Wrestlemania 33 & WWE 2017 Hall of Fame

Happy Wrestlemania weekend everyone! It is time for my annual entry covering the previous year’s Wrestlemania (WM) just in time for the new one. I could not cut it any closer this year as I did my best to cruise through the BluRay and just finished re-watching WM33 yesterday! This is the best and worst time to be a wrestling fan! WWE puts on its biggest show of the year, as well as a packed NXT TakeOver event and Hall of Fame (HoF) ceremony that same weekend. Most other American independent promotions also try and capitalize on that event and the staggering global amount of fans it attracts each year by putting on their own packed cards that same weekend in the same region. I did that loop once in 2012 and caught the Hall of Fame, Axxess, two indy shows and Wrestlemania 28 to finish it off. It was amazing and exhausting at the same time….and I would not want it any other way.

I find myself double-thinking that mantra this year however because WWE consistently extends the length of the Hall of Fame and WM lineups each year. It gets to the point where for the first time in the annual BluRay WM/HoF combo release that they could not fit the entire event on the BluRay. Going back to almost all the WM and DVD releases, they have always included the kickoff/pre-show matches as bonus features, and this is the first time they omitted them all entirely, and I am stunned because there were some standout kickoff matches this year. I am also a fan of the annual ‘red carpet’ interview pre-show for the Hall of Fame the WWE Network has been doing for a few years now and wish they would include those also, but instead I found myself watching the red carpet and kickoff show matches on the WWE Network instead. WWE should just bite the bullet and make this a 3-disc BluRay to fit everything in for the physical copy because who knows if the WWE Network will always be available.

To add the salt in those wounds, this is the first WWE Home Video release in quite some time that does not have subtitles. That is not a big deal for the matches, but I always take advantage of subtitles for documentaries and dialogue-heavy features like the Hall of Fame where some talent can be a little tricky to interpret, and I am disappointed to see it not included for the WM33 BluRay. Speaking of the Hall of Fame, it was an impressive class for 2017, one I would say eclipsed the 2016 class. DDP kicked off the class after a great induction from Eric Bishoff who recounted their classic bar fight story and how their friendship evolved from that and DDP’s one-of-a-kind heart for the business. DDP had a well-earned lengthy speech recounting stories and giving props to the many who helped him along the way. It went a lot like this incredibly in-depth ‘letter to himself’ DDP wrote a few months ago I highly suggest everyone makes time to read.

The Rock ‘n Roll Express induction was fascinating for all the right and wrong reasons. Jim Cornette inducted them and he made his first public WWE appearance in about a dozen years and no one knew what the infamous firecracker would say since his controversial firing. He gave a fitting induction however detailing the RnRE origins and their legendary rivalry with the Midnight Express. Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson were a hoot to watch primarily because Morton kept losing it throughout his speech and he would randomly bust into gyrations to the crowd’s delight. Ricky Steamboat inducted Rick Rude next. Steamboat gave a to-the-point induction and Rude’s family posthumously accepted. Rude’s son is charismatic and well-spoken and gave a great impression of the ravishing one to punctuate his career!

Natalya gave a tremendous recap of her friendship with who she inducted next in Beth Phoenix. Beth’s speech I hate to admit tested our patience as it went on with memories of Molly Holly and many other WWE women and of course fun tales with Santino. Dana Warrior presented the 3rd annual ‘Warrior’ award. At this point she is incredibly charismatic and affable and is nailing these inductions. She was the Warrior’s rocket fuel. She presented the award this year to former college football player Eric Legrand, who gave a heartwarming speech chronicling his life-crippling injury struggles and triumphs as well as some of his favorite wrestling memories in a feel-good moment. The third annual ‘Legacy’ montage of inductions was presented this year, and like previous years WWE nailed the cadence of the production of paying homage to the greats of wrestling’s pioneers. 2017’s class featured Haystacks Calhoun, Judy Grable, Luther Lindsay, Bearcat Wright, Farmer Burns, Riki Dozan, June Beyers, Toots Mondt and Jerry Graham.

