As we approach the major event tonight in Orlando for WrestleMania 33, all excitement is building towards a massive crescendo.
A lot of fans have downplayed last years event because it went on for far too long and had the very unpopular Roman Reigns winning the World Heavyweight Title to close out the show.
But was it really all that bad? I tend not to think so after re-watching it in preparation for tonight’s show earlier this weekend.
With all that being said, let’s break it down one more time before tonight’s show takes place and replaces 32 as the freshest Mania in our minds to cheer and critique.
The Preshow
It started off with Ryback Challenging Kalisto for his United States Championship. A lot of people missed this match as it was not shown on the WWE Network or USA. So if you weren’t on the WWE app, you missed this gem.
I say GEM because it really was a great match put on by both men. In the end, it sealed Rybacks departure from WWE and capped off a great year for Kalisto, as the mighty mini Luchadore retained his title.
The Total Divas vs Team BADD match was up next.
This match was shown on the USA network and was more or less a way to promote the up coming season of Total Divas on the E Network. The match was awful, and really didn’t make any sense as both Lana and Naomi would be on an upcoming season of Total Divas, yet, they were on Team BADD. It also didn’t make sense to have the Total Diva Team win considering the fact they already has enough rub and exposure being on the actual show.
Not helping matters was minutes after this match, having Lita come out and pronounce that their would be no more use of the word “Divas” in WWE because they were switching the title to be called “The WWE Women’s Title” instead of Divas. While the concept was great and I agree with it, it further discredited the match they just had.
Closing out the USA part of the show was a Dudley Boyz verus Uso’s tag match that quite frankly, under performed and was largely forgotten as most wrestling fans were using that 20 minutes to eat their pizza and secure their seat for the night.
Interestingly enough, all 3 Face teams or singles went over on the Pre Show.
The Main Card Pay Per View
A card without John Cena, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins and The Rock advertised to be there was going to have it’s struggles, no one could deny that but it did get off to a hot start.
The opening Ladder Match for the IC title featuring The Miz, Stardust, Zack Ryder, Sin Cara, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and defending champ Kevin Owens, tore down the house and kick started the main card perfectly. All of them found a place to shine and this match worked!
In the end it was Zack Ryder with the stunning upset.
The action would get even better the next match with Chris Jericho and AJ Styles putting on a classic. These two did battle for 17 plus electrifying minutes before Jericho scored the upset win.
With the main card off to a great start, it could only go downhill from there and it did. The next match between The New Day vs The League of Nations was a dud. As cool as it was seeing Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley come out to give a post match beat down to the victorious League of Nations. It defied all logic as the same team that just won the match, gets beaten by 3 old broken down wrestlers who could barely move.
It also begs to question why the WWE broke up the League of Nations shortly after having them beat the WWE Tag Team Champions?
Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose followed that up with a clunker of their own that really brought down the show. Lesnar was lazy and their No Holds Barred match came up empty. Even with the Lesnar win, it didn’t matter, this match was a HUGE letdown.
The best match of the night was up next when Charlotte defeated Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to retain her newly minted WWE Women’s Championship. Just a five star mat classic that stole the show! In a way, when you factor in what happened next, it could have ended the night!
The Home Stretch
The rest of the night plain stunk. Rather then give you a blow by blow, I will give you the crib notes.
- The rest of the show took nearly two hours.
- The Rock showed up to have a 6 second match against Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family. Which made little to no sense as we have not seen The Rock since.
- Shane and The Undertaker took part in one of the most deliberate slow moving WWE Hell in the Cell Matches of all time. As cool as it was to see Shane jump off the cell, it wasn’t enough to save the match in my humble opinion.
- Baron Corbin won the worst Andre The Giant Battle Royal of the 3 they have had.
- Roman Reigns took nearly 28 minutes to defeat HHH for the title that closed out WrestleMania with people booing their lungs out for the first time in 32 years.
To some it all up, the ladder match was great, the Women’s match for the title was great, and the AJ Styles vs Jericho match was solid. Other than that, not too much to take out of this one.
Enjoy tonight!
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