10 Ups And 12 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 34

9. A Missed Opportunity

cedric alexander mustafi ali
WWE.com

After all the chatter that 205 Live has become more about the wrestling, and following a 16-man tournament to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion, the lightweight division had an opportunity to showcase itself Sunday.

And while Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali had a perfectly serviceable TV match, they fell well short of delivering an eye-opening performance. Both men shook hands at the start of the match and acknowledged that it was WrestleMania, which raised the hope that they’d leave it all hanging in the ring.

Instead, they delivered a few highspots along with some mat-based wrestling. Again, there was nothing wrong with the match itself, but if it’s WrestleMania and you have a chance to shine in a title match – especially in a division that is defined by smaller, more agile wrestlers – then you would have expected a lot more from them.

It’s a shame, because both men are really good, especially Alexander, whose match with Kota Ibushi lit up the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.