Category: Review

Double or Nothing and the first full year of AEW shows is in the bag! All-in-all, I thought it was a pretty good show.

It definitely wasn’t the best show AEW has put out so far though, and there were a few matches on this card that didn’t live up to my expectations, but there was also a hell of a lot to enjoy. Even the matches that I’m about to say I didn’t like still have some sort of redeeming quality to them that made it an enjoyable watch. This show didn’t give us any kind of paradigm-shifting swerves or story developments. Still, a lot of the stories going into it progressed or concluded satisfyingly, and the excitement for what we’ve got in front of us going forward is pretty high.

Also, entirely unrelated, but following my predictions article, I only managed to pick the outcome of TWO out of NINE matches correctly. Which, even by my standards, is abysmal.

Still, let’s rank these matches.

9 – Dustin Rhodes def. Shawn Spears

Welp, there goes Shawn Spears being treated like a threatening heel.

I really don’t understand the point of this one. I get it on the level that it’s a little bit of comedy to break up the show a bit, but at the cost of a guy like Spears? Really? Throughout this whole show, it became evident that this PPV was designed to be a big happy celebration of AEW’s first year. Although apparently part of that process was taking any credibility Spears had built up as a heel to this point and tearing it to the ground.

I know that anyone can be built back up with the right booking, but it’s going to take him a while to live down being the guy who had his bare ass spanked by the former Goldust while wearing underwear with Tully Blanchard’s face on the front. The real kicker here was that I didn’t even think it was funny, it was very much not my the style of the comedy that I enjoy.

8 – Kris Statlander def. Penelope Ford

This was a match that had the unfortunate distinction of being changed with very little notice. So, while it may not be the fault of the competitors necessarily, the fact that they didn’t really get a chance to prepare for each other in this one showed.

I’m still not buying into Statlander after this. I just don’t understand her gimmick. It seems like a nice kind of quirky, but it doesn’t exactly have anything tangible other than commentary making a bunch of space/sci-fi jokes whenever she’s in the ring. Nothing about her performance screams “alien” to me. The nose-boop is the closest it gets, but that’s not exactly the most exciting of gimmick moves.

Other than that, there was a lack of chemistry between the two of them. The action was fine for the most part, but there were a couple of awkward moments where neither woman seemed quite sure what to do, although admittedly, they were fleeting. Ultimately, I don’t think this should’ve made the card. This was an almost 4-hour show, and while I understand why Baker’s involvement would justify a PPV match, once she was gone, this should’ve been bumped to Dynamite to save us some time here.

7 – Best Friends def. Private Party
(Winner becomes #1 contender for AEW Tag Team Championships)
(Buy-in)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but pre-show matches always feel like they have lesser energy than matches on the main show. That’s really what I felt this match was lacking: energy. Despite all of the cool looking flips and dives, the whole match felt a bit drained for excitement and drama.

The lack of a face/heel dynamic in this one seemed to be one of the key sticking points that made this suffer. It’s not always required – Omega & Page vs The Bucks from Revolution proved that – but given that there was basically no story going into this one, a face/heel dynamic was the only thing that would’ve given me some form of investment in the action. They tried a bunch of the classic tag match spots: the crawling for the hot-tag, the one team dominating a large portion of the match and keeping the other guy away from his corner. They all fell flat though because I had no reason to root for either team over the other. I’m not saying one team had to be a heel team, but there have been plenty of cases in the past in face vs face matches where one team has heeled it up slightly more than usual for the sake of making a compelling story.

Still, there was stuff to like about this match. A lot of the flashy offence was fun to watch, even if it lacked substance and I think the right team won. It definitely wasn’t a match that I hated by any stretch of the imagination and sure blows most WWE pre-show matches out of the water, but there was a lot that put me off about it.

6 – Cody def. Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)

This was a good match…however it was also a bit of a disappointment if you ask me.

First, the good stuff, mostly the middle section of the match. From about the 8-minute mark all the way through to roughly the 20-minute mark was great. There was clearly a lot of chemistry between these two, and they paced the story of the match really well throughout this section. I think Archer did a great job of showing off his pure power in the ring and showed that he does a really good job of things in a competitive match as well as glorified squashes. As cheesy as it was, I also enjoyed Cody pulling out all the classic NWA/WCW moves for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

My problems with this match come at the start and the end. It really struggled to get going in my view. It was abnormally slow, and it didn’t feel like it needed to be. I understand there’s value to be had in the heel slowly beating down the face in the opening of the match. However, the intensity going into this match felt really high, and I think the opening should’ve been something a bit more firey before we lulled into the beatdown phase of the match.

Then there’s the finish. Which just didn’t work. If the stuff with Anderson, Tyson and Roberts had happened a few minutes out from the finish, then it probably would’ve worked a lot better. The problem was that it happened immediately before the finish and it totally sucked the wind out of the action and killed the pace right before the most climactic moment of the whole thing. It just felt like a lame excuse to tease Tyson getting physically involved in the match when in reality there was absolutely no value in him being there.

