WWE’s biggest event of the year, WWE Wrestlemania 32 is finally here emanating from AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas. With a year full of injures and story changes predicting how everything will all come down is a bit of a mystery. What is known is that all the wrestlers involved will be looking to prove themselves during a weekend with some of the most exceptional cards in recent memory.
It will be a massive show, with around six hours of action between the two pre-shows and the four hour-long main card. Beyond the matches, Fifth Harmony is set to perform “America the Beautiful” and we’ll get an intermission/half time show alongside a hall of fame inductees appearance on-stage and something involving Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, and Shawn Michaels.
U.S. Champion Kalisto vs. Ryback
Kalisto scored the pin with a drop toe hold into the exposed turnbuckle and then the Salida del Sol Ryback took most of the match doing power spots. It felt more like a dark match, It was a basic match. Kalisto didn’t do any dives and Ryback did mostly basic power stuff in a slower paced match. Everything they did was fine. The stadium was pretty empty because there were problems getting people into the building.
– They are very clearly announcing a number bigger than 100,000 as Renee Young used “more than 100,000” in the intro.
The Total Divas (Brie Bella, Paige, Natalya, Alicia Fox and Eva Marie) vs. B.A.D. & Blonde (Lana, Summer Rae, Naomi, Emma and Tamina)
Team Total Divas won when Brie used the Yes lock on Naomi. After the match, Nikki Bella came out to celebrate with Team Total Divas. She was still wearing a neck brace. They teased Brie losing when Lana shoved her off the top rope and she caught her neck. Match was fine. All the women traded finishes. They did a long commercial break in the middle of the match. The crowed booed Eva Marie a lot but she did one move, the sliced bread, and that was really it. Lana didn’t do much but kicks but she has goog presence in the ring. People reacted when she tagged in. It wasn’t rushed at all.
– The place is filling up now. Mauro Ranallo used “more than 100,000” multiple times so it’s a lock now.
– Lita is doing an interview. She talked about about women of the past, only mentioning the women in the WWE Hall of Fame, they are the only ones who paved the way in history. Lita talked about the women’s match later in the show. Banks and Lynch both got pretty equal reactions and Charlotte was cheered. She said they are so much more than Divas, they are superstars. The showed the new belt and said the winner becomes the first ever WWE women’s championship. I know it was called the women’s title for decades historically but it’s the first one ever now. Ranallo talked about Ronda Rousey.
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The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)
Short match ending when Jey pinned Devon with a superkick. It sounded like the crowd was more into the Dudleys and booed the Usos. After the match the Dudleys went to get the tables with the announcers calling them hypocrites. However when they went for the double team power bomb, the Usos reversed, and both delivered superkicks. Jey put Devon through a table and Jimmy did it to Bubba both with splashes off the top rope.
– I’m guessing we’ll have a 13,000 to 15,000 exaggeration of the real number.
The main show is officially about to kick off.
Ladder Match: Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens vs. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sami Zayn vs. Sin Cara vs. Stardust
Zack Ryder shoved Miz off the ladder and celebrated with his father in the ring. Nice story here of giving a guy the title to someone they had beaten into the ground, espeically sihnce Ryder wasn’t even originally scheduled for the match. This was an excellent match. Zayn and Owens were the stars with Zayn giving Owens a half nelson German suplex onto a ladder. Owens sold it like he was dead and never got up. So many super spots here. Zayn did a dive through a set up ladder onto several guys on the floor and then went from the floor with his dive through the ropes into the ring and out into the tornado DDT on the floor.
Sin Cara was knocked off the top of the ladder by Owens into a splash on Stardust on a ladder bridge with the ladder breaking. Ziggler did an elbow off the near top of the ladder on Miz. Zayn knocked Sin Cara off the ladder and he springboarded off the top rope with a flip dive onto everyone. Those were just some of the many highlights.
A.J. Styles vs. Chris Jericho
Jericho won the match with the codebreaker after he shoved the ref in the way and Styles had to redirect his springboard forearm and got caught. Sryles got near falls with the Styles clash and later the springboard 450, and then went for the phenomenal forearm and Jericho caught him withthe codebreaker. It was rough in spots as they were doing so many counters out of usual spots. They made it the theme of the match. The near falls got over and Jericho does a great job with selling near submissions. Very good.
