Top Ten Things: WrestleMania Main Events, Part 3 (#30-21)

Continuing with our WrestleMania main event rankings, let's get into #30-21!  

Check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 4 and Part 5

30. Triple H vs. Randy Orton - WrestleMania 25

If ever a WrestleMania main event didn't tonally live up to the build, it's this one.  Triple H and Randy Orton had one of the most personal feuds ever to lead to a 'Mania headliner, with Orton punting both Vince and Shane McMahon, and even more dastardly, hitting Stephanie with a DDT while a handcuffed Triple H watched helplessly (Nevermind that for years the McMahons had all been presented as Grade-A assholes so it was basically impossible to sympathize with them here, but the angle was effective).  In retaliation Hunter broke into Orton's house and beat a raincheck into him, eventually tossing him out his front window onto the lawn as concerned neighbors looked on.  You'd think a feud with such rapid-fire escalation would culminate in a No Holds Barred match, a Hell in a Cell, a TLC match, hell, maybe a Chain match, why not?  Nope.  They just had a regular wrestling match to settle their differences.  A slow, methodical, Triple H-style main event wrestling match, where if Hunter got himself disqualified he'd lose the title.  Ya know, just to make sure the bout REALLY stayed orderly.  The pace and style of match didn't jibe at all with what fans wanted or expected, and trying to follow the epic, all-time classic Undertaker-Shawn Michaels masterwork two bouts earlier with a civilized Triple H-special grappling contest was an exercise in futility.  It's not that the match was bad by any means, on the contrary, it was a well-worked, fundamentally rock-solid wrestling match.  But it was 100% wrong for this particular feud.  What the company was thinking I'll never know.  But the crowd here was deader even than for Hunter's WrestleMania 18 bout with Jericho.  It proved to me once and for all that Triple H doesn't make an effective babyface; his style is thoroughly steeped in deliberate, slow-paced wear-down holds that don't get the audience energized.  Couple that with Randy Orton's equally methodical cadence, and you have a recipe for sleepiness.

29. Triple H vs. Batista - WrestleMania 21

2005 was The Year of The Animal.  Big Dave Batista had emerged seemingly overnight as everyone's favorite rising star in the company.  After totally clusterfucking Randy Orton's babyface turn in 2004 by taking the smug, patronizing 24-year-old, putting the title on him, and expecting people to cheer him 24 hours later just because his asshole friends beat him up, the company took the slow-burn approach with his former teammate Batista.  Dave quietly waited in the wings as Evolution's muscle, having a mini-feud with Orton in which the fans overwhelmingly favored The Animal.  The planned WrestleMania 21 headliner of Triple vs. Orton (see WrestleMania 25 to see how well that would've gone) was scrapped, and Big Dave was on his way to the top.  Batista and John Cena were elevated simultaneously in the Royal Rumble, Dave just barely eking out a win, and after weeks of Triple H and Ric Flair urging him to challenge WWE Champion JBL, Batista turned babyface in earnest, announcing that he'd be coming after his former mentor.  The build was handled effectively, with Dave presented as a monster babyface who could believably plow through anyone he wanted.  That he'd decisively beat Triple H at the Show of Shows was one of those welcome foregone conclusions in wrestling (sometimes predictability is a good thing), and it led to big fan interest in the show.  The match itself was just okay, as Batista was still very inexperienced in a big match setting.  But it got the job done and cemented Dave as a brand new made man.  Hunter and Batista would have their feud-defining match a few months later inside a Cell, but this was an okay start.

28. Chris Jericho vs. Triple H - WrestleMania X8

This might be the one WrestleMania main event that suffered the most from a bad build.  Chris Jericho famously defeated The Rock and Steve Austin in one night to become the Undisputed Champion, which surely should've boosted his credibility big time, right?  Well, no.  Upon winning the unified titles, Jericho was booked as a joke champion, often opening RAW and Smackdown in matches against guys like Maven and Tazz, whom he struggled to defeat.  Making things worse was Triple H's Royal Rumble win establishing him as the #1 contender at WrestleMania, because Hunter was much more concerned with his estranged wife Stephanie than with the task of defeating the Undisputed Champ.  Thus Jericho was portrayed as Steph's lackey, bringing her hand cream, watching her dog, ya know, stuff a World Champion does...  Y2J was made to look like such a lowly chumpstain it totally killed any interest in this main event, and on the night of the PPV the two headlined in front of a dead crowd (It didn't help of course that The Rock and Hulk Hogan had torn the house down and the crowd was just done after that).  These two worked a good match but everything fell flat, and thus Triple H's big moment was more of a whimper than a bang.  Imagine sabotaging your own main event program just to make yourself appear out of the other guy's league....

27. Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton - WrestleMania 42, Night 1

I'm not sure there's ever been another WrestleMania main event that was such a mechanically good match ruined by such nonsensical booking.  Left to their own devices, Cody and Orton could've built off their long history together and delivered a classic, but in their infinite wisdom WWE (and probably TKO) decided to insert Pat McAfee into this feud, making him Orton's new heel mouthpiece.  After a late-match ref bump McAfee ran in, wearing a referee shirt, and proceeded to slow-count his own guy's pin attempt.  Orton then RKO'd Pat, seemingly turning babyface, but after Cody subsequently beat him, Orton RKO'd and punted Cody, turning back heel.  Couple that with Cody having worked the entire match as a heel and Orton as a sympathetic babyface, and the dynamics to this match were straight-up baffling.  I begrudgingly gave the match ***1/2 only because the two wrestlers worked hard and gelled well.  But whatever "story" they were trying to tell ruined what should've been a great main event.  WWE could screw up counting to ten.

26. Steve Austin vs. Kevin Owens - WrestleMania 38, Night 1

19 years after his untimely retirement at age 38, Stone Cold Steve Austin finally came home for one last hurrah, facing a man who idolized him growing up, Kevin Owens.  While the company's build to this match was pretty wretched - Owens was left to hype the match all by himself a la Shawn Michaels vs. Hulk Hogan in 2005, and no official match was announced until WrestleMania itself, during a KO Show segment - the match made for a feelgood finale in front of a nuclear hometown crowd.  At age 57, Austin was of course very limited in what he could do, but Owens worked hard to hide said limitations and the two brawled all around the stadium, up the ramp, down the ramp, and back into the ring, where they traded Stunners before Austin got the win.  This was no in-ring classic by any means, but it was an enjoyable romp and allowed one of the industry's biggest stars to have one final moment in the spotlight.