I also think the wrong man won. I’m not going to rail on Cody “booking himself as champion” because he’s taken plenty of high-profile losses over the last year and has proved he’s a team player. I’m sure he’ll have lots of great matches that help elevate some younger guys. The problem comes from the broader picture in AEW. Lance Archer could’ve been an absolutely dominant heel champion, which would’ve done wonders for him and built him up as a legitimate main eventer; something AEW isn’t doing at all right now. What I think is going to be the biggest issue, though, is the fact that all four champions in AEW right now are faces. That isn’t good. There’s only so many heels to go around, and I think a lot of the stories in this next PPV cycle are going to feel quite similar because the dynamics are all the same.

Cody having the title isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think a monster heel as champion would’ve been much more beneficial to AEW’s product at large; both in the long and short terms.

Oh, and the TNT Championship looks…ok, I guess. It’s not the kind of belt I wanted to see. It’s flawed, but I don’t hate it, and I think it will grow on me over time.

5 – Brian Cage won the Casino Ladder Match
(Winner gets a future AEW World Title Match)

This match ended up being a bit of a mixed bag if you ask me. I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way first because I think there’s more good to talk about.

The format of the match was alright, if slightly flawed. It suffers a lot from the same problem as the Elimination Chamber, where the time between new entrants feels a lot like the wrestlers currently in the match are just killing time until the next guy comes in and gets to do his 30 seconds of moves upon entering. Very little of note happened in the opening segment, and even a big spot like Allin leaping off of a ladder on a skateboard felt less impactful because we were all waiting for the timer to tick down in the corner. There was also a lot of interference in it. Best Friends, Marko Stunt, Penelope Ford and Jimmy Havoc all got involved at some point, despite none of them being a competitor in the match. That isn’t a bad thing on its own, but when you’ve already got nine wrestlers to play around with, adding a bunch more is incredibly unnecessary.

Now, the good, which was basically the whole match once the final entrant got in. At that point, the match became your usual multi-man ladder match affair, and it was really entertaining. The segment with everyone taking down Cage was terrific, and the way they all worked together to take him out of commission for a while was slightly comedic in just the right way. Orange Cassidy was a ray of sunshine like he always is and the last-minute change of Joey Janella definitely did a good job of making sure he wasn’t forgotten in amongst everything.

Looking at Brian Cage winning, I really don’t know what to think about it, purely because I don’t know anything about Brian Cage. People seem excited about him appearing, which is a good sign, but I’ve never seen any of his work, so I’m in no position to make a judgement on it. What I can say, is that it’s undoubtedly a good way to solidify a star on their debut.

4 – Jon Moxley(c) def. Brodie Lee
(AEW World Championship)

This wasn’t quite the match I expected from there two, but it was definitely one that I enjoyed.

I loved the fire from both guys right out of the gate. The build to this match had been excellent, and they definitely capitalised on that here. I found the fact that the Dark Order was nowhere to be seen a little odd, I would’ve at least liked to see Lee make a point of telling them not to get involved or something like that. Still, these two have worked together plenty of times in the past that their chemistry here made that clear. This felt like two guys who had always had to hold back when they worked together in the past, but now they can totally let loose.

I’m always surprised at how Moxley can play to the typical face style of wrestling while maintaining his badass persona because he does a great job of it. There was just the right balance between getting beaten up and tearing the house down from him that it made him even more of a compelling babyface than I’ve seen in the past. Lee meanwhile got to show his full range as a wrestler, busting out a bunch of brutal manoeuvres, while treating us with the occasional fast flurry of offence.

I think the finish left a bit to be desired, although it did an ok job at making Brodie Lee look good in defeat. A quick note on the kickout at one…can we please stop using it so much? I used to love it as a scarce tool used to put over someone’s resiliency and will to win, but over the past year, it’s become overused and boring, including twice on this very show. The Paradigm Shift through the stage was an unexpected spot and shows the differences in AEW and WWE’s booking philosophies. I guarantee you that in WWE, the referee would’ve called for the bell the moment they went through the stage, and we would’ve had a last man standing match three weeks later at the next PPV. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one, and I believe the right man won.

3 – Matt Hardy & The Elite def. The Inner Circle
(Stadium Stampede)

In my predictions, I theorised that this match would be similar to WWE’s recent forays into pre-taped and out-there matches and…I was half right.

At the start, I had a bit of trouble getting into it (although, the charge to start off was terrific). I think the stuff that happened in and around the wrestling ring that they’d set up in the middle of the field (for some reason) was wholly unnecessary compared to what followed it. I would’ve liked to see that opening section cut and just get straight to the whacky stuff. Not that it wasn’t good, it’s just that it didn’t fit the kind of match this ended up as. It also added 5 extra minutes onto a match that, honestly, started to drag a bit by the end.

