We are ten hours of WWE programming into the weekend with a bonus three hours tomorrow on RAW. I’m exhausted. WrestleMania just lasted from 4pm to 11pm with no breaks. Nonetheless, here is my recap of everything that happened tonight. If it doesn’t seem coherent, please be understanding…
I’ll break things down in terms of how accurate I was with my predictions and give each match a rating of 1 through 10. If you’re looking for deeper analysis of all the matches, I apologize in advance and recommend the Cageside Seats website for all the wrestling info you could ever want.
Pre-Show Matches
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Predicted order: 1st // Actual order: 1st
Predicted winner: Bray Wyatt // Actual winner: Matt Hardy (via help from Bray Wyatt)
Rating: 2/10
This match went almost exactly as I expected. It started with a bunch of people that nobody cared about, then Bray Wyatt made a surprise return. Instead of winning it on his own, he helped Matt Hardy to victory. The only interesting thing about this is that WWE now has to explain why Bray and Matt are allies after being enemies for months.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali
Predicted order: 2nd // Actual order: 2nd
Predicted winner: Mustafa Ali // Actual winner: Cedric Alexander
Rating: 5/10
I’m probably underestimating the quality of the wrestling because I wasn’t paying full attention to this match. It’s just hard to get invested when a title match like this doesn’t make the main card and is wrestled in front of half an audience. From what I saw, there were some big spots and emotional moments, and the ending was well done. Ali wasn’t able to put away Alexander with his finishing 450 splash, and Alexander would eventually capitalize after a missed second attempt by Ali. I thought they’d go with Ali as the winner, but Alexander has been a featured member of the cruiserweight division since he joined, so the result still wasn’t all that surprising.
WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal
Predicted order: 3rd // Actual order: 3rd
Predicted winner: Natalya // Actual winner: Naomi
Rating: 4/10
This was the other match that unfortunately fell victim to me not being completely present. There were a handful of debuts from women on the NXT roster, but none were treated as a big deal. They didn’t even get their own entrances – it was just one mass entrance after Becky Lynch came out on her own. The rivalry between Sasha Banks and Bayley continued, with Bayley eliminating Sasha and seemingly earning the win… Until Naomi returned to the match after not technically being eliminated by getting thrown over the top rope! Naomi then eliminated Bayley and won. This was a weird way to end the match, but she’s been with the company a long time and deserved a moment at WrestleMania.
