The road to WrestleMania has rarely been more potted, as professional wrestling continues to grapple with the pinning predicaments and sweeping reversals of coronavirus. Yet a sense of relief filled Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay over the weekend, as World Wrestling Entertainment celebrated its showcase event in the company of fans.
WrestleMania 37 was originally scheduled for California, but eased restrictions in Florida allowed for the return of spectators after more than a year of empty seats and virtual crowds. The pandemic still impacted the event, which was held over two nights and incorporated much of last year’s pirate-themed imagery, in ode to the region and the freshly crowned Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Attendance each night was limited to 25,000 audience members.
This was the first WrestleMania in years without John Cena or Brock Lesnar, while perennial title challenger Charlotte Flair was scrubbed from the card following a recent bout of coronavirus. In her place Rhea Ripley was called up to the main roster, while the match between Roman Reigns and Edge for the WWE Universal Championship received a late dash from Daniel Bryan to become a triple threat.
WrestleMania 37 would be historic for hosting the first main event between two black women in Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair. The event was also big on celebrity, with musical performances by Bebe Rexha, Ashland Craft, Wale, and Ash Costello, a cornerman cameo from the YouTuber Logan Paul, and a wrestling showcase by Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper and most-streamed recording artist in the world.
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Rolling Storms and Rising Tides of Emotion
An era of quick clicks, canned dialogue, and fifty-fifty booking can leave little room for storytelling. WrestleMania is usually where long-running feuds can expect to reach their climax, but late card changes and the close proximity of Fastlane meant that the focus this time around shifted more towards spectacle. There was plenty of gold on the line, but the stakes rarely felt personal.
Fitting then that amid all the anticipation of an outdoor arena and a buzzing crowd, the opening of WrestleMania 37 proved quite literally a washout. A thunderstorm caused fans and superstars alike to take shelter, but to fill in the time, a series of spontaneous backstage interviews and face-offs probably did more to ratchet the tension than weeks of scripted television. Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre almost came to blows, Michael Cole and Samoa Joe appeared dripping wet in ponchos, and thirty minutes had passed before Hulk Hogan and Titus O’Neil emerged out on stage to a tepid reception.
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Bad Bunny Spins a WrestleMania Moment
The professional wrestling career of Bad Bunny began with a plancha. At the Royal Rumble in January following a rendition of his hit song ‘Booker T’, the regional trap star turned popstar and global icon performed a dive from the top rope to the outside, landing on The Miz and his tag partner John Morrison.
At WrestleMania 37, Bad Bunny faced off against The Miz and Morrison in the company of his Puerto Rican compatriot and recent NXT graduate Damian Priest. Bunny has been busy training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, and at WrestleMania the effort paid off to outstanding effect. Bunny landed a hurricanrana then a flip piledriver out on the concrete: cruiserweight staples which require willing recipients but also plenty of guts, athleticism, and technique. Working in tandem with Priest, a crossbody from the top rope resulted in a pinfall victory, and for the time being Bad Bunny left WWE on a high note.
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Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair Make History
In thirty-six years of WWE pay-per-views and showcases, black competitors have featured only once in main event singles competition. At SummerSlam in 2001, The Rock defeated Booker T in the main event for the WCW Championship. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair then in the main event of WrestleMania 37 would prove a landmark for black athletes in general as well as a triumph for African American women.
The match itself was much more than a victory lap. Sasha Banks sets the example when it comes to ring awareness and the effective use of her surrounds, and defending the SmackDown women’s title against the Royal Rumble winner Belair pushed her to her scrappy best.
There was a compelling ebb and flow to this match, which eschewed the usual big bumps and sluggish posturing of main event wrestling for something resembling more of a fight. Both women pulled out all the stops in an effort to win. Belair sought to overpower Banks, with a stalled vertical suplex and a military press up the steel steps. Banks responded by using Belair’s hair braid for leverage, as she locked in an original version of the Bank Statement. In the end though Belair used her flowing locks to whip Banks like the proverbial government mule, leaving a welt across the midriff before securing a memorable victory.
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Alexa Bliss Sloshes On the Paint and Ramps Up the Weird
One of the longest-running issues heading into WrestleMania 37 revolved around the feud between Randy Orton and ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt. Following a Firefly Inferno match at the end of last year which left Wyatt ablaze, Alexa Bliss filled in for the elusive ‘Fiend’ and proved more than adept as Orton’s chief tormentor. That led to an intergender match at Fastlane, which Bliss won with the help of a returning Wyatt.
