Charlie Davis: We’re all very tired. I hope you understand. If you missed the recap for Night 1, you can find it here.
Pre-Show
FH: Without the chaos of a weather delay, this felt kind of sterile! Everything moving and operating in WWE’s very specific way kind of set the show up to unfortunately feel like a weekly episode of Raw or SmackDown compared to what it was meant to be. Also, Jerry Lawler said he’s a “fan” of the Fiends deep lore and the immediate need to hear the King explain whatever he thinks is going on there haunted me for the rest of the night.
CD: I watched the Pre Show without my sound on while drinking a charred pineapple margarita. So I enjoyed it.
The Fiend w/ Alexa Bliss vs. Randy Orton
FH: This was… messy but in a different way than that I have expressed concerns about before. It strikes me now that Bray is a talented, endlessly creative performer in desperate need of an editor. From cool image to cool image there’s something compelling here, but so little connecting it that you just end up feeling left out. Why did they debut a burnt Fiend just to dismiss it here? (the answer is to sell new, different merch I know), What happened to the demonic Randy that taunted him on television weeks ago? What narrative purpose does The Fiend moving from “dead” to “trapped” serve? Without a compelling in ring performance from either wrestler to make me care — and I loved the Brodie Lee shoutout — it’s just noise. Red lights, big boxes, black goo and more: it’s the suggestion of something but with no actual substance. I think I’ve really hit a breaking point with it after an amazing re-invention of the form with Cena last year. Knowing the name Sister Abigail (I suspect that’s what’s happening here, Alexa assuming that name and distracting or damning Bray) does nothing for me when the story is told through hollow symbols.
CD: This was so inexplicable. I am still confused several hours removed from it. I think Bray has a wonderfully creative mind, but Forrest you’re right on the money. Maybe that mind should be used to sharpen other people’s characters instead of just going off in a direction. While the goo was cool, I found myself realizing that the most striking thing about this match for me was Randy’s really awesome white gear. I do not find Randy Orton hot on most occasions. But this… this is good.
MZ: Unfortunate that we couldn’t even properly enjoy and appreciate the white gear though, due to the red lighting of the whole match.
VG: Yeah, Mikey – I complained to all of you that it was genuinely hurting my eyes, because if I looked away from the screen I genuinely was not able to see for a couple of seconds. This red lighting sucks and I hope they don’t do it again. The match was also a huge disappointment, and one that I feel like is because there were crowds – we couldn’t do another Firefly Funhouse style match, because they didn’t want the audience just sitting there and watching a screen, but maybe we should have anyway.
RS: This was such an emotional roller coaster for me. After last year’s incredible match, I thought this would be a similarly high concept cinematic match, wrapping up the first major arc of the Fiend (which has been about revisiting Bray Wyatt’s past and confronting his demons as well as those who wronged him) by dealing completely with the role Randy Orton has played in Wyatt’s career. So when it started live, I was already a bit confused and disappointed.
Then the match was really— for me— enjoyable; I find the monstrosity of the Fiend in the ring really compelling. I find the way wrestlers have to confront fear while finding some strategy to keep the Fiend down to result in really interesting matches (though it can also result in, when the ending isn’t well thought out, fairly confusing matches). And then— ALEXA BLISS AS SOME KIND OF GOTH DEMON WEARING A CROWN OF BARBED WIRE AND BLEEDING BLACK BLOOD?? As you say, Charlie, the goo? IT’S COOL. I also thought— finally, Alexa moving forward from the Creepy Child thing. We won’t have to deal with more, as Forrest pointed out after FastLane, weird Sexy Baby content.
It looked like the power dynamics of the whole relationship had turned— maybe Alexa would be taking charge after this— maybe she would be getting an interesting plotline relevant to but not in service of the Fiend— and then Randy Orton hit the RKO, and it turned out the strategy Randy needed was just waiting for the Fiend to get distracted so he could hit what I find to be the most boring three letters in sports entertainment. Forrest, I have, as you probably can tell, a way more positive response to Bray’s work overall, but I absolutely agree with you about this match. There’s no story here— it’s, as Eliot would say, “a heap of broken images.”
Women’s Tag Team Championship: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Natalya & Tamina
CD: Good for Nattie and Tamina? That’s all I’ve got. Poor Shayna. She should be having amazing singles matches or should be off being the leader of a badass ladies stable. Why this?
RS: I just fundamentally don’t understand at this point what the women’s tag titles are for. When they were introduced they were creatively revitalizing— they lead to wonderful matches and pairings— but now not only has WWE destroyed all but one of the tag teams it had, but also it uses the titles as a vortex to pull women, like Shayna Baszler, who should be on top of the world, into these nothing matches.
