7 hours. From 10pm BST to 5am BST I, along with many other British fans, stayed up to watch the biggest wrestling show of the year. Squeezed into that mammoth run time were 14 matches with 3 on the 2 hour pre show. Lets look at each match in varying degrees of detail shall we? God help us all if mania goes longer next year...
Pre Show Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Winner: Matt Hardy Length: 15:45 Didn't see this match as my Wi-Fi went down. Still haven't seen it and probably never will. But glad Matt Hardy won. Gives him something to do. Tournament final for the vacant Cruiserweight Championship Winner: Cedric Alexander Length: 12:20 Again, didn't see a lot of this match due to Wi-Fi being down. Did see the finish though and have to say that that was perhaps the most brutal lumbar checks that Alexander has ever delivered. Again, right person won and Alexander is the right person to build the cruiserweight division around. Wrestlemania Women's Battle Royal Winner: Naomi Length: 9:50 The first match that i got to see properly from start to finish. Carmella, who went on to win the Smackdown Women's title 48 hours later, was the first woman out and it was a nothing match with the biggest spot probably being the ending when Bayley threw out ex best friend Sasha Banks and it looked like she had won, but then Naomi slid back in the ring due to her being threw out of the ring but not over the top rope. A rear view later and Bayley was tossed over the top rope with Naomi becoming the first Wrestlemania Women's Battle Royal winner. So after a grand total of 37 minutes 15 seconds of wrestling on a TWO HOUR PRE SHOW. Wrestlemania began. Wrestlemania Main Card Triple Threat match for the Intercontinental Championship Winner: Seth Rollins Length: 15:30 Wrestlemania started with a bang with the triple threat match being one of the highlights of mania. The match consisted of defending champion The Miz facing off against Seth Rollins, who was chasing a grand slam, and Finn Balor. The match started at a quick pace and never really let off with highlights including Rollins performing suicude dive's first to The Miz and then running back in the ring and launching himself back outside at Balor. Rollins also hit a huge frog splash to break up a figure four leg lock between Miz and Balor. This was closely followed by Balor breaking up a pinfall by performing a Coup De Grace onto Rollins back. The match ended after Balor initially hit a Coup De Grace on the Miz, however, Rollins came back into the ring and performed a curb stomp onto Balor and got the pin thus becoming a grand slam champion. A hugely entertaining opener with a lively crowd that made the match go quickly. A good way to start Mania. Smackdown Live Women's Championship Match Winner: Charlotte Flair Length: 13:05 My personal choice for match of the night. This match was incredible. Both women but their bodies on the line to make this the best women's match to ever happen at mania. The match included an Asuka suplex from the ring apron to the ringside area, a moonsault reversal into an armbar/triangle lock and Charlotte performing a Spanish fly from the second rope. Asuka tapping out to Charlotte's figure eight was one of the most shocking but also welcome moments in recent Mania history. So far so good for Wrestlemania but its about to go a little bit sour... Fatal four-way match for the United States Championship Winner: Jinder Mahal Length: 8:15 So... the guy who has been getting the most consistent fan support of anyone who isn't AJ Styles or anyone of his ilk, was beaten by the guy who arguably had the worst WWE Championship run in recent memory. This match was vastly disappointing with WWE still seemingly wanting to keep project Jinder going. But at the expense of Rusev? This result made no sense and killed the crowd dead. But hey... that Indian market still needs to be exploited right? Right? Mixed Tag Team match between Kurt Angle/Ronda Rousey VS Triple H/Steph McMahon Winners: Kurt Angle/Ronda Rousey Length: 20:40 The match that could have gone so wrong... went so right! And what a natural Ronda Rousey is! Her perfromance in this match proves that she can go in the WWE. This match was a lot of fun with some intergender stuff even happening. One minus from the match could be Stephanie McMahon being able to block an armbar from Olympic and ex UFC champion Rousey but apart from this, the heels were excellent with Stephanie really doing a good job in putting Rousey over. All in all, this match was the best suprise of the whole card and had it not been for the Smackdown Women's match, thias would have been my MOTN. Triple Threat tag match for the Smackdown Tag Belts Winners: The Bludgeon Brothers Length: 5:50 This is the beginning of the end for the good portion of Mania with a match that looked like it could steal the show leaving a lot to be desired. The work that The Usos (making their first appearences on the Mania main card) and The New Day had done in previous matches along with adding capable workers like Harper and Rowan this match should have been good. But it was effectively a squash match and was very disappointing. A real shame for everyone because we know what all these wrestlers are capable of if given time to do their thing. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Undertaker VS John Cena Winner: Undertaker Length: 2:45 Don't look twice, this match was the shortest of the night and was a squash match with Cena getting virtually no offence in against Undertaker who looked much better than when we last saw him in the ring. But after the intresting build of the match, which Cena carried, it left a lot to be desired. Maybe due to Takers old age this match was short to make sure there was no repeat of a Lesnar or Reigns situation. But still, another disappointing match that if done 5 - 8 years ago could have been great. Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon VS Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (if Owens and Zayn won, they would be rehired to Smackdown Live) Winners: Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon Length: 15:25 Daniel Bryan having a Mania match in 2018 seemed unthinkable as little as 4 months ago, but after being cleared by WWE after 2 years of inactivity, it was brilliant to hear the Rock version of Rise of the Valkryies followed by Bryan leading a Yes! Chant. The match itself however was all about Bryan's partner. Once again, Shane McMahon had wormed his way into a marquee match on a PPV and his third straight Mania. McMahon having to fend of Owens and Zayn whilst Bryan recovered on the outside after being jumped by the best friends was tiring to watch. a middle aged man being able to keep up with two guys in their early 30's who are two of the best wrestlers on the planet was so boring but very paint by numbers when it comes to Shane. Eventually, Bryan got into the match and hit all his signiture spots and won the match with a Yes! Lock on Zayn. A capable match although was hindered by Shane being the main focal point once again. Raw Women's Championship match Winner: Nia Jax Length: 10:15 The build up to this match was particulary intresting. Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax were best friends but then in a promo backstage that was convieniently shown on the titantron whilst Jax was still in the ring after a match. Bliss told new bestie Mickie James that she was only using Jax as a pawn and Bliss started at shaming Jax. This continued for several weeks with Bliss running away from Jax whenever there was a chance of confrontation. All this led to the match at Mania. The match started with Jax taking out Mickie James, who was ringside for the match, in brutal fashion. After evening up the odds, Jax went onto dominate Bliss. During the middle of the match, Bliss managed to hit the Twisted Bliss to the outside in the spot of the match. However, after this normality resumed and Jax but Bliss away with a falling Samoan drop from the middle rope and claimed the Raw women's championship in convincing style. This was the correct end to the storyline with Jax always seemingly on the precipice of the title in the past year or so, now she has the title I hope she will go on to have a great reign as champion. A fine match. WWE Championship match Winner: AJ Styles Length: 20:20 This match should have been excellent. This match should have been the match that fans would be talking about for months. This match could have been the first 5* match on a WWE main roster PPV since 2011. This match was average. That is perhaps the biggest dissapointment of this Wrestlemania, that the match that everyone wanted to see was fine. Perhaps we should have seen it in the relatively poor build up to the match but we ignored that because that doesn't matter... its AJ Styles versus Shinsuke Nakamura in a re match from their classic at New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 10. The match started and never really seemed to get out of second gear with the only real notable spot being the finish being Styles rolling through a Kinsasha and countering it into a Styles Clash for the win. The reason for the match never really getting going could be that it was constrained by time. When Nakamura/Styles began, there had already been about 3/4 hours gone of a five hour main show. So perhaps if the match had gone longer, it could have been the match we fans thought it would be. The post match angle of Nakamura turning on Styles was a genuine shock and may lead to a reinvigoration of Nakamura's character and a rematch at Greatest Royal Rumble could deliver where this match failed but this was my personal biggest disappointment of Mania. A match that should have been great being average. Tag team match for the Raw Tag Team Championships Winners: Braun Strowman and Nicholas Length: 4:00 I mean... a child won the Raw tag belts... I don't think i need to say anything else about this match apart from one thing... this was wrestling at its strangest. Universal Championship match Winner: Brock Lesnar Length: 15:55 After 6 and a half hours of WWE content, with 3 HOURS of that being ACTUAL WRESTLING, we come to the main event. The believed to be leaving Brock Lesnar took on the biggest dog of them all, Roman Reigns. We were led to believe that Lesnar would be leaving after this match with the Beast Incarnate fluttering his eyelids at Dana White in the UFC for the past three or four months. This would be the Big Dog's moment... finally he would take his place as the undisputed Big Dog and rule all who stepped in his yard but that didn't happen... Roman Reigns got destroyed with only a few Superman Punches being the majority of his offence. Apart form this, it was complete domination by Lesnar. The match itself was bad. It was just suplex after suplex after suplex after F5 after F5 after F5. The worst bit was probably when Lesnar took off his gloves and went full mount on Reigns and, in a repeat of the Randy Orton debacle at Summerslam two years earlier, forearmed Reigns so hard that blood began pouring out of Reigns head. After a final, fifth F5, Lesnar retained to the suprise of many. It later came out that Lesnar had signed a new deal with WWE with the possibility of a UFC fight being inserted into the contract to tide Lesnar over. The actual length of the contract is unknown with some reporting its a long term, multi year deal and others saying its as little as two more matches. Whatever the length, this was perhaps the worst Mania main event in a long time. The split head of Reigns was completely uneeded and the match itself was just repeating the same thing over and over again. All in all, a bad way to end a Wrestlemania that started with promise and ended with disappointment.
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AuthorHi I'm John and I am a wrestling fan. Archives
December 2019
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