I'm going to rate them based on what I liked and didn't like. I have never been good with nuanced number scores. So I am going to put a "+" beside the matches I liked, and a "-" beside the ones I either didn't like or didn't care for. I'll let my summaries speak for how I enjoyed them; although keep in mind if I put a bunch of negative stuff beside a match I still gave a +, it means it probably didn't matter much too me.
+Battle Royale 1 - I liked Matt Hardy winning the men's, and the whole "Who are you!" thing with Dillinger got me laughing.
+ Battle Royale 2 - Both good opening filler. I liked Naomi winning the women's, even though my pick was Sasha.
-Cruiser Weight Title Match - I don't think anyone knew who these guys were, and neither did I, plus in the European broadcast, they started putting ads up in the middle of things which was crap production. It looked like it was a special moment for both these guys, so I almost wish they actually told us what this match was all about beforehand.
+IC title match - on the downside, Balor didn't come out as the demon, he came out another way instead. Overall, a great match, I didn't want to see Seth Rollins win; I recognize this guy is good in the ring, but I couldn't seem to care about this guy. Neither took much away from the match for me, so I was quite happy with it, and thoroughly entertained.
+ Women's Title vs. Streak - This match REALLY should have been the second last one of the night, it had it all, great entrance, both of them looked like they were hammering each other with their moves. One of the best women's matches I have ever seen (I'll have to re-watch that Ember Moon vs. Asuka match from last year, that's the match that kind of got me re-interested in pro-wrestling). There's nothing bad I can say about this match, the ending REALLY surprised me, But the truth of it is, if Charlotte wasn't going to end the streak here, then it was going to be Rousey down the road. I for one look forward to a bit rivalry between Rousey and Asuka this year, and then a 4 Horsewomen vs 4 Horsewomen feud, with Charlotte Flair and Rousey to HEADLINE Wrestlemania next year. Anyway, I thought this match was going to be my favourite of the night, I need some time to rest on it to confirm: on a whim, it's already one of my favourites of all time.
+US Championship - Like 95% of everyone else, I was going for Rusev in this one, and again (like another 10/13 picks of the night) I was wrong! This match was a bit of a rest after the last one which got really intense. Still, I found a good solid match which is better than most Wrestlemania matches I've seen over the last week.
+Rousey - Now THIS match was the show stealer, and I haven't seen a crowd this wild since maybe Hogan vs. Rock - and like that match, it totally murdered the crowd for most of the rest of the night. Ronda Rousey had Chris Benoit-like agility, and her strength was also impressive.I think if the WWE needs another Hogan-calibre star, they have it, and they have built a fantastic women's division at the right time. The build-up at the beginning was great, it reminded me of those old Attitude era matches when Mankind kept getting beaten, and everyone wanted to see the Rock charge in and kick the crap out of everyone - except maybe even bigger than that; and she's got more moves than the Rock too. Triple H (who IMO is a good character, but not a good wrestler, I generally dislike all of his matches), Angle who looks like he shouldn't be in any match, Stephanie, and a newbie - and they BLEW the top off the arena! I don't know where it fits, but this one is already somewhere in my Top 10 Wrestlemania matches of all time! There's a sense of a new era dawning after this match. Ronda will headline Wrestlemania 35, and it will be one of the best main events of all time.
+Bludgeon Brothers Tag Champions - I didn't mention it before, but I got the Rousey match correct, and this was the second match I got correct. I like these characters a lot, and I understand the shorter match and the previews are largely to let the crowd rest up a bit... and boy they needed it! There was no way these guys were going to follow Rousey. And yeah, it had a very Jericho vs. Triple H following Rock and Hogan feel to it. But overall, I enjoyed it, I always enjoy seeing these teams. Although, if a match was going to be bloody as hell, this was the opportunity! All in all, this one could have gone longer, these teams are capable of it. I still enjoyed it.
+ Cena as a fan - I thought this was a really entertaining sort of framework through Wrestlemania, I would have loved the story to run through more of the show.
