This story doesn’t start with WrestleMania, it was actually the joint Ring Of Honor/New Japan Pro Wrestling Live Show in Madison Square Garden which was an impulse journey as it is! We made a week out of it and head across to the little gathering in New Jerseys’ MetLifeStadium. We hit up the Travel agent, booked the package deal, and it was off to New York, New York! With it being a huge stadium, WrestleMania tickets were slightly easier to find some 20 years since
WrestleMania Tickets are thankfully were easier to find than it was for our friends, Matthew Roberts. I found a couple of second-hand tickets for $80 each (Poor viewing, as you can tell by the image!)
When I and my friend arrived at WrestleMania 35 (On an F4W bus) by the time we bought merch and finally climbed 5 miles of stairs, we finally got to our seats, unfortunately, the bus didn’t take into account new york traffic and we missed the Tony Nese vs Buddy Murphy cruiserweight match and the women’s battle royal, which Carmella won.
The other two matches were really fun, Hawkins and Ryder beat the revival for the Raw Tag team titles, with Hawkins finally ending his losing streak. And everyone went wild, I was super happy for Hawkins, props to the revival because they had their working boots on as they always do.
The Andre the Giant Battle Royal was also pretty fun, with Strowman laying waste to everyone, and me and the people around me, having a laugh spotting who gets eliminated, then chanting GET THESE HANDS at the top of our voices when Braun decimated the SNL Guys winning the battle royal.
WrestleMania 35
Say what you want about Vince but he knows how to make a WrestleMania feel like a big deal, though the Tron was disappointing, there was pyro aplenty and an excellent intro video package which was live (not on broadcast) we all had a blast booing and cheering whoever appeared, Brock got monstrous boos…
Brock Lesnar (C) vs Seth Rollins for the Universal Title
Paul Heyman stormed out while Hulk hogan was posing, announcing that Lesnar was opening this match and then disappearing to Vegas, we all booed Heyman when he mentioned Vegas and booed Lesnar when he appeared. It was then that I figured out how loud the WrestleMania pyro was. The match was two minutes but Lesnar beat the tar out of Seth before the match started. Seth was super over, it’s a shame they ruined him with awful creative ideas during the Fiend feud, but it’s getting better in 2022. When the match finally started, it had an excellent two minutes of Suplexs by Brock followed by a Low Blow by Seth followed by the Stomp for Seth to win, awesome. I was super happy to see him win as I figured Lesnar might win. The fans around us were also super happy. Another interesting fact despite the fact we were in the nosebleeds, its amazing how warm you are when you’re hyped.
AJ Styles vs Randy Orton
Jerry Lawler was one of 50 guest commentators, he got a full introduction and everything. (At least he wasn’t calling a women’s match) he was fine, he was there, bigged up Randy Orton’s impressive history. I recall little of this match unfortunately the crowd underneath our section were blinded by the bright yellow lights blinding each and every one of them and that distracted me and the rest of us, but they finally turned off the lights for us to focus on the match, which was somewhat ok, but nothing special considering who was involved, though we all popped for the RKO outta nowhere and we were happy to see AJ beat orton with the Phenomenal Forearm. A shame really, the lights ruined the live experience for us, mainly because they kept coming up with imaginative chants for asking that the lights be turned off.
Usos (c) vs Ricochet and Aleister Black vs The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev
Smackdown Tag Team Titles
I barely remember anything about this match, I think I went to the concessions stand to get get food and drink, I do remember the awesome tower of doom spot where ricochet tested the strength of his Achilles tendons, thankfully he rolled through and of course the awesome Cesaro swing and Sheamus drum beats, where Cesaro went for way longer than the one he was bigged up for against Rollins at last years mania. Looking back, they did do a lot and worked super hard to keep the crowd excited. Including the usual everyone hits their finishers spot. Finally, The Usos retained pinning Sheamus with the double Splash.
Hall of Fame induction ceremony highlights, I watched this and we really cheered when Chynas graphic appeared, was really cool that she was inducted and recognised for the accomplishments she achieved.
WrestleMania 35 : The Miz vs Shane Mcmahon
This match was the chaotic match it needed to be Shane winning didn’t make much sense but this was the phase of Shane’s inexplicable push, he would beat almost everyone for a time. Still it was fun even if Miz came out of it looking like an idiot for hitting a suplex on shane to a stack of tables then getting pinned by the unconscious Shane. I remember my section were all chanting Mr Miz when he came into the ring to challenge Shane. Then we all popped huge for the suplex table spot as it was viewable without the Tron cameras. Only to be baffled by shane winning (Yes we all thought that).
WrestleMania 35 : Bayley and Sasha (c) vs Natalya and Beth Phoenix vs The Iiconics vs Nia and Tamina
Paige is the 2nd guest commentator. Oh boy, this was a match that was a struggle, the women were put in a bad place due to the fact that the previous match was balls to the wall insane. It was fine, they all worked hard, Nia didn’t injure anyone which was good, I was baffled at the IIconics winning, but I was in the minority it seemed as everyone around me cheered the title change.