Everything from the moment Hangman Page came out on the horse was absolute gold though. The image of Page showing up in a bandana riding a goddamn horse is just one the coolest sights I’ve ever seen in wrestling, and I hope that horse becomes a recurring character going forwards because it sure got over with me. The leap off of the goalposts was a good visual, and the section up in the stands where Matt Hardy appeared as all the different versions of himself was really funny.

My personal favourite section was the barfight between Page, Hager and later, Omega. The way they had did the classic “talk at the bar” thing before as they started fighting was a great joke, and it only got better when they started busting out pool cues before Page started matrix dodging all around the pool table. I like the touch of Omega being the one to come to Page’s aid, and they actually seemed to work really well together. I was expecting to do a bit more of the teasing for their tension, but I actually think this could work to that story’s benefit in the long run.

The final 5-10 minutes or so were where things started to drag a little bit for me. There were still some good bits in there. One of the Jacksons Northern Lights Suplexing Sammy all the way across the pitch (with some well-timed edits) was funny, and Jericho challenging the 2-count and demanding VAR was a genius joke, as wrestlers are always claiming “that was three!” I think it was more a victim of time than anything else. The show had already been running for three and a half hours by this point, and as much as I was enjoying the match, I was also hoping it would be wrapping up soon so I could go to bed.

Guevara’s last stand was a good way to build-up to the finish, and the One-Winged Angel off the stands felt like a big enough spot to be the exclamation point on the match. Overall, I’d say WWE’s pre-taped matches have been better than this, but this match was definitely a great one.

2 – MJF def. Jungle Boy

From the weird and whacky world of pre-taped matches to what was just a plain-old wrestling match. A damned good one too.

I really didn’t think this would be the way this match would go. I thought we were in for an all-out war between The Jurassic Express and Wardlow, but I’m pleased that they decided to play it as a straight wrestling match. MJF has already proved to be one of the best heels in the business right now, but I’d be lying if I said his character didn’t rely on his big matches having interference and underhanded tactics for him to score a victory. Needless to say, this match shut my mouth about that.

MJF is already extremely over as a character, so this match was focused around making sure he’s over as a wrestler too, and it totally worked. The fast pace of Jungle Boy was the perfect foil for MJF here, and the match was exciting right out of the gate as MJF did all he could to avoid getting caught up in Jungle Boy’s opening flurry. Once MJF took control of the match, things slowed down, but not too much. It didn’t devolve into 10 minutes of rest holds and body slams (like a certain other heel in a certain other company I keep comparing MJF to). Instead, it became a much more calculated game of chess between the two competitors, as MJF carefully worked around Jungle Boy to break him down as Jungle Boy took every opportunity he could for a comeback.

It’s such a basic wrestling formula, but this should be proof that the basics work just as well as innovative storytelling strategies. MJF threw in the occasional heelish thing to ensure the fans didn’t start cheering for him, but at the end of the day, MJF won this match because he was the better wrestler and nothing less. It’s these kinds of matches which add that all-important credibility to MJF as a wrestler, as well as a character, that will make his eventual world title match (and probable victory) feel all the more compelling.

1 – Hikaru Shida def. Nyla Rose(c)
(AEW Women’s World Championship)
(No Holds Barred)

I know. I KNOW. It was a slow-paced, weapons-based match. I hate those, right? Well, yes, but this one felt different.

For one thing, the video package that preceded the match did a fantastic job of building up a basically non-existent story and made Shida seem like the most deserving babyface on the planet. Admittedly, I already had a bit of a soft spot for her before, but this built her up even further.

The thing about this match being slow is that it was slow with a purpose. You take a look at a match like Orton vs Edge at Wrestlemania (which I hated), and you’ll see that it’s just slow for the sake of being slow. All the decelerated pace does is extend the match length and force the commentators to fill for time between the occasional big spot. Compare that to this match, and you realise that almost every moment of it had substance, which meant that the pace didn’t really make a difference to my enjoyment of it. There was no waiting around for over a minute while one wrestler sets up a spot. There was no lounging about doing a shitty job of selling. It was all meaningful movement and meaningful content.

The kendo stick being a critical factor that kept coming back throughout the match was some brilliant storytelling. The opening sequence with it, where both women wrestled for control over it, only for it to eventually be discarded was a tense way to start things off, and it just kept going from there. As they wrestled around ringside, I felt the impact of every spot because there was meaningful movement leading up to it. Towards the close of the match, where the kendo stick came back into the mix, it felt like the whole thing had come full-circle.

What I also enjoyed was that the closer we got to the finish, the weapons became less and less the focus of the action. The table spot was the last noteworthy weapons spot in the match, and it was perfect. It made every spot throughout the match feel like it had a purpose, and I felt the weight of it as Shida hit her finish for the win.

I know that I said in my predictions that I think Rose should win, but the title change was a delightful surprise. I know I bitched about all the champions being faces earlier on in the article, but I really like Shida as a wrestler, and I’m happy that she’s the champion, so suck it. Not to mention, the women’s division is pretty heavy on the heels right now, so I’m excited to see what Shida does with the belt.

And that’s your lot! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this review. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back this time on Saturday, where I’ll be releasing the second part of my Doctor Who Series 7 rankings!

