8 Ups And 11 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 33

DOWNS…

11. Crash Test McMahon

Shane McMahon WrestleMania 33
WWE.com

At SummerSlam last year, AJ Styles had a match of the year candidate against John Cena, defeating the legendary performer in an instant classic. He went on to become WWE World Champion and carried SmackDown for several months.

Sunday night, he fought a 47-year-old executive who was wrestling just his third match since 2009… and he was so evenly matched that he nearly lost a few times.

Yes, wrestling is predetermined, and yes, Shane McMahon is an impressive athlete (though JBL’s cries that he’s built like a linebacker was laughable), but come on. You have to give negative points for Shane taking AJ to the limit like that, kicking out of the Styles Clash and whatnot.

It’s not a huge negative – Shane did have a pretty decent garbage brawl with AJ and impressed as usual – but when it becomes McMahonaMania, it deserves a “down,” even a mild one.

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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.