Monday, April 3, 2017

Geektified's WWE WrestleMania 33 Review 4.3.17


Geektified's WWE WrestleMania 33 Review 4.3.17
By Anton Ware
Official Results
-WWE WrestleMania 33 is LIVE from Orlando, Florida.

-Michael Cole, Bryan Saxton, Corey Graves, Tom Phillips, David Otunga and JBL are your hosts.

-AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon: A good opener to the show. The story was Shane surprising everyone by holding his own against Styles with mat wrestling and strikes. Shane also brought his defense game as he countered Styles’ Springboard 450 (into a Triangle Choke) and Phenomenal Forearm (into a Floatover DDT). What would cost Shane the match (and many big matches before) was his risk-taking. Shane would go for his patented announce table elbow drop and a Shooting Star Press only to miss both maneuvers. Styles capitalized and this time successfully hit his Phenomenal Forearm for the pin and win.
-United States Championship: Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho: Best friends turned enemies as Chris Jericho was looking for revenge after Owens attacked on him during the “Festival of Friendship” and Owens wanting retribution for Jericho costing him the Universal Title. Lots of familiarity in this match as we got counters to show how well both men knew each other. So much so, that Owens even applied the Walls of Jericho on Y2J! In the end, it was Owens ruthlessness that got the best of Jericho as Owens powerbombed Jericho on the apron and rolled him back into the ring for the win! NEW CHAMPION!!
-RAW Women’s Championship Fatal Four Way Elimination Match: Nia Jax vs. Bayley vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks: A quick, uneventful contest between the mainstays of the RAW women’s division. Early in the match, Nia Jax dominated all three competitors. So much so, that Banks, Bayley, and Charlotte decided to team up and wear Jax down. They were successful as they eliminated Jax with a triple powerbomb and pin. The match turned into a Triple Threat affair that featured high flying action as Banks did a flip dive onto Bayley while Charlotte executed a Corkscrew Moonsault from the top rope onto the both ladies on the outside. Banks was eliminated after Charlotte slammed her head against an exposed middle turnbuckle. Charlotte worked over Bayley’s knee in preparation for the Figure 8 submission. She successfully applied it only for Bayley to break the hold. Bayley won the contest with a top-rope elbow drop.
-RAW Tag Team Title Ladder Match: Enzo and Cass vs. The Club vs. Cesaro and Sheamus vs. The Hardy Boyz: Before the match began, The New Day came out to announce that a fourth team would join the match. The New Day teased themselves as the new participants, but the returning Hardy Boyz came out to a THUNDEROUS reaction. This match didn’t feature anything new or creative. It was mostly a fatal 4-way tag match and ladders just so happened to be in the ring. That’s not a knock on the match (it was enjoyable), but if you were looking for the usual car-crash style ladder match, this wasn’t it. The highlight of the match was Matt Hardy hitting a Twist of Fate off the ladder onto Karl Anderson and Jeff executing a Swanton Bomb off a 20-foot ladder onto Cesaro and Sheamus. Matt retrieved the gold and we have NEW RAW Tag Team Champions!

