Tag Team Talk: WrestleMania 40 Night 1 - Epic Recaps and Match Grades

Prepare to be body-slammed by nostalgia and electrifying forecasts as we commemorate four decades of WrestleMania glory! Tag Team Talk Ben and Bash are your ringside announcers for a night one recap that's as thrilling as a top-rope dive. We're sizing up Rhea Ripley's nail-biting title defense and scaling the heights of the Tag Team Championship Ladder Match—trust us, the scores we're dishing out are as no-holds-barred as the action itself. And when it comes to the Mysterio family saga and Damian Priest's cash-in dreams, we're unpacking it all with the zest of a championship bout. Don't miss our fervent predictions and the adrenaline-pumping speculation that only Ben and Bash can deliver. Strap in, listeners, because this is the wrestling ride of a lifetime.

Transcript

Bash: 0:06

Welcome to the Ben and Bash podcast. Tag Team Talks.

Ben: 0:09

I'm Ben. I've been watching wrestling 30 years three decades so I would think that I have a lot of insight to wrestling, but we shall see.

Bash: 0:18

My name is Bash and I've been watching pro wrestling for about four years now, and I'm not an expert on it, but I'm okay. From classic matches to current events, iconic wrestlers to memorable moments, we've got you covered in Tag Team Talk.

Ben: 0:39

Together. We're here to share our love for wrestling, engage in lively discussion and provide our generational gap insight on all things pro wrestling.

Bash: 0:49

It's time to lace up your boots and hit the mat with the Ben and Bash podcast tag. Team talk.

Ben: 0:57

All right. So the first topic of discussion. We will be talking about the biggest WrestleMania in history, wrestlemania 40, night one which 40 years of WrestleMania is crazy, that is craziness. Like 40 years of anything is ridiculous, but 40 years of Wrestlemania. We're just going to talk about some of these matches. So, match number 1 we're going to talk about that match. We're going to give you our discussions on insights of it. We're going to grade it 1-10, 10 being absolute banger. 1 being they could have saved that one. And first match of the night rhea ripley, the world champion, versus becky lynch, sebastian. What do you think about that match?

Bash: 1:53

I mean I feel like becky lynch should have won, but I mean the entrances were good and I would say that's about a 6.5.

Ben: 2:05

I'm going to agree with him. Rhea Ripley is probably one of the best women's wrestlers this generation right now, and she proved it again last night when she defeated Becky Lynch, who was probably another all-time great women's wrestler. Just to see who is the best wrestler, me, I'm going to give it probably a seven. It could have been a little bit longer, I think, and probably could have had a little bit more involvement with other stuff, but seven is a good, solid number for me. All right, match number two Now, this is one I was looking forward to when I saw it on the card. We have the Tag Team Championship Ladder Match with A-Town Down Under Austin Theory and Grayson Waller versus the Austin Truth, the Miz and R-Truth versus the Judgment Days, finn Balor and Damian Priest versus DIY, johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa versus the New Day, kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods versus New Catch Republic, pete Dunne, tyler Bates.

Bash: 3:20

Sebastian, what do you think about that match? I thought this was the perfect opportunity for them to split the titles, and they did. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for them to split the titles and they did. And I mean I expected A-Town Down Under to win one half of the titles and I mean it was just perfect for R-Truth and the Miz to get the other title. I felt like it should have been a 2v2 Judgment Day versus Awesome Truth.

Ben: 3:42

What do you rank the match Sebastian? What do you rank the match Sebastian?

Bash: 3:45

What do you think? The match oh or match.

Ben: 3:54

Well, I think of the match, I would give it probably a 10, really Best match One of the best matches so far tonight, yeah, the top match so far.

Ben: 4:01

Mm-hmm, all right For me. On the other hand, I'm going to give it probably an 8.5. We talked about this before off camera, where we thought they were gonna split the belts up too. Didn't think it was gonna happen, but they did. They came out with uh, both belts on each individual racks and they kind of solidified our thing of they're gonna split the belts up.

Ben: 4:20

The winners, austin Grayson, waller they've been solid all year. I mean Austin Theory did beat John Cena at last year's WrestleMania, so for him to win a championship now, it's just a little icing on the cake for his year of up and downs, literally up and downs all year. Awesome, truth. They came back together after R-Truth supposedly thought he joined the Judgment Day, which he really didn't, and we all know how that went. Who watched wrestling? If you know? You know. But R-Truth needs to win, I think, because he hasn't won a singles match or title match besides the 24-7 title in years, and I had never seen him win at WrestleMania in a while either. But I think both teams deserve it. Obviously, both teams deserve it.

