WrestleMania 31 Review

Boy was I scared for this one...

After what many of the fans considered one of the worst Mania builds in history, the groundwork was laid for the WWE to put on one of the biggest disaster PPVs in history. Let's look at the factors: Their top babyface prospect wins the Royal Rumble to a chorus of boos, the actual fan favorite appears to be buried all the way down to the midcard level, main event matches are STILL being given to part-timers, with the up-and-coming superstars sacrificing their hard work for a lower spot on the card, and there were tons of grudge matches that could have been on the card, but were sidelined to the multi-person matches on the pre-show.

However, I tried to remain optimistic, as the excitement of WrestleMania took over this weekend. I didn't care if the build up was crap, I was ready for WRESTLE FREAKING MANIA!!!! And much to my surprise, and to the delight of many Internet fans out there, it was NOT a bad show. In fact, it was a pretty good show. Best ever? No. Top 10? Probably not. But the important part was that it was entertaining and not a complete and utter failure. So kudos to the WWE. Maybe you do know what you're doing after all.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro vs. The Usos vs. Los Matadores vs. The New Day

Kicking off the Kickoff show, we had a tag match that had all types of fast and furious action. Unfortunately for fans of the Usos, it was made very clear that Jey Uso was not fully healthy as they wrote him off within the first minute of the match. Big props to Jimmy Uso though for going at it by himself, you really gotta feel for those brothers though since they were born in the Bay Area. As soon as this match was announced, I had some serious bones to pick about the inclusions of New Day and Los Matadores. I don't think Los Matadores have been relevant since they debuted and that was 2 years ago, and it's clear that the fans won't embrace the New Day the way Vince wants us to. Just go back to what they were doing earlier and give these guys a chance to be a heel trio, reminiscent of the Nation of Domination. Two teams that would have been better suited were the Prime Time Players (popular team and reunited recently) and the Ascension (young team and booked to dominate the competition months ago). But I digress...

This match is very spot heavy, but at least it's fun. There's a moment where Natalya locks the Sharpshooter on El Torito....What more do you want? Cesaro and Kidd keep showing me new reasons to appreciate their dynamic with each match, and I really hope they're here to stay for the time being. I mean, they weren't doing anything with them before, so at least they're relevant as a team. After Jey Uso got taken to the back, the other 7 competitors really pulled their weight in delivering an entertaining way to wake the crowd up.

2nd Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

With this getting moved to the Kickoff Show, I wonder how prestigious it'll be in years to come. At least it's a way to glorify the annual filler battle royal. Anyways, this match had a handful of big name stars in it, and some direction given to it, but not much. The entire ring eliminated Curtis Axel at the start of the match, possibly stopping AxelMania dead in its tracks instead of letting it run wild. Another entertaining spot was Bo Dallas celebrating during the match by running out of the ring, only to be eliminated soon after. I think something that absolutely had the ball dropped on was that Kofi Kingston didn't have one of his iconic battle royal moments that we've become so familiar with. Big guys like Kane, Big Show, and Ryback dominated throughout, and even Hideo Itami from NXT got a strong reaction as he tested his luck against the World's Largest Athlete. There was even an awesome spot where Cesaro teased doing what he had done the year before in eliminating Big Show, only to have him eliminated instead.

But in the end, it came down to do one obvious objective: make Damien Mizdow a star. After so much tension, he finally stood up for himself against the Miz and eliminated him from the match. So it came down to Mizdow (HOPEFULLY he goes back to Sandow soon) and Big Show. Mizdow tried his hardest to eliminate Big Show, even doing the dragon sleeper over the apron spot that Chris Benoit did to win the 2004 Royal Rumble (which completely shocked me when I saw it). But ultimately, Big Show won the match and evidently it was his first battle royal victory (which I'm not sure if it hurt his credibility as a wrestler or if it helped). This may not have been the match decision fans wanted, but it still made Mizdow look good, while also giving a logical match conclusion.

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Bad News Barrett vs. Stardust vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose vs. R-Truth vs. Daniel Bryan

With multi-person ladder matches, they have to actually try in order to not deliver. This thing may not have been as spot heavy as some might have wanted, but there was some good spots nonetheless. From Dean Ambrose jumping off the ladder onto everyone else, to Bad News Barrett giving Stardust a superplex off a very tall ladder, to Ambrose being powerbombed through a ladder by Luke Harper, there was a lot to enjoy. All seven guys fought really hard and felt like they deserved to be fighting for this title at WrestleMania. It came down at the very end do Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan having a headbutting match to see who would take the strap. Bryan was victorious and led the crowd in a YES! chant.