Well, it’s been one hell of a bumpy ride leading up to it, but Wrestlemania 36 is in the bag and it was genuinely so much better than I thought it was going to be. Given all the circumstances surrounding this one, I honestly thought we were in for some major disappointments on this show and while there were still some definite low-lights, I thought the positives far outweighed the negatives.

Well, I’m not going to waste any more time on the intro, there’s a lot to cover, so let’s get covering.

18 – Liv Morgan def. Natalya
(Kickoff Show)

I mean, what do you want me to say? It was a very short pre-show match that was announced 4 hours before the show began. It was fine, but not even slightly noteworthy.

There were EIGHTEEN matches on this show, I’m not wasting my time doing an in-depth analysis of this match.

17 – Cesaro def. Drew Gulak
(Kickoff Show)

Ditto, except this one was slightly better because it didn’t have Natalya in it.

16 – Edge def. Randy Orton
(Last Man Standing)

I honestly don’t know why I bothered getting my hopes up for this one.

I just thought that maybe given that it was Edge’s big return match and that this has been an extremely intense feud, that we’d get some really exciting action throughout this one, as these two men attempted to hospitalize each other. Instead, we got a Randy Orton match…in hindsight, I should’ve seen this one coming.

There was about a minute of exciting stuff at the start as Orton got the jump on Edge and I also enjoyed the finish, with it coming full-circle in their feud. The problem was that in between those interesting bits was OVER HALF AN HOUR of absolutely nothing even remotely interesting. I don’t understand how people can defend over 30 pissing minutes of these two men slowly ambling their way around the Performance Center occasionally stopping to hit each other with some extremely basic moves.

Even Edge’s elbow drop onto the table was something we saw night one with Owens & Rollins, so what’s the point? Even if I had enjoyed this match, I think I would’ve said that 36 minutes was WAY too long, but given that I hated a good 90% of it, I just don’t see anything redeeming about it.

15 – Braun Strowman def. Goldberg(c)
(Universal Championship)

Like I said in my predictions, I’m happy with the result. Braun as world champion is long overdue as he’s been on an absolute tear for the last few years, even if he has cooled off a bit now. That said, the match was trash.

Admittedly, it’s no different to most of the other Goldberg matches we’ve seen recently, but that doesn’t make it good. Somehow this one seemed even more plodding and formulaic than the previous ones. At least in his match with The Fiend, there was the odd hint of something a bit different happening, but this one really was just as simple as they come. Goldberg spammed the Spear 4 times, Braun kicked out. Braun spammed the Running Powerslam 4 times, Goldberg didn’t kick out. Maybe if this was the first time we’d seen a match like this then I’d be more positive of it, but it’s absolutely nothing special and ended up being very boring to watch.

As much as I’m happy Braun has won a world title, I don’t think anyone should be hoping for a particularly long or glorious reign here. As soon as all this has blown over and things are back to normal, Braun is going to be dropping that title to Roman Reigns and we can all get back on whatever course was originally planned for the summer.

14 – Elias def. King Corbin

Maybe it’s just because my expectations were so low, but I actually thought this match was ok.

It started out a bit slow with most of the trappings we’ve come to expect with a Corbin match. As Corbin took the time to slowly wear down Elias in a rather boring series of rest holds, but once we broke past that I thought business actually picked up a decent amount. Elias is one of those people that gets so few opportunities that I often forget that he’s a solid wrestler and I think he did a good job of displaying what he can do in this match.

It wasn’t anything special, but I think they made the most of the time they had to create a decent contest between two very clearly defined characters, which is really the bare minimum of what I want to see from wrestling. I’m also happy Elias got the win, I don’t think it’ll lead to him doing anything particularly interesting just based on his track record, but you never know.

13 – The Street Profits(c) def. Austin Theory & Angel Garza
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Yup, it was tag team title match that hit all the right notes, was a nice bit of fun to bridge the gap between the marquee matches and I don’t really have a bad thing to say about it other than it didn’t blow me away.

The Street Profits retaining the titles was definitely the right move and I hope they get a chance to do something substantial with the titles following this match. I think a feud with The Viking Raiders could be gangbusters if AOP are out injured again. I’m not entirely sure what happens for Theory & Garza following this, I imagine Theory will go back down to NXT being able to brag about the Wrestlemania match under his belt, while Garza will go back to being involved with Andrade in the US title scene. Hopefully, a match between the pair is on the horizon.

Other than that, this match was fine. The right team won and I don’t think it hurt the team that lost too much. Also, Bianca Belair showing up was a nice surprise.

12 – Aleister Black def. Bobby Lashley

Here we get to the “it was fine” section of the show, where I struggle to find things to say about the matches because they were all “just fine”. The action was solid the entire way through and I think this match did a good job of doing what it was supposed to do (that being, make Aleister Black look good).