VG: I didn’t watch the Tag Team Turmoil, but Nattie and Tamina were the most boring pick to win that match in my eyes. Yet they were still massively over, which I suspect has to do with Nia being a wrestler I genuinely find abhorrent between her covid denying and her constant injuring of other wrestlers. And what did WWE do with the massive pops that Tamina was getting every time she hit Nia? They had Nattie lose so that we just felt deflated. Sigh.
FH: My enthusiasm for Shayna almost surpasses how little I care about the rest of this. Almost. Tamina was clearly feeling the crowd, and they reciprocated but the booking also refused to give her what would’ve been a really fun, easy moment. Hard to even comprehend where Nia and Shayna’s meandering reign will go from here but probably nowhere good.
Sami Zayn w/ Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens
CD: Up until this point, WrestleMania night 2 was doing nothing for me. It started out rather the same way the first night did, with two matches that unimpressed and left me wanting something more. When this match popped up, I prayed that the addition of Logan Paul would not muck up something that I believed very firmly in my heart could be the match of the night. I was not disappointed. Paul seemed there only to service Sami’s further fall and to take a stunner from Kev. I am so happy I saw it. The match had some stand out moments as Kevin forced Sami to wrestle properly, something he hasn’t done in months if not years since turning into this heel. The moment that caught me was Sami’s unrepentant helluva kick to Kevin in the corner and then, as if on instinct, he grabbed Kevin before he fell, cradling him in his arms for just a moment. Remembering everything between them that he’d seemingly forgotten. It was the beautiful story telling there that I love so much.
VG: Much like Rollins vs Cesaro, this match was a good one that I just wish was great. It was a midcard match, which WWE never gives that much time to, but imagine if they gave Kevin and Sami another 5-10 minutes. This match didn’t really have a story so much as it was Kevin and Sami beating each other up, with Kevin doing it just a bit reluctantly. In terms of how they’ve been treated by the company around Mania, this was probably the best we could have gotten from them, but I just feel like they haven’t been able to hit the highs of their indie run – even in NXT, where Sami was injured for the entire back half of their feud. They’re two of the best wrestlers in the country, I know they can do it.
FH: I’m really glad Sami and Kevin, two of the most dedicated guys in the business to each other, to the sport, to the show of it, got to have a moment that not even Logan Paul could really diminish. There was a good mix of more purely athletic spots like the neckbreaker on the apron, the series of blue thunder bombs, and some really cathartic ones for the story they were telling – slaps, stunners, Sami’s breakdown at the end. Shoutout to WWE for very surprisingly understanding that Bad Bunny deserves the world and Paul deserves a stunner, too.
United States Championship: Sheamus vs. Riddle
CD: It was fine! Sheamus has been silently working his ass off for months in the ring. I went to go get some chips while this was happening.
VG: This was in my opinion the most average match in the world. If someone wanted to see a “standard” wrestling match, this is what I would direct them to. It was mostly Sheamus and Riddle transitioning from spot to spot. The only story being told was “These men are going to hit each other harder until one of them wins,” which… ok? They’re both good in the ring and the finish was actually memorable because I think Riddle actually might’ve lost some teeth, but it was definitely a cooldown.
FH: Sheamus has now won every single match he’s had with Riddle, and maybe that’s for the best. As you said Vishal, this was mostly a transition from big hit to big hit to big hit which is…fine, and it made Sheamus look exceedingly dominant, but it also became obvious to me in the moment that I haven’t really seen Riddle effectively string things together just yet, and at Mania the seams are all the more apparent. The botched kick at the end was unfortunate, but Sheamus looking on Riddle’s despair evilly really saved the final minutes, too.
Intercontinental Championship: Big E vs. Apollo Crews
CD: Weird stipulation aside, these two men deserve so much from this damn company. I was happy to hear that they were getting a showcase. It started out that way at least, and devolved into a way to get the belt off E and to introduce someone else. I uh. Hated the finish.
VG: I talked with Rob yesterday about how Apollo’s gimmick feels empowering because it’s true to who he is, instead of exploitative, and how that doesn’t really translate to this match stipulation. It was really just a street fight with drum-themed weapons, and I worry that it’s Nation of Domination style “this is Black people’s culture right” stuff. I came away from this match disappointed, even if I didn’t hate the finish like Charlie did. Bringing in a brand new entity to interfere and cost the babyface the match is classic attitude era style booking and more recently made the most successful WWE debut of all time with the Shield. What frustrated me, though, is that the moment took over everything from the end of the match, to the point that I didn’t even register that Apollo Crews won his first actual championship until the next morning. He looks good with it!
