WrestleMania XXXI

WrestleMania XXXI Review

It has been so long since I posted anything here, but I've got the bug for writing again and I thought the latest Mania was a good place to start on.

I'll also include the pre-show matches since I haven't watched them yet, and only saw the end of the battle royal.

By the way, I watched this event in a bar full of wrestling fans, and apart from being at the event itself, it is definitely the premier way to watch Mania, as the atmosphere is just electric and everyone has their own personal favourites. I don't think I could ever watch a PPV live from home again.

This Mania hardly had the best build but neither did Mania 19 and that's considered one of the best ever. So without further ado, here we go with the Showcase of the Immortals.


Pre-Show

The Usos vs Cesaro & Kidd vs Los Matadores vs New Day
The tag titles are on the line. Surely the Ascension would have been a better choice over Matadores? Cesaro & Kidd definitely got he best pop and reaction from the crowd. This started off like a simple tag match, but once everyone started getting involved, it turned into a a non-stop thrill ride. The action was all over the place and it was glorious to witness. The best spot of the match was the double electric chair into superplexes. I would say that this was good enough for the main show. A great tag match and good work from everyone involved. ***1/2



Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
This didn't feel like as big a deal as the last one was since it's on the pre-show. Everyone stopping to eliminate Curtis Axel was a pretty funny moment. Hideo Itami got a big reaction from the crowd and had a nice moment, but I was disappointed that he wasn't in there longer. Cesaro had another great
showing and had the crowd behind him. Mizdow's moment was amazing and received a huge reaction from the crowd. Big Show then ruined it by winning the thing. Good battle royal though. ***1/4


WrestleMania 31

Let's skip all the intro stuff and get to the matches.


Daniel Bryan vs Luke Harper vs Stardust vs Bad News Barrett vs Dolph Ziggler vs R-Truth vs Dean Ambrose : Ladder Match
The IC Title is on the line. I still have no idea what Truth was doing in there. I don't think I enjoyed this one as much as everyone else did. It's still a good match and the great thing about these kinds of matches is that you can go back and watch them over again quite easily. Bryan did seem like the obvious winner here, but I'd say that Ziggler and Ambrose were favourites too and Ziggler did come close with his awesome headbutt battle with Bryan at the end. The only moment that shocked me was Ambrose taking a powerbomb through a ladder which did look very painful. A good car wreck match which it was intended to be. ***1/2



Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins
I'll admit that I like Orton's new look with the elbow pads. Before the show I thought this would be the show stealing match and while it didn't exactly do that, it was still one of the better matches of the night. I think the point of this match was to make Rollins look good even in a clean defeat and I would say mission accomplished on that one. Rollins looked like a star here and that he belonged in
the ring with a veteran like Orton. Hell, he even got to kick out of an RKO and not many people can say that. Overall this was a great match with a great finish as Orton hit one of the biggest and best RKOs I've ever seen. Great stuff. ***3/4



Sting vs Triple H
As a fan of the Terminator movies, I did enjoy HHH's entrance no matter how cheesy it was. I freaking loved this match. It had that same feel as Rock vs Hogan, where the in-ring stuff wasn't that great but the atmosphere and the entertainment value was just off the charts. DX and the nWo interfering was awesome and just brought more entertainment to the match. The nearfalls were great and I love just about everything in this match except for two things: the ending and the aftermath. Sting should have definitely won this and I don't get the point of HHH winning and it just about deflated the crowd. Why the hell would Sting shake his hand afterwards too? Just some weird storytelling there. However I do love this match and I'm probably overrating it, but I'd call it must-see. ****1/2

We got a mini concert after the match and I'm skipping it because it's very boring.


AJ & Paige vs The Bella Twins
Does this count as AJ's final match? If so then I think it makes it quite historically significant for the future. The match wasn't anything special but it was better than most divas matches you see on tv (obviously outside of NXT). Why the hell was AJ knocked out for so long though? A weird part of the match. Anyway let's hope that the divas start getting more attention in the future because it could really do them some good. So-so match. **



John Cena vs Rusev
The U.S. Title is on the line. I loved Rusev's entrance coming in on a tank. Looked awesome. However I would call Cena's cringe worthy as someone who isn't American and I heard that a lot of American fans found it cringe worthy as well. The match was pretty good but I was disappointed that it wasn't as good as their Fastlane match which I found to be a great match. Plus Rusev only took one AA and it pinned him? Quite the anticlimactic finish but Rusev still looked like a beast up to that point. Cena's springboard Stunner was awesome and the bar I was in erupted in a 'Holy shit' chant until dying down and calling Cena a wanker once again. Still, a good match and I like Cena as U.S. Champ so good stuff all around. ***1/4



I won't go over the Ronda Rousey segment since everyone knows what happened, but yes it was great and everyone in the bar (myself included) went nuts as soon as Ronda jumped over the barricade. The Rock was in good form as well, as was Stephanie McMahon. A cool segment that will hopefully set up something for next year's Mania.



The Undertaker vs Bray Wyatt
Let me just pre-face this by saying that I am a huge Undertaker mark and a match between him and Wyatt is something I dreamed about for two years, so no matter how this went I was always gonna enjoy the hell out of it. And it actually wasn't a bad match at all. The match was only fifteen minutes so it didn't last too long and Taker was looking good for fifty and I have confidence that he'll look good next year too. A good match here with Wyatt looking good in defeat, and that moment where he did the spider walk and Taker sat up was just awesome. Good match and great to see the Deadman back in action. 22-1! ***1/4



Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar
The WWE World Title is on the line. This is a match I wasn't looking forward to up until the point when Lesnar signed a new contract. After that it felt unpredictable and that either guy could walk away with the belt. The match was fantastic with Lesnar living up to all the names that Heyman gave him and gloriously destroyed Reigns. Reigns looked good too, especially towards the end when he looked so close to winning. Rollins' cash-in was fantastic and I lost my voice from shouting too much when he pinned Reigns. A brilliant finish to an amazing match that made everyone look good coming out of it. A Wrestlemania classic and one of the better Mania main events in history. It's the Match of the Year for me. ****3/4



9.25/10. An amazing Mania event and I don't think anyone thought it would be anyone near as good as it was. It had just about something for everyone like the car crash Ladder match, entertainment matches like Sting/HHH and Taker/Wyatt, a brawl in the main event, good wrestling matches in Orton/Rollins and Cena/Rusev, a decent divas match, and even great non-wrestling segments outside of the concerts. Hell, even the pre-show was awesome! One of the better Mania's of the past decade and it'll definitely go down in history as one of the best. Highly recommended viewing.