The Teddy Long induction was the most light-hearted induction of the night. APA inducted Teddy and told amusing anecdotes about how cheap Teddy was when traveling with and went on for serious props on the racial walls he broke down. Long breezed through his career highlights and I especially got a kick how he recounted his first time as a referee. He had a fantastic close with his trademark ‘holla holla’ and ‘tag team match’ announcements and boogeying himself off stage like only he can. Kurt Angle closed the HoF after a masterfully delivered induction by John Cena. Angle wonderfully hits the highlights of his WWE career and encouraged WWE’s stars of today to take chances on their character like he did. Angle was terrific when he finished off his speech with a perfect rendition of singing ‘Sexy Kurt’ and chugging down a couple jugs of milk! 2017’s class is easily one of the best start-to-finish Hall of Fame ceremonies put on by WWE.

If you are still with me, please bear with me for the…..-cue Daniel Bryan-ULTIMATE THRILL RIDE…-/cue-…that was WM33. With only a couple weeks before WM33, on RAW and Smackdown, they started labeling WM33 as ‘the Ultimate Thrill Ride’ and got that tagline in at least a few times every five minutes (seriously!) to the point of it being ridiculous and where Daniel Bryan was straight up riffing on it days before the show to indicate he feels our pain. On ‘Mania day we found out why and that was because WWE constructed an elaborate rollercoaster entrance set and an epic rollercoaster-ride themed video montage introducing the show. The set looks fabulous and as another beloved theme park owner once said, WWE ‘spared no expense’ and put together a bangin’ entrance set that grew more magnificent as the evening grew dark and it dazzled us as it lit up the Orlando sky like no other rollercoaster before it.

Like I detested in the intro, the BluRay does not include the pre-show matches this year, and the only extra is one of the amusing Total Bellas spoofs Miz and Maryse put together hyping their match. WWE actually puts some legit hype into the kickoff matches for WM, because, well, it is freaking Wrestlemania! So I went to the WWE Network (alternatively WWE has the whole kickoff show up for free on YouTube)and re-watched the kickoff matches there like I did for the HoF red carpet intro show. You should too because there is a must-see cruiserweight title bout there between Austin Aries and Neville. The two hold nothing back and got the crowd red hot from the get go because the duo simply clicked as they delivered a ton of great spots like a dead-lift german, Frankensteiner and a 450 splash! Eventually Neville successfully defended the gold with his Red Arrow.

The Andre the Giant Battle Royal was next and at the time a red-hot Braun Strowman seemed like the odds-on favorite but after a flurry of early eliminations he eventually got ganged up on and eliminated. Surprisingly, it came down to Killian Dane, a pre-mega push Jinder Mahal and Mojo Rawley as the final entrants. We soon found out why when WWE capitalized on Rawley’s real life friendship with NFL Superstar Rob Gronkowski to get him involved in the match by charging Mahal and Rawley then eliminating him for the upset victory. Dean Ambrose successfully defended his Intercontinental Title in the final kickoff show match in a decent bout with Baron Corbin that saw a couple good near-falls, but nothing too noteworthy otherwise. One last kickoff show aside, and I am glad to report WM33 will be the sixth and final time the Usos fought in the pre-show during the battle royal here because they are finally, as of this writing, booked on the main card of WM34.

I forgot New Day were the hosts for WM33 and must give them kudos for their Final Fantasy-inspired gear and ice cream cart (complete with chocobo head and moogles) they strolled out to the ring to. AJ Styles/Shane McMahon was the official opening match of the main card. The match was better than I remembered. They stuck to primarily mat wrestling for most of the match, and AJ got a damn good wrestling effort out of Shane with a lot of good exchanges between the two. Shane eventually went to his vintage weapon spots with the garbage can coast-to-coast and then lived up to his crazy high-risk standards by missing AJ with his elbow splash through the announcer’s table and shortly thereafter missing an impressive-looking Shooting Star Press. Styles soon capitalized with a Phenomenal Forearm for the victory.

Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens then clashed next for the US Title after their longtime friendship came to an end during the appropriately titled ‘Festival of Friendship’ ceremony on RAW. The two put together an awesome move-for-move, counter-for-counter match that saw Owens victorious after a powerbomb on the ring apron. Bayley’s doomed RAW Women’s title reign was defended next in a fatal four way elimination match against Nia Jax, Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair. Charlotte’s corkscrew moonsault was the highlight of this encounter. With it being an elimination match it felt too short for the chapters it was trying to tell, and it easily could have borrowed several minutes from the crazy long Triple H/Rollins match later on to flesh it out some more. Eventually Bayley still reigned as champ after pinning Charlotte with a Macho Man elbow drop.

The RAW Tag Team Title Ladders match transpired next with Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows defending against Cesaro & Sheamus and Enzo & Cass until the New Day interrupted and introduced a surprise fourth entrant, the returning Hardy Boyz to a huge reaction! I recall hearing a lot of buzz behind-the-scenes that the Hardyz were between contracts and I still popped big for their return! The two big moments in this match was The Bar combining for ’30 Clubs/30 Swing Rotations’ to a much appreciated reaction from the crowd and Jeff Hardy going ultra high-risk like only he can by crushing Cesaro through a tall ladder with a Swanton bomb and Matt Hardy capitalizing from the carnage to grab the titles and become new tag team champs in a thrilling high-spot endeavor from everyone involved.

I never thought Cena would face Miz again in another WM after their infamous WM27 effort, but here we are with real-life couple’s colliding whenCena and Nikki Bella squared off against Miz and Maryse for revenge after they shamed them with their stellar ‘Total Bellas’ satires. Miz was a riot and in rare form playing to the ardent fan’s approval with his uncharacteristic dominance over Cena in the early minutes. I think we all knew the ‘super-Cena’ comeback was inevitable, however this match was a catalyst for the much-rumored Cena wedding proposal to Nikki after the match. A double Attitude Adjustment/Rack Attack finished off Miz and Maryse and if you have not already, click the link above to see the classic Cena proposal after the match. I read this delightful recap of WM33 from a SBnation reporter who never watched wrestling before that resulted in a truly fascinating read from a fresh perspective, and her candid thoughts on this match are what stuck with me the most.

Triple H battled Seth Rollins next, and many wondered if Seth was going to be available for this match after coming off a recent knee injury several weeks prior. Triple H’s yearly overproduced WM entrance featured him and Steph coming out in a huge Harley and dawning biker gear. I quipped to my friend prior to the match and inadvertently set him off when I stated Steph looked kind of cute in her ‘Mania attire, and my friend would have none of my compliments to Steph and promptly chastised me! I will give props to Seth for roughing it out in this near half-hour long match that could have easily shaved off several minutes, especially since the first half was Triple H primarily working over Seth’s knee. Yes, Hunter busted out his much-feared Indian Deathlock of DOOM for WM33….multiple times! The crowd was tolerant thankfully, and they got back into it after some awesome near falls after Hunter’s Pedigree and Seth’s Phoenix Splash. The finish sees Steph accidentally taking a nasty spill for the second year in a row, and Seth then capitalizing with his own Pedigree for the win.

It was after the prolonged Seth/Hunter match when my friend and I paused the livestream on the WWE Network at the time just to go out and get some air and gather our bearings again because at that point in WM33 we were sitting for nearly five hours straight. We were in dire need of a recharge, and so were the live crowd because that was when Pitbull sang a medley for WWE’s equivalent of a Super Bowl halftime show. Unfortunately we all had to come back to a WWE Title match no one wanted to see with Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. I did like the build to this match with Orton being ‘undercover’ in the Wyatt Family faction for nearly a half a year before finally stabbing Wyatt in the back. Wyatt’s underwhelming WWE Title reign came to an end in this awkward matchup where WWE instead wanted it to be a showpiece for more goofy hocus pocus effects from Wyatt where random images of gross bugs and insects appeared on the mat to ‘spook’ Orton (and the ref!) off his game. It eventually proved not to help, as Orton mercifully ended this dull, laborious match with what else but a RKO FROM OUTTTA NOWHERE to become the new WWE champion.

