We are just days away from granddaddy of them all, Wrestlemania, which airs live Sunday, March 29. This is by far the most exciting time of year to be a wrestling fan or even a casual wrestling observer. Even in the 8 year span were I did not regularly watch wrestling, the time period from Royal Rumble (my favorite PPV) to Wrestlemania (my second favorite PPV) was a time I would check the dirt sheets out and see what was happening even if I didn't have a connection to the product like I used to.
Growing up, I was a die hard wrestling fan, from the age of 5 to 19, I was absolutely obsessed with wrestling. I grew up in the era when Hulkamania was running wild, stuck through the new generation into the Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era, and slowly began to become disinterested when WWE had conquered all of their competition. I watched wrestling up until 2004, but eventually the complete disinterest in wrestling amongst my friends, going to college, and gaining new interests in TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and The Shield lead me to watching other things besides wrestling. It's possible part of that was just being burnt out from watching wrestling 7 nights a week for most of my high school years. I watched sporadically throughout the years but I got back into wrestling around 2011 after being interested in The Rock returning and the evolution of the CM Punk character. The interest has grown throughout the past 4 years, to the point it annoys my wife how much I talk about wrestling.
For those that don't watch wrestling, some of this is going to sound completely ludicrous and in a way that's what makes pro wrestling great. Whether you watched wrestling one time or are a frequent viewer, EVERYONE should watch the video below. Max Landis has made a 24-minute YouTube video called Wrestling Isn't Wrestling, which details out the great long-term storytelling that wrestling is capable of doing. The example used in this video is the evolution of Triple H, from a rookie Greenwich Blueblood to COO of the company and married to the bosses daughter. The story is recreated using a largely female cast and features celebrity cameos from people like Seth Green, Macaulay Culkin, Josh Peck, and various wrestling personalities. Max is the son of filmmaker John Landis who has made some of my favorite comedies like Animal House, Blues Brothers, and Coming to America. This is truly a fantastic piece of entertainment.
If that video doesn't get you pumped to watch wrestling, I don't know what will and the best thing is this is the PERFECT time to start or restart watching. Wrestlemania 31 aka Play Button (because the logo instead of incorporating the roman number of the event as it previously had, now has a play button for some inexplicable reason) is Sunday night. While, this is certainly not the most exciting line-up they've had for a Wrestlemania, some would say it's quite the opposite, I am still very pumped. The events leading up to this Sunday haven't gone the way many diehard wrestling fans have hoped. Instead of getting Daniel Bryan, the most universally liked man on the roster in the main event for the second year in a row, they have elevated Roman Reigns, who many feel is not ready for the top spot on a WWE card, let alone the biggest WWE event of the year. But let's breakdown the card match by match.
The best part about this is instead of paying $65 for the Pay-Per-View like things were just over a year ago, Wrestlemania can be watched by subscribing to the WWE Network for just $9.99 a month. That includes all of their monthly PPVs, not just Wrestlemania, and also EVERY SINGLE PPV in WWE, WCW, and ECW history. It also has a ton of episodes of Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, ECW, and airs all of the new episodes of NXT, which from a pure wrestling basis is the best show WWE airs each week.
The show starts off with a 2 hour kickoff show at 5:00 eastern. In total, they are giving you 6 full hours of pre-show and actual show. Most of the pre-show will be pretty unnecessary to watch unless extremely unfamiliar with the storylines. Even then, many of the video montages they have explaining the feuds will be shown during the show itself. But there are two reasons to check-in to the pre-show and that is they are airing TWO matches during the pre-show.
The tag team titles will be on the line in a 4-team match. I'm not sure if this is going to be single elimination, where teams are eliminated until only one team stands, or one fall to a finish, where the first team to score a pinfall or submission victory is your winner. Here are the participants in this match-up:
Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (champions) - Two randomly assigned great wrestlers who have had underwhelming singles careers (many would blame the writers for this) joined together, defend their
Cesaro, Natalya (Tyson Kidd's wife/manager), Tyson Kidd.
For fun: Cesaro Swing on John Cena.