FH: This was historic in its own right, the first ever singles title match between two Black men at WrestleMania. I thought it was mostly okay — the spots on the steel steps had a really good back and forth and series of fakeouts — but it was also surprisingly short given the kind of story they’ve been telling between Apollo and Big E. WWE recently trademarked Colonel Azeez, so I’m all but guaranteeing the guy on the run-in here previously known as Dabba Kato from Raw Underground, will re-debut soon.
Raw Women’s Championship: Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
CD: Man this match. I was so excited for it. Asuka, perhaps the greatest women’s wrestler of all time and Rhea Ripley, someone who is powerful, scary and strong not only in looks but in the ring as well. Damn. This showcased a different type of wrestling than the match between Bianca and Sasha on night one. This was a brawl. I loved that about it. I loved that there are so many styles of wrestling between the women on the roster. While it ended a bit too quickly for me. I loved most everything about it. And hell. Rhea as the new champ. Great stuff.
VG: Similar to the main event of Takeover, the further I get from this match the more disappointed I am with it. Asuka is the best women’s wrestler on the planet, and Rhea is more than capable of carrying her own in a given match, but this ended abruptly and felt like it had the same amount of narrative tissue as the US title match – that is to say, none at all. The only spot I actually remember was Asuka’s DDT off of the apron, and then the finish was a Riptide out of nowhere that put Asuka away for good. I guess they’re selling Rhea’s finisher as a genuine match ender, but it did not feel good for me.
FH: I’m obviously predisposed to liking Asuka (my most favorite wrestler in the world) so who knows. It was undeniably stiff, but I felt like Asuka came across looking like a real professional setting Rhea up to succeed (and charismatically) without making it glaringly obvious — very similar to Io and Raquel, Vishal and to Kross and Balor, too. Rhea caught the moment for the Riptide in a way that felt natural given what Asuka had set up, was working, and left a window in — it made Ripley seem opportunistic in a way that once she gets in there is devastating, something good for her long term. It didn’t have the story that Bianca and Sasha did because WWE didn’t give it to them, and that’s really really hard to overcome but it felt like the right thing for both of them at the moment. In a lot of situations (Lacey or Charlotte) I would be sorry and frustrated if Asuka lost, but I didn’t feel that way here. I felt sad her story was nonexistent to get here, but I also feel like it opened new opportunities for a Raw that really, really needs them. I guess I appreciate the service it performs more than the mechanics, and I can’t deny that it wasn’t either’s best match.
RS: I am just captivated by Ripley’s work. When she gets on the stage and does that Big Stomp? It feels like the Earth shakes. And then Asuka is, of course, absolutely incredible. I enjoyed the match; I was tremendously excited for Ripley’s reign; but as time wore on, like Vishal, I grew more disappointed. Specifically because of what you mention, Forrest, about the lack of story. If this is what these women can do with no real story, then imagine how utterly incredible this could have been if WWE had given them anything. We could have had another all timer. This was good but it could have been history.
Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan
CD: This was honestly the first match, aside from Kevin v Sami that brought a real, guttural emotion out of me while the entrances were happening. Watching Edge come out, with his iconic entrance, his amazing look, clothed in white, powerful and full of fire as his pyro goes off. It made me tear up. It made me remember why I love Edge. It made me want to see him throw caution to the wind and tear through Bryan and Roman. Especially Roman. Edge is a man destined to grapple with the darkness inside of him that’s defined his whole career,. He’s reaching for a moment lost to time that maybe doesn’t exist anymore. It reminds me of another man, in another company, whose mind is unspooling at an alarming rate. Haunted by his past accomplishments that maybe, he can ever achieve again. I love it so much. We got an incredible match which unfortunately ended in a DAMN INTERFERENCE SPOT SO ROMAN RETAINED. It left a sour taste in my mouth. I hate Jey Uso interfering in every damn match. I hate it.
VG: I was less upset by Roman winning than Charlie was, but I also am tired of Jey Uso continuously interfering. I thought they fixed it – I thought that by taking him out early, he was a non-factor in the match and they could tell the story of Roman without his safety net. And there were plenty of spots I loved, mostly from Daniel Bryan – stopping Roman’s hand from tapping out, pulling the ref out before he could complete the pin – Bryan played heel here, in a way that really spoke to me. Ultimately, Roman is the one of these three who needs the championship – Edge will never actually need a title again and I appreciate not bringing legends back and shooting them into the title scene like they did Goldberg. Bryan similarly has said he’s probably retiring soon, and he has never been someone who needs to be on top of the company to make an impact. I love what they both brought to this match, and I even love what Roman by himself brought to this match, but I am ready for Jimmy Uso to come back and cause some conflict within the family because Jey is really tiring me.
