5 Best Matches of WrestleMania Week

 

So WrestleMania has come and gone, and the show was pretty good all things considered the main show certainly had it's ups and downs but WrestleMania wasn't the only show that took place.  There was a few good shows to watch this week/weekend and I got to a watch a few of them so I'm gonna give my top five of the all the matches I saw this weekend (WrestleMania included).  There might be some shows you believe were better but if I didn't watch it, then it won't make the list.  So let's get right into it.

5. NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver Night 2 - Unified Cruiserweight Championship Ladder Match: Santos Escobar vs. Jordan Devlin

The first match of the list, saw two champions fighting to see who the best was.  Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin, and Interim Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar, took each other on in a ladder match, the only one of the week (that I saw).  I did a podcast last weekend talking about this card and one thing we all kind of agreed on was that the Tag Team Championship match should have been a ladder match and that this one could have been a standard wrestling match.  However, this match had it all, hard hitting action, told a story, and had a definitive winner.  The only thing that I could do without was the interference.  I get it Escobar has Mendoza and Wilde there to back him up all the time, I felt this should've been more fleshed out and they shouldn't have appeared because they had a match the night before and Escobar winning on his own would make it feel more special.  Regardless, this match is so good, Escobar winning was kind of surprising to me.  What we know now says a lot about the winner to me but regardless of all that,  This match was so good, there's a lot of great spots that are worth seeing and I look forward to what's next for Escobar.

4. Bloodsport 6: Jon Moxley vs. Josh Barnett

This was a hell of a match that I thoroughly enjoyed.  If you don't know what Bloodsport is, its kind of like a hybrid of MMA and pro wrestling where it is fought like a shoot but is still worked.  Most peformers in this event which is under the Game Changer Wrestling banner, have some knowledge of MMA, and this match is no different.  Now I get a lot of people might not have seen this because of all the WWE stuff this week, but this was a must watch for me.  This match was supposed to happen on two separate occasions, in September of 2019 at Bloodsport 2 but it was cancelled due to Moxley having a Staph Infection, then it was cancelled again when Bloodsport 3 was originally taking place but it was cancelled due to the pandemic.  So the match finally took place this week and it was a hell of a match.  If you are a fan of MMA and pro wrestling, this might be worth the watch for you, honestly the whole show is worth it but this main event was just so good.  It might be hard for the person who isn't an MMA fan to get into this, it might be hard for the person who isn't a pro wrestling fan to get into this.  It's so worth the watch, the exchange on the ground, the pure strikes by both men, the bloody finish all great.  The winner was not surprising to me, Barnett is the former fighter, Moxley came into this with a win streak but I'm not surprised he didn't win.  It's all great, go watch this match.

3. NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver Night 1 - United Kingdom Championship: Walter (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa 

So I think coming into this Takeover show, everyone kind of had an idea what will be or should be the best matches.  This was probably up there but to me it was the best match of the entire show.  We were treated here.  This match was another classic for Walter in NXT.  Is it up there with Bate or Dragunov?  That's up for debate, but I can't express enough how good this match is.  They told a story throughout, it was super hard hitting (a theme of my favorite matches it seems) and despite the match seeming very predictable I still had a great time watching it.  Ciampa targeted Walter's hand and tried to limit his offense and it kept the match interesting throughout because it made you wonder how is Walter going to turn this around and find a way to win.  With Ciampa working the arm and hand the whole time they really pulled you in, it was until Walter got the upper hand and in the closing moments targeted Ciampa's neck kicking him hard and twisting the neck with his legs then he hit two huge powerbombs a move that normally would end the match for him but Ciampa kicked out unbelievably.  They played up the whole match that since Walter's hand was hurt that his strikes and chops weren't connecting on the level they normally would, so when he finally hit a big one it became the deciding factor.  Walter would hit a sleeper suplex and follow it up with a huge chop to the chest for the pinfall victory.  Normally that kind of finish would be questionable to me and at the time it felt rushed but looking back on it, it was perfect because of Ciampa's history of neck problems and this match is just great and I can't put it over enough.

