Can’t Knock The Hustle: WWE Wrestlepalooza Review
After another five-hour AEW pay-per-view, I needed some family time to recharge my batteries, so I took a break instead of watching Wrestlepalooza immediately after All Out.
Luckily, I have been able to avoid any spoilers and match results, so I’ll be watching Wrestlepalooza with as fresh an outlook as can be.
No more wasted time. Let’s rock.
John Cena vs Brock Lesnar
First and foremost, Brock Lesnar might be in the best shape of his entire career, and holy hell, is that saying a lot. He looks like he has been lifting redwood trees out of the ground and throwing them in the ocean during his spare time.
Cena is accompanied on the stage by a few dozen children dressed just like him. That’s awesome for the kids, but it might not bode well for Mr. Cena. The last time he did something like that was at WrestleMania 39, where he followed it up by losing to Austin Theory. Last time I checked, Austin Theory is no Brock Lesnar. As a matter of fact, it has been a while since we’ve last seen Austin Theory. Did Brock eat him? That might explain the size of “The Beast” recently.
Just as Alicia Taylor was set to announce Brock, Paul Heyman’s voice interrupted her, and Heyman showed up at ringside. Whaaaaat? Heyman and Lesnar high five (which Heyman hilariously sells as hurting his hand), and Heyman then proceeds to introduce Brock like only he can do. What a twist. How does Seth Rollins feel about this?
At the opening bell, Brock is literally manhandling Cena, picking him up and throwing Cena around as if John was one of the children from his entrance.
Cena goes to lift Brock for an AA, but Brock slips out and nearly takes John’s head off with an explosive clothesline. That was as close to an offensive attack as we’ve seen from Cena in this match.
Cena finally gets momentum, hitting Brock with four straight shoulder tackles and then three straight AA’s, but Brock kicks out. Brock then hops back to his feet as Cena was going for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, and he drops John with an F-5, followed by another one, and then another one… and then another one. Cameras cut to children in the crowd, looking very concerned.
Brock with ANOTHER F-5, and then ANOTHER one. He pins Cena, and he gets the win. Holy hell. That was reminiscent of their match at SummerSlam 2014, with Brock absolutely dominating Cena for the entirety of the match. Good Lord.
After the match, Brock walks around at ringside, then gets back in the ring and hits the Referee with an F-5 before picking Cena up and dropping him with ANOTHER F-5. Multiple children are shown in the crowd crying. NBA superstar Tyrese Haliburton is in the front row looking stunned.
Wow. Brock is terrifying, and I’m sitting in my office, hours and thousands of miles away from the man. That was quite the interesting choice for one of John’s last ever matches. He was outmatched and outclassed, and looked like he had no business being in the ring with Brock. I don’t even know what kind of rating to use here. The match came close to the ten-minute mark, but didn’t quite get there. It was an entertaining beating with a mega fight feel, but it’s not like you can truly compare it to most other matches. I’m going to give it 3 Stars and move on. I don’t think I’d be completely satisfied with my rating, no matter what it was.
The Usos vs Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed – With Special Guest Referee LA Knight
This is the first time Jimmy and Jey have worked together in a straight up tag match in six months, and the first such match on pay-per-view since Money In The Bank 2023, when they defeated Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa.
Naturally, Jimmy and Jey come out to their “Down Since Day One Ish” entrance music. Nostalgia. Both of them are going extra hard for this entrance. Wouldn’t surprise me if one, or both, of them are blown up for a bit. That’s always the concern for Jey’s elaborate entrances.
Paul Heyman is accompanying Paul Patrol (and their matching leather jackets) to the ring, so I guess The Vision don’t seem to mind Heyman working with Brock Lesnar too much.
At ringside, Bronson Reed grabs a steel chair and is about to hit Jimmy with it, but LA Knight sees it and lays down the law. Jimmy kicks Bronson, grabs the chair, goes to hit Bronson with it, and looks at LA Knight… who just walks away casually, allowing Jimmy to hit Bronson across the back with the chair. Funny.
