WWE WrestleMania 31 PPV Review
March 30, 2015
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
It’s the early morning hours of March 30th and I just received a press release from WWE indicating that WrestleMania 31 is officially the highest grossing event in WWE history.
A gate of $12.6 million was made possible by the 76,976 fans who filled Levi’s Stadium for the WWE’s annual spectacular. Very impressive.
WrestleMania 31 was a good show. It wasn’t great. It just lacked that feeling you get after you’ve witnessed a really great event. I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t even disappointed. It was fine for what it was on Sunday. But it didn’t blow me away like past WrestleMania’s have.
Wrestleview readers though seemed to really enjoy the show. So what do I know?
@NavigatorBowman: “The best Wrestlemania in nearly a decade. Full of fun moments.”
@lowell321: “Best Mania in a really long time and a brilliant ending.”
@DustinHolland84: “Best Wrestlemania in a long time.Full of unpredictability,just what @WWE needs right now. Congrats to @WWERollins. Well Done!”
Gabriel Puskarich (via Facebook): “Better than last year’s Wrestlemania…hell best Wrestlemania in years.”
Stuart McCormick (via Facebook): “Best Wrestlemania in years, had my full attention from start to finish. What a main event! Big thumbs up!”
Lesnar and Reigns go to war, Rollins cashes in
I was very impressed with how things turned out with the main event on Sunday night. The sudden announcement earlier this week with Brock Lesnar re-signing with WWE really gave this main event the nudge it was missing. Roman Reigns really stepped up and put forth a hell of a performance. As has been the case since the beginning of his title run, Brock Lesnar provided yet another experience you just don’t get with any other performer in WWE today. Lesnar’s ring presence, physicality and brute force is legit one of the most interesting things in wrestling today. To deny it would be silly at this point, even if you’ve clutched to the narrative that Lesnar as champion was a “bad idea.” Having Seth Rollins cash in tonight was the right call and the reaction he received inside Levi’s Stadium was proof. It sent people home happy and WWE needed that given the state of the current TV product.
The Undertaker’s legend continues
I’ll be the first to admit that the path WWE has gone down with Undertaker matches the last few years has become a bit taxing. Said finisher takes place. Said person kicks out. Rinse. Repeat. After a while, even the suspension of disbelief gets to be a bit hard to hang on to. Enter Bray Wyatt. This felt like a genuinely different vibe. Having Wyatt beg of The Undertaker to take notice and then not show up once on television was a great call. Yet, The Undertaker winning felt odd after the end of the streak last year. What purpose does that now serve? The biggest question is: what happens to Bray Wyatt now? Losing isn’t always everything. I get that. But the drop to the knee celebration this year with The Undertaker just felt odd and extremely out of place for the first time ever.
Sting makes his WWE in-ring debut, takes a loss
I’ll admit I was taken aback when this ended up as the third match of the evening. After seeing the delivery, it made total sense and was the right call by WWE. The nostaliga from DX and the nWo was great and provided something I truly wasn’t expecting. Sting and Triple H had a fun match. WCW die-hards didn’t like to see Sting take the loss. At this point, I’m not even really sure what a win does either. For what it was, it was fun and very cool to see Sting finally arrive on the biggest stage wrestling provides for the first time ever.
The Rock and Ronda Rousey team up
I really enjoyed the use of both The Rock and current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey. UFC President Dana White tweeted that he was watching live from London and enjoying it. No harm, no foul. Rousey’s legend is now transcending sports and it was very wise of WWE to capitlize on this. The Rock taking a much deserved jab at Triple H’s entrance (more on this later) was great.
Rusev arrives to WrestleMania in a tank
First off, Rusev easily won the night with the best entrance of WrestleMania. Arriving in a tank was an amazing visual. Rusev and John Cena have scary good chemistry in the ring and I’d hope this isn’t the last we will see between these two post-WrestleMania. It’s very interesting to see Cena holding what many consider a throwaway mid-card championship going forward.
Paige gets her WrestleMania moment
It was truly fun to see Paige soak in her first ever WrestleMania during her entrance on Sunday night. It’s weird to think that she has only spent a year as part of the main roster after debuting last year following WrestleMania 30. The interaction between The Bella’s and AJ Lee is genuinely interesting and something I hope continues post-WrestleMania.
Daniel Bryan gets another YES moment
Fast paced action, crazy bumps and just overall fun is the only way I can describe the Intercontinental Championship ladder match. It just seemed pretty obvious going in that Daniel Bryan was the heavy favorite and the most logical direction you could go in right now. I really liked the video package focusing on the lineage of the title and its importance in past years.
Quick hits
* Triple H’s entrance was cringeworthy bad. I rare miss for him at a WrestleMania.
* Big Show winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was fun, even at the expense of Damien Mizdow (who was also great).
* The WWE Tag Team Championship Fatal Four Way was a mess.
Overall impression
The buzz pre-WrestleMania 31 was that this had the potential to be a lackluster event. I had optimism that despite the negativity, it would pull through and surprise people. Sorry to say, the internet might have really nailed this one before the fans even entered Levi’s Stadium. It will easily go down as one of the most underwhelming WrestleMania’s I’ve seen since WrestleMania 25 in 2009.
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