10 Things Nobody Has Told You About WWE WrestleMania
3. AJ Styles Is The Anti-Mr. WrestleMania
AJ Styles is at this point a pro wrestling legend with an endlessly impressive body of work.
He was at his best in New Japan Pro Wrestling, in which he was finally able to become a major player at a consistent level and best showcase his brilliant ability to make a super-exciting match flow with a main event elegance. Even in WWE, past his physical prime, he has contested many thrillers. His match with Daniel Bryan at TLC 2019 might be the most underrated match in modern wrestling history. Few talk about it, because their more memorable Royal Rumble match was such an unfathomable bore, but it was so great. Intricate, breathless drama of the highest order. His WrestleMania record is closer to that Rumble match, though.
Has any great wrestler worked quite as many duds as AJ on the grandest stage?
At WrestleMania 32, he wrestled Chris Jericho in a good if clunky effort that went too long. His 'Mania 33 opener with Shane McMahon, the outlier, was a demonstration of AJ's greatness more than a great, credible match. At 34, he and Shinsuke Nakamura worked a half-speed version of a basic WWE main event. At 35, Styles and Randy Orton went on a methodical journey, the destination to which was three generous stars. At 36, he played a decent jackass in the Boneyard.
At 37, he worked a long-forgotten face in peril spot as a heel, and, at 38, he worked a match with Edge so slow and drab that even Triple H would have told them to get out of first gear.