The Rock emerged victorious on Day 1 of WWE WrestleMania 40© X (formerly Twitter)
The Rock and Roman Reigns emerged victorious over Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in a sensational main-event on Night 1 of WWE WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia on Sunday. The Rock, who was competing in his first WWE match since WrestleMania 32 back in 2016, provided the finishing touch in an evenly-matched contest as he delivered ‘The People’s Elbow’ on Rhodes to score the final pinfall. The victory means that the Night 2 main event match between Rhodes and Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship will now be fought under ‘Bloodline Rules’. The Bloodline is the name of a group led by Reigns and The Rock, which includes their family members Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. The ‘Bloodline Rules’ match will be a street fight – where there will be no disqualification.
Seth Rollins will also feature in the match card for WWE WrestleMania 40 Night 2 where he will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Drew McIntyre.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE FINAL BOSS AND THE TRIBAL CHIEF!#WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/j1pl7d0yCq
— WWE (@WWE) April 7, 2024
Meanwhile, Sami Zayn ended Gunther’s 666-day reign as WWE Intercontinental Champion in one of the best matches of the night. Gunther spent nearly two years as the champion before Zayn produced a brilliant performance to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time in his career.
The Night 1 of WrestleMania 40 started with Rhea Ripley successfully defending her title against Becky Lynch. Ripley, whose entrance music was performed live by metalcore band Motionless in White, received a massive ovation from the fans despite being portrayed as the ‘villain’ of the story and her victory means that she hasn’t suffered a single pinfall or submission loss since May 2022.
The show also saw two new champions, as A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) and The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and Raw Tag Team Championship respectively. They were involved in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match where both tag-team belts held by The Judgement Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) were up for grabs.
In other results, Jey Uso defeated Jimmy Uso in a brother vs brother grudge match while the team of Rey Mysterio and Andrade defeated Santos Escobar and “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio in a tag-team match that saw the involvement of Philadelphia Eagles legend Jason Kelce and ex-teammate Lane Johnson. Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, and Naomi also defeated Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Asuka, and Kairi Sane).
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