I thought the bit between Lana and Lashley where she told him to…stop beating up Aleister Black…because apparently, he wasn’t doing it the right way. Does seeing Lashley do the Spear get Lana off or something? Is that what we were supposed to infer from this? I guess it sows the seeds of descent between the couple, but after going through so much bollocks with them getting together in the first place, it feels like it’s way too soon for them to suddenly start falling apart.

The main thing I liked about this match was the finish. The Black Mas is just the absolute best move and it looks absolutely brutal whenever he hits it. That goes double for this instance, where Lashley ran directly into it. I just really hope that when things get back to normal, WWE actually gives Aleister Black something substantial to do. I love the guy as a wrestler, but I’m getting bored of these matches where the only purpose is to give Black a win, they need story and intrigue, otherwise, the audience is going to get very bored, very fast.

11 – Becky Lynch(c) def. Shayna Baszler
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Ok, I’ve got some pretty negative things to say in regards to this match, but first, the positives.

I loved the chemistry between these two here. Right out of the gate the intensity was palpable as both women just wailed on each other and I enjoyed that the more hard-hitting style prevailed throughout. Becky didn’t piss about character-wise and was all business when it came to taking on Shayna which was exactly what I was hoping for and Shayna responded by being her usual, wonderfully clever and brutal self. Those kicks Shayna was levelling Becky with towards the start were wonderfully vicious and that kind of offence was scattered through the whole of this match. I found myself really engaged in the action.

Then it very suddenly ended…in less than 10 minutes…with Becky retaining.

Let’s set aside for a second that the entirety of February and March was spent making Shayna look like an unstoppable beast only to lose. Let’s set aside the fact that Becky has already beaten absolutely everyone in the women’s division and there are no fresh matchups left for her to have with that title and her character is beginning to stagnate. Let’s instead focus on the fact that this match, the most heavily built-up women’s match for this show and the match that myself and many others were most excited to see only got EIGHT MINUTES. That right there is an absolute disgrace that spits in the face of how much WWE has built up women’s wrestling over the past decade. Becky Lynch main-evented Wrestlemania last year and now she’s having a half-length match that happens 3rd in the show so everyone’s forgotten about it by the end. That’s what I’m most angry about.

I mean, I’m not happy about Shayna losing either. I just don’t see where Becky can go from here, there’s no-one to face. If they’re just going to have a rematch where Shayna wins this time, then what was the point in her losing here anyway? Everything about this decision seems so backwards and pointless. I’m one of the few people that is still interested in the Becky Lynch character these days, but I can’t deny that I’m going to be getting off this ride if it doesn’t pick up soon and this was definitely not the way to go about it.

10 – Otis def. Dolph Ziggler

I’ve been on the fence about this storyline pretty much its entire lifespan. So I’m very glad to say that I enjoyed the storytelling in this match a great deal.

Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of Sonya just suddenly becoming Dolph’s cornerman despite heavily denying that she was behind the texts in the first place. Although, my main gripe is with the fact that Sonya Deville should be a Baszler/Rousey esque ass-kicker instead of standing around cheering on the guy she wanted to set her best friend up with. That said, having her present for the match was necessary given the way things played out.

The match itself was entirely just a big spotlight for Otis, who I’m very slowly coming around on. I’ve been extremely resistant to his extremely weird and stupid character presentation, but each time I see a match with him like this, I get just a little bit closer to being on board. As for the finish, I do love me a little bit of poetic justice and Ziggler certain got that and when it comes to Otis getting the girl, I certainly couldn’t shout down that decision. It was a warm and lovely moment for us all in these trying times.

9 – Bayley(c) def. Lacey Evans, Sasha Banks, Naomi, Tamina
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(Elimination Match)

This match was very clearly divided into three stages. There was everything up until Tamina was eliminated, there was the section where Bayley & Sasha worked together to dominate everyone else and then lastly, there was the final two.

The first phase was a lot more fun than I think it had any right to be. Unfortunately, I’m just never going to care about Tamina, I just don’t have it in me, but she put on a good showing here. Admittedly, she didn’t do a whole lot, but what she did do, she did well. Once she was gone, the match slowed quite a bit as Sasha & Bayley looked to pick Naomi apart and – aside from a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it comeback from Naomi – it was a lot of boring rest-holds and basic manoeuvres.

Once that was out of the way and Lacey Evens got involved in the action again, things really picked up. I enjoyed the subtlety in the way they went about sowing the seeds of descent between Sasha & Bayley. I always hate the trope where one person gets mad at the other for hitting them even though it was so very obviously an accident, so I’m glad that didn’t cause the pair to fall apart here. I also love that Bayley pushing Sasha out of the way of Lacey’s attack is what caused her to be eliminated. Not to mention, it was one HELL of a Women’s Right that Lacey clocked Sasha with, I’ve never liked that movie, but I definitely bought into that one.

Then we got down to the final two and things really got going. I think this is a good example of how far Lacey Evans has come over this past year when you compare her performance in this match to her performance against Becky Lynch at last year’s Money in the Bank. Not only did she do a good job of wrestling an entertaining match, but she also convinced me she was going to win at one point, I was genuinely surprised when Bayley kicked out of the Moonsault.