25. Roman Reigns & The Rock vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins - WrestleMania 40, Night 1

Unique among two-night WrestleManias thus far, WM40 featured a Night 1 main event that included the two participants for Night 2's main event and directly influenced how that match would go.  This one came together after much hemming and hawing over whether it would be Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes, or back-from-Hollywood and now TKO board member The Rock challenging Roman Reigns for the title.  Thankfully the fans made their voices heard and overwhelmingly favored Cody finishing his story.  Thus the spiteful Rock turned heel and joined The Bloodline, challenging Cody and Seth to a tag match at Night 1.  This was a pretty great twenty-minute match that unfortunately went 44 minutes.  After interminable crowd brawling and a lot of stalling, the bout finally settled into a really strong 15-minute closing stretch that saw Roman accidentally spear The Rock, Cody nearly defeat Roman again only for Rock to attack him with a weight belt, and Roman spear Cody before The Rock demanded the tag to finish him off with a Rock Bottom/People's Elbow combination.  This was a good match that would've been great at half the running time.

24. Triple H vs. The Rock vs. Mick Foley vs. The Big Show - WrestleMania 2000

WrestleMania 2000 has to be the strangest edition of all time (except for maybe the COVID one).  There wasn't a single solitary one-on-one match under standard rules (Terri vs. The Kat had an over-the-top-rope stip), and the main event was a Fatal 4-Way elimination match, just so they could shove the entire McMahon family into the proceedings.  Jesus H. Christ, if I never see any of these people on my TV again it'll be too soon.  So instead of the expected Rock vs. Triple H headliner they added The Big Show (who technically won the Royal Rumble due to The Rock's feet accidentally hitting the floor first) and then just to give Mick Foley a WrestleMania moment they unretired him to complete the square.  The match was fine, rather overlong, and in the end anticlimactic.  The Big Show got triple-teamed early and was ousted from the match in under five minutes, Mick Foley turned in a less-than-stellar performance, not having gotten back into ring shape in time, and Rocky and Hunter carried the bulk of the bout.  It seemed a foregone conclusion that The Rock would defy the odds and regain the WWF Title, but in the interest of swerving everyone, Rock's cornerman Vince screwed him, delivering two chair shots to allow Hunter to retain the belt.  The Rock flipped out after the match, hitting Stephanie with a Rock Bottom/People's Elbow combination.  A month later at Backlash The Rock would win the title back anyway, so in hindsight it seems silly not to just have him win at the biggest show of the year.  Then again Triple H's victory here was historic as the first time a heel left WrestleMania as WWF Champion.  This was a so-so main event. 

23. John Cena vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 22

Here's a match about which I had no interest going in, but it turned out a pretty interesting main event.  John Cena was riding high as WWE's poster boy, but there was one problem - the fans had turned on him big time by late 2005.  During his feuds with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, Cena was roundly booed while his heel opponents were treated like heroes by the WWE faithful.  Literally the only bad guy who managed to get a proper heel reaction while feuding with Cena was The Rated R Superstar Edge, who shocked everyone by cashing in the first Money in the Bank briefcase after Cena had survived an Elimination Chamber.  Nowadays everyone's accustomed to the stupid briefcase gimmick and it's been done to death, but in 2006 no one expected Edge to exploit the "anytime, anywhere" loophole, and it was a big deal.  Edge drew good ratings as the champion but since Vince had his mind made up that Cena vs. Hunter was the 'Mania main event, Mr. Copeland's first WWE Title reign only lasted a paltry three weeks.  A cleverer promoter would've saved Edge's cash-in for the end of WrestleMania, just inside the one-year deadline.  Regardless, Cena vs. Triple H, while a pretty dull match on paper, turned out to be a very well-worked match that began the process of silencing Cena's "You Can't Wrestle" critics.  Hunter obviously led the dance, but Cena kept right up with him, and the 22-minute war ended with Hunter once again tapping out to the babyface.  What really made this match interesting though was the crowd, who booed Cena unmercifully and cheered the crap out of Triple H; not long after, Hunter turned babyface and reunited with Shawn Michaels as DX.  Edge really got the last laugh in this situation, as he and Mick Foley easily stole the show with their Hardcore Match; Mrs. Foley's baby boy finally got his proper WrestleMania moment.

22. The Rock vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania XV

The Attitude Era was in full self-indulgent, decadent swing in March of 1999, with Vince Russo overbooking the living shit out of every show.  His crash TV writing style was all over this PPV and the weekly television leading up to it (Imagine giving away a huge match like Austin vs. Big Show on free TV only a month after the latter's debut).  The Rock had been rivaling Steve Austin's popularity in the fall of 1998, and at Survivor Series the company held a tournament to crown a new WWF Champion.  Once Austin was unfairly eliminated The Rock became the fans' clear choice to win, a la Randy Savage a decade earlier.  But then came the big swerve - The Rock was in cahoots with the McMahons the whole time, and his tournament win made him their new Corporate Champion.  Austin was duly pissed and eventually targeted the young titleholder, becoming the #1 contender on a technicality (Vince won the 1999 Royal Rumble but since he forfeited his title shot, runner-up Austin would get it instead).  With that, the two biggest stars in the company faced off at 'Mania.  The match was typical Attitude Era chaos - loads of outside the ring brawling, smashed tables, run-ins from McMahons, substitute referees, etc.  As Vince Russo clusterfucks go, this was a hoot, but it doesn't exactly hold up as an in-ring classic.  Still, the crowd was electric and Austin's third WWF Title win sent them home happy.  It was the one good match on a pretty terrible WrestleMania card.

21. Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania V

The MegaPowers EXPLODE!  One of the greatest long-term angles in WWE history culminated in this WrestleMania V main event.  Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, the two biggest wrestling babyfaces in late 1987, joined forces on Saturday Night's Main Event to form the MegaPowers, an unstoppable force for good.  Hogan helped Savage win the WWF Title at 'Mania 4, the pair teamed up at SummerSlam and Survivor Series, and all seemed well.  But Savage had slowly grown jealous over Hogan's bond with Elizabeth, and the situation came to a head at the second Main Event special in February of '89.  Savage was thrown out of the ring during the MegaPowers-Twin Towers match, accidentally knocking out Elizabeth, and Hogan left him to fend for himself while he brought her to the back for medical attention.  Savage took a beating for several minutes, realized his partner was nowhere to be found, and got duly pissed when Hogan returned.  The Macho Man walked out on Hogan and the match, and the two men got into a heated altercation in the locker room, where Savage pummeled Hogan with the WWF Title and left him laying.  The most emotionally charged WrestleMania main event in history was now on the marquee.  The match was classic Macho Man, a hotly contested, somewhat unruly main event where Savage dominated much of the action.  It was a pretty great match until the ending, when Hogan did his usual Hulk-up comeback in unintentionally comical fashion, puffing his cheeks and bulging his eyes as he no-sold everything.  Hogan kicked out of the Macho Man elbow and hit his big boot-legdrop combination to regain the WWF Title, and Savage was gradually moved down the card on his way to becoming a King.  At the time this was easily the best WrestleMania main event, and it would maintain that status for me until seven years later.  Great stuff until the usual unimaginative Hogan finish.

And that concludes Part 3 of our countdown - click HERE for part 4.....

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Top Ten Things: WrestleMania Main Events, Part 2 (#40-31)

Welcome to part two of our five-part countdown ranking every WWE WrestleMania main event!  We've moved up from the bottom of the barrel to the matches that weren't so good, but not terrible either.  Let's look at numbers 40 through 31!

CLICK HERE for Part 1, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5

40. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 38, Night 2

Some might think I'm being too hard on this match, but I don't think I am.  Brock and Roman had met twice before on the Grandest Stage of Them All, their first bout scoring high with fans and critics alike, aided by the surprise Money in the Bank cash-in of Seth Rollins to create a highly memorable finale, and their second a very well-worked slugfest marred by fan hostility.  The ingredients were all in place for this third 'Mania encounter to leave its two predecessors in the dust - a very over babyface Brock vs. a dominant monster heel Roman, a molten live crowd, a big fight feel - and yet the match underachieved to a shameful degree.  What went wrong?  Well for my money it was all about the lazy, unimaginative booking.  Instead of having either guy do anything remotely unexpected or special, the company went ahead with the standard Goldberg match formula, both men playing the role of the one-dimensional, two-move clod.  Big move, big move, big move, big move, finisher, finisher, finisher, finisher.  Brock Lesnar is one of the most accomplished athletes we've ever seen in a wrestling ring, and yet his arsenal was reduced to psychology-free signature moves, with no feeling-out process, no wear-down holds to build suspense, no storytelling whatsoever.  Roman Reigns is fully capable of putting in a near-great in-ring performance, and yet in this match his offense consisted of the same two signature spots over and over.  In twelve minutes the two of them performed a combined six wrestling moves - overhead suplex, German suplex, kimura, F5 for Brock, and Superman punch and spear for Roman.  That's embarrassingly lazy booking.  If there's no working up to a wrestler's big moves, there's no story - it's just finisher spamming.  Absolutely disgraceful for two athletes of this caliber to turn in a two-star match on the biggest show of the year, particularly given its billing as The Biggest WrestleMania Main Event of All Time.  Get fuckin' real.  

39. Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy - WrestleMania 2

The first (and for 35 years only) steel cage match in WrestleMania history is one of those silly, cartoonish Hulk Hogan bouts that I shouldn't enjoy nearly as much as I do.  It's a match you love as a kid because two larger-than-life titans are pummeling each other inside a rigid blue-barred steel box.  It's simple and easily digestible, and the good vs. evil dynamic couldn't be clearer - superhero vs. monster.  The match came about after Bundy squashed Hogan's ribs on a Saturday Night's Main Event, and Hogan sold the injury like crazy going into this (up until his dumbass Hulk-up near the end of course).  There's almost no real wrestling going on in this match, but Hogan and Bundy embodied their characters so well the match became a bit star rating-proof (a phenomenon that would be magnified tenfold a year later).  This ten-minute main event is big, dumb, and fun, like a 1950s B-movie.  I can't rank it any higher than this because it's actually pretty terrible, but I can't help but get a kick out of it.

38. The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 33

WrestleMania 33 was one of those shows with about four potential main events, where I believe the company wasn't even sure until that weekend which bout would go on last.  The Universal Title match pitted Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg, but you can't end a WrestleMania with a five-minute match, right?  Oh wait...  The WWE Title match was a laughably terrible Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt outing (later outdone in its awfulness with a rematch four years later).  The other marquee match that could've gone last was Triple H vs. Seth Rollins in a 25-minute mentor vs. student bout, which felt like a WrestleMania main event except that it took place three hours into a five-hour show.  But the company opted to put The Undertaker's swan song last, an intended passing of the torch to the current generation of stars, in particular Roman Reigns (Yup, Vince was still trying to make fetch happen with babyface Reigns at this point).  So the 52-year-old Undertaker, moving like a much older man, went out there and worked a 21-minute match with the spry, youthful Reigns, and more or less stunk up the joint, botching spots, hobbling around, and generally looking eons past his prime.  Reigns won the match after numerous spears, and in the segment's most memorable moment Taker took off his hat, coat and gloves and left them in the ring, as if to close the door on his legendary career.  The problem was, the match just wasn't very good, and Taker was so unhappy with his performance he unretired a year later, rendering the only truly effective part of the match meaningless.  It also didn't help that Taker's historic WrestleMania streak had already been broken three years earlier and thus Roman's win over him here was far less significant.  This is the kind of wastefulness that happens when you don't plan ahead and look at how a creative decision might affect the future.

37. Triple H vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 32

Only slightly better than Reigns' third WrestleMania main event was his second, a dull, languid 27-minute outing against Triple H, who'd recently won a superfluous ninth WWE Championship at that year's Royal Rumble.  I know Seth Rollins' late-2015 knee injury threw a wrench into the company's WrestleMania plans, but was there seriously no one else they could've pushed into a WWE Title feud with Reigns here?  No?  Let's just go with another semi-retired part-timer in a top slot then.  Super.  Reigns had started to gain a bit of crowd support during his feud with Sheamus a few months earlier, Superman Punching Vince and savagely beating the Celtic Warrior to regain the championship after Sheamus's Money in the Bank cash-in.  But a month later at the Rumble the company booked him to look like an unlikable chump once more, as he voluntarily left the Rumble match to have a kayfabe injury tended to, only returning near the end.  Way to make your top babyface look the opposite of gallant.  Anyway, Hunter swooped in to win the belt, and the match was set for 'Mania, even though Dean Ambrose was WAY more over and in fact delivered a far superior match to this one only a few weeks earlier.  It's never a good sign when the B PPV three weeks before WrestleMania features a main event that bitchslaps the 'Mania one.  Maybe Ambrose should've gotten this spot instead, hmm?  But no, Vince was going to have his guy in the main event, and not surprisingly Roman failed to get over in a basic, sluggish Triple H snorer.  He'd drop the title to the returning Seth Rollins only a few months later, and then Dean Ambrose would immediately cash in Money in the Bank.  So the belt ended up on Dean after all....

36. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor - WrestleMania XI

WrestleMania XI was the second edition to bump the actual main event for a far inferior #2 match, just for the sake of attracting mainstream appeal.  Instead of WWF Champion Diesel facing his former best friend Shawn Michaels in the final match of the night, the WWF put lifelong midcarder Bam Bam Bigelow against retired NY Giant Lawrence Taylor.  Uhhh....ok.  To be fair, Taylor did his homework in prepping for this match and turned in a more than fine performance, and Bam Bam led him through the match like a pro.  But why precisely did this match need to be in the main event slot?  Taylor was added to the show to grab widespread attention of course, but wouldn't the buyrate and news coverage be identical with this in the sixth slot as opposed to the seventh?  Furthermore, isn't the point of celebrity guests to get casual fans to order the PPV and then get hooked on the actual wrestling stars?  So why not present the lineup as "Okay you've seen your big NFL match, now we're gonna show you what we're really about.  Take it away, HBK!"  Or at the very least, why wouldn't you book Taylor against someone you intended to push hard coming out of this match?  Bam Bam was, as I said, a lifelong midcard guy in the WWF, and based on the followup to this show, he was never in line for any serious elevation.  In fact after turning babyface and sharing exactly one PPV main event with Diesel, Sid and Tatanka, he was gone from the company by the end of the year.  So again I go back to, what was the point of all this?  If Taylor's involvement wasn't to get mainstream fans interested in the WWF product by giving the rub to either the current main event guys or Taylor's WrestleMania opponent, why bother at all?  Like I said, from a workrate perspective this match was fine, but it did nothing for the WWF's shrinking bottom line (the buyrate was significantly lower than WrestleMania X's) and thus it has to be considered a failure.

35. Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior - WrestleMania VI

Time for me to take some more abuse...  I know Hogan vs. Warrior is one of the most beloved old-school matches of all time, but I think it's maybe the most overrated match ever.  The spectacle was there, don't get me wrong.  Two larger-than-life personalities, the babyface superhero champion vs. the babyface cosmic weirdo challenger, vying for the top spot in the company.  This was the first major babyface vs. babyface match since Bruno Sammartino vs. Pedro Morales, and the intent was for Hogan to pass the torch to the Warrior heading into the 1990s.  All the ingredients were there for this to be the biggest match in decades.  And then the match happened, and it was, well, pretty goddamn boring.  Yes, the Toronto crowd was red-hot, and yes, both men knew how to work them, but the pressure was on to make this match the most epic thing of all time, and so the company overindulged itself by booking this to go 22 minutes when neither guy was equipped to keep a match interesting for that long.  Such is the drawback of primarily pushing wrestlers based on musculature and not athleticism.  Hogan and Warrior bumbled awkwardly through basic offense, going for bearhugs and other rest holds only minutes into the bout.  Things eventually picked up toward the end, when Hogan missed his legdrop (for the first time to my knowledge), and Warrior hit his rather feeble-looking splash for the historic title win.  The crowd was super into this, and I get why it's remembered so fondly by my generation who grew up with it, but even as a 14-year-old I remember finding the match underwhelming and lethargic, a real chore to sit through.  Cut seven or eight minutes out and you'd have a Hulk vs. Thor smashing bonanza, but the company's mistake was attempting to pass these guys off as actual wrestlers.  Randy Savage could get a classic 20-minute match out of either guy, they could not get one out of each other.  I'm sorry, I know you all loved this, but I can't give it a thumbs up.

34. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant - WrestleMania III

This here might be the most star rating-proof main event in wrestling history.  A horribly injured 500-pound man against a two-move musclehead.  This match should be the worst thing ever.  And yet the 12 minutes during which Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant feebly pretended to beat each other up is still a supreme guilty pleasure.  You all know how this match came about; Andre was tired of being underappreciated and of Hogan getting all the attention, so he turned heel and aligned himself with Hogan's mortal enemy Bobby Heenan.  Andre tore Hogan's shirt, his crucifix, the skin on his chest, and the hearts out of kids everywhere, challenging Hogan to a WWF Title match at the biggest show of the year.  The company pretended they'd never wrestled each other before (even though they did numerous times in 1980), and that Andre had never been bodyslammed (he had been numerous times over the years, albeit at a substantially lighter weight).  The hype worked in spades, as 80,000 WWF fans packed the Pontiac Silverdome, creating one of the grandest visuals in wrestling lore - a colossal stadium interior, bathed in daylight from the translucent roof above.  The match was as basic as can be; Andre was in serious pain and could barely move, and Hogan simply worked around his limitations, bouncing off the ropes, selling punches and boots to the face as though they were sledgehammers, and finally after 12 minutes came the Bodyslam Heard 'Round the World.  One legdrop later and Hogan had vanquished the unbeatable ogre, to the thunderous cheers of legions of fans.  So why's the match so low?  Well from a mechanical standpoint it's pretty awful.  Like, borderline incompetent.  But damn, is it still a fun watch for my inner eleven-year-old.  

33. The Rock vs. John Cena II - WrestleMania XXIX

Hey, remember that Once in a Lifetime tagline we used when The Rock and John Cena wrestled a year ago?  Yeah, forget about that.  What a sleazy promotional tactic; Vince had to know there would be a rematch sooner rather than later.  And in spite of numerous better options for a main event, for example adding Punk to make it a Triple Threat, or even doing Punk vs. Cena (a match that took place about a month prior to this one and blew it out of the water), Vince would have his planned Rock-Cena II match.  And it was.....a match.  Their first meeting was historic and felt huge.  This one was less historic and felt less huge.  And was messy in spots.  And The Rock got injured, delaying his scheduled film shoot and basically ensuring he'd likely never wrestle again since he couldn't afford to risk another filming delay (He eventually did wrestle again of course, but it took over a decade).  Way to go, Vince.  This match was fine, but nothing more.  It was the main event of one of the more boring WrestleMania cards, a show propped up only by the excellent Undertaker-CM Punk match.  In that regard, this middling, forgettable encounter was a perfect choice to headline a middling, forgettable show.

