WrestleMania 31 Reax

- Bryan in Philadelphia (9.0): Best: WWE World Championship match. Worst: None. In my opinion, this was the best WM in years. The main event was phenomenal, Sting vs. Triple H was awesome, and even the Divas match was great. Great work and production all around. The build for WM wasn't great, but the event itself exceeded my expectations. P.S., did WWE tease a possible Summerslam mixed tag team match?

- Mike Booble of Springfield, Ore. (8.5): An electric crowd, feuds fans actually care about, and a finish that
will surely be remembered. Turns out, perhaps WWE knows what it's doing. From start to finish WM31 was fast-paced, entertaining, and left you wanting more, which is incredible considering the rocky road to WM31. I was initially worried that Triple H-Sting was starting only an hour into the broadcast, but was pleasantly surprised by not only the ring performance of Sting, but the amount of Hall of Fame star power inserted into the match.

Bray Wyatt deserves so much credit for building, developing, selling, and ultimately carrying the feud with Undertaker and the match. He made Undertaker into the Undertaker of old, while simultaneously making his case as the true darkside character for years to come... The main event had everything you could ever want in a big time main event. Incredible false finishes. Lesnar being a destructive force not seen since the embryonic stages of Goldberg, and I thought Roman Reigns delivering a main event level performance on the biggest stage. Seth Rollins cashing in to win the title only helped make this match into a WrestleMania classic.

- David Russo (7.0): Best: Lesnar vs. Reigns. Worst: Divas match. Despite every match aside from the Divas being fairly enjoyable, if not great or excellent, I think many of the finishes and results are going to leave WWE in a problematic situation in the coming year. I felt Bray Wyatt really needed this big win against Undertaker to cement himself. Losing to Cena last year didn't do much for him, and nor do I think this feud he lost to Undertaker will, either. I felt that Undertaker losing twice in a row then coming back for one last shot at WM32 in Texas was the better story, which would have also put Wyatt over as a huge star for the next year.

Similar problem with the Lesnar result. I really don't see where Lesnar can go from here unless he wins the title back, and if he does, then why even do the MITB cash-in in the first place? I thought his title reign was proving to be the most exciting of the past decade, but to me this puts a damper on his whole run. Why build him up so strong for a year just to lose the belt in such a silly fashion?

While it makes sense for Cena to get a win over Rusev at this point, it feels like a shame that his undefeated streak was broken when they could have pulled the trigger with him. Like the Undertaker-Wyatt match, I can't see this doing anything for Rusev in the long run and now the mystique of being undefeated is gone. Also, Triple H-Sting was just a complete mess. I couldn't even pop for the nostalgia because we see the same bunch of geriatrics on Raw every couple of months doing the same schtick. Now, Sting looks like an utter joke and I would be surprised if we ever see him back in WWE again - at least not in any meaningful role.

Overall, I don't want to sound like a typical whining "comic book guy" character, as I thought the event itself was fun to watch and WWE as always did a great job with their presentation of the show. The matches were fun and full of suspense, and it certainly wasn't anywhere near as predictable and dull as the awful WM29 a couple of years ago. But, I just think as far as development of stars goes, they messed up here.

Did you watch WrestleMania? Send your Reax, 0-10 Score, and Best/Worst Match to pwtorch@gmail.com.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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