I'm fired up after a great Wrestlemania Saturday show so here's my first ever full show review for the blog:
Austin Theory Vs John Cena
Consider me worked in the very first match as I thought there was no way John Cena was going to lose when he came out with all the Make a Wish kids. This felt like a decent way to open up the show in the moment, but actually on reflection it was probably the weakest (proper) match of night and ended with the heel picking up a cheap victory so it won't live long in the memory. Both guys played their roles well in a basic match where Theory biting Cena a couple times was the lone highlight for me.
Braun Strowman and Ricochet Vs Viking Raiders Vs Alpha Academy Vs Street Profits
What a wild, crazy, spotty, get your shit in multi-man tag that totally overdelivered. Everyone got their moment to shine in this one with Viking Raiders crushing fools, Chad Gable performing a sensational chaos theory on Strowman, everyone going and failing top rope dives until Braun hit his and then Ricochet getting more height on a shooting star press than I've ever seen before. On a normal Wrestlemania, this would be your token tag title match where you cram a bunch of teams onto the card but there's no story - I'm too tired to check every Wrestlemania card but this is probably better than 80% of tag title matches in mania history. About as good of a tag team sprint as you'll see all year and I loved every second of this.
Logan Paul Vs Seth Rollins
Bit of a low man here on this as I thought this was more good than great and I think that has to do with my issues with Seth Rollins. Logan Paul nails his character, he's the douchey, cocky heel who's taken to wrestling like a duck to water. To get the maximum out of that it's best to partner him up against a likeable babyface. I say this every PPV, but Seth Rollins is the most unlikeable babyface in the world, his character work is awful, I never want to see him win and therefore I didn't have a horse to root for in this one. It's just two douches doing big spots to each other. That being said, there were some great big spots in this one. We're well acquainted with Chekhov's table in pro-wrestling - if someone sets up a table, the match can't end until the table has been broken. Well now we've got Chekhov's Prime bottle mascot because it was obvious when that blue dude stayed at ringside that he was going to be an ally of Logan's and interfere. The switcharoo table spot with KSI came off brilliantly.
Damage Control Vs Becky Lynch, Lita and Trish Stratus
This was pretty painful when Lita was in the match moving around like a 60 year old Keiji Muto, but wasn't too bad when she was just on the apron and let Becky do the heavy lifting. Let's split the different and say this was an average match which isn't bad going considering it was the match the fans cared the least for going into the show. They built to a Trish hot tag that worked out well enough, and the super Stratisfaction on the outside of the ring was a neat spot. They made sure to give Io her moment to shine with the big moonsault out of the ring onto everyone which was cool. I don't care too much about the booking of Damage Control, but in terms of in-ring output they almost always disappoint. Bayley, Io and Dakota are all excellent wrestlers as individuals, but collectively it's not worked out for them as a unit. Somehow the tag titles need to come off Becky and Lita, and I'm guessing whoever wins Sunday's 4 way tag will challenge in the near-future.
Rey Mysterio Vs Dominik Mysterio
This was nearly everything I want out of a Wrestlemania personal feud - I have to stop short of calling this perfect because of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch advertisements during the match. There were a lot of other matches on the show which would have been more preferable to whore out for money, this cheapened what has been a very well built story and a key moment in Dominik's career.
That gripe aside, this match was a lot of fun. The entrances were worthy of Wrestlemania and stole the show in the entrance stakes. Dominik's character work was great and he soaked up a tonne of heat from the crowd cutting off Rey's attacks and disrespecting his mom and sister in the front row. I feared they might lean too much into melodrama in this match, but they didn't reach that point for me. Interferences from Judgement Day, LWO and Bad Bunny didn't take away from the match and ensured this feud will continue, which is the right decision. Dominik has obvious shortcomings as a wrestler, ones that wouldn't be as pounced on if his last name wasn't Mysterio, but with good booking and safe guiding hands in the ring he can, and is, an entertaining, over act on the show.
Charlotte Flair Vs Rhea Ripley
I had massive reservations about this match purely on crowd investment. I knew they had the chemistry in them to have a great match because they've walked up to that line before and had the best match across both nights of Wrestlemania 36, but this was essentially heel vs heel going into the match. Rhea's matured a whole lot in those 3 years and is a totally different character, but is still chasing that first title win and can still play off that reliable story that she's the young-gun going up against the established veteran.
Those reservations never really came into play because A) Rhea had good support from the WWE Universe in attendance so she came off as a de-facto babyface and B) They beat the shit out of each other to the point where you couldn't help but get into the match. Sasha/Mercedes has the reputation of her matches having that chaotic energy to them where execution can fall on the messy side of things but it adds so much to the match. I think Charlotte's underrated in that regard too, because she has a bunch of great matches in her career, and the tippy-top ones are those matches that feel like she's going off the rails and someone's in danger of getting hurt or busted open. When Charlotte took that german suplex right on her face and presumably breaking some part of her nose, I yelped, and the match went to another level. The slow-mo replays of that german were so-so good. If the forum was still alive I'd make it my signature gif immediately. I was jumping out of my seat at 4am in the morning at them trading vicious forearms at each other in ways that felt so real amongst a sea of modern Japanese wrestlers doing that spot in a soulless manner. The super-Riptide to end things was a chefs kiss way to end this war and crown a new champion. These two went out there to steal the show, and they definitely put on an excellent match that can stand up there with the best womens matches in mania history.
The Miz Vs Pat McAfee
I would have rather watched The Blue Prime Bottle and The Cinnamon Crunch Toast Emoji wrestle each other than endure this. 5 minutes that felt like a lifetime. Death to the idea that you need 'cool off' matches on PPVs.
The Usos Vs Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens
Can we please drop that criticism that Sami Zayn should have won the world title in Montreal because all he was gonna get was a consolation tag title win and who cares about the tag titles.
80,000 fans in the area seemed to care about the tag titles. Sami and Kevin in a state close to their hearts as seen on their ring gear seemed to care about them too.
We can draw a line under Elimination Chamber now - it was the right call to have Sami lose. Many underdog wrestlers have won the world title in memorable moments for WWE - Mick Foley, Eddie Guerrero, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston to name a few. Sami and Kevin broke new ground in nearly 4 decades of Wrestlemania by winning the tag titles in the main event, while closing out a year long storyline in Sami's relationship with Jey Uso.
The match itself broke the convention tag team rules and we jumped seamlessly from Sami face in peril segments to thrilling Reseda style tag action with Usos serving up superkick after superkick, to WWE style mid-match promos. It was a beautiful tapestry of the careers of these two teams and the magic they're created in this storyline. There were big nearfalls when Zayn kicked out of the 1D (which has never happened before) and when Owens survived the double splash that has served The Usos so well in many a tag title match. This is why you protect your finishers so that they get the biggest impact when people kick out of them in big, career defining matches.
Sami hit three helluva kicks on Jey to win the match and the scenes from the crowd were fantastic as 80,000 fans jumped off their seats in celebration. It's the best end to a Wrestlemania since Seth Rollins' heist of the century back in 2015. Especially in the wake of Supercard of Honor which was a great in-ring show but heavy on the heat with some ballsy booking decisions, it was such a joy to see the big babyface title win and the pay off to a year long story.
For 'Wrestlemania Goes Hollywood' you really couldn't have scripted this show much better.
It's hard to compare 2 day manias to 1 day manias, but this feels like one of the best modern mania shows in a long time. I personally think it's the best one since mania 30. I can't wait for Sunday.
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