WWE WrestleMania 37 – 4/11/2021 – Night 2

Roman Reigns walks out of WrestleMania 37 in Raymond James Stadium with the Universal Championship around his waist – exactly the way he came in

In his fifth WrestleMania main event, the Head of The Table walked into and out of the event holding a championship for the first time; and he did it in the most dominant fashion possible – sandwiching two steel chairs between Edge’s skull (which he is known for). That’s the way he defeated Randy Orton last year in a last man standing match and pinning both he and Daniel Bryan. Reigns may prove to be the most dominant Universal Champion in history when it’s all said and done and might surpass Brock Lesnar’s reign of over 400 days with the title.

The difference is that Roman is a full-time superstar and not as many people would have a problem. This Tribal Chief character is so much more authentic to him as opposed to a few years ago when Mr. McMahon was attempting to force feed him as a babyface to the WWE universe (and as a result they voiced their displeasure). Not to mention the Special Counsel Paul Heyman does not need to do the heavy lifting on the microphone as he did for Lesnar.

Roman Reigns has arrived at an ironic truth in life that I have also found to be true for me in my experience. The Tribal Chief received the most praise from others, mainly in the WWE universe, when he stopped caring so much and striving for others’ approval, and instead just giving that approval to himself. People respond best when a person is embodying their authentic self 100% – independent of anyone’s approval.

Ironically, Reigns, Edge, and Bryan have all endured health scares in their careers that have forced them to envision what a life without wrestling would look like – and live it for a short period. Edge was forced to retire exactly 10 years ago, and he thought he was finished with WWE for about five years. That was until he witnessed Daniel Bryan come back in 2018 from similar issues with his neck (as well as concussion issues on top of that throughout the years from his hard-core wrestling style). This gave Adam Copeland the motivation he needed to make a triumphant return. Roman endured leukemia in 2008, which returned unexpectedly in 2019, and he was able to return to WWE within just a few months and be back in time for WrestleMania 35.

Upon returning to WWE for the Royal Rumble in January 2020 (his first match since WrestleMania 27 in April 2011 after retiring immediately after said event due to neck issues) and being the third to last man in the match next to Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre, Edge developed a mindset in which he was just grateful to be back doing what he loved. The chronic neck issues required two separate surgeries (several years apart) to correct, not to mention that it was difficult to even get a good night of sleep.

Edge was forced to retire in 2011 due to complications that occurred during a surgery in 2002 (from when he broke his neck in a legendary match on SmackDown with Eddie Guerrero). Adam Copeland knew he was wrestling just temporarily and would need to retire whenever his neck decided to give out.

But back to the grateful mindset – The Rated-R Superstar was introduced back into the forefront of the collective consciousness of the WWE universe for six months, with the mindset of just being grateful to be back in WWE, until tearing his triceps in June of that same year. It’s worth mentioning that The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever was one of the greatest matches Edge has ever been involved in (at 46 years old). Both he and Randy Orton took pride in showing the younger NXT superstars at ringside how to go out there and execute a main event – style WWE match firsthand. This was the second match in the storyline at the time between Orton and Edge, which was finished the night after Royal Rumble 2021 on Monday Night Raw.

The storyline between these two men goes back a long way – they were a tag team, Rated RKO, around that 2007 timeframe. But more importantly, what really got this storyline off the ground was the fact that Randy Orton was brave enough to tell Vince McMahon that he was not necessarily feeling into the promo that was written for him on the night Randy RKO’d Beth Phoenix. Instead, Randy told Vince that the moment with Edge that really stuck out to him was in 1999 when Orton’s father was introducing his 19-year-old son to some superstars backstage, one of them just happened to be Edge. Adam Copeland told Randy that day that maybe one day they’d both be fortunate enough to step in the ring together.

Fortunately now that has turned into many times. Thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin for that anecdote.

After a seven-month hiatus from WWE to repair a torn tricep, Edge was able to make his return in the Royal Rumble match for the second straight year. This time in 2021, however, Edge was able to win the whole thing and earn the right to main event WrestleMania 37 with Roman Reigns (which would become a triple threat a couple months later when Daniel Bryan was added to the match).

