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WWE WrestleMania is the biggest spectacle in the pro-wrestling world. For fans, The Show Of Shows is like the holidays.
The entire WrestleMania week is filled with buildups to the Showcase of the Immortals which also includes weekly shows and the WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony.
The show of shows first aired on March 31st, 1985. If rumors are to be believed, it is said that Vince and Linda McMahon mortgaged everything they had to make WrestleMania a success. The first edition of WrestleMania did become a success and since then, there has been no looking back.
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WrestleMania has now completed 37 editions. While WrestleMania is the event that everyone waits for, the week leading up to it is so impactful that it makes the fans crave WrestleMania even more.
This WrestleMania weekend had multiple shows and two PPVs. Here is a ranking of every show during WrestleMania week.
#6 WWE Monday Night RAW
WWE WrestleMania week kicked off with Monday Night RAW. Just a few days away from his title match, Drew McIntyre started the show addressing the All-Mighty WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. Following the opening segment, New Day Member Xavier Woods picked up a huge victory over AJ Styles.
Braun Strowman single handily destroyed Elias and Jason Ryker in a handicap match. The Miz and John Morrison gave a not-so-great paint job to Bad Bunny's $3.6 million Bugatti.
Raw Women's Champion Asuka teamed up with her challenger Rhea Ripley to take on tag team champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. The differences between Asuka and Ripley were clearly evident as they could not pick up the victory.
However, that wasn't the case for the main champion of the Red Brand. Bobby Lashley continued his destruction after defeating former Hurt Business member Shelton Benjamin.
The main event saw Drew McIntyre face Smackdown's King Corbin who attacked him the previous week. McIntyre and Lashley had a staredown to close out the show as MVP tried to play temporary peacemaker after the Scottish Warrior slew King Corbin.
The show didn't live up to the expectations of the WWE Universe. The build-up and tensions in the rivalries across the show could have been displayed in a much better way.
One of the biggest rivalries heading to WrestleMania was between The Fiend and Randy Orton. However, no one involved was even on the show.
#5 WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame is probably the most special event of the year after WrestleMania. The night honors and pays respect to the legends who are responsible for what the WWE is today.
Last year, due to the pandemic, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony could not take place. This year WWE celebrated the Hall of Fame class of 2020 as well as 2021.
The 2020 inductees included the likes of the 'wrestling god' JBL, The British Bulldog and Jushin Liger. The Celebrity wing saw the induction of actor William Shatner, while the glamor of the event was increased by the induction of the Bella Twins.
WWE Superstar and Ambassador Titus O'Neil was awarded the Warrior award for his philanthropy contributions.
The main event induction of the evening was the N.W.O. This was a second induction for the members of the group.
If the 2020 inductees were firecrackers, the 2021 list wasn't much behind in stature. The Class of 2021 saw the induction of the creator of the Monday Night Wars and the N.W.O., Eric Bischoff. The class also had India's first-ever world champion, The Great Khali.
Former ECW and WWE Champion Rob Van Dam's career transformed from Mr. Monday Nights to Mr. Hall of Fame as he took his rightful place.
The Warrior award was given to long-time employee Rich Hering, who has been with the company for over 50 years. The celebrity wing saw the inclusion of heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne. The female wing was graced by Molly Holly.
The main event of the Hall of Fame evening literally had fireworks as the the final inductee in the Hall of Fame 2021 was Kane. The Devil's Favorite Demon even signed off in signature Kane style.
While the WWE Hall of Fame is a very special show, it ranks quite low on this list. One of the key reasons for this was the event feeling very rushed. No inductee spoke for more than an average of five or six minutes.
Also, not having another person inducting the legends into the WWE Hall of Fame removed a little bit of the essence of the event. It would have been awesome if we got to see the Undertaker induct Kane or Paul Heyman induct Rob Van Dam.
The possible reason for this could be the need to adjust two shows into a one-show timespan of three hours. This year's inductees were awesome but, unfortunately, as a show it didn't quite live up to its previous years.
#4 WWE WrestleMania SmackDown
Every year WWE WrestleMania puts on a variety of matches. However, due to storylines, big rosters and many other reasons, there are some WrestleMania caliber matches that miss out.
Hence, this year WWE went with a WrestleMania version of Friday Night Smackdown.
The night started with Daniel Bryan delivering a top-class promo, addressing his triple threat match in the main event of WWE WrestleMania.
It was followed by the Dirty Dawgs retaining their SmackDown tag team championships against The Alpha Academy, the Street Profits and Dominik and Rey Mysterio.
Later, Tamina defeated Nia Jax in singles action via disqualification.
After a brilliant opening promo by Daniel Bryan earlier, it was Edge's turn to send his final warning to his WrestleMania opponents. After Edge's great promo, the right-hand man of Roman Reigns' table, Jey Uso made his place in history by winning the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal.
The main event saw Roman Reigns walk out with his special counsel Paul Heyman and his right-hand man Jey Uso. Reigns promised that he would make the whole world acknowledge him as the Head of the Table.
The show was great and had a viewership of over 2 million. The matches were good and there were some good performances in the tag team match and the Andre the Gaint memorial battle royal.
However, the show was stolen by WrestleMania's main eventers Daniel Bryan, Edge and Universal Champion Roman Reigns. All three superstars cut brilliant promos addressing their main event match at WrestleMania. Giving them each alone time to address their mindset was another brilliant move.
#3 WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver
If WrestleMania was the biggest night for the WWE superstars on the main roster, that was equally the case for many NXT stars with TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. Like WrestleMania, TakeOver was divided into two nights with multiple money-making matches.
Night One began with Pete Dunne losing to Kushida in the opening match. Bronson Reed earned an NXT North American Championship match for Night Two after defeating Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Cameron Grimes, LA Knight, Dexter Lumis and Leon Ruff.
The longest-reigning WWE NXT UK Champion Walter continued his dominant run as he successfully defeated Tommaso Ciampa. MSK's dream debut year became even more beautiful after they won the vacant NXT Tag Team Championships.
The main event was the 'Genius of the Sky' Io Shirai defending her NXT Women's championship against Raquel Gonzalez. Until now, Gonzalez had always been a mid-card player, which automatically made Io Shirai the favorite.
However, the favorite fell as Raquel Gonzalez defeated Io Shirai and ended her strong 304-day title reign.
Night Two of WWE NXT Stand & Deliver took it to a whole new level. We finally got an undisputed WWE NXT Cruiserweight Champion as Santos Escobar defeated Jordan Devlin in the opening match. Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell lost to Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship.
However, LaRae's husband Johnny Gargano didn't fail to bring home some gold after successfully defending his NXT North American Championship against Bronson Reed.
In the co-main of the show, Karrion Kross faced Finn Balor for the NXT Championship. Doom's Day arrived on this night as Kross dethroned Finn Balor in a well-fought contest to capture the NXT Championship.
The final match of the show had a perfect recipe for a good movie: action, emotion, history, brotherhood and then, finally, betrayal. The two former undisputed brothers Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly went to war in an unsanctioned match.
The two superstars went on for 40 minutes and threw everything at each other from steel chairs to steel chains, leaving no stone unturned. At the end of this hard-hitting and intense brawl, only one man survived, and that was Kyle O'Reilly, defeating his former brother Adam Cole.
WWE NXT TakeOver Stand & Deliver was top-notch. Raquel Gonzalez winning the NXT Women's Championship was a brilliant move. This made many people feel happy for Raquel even though she was a heel.
Walter continues to impress whenever he gets a chance. MSK were already loved by fans even before they joined WWE, winning the NXT Tag Team Championships will put more eyeballs on the NXT Tag Team Division.
Every match on the card was well delivered across both nights. Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly certainly stole the show and Doom's Day has begun for the whole NXT roster with Karrion Kross winning the NXT Championship.
#2 WWE WrestleMania Night 2
After a thunderous night one, WWE WrestleMania Night Two began with a highly anticipated match between 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. Alexa Bliss introduced and led the Fiend to the ring with one hell of an entrance.
Surprisingly, The Fiend lost to Randy Orton after Alexa Bliss caused a distraction and turned on him:
Women's tag team champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated Natalya and Tamina to continue their dominant run as champions. Kevin Owens fought former best friend Sami Zayn with Logan Paul in his corner. KOMania continued to run wild as Owens defeated Zayn.
Sheamus and Riddle went into an intense battle for the United States Championship. The Celtic Warrior ended up the ultimate winner, defeating Riddle and busting his mouth open to win the U.S championship.
