Official WrestleMania 33 Thread

This might be one of the first years in a while where they didn't put some sort of celebrity match on the show. However, it looks to be a pretty bloated card all the same. The biggest problem that I can see is that they don't have one match that really grabs my attention this year.

WWE Universal Title Match:
-Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg (c)

WWE Title Match:
-Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt (c)

Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match for the Raw Women’s Title:
-Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley (c)

WWE United States Title Match:
-Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho (c)

WWE Intercontinental Title Match:
-Baron Corbin vs. Dean Ambrose (c)

Triple Threat Ladder Match for the Raw Tag Team Titles:
-Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (c’s)

Smackdown Women’s Title Match:
-Mickie James vs. Carmella vs. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss (c) (other participants possible)

-Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker

-John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse

-Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles

Non-Sanctioned Match:
-Triple H vs. Seth Rollins

The Shaq v Big Show match was the plan, but that fell through. Looking at the card now, I actually see more potential than I expected.

Lesnar/Goldberg will be a boring mess, and I hate everything about it.

Wyatt/Orton could be sneaky good, but I expect that to have some sort of interference from Harper and/or Rowan.

Raw Women's title match will probably be good, because three of the four can be counted on for great PPV matches. Character work has not been good here, but the match should be entertaining.

Jericho/Owens will probably be the best match of the night, and had the best build as well. The rise and fall of JeriKO was unfortunately sacrificed some to the Goldberg push, but everything these two have done together has been fantastic.

Ambrose/Corbin should also be a pretty good brawl, as Corbin has really improved over the past year.

Ladder match has potential, but I'm not sure I trust Enzo and Cass to take advantage of that. Sheamus also got split wide open last night with a nasty shot from the ladder. Bullet Club has been criminally misused to this point, as has Cesaro.

Smackdown Women's title match will be a mess, but Alexa Bliss has been great as champ. Good for her.

Reigns/Taker will probably be fine. I'm not a big Reigns fan, and I haven't enjoyed a Taker match in a long time. Plus, the man is 52 and really can't (and shouldn't) go anymore. Hopefully, this will be his final match, but somehow I doubt it.

The mixed tag will probably not be a great match, but all the promos leading up to it have been great. The Miz has had perhaps the best year of anyone. Between his rivalry with Daniel Bryan and the recent stuff with Cena, he has gone from someone I literally had no interest in to one of the more entertaining performers out there.

AJ Styles deserves a better chance to show off, but Shane will probably ridiculously jump off a few things and AJ will be his consistently great self and we'll all move on.

HHH/Rollins is a shame, since they wanted this match last year and Rollins got hurt. Then they wanted it this year and he got hurt again. This isn't the way you would want to blow off this feud, but they need to get it done with and move on. It will probably be fine.

The Andre Battle Royal will be total filler this year, probably with Sami Zayn and Big Show as the last two.

The Usos may also get a match added. They should, if only on the strength of this promo:Hall Pass

Aries/Neville (Cruiserweight Title) will probably be the best wrestling of the night. Both of these guys can go.

Things could certainly be better, but I don't think this year will be too bad, overall.

Wyatt/Orton could certainly steal the show. I just hope they don't screw over Bray Wyatt again, I always feel like they set him up in a match at Wrestlemania to lose.

DeaconWalker said:

Wyatt/Orton could certainly steal the show. I just hope they don't screw over Bray Wyatt again, I always feel like they set him up in a match at Wrestlemania to lose.

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I feel like this whole thing has been Orton's story, and Wyatt was just along for the ride. I do have more faith in the Smackdown writers now than in the past, so maybe they will do right by Wyatt this time around.

redwing42 said:

I feel like this whole thing has been Orton's story, and Wyatt was just along for the ride. I do have more faith in the Smackdown writers now than in the past, so maybe they will do right by Wyatt this time around.

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The brand split really did wonders for Smackdown. It's been pretty consistently the better show of the two since the split.

NST, right?

Not sure why this got moved off the sports board.

So what kinda surprises do we see??

Braun Stroman interfering in the Taker-Reigns match?
The Rock calling interfering with Lesnar?
Will Finn Balor come back or are they saving him for RAW after mania?

I've not followed wrestling in a while. Goldberg is still around and the champion? Isn't he like 60?

rjequalsmj said:

Not sure why this got moved off the sports board.

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I'm trying to figure this out as well. I know which part of the forums I picked to put this thread in and I picked it on purpose.

rjequalsmj said:

So what kinda surprises do we see??

Braun Stroman interfering in the Taker-Reigns match?
The Rock calling interfering with Lesnar?
Will Finn Balor come back or are they saving him for RAW after mania?

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Maybe. Forgot about him in the Andre. He will probably win that.
Nah, he'll do something else that is way too long and pointless.
Nope, RAW after mania, I'm sure.

bym051d said:

I've not followed wrestling in a while. Goldberg is still around and the champion? Isn't he like 60?

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Goldberg came back at the end of last year, has wrestled in 3 matches (for a combined total of around 4 minutes, I think), won the title last month and will lose it this weekend. Then he will hopefully be gone. He is only 50, so not the oldest wrestler on the card this weekend.

rjequalsmj said:

So what kinda surprises do we see??

Braun Stroman interfering in the Taker-Reigns match?
The Rock calling interfering with Lesnar?
Will Finn Balor come back or are they saving him for RAW after mania?

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I'm actually going to say that at some point during the Lesnar/Goldberg match the ref will get knocked out and Stone Cold will run out in a ref's shirt.

DeaconWalker said:

I'm actually going to say that at some point during the Lesnar/Goldberg match the ref will get knocked out and Stone Cold will run out in a ref's shirt.

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Or maybe Kurt Angle, since he will be there anyway. I'm hoping he will replace Foley after WM, and that would be a good way to get there.

Here is a good WrestleMania preview by Matt Fowler over at IGN (guy does great weekly reviews if you don't ever have time to watch the shows) which can catch people up to speed a bit for people who haven't kept up with wrestling in a while.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/29/wrestling-wrap-up-wrestlemania-can-still-be-great-despite-underwhelming-card?page=1

redwing42 said:

Or maybe Kurt Angle, since he will be there anyway. I'm hoping he will replace Foley after WM, and that would be a good way to get there.

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Seriously? How's he doing? He had some opioid addiction problems when he was in TNA, right?

bym051d said:

Seriously? How's he doing? He had some opioid addiction problems when he was in TNA, right?

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He is apparently clean and doing pretty well. He is still one bad bump away from being paralyzed because of his neck, but he works independent shows on a regular basis. WWE is inducting him into the Hall of Fame this year. I don't know that WWE will let him wrestle since they are much more health conscious lately (and they really shouldn't let him wrestle, either), but he could definitely fit in well in a GM role. He also had a starring role in one of Terrance Guido Gerin's (aka Rhyno) ads during his bid for the House of Representatives.

I haven't followed rasslin' in the last 12-15 years but I came across this today. This was 30 years ago today. Holy cow I'm old as shit!

For those of you who haven't watched any wrestling in a while here are some notes.

-WrestleMania can be watched for free if you sign up for the 30 day free trial of the WWE Network. It's $10/mo after the trial is over.
-This year's show is almost a must see just because of the group known as The New Day is hosting it.
-The women's division is no longer just a time filler for the shows, it now has legitimate competition and quality matches.

I really enjoyed New Day for a while, but they are a bit lost at the moment. Their social media stuff is hilarious, particularly creepy "Uncle Daddy" Big E, but on show they're kind of aimless.