In March 2021, Edge began to adopt the mentality once again that originally made him into a main event caliber star in WWE from 2005 – 2011. He is not necessarily adopting a narcissistic mentality to the degree of a Roman Reigns, but Adam Copeland’s mentality is more goal – oriented. He feels he has more to do in WWE as a performer – and he is no longer concerned with the persona/mentality he needs to adopt to get there. Personally, I like it. The Rated-R Superstar has developed an edgier mentality once again that over additionally enabled him to main event WrestleMania 24 in 2008 with The Undertaker (this was obviously a loss for the World Heavyweight Championship for Edge, as we were right in the middle of The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at said event).

Edge is finally putting his head down ang going to work!

Daniel Bryan will be main eventing his second WrestleMania and his first in seven years (Bryan defeated Randy Orton and Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of Mania 30).

Meanwhile, the heliocentric star around which all of this is orbiting is the Raising Defending Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. Roman chose to opt out of Mania last year to protect the health and safety of his newborn twins, which is extremely respectable for a father to do something so unselfish.

The Tribal Chief returned to WWE at SummerSlam in August 2020 and won the Universal title a week later at Payback. He returned with a new persona and character, as well as with Paul Heyman as his special counsel. It’s also worth noting that Heyman was also the advocate for one of Reigns’ most recognizable rivals – The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar.

Reigns might be expected to hold the Universal Championship for at least a year – which would put us at the end of August 2021. This is most likely Reigns’ extended run with a world title, not unlike what John Cena experience from August 2006 until October 2007 (the only reason Cena’s WWE Championship reign was no longer during this time was due to the fact that he tore a pectoral muscle.

Overall, with all that perspective all three men are becoming more and more transparent with the authenticity of their characters as time goes on – and that is the key to living a fulfilling life. Each of these men is dropping their façade and learning to present their true essence, independent of what others may think – each of them giving themselves the satisfaction of living according to their values.

Rhea Ripley defeats Asuka to win the RAW Women’s Championship

So WWE has chosen two younger stars in the women’s division to build the bulk of the product around; Monday Night Raw will build around Ripley and SmackDown on FOX will build around Bianca Belair. This was not Ripley’s first Mania match, but it was her first on the main roster and her first in front of a live audience. She opened Night 2 last year with Charlotte Flair (dropping the NXT Women’s Championship to her) and has competed in multiple Royal Rumble matches. She was also crowned the first NXT UK Women’s Champion and has competed in the Mae Young Classic.

Even though all of this is already behind her, she is only in her mid-20s and still has most of her career in front of her. Because of this, there is reason to be extremely optimistic about all she can accomplish.

Ironically, the rise of Asuka since being signed to WWE in 2015 is similar in a way to that of Bianca Belair. WWE was fully aware that it was bringing in a different kind of athlete who was already the top female wrestler in Japan. She became NXT Women’s Champion within a few months – that was expected. What was unforeseen was the degree to which she resonated with the WWE/NXT universe. She was quickly promoted to the main roster (after an incredible effort in a street fight with Nikki Cross – and Mauro Ranallo’s first action on commentary) in October 2017 and immediately won the first Women’s Royal Rumble match in January 2018.

Asuka went on to face Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania and subsequently engage in a compelling long-term story with Becky Lynch – which ended with Becky relinquishing her championship due to pregnancy in 2020 and handing it to her greatest rival Asuka. However, now that The Empress of Tomorrow has been in the spotlight at the top of the company for several years (and is almost 40 years old), it’s time to start thinking about putting over younger superstars – and that’s exactly what happened.

Apollo Crews wins the Intercontinental Championship and officially has an authentic character in WWE; Big E puts over Apollo before he himself is even established as a main eventer. Unfortunately, E was unable to retain his title in his hometown of Tampa Bay

Wale introduced Big E, who could prove to be a WrestleMania main eventer as soon as next year. This man has had star bricks in nearly all over him for almost a decade – it will happen eventually. There is too much money involved for the Tampa native not to become a massive star in WWE.

E got the opportunity to perform in the same stadium in which he played his High School all-star football game in 2003. From there he went on to the University of Iowa, where injuries ultimately ended his football career, but E found wrestling a few years later – he was signed WWE by 2011. The rest is history.

Let’s delve into that history. Big E became the second NXT Champion in 2013 by defeating Seth Rollins and won the Intercontinental title on the main roster later that same year. A few months later The New Day was formed toward the end of 2014 which led to the best six years of E’s career before the group peacefully disbanded. E even introduced The New Day on Night 1.

