The biggest event in the professional wrestling calendar took place on Sunday the 29th of March from the Levi stadium in California, WrestleMania Play button (or 31 If you prefer).
In the way that only sports entertainment can, there was a shocking conclusion to the Main event, with Mr Money in the bank Seth Rollins cashing in his briefcase in the middle of the brutal Brock Lesnar versus Roman Reigns match, making it triple threat and leaving as the New WWE world heavyweight champion.
The finish followed a bruising encounter between Reigns and Lesnar which seen Reigns battle both audience and former UFC champion to look on the precipice of being the top dog only for the opportunist Rollins to cash in and snatch it away.
The show opened this year with last year’s WrestleMania hero Daniel Bryan getting a great reaction from the San Jose crowd. He was the clear crowd favourite to win the 7 man ladder match for the Intercontinental title and the former WWE World heavyweight champion didn’t disappoint. The finish had Bryan come out on top of a head-butt feast with Dolph Ziggler and grab the belt. It was a good match to start the main show although might have benefited from having fewer participants. Bump of the match (and night) went to Dean Ambrose taking a power bomb from Luke Harper through a ladder to the outside.
Arguably match of the night was next with Randy Orton looking to get revenge on Seth Rollins (with J&J security). After a good back and forth match we seen the finish of the night with Orton countering an attempted curb stomp from Rollins and catching him with the RKO out of nowhere and getting the pin.
We were then shown that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Rowdy Ronda Rousey was at ringside with training mates the four horsewoman (more on that later).
Next up we got the 1st WrestleMania appearance by the icon Sting. He was inexplicably introduced by a Japanese drum orchestra before making his way to the ring. Then we got the spectacle of Triple H’s awful Terminator movie tie in entrance. The match itself was a decent if not a little slow and basic encounter before we went to full blown shenanigans. 1st we got a DX run in to help HHH before former Sting rivals the NWO ran in to help Sting. At some point during this mess commentator Michael Cole mentioned for the 1st time this match was a no DQ. After some sledge hammer vs baseball bat back and forth the man they call Sting went for a 2nd stinger splash before being knocked out with the end of the sledge hammer and pinned giving the win to Triple H. Then to put a cherry on the nonsense the 2 opponents shock hands. I’m sure some people loved the nostalgia and spectacle of this match, I was not one of them.
It was then time to see the wacky legends hanging backstage as they one by one interrupted an interview with the newly crowned Intercontinental champion Daniel Bryan. Honorable mention to Flair randomly chopping Steamboat.
The musical interlude / toilet break was next before we got the divas tag match. The Bella twins were beaten when Nikki Bella tapped out to AJ Lee. We then got see all of the class of 2015’s Hall of Fame entrants including Lanny Poffo representing the legend Macho Man Randy Savage.
It was time for the battle of the super powers with the USA taking on Russia. United States champion Rusev coming to the ring in a tank being led by some marching soldiers and the returning ravishing Russian Lana. To make sure he got booed by the multicultural audience they played a cheesy pro USA video before John Cena made his way to the ring with the fans singing ‘John Cena sucks’ to the tune of his entrance music. Cena and Rusev had a good back and forth match (maybe not quite as good as their Fastlane match) which saw the finish come when Lana was bumped off the ring apron by the running Rusev distracting him and allowing John Cena to hit the attitude adjustment and become the new United States champion.
The Authority made their way to the ring next to talk up WrestleMania and then themselves before being interrupted by the returning Rock fresh from hosting Saturday night live. After some banter we then got the UFC champion Ronda Rousey jumping the barricade and standing side by side with the Rock before ‘owning’ the Authority and celebrating in the ring. Rousey got one of the best reactions of the night. A great segment, but like any involving The Authority, it was overlong.
The semi-main event was the return of the dead man: The Undertaker in his 1st match since last year’s WrestleMania. Bray Wyatt and the Undertaker went toe to toe with the Undertaker getting back to winning ways following a tombstone to Wyatt.
In all it was an interesting WrestleMania in many ways surpassing expectations. Where it lacked match quality it made up for in eventfulness and now the intrigue of what’s next for the new face of the company Roman Reigns, the former champ Brock Lesnar and the new champion Seth Rollins. It should all make for an entertaining Monday night RAW.
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