{"id":12122,"date":"2019-04-12T23:54:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T22:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=12122"},"modified":"2019-04-17T21:03:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T20:03:24","slug":"wrestlemania-week-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/12\/wrestlemania-week-wrap-up\/","title":{"rendered":"WrestleMania Week Wrap-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Every year, it seems like it takes so long to get to WrestleMania and then once the event actually rolls around, it\u2019s like time just flies by. This year was no different. Many of us watched wrestling exclusively for about a week and a lot happened in that short amount of time. We here at Pro Wrestling Journal thought it would be nice to decompress and reflect on this past week as we get ready to launch into a new wrestling season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeover: New York was phenomenal, as we knew it would be. NXT consistently puts on a high caliber of show that really highlights its stars. My personal favorite match was Pete Dunne vs Walter for the United Kingdom Championship. There\u2019s also going to be a rematch and I\u2019m looking forward to that as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learned that is in fact possible to have a\nWrestleMania with no crazy swerves. All three big babyfaces won their matches\nand walked out as champions. I know a lot of fans, myself included, were\nnervous that there would be some sort of crazy ending with at least one of the\nmatches (well, there was but we\u2019ll get to that later). Roman Reigns had a\ntriumphant return to the ring after battling leukemia for a number of weeks.\nKurt Angle gave us an emotional farewell after his retirement match. Overall,\nWestleMania was a great show, even if it ran a little long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the main roster shows following Mania, we saw\nBecky Lynch with both of her titles as well as Kofi Kingston with his new WWE\nChampionship. Big E can apparently do a full split, which is quite impressive.\nDean Ambrose made his final address after Raw went off the air and it gave me so\nmany Shield feels. He will be missed, but I wish him the best of luck in\nwhatever he decides to pursue next. Sami Zayn returned and Lacey Evans actually\ndid something other than a catwalk up and down the ramp. We also saw the Hardys\ncrowned as the new Smackdown Tag Team Champions as they defeated the Usos in a\nhighly anticipated match. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NXT started to push ahead, setting up for new feuds. Candice LeRae has made her intention to become champion known. Velveteen Dream goaded Buddy Murphy into a match. And the Street Profits have a new attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think there might be some cracks starting to form\nin the Undisputed Era. I wonder who\u2019s going to be the one that breaks the group\nup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WrestleMania did run a little long and I think the order of the matches made certain bouts suffer more than others. The Triple H and Batista match, while gloriously brutal, seemed to go on forever and the crowd was exhausted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned before, Dean Ambrose gave a farewell speech after Raw went off the air. However, his last on-air appearance was him getting decimated by Bobby Lashley right in front of his wife. AJ Styles may have a minor hip injury and Big E has a torn meniscus so we shall see what happens with them in the interim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ending to the historic women\u2019s WrestleMania main\nevent was botched. Ronda Rousey\u2019s shoulders are up and it\u2019s clearly visible in\nthe videos. Rousey also broke her hand during the bout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lars Sullivan finally made his debut. The Freak has been MIA for weeks since the initial teasing of his main roster debut due to anxiety and possibly other mental health issues. As someone with mental health issues, I am glad that he\u2019s gotten the help he needs. However, he got almost no fan response on either main roster show and that doesn\u2019t bode well for future success if he doesn\u2019t figure out how to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacey Evans attacked Becky Lynch on both shows\nthough I\u2019m not sure if she\u2019s going to be in an actual feud with Lynch yet. It\u2019s\nkind of wild that she went from strutting around at events and shows to attacking\nthe woman with both top belts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a promo with an ugly naked bird puppet. It had Bray Wyatt\u2019s laugh so it\u2019s safe to say that Wyatt is now a puppet. If they\u2019re going to make him a puppet, I hope he\u2019s at least creepy and manipulative and this doesn\u2019t turn out to be some weird hocus pocus nonsense, like the Sister Abigail debacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braun Strowman won the battle royal and also fought\noff Samoa Joe and his Coquina Clutch. He\u2019s in fantastic shape and his elbow and\nknees seem to have healed up. I think we could be getting ready to see a hard\nreset on Braun Strowman\u2019s character. In recent weeks, he\u2019s slipped into more of\na comedic role but perhaps we could see him return to the title picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was only call-up from NXT as well, which is\ngood considering several of the recent ones have been lost in the shuffle and\nthe Superstar Shakeup is next week. The Shakeup is also intriguing because what\nexactly will it mean? We\u2019ve been seeing superstars on opposite brands for weeks\nnow. Will the Shakeup force the superstars back to being exclusive? Will the\nmidcard titles swap brands again? How will the Shakeup affect Becky Lynch as\nthe holder of both Raw and Smackdown\u2019s women\u2019s titles? There\u2019s a whole lot of\nquestions since the lines between brands have become so blurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, it seems like it takes so long to get to WrestleMania and then once the event actually rolls around, it\u2019s like time just flies by. This year was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":12123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[186,849,194,193,530,228,960,185,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nxt","category-nxt-takeover","category-raw","category-smackdown-live","category-takeover","category-wrestlemania","category-wrestlemania-week","category-wwe","category-wwe-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-39w","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190411_060823.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12124,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122\/revisions\/12124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}