April 15, 2024 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 40 review, AEW airs CM Punk/Jack Perry All In footage

By Dave Meltzer
Published: 12 Apr 2024, 05:27

In the 150 years of this industry all over the world, there has never been a show, and a main event, that garnered the level of interest as Cody Rhodes’ two-year storyline of chasing Roman Reigns for the Universal title, which climaxed at the 4/7 WrestleMania day two.

People may attribute other matches as having more historical importance, and you can only look at them years later with any perspective. WWE creates its own history and they can create the long-term aura and significance of the match to whatever historical level they desire. They made the call to go one more year rather than pay it off last year, to a lot of criticism.

The reality is the plan was always to pay the story off and it was just a question of when. In hindsight, they ended up lucking into something that made it bigger, which was the plans that changed when Dwayne Johnson came back to not pay it off on this show. But based on public reaction, they changed plans and they lucked into something far bigger than it would have been. It was the classic case of teasing you with something, having it taken away once and seemingly twice, so it becomes even bigger when you get it.