The first night of WWE WrestleMania 37 was a rousing success. Bad Bunny’s incredible performance, Bobby Lashley’s successful title defense, Cesaro’s huge win over Seth Rollins, and the all-time great main event between Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks were just a few of the big talking points.
Although Night Two wasn’t nearly as acclaimed as Night One, it was still, as a whole, a solid evening of wrestling action.
Here is the full review with results and grades for each match!
Randy Orton vs. The Fiend
Result: Randy Orton pins The Fiend
Grade: D, A nondescript match with a cliffhanger, though the execution did not endear itself to WWE fans in attendance.
Even though the build to this match wasn’t my cup of tea, I have to say that I enjoy it when you can tell Randy Orton is 100 percent invested in a storyline. You can tell he’s really sunk his teeth into this program with Bray Wyatt and has fully embraced the wackiness of it.
The match itself was not bad. I liked that the Fiend showed some invincibility at first, only to have Orton fight back evenly. But the match received boos for the finish. I don’t blame the fans at all for their reaction.
So here’s what happened. The Fiend has Orton in the Mandible Claw, which is a move nobody fights out of once it’s locked in. Orton was able to get on his knees and prolong his fate, but it wasn’t until Alexa Bliss popped out of the box with that ink-ish substance flowing freely down her face that Wyatt broke the hold. It was bizarre. And it led to Orton hitting the RKO for his second win over Wyatt at WrestleMania. (Yes, Wyatt lost another ‘Mania match, which is a sour note in and of itself.)
Well, after Bliss essentially cost Wyatt the match, they had a staredown, the lights when out, and then they both disappeared. And upon their disappearances, that’s when the boos rained down.
Lots more questions than answers. I will be curious how this is followed-up on Raw. But it doesn’t look promising, given how unfulfilling this feud has been. WrestleMania was a final chance to right the wrongs and regain goodwill from the fans, but WWE dropped the ball here. It was also surprising to see the supposedly invincible Fiend lose to just one RKO after a short match. After last year’s wildly successful Firefly Funhuose match, this was a setback for Wyatt.
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Tamina and Natalya for the Women’s Tag Team Championships
Result: Shayna Baszler submits Natalya
Grade: B, A quality WrestleMania tag title match that featured a feel-good moment from Tamina, even in defeat.
There were some really cool moments in this match. The opening power exchanges between Nia Jax and Tamina were awesome, as was the overall strength and power displayed by these four athletes. But my favorite part was when Tamina nearly pinned Nia. It was such a great nearfall that had the crowd thinking Tamina and Nattie just won the titles. And as Tamina gathered herself, the crowd was 100 percent behind her. She earned that moment.
But in the end, Natalya and Tamina, as we expected, fell short. They seemingly came close again, when Natalya managed to turn Nia into the Sharpshooter. The problem? Nia wasn’t the legal woman in the match. Shayna Baszler was actually the legal competitor among the Women’s Tag Team Champions, and she took full advantage.
While Nattie was busy locking up Nia in the Sharpshooter, Shayna put the Queen of Harts in the Kirifuda Clutch and passed her out, leading to yet another successful title retention for the Women’s Tag Team Champs. I think the vast majority of fans, like the crowd, were rooting for Tamina and Natalya, but that was a good way to do the finish in a way that puts more heat on the heels for it.
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
Result: Kevin Owens wins with the Stunner
Grade: A, It’s Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn! What did you expect?
Once again, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn showed the world why they are two of the greatest rivals in wrestling history. I mean it. They have been in “Fight Forever” territory for years, going back to their days together in Ring of Honor.
Although Logan Paul was a part of the build and at ringside due to Zayn’s conspiracy, I was very glad that he played no role in the finish of the match or in the proceedings at all. But he had a spat with Zayn at the end of the match after he tried to congratulate KO, which led to Owens hitting Paul with a well-deserved Stunner for trying to hop on the bandwagon. KO doesn’t need that kind of fickle “help”!
Owens and Zayn had a fantastic match. It started hot with Owens hitting a Popup Powerbomb on Zayn, who had to scramble out of the ring. And then he had to avoid a Powerbomb on the apron.
Zayn would hit his own big moves, namely the Blue Thunder Bomb after a great Stunner counter and a brilliant, brutal vertical suplex on the apron. He even hit the Helluva Kick, but when he tried to follow up with another, it was his undoing. Owens hit two Superkicks and then the Stunner to nab a big win.
We’ve seen better matches between Owens and Zayn, but within the constraints of a busy WrestleMania card and with the callbacks to those matches in mind, I’d say these eternal rivals did a great job.
Riddle (c) vs. Sheamus for the United States Title
Result: Sheamus wins the US Title with his trusty Brogue Kick
Grade: B, A good match and the right man won. Sheamus continues to be excellent.
Despite my personal feelings about Riddle, this was a very good match. And yes, I am partially saying that because Sheamus, who has arguably been the best television wrestler this year so far, won the match.