I will say, there’s some really funny humor (or at least, I find it funny) that WWE always keeps Roman in the final four of the Rumble because they know the crowd doesn’t want him to win and use his presence to put the winner over, but won’t do the same thing for Mania. I know Roman deserves his big Mania main event moment since all of the times he’s been in it he’s been booed or lost, but this was not the one to do it. There was a moment where Roman stared at the crowd chanting “Roman sucks” with fury and disgust, and in hindsight with his win it feels like the ultimate insult to the fans that he won.
Also I’m wondering if they should just not have the Royal Rumble winner get into a months-long feud with the champion leading up to Mania. Maybe the Rumble should just be a guaranteed title shot at Mania, with whoever happens to be champion at the time – give us some last minute title switches for some genuinely unpredictable Mania main events. Just spitballing.
FH: I’m actually feeling much different about this than you all! I haven’t liked Roman much before his turn, so this feels a little like finally learning to appreciate him for me. His performance wasn’t as dominant as previous PPVs, and at any given moment you would believe that Edge or Bryan were going to, and maybe should have won, but it also told the story of Roman anticipating that. I agree about Jey mostly, and I almost thought that the medical team taking him out was confirmation that they would downplay his appearance (finally), but Roman brought the idea of having contingency to life in both his strongest and weakest moments. Everyone came away looking exceptionally strong and desperate – the chaotic tag breaks especially the one with Bryan catching the final count, the spears and yes locks and pins, the stunning sequence with the chair leg – it was really masterful work from them all, and you have to believe that very few other performers would be able to pull off something this energetic and yet seamless. Bryan rode that razor thin line between face and heel, determined and violent, Edge unwound in a really satisfying way that spoke to the man we all know he is, Roman might really hold that title until he and The Rock can meet in Dallas next year (unless they’re planning on making Big E the biggest babyface of all time).
For years the fans have hated Roman in an unnatural way, an acknowledgment of WWE’s artifice and worst impulses, their increasingly desperate attempts to make him “the guy” but now hating him feels like a compliment, a celebration of his hard work to subvert everything people — myself included — had already concluded about him. WWE is finally leaning into it and inviting us to, too. It feels wrong and yet so right to acknowledge him, they’re finally giving in to the story fans want them to tell, but after an (unintentional) back and forth with him for literal years, it feels even more rewarding and perversely earned. It felt like a beginning both athletically and narratively, not a conclusion…especially because Edge pinned Daniel Bryan on technicality. Ha!
RS: I’m with Forrest here, because I really have been invested in the Roman story above near everything else since his most recent return. I think he needs, above all else, a substantial reign, and I think whenever he is dethroned, the story really needs to be about him. Edge’s story here was primarily about Edge, his triumphant return, and secondarily about, for some reason, irritation with Daniel Bryan. I think that factor muddled Edge’s story too; if he were to win, he deserved a much cleaner story. I do think there was a problem with this match, and this outcome (besides the Issue of The Eternally Interfering Uso): it showed even more how weird and pointless this feud and its convolutions were. Why was Daniel Bryan introduced at all? Why the weird Edge pseudo-heel turn?
We expected it to be practical, to give Edge a way to get the belt without pinning Roman. But it ultimately didn’t even have that practical point. Our colleague Will Nevin described what could have been: a “relatable story about real people, underdog heroes like small guys or — as in the case of Edge — old gunslingers coming back for one last stand.” But we were denied that, the Old Gunslinger VS the Head of the Table, and now it seems for no reason. Still like several other matches on this night that were at least partially disappointing, what mitigates that disappointment, what excites me, is that there seems to be momentum going forward for what’s next. Just like I can’t wait to see Big E, Apollo, Ripley, and Alexa this week, I can’t wait to see Roman and Edge. I want to know where they’re going to go
Final Thoughts
RS: This is long, but I need to try to talk about what this Wrestlemania meant to me, overall, as an event. The thing that convinced me to give wrestling a try was seeing on youtube The Final Deletion. But I (and my roommate, who joined me on this wrestling journey) really started to watch wrestling with Wrestlemania 34. We booted up a projector I had gotten because I couldn’t rely on my school’s tech in the classroom. We didn’t really know what was going on; we hadn’t done much homework to understand the feuds, though we’d started to look through RAW and Smackdown on Hulu. But we knew what we saw was something special. The match I remember most was Alexa Bliss VS Nia Jax; I remember a moment when it appeared they’d reconcile, before a cruel smile spread across Alexa’s face and the match continued. I saw a window into all the different things of what wrestling could be. And over the course of that year I really fell in love with wrestling.