To open the second night of WrestleMania 37, Bliss skipped down the aisle pretty in pink and extensive eye shadow to crank the lid of an oversized jack-in-the-box. Inside lurked a vengeful Bray Wyatt. The Fiend was on the cusp of winning the match when a spurt of pyrotechnics announced the reemergence of Bliss, who stretched out an arm as black paint pumped from her forehead. The style was redolent of the video game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the gesture as always was oblique. But Bliss with a glance had changed the whole tenor of the night, turning the grotesque into something fantastical.
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Rhea Ripley Takes the RAW Sceptre and Crown
Rhea Ripley was only called up a couple of weeks ago from NXT, rolling into WrestleMania 37 as a late replacement for Charlotte Flair. On her main roster debut she was given the superstar treatment. The leather-clad Ripley made her entrance while the singer Ash Costello from the rock band New Years Day performed a live rendition of her theme song ‘This Is My Brutality’. The introduction brassily established Ripley’s strong style and unique look, which melds elements of punk and heavy metal.
The match itself was solid if unspectacular. Asuka and Rhea Ripley are two of the toughest workers in professional wrestling, but in their first ever match the chemistry lacked just that bit. Ripley came over too strong, as within minutes she had the usually impervious Asuka face down on the mat and almost begging for mercy. The beatdown was methodical, and the result scarcely in doubt: following the crowning of Bianca Belair the previous night, it seemed inevitable that Ripley would take the throne at the end of a stellar debut to become the next RAW women’s champion.
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Bayley Brings Her Own Pyrotechnics
As the co-hosts of WrestleMania 37, Titus O’Neil and Hulk Hogan made for an uncanny couple. Not even the pirate costumes of the second night could mask the awkward chemistry between the pair, nor drown out the self-perpetuating boos which broke like waves every time Hogan uttered. So it was some relief late in the second night when the pair were once more interrupted by Bayley.
Bayley was not booked to perform over the two nights of WrestleMania 37, but she played the part of spoiler to perfection and even got the chance to cackle over her own fireworks. Since she turned heel, chopped her hair, and laid the smack down on her inflatable tube buddies, Bayley has really found her voice on the microphone. She was interrupted in turn by recent Hall of Fame inductees The Bella Twins, sterling competitors who even at the best of times were less liked than tolerated. The brief pummelling which Bayley suffered at the hands of the Bellas only consolidated her status as a nutty heel, the type of heel that the audience loves to nourish.
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Roman Reigns Builds His Yard, and This Time We Are All Invited
Even without a long build, WrestleMania main events have rarely come laden with so much weight and personal baggage. Edge made a stunning return at the Royal Rumble last year nine years after his retirement owing to neck injuries, but after defeating Randy Orton at the locked-down WrestleMania 36, he swiftly succumbed to a torn tricep muscle. Making his second comeback in the space of a year, Edge won the Royal Rumble in January to earn a shot at the WWE Universal Championship. In one of those cosmic quirks, the second night of WrestleMania 37 fell precisely ten years to the day he announced his retirement.
Edge would meet two men who have suffered their own stresses and strains away from the ring: Roman Reigns who has managed to thrive in the midst of an ongoing battle with leukemia, and Daniel Bryan who much like Edge was forced into an early retirement owing to an accumulation of concussions and head and neck injuries. These backstories added another layer to their positioning in Sunday’s main event, with Roman Reigns the domineering heel, Edge the fallen hero, and Daniel Bryan occupying his familiar role as the plucky underdog.
Triple threat matches often play out like slowly revolving doors, with stretches of singles action while one competitor takes a breather. Here the action was amped and the energy tangible. Reigns, Edge, and Bryan never missed a beat and shone equally through distinct modes of offense. Reigns sought to gain the upper hand with a little help from Jey Uso, and after the first burst of action ended with an Edgecution on the steel steps, the second swell spilled over as a spear off the steps winded the self-appointed ‘Head of the Table’.
The high spots were well balanced with the back-and-forth in the ring, which included seamless reversals and duelling submissions. All three men felt like viable winners. After Bryan denied Edge by yanking the referee out of the ring, Reigns capitalised on the abundance of steel chairs and stacked up his opponents to retain the title. So instead of a celebratory moment and one final fling, Reigns quashed everyone’s hopes with the sort of dogged perseverance worthy of a top heel and abiding champion.
