WWE Wrestlemania 2024 Night 1 Results And Review: The Rock And Roman Reigns Stand Tall

The past year in WWE programming has been pretty stellar and it’s all led to here. Night One of Wrestlemania XL kicks off tonight, with several high-caliber matches scheduled to unfold.

Each Wrestlemania is the culmination of WWE’s storytelling over the last year. This year, though, Wrestlemania could potentially be the culmination of a story that has been told since Roman Reigns won the WWE Universal Championship three and a half years ago. That was the beginning of the Bloodline saga, which saw Roman Reigns become WWE’s top star, as he aligned himself with members of his own family and Paul Heyman.

Last year, Cody Rhodes had the chance to end Roman’s reign of terror and become Universal Champion, himself. Due to interference from the Bloodline, though, that didn’t happen. A year later he gets another shot at finishing the story, but that’s not until tomorrow.

First, on Night One, Cody teams with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freakin'” Rollins to take on the team of Reigns and The Rock. If Seth and Cody win, the Bloodline will stay out of the Universal Championship match. If they lose, though, The Rock and the rest of the Bloodline can do whatever they want during Cody and Roman’s match.

Those are some pretty big stakes if your name is Cody Rhodes. However, that’s just one of the seven matches scheduled for Wrestlemania Saturday. Take a look at the full card for tonight’s show below.

• Seth “Freakin'” Rollins and Cody Rhodes vs. The Rock and Roman Reigns
• Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Becky Lynch (Women’s World Championship)
• Gunther (c) vs. Sami Zayn (Intercontinental Championship)
• The Judgment Day (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Awesome Truth vs. #DIY vs. A-Town Down Under vs. New Catch Republic (Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Ladder match)
• Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
• Bianca Belair, Naomi & Jade Cargill vs. Dakota Kai, Asuka & Kairi Sane
• Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs. Santos Escobar & Dominik Mysterio

If you’re planning to watch Wrestlemania with us, here are the Wrestlemania start times:

• 7 PM ET
• 6 PM CT
• 4 PM PT
• 12 AM GMT (April 7, 8)
• 9 AM AEST (April 7, 8)

Wrestlemania will stream live on Peacock for you to watch from home. A subscription will be required. The basic Peacock subscription costs $6 a month. There’s also the $12 monthly option which allows you to download content for offline viewing and watch movies or TV shows, ad-free.

Now kick back as Wrestlemania unfolds. As with every year, make sure you’re following along as GameSpot is inside the stadium in Philadelphia for the show and will be bringing results, reviews, and insights into Wrestlemania XL from the press box at Lincoln Financial Field.

The show has kicked off and, honestly, can’t think of a better match to open Wrestlemania this year. They should set the bar high and tear the house down.

First thing first: Rhea Ripley’s entrance was perfect, no notes. That band should play her to the ring every single day. Becky’s book-themed attire looks great. All things being equal, we know Wrestlemania is about the over-the-top pageantry of it all and these two understood the assignment.

Early on, I was surprised that Becky and Rhea took turns in control. Rhea has been something of an unstoppable force for the last year and I expected, at least in the early goings of the match, she would absolutely dominate Becky. That said, them trading control has made for a hot way to start the show as the crowd is pretty split between them. Rhea may be the heel, but Becky got some serious boos after her entrance.

That press slam Rhea hit and followed up with a knee to the face looked absolutely brutal in the best way. Even though they’re trading shots all over the place, Rhea still looks like an absolute monster. The same goes with Rhea turning Becky’s DisarmHer into a series of vicious powerbombs. There’s nobody on the roster that can work like this woman.

Becky kicking out of the Riptide felt like a major moment. It’s not often we see that move not finish the job. In the end, though, as much as Becky wanted it and really put a beating on Ripley, Mami landed two more Riptides (one into a turnbuckle) for the three to end an excellent first Wrestlemania match.

Winner: Rhea Ripley retains via pinfall

Rating: 8/10

The Judgment Day (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Awesome Truth vs. #DIY vs. A-Town Down Under vs. New Catch Republic (Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Ladder match)

Alright, #DIY’s DX-flavored attire and entrance was pretty awesome and such a fun nod to the ongoing R-Truth bit of him thinking they are Shawn Michaels and Triple H. However, I gotta give the nod to Judgement Day and their creepy masks for best attire.

