Today was Wrestlemania, the big show, the grandest stage of them all, a wrestling fan’s favourite day of the year. There’s been a lot of action leading up to this event and we’ve been looking forward to it for several weeks.
The big news this year was that the Main Event was a women’s match, a triple threat match between three of the top female wrestlers at this time. Ronda Rousey came into the match as the current Raw Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair entered as the SmackDown Women’s Champion and Becky Lynch was the challenger for both. Through recent events, the match became a winner takes all event where the winner would walk away with both title belts. Big stuff.
For the first time, a friend put together a Wrestlemania pool. We all made picks on all of the matches and threw in some money. The person with the most correct picks takes all the money. It added a lot of fun to an already entertaining event as we all watched as we collected wins, some more than others. I ended up with seven wins and nine losses. Kevin had a better record. We’re still unsure who won.
Beyond my picks, I had a few hopes/predictions for the event, but only a few actually happened. Well, really, it was only one: that the Miz’s dad would get involved in his match vs. Shane McMahon. I’d also wanted an appearance from Dean Ambrose when with Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns were fighting. (Turns out neither needed any help.)
There were some downsides to the event. It really sucked (imho) that IIconics won the women’s tag team belts, the end of the Falls Count Everywhere match was ABSURD and it sucked that Kurt Angle didn’t win his farewell match, but it was mostly good. Here are a few things that stood out (for me):
- The return of The Big Dog
- Watching this is one long ass commitment – the pre-show was two hours and Wrestlemania stretched out over about five and a half more (!!)
- One of my favourite wrestlers won the Women’s Battle Royal
- It was nice to see Seth Rollins and Finn Balor get their wins (and their belts)
- I had expected the newcomers to take the Smackdown Tag Team championships, but I don’t mind the Usos holding onto them
- They went all out on the intros with great effects and LOTS of pyro – I especially liked Drew MacIntyre’s (the NYPD pipe band was great!) and Roman Reigns (but I’m a little biased)
- It looks like so much fun and one day I want to be there in person
Now, I, for one, was extremely disappointed in the Main Event. In the end Becky Lynch won both belts and it’s got me dreading watching wrestling in the near future. I find her awful – as a wrestler and as a character. There was a time a while back when Ronda Rousey and she were bickering back and forth and Rousey said, “I sure as hell didn’t pour my heart and soul into changing the meaning of ‘fight like a girl’ for the leader of the Women’s Evolution to call herself The Man.” I was relieved to hear proof that I wasn’t the only one and I’ve actually thought about that many times since.
Until next year…I’m sure the landscape will be entirely different by then.