32. Yokozuna vs. Bret Hart - WrestleMania X

Yokozuna vs. Bret Hart II was historic as the first time the same match main evented two consecutive WrestleManias.  The story going into this sequel was better than its predecessor - Bret had just lost to his brother Owen in a grueling match earlier in the night, while Yokozuna narrowly escaped Lex Luger - but the action for me wasn't as crisp.  Yokozuna dominated the vast majority of the bout, his limited mobility often slowing the match to a crawl.  Guest referee Roddy Piper provided some energy and levity, but this match was all about Bret overcoming impossible odds and exhaustion to regain the title.  And regain it he did, in one of the sillier WrestleMania finishes - Yokozuna had worn Bret down to the nub and prepared to hit his patented Bonzai Drop from the second rope, but slipped for no particular reason and crashed to the canvas, allowing Bret to cover him for the pin.  Pretty lame, Milhouse.  The aftermath was a feelgood moment however, as every major babyface in the locker room swarmed the ring to congratulate Bret and hoist him into the air in celebration.  The storytelling was solid here, the action was just ok.

31. Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna - WrestleMania IX

I liked the wrestling better in this first encounter, as Bret was forced to get creative in battling a very unwieldy opponent in a clash of styles.  Bret stayed on offense for much of this bout, lending it a nice level of urgency.  His storytelling and ring generalship were so good in fact that it really looked like he might do the impossible and defeat a man over twice his size.  After felling the massive challenger with a clothesline, Bret wrapped Yokozuna's enormous legs around his own and pulled him up into a Sharpshooter, but then came Mr. Fuji on the outside with a handful of salt to Bret's eyes.  Yokozuna covered him to become the first heel to win the WWF Title at WrestleMania, and then of course the night totally went to shit, as referenced in Part 1 of this countdown.  Fuck Terry, Terry sucks.  So yeah, I wasn't about to ignore WrestleMania IX's actual main event just because of what happened immediately afterward.  This match was a solid piece of work except for the weak finish - come on, Yoko, at least finish him off with a legdrop or something.

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Top Ten Things: WrestleMania Main Events, Part 1 (#50-41)

Welcome to another Top Ten Things, or should I say, Top FIFTY Things, here at Enuffa.com!  I decided to put every WrestleMania main event in order from worst to best, and split it into five parts so as to make it a little more digestible for you folks.  "But Justin," you're probably saying, "How can there be a Top 50 when there have only been 49 WrestleMania main events?"  Well, I'll explain that one in a bit.

WrestleMania is of course the biggest PPV of the year, a time when athleticism and spectacle intermingle on the biggest possible scale for one night (or two nights nowadays).  The results over the last four decades have been mixed, but when WWE is on their game, they're capable of transcending the art form.  When they aren't, it ranges from uninspired to the drizzling dumpster farts.  This list has a little of everything, as the WrestleMania main event has historically been overshadowed by another match on the card more often than not (roughly two out of every three times by my calculation).  But whether or not the participants deliver in the final match of the evening, the WrestleMania main event is the ultimate goal for just about everyone who throws their hat into a WWE ring.  It's an honor bestowed only on a select few, and even fewer truly make their moment count.  Let's peruse the WWE archives and see which 'Mania main events have measured up and which ones belong on history's scrap heap.....

Click here for Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

50. Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania IX

Alright, so I said earlier I'd explain why there are 50 entries on this list, and here's the reason.  WrestleMania IX's main event as officially announced was Bret Hart defending the WWF Championship against newly minted monster heel Yokozuna, who earned his title shot at the 1993 Royal Rumble.  That match took place as planned, but immediately afterwards Hulk Hogan showed up to protest the result (Yokozuna beat Bret after Mr. Fuji threw salt in the champ's eyes), and Yokozuna challenged him to a match on the spot.  Nevermind that it made zero sense for the brand new *heel* WWF Champion, who'd just endured a grueling nine-minute match, to challenge a fresh babyface for an impromptu title defense.  Hogan accepted with Bret's blessing (which also made no sense as Bret and Hogan had never really interacted before), dodged an errant salt throw from Fuji that landed in Yoko's eyes (Apparently salt is the deadliest weapon ever, as it was responsible for two title changes in one night), and dropped his big stupid leg to win the WWF Title only two minutes removed from the PPV's official main event finish.  A guy who wasn't even booked to headline the show walked away with the gold (an occurrence which would repeat 22 years later under much better circumstances) while the two new main event guys were made to look like chumps.  This was goddamn disgraceful and entirely counterproductive at a time when the WWF desperately needed to move on from the Hogan Era, and worse, Hogan would take the belt home for two months, reneging on his backstage promise to put Bret over at SummerSlam.  To paraphrase George Carlin, fuck Terry, Terry sucks.  This "match" is the worst main event in WrestleMania history, but I'll be goddamned if I'm not also going to acknowledge that show's true main event on this list.  Hence Bret vs. Yokozuna will appear as well, bringing the total number of entries to 50.

49. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania VII

Speaking of Terry and sucking, the main event of WrestleMania VII was centered around the recently returned Sgt. Slaughter, who instead of being the heroic American soldier we all knew and tolerated, announced himself as an Iraqi sympathizer, complete with a Saddam Hussein lookalike manager and a flag burning.  He defeated The Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble, thus robbing fans of a Hogan-Warrior rematch which would've done ENORMOUS business, and setting up this stinker of a main event instead.  Fans were so unimpressed with this bout headlining the show in fact, WrestleMania VII had to be moved from its original 100,000-seat location at the LA Coliseum to the much smaller 16,000-seat LA Sports Arena.  The match in practice was about as good as it looked on paper, which is to say it wasn't good.  At all.  Hogan and Slaughter plodded around the ring for a pretty excruciating 21 minutes before Hogan put a merciful end to Slaughter's title reign, and this match.  Ridiculously their feud would continue until SummerSlam, a full six months after our real-life skirmish in Iraq had ended.

 

WWE WrestleMania 42 Review: The Old Man and The Teeth

WWE WrestleMania 42 was yet another demonstration of this company's utter contempt for their audience when it comes to actually giving them their money's worth.  At a time when WWE tickets cost exorbitantly more than they ever have, the people running WWE seem to care the least about providing adequate value.  'Mania ran a total of seven and a half hours over two nights.  The actual wrestling content totaled two hours and forty-five minutes.  Just over one third of the total running time.  The rest consisted of ads, ads, overlong entrances, ads, "host" segments, ads, and more fucking ads.  On a streaming service that costs $30 a month.  This is shrinkflation in action.  Just for a quick comparison, WrestleMania X ran two hours and forty-three minutes and yet had ten more in-ring minutes than either night of this year's show.  That's frankly embarrassing.  

And look, Night 2 this year was actually quite a good show.  Had it been an old-school three-hour format, Night 2 could be considered a top ten WrestleMania card.  From an in-ring standpoint it was pretty high up there.  But it was also marred by all the obscene time-wasting, about which WWE has amazingly become even worse since Vince exited the company.  I need WWE loyalists to explain why this arrangement is acceptable to them.  As someone who's not emotionally invested in this product at all anymore, whatever, I can just watch the show late and skip all the bullshit.  But for you folks who love this stuff and watch it live, why would you ever be okay with a 43-minute (that's FORTY-THREE) gap between the end of Match 6 and the start of Match 7, on a show you're paying to see?  Demand more of a product you're spending all this money on, for the love of fuck.  Have some dignity.

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 41

In 2025, the cracks really began to show in WWE's latest boom period, as they centered most of the year around the impending retirement - and poorly executed heel turn - of John Cena.  That year's WrestleMania featured a handful of good matches and one truly great one, but also boasted the worst 'Mania main event in 14 years....  

The sixth two-night edition of the Showcase of the Immortals was a very mixed bag, with a couple strong standouts, some really disappointing outings, and a whole lot of filler.  As usual the actual wrestling content took up less than half of each show's running time and the gaps in between each match were longer than the respective match that followed.  I really don't understand why WWE fans are okay with this; do you need a 15-20 minute piss break in between every bout?

A few words about the venue - Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is a great place to host a WrestleMania show.  The translucent roof harkens back to the unique presentation of WrestleMania III.  I always like when these shows start out during daylight and end at night.  Creates a special atmosphere.

Anyway, night 1 started off with a match by which I was pleasantly surprised.  Gunther and Jey Uso delivered a solid opener (Though it was hilarious to me that we were back to the Royal Rumble winner OPENING WrestleMania instead of headlining it) that proved if nothing else that Jey is capable of good singles in-ring work with the right opponent.  Jey's hit-and-move strategy frustrated the Austrian grappler and after some finisher kickouts, Jey hit three top-rope splashes and put Gunther away with his own choke, to which the champion tapped almost immediately.  The decisiveness of that finish certainly surprised me.  Good start to the show.  As expected though, Jey didn't pan out at all as a main event guy, and after only a couple months Gunther regained the title, while Jey ended the year reunited with his brother as a tag team act.

WWE WrestleMania 42 Preview & Predictions: This Build Stinks

This weekend is the 42nd WWE WrestleMania show, and for the seventh consecutive year it's a two-nighter.  And for the second consecutive year the build is.....really stupid.

So last year the company felt they needed a big hook for the Cody-Cena main event and so they brought back The Rock to "corrupt" Cena into turning heel, before leaving the scene altogether.  The resulting main event was awful and the live crowd didn't want to cheer either guy, and Cena's ensuing heel run was so bad it was scrapped four months later.

You'd think WWE would've learned from that shitshow and said "Let's just keep things simple and present the two big matches as straightforward big money bouts," but no, due to panic over a 20% gap in ticket sales from last year, TKO and/or Triple H decided the Cody Rhodes-Randy Orton match needed another heel swerve.  Their big idea?  Turn celebrity announcer Pat McAfee heel to become Orton's new mouthpiece, and have him talk about how much WWE's current product sucks and how much better The Attitude Era was.  Yes, the ATTITUDE ERA, which ended a quarter-century ago.  Pat also said Randy Orton is the guy who can "save" the company.  Yes, 46-year-old Randy Orton, who debuted during the first Dubya administration, is going to make WWE hot again, in 2026.  Pat also announced that he convinced Dodge Ram to sponsor a 25% off deal on tickets.  The HEEL in this feud.  Wants to give the audience a discount.  Oh, and Jelly Roll is being shoehorned into this shit.  Doughy non-wrestler Jelly Roll.  This is what absolute flailing looks like.  

Meanwhile on the other show you have CM Punk and Roman Reigns taking the lamest, pettiest of shots at each other.  It started with Punk talking about Roman's dead father, which is not a great look for your BABYFACE champion.  Roman apparently wanted to retaliate by talking about Punk's dead dog, but since Phil is a fragile one-way prick it got changed to "Oh yeah?  Well you're old!"  Hey Roman?  You're getting on in years yourself.  Both you two fucks are in your forties and past your prime.  He's got hair plugs, you have fake, neon white teeth.  Then Punk pivoted to what he does best, dredge up old shit no one cares about from the last time he worked here, before trying to attach himself to the Pat McAfee garbage on the other show.  Who is rooting for either of these assholes?  I'm hoping against hope they draw "You both suck" chants in Vegas.  I know it won't happen but I honestly can't recall a 'Mania main event between two less likable figures.

Anyway the rest of the lineups actually look pretty decent, but of course WWE had to screw something up there too, setting up what should've been a show stealer in IYO Sky vs. Asuka.  You remember IYO Sky, right?  The best bell-to-bell wrestler on the entire roster who got shoehorned into the Rhea vs. Bianca match last year to ensure it would be great, more than delivered on that promise by helping to make it probably the best WWE women's match ever, and was then repaid by being mostly kept off TV for a few months till it was time to drop her belt?  Yeah she gets to sit in catering this year apparently.  Pearls before fucking swine.  When's her contract up?

I could go on but I'll get to the rest as we look at each match, so let's cut to the chase....

Night 1

Logan Paul/Austin Theory/IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight

Two things about this match are pretty crazy to me.  1. Logan Paul went from being this spectacular celebrity wrestler who always gets a prominently featured match, to opening Night 1 in a six-man tag.  He's just one of the guys now.  Not that I'm complaining, fuck that douche.  I just think it's wild.  2. IShowSpeed has a WrestleMania match but Carmelo Hayes does not.  Remember when Hayes got called up and everyone was calling him a future headliner?  Dude can't get booked on a PPV to save his life; whose gas tank did he piss in?  This'll likely be a throwaway.

Pick: My gut says The Vision team

The History of WWE WrestleMania: XL

WWE WrestleMania XL - Cody finally finished his story....

The 40th edition of WWE's flagship show was a massive financial success and creatively one of the better efforts in recent years.  The company finally pulled the trigger on the big Cody Rhodes title win (which storyline-wise still would've been more effective a year earlier since he could've feuded with Brock for the title instead of with a slew of damaged-goods opponents), and the wrestling on both nights was mostly very good.

Amazingly Night 2 was the better night, for the first time since WWE expanded the show.  Night 1 was a solid piece of work, with a pair of ****+ matches and a main event that, while it went about twice as long as it should have, featured memorable moments and storytelling.  Both nights could've been trimmed down time-wise but the time management wasn't as bad as it had been under Vince at least.  Night 2 especially felt pretty concise and I was pleasantly surprised there was only a 25-minute gap between the end of the semi-main and the opening bell of the main event.  That's still way too much time but it was ten minutes shorter than the year before.  

Night 1 kicked off with Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch, which was a very back-and-forth bout that got a lot of time to breathe.  This was action-packed and the two were presented as very evenly matched.  Becky worked over Ripley's arm to weaken her for the armbar submission, but Ripley's power was on full display.  They had a memorable spot where Ripley had Becky up for an electric chair but Becky held on and pulled them both over the ropes.  Ripley landed on her feet though and dropped Becky to the floor.  They traded signature moves for nearfalls and ended up fighting on the turnbuckles, where Becky went for a Manhandle Slam but Ripley countered into a Riptide into the buckle, and then hit one in the ring for the win.  Very good opener.  After this match Becky took a hiatus from WWE while Rhea went on to feud with Liv Morgan for most of 2024.  

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 39

Welp, WWE did it again.  And by that I mean two things.  The first "it" is, they presented one of the best WrestleMania shows of all time on Night 1, a lean seven-match lineup capped off by two stellar title bouts.  The second "it" is, they snatched a stupid and unnecessary defeat from the jaws of total victory by porking the ending of Night 2.  And then at the post-show press conference they tried to rationalize it with a bunch of word salad.

It's really a shame WWE can't be counted on to just deliver a layup, like ever.  They were handed an all-time great main event story that by all rights should've culminated in a triumphant title win for the returning hero.  Ya know, like they did in 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014, and 2019?  There's a reason this story gets told a lot - it works.  Basically every single time.  Wrestling has always been about telling logical and usually predictable stories that build to a satisfying payoff.  Know what doesn't work?  Having the hero come up short and look like a cuckhold on the biggest stage of them all.  Who wants to cheer for a guy who can't deliver in the clutch?  Cody Rhodes had a chance to become the next John Cena and instead he left SoFi Stadium looking like the next Lex Luger.  

And yes, I know they dragged Cody's "story" out another full year and it finally paid off at 'Mania 40, which drew record numbers, yadda yadda yadda.  But considering how uninspired Cody's first title run was after that and how few credible challengers they had lined up for him, I'm standing by my original assessment - Cody should've won here.  He'd have gone on to have a marquee WWE Title feud with Brock Lesnar, the company wouldn't have had to create a secondary World Title to make up for the fact that Roman was absent for months at a time, and the Bloodline saga could've reached its logical conclusion in 2023, with Roman losing his marbles after dropping the title.  You're just not going to convince me the story we ended up with was better.

Triple H proceeded to twist himself into logic pretzels at the media scrum, saying stuff like "This is just a chapter, there's more to the story."  Where?  What more?  Since when is WrestleMania "just a chapter," WrestleMania is supposed to be the climax.  "RAW the next night continues the story."  You don't expect us to believe you consider having Cody show up on RAW cutting a tearful, mopey "I failed" promo more compelling than his showing up with the belts on his shoulders, giving an impassioned victory speech before a new challenger emerges. This was just another case of them punting the ball until they came up with something else.  WWE had a golden opportunity to have a new made man, and they once again ignored it, in the most unimaginative way possible.

AEW Dynasty 2026 Review: The God vs. The Devil

The third annual AEW Dynasty PPV is in the annals of history, and it was a damn fine wrestling show.  We were treated to a slew of good-to-great matches as usual, we got some setups for future marquee bouts, and the roster was welcomed by a mostly very hot crowd.  Also I took a major bath on my predictions, going only 4 for 9.  Insanity.

The show kicked off with what was in my estimation the show stealer, and one of the best PPV openers I've ever seen.  The Young Bucks faced the superteam of Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita, in a basically perfect 20-minute match.  We got the usual innovative Bucks spots and wild nearfalls but Okada and Takeshita perfectly advanced their ongoing feud to set up a rematch at Double or Nothing.  Don Callis on commentary added plenty of levity as well, ultimately throwing a fit as his two top talents came to blows.  At one point when the heels were in control, Okada donned Nick Jackson's headband and vest, and stood in Nick's corner to tease the embattled Matt by flipping him off.  I laughed.  After a Bucks comeback the four men traded finishers, with Team Callis "accidentally" hitting each other a couple times before full-on fighting.  The Bucks took advantage and knocked Okada loopy with a BTE Trigger for a nearfall, then set him up for the TK Driver.  Takeshita grabbed Nick's ankle on the outside to prevent the move but then let him go and walked away, leaving Okada to take the move and eat the pinfall.  This match ruled, and I can't wait for the Okada-Takeshita rematch.  *****

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 38

Man, it's almost hard to believe the same company put on these two WrestleMania shows.  The first night was a pretty good, approaching very good, WrestleMania card, with three matches reaching or approaching four-star territory by my count, and a feelgood main event.  Night 2 had a somewhat promising first half and then kinda drove off a cliff and never got back on track.  The two worst matches of the weekend were on Night 2, and a comedy match featuring the guy from Jackass more or less stole the night.  That's not good at all.  I will say the crowd was nuclear for both shows, so at least there's that.  I hadn't seen a WWE crowd this hot in a long time.

Both nights had time management issues, because it's WWE and they don't know or don't care about fitting everything in properly.  The New Day-Sheamus/Holland match got moved from Night 1 to Night 2 and ended up going 100 seconds anyway.  Given the four-hour running time of each show there was of course no reason Finn Balor vs. Damian Priest and the Intercontinental three-way from that week's Smackdown couldn't have been included.  