Los Matadores - Two Puerto Rican guys in bull fighting outfits and they come out to the ring with a little person who flies around the ring in a bull suit. They previously wrestled as Primo and Epico before getting rebranded with the bullfighting gimmick, mostly as a way for WWE to get the extremely talented El Torito, their bull sidekick, on TV. El Torito is a great character but is extremely underutilized in a company where you only have one other little person and "midget wrestling" is largely frowned upon. Mostly, Los Matadores have served as a doormat for every other team in the division.
Diego, El Torito, and Fernando.
The Usos - Twin Samoan brothers and are becoming the flag bearers in the tag team division. They are quite frankly one of the few legitimate tag teams in the WWE. They have a good entrance which starts with Jimmy and Jey Uso doing a Samoan war chant and then leads into some crowd participation, where when they say "Uce" the crowd yells "O!"and are exciting in the ring with a barrage of high flying attacks and superkicks. They are also the sons of Rikishi, who will be going into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before Wrestlemania.
Naomi, Jimmy Uso, and Jey Uso
The New Day - A half-baked and mostly stereotypical gimmick of African-American preachers feels like the most generic gimmick that this light blue wearing group consisting of Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods could get. Kofi Kingston has won many titles before, including the tag team titles, but has not been doing much in the past couple of years. Big E was one of the hottest prospects coming from NXT, winning the Intercontinental title shortly after making his debut, but after that run hasn't been doing much. While Xavier Woods came up from NXT and never really went anywhere in his singles career before forming this group.
Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods
The tag team titles have become pretty much an after thought in the WWE, which is why they aren't being defended on the main show. It's a shame because tag team wrestling when it's done right is amazing. In many instances however, the tag team division serves as a platform for former singles wrestlers who don't have a place on the regular card to perform (see Big E, Kofi Kingston, Cesaro, and Tyson Kidd).
The other match on the pre-show is going to be the second annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, in which as I stated earlier Cesaro shockingly won last year by throwing the favorite The Big Show over the top rope and winning the huge trophy last year.
30 men participate in the Battle Royal where the object is to throw your opponent over the top rope and be the last man standing. All 30 of the men will start in the ring at the same time. These 30 men largely consist of wrestlers who do not have a place anywhere else on the show so they can get a "Wrestlemania Pay Day," which consists of bonuses the wrestlers get for performing on Wrestlemania. Since there's 30 men in this match, I'll just highlight the notables.
The Miz and Damien Mizdow - This is one of those things that sounds incredibly dumb (and it is) but it is one of the greatest things going in WWE right now. When former Real World contestant, The Miz, returned from shooting his second WWE Films movie, The Marine 4, he came back as a better than everyone, Hollywood actor. Because of this, he couldn't fight his own fights and had to enlist in a stunt double, Damien Sandow (re-branded as Mizdow since he dressed like The Miz). The best part was as a tag team, when The Miz was wrestling Mizdow would act out what was happening to The Miz in the ring. It got more and more ridiculous as the weeks went on and Damien Mizdow became a fan favorite, while The Miz is holding down. He has since fired him as his stunt double and he is now his personal assistant. Mizdow has teased turning against The Miz but it hasn't happened yet.
The Miz and Damien Mizdow
The Big Show - Always a favorite to win every battle royal, but being over 7 feet tall and 450 pounds will make you a favorite. It's funny that he is in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal because making his debut in WCW 20 years ago he was called The Giant and was billed as being the illegitimate child of Andre the Giant. I can't believe that was 20 years ago, now I feel old.
The Big Show
Sheamus - Not even confirmed to be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal but still one of the favorites to win is the Celtic Warrior, Sheamus. He has been out since November due to injury but is healthy and ready to return this Wrestlemania in one way or another. Many are assuming that his appearance will be in the Battle Royal, but if not here, he may wind up causing chaos in another match in the card.
Sheamus
Hideo Itami - The WWE Developmental company NXT decided to have a tournament at WWE Axxess, which is basically WWE's version of a comic book show that the hold the 3 days before Wrestlemania. Many stars sign autographs, props from different matches and eras are on display, and they also run NXT matches sporadically throughout the show. Itami surprisingly won the tournament beating Tyler Breeze, Finn Balor, and Adrian Neville to earn a spot in the Battle Royal. This is surprising because out of the 3, he has gotten the least amount of a "push" in NXT, but the Japanese superstar will have his chance to shine and possibly earn a spot on the WWE roster by winning the Battle Royal.
