8 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 31

WWE manages to make chicken salad out of poorly hyped event.

by Scott Carlson

To say that WrestleMania Play Button was not the most eagerly anticipated Mania in history would be an understatement. Expectations were low for this event, with fans and critics alike having issues with just about every aspect of the direction of WWE lately. Very few angles and feuds since Royal Rumble have been well regarded €“ or in some cases, tolerated. Roman Reigns€™ big coronation at the Rumble blew up in WWE€™s face, while the fall of Daniel Bryan has been tragic for anyone who believed in him. Bray Wyatt has been wrestling with shadows, while seven men have traded the Intercontinental Championship €“ but not in matches. John Cena has been tasked with doing what Big E, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, Big Show and Zach Ryder could not do: Stand up for America against the Evil Russian. All of this led to a WrestleMania that was poorly hyped and could have been a disaster. However, there was the potential that if certain things clicked well, WWE could still deliver a solid show. And surprisingly, enough things went well make this a watchable and enjoyable WrestleMania. No, it won€™t go down as one of the better Manias of all time, but a couple surprise developments certainly helped raise the bar for WrestleMania 31.

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.