Quite honestly, I wasn’t very optimistic about Wrestlemania this year. The booking was all over the place, and a lot of things didn’t necessarily make sense. However, as history suggests, badly booked Wrestlemanias often yielded some amazing moments, and this year was no different.
WWE had a plethora of reasons to make this Wrestlemania special, and it’s safe to say they tried their best, and the returning crowd after the pandemic wasn’t disappointed. However, there are a lot of “what if’s” that could’ve been better. However, the bad outweighed the good and it’s definitely one of the better Wrestlemanias in the last couple of years.
The first night of Wrestlemania started with the chairman Vince McMahon himself, along with the entire roster coming to thank the fans for being with the company through a rough year and a performance from Bebe Rexha.
Afterward, we’re told that Tampa Bay has a storm impending, and Wrestlemania has to be delayed until the weather gets better. We see a few interviews from Superstars. After a hiatus of 30-minutes, the hosts Titus O’neil and Hulk Hogan start the show.
The first match was for the WWE championship between the current champion, the all-mighty Bobby Lashley, and the Scottish Psychopath Drew McIntyre. While I would’ve preferred this one as the main event, according to Michael Cole, Drew himself wanted the match to be the opener because it was his way of expressing his gratitude to the fans for supporting him through the -pandemic.
The match itself was decent. It’s exactly what you’d expect two behemoths to do. However, both of them can hold off themselves in the ring and it was a smooth match throughout, Drew’s three successive future shocks looked great and Lashley being a monster heel is always enjoyable.
However, the best moment of the match was courtesy of MVP, as he distracted Drew from hitting the Claymore of Lashley, which allowed the champion to put Drew on the Hurt Lock and getting him knocked out.
While this helps Lashley solidify himself as a ruthless monster, I honestly think Drew eating the pin would’ve helped him better.
However, I’m still optimistic about Drew and hope to see him on the top soon!
The Women’s tag turmoil was okay! That’s the nicest thing you can say about it. Lana and Naomi started the match with Billie Kay and Carmella, while Riott Squad, Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose, and Natalya and Tamina followed.
It’s honestly disappointing to see the main roster creative handling tag teams so bad. The only legitimate tag team in the mix was Riott Squad and the Raw tag titles honestly feel like an afterthought at this point. However, Natalya and Tamina won, and we move on to the next segment.
Next up, we had Cesaro take on Seth Rollins, and it was everything you’d expect from these two. While their rivalry hasn’t been anything special, “zazaro” taking on the new erratic, annoying version of the Messiah was a top-notch match in all its glory.
It was an amazing piece of choreography performed by two men at the top of their game. All the strikes, the blows, the big moves, everything was smooth and felt like it served their purpose. Even the video package at the start where Seth gloated about himself as top-tier. The ending with Cesaro taking Rolling for the swing was a sight to behold.
However, considering the push Cesaro has received so far, his booking has been phenomenal. If done right, and paired with the right mouthpiece, he has the potential to be the new face of Friday nights!
Moving on, the Steel Cage match between Shane McMahon and Braun Strowman was better than I anticipated. While the booking was very off, and Shane has absolutely no reason to be a Bully to Strowman, kudos to Shane for risking his well-being for crazy bumps again. From the coast to coast, to Strowman throwing him off the cage, Shane sold all the bumps convincingly. Also, the Braun tearing the cage apart was a very cool sight and something we haven’t seen from giants before.
With Strowman winning and getting Shane out of the way, let’s hope there’s something bigger for the monster among men in the near future.
Next up, the Phenomenal AJ Styles and the giant Omos took on the New Day for the Raw Tag team championship. It was another well-booked match that convincingly puts over Omos as a giant with a fair bit of charisma.
From mocking AJ to prevent Omos from starting the match to their absolute fear when Omos was tagged in, Kofi and Xavier Woods played a key role in putting over the big man. The pacing was also very good and most of the moments felt worth it. With AJ and Omos becoming the new champions, it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing their chemistry for a good while.
With that, we move on to the third tag match of the night as Bad Bunny and Damian Priest took on Miz and Morrison. I’m generally not a big fan of celebrity matches because they often get too lethargic and most of the time the pacing gets all over the place because of the celebrity’s lack of understanding.
