Sunday, April 22, 2018

WrestleMania 34:Day 5 & 6-Monday, April 9th & Tuesday, April 10th

 
On Monday, we grabbed lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  Later on Bourbon Street, we saw Darth Vader rockin' out to Triple H and Nakamura's theme music.


 
Then it was on to the Smoothie King Center for the RAW after Mania
 


As always there were surprise returns, shocking moments and a few NXT call-ups.  All that was missing was an epic Paul Heyman promo.  Bobby Lashley made his long-awaited return to WWE after a decade.  Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe also returned with Joe delivering a powerful message to Roman Reigns.  Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn showed up looking for work after losing their SmackDown Live gig at Mania.  RAW General Manager, Kurt Angle placed them in a match against each other which resulted in a no contest.

 
An emotional Paige announced that due to her neck injury, she was retiring from the WWE.  Former NXT star, No Way Jose, Former NXT Women's Champion, Ember Moon and Former NXT Tag-Team Champions, The Authors of Pain all made their main roster debuts.  Following the six man tag main event and after the cameras stopped rolling, things once again turned into Beach Ball Mania as the new Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins informed the crowd that they wanted to join in on all the fun with them.  And that's just what they did.  Seth Rollins, Jeff Hardy and Finn Balor enjoyed playing around with the WWE Universe.

 
On Tuesday, we took a stroll through a local park where I caught up with my boy, Humpty.


 
Before entering the Smoothie King Center for SmackDown Live, we visited the special trailer promoting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new movie, Rampage.  We received movie posters, Dave & Buster's coupons and got to play the new video game based on the film. 
 


Before SmackDown went live, we were treated to a dark match featuring Becky Lynch vs Ruby Riott in which Becky was victorious.



 
Shane McMahon kicked off SmackDown Live by announcing Paige as the new SmackDown Live General Manager.  As her first duty as GM, she announced that Daniel Bryan's first match on SmackDown would be against the WWE Champion, AJ Styles.  The crowd lost it.  We couldn't believe we were going to witness this dream match.  WOW! 




 
Former NXT talent, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce arrived on SmackDown as "The IIconics" viciously attacking SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair.  "Ms. Money in the Bank" Carmella then cashed in her contract to win the Women's Championship. 


 
Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles were putting on a wrestling clinic before things got interrupted by Nakamura.  Nakamura also cut an entertaining promo earlier in the night.

 
Once SmackDown Live ended, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Dolph Ziggler in a special dark match.  
 
And with that, Our Greatest WrestleMania Trip In History came to an end.  Until next time, New Orleans. 
 


WrestleMania 34:Day 4-Sunday, April 8th

 
After grabbing lunch at Walk-On's with the crew, it was time to head on over to the Superdome to "Celebrate" the most wonderful day of the year, WrestleMania!!!
 
 
 
Sapphire

Sharing WrestleMania moments with awesome friends that will last forever!



 

The setup is always an amazing sight to behold.  As far as all of the action from "The Grandest Stage of Them All" I personally liked ten out of the fourteen matches.  

 
Charlotte vs Asuka was incredible and could have easily closed the show.






 
"Rowdy" Ronda Rousey impressed everyone with her performance at "The Show of Shows"
 

 
Very entertaining match




 
The Undertaker made his much anticipated return at WrestleMania, making short work of John Cena.

 



I thought they should have opened Mania with Daniel Bryan's magical return and had Shane be the one injured outside the ring while Daniel fought off both Owens and Zayn.  I understand why they went the route they did, but I just felt like that would have been more believable than Shane holding his own against those two.  



 
Styles vs Nakamura just didn't flow as well as everyone had expected.  However Shinsuke saved it in the end with the heel turn.

 
"The Monster Among Men" Braun Strowman capturing the RAW Tag-Team Championships with Nicholas was a definite highlight.  Just wish they would have done more with it than having them relinquish the championships the following night on RAW.  What kid wouldn't want to be Strowman's partner?  Clever idea.



Speaking of Nicholas, it's crazy that he actually received more chants than both Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar during the main event.  The crowd was not interested in either one and were more focused on playing with beach balls instead.  This should have sent a direct message to the powers that be, but apparently not since they are once again battling next week in Saudi Arabia.  



 
I wish they would have chosen either the Ronda Rousey, Undertaker or Charlotte/Asuka match to close your biggest show of the year on a positive note.  Instead we got another Brock Lesnar victory in New Orleans on Rusev Day....Yippee!


No matter how the night ended, it was so much fun being among the 78,133 inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for "The Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment"