WWE WrestleMania 39 Match Result Changed By Vince McMahon Revealed

Published: Mar 22, 2025 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Mar 22, 2025 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

@connel1405

WWE

A match result from WWE WrestleMania 39 that was changed by Vince McMahon back in 2023 has been now revealed.

Vince McMahon initially stepped away from WWE back in 2022, but he ended up making his way back into the company at the beginning of 2023, with his creative influence still being felt in the company.

In early 2023, Fightful had reported that WWE talent had learned that Vince’s influence was being felt in the months heading into that year’s WrestleMania 39 event, which included a number of talent not being featured on TV, changes to shows.

One of those significant changes was made to WrestleMania 39, specifically the result of a match taking place on the show.

Per Fightful Select (Subscription required), Finn Balor was initially scheduled to defeat Edge at WrestleMania 39, but Vince McMahon wanted Edge to pick up the victory, despite Adam Copeland himself pushing to put over Balor.

The match saw Balor reprise his ‘Demon’ persona, and served as the blowoff to the rivalry between Edge and the Judgment Day, the group that he created the year prior.

Creative and industry sources claimed to Fightful that Balor was originally set to win the match, but it was Vince McMahon who pushed for the change.

Fightful notes that they weren’t sure that the talent themselves were told the original plan or shift in plans, as those usually get relayed to them the day of the show.

In the months and years since the event, there has been a lot of speculation from fans that the decision to have Roman Reigns defeat Cody Rhodes in the main event was a call made by McMahon, but, while McMahon was in favour of the decision, that had been the plan for basically the entire build to WrestleMania.

Vince McMahon’s influence was felt even more the night after WrestleMania, where he made multiple major changes to the Raw after WrestleMania, with one source comparing him to the Tazmanian Devil, ‘running in, eating up the script, ruining the show and leaving’.