ESPN Gives “C” Grade for WWE Wrestlepalooza & Says “It Fell a Little Short of Expectations” for Epic Moments Promised

This past Saturday’s WWE Wrestlepalooza event in Indianapolis, Indiana was notable for being the first WWE Premium Live Event to air on ESPN’s new streaming service as part of WWE’s new media rights deal with ESPN for PLEs in the United States.

In the lead-up to the event, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque stated in a recent interview with ESPN’s Get Up show for fans to “expect spectacle, expect surprises, expect to have a lot of fun, and ESPN is going to deliver.”

ESPN combat sports writer Andreas Hale released his official show review of Wrestlepalooza on ESPN’s website and gave the event a “C” for its final grade.

In his review, Hale stated “The excellent Vaquer vs. Sky match saved this show from being truly average. It was a phenomenal display inside the squared circle. Everything else was either underwhelming (the short Rhodes-McIntyre match) or a setup for a future match (Lesnar dominating Cena). For a card that promised to have epic moments, it fell a little short of expectations.”

In regards to match grades, Hale gave the following scores to the matches below:

• Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena – C-
• The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) vs. The Vision (“Big” Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker) – C
• Vacant WWE Women’s World Championship – Stephanie Vaquer vs. IYO SKY – B+
  Stephanie Vaquer defeats IYO SKY to become the new Women’s World Champion: B+
• Mixed Tag Team match – CM Punk & AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch – C
• Undisputed WWE Championship – Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes (c) – C