Sorry for the late response. I've been watching, talking and shopping wrestling non-stop since last Thursday and needed a break to just focus on UNC's misery.
I'll go ahead and get this out of the way that I liked last year's WrestleMania much better and my opinion on this show is probably skewed more favorably because of being there. The atmosphere at Mania is nuts.
With that said, my favorite match on the card was the women's match. I marked out hard for the Austin appearance and The Rock appearance. I thought the Brock/Dean match was a huge letdown. I don't understand booking it like that.
The main event was nothing special except that spear on Steph and the badass entrance and promo by Stephanie/Triple H. I thought that was one of the coolest ones yet.
The air went out of the building when Sasha lost. Hardly anyone saw Charlotte retaining there and I disagree with the decision to do it. Sasha Banks is so insanely over and that was the time to do it. At WrestleMania Axxess, the line to meet her was insane (Bayley's was as well and now I'm questioning my thoughts about her success on the main roster).
- I re-watched Mania last night and they crazy edited the crowd reaction from the Reigns victory. I agree with sticking to the plan and letting him win there because you need to let him end Triple H and conclude the story. However, I expected "something" like interference and I think it's now obvious they're not going to do the traditional babyface booking. They're going to book him in the tweener/heel-ish style. They have already started having him stop coming through the crowd. He'll probably be more antagonistic as we saw with him sticking his tongue out, gesturing to the crowd at Mania and what he said on the mic last night. It's the smart thing to do. Just let him be a badass and antagonistic dick to the crowd.
If they weren't going this route, they wouldn't have booked A.J. to win last night. I expect a heel turn/persona very soon. They're probably just biding their time until Rollins or Cena is back.
- NXT Takeover was the highlight for me. Thought Joe should have won the title. I'm now a huge fanboy of Nakamura and got to meet him this weekend. I saw him wrestle twice as well.
- I was the one sitting beside Izzy, the Bayley fan girl that had a meltdown and collapsed in the floor after Bayley's loss. It was super awkward. In fact, it was just as awkward as seeing grown men asking to take a picture with a 9-year-old girl.
- Had a blast though. NXT had matches live during WrestleMania Axxess. Saw American Alpha vs Enzo/Cass, Eva Marie vs Asuka, Nakamura vs The Drifter, Hype Bros vs Alexa Bliss' guys just while I was hanging out.
- Took a selfie with Linda McMahon
- Kevin Owens was super nice and Neville became very emotional during my interview with him.
- Got to meet KO, Neville, Ziggler, Strowman, Nakamura and Miz. Saw tons of old timers like DDP, XPac, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall (he was drinking), Steamboat, Nature Boy driving around in a golf cart and a ton of others.
- Axxess had so much cool gimmick stuff like coming out from behind the curtain in front of the titan tron while your favorite wrestler's theme and video played. You could also, post on top of the ladder and grab the MITB briefcase (my friend did this with Eric Rowan), pose with the Undertaker coffin and urn, jump off a turnbuckle into a padded ring and do the commentating table with your friends (BKH saw me post this).
This is how I'd rank the matches over the weekend.
WrestleMania
1. Women's championship triple threat
2. Shane vs Taker
3. IC Title match
4. Triple H vs Reigns
5. AJ vs Y2J
6. Rock vs Rowan
7. New Day vs LON
8. Battle royal
NXT Takeover
1. Nakamura vs Zayn
2. Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor
3. American Alpha vs The Revival
4. Bayley vs Asuka
5. Aries vs Corbin
