The Hardy boys returned, five new champions crowned, the Undertaker retired, this was the whole story of WrestleMania 33.
So how was the show? There was a total of thirteen matches in the card, eight title matches, five non-title matches, and we had high expectations from this event. So did the event actually paid off? Let us discuss briefly with a critical eye;
The first match between Neville and Austin Aries was very good, it was one of the best matches of the night. Neville won the match and he needed to win it. As we said in our prediction section, having Neville won this match would give him a great momentum, for Austin Aries, he is already a big name, he can win the title later, Neville needed a win at WrestleMania more than Aries. So it was a good booking we must say.
Then there was the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal. Before talking about the match… Mojo Rowley? Seriously? I mean, who is Mojo Rowley? What is this hurry to push him like this? Why not Sami Zayn? He needed this win more. And Jinder Mahal being the last man to get eliminated? Okay, we can take that. But Mojo winning the whole thing, seriously does not make any sense. For the match, it was just another battle royal.
The last pre-show match was the Intercontinental championship between Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin. This was a good match, might not be the best of the night, but enjoyable throughout. We cannot appreciate the decision of putting this match on the pre-show.
It was way better than some of the main show matches. Dean Ambrose winning the whole thing is a good choice. As we said earlier, Dean needed this win more than Baron Corbin to get his lost momentum back.
Now we head towards the main show. The first match of the main show was between AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon. Arguably, it was the best match of the show. It might not be a wrestling classic, but there was not much greater than this match on this show.
AJ Styles was great as always. He is a class and his performance is not needed to be described separately. But Shane McMahon’s performance needs to be told a little bit. It was one of the best performances of Shane ever. High-risk manoeuvres at this age, and who can forget his Shooting Star Press (which he missed, though)?
AJ sold all Shane’s manoeuvres really great, this is why he is one of the bests in this business right now.
Next was the United States championship match between Chris Jerico and Kevin Owens. It was one of the most anticipated matches of the night, but unfortunately, the creatives failed to make it a wrestling classic. We had a lot of expectations from this match but all we got was an utter disappointment.
Even the commentators could not sell Kevin Owens’ final powerbomb. After all these long processes of building up this match, such a disappointment is seriously not accepted.
The fatal 4 way Women’s championship match was not as good as we expected it would be. We all speculated Sasha Banks might turn heel after this match, but no such thing happened. Bayley won this match by last eliminating Charlotte Flair.
If they are not planning any twist in this match, then why Charlotte lost her pay per view streak at Fastlane? It was so absurd.
Next, is the tag team championship ladder match which was scheduled to be a triple threat match later turned out to be a fatal 4-way match including the Hardy Boys!
Oh yes, the Hardy boys made their return in this match as competitors. As a match, it was an average match. We have seen way better ladder matches in the previous WrestleManias.
But fans were so delighted with the return of Hardy Boys that they were less bothered about the match, so do we.
Next one is arguably the worst match of the event; the mixed tag team match where John Cena and Nikki Bella took on The Miz and Maryse. It was a terrible match. John Cena served the Miz with the ultimate burial.
John Cena never thinks twice before burying someone. He did not bother in this case either. The whole drama was to promote John Cena’s proposal to Nikki Bella which actually happened.
Moving on to another long built up feud; Triple H vs. Seth Rollins. There were lots of speculations surrounding this match; Samoa Joe would interfere, Finn Balor would return, but guess what, nothing actually happened.
No one interfered, and it turned out to be another average match. It was a slow, boring match. Triple H took too long to hit more manoeuvres. Even though it was not longest match of the event but it did not have to go this long.
WWE championship match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton was really bad. With these two solid wrestlers in a singles match on a stage like WrestleMania, do you seriously want such a match? Yes, it was bad for us.
Only ten minutes booking? Seriously? And Orton’s victory is also a little surprising. He himself told earlier that he would push Bray Wyatt as much as he could. There was no sign of pushing here.
Moving on to the shortest and one of the worst matches of the night; Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for the Universal championship.
Deep down in our hearts, we all knew this is not going to be a long technical fight, but still, we were excited about it. We were excited to know if Goldberg can finally give a better contest. But he could not, as a result, the match lasted for 4 minutes 45 seconds only.
Brock Lesnar’s victory was predictable too, but ten German Suplexes was a little surprising.
Next is the Smackdown Women’s championship. It was only a five-minute long match and it was below average. Becky Lynch needed to win this match. But you know WWE, they always let the ‘returning from injury’ stars let win. They did exactly the same here too. Naomi won, even though, it was not much needed.
And then, there is the main event, the main event that left so many tears and broken hearts.
Somehow we all knew that Undertaker will lose this match. But is it the way? Roman Reigns not only beat Undertaker but totally manhandled and dominated him. Fans were really mad at Roman. We thought they could not make the fans hate Roman more but we were seriously wrong.
After the match, Undertaker waved retirement, it was the saddest part of the event, possibly the most emotional incident in WrestleMania history.
Overall, the event was average. None of the matches can be rated five stars. It was filled with average matches, only two matches could be said to be good; one was the Cruiserweight championship and the other one was between Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles. Other matches had potential to be good, but none were actually made it up to the expectations.
Sportzwiki Rating – 2.5/5
Undertaker, we will never forget you, you will always live in our hearts. We love you a lot. Team Sportzwiki wave you a tearful goodbye. Farewell.