WWE Wrestlemania 31 Review

WWE Wrestlemania 31 took place on Sunday 28th March at Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. Who will get to have their Wrestlemania moment? Let's take a look

The first match on the Pre Show is a fatal 4 way match for the Tag Team Championship. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro face the challenge of The Usos, Los Matadores and Kofi Kingston and Big E from The New Day. Highlights of the match include Cesaro being a dick and throwing Jey Uso into the barrier; Cesaro and Kidd doing the giant swing into a dropkick on Kofi, and a superplex involving all the competitors. In the end, Jimmy Uso hits a frogsplash on Big E but doesn't notice Cesaro tagging him. Cesaro throws him out and pins Big E to get the win. This match was so much fun to watch and I'm really liking Kidd and Cesaro as Champions.
Winners: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
Predictions: 1 for 1

The second match on the Pre Show was the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The competitors were: Curtis Axel, Adam Rose, Big Show, Fandango, Alex Riley, Zack Ryder, Bo Dallas, Hideo Itami, Diego, Fernando, Sin Cara Version 2, Tyson Kidd, Mark Henry, Konnor, Viktor, Darren Young, Heath Slater, Titus O'Neill, Jack Swagger, Big E, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Erick Rowan, Goldust, Corporate Kane, Jimmy Uso, Cesaro, Ryback, Hollywood Miz and Damien Mizdow. At the beginning, Curtis Axel gets eliminated straight away by all the wrestlers. Other notable eliminations include: Itami getting eliminated thanks to a KO punch by Show; Ryback eliminating O'Neill with a German suplex; and Big Show eliminating all of The New Day. The final five were Cesaro, Mizdow, Miz, Big Show and Ryback. Cesaro tries to eliminate Show but it's reversed and he gets eliminated instead. Show then eliminates Ryback. Miz tries to get Mizdow to team up on Show but Mizdow refuses and eliminates Miz. Mizdow takes it to Show but it's all in vain as he gets eliminated and the Big Show wins. I really enjoyed the match but I feel that it should have been on the main card.
Winners: Big Show
Predictions: 1 for 2

The first match on the actual show was a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. Bad News Barrett faced the challenges of Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Stardust, Luke Harper and R-Truth. In the beginning, you get everyone doing variations of a suicide dive on each other. Highlights of the match include: Bryan hanging Harper off the ladder and hitting him with kicks; Stardust bringing out a gold dust covered ladder; R-Truth hitting a scissor kick sending Harper's head onto a ladder; Harper powerbombing Ambrose through a ladder; and Barrett hitting Ziggler, Stardust and R-Truth with bullhammers. In the end, Bryan and Ziggler are on top of a ladder exchanging headbutts. Ziggler falls out and Bryan gets the belt and wins. I generally like ladder matches and this one didn't disappoint. A great way to start Wrestlemania.
Winner: Daniel Bryan
Predictions: 1 for 3

Next was Randy Orton taking on Mr Money in the Bank Seth Rollins with J&J Security. Orton goes for an early RKO but Rollins rolls away. Later on, Orton hits a double hanging DDT on J&J Security on the floor but this gives Rollins the opportunity to hit a suicide dive. The match goes back and forth with Orton countering a curb stomp into a powerslam and Rollins hitting a springboard moonsault to the outside. Rollins manages to kick out of a RKO then hits a curb stomp for 2. In the end, Rollins goes for another curb stomp but it's countered into the possibly the best RKO ever for Orton to get the win. I really enjoyed this match and it had a great ending.
Winner: Randy Orton
Predictions: 2 for 4

Now a match that I'm looking forward to: Sting taking on Triple H. A quick word about the entrances. Sting comes out to a traditional Japanese band. Triple H on the ther hand, fuck me. He comes out with Terminators, shamelessly plugging the upcoming film. Terminator Genisys.it was cool but it seemed to be too over the top.

Quite early on, we get to see a basic technical match, which was nice to see. Sting misses a Stinger splash to give Triple H the advantage. Sting gets back into it and applies a very poor Scorpion deathlock. Suddenly, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac from D-Generation X run down. Sting deals with them but he gets with a Pedigree for 2. Triple H gets a sledgehammer then suddenly, the nWo turn up to help Sting, which was weird considering the wars they had with him. Sting hits a Scorpion death drop for 2 then applies another Scorpion deathlock. Suddenly (I seem to writing that word a lot) Shawn Michaels hits the Sweet Chin Music on Sting to break it up. Triple H gets the sledgehammer and Scott Hall gives Sting a baseball bat. Sting manages to break the sledgehammer handle in half then hits a Stinger splash. However, when he goes for another one, Triple H hits him with the sledgehammer and pins him to get the win. Afterwards, the shake hands.

