14 Times Really Weird Sh*t Went Down At WrestleMania 32
10. No Holds Barred But Few Holds Actually Used
The ‘no holds barred’ match between Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose failed to live up to the rather high expectations held for it for a number of reasons.
Strangely, for big match performers neither man seemed to really kick it out of second gear. The match only went for thirteen minutes - rather short for what was allegedly a main event level match, and which featured one of the two men who’d worked hardest to get WrestleMania 32 over in the anaemic build-up on RAW and Smackdown.
The match rarely actually left the ring, in fact, and pretty much centred around chairs, kendo sticks (which Ambrose had already dismissed as useless against Lesnar on free television) and a rather nondescript fire extinguisher spot.
Given another ten minutes, even eight, and Lesnar and Ambrose might have told a more exciting story. Ambrose didn’t get to use Mick Foley’s beloved Barbie, let alone do anything even slightly intimidating with the admittedly idiotic chainsaw. And was that my imagination, or was the chain still attached? Please don’t tell me the prop guys didn’t make the machine safe before leaving it out.
The much vaunted hardcore gifts he’d been given were wasted, as was the high-drama gimmick for the match, on a pedestrian, PG television-style match. In the end, this ‘no holds barred’ match was unmistakably lacking in a large variety of previously-barred ‘holds’. Jericho lent them that list for nothing.