– Maria Menounos interviweed Zack Ryder who said all he wanted to do was hear his music at WrestleMania and this was the greatest moment of his life.
WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. League of Nations – Non-Title
The New Day came out in new outfits with a giant cereal box thaw as tipped over and giant cereal kernels came out. Crowd was super hot the for the New Day. This ended up being a three-on-three as Barrett didn’t wrestle. The finish saw Barrett from the outisde hit the bull hammer on Woods and then Sheamus pinned him with the Brogue kick. The match was okay, they kept it moving but they were just there to set the stage for the post-match.
And Then…
The win by the League was to set up the run-in, plus it also keeps the League in the tag title picture I guess. Shawn Michaels was out first. Michaels was in good shape. Mick Foley then came out. Steve Austin was next out. Austin got easily the biggest pop so far. They came to the ring. Crowd was on fire for this segment. New Day pulled Barrett to the floor. So it was three on three. Foley was pounding on Sheamus. Austin was putting the boots to Rusev. Foley plled out the socko on Sheamus. Michaels superkicked Del Rio. Austin gave Rusev the stunner. Rusev took it great. Then Barrett came in and took the superkick, the socko claw and the stunner. Austin danced with Woods and then gave Woods the stunner. This got by far the biggest reaction of the show when Austin was celebrating with the beer.
Street Fight: Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose
Good match. The story of the match was Lesnar continually threw German suplexes and Ambrose would get weapons and nail Lesnar with them. He used a kendo stick for a while, a fire extinguisher, tons of chairs. Ambrose DDT’d Lesnar on the chair for a good near fall. The finish was Lesnar ducking a shot with the barbed wire bat and then used an F-5 on the chair. Clean win, more than you’d think. Ambrose did a great job and he was launched with one of the 13 or so suplexes, mostly German suplexes, a belly to belly on the floor and a belly to belly superplex. The one thing is that it never felt like Ambrose could win the way it was booked, and he didn’t win. The big news was no Wyatts at all here.
– Ric Flair was with Zack Ryder trying to teach him to say Whoo the right way. It was actually a Snickers commercial and when Ryder ate the snickers bar he turned into Charlotte who did Whoo the right way.
– Now it’s the Hall of Fame segment. Howard Finkel did the intros. Big Bossman, like last night, was represented by his three daughters. Sting got a big entrance with a video and pointed to everyone.
Divas Champion Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks
They are positioning this strong with a nice video package to build the match after showing the Lita segment once again. They are giving them every shot with the positioning and following the Hall of Fame segment instead of a killer match. Sasha Banks came out with Snoop Dogg and his group singing her entrance. Sasha wore gear in tribute to Eddy Guerrero. Charlotte came out with a robe made from the Ric Flair robe in his match in Orlando against Shawn Michaels.
Very good match here. They went 16:00 and did spot afer spot, at times it seemed like they did too much too fast. They tried to make it the beginning of a new era. Charlotte retained with the figure eight on Lynch as Ric Flair kept Banks from breaking it up. Lots of really great stuff here. Charlotte did a moonsault off the top to the floor on both which popped the crowd big. Banks did a tope with a last second flip that was amazing body control. All kinds of pins and submissions with the third person breaking it up. The crowd did big “Yes” chants when Lynch nailed Ric Flair with a tope.
This did feel like one of the NXT women’s title matches, not the best NXT women’s title match but felt like one of the better ones.
– There is 90 minutes left for three matches and the Rock segment.
Hell In A Cell – Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon – Wrestlemania Career vs. RAW Control
Undertaker won a 30:00 match with a tombstone piledriver after Shane McMahon came off the top of the cell with an elbow drop through a table and Undertaker moved. The table was gimmicke dbut ti was still a legit 15 or more feet from the top. A lot of the match wasn;t good but the move made it memorable. McMahon also did a coast to coast dropkick using the chair. Shane was selling the injuries at the end big. He went out on a stretcher. The table was gimmicked that he landed on but still that was a crazy fall. Before that Shane had the choke on him while on a platform and Undertaker while choked jumped off and they both crashed through the table. Shane kept hitting Undertaker with monitors and a tool box to lay him out before the big spot.
