Ok I have been pretty public about calling this card out on being such a bad Wrestlemania. I feel however that I need to elaborate why I hated it so much.
Pre Show
Neville vs Austin Aries
I
like both guys, I think Neville has a tremendous upside as a heal
champion and I love Aries work, I enjoyed the match there were some good
spots and believable near falls, I really liked the way Neville cheated
to win, that keeps this alive for Payback which will hopefully be on
the main show.
Baron Corbin vs Dean Ambrose
It is a terrible indictment of WWE creative and their booking in general that Intercontinental Title match was relegated to the pre show, this is a belt held by Ultimate Warrior, Brett Hart, Rick Rude, Mr Perfect, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HBK and more, add that to the fact that the current holder is a former WWE World Heavyweight champion and a rising star like Baron Corbin and it is even more unbelievable. The match is solid but they don't get enough time and its the pre show so no-one really cares.
5.5/10
*Yawn* Why should we care who wins this? WWE have failed completely to push anyone who has won this battle royal since its inception so what is the bloody point? Mojo Rawley winning was something I didn't see coming, but I doubt very much it will lead to much in the way of momentum.
AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon
OK this match was the worst match you are likely to see Styles take part in. It wasn't garbage but thats purely because of AJ. No1 from WWE can complain when they are called fake when they are booking Shane as a credible threat to the Undertaker last year and now AJ Styles, he's a stunt man, he can't work, he doesn't understand ring psychology and his punches and pretty much 90% of his offence is just utter garbage. This did nothing for anyone and having Shane be so competitive actually hurt Styles, he's not a wrestler, he's a 50 year old man who doesn't look believable in the ring, seeing Shane wrestle competitively against top guys makes suspension of disbelief impossible and means that as a result you never really connect with the matches
4.5/10
Owens vs Jericho
This was solid but for a match with 2 of the most talented people in the company it really did fall a bit flat. I am not sure if the crowd didn't care because they knew Jericho is going to be taking time off so he was clearly going to lose but this never really engaged me, on a side note I am not a fan of the apron power bomb it just looks dangerous.
6/10
Gallows & Anderson vs Seamus & Cesaro vs Enzo & Cass vs The Hardys
This was one if the best matches on the card but only because of the Hardys you take the HUGE pop they got and the emotion of seeing them back and its a pretty average, sloppy at times ladder match. The Hardys were clearly the most over people in the building it was awesome seeing them back I just wish they had been Broken.
6.5/10
Charlotte vs Bayley vs Nia Jax vs Sasha Banks
This was ok for a 4 way match which I am not a big fan of, there were some good spots, especially Charlotte's moonsault. It never hit the heights that the women are capable of and it felt a bit hurriedly put together to be honest. My god someone needs to sit Nia Jax down and make her watch tapes of Awesome Kong and learn to carry herself like a monster, she has no charisma, she carries no threat of violence in her demeanour and looks half asleep most of the time I don't know whether this is because she is green or if she just isn't bothered. I like that Bayley retained but I think Charlotte shone the brightest of all the women, everything she does looks great but this match just didn't really click and I think part of the reason is the way Bayley is booked, she is too competitive with a super athlete like Charlotte, for me I would book her more like the plucky underdog who shouldn't win but does, with her never say die attitude, booked like that you can create so real high drama and get the fans even more invested.
5/10
Cena and Nickie Bella vs The Miz and Marise
This was odd as the fans were fully behind the Miz which hurt the match, this was a pretty poor tag team match that really didn't have any place on such a important card, it was only here as a vehicle to allow John Cena to propose, speaking of which said proposal afterwards was a touch weird in the way Cena went about it, "hey remember that time you were out of your mind on drugs and I said something that you don't remember? Well I said I would marry you, so lets do it!" but it was nice I guess.
2/10
Seth Rollins vs HHH
This could have been the match of the card, I think it just went a little long. I enjoyed the psychology and I thought barring a couple of moments they told a good story, Seth is such a good worker, he's improving all the time and he sold his knee really well. It sounded like there was a bit of audience apathy in this match which hurt the matches momentum. I think that is partly due to how long the card was and partly due to the finish being quite predictable. Still this was good and HHH looked amazing, how this guy looks like he does at this stage in his life is amazing.
7/10
Orton vs Wyatt
This was hugely disappointing, they weren't given anywhere near enough time, the projecting onto the ring was an interesting concept that was carried out poorly. Finally in a time where he badly needed to look strong the character assassination of Bray Wyatt continues, Orton didn't need another title win but Wyatt REALLY did. Baffling booking here.
3/10
Goldberg vs Lesnar
I really enjoyed this, it was what it needed to be and was about as good as it could be. We got some really physical stuff Brock looked strong but protected Goldberg with his suplexes and the crowd were into it. Anyone expecting a 20min or more match was mad. This was hard hitting and believable. I think this was the arguably the best match purely because it delivered what it needed to, it didn't go too long, they kept the fans engaged and the finish was exactly what it needed to be.
7.5/10
Alexa Bliss vs Mickie James vs Naomi vs Carmela vs Beckie Lynch vs Natalya
This was what it was, the women all did as well as they could do, but these multi person matches are never very good. The crowd popped for Naomi, I would have liked to see Bliss retain but its a switch that makes sense.7
For my money a 1 on 1 or at most a triple threat match would have been much better.
4/10
Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker
The best part about this was Good old JR coming back to add some quality to the quite frankly shocking commentary. So we get JBL, JR and Michael Cole, I would of liked to see Corey Graves here instead but at least we got one decent commentator.
Undertaker should have never lost this match. Going on last and this being Takers last match he should of been allowed to go out on a high. I know it was to set up Lesnar vs Reigns but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't like this match I could see the story they were trying to hell, but it just didn't work. I usually like Reigns work even if I think they way he is booked is HORRIBLE but he looked really sloppy at times and this was just a bad end to bad show. I would love to know who was the agent for this match because it made no sense, Reigns should have worked full on heel here and not as a face, because there wasn't a chance in hell of him being cheered so just embrace it!
3/10
Production
This was Mania so everything looked fantastic the open air thing can hurt how well the audience sound comes across and that was the case here, and I don't think any of the entrances barring HHH's were particularly impressive at all which is a shame, but even with that production wise no-one can touch WWE
7/10
Commentary
Special mention goes to the announcing here which was Horrible with the exception of Corey Graves and JR we really missed Mauro here
.
3.5
Running time
Who in the blue hell books a 7 hour wrestling show??? This was just way, Way, WAY too long, even when the action isn't substandard (which it was) this was at least 3 hours longer than it should have been!
Everything else
I am about done with the New day, they were entertaining early in their run, now they just seem stale and contrived, that being said they did ok here and I dug the costumes but ultimately this show needed more star power then they could provide.
Pitbull and whoever the other guy was were terrible.
The predictable national anthem thing was fine I guess, I have no idea who the singer was though
4/10
Overall rating 4.8/10 which seems generous really
