So, that was WrestleMania 33, huh? Well, it definitely didn’t go as I expected. I mean, I was happy with most of the event but there are some things about WrestleMania 33 that I just don’t agree with at all. And when it comes to the predictions that Dezi and I set this past Saturday, we both ended up tied for the event. Check out these results:
Richard 5-8
Desiree 5-8
It’s not that we both were on point with our predictions, but we called some of these matches based on how predictable the event was going to be. And we’re both happy that there were a couple of surprises throughout the night… and oh my stars, who would’ve guessed that Matt & Jeff Hardy would return to the company at WrestleMania 33? That really took us by surprise. We both knew that they would be WWE bound sometime soon but we never thought it would happen at WrestleMania.
It was nice seeing some surprises at the event, but the predictability of most of the show kind of took away some of that luster. While our predictions were based on our personal feelings as fans, we both knew that some things were going to happen a certain way because the WWE really likes to play things safe a lot of the times.
From the three matches on the pre-show – the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale, and the WWE Intercontinental Championship – with the exception of Mojo Rawley winning the Battle Royale (with some help from Rob Gronkowski), the other two matches were pretty standard fair for a WWE WrestleMania event. With both Neville and Ambrose retaining their respective titles, those were both easy calls.
As for the main card, who really believed that Shane McMahon was actually going to beat AJ Styles? I mean, really? This had no mystique at all to the match. We all wanted to see what kind of lengths McMahon would go through to secure the victory, and he didn’t disappoint – but no one can say with all certainty they believed that McMahon was going to pull the win in this match.
Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho for the United States Championship could have gone either way, and we both really felt Jericho had a good chance at the win, but we both knew that Owens would gain just as much going forward as Jericho would, and his win at WrestleMania 33 will certainly add to the heel heat that he is already a magnet for.
Dezi predicted that Bayley would retain her RAW WWE Women’s Championship, and while I thought that Charlotte would come out victorious, Bayley retaining over Charlotte, Nia Jax, and Sasha Banks was also a good call for WWE creative. Now they can really build a rivalry for her and Charlotte as equals instead of referring to Bayley as merely a fan. This elevated Bayley on the roster and legitimizes her career on RAW.
The biggest surprise of the night, and one that had us both excited and jumping up and down in joy, was the return of the Hardys and their win in the Ladder Match to capture the Raw WWE Tag Team Championship belts from Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Enzo & Big Cass, and Cesaro & Shamus. From the moment that they were announced as being part of the match to their win to end it, it had the fans in attendance, and at home, breathless.
If you thought that the Miz & Maryse ever had a shot at winning their mixed tag team match vs John Cena & Nikki Bella then you know nothing about the wrestling business and the way that the WWE books their stars. Even the engagement at the end of the match was way too easy to call as I have been saying for weeks that Cena would propose to Nikki at WrestleMania.
Seth Rollins vs Triple H was also as easy to call as a heatwave in Los Angeles. Stephanie McMahon going through a table was a nice surprise, but it was clear that Rollins was going to win unless he was either retiring or being traded to Smackdown the day after WrestleMania. This one we all called from a mile away.
Randy Orton winning the WWE Championship from Bray Wyatt surprised me, but Dezi called it. I believe it could have gone either way, but the match itself was a little lackluster as to what I expected from both competitors. The “mind games” that Wyatt was playing on Orton just felt cheesy and too reminiscent of the early 1990s WWF/E landscape and I hope we don’t see more of it in the future.
The Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar match for the WWE Universal Championship was what it was, but at least it was better than their match at Survivor Series and their horrific match at WrestleMania XX. We both knew Lesnar would walk out as champion, even though Dezi wanted Goldberg to win because she absolutely hates Lesnar, because it falls more in line with what will come next for the RAW brand.
Neither of us had Naomi winning the Smackdown WWE Women’s Championship title over Alexa Bliss, Natalya, Carmella, Mickie James, and Becky Lynch, but it was a pleasant surprise to see her with it in front of her hometown crowd at Orlando. Unfortunately, this match was given so little time to develop on the WrestleMania card that it felt rushed and didn’t show off any of the competitors’ potential throughout the match.
And I can’t express just how mad and annoyed I am at calling that Roman Reigns would beat the Undertaker in the main event. But when I saw that Jim Ross was coming out to call the match, I knew in my heart that the rumors were true and that not only was Reigns going to win the match but that the Undertaker was going to retire after the loss. And seeing him leave his ring gear folded in the middle of the match after it was over… yeah, that just totally sucked.
All in all, even with the surprises and twist that WrestleMania 33 provided fans, personally I felt it to be a bit underwhelming. I wasn’t expecting to see five-star matches across the card, but even the good matches on the WrestleMania card were good at best and nothing that really stood out as completely memorable.
