2019 WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
WrestleMania 35 was the 35th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions. The event took place on April 7, 2019, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It included the first-ever women's main event match in WrestleMania history. It was also the first WrestleMania since WrestleMania 2000 to not feature The Undertaker. It was also the final WrestleMania to be held as a one-night event; the following year, WrestleMania was expanded to two nights.
The card comprised 16 matches, including four on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Becky Lynch defeated Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a Winner Takes All triple threat match to win both championships. In a main match from SmackDown, Kofi Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan to win his first WWE Championship, and in the opening bout, which was a main match from Raw, Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar to win his first Universal Championship. The event also saw the final matches of two veteran wrestlers: Kurt Angle lost his farewell match against Baron Corbin, and Batista lost a No Holds Barred match against Triple H and retired after the event. Additionally, this was the final WrestleMania to feature Triple H as an in-ring competitor as he retired in 2022 due to a cardiac event. This also marked the last time the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was contested at a WrestleMania itself. It also was the second WrestleMania to be held at MetLife Stadium after WrestleMania 29.
Production.
Background.
WrestleMania is WWE's flagship pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, having first been held in 1985. It was the company's first pay-per-view produced and was also WWE's first major event available via livestreaming when the company launched the WWE Network in 2014. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". WrestleMania is ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes, and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. Much like the Super Bowl, cities bid for the right to host the year's edition of WrestleMania.
Announced on March 15, 2018, WrestleMania 35 was scheduled to be held on April 7, 2019, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey (after IV, V, and 29) and the sixth in the New York metropolitan area (after I, 2, X, XX, and 29).
There were two official theme songs for the event: "Love Runs Out" by OneRepublic, which served as the main theme, and "Work" by Chris Classic, which served as a secondary theme. There was also a theme song for the main event, "White Flag" by Bishop Briggs. On November 5, 2018, traveling packages for the event were sold while tickets went on sale on November 16, 2018. On the March 11 episode of "Raw", current wrestler Alexa Bliss was revealed as the host of WrestleMania 35. On the following episode, Elias announced that he would have a musical performance at the event.
Multiple celebrities took part in the event. On the March 4 episode of "Raw", Colin Jost and Michael Che of "Saturday Night Live" were introduced as special correspondents for the event, and were later entered into the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Joan Jett performed her song "Bad Reputation" live for Ronda Rousey's ring entrance. Gospel music star and syndicated radio host Yolanda Adams performed "America the Beautiful" to begin the main show.
Storylines.
The event comprised 16 matches, including four on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw", "SmackDown Live", and the cruiserweight-exclusive "205 Live".
Main event match.
At SummerSlam, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were involved in a triple threat match for the SmackDown Women's Championship against defending champion Carmella, which Flair won. Afterwards, Lynch attacked Flair, ending their friendship. Lynch defeated Flair for the championship at Hell in a Cell and successfully defended her title against Flair in a Last Woman Standing Match at the inaugural all women's pay-per-view Evolution. At Survivor Series, Lynch was originally scheduled to face Raw's Ronda Rousey in a non-title match, but was replaced by Flair due to a legit injury; during the match, Flair brutally attacked Rousey with weapons. Rousey then interfered in a tables, ladders, and chairs championship match between Lynch, Flair, and Asuka at the , costing both Lynch and Flair the match. Lynch failed to regain the title at the Royal Rumble, but won the women's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Flair, despite injuring her own knee, and chose to face Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania.
Lynch was then suspended for refusing a medical examination on her knee. After getting medically cleared, however, Vince McMahon suspended her again and introduced Flair as Rousey's WrestleMania opponent. Over the following weeks, Lynch continued to violate her suspension and attacked both Rousey and Flair until the suspension was lifted. At Fastlane, Lynch defeated Flair by disqualification when Rousey attacked Lynch. Per the stipulation, Lynch was added back into the championship match at WrestleMania to make it a triple threat match. After Flair defeated Asuka for the SmackDown Women's Championship, the WrestleMania match was made Winner Takes All with both titles on the line. The match was also confirmed as the first-ever women's match to main event WrestleMania. On the April 1 episode of "Raw", Rousey, Lynch, and Flair won a six-woman tag team match; the first person to betray the other would have been removed from the match. After the match, all three brawled, even while handcuffed, and were taken out by police. On "SmackDown" the next night, Lynch recapped her road to WrestleMania and promised to win the Raw and SmackDown women's championships.
Men's world championship matches.
At the Royal Rumble, Raw's Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match, earning a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania. The next night on "Raw", Universal Champion Brock Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman tried to discourage Rollins from challenging Lesnar, leading to a brawl between Rollins and Lesnar. Subsequently, Rollins chose to challenge Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania.