Hideo Itami
All of that is just the pre-show. There's another 4 HOURS of content after that. While it's in California, and I'm sure there will be a lot of star power in the crowd. It has been announced that LL Cool J will be there to kick off the show, I don't know what that means exactly. Also announced is that the Wrestlemania theme song artists David Guetta, Skyler Grey, Kid Ink, and Travis Barker will be performing what is basically WWE's version of a halftime show. Between those musical and celebrity appearances and the elaborate and crazy entrances that many of the superstars make their should be some theatrics to keep anybody that doesn't care about the "rasslin" interested.
While, the Divas title is not being defended, the Divas Champion Nikki Bella and her twin sister Brie Bella will be facing off against the other two top divas on the WWE roster right now AJ Lee and Paige.
The Bella Twins - These twins have been in the WWE for the past 7 years, which is an extremely long-time for divas in the company, although they did take a year off to pursue other ventures before re-signing with the company. Nikki and Brie have improved greatly over this time as evidenced by Nikki being a credible champion right now. The also feuded for a bit this past fall before reconciling unexpectedly with basically the only explanation being that they're twins. However, with my wife having twin sisters, I realize how quickly they go from being mortal enemies to not being able to live without each other, so it makes sense in that reguard.
Nikki and Brie Bella
Paige and AJ Lee - This unlikely duo of Divas spent most of summer feuding over the Divas title before AJ lost it to Nikki Bella. Paige debuted in the WWE the day after Wrestlemania last year ending AJ Lee's record setting title reign of 295 days by winning an impromptu match. AJ just recovered from an injury and made a surprise return on Raw a few weeks ago stopping the Bellas from their attack on Paige, causing the former frenemies to unite against the Bellas.
Paige and AJ Lee
In a grudge match, Randy Orton seeks his vengeance on Seth Rollins, the man who took him out of action for 4 months after a vicious attack where he curb stomped Orton's face into the steel ring steps.
Randy Orton - Former Face of the WWE and multiple time champion, Orton is one of the most accomplished wrestlers on the roster today. Orton returned at the Fast Lane PPV event last month wanting to get his revenge but temporarily made good with Rollins in order to turn on him at the right opportunity. Orton main evented last Wrestlemania defending the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan and Batista and is regularly featured in big matches on WWE television.
Randy Orton
Seth Rollins - Many would argue that while Orton is the "Face of the WWE," Rollins is poised to take that position. Former member of one of the most dominant groups in WWE, The Shield, before turning his back on his Shield brethren Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns in order to join up with The Authority, the group lead by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon that controls the WWE. Rollins has since won the Money in the Bank briefcase, with help from The Authority, which can be cashed in at any time for a WWE Championship match. He has since hired his own personal security, J&J Security, which consists of former WWE wrestlers Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, whom are supposed to protect him but do that by largely getting attacked while Rollins runs away.
Jamie Noble, Seth Rollins, and Joey Mercury
The Intercontinental championship match is going to be a 7-man ladder match. Whichever of these 7 men climb the ladder and pull down the championship belt which will be hanging above the ring will walk away champion. Recently, these individuals have spent their time stealing the championship belt from current titleholder Bad News Barrett and it's been a game of hot potato over who has the belt between these participants. Sadly, the Intercontinental belt, which was a prestigious title throughout my childhood, lost a lot of it's prestige and became far less important over the years.
Bad News Barrett (champion) - This five-time Intercontinental champion was on quite a tear this summer before suffering a shoulder injury and being out for five months. He recently returned and recaptured his title, but has spent most of the past month trying to re-gain possession of it from whomever stole it from him. Formerly known as Wade Barrett, Bad News earned the moniker by delivering bad news to the other wrestlers and to whatever city they were in and he was making fun of that week. This was another example of a gimmick that sounds dumb, but when he utters the phrase, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news," you know he's going to be bringing some pretty funny stuff to the table.
Bad News Barrett
R-Truth - It's strange that R-Truth is in this match because it seems like you can go months without seeing him on television, let alone in a title match on a pay-per-view, but Truth has earned his spot with some great commentary and hilarious antics stealing the Intercontinental title from Bad News Barrett. R-Truth started wrestling in the WWE in 1999 and worked there for a few years before leaving for TNA, where he was a 2-time NWA champion, before making his WWE return in 2008. He's known for rapping his way to the ring to such songs as "Getting Rowdy" and recently "What's Up?"
