WrestleMania BackLash kickoff included great commentary and an open challenge by Sheamus.
I was hoping that Humberto was going to answer the call. However, it appears that he is still on the injured list so Ricochet stepped up to the plate. Ricochet is a former United States champ himself and gave Sheamus a run for his money. It was a non-title, action packed match with Sheamus ultimately capitalizing on the win. However, Ricochet wasn't finished. He attacked Sheamus during his post match speech effectively robbing, and then wearing, Sheamus' coat and fedora.
The main show started off with the Women's Tag Match. Charlotte channeled Cruella DeVille with her in ring gear. Her dark make-up and attitude has truly turned her into an icon of evil. Asuka and Rhea Ripley rounded out this triple threat match. Asuka fought like she wanted the win. Charlotte was cold and calculating and Rhea seemed to be an after thought. I think she does better one on one. As predicted, Rhea retained the title.
History was the theme of the next title match. Dolph and Roode attempted to skew the night's event in their favor by attacking Dominik during the pre-show event. Rey took on the Dirty Dawgs solo for the majority of the match. He did an outstanding job dressed in his Adam West inspired Batman gear when Dom came down the ramp holding his side and grimacing. Now the dynamic duo was fighting hard together to capture the tag titles. Dominik flew off the top rope with a frog splash to cover Roode and make history with his father as the first ever father/son tag team champions.
For the next match, fans on DraftKings had the odds almost split evenly. Bianca convinced 51.51% of fans that she would retain and 48.49% believed the title would change hands to Bayley. However, I want to first touch on the in ring gear of these superstars.
Bayley came out first and she wasn't dressed like she was going to hold up the belt in the end. I initially thought she had a picture of a ferengi on her shirt. It wasn't until the camera tightened in that I saw it a three headed Picasso like drawing. Still didn't make sense. Now Bianca Belair's azure and gold gear identified her as a winner ready to defend. An excellent match with displays of power ala British Bulldog from Bianca. My one and only consistent gripe is her hair. Far too many packs of hair braided into both a weapon and a hazard. As a fan, my wish is for it to be gone by year's end and have Bianca start 2022 off with a wavy high pony tail. I'm thinking J-Lo during her fly girl days.
Three insane athletes totaling at least 900 pounds gave their all. The triple threat match was brutal and intense from bell to bell accented with jaw dropping moments. One prime example was when Drew sent Bobby sailing through a LED board creating sparks. This allowed for action between Braun and Drew. There were pinfall attempts between Braun and Drew when out of nowhere, Bobby re-emerges ending the match by pinning Braun and walking out the reigning champ.
Roman Reigns and Cesaro capped off the evening. Cesaro came down the ramp first smiling confidently ready to walk out victorious. Roman's entrance had a Conan the Barbarian feel to it primarily because of his new entrance music which he debuted last month.
The match started off with the competitors feeling each other out and then into a clinic before the champ zeroed in on Cesaro's right arm. The challenger definitely gave 110%. kicking out of multiple pinfall attempts at a one count. Twice Cesaro powered out of guillotines. Yet, and once again, Roman walked out the winner when a purple faced Cesaro could not get out of the third guillotine.
The action didn't stop there. First, Jey Uso came out to adorn Roman with a red ceremonial lei and then focused his attention on inflicting further damage to Cesaro. Next, Seth Rollins came out looking like he was just thrown up on by Dutch Boy. He also went after Cesaro.
I was really hoping that Cesaro would win. Recently I re-watched the first ever Broken Skull Session where Steve Austin interviewed Vince McMahon. Part of their conversation focused on Cesaro. I also re-listened to After the Bell on Spotify where Cesaro was interviewed by Corey Graves. Both were interesting to experience again. Cesaro should have won so that Daniel Bryan could come back at some point for a fair title opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment