WWE WrestleMania 33 Review (Part 1)

It's the ultimate thrill ride. WrestleMania returns to Orlando with a stacked card! Brock Lesnar looks to remove the only blemish of his career against Goldberg for the Universal Championship and Roman Reigns looks to be the second person in history to defeat The Undertaker on the biggest stage of the year.

Match 1: Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles
Awesome choice of an opening match with SmackDown Live commissioner taking on the frustrated AJ Styles. As unpopular of an opinion this may be in 2019, I always have and likely always will enjoy watching Shane McMahon wrestling in the ring, he always brings the goods when it calls for it. McMahon fought fire with fire here and used a lot of his wrestling skills against Styles as he elected to also display his MMA training background with a plethora of sweet submission holds and muay thai strikes. However, the match went up another gear once Styles accidentally kicked the referee in a the head. Trashcans were brought into the match where McMahon was able to hit Styles with his famous Coast to Coast before missing an elbow dive later on through an announcers table. Styles then capitalized with a Phenomenal Forearm to seal the win. Solid opening match to get the show rolling.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ***1/2

Match 2: WWE United States Championship - Chris Jericho (c) vs. Kevin Owens
This match is their culmination of their huge breakup following their months of friendship. Action in the ring was fairly basic from the two and they didn't really give me the feeling they were fighting out of hate. It honestly just felt like I was watching a regular match on an episode of Monday Night Raw. Owens is able to hit a Pop-Up Powerbomb outside on the ring apron to secure the win and the gold from Chris Jericho. For a match that was so personal, maybe making this a no disqualification match or something could have helped a lot. I don't remember a match at WrestleMania being as big of a disappointment as this one. So much hype and not much of a payoff.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Rating: **

Match 3: WWE Raw Women's Championship - Elimination - Bayley (c) vs. Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair
Bayley's dream went from winning the Raw Women's Championship to walking in as champion to finally walking out as champion. With Nia Jax being the wildcard in the match, the three other women in the match were able to team up and eliminate her from the equation. Charlotte Flair let the best friends in Bayley and Sasha Banks fight it out themselves before entering the match again and elimination Sasha. Finally, it was down to Bayley and Charlotte. Bayley paid homage to the late Randy Savage with an elbow drop from the top to score the win. A bit of an underwhelming match when compared to last year's women's contest. Nonetheless, nice way to place these women on the card.
Winner: Bayley
Rating: **1/2

Match 4: WWE Raw Tag Team Championships - Ladder - Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (c) The Bar vs. Enzo & Big Cass vs. The Hardy Boyz
Before the match begins, The New Day come out to the ring and announce that a new tag team has been added to the match... THE FREAKING HARDY BOYZ. I will never forget the pop they received and it was certainly one of the coolest moments I have ever gotten the pleasure to witness in person. As for the other competitors, they never stood a chance and the crowd wanted one thing... to see The Hardy Boyz leave as champs. Pretty fun ladder match that never overstayed its welcome with all teams getting in their offenses with the main part having Jeff Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb off the top of a ladder onto The Bar outside the ring. Matt Hardy climbs the ladder in the middle of the ring afterwards to grab the belts and secure the win for himself and his brother Jeff. The match itself wasn't anything too crazy but the ambiance of having The Hardy Boyz back was unbelievable. Certainly one of the coolest moments in WrestleMania history.

Winners: The Hardy Boyz
Rating: ***1/2

Match 5: The Miz & Maryse vs. John Cena & Nikki Bella
One thing I completely forgot about was how The Miz and John Cena actually headlined a WrestleMania way back in 2011 before meeting again here in 2017. As expected, this was as basic of a match you could really get here because the shine was saved for the moment after the match. But I'll get into that in a bit. Anytime Cena is in a WrestleMania match, the crowd will certainly be involved and the case was no different here. Cena is able to weather the storm from The Miz and hit an Attitude Adjustment as Nikki Bella hits her Rack Attack 2.0 on Maryse at the same time. The referee counts and Cena leaves WrestleMania with another big win... the only difference this time around, he did it with a tag partner. Afterwards, Cena proposes to Nikki in a very touching moment as the two hug, kiss and enjoy the moment. Shame they split up a year later.

Winners: John Cena & Nikki Bella
Rating: *3/4