Overall, this is probably in my top three Wrestlemanias of all time, certainly in my top 5. Kofi Kingston winning his title was a rare thing (I think outside of Wrestlemania 20 I don't think there has been anything really like it). The main event was actually good for once. The last few matches (especially Angle vs. Corbin) had several botches, commentary and even production mistakes (though there were production mistakes all night, like forgetting Aleister Black's fog); so, IMO, shorter Wrestlemanias should happen - and maybe offset some of those matches to Fastlane, make it a more tag centric event.
IMO, best match: Kofimania - and this is one for the ages, it was on that Wrestlemania 20 tier - it had everything, high quality wrestling, a great story was told, and an explosively emotional conclusion.
Favourite matches and moments otherwise:
1. Women's titles main event, the first good main event I have seen at Wrestlemania over a decade (granted, I have not watched most of the Wrestlemania's in the past 12-13 years or so).
2. Thuganomics Cena - that was a really awesome moment, this was the Cena that got over, not the silly "Ruthless..... AGGRESSION!" stuff or the "The Time is Now" Cena which everyone booed for like 15 years despite being a babyface.
3. Smackdown tag match - this was stacked and it showed, Usos excelled, Ricochet and Black were the stars, Sheamus and Caesaro did their part very well, and it was a little disappointing we didn't get a good Nakamura vs. Aleister Black strong style segment in the match, but they did all well and good without it.
4. Iconics winning the women's tag titles. I really enjoyed that! =)
Mildly surprisingly good stuff (basically stuff I was expecting to suck, and didn't) -
1. Almost all of the pre-show, except the men's battle royal which was a bit awkward. The women's Battle Royal was held back by Sarah Logan not winning, that would have been FAR more meaningful IMO than Carmella who really gains nothing from this win, that match was good but ALMOST great.
2. Mysterio vs. Joe - very short, but wasn't even expecting this match to be happening given Mysterio's injury.
3. Shane vs. Miz turned out way more entertaining than I thought it would, even if it was a bit of a sloppy match from a technical standpoint.
Disappointing matches:
1. Lashley vs. Balor, it might have hit much better if it had been packaged like Summerslam where it was a complete surprise. Not saying the match was bad (it was an exceptional spot show), but it lacked the OOOMPH that I was expecting - could have been that it was on about an hour or more later than it should have been.
2. AJ vs. Orton, this one kind of bored me, it was technically fine, and they had one CRAZY suplex from the top ropes, but it seemed very artificial and planned out. Also, it felt inconsequential, like it really didn't matter who won or lost.
3. Rollins vs. Lesnar, it wasn't nearly as interesting as Balor vs. Lesnar or Bryan vs. Lesnar - it was more like a short version of Roman vs. Lesnar last year where they just kept delivering signature moves until it was over.
4. No Holds Barred - wasn't expecting much, but Batista vs. Triple H for the last time could have been a lot better; again, felt slow and inorganic. Some blood would have really helped.
5. Women's match up until the finish, which to me seemed a little bit crowded: like it COULD have been better if it was just two three teams instead of four.
Worst moment: randomly bringing out Hogan to deliver what can only be described as a word salad, and he kind of sounded like he was on crack. I'm still not even sure if that was the real Hogan =P
Overall: this is, IMO, the best and most well rounded Wrestlemania of the past 3 years. Add in the Kofimania stuff, and it is really one for the ages. While it did have some disappointing moments (from my perspective) I didn't find that there was much that was really bad about the show - especially compared to most other Wrestlemanias. This one was definitely one of the more solid shows... but what makes it impressive is the sheer length of it, 7.5 hours. But the length of it also caused some issues, there was a lot of production issues (as I noted in one of my earlier live-reaction posts, they forgot Black's fog for his entrance), by the last hour the commentary team and crowd had lost their voices. It is a ridiculous length of time for a show, it is enough to be two PPVs. Some of the matches felt they could have been bumped from the card without anyone noticing (Orton vs. Styles, the Raw tag titles, and Joe vs. Mysterio), and maybe those should have happened on the next PPV or the prior one. Another possibility, put Wrestlemania on two nights.
While I did like the big stuff that happened at Wrestlemania, and the sheer variety of what happened on the show; once more, it didn't feel nearly as solid of a package as NXT TakeoverMania.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
Essay Pro