Irrelevant But Awesome

Joel:  This WrestleMania needs to be subtitled the “Stay the Course” Wrestlemania. After two years of changing the Main Event, last minute to appease the fans, this was the year that WWE decided to stick to their guys and have the main event play out the way that they wanted it to play out. Come hell or high water, Roman Reigns was going to end the show holding the title over a defeated Triple H. I won’t say that it was impossible to have a scenario where this ending felt satisfying, but this wasn’t it, and in many ways it feels like WWE didn’t even try. Other than a half hearted attempt of Stephanie coming out with a “Please boo this man” segment before Triple H’s entrance, the whole thing was tedious. Even the match itself was less than what Triple H and Reigns should have been capable of. It was as if the two people in the ring felt like the match was going to get booed anyway, so there was no real point in even trying to make this one a WrestleMania classic. The bigger p...

Joel:  Honestly I hadn’t gone back and watched WrestleMania 31 straight through after watching it live about a year ago. Having seen this particular WrestleMania so recently, I can remember that my initial reaction to the show was that it was really quite, good and surprisingly good considering how bad it looked like it was going to be going into the show. So, on this rewatch, I was looking forward to closing out the whole thing with two really strong WrestleManias back to back. However, upon actually sitting down to watch WrestleMania 31 I realized that “surprisingly good” only works when you’re expecting it to be really bad. I don’t think WrestleMania 31 is terrible exactly, but rewatching it now doesn’t hold up to watching it live as much as I thought it would. For example, the ladder match that opens up the show is still one of the best matches on the card, but it doesn’t mark the triumphant return for Daniel Bryan anymore. Another example is the exciting “surprise” app...

Joel:   In rewatching this WrestleMania, I am honestly a little bit in awe of it. This may be as close to perfect as WrestleMania is ever going to get. Everything just seemed to click. Daniel Bryan is the big story here, having two matches, to both open and close the show. Either one of those matches could be a contender for match of the year, and together, along with the video packages, told one of the best underdog stories to ever come out of this company. The “Monster” video they played, telling the background of this story is one of the best video packages that the WWE editors have ever put together. Even if the rest of the show had been nothing more than subpart, the strength of the Daniel Bryan material is enough to pull the overall quality into good territory. But that’s not the case, as almost every other spot of WrestleMania is great. I enjoyed the opener of Hogan, The Rock and Stone Cold just coming out and having fun for a little bit. It worked to celebrate the mil...

Joel:  Unfortunately, there’s not much on this card to make up for the frustration of Twice in a Lifetime. I don’t know what it is about Brock Lesnar and Triple H, but these are two talented guys who just do not work well together. As bad as this match was, it pains me to remember this was one of the best matches that these guys put on together during this particular feud. I remember at the time also being surprised that Fandango’s debut landed with such a thud since they were obviously high on the guy, putting his debut match on WrestleMania, against Chris Jericho no less. Well now, seeing where Fandango’s career has gone, that thud is even louder rewatching the show. Honestly, CM Punk vs. The Undertaker is the only match I feel like praising here. It’s a strong match between the two of them, and has some nice spots, but I think both guys had a stronger showing the previous year. On a technical level it’s a great match, but the emotion for this match isn’t there the way it ...

Joel:  I remember really enjoying this WrestleMania when I was watching it live, but rewatching it this time around I spent the first hour or so of the show wondering how I could have possibly liked any of this. The Daniel Bryan match with Sheamus bothered me a little bit watching it live, but it frustrates me so much more now, knowing that Bryan will only ever have two singles matches at WrestleMania and this is one of them. Honestly there are only three really good matches on the card, and they’re good enough to make this a good WrestleMania on a “thumbs up/thumbs down” scale, but  these three matches are all in the last four matches on the show. Undertaker and Triple H more than make up for their so-so match from WrestleMania 27 with this Hell in a Cell match. It’s nice to see the end of this era go out with Undertaker standing tall rather than having to be carted away like he was the previous year. And I feel like bringing Shawn Michaels in as the referee nicely t...

Joel:  This WrestleMania marks the fifth time in a row that Triple H has been in a championship match. And in four of these past five WrestleManias, he was in the final match on the card. Even without watching all of the other Pay Per Views in these five years (not to mention Raws and Smackdowns) it’s easy to see where Triple H gets the burying reputation from. And that’s not to say that Triple H’s matches haven’t been good, or that he hasn’t been good in them, (his match here with Cena may have been his best WrestleMania match yet) but still, that’s been a lot of Triple H. All in all though it was a really strong show. Like Triple H, Vince McMahon has his best WrestleMania match to day, though it helps that he’s in the ring with Shawn Michaels here. The triple threat for the Heavyweight title was impressive as well. But the match of the night has to go to Mick Foley and Edge. This for the most part is Foley’s swan song when it comes to real, all out, full intensity hardcore...

Joel:  The whole WrestleMania goes Hollywood theme of the evening gets a little closer to the feel of WrestleMania IX than I would like but it never quite makes it to the level that the whole Roman Toga Party got to on that one. It doesn’t really add anything to the show, and makes the whole thing feel a bit more silly and less grandiose than it should, but I’m willing to let it off with a warning here. It doesn’t hurt that XXI has a much better card than IX did. We get some pretty fantastic matches here starting right out of the gate with Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio. It’s kind of a bummer that Eddie went from winning a championship title last WrestleMania to being on the opening match for this one, especially since this will be his final WrestleMania appearance, but it’s a fantastic match, and really a good example of using a big match to get things started in a big way.  We also get our first ever Money in the Bank ladder match which, it’s nice to see, was a gre...