The WWE Week in Review – 4/3-4/9/16

The WWE Week in Review – 4/3-4/9/16

Hey there folks, Jordan Bass back here on thewrestlingclassic.com with yet another WWE Week in Review blog! This was a very eventful week in WWE so I’ll try my best to not let this be extremely lengthy. I honestly had so much fun watching everything this week and can’t wait to write about it!

This week kicked off with the grandest stage of them all, the show of shows, Wrestlemania 32! I saw a lot of criticism for this show and I get the complaints match-result wise but I thoroughly enjoyed the show as a whole. The show kicked off in the pre-show with Kalisto defending his US Title against Ryback. This was a fine match that saw Ryback lay a beating on Kalisto but Kalisto, ever the underdog, used an exposed turnbuckle and the Salida Del Sol to score the win. Nothing special but it was a decent match. Next up on the pre-show was the team of Paige, Natalya, Eva Marie, Alicia Fox, and Brie Bella taking on the team of Emma, Tamina, Naomi, Lana, and Summer Rae. This was a lot better than I expected. Emma, Naomi, Summer Rae, and Natalya really shined here above the others. Brie Bella got the win for her with a clean transition into the Yes! Lock on Naomi for the submission victory. Finally on the pre-show we saw The Usos take on The Dudley Boyz in a short and rather boring tag team match. Nothing much to say about this, it was uneventful. The Usos got the win following a Superkick on both Dudleys.

The actual show started with the Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship featuring The Miz, Stardust, Sin Cara, Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens. I’m a total mark for special Mania gear and I loved the awesome jackets worn by Miz, Sin Cara, and Zack Ryder. This was a lot of fun, some great spots such as Zayn’s dive through the ladder to the outside, Ryder’s ElBro Drop off the ladder, Sin Cara crashing through the ladder onto Stardust, the frog splash from Owens onto Zayn on the ladder, and the back drop onto the ladder from Owens to Zayn, which immediately made me think of their PWG Ladder Match at Steen Wolf 2011. At the end of the day, however, Miz looked like he was about to win the Intercontinental Championship but Zack Ryder shoved him off the ladder and retrieved the Intercontinental Championship in a shocking and emotional moment.

Next up, AJ Styles took on Chris Jericho. What an outstanding match, these two put on the best performance they’ve ever put on against each other and this felt like a Mania match. They gelled better than they gelled in their prior three matches. The Styles Clash was a great Wrestlemania moment and I thought he had him after that. There were lots of great near falls here. The finish came when Styles was going for the Phenomenal Forearm, but Jericho caught him in mid-air with the Codebreaker for the win. After that match we saw The League of Nations face The New Day in a rather uneventful match, though I did love New Day’s entrance and the post-match stuff with Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Mick Foley. That was a great moment and I freaked out when they came out. It was fun to see those 3 back for the night and I was totally okay with League of Nations taking the beating. Rusev sold that Stunner so well.

After that we saw a rather disappointing match in Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose in a Street Fight. It was a fine match for what it was but it was cut short and didn’t live up to the hype. Ambrose didn’t even get to use the barbed wire bat at least. We only saw kendo sticks and chairs and I feel like this should’ve just been an all out war. I’m not begging for blood (though it would’ve added to the match), all I wanted was for Ambrose to take Lesnar to his limit and show that he can hang with the best of them, but Lesnar made him almost look like he was nothing. This could’ve been so much better. Next we saw the triple threat for the Women’s Championship between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch. This was a tremendous match and legit felt like a match we could’ve seen from the men. These three killed it and only had 2 semi-botched spots. Sasha’s Frog Splash was nice to see and I also loved Charlotte’s perfect Moonsault to the outside and the double Natural Selection done by Charlotte to both her challengers. This was the best women’s match in Mania history for sure, spectacular match.

The Undertaker faced Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell Match where had Shane won he would’ve gained control of Raw and Undertaker would be banned from competing at Wrestlemania again. Yes, this was a lot of set-up for spots, but I liked the story. Shane would not quit and would do anything to win. I was shocked that he perfectly pulled off the Coast to Coast on Taker. The Sleeper Hold from Shane on Taker and then Taker jumping through the announce table to break the submission was a great spot. I was stunned that Shane dived off the top of the Cell. That was absolutely insane and kudos to Shane for doing that spot, that will be remembered for years to come. I loved this match I just didn’t like the outcome.

The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal took place up next. This reminded me ever so slightly of the gimmick battle royal. Not only did we already have gimmicky guys on the roster like the Social Outcasts, Tyler Breeze, Fandango, Kane, Jack Swagger, The Ascension, Goldust, etc., but we also saw the returns of Diamond Dallas Page and Tatanka and a shocking, random appearance from Shaquille O’Neal. This was fun but nothing really special. Baron Corbin came out with the win in his debut match on the main roster in a great moment. Corbin got a huge pop and it was definitely a great moment. After that The Rock came out to announce the attendance record and was interrupted by Bray Wyatt. These two had a fun exchange here Rock actually put Bray over with his words, and then Rock beat Erick Rowan in an impromptu match in 6 seconds with the Rock Bottom. After the match, John Cena returned and Cena and Rock cleaned house in another awesome Wrestlemania moment.

Finally, in the main event, Triple H unsuccessfully defended the WWE Championship against Roman Reigns. Reigns was booed out of the building and it was very embarrassing that he was supposed to be the valiant face in this match. The commentators never once referenced the boos and that was rather annoying. This wasn’t even a bad match; it was just boring and never kicked into gear. These two didn’t mesh and they got 27 minutes to try and put on a good match and they didn’t. This was easily one of the worst Wrestlemania main events in history. Overall, Wrestlemania was a tremendous show. Though I didn’t like most of the booking decisions and match outcomes, I did enjoy the wrestling for the most part.

The following night on Raw, we saw a lot of surprising moments. Vince gave Shane control of Raw that night, which confuses me as to why he lost the match with Undertaker but whatever. One of my favorite moments of the night were Apollo Crews’ impressive main roster debut with a win over Tyler Breeze. I’m stunned to see Crews already on the main roster, but I honestly think he didn’t have anything left to do in NXT if he was never going to be NXT Champion. Another great moment was the debut of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady as they smack talked the Dudley Boyz. This was one heck of a moment and it was great to hear the pop they got and the whole crowd reciting their shtick. That was a really fun debut. The return of Cesaro in the main event made me lose my mind as Cesaro is my favorite wrestler in the world. His entrance was badass and he looked like he never lost a step in the ring. This main event was fantastic as we had 4 of the most talented wrestlers on the roster in Owens, Jericho, Cesaro, and Styles going at it.  In the end, AJ Styles pinned Chris Jericho following the Styles Clash to become #1 Contender to the WWE Championship. Raw was an overall terrific show.

This week on Main Event, the show kicked off with a decent tag team match between The New Day and The Ascension. The Ascension mocking New Day throughout the match was actually very humorous. This was your basic tag team match, nothing special. The finish came when Woods distracted Viktor and that led to Kofi and Big E hitting the Midnight Hour on Viktor for the win. Up next we had Baron Corbin getting a quick win over Fandango. I’m glad to see Corbin getting off to a great start on the main roster and he was impressive here. Corbin won the the End of Days. In the main event, Paige took on Emma in an awesome match. I always loved watching these two wrestle each other in NXT but this may have been there best match to date. Paige got the win following the RamPaige. I suggest watching this match on Hulu if you have it or when this episode goes up on the Network.

NXT this week saw one match take place where Apollo Crews faced Elias Samson in a match that was taped at Takeover: Dallas. This was a good match and they got a good amount of time. It was nice to see Samson in a match longer than 4 minutes for once and I thought he really shined here. Crews had impressive offense as well. These two worked pretty well together and put on a good main event.

Smackdown was a fantastic show this week. We got a phenomenal rematch for the Intercontinental Championship between The Miz and Zack Ryder. We saw the debut of the Vaudevillians as they got a win over the Lucha Dragons. I hated how they got the pin on the United States Champion Kalisto and I’m sick of seeing Kalisto in such a bad position on the card as Champion. Dean Ambrose had his first match since Mania with a quick win over Tyler Breeze who once again got his full entrance for a squash match. Apollo Crews defeated Curtis Axel in another impressive showing and the Social Outcasts had a fun promo prior to the match. Roman Reigns continued to show signs of a heel turn by patting Styles on the shoulder and kind of blowing him off. The main event was good as Cesaro and AJ Styles faced and defeated Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. Sami Zayn came out and brawled with Owens after the match.

This week on Superstars, the show kicked off with Ryback soundly defeating Fandango, nothing much to say there, it was a fine match. In the main event, the United States Champion Kalisto (who should’ve been on Raw) defeated Bo Dallas of the Social Outcasts. I thought this match was pretty fun and it was cool to see how over Social Outcasts were, it just sucked to see Kalisto not get a good reaction at all. The finish came when Kalisto hit the Salida Del Sol after bouncing off of Axel and Slater who were on the apron. This was a solid episode of Superstars this week.

The whole week was very fun; it was a very good week for WWE. There was great storyline progression coming out of Mania and introduction of some new main roster members.

Match of the Week: AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho from Wrestlemania 32 (****1/4)

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