WWE delivers mega show
Cena proposal among night’s big moments
It was a scene much more suited for a park with a gazebo, or a fancy restaurant. But instead, John Cena proposed to Nikki Bella on Sunday night in a wrestling ring.
And in a quintessential WrestleMania moment, she said yes.
Of course, the WWE’s biggest night wouldn’t be what it is today without the wrestling. And that’s why Bella and Cena had to defeat rivals Maryse and the Miz on Sunday night at Camping World Stadium before the proposal could happen.
Cena told Bella that he first mentioned marriage to her more than a year ago — but she was under anesthesia at the time, preparing for neck surgery. He asked her if, when the time was right, she would marry him, and she said she would. Well, he said, now the time was right — and he pulled the ring out of his pocket.
The battles for WWE’s heavyweight championships both were emphatic.
Brock Lesnar took less than 5 minutes to defeat Goldberg for the Universal championship, a reversal of fortune for the former UFC fighter. Goldberg had taken less than two minutes to defeat Lesnar in their two previous matchups, but Lesnar flipped the script.
Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt with his signature RKO finishing move, ending the NXT alumnus’ short reign as WWE champion.
Seth Rollins defeated Triple H after Triple H accidentally put his wife, Stephanie McMahon, through a table.
In the final match of the night, the Undertaker faced Roman Reigns.
WrestleMania is traditionally the night when the WWE’s biggest storylines come to fruition, and many of the promotion’s biggest stories of late have involved wrestlers who train at the WWE Performance Center in east Orlando, got their start in the Orlando-based NXT promotion or both.
Those within the company have taken to calling Orlando “WWE’s second home.” But on Sunday, it was certainly the center of the professional wrestling universe. A crowd of 75,245 was there live, making it the highest-grossing event in the history of Camping World Stadium.
One example of a locally trained wrestler who made it big on Sunday was Mojo Rawley. His two careers came together in a big way Sunday night.
The former NFL defensive lineman earned his biggest win as a WWE superstar — and he did it with a little help from Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots.
Rawley won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in one of the matches that took place before the sun went down at the sixhour show.
This was Rawley’s first WrestleMania and he told the Sentinel on Friday night that just competing in it was the fulfillment of a dream.
“To have WrestleMania here in Orlando, in our backyard, the city that I bought my first house in, the city I’ve been training in for so long, it’s unreal,” Rawley said before the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Amway Center. “It’s almost like the stars are aligning for something special to happen on Sunday.”
Gronkowski, sitting in the front row, got involved after Jinder Mahal trash-talked him and threw a drink in his face. Wearing a Rawley Tshirt, Gronkowski jumped the rail, got in the ring and tackled Mahal, allowing Rawley to eliminate him and win the match.
Naomi, a Sanford native, won the Smackdown women’s championship for the second time, beating former champ Alexa Bliss and four other rivals.
Neville and Bayley, both NXT alumni, retained their WWE championships.
Neville defeated Austin Aries to keep the cruiserweight title and get the day off to a quick high-flying start. The Englishman, a former NXT champion, won with his “red arrow” finishing move, a top-rope backflip splash with a twist.
Bayley retained her RAW women’s championship in an elimination match. The Orlando resident, who has long been a crowd favorite during NXT shows at Full Sail University in Winter Park, defeated Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Nia Jax — all of whom are also NXT alumni. She finished Charlotte off with an elbow drop off the top rope.
WrestleMania is always full of surprises and one of the biggest Sunday night was the return of the Hardy Boys, Matt and Jeff, former WWE favorites who have wrestled in recent weeks at both Universal Orlando (for Impact Wrestling) and Saturday night in Lakeland (for Ring of Honor). They captured the RAW tag-team championships in a ladder match vs. Enzo and Big Cass, Sheamus and Cesaro, and Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.
AJ Styles, who wrestled for many years for Impact Wrestling at Universal Studios in Orlando, defeated Shane McMahon, the son of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Shane took a lot of punishment, missing a dive through a ringside table and a top-rop backflip shooting star press, before Styles scored the pin.
Kevin Owens, another NXT alumnus, recaptured the United States championship after he narrowly escaped a Chris Jericho pin attempt with a rope break, then rallied and hit his former best friend with a popup power bomb to score the pinfall.
Dean Ambrose kept his WWE Intercontinental title with a victory over Baron Corbin, getting revenge for an earlier forklift attack that injured Ambrose’s ribs.