It's the best night of the year! WrestleMania time! I love everything about WrestleMania. I like the slow buildup, I like the more intense the shows get the closer it is to the event, I like new stars who come alive because of it, I like the whole WrestleMania season.
My first WrestleMania was WrestleMania 24, so I've been watching it a fair few years. I watched WWE as a kid, but was too poor to get any pay-per-views. I stopped watching it around 2003 and didn't start again until the last half of 2007.
I didn't get to see any of the preshow because I was at work, but I caught every match of WrestleMania once it officially got under way. I'll watch the preshow on the WWE Network tomorrow when I get out of class.
Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Title:
This was such a great match! The high spots were awesome, and literally no one looked bad. Everyone involved got a pop in some way or another, because literally everyone did a big move. Wade Barrett looked amazing, like where has that body been? Have I just not been paying attention to his abs lately or what? Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper throwing ladders at each other was pretty funny, with Dean's deadpan face when the ladder missed him was hilarious as it looked like he was lost on whether he was supposed to have taken the shot or not. Stardust's glittery ladder was really cool too, MUCH cooler than Big Show's special reinforced ladder from a few years back. I was upset that it's sequins got destroyed Dean Ambrose like a minute after it was put to good use. Dolph Ziggler proved why he is honestly the best in the midcard yet again and why whomever is burying him is an absolute moron. There was a bit where someone would jump over the ropes onto three guys, then someone else did it, then someone ELSE did it, with everyone standing up to catch the next guy after each time, which dampened the impacts a bit. And, everyone knew going in that Daniel Bryan was going to win, because if he lost, there would have been a fucking riot. So, that was like, kind of anticlimactic, but still cool, because Daniel Bryan is awesome. Other than that, great, fantastic match.
Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins:
So, I'm guessing the first thing everyone thought when Seth Rollins came out was, 'Haha, we all saw you naked!' Because that's what came to my mind. The fact that he's a cheating dickbag makes me not like him as a person, but I still like the Seth Rollins character. He's annoying, and scummy, but he's a fantastic wrestler and pulls out great matches out of everyone he works with. Randy Orton does this as well, so any match with the two of them, you just know is going to be great. AND IT WAS. AAH it was so good! Every time Seth left his feet, it was a WrestleMania moment in itself. That ending!!! How did Randy Orton push him up in the air with just his shoulder?! I love it whenever Randy turns any flying move into an RKO and it's just majestic each and every time.
It really bothers me that valuable time is taken up by a music performance. I watch wrestling to see wrestling, not some shitty, hipster rapper singing an abridged version of his/her autotuned, whiny deuce of a song. We could have seen the tag team championship match instead of that!
Triple H vs Sting:
I was looking forward to this match the most, and it did not disappoint. Triple H's Terminator entrance was AWESOME, despite it only being a plug for the new installment. Sting's entrance was understated and showed how he doesn't need a big, huge, fancy entrance to prove that he's here to impress. He just impresses on his own. Let's get this out of the way: I'm a HUGE Sting fan, because The Crow has been my favorite movie my whole life and my mom told me as a joke when I was little that Eric Draven and Sting were the same person and I believed her for years. So, yes, part of me still pretends it's Eric Draven running around in the ring.
Triple H is getting that pinchy, old man looking stomach and it's really kind of funny to see him sucking it in when he poses. Age gracefully, Hunter, we all do it! I liked how he used 'The Game' entrance instead of 'King of Kings' because I love it when he drops his authority role for a night and is just a wrestler again. I don't like Triple H the COO character, I like Triple H the wrestler character.
I love WCW, DX, and nWo, so this match was my cup of tea all over.
When DX came out, I was so happy, even though I wanted Sting to win the whole time. Billy Gunn is in phenomenal shape and should come back to the ring, seriously. Come home Billy! Come home Mr. Ass! (Still hilarious). X-Pac and Road Dogg are still in good shape to do run ins every now and again. Road Dogg could probably honestly come back part time as well, but he gets winded easily, you can tell.
nWo!!!!! This. Was. Awesome!!! The only thing that dampened the standoff between DX and nWo is the knowledge of how Nash and Hall are still besties with Shawn Michaels and Triple H in real life. If you suspended that belief, it was the coolest thing ever! Also, how the hell did Scott Hall take that bump without dying or breaking in half? I screamed; I was so worried, but he just popped back up and handed Sting that baseball bat like no problem! Sting broke the sledgehammer! It just broke in half!! Like, SNAP! BOOM, it was GONE! Was it a botch that Triple H just sat in the Scorpion Deathlock for like three minutes while the camera wasn't even on him? It was on DX and nWo brawling, but it was just weird that Sting and Triple H weren't doing very much. Like, that's a finisher, why would the camera not be filming that?
