Another Dud of a World Title Match: Drew McIntyre defeats Brock Lesnar
The Braun Strowman-Goldberg match was four spears and four running powerslams.
The Drew McIntyre-Brock Lesnar match was a couple German suplexes, a couple F5s, a few Claymore kicks.
.@DMcIntyreWWE KICKED OUT AT 1!!!! #TheBeast can't believe it!!!#WrestleMania @BrockLesnar pic.twitter.com/U4eI3phh2c
— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2020
WWE doesn’t think much of its top belts.
Wrestling Match of the Night: Charlotte Flair-Rhea Ripley
When Charlotte Flair won the Women’s Royal Rumble, then decided to use her title-shot opportunity to challenge NXT champ Rhea Ripley, that was a whoa moment.
You knew it was going to end with Flair winning the belt, you just didn’t know if Ripley was going to rise to the occasion to make it look good.
#WWENXT Women's Champion @RheaRipley_WWE is firing on ALL CYLINDERS as she looks to battle back against #TheQueen @MsCharlotteWWE at #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/c9IRVRdzvs
— WWE (@WWE) April 5, 2020
She did.
Ripley is the big winner here, and NXT gets some buzz, for when things eventually get back to some sense of normal.
Whatever That Was of the Weekend: Edge-Randy Orton
Can’t call Edge-Randy Orton a wrestling match, because it didn’t take place in a wrestling ring, for more than a minute or two.
But, damn, that was entertaining.
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯@EdgeRatedR drives @RandyOrton through a table!! #LastManStanding #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/zqMimJKXo3
— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2020
And also a sort of virtual tour of the WWE Performance Center, since the action took us to the gym, the board meeting room, the hallways between locker rooms and meeting rooms, storage, the garage.
Great action, and good storytelling with the finish.
Dud of All Duds: Bray Wyatt-John Cena
I kept seeing people on social media writing that they were entertained by the Firefly Funhouse match between Bray Wyatt and John Cena.
Except that: it wasn’t a match.
WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE THE #FireflyFunHouse?!?!#WrestleMania @JohnCena @WWEBrayWyatt pic.twitter.com/F8NFKQtJxi— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2020
It wasn’t even a good skit, though I say that as someone who is not into the whole Firefly Funhouse nonsense.
I like Bray Wyatt as a wrestler, actually love the guy as a wrestler.
This trip down memory lane was, frankly, an embarrassment to the sports side of the sports entertainment motif that WWE tries to present.
If they’d wanted to just give us something interstitial to bridge to the main event, fine, but to call this a match is an affront.
Popcorn, Refresh the Drinks: Actually had three of these
The Street Profits-Austin Theory/Angel Garza match would maybe be a decent segment on “Raw,” maybe.
I’m not into Otis, and I get mad every time I see Dolph Ziggler, mad because WWE has buried this guy for years, for no good reason.
Bobby Lashley and Aleister Black: also getting buried
So much for the “WWE Main Event” segment of the show.
Another Multi-Person Match That Could Have Been Three Matches: Smackdown Women’s Title Match
Five-person matches on these shows are just excuses to get folks a payday, assuming there’s a payday coming out of this particular WrestleMania.
Instead of having those three duds of matches described immediately above, why not have two or three good matches involving the Smackdown women’s roster?
WWE has all the talent in the world, but the people booking the matches don’t know how to use them.
Story by Chris Graham
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