On an evening and weekend that’s meant to rejoice the sheer enormity of WWE–the bombast, the cultural attain, the cash, the sheer scale of all of it–it was two guys who made their names in varied, darkly lit auditoriums and armories and bingo halls and no matter different seedy nook you may discover indie wrestling reveals. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, regardless of how lengthy their WWE careers go from right here, will at all times be seen as two guys, perhaps the one two guys apart from Bryan Danielson, who’ve climbed the longest highway to the best level within the wrestling business. It’s what made their profitable of the tag group titles over the Usos in WrestleMania Night 1’s predominant occasion so candy.
It’s actually in juxtaposition with what Mania typically is, and what the remainder of the cardboard shapes up. Everything else about Mania is simply so WWE. The model mascots had been at ringside for a few matches. The bare catering to non-wrestling followers and regardless of the firm views because the mainstream by Logan Paul. And most of all, WWE’s imaginative and prescient of wrestling. Pretty a lot everybody else who’s populating the highest of the cardboard on each nights are WWE merchandise wrestling WWE matches. The different predominant occasion tonight is Roman Reigns. Cody could brandish his indie creds as empty as they’re, however he’s a New York boy whether or not he likes it or not. Charlotte Flair misplaced to Rhea Ripley, who got here by NXT largely after it went from WWE Network experimental lab to only one other TV product. Austin Theory, Bianca Belair, Edge, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre (just a little unfair given his historical past however he’s had two whacks in WWE too), Dominik Mysterio, that is who WWE values.
Owens and Zayn had been launched to WWE audiences by NXT as properly, however they spearheaded the time when Triple H was utilizing the liberty he needed to flip NXT into an unbiased wrestling workshop. Where it felt like he needed to bottle the perfect of what WWE didn’t have and couldn’t do and discover a method to get it into the WWE world. Sami and KO had winded their manner by PWG and ROH and dozens of different corporations and had actual road cred amongst the indie followers, a crowd that when upon a time HHH needed to make really feel welcome into the WWE world that that they had turned away from.
They’ve been within the firm a very good whereas now, however they haven’t actually modified who they’re, and so they’re each so good at it that WWE hasn’t been ready or actually even needed to plasticize them as they’ve with others. Owens’s gig has at all times been that he truly watches the present and might level out each downside with it, as all his followers are, whereas placing on nice matches with anybody when he will get within the ring, trying and wrestling just like the fan who jumped over the railing and simply received within the ring and seemed so at dwelling nobody bothered to cease him.
G/O Media could get a fee
42% Off
Amazon Fire TV 50″ 4K Smart TV
Incredible visuals
This smart TV has access to a wide array of streaming services, all of which are easier to navigate, has 4K visuals for a stunning picture, and comes with an Alexa Voice Remote too.
Zayn’s path has been a little bumpier, bouncing on and off TV for pretty much his whole main roster career until he found something that stuck with his infiltration and eventual betrayal of the Bloodline. But whether he’s been the plucky DIY face or the conspiracy-theorist heel, he’s still been Sami. Hairy as shit, a little awkward in every way, and making up for it by diving face-first into everything with a wicked sense of humor and never taking himself seriously.
They can wrestle the WWE style, but they can do a lot of other things too. Because they’ve been so good at that, the powers that be have never been truly able to water them down all that much. The fans wouldn’t allow it.
They’ve always been linked. They come from the same area, they’ve toured the indies together, they joined NXT together, and they arrived on the main roster basically together. Their first Mania match was together in a seven-man ladder match. It was fated that their biggest moment would have to come together.
This moment and match call back to so much, mostly to the first big PPV match the two had with each other when Zayn hit Owens with multiple Helluva kicks. They had a Mania match against each other just two years ago. They’re never without each other.
Was it equal to having Zayn claim the undisputed title over Reigns in Montreal six weeks ago? Of course not! This was the easier path for WWE, given how it usually treats the tag division and doesn’t knock the company off the much shinier but much emptier path of Reigns and Rhodes. After all, that’s what WWE does, Big, gleaming, hollow.
Owens and Zayn are not that. Zayn claiming the title in his hometown would have stood singularly on its own as a famous moment. This one will just be in a collection of “Mania moments.” But the fact that two guys like Owens and Zayn who are so in opposition to what WWE usually projects–gruff, stained, with multitudes of depth and history–ended the first night of the biggest show is still truly special. It is a reward for fans who wouldn’t let these two change and stuck with them through some pretty fallow periods. It’s a reward for the whole wrestling world.
And frankly, the first night of WrestleMania needed it. Charlotte and Rhea had an absolute classic, proving that the four to six times a year when Charlotte actually wants to she is still capable of stealing any show. As hard-hitting and brutal as you’ll find any women’s match in WWE. Combined with the main event it turned around a show that was pretty listless. Whatever the delusion is about Dominik Mysterio I haven’t been afflicted with it yet. He’s cardboard in the ring and on the mic, and neither he nor creative can seem to lean anywhere near enough into the joke of his vision of himself as a prison hardass to the reality of his being a pampered submissive. None of it works.
The four-team tag match wanted to be the good kind of car crash, a spot-fest where the brakes are never hit but meandered for far too long between those spots to hit that speed. They couldn’t even manage to try and boost Theory’s rep with a clean win, because they had to protect (checks notes) a guy who wrestles twice a year, and thus no one looked good. Seth Rollins and Paul were fine enough, but WWE’s pandering to Paul’s fans isn’t really for wrestling fans and this feud hasn’t been going long enough or explained well enough to feel like it was truly cathartic for Rollins.
In the upset of the night, Trish Stratus saved the six-woman tag match from being an absolute disaster, as the chemistry between the other five women hovered somewhere around “sixth-grade dance.” Stratus turned back the clock and looked snappy and lively in the ring, which no one else in the match managed.
But nobody cares when it ends prefer it did, with the catharsis that just one different match offered. Sami and KO offered what wrestling followers crave, simply as they’ve at all times accomplished, even when issues have been stacked in opposition to them. That’s the foundational story of wrestling, proper?
