Wrestling is fake, every adult knows that. For some people, this kills the merit, but for others, they suspend belief and immerse themselves in the spectacle of wrestling. Wrestlers need to not only put on an interesting and athletic match, but also react to the crowd while playing a character.
The term "fake" isn’t exactly accurate for wrestling, because these men and women are actually putting their bodies on the line. Anyone who hasn't heeded World Wrestling Entertainment’s warning and tried to attempt wrestling moves with their friends will vouch for this. The action is real, but the outcome is preplanned. Just like any TV show isn’t real life and has a script, wrestling plot lines also follow long narratives that can span on live TV for months at a time. Wrestlemania, every year, acts as the season finale for a year's worth of wrestling. Everything comes together: Feuds are ended, along with some stunts and some surprising twists.
The biggest problem with this year's Wrestlemania goes back to wrestling being fake. Wrestlers not only film two TV shows a week, but also perform at live events most other nights of the week. Imagine athletes performing a touring musician's schedule, but without the off season. This year, the roster was depleted heavily due to injury. So much so that everyone who won a title at the previous year's Wrestlemania was inactive due to injury. WWE had to scramble to put together a show.
The show opened with a crowded seven-man ladder match, the goal of which is to grab the title hanging in the air by climbing a ladder. This ladder match, like most, thrived on some brutal falls from high up places.
Next up was the new fan favorites and comedy act New Day versus the historically impotently named League of Nations. New Day ended up losing, but still got one of the biggest reactions when Hall of Famers Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin came out. Seeing a stadium of 101,763 freakout about wrestlers they're nostalgic for really shows how much wrestling can mean to people.
Next was a vicious street fight between former UFC Heavyweight Champion of the World, Brock Lesnar, and Dean Ambrose. Lesnar, who has actual fighting experience in both the UFC and with wrestling in high school and college, is in direct contrast with wrestling’s phony reputation. He flung his opponent around the ring like a rag doll, never even giving his opponent a chance to get the upper hand.
One of the biggest moments was a year in the making, and involved the new Women's Championship after being the Divas Championship for the past couple years. The change came after a Twitter campaign called #DivasRevolution. The idea was that women weren’t getting stories that were as well developed as the men were, and that women's wrestling was instead treated like a break in the action, with most matches only lasting a few minutes
Three rookie wrestlers Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks (Snoop Dogg's cousin) set out to change this for the better. What took place was one of the best women's wrestling matches in the 32 years of the event, proving that women’s wrestling could be just as good as men's.
The two main events showed the biggest problem that WWE is having. Three of the wrestlers were over the age of 40. Watching two people who are 51 (the Undertaker) and 46 (Shane McMahon) fight in something called Hell in a Cell isn’t so much fun as it is terrifying. It was two older men slugging it out, while the audience prays no one gets seriously hurt. The 20-foot fall was the climax, while fans chanted, “Please don’t jump!” really brought that point home. There's no way to fake this, and a 46-year old can’t take a bump like a 26-year old can, even if they are professional.
The next main event was just a match that no one really wanted to see. Triple H is like the Patriots of wrestling: He's been in most of the main events of Wrestlemania since 2000. His opponent was Roman Reigns, and the match ended with the good guy Reigns winning, but not before he speared Triple H’s wife and co-owner Stephanie McMahon, a move that left a weird feeling, even though wrestling is fake.
By paying more attention to the fans and keeping fresher talent around, this Wrestlemania could have been worlds better. Instead it focused on older wrestlers and celebrities like Shaq coming out to get the crowd excited.