8 WWE WrestleMania 37 - Night 2 Impulse Reactions
Night Two of an historic WrestleMania concludes with one of the best matches in the show's history.
WWE's topical new ident debuted before Night One of WrestleMania, cannily adding together to the "Then, Now, Forever" catchphrase. It wasn't meant to sound as threatening as it might have first appeared.
The company were somewhat justifiably proud of themselves for presenting the 'Show Of Shows' in front of 25,000 fans as the world at large starts tiptoeing ever closer to pre-pandemic normality.
Before the opening bell (and indeed the weather delay that pushed that back) Vince McMahon took to the stage with his roster of stars to say thank you to those in attendance and watching around the world for welcoming his travelling circus back to familiar surrounds, whilst the wrestlers themselves performed with even more added oomph than normal. From the opener to the evocative and exhilirating main event, it was an evening that effectively capitalised on the emotions it was destined to trigger.
This put a rather unique pressure on to the shoulders of Night Two. After three absorbing hours, WWE had somehow made an often-overstuffed audience hungry for a little more. But they'd also set a standard for a second show to live up to. This identical scenario befell NXT earlier, and the results were ugly.
Could the main roster actually conclusively outperform their black-and-gold counterparts across yet another three hours? Some gave it a go...
8. The Fiend Vs. Randy Orton
This article is called "Impulse Reactions" in-part to immunise it from abuse. We are entitled to think one thing in the moment then shift our emotions over time. This is normal.
Or, in the case of Randy Orton Vs The Fiend, laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh some more and laugh forever. If you're a fan of all this, WWE is laughing at you too.
It'd be unfair to say expectations were high for this, but not at all unreasonable to suggest that expectations existed for something to justify the objective and murderous insanity of the last six months. Instead, Orton and Bray Wyatt had just another boring Orton/Bray Wyatt match, bookended by jack-in-a-box reinventions for The Fiend gimmick and Alexa Bliss.
This is now officially the most intoxicatingly stupid sh*t WWE has ever produced. Orton burned The Fiend alive in December, and nailed him with a draping DDT here. Bliss' bizarre black goo explosion at the finish distracted Wyatt, not Orton, leaving him prone for the same single RKO that wiped him clean out at WrestleMania 33.
A p*sstake for the ages, you will be punished for treating this as anything other than absurdist comedy. No wonder Orton wore white - he turned out to be the hero we needed after all.