R-Truth
Dean Ambrose - Former member of The Shield and current Lunatic Fringe, Ambrose is one of the craziest performers in a WWE ring. The ladder match seems right up his alley, especially after his TLC match with Bray Wyatt this past December where he climbed a 15 foot ladder and dropped an elbow on Bray Wyatt through a table. Ambrose previously held the United States Championship for 351 days, which is the longest run with that title in WWE history.
Dean Ambrose
Luke Harper - Another character that is hard to explain, Harper is like a backwoods hick that has a major screw loose. Harper was a member of the Wyatt Family, which was lead by Bray Wyatt, who was their cult like leader before setting them free this fall. Harper took this freedom as an opportunity to beat Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental title and start a short title run. For being 6'5" and 275 pounds, he is way more athletic than many would give him credit for. Fun fact: He looks a lot like my Uncle Mark.
Luke Harper
Dolph Ziggler - Fan favorite and one of the best performers in the WWE on a week-by-week basis. Ziggler has held the Intercontinental title four times in the past, as well as many other titles throughout the years. Most recently, Ziggler had the odds against him being down three-to-one in the Survivor Series main event, but battled back and ended up defeating those three men and winning the match for Team Cena.
Dolph Ziggler
Stardust - The character of Stardust is just weird. In order to fit in and be a better tag team partner with his brother, Goldust, Cody Rhodes decided to take up the Stardust moniker. Cody ended up becoming too involved in the Stardust character, to the point where Goldust tried to snap him out of it, only to have his brother attack him. They battled at Fast Lane last month, but after a botched finish, WWE decided to not have them settle the score at Wrestlemania and instead give the former two-time Intercontinental champion a shot at winning the title again.
Stardust
Daniel Bryan - After winning the WWE Championship last year at Wrestlemania 30 and marrying his wife, Brie Bella, a few days later, things went downhill rapidly. Bryan lost his father after returning from his honeymoon and a neck injury that was bothering him for a while flared up to the point where he had to have surgery on it. Recovery from the surgery ended up taking longer than expected and he had to drop the titles in June and didn't return until January of this year in the Royal Rumble. Many expected him to win the Rumble and earn a spot in the main event to try to win back the title he never lost, instead he is in a 7-man match for a title that doesn't have nearly the esteem. However, this could be Bryan's spot to win the belt and elevate it to it's past glory.
Daniel Bryan
Speaking of titles that lost their values, the United States title currently held by Rusev was one of those titles for a while. Through Dean Ambrose's 351 day reign, I think I can count a handful of times he actually defended the title on TV. Rusev has started to bring some of the allure of the title back and defending it against John Cena on this huge stage is a great opportunity to make this championship have a lot of value again.
Rusev (champion) - The Hero of the Russian Federation, made his debut at the Royal Rumble last year and has since dominated the WWE since making his singles match debut in April. Along with his manager, Lana, they have taken a very pro-Russia, anti-American stance leading WWE to recreate Rocky IV and the Ivan Drago vs. Rocky fight over and over again with various superstars including Mark Henry, Big Show, and Jack Swagger amongst others staying undefeated this entire time. Rusev, in the ultimate bit of irony won the United States championship in November.
Rusev and Lana
John Cena - One of the most polarizing characters in the WWE Universe, Cena has won 22 championships since his WWE debut in 2002. Cena is loved by women, children, and my friend Shaun and almost universally hated (but respected) amongst long-term wrestling fans. Many people hate him because his character has been the same over the past 10 or so years and pretty much always wins, which lead to many just getting tired of his schtick. That being said, Cena is one of the most reliable WWE superstars and pretty much always puts on good matches. He also has supernatural recovery times, like coming back from a torn triceps in 6 weeks, when originally was supposed to sideline him for 4-6 months.
John Cena
Undertaker famously had an undefeated streak of 21-0 going into last Wrestlemania but was defeated last year by Brock Lesnar. Since then, he has not been seen. The streak may be broken but Bray Wyatt wants to take The Undertaker's soul.
