WWE WrestleMania 29
Met-Life Stadium
East Rutherford, New Jersey
April 7, 2013
1. Randy Orton, Sheamus & Big Show vs. The Shield - A good match to open the show with. I thought the match had a lot of energy and they did a good job of telling a story revolving around the synergy of the heels. The Shield members looked good at their first WrestleMania and looked as though they belonged there. The crowd lit up for the times when the babyfaces were in control. There wasn't really any dysfunction between the heels but it was ultimately what looked to be played as a misunderstanding that was the downfall. As Sheamus is about to make the tag to Show, Orton reaches out and makes the tag. He does his thing for a bit while the camera shows Big Show selling his dismay on the ring apron. Orton stalks Ambrose for the RKO but catches Rollins jumping off the top rope with the move. Before he can capitalize, Roman Reigns springs out of nowhere and hits a spear. Ambrose makes the cover and gets the clean win about the 11 minute mark. Big Show could have stepped into break up the count but obviously, and intentionally, didn't. The faces squabbled for a bit after the match before Big Show takes out Orton & Sheamus with the KO punch. ***
2. Ryback vs. Mark Henry - All in all, this match was actually better than I was expecting. it was a bit slow at times but considering that it's a match of two powerhouse monsters, I thought they did a good job. I was a little surprised to see how much control Henry had during the match and it became obvious by the time it was over that the intention of this match wasn't to give Ryback a win at a big ppv but to prolong their feud. The end comes with Ryback picking Henry up across his shoulders to go for Shellshocked. Henry grabs hold of the ropes, pulling Ryback off balance. Henry falls on top of Ryback's head, Ryback sells unconsciousness and Henry picks up the clean win at the 8 minute mark. After the match, Henry walks back towards Ryback, probably with the intention of putting him in the World's Strongest Slam, but Ryback picks him up and delivers Shellshocked. After a win like that, personally, I think Henry is better off back in the World Heavyweight Championship hunt than continuing his feud with Ryback. **1/4
3. Team Hell No vs. Dolph Ziggler & Big E. Langston for the WWE Tag Team Championship - This match only went about 7 minutes but it had a lot of energy and they packed a lot of action into those 7 minutes. Bryan was heavily over with the crowd, as was Dolph Ziggler. They kept Big E. Langston fairly limited in the match, but he did look good as the big power guy. Late in the match, after Bryan takes out Big E. on the outside with a flying knee from the apron, Ziggler hits Kane from behind with Zig Zag for a good near fall. AJ jumps up on the apron to distract the ref while Ziggler attempts to hit Kane with the MITB briefcase. Kane ducks and lands a chokeslam before Bryan dives off the top for the flying headbutt for the clean win. Team Hell No retains. **3/4
4. Chris Jericho vs. Fandango - Not a classic, but a good match that featured good use of Jericho. Fandango really played it up to the crowd during the first few minutes of the match. I don't know how long this character's steam will last, but I'm enjoying it thus far. The match was a little sloppy in a few parts, but they were working at a high energy pace. Fandango looked good and held his own with Jericho, which is ultimately what I think WWE was hoping for. The end comes with Jericho going for the Lionsault but really overshoots Fandango, but he recovers nicely and tries to go for the Walls of Jericho again. Jericho sold that he tweaked his knee and lost his footing while trying to put Fandango in the Walls. Jericho is rolled up in a small package for the clean win. Fandango scores the win at the 9.5 minute mark. **3/4
5. Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger for the World Heavyweight Championship - I honestly liked this match more than I thought I would. Both wrestlers worked hard and I personally continue to enjoy Coulter as Swagger's mouthpiece. Del Rio & Swagger wrestled a good match that featured several good, believable falls. Del Rio teased tapping a couple of times while Swagger had him in the Patriot Lock and vice versa while Swagger was in the Cross Armbar. There weren't any real antics from Coulter & Ricardo on the outside, at least not nearly to the degree I was expecting. The end comes about the 12 minute mark after Del Rio catches Swagger coming back into the ring with the Armbar once more. Swagger does a good job of selling the move and trying to force his way out of it before ultimately tapping. Del Rio retains the World Heavyweight Championship. ***
