WWE WrestleMania 31 Review: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, Sting, The Rock and More

Rob Wolkenbrod

WWE.com

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Well, WWE WrestleMania 31 has come and gone. It was not without some epic moments, crazy matches and other great moments, however.

We saw Sting wrestle his first WWE match. We saw three title changes. Did we see a successful Money in the Bank cash-in?

There is so much to discuss and go over, so click “next” and check out our WrestleMania 31 review!

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WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Usos vs. Los Matadores

Result: Cesaro and Tyson Kidd retain the WWE Tag Team Championship via pinfall.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

This match was hectic and chaotic from the start. I did not have great expectations for it, but overall, it was fun. The match was built off of spots and it wasn’t a problem whatsoever, at least to me.

Seeing Cesaro and Kidd was not a huge surprise, as Jey Uso was already hurt coming into the match and the other two teams aren’t title worthy. They got a WrestleMania moment in a fun match that was not bad at all. Who these two move onto next remains to be seen.

Mike’s Take

This was the quintessential opening match. Every single performer, including Naomi and Natalya, really shined.

Considering the circumstances, it was really cool to see Kofi Kingston put on the great performance he did.

When all was said and done, I was happy to be wrong in my predictions. I hope Kidd and Cesaro dominate this division for a long time.

Mike’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

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André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
List of participants: The Miz, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Fandango, Adam Rose, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, Titus O’Neil, Darren Young, Big Show, Kane, Erick Rowan, Damien Mizdow, Sin Cara, Goldust, Heath Slater, Mark Henry, Konnor, Viktor, and Hideo Itami.

Result: Big Show last eliminates Damien Mizdow for the victory.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

The booking for this battle royal couldn’t have been better. Everyone got their proper moment in the match, which made it deliver.

Damien Mizdow finally turned on The Miz, which we saw coming for awhile, but knew the moment would be great. He tossed him over the ropes to make the final two Mizdow and Big Show. The two had a very fun battle to close out the match, but size and strength prevailed with Show tossing Mizdow out for the win.

It took about 16 years, but WWE finally gave Big Show a battle royal win. While his character is stale, it’s a nice moment for his long career.

Mike’s Take

This was just brutal.

I hope to never see Big Show or The Andre the Giant Battle Royal again. The horrible way in which they took the opportunity to bury Hideo Itami and NXT, as well as the entire Miz/Mizdow storyline, in favor of a man well past his prime, was just disgusting.

Mike’s Rating: -4 stars (In honor of Dave Meltzer’s rating of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant from WrestleMania III).

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WWE Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
Bad News Barrett (c) vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Stardust vs. Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose

Result: Daniel Bryan climbs the ladder and wins the Intercontinental Championship.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

This match went 100 MPH from the moment that bell rang. It was absolute chaos, but a ton of fun at the same time.

The bumps that some of these guys took were insane. It looked like Dean Ambrose died from that powerbomb he took into the ladder from Luke Harper. Absolutely crazy!

Seeing Daniel Bryan climb the ladder to win was great. He’s going to give this title plenty of significance going forward as the most popular star in the industry.

Mike’s Take

Daniel Bryan is a hero to us all.

Every guy in this match put their bodies on the line, and really did their best to try and steal the show they almost did it too. If not for a man named Rollins…

Mike’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins

Result: Randy Orton defeats Seth Rollins via a ridiculous RKO for the pinfall.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

This match was incredible. These two showed off their chemistry back in November and showed it even more in this one.

How about that Curb Stomp into an RKO? Completely unexpected, but absolutely awesome. I thought Rollins was definitely going to win this one, but with how these two performed, I am more than fine with Orton going over in this.

Would Rollins cash in his briefcase by the end of the night?

Mike’s Take

This was a very good match. It wasn’t quite as good as the IC Title Match, but the finish put it over the top.

That Curb StompKO to end it was the most impressive and insanely well-executed finish to a match in history. End of discussion.

Mike’s Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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Sting vs. Triple H

Result: Triple H defeats Sting via pinfall.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

If they left this with just the entrances, I would be perfectly okay with WrestleMania ending.

This was a moment in time that arguably trumped Hulk Hogan and The Rock’s moment at WrestleMania X-8. It was surreal.

The involvement of DX and nWo was really cool and added the Monday Night War element in this. Even with them involved, the match itself was a ton of fun with kick-outs, finishers and so on.

While this was incredible, WWE getting their last shot at WCW rubbed me the wrong way. 14 years later, they still feel the need to put WWE as “the winner” when they won in 2001! Come on, Vince.

Anyway, this was incredible. Well dont by Sting and Triple H. How anything else tops this remains to be seen.

Mike’s Take

Sting was in great shape for this match, and he looked phenomenal. Much better than anybody could’ve expected.

This was a very fun match, but it really needed the smoke and mirrors.

Triple H’s win definitely shows they don’t think Sting is going to wrestle next year.

I don’t know why, but that handshake really bothered me.

Mike’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins

Result: AJ Lee and Paige defeat The Bella Twins via submission.

Rating: 3.2 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

For the match that ended up having the shortest amount of time on the card, the four Divas put on a good performance.