Sasha getting back into the ring in order to help Bayley win was a good way to go about things too and that subtle look on Sasha’s face after the bell, along with Bayley’s look of doubt over whether or not Sasha was about to start beating her up is all that’s needed to start building the tension between the two. The turn didn’t happen here, because it didn’t need to happen here, but it will and this will be where it started.

8 – Drew McIntyre def. Brock Lesnar(c)
(WWE Championship)

So, this does seem like a bit of an odd placing because, from a pure mechanical standpoint, it was the exact same formula as Goldberg/Strowman, which I decried as being boring. So what makes this different? Well on one level, I love Drew McIntyre and the fact that he won the WWE title (becoming the first-ever British WWE Champion in the process) makes me so incredibly happy that it jumps up a few places by default. It’s more than just that though because this match knew exactly how to play off of previous Lesnar matches like this in order to give us something great.

There have been so many times since 2014 where we’ve seen matches go down exactly like this, always ending in the disappointment of Lesnar retaining. So they gave us that exact formula, Drew got a quick “almost” spot right at the start and then Lesnar got to work hitting suplexes and F-5’s and I bought into it. With each F-5 my mind immediately jumped back to all the other times we’d seen a promising title contender be put away and with the 3rd F-5 especially, I was certain we this was destined to end the same way.

And then it didn’t end the same way.

As where Goldberg/Strowman was a bunch of finishers with no point behind them. This match made each finisher count and each finisher build the tension to finish it and with every kick out Drew made, that tension built and built. Even once Drew had hit the 4th Claymore Kick, those past memories of Brock winning despite all odds flood back in and you expect him to kick out right up until the moment he doesn’t.

This match was by no means a masterpiece, that’s why it’s only half-way up the list, but it’s a clear example of why sometimes this formula works for a match when the circumstances surrounding it are right.

7 – Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross def. The Kabuki Warriors(c)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Ironically, I think this match suffered slightly from its placement as the show opener.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought the in-ring action was great and I’ll talk more about it in a second, but the fact that it was first on the show, meant that I wasn’t used to there being no noise in the arena at all and I was quite off-put by the weird atmosphere it created. This is no fault of the wrestlers but the fact is, as the show went on I got used to that atmosphere and I wasn’t thinking much about it for the rest of the night, however, in this opening match I found it really jarring and I think it took away from my enjoyment somewhat.

That said, on a rewatch this morning, I thought it was a great match. Unlike a few other matches on the show, this one got plenty of time and all four women involved used that time to great effect in order to create the usual fun chaos that I love tag-team wrestling for. The quiet arena noise meant that they could add nice little nuances to character moments. I especially liked Alexa being told off by the referee and replying “sorry, old habits die hard” which was just a wonderful line that gave me a good giggle.

As for the titles changing hands, I certainly can’t find fault in the decision. I think this is a circumstance where I would’ve been happy either way, although perhaps switching the titles lends itself to having a greater variety of opponents and we can see some new matchups when things in WWE restart instead of retreading the same ground.

6 – Sami Zayn(c) def. Daniel Bryan
(Intercontinental Championship)

While this isn’t what I’d hoped it would be from an in-ring perspective, I still think these two were able to create something unique and interesting to watch here.

I adore the way Sami Zayn seems to be going about his matches now. He’s truly taking the phrase “chicken-shit heel” to its logical extreme and has created an absolute bastard of the character that I just desperately want to see get his arse kicked. Bryan did a wonderful job of playing off of this too, in fact, everyone involved in this story fulfilled their role to perfection, with Gulak doing all he can to make it fair fight as Nakamura & Cesaro just play directly into Sami’s schtick (although I’m still not 100% why they’re ok with helping Sami be champion, what do they get out of it?).

What really elevated this was that they made full use of the fact that we could all very clearly hear them talking in the ring in order to enhance their story. Zayn is an absolute master when it comes to words and his talent was on full display here as he pleaded with Daniel Bryan and said just about every manipulative thing he could think of in order to get Bryan to lower his guard. Once again, Bryan knew exactly how to respond to all of it, I especially loved the moment where he just let Sami walk off only to blindside him.

While I’m not the biggest fan of Bryan going down to one Helluva Kick, I think the manner in which Sami retained was perfect for the story that’s being told, both in this match and with Sami’s reign in general. I’m not sure if a rematch with Bryan or a match with Gulak is what’s going to be on the cards next, but whatever it is, I want to see more stuff like this, it’s very entertaining.

5 – John Morrison(c) def. Jimmy Uso, Kofi Kingston
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)
(Ladder Match)

As we were expecting earlier this week, The Miz was pulled from this match due to health concerns and this became a triple threat ladder match instead of a tag match. Luckily, it didn’t hamper the quality of the match one bit as these three men worked their absolute arses off to make an extremely fun match.