Shawn Michaels running in was a great spot, because not everyone expected him to show up. I really thought that the match was over right then and there.
It broke my heart that Sting lost. Why did Triple H do that? Why couldn't he just give Sting his WrestleMania moment? Are he and Vince THAT obsessed with WCW that they just wanted to demolish anything and everything ever related to it that wasn't already under their control? Irritating! Sting should have won!
AJ Lee & Paige vs The Bella Twins:
I love AJ Lee so much! She's tiny, and weird, and quirky, and a nerd and I feel a real connection with her character, alright? Paige, on the other hand, irritates me. She reminds me of those loud, screechy teenage girls who think Ronnie Radke is SOO HAWT, listen to shitty metalcore, and loiter around Hot Topic after school. I appreciate The Bella Twins in that they have actually improved as wrestlers, even though they did pretty much get hired because they're twins and they're pretty. The match was pretty good, for a Divas match in this day and age. There were even some serious bumps! When Paige flipped off of the shoulder, it was more of a gentle, sort of flop, but it was still better than the average Divas match on RAW! When she threw Brie into the steps, that was impressive, because you never see the women really out and out fight anymore, you know? It's like, oh, slap you, pull your hair, let's fight like little bitches. Any match that isn't Paige, AJ, Naomi, or Natalya is kind of boring (NXT not counting). If AJ and Paige hadn't won this match, it would have been a fucking travesty.
John Cena vs Rusev:
Tell me, did anyone honestly think Rusev was going to win this match? They built him up so insanely high and he's an awesome character that's red hot right now, and I'd like it if he still ran rampant through the roster after this, but REALLY, did ANYONE think John Cena was going home empty handed? It's so refreshing to see John Cena in a midcard match. Honestly, if I see him wrestle Randy Orton one on one, I'm going to put my foot through the TV. It would have been more refreshing to see him put over a younger talent on the biggest stage of them all. But since this is WWE and it's always 'LOL, Cena wins', of course Rusev was going to lose. But, if he had to lose, WrestleMania isn't a bad place to do it. It was a solid match; I would have liked to see a more dominant Rusev, but it was an entertaining match.
The Undertaker vs Bray Wyatt:
What the fuck happened with the buildup to this match? It felt thrown together, despite everyone knowing Bray was going to wrestle Undertaker at WrestleMania for like two years. There wasn't even anything riding on it, it felt. Don't get me wrong, Bray's promos have been amazing the past few weeks, but there little to nothing from The Undertaker, and it didn't feel like a feud at all. Just a one off pay-per-view feud, really. It was a great match, though. It really freaking sucks that Undertaker only wrestles once a year now. You'd think if he had one match a year, they could build it up properly and actually make people care about it. What the hell does he DO all year that he can't even make an appearance or two just to make sure his character is still built up and going strong? Seeing Bray do the upside down spider walk and then get interrupted by the dead man rising was COOL AF. It was obvious that the end was rushed, like someone radioed the ref to wrap it up really abruptly. This was another one that would have been a travesty if the obvious one hadn't won. I still believe that the streak should never have been broken; it's 23-0 to me!
Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns:
Why do people boo Roman? He's a great athlete, good looking, puts on a solid match each time, oh wait, he isn't Daniel Bryan so all you fucking psychopaths shit your pants that someone else DARED to try to make his name in the big leagues. Yes, Daniel Bryan gets shafted a lot, but he isn't the only one whose allowed to put his name in the main event cap to be the next big thing. The people booing Roman are probably the same morons who chant 'CM Punk' at AJ Lee like you're really doing anything besides making an ass of yourself.
Brock Lesnar wiped the ring with Roman; why? Roman was built up like he was on the cusp of actually being able to beat Lesnar and then it was just, lol, NO! It sucked and felt like they were burying him by making him look weak. Then, just as he was getting some steam, fucking Seth Rollins came out and punched a huge hole in it the fucking match, like no one saw that coming. It was a nice change of pace that he joined the match and actually put some effort toward it, rather than just waiting for the match to end and running in and stealing it. I HATE when Money in the Bank holders do that. It's so cheap and it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when it happens.
The match endings were a bit obvious in all of them, almost, but WrestleMania 31 was a good step up from some shoddy ass pay-per-views, bookings, and WrestleManias over the past few years.
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