his big run in at WrestleMania. We did, however, see anywhere from 10-20 Steve Austin lookalikes, a Bret Hart lookalike, and the bar itself couldn’t have been more perfect for this particular occasion.

The Best Man of the wedding had the idea to gift the bachelor a replica WWE Championship belt to carry around with him at WrestleMania. When he took that idea to me, “the wrestling guy,” I told him that replica belts from the WWE Shop were a bit overpriced and I thought we could do one better. Considering the t-shirts were going to be “Austin 3:16” themed, I figured what better belt to order for the bachelor than a replica of Steve Austin’s Smoking Skill WWF World Championship, which I found on eBay for almost half the price of the replica Shop.WWE belt.

As an aside, I miss the days of WWE calling its online store the “ShopZone.” For a company that gets off on its branding, one would think they could come up with something a little more clever than “Shop.WWE.”

To make a long story short, we paraded around with the Smoking Skull title belt for almost two hours before leaving Austin’s brewery and hightailing it to the show. Traffic was bad, but not unmanageable. Once we stepped foot onto So-Fi Stadium property, I got the same feeling I normally get when I’m about to attend a high-stakes sporting event. I have been to a handful of Monday Night Raw tapings and AEW Dynamites in recent years. Nothing could compare to the shadow cast by WrestleMania.

Inside SoFi

As we scurried to our seats, it occurred to me that we must have just missed the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which had been relegated to the pre-show in recent years. Turns out, it had actually been relegated to the night before, so we ended up not missing anything.

In the moments before the show began, I took everything in: the sights, the sounds and even the smells could not have been more on point. So-Fi Stadium is massive. It looks big on television and feels even bigger the moment you step inside of it. As I said, I have been to my share of wrestling shows. I’ve even been to my share of big wrestling shows. The first night of WrestleMania this year felt like a different animal. It felt like we were residents of a lively, bustling pro wrestling city.

Given the bachelor party festivities from the night prior, I was somewhat out of the loop with what was going on with the match card. By the look of the night-by-night match card breakdown graphics released by the company days prior, it looked as though John Cena vs. Austin Theory would be headlining Night 1 and not Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. The Usos. As much as I may have disagreed with the alleged decision, I couldn’t hate it, as John Cena was a wrestler who endeared himself to me almost immediately the first time I ever watched Thursday Night SmackDown, so to see him headline a WrestleMania, and perhaps his last ever, would be something I’d take with me forever.

The Show

Luckily, there was much ado about nothing, as Cena vs. Theory opened the show. The match turned out to be incredibly average and arguably the worst of the night. Cena’s ring rust proved evident while Theory lacked the experience and technical ability to carry him, but I think the outcome will do wonders for Theory in the long run when fans start to look back on this night.

As far as the So-Fi Stadium experience itself was concerned, my group and I had an awesome view for the price. We sat in the upper-middle level behind the stage, but had an isometric view of the ring, could still see the entrances for the most part and anything we couldn’t see, we had the Samsung screen above the ring. I call it the Fire Pro Wrestling angle.

Business began to pick up with the eight-man tag. A part of me wishes the thrown together tag matches on each night had more stakes, but the men’s match on Night 1 did its job and brought the crowd to its feet with several breathtaking spots. I love the dynamic of the Braun Strowman–Ricochet team, particularly because of the comments Strowman made against high fliers after his match with Omos at Crown Jewel 2022. When he took to the skies, it made for some fun long-term storytelling only a fraction of fans would ultimately understand.

That doesn’t make it any less awesome.

Without a doubt, a lot of the buzz surrounding our group of guys ranging from hardcore fan (me), to casual fan, to non-fan had to do with how Logan Paul would perform against Seth Rollins. I think a lot of people needed to see Logan wrestle with their own two eyes to believe just how much of a knack for this he has.

But to be fair, nobody recognized Logan Paul’s potential in pro wrestling earlier than I did. Still, to see it manifest on such a large stage was pretty cool. Pound-for-pound, Paul vs. Rollins had the best entrances of the weekend. Paul’s entrance was a take on Shawn Michaels coming down from the rafters at the Duck Pond for WrestleMania XII, except more obnoxious. Meanwhile, in Rollins’ case I figured he would have something special planned.

I get that Chris Jericho invented sing-a-long entrance music, but now that Rollins is a babyface I knew there would be something big in store for the fans in LA. Rollins got a nice assist from a local symphonic orchestra conductor, and while I did think the orchestral motif watered down Roman Reigns’ entrance on Sunday night, that is not a knock on Seth as he deserved this entrance.