Ben: 5:09

And now that leads to the question of what happens with Damian Priest because he does have the senior money in the bank match. We're going to see what happens with that briefcase. Is he going to cash in tonight or is he going to wait until Monday Night Raw tomorrow? Or is he going to wait until Monday Night Raw tomorrow or is he going to wait until another time? We shall see the next match Rey Mysterio and Andrade with LWO versus Santos Escobar and Dirty Dom Mysterio with Legado De Fantasma in a tag team match Bash. What do you think about that one?

Bash: 5:47

I mean I felt like Dirty Dominic Mysterio and Santos Escobar were going to win, but me and my dad were talking about off camera that we thought Carlito was going to turn on Rey Mysterio, but I guess that can wait until Friday Night Smackdown. But I think I would rate it maybe a five. I mean it was all right.

Ben: 6:13

Same. Here. I'm about a five, 5.5. The whole point of the whole thing with Rey Mysterio picking Dragon Lee first, dragon Lee getting hurt by somebody backstage Nobody knows who got hurt yet or who hurt him yet and then automatically going with Andrade once Andrade turned on Legado de Fantasma and not picking Carlito or anybody else from LWO. I think somebody from LWO probably Carlito is going to turn on Raven 0 because they didn't pick him to be in the match at WrestleMania. But Dirty Dom has been consistent all year. I mean he's by far probably one of the biggest heels in pro wrestling today. I mean, if not the biggest. Alright, now this match the next one is one of the most anticipated matches of the year. You got brother versus brother, uso versus Uso, rikishi Sons, the Samoan Dynasty, the Bloodline members. You have Jey Uso versus Jimmy Uso Badge. What do you think about it?

Bash: 7:27

Okay, uso Bad sweet thing about him. Okay, this match I was highly anticipated for, Did I use that Go ahead, no keep going and I think this will be like maybe an 8-ish, 8.5, I'll probably say but the end with Jimmy Uso saying like he's sorry and stuff, like I knew that was going to end up him super kicking Jay. I thought that was going to be the end of the match, but I don't know. What do you think about it?

Ben: 8:00

I think it was a solid. What did you rank it at? Did you rank it yet 8.5?

Bash: 8:04

I'm going to rank it a little. Yeah, I did 8.5.

Ben: 8:06

8.5. Okay, I'm going to rank it a little bit lower. I'm going to go a 7. Anticipation forward Potential should have been a 9.5 to 10.

Ben: 8:19

But I felt like the match was a little too short for this kind of feud between brothers. I mean, this is a two-year build-up, I mean almost two years of them feuding with the bloodline, and then Jimmy kicking Roman Reigns and then Jay kicking Roman Reigns, and then Jay leaving wrestling for a couple of weeks and then Cody Rhodes bringing him to Raw to get a new start, and then Jimmy always interfering in his match when he should have beat Roman Reigns. He should have beat Gunther but he didn't because of Jimmy. This match should have been a little bit longer, but I understand they had to tell a story. Jimmy Uso did the whole I'm sorry, brother, please don't hurt me thing just to cross him over. Classic Jimmy talk. I'm more of a J fan anyways. So I was happy with the outcome, just wish it had been a little bit longer.

Ben: 9:12

All right, now one of the most anticipated debuts in Wrestlemania history. You have the six woman tag team match with Bianca Belair, the EST, versus Naomi. Can you feel the glow? And then you have the woman, that girl Jade Cargill versus Dakota Kai Asuka Kairi Sane Damage Control.

Bash: 9:43

Okay that match. It was pretty good. I mean, I feel like we all knew that Bianca J Cargill and Naomi were going to win it. I would say it's a solid seven.

Ben: 10:03

Solid seven. That's pretty good. I'm going to go ahead and say it was a good eight. I'm going to say a solid eight. I mean the entrances were probably one of the best entrances of the night. Damage Control coming out with the whole Japanese theme, because you know, with the whole Japanese theme, because you know they all had some types of Japanese, with Asuka Io, kairi Sane they're all from Japan and Dakota Kai Wrestling and Stardom, which is a Japan company. So that was a pretty good touch on them, on their history together. And then Bianca, jade and Naomi All coming down together as one unified front Then each going to their own individual entrances.

Ben: 10:46

It's pretty nice, Kind of interested, to see how Jade Cardiff does in a one-on-one match, because she hasn't had one yet in WWE. So we're going to see who her first feud is going to be, where they go with Bianca after this, because she's been in the title picture since she came to the main roster. It's the first year she hasn't wrestled for the title at WrestleMania. She's been with the company. So it's kind of curious to see where she goes from this.