WrestleMania 35 : Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan (c) for the WWE Title
This for me and everyone else in that arena was THEEEE main event of the show, I was firmly behind Kofi as was everyone else in the stadium, with the exception of one die hard Bryan fan in my section who cheered everything Bryan did (Bless the guy). The match was excellent despite my limited viewing, thankfully all those large screens in the stadium allowed me to see the action, Bryan carried this match but Kofi didn’t slouch, but I love the fact that I was here to see Kofi to win the title. When he finally hit the trouble in Paradise and the I saw the ref count three, I jumped eight feet in the air and cheered so loudly that my voice was shredded afterwards. The match will go down in history as a classic due to the finish alone, Kofi surrounded by his family and friends while they re-revealed the gold WWE title again.
Backstage segment with Alexa and the SNL geeks, with a cameo from Kevin Nash and Scott Hall talking about giving them a prostate exam I missed this, I went to the restroom…
WrestleMania 35 : Rey Mysterio vs Samoa Joe (c) for the United States Title
Booker T is guest number three. Unfortunately by the time I came out of the restroom the match was half over, I was shocked it finished so early, but there was zero chance that anything was following Kofi vs Bryan. It was a nothing match really anyway which was a shame for a sort-of dream match at one point.
WrestleMania 35 : Drew McIntyre vs Roman Reigns
This match is something I had the most heat with, as I watched this live, a bunch of fans decided to start a Mexican wave in the upper bowl where I was, I wasn’t taking part in it, but at the same time, the fact everyone was doing it distracted me from the match. This was a situation where fans didn’t want to boo Roman as he had come back from leukaemia, but that didn’t mean they would cheer him, so they distracted themselves with a wave. The match was fun, it was Roman and Drew, impossible for them to have a bad match but the wave and the general fan fatigue really started to take their toll. Roman won with a spear.
Elias in ring segment, multiple Elias’s appear on the Tron playing various instruments, I and the crowd came alive again for this, Cena came out as the Dr of Thuganomics, it was the second-best thing on this show, I and a random fan who we sat next to were loving this, Cena hit the five knuckle shuffle and the FU.
WrestleMania 35 : Batista vs Triple H: No Holds Barred
HBK guest commentary, making him number four. The Triple H match (as there is only one) works great when we aren’t over five hours into a 7 and half-hour show. I was begging this match to be over after 10 minutes, but it kept going, bless H but he did realise that he needed to do something, so I think they improvised a table spot after the fans chanted it just to get a reaction. Match ended when Ric Flair passed H a sledgehammer who hit Batista then hit a pedigree for the win. A boring match that many around me agreed with, some fans were asleep, and I noticed that several seats had been empty for a rather long time.
WrestleMania 35 : Kurt Angles vs Baron Corbin (Kurt Angles Retirement… You forgot about this huh?)
JBL is the last guest of the evening. I was peak anti corbin at this point, I don’t hate him now, I actually think he’s pretty entertaining, but in 2019 I HATED him, I groaned as did the few fans around me who cared, several fans had walked off to the bathroom or home by this point, which is sad for Kurt. The match was fine, we all cheered for kurt including doing a suplex count for him. When Baron took control we all fell silent. Then I got genuinely terrified when Kurt who can barely move went up top for a moonsault, thankfully he landed safe but missed corbin who hit the end of days and pinned Angle. I and everyone else around me it seemed didn’t make a sound, it was Bruno vs Kolov all over again. Kurt thanked us and asked us chant the words that were synonymous with him, the music played and we obliged.
WrestleMania 35 : Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley (c) for the IC Title
We all came alive for Demon Finn’s entrance but I was exhausted at this point, as was everyone else, plus I think we were still reeling from the angle loss. It was 11:30 pm at this point, it was good for 5ish minutes, but nothing was waking me up at this point. It was during this match that two fans in my section one of whom had taken much beer got into a verbal altercation, one guy got escorted as he seemed to be the one who was the aggressor and we applauded the other guy. Finn wins with a coup de grace. Fine match but no hope of fans caring.
WrestleMania 35 : Ronda Rousey (C) vs Charlotte Flair (C) vs Becky Lynch
Raw and Smackdown Women’s Titles Main Event
It’s a shame the two night WrestleMania wasn’t a thing, because I and these fans would’ve been a lot more invested in this had it been night 2, hour 4 of WrestleMania as opposed to the 11:55 pm start time that the bell rang for this match. Still, I did my best, I bought a MAN t-shirt so I solidly teamed Becky and it was the first-ever women’s main event at WrestleMania so this was a big deal.
I remember only bits of this match, I was tired, sorry, I do remember coming back to life for this match and booing massively when Ronda tipped the table upside down. Me and my friend grabbed our stuff and waited on the steps for the finish, we finally saw Becky counter the Pipers pit into a roll-up for the pin, the moment that happened, we sprinted down the steps to the bus back to the hotel. The match was not great, it was good, but not great, but that’s not 100% the fault of the women, this show ended at 12:20 am the next day. WAY too long.