Wrestlemania 31 Was An A+ Show -- Here's What Went Down
I’ll get to this later, but I need you commenters to step up and tell Brock Lesnar that wrestling isn’t real. He never got that memo. He’s a fucking animal.
But let’s start from the beginning. Wrestlemania 31 was last night, and it was a hell of a show. I’m always skeptical of WWE. They always seem to find ways to mess things up. Not last night. I guess all the backlash from messing up the Rumble was too much, and they really pulled out their A+ game last night. I can’t remember being that impressed with a WWE show in a long time.
The first match was the tag team match that had a couple cool spots but was just there to warm up the still-filtering in crowd. Cesaro and Kidd held onto their titles.
Match number 2 was your Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. I had picked Ryback to win, and while he didn’t win, he dominated. Great performance by the Big Guy. It was eventually won by The Big Show after he eliminated Mizdow. A lot of people were grumpy about Big Show winning, I thought it was a nice gesture. The guy has given his life to WWE and wrestling, it seemed like a way of them thanking him for his time before he finally retires. He’s taken a lot of shit the last couple of years from wrestling fans (for sucking), so this was a moment for him.
Obviously the other big moment was Mizdow finally turning on the Miz and eliminating him. Been months in the making, so that’s a nice feud to look forward to. He’s extremely unlikable, but that’s what makes Miz such a good heel. Will be interesting to see how well Mizdow (Sandow?) keeps up his popularity without his Mizdow gimmick to rely on.
Daniel Bryan climbed the ladder and won the Intercontinental Title last night. While I predicted Ambrose, I’m obviously happy DB got another great Mania moment. What seemed weird to me is last year, DB won the main event, this year he was in a crowded ladder match while the sun was still up. He didn’t deserve to be pushed so far down the card, but the fact he came out on top helps a little bit. Obviously they are trying to bring prestige back to the overlooked title, and he’s the guy to do it.
Poor Ambrose is dead now. So that sucks.
Remember when I said Orton vs Rollins can sneaky steal the show? Well, that was your spot of the night. A curb stomp into an RKO. Just fucking amazing height and creativity behind that spot. Worked to perfection.
Orton got the win, but it was a great match by both men.
HHH vs Sting had everything. A weird entrance by Sting, HHH coming out dressed as the Terminator, sledge hammers, baseball bats…and oh yea, DX vs NWO.
I have never made a prediction that got as much heat as when I said HHH would beat Sting. Do you guys not get the HHH character? He doesn’t lose to WCW. Everyone asking “why would Sting come back just to lose?” Probably that 6 figure paycheck, idk, just a thought. It was a good match, Stinger wasn’t great but he was good enough, plus HHH through in some old school “suck it’s”, which are always great.
Undertaker vs Bray Wyatt was not a great match. Wyatt was hurt, Undertaker old. Plus it was still sunny outside, so their entrances which would have been awesome in the dark were just average at best. I think the Undertaker working one show a year at Mania has lost it’s luster. It’s still great to see of course, but it just didn’t have the same feeling after he lost to Lesnar last year. Plus he pinned Bray clean in the middle of the ring, setting Bray’s character way back. If they aren’t going to pass the “big scary guy” torch to Bray, then what’s next for him? But at the same time, nobody wants to see Taker lose at Mania two years in a row. Kind of a match that had no great possible outcome.
Maybe the best segment of the night was HHH and Steph vs The Rock and Ronda Rousey. Usually 30 minute promos can be boring…not this one. They killed it. Ronda Rousey just has this permanent bitch face.
It was cool to see the UFC/WWE crossover like that. Really smart of both companies to work together. Hoping to see more things like that.
John Cena might have won the US Title, but my dude Rusev came out on a fucking tank. As for the outcome, so predictable. It’s just John Cena’s character– he does not lose. That’s his character. It sucks though, because that was Rusev’s character too. He’s been undefeated for a year, but then goes out and loses to Cena at Mania. Such is life in the WWE. Good ol’ American boy Cena beats the big bad Russian. Of course the entire crowd was behind Rusev and singing “John Cena sucks”, but that’s besides the point.
Cena did do a Stunner though, so that was cool.
And then of course the main event. Reigns walked down 1,000 stairs to a chorus of boo’s, Lesnar got the babyface pop. Expected. What we didn’t expect was what came next. Lesnar beat the shit out Reigns. Not figuratively, literally. Tossed him like a can of corn all around the ring. It’s simply incredible how Lesnar can toss a 265+ pound man around the ring the way he does, but that’s Brock Lesnar. He’s out to actually hurt people. He doesn’t want to hear your “wrestling is fake” mumbo jumbo. Not in his brain.
It was a hell of a match. Lesnar beat the shit out of Reigns but couldn’t pin him, Reigns did like 100 Superman punches and couldn’t pin Lesnar. I was on the edge of my seat– they booked the match so well. Two huge, unbeatable guys beating the shit out of each other, blood everywhere.
And then Rollins came running down to the ring. He’s been holding onto his Money in the Bank briefcase for forever, waiting for this moment to cash in. Upon his cashing in, the match became a triple threat match, and a few curb stomps later, he pinned Reigns and a new champ was here.
It was a perfect ending. Lesnar didn’t get pinned to lose his title, Reigns looked strong but wasn’t given the belt against their best judgement, and Rollins, who is absurdly talented, has now ushered in a new era of WWE. A young guy is holding the title. Not a hand-picked babyface. A young heel just won the belt at Wrestlemania. Plus the dude is from Iowa. Because of course he is. Everything coming up Iowa.
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Very, very impressive job by the WWE last night. Obviously I can nitpick a few changes I would have made, but it was the best written WWE show in forever. Everything made sense, very few stupid, gimmicky parts, (and no lame Sheamus return!) and the fans went home happy. I would not be shocked if down the road we find out HHH was given a ton of responsibility in booking and writing this show and Vince took a bit of a back seat. If you’ve watched an NXT show, you might have gotten that vibe from last night. It just worked so much better than a bunch of PPVs in the last few years.