Ben: 11:13

Naomi coming back from TNA we're going to see where she goes from this. Will she join the bloodline with her husband. Will she kind of just do her own thing? Will she join the bloodline with her husband? Will she kind of just do her own thing? Will she join a faction feud? I don't know how she's going to go. We shall see how this is going to roll. Alright, now this match, probably one of the best matches of the year, in my opinion. I don't know about Bash, but my opinion this may be one of the best matches of the year. This is the singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, with Sami Zayn versus the Ring General.

Bash: 11:53

Gunther. I don't know. This was a pretty good match. I thought Gunther was going to win. I mean I feel like he should have retained and go into that like bashing Berlin thing in the summertime, but I would probably say this is probably a nine. Maybe this was pretty much a banger.

Ben: 12:19

Yeah, I'm going to go with you two, with nine, the Sami Zayn winning it. Of course it was kind of controversial. A lot of people wanted Chad Gable to be in this match, but Sami Zayn winning as well was. I don't see why people hate Sami Zayn for winning the match. But we shall see what happens with Chad Gable. And Sami Zayn's first feud Little side note. We did notice that. And Sami Zayn's first feud Little side note. We did notice that before Sami Zayn went out there he talked to Chad Gable and Chad Gable said you owe him one, which.

Ben: 12:50

What does that mean? Does that mean he gets a title shot first? What does that mean? I guess we're going to see that in the few coming months or coming weeks, rather to see where it goes from that. Gunther, on the other hand, it's about time for him to go up and challenge for a world title. I mean he consistently defended that belt night in, night out, with the help of Imperium sometimes, but he did defend that belt over 600 days as a champion, which that's almost two years of over two years, actually, almost two years of him being world champion, so of him being Aaron Conniel champion. So we're going to see what happens with Gunther as he, as he goes into the, goes up into the world championship picture. Anything else for this match Before we get into the biggest tag team match I mean, no, not really, I mean, but this match was pretty good.

Bash: 13:49

I mean I feel like like people, why people think chad gable should have been here because it was a people thought it was a better storyline for chad gable um to be in this match. But I I like sammy to be in this match. I like Sami to be in this match better Next match.

Ben: 14:05

Alright, now the main event of night one Seize the return. First match in 11 years. We're not going to count the one in 2016 against the Y family, but his first actual match is. He wrestled John Cena 11 years ago, the Rock the Great One, the People's Champion, aka the Final Boss, versus Roman Reigns. But we're going to give romance to the respect Tribal chief head of the table, undisputed world champion, who has been champion now. I don't know how many days is now. Over a thousand days now.

Ben: 14:53

Like one thousand Over a thousand days now at Champ with Paul Heyman. Sorry, sorry, hall of Famer, paul Heyman, sorry, sorry, hall of Famer Paul Heyman, probably the best talker in the history of pro wrestling. Versus Seth freaking Rollins. Versus Ann Cody Rose, the American Nightmare.

Bash: 15:21

When I think about this match, I mean I feel like that, uh well. Well, me and my dad talked about off camera that, um, that said that we thought saffron was gonna turn on cody rose but that ended up not happening. Well, what, I think he might turn on him in the match tonight, but I don't know. Well, I personally thought that the Rock and the Roman Reigns were going to win, but it was a pretty good match. I'll probably say 9.5.

Ben: 16:03

9.5 for the tag team match. Yes, this did live up to one of the greatest tag team matches of all time. The Rock pulled some board member stuff in the match, threatening to fire a referee if he counted while they were outside. I mean, rock did heal Hollywood Rock stuff can't be mad at it. I grew up with the Hollywood rock, people's champion rock, corporate rock. So this was for me, this was a childhood for me, and they did what they supposed to have done. They handled business only the way the bloodline should handle it.

Ben: 16:41

And now Cody Rose is going into the match tomorrow or tonight. Rather, he's going into the match tonight. Bloodline rules, which means that you're going to have Solo, you're going to have Jimmy, you're going to have Paul Heyman who knows who else may show up to help the Rock out. But on the other hand, cody Rose can also bring people out. Who's he going to bring out? Is it going to be some legends from yesteryear? Is it going to be some new current wrestlers? We shall see For the most anticipated main event in a couple years here. So we shall see what is going on with that. So we shall see what is going on with that. And join us tomorrow as we review night 2 of Wrestlemania 40, the biggest Wrestlemania in history. Signing off I'm Ben, this is Spaj and this was.

Bash: 17:39

Tag Team Talk.