Belair, Bad Bunny stars of delayed event
Weather couldn’t dampen night for a few WWE stars
On a rainy night in Tampa, a couple of stars shined brightly on the first night of WrestleMania 37.
Bianca Belair defeated Sasha Banks to win her first world title in the main event in front of a sold-out socially distanced crowd of 25,675 at Raymond James Stadium, triggering an emotional celebration from the Orlando resident.
Much of the mainstream talk, though, was the in-ring debut of reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny, who was impressive in a tag team with Damian Priest, defeating the Miz and John Morrison.
It was a successful night for WWE, and a raucous crowd was a huge part of it. The first large wrestling show in more than a year drew a fan base eager to make some noise. Even an early thunderstorm, which delayed the in-ring start of the show by about 30 minutes, couldn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.
In other key matches, Bobby Lashley kept the WWE title with a tense victory over Drew McIntyre in the first match of the night, and 7-foot-3 Omos was impressive in teaming with AJ Styles to win the Smackdown tag titles from the New Day.
WrestleMania continued Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium, with the show starting at 8 p.m. on the Peacock streaming service.
Check out commentary on Saturday’s matches below.
WrestleMania 37 began with a greeting from Vince McMahon as the show came on the air, with all of the wrestlers on the stage, then a rousing “America the Beautiful” from Bebe Rexha.
At about 8:10, fans were told to clear the floor and lower bowl because of lightning in the area. Fans were allowed to return at about 8:30, and the show resumed a few minutes later.
Hosts Titus O’Neil and Hulk Hogan welcomed us (again) to WrestleMania ... and the first match finally got into the ring.
Bobby Lashley d. Drew McIntyre to retain the WWE championship: Lashley made McIntyre pass out in the Hurt Lock full nelson. This was a great match, but the reaction of the crowd to the first live action many of them had seen in 13 months took it to another stratosphere. Both Lashley and McIntyre used their usual arsenal of power moves, but McIntyre
also tried a few unique submissions to spice things up.
Tamina and Natalya win tag-team turmoil: This was a fiveteam gauntlet match, opening with Naomi and Lana vs. Carmella and Billie Kay. All four matches were relatively quick, but this was the weakest match of the show by far.
Carmella and Kay had a quick win, bringing in the Riott Squad of Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan. The Riott Squad took the next pin, bringing out Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke. The Riott Squad next faced Natalya and Tamina. Tamina hit a top-rope Superfly splash on Morgan to get the final pinfall — a nod to Tamina’s father, “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka. With the win, Natalya and Tamina faced the champions, Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, Sunday night.
Cesaro d. Seth Rollins: This match had high expectations from longtime fans, who had seen both competitors rise from Ring of Honor and other independent promotions, but it met and exceeded them all. Cesaro won after a 19-revolution giant swing (by my count) and a neutralizer for the clean pinfall. It was a star-making performance for Cesaro, who survived several creative Rollins attacks to the back of his head.
AJ Styles and Omos d.
New Day for the Smackdown tag-team titles: Omos, a 7-foot-3 former basketball player at USF, pinned Kofi Kingston after a tree slam. Omos looked great in his debut — his offense was simple but effective. The entire match was built around Styles trying and failing to tag in Omos, then when he finally did, the New Day did everything to avoid Omos’ reach. Once he did, he made short work of the champs and caused the title change.
Braun Strowman d. Shane McMahon in a cage match: Strowman ripped a section of the cage open to get at McMahon, threw him off the top of the cage (with McMahon turning a midair flip), then climbed down and hit a powerslam for the victory. This was longer than it needed to be, and the reactions of a tired crowd didn’t help.
Bad Bunny and Damien Priest d. The Miz and John Morrison: This was everything you could want from a celebrity debut. Bunny started the match for his team, took a lot of punishment and gave some out, and looked like he belonged in the ring with more seasoned superstars. Miz worked with Bunny most of the way and deserves tons of credit for making him look good. Priest also looked like a superstar in his own WrestleMania debut. Bunny hit an impressive Canadian destroyer on the floor and two top-rope splashes — one inside the ring and one to the outside — to score the pinfall and get the biggest cheer of the night so far from the Tampa crowd.
Bianca Belair d. Sasha Banks for the Smackdown women’s championship: Belair won a great match to earn her WrestleMania moment in an emotional scene. The match was largely back-andforth, with Banks using Belair’s 4-foot hair braid against her for submission moves, and Belair responding with power. Most impressively, while on the floor, she pressed Banks overhead, climbed the ring steps and dropped her in the ring. She won with her finisher, a torture rack dropped into a facebuster called the KOD.
After the show went off the air, Belair’s husband, Montez Ford of the tag team the Street Profits, came to the ring to share the emotional moment, and Belair went to ringside to greet more family members. A fitting end to a very good WrestleMania opening night.