-Mixed Tag Match: John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse: Al Roker is the special guest ring announcer and would like to be referred to as “Chocolate Thunder.” Alrighty then. This was a basic tag match. Nikki and Maryse would tease starting it off, but Maryse would have her husband go in and start with John Cena. Miz dominated Cena for a good portion of the match until Cena gained control. Nikki even got some offense on Miz as she hit a Suicide Dive on The A-Lister. Cena and Nikki hit stereo 5-Knuckle Shuffles and both of their finishers for the win. After the match, Cena would grab the mic and propose to Nikki. She says yes and they hug and kiss in the ring...for a while. I just hope they don’t do the wedding on an episode of Smackdown. Weddings on WWE programming NEVER end well.
-Non Sanctioned Match: HHH vs. Seth Rollins: HHH and Stephanie came out on a motorcycle with a police escort. HHH’s tan is on point, I must say. The match was all about Rollins’ knee injury and HHH exploiting the injury throughout the contest. Being the risk taker that he is, Rollins’ offense worked against him as a cross body to the outside and a sunset-flip powerbomb (the same move that injured him nearly two years ago) would do more harm than good. Even with two attempts of submitting Rollins with a reverse figure four leg lock, HHH still couldn’t put away his former pupil. The ending came when Stephanie McMahon (who had interfered in the match earlier) got on the apron and grabbed the sledgehammer from Rollins before he could attack Triple H with it. She distracted Rollins long enough, but Hunter accidentally knocked her off the apron and sent her crashing through a table at ringside (which Rollins set up earlier in the match). Rollins capitalized on the distraction by delivering a Pedigree to HHH for the win! This is the second year in a row that HHH has lost to a member of The Shield. Is HHH vs. Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 34 next on the agenda?
-WWE Title Match: Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton: This match was just there from an in-ring standpoint. This was more about Wyatt playing mind games with Orton by having a light on the ring canvas projecting worms and parasites in order to throw Orton off his game. At certain points during the match, it seemed like it was working as Orton seemed taken aback by the battle he was having with Wyatt. Orton would overcome Wyatt’s mind games and hit his trademark RKO for the win and title. NEW CHAMPION!!
-WWE Universal Title Match: Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar: Short, but fun match. Lesnar comes out with guns blazing by delivering three German Suplexes. Goldberg recovered and hit three spears and a fourth on the outside through a barricade. Goldberg tossed Lesnar back in the ring and dropped him with the Jackhammer for a two count. A stunned Goldberg went for another Spear only for Lesnar to show amazing agility by leapfrogging over Goldberg which caused him to smash his head into the turnbuckle. From then on, it was pure domination as Lesnar hit seven more German Suplexes and an F5 for the win. NEW CHAMPION!!
-Smackdown Women’s Title 6-Pack Challenge: Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James vs. Carmella vs. Naomi: The ladies would get the cooldown position on the show. Tornado rules as the match starts with everyone brawling. Like the Smackdown Women’s six-pack match from last year, everyone got to showcase their abilities. Highlights included Becky Lynch giving James Ellsworth a Bexploder and Natalya putting Naomi and Carmella in a double sharpshooter. The ending saw Naomi tap out Alexa Bliss with her modified Rings of Saturn for the win in her hometown. NEW CHAMPION!!
-Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker:  Jim Ross returned to commentate the main event. This match was a battle of supremacy. Who was WWE’s true judge, jury, and executioner? The old guard or the new guard? The match itself was nothing special. Both men tried to deliver a special match, but it just never kicked into high gear. Undertaker would hold his own in the first half, but as time went along the match favored Reigns due to him having youth, power, and conditioning on his side. Undertaker used his best offense against Reigns including The Last Ride and Hell’s Gate, but it wasn’t enough. Reigns showed frustration due to multiple Spears (including one through the announce table), chair shots, and Superman Punches not being enough to put The Deadman away.  As Undertaker struggled to get up due to all the punishment, Reigns used all his force and energy to deliver one last Spear to pin and defeat The Undertaker, making his WrestleMania record 23-2. After the match, Undertaker gets a standing ovation from the crowd.  He embraces the moment as everyone in the arena is to believe that they may have just seen Undertaker’s last match. We get highlights of the match and then return to Undertaker with his entrance coat and hat on. He goes to leave, but he comes back to the center of the ring to take off his jacket, hat, and gloves and places them in the middle of the ring before leaving for good. He kisses his wife (former WWE talent Michelle McCool) and while walking up the ramp, he looks at the WWE Universe one more time to embrace the moment. He throws up his fist and then the lights go out in the entire stadium to close the show. What a moment.

-END SCENE

Final Thoughts: This was a thumbs up PPV from WWE. Styles vs. McMahon, The Ladder Match and HHH vs. Rollins were all highlights of the show. A special nod goes out to Shane McMahon as he proved that he was a viable opponent for AJ Styles by pulling out all the stops to deliver what was arguably the best match on the show. Another thing that should be noted about this show, was the amount of title changes. Five titles changed hands (Smackdown Women’s, WWE Title, Universal Title, RAW Tag Titles and United States Title). That may be a record for most title changes on a WrestleMania show. With those changes comes the landscape of WWE being changed and possible new rivalries coming our way. Another big story is possibly last appearance of The Undertaker. An almost 27 year career is coming to a close. The Undertaker has been a part of multiple eras, battled every top star, and has been a part of WWE’s most unforgettable moments. He will go down as one the greatest of all time and last night’s closing segment shouldn’t be overlooked or underappreciated. We here at Geektified would like to thank The Undertaker for all the memories he's given us. He made his mark in professional wrestling as an icon and as one of the last of the “wild west” known as the Golden Era. May he enjoy the next chapter of his life and to WWE, we hope you have his Hall Of Fame ring in production as we speak!


Personal Enjoyment: 

From start to finish…

-What did you guys think of the show? Hit or miss? Let me know in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

-Anton


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