I was genuinely surprised at how good Bad Bunny was. Being a life-long WWE fan, the Puerto Rican hip-hop star gave his heart out.
He took bumps and sold the moves to the T. The energy he had was infectious and the crowd loved it as well! Most of the bumps he took looked natural and nothing felt forced, and the Canadian Destroyer to Morrison outside the ring would be a Wrestlemania highlight for years!
However, the rest of the people in the match were just as good. The hot tag to Damian Priest was enough to show how far Priest can go in the ring, while his wardrobe choices in PPVs still remain questionable. Furthermore, Miz and John Morrison have been crucial for the match. They’re proven to be safe in-ring workers and they played their part perfectly. Miz’s reaction to the Canadian destroyer, them mocking bunny and trying to get on his nerves, they played their parts perfectly to tell this Wrestlemania epic!
With that, we’re in the main event of night one, where the Smackdown Women’s champion Sasha Banks took on the 2021 Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair, and honestly, it was one of the best Wrestlemania main events in recent memory.
There’s very little to question about the women’s wrestling acumen. They’re both in-ring generals with a fair number of amazing matches under their belt. Sasha being the brash, seasoned veteran, taking on “Rookie” Belair, the match itself was a story that goes beyond the booking.
I’m honestly fascinated by the character of Bianca Belair and how well she has been booked ever since her Smackdown arrival. She’s a headstrong, confident woman with a heart of gold and loads of passion for the craft, and today was the accumulation of it. As the bell rang, both women took a moment to bask in the glory, Sasha, the seasoned veteran savoring every second of it, while Bianca, the new star in the making, seeing her efforts paying off at the grandest of ‘em all!
From start to finish, these women told a story.
From Sasha trying to hold a Bank statement with Bianacas hair, to Belair’s almost perfect 450 splash, and the ending being the perfect end to the story the women told in the ring. Bianca using her braid to hit Sasha, with a whip that shook the stage, and picking Sasha up for the Kiss of Death, it was the moment of the EST, if she wasn’t convincing already, tonight she proved why she is one of the best in the business! With that, we mark the end of the first night of Wrestlemania!
Night two began with country musician Ashland performing her rendition of “America the Beautiful” and Titus and Hulk Hogan kickstarting the show. The first match was Randy Orton taking on the fiend, and that’s where things kinda start getting shaky.
After Orton’s entrance, we see the burnt version of the fiend walking through a tunnel while bad CGI is thrown around to change him into his old version, Afterward, Alexa Bliss enters with the Firefly Fun House theme and a massive jack-in-the-box in front of the ring. Alexa rotates the lever outside the box, for the fiend to come out, and jump into Randy, starting the match.
The entire ring and surroundings were covered in red lights similar to the atrocious Hell in a Cell match between Seth Rollins and the fiend and the match wasn’t anything special to say. After the fiend no-selling a plethora of moves from Orton both in and out of the ring, the Fiend takes Orton in the mandible claw and we see Alexa Bliss, draped in black standing on top of the box, with a black liquid coming from her body. The fiend gets distracted, let’s go of Orton and the Viper RKOs him for the win. Afterward, the Fiend stares down Alexa Bliss, the lights go off and both of them disappear.
Now, a lot of questions are left unanswered, while I’m willing to look over the red lights and bad CGI, Alexa’s sudden reincarnation in an Aleister Black cosplay, and the sudden weakness from a mystical creature was weird, to say the least. However, this is the first time the fiend was shown to act humane, instead of a brain-dead monster. So, I hope the Raw next morning answers some of our queries.
With that, we move on to the Women’s tag team championship match where Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax defend their titles against the team of Natalya and Tamina. Safe to say, it was as forgettable as the turmoil qualifier and the match was sloppy at some points. Both Nia and Tamia are known for their botches, and the camera cuts didn’t help much. Overall, it was just a bad match with a weird ending.
Next, the United States Champion Riddle took on the Celtic Warrior Sheamus for the title, and it was stiff as hell. The starting segment with Riddle, the Great Khali, and Rob Van Dam was fun, and the match was pretty good. Riddle’s technical wrestling paired with the Celtic Warrior’s brute segment gave us quite a few good segments. As much as I would’ve loved the match to be a bit longer, Shemus abruptly Brogue kicking the Original Bro as he attempted a moonsault was a genuinely well-orchestrated move. However, this shouldn’t be the end of their feud and they should get a few more matches until both of them move on to their next endeavors.