Sheamus was the first man to put Big E over in a major way following the dissolution of The New Day. The original event that served as the impetus for the splitting of the group was Kofi Kingston suffering an injury in July 2020 (going through two tables at the hands of Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro. Xavier Woods was already out due to injury – suffering a torn Achilles tendon in Saudi Arabia on Halloween night 2019). As a result, Mr. McMahon figured this was the perfect time to have E branch out on his own.

The New Day officially disbanded in October 2020 when Kofi and Xavier were drafted to Monday Night Raw as a tag team and Big E was drafted to SmackDown as a singles superstar. E won the IC Championship from Sami Zayn a couple months later on Christmas Day 2020 and unfortunately dropped it at Mania in 2021.

Big E’s future is secure, so WrestleMania 37’s primary objective was to get Apollo Crews over as a top level star in the mid-card. Apollo has been with the company for over a half decade and spent only about one year of the time in NXT before being promoted to the main roster in April 2016 right after Mania that year (in hindsight, he probably did not spend enough time in NXT to legitimately cultivate a character the WWE universe could resonate with – that’s why it took him five years on the main roster of doing odd jobs to find something authentic).

Titus Worldwide was the only gimmick that Apollo was involved in that truly resonated, and even that was largely because of Titus O’Neill – but Apollo finally broke through with an authentic character at WrestleMania 37. Not to mention the reintroduction of Babatunde. This man first appeared at The Greatest Royal Rumble in 2018, and also made appearances for Raw Underground last year (Shane McMahon’s brainchild that never quite stuck).

The storyline between Randy Orton and The Fiend is incomplete as of now; Orton won for now, but these two men will likely meet again at WrestleMania (maybe with Alexa Bliss)

Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt have an exodus of history together – which is most likely why WWE elected to conduct this experimental presentation of Alexa Bliss with these two men involved (the House of Horrors match between them at Payback 2017 was experimental and was not received well). Fortunately, this was received much better.

There is history between Orton and Wyatt dating back to 2016 when Orton joined The Wyatt Family. After Randy won the Royal Rumble in 2017, he burned down Sister Abigail’s cabin and subsequently defeated Wyatt for the WWE title at WrestleMania 33 (all before he became The Fiend).

Then The Viper burned The Fiend’s body in December 2020 (it was a dummy so no human being actually got burned). Perhaps The Fiend – at least in storyline – built Alexa Bliss up and empowered her a little too much and made her capable of overtaking the demonic spell he had over her. She finally had the wherewithal to question the dark rituals The Fiend was teaching her.

Bray Wyatt’s subtle tribute to the late Brodie Lee (who was one of his tag partners in The Wyatt Family for years) was extremely touching. Windham Rotunda was distraught after the unexpected passing of his friend. RIP to Jon Huber (one of the truly great human beings to grace the professional wrestling industry).

The WWE universe is not quite sure how to receive the events that transpired in this match. This entire match seemed more like it was a set up to keep fans intrigued with the character of The Fiend, even though WWE may not be entirely sure what direction to go in after this.

Mr. McMahon and Bruce Prichard (the longtime WWE executive dating back to the 90s. He conceptualized the character Kane, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2021 and currently serves as Executive Director of RAW and SmackDown) originally planned for The Fiend to get the victory over Randy Orton at Mania, but (as was reported by CBS) the plan was changed just a few hours before the event to have Alexa Bliss turn on The Fiend and ultimately help Randy Orton win.

The original plan for the match was to have The Fiend defeat Orton in convincing fashion, subsequently writing The Viper off television for a few months, but WWE decided a few hours (last – minute booking is not uncommon in WWE) before WrestleMania 37 to go in a different creative direction. The Fiend character may have run its course as the creative juice behind the character appears to be waning. The character made its debut to the WWE universe the night after WrestleMania 35 in 2019 and made its in-ring debut at SummerSlam that same year against Finn Balor (sending him back to NXT).

This present incarnation of Bray Wyatt has lasted for two years and won the Universal Championship twice. The Fiend has also been extremely instrumental in the evolution of Alexa Bliss. The WWE universe knew deep down that this incarnation of Wyatt would not last forever – it was such a big hit with fans that WWE stretched it out to last as long as possible, and the two – year mark might have marked the end. This run rebuilds Alexa into a women’s title contender once again, and she will most likely become a women’s champion within the next few months for the first time in three years.

Maybe Bray’s real-life brother Bo Dallas will get involved in the storyline between Alexa Bliss and The Fiend in the immediate future.

