Thoughts on Wrestlemania XXXI

Now that Wrestlemania is over, here are my thought on what occurred and what it can possibly mean for the state of the WWE. So let’s just dive right into this.

In the pre-show, you saw a 4 way tag team match for the championship. The match was pretty fun and fast. However in some ways it was way too fast, as in too fast to even keep up with. When even your announcers are saying “Who’s the legal man here?” and are wondering if the Referee even knows then you have a bit of a problem in the match. Then you were down one Uso and had the girls get involved in the match as well! All in all while it was fun to watch I think they needed like two more Ref’s out there because I doubt the real Legal men were in the ring for the win….I could be wrong though.

Andre the Giant Battle Royal, well that type of match is almost impossible to predict anyway; however, I was able to see some things coming like Curtis Axel lasting a whole few seconds before everyone got tired of him and tossed him out. I had a feeling that the breakup between Miz and Mizdow was going to happen and it was similar to what I called so no big surprise. Adam Rose and Fandango took each other out…no dance off unfortunately.  Bo was an idiot and took himself out. I don’t mind that Big Show won it and I loved the fact that he just sat back watching the Miz/Mizdow implosion with a grin.

All in all I did enjoy the Pre-Show even though the Tag match was a bit too confusing and chaotic. So now onto the main show. Since it is a few days out I honestly don’t remember the order of matches but since I don’t think that matters I will go and comment on them in the same order I did my predictions.

So first we have Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton. I was surprisingly rooting for Randy here. I usually don’t like Orton but I have grown so tired of Seth and his “I beat him one on one” and “I did it all alone” and all of that when he hasn’t won a damned thing without interference in the longest time. J&J always get involved or Kane or Big Show are there to run interference and then Seth takes all the credit and it sickens me to be honest. This guy could be a great wrestler, he has the moves and the charisma; however they keep holding him back. I know I know, how can I say that when we all know by now how Wrestlemania ended. It’s simple really just ask yourself how many clean wins has Seth Rollins had since he split from the Shield? Actually how many clean wins has he had since he came into the main roster with the Shield? Not all that many. Yet this is the guy who was the FIRST EVER NXT Heavyweight Champion! Yet they now make it where he can’t win a match by himself? So yeah I have grown tired of him and his evil cheating ways (however I am tired of the Heels in general right now, way too many of them and they keep winning it’s getting depressing almost). Anyway this match was GREAT, nice and fast paced and had some awesome moves in it. I thought they were going to have Seth Rollins win to set him up for later in the night however I am glad they didn’t. This actually made for a great finishing move and probably the best RKO ever seen below.

We move on now to Sting vs Triple H and let me say with all my criticisms for this match I’m almost not sure where to start. I’ll be touching on this in just a few moments but seeing as I am a HUGE wrestling fan I like my Story Lines to make some sense… however there was a part of this match where all I could do was just scratch my head and go “now what the hell is going on here?” But first lets go back to the entrances, Sting came out first after a long ass intro of asian drummers all of which except one have their faces painted like Sting. This just was dragged out way too long and you had all of these people looking alike striking their drums except for one old karate master looking guy who was like “Hell with you I’m not painting my face, I’m too bad assed.” Then they finally finished their drum beating and out comes Sting to his normal entrance so kinda anti-climactic. Then we see a video of a terminator eye scanning the crowd and Arnold in his Terminator voice talks a bit and then Triple H rises from the stage with several robots and steam and a robotic looking version of his King of Kings outfit. The headpiece was awesome, the rest was just tacky looking and the other stuff going on around him was just so much over the top cheese to promote Arnolds new Terminator movie that it just sucked all the life and joy out of his entrance. So we get to the match and it was a great match where the two of them really went at it. There was some great back and forth and I was quite enjoying things until suddenly the music for DX hit and out came Road Dogg, Billy Gunn and X-Pac. They go on the attack and Sting fends them off and even dives off the top rope to take down all of them. Triple H ended up getting a Sledgehammer and it looked bleak for sting when suddenly the music hit for the nWo. The entire crowd roared with glee and I just shook my head and said “great more people against Sting.” Suddenly then the old grey hairs of the nWo go roaring down the ramp as fast as bad knees and replaced hips could take them (as in a slow walk) and they start to clash with the members of DX. HUH? I shook my head to clear it and was astounded to see the nWo hand Sting a bat to make up for Triple H’s Sledge Hammer. I mean, what in the HELL was going on here? Sure it was cool seeing DX vs nWo but any true wrestling fan that knows anything about the 90’s wrestling and the ratings war would know that the nWo would NOT be allied with Sting as Sting did nothing but be a thorn in their side for years. Not to mention they are beating up on X-pac who was also in the nWo annnnnnnnnnd to top things off everyone knows Triple H is like best friends with both Hall and Nash as those 3 plus Shawn Michaels and X-pac made up the Cliq. So yeah the angle didn’t really make sense since almost everyone there should have just ganged up against Sting. Of course Shawn Michaels shows up and gives a super-kick to Sting since he is Mr. Wrestlemania and part of DX. At one point Sting’s bat cleaves Triple H’s Sledgehammer in two. With all the distractions and guest appearances and just general anarchy in this match Triple H won. However with all that went on in the match it just left a stale after taste in my mouth and to me didn’t live up to the hype.