AJ and Paige got the win, which we’ll have to see how it affects the Divas Championship hunt going forward. Will they be forced to battle for the #1 contender’s spot?

Mike’s Take

They got their match last year, now this year they got their chance to shine.

It would’ve been nice to see Paige get the win for her team since she’s, you know, been around all year, but that’s nitpicking.

I think it’s safe to suspect that AJ is the rightful #1 Contender, and Paige won’t be happy.

Mike’s Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

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WWE United States Championship Match
Rusev (c) vs. John Cena

Result: John Cena defeats Rusev via pinfall and wins the WWE United States Championship.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

So Rusev’s “undefeated streak” is over. John Cena is also the US Championship holder. Wow.

This was definitely better than their match from Fastlane. They pulled out plenty of great moves and put on a good 4-star match.

The question now is does Rusev and Lana split? How will Rusev be booked from here?

Mike’s Take

Big Match John delivered again, as he put on a good match to help Rusev end his streak in style.

There’s nothing wrong with losing to Cena in a big match at WrestleMania. Think I’m wrong? Look at where Bray Wyatt is one year later.

Even the finish wasn’t all that clean, setting Rusev up in an interesting angle in defeat.

Mike’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

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The Rock Makes a Special Appearance

Rob’s Take

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon came to the ring to announce that Levi’s Stadium set a new attendance record. However, after that, Triple H started rubbing in his win, as he defeated Sting earlier in the show.

While the two were rubbing it in, The Rock’s music played and everything just became awesome.

I advise you to go check out the entire segment on your own, because this was just gold all-around.

After Stephanie’s slap, The Rock pulled Ronda Rousey out of the crowd. Stephanie demanded for Rousey to get out of the ring, but she would not leave. This caused Rock to start hitting Triple H, Rousey hitting The Game and then putting Stephanie into not one but two arm bars. This sent the power couple running and Rock and Rousey standing tall in the ring.

That was all-around awesome.

Mike’s Take

Brutal opening. Stephanie is really getting on my nerves recently. She has been insufferable, on and off TV.

Rock being there was exciting, Rock taking forever to speak was also brutal.

That being said, the dynamic completely changed when Rousey climbed in the ring.

Why is she so scary and attractive at the same time?

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Bray Wyatt vs. The Undertaker

Result: The Undertaker wins via pinfall.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

This started out very slow, but as it went on, I really started to enjoy this. Wyatt and Undertaker seemed to work decent together. The finisher kick-outs gave this some drama as well.

While it was definitely not the best match of the night, it still delivered. Will this be Undertaker’s final WrestleMania match? Time will tell.

Mike’s Take

To be fair, my hopes for this match weren’t that high, still, I felt it delivered.

I was worried that Wyatt didn’t fit the same mold as Edge, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and CM Punk, and couldn’t pull off a good match with Taker at this point in his career.

Though this one required it’s own share of smoke and mirrors, I’m glad I was wrong.

Mike’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns

Result: Seth Rollins cashes in Money in the Bank, defeats Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar via pinfall to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

Just seconds in, Lesnar put a pounding on Reigns. The German Suplex and F-5 early on looked devastating.

From there, Lesnar continued to crush Reigns. All the former Shield man could do was hit a few Superman Punches and a couple of Spears, but none of them could do the job.

When Reigns and Lesnar were both down and out in the ring, we heard the music of Seth Rollins! The former Mr. Money in the Bank came running down to the ring and cashed in to make this a triple-threat match. He Curb Stomped Lesnar almost immediately. Then, just as Lesnar was about to hit Rollins with an F-5, Reigns speared Lesnar. This left an uninjured Rollins plenty of room to hit the Curb Stomp on a beaten Reigns and win the match!

I never thought WWE would have the guts to have a Money in the Bank cash in to end the show. Kudos to Vince McMahon and whoever else made the call – they just created an all-time great WrestleMania moment that will get people talking. That’s the goal, right?

Mike’s Take

Before the final minute, this match can only be viewed through the same lens as Lesnar’s match with John Cena at WWE SummerSlam. While not a true 4-star match, it felt like one in the moment.

The final minute made this a 5-star match, as Rollins provided us with his second wild moment of the night.

The most exciting and unpredictable ending in WrestleMania history.

Mike’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Final Thoughts

Rob’s Take

What an excellent 6 hour show.

For such a terrible build, this turned out to be an epic WrestleMania. You cannot say that any match on this card turned out to be bad. The spots, the moments, the title changes – it all added up to one awesome night.

Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank was the real show-stealing moment of the night. He got his moment and it will be one that fans in attendance or at home will never forget.

Hopefully WWE can capitalize off this sky-high momentum that they have. No one has a ton of confidence in Creative at the moment, but maybe they will after this.

Mike’s Take

It’s been a long four months since we were blown away by an awesome WWE Survivor Series and WWE failed to follow-up on it properly.

Nothing will make me forget the terrible build, but the in-ring talent tried their hardest.

I believe the top two WrestleManias of all-time are 17 and 30, I think this year’s edition just busted right into that group.

So, WrestleMania 31 is in the books. What were your thoughts on the show?

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Rob Wolkenbrod

Robert is an editor, writer, and video editor. He covers the San Antonio Spurs for Forbes and the Toronto Raptors for Hoops Habit.