WrestleMania reflections
The 33rd installment of WrestleMania is in the books, and it will go down as one of the better versions in the annals of time.
The big news coming out of show, and it was discussed in Sunday’s pre-Mania column, was that The Undertaker appears to have wrestled his last match and retired. After being defeated in the main event by Roman Reigns, the WWE paid ‘Taker a classy tribute.
As Reigns left the ring, a video highlight package aired and when it ended, the camera was fixated on ‘Taker in the ring once again wearing his patented trench coat and hat. Taker teased leaving the ring but stopped as he walked to each side of ring to look at the crowd for possibly the last time.
It was obvious that he was fighting back his emotions during the massive standing ovation he received, and he then took off his gloves and placed them in the ring before doing the same with his jacket and then hat. He finally left the ring as the show ended.
In a fitting gesture, the gloves, jacket, and hat were left in the ring long after the cleanup crew began tearing down the massive set, chairs, and other items.
While the match between the duo had two botched spots and wasn’t the best work for either man, the post-match tribute is worth seeing if you missed Mania.
Both the WWE and Universal championship changed hands as, surprisingly, Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt for the WWE championship, and as expected, Brock Lesnar made quick work of Goldberg for the Universal title.
In other singles title matches, Kevin Owens defeated Chris Jericho for the United States crown, Bayley retained the Raw Women’s belt, Naomi won the Smackdown Women’s title, and on the Kickoff Show, Dean Ambrose retained the Intercontinental gold and Neville retained the Cruiserweight strap.
The biggest surprise of the night came in the Raw Tag title ladder match.
Originally supposed to be a triple threat match, The Hardys were announced as a fourth team in the match and they won the titles. The return of The Hardy’s, as it had been reported in this column several times in the last few months, created quite the buzz at Mania and online.
In a match that was better than expected, AJ Styles defeated Shane McMahon after McMahon missed an attempted 450-splash.
As predicted in this column, John Cena proposed to Nikki Bella after they defeated The Miz and Maryse and Seth Rollins defeated Triple H.
On the Kickoff Show, Mojo Rawley, with the help of injury-prone NFL player Rob Gronkowski, won the fourth-annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Two local fans of the weekly column, California Area Athletic Director Chris Minerd and Brandon Petrie, a Cal U grad, went to Mania and shared their respective feelings.
Minerd, who previously attended Mania XV in Philadelphia, enjoyed the show but had one major drawback.
“Mania was too long,” he shared from his Twitter handle of @cminerd24. “The matches were entertaining, and The Hardy’s were a great surprise. The Taker match was what I expected, he gave a good effort, and (the tribute) was a good end.”
Petrie, who attended his first Mania, made an interesting comparison at first.
“The vibe of the show at first felt like a summer rock concert,” he said via email. “I thought it was gutsy to put Styles and McMahon as early as they did, but wow, was it great.
“The quality of the matches was excellent.”
There will be more feedback in Sunday’s column which will touch on the entire weekend.
Feel free to email or tweet your feelings Mania, the Hall of Fame, NXT, Raw and Smackdown and some will be incorporated into the column!