WrestleMania 39

WrestleMania 39, also promoted as WrestleMania Goes Hollywood, was a 2023 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 39th annual WrestleMania and took place as a two-night event on Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in the Greater Los Angeles city of Inglewood, California, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. WWE wrestler The Miz and rapper Snoop Dogg served as the hosts for the event. This was the sixth WrestleMania to be held in Greater Los Angeles (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, and 21), and the seventh in the U.S. state of California overall (including 31, which was held in the San Francisco Bay Area). The event was held at the originally planned location and venue for WrestleMania 37 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to be relocated to Tampa, Florida; WrestleMania 39 in turn adopted the Hollywood theme originally intended for that event. It was the first WrestleMania to livestream on Binge in Australia. This would subsequently be the final WrestleMania in which WWE was owned and controlled by the McMahon family as on April 3, the day after the event, it was confirmed that the company had been sold to Endeavor. The sale was finalized on September 12, with WWE merging with Ultimate Fighting Championship to become divisions of TKO Group Holdings. The card comprised a total of 15 matches, with eight on Night 1 and seven on Night 2. In the main event for Night 1, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, ending the latter's record setting male tag team title reign at 622 days. This was also the first time a tag team championship match was the main event of a WrestleMania, and only the second time a tag team match in general was the main event, after WrestleMania I in March 1985. In other prominent matches, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Logan Paul, Rey Mysterio defeated Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley defeated Charlotte Flair to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Austin Theory defeated John Cena to retain Raw's United States Championship. The event also included the in-ring return of Pat McAfee, who wrestled his first match since the 2022 SummerSlam, as well as the in-ring WWE debut of Snoop Dogg, who both defeated The Miz in impromptu matches, with the latter occurring on Night 2. In the main event for Night 2, Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. This subsequently made Reigns the second wrestler after Hulk Hogan to enter three consecutive WrestleManias as world champion during the same reign but it made him the only wrestler to defend a world championship at each. In other prominent matches, Edge defeated "The Demon" Finn Bálor in a Hell in a Cell match, Gunther defeated Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in a triple threat match to retain SmackDown's Intercontinental Championship, Bianca Belair defeated Asuka to retain the Raw Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Brock Lesnar defeated Omos. Night 2 was also notable for the return of Shane McMahon, who last appeared at the 2022 Royal Rumble. The event received generally positive reviews from critics; the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the SmackDown Women's Championship matches were singled out as highlights throughout the entire event, with the former two rated five stars by Dave Meltzer. Although noting the event's repetitiveness, critics also praised the Men's WrestleMania Showcase fatal four-way tag team match, Logan Paul vs. Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio, and the Hell in a Cell match. WWE's use of Auschwitz footage in a staged video promoting the Mysterio match drew criticism for exploiting genuine historic footage, leading WWE to apologize and state its inclusion was due to an editing error. At the time, the ending of the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match was also criticised.