Roman Reigns is going to WrestleMania. The Samoan Superman sealed his fate by defeating his long-time partner Dean Ambrose and the “Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar in front of 14,000 fans at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
It was easily the best match on the card, with Lesnar taking both Ambrose and Reigns to Suplex City early on with multiple German, Belly to Belly, and Overhead suplexes which included a devastating suplex on the outside of the ring to Dean Ambrose by Lesnar.
The tide turned as Reigns and Ambrose briefly rekindled their Shield days, powerbombing Brock Lesnar through one of the announce tables, allowing both men to fight amongst each other to determine who would go to the “Showcase of the Immortals”. As the Beast started to awake, Ambrose/Reigns returned to the outside to Powerbomb Lesnar through the second announce table, using the remains to build a make-shift fort around him.
It didn’t hold The Beast down for long, as he returned to the ring to take out both Reigns/Ambrose with a double German Suplex.
Ambrose, realising he needed to resort to drastic measures, took to beating the tar out of both Reigns and Lesnar with a Steel Chair. It wasn’t to be however, as Reigns hit Ambrose with a spear for the 3-count to secure his 2nd consecutive WrestleMania main event title match, much to the chagrin of some vocal hardcore fans who were hoping for an Ambrose victory.
AJ Styles was victorious over Chris Jericho via submission with the Calf Killer after Jericho kicked out of the Styles Clash, becoming the first WWE superstar to do so. The match was every bit as good as expected with some awesome back and forth action. Jericho at one point looked like he’d win, however it was The Phenomenal One who came out on top.
Elsewhere on the card, Kevin Owens retained his Intercontinental Championship in a really good match against Dolph Ziggler, if not a little repetitive.
Kalisto retained his United States Championship in a 2 out of 3 Falls match against Alberto Del Rio that had no place being on the pre-show and should have replaced the complete waste of time that was the CuttingEdgePeepShow and Curtis Axel vs. R-Truth match.
Charlotte retained her Divas Championship in an average match against a much improved Brie Bella.
Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks defeated Team BAD in the opener. The less said about that, the better.
And finally, Ryback, Big Show and Kane defeated The Wyatt Family. Yes, that happened.
All in all it was a largely disappointing night, even though the card had 2 very good matches, it was all extremely predictable and as it stands right now, WWE will have to work very hard to convince 100,000 people that WrestleMania will be good enough for them.