Next, we have Kevin Owens take on Sami Zayn, and in honesty, these two can never deliver a bad match and paired with Zayn’s new erratic, eccentric version where everything is a conspiracy against him, this match had a great booking as well.
The video package before the match was well produced, and we see Sami Zayn welcoming Logan Paul as his guest of honor for the match. Logan Paul takes his seat as the match begins, both KO and Zayn are elites in the ring, and they won’t at it again. From Zayn’s helluva kicks and blue thunderbombs to Owen’s pop-up powerbombs and package piledrivers, they did their best throughout the match.
The match ended as Owens dodged Zayn’s helluva kick and hit him with the stunner. However, the biggest moment in the match was Owens’s epiphany after he realizes the struggles of his friends. Zayn had gone so erratic in his quest to prove the conspiracies, he didn’t hesitate to coincide with someone like Logan Paul for help, with Owens hitting Logan Paul with a stunner before leaving, their story has a lot to offer, yet. If booked right, this has the potential to add another feather in their amazing story spread across decades and multiple promotions.
Next up was the Nigerian Drum Fight between Big E and the Nigerian Royalty Apollo Crews for the intercontinental championship, albeit a glorified name for a typical no holds barred match, the ringside was adorned with drums, kendo sticks, and gongs for the men to use.
While there was no use of drums between the men, they had their share of moments. Both Apollo and Big E delivered their part and kept the match running. However, the match ends as the former Raw Underground kingpin Dabba Kato interferes to attack Big E and help Apollo win. While there’s much more to the story of our African Royalty, let’s hope Apollo lives up to it as the new champion.
Afterward, we have the nightmare Rhea Ripley challenge the Raw Women’s champion, the empress of time Asuka for the gold. Now, it’s fairly obvious that Ripley was supposed to arrive after Wrestlemania. However, with Charlotte out of the picture and the dearth of women in RAW to challenge Asuka, Rhea was skyrocketed into the title picture with very little scope for booking.
While both of the women are amazing in the ring, this wasn’t the best for either of them. The match felt rushed, slightly sloppy and both of them looked a bit out of their depth. However, the final transition from the Asuka lock to the riptide was smooth and with Rhea winning, let’s hope RAW creative has something good in store for her!
With that, we’re in for the main event of night two, the triple threat match for the Universal championship. The champion, the Tribal chief Roman Reigns took on the ultimate opportunist, the Rated R-superstar Edge, and the leader of the yes! Movement Daniel Bryan! And honestly, there’s so much similarity between the three of them, while them being completely different in terms of character, size, and wrestling style, this was destined to be special, and boy it delivered!
Roman Reigns, had his right-hand man Jey Uso, and the special counsel Paul Heyman as the match began. If last night’s main event told a story, it was an epic. The three men went through hell and back to win the gold. From Edge and Roman hitting each other at the same time attempting the spear to Daniel Bryan risking his neck as he hit the flying goat on Roman and Edge, to both Edge and Bryan taking conchairtos to their heads, and Jey Uso’s timely interferences, every second had something special for you.
However, this wasn’t Edge putting a picture-perfect ending to his phenomenal return, nor it is the miracle of Bourbon street reincarnated for Bryan. It was the night of the tribal chief, as Roman triumphed over both of them, proving why he’s the head of the table. With that, we mark an end to a remarkable Wrestlemania!
Beyond the wrestling and story-telling, there were a lot of positives about the Mania. The pirate-themed stage was beautiful, considering how some of the previous stages were just a bunch of massive screens, this was one of the better stage designs in recent years. Also, the fans’ didn’t hold back either, the crowd was phenomenal both in their approvals and disapprovals. While the good moments received a world of cheers, people like Hogan were met with a shower of boos! Maybe, this gives WWE a reality check on who to have as a host, and whom to avoid.
In conclusion, Wrestlemania 37 was a complete package. A lot of good matches and amazing memories, with a few hiccups here and there that we can overlook.