The match itself was what I expected. Big, planned spots with Rollins ultimately saving face with a win. KSI’s involvement added to the match, though I sometimes question his appeal stateside for as big of a name as he is globally. I also love that Paul’s move-set is a greatest hits of the best moves from some of the IWC’s favorite wrestlers. I don’t know if he does the Buckshot Lariat better than “Hangman” Adam Page, but his is definitely more polished than CM Punk’s. Speaking of which, Paul hit a GTS in this match.

Hideo Itami feud incoming? Just kidding.

The only thing that soured the match just a little bit was the Samsung screen going out at multiple points during the match. When watching the match back, one might hear the crowd react oddly at different points in the match. This is because they were reacting to the screen turning on and off. There may have even been a “Fix the Screen” chant at one point, but this wouldn’t have been a big deal if we just splurged on tickets on the other side of the arena.

Everything has a cost.

Next, we got Damage CTRL vs. Lita, Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus. Again, part of my excitement for this match had to do with me being in attendance for a WrestleMania where I would get to see both Lita and Trish Stratus compete. I truly never thought I’d see the day. Unfortunately, this match was just kind of “there” and Lita seems to have lost a major step off her prime. I can’t say the same for Trish though, and if her heel turn is any indication she may get yet another marquee WrestleMania match when WrestleMania 40 hits Philly next year.

The ongoing theme of things I never thought I’d see at my first in-person WrestleMania continued when Rey Mysterio took on his son, Dominik. If you told me during Rey’s 2005 “custody” feud with Eddie Guerrero that one day, Rey vs. Dominik would be a marquee match at WrestleMania…. I might believe you. Still, to see it come to life the way it did was truly something special. Everyone in our group loved this match. Dominik is a great foil for Rey and I am sure we will see them lock up three or four more times down the line. My only complaint for this match is that I would have liked to have seen Dominik win, but considering Bad Bunny’s involvement in the finish, I’m not too concerned about it hurting Dominik in any way. I also kind of wish they had the match on the opposite night of both Rhea Ripley and Finn Balor’s matches, as The Judgment Day storyline has revolved around the Mysterio Family for several months to this point and it would have been nice to have all members ringside for the finish.

Speaking of “Mami,” wow. Dave Meltzer called Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte II arguably the best North American women’s wrestling match of all time and while I don’t disagree, I think I may have turned to my buddy about eight or nine minutes in and went, “they really need to pick up the pace.” I have not seen the match back on tape, but I seem to recall Charlotte delivering a stiff suplex to Rhea at some point in the match, and from there the physicality tripled in scope.

I’m not the fan of strong style wrestling that most are. I am a believer that the beauty of wrestling is in the work, and value the talent of those such as Bret Hart who could make it look like they’re inflicting damage without harming a hair on their opponent’s head. That said, the way the physicality crescendoed in this match put over the fact that both women desperately needed to win and were willing to go to whatever lengths to make that happen. Needless to say, the finish was absolutely epic and the right woman won. I thought the original match the two put on at WrestleMania 36 was a colossal let down. This match was much better; so much so, I might have to agree with “Big Dave’s” assessment.

A match of that quality had my mind immediately racing with immediate booking possibilities. Ripley and Bianca Belair are both stars. They are, to me, the John Cena and Batista of women’s wrestling at the moment. But what is the match at WrestleMania 40 anyway? The two most bankable young stars in women’s wrestling? Or a trilogy between Charlotte and Ripley to finally settle the score?

That’ll be a piece for another day.

We then got a nice diversion with Pat McAfee coming out to squash The Miz in an impromptu match. The McAfee cameo got a great reaction from our group, as everybody were at least sports fans and McAfee’s footprint in sports media is growing by the day. I’ll always be happy to see him involved in a wrestling capacity, however. I really do believe he could be the next Jerry Lawler on commentary if he wanted to be/had time for it.

A Main Event for the Record Books

Last but not least, the main event: Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. The Usos. I thought the match was above average and was probably not the level of match these teams could have had, but I appreciate it more and more by the day, particularly when examining the scope. On one hand, the sun has fully set on SoFi Stadium and it made for a sad moment just because of how great of a show this had been. I didn’t want it to end. In the moment, while recognizing my bias, I was willing to put this card up against almost any one-night WrestleMania card ever bar WrestleMania XIX and X-Seven. On top of that, it felt special knowing we were about to witness the first WrestleMania tag team main event in 38 years, and the first involving the WWE World Tag Team Championships. It’s the little things that people appreciate about their fandom, and the main event of WrestleMania 39 was no different for me.

