
After a year of no fans, WrestleMania 37 opened in an unexpected way: With a weather delay. Tampa, Florida's Raymond James Stadium is open-air, and experienced heavy rain and thunder in the hours preceding the show. Michael Cole opened the main show at 5 p.m. PT explaining that there was a delay to wait for the weather to clear up. It took about 30 minutes for that to happen, with backstage promos and interviews filling the time. A bizarre half hour.
Still WrestleMania is back in front of fans. WrestleMania 37, which takes place on Saturday, April 10 and Sunday, April 11 on NBC's Peacock streaming service, is the first WWE pay-per-view to take place in front of a live crowd since last March. No amount of rain can drown the excitement over that.
The main event of Night 1 will see Bianca Belair challenge Sasha Banks for the latter's SmackDown Women's Championship, as well as Drew McIntyre defending his WWE Championship. Other bouts include Braun Strowman versus Shane McMahon in a steel cage and, my personally most anticipated match, Cesaro versus Seth Rollins. Click here for a full run down of both night's cards.
Check back to this page from 5 p.m PT/8 p.m. ET on Saturday as the main card of WrestleMania 37 Night 1 begins, as I'll be updating it with results and analysis from the show.
Cesaro pins Seth Rollins
This wasn't the classic match some (I) hoped it would be, but it was still a strong match. It ended with Cesaro swinging Rollins 23 times in the Giant Swing, then pinning Rollins after a Neutralizer.
Rating: 3.75 stars.
Tamina and Natalya win tag-team turmoil match
In what will hopefully be the weakest bout of the night, Tamina and Natalya won a tag team turmoil match to become the number one contenders for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships. The rules of the match are that two teams start, and that once one team is defeated another takes its place, with there being five teams in total.
Naomi and Lana start the match off against Carmella and Billie Kay. After a minute or two of sloppy action, Kay pins Naomi with a rollup and added leverage from Carmella. The Riott Squad are in next and they almost immediately defeat Kay and Carmella with tandem finish,. Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke are in next -- with Brooke actually slipping on the stage on the way to the ring. Hate to see it.
After about five minutes of average-at-best wrestling, the Riott Squad elimianted Rose and Brooke with a cradle. The announcer actually got mixed up and said The Riott Squad was eliminated, but the referee corrected him. Natalya and Tamina were the final team. The most noteworthy spot was Tamina kicking out of the same double-team move the Riott Squad elimianted Billie Kay with.
Tamina and Natalya then hit a Hart Attack on Ruby Riott, and then Tamina scored a pin after a top-rope splash.
Rating: 2 stars.
Bobby Lashley retains WWE Championship
WrestleMania opens with a shocker: Bobby Lashley beat Drew McIntyre with the Hurt Lock. McIntyre didn't tap out, Cole was eager to point out, he passed out.
It started slow, but the match ended up being very good. It began with standard stuff, exchanging moves in the ring with some brawling on the outside. It picked up about halfway through when McIntyre hit a trifecta of Future Shock DDTs for a two count. Moments later, McIntyre hit a very impressive over-the-top-rope dive to Lashley on the outside, like Undertaker's famous dive at WrestleMania 25.
Back in the ring, Lashley locks in the Hurt Lock but McIntyre powers out. McIntyre gets a submission of his own, locking in a Kimura Lock -- potentially signalling a return of Brock Lesnar. The announcers are selling that McIntyre has one last weapon to use in the Claymore Kick. Sure enough, after a big boot, McIntyre sets up the Claymore. Here's where things get dumb. McIntyre has it set up but, as he starts running for the kick, he's distracting by MVP yelling from the outside. Like, he stops in his tracks to look at MVP.
Again: MVP yelled at him from the outside. Not even from the apron. And it stopped McIntyre. So bad.
Lashley then takes advantage and, after some more action, successfully locks in the Hurt Lock and McIntyre passes out.
Rating: 3.5 stars. Shock finish with good action. Would have been better without the confoundingly stupid "distraction." We'll have to see how this plays out, as it could be leading to something worthwhile, but it feels like a bad move to cut off McIntyre like this. He was protected strongly for the past year, and it looks like an abrupt change of course to have him pass out clean to Lashley, who though protected has been a midcard star for the past few years.
Weather delay opens the show
The Tampa, Florida area that's housing WrestleMania had heavy rain and storms in the hours preceding WrestleMania, and the main show opened with Michael Cole explaining they have to delay the action for a few moments due to weather concerns. Brutal.
They're now stalling with backstage interviews. We hear from Shane McMahon, before Bobby Lashley comes into the backstage area to talk trash about Drew McIntyre. McIntyre then joins the set and they get into a confrontation. Lashley is sequestered off and McIntyre cuts a fiery promo.
WrestleMania has to pause for a weather delay.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 11, 2021
GOD IS CRYING
WRESTLEMANIA OVER
— David Bixenspan (@davidbix) April 11, 2021
LOL, they literally open with a weather delay. WELCOME TO FLORIDA.
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) April 11, 2021
WWE is clearly stalling on the fly here, transitioning from backstage interviews to the kickoff-show panel to the announcer's at ringside. The promos are actually pretty good, way better than the scripted stuff we see each week, but this is still grim.
At 5: 25 p.m. PT, Cole tells us the weather delay will end within five minutes. After a brief Bianca Belair interview, a promo for the WWE Championship match opens. Here we go.
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