'Wrestlemania 32' Recap: Let Us Never Speak of That Main Event Again
It’s important to remember that Wrestlemania, despite being the pinnacle of the wresting calendar, is not necessarily for the hardcore fan who watches week in and week out. It is for the casual fan, the lapsed fan, the potentially new fan watching at a friend’s gathering. I’m not saying this is the best way to run the show, but it’s how it’s been done the last few years and not something any of us can change. So by using that metric, there were some highs and a very few lows. A look at some of them:
1) There is no way around how terrible the main event was; it was an act of delusion and/or hubris you’ll seldom see on a scale this big. Poor Roman Reigns was booed every time his face appeared over the course of the night — even for a split-second in a video game promo — and as soon as Triple H (who along with Stephanie McMahon had attempted but failed to reassert their heel credibility) settled in the ring and looked for his opponent, the jeers started to rain. Even worse, some people left, with more trickling out over the course of a slog of a match.
In 2014, WWE was willing to turn the ship around by inserting Daniel Bryan into what was supposed to be a Batista/Randy Orton main event. Last year, as the crowd was sour on the build for Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar, they were again able to adjust course with a Seth Rollins cash-in. This year they just let the ship run into the rocks, then cranked up Reigns’ music in the building in an attempt to cover up as many of the boos as possible. It was awkward, uncomfortable and a pretty depressing way to end the night.
2) When you sit back and think about what the nostalgia acts are doing to current superstars they need to seem effective all year long, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But when you are in the building when the glass breaks for Steve Austin, or The Rock’s music plays, or when Mick Foley or Shawn Michaels make an appearance, the reaction from the crowd makes it all worth it. The triumvirate of Michaels, Foley and Austin — especially with the brief pause before Austin came out when the crowd was almost willing him out onto stage in anticipation — was a lot of fun, and I don’t think will diminish the New Day or League of Nations in the long run. Heck, Donald Trump took a Stunner from Austin in 2007 and is now carrying on a pretty successful presidential campaign. It’s not necessarily a black mark going down.
The Rock’s appearance coupled with John Cena returning was the last moment of joy for the crowd on Sunday night, as the reality of the main event settled in on them. It’s unfortunate Bray Wyatt had to be involved, because while it was nice that The Rock put him over, the eventually verbal and physical putdowns didn’t help a character that has been all bark and no bite for a long while now. Three consecutive Wrestlemania appearances against three of the all-time greats (Cena, then the Undertaker, and now The Rock), and not much in the way of any short or long-term gains for Wyatt. Also I’m not sure why The Rock needed a flamethrower save for the fact he probably wanted a flamethrower, but so it goes.
3) It was a really great night for women’s wrestling. The pre-show featured a ten-women tag match that was absolutely fine and gave Brie Bella a send-off to what seems like retirement. More importantly for later in the show, we had the reveal by Lita that the butterfly tattoo Diva’s Title was no more, instead replaced by a women’s championship.
Then the triple threat women’s title match was given all proper respect. Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch were given an awesome promo video, big entrances (Sasha got Snoop Dogg, Charlotte a modified version of her dad’s famous robes), big spots (Charlotte’s moonsault off the top to the outside a particularly impressive one) and plenty of time to work. I heard some griping that the first official women’s title match was won with the help of a man (Ric Flair dragging Sasha to the outside so she couldn’t break up a submission attempt), but that is a thing heels do. Sasha and Becky had tried to neutralize Flair earlier, but he recovered and made the save for his daughter. Plenty of men’s titles have been decided after the interference of both men and women, so I don’t think it’s a huge deal.
And despite the crowd being absolutely primed for a Sasha title win, it won’t hurt her at all to chase the belt a little longer. Will they have the patience to wait until Summerslam? Will a Lynch reign slip in before Banks gets her run? The women of the WWE now have real characters, time to work and a legitimate belt for which to compete. Things are going okay.
4) The rest of the matches, save for the main event, didn’t really have any duds. The Zack Ryder win in the Intercontinental ladder match (a new Mania tradition after opening the show two years in a row?) was certainly a surprise, but the storyline of him desperately trying to hold onto it should be entertaining. Plus that match allowed Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to shine like the stars they are while Stardust was able to deliver a tribute to his dad, Dusty Rhodes.
A lot of people are upset with Chris Jericho going over A.J. Styles, but it was a good match and I’m not sure how one win — when Styles already has a victory over Y2J, and will likely be collecting another one or four over the coming months — matters all that much. Styles is also going to be okay. The New Day vs. League of Nation tag match was just fine, with the important thing being the New Day getting the awesome entrance and attire and a chance to rub shoulders with three legends after the match. And the battle royal was a battle royal, with some celebrity spots, another burying of beloved Damien Sandow and a surprise NXT winner that might be able to springboard a rookie career.
Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon was all about setting up one insane spot — Shane off the cage — and while we can question whether that particular dive was worth it, the crowd was into the goings on throughout. Now if you want to question why one of the Undertaker’s last Wrestlemania matches was wasted on a non-wrestler, well, that’s fair.
The most disappointing match of the night compared to anticipation levels (nothing comes below the main event), was Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose. After building up how tough Ambrose was for the last month, he took a bunch of suplexes and one F5 (albeit it onto some chairs) and lost. When expected results ranged from “Ambrose stealing a win” to “Ambrose passing out in the Kimura Lock while a bloody mess a la Bret Hart and Steve Austin,” and we got “Ambrose just kind of loses in a match that never really got too crazy,” it wasn’t ideal. We will see if Ambrose stays at the main event level or gets shuffled towards the midcard as WWE attempts to clear the way for Reigns. The latter would certainly be disappointing.
5) All-in-all, Wrestlemania 32 delivered a fairly entertaining show despite limitations on the roster (so, so many injuries) and a main event nobody wanted to see that will go down as one of the worst in the event’s history. It also had one of the more impressive sets in the show’s history, as AT&T Stadium proved to be an absurdly impressive host from a spectacle standpoint. The nostalgia acts got huge reactions, the ladies got time to work and now the WWE has to figure out how to handle a babyface champion no one particularly likes with a real dearth of heel foes to put him against (unless Owens is going to feud with seven people at one time, a thing he’s proven he has the capacity to do).
See you all next April in Orlando.
WWE RAW airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on USA Network