As is always the way with a big ladder match, listing spots really is the only way to get across how brilliant it was. Things started off with the three men exchanging Monkey Flips of all things, which is a bit weird but I’m into it, which led directly into all three men grabbing their own ladders and scrambling for the titles at the top. From there the match devolved into all the crazy trimmings we’ve come to expect from ladder matches. Ladders were used in some brutal looking spot, people jumped onto them, threw others down onto them, used them as an aid to leap great distances and just generally flung themselves about the ring every which way.

I know people were a bit confused by the finish, but I actually thought it was very unique and clever. With all three men unhooking the titles and holding onto the at the same time, I loved the way they exchanged glances being like “well…now what?” only to start fighting to try to be the last men holding onto the titles. This was made even better as Morrison won the match essentially by accident, yanking the titles off of the hook as he was knocked out and fell to his doom. It follows the pattern of how Miz & Morrison have been retaining their titles thus far and just allows The New Day and/or The Usos to continue their beef when things in WWE get rolling again.

4 – Kevin Owens def. Seth Rollins (twice)
(No Disqualification)

While you could argue that the in-ring action wasn’t as good in this compared to a match lower down in the list like the Smackdown Tag Title match, I think the story told and more importantly, the way it was told, is what puts this one up so high in my book.

The first half of the match was full of the fantastic action you’d expect from two top-tier wrestlers such as these. After seeing him spend all of 2019 floundering character-wise it’s such a refreshing feeling to see Rollins go back to his true heel routes as it’s absolutely where he shines. Owens meanwhile, just gets more and more brilliant as a babyface each and every day. He was so amazing as a heel that I honestly wasn’t sure a face turn would work, but he has this way of making everything word and facial expression seem so sincere and real that I just can’t help but route for him.

When the DQ finish happened I’ll admit I was ready to go off on one about what wasted potential this whole thing was, but I soon ate those words. Owens picking up the mic and goading Rollins into restarting the match was such a brilliant moment and does wonders to make Owens look like such an incredible badass. I wasn’t quite on board with the people comparing him to Stone Cold up until now, but that moment drew those same feelings out of me.

It was an incredibly well-told story of Owens trying everything he can to get his Wrestlemania moment and beat Seth Rollins and he sure as hell earned it in this match. Not just with calling Rollins out but the jump off of the Wrestlemania sign was such a brilliant visual and I’m sure it’ll be making the video packages for years to come. This match ticked almost all of my boxes and I’m very happy it went down the way it did.

3 – The Undertaker def. AJ Styles
(Boneyard Match)

I really did not think I’d love this as much as I did. Seriously, this was brilliant.

I can totally understand how it might not be for everyone and if you’re someone who didn’t like this match then I understand, I genuinely do, but I had so much fun watching this one play out that I can’t say a bad word about it.

It was incredibly goofy and incredibly dumb but in just the right way. I often talk about certain things in wrestling “falling on the wrong side of silly” and this is the correct side of silly that I’m referring to. The crew who put this together did an absolutely wonderful job of creating such a tense atmosphere throughout the whole thing that was absolutely perfect for telling the story they wanted to tell and absolutely no small detail was left out.

AJ’s entrance was perfect and seeing a new side of Biker Taker was exactly what this match needed. It wouldn’t have worked with “The Deadman” I don’t think, so instead we got the American Badass who wanted nothing more than to put this young punk down and I was just so into it. The camera work was a little shakier than I would’ve liked but I still think it was shot wonderfully, it wasn’t shot like a wrestling match in the slightest and that’s exactly how it should’ve been. It played out like a major fight-scene on a TV show and it absolutely worked.

Of course, Gallows & Andreson got a bunch of randos to dress and druids. Of course, all of those druids then attacked one at a time easily allowing The Undertaker to dispatch of all of them in record time, why wouldn’t that happen exactly like that? The whole thing had a wonderful sense of flow to it as each man took just the right amount of phases on offence, with The Undertaker showing AJ that he can still go in Act 1, AJ getting the upper hand and pushing Taker to the brink of defeat in Act 2 and The Undertaker quite literally rising from his grave and putting AJ in his place for Act 3.

If you’re going to do a match like this that’s totally weird and out there, then this is how you’ve got to do it. It can’t just be a regular match that’s shot in a slightly weirder way, that’s the kind of thinking that turned me off of The Final Deletion, it has to be an entirely different feeling fight, favouring in-depth storytelling over exciting action and shot like it’s for a TV Show.

Like I said, I can understand why this might not be for everyone, but it was 100% for me and the simple fact of the matter was that I could not wipe the smile off of my face the entire time I was watching it; and at the end of the day, that’s all I want from my entertainment.

2 – Charlotte Flair def. Rhea Ripley(c)
(NXT Women’s Championship)

While this show is mostly going to be remembered for the weirder matches (more on that in a moment) I think it’s important to note that we still got some absolutely brilliant traditional wrestling matches and this is far and way the best example of that on the show.