Sheamus defeats Matt Riddle in spectacular fashion and captures the third United states Championship in his career

The Celtic Warrior delivered the best Brogue Kick ever on Matt Riddle – interrupting an attended lionsault-esque move – and causing Riddle to bleed at the mouth. Sheamus captured his third United States Championship in his career, in addition to virtually every other accolade in WWE – four world championships, a Royal Rumble victory in 2012, Money in the Bank in 2015 (and a successful cash-in, and a King of the Ring.

Sheamus has not experienced a true Mania moment since defeating Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship in 18 seconds in 2012 (I was in Miami for that one). It’s frankly a miracle that The Celtic Warrior is even still wrestling, as it appeared a case of spinal stenosis (which had bothered him for years at that point) had caught up with him after WrestleMania 35 in 2019.

It appeared Sheamus would need to retire then, but he was able to come back as a result of getting in the best shape of his life. He was able to return to WWE in January 2020 but missed Mania 36. After an extremely positive year for The Celtic Warrior, he was able to participate at the grandest stage this year in his first major event since returning to the company in 2020.

It was an intelligent decision by the company to orchestrate a friendly altercation between Matt Riddle and Rob Van Dam – because Riddle is essentially an updated but slightly dumbed – down version of RVD (the original template for Riddle’s character was Spiccoli from the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Matt Riddle elected to become a professional wrestler in 2014 after being ousted from the UFC due to multiple failed drug tests. He stuck with it and was signed to NXT in 2018 and promoted to the main roster not long after (defeating AJ Styles in his debut match on SmackDown. This was his first Mania, and just as Seth Rollins is remembered fondly for being on the receiving end of one of the greatest RKO’s ever at Mania in 2015, Matt Riddle will be remembered in the same light for being on the receiving end of one of the greatest Brogue Kicks at his first WrestleMania.

Matt Riddle will most likely be able to overcome this loss as this was only his first WrestleMania. According to reports, he was never intended to win the United States Championship. The only reason he won the title in February was because Keith Lee unexpectedly had to take time away from the company.

However, it was still viewed as being “integral” for WWE to orchestrate a triple threat match for the US Championship so it could take the title off Bobby Lashley (so he could be elevated to the WWE title scene) without the CFO having to take a loss clean. As a result, John Morrison was added to the match as a late substitute and Matt Riddle won the title courtesy of pinning Morrison.

Kevin Owens hopefully beat some sense into the conspiracy-minded Sami Zayn

Ever since losing the Intercontinental title on Christmas day, Sami has been on this conspiracy thing. This was a fun match with a celebrity to provide some extra buzz in the form of Logan Paul. The match went exactly according to plan, and KO got to do something reminiscent of Stone Cold Steve Austin and stun an innocent bystander in Logan Paul.

KO likened the relationship between himself and Sami Zayn to that of two brothers rather than friends. They both came up together in the International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) in Montréal starting in 2002. From that point forward, the two men were latched together basically at the hip in terms of their wrestling careers – traveling 13 and 14 hours on the road together. They became close friends because they learned to lean on one another, not necessarily out of choice but more so out of necessity. They are essentially wrestling brothers.

Now Kevin got to beat some sense into his brother, as brothers to sometimes – it builds character. As far as I am concerned, WWE should be applauded for the fact that they were able to avoid orchestrating this match for as long as the company did, because it ended up being that much bigger because so much anticipation was built around it for several years.

Kevin and Sami have both competed on the main roster for several years. The first WrestleMania for both men was in 2016 when they both competed in a multi-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. In 2017 Zayn did not have a match at the 33rd edition of Mania, however KO participated in a match with Chris Jericho for the United States Championship which Mr. McMahon for whatever reason was not pleased (I thought it was pretty good).

At Mania 34 in New Orleans, Kevin and Sami both competed in a tag team match against Shane McMahon and the returning Daniel Bryan (who had just been medically cleared to wrestle a few weeks prior after three years of doing nothing in terms of wrestling). At WrestleMania neither man was used, but they both had permanent matches in 2020 at the WWE Performance Center – Kevin Owens got his first official WrestleMania moment by jumping off the WrestleMania sign onto Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn successfully defended his Intercontinental Championship against Daniel Bryan.