There were so many great nearfalls that left me on the edge of my seat. Most of them involved Sheamus nearly getting the win. Although WWE tries to portray Riddle as the babyface, Sheamus is the one who has the goodwill of the audience and has earned our respect all over again through his excellent tag team – and now singles – work.
So every close call for Sheamus was felt by the audience. There was one nice counter by Riddle from a pinning predicament into a submission, but Sheamus did get out of that quickly.
In the end, although Riddle kicked out of one Brogue Kick, Sheamus still got the win and deservingly took home the United States Championship at WWE WrestleMania 37. And he did so with an innovative Brogue Kick off a springboard moonsault. Talk about a creative interception.
The right man went over, and, as the blood on Riddle’s face showed, this was yet another brutal clinic put on by the multi-time world champion, Sheamus.
Big E (c) vs. Apollo Crews for the Intercontinental Championship in a Nigerian Drum Fight
Result: Apollo Crews wins after surprising interference
Grade: B-, Another solid match on the WWE WrestleMania 37 card. I’m intrigued to see where this new partnership goes. I’m glad Apollo won, but I wish WWE gave them more time, especially after how their match at Fastlane ended.
This match was absolutely brutal, and now we know what a “Nigerian Drum Fight” is. As Apollo Crews promised, it was a grueling match, and you could tell this match was personal for Crews. He hit Big E so hard at one point with a kendo stick over and over again that the kendo stick didn’t just break, it shattered.
Even so, E actually had the advantage for most of the match. It seemed like he was going to win, too. He had Crews in deep trouble. Crews had crashed and burned through a table after diving off the top rope, and E wasted no time in following up with the Big Ending.
1-2-3, right? Well, 1-2-interference. Someone, whose identity the announcers would not reveal though many fans seem to believe this is former Raw Underground star Dabba Kato, came in to break up the pin. That enabled Crews to win the match, taking down Big E and taking home the Intercontinental Title.
The new character change is paying dividends for the former United States Champion. Crews isn’t just the current IC Champion now. He has gained something else, too, in the form of a big man who can help him forge a dominant title reign over the course of the summer months.
Asuka (c) vs. Rhea Ripley for the Raw Women’s Championship
Result: Rhea Ripley wins with the Riptide
Grade: B+, This was a very good match between Rhea Ripley and Asuka. It wasn’t truly at an “A” level, but it was entertaining and sets up Raw nicely with Ripley as the new face of the division.
This match was one of the three most highly-anticipated of the weekend, and it totally delivered. From the moment Rhea Ripley made her entrance to a bad-ass, live rendition of her brutally metal theme song, you knew this match was going to be an absolute war between two of the toughest competitors in the WWE locker room.
The back-and-forth was incredible. You couldn’t separate Ripley from Asuka. Even though most of us predicted a win for Ripley and the end of Asuka’s Raw Women’s Title reign, the match itself kept us second-guessing. Two of my favorite spots were Asuka’s DDT onto the floor, and Ripley’s vertical suplex from outside the ring back to the inside. That’s one of my favorite power spots.
In the end, Ripley used Asuka’s own momentum against her, fighting out of a submission and then later hitting her famous Riptide finisher.
Ripley is now the Raw Women’s Champion, while the woman who outlasted her in the Royal Rumble, Bianca Belair, is now the face of the Blue Brand. So we have two former pillars of NXT now leading the main roster Women’s Divisions. That is a delightful sight.
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Edge for the Universal Championship
Result: Roman Reigns pins both challengers to retain
Grade: A+, by far the match of the night.
Wow, what a main event! This was a car crash and a dramatic masterpiece from start to finish. There were so many brilliant storytelling threads in here and cool spots, such as Roman and Edge colliding on Spears or Roman absolutely demolishing Daniel Bryan with a Powerbomb through the announce table that left the Leader of the Yes Movement folded in half in a heap.
We even saw Edge and Bryan trap Roman in a double-submission, headbutting each other to try and be the one to tap out Roman. And this was after both of them had their respective submission maneuvers broken up earlier in the match.
But my favorite spot of all involved Bryan getting a little “Ultimate Opportunist” himself. That was one of the storytelling threads in this feud, right? It got under Edge’s skin that Bryan started sticking up for himself by taking advantage of situations. In this case, Edge seemed to have Roman pinned after he hit a Spear, but Bryan literally threw the ref out of the ring at two! Not illegal in a Triple Threat, but nonetheless infuriating from Edge’s perspective and even a little bit uncharacteristic of Bryan!
The finish of the match was brilliant and put over Roman strongly, even as he looked vulnerable on occasions against his formidable opponents. Jey Uso took a beating after saving Reigns from a “Conchairto”. Then, Reigns hit a “Conchairto” of his own on Edge before hitting a Spear. And if that wasn’t enough, he literally threw Edge on top of Bryan in order to pin both of them. Because of course he did!