In the grand scheme of things, this was a pretty decent show. Considering the rain delay and the fact that this is the first WWE show in more than a year to happen in front of a live crowd, I thought everything came out well overall.
For me, Lashley vs. McIntyre, Cesaro vs. Rollins and Banks vs. Belair were the strong matches on the show. I gave Lashley vs. McIntyre a B, Cesaro vs. Rollins a B and Banks vs. Belair a B+. They weren't all time classics but they were ultimately very good bouts and they were helped out by having, IMO, the right outcomes. It was a nice moment to see Cesaro pick up his first singles win in a WrestleMania match and I hope there's more good stuff in store for him. Bianca and Sasha looked great and Bianca's emotions came off as 100% legitimate, which makes her WM win all the more special. It's been a great year for her thus far and I hope it continues to work out for her.
As for the rest of the show, I found myself actually caring somewhat about the Tag Team Turmoil match. Personally, I was hoping Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan would pick up the win as they were the only "real team" in the match. Overall, the ending hurt things for me and I gave it a C- as Tamina and Natalya are the least interesting tag team, male or female, in ALL of WWE and that's saying something. Their match with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, on paper, easily looks to be the weakest on the show tomorrow night.
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon, in all honesty, I didn't watch most of it. I haven't cared so little about a WrestleMania match in a very long time. Strowman is damaged goods and I'm perfectly fine if Shane McMahon doesn't appear again on TV for years to come due to the nonstop nonsense of his WWE run back in 2019. I gave this match a D.
Styles & Omos vs. the New Day was, again, just something I had no interest in. There was no drama whatsoever and it's hard to care about WWE's tag team division, at least on Raw, when it's so obvious Vince doesn't.
As for Bad Bunny & Damien Priest vs. The Miz & John Morrison, I gave it a C+. Pretty entertaining all in all and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Bunny did.
It was cool seeing the Hall of Famers there, even if I disagree with the likes of William Shatner being in as stuff like that continuously keeps the "the HOF means nothing" arguments going.
I think the lesser matches summed what may be the biggest problem facing this year's show: way too much emphasis was placed on the wrong talent and there was no real attempt at making the fans invested in it. For the Tag Team Turmoil match, it featured 8 women in a tag team setting that we've had no reason to care about at all. Furthermore, the WWE women's tag team division exists only for the sake of political correctness, to give some women a championship belt to carry around for a while. It's made all the worse as Nia Jax is and has been constantly all over WWE TV for more than a year and she's one of the biggest pieces of dead weight on the roster in my eyes. That's not a fat joke or anything, I promise, it's just a reference to her just simply not being interesting or particularly skillful as a pro wrestler at all. I think the main reason she's kept around and featured prominently is due to the WWE brass not wanting to risk alienating and pissing off the Rock.
As I alluded to, Shane vs. Strowman was a match I cared nothing whatsoever about. I felt it was another instance of Shane McMahon getting yet another WrestleMania match when we've got highly talented wrestlers all over the WWE roster, dozens of them in fact, who's careers are sitting in limbo right now. Strowman gained nothing over a win against Shane, the build itself was completely uninspiring and it was ultimately just Shane getting his ass kicked, yet again, at WrestleMania.
Bunny & Priest vs. the Miz and JoMo was ultimately just another celeb match. Basically, another instance of WWE bringing in a celebrity, putting him/her in a match and making the wrestlers look like fools. I will say that I appreciate the effort and training Bunny put in, he obviously has taken this very seriously and has done it to the best of his ability. I respect him for that, I'm not a fan of his music but I respect that he worked hard to pull this off and wasn't one of the celebs who basically behaved as though this was beneath him or something.
Overall, I give night 1 of WrestleMania XXXVII a C+. Not a bad show, but one that could have easily been a lot better had Vince decided to put emphasis and focus on other wrestlers and programs.
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Originally Posted by Yer Maw