6. The Undertaker vs. CM Punk - The Undertaker keeps his streak of very impressive matches going at WrestleMania. There wasn't a whole lot of flash during this match, but there was a lot of great storytelling, great near falls and a lot of back & forth action. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting out of this match but, all in all, I thought Taker seemed to be in better overall condition here than he has been in the past few years. While you could tell that Punk did slow himself down a bit for Taker, Taker was still able to keep up with Punk pretty easily. Their overall pace was much higher than it had been for Taker's last two matches with Triple H. The key to making this match work was to convince the crowd enough that the streak was genuinely in jeopardy and they did that. The ending sequence was really well done as Punk & Taker traded reversals, with Taker ultimately ending up giving Punk the Tombstone for the second time, this time for the clean win at the 22 minute mark. Taker is 21-0 at WrestleMania. ****1/4
7. Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar - The live crowd wasn't all that hot for this match. I recall their match at SummerSlam last year got a similar response. I enjoyed this match a lot more, quite frankly. I thought both Trips & Lesnar worked hard to put on not only a good physical match, but they told a good story as well. They deserved a better reaction in my opinion. Though they were following Taker vs. Punk. I was surprised to see WWE put this match on right after that without any sort of a buffer. I figured they'd do the mixed tag match or something to give fans a chance to catch their breath. Lesnar looked pretty dominant here in how he handled both Trips & HBK. Surprisingly, HBK wasn't used all that much in this match. He attempts to help Trips at one point but is caught by Lesnar and given an F5 for his trouble. There were also some good near falls during the match, including when Lesnar delivered the F5 to Triple H. Late in the match, Triple H locks in the Kimora several times on Lesnar. Lesnar teased tapping several times only to power out of the move. The crowd was dead for this and, as I said, both guys put on a much better match than what you might expect from the response of the crowd. The end comes with Triple H delivering the Pedigree to Lesnar on the steel ring steps that'd been brought into the ring at the 24 minute mark. I think this match suffered not only from having to follow Taker vs. Punk, but I think crowd fatigue was starting to set in and I don't think most people expected there was any real danger of Triple H losing. Still though, I thought they put forth a strong effort, overall much better than their first match. ***
8. The Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship - While not as good as their first bout, Cena & Rock still put on a strong match. I thought their match told an overall better story than their first bout but, at the same time, this match didn't have as special of a feel about it. After all, there was virtually no chance of Cena losing to Rock again, whereas we really didn't know how their match would end last year. They each hit their finishers multiple times during the match and while it did get a little old, it did seem fitting at the same time. After all, they hit each other with everything they have and no "ordinary" move is going to put either of them down. The end comes with The Rock going for the Rock Bottom again, but Cena counters and delivers another AA, this time for the clean win at the 24 minute mark. Cena is WWE Champion once again. ***1/2
Final Thoughts - Not a lot of surprises at WrestleMania this year. With the exception of the Ryback vs. Mark Henry match, all the matches went down as I expected. If you tuned into WM this year hoping for a ton of unexpected surprises to pop up, then you were very disappointed. If you tuned in hoping to see a lot of good wrestling action, then tonight gave you what you wanted. The undercard of the show turned out to be very good overall. None of the matches felt like filler to me. The Shield picked up another impressive win and Fandango's match against Jericho was what I figured it'd be, just a really solid roughly 10 minute match. Team Hell No retained the titles, so now we just have to wait & see what WWE does with the tag team division. Hopefully, they'll start putting more emphasis on it as they were doing before the big build to WM began. Swagger vs. Del Rio was a good, well wrestled match with Del Rio retaining. The match of the night goes to Taker vs. Punk as they delivered an outstanding performance. Again, the streak stole the show. Triple H & Lesnar did well in my opinion and deserved a much better response from the live crowd than they got, though the match did suffer from some flaws that I think could have been avoided. Cena vs. Rock II came out pretty much as I expected. They wrestled a good match that told a good story, though the expected outcome did lessen the impact of the match itself. Overall, I'd have to say that last year's show was better than this year's, though I personally didn't think this year's show was bad at all. It was too predictable at times though.
Grade: B
