After staying up until 5am to watch this blasted thing and getting a few hours of sleep, I think it’s time I throw my hat into the ring (and totally fight alongside it as a tag team partner) for my opinion on Wrestlemania.
Preshow - if I’m really honest I had quite a lot of fun with all of the preshow matches. The men’s Battle Royal was pretty fun with the Bray Wyatt return (not to mention, R-Truth is back!) and they at least let Dolph Ziggler have a better way to go than Mojo freakin Rawley this time. The Women’s Battle Royal was nothing too special but I found it pretty fun, I just wish they had gotten rid of the Riott Squad sooner and let Becky stay in longer. The cruiserweights took the cake for the Preshow though, I love both Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander and they really did put on a great match.
Onto the main card.... (maybe not in full order, I’m still really tired)
IC Title Match: one of the better matches of the night. All three guys know how to work in that ring, they put on a flat out great match and I found it fun to watch.
Smackdown Women’s Title Match: both Charlotte and Asuka are amazing wrestlers so of course this was gonna be good, and I gotta say that while I was not expecting the streak to break, I do think it was a pretty good choice!
US Title Match: Jinder Mahal can go die in a fire. Not in real life. Just kayfabe.
Mixed Tag Match: some of the spots were a bit underwhelming, but for her first WWE Match Ronda put up a good fight and I’m always happy to see Kurt in the ring. This one was pretty meh but I found it entertaining at some spots so that’s fine.
Smackdown Tag Titles Match: I kinda lost focus a little here but this match was ok. Nothing special, but I’m hapoy with how it went. The spot at the end where everyone was trying to get each other off the top rope until Erick Rowan showed up was pretty neat too.
John vs Undertaker: I don’t even care that it was a squash, that intro with the Undertaker had me in tears. By far my favourite segment, and Elias is also entertaining as ever.
Shane & Daniel vs Kevin & Sami: Daniel’s back and he’s awesome. I would’ve probably cared much less about this match if Daniel wasn’t there otherwise.
Raw Women’s Title Match: Nia’s always cool, this match was really good. Gotta give a mention to Alexa, she really does know how to put over face talent.
WWE World Title Match: this was a great match , but I think I’m still processing the ending. Shinsuke, a heel? How does that even work? I’m gonna wait until I’m not tired as hell to make a verdict there.
Raw Tag Titles Match: it was a very cute segment and all, but I think I would’ve rather seen an actual wrestler instead of, y’know, a child...
Universal Title Match: there’s is no way in hell this was the intended outcome. The setup, the match itself for a good portion of it, even the aftermath. Roman was meant to win, there couldn’t have been any other outcome. After the match, Brock and Paul left really quickly, and there weren’t any of the traditional fireworks they usually set off. Not to mention, the match itself just made me incredibly uncomfortable. The ending basically made the match turn out to be what felt like a squash, with a guy getting attacked and attacked over and over again to the point where blood had poured all over his face, and then he just loses. This was the match I liked the least by far - and if it beats Jinder winning the US Title, then you know something’s bad.
So yeah, by no means was Wrestlemania a bad show - I enjoyed quite a few of the matches and cried when the Undertaker showed up - but some things just made the whole experience feel strange to me. All I can think of is what the Universal Title is gonna do now that Brock still has it...
