Another year, another Maina with a lot of ups and downs! I know at this point it kinda seems like Mania is always like that but...it kinda always is. The show is meant to appeal to a huge audience and not just wrestling fans, and this show proved that. There were definitely some high moments and they were awesome, but man there was some confusing booking and the main event was...I don't know. So I figure the best thing to do is break everything down match-by-match and tell how I felt about them. It was a very long show with 14 matches, so let's talk about WrestleMania 34!
Kickoff matches:
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal - If I were booking the show I would've started it with this match as well. It was a pretty by the book Battle Royal with the ending really being the meat of it. It came down to Woken Matt Hardy, Baron Corbin, and Mojo. The lights went down and Bray Wyatt showed up and help Matt win. It was cool to see what I guess is a Woken version of Bray and I think with Jeff being out right now they can be a good tag team. I also think it's interesting that Bray had a better Mania moment this year and he walked in with the WWE Championship last year!
Cruiserweight Championship Mach - This was a solid match for the most part. It wasn't as good as some of the matches you'd see on 205 Live since HHH took it over but it was good. The best part was Mustafa Ali's Sub-Zero entrance, he looked awesome! Even though I would've liked to see Mustafa win Cedric Alexander won and I was happy for him cause he's been there from the start!
WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal - This one was more fun than the men's! Becky Lynch, Bailey, and Sasha Banks all got entrances and that kind gave away a few of the final people in it. It started by Carmella taunting everyone and they all teamed up to eliminate her. It was awesome to see some NXT women in there, especially Peyton Royce! The final people in the ring were Bailey and Saha after eliminating all of the Riott Squad. Bailey turned on Sasha and threw her over the top and everyone thought she won but Naomi laid low on the outside of the ring and came back in at the end to win the match. Really solid first Battle Royal but I wish they gave them more time! I also want to point out that Sonya Deville had on LGBT colors for her ring gear and that was awesome to see as she's the first openly gay WWE wrestler!
Main Show:
Intercontinental Championship Match - Seth Rollins had an awesome Game of Thrones style into! He had blue contacts and an ice them with the video package. The Miz had a Naruto theme and Finn had a local LGBT community on stage with his into and that was cool to see! The match was a great way to start Mania! It was fast paced and The Miz almost won it about 7 times! Seth Rollins won in the end and became a grand slam champion! He was the least likely to win the match so it was a cool surprise!
SmackDown Women's Championship Match - Not only was this the best wrestling match of the night, it was easily the shock of the show! Charlotte had an amazing entrance that was in the same vein as HHH's at WM 30. It was very back and worth and there was a stiff suplex off the side of the ring on to the floor that looked nasty. At one point Charlotte pulled off a top rope move that she almost slipped doing and it was awesomely dangerous! In the end Charlotte put Asuka in the figure 8 and she tapped! I was shook! I thought there was no way the streak was gonna be broken! The rumors were that it would be broken next year and Ronda Rousey would do it. It was a great moment though and I'm glad someone like Charlotte had the opportunity to do it.
United States Championship Match - This match was alright. It kinda seemed like Randy Orton was just doing his job and wasn't too into the match. He tried to pump up the crowd at one point and it came off very birthday clown-ish. Most people thought Bobby Roode or Rusev would win but Jinder hit a Khallas on Rusev and won the belt! I really like Jinder so I'm glad he won but it was pretty unexpected since Rusev is one of the most over people right now!
Mixed Tag Match - This honestly should have been the main event cause this was the best match of the night! I was so impressed with Ronda Rousey! She looked great, her moves looked smooth, she did great character work, sold everything well and commanded the ring when she was in it! It was awesome to see her go toe-to-toe with HHH! Kurt Angle looked good and seeing him hit an Olympic Slam was great! HHH and Stephanie were great in ring storytellers like they always are. This was really all about a coming out party for Ronda and she put and arm bar on Stephanie to win the match. If this is how she's gong to perform in ring, she might be the next long term champion for the WWE! I'm all in on her!
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match - This is the first match that I really didn't care for. It was basically a Bludgeon Brothers squash match. It was cool to see the USO's finally get a Mania match and The New Day had a ridiculous entrance with little people and pancakes, but the match was meh and the Bludgeon Brothers won easily. The USO's got some super kicks in but it was pretty much just domination by the Bludgeon Brothers and was less than 10 mins. I get what they were going for and maybe AOP will come up Tuesday and be the next challengers for them.