On top of that, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens made up one half of the match; The Usos the other. As I wrote earlier in the piece, my buddy has long had an affinity with the former El Generico and Kevin Steen. I never got to see them wrestle in Reseda, but I did see them wrestle as a tag team on some of those ROH on HDNet shows that would air in the middle of the afternoon on satellite television before Sinclair purchased the company from Cary Silkin. Watching the El Generico-Kevin Steen tag team combination caused me to totally rethink what was possible in tag team wrestling. I couldn’t think of two more deserving men for the spot, except for maybe The Usos, the B-side of the match.

My justification to my friend for wanting Sami Zayn to dust off his tag team with Kevin Owens instead of wrestling for the Undisputed Championship was two-fold.

On one hand, why have one big match when you can have multiple? To me, that is an essential component in booking for multi-man storylines: create as many big matches as you can.

On the other hand, the visual of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens standing tall at the end of WrestleMania with gold in their hands, to me, had shades of Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero at the conclusion of WrestleMania 20. That ending, to me, is still the greatest ending to a WrestleMania ever. The waterworks are still in full effect every time I see that ending.

Indeed, Zayn and Owens winning the titles had a similar energy. It wasn’t a 1:1 comparison, but it may have been the closest ending to a WrestleMania card the fans have gotten since. Naturally, the standing ovation we, the fans, gave to the end of the match was one of the realest moments I have ever witnessed at a wrestling show. As Sami Zayn’s entrance music blared throughout the arena, I had the biggest grin on my way out of the arena and writing this is causing it to return to me.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know what the future holds for WWE beyond WrestleMania 39. Obviously the sale to Endeavor will continue to be a talking point, and more importantly Vince McMahon’s involvement on the creative side of things. However, WrestleMania in LA proved to me that WWE still has, and will always have the magic if they wish to use it.

As for Night 1 of WrestleMania 39 itself, I don’t know if it’s as good as WrestleMania XIX (my favorite WrestleMania ever), or even X-Seven. I can say with certainty, however, that it’s a Top 10 WrestleMania card, but that is if we are to grade modern WrestleManias as if each card is a different show. I believe that is how we should look at it, as it’s too much legwork to parse together the combined experience of two-night WrestleManias. This year taught me each night has its own unique feel to it, and that’s without having even attended Night 2.

For our group, doubling up on Night 2 was a serious consideration, but the way we partied on Friday and Saturday night (combined with the booking decision that marred the show), attending a second night would have been a huge mistake.

Still, the SoFi Stadium WrestleMania experience was a fantastic one, and I continue to be surprised at why it took WWE 18 years to return their biggest weekend of the year to a top-two U.S. market. WrestleMania should run LA once a decade, at minimum.

And since you asked, here is how I think 10-year WrestleMania cycles should be “booked” while accepting that the mecca, Madison Square Garden, just isn’t a realistic possibility anymore.

Year 1: Camping World Stadium/Orlando, Fla.
Year 2: JerryWorld/Dallas, Texas
Year 3: Misc Stadium/Misc City
Year 4: Levi’s Stadium/Santa Clara, Calif.
Year 5: MetLife Stadium/East Rutherford, N.J.
Year 6: Allegiant Stadium/Las Vegas, Nev.
Year 7: Misc Stadium/Misc City
Year 8: Raymond James Stadium/Tampa, Fla.
Year 9: SoFi Stadium/Los Angeles, Calif.
Year 10: Misc Stadium/Misc City

And… repeat.

Miscellaneous cities could pool from choices such as Phoenix, Philadelphia, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Seattle, Cleveland, Boston and Atlanta, just to name a few. What say you? Be sure to let me know your thoughts on Twitter.

Regardless, WrestleMania 39, Night 1, was the perfect end to the perfect day. It is far and away the greatest wrestling show I’ve ever attended, and its legacy should live on for years provided the 40th anniversary of WrestleMania next year in Philly, my hometown, doesn’t upstage it.

But that will be a discussion for 2024. It will be a long, bumpy road until then, so my advice would be to just sit back and enjoy the ride.