Undertaker - As said in the Wrestling Isn't Wrestling video, The Undertaker may be the strangest most unbelievable character in professional wrestling history, but yet it works and is amazing. While he doesn't have near the championship accolades of a John Cena, his legacy in WWE which began in 1990 will be eternal. Many were shocked when he lost last year to Brock Lesnar as the streak ending was completely unexpected. Undertaker also suffered a major concussion in that match, that even Vince McMahon left Wrestlemania to go with Undertaker to the hospital.
Undertaker
Bray Wyatt - Having debuted in 2012, very few talents have had the run that Wyatt has had to this point in his WWE tenure. He made his Wrestlemania debut last year losing to John Cena, who is one of the few wrestlers to defeat Wyatt since debuting. Many have already drawn parallels between Wyatt and the Undertaker and think he may take his role as the "supernatural" character once Undertaker hangs up his boots.
Bray Wyatt
While wrestling is a crazy business, few things are crazier than the fact that Sting, who has been wrestling as long as I've been alive, has never wrestled a match in a WWE ring. That is until Sunday, if there's no other reason to be interested in Wrestlemania to this point, this is it.
Sting - He may be 56 years of age, but Sting is making his WWE wrestling debut at Wrestlemania, which is crazy. Considered "The Franchise of WCW" he stayed with the company until they were purchased in 2001 by WWE. After the sale, he stayed on the sidelines until his contract was over and then signed with upstart company TNA in 2003 for a few appearances before starting a more consistent run there in 2005. After his contract expired in early 2014, Sting began doing appearances on WWE documentaries and DVDs until making his debut at Survivor Series 2014, costing Team Authority the win and starting a war with Triple H.
Triple H - For Triple H's career retrospect, watch Wrestling Isn't Wrestling if you haven't yet. Seriously, what are you waiting for. That being said, Triple H has been one of the top guys in the company since debuting in 1995 and continues his run today, taking over as the COO of the company and running the NXT brand amongst various other ventures in the company. Eventually, the plan is for him to take over running the wrestling portion of the company when Vince McMahon passes the torch.
To wrap up the night, the 1 in The Undertaker's 21-1, Brock Lesnar, has been an unstoppable machine in the past year and will defend the WWE Championship against the winner of the 2015 Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns.
Brock Lesnar - There's only one man that has won the NCAA wrestling championship, the WWE championship, and the UFC championship and that man is Brrrroooocckk Leeessssnnnnarrrr. Not only has he done that but after his first run in the WWE, he went to the Minnesota Vikings and almost made their football team after not even playing college football. After he moved on from football, he went to Japan and won the IWGP Heavyweight title. He returned to WWE in 2012 and reclaimed the WWE title from John Cena at Summerslam this past August. It was announced this week that despite being wanted to return to UFC, Brock has re-signed with WWE and will be working for them at least another 3 years.
Brock's Advocate Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar
Roman Reigns - There is no denying that Roman Reigns is the future of the WWE and should be a top guy for years to come. Right now however, many feel that it's too much too soon. Reigns made his WWE debut in 2012 as a member of The Shield, but was largely protected by the more experienced Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in matches, with most of their matches being 3-on-3 tag team matches. Reigns has looked strong eliminated a record 12 contestants in the 2014 Royal Rumble before being the last man thrown out last year. He also tied the record for most eliminations in a Survivor Series match with 4 in 2013. After The Shield split up, he began his singles run until he was sidelined 3 months after having to have an emergency hernia surgery until he returned in December. He won the Royal Rumble and defeated Daniel Bryan last month to determine who would face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. He has two pay-per-view singles matches under his belt at this point and many feel that this it's too soon for him to be the franchise guy in the WWE and defeat Brock Lesnar but we'll have to wait on Sunday to see what's in store as Roman strive to prove everyone wrong.
Roman Reigns
So that is this year's Wrestlemania in an enlarged nutshell. I wrote this to serve as a primer for those that really don't watch wrestling and as somewhat of a refresher for those that do. I am super excited to see what the WWE has in store not only for us at Wrestlemania, but what they have coming up in the next few months. Wrestlemania serves as kind of a season finale in a lot of ways and the Raw the night after Wrestlemania is the new season premiere, where storylines for the next year leading up to the next Wrestlemania are born. Brock Lesnar made his return to the WWE on the night after Wrestlemania in 2012 for example. These are truly the most exciting days to be a wrestling fan and let's hope that the new season is going to be amazing. Thanks for reading!