Kevin Owens also mentioned to Paul Heyman recently on Talking Smack a little idea about how much he enjoyed the Money in the Bank pay-per-view every year. There is an off chance that just maybe this could serve as the impetus for KO winning the Money in the Bank ladder match in either May or June 2021 and possibly using the contract down the world to win his second world championship in WWE – perhaps cashing-in on Roman Reigns.

There is always the possibility that Kevin and Sami could once again become a tag team for a couple months before that. The careers of these two men/brothers will be forever linked.

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler retained in WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler are the most protected women in WWE who are not women’s champions. They both have extensive history of being protected as far as booking goes – with Nia looking dominant in every match and having captured a title at WrestleMania a few years ago, and Shayna being a former two-time NXT Women’s Champion (holding the title for over six months each time), as well as having challenged Becky Lynch in her first Mania.

Natalya and Tamina have both been overlooked by the WWE universe for much of their careers. Despite the fact that Nattie is widely regarded as the best female wrestler in the company, he has only been recognized as a champion a few times. In addition, this was Tamina’s first legit Mania match – at least to my recollection.

They got a victory in a tag team turmoil match on Night 1 to earn this opportunity. Mandy Rose should not be too embarrassed after falling down (it happened to Titus O’Neill at The Greatest Royal Rumble a few years ago so these things happen. At the end of the day this mishap served as unexpected and hilarious entertainment).

The Bella Twins make a Mania appearance right before Brie’s husband of seven years – Daniel Bryan – competed in the main event. This serves as a precursor for what is to come – and that is a WWE return in 2022 for the two mothers.

Tom Phillips was absent at WrestleMania (Michael Cole pulled double duty at Mania this year) and was replaced by Adnan Virk as the play-by-play commentator the following night on Monday Night Raw. Dave Meltzer has reported that Phillips may indeed be done with WWE. If so, he served as a great announcer for NXT, RAW, and SmackDown in five years with the company.

Vince McMahon likes to shake up the announce teams in WWE every few years. Effectively the only mainstays on the announce teams in the past 25 years are Michael Cole and Jim Ross. Mr. McMahon attempted to put down Ross on many different occasions and tried to oust him from WWE for about a decade. However, the WWE universe would not let him go very easily as the WWE universe resonated with his passion for wrestling at a deep level. McMahon proved to love JR like a brother over the years, and he also served as the head of talent relations in WWE for quite some time and did the payroll for much longer than that.

WWE WrestleMania 37 – 4/10/2021 – Night 1

This current generation of WWE superstars that lived through the 2020-21 era may go down in history as the most mentally flexible generation of WWE superstars there has ever been because of the onslaught of sudden changes they had to endure. First the pandemic of 2020, in which Drew McIntyre emerged as one of WWE’s top stars. Because of this it was extremely fitting that McIntyre opened WrestleMania in 2021.

With such a strange year, it was characteristic that there will be yet another sudden change in the form of a Mania rain delay. WWE did an excellent job of conducting last-minute interviews with all the superstars. Fortunately Titus O’Neill and Hulk Hogan were able to get the show started within about 30 minutes. Fortunately

Bianca Belair captures the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Sasha Banks and cemented herself as the future of the women’s division

Bianca Belair took the next deep dive into the unknown in her career and cemented herself as the undisputed future of the women’s division in WWE by taking Sasha Banks’ title. When Bianca first came on the scene and arrived in NXT in 2016 it was apparent that she was a different kind of athlete. Charlotte Flair was the embodiment of that – an athlete just head and shoulders above all other women – and Bianca has simply taken it to another level.

Bianca made her Royal Rumble debut in 2020, briefly introducing herself to the WWE universe, and lasted for about half the match after entering at No. 2 (Alexa Bliss was No. 1). She made her first WrestleMania appearance last year with her husband Montez Ford, but this was her first legitimate match at the grandest stage. She made her official debut the following Friday night on SmackDown (after having finished her tenure in NXT in a match with Charlotte Flair, which promoted Belair’s move to the main roster while simultaneously promoting Charlotte’s upcoming NXT Women’s Championship match.

The EST immediately established herself as a main eventer in the women’s division, and it ultimately came to fruition in the form of a Royal Rumble victory in 2021 (after entering the match at No. 3) and the first women’s singles match in the history of WrestleMania main events. Belair won the SmackDown Women’s Championship in her first title match on the main roster against the top woman in WWE – or top three – in Sasha. These two women were chosen for the main event of the biggest show of the year completely independent of race or gender, they both earned it.

Sasha Banks makes the argument to Stone Cold Steve Austin a few months ago that she felt a couple years ago when WWE had Ronda Rousey full-time, that WWE should have been paying Sasha to do that job rather than outsourcing that level of star power from a UFC legend.

The Boss was finally able to extricate herself from the shadow of Bayley, after competing for the last two WrestleManias essentially latched at the hip. They lost the Women’s Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 35 after which Sasha took a hiatus from the company to get her mental health in order, and last year they were in a Fatal Five Way match in which Bayley retained her championship. Sasha only has one legitimate Mania moment, and that was in a match with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in AT&T Stadium in 2016.

The reason it made sense for Sasha to lose the title this year was because she was booked to lose championships without ever successfully defending them the first several times she was a women’s champion in WWE. This time, however, that narrative was erased as she has defended the championship several times since becoming champion (defeating Bayley) in October. Vince McMahon opted to keep the basic framework of the story of Sasha never having successfully defended a title at Mania going for at least another year.

Bobby Lashley retains the WWE Championship as he and Drew McIntyre kick off the show

Strangely, the retention of the WWE title at WrestleMania 37 was Bobby Lashley’s first Mania victory since his return to the company in 2018 (he returned on the night after WrestleMania 34 in April 2018). He dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Finn Balor in 2019 and took a loss to Aleister Black clean last year. Speaking of Aleister, he has not been seen in nearly a year on WWE programming, so it is possible that he may return after Mania. If so, he will be a valuable addition to whichever brand on which he appears.

Unfortunately, The Hurt Business was dismantled by Bobby Lashley a few weeks ago. According to Lashley, this decision “hurt my heart.” If reports are true, this faction will continue, just with different members (perhaps the former RETRIBUTION members T-Bar and Mace).

The group was created about a year ago, and the seeds were planted after the Royal Rumble match in January 2020. That was the night MVP made his return to the company, which was originally supposed to be a one off just so MVP could allow his son to see him wrestle. Lashley got to talking with MVP about a potential faction and one thing led to another from there (the ending of the stable may have been somewhat premature but not terrible by any means). However, Bobby is finally WWE Champion and successfully defended the belt on the grandest stage of them will all.

Because the All Mighty successfully defended his WWE title, a potential match with Brock Lesnar in the future is a very real possibility. It might even take place at SummerSlam 2021 (which will also likely take place in front of an audience). I was holding my breath to a degree in hopes that Lesnar would show up, but he most likely will make his presence known again very soon.

Bobby Lashley had a gradual rise to the top of WWE upon returning to the company in 2018. Drew McIntyre on the other hand was fired in 2014 before dusting himself off and going to work for another three years in efforts to get back. He has been grinding since he was about 17-18 years old. McIntyre became the face of the pandemic era in WWE when he won the WWE title from Brock Lesnar at Mania 36. In effect, Mr. McMahon was most likely hesitant to bring any other guy or girl to the main event scene in wake of the pandemic (because Mr. McMahon was likely nervous about just how many fans of what be able to get their eyeballs on the new superstars).

McIntyre, however, was adamant about taking on the challenge of becoming the face of WWE during the pandemic era. In addition, he and Lashley were both adamant about coming out first and setting the tone for the returning WWE universe.

One of Cesaro’s best friends – Seth Rollins – gives him a WrestleMania moment in his first singles match

After 10 years in WWE and being overlooked for most of that time, Cesaro delivered a fantastic singles Mania match the entire WWE universe knew he was capable of – with another one of the best in the world in Seth Rollins. The history between these two men goes back a long way to their days in Ring of Honor together in the mid-to-late 2000’s – they are legitimately real-life great friends.

Cesaro’s top WrestleMania moment before this was in 2014 at WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans when he won the first ever Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal (Jey Uso won it this year). He also participated in a few Mania matches with Sheamus as The Bar. This match may have been essentially a number one contender’s match for the Universal Championship and the one you may challenge whoever emerges as the champion on Night 2 of this event.

Seth Rollins, on the contrary, has been focused on putting others over and creating new stars in WWE for the last year and a half. Cesaro still needed to be focused primarily on establishing his own star throughout this past year – having split from his tag team with Shinsuke Nakamura – but The Visionary is already firmly established as a megastar, so he has been focused on building new talent within WWE since he lost the Universal title in October 2019 (that is also when Rollins began employing the Messiah gimmick).

Seth served as Drew McIntyre’s first challenger for the WWE title at Money in the Bank in May 2020. Rollins next used his own star to benefit that of Dominik Mysterio – a rising star in his own right – at SummerSlam 2020. Seth put one more guy over with the Messiah gimmick before taking paternity leave in November, and Murphy was the last beneficiary before this phase of Rollins’ career concluded by putting Cesaro over at the first Mania with the WWE universe in two years.

Seth’s best Mania moment might have to be at WrestleMania 31 in 2015 (even before the heist of the century) when he took probably the best RKO ever. He went for a stomp by elevating off Randy Orton’s head into an absolutely beautiful RKO. JBL immediately said “best RKO ever”. A close second would have to be in 2017 when he powered through a knee injury to defeat Triple H and become the Kingslayer.

Bad Bunny surprises the WWE universe with his unexpectedly great performance as he and Damian Priest defeat Miz and Morrison

Bad Bunny clearly took his preparation for this match seriously and put in the time. You never know quite how it will go when WWE brings in a celebrity to wrestle – but this was clearly the best celebrity performance in a match ever.

Damian Priest was the new star created in the match – even if he was not given that much time to get his moves in. According to Mr. McMahon The Archer of Infamy is adapting extremely well to the way things are done on the main roster in WWE since being called up from NXT in January 2021 (Priest signed with WWE in late 2018). MC M.I.Z and Johnny Drip Drip gave an entertaining musical performance.

This was the one gimmicky match I was unsure about, but the WWE universe was pleasantly surprised with Bad Bunny’s preparation and seriousness with which he approached this Mania match.

Braun Strowman throws Shane McMahon off a steel cage and elevates his own star in Shane’s first WrestleMania match in two years – McMahon unselfishly puts over Braun

Braun Strowman was innovative in his steel cage match with Shane McMahon by breaking through the cage and pulling Shane back in. Seeing a man that big standing on top of a steel cage is quite an anomaly – we had to figure that Shane McMahon was going off the top of the cage somehow. I figured it might be through the announce table, similar to Kevin Owens in July 2018 (ironically, that match was also with Strowman.

The Monster needed this victory to gain momentum again, because he has not been involved in anything meaningful since losing the Universal Championship last year at SummerSlam. He was originally involved with RAW Underground, which began in August 2020 and was the brainchild of Shane McMahon but unfortunately that did not go anywhere. The endgame was likely always a Mania match between these two men, Mr. McMahon just had to take a detour to get there in the form of this bullying storyline (which is somewhat ironic given that WWE used it to run an anti-bullying campaign not long ago).

Shane McMahon’s most recent WWE storyline involved Kevin Owens and concluded in October 2019 with Shane putting KO over.

AJ Styles and Omos win the RAW Tag titles from The New Day, creating a new team in the process

Omos looked utterly dominant in his debut match on the main roster. It’s a massive honor for a superstar to have their debut match at Mania. It’s a sign the company trusts you immensely. Omos’ debut match at WrestleMania was reminiscent of Big E’s WrestleMania debut in 2013 (he tagged with Dolph Ziggler to unsuccessfully challenge the WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No – Daniel Bryan and Kane).

AJ Styles is now a grand slam champion in WWE – capturing his first tag team title. AJ had been bugging Triple H about potentially doing a singles match at Mania this year but that never happened. Triple H’s contract as a WWE talent expires on March 30, 2022 (this is independent of his contract as an executive with the company), so this was the final opportunity to do a Mania match with AJ unless he signs a new deal as a talent. Styles probably hoped to do something a little bigger at WrestleMania 37 then a tag match, after coming off a main event spot at the event last year with The Undertaker.

Big E was able to accompany his boys and introduce them again for the first time in months. They are showing solidarity and following the original idea from six years ago by Xavier Woods to have The New Day always be about the team. It was an intelligent decision by WWE to orchestrate for The New Day to put over a new team – because they are already legends in the tag team division having held a record 10 tag team titles.

As great and dominant as The New Day has been since their inception in 2014, they have not had as many tag matches at Mania as one might think. They were just getting off the ground in 2015 so they were not featured on the main card that year. The only matches they have had as a team at the grandest stage of them all have been in 2016 and 2018 – in addition to this year. They hosted the event in 2017, KofiMania was in 2019, and there was a triple threat singles match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships last year because The Miz became ill just before Mania.