On the February 12 episode of "SmackDown", Kofi Kingston replaced an injured Mustafa Ali in a gauntlet match to determine who would enter last in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber; during the match, Kingston pinned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in the first match of the gauntlet. At the event, Bryan retained the title by last eliminating Kingston. On the following "SmackDown", Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane after pinning Bryan in a six-man tag team match, however, Vince McMahon replaced Kingston with the returning Kevin Owens. On the "SmackDown" following Fastlane, The New Day (Big E, Kingston, and Xavier Woods) confronted Mr. McMahon for tricking Kingston into believing that he was added back into the title match at Fastlane. Mr. McMahon decided that if Kingston won a gauntlet match, he would receive a WWE Championship match against Bryan at WrestleMania. Kingston subsequently won the gauntlet match, however, Mr. McMahon added one more opponent, which was the WWE Champion himself, who defeated Kingston. On the March 26 episode, The New Day teased leaving WWE and once again confronted Mr. McMahon, who decided that Kingston would in fact receive the championship match if Big E and Woods won a tag team gauntlet match, which they subsequently did.
Undercard matches.
On "SmackDown 1000" on October 16, 2018, Batista, who had last wrestled in WWE in 2014, took part in an Evolution reunion. He praised fellow Evolution member Triple H for having done everything in the wrestling business except defeat him. Batista then attacked fellow Evolution member Ric Flair before the latter's 70th birthday celebration on the February 25, 2019, episode of "Raw", seeking Triple H's attention. Batista demanded a final match against Triple H at WrestleMania; Triple H accepted and made the stipulation a No Holds Barred match. Batista accused Triple H of always having kept him down, and demanded that Triple H put his career on the line and Triple H agreed.
On the March 11 episode of "Raw", WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle began his farewell tour, culminating with his farewell match at WrestleMania. The following week, Angle chose Baron Corbin as his final opponent as Corbin had caused Angle many problems during the latter's tenure as Raw General Manager (2017–2018) and eventually supplanted him, temporarily becoming Acting Raw General Manager.
At Crown Jewel, Shane McMahon won the WWE World Cup, replacing The Miz in the finals, who was unable to compete after a pre-match brawl. Following this, The Miz and Shane formed a tag team. They won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at the Royal Rumble, however, they lost the titles at Elimination Chamber. After failing to recapture the titles at Fastlane, Shane attacked Miz and Miz's father, who was seated in the front row. On "SmackDown", Shane accused Miz of using him and he wanted to beat him up again, and challenged Miz to a match at WrestleMania. The following week, Miz challenged Shane to make their match falls count anywhere and Shane agreed.
At Fastlane, Samoa Joe retained the United States Championship in a fatal four-way match by making Rey Mysterio pass out to the Coquina Clutch. On the following episode of "SmackDown", Mysterio pinned Joe in a tag team match. The following week, Mysterio announced that he would be facing Joe for the title at WrestleMania 35.
After weeks of disparaging comments about one another, Randy Orton eliminated AJ Styles in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. At Fastlane, Orton attacked Elias from behind only for Styles to attack him. On the following "SmackDown", Orton took umbrage with Styles referring to SmackDown as "the house that AJ Styles built," as Orton began his WWE career on SmackDown in 2002, whereas Styles spent most of that time on the independent circuit until his WWE debut in 2016. Styles responded that Orton had everything handed to him while Styles had to actually work for it. He challenged Orton to a match at WrestleMania and Orton accepted.
Roman Reigns, who had been on hiatus due to leukemia since October 2018, returned on the February 25, 2019, episode of "Raw" and stated that his leukemia was in remission. After Fastlane, Drew McIntyre attacked Reigns, defeated fellow Shield member Dean Ambrose in a Falls Count Anywhere match, defeated fellow Shield member Seth Rollins, and then challenged Reigns to a match at WrestleMania. McIntyre claimed that he destroyed The Shield and brought up Reigns' leukemia and family, prompting Reigns to accept the challenge.
After becoming the inaugural WWE Women's Tag Team Champions at Elimination Chamber, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) stated that they would defend the titles across Raw, SmackDown, and NXT. They retained their championships against Raw's Nia Jax and Tamina at Fastlane, and were then called out by SmackDown's The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce). On the March 18 episode of "Raw", WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix came out of retirement to reform her tag team with Natalya and challenge for the championship at WrestleMania. The next night on "SmackDown", The IIconics defeated The Boss 'n' Hug Connection in a non-title match. The champions were then scheduled to defend the titles against Jax and Tamina, Phoenix and Natalya, and The IIconics in a fatal four-way tag team match at WrestleMania.
At Elimination Chamber, Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a handicap match to win Lashley's Intercontinental Championship. Lashley regained the title on the March 11 episode of "Raw" thanks to assistance from Rush. On the March 25 episode, Bálor earned another title match at WrestleMania by defeating Lashley and Jinder Mahal in another handicap match, and Bálor warned Lashley that he would be facing his alternate persona, "The Demon".
On the