My first year of watching was the rise of The Man Becky Lynch. When I didn’t know who anyone really was, I saw the Steampunk Irish Lady and declared: that’s my favorite wrestler. And then she took over the business. She told an incredible story that culminated in sheer joy at WrestleMania 35, a day that also featured the end of Brock Lesner’s reign and KOFIMANIA. 35 capped off that first year; at 34 I knew I had really discovered something special, but at 35 I knew I’d follow this for life. Just a few weeks later, weird, creepy vignettes began appearing. My roommate excitedly told me that he’d read about rumors that these foretold the return of Bray Wyatt, a wrestler who, from what he read, was exactly the kind of creative mind we’d been desperate to see: someone who took wrestling and made it real weird. When Firefly Funhouse debuted, I was delighted; when The Fiend debuted, I knew Bray Wyatt, like Becky Lynch the previous year, would become one of my favorite performers, one of my favorite artists, of all time, in any medium.
And that year concluded with WrestleMania 36, where Bray Wyatt, my second favorite wrestler in the company, put on an incredible cinematic match (which I’ve written about before) that showed the absolutely boundless creativity that could be achieved in sports entertainment. But what really mattered about 36 was that it was also the first PayPerView in the Pandemic. It was an extremely dark, uncertain time— and things were just beginning, and I did not know how dark things would get, though I had begun to suspect— but here all the same was wrestling. It was in an empty center, without even piped in crowd noises yet. Just a handful of some of the most creative people in the world, who worked hard that weekend to ensure that there was something wonderful for us all to watch in the middle of that horror. Over the course of the horrible, difficult, nightmarish year that followed, there was a lot in Wrestling, and a lot in WWE, that frustrated me— but there was so much more that lifted me up, that got me through this year. I discovered so many performers; I realized how genius were Bayley, and Sasha Banks, and Roman Reigns; I discovered Edge, and Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair.
And I, having received my first vaccination shot and scheduled my second, making actual plans now for life after quarantine, applying to jobs, and looking for apartments, and planning trips, and just getting ready to live again, I sat down once again with my roommate, and we turned on the projector, and I saw a stadium again, with real people, and we heard real cheers, and I saw so many matches that just exceeded all expectations, that just brought me genuine joy, and one especially— Belair VS Banks— that I will always remember as one of the greatest matches I have seen.
There were problems with the PPV. Things like the Undertaker NFT commercials the racist asshole host reminded me there are problems with this company, and there problems with this culture, this genre. I don’t want to give the impression that I have an absolute ultra-rosey glasses sort of view of the WWE. I do not. But I love wrestling. And I love WrestleMania. And I’m always going to remember this horrible year as bookended by two shows— one in a quiet, small, and empty place, one in a stadium with a roaring crowd— two shows filled with moments of joy and awe, made by some of the most brilliantly creative people on this planet.
VG: This was the first Mania I watched live with a crowd, and it meant something. There was palpable excitement, so much that I and my friends have already started musing about heading to Dallas next year. The highs of night 1 made up for the lows of night 2, and if every Mania has a moment even half as good as Bianca vs Sasha, I will come away satisfied. After a year of pandemic wrestling, this was a very meaningful event and I’m glad I got to watch it.
FH: In a lot of ways, this felt like a new beginning. The first ever WrestleMania without matches from Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, or The Undertaker. A celebration of NXT, some of its biggest stars walking away with new titles to tell new stories, an acknowledgement of the pandemic and what it has done to the environment and culture of wrestling but also an idea of how to move forward. For all its highs and lows and celebrations and frustrations it felt…right. I can’t think of anything I wanted more than to share that moment with everyone there, everyone here, and everyone reading this. See you in Dallas next year.
CD: I will finish it up here. WrestleMania is always a spectacle. I always like watching it. I loved watching it with my colleagues here who are also some of my greatest friends. Nothing beats WrestleMania and WWE knows it. It’s the best kind of ego trip, not that WWE needs anymore of them. I only hope that I can join my friends in Dallas next year.
Maybe, just maybe if the walls come tumbling down I can see Kenny Omega make a WrestleMania entrance and then go quietly off into the sunset. Just once. I just want to see it once.
Goodbye, Goodnight, BANG! (Whoops that is a different promotions champion)
Charlie Davis is the world’s premier Shatterstarologist, writer and co-host of The Match Club.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
Robert Secundus is an amateur-angelologist-for-hire.
