WWE WrestleMania 2015: Analyzing Results with Most Far-Reaching Consequences
Maybe the key to watching professional wrestling is to never have any sort of expectations