Night 1 started with the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, a match that had promise but was unfortunately derailed by an injury when Rick Boogs attempted the John Cena double fireman's carry spot and his knee buckled.  Apparently he suffered both a torn quad and a torn ACL, poor soul.  That left Shinsuke Nakamura to hastily finish the match against the Usos, and he ultimately fell victim to their version of the 3-D.  This only went 7 of the planned 14 minutes and thus fell very short of expectations.  

The second match wasn't a whole lot better, nor could it be given Drew's opponent.  Baron Corbin had a typical Baron Corbin match, while Drew did his best to elevate it, hitting a Kenny Omega dive to the outside at one point.  Corbin hit End of Days and Drew kicked out, made a comeback, hit the Future Shock DDT, and finished him with a Claymore.  Post-match, Madcap Moss got in Drew's face, but Drew took his sword and actually cut two of the ropes (which was for some reason accompanied by an exploding sound - were there pyros inside the ropes?).  We got numerous endless video packages while they changed out the ropes.  This match was just there.  

AEW Dynasty 2026 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday marks the third annual AEW Dynasty show, and despite missing some key players this lineup is still a doozy.

There's no Hangman Page, no Swerve Strickland, and no Toni Storm (goddammit I need answers, what's going on with Toni??), but holy jeez does this card still look pretty fantastic.  As of now there are only eight main card matches and given the length a few of them are gonna require I could see that being the final tally.  But I also wouldn't be surprised if they add a TBS Title match or a Women's Tag Title match, or a Trios Title match (SPOILER: The Dogs won those belts at the Collision taping).

Let's get right into it.

Zero Hour: Marina Shafir vs. Alex Windsor

This one is a branch-off from the Mox-Ospreay feud; Will's fiancée has gone right after Mox's heater and this should be a fairly enjoyable, hard-hitting match.  I think Marina probably wins this one.  I know before Toni abruptly disappeared from television there was supposed to be a No Holds Barred Toni-Marina rematch that probably would've led to Toni challenging Thekla for the belt.  I hope we eventually get to see Toni vs. Ronda, as that would be a big money match for this company.  Anyway I think Marina wins here.

Pick: Marina

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 37

WrestleMania 37 marked a return of live crowds to WWE events, after a year of Thunderdome shows.  And it was a pretty enjoyable two-night PPV with a pair of main events that actually delivered.

Night 1 opened, after a 30-minute rain delay (kinda shocking that this is the first time this has ever happened for an outdoor WrestleMania), with the WWE Title match.  Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre were given 18 minutes and made the most of it, with a hard-hitting hoss battle.  Drew got all of his big moves in and went for the Claymore but MVP pulled Lashley out of the ring to save him.  Drew dove over the ropes onto both guys, broke out a kimura lock (homage to Brock Lesnar?), and eventually set up for the Claymore again, but MVP yelled from ringside to Bobby, which distracted Drew long enough for Bobby to duck the kick and apply the Hurt Lock.  Drew fought it for a while and tried to fall back on top of him for a pin, but Lashley rolled through and held on, pulling Drew to the mat and wrapping his leg over.  The ref checked on Drew and called the match for Lashley due to a pass-out.  This seemed like the wrong finish for the first match in a year in front of fans - if Lashley was to retain they should've put this match somewhere else on the card.  Just a really odd, decisive finish for the heel champion, almost like The Rock losing to Triple H at WrestleMania 2000.  Plus it made Miz's brief title run utterly pointless.  But anyway the match was very good.  Drew was booked so weakly for the rest of this feud that he fell down the card and as of this point still hasn't regained the title he was screwed out of.

Match #2 was not so good, and it was the Tag Team Turmoil match.  I was fully expecting the surprise return of Becky Lynch with Charlotte Flair as her partner, but that didn't happen so we were stuck with the five announced teams.  Carmella and Billie Kaye beat Naomi and Lana with an assisted rollup, then tried the same tactic on the Riott Squad but the ref broke it up.  Ruby Riott pinned Billie Kay after a senton.  The Riott Squad also beat Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke after a rollup.  Then Tamina and Natalya won the whole match after Tamina hit a Superfly splash off the top rope.  Not much to this.

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 36

WrestleMania in the time of COVID..... 

The one WrestleMania to take place in front of zero fans, in the Performance Center, Number 36 was definitely a mixed results-type show.  The lack of live crowd certainly hurt the overall vibe but everyone worked hard to negate the effects of the room silence; one side effect that was often entertaining was being able to hear the wrestlers trash-talk during each match.  My biggest complaint is that on both nights the final two matches were either underwhelming or just plain stupid.  Why Vince thinks a top championship match going under five minutes is acceptable at WrestleMania, I'm sure I don't know.  

After a pretty entertaining 4-minute pre-show match pitting Cesaro against Drew Gulak, the proper show began with the Women's Tag Titles.  Asuka & Kairi Sane faced Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, in a pretty well-worked match that just went too long.  In front of a crowd this 15-minute match might not have worn out its welcome, but here it ended up dragging a bit by the end.  Asuka came off great in this empty-arena environment though, taunting her opponents for much of the bout.  The Kabuki Warriors dominated much of the bout, but in the end the babyfaces hit a Cross neckbreaker/Twisted Bliss combination on Kairi to regain the belts.  This was a fun opener that just went about three minutes too long.

The match I was least looking forward to was next, as Elias faced everyone's favorite reason to change the channel, Baron Corbin.  After an angle on Smackdown where Corbin knocked Elias off the camera perch to the concrete floor, they teased Elias not being able to wrestle.  But of course Elias came out, not selling anything, bashed Corbin with his guitar, and the match was underway.  This ended up an okay 9-minute TV match but nothing more.  Corbin dominated a lot of the action but after a rope-assisted pin attempt that failed, Corbin got rolled up by Elias (with a handful of tights) for the three.  

The most baffling match placement of either night was next as Becky Lynch defended against Shayna Baszler.  How this went on third and only got eight-and-a-half minutes is beyond me.  This was pretty much all action as they traded strikes and submission attempts back and forth.  Becky at one point hit a uranagi on the apron which looked great.  The match ended when Becky went for Disarm-her but Shayna reversed into the choke.  Becky refused to submit and did the Bret Hart-Steve Austin spot where she rolled backward to pin Shayna and retain.  A year into Becky's title reign this was the wrong move, Shayna should've won here.  What's worse is that Becky announced one month later that she was pregnant and would be relinquishing the title anyway.  So having her go over in this match was pointless.  One of a few booking decisions that didn't make sense to me, but a solid if underwhelming match.