Moments later, all that is wiped out as Bronson grabs a chair and hits Jimmy across the back with it… right in front of the Special Guest Referee. Bronson basically dares Knight to do something about it, but ol’ Laurence Aloysius Knight can only look on in anger.
I know the kayfabe of The Vision is that Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman have taken Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed under their wings to mold them and make them into the unstoppable monsters they can be, but there really is a noticeable difference between their current work and their pre-Vision work. They look great, both as singles workers and as a tag team, and they really do seem to have their bright futures being fast tracked these days.
The Usos get a table set up in the ring, and LA Knight basically acts like there’s nothing he can do about it, much to the dismay of Paul Heyman.
Tensions arise between Jey and LA, leading to Jey nearly hitting Knight with a chair on accident. Out of nowhere, Jey comes up a bloody mess. Looking back on it, it almost looks like Jey clipped himself on the downswing when he went to hit Bron with the chair. He swung it, then immediately came up bleeding from the hairline. It didn’t look like the chair bounced back and hit him, but I suppose that would also make sense.
After LA Knight checked on Jey, he walked over to Bron and audibly called for a Spear, which was hit seconds later. Looks like it could’ve been an audible there. Bronson climbs to the top and hits Jey with a Tsunami, getting the pin and the win for his team.
That was fun. The Usos may very well be the greatest tag team of all-time, so it’s always good to see them battling together, and their opponents are becoming major players, too. Lots of shenaniganery with the Referee and how lax his rules were, but he basically called it down the middle. 3.75 Stars
Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer – Women’s World Title Match
This, of course, is for the vacant title that Naomi relinquished when she revealed to the world that she was pregnant.
Great series of technical wrestling to start, with beautiful counters, reversals, and pin combinations. This one could be a lot of fun. Both women have a legitimate claim to being the best women’s wrestler on the planet today.
Iyo with a missile dropkick and then she hits her emote, getting the crowd to pop big. They love her, and frankly, can you blame them? Can you blame them for loving either of these women? How can you not love them?
We’re only a few minutes in, but these two have their working boots on. Multiple “this is awesome” chants have broken out already.
Stephanie has hit Iyo with two of the nastiest looking Dragon Screw Legwhips you’ll ever see. My goodness. I’m rubbing my knee just watching that.
Stephanie with a BEAUTIFUL looking Spiral Tap (!!!) from the top rope, landing with absolute perfection, and it’s enough for her to get the pin and the win. She is emotional, fighting back tears, as she gets her title belt.
That was great. Great, great, great. Lots of technical wizardry combined with the joshi background that both women have, and some hard-hitting action thrown in for good measure. As the match went on, the crowd got more and more into it, and by the end, they were going crazy for everything. 4.5 Stars. Both women are on incredible rolls right now.
After the match, both women show tremendous respect for each other, bowing to one another before shaking hands and hugging. Great sportsmanship, and the crowd appreciated it, as well.
CM Punk & AJ Lee vs Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch – Mixed Tag Team Match
Here we go. This is AJ Lee’s first match since March 30th, 2015. Women’s wrestling has changed a lot since then. How will she fare here? Will she have a lot of ring rust? Why is Jadakiss as hard as it gets?
Seth and Becky have matching entrance gear, and their ring gear is color coordinated, as well. How adorable.
Punk is wearing a jacket that says “AJ’s Husband” on the front. How adorable, part deux. Love, amirite?
Loud “AJ Lee” chants from the crowd, and Seth covers his wife’s ears. They’re going to have a bunch of fun with this match, aren’t they?
We’re a couple minutes in, and we’re in full house show mode. Becky started the match, then tagged Seth in immediately, not allowing the crowd to get to see AJ wrestle just yet. Just when Seth and Punk are about to fight, Becky gets tagged back in. AJ gets in the ring, only to see Becky hit Punk with a sucker punch and run away. They’re going to build to quite the hot tag for AJ. You can already tell.
Becky keeps getting a cheap shot on Punk every chance she gets. She’s very dastardly.
We’re going really old school here. We even got the “tag was made behind the referee’s back so it doesn’t count” spot that seemingly every tag match of the 1980’s featured.
Funny spot with Seth giving Becky a Military Press, going to use her as an offensive weapon to Punk, who rolls out of the way at the last minute, causing Becky to crash to the mat. Seth sees himself sleeping on the couch for a few nights, and he is not happy.
Seth skips all around the ring, mocking AJ Lee, but he skips right into a GTS. Punk is too battered to capitalize on it with a pin attempt, though. Becky frantically tries to wake her husband off, and then tries to prevent Punk from tagging AJ in, but she’s unsuccessful. The crowd erupts as AJ enters the ring, and she goes on an offensive flurry, drawing “you still got it” chants.
For better or worse, AJ looks like someone who hasn’t had an official match in ten-and-a-half years. She doesn’t look horrible, but there are definitely some minor issues here and there with her timing and pacing. That kind of thing will be cleared up quite easily with more reps, though.
The match has been so entertaining to this point. Again, AJ isn’t dazzling with her technical prowess just yet, but everything she does is getting a big reaction, and her ability to connect with live crowds hasn’t gone away.
AJ makes Becky tap out with a Black Widow in the center of the ring! That was a blast. Not every match needs to be technically sound to the point of perfection. Entertainment is entertainment, and this match, folks, was pure entertainment. An old throwback of a tag match, with lots of fun house show type moments, and the crowd was heavily invested in everything. 4 Stars
Before the main event, we get the surprise arrival of The Undertaker, riding his motorcycle to the ring as Kid Rock’s “American Badass” plays. He stops when he sees Stephanie McMahon in the front row, and he grabs a microphone. Taker climbs over the guardrail and sits down next to Stephanie, asking her if she’s following him because he also saw her at the Bud Crawford vs Canelo boxing match.
Taker channels Triple H, asking Steph if she’s ready, before revealing that she is the first member of the WWE Hall Of Fame’s Class Of 2026. He says that they got her as she fights back tears. That was a cool moment, and a nice way for Triple H to get some “revenge” on his wife after she was involved in the surprise announcement that he was going into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre – Undisputed WWE Title Match
When this match was announced as the show’s main event… not the mixed tag match that has been getting so much attention, and not the epic Cena vs Lesnar mega fight… everyone’s Spidey-Senses began tingling. Does that mean something big is happening here? A title change, the return of The Rock, or something like that?
On one hand, I get that this match is going on last. I get the draw of having your top title main event the very first pay-per-view event on ESPN. On the other hand, though, this match has probably gotten less build than any other match on the card. It doesn’t help that everything has been so entertaining here, which means Cody and Drew have quite the bar to reach.
The early story is that Cody is having issues with his head after being driven through the announce table five weeks ago and the attack he suffered at the hands (and forehead) of Drew McIntyre last night on Smackdown. Makes you wonder how he was medically cleared for this, but Cody has damn near collapsed on multiple occasions now, stumbling around and pausing to shake out the proverbial cobwebs.
Commentary is doing everything they possibly can to indicate Cody might have a concussion without actually saying the word “concussion.” They’re laying it on thick here.
Drew goes to put Cody’s head through the announce table with a Claymore once again, but the Referee stands in between to stop him. The delay is enough for Cody to move out of the way when Drew finally goes for it, causing Drew’s leg to smash through the front of the table. This leads to a “ref, you suck” chant from the crowd.
Cody takes advantage of an injured Drew, hitting him with a Cross Rhodes to retain his title. The match was good. It needed to be great to top the previous three matches on the show, but it didn’t quite reach that level. Still 3.5 Stars, either way.
We go off the air with Cody celebrating in the ring as Drew’s leg is being checked out by the ringside doctor.
Overall, this was one of WWE’s better pay-per-view outings of the year. Every match delivered in one way, shape, or form. Every match brought something different to the table in one way, shape, or form. A definite recommendation from me, if you haven’t already checked it out.
