Wrestlemania 40 May Go Down As Best Ever After Cody Rhodes Finishes Off Story With Title Win

It’s not an overreaction to say that Wrestlemania 40 will go down as one of the best ever in the history of the big event.

The two-night event culminated with the year-long story arc of Cody Rhodes finally winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship over Roman Reigns. While that ending was expected, the way in which it all went down is what’s noteworthy.

Towards the ending of the match — one that was contested under Bloodline Rules — a number of past and present wrestlers became involved to even out the odds. What then transpired may go down as the greatest ending to a main event in Wrestlemania history.

The Usos started it out with Jimmy interfering on behalf of Reigns and Jey then stepping in to help out Rhodes. It started off a chain reaction of the biggest superstars since the Attitude Era popping in to help turn the momentum in favor of either Reigns or Rhodes.

Ruthless Aggression star John Cena chipped in to take out Solo Sikoa by giving him an Attitude Adjustment through the announce table. The Rock then appeared to give John Cena — in a reference to their rivalry of 10 years prior that took place at Wrestlemania 28 and 29 — a Rock Bottom in the middle of the ring.

And then — in the biggest pop of the night to that point — the Undertaker appeared to choke slam The Rock in a reference to The Attitude Era.

That’s not even mentioning Seth Rollins making an appearance in attire from his Shield days. Roman Reigns then proceeded to hit him in the back with a steel chair in reference to when Rollins turned on Reigns and Dean Ambrose to break up The Shield back in 2014.

The subtle references to previous rivalries, the tribute to previous eras and finally the culmination of having Rhodes — who had never won a World Title — finally achieve his dream of winning the title that has long eluded him may make this go down as the best Wrestlemania ever.

While celebrating in the ring with a number of his peers — including Randy Orton, CM Punk and Cena — Rhodes alluded to the “new era” of the WWE. It included paying thanks to Triple H, who is leading this new creative direction of the company now that Vince McMahon is no longer involved.

It remains to be seen if the WWE will continue this momentum that they’ve had leading into Wrestlemania. The company annually steps it up a notch from the time of the Royal Rumble in January until Wrestlemania. But this time around, this feels different; this does feel like a new era.

There were no weak spots from this two-night Wrestlemania and every decision and outcome made sense. Whether it was Damian Priest unexpectedly cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the World Heavyweight Championship, whether it was the seeds being planted for the Drew McIntyre versus CM Punk feud, or whether it was having the Avengers-style face-off in the main event of Night 2, everything just felt right.

Television ratings have obviously been high this year, boosted in part due to The Rock’s key role in The Bloodline’s feud against Rhodes and Rollins. Friday Night Smackdown’s ratings in the 18-49 age demographic have seen a 15% boost — through March 22 — in comparison to this time last year and ranked No. 1 in the demo for the first 11 of 12 weeks of the quarter.

Following the second night of Wrestlemania, Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque went into detail about why this was the “biggest” Wrestlemania ever.

“I feel like this was the biggest Wrestlemania of all time,” said Levesque during the post-event press conference. “Set records this week for social media by far. We set records for merchandise by far. We set records for sponsorship by far. Destroyed records for gate. This was legitimately on every metric, the biggest Wrestlemania of all time.”

We’ll obviously see if WWE can maintain their momentum not only from a creative standpoint, but from a television ratings standpoint. The Rock will likely step away for the next few months until resuming a likely one-on-one feud with Rhodes leading into Summerslam in August.

Assuming that they do continue trending in the right direction, Wrestlemania 40 may go down as the best one ever. It could very well mark the beginning of the “new era” that Triple H and the WWE have repeatedly referred to during Wrestlemania weekend.

If that ends up being the case, we’ll point towards Wrestlemania XL as being the one that started it all.