WWE WrestleMania 35 review: Highlights, takeaways and projections

WWE Universal Championship Match

Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins

Following the WrestleMania intro from host Alexa Bliss and Hulk Hogan, who made his first WrestleMania appearance in four years, Paul Heyman made his way to the ring and announced that if Brock Lesnar wasn’t going on last, then he was going on first so he could leave and head to Las Vegas where he’s “ultimately appreciated”. Nice touch, Paul. No one thought that Lesnar and Rollins would jerk the curtain at WrestleMania but it worked, thanks to Heyman’s genius explanation.

This was a sprint to start the show and it was a lot of fun. The crowd was hot for the opener and Lesnar manhandled Rollins before the match officially began, hitting an F5 on the floor and throwing Rollins around and over tables like a rag doll. But Rollins took it and told Brock to bring more. The outside action took longer than the actual match, which ended up only being two minutes, 33 seconds. After a few suplexes that looked like Lesnar was trying to set distance records, the referee was knocked out of the ring momentarily, which allowed Rollins to hit a low blow and gain the upper hand. He then hit The Stomp not once, not twice, but three times to get the clean pinfall win. He then celebrated just as he did after WrestleMania 31 by swinging his newly-won title around at the top of the ramp.

What’s next: With how everything went down, it looks as Lesnar really is headed back to UFC for a highly-anticipated matchup with Daniel Cormier, who even mocked The Beast on social media Sunday night after the loss. This won’t be the last time we see Lesnar in a WWE ring, but that seems to be it for now. As for the new WWE Universal Champion, Rollins will need a new contender and there are plenty around to challenge him. The Superstar Shakeup might change just who those people are on Monday nights, so we’ll have to wait and see who’s coming to know which direction we’re headed.