-Undertaker vs. John Cena - Meh, I'm not really a fan of the UndeadTaker. I'm one of the few people who much preferred his "Taker" Biker Bully gimmick significantly more. I didn't mind Cena getting stomped, but would have MUCH preferred Taker the badass. I thought the other gimmick was given a good death last year, and didn't need to come back.
+Daniel Bryan and Shane vs. Owens and Zane - Coast to Coast spot was good, Shane has a tremendous balance to hit that from standing on the rope. I was, again, surprised by the ending.
-Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss - I love Alexa Bliss, and didn't get this match at all. It was relaly late at this point, but honestly, I can't remember it.
+ AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - first off, this match was roughly HALF the length it should have been. It felt like it was capped off early, and given who was in the ring, it should have had a bigger finish than the Styles Clash - I am not very familiar with AJ Styles, I thought he did a 450 splash as his finisher? That move looked kind of weak. Overall the match was fairly good, and I loved the heel turn at the end; which I felt kind of overshadowed the match itself. I look forward to seeing more of both these guys going forward; this match seemed more like a story setup than a story culmination.
-Braun Strowman vs. buried people - Come on! Cesaro didn't deserve this! =P I understand this match was meant to be a bit of a farcical joke, and I am fine with those, but the penultimate match of one of the most stacked Wrestlemanias in history? Strowman's most entertaining matches recently have been the mixed-match challenges, IMO, this fell short of those. This might have been a + if they traded slots with Rousey match, or the Asuka match.
+Reigns vs. Lesnar - the crowd chanted "this is awful" but for my part, I kind of enjoyed this match. it did have a lot of repetition, there were something like 15 "finishers" delivered, and it had a bit of Rock vs. Austin Retirement match feel to it - a big match where they kind of did the same thing. But I found the deliberate BRUTAL cut and finish to make the match for me. There's disagreement as to whether Brock cut him with a strike, or whether he bladed - Reigns swiped his forehead just before he started gushing, so IMO he bladed. Again, like NXT, so much for the "no blood" policy. Asuka vs. Charlotte bled too, but that was clearly from the physicality of the match, while this one not so clear. I thought the crowd reaction kind of spoiled this match. Maybe it's just me, I kind of liked it; but, IMO, for once I think the non-title Triple H match would have better served to close the show.
CONCLUSION
My favourite matches:
1. Rousey
2. Asuka vs. Flair
3. Intercontinental Title match
So yeah, the event was kind of flipped on its head for me. Although I
So, 10 good, 4 bad, or 10/14 for me; though it's not a 72% match like my score ratio suggests, the good points added A LOT more to it than the bad points detracted - but I think the Asuka vs. Flair and the Rousey debut match push the quality of the event up higher than those numbers would suggest, also, I added a + for Cena in the crowd - although, the fact that they were so far down the card: and that the matches I disliked were more toward the end, probably balance that all off. That was a BIG 7-hour show. One of my favourite Wrestlemanias (the one I enjoyed by far the most of everything I watched this week, although being live helped). My expectation, with all the progress WWE has made, the stories that began tonight, is that Wrestlemania 35 is going to be spectacular: I expect Rousey vs. Flair to close out the show. I expect Asuka vs Bliss to be the other women's match, and I expect Strowman vs. anyone to be the big men's title match, and Shinsuke vs someone to be the small men's title match.
Anyway, to score it by time:
Considering, IMO, the bad matches were all short, they count for less - good matches were roughly 88% of the time, and the presentation was generall good, even for the bad matches, EXCEPT in the preliminaries, those ads in the middle of matches were crap! Let's just say, as far as the main show goes, I enjoyed it about 92-95% of the run-time. I was ecstatic many times through the event, and on the edge of my seat a bunch (granted, mostly in the first half). If this show had been flipped around backward, with the first 4 matches being the last 4 matches, then the show would have been stellar.
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