The match was slow paced but they set it up well. It really wasn’t good when they were in the cell, but Shane used bolt cutters to loosen the side of the cage and then Undertaker tackled him and the side of the cage collapsed. Shane also escaped the Hell’s Gate and turned it into a sharpshooter. He used a triangle on Undertaker. It was hard at times to buy Shane’s offense on Taker in spots but in the end the big stunts made the match.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Baron Corbin won, throwing out Kane as Kane was throwing out Bo Dallas and Darren Young. Your typical Battle Royal except the big pop for Shaquile O’Neal making his debut. They had Show and O’Neal playing monsters throwing Sandow and Fandango out before everyone threw both out. Shaq looked like a monster even next to Show. Tatanka and DDP were the surprises. DDP gave Viktor the diamond cutter and threw him out. Konnor threw out Page. Tatanka was really heavy but the crowd liked and booed when he was out. Corbin threw Tatanka out. The rest were the roster guys not on the show. At least they used the Battle Royal to make a new star, but of all the guys in NXT to put over strong right now, he’s not the one I’d have picked.
– They had the Cowboys cheerleaders out for a dance.
The Rock Returns
The Rock came out with a giant flamethrower. He blew it and lit up a giant Rock stage setting. Rock showed his biceps to one of hte cheerleaders as he went to the ring. His music played a long time before he started talking. Then he paused for a long time. Finally the Rock came back to Dallas. He put over the cheerleaders. He said the people are so happy they’re going home and they’re going to make babies tonight so nine months there will be a lot of Rock babies. The crowd sang along with him. He announced records are made to be broken. He announced the crowd was a new record. The graphic said 101,763 a new WrestleMania record. The record itself is legit even if the number isn’t. His music then played.
He was about to do an interview when the Wyatts came out. Wyatt started talking and introduced himself to Rock. They all got on the apron. Wyatt said I chose you because you represent success, you represent greatness, you represent a lie. This is not your moment. This is my moment. I’m going to eviscerate you on the grandest stage of them all. Rock started talking and made fun of them. Said to Rowan, clearly your parents are related. Said Strowman looks like he’s been breast fad until he was 26 years old.
Rock told Bray that he’s got the ability and the charisma so this segment is to put Wyatt over. Said he’s revolutionary and a leader. Rock made some junks about the eater of words or the eater of hot pockets. Wyatt said you have no idea who you are fooling with. Rock took off his shirt. Rock wanted a match. He challenged Wyatt or the duck dynasty bitches. He had his trunks underneath. The crowd went crazy. They rang the bell and Rock used a Rock bottom and pinned Rowan in seven seconds.
They all surrounded him when John Cena came out. They bounced them around. Rock used a Rock bottom on Strowman. Cena supelxed and gave Rowan a five knuckle shuffle. Attitude Adjustment on Rowan. Rock used a spinebuster and people’s elbow on Wyatt.
WWE Champion HHH vs. Roman Reigns
Long match ending with Reigns using two Superman punches and then ducked a sledge hammer spot and hit a spear for the pin. They did a big celebration like you had face winner even though the crowd wasn’t cheering him although they didn’t boo him as bad at the finish as they did in most of the match. There was no hint of a turn at the end of the match although early in the match Reigns, with his new outfit, kind of felt heelish. It was a good match, but not great. HHH did a lot more wrestling than usual using submission moves like a Fujiwara armbar and armbar to set up a one arm power bomb spot by Reigns.
At times the crowd was cheering for Sami Zayn, Nakamura and Bayley. Reigns used a spear on him through the barricade for one big spot. Stephanie was at ringside in an outfit like she was a backup singer in an 80s band. Reigns hit the spear the first time but Stephanie pulled the ref out of the ring. Stephanie got in the ring to argue with the ref. Reigns went to spear HHH, who moved and nailed Stephanie good. HHH hit the pedigree but Reigns kicked out. Stephanie sold it on the floor but handed him the sledge hammer but Reigns used the Superman punches before the ducking the sledge hammer spot and hitting the spear for the pin.
We’ll have a lot more later tonight on Wrestling Observer Radio when we do our audio show with Bryan (live) and myself from the WWE Network version.