There was another title change as Apollo Crews won the Intercontinental Championship from Big E, thanks to help from former Raw Underground fighter Dabba Kato.
The Empress of Tomorrow Asuka defended her Raw Women's Championship against Rhea Ripley in the penultimate contest of the evening. Ripley brought her brutality as she defeated Asuka to capture the Raw Women's Championship in her first PPV match as a superstar on the main roster superstar.
The main event of the show was the match everyone was waiting for. Edge, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns locked horns for the Universal Championship.
The triple threat rule of no disqualification enabled the superstars to do anything to their opponents and the superstars happily obliged, especially Roman Reigns and Jey Uso.
The match ended with Roman Reigns piling the bodies of his opponents one over the other and pinning both of them. Reigns gave the world the strongest reason yet why he should be acknowledged as the Tribal Chief.
WWE WrestleMania night two had multiple brilliant matches. Unfortunately, in comparison to Night One the show fell a little bit short. Apart from Sheamus vs Riddle, none of the mid-card matches lived up to their potential.
Apollo Crews vs. Big E did well in giving a surprise and introducing new talent to the WWE Universe but, as a match, it wasn't up to the mark. Rhea Ripley vs Asuka could both do much better than they did. Both women are wonderful athletes, however, we didn't get to see much of it.
Without a doubt, it was the main event that stole the show. Roman Reigns has definitely given his best performance yet while Edge and Daniel Bryan have proved once again why they are masters at what they do.
#1 WWE WrestleMania Night 1
After all the buildup and all the talk, it was finally time for WWE WrestleMania.
The event saw the return of the WWE Universe after a year. Even though bad weather and rain delayed the show by an hour, it didn't dampen the spirits of the WWE Universe.
The show started with Bebe Rexha performing "America the Beautiful" and Vince McMahon welcoming everyone to WrestleMania in his vintage style.
Drew McIntyre challenged Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship in the first match of the night. The contest was highly physical, as was to be expected. McIntyre looked in control but a distraction from MVP helped Lashley put McIntyre to sleep and retain his WWE Championship.
Moving on, Natalya and Tamina won a tag team turmoil match to earn an opportunity at the women's tag team championships on night two. A historic moment for Cesaro followed. He won his first-ever singles WrestleMania match against the SmackDown Savior Seth Rollins.
A dominant debut performance by Omos helped AJ Styles and him win the Raw Tag Team Championships against The New Day.
Another dominant win went to Braun Strowman. The Monster Among Men was at his powerful best. He also ripped the steel cage apart to stop Shane McMahon from escaping. He then threw Shane from the top and pinned him to win.
The shocker of the evening came when Bad Bunny put up possibly one of the best performances by a celebrity in a WWE ring. His magnificent performance helped him and Damian Priest defeat The Miz and John Morrison.
The night's main event saw The Boss defend her SmackDown Women's Championship against the EST of WWE. Banks vs. Belair was a fantasy match-up for the WWE Universe that came true on WrestleMania night one.
It was an emotional moment for Belair being in the main event of WrestleMania. She could not hide her emotions and tears at the start of the match.
The match was evenly contested. Both women gave their everything, however, Bianca Belair was too much on the night for Sasha Banks. Belair won the match and in tears as she finally achieved her dream of winning at WrestleMania. Winning in the main event was the cherry on the cake.
WrestleMania night one was spectacular and definitely worth the wait for the WWE Universe. Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley did wonderfully well to kick-off the event. WWE also did well in making Omos win in such a strong and dominant fashion.
While Braun Strowman vs Shane McMahon had some extreme moments, the match could have been a little better. Cesaro vs Seth Rollins was a brilliant contest and gave Cesaro a chance to showcase his singles match skills. His win certainly implies big things for him in the future.
Bad Bunny certainly rose above everyone's expectations. The match was very good, Bunny did well, The Miz and John Morrison also did very well to sell Bad Bunny. However, Damian Priest was underused in this match.
The main event was a no-brainer while deciding the match of the night. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks proved to everyone that the decision to keep their match as the main event wasn't the wrong one.
One may argue night two was better due to many reasons. But when we consider the show as a whole, night one of WrestleMania was definitely ahead of night two.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
