Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to WrestleMania!

The city of New Orleans, one of the world's most famous party cities, plays host to the 34th edition of this industry's greatest spectacle.

Last time The Big Easy hosted this event, it very nearly tore the roof off the Superdome.  It all started with the iconic triad of Hogan, Austin, and Rock kicking off the festivities.  While The Shield, another triad, reach its peak, just before it all came crashing down.  We were shocked and saddened when the unbreakable broke, with Brock Lesnar ended The Undertaker's 21 match undefeated streak.  But we were brought back to pure joy, when an underdog, who won the people over with his heart, skill, and determination, Brought the over 75,000 at the dome to their feet, shouting at the top of their lungs, YES!!!

It's now four years later, and New Orleans is ready to experience it all over again.  And once again, fans will be on their feet, yelling at the top of their lungs for Daniel Bryan.  After nearly three years out of the ring due to injury, his first match back is in the same stadium where he had his greatest triumph.

A much more publicized figure is also making her debut on the grandest stage.  After legitimizing women's MMA in the Octagon, Ronda Rousey is hoping to change the game inside the squared circle.

Daniel and Ronda have another thing in common.  Their partners in the tag team matches are authority figures.  Ronda is pairing up with RAW GM Kurt Angle, in his first WrestleMania match in 12 years.  Daniel's partner is SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon, WrestleMania's resident stuntman.  And in both matches, jobs are on the line.  As Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and perhaps Kurt Angle, will have to fight to prove their worth in the company.

Speaking of proving their worth, that was something the women of WWE were struggling to do at the start of this decade.  Boy has time changed.  Now we are seeing them doing the same matches men are.  And they are also main eventing shows as well.  A welcome change to what women's matches in WrestleManias past use to be.  Now these matches mean much more than ever before.  We got a new annual battle royal, and a pair of one on one Championship matches, headlined by the undefeated Asuka, taking on the resident Alpha Dog of the women's division, Charlotte Flair.

Brock Lesnar is leaving for the UFC after tonight.  So no need to talk about his match with Roman Reigns, as the result of this one is already etched in stone.

But the dream match for the WWE title is something worth talking about.  When they met face to face 2 years ago at WrestleKingdom, not everyone outside the industry knew their names.  When the match ended, some knew.  When they arrived in WWE, a lot more knew.  And in meeting tonight at WrestleMania for the industry's biggest prize, everyone will know the names AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura.  Will they do what they did 2 years ago in Japan, and tear this sucker down?

All this, plus a pair of Tag Team Championship matches (BTW, any idea on who will pair with Braun?), A new Cruiserweight Champion will be crowned, The Andre The Giant Battle Royal, AND will a certain fan attending get a WrestleMania entrance?

The time is almost at hand.  Grab your food and drinks, gather your buddies, head on down to your local closed circuit location, or CALL YOUR CABLE COMPANY RIGHT NOW, and join on a PAY PER VIEW BASIS!  DO...  oh I almost forgot, we do Network now.  EITHER WAY, DON'T MISS WRESTLEMANIA!!!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Just bought some snacks. Can't wait for Ronda to make Steph look strong and become a future mainstream star!

Haven't watched since the Elimination Chamber (outside of a few Facebook clips) so tonight I'll be coming in refreshed and hopefully I'm in for a good show. Been watching some old PPV's to get in the spirit. Looking forward to a bunch , probably won't watch Brock/Roman because fuck that bullshit.

I think Undertaker will team with Braun and Cena will lose his mind.

Apr 8, 2018 20:45:08 GMT UT said:

Haven't watched since the Elimination Chamber (outside of a few Facebook clips) so tonight I'll be coming in refreshed and hopefully I'm in for a good show. Been watching some old PPV's to get in the spirit. Looking forward to a bunch , probably won't watch Brock/Roman because fuck that bullshit.

No clue how good the show will be, but NXT was incredible last night and these guys do not want to be upstaged by the secondary fed.

Some good stuff on paper here.  Owens and Sami mixing it up with DB will be great.  Styles vs Nakamura should be a MotC contender.  Black vs Miz vs Balor is a solid match as is New Day vs Usos vs BB.  Bar vs Braun has been fun so far.  Flair vs Asuka should be Flair's best match yet.  Hopefully Reigns will really shine tonight too.  First card in a while with nothing I would consider skippable.   

Reigns has been amazing on promos leading up to this.  Took him a LONG time but he is really getting it together now.

Apr 8, 2018 20:46:11 GMT c said:

I think Undertaker will team with Braun and Cena will lose his mind.

I would laugh my ass off.

Braun enters and stands on the ramp
"I could mop the floor with you two in a matter of seconds, but since I'm not allowed to win the titles by myself, here's my partner..."
BONG
Camera immediately zooms in on John Cena

Damn, 6000 wishes granted from WWE. That is crazy.

I'm getting the feeling Cena/Taker is going to be a confrontation and not a match which is really going to suck. I mean I get you need to give Cena something to do but dragging up Undertaker to not have a match with is super lame. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it will be a match but Taker not showing up on raw to me really feels like it's not going to be a match.

I wouldn't be shocked at a Shane heel turn tonight. Technically DB would make more sense but there is no way the fans are going to shit on DB turning on Shane. They'd cheer the shit out of that. I like the idea of an Owens/Sammi/Shane power trip against Bryan and his top guys.

I'd love to see AJ retain but I think Nakamura will take this one because if he doesn't his character is once again dead in the water. The mind blowing losses to Jinder hurt him bad but they have done a good job at building him back up and for him to come up short again would be really damaging to him. Actually Nakamura has seemed a bit better on the mic recently. I could actually make out most everything he said which is nice.

Auska vs. Charlotte I think will be a good match but I'd love a Carmella cash in. I think it will probably be a failed cash in but it would pop the crowd when she would do it and even more shocking when it fails and Auska beats her. I have to admit though, WWE has got to keep the mic away from her. She seems to be regressing on the promo side of things, I mean Nakamura is starting to get beyond the language barrier but with Auska...she needs to let her actions in the ring do all the talking.

I have zero interest in kurt/Rousey and HHH/Steph. I think I'm just predisposed to hating angles involving HHH and when you throw his even more annoying wife in the mix it's even worse. zero interest in Bobby/Jinder/Orton. I mean knowing we are going to have to sit through god knows how many months of another Jinder title run is unbearable to even think about. Stop trying to make Jinder a thing, it's not going to happen.

Taker has not had a watchable match in years. A confrontation lets him hit spots, but not get so gassed it looks like he is dying.

Nakamura def should take the title. AJ def does not need a title.

I hope Carmella swerves everyone and cashes in on Roman Reigns and becomes the first female WWE champion.

I suspect Asuka is playing up the the language stuff. Her english was a lot better, so I am thinking the broken English is her character. Also Nakamura did not know English before he was signed.

Apr 8, 2018 20:51:26 GMT c said:

Apr 8, 2018 20:45:08 GMT UT said:

Haven't watched since the Elimination Chamber (outside of a few Facebook clips) so tonight I'll be coming in refreshed and hopefully I'm in for a good show. Been watching some old PPV's to get in the spirit. Looking forward to a bunch , probably won't watch Brock/Roman because fuck that bullshit.

No clue how good the show will be, but NXT was incredible last night and these guys do not want to be upstaged by the secondary fed.

Some good stuff on paper here.  Owens and Sami mixing it up with DB will be great.  Styles vs Nakamura should be a MotC contender.  Black vs Miz vs Balor is a solid match as is New Day vs Usos vs BB.  Bar vs Braun has been fun so far.  Flair vs Asuka should be Flair's best match yet.  Hopefully Reigns will really shine tonight too.  First card in a while with nothing I would consider skippable.   

Reigns has been amazing on promos leading up to this.  Took him a LONG time but he is really getting it together now.

Take Over events are generally better than the big ppv event.  WWE is used to do this i'm sure.  

I'm hoping AJ vs. Nakamura delivers.  I remember getting pumped about Balor vs. AJ and I thought that match was pretty disappointing. 

I agree about Roman.  The fucking guy finally got people to cheer for him last week.  I don't think that is going to translate to mania though.  I think WWE would be better served to have AJ/Nakamura close the show.  I think the fans might digest Roman/Brock a little bit better if it's not going on last.

I'm hoping Auska vs. Charlotte opens the show.  WWE is all about making history with the women and I think this would be the match to do it with.  Although I'm pretty confident we will here an emo screaming "BURN IT DOWN" to open the main card.

The AJ and Nakamura from Wrestle Kingdom was amazing. That was what got me to give AJ another look as I hated him since WCW closed down.

Roman will close because they built this moment up for a long time. AJ and Nakamura will be stealing the show most likely though.

Wow. Cena's already there. There goes him getting an entrance.

Apr 8, 2018 21:07:06 GMT c said:

Taker has not had a watchable match in years. A confrontation lets him hit spots, but not get so gassed it looks like he is dying.

Nakamura def should take the title. AJ def does not need a title.

I hope Carmella swerves everyone and cashes in on Roman Reigns and becomes the first female WWE champion.

I suspect Asuka is playing up the the language stuff. Her english was a lot better, so I am thinking the broken English is her character. Also Nakamura did not know English before he was signed.

My point about Taker was, it was meaningless to have him in this scenario anyways.  It should have been a match or nothing at all and nothing at all was the right choice.  Also I want John Cena sitting front row the entire show until  this thing plays out.  

I have a hard time buying that WWE is telling Asuka to go out and cut awful incoherent promos.  

I love Cena sitting in the crowd.

Apr 8, 2018 21:15:48 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Wow. Cena's already there. There goes him getting an entrance.

He got pretty good seats though.

Man, just thought. If Taker does not come out, this would be a killer chance to have Cena turn heel and take out Roman after he wins the title to have his Wrestlemania moment.

I feel like he’d get the biggest baby face pop of the night though :lol:

I wonder what will be on the pre-show.

Wrestlers in the crowd never stay there for long, so props to Cena if he's gonna sit there for 7 hrs.

Apr 8, 2018 21:20:15 GMT Ed said:

I wonder what will be on the pre-show.

Cruiserweight Title match, and the two battle royals.

Apr 8, 2018 21:15:48 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Wow. Cena's already there. There goes him getting an entrance.

Love it!  Good job WWE.

Apr 8, 2018 21:21:26 GMT @ness said:

Wrestlers in the crowd never stay there for long, so props to Cena if he's gonna sit there for 7 hrs.

I wouldn't be shocked if they open with Cena calling out Taker.

HAHA. Booker T already babbling like an idiot. Please get this man back on Raw commentary so Corey can burry him.

So, who thinks tomorrow someone will instinctively go to point to the WM sign?

Seems like they are doing more talking than they did last year. It felt like last year the pre show had more matches. Maybe it just seems that way though.

Asuka/Flair is the match I'm most looking forward to.

Apr 8, 2018 21:32:02 GMT @ness said:

Asuka/Flair is the match I'm most looking forward to.

I think it will be second best match of the night.  I just hope Bliss can retain.  I mean in storyline it would make no sense to have her go over here.  You can't have Bliss go over and not cut off Nia at the knees but they let Bliss burry Bayley so I'm holding out hope that they do the same and burry Nia. 

Personally, the only matches I'm really looking forward to are the WWE title match, the tag team matches, and the Smackdown tag team grudge match. It's not that I think all the rest of the matches are garbage [well some way more than others] I'm just not that emotionally invested in them.

Oh shit, I forgot about Rusev being in the u.s. title match. He better win this damn thing.

Well they sure set the stage for Carmella to fail miserably with her cash in.

Not sure how Asuka vs Charlotte will be if they both use their normal styles. They do clash a bit. If they break out of their normal styles they can steal the show easily.


King and JR OMG!!!