This was quite a fun match. I thought it would degenerate into a clusterfuck when DX and the nWo made their way down. However, it seemed to work. Even though Triple H is my favourite wrestler, I feel that Sting should have won this match. I suppose that even though WWE bought out WCW over 14 years ago, they still want to rub in the fact that they won the Monday Night Wars, and that's a shame; and maybe a bit sad.
Winner: Triple H
Predictions: 2 for 5

After a mini concert involving Skylar Grey and Kid Ink, we get AJ Lee and Paige taking on The Bella Twins. Nikki gets the advantage early on with an Alabama Slam to Paige after she knocks AJ off the apron. The Bellas keep beating on Paige while keeping AJ down. Nikki almost wins with a Rack Attack for 2. AJ eventually recovers and gets tagged in. After some back and forth, AJ manages to apply the Black Widow on Nikki, and she taps out giving AJ and Page the win. I thought it was quite a good match and it was nice to see the Bellas continue to improve. Since then< AJ Lee has retired from in-ring competiton. It's a shame really because she has been a breath of fresh air in the Divas Division. She will be sorely missed.
Winners: AJ Lee and Paige
Predictions: 3 for 6

 After we get to see the Hall of Fame Class of 2015, we get the United States Championship with John Cena challenging Rusev. Rusev's entrance was amazing. Lana comes out with a Russian honour guard to the Russian national anthem. Rusev then comes out on top of a fucking tank. Cena's entrance was about how great the USA is. It was fine but it wasn't as good as arriving on a fucking tank.Rusev show his impressive strength early on and takes his time to gloat holding the Russian flag. Cena gets back into it with a top rope legdrop to the back of Rusev;s head for 2. Later on, Cena applies the STF but Rusev gets to the ropes. Rusev then does a flying headbutt for 2 and then applies the Accolade for seems like decades. Cena manages to stand up and send Rusev into the turnbuckle to get out of it. Cena then goes for the STF and Lana goes to distract the ref. Cena goes towards her and Rusev attacks him from behind. However, he hits Lana instead and Cena hits the AA to get the win. Afterwards, Rusev screams at Lana. This was another good match, although it is weird seeing Cena as the United States Champion.
Winner: John Cena
Predictions: 4 for 7

After a segment involving Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, The Rock and Ronda Rousey, we get Undertaker taking on Bray Wyatt. Undertaker his classic moves early on such as Old School and Snake Eyes. Wyatt gets to wear down Undertaker, despite being briefly put in the Hell's Gate. Wyatt goes for the Sister Abigail but it's reversed into a chokeslam then a tombstone for 2. Undertaker goes for another tombstone but Wyatt reverses it into a Sister Abigail for 2. There was a cool bit when Wyatt does his crab walk and Undertaker responds with his sit up, shocking Wyatt. In the end, Wyatt goes for another Sister Abigail. However, Undertaker gets out of it and hits a 2nd tombstone to get the win. It was a good match and it was good to see Undertaker wrestle again.
Winner: Undertaker
Predictions: 5 for 8

The main event was for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship with the Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns challenge Brock Lesnar. In the 1st minute of the match, Lesnar hits a German suplex and a F5. Lesnar then takes Reigns to Suplex City as he hits a back suplex, 6 German suplexes, a snap suplex sending Reigns out of the ring, and a brutal overhead belly-to-belly suplex sending Reigns back into the ring. Lesnar then hits a second F5 for 2. Lesnar then sends Reigns to Bitch Slap City with continual slaps followed by 3 German suplexes and a 3rd F5. Reigns surprisingly kicks out at 2.5, pissing Lesnar off. He sends Reigns to the outside and tries to push him into the ring post. However, Reigns reverses it, busting Lesnar open. Reigns then throws everything at Lesnar with 3 Superman punches and 2 spears, but it only gets 2. Reigns goes for another Superman punch but Lesnar manages to hit a fourth F5, sending both men down.

Suddenly, Seth Rollins, inspired by Edge's manual "How to be the Ultimate Opportunist", runs down and cashes in his MITB briefcase. This now makes it a triple threat match. He pushes Reigns out of the ring and curb stomps Lesnar. Rollins goes for another one but Lesnar picks him up for a F5. Reigns slides in and spears Lesnar and this gives Rollins the chance to curb stomp Reigns and pin him, becoming the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

I really enjoyed this match. I still don't think that Reigns is ready to be a World Champion but he did well here. Rollins cashing in was a master stroke by the WWE and very few people expected that. As for Lesnar, he tried to have a rematch with Rollins the next day. However, Rollins flees and Lesnar decides to destroy everyone, including F5-ing Michael Cole, earning him a suspension. I look forward to hopefully a long Championship reign by Rollins.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Predictions: N/A

I quite enjoyed Wrestlemania. I enjoyed the matches and it was entertaining. The only is that I wish there were more matches. Wrestlemania is a four hour show and it should have more than 7 matches on the card. It seemed weird that it had less matches that what they would normally have for a 3 hour PPV. Anyway, despite that, it was enjoyable and I highly recommend it.