The Real Winners & Losers From Wrestlemania 32

Wrestlemania 32 was this past Sunday although it’s possible that it’s still going on right on. The show was average at best and lasted way too long. You saw the winners and losers on the screen, but let me tell you the real winners and losers.

Winner – Women

Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch stole the show. On top of that, they got a new title that looks identical to the WWE World Heavyweight Title with only minor color changes. It definitely gives the impression that the women are now equal to the men, although most fans already picked up on this given the inconsistent story-telling involving women ever since the introduction of the (Redacted) Revolution. I can’t say that I was a big fan of Charlotte winning, but I give credit to all three women for putting on a very good match. Even the multi-women tag match on the pre-show was given time and was well-worked. Hopefully this is truly a fresh start and they’re not back to just being catty bitches by the summer.

Loser – AJ Styles

Poor AJ. After the monster reaction he got at the Royal Rumble, he’s now just another guy on the roster. He couldn’t even beat Chris Jericho, whose only purpose is to put over new talent, and the Styles Clash is dead in the water after it’s failed twice on PPV. Even worse, the matches haven’t been good. I put most of the blame on Jericho as he’s at least a step and a half behind nowadays, making all the counters and reversals look like they’re taking place in slow motion and the fact that Styles was having awesome matches in Japan as early as three months ago. But it still doesn’t make AJ look good when he was brought in for his wrestling ability and has failed to deliver a great wrestling match.

*Note: At least they tried to rehab AJ and the Styles Clash the next night on Raw. Still doesn’t erase the average Wrestlemania match and loss.

Winner – Hall of Famers and Future Hall of Famers

Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, John Cena, The Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar are either already in the WWE Hall of Fame will be in the WWE Hall of Fame within the next 10 years. All of them won or got to shine in a major way at the expense of younger, newer, or full-time talent.

Loser – Wrestling

Aside from the Women’s Title Match, there was no great “wrestling” on the show. The ladder match was good, but it was your typical entertainment spot fest. The sad thing, there really wasn’t a whole lot of potential for a great wrestling match on the show. Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose was always going to be a crazy brawl (and even that under-delivered), Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker was always going to be built around one big spot, and the rest never had a whole lot of potential unless you thought Triple H could get a classic out of Roman Reigns or that Jericho and Styles could finally put on a great match despite the evidence against it.

Winner – Moments

Wrestlemania has always been about those “Wrestlemania moments” but over the last two years we’ve really been hit over the head with it. Storytelling and long-term impact are thrown out the window in favor of 10-20 second video clips that can immediately be replayed. There were plenty of those on Sunday. Shane’s fall, Austin/Foley/Michaels finisher parade, Shaq participating in the Battle Royal, Rock’s six second match, Cena’s return, Steph’s outfit, all made for great moments. Who cares if some of it didn’t make sense or was counter-productive. It got shared on twitter over a million times!

Loser – Optimists

Wrestlemania is like the season finale. You’re just waiting for something big and shocking to happen that will change everything and get you excited for the next season. Well, nothing really big or exciting happened on Sunday. Zack Ryder won the Intercontinental title (and then lost it the next night) and Roman Reigns won the World Heavyweight title to a chorus of boos, which in theory should shift the power away from the Authority, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Shane didn’t win control of Raw (although still got it for one night) and there was no surprising debut or full-time return unless you count Baron Corbin walking amongst the geeks before winning the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

Winner – NXT

Corbin won the battle royal, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were the two most over people in the opener, back-and-fourth talent Zack Ryder won the IC title, the women stole the show and the crowd chanted “NXT” and “Nakamura” during the main event. Everyone mentioned was in NXT within the past year and they ended up looking like the biggest full-time stars on the show based on the crowd reaction.

Loser – Entrances

The New Day coming out of a big box of Booty-O’s dressed up in Dragonball Z gear was cool. That was about it. Triple H did his usual over the top entrance, some people got extra special fireworks, and Sasha got a terrible live performance, otherwise the entrances were pretty tame this year. I understand that Rusev entering via tank is pretty tough to top, but they didn’t even try this year.

Winner – My House

Welcome to my house
Baby, take control now
We can’t even slow down
We don’t have to go out
Welcome to my house
Play that music too loud
Show me what you do now
We don’t have to go out
Welcome to my house
Welcome to my house

Loser – Fans

Never mind the fact that the show wasn’t all that good and that they 50/50 booked everything the next night. The show lasted NEARLY SEVEN HOURS! That’s just too long for a wrestling show. This company has enough trouble keeping the audience’s attention for 3 hours every Monday. I have no clue what they were thinking in trying to run a 7-hour show, especially one that wasn’t very good. No sporting event should last 7 hours except maybe an NHL playoff game because those are awesome as long as your team isn’t involved in it. You know how most people spend at least 7 hours a day? Sleeping or working. One is great, the other usually sucks but at least you’re getting paid. This sucked and put no money into my bank account.

(Follow me on twitter @jeremylambert88 for live NXT thoughts Thursday in Charlotte. I’ll be there with LARRY FREAKIN CSONKA! I also tweet about other things)