WresltleMania Weekend, Mergers, New Champs in 1 Week

WrestleMania, Endeavor buys, New champs

My oh my! What a week has been for the world of pro wrestling. The two night of Wrestlemania 39 has transpired, Endeavor has bought WWE and merged it with UFC, Vince McMahon is back in power, and hell Sanada has beaten Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The best part was… Its not even Easter Sunday yet.

The two nights of WrestleMania has come and passed. The first night was memorable for a lot of reasons: Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley was the best womens match to be featured on WrestleMania and maybe top 5 in the country. Going into this, everybody expected it to be good but i think it might have even surpassed expectations a little. It was a long physical battle which only got better the longer it went and the crowd was hype through it all. Excellent pacing, good drama, the action was well choreographed and superbly executed. The action went back and forth, hard stiff blows were exchanged, there was a level of physicality that is rarely seen in a women's match, there were also ton of spots, brutal looking ones that were executed at the expense of the Champion who shook it off like the Champ she is but she is definitely gonna feel the wear and tear she endured here. They went deep unloading their entire arsenal of movepool, both women came close to winning multiple times and the near falls were brilliantly done, crowd was eating up every nearfall; Ripley was the favourite coming into this but Charlotte winning was still very believable which added a lot of suspense. This was a WrestleMania main event worthy match. Weak build up but great payoff. This is the match that finally shows thar Rhea Ripley is the real deal and is only 26 and is now a certified star.

Next we have the real main event is The Usos vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. I am so glad that this was the main event. They absolutely deserved to close out the show with the amount of time and work that has been put in this storyline. We knew that Sami & KO were the absolute favourites but this was still a roller coaster ride and they played on the emotions of the crowd. Usos were the more dominant team, they did a great job of isolating Sami & KO for most of the match. This wasn't a fancy tag match with big spots, it was a storyline driven match but the action was still pretty great. Midway, the Usos completely isolate Sami and bombard him with a barrage of Super Kicks that would even put a Superkick Party to shame, Thankfully, the Usos have one of the best Superkicks in the business. There were moments that seemed to be the prelude to the end but they made us wait and wait, building the match even though these four had already emptied their gas tank but it all made sense in the end, when the grand finale came down to Sami and Jey, the two leads who have been building this story up for the past six months. The final moment was so beautifully done, Sami conflicted, whispering his apologies to his once former Uce and pulling the final trigger on the record breaking reign of the Usos at the main event of one of the best and most memorable WrestleManias. Excellent match worth the main event spot and one of the best main events in WrestleMania history.

Night 2 was average at best, I was thinking to myself with a night like that, how could they try top it? Cody winning the big one? Debut someone huge there? the answer is.. none of the above.. A big step down from the previous night, but this did have a few major highlights - the IC Title three-way was the kind of hard-hitting action you'd expect from Gunther, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre (Match of the Night for me), and the Bianca-Asuka match was also great, even winning the crowd over from an unenviable spot on the card following the aforementioned three-way. The main event was good, but not really dissimilar to many of the other recent Reigns title defenses, and not putting the belt on Cody at this point was a huge mistake - over the past year Cody came back from a major injury, won the Rumble and defeated Reigns' previously-undefeated underling in Sikoa; the iron was hot and the time to strike on it was now - even if Cody ends up winning the belt down the line, it's he'll never have as much momentum or crowd favor as he did going into tonight. At least I can say that whoever threw that rubber chicken into the ring is a genius. Elsewhere, the Edge-Balor HIAC lost its way after being temporarily stopped for Balor's injury (and after seeing the pic of the gruesome gash on his head, I do get why they had to do that, it went well beyond just the "getting color" you'd expect in a pre-PG era HIAC) and never got back on track before getting to its probably-rushed finish. The McMahon injury, especially in a filler segment with the hosts, was unfortunate, but good on Snoop and Miz to come up with something to get them out of there when it all went wrong. The Lesnar match served its purpose, and the Women's Tag showcase was pretty lame, with three out of four teams coming off as throw-togethers and Ronda winning after barely being in the match dur to having an injured arm. It definitely had its moments, especially in the IC and Women's Title matches, but was a definite come-down from the previous night. What was next to come was even more mind boggling.

This year, everyone is talking about the sale of WWE with Vince McMahon back in charge, we speculated what would happen to the company. We thought the Saudi Arabian Trust Fund would overpay them but that’s not the case. It turns out after Wrestlemania weekend, it was bought by Endeavor. Its monumental!! It was announced on April 3rd, 2023. Two companies (Endeavor and World Wrestling Entertainment) have signed a definitive agreement to form a new, publicly listed company consisting of two iconic, complementary, global sports and entertainment brands: UFC and WWE. Upon close, Endeavor will hold a 51% controlling interest in the new company and existing WWE shareholders will hold a 49% interest in the new company. The new company will be led by Emanuel (Chief Executive Officer), who will also continue in his role as Chief Executive Officer of Endeavor, McMahon (Executive Chairman of the Board) and Mark Shapiro, who will be President and Chief Operating Officer of both Endeavor and the new company. Dana White will continue in his role as President of UFC and Nick Khan will serve as President of WWE. The Board of Directors will consist of 11 members who will be appointed at a later date, six of whom will be appointed by Endeavor and five of whom by WWE.

Together, UFC and WWE expect to deliver an estimated $50 million to $100 million in annualized run rate cost synergies by leveraging, among other things, Endeavor’s back office and robust infrastructure. Endeavor also expects significant growth across revenue areas including domestic and international media rights, ticket sales and yield optimization, event operations, sponsorship, licensing and premium hospitality. Endeavor’s success at UFC, including increasing commercial opportunities that have driven more than 2x Adjusted EBITDA growth since its acquisition in late 2016, demonstrates the significant value creation opportunity and upside potential of having UFC and WWE under one roof. This is pretty insane that Dana White and Vince McMahon will be under one roof. The more crazy part is that Vince McMahon took back his creative power back during RAW on the same day while the program is still going on, tearing scripts, changing segments while Seth Rollins in the rings, its insane which led to negative feedback. This is gonna be an interesting few weeks.

Finally, at NJPW Sakura Genesis event, the unthinkable happened. Sanada finally DETHRONED The RAINMAKER. After so many years, SANADA is finally the world champion. Not only that, but by beating Kazuchika Okada clean! This match was great, as it to be expected from an Okada main event. It started slower, with the guys getting a measure of each other, and during the early parts we got to see more of the darker side Okada's been showing these past few months. The brawl on the outside was fun as well, but the best part was the last ~10 minutes and the finishing stretch was amazing. SANADA having the perfect counter to the Rainmaker with his new finisher was a great way to end it. When the ref counted 3, I stood there with my mouth open like an idiot and couldn't believe what happened. Realistically, Most people expected Okada to win the title back at Dominion so he can fulfil his greater purpose and lose to Ospreay at WK, but for now, let's enjoy SANADA's long overdue time at the top..

Overall, Wrestlemania weekend was insane, crazy mess with absurd news that only the wrestling world can deliver. As Chris Hero would say, Pro Wrestling is absurd.

Stay tuned, I will be going to NorthEast Wrestling this weekend in Poughkeepsie, NY, so expect a good blog out of it.. Hope you enjoyed this.