WWE Championship Match
AJ Styles (C) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Predicted order: 13th // Actual order: 12th
Predicted winner: Shinsuke Nakamura // Actual winner: AJ Styles
Rating: 6/10
From a wrestling standpoint, this match did not live up to expectations. The pace was very slow, as many of Nakamura’s WWE matches have been, with only a small flurry of intensity towards the end as each guy struck the other with forearms. I didn’t see the result coming either. WWE really must not be sold on Nakamura. Taking another championship match loss is brutal. Apparently, he felt so too, and hit Styles with a low blow after the match. He then proceeded to kick and knee him while he was down. Bad guy Nakamura is instantly more entertaining than good guy Nakamura and I’m looking forward to where he goes from here.
RAW Tag Team Championship Match
Sheamus & Cesaro (C) vs. Braun Strowman & mystery partner
Predicted order: 5th // Actual order: 13th
Predicted winner: Braun Strowman & mystery partner // Actual winner: Braun Strowman & Nicholas
Rating: 27/10
Yes, that says 27. I’ll be honest, the wrestling was really mediocre. It was just the overall experience of this match that made it my favorite of the night. Clearly positioned as comic relief before the main event, it exceeded all expectations. Braun hadn’t even decided who his partner would be by the time he made his entrance. He just went into the crowd and pulled out a child named Nicholas, then wrestled the whole match by himself and won the RAW Tag Team Championships. It was among the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Seriously, a random child named Nicholas is currently a RAW Tag Team Champion. This is what professional wrestling is all about.
WWE Universal Championship Match
Brock Lesnar (C) vs. Roman Reigns
Predicted order: 14th // Actual order: 14th
Predicted winner: Brock Lesnar // Actual winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: 3/10
I had a feeling. WWE loves to prove people wrong, and that’s what happened here. Lesnar won again and I have no idea what direction the Universal Championship goes now. If Roman Reigns can’t beat him, who can? This was an awful match. Brock can only do about three moves and repeated them all too much. Roman is a much better wrestler, but I felt he was limited due to his opponent. On top of that, the crowd was completely out of it – unenthused, disengaged, chanting random things that didn’t have to do with either guy… It was bad, and the match still kept going forever. The only thing that woke me up was when Brock legitimately gashed Roman’s forehead with an elbow and he started pouring a real pool of blood in the ring. If I hadn’t seen this before, I would have feared for Roman’s safety, but it seems to be a skill Brock has mastered. The match didn’t last much longer after that, fortunately, and Roman was taken care of by the WWE medical staff immediately.
Summary
Match order predictions: 7 out of 14. Much more accurate than I thought I’d be!
Match winner predictions: 6 out of 14. About what I thought. It’s almost impossible to predict triple threats, fatal four-ways, and battle royals, but I got the majority of the others correct.
Show rating: 8 out of 10. WrestleMania as a whole was much better than the sum of its parts. There were surprise outcomes that sparked my interest in several stories moving forward. Plus, the Strowman/Nicholas victory gave me such joy that I can’t dock more than a couple of points.
