WWE WrestleMania 35, East Rutherford, NJ
We’re just a few hours from tonight’s Raw where Becky Lynch has a “major announcement” and there’s all kinds of outstanding wild speculation, so let’s look back on the crowning of “The Man” from WrestleMania 35. Both the Raw women’s title and Smackdown women’s title, held by Rousey and Flair respectively, are on the line.
Flair gets an elaborate helicopter entrance, but she doesn’t actually come out first, because the helicopter had to land across the street and she has to walk over and into the building and through the stadium backstage and all this. So Joan Jett and the Blackhearts play Rousey out first. They kill it. Ronda’s turtlehead walk in full effect after she switches to Intense after smiling at Joan. Flair’s post-helicopter entrance is WrestleMania normal with big fireworks. Lynch’s entrance is pretty much just her normal entrance but she has WrestleMania Hair.
Rousey unleashes hell early, battering Lynch with punches, knocking Flair out to the floor. She slams Lynch into the barricade with a Piper’s Pit variation, then hits one on the floor on Flair. Dunno why this move is called “Piper’s Pit,” Roddy Piper didn’t do any moves a quarter this cool. She goes for another Pit on Lynch, who knocks Rousey into the post then boots her in the face, setting up Flair throwing Rousey into the barricade with an exploder.
That slows things down and now we kill some time with Flair posing in the ring, and then Lynch is there to meet her. They have a short conversation because someone in WWE thinks it’s vitally important that the women especially talk all the time. Women be talkin!
Rousey comes back and Flair and Lynch struggle to get her up in a Flair power bomb, and then she grabs an armbar on Flair while Lynch escapes. Rousey, hanging over the ropes with Flair in an armbar, gets dropkicked to the floor by Lynch, landing right on her head. The slow motion of the bump is great, really need Jim Ross here for one of his classic infuriated “OH THEY KNOW HOW TO FALL” bits.
With Rousey out, it’s Flair and Lynch in the ring, and Charlotte is in full control. Flair misses a moonsault, Becky goes for the Disgoostin Armbar, Rousey breaks it up and goes for her own armbar on Lynch, but Becky rolls until Flair can come in with a knee to Ronda’s face.
Now we’ve got Flair and Rousey, The Combat Sports Veteran. Charlotte with chops, Rousey calling her on. Rousey says, “You chop like a bitch!” so Flair chops her in the jaw, and then Rousey hits a flying knee to the head, which Graves calls an elbow, making me wonder where he thinks the elbow is. Ronda goes for the armbar, Flair counters into a Liontamer and Lynch runs in with a faceslam on Charlotte.
Lynch takes over on Flair for a moment, landing some European uppercuts (she is European) and a headbutt before running into a shot from Flair. Flair with the flip in the corner, turns it into a boot from the apron. Flair up top, Lynch cuts her off with a Bexploder from the middle rope that they insist on calling the top rope like I don’t have eyes.
Rousey hits a double flying crossbody. The crowd has really died out here for the most part, it’s been a long show. Rousey armbars both, sort of triangle position, and it takes three double power bombs to break her ankle grip in the end.
If they’re gonna do these 5-6 hour WrestleManias they should go back to the old MSG format and let the main events go on in the middle and then let Don Muraco or Baron Corbin or the tag belts or someone close it out and people can just leave if they want.
They slow down a bit before Flair hits a Spanish Fly from the top on Lynch, getting two. Flair banged her knee on the landing. And Rousey’s leg is visibly fucked up with some scrapes and visible bruising. So Flair works that leg and gets the figure four on the post, taking a page from Bret Hart’s book, which is the book everyone should take a page from. Lynch breaks that up.
Back in the ring, Flair goes for the figure four on Rousey and bridges into the figure eight, but Becky breaks that up, too, with a flying legdrop. Now Becky going under the ring to find some plunder, and she does find plunder, in the form of a table.
Table comes into the ring (well Lynch brings it in, it didn’t come in by itself). Rousey breaks everything up and tips the table over. “Tables are for bitches! That’s why you like tables! Tables are for bitches!” This lady hates bitches as much as Ajax from THE WARRIORS hated wimps.
Rousey attacks Lynch, Flair comes back in and spears them both as they wrestle over a Disgoostin Armbar attempt. Flair tries pinning both, they both kick out. Charlotte grunts a lot in frustration.
Flair leans the table in the corner and slams Rousey’s head into it a few times. Lynch comes in and gets speared down again for another two count. Flair makes more faces and does more Acting. Flair sets for another double spear but GUESS WHAT she is instead double hiptossed into the table and it cracks. Technically it’s broken but it doesn’t break break.
Now we’ve got Lynch and Rousey trading, and Rousey hits the knee to the head, then rolls into the Piper’s Pit, but her bad leg won’t let her get up smoothly. She uses the ropes for help, hits the move, but Lynch rolls through for a crucifix pin and THAT’S IT! I actually quite like this finish, really. Aaaactually, reeeeaally. But it works with Ronda having the very visibly banged up leg and Lynch just using momentum and leverage, and Ronda contorted herself in a way that made it clear she couldn’t kick in time. And it’s Rousey’s first pinfall loss in WWE. She does lift a shoulder mid count, but it’s the far shoulder and the referee doesn’t see it. THAT part works because commentary make note of it after, Rousey’s pissed, and it sets up a good argument for Ronda’s potential, eventual return to WWE.
I know it’s not how anyone saw it live and it’s a SKEWED VIEW to do it this way, but I think this match is better standing alone than at the end of a too-long marathon. The work is mostly fast-paced and fun for a 21-minute match, very little downtime as WWE have sort of perfected the art of how these multi-person singles matches work over the years, with even the “OK one person is gone and laying around somewhere” a bit less blatant than it used to be, just in terms of how they present it.
Everyone’s in good form and the story of the match is pretty great. Even with the crowd legitimately just exhausted — not dead but maybe not what they would’ve been if this capped off four hours instead of seven counting Kickoff Show — the women earn that historic main event slot and deliver. I’m not 12 or a loon so I can’t exactly say this equals the crowning of Hogan in ’84 or Austin in ’98, but it was legit a lot stronger than the crownings of Cena and Batista in ’05.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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