My Five Favorite Matches From WrestleMania 37
Two nights of WrestleMania are in the books, and with any big wrestling show there were definite ups and downs. Most of the downs came in the first half of first half of Sunday Night, but there were more than enough great moments throughout both nights to come away with the feeling that WWE absolutely crushed it in their first live event in over a year.
I had a harder time than I thought I would narrowing this list down to 5 matches. There were a lot of legitimately great moments from both nights even if there was the occasional rain caused slip on a rope or a ramp to bring things back down.
First things first I want to give honorable mention to a couple moments I loved. These didn’t necessarily lead to or come from great matched, but I enjoyed the hell out of them.
I Thought The Fiend’s Entrance Ruled!
The Fiend’s entrance was an all-timer. We saw him morph from the burnt to a crisp Fiend from TLC back to a normal psycho clown Fiend that was destroying people before hand.
Alexa Bliss raising The Fiend from a giant demonic Jack in the Box (or box-line structure according to Michael Cole) was also great! The crowd was hot and it looked like The Fiend was being raised from the dead to absolutely MURDER Randy Orton! It was such a promising start!
Then of course the exact opposite happened. Alexa Bliss started secreting the black goo she’s been coughing up for weeks, The Fiend looked at her like he was transfixed, and then he lost to one RKO. ONE RKO! FOR AN UNDEAD MURDER CLOWN! Plus they brought the red light back for the match. It absolutely couldn’t have gone much worse after the spectacular entrance.
Logan Paul Ate a Stunner
This doesn’t really need much explanation. The Paul brothers are generally annoying, awful people, and neither of them really needed to be at WrestleMania.
However, his only real involvement here was after Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn did the only thing they know how to do which is put on a great match. And since I didn’t include their match in my list, I wanted to acknowledge Logan Paul eating shit. He deserved it. He will always deserve it.
Ok, on to the matches. These are the 5 that have stuck with me after both nights. I have them loosely ranked here. I really only can stick with how 1 and 2 are ranked because they were head and shoulders the best of the weekend. Without any further ado….
5. Bad Bunny and Damian Priest def. Miz and Morrison
Holy Shit did Bad Bunny smash every single expectation here.
Not only did he put in a hell of a shift by starting off the match and staying in for a WHILE before hitting Priest with a hot tag, my man has a move set!
Top rope dive! Drop toe hold! Falcon Arrow! HE HIT A CANADIAN DESTROYER!
My man knows how to sell too! You always hear the rumors about how celebrities or special guests have “trained at the performance center” and are “putting in the work”, but damn if Bad Bunny really didn't put in the time to actually learn how to wrestle.
Now give us Bad Bunny vs Pat McAfee at SummerSlam for the best Celebrity Wrestler on the planet title. This needs to be settled.
4. Rhea Ripley def. Asuka for the RAW Women’s Title
I was torn on this match. I wanted Rhea Ripley to get a big win that could potentially vault her into Superstar territory, but Asuka has been getting short changed at WrestleMania since she left NXT and I wanted her to finally get her moment as well.
Rhea got the absolute rock star treatment getting her entrance performed live, and got the win after a pretty damn hard hitting match.
It was the result that did the trick for me here. This WrestleMania seemed to be committed to creating new top stars and this match was no different.
Plus after getting jobbed out to Charlotte last year for absolutely no reason, it was excellent to see Rhea get her moment on the biggest stage, in front a crowd.
3. Cesaro def. Seth Rollins
Everyone with a pair of eyes and a brain will tell you that Cesaro is a hell of an in ring worker. This a man who has held numerous Tag Team and Mid-Card titles, but never really got the huge push he deserved.
This is why The Swiss Superman’s first singles match at WrestleMania was such a big deal. (No, the pre-show match with Drew Gulak doesn’t count)
This match was fun as hell. Cesaro hit 23 swings on Rollins and a UFO! If you could watch this, not have fun, and not get a huge feel good moment out Cesaro winning then I have no idea why you even logged into Peacock to watch.
Hopefully a big Mania win over Seth Rollins will propel Cesaro up the card for at least a little bit. He absolutely deserves a run.
2. Roman Reigns Def. Edge and Daniel Bryan for the Universal Title
This was probably the right result, but I’m knocking it down to number two on my list solely because it wasn’t the result I wanted. Is this extremely petty? Yes. But it’s my list so if you don’t like it go read a different list.
This match was absolutely excellent. Hugely physical, and had a couple spots I can’t remember seeing before. The spot where Edge and Roman basically ran into each other trying to do dueling spears is something I’m sure has been done but was new to me and looked fantastic.
The other spot was that double crossface that Edge and Bryan had locked in on Roman Reigns. I was honestly hoping Reigns would tap out and the ref wouldn’t know what to do.
The match looked like it was about to end with Edge dishing out con-chair-to’s to both of his opponents, but Reigns was able to regain control and retain his title.
I was absolutely looking for an Edge win here, but I am willing to concede that having Reigns continue his reign of terror as the “Head of the Table” is probably the right choice.
HOWEVER! I will die on the hill that Edge actually won this match. When Reigns draped Edge over Daniel Bryan to pin them both, Edge was technically pinning Bryan. This means that Edge was pinning Bryan before Reigns was pinning them both. Therefore, Edge’s 3 count would have ended before Reigns’ count and Edge wins via pinfall over Bryan.
Will this ever be mentioned going forward? Probably not, and I will have to go full Sami Zayn conspiracy theorist as a result. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
1. Bianca Belair def. Sasha Banks for the Smackdown Women’s Title.
If I had to pick one match from either night to have a packed house in Raymond James Stadium it would have been this one. I can’t imagine how loud a crowd of 70,000 could have been at the beginning of this match.
The beginning of this match was almost the emotional high point of the match because Sasha and Bianca got to soak in a moment where they could barely contain themselves. Not only were they the first two Black women to Main Event WrestleMania, they were the first two Black wrestlers PERIOD to Main Even Mania.
The looks between them just screamed “We fucking DID IT.” They had reached the top of the mountain and were soaking in every moment. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a little choked up before they got going.
Not only did this feel huge before the match started, these two ladies absolutely delivered.
Bianca military pressing Sasha on the outside and walking her up the ring steps was a HOLY SHIT moment. Also, sweet Jesus that hair whip toward the end of the match sounded like a gunshot.
This match was a masterclass, and the perfect way to end night 1. And keeping with what seemed like the theme of the weekend, an absolute star was born in Bianca Belair.
I’m sorry if a match you loved didn’t make the list, but I think we can all agree that it was just fantastic to see a show in front of 25,000 people. I’m jealous of every single one of them and can’t wait to be at a wrestling show again.
