10 Great Wrestling Matches You Didn’t Know You Wanted
1. Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns - WWE WrestleMania 31
Even in the open air stadium environment, the jeers were unmistakeable.
“Roman Reigns deserves to be here,” said JBL, in immediate damage control mode.
“Roman Reigns deserves to be here,” he repeated, his commentary representing in micro the Reigns problem in macro. Vince McMahon had screamed his intentions to keep Roman strong with an arched-back Samoan war cry of his own.The Santa Clara crowd, of course, didn’t agree. Reigns had barely wrestled any singles matches on pay-per-view, and he wasn’t Daniel Bryan. He was John Cena. Faced with a second decade of that, the crowd rejected Roman on WWE’s terms.
Over the course of 15 gruesome, ultra-dramatic minutes, nobody could tear their attention away from the match nobody wanted.
Roman, anxious, swarmed at Brock with flailing fists. Lesnar stormed Reigns into the corner—from the opposite side of the ring—in a blink. He was well up for showcasing his unprecedented ability to rag doll the hapless. After an F5 he wasn’t up for following through on, the tone was set: this wasn’t a WWE Title match. This was Roman’s battle to save face, and to save himself from serious harm.
“This is about to get sadistic,” JBL continued. Finally, some truth, for this was the Brock Lesnar you can forgive Vince McMahon for burying an entire roster on behalf of: intense, dripping with sweat, making jelly of flesh as he pounded it with his kneecaps in a simulation of real combat as gripping as it was credible.
Whenever Reigns assumed control, he had to use his own ingenuity. Lesnar gave him no opening in the most realistic fight Vince McMahon ever promoted.