Tyler Bate’s airplane spin to both Finn Balor and a ladder was such a cool visual, as was the doubler moonsault to the outside–those are the exact kind of car crash moments expected in these matches, but they never cease being entertaining.

The same goes for everything R-Truth does. The fact that he waited on the apron until he was tagged in, only to then do John Cena’s moveset, was absolutely brilliant. But then he tried to go for the pin, not realizing it means nothing. That entire moment had everyone in the press box crying with laughter and applauding this awesome human.

Austin Theory and Grayson Waller grabbed the Smackdown Team Team Championships and, honestly, good for them. Those two have been fantastic of late. Of course, then Grayson Waller was powerbombed out of the ring and through a ladder, so he’s probably done for the night.

Honestly, this match was filled with the exact kind of ridiculousness you would want. From the White Noise Ciampa hit to Tyler Bate off the lasser to the massive DT out of the ring and through a table, there was so much carnage on display–and that’s before JD McDonagh for dumped out of the ring from the top of the ladder.

There is no happier ending for this match than Awesome Truth walking out with at least one set of titles and it was R-Truth who snagged the Raw belts. definite Wrestlemania feel-good moment as he and Miz celebrated.

Winners: A-Town Down Under (Smackdown Tag Team Championships) and Awesome Truth (Raw Tag Team Championships)

Rating: 7.5/10

It should be officially noted that once I put this in writing, it’s official: GameSpot loves “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio. He’s the coolest guy around. He went to prison. Now, onto a completely unbiased view of this match he’s in.

I want to thank this match for getting right down to what we want to see, a father and son beating the snot out of each other. It didn’t last long, but I quite enjoyed Rey and Dom going at it.

The Electric Chais dive to the outside by Andrade and Rey was utterly ridiculous and, honestly, I’m a fan of how many Electric Chairs we are seeing so far. Beyond that, this was a really good bout. It didn’t have the frenetic energy of the first two bouts, but that’s likely a good thing. The card is absolutely stacked tonight and we need to catch our breath at some point. Besides, I’d rather have a “pretty good match” here and there, rather than a terrible one.

Plus, the Eagles players helping the LWO get the win was a fun touch that made the local crowd very happy. Though, I hate them both for making wrestling king “Dirty” Dom lose.

I hope the culmination of this feud sees Dom moved away from his dad for a nice, long stretch. I’m ready for him to come into his own in The Judgement Day and on the Raw roster.

Winners: Rey Mysterio and Andrade via pinfall

Rating: 6/10

The Mega Uso Powers explode!

Lil’ Wayne rapping Jey Uso to the ring was the exact kind of big moment you expect at Wrestlemania. Honestly, though, what was more impressive was watching a stadium full of people doing Jey Uso’s dance in unison.

We have to talk about the elephant in the room and that’s that this match was sponsored by Dude Wipes, which are exactly what you think they are. How do I know it was sponsored by them? Because the Dude Wipes logo was all over the barricade and ring apron. It’s weird but it’s also possibly the most relevant advertisement we will see tonight.

The way this match was built was practically perfect for what it was. These two know each other so well and traded blows back and forth, with neither able to get a real upper hand. That said, if superkicks as finishers weren’t already killed by the Young Bucks, this match sure did it.

The heel work Jimmy did in this match, his faux apooogy that ended with yet another superkick, was expected and a bit of a cliche. However, Jim Uso has been an excellent scummy heel the past few months and it fits so well into his character. Of course, it didn’t go well, with Jey getting the win shortly after.

This match was definitely shorter than I expected. And while there was some good character work in it from both Jey and Jim, the bout as a whole didn’t connect with me as much as I expected. Maybe evwen another five minutes could have allowed them to really ratchet things up.

Winner: Jey Uso via pinfall

Rating: 5/10

One day we are going to have to have an in-depth conversation about how Jade Cargill’s first WWE match was the Royal Rumble and her second was Wrestlemania. Is she already having the best rookie year of all time?

The women have been killing the game with their entrances tonight and this match was no different. Damage Ctrl’s walk to the ring was excellent, as was their opponents’–and a special shoutout goes to Bianca Belair’s Cyclops glasses.

Something I liked about the early parts of this match was how fluid Damage Ctrl was working together as a team. They’ve been together a long time and know how to work together. This is the first time Naomi, Bianca, and Jade have partnered, though. So, of course, they aren’t as fluid a team.

