LIVE UPDATES – WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff: Cody Rhodes, Triple H, Seth Rollins & More

WWE

Welcome to our live updates for the WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff show taking place in Philadelphia tonight, Friday, April 5.

About The WrestleMania 40 Kickoff

Ahead of SmackDown tonight, WWE will hold a ‘Kickoff’ event featuring many of the stars who’ll be in action at WrestleMania itself.

The Kickoff show will begin at 5pm ET, which is three hours before SmackDown, and we’ll be providing live updates on this page to keep you posted with everything that goes down.

Advertised on the graphic to appear at the Kickoff event are Pat McAfee, Michael Cole, Triple H, Cody Rhodes, Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn and GUNTHER.

Cody Rhodes is of course set to main event both nights of WrestleMania this year – first teaming with Seth Rollins against The Rock and Roman Reigns, and then on night two, a singles championship match against Reigns.

Becky Lynch vs Rhea Ripley, Jimmy Uso vs Jey Uso, and Sami Zayn vs GUNTHER, are all scheduled to take place on WrestleMania night one tomorrow.

Rollins vs Drew McIntyre is set for night two, and was planned to be the first match of the night.

Check this page from 5pm ET onwards and we’ll keep you posted with everything that goes down at the Kickoff show today!

See below for our live coverage.

WrestleMania 40 Kickoff Live Updates

4:55pm – Hello! I am now here waiting just a few minutes before the Kickoff gets started – keep refreshing this page for live updates throughout from the top of the hour!

5pm – We’re underway and Michael Cole welcomes us, and they show a replay of last night’s set reveal. Triple H is shown arriving and he’ll be appearing soon, same thing with Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley.

5:07pm – After a video package, we see Drew McIntyre and Jimmy Uso arriving, then go live to the stage to see Michael Cole (who says it’s “cold as hell”) and Pat McAfee. Big E-C-Dub chants when Cole mentions Paul Heyman being inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.

5:08pm – Jackie Redmond is shown outside The Bloodline’s room and previews everything going on with the group this weekend, including Jey Uso vs Solo Sikoa on SmackDown tonight. She gives us the groundbreaking information that the Bloodline are in their room and they’re probably strategizing.

5:09pm – We then go to Cathy Kelley who says Seth Rollins has bruises after being attacked by The Rock on Raw this past Monday.

5:10pm – Back to the actual stage, and Cole & McAfee welcome out tonight’s first guest – the Chief Content OIfficer of WWE, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque!

5:13pm – Triple H also complains that it’s cold, saying that he would have done the water spit but he thinks his lips are frozen. He says he was there in the Attitude Era, and he looks at right now as a “new time” and “new era”. He says things are really gonna blow up this weekend – it all starts right here and right now. He really sold it as this is the true start of the new era.

5:14pm – Michael Cole says he believes this new era should be called the Triple H Era. It sounds like Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley will be coming out next!

5:19pm – Rhea Ripley arrives and the big news is she’s got extensions and has long hair now, so that’s interesting.

5:21pm – Rhea basically says all members of Judgment Day are gonna win at WrestleMania, including Dominik Mysterio against his “deadbeat dad”. She’s then cut off by Becky Lynch who comes out wearing a big coat because IT IS COLD.

5:23pm – Nothing really happened, just generic arguing and then Becky’s music played and Rhea left. I think they have quite a few people to get through in only an hour, so perhaps they’re rushing through.

5:26pm – Cole and McAfee talk about GUNTHER vs Sami Zayn, and Cole bills it as ‘Rocky IV’ – and now a video package for said match.

5:30pm – After the video package, out comes Sami Zayn! He also starts by saying IT’S COLD.

5:34pm – Zayn gets very passionate about his achievements in Philadelphia so far throughout his career and basically says he’s planning to add becoming a four-time Intercontinental Champion to that – but then he’s interrupted by the defending champion, GUNTHER!

5:36pm – GUNTHER says Philadelphia is still the same dump it was when he wrestled there 15 years ago, and that means Sami fits in there pretty well. He then accidentally (I presume?) calls Sami his real name, Rami. Zayn reminds GUNTHER that he main evented Mania last year, and actually, Zayn’s NOT the underdog in this match even though GUNTHER is acting like he is. Anddd that’s that for those two.

5:38pm – The next guest coming out shortly is Jey Uso!

5:41pm – Michael Cole mentions Bret vs Owen Hart and Matt vs Jeff Hardy as the only previous brother vs brother matches at WrestleMania until now, and then a video package for Jimmy vs Jey Uso in which they use their real names, Jonathan and Joshua Fatu.

5:45pm – Out comes Jey Uso which obviously gets the crowd going again – he tries to develop his own new version of the “What?” chants, but instead of “What?” it’s “Yeet!” He doesn’t have much time to say anything until Jimmy comes out and joins him on the stage.

5:47pm – Jimmy says “No Yeet!”, the bigger brother is gonna beat the little brother. Jey says he’s gonna give Jimmy a Yeetdown tomorrow night. And that wraps it up for those two. Yeet.

5:53pm – A video package next for Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins, including clips of the eulogy from Raw. After that, we get big CM Punk chants, and as luck would have it, even though he wasn’t advertised, CM Punk is here! Cole also said the commentary team for both nights of WrestleMania will be himself, McAfee and Corey Graves. Punk of course joins them for the Rollins vs McIntyre match.

5:57pm – CM Punk jokes that there have been 40 years of WrestleMania and Michael Cole has done commentary for all of them. Seth Rollins comes out and after the fans sing his song, they go back to chanting for Punk. Rollins says it’s a shame he’s not kicking Punk’s ass this weekend.

6:01pm – Rollins says he and Cody Rhodes are gonna take down Roman Reigns and The Rock on night one and then on night two, he’s… before he said he’s gonna beat Drew McIntyre, guess who shows up! No, not Apollo Crews, it’s Drew McIntyre!

6:04pm – Drew McIntyre is on fire tonight – he brought some muffins as a “peace offering for Corporate Punk”, and calls Seth Rollins “the Cringelord”. Their face-to-face wasn’t anything too special, and it was Rollins who got the last word with the fans singing his song as the Kickoff went off the air.

Summary – All in all, nothing really happened and it was more like the Elimination Chamber Kickoff than the initial WrestleMania one with The Rock back in February. But still, it’s a fun new way to build these shows up. Thanks for following along with us, and hopefully we’ll keep seeing you throughout the weekend! Stay with WrestleTalk.com to keep up with all the news.

Also worth noting, there was no Cody Rhodes despite him being advertised. It’s possible his bus catching on fire affected his plans, or maybe plans just changed for some other reason. But if you’re wondering why I didn’t mention him, it’s because he wasn’t there.

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