Taker/Cena Match - This was interesting! It all started with Cena being in the audience and after the SmackDown title match a ref came and told him that Taker was there. Cena darted out of his seat and ran by Charlotte on the ramp backstage. So fast forward to now and Cena comes out. Lights go down and Elias came out and runs down Cean and the crowd. Cena gives him an AA and then the lights go down for real. Takers ring gear appears in the ring and cgi purple lighting hit it and it disappeared! And then the "Gong" hit. Undertaker comes out and takes 37 mins to walk down the ramp. He gets in the ring and destroys Cena in about 4 mins! Cena sold everything and honestly is was kind of awesome! Taker looked better than he did last year and if we can get a small match every other year like this, then he can go for another few years! It makes sense why this match wasn't official now!
Tag Team Match - This was a fun match and basically existed to give Daniel Bryan a welcome back to the ring! He had a cool intro showing how the yes chants took over everything and he got a huge pop from the audience! The match started with KO and Sammy beating the crap out of Bryan outside the ring and took him out for half the match. Shane hit a coast to coast because it's Mania and of course he did. Shane got pinned at one point and Bryan came back into the match and took over everything. He did the yes kicks, his drop kicks, and put Sammy in the Yes Lock and he tapped. It was great to see Daniel Bryan back in the ring and he looked great!
Raw Women's Championship Match - I really liked this match! I didn't care for the Mean Girls like build up for it, but the match delivered. Alexa Bliss had an awesome entrance where she was on a pedestal with Goddess gear on and Nia had really good looking new gear on! The match stated with Nia basically killing Micky James to take her out and not be able to help Bliss. Nia dominated for a good part but Bliss got some offense in with eye pokes and a really cool top rope Twisted Bliss! Nia hit a mid-rope Samoan Slam and got the win! I'm a big Alexa Bliss fan but Nia deserved the belt! She never won the NXT belt so it was awesome to see her finally win one and at Mania no less! Great match!
WWE Championship Match - This was a little disappointing. The match it's self was fine but felt like the start of a feud instead of a huge Mania match. There was some good back and forth and the ending was great! The crowd wasn't super into this match and I think it was because at this point they had been sitting there for about 6 hours! Nakamura went for a Kinshasa and AJ reversed it into a Styles Clash to pick up the win and that was awesome! Most people, including myself, thought AJ was dropping the belt so it was a nice surprise to see him win. After the match was where things got great though! Shinsuke went and got the belt, got on his knees and presented the belt to AJ and that was cool to see, but right after AJ took it Shin gave him a low blow and turned heel! So I'm hoping this will lead to a year long thing that culminates at Mania next year!
Raw Tag Team Championship Match - Oh God this match! Look, I get what they were gong for but I did not like this match at all! So the big thing leading up to this match was who Braun's tag partner was gonna be. Well turns out he went in the crowd and got a kid to be his partner...a kid literally stood on the turnbuckle while Braun won the belts. He did get tagged in at one point but that was for about 5 seconds and tagged Braun back in. He hit a running slam on Cesaro and won. The kids name is Nicholas and turns out he is the son of the ref in the match. I get that this was supposed to be cute and funny but I thought it was just kinda dumb and a waste of Braun and the Bar.
WWE Universal Championship Match - Oh boy! This was probably the most confusing Mania main even in a long time! The whole thing about this match was Roman winning and Brock leaving to go back to the UFC. Well that did't happen. Brock dominated the match and did 3 F-5s on Roman and he kicked out of all of them! So he did one on a table outside and one more in the ring and Roman kicked out of those as well. In-between all that Roman got some Superman Punches in. So Brock basically did what he did with Randy a few years ago and took his elbow and busted Roman open bad! He was bleeding all over the place and that woke Roman up. He hit a few spears but Brock hit one more F-5 and won the match. He immediately walked up the ramp and left.
The crowd hated this match. They were chanting "this is awful" several times and I saw footage of a beach ball out during it. I have no idea why Brock won! Did he sign a new contract and is gonna be in WWE while her serves his suspension out from UFC? Is he gonna lose tonight on Raw, who knows. It was an odd way to end Mania and it left us with a ton of questions and I guess that was the point. It did cut back to Roman walk up the ramp looking confused and defeated. Does that mean the Roman experiment is dead or are they gonna hit the reset button? I don't think this was the right way to end the show cause it was a downer and confusing.
I overall thought WrestleMania 34 was a really fun show with some confusing moments. The entrances were great and seeing some new faces have some Mania moments was great! Once again, the wrong match ended the show and it was too long, but I enjoyed it and I think Raw will be interesting tonight regardless!
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