Wrestlemania 35 recap: women’s main event, historic new WWE champ, ‘heel’ Cena.

WrestleMania 35, which featured women in the main event for the first time, appeared to be a massive hit.

The annual “Super Bowl” of pro wrestling, held Sunday in East Rutherford, NJ. The event generated a MetLife Stadium record of $16.9 million grossed from the event. And the WWE announced more than 82,000 fans attended, the third most-ever for the event.

For comparison, more than 70,000 fans attended a sold-out Super Bowl in Atlanta in February.

It covered more than seven hours and more than a dozen matches, but this WrestleMania delivered.

Fans — and critics — seemed to love most every second of it.

Some highlights: Kurt Angle lost a farewell match. Triple H won a match that, if he had lost, would have meant retirement. Kofi Kingston became just the second black wrestler to win the WWE championship. And Shane McMahon, the son of WWE head man Vince McMahon, beat the Miz in what may have been the most enjoyable match of the night.

McMahon was suplexed off a raised platform providing, at least on first blush, one of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history.

Fan favorites like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall made surprise appearances. Longtime fan favorite (and also fan ‘unfavorite’) star John Cena returned — bringing his original rap gimmick. Cena, in wrestling parlance, turned “heel,” which means he’ll be a bad guy for awhile (and probably become more popular than ever).

But the biggest match of the night was the winner-take-all women’s match for both the Raw and Smackdown championships. Women had never been in the main event before.

The match between Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Providence High alum Charlotte Flair, didn’t begin until after midnight.

The match was rough. It didn’t always flow well, but it was physical. Rousey was bloody, visibly bruised and appeared to hit her head on the floor at one point. Flair also appeared to injure her knee and was a little bloody, too.

Ultimately, Lynch pinned Rousey for the win (although Rousey’s shoulders didn’t appear to be down). The match was history making, memorable and very loud.

After the match, popular former UFC fighter Conor McGregor dropped a little hint as to what might be the next big news in the wrestling world.

WrestleMania Results

▪ Tony Nese d. Buddy Murphy via pin, Cruiserweight championship.

▪ Carmella wins Women’s Battle Royal

▪ Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins d. The Revival, Raw Tag Team title

▪ Braun Strowman wins Andre The Giant battle royal.

▪ Seth Rollins d. Brock Lesnar, Universal Championship

▪ AJ Styles d. Randy Orton, via pin

▪ The Usos d. The Bar, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Shinsuke Nakamura, SmackDown Tag Team title

▪ Shane McMahon d. The Miz, via pin

▪ The Ilconics d. Boss N Hug Connect, women’s tag team title

▪ Kofi Kingston d. Daniel Bryan, WWE Championship

▪ Samoa Joe d. Rey Mysterio, submission, US Championship.

▪ Roman Reigns d. Drew McIntyre, pin

▪ Triple H d. Batista, pin

▪ Baron Corbin d. Kurt Angle, pin

▪ Finn Balor d. Bobby Lashley, pin, Intercontinental title

▪ Becky Lynch d. Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, Raw and Smackdown Women’s title.

This story was originally published April 8, 2019 at 11:28 AM.