He got another really good moment that night during a backstage interview with Maria Menounos. He is approached by Pat Patterson, Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, and Bret Hart all congratulating Bryan on his victory and joined in a YES! chant. Then Ron Simmons showed up to deliver a "DAMN!" to finish the segment (not really relevant, but who am I to complain about a Ron Simmons "DAMN!" moment). This did wonders for not only Bryan holding the title, but reminded everyone of the prestige that went with the IC Belt. Hopefully, things with Bryan as the Intercontinental Championship prove to be a good call.

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins

This match had a good storyline concept (execution needs some to be desired) and tons of great counters. As we got closer to Mania, this was one of the matches I was looking forward to the most because I knew both these guys could deliver in a big match like this and they didn't disappoint. One part I commended them for was having J&J Security taken out early. That meant there was no smoke and mirrors for Rollins to hide behind and if he wanted to beat Orton, he had to earn it. Of course, I'd be a fool not to talk about the ending. Let me just say this: that RKO was so sweet, it made me pop right off my couch and shout in astonishment. It was a very beautiful ending to an awesome match.

No Disqualification Match: Sting vs. Triple H

Of the entrances these two had, I have to say I favored Triple H's Terminator inspired getup with the cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. As for the match, these guys showed that they can still put on an entertaining encounter even if they're up there in age. The match was full of crazy overbooking (which I will get into soon), but I will say I don't think these guys actually NEEDED it to be overbooked. Had they had a regular match where someone went over the other with a clean victory, I think they could've still delivered in quality. But of course, everyone wants me to talk about what happened when we stepped back in time to something out of the Monday Night Wars.

So it looked like Sting had the upperhand, when all of a sudden D-Generation X came running out to help. X-Pac and New Age Outlaws helped distract Sting long for The Game to capitalize, when all of a sudden the nWo showed up. Seeing Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan come out to not only help Sting (something that seemed IMPOSSIBLE in 1997), but to also take on DX in THE dream battle between two of wrestling's greatest factions. Then when it looked like Sting had Triple H beat, SWEET CHIN MUSIC FROM SHAWN MICHAELS! You KNOW I got hyped seeing my all-time favorite back at the show that gave him the nickname Mr. WrestleMania. Even though people may have not liked the match's ending, it was all kinds of nostalgic fun. And the handshake at the end was a nice touch for anyone who binge watched the Monday Night Wars (guilty as charged) on the WWE Network for just 9.99 (couldn't help it). It does beg the question though of what is next for Sting, since he lost his first ever match in the WWE.

Music Performance

Quick thing here: Is Skylar Grey under contract with WWE? Since Mania XXVIII, Skylar has done music performances at 3 of them and the one she didn't perform at (Mania XXX), she was part of one of the show's theme songs. Am I missing something here? I didn't think she was a big name player in the world of music, but she must be good enough right? Eh, she did ok with her song "Rise," but Kid Ink was so much better with his song "Money and the Power." My favorite part though was the man who brought these two songs together: Travis Barker. I've always liked Blink-182 as a band, but Barker's drumming was always the part that I liked best, so for me, I really enjoyed seeing him on the Mania stage.

The Bella Twins vs. Paige and AJ Lee

I wish these 4 were given a bit more time (it's the only match to not get at least 10 minutes), but they definitely made the most with the time they had. There was a lot of story on which team would succeed: an established team dynamic or two great singles competitors trying to work together. These women fought very aggressively and definitely showed the world why they should be given a chance to run the division. I'm a bit curious where they can go from here though. Maybe Nikki and Brie will have a falling out and we can get a Fatal 4-Way for the Diva's Title lined up for Extreme Rules. I'd be game for that.

Hall of Fame

I should also take this time to briefly talk about the Hall of Fame class this year. I don't have any real problems with them. There are tons who deserve it, from Alundra Blayze, to Tatsumi Fujinami, to Larry Zybszko. Having said that, comedic inductees like Rikishi and the Bushwhackers do make this a bit disjointed in tone. Not saying they don't deserve it, but to go from straight up wrestling talent to a man who is famous for how he looked in a thong, to a tag team that never won the WWE Tag Team Championships and were more famous for their walk and ability to eat and lick everything in their path.