This was an excellent second outing for Jade, who looked absolutely dominant while in the ring. It’s hard to believe she’s so over after only one match, but the crowd loves this woman. And she got the win in a match that I enjoyed quite a bit. It felt like the energy ratcheted back up after slowing down a bit for a couple of matches.

Winners: Bianca Belair, Naomi & Jade Cargill via pinball

Rating: 7.5/10

Gunther is the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion ever, an impressive feat. And Sami Zayn is an excellent character. The build-up to this match has been so bizarre, though. Sami and Chad Gable’s training sessions bordered on comedy before Sami admitted he was afraid of failing. I’m not sure what they wanted to accomplish in the lead-up to Wrestlemania, but I’m not sure they nailed it.

That said, Zayn is a worthy competitor and there was no doubt these two were bound to have a serious banger of a match.

That didn’t stop Gunther from brutalizing him throughout the match, though. Zayn wasn’t only on defense, however. He got in some great offense–and even managed to cut off a barrage of Gunther chops. He also kicked out of Gunther’s signature powerbomb, which doesn’t happen all that often. Then he kicked out of two more.

Sami, against all odds, beat Gunther and ended the reign. What a wonderful outcome. And Sami even pulled out the brainbuster to the top turnbuckle, a move he learned from retired luchador, El Generico.

Side note: How cool is it that Gunther’s reign was 666 days long?

Winner: Sami Zayn via pinfall

Rating: 8.5/10

This might be the biggest tag team match in Wrestlemania history–and that’s saying a lot. Oh, and by the way, the official attendance figure for tonight was 72,543 people selling out the Linc.

First of all, let’s talk about Seth’s gear. It was absolutely perfect, complete with a long train. No other man in WWE has style that anywhere near rivals Rollins and tonight he’s taken it to another level. What’s more, this was just night one. Seth has another match, and theoretically another outfit, tomorrow.

I was going to complain about The Rock’s entrance being a half-hour long, but the Brahma Bull ring of fire is too cool to be mad about. The title belt still makes no sense, regardless of who gave it to him. But if this keeps him from fighting for an actual championship, I’m fine with it. Though the announcers were talking about his 12-week training camp for this match. If he’s the “Final Boss,” shouldn’t he always be ready? Shang Tsung didn’t get a 12-week training camp.

It’s shocking to think that this is technically Rollins’ first Wrestlemania main event. Sure, he cashed in Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania, but that wasn’t his billed match.

There was a bit of poetry having Seth and Roman start things out. They’ve crossed paths in the Wrestlemania main event and, of course, they have their shared history in The Shield. I’d love a long-term feud between a babyface Rollins and a heel Reigns. I hope we get that eventually. Their small feud earlier in Roman’s reign just wasn’t enough for me.

The strange thing about The Rock is he works like more of a big man now because, well, he’s a very big man. It’s an entirely different style of wrestling than when he was on the active roster. It’s strange to see him tossing people like Seth Rollins around, rather than bumping like a maniac all over the ring. Honestly, could you imagine this Rock taking the “Stone Cold” Stunner the way he used to?

The press room popped loud when The Rock told the referee if he counted anyone out, he was fired. He’s on the board of directors, so he can certainly do that. What a dastardly heel thing to do. And it made the long stretch of fighting outside of the ring make sense. Honestly, it’s the little things that make a match work.

Having Rock and Reigns meticulously tear apart the leg of Seth Rollins throughout the match was kind of a brilliant choice, honestly. It keeps Cody seething in the corner, makes Rollins sympathetic, and adds a brand new dimension to his title defense on night two.

There were a couple of pints mid-match where it sounded, at least in the press box, like the crowd got quiet. There are a couple of possible reasons for that. They could be tired. Or they could be freezing. It’s currently 47 degrees Fahrenheit.

All told, this was a hell of a main event. with a perfectly telegraphed sequence close to the end. Roman spearing Rock, the stereo pedigrees, Rollins’ big dive off the top rope onto Roman, it was all fantastic and it made it seem like Cody and Seth could somehow overcome the odds. And that Rock Bottom from Cody through the table was a thing of absolute beauty and immediately followed by Roman spearing Seth through the barricade.

The outcome of the match, with Rock and Roman winning, isn’t a surprise. And, honestly, knowing the likely outcome didn’t ruin this match at all. And makes tomorrow more interesting.

Winners: Roman Reigns and The Rock via pinfall.

Rating: 8.5/10