Now we come to the “New Face of Fear” Bray Wyatt vs the Undertaker. This could have been a great farewell match for Taker but I am thinking that the WWE must have felt bad for what they did to him last year because he made one hell of a comeback. Bray had an interesting entrance with animate scarecrows that had me really flashing back to an episode of Doctor Who which was pretty cool. But then it was Takers turn and his huge entrance had nothing. It was just his normal entrance, no druids, no vultures no nothing new. However, Undertaker had a lot to prove after last year. I mean we haven’t seen him at all in the ring for a full year and at that point he had had his ass handed to him by Brock lesnar for his first Wrestlemania loss. Now don’t get me wrong this match was in no way strictly Takers match. Bray Wyatt had some great moves and came close to giving him a second loss several times. One of my favorite moments though was when both of them were down on the mat and Bray bent up into his spider walk and I turned to my wife and said “I would die laughing if Taker just sat up like he did in the old days!” Next thing you know up pops Taker to stare down Bray who just freezes and wilts as though some giant was burning this spider with a magnifying glass, it was great. Taker pulled off the win in the end and I think was redeemed for last years total flop of a match with a great match this year. I think it is important to note that Bray is still calling himself the New Face of Fear and personally I think he needs to take out Taker or have Taker select him as a person to hand his dark powers down to before he can truly make that claim. Right now I just don’t think he has earned it so I think he has to go out and earn this title that he has made for himself and I also think he needs to bring his family back together. After all what is a charismatic crazy cult leader figure without his insane brute minions?

AJ Lee and Paige vs the Bella Twins was the next one I predicted and my lord was I glad I predicted this one correctly. I can get behind the Bellas when they place nice guys like they did when they first were hooking up with Daniel Bryan and John Cena. I guess it was decided that their main babyfaces couldn’t be known to be going out with the major female heels at the time. During that time I thought they needed some more work on their ring skills but otherwise I enjoyed them. Then they went heel again and when they play the bad girls parts they play them so well that I completely despise them both. If their matches come on I tend to just fast forward through them or not pay attention because as heels I can’t stand the twins. This match however I watched and enjoyed because they were against cute but psycho AJ Lee and the english beauty Paige (yes I have a bit of a crush on them both and yes my wife knows and accepts this). Just before Wrestlemania, Paige had some awesome words to say about how they didn’t want to be like the Bellas, that they wanted to be the freaks and the geeks and she cemented a place in my heart that night with her speech considering I am a freak and geek and nerd and what have you at heart and am not afraid to show it anymore! Unfortunately, during the match most of it seemed to go the way of the Bellas. Once again the Bellas were showing that they needed a bit more work maybe down in NXT in my opinion while Paige got to show off and make them look good. (Just as a side note, how is it the twins are dating Cena and Bryan and aren’t getting to their level in the ring? Are the guys not tutoring them in their free time or something?) Anyway, we didn’t get to see much of AJ as almost every time she got on the apron she would get knocked off to lay on the floor for a while. Finally though she got in and took over the ring in a way that right now on the main roster only she and Paige can really do. Aj and Paige got the win and I cheered, finally happy with a Divas match for the first time in I don’t know how long!

We now move on to the title matches, and the first one we will look at is John Cena vs Rusev for the United States Title. This is one of those titles that I said has been flagging and failing lately and that it needs Cena to hold it as a fighting champ to bring it back to where it should be. This is one of the things the WWE seems to have figured out… I hope. This was a pretty good match where you had a good back and forth and there were several times where you weren’t sure who would win. Cena had a boring entrance like he has every RAW whereas Rusev came down with Russian Soldiers and in a Tank waving his flag. During the match, Cena was able to break out of the submission move that Rusev has used to devastating ends against everyone he has gone up against. Another great highlight was seeing Rusev smack into Lana, sending her flying from ringside as she tried to distract the Ref. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be happy about that and I do think Lana is very lovely so it pains me to see her flying through the air to the floor, but she was trying to cheat so she had it coming! Now we have Cena winning and holding the title and i firmly believe this is good for the WWE as we need the babyfaces to hold onto what titles they have for a bit and help bring back the shine that many of them have lost.

Next to last we have the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. This match was pretty intense. We even saw a majorly bedazzled ladder where the sparkles went flying all around and a rung was even torn off of it and swung around like a club! At the end of my this match review you’ll be treated to a lovely video that shows Luke Harper toss Dean Ambrose through a ladder effectively putting him out of the match,but don’t worry though he was back the next night on RAW to take up John Cena’s first open challenge for the US Title. This match though was good, had some fun moments, and a lot of good wrestling action inside and outside of the ring. I was very happy with the winner being Daniel Bryan as his winning the title is one of the things I think could help this title regain its past glory if they now handle things correctly. I think this one worked out well for the fans and for the future of the title for now.

The main event was a very interesting match. Many have wondered if the challenger Roman Reigns had the chops to go against Brock Lesnar and while Reigns did not win that night I think they have proved without a doubt he has the strength and resilience to go against a beast like Brock. Brock took Reigns to “Suplex City” and even after about 10 suplexes and a few F-5’s Reigns was laughing at Brock. Reigns wasn’t on the mat the whole time though don’t get me wrong about that. Reigns brought some good moves to Brock as well even breaking him open on the ring post to let blood rush down everywhere. I truly wasn’t sure who was going to win the match, it could have gone either way with what was being done. However, they then spring their little trick on us and had Rollins finally turn in his Money in the Bank contract, curb stomp the heck out of everyone, and then takes the title by pinning Reigns. While not thrilled with the outcome because of who got the title, I am glad they found a way to make the MitB contract relevant this year. Now hopefully we’ll start back towards making the title relevant again but not go too overboard with trying to make it an attraction as well.

So those are my thoughts on how Wrestlemania went down, do you guys agree or disagree? Share your thoughts with us and let us know!