A very well-produced video package narrated by Paul Heyman with the theme of a fairytale set the stage for Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg facing off for the Universal Title next. I am still bewildered that a rematch of the disastrous WM20 bout between these two wound up nearly stealing the show 13 years later. It was because WWE did a superb job booking the feud on the second go-around and that half year build set the stage perfectly for why this match outperformed anyone’s expectations. Goldberg and Lesnar delivered with a five minute slugfest where the two kicked out of nonstop signature moves from each other before Goldberg eventually fell to 10 German Suplexes and an F5 from Lesnar! Lesnar’s superhero-esque leap over Goldberg’s spear attempt was also a sight to behold! Lesnar continues to hold the Universal title to this day, and if all goes according to conjecture, his year-long title reign will end tomorrow before he departs back to UFC.

The Smackdown Women’s title six pack challenge was the penultimate match for this ULTIMATE THRILL RIDE. Alexa Bliss defended against Mickie James, Naomi, Carmella, Becky Lynch and Natalya. The story for this was Naomi’s quest to come back after vacating the title from an injury and win the title in her hometown of Orlando. She did just that after several minutes, of nicely paced, nonstop action with most of the ladies hitting their signature moves before Naomi made Bliss tap out. Regrettably, Naomi went on to have THE worst Smackdown Women’s Title reign in its history due to the awful rivalry she had with Lana over the summer while the rest of the division tore it up in much-talked about ladder matches.

The 13th, yes, 13th and headlining match of WM33 featured Roman Reigns taking on the Undertaker. I recall a lot of loose talk at the time feeling this would be Undertaker’s final match with many reports of his overall day-to-day athletic shape being a struggle to keep up with (Undertaker has since had a hip replacement since WM33). Roman Reigns is easily the most hated man in wrestling among core wrestling fans, and none of them wanted to see Roman become the second individual to best the ‘Dead Man’ at ‘Mania. Surprisingly, this late into the show, the crowd was still with it and it heavily favored ‘Taker. As much as I did not want to admit it, this was the first time at WM where Roman felt like he belonged as a top guy, and it was fascinating reliving the crowd reject most of his offense as he weathered a Last Ride and Tombstone from ‘Taker. ‘Taker looked worse for wear as the match went along to the point that it looked like he was shot full of adrenaline and Cortisone to get through the first half looking like old school ‘Taker while he would ultimately get through the second half hobbling through it as Roman assaulted him with an avalanche of nonstop Superman Punches and Spears before a fourth spear finally finished off the Undertaker.

There was an eerie post-match moment after Roman left and the camera hung on ‘Taker while he recovered and put on his iconic trench coat and hat and took in one more moment before ever-so-gently folding his gear back up and laying it in the ring before departing as to indicate this would be the final time we would see the Undertaker compete in the squared circle. I remember getting goosebumps from that unforgettable moment, and it concluded what was easily the most memorable ending in WM history. I still detest Roman Reigns being WWE’s ‘the guy,’ but the day after WM33 on RAW he cut a classic five word promo that took several minutes to say as he embraced the crowd dumping on him for several minutes before he spouted ‘this is my yard now’ and walked out on his accord. With those five words, Roman made it apparent he realized his full potential and that he finally lived up to WWE’s expectations of him as a big money headliner.

Of the 10 matches on the actual WM33 BluRay, half of them are must-see material and most of the rest are passable as I would say there was not anything awful to the point of skipping over, minus perhaps the first several minutes of Hunter/Seth. I still think it is ridiculous the preshow matches are not on here and that there are no subtitles at all, especially considering how the hall of fame has no action and is 100% dialogue. The collector in me has to have a physical installment of every WM, and if you are the same way, then go ahead and pick this up. However, if you are not a collector and want the full experience, just watch this on the WWE Network instead with the pre-show matches and at least having the option of subtitles there.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017