We’re still on that road to WrestleMania. And finally, AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho is on.
(Big D and I are also doing a corresponding podcast which drops Wednesday night. You can listen to last week’s.)
The Big News!
While we were pretty sure that Chris Jericho vs AJ Styles was going to happen at WrestleMania, it was the last of the big matches to be made official.
Jericho tried his best to make it seem like he’d rather not be on WrestleMania than give Styles his big WrestleMania match. It was all well and good, but seeing as how everyone tries desperately to be on the show pointing to the WrestleMania sign, it didn’t really make a ton of sense.
Later in the show, AJ finally got one over on Jericho. His promo wasn’t good, but after Jericho lost to Zack Ryder, the fans got into the idea of them facing each other again, more so than anytime since their first match. I hope they get enough time to put on the match that’s expected out of them. It’s the match I’m personally looking most forward to.
Shane McMahon, looking very well, laid out the Undertaker on the announcer’s table with a flying elbow that almost didn’t reach him. But it was the first time since his initial promo that Shane channeled what he needed to and thankfully, it was on the go-home show.
He even looked to open up Taker hardway with shots that made it realistic, but also a bit scary considering how close to Taker’s eyes the cuts were.
Later in the show, Vince McMahon did a weird promo, trying to put Shane over while also putting the Undertaker over at the same time. Shane showed up and seemed to lose his place at least once, but again, had the necessary passion to get the angle over. However, I sort of wanted to see Shane vs Vince rather than Shane vs Taker after it was over.
What else important happened?
There was a lot of Triple H and Roman Reigns on this show. Maybe a bit too much. I think the goal was to continually give Triple H all of the advantages (including using the Dudleys and League of Nations as his henchmen) and have Reigns fight back. That’s all well and good, but the fans have already decided about Reigns.
I thought it was all pretty good stuff and Reigns and Triple H played up their roles very well. What’s unfortunate about WrestleMania is that no matter how good the match is, the live fans are going to get their jollies booing Reigns and it will probably ruin the match live a bit. I’m looking forward to it as I want to see what Triple H does to change the audience reaction. Maybe he doesn’t do anything.
Brock Lesnar was on for one segment. Paul Heyman did all he could to put Dean Ambrose over, trying to undo what they did to Ambrose in prior weeks. Ambrose came out and grabbed a ton of weapons and just walked to the back. At least, he didn’t get killed again.
And the rest…
– Charlotte beat Becky Lynch with Sasha Banks at ringside watching. Charlotte just beat her in a nothing segment.
– Kane and the Big Show had a schmozz with the Social Outcasts to put over the battle royal. It wasn’t much.
– Kofi Kingston beat Alberto Del Rio, which was mostly a backdrop to Jonathan Coachman coming out, announcing that SportsCenter would be all over WrestleMania, and dancing with New Day after telling them he loved Booty O’s.
– Kalisto beat Konnor in a segment that screamed skip. Ryback came out to size up Kalisto and left. I hope Kalisto kicks his ass.
– Emma beat Paige. The heels had a 5 on 4 advantage and the conquering babyface, Eva Marie came out to tremendous boos. It looks like she’ll be the fifth person in the multi-Divas match.
– Sami Zayn won the Intercontinental 6-man tag team match for his team by beating Kevin Owens.
