Saturday’s WWE Wrestlepalooza arrived as the first-ever event shown on the brand new ESPN Unlimited streaming platform.
The event, which WWE presented from Indianapolis featured heavy ESPN promotion leading up to a card of five matches. Those included John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, AJ Lee’s return to the ring, and several championships on the line.
The Wrestlepalooza results included Cena suffering a loss to The Beast in the opening match amid Cena’s retirement tour wrapping up this year. That resulted in young audience members shedding tears over seeing the iconic star defeated.
AJ Lee returned to the ring for her first match in 10 years, teaming with her real-life husband, CM Punk, to defeat the opposing real husband-and-wife team of Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
In one of the event’s siginficant highlight matches, Stephanie Vaquer became the new WWE Women’s World Champion by defeating Iyo Sky.
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In the main event, Cody Rhodes defeated Drew McIntyre to successfully defend the Undisputed WWE Championship.
In addition to those, The Vision’s Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker defeated The Usos in a brutal and bloody tag team match featuring tables, chairs, and more.
Soon after the event wrapped up, ESPN offered a critical review of all the matches and overall C score for the event, calling it “underwhelming.”
ESPN combat sports reporter Andreas Hale praised the Vaquer vs. Sky match as “a phenomenal display inside the squared circle.” Hale mentioned that match, which he graded a B+, helped save the event from being “truly average.”
Cena vs. Lesnar received the lowest grade of all matches at C- due to it being limited by Brock getting such a brief win with only a selection of moves.
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Hale gave all of the other matches on the card C-grades, suggesting that WWE underdelivered the product when it came to their first ever premium live event on ESPN Unlimited.
Fans may have also felt the event didn’t live up to expectations, especially with all the hype about it, and the more expensive cost for ESPN’s platform bundled with Disney+ and Hulu. Previous premium live events occured on Peacock which featured lower monthly or annual subscription costs.
The company has a chance at redemption when they present WWE Crown Jewel on the platform on October 11. They’ll have the potential advantage of a rowdier and noiser international crowd since the event will occur in Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
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