As far as celebrity inductees go, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a perfect candidate, not only for his connections to the world of fitness, not only for his previous publicity work with the WWE, and not only because it was in the state he use to "Governate" in, but because someone needed to promote Terminator Genisys and pay the bills for Triple H's entrance. Connor "the Crusher" Michalek was the first recipient of the Warrior Award and it brought great big tears to my eyes to watch, of both sadness and in appreciation of Connor's winning spirit. Kevin Nash was an appropriate choice to main event the class in terms of a speech, but the highlight of the class is easily the induction of "Macho Man" Randy Savage. If only he would've been able to be alive to speak at it. Lord knows how good that would've been. But still, it's a very good Hall of Fame class this year, with one of my only complaints being that it's a little cluttered than in recent years.

United States Championship Match: Rusev vs. John Cena

Regardless of what you thought of the ending, this was basic storytelling at its finest. Straight out of Rocky IV, Rusev entered to a grand entrance befitting a champion from Russia, and Cena played a video package that would make you proud to be an American. From there, these two beat the crap out of each other in a very physical match up. Highlight of the match was to see Cena pull off a Springboard Stunner out of nowhere on Rusev (even smart marks gotta give him some credit on that one). I really enjoyed the match, and I think by having Lana cause Rusev's first loss by accident doesn't hurt his character, but hopefully can just be a layer that helps peel back the onion that is Rusev as a character. So John Cena is your United States Champion, and at this point, with him and Bryan running the midcard titles, I can honestly say I'm curious to see what happens next.

The Rock and Ronda Rousey take on The Authority?!?!?

So here was a nice little bonus for the evening. Just when you thought the Authority was gonna get away with one of their long and irritating promos, they were interrupted by The Rock. He got in a few verbal jabs, but Stephanie McMahon was not having him ruin her moment, so she slapped the taste out of his mouth and asked him if he was gonna strike a woman. He said he would never, but then he went ringside to Ronda Rousey sitting in the front row and the two megastars stormed the ring. The crowd was going INSANE!

After the tension had built up, The Rock starting laying punches on The Game and then sent him to Ronda where she threw him around the ring. Then Steph started running her mouth again and went in for a slap, only for Ronda to grab her by the arm and teased what would happen to her if she tried to mess with her again. It was an awesome moment I never predicted would happen as I tuned into the PPV. So bravo to them for giving the fans another mark out moment for the evening. And they weren't even done with those yet either...

The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt

Man was it good to see the Deadman back. In a battle of the past and present faces of fear, the Undertaker returned after a year long absence to silence Bray Wyatt. Two things: 1. From what I've read, Bray was working this match with an injured ankle...big props to him. and 2. Taker can still go, but he really does need someone that can take control of the match. Having said that, I enjoyed this match much more than Taker's match with Lesnar last year, but it still wasn't a 5-star classic. The nostalgia of seeing the Undertaker again was awesome, and for the match he was able to have with an injured Wyatt, after the work Wyatt did to sell this match (for real...Wyatt was the MVP of WrestleMania season by selling this match single-hand), it's probably the best payoff we could've had for it.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns...vs. Seth Rollins

There were tons of scenarios that were surrounding this main event, with one of the top ones being Rollins cashing in at the conclusion of the match. Naturally, that's not too much of a surprise, so in order to keep us on our toes, he came out during the match and cashed in while both men were down to create a Triple Threat main event. BRILLIANT.

Let's talk briefly about the Lesnar/Reigns portion of the match. It was actually really good. It was a strong brawl type match that felt more shoot style than what I was expecting. Lesnar manhandled Reigns like you'd expect (SUPLEX CITY!), but it was the little things Reigns would do to show his toughness, like getting back up, and smiling with a bloody mouth. This dude was as sick during a beating as Lesnar was, and it really took the fans by surprise. Did it make him look strong? I believe so, especially when his offence was able to bust open Lesnar on 3 different occasions. Who knew this match would have so much blood in it.

Then came Rollins. Shocking everyone. And the result was perfect. The match made Reigns look strong in a fight. Lesnar still looked like a dominating beast. Rollins is the opportunist who picked his spot perfectly in order to cement his name in history. He did NOT pin the champion, so Lesnar has grounds for a rematch. Reigns was pinned (which made fans happy), but he was already weakened by Lesnar, NOT by Rollins until the final moment of the match. What does this say for Orton being a title contender since he beat Rollins earlier in the night? It really left people asking questions, making observations, and definitely will have tons tuning into Monday Night RAW tonight to see how much of it is answered. The future is definitely here...NOW.


Final Thoughts: This WrestleMania was a lot more fun than I was expecting, and that made it all the better to enjoy. Are there still some issues fans will find this show or the company's direction? Absolutely, that's what being a wrestling fan on the internet is all about. But it does make me very optimistic of what the WWE will do for the next year. May take a repeat viewing, but I'll call this a Highly Recommended for right now.


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