Giving these two the opening slot on Night 2 was the perfect place for it to go, it meant the match got a whopping 20 minutes, which was plenty of time to pull off all the brilliance that two wrestlers as amazing as these can pull off. Despite not taking place at a Takeover event, it was most certainly a match worthy of the name NXT.

The dynamic between these two was absolutely perfect, with Rhea coming in with a head full of steam and ready to prove her worth, while Charlotte has that little element of cockiness to her, not necessarily because she’s buying into her own hype, but because she knows it drives Rhea insane. Those moments at the start where Charlotte is clearly not taking things seriously and easily slipping out of Rhea’s manoeuvres was such a great character touch and Rhea responded perfectly, as she got visibly frustrated at Charlotte’s attitude.

Once the action got underway properly, it was a fantastic technical wrestling contest that you’d expect from two of the best wrestlers on this show. There was plenty of back-and-forth with both women get to look fantastic. I loved the thread of Charlotte viciously destroying Rhea’s knee and Rhea desperately trying to not let it affect her. Ever time Rhea got back up on offence my blood started pumping and I felt the excitement of the match the whole way through.

In my predictions, I described Rhea losing to Charlotte as “catastrophic” but in hindsight, having now watched the match, I actually don’t hate the decision as much as I thought I would. I still think Rhea winning would’ve been the better choice, but looking at the arguments for what could come for both Rhea and Charlotte in the coming months, I actually think there’s a clear upside here. For one thing, whoever on NXT dethrones Charlotte is going to get a HUGE boost and for Rhea, there’s a whole host of possibilities. She could show up on Raw or Smackdown and start tearing the house down like the star she is, or she could even enter an extended programme with Charlotte on NXT where they trade the belt once or twice in Takeover matches.

I can’t deny that the voice in the back of my head that is extremely worried that Rhea is going to go the same way that Asuka did after she lost to Charlotte is screaming right now. However, I’m choosing to remain optimistic as it was such a brilliant match and I don’t want to be a downer.

1 – The Fiend Bray Wyatt def. John Cena
(Firefly Fun House Match)

This was MENTAL. When I saw the Boneyard match Night 1, I honestly didn’t see how this would be able to top it, but my God this was something truly special and something that could only work with a character like Bray Wyatt.

After Cena spent the weeks leading up to this saying he was going to bury Bray Wyatt and finally rid the WWE of him, calling him “overhyped” and “overprivileged” this was a complete and total dissection of John Cena as a character. Cena has taken plenty of losses over the past few years, but it never feels like he’s actually been humbled by any of them. He always comes back a few months later his same old-self ready to try and take someone else down. So this incredible story was told here of Bray Wyatt forcing John Cena to face everything he’s ever done in his career in order to show him the inherent hypocrisy in everything he preaches, along with the buried anger at how his role in WWE has changed.

The sheer level of genius behind the twisted humour of ever segment is just incredible, helped so much by the fact that John Cena was clearly loving every second of it and performed his role to the absolute best of his abilities. The parodies of various segments in John Cena’s career, be it his debut against Kurt Angle, his Dr of Thuganomics side and even comparing him to nWo Hulk Hogan with how he ran roughshod over the whole company for several years. It wasn’t just shots at Cena though, there were parodies of 80’s WWE and they were even allowed to take a shot at Vince McMahon himself, using his now-infamous “such good shit” line that Jon Moxley used to criticise Vince on his Talk is Jericho appearance (which, by the way, is a great way to defang all the shots AEW are taking at WWE).

That wasn’t even the best part though. The best part was that this actually managed to undo the damage that Wyatt’s loss did to Cena at Wrestlemania 30. Bray’s whole point in that feud was the Joker-esuqe idea of “it doesn’t matter if you beat me, because if I turn you evil in the process then I still win” they even went as far as redoing that pivotal moment where Cena had the chair in his hands. At Mania 30, Cena refused to hit Bray with it, but here, after being faced with all of his failures and buried anger, he barely hesitated in swinging it at Bray.

With that, the journey was complete, Bray had proved that he was right all those years ago and that Cena is a complete and total fraud when it comes to what he preaches. So all that was left was to dispose of him physically, which The Fiend did in no time at all in the most brilliant fashion possible. That moment at the finish, where The Fiend was holding Cena and it zoomed in on Cena’s face, using Cena’s very own words from a few weeks ago “ending the existence of the most overhyped and overprivileged WWE superstar” as the final nail in his coffin was absolutely fantastic writing.

Not only did this match exceed my expectations, but I honestly can’t even sit here in hindsight and think of anything they could’ve done to make it better. Instantly, The Fiend’s loss to Goldberg is forgotten about and Bray Wyatt is the most feared character in WWE once again.

On top of that, this was something truly unique and something that only could’ve happened at a Wrestlemania like this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy about the circumstances surrounding it, but WWE proved once again that when their backs are against the wall, they knock it out of the park every single time.

I don’t think we’ll ever see anything quite like this again and I mean that in the best way possible. THAT is what this show is going to be remembered for and I honestly think this whole show will go down as one of the best Wrestlemanias we’ve ever seen for that very reason.