Five biggest takeaways from WWE WrestleMania 35
The entire landscape of WWE changed on Sunday night in front of more than 82,000 people at MetLife Stadium.
During the biggest show of the year for WWE at WrestleMania 35, eight titles changed hands, effectively hitting the reset button for both “Monday Night Raw” and “SmackDown Live.”
While the outcome of every match won’t have a ripple effect on the entire company, here are the five biggest takeaways from an epic night of professional wrestling.
‘Mella is money — again
With both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships tied up in the main event, most of the women on the WWE roster were in the battle royal on the WrestleMania kickoff show.
In a spot that many expected Asuka to win, Carmella came out on top, adding a big WrestleMania moment to her resume, which is as impressive as any woman on the WWE roster.
Regardless of what brand she winds up on in the inevitable post-WrestleMania shake-up, Carmella could immediately find herself in the women’s championship picture thanks to her somewhat surprising victory.
The self-proclaimed “princess of Staten Island” has been one of the most underrated talents -- male or female -- in WWE and has shown she can carry a championship for an extended period and has the skills on the microphone to get almost everything she does over.
Raw’s new champion
Seth Rollins made good on his promise to slay the beast, beating Brock Lesnar to capture the WWE Universal Championship. While the outcome wasn’t entirely surprising considering how fans have been behind Rollins for a long time now, the match itself was.
The biggest surprise was the placement of the match on the card. After being the main event of WrestleMania 34, the Universal Championship match kicked off the show this year. Lesnar victimized Rollins several minutes outside of the ring before the bell official rang but Rollins was able to rally due to a low blow. Three stomps later and Rollins walked out of WrestleMania with one of the top championships in the company.
Both Rollins and Lesnar were booked strong in this match, leaving the door open for a possible rematch at a later pay-per-view event. For now though, “Raw” and WWE fans have a champion who will be more present on regular television programming.
WrestleMania officially becomes #KofiMania
WWE fans around the world got what they were looking for in the WWE Championship match. Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston tore down the house at MetLife Stadium, putting on arguably the best match of the night.
The biggest surprise of the contest was that neither Rowan nor The New Day got directly involved by putting their hands on Kingston or Bryan. This was an excellent decision that takes nothing away from Kingston, who after 11 years has finally reached the peak of WWE by going over clean against one of the top guys in the company.
In a storyline that heavily mirrored Bryan’s five years ago, the outcome was the same. The underdog came out on top and got a WrestleMania moment that will be seared in fans’ minds for a long time.
We’ll likely see this feud continue in the coming weeks, which no wrestling fan will complain about and it seems unlikely that Kingston’s reign will be short considering the two presents The New Day brought out to celebrate: The old WWE Championship belt and some fresh new merchandise featuring Kofi as champion.
The return of Roman Reigns
Compared to some of the others on the card, Roman Reigns’ match against Drew McIntyre relatively low stakes.
Both Reigns and McIntyre were both going to be in or near the WWE Universal title picture regardless of the outcome of this match, so this was a chance to get fans reacquainted with Reigns as a singles wrestler after his extended absence while he was battling leukemia.
Reigns didn’t look to have lost a step during the match and McIntyre was the perfect opponent for this spot, being physically imposing and a believable foil to the former universal champion.
Moving forward it doesn’t seem likely that with Rollins holding the top title on “Raw” that Reigns will feud with his former Shield ally, so expect to see more of this feud in the coming weeks.
“The Man” makes WrestleMania history, but who knows what’s next
All three women in the main event match looked strong at different points in the match, but Becky Lynch ultimately walked away with both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships.
As a dual champion, Lynch’s future is wide open. She can appear on either “Monday Night Raw” or “SmackDown Live and there’s even a chance she continues to pull double duty like she had been during the lead up to WrestleMania.
As for Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, they each have legitimate claims to a rematch with Lynch. Rousey, who has been rumored to be taking time off following WrestleMania, argued with the referee in the immediate aftermath that her shoulders were not down — and she may have a point.
Flair, who has been Lynch’s biggest rival for the better part of the past year, can make her case to face her former friend because she was not pinned in the championship match.
Regardless of what direction WWE ultimately goes in, WrestleMania was proof that the women are more than capable of driving a major pay-per-view event.
More from Yahoo Sports:
