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.