WrestleMania 39: The Greatest WrestleMania Build Ever (Part 2)
Ok, where were we? June 20th, 2016 in Phoenix, AZ if I remember correctly. If you missed how we got here, click here for part 1, but for now let’s fast forward a little bit to the dewy slopes of early 2017.
Wrestlemania 33 — April 2017
Cody was already out trying to knock out his Indie Wrestling checklist, but another giant domino fell in Orlando, Florida at Wrestlemania 33.
Just to get it out of the way, I’m not going to harp on Roman here. Still getting rejected by the crowd, still getting the Main Event slot, and also having what was probably Undertaker’s worst post 2000 match that didn’t involve Goldberg.
This was the event that got the ball rolling on Chris Jericho leaving WWE. I don’t think anyone thought it would happen on the day, but it’s undeniable that this soured things for the creator of the Festival of Friendship.
A litany of things went wrong for Chris Jericho (and Kevin Owens) on the way to WrestleMania 33. Jericho and KO being best friends was easily the best and hottest story going in WWE in Early 2017.
Not only were they wildly entertaining, KO was enjoying his first run as the WWE Universal Champion. It seemed to be fait accompli that Jericho and Owens would faceoff for the title at WrestleMania after their Festival of Friendship split.
I guess I could have just said that Vince McMahon happened. VKM shuffled the world title on to Goldberg at the last minute so that Brock Lesnar and Goldberg could fight over the title at Mania.
Jericho and KO got demoted to the US Title scene and ended up going on 2nd at the showcase of the immortals. It’s also widely reported that Vince openly disliked the match on the night.
You can’t help but wonder what happens if Jericho and KO get their title match in Orlando.
“I’ll Take That Bet Dave” — May 2017
Roughly a month after Mania 33, Cody sent the tweet that launched a major wrestling promotion (eventually). Another statement of intent after Dave Meltzer responded to a question on Twitter about whether or not an Indie card could draw 10,000 plus people. Well, he did, but we’ll come back to this…
Wrestlekingdom 12 — January 2018
This whole post has been absolutely WWE-centric so far. I can absolutely admit that. My wrestling purview was only WWE for the first few years I was getting back into the sport.
I didn’t really know anything about it. I knew that Impact or TNA or whatever it was called at this point (GFW?) was still kicking around, and ROH was just the low rent looking wrestling show that came on after midnight sometimes while I was bartending.
Wrestlekingdom 12 was the show that changed this for me. We circle back to Chris Jericho because I was absolutely following him to NJPW to watch his match with Kenny Omega.
I had heard whispers on the parts of Wrestling Twitter I had waded into of Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada. Words like best match ever and ‘Six Stars!’ bouncing around the internet, but I hadn’t really made an attempt to seek it out.
But Twitter absolutely exploded when Chris Jericho showed up via video to call out Kenny Omega for a match at Wrestlekingdom. After some light googling I found out that I could watch the show for free on AXS TV and I was absolutely in.
I’ve been a fan of Chris Jericho since he was running around with Ralphus in WCW. So when I heard he’d be wrestling the purported ‘Best in the World’ I had to tune in.
Little did I know I was about to be introduced to a whole new world of wrestling. I was introduced to the Young Bucks, Kota Ibushi, Minoru Suzuki, Tanahashi, Jay White, Okada, and Tetsuya Naito. Also, hey, look who it is… Cody Rhodes.
I had only seen Cody perform as Stardust at this point so watching him in NJPW was a revelation. He was paired up with Brandi, he was now the American Nightmare, and it was immediately a night and day difference from anything I’d seen.
I immediately started following when I could watch Kenny, Cody, and The Young Bucks. This was perfect for me since WWE had gotten a little stale at this point, and it had a lot to do with the other man we’ve been following, Roman Reigns. An alternative to the WWE style was a breath of fresh air.
ALL IN — Sept 2018
Here is where I immediately admit that I was too broke living in Phoenix to order the pay-per-view. That doesn’t change the fact that this was the show that changed everything.
It proved that The Elite was on to something big here. They managed to draw the biggest non-WWE crowd since WCW existed, and it was fairly obvious that something big was brewing in the world of Sports Entertainment.
This is where I wrap up part 2. Part 3 tomorrow should #FinishTheStory, but we all know where part 3 starts, and it starts in Jacksonville, Florida. See you tomorrow.
You can go straight to Part 3 of the story here!