2. WrestleMania 37 Night 2 - Universal Championship Triple Threat Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan

I didn't love the build to this match which I don't think is very surprising (more on bad builds in the next entry), Roman has been dominant and Edge earned his way here by winning the Royal Rumble.  Roman didn't have to defend the championship at Elimination Chamber but he did, that honor went to Daniel Bryan who was forced to face the champion immediately following the chamber match.  Bryan of course didn't like that which is a logical gripe.  Edge felt that Bryan had no argument, which doesn't make sense, Edge's selfishness took over, and Bryan started saying that he deserved another shot because of the way it went down at Elimination Chamber, Edge didn't agree because he didn't earn it like he did.  When Bryan earned another shot Edge would become the outside enforcer for that match.  Edge would get involved to keep it fair and accidently get struck by Bryan, when Bryan had the upper hand and visibly made the champion tap out but no ref in sight and Edge helped Roman retain for revenge.  So Bryan had another gripe but Edge wasn't having it.  When this match was made a triple threat Edge was no longer the face of the feud and Bryan had the sympathy that was supposed to be for Edge who was getting his first championship match in over a decade.  The match as a whole, was storytelling to a tee and that's why I love it so much.  This is hands down Roman Reigns best performance at WrestleMania all the day to his entrance as the Tribal Chief.  Night two of this show was not my favorite but this match saved it, this match is just so good.  The interference helped the story, the action was great, the spots were super memorable, especially Edge using the crossface and using a piece of a chair as extra leverage and the face Roman had, that shot will be remembered, but what followed was also just at memorable, Bryan would also put a crossface on Roman simultaneously and Edge and Bryan would headbutt each other to get the advantage I absolutely love that spot.  Roman would ultimaately get the victory and proved his dominance by pinning both men.  Before I go on forever I'll say in closing of this entry watch the match you won't regret it.

1. WrestleMania 37 Night 1 - Smackdown Women's Championship: Sasha Banks (c) vs. Bianca Belair

Here it is, in my opinion the best match of the entire WrestleMania week, it's the main event of night 1 of WrestleMania.  Bianca Belair took her rightful place at the top of the division.  It didn't come without bumps in the road of course, this was possibly one of the worst builds to a main event ever.  There was ups and downs throughout their story since Bianca chose Sasha to face at Mania.  They teamed a bunch and lost a bunch as a team which was absolutely the wrong thing to do.  You have a dominant champion like Sasha Banks, arguably the best wrestler in the world as far as the women go, and you have the physical nature and pure athletic ability of Bianca, the story tells itself.  Instead they needed to for whatever reason "coexist" before facing each other, that doesn't make sense.  You have a champion and a challenger who should both have all the momentum leading into the clash.  The promo video for this match however told the story that was supposed to be told despite not being done on the screen.  The match itself is a master class of wrestling, storytelling and making a new star.  Sasha was perfect, Bianca was perfect.  The entire match was perfect.  It's one of the best Mania main events since Daniel Bryan winning at WrestleMania 30, it's quite possibly the best women's match in the history or WrestleMania, and it proves without a shadow of a doubt how good both ladies are at this.  Sasha Banks is the best, and she proved it again here, and she knows it as evident by her reactions to Bianca's celebration, not only did she help create the new star but she did it on the grandest stage in the main event in a spot she absolutely deserved.  Bianca is now in the spot of being one of the faces of the next generation for years to come and this match was her proving it and that's why it's the best match of the entire weekend and well worth the watch.

So that's gonna do it for me thank you everyone for reading and if you enjoyed this maybe I'll start doing more of these for certain events.  It was a fun week of wrestling and there's more to come as we enter this new era where there is wrestling on every week day going forward.  Look out for writings in the future and thanks again.