WWE WrestleMania 35 Results: Tony Nese’s moment was a long time coming

The kick-off show of WWE WrestleMania 35 began with a fiery Cruiserweight Championship match between Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy – arguably the biggest match of either man’s career to this point.

Buddy Murphy has been an exceptional champion for 205 Live ever since winning the Cruiserweight Championship at Super Show-Down in October in his home of Melbourne, and there isn’t a better opponent to end his dominant reign than former workout partner Tony Nese at WWE WrestleMania 35.

The match began with Murphy going right after Nese, hungry to win the championship early. That backfired, as Nese was equal to it and quickly turned the tables on Murphy. It seems like Murphy underestimated Nese early, perhaps forgetting that Nese defeated a host of top superstars, such as Cedric Alexander, in a tournament in order to receive this huge opportunity at WrestleMania.

Murphy then started to control Nese, taking the sting out of the match after dropping Nese over the ropes to gain the momentum in the match.

But Nese got right back into the match, hitting a lovely moonsault before using his agility to catch Murphy off guard. Both men know each other so well as former workout partners, so the middle of the bout became quite the chess match.

Nese showed off his athleticism again with another huge move, nailing Murphy with a reverse rana that absolutely spiked the champion. But Nese was too exhausted to capitalize.

The two men started to trade strikes, hitting vicious kicks and forearms, but neither man went down until Murphy finally hit a massive clotheslines. Nese, however, dropped Murphy on his head in a last-gasp effort, nearly putting the champion away.

Clearly putting out all the stops to put Murphy away, Nese hit a big dive to the outside before NEARLY pinning Murphy with a 450. Again, his athleticism cannot be undersold, because he was pulling out some jaw-dropping moves for the WrestleMania crowd.

Out of nowhere, Murphy hit his finisher “Murphy’s Law” to the shock of the crowd, and you could hear the air leave the arena…until Nese put his foot on the rope at two to bring the crowd back in it!

Pissed, Murphy exposed his knee and ran at Nese in the corner, but Nese countered into a superkick and set him up with his own “Running Nese” – by throwing Murphy headfirst into the turnbuckles – to win the Cruiserweight Championship!

It’s a feel-good moment that was a LONG time coming for Nese, and he bags his first career WrestleMania moment in front of his “home” fans at MetLife Stadium.

All eyes will be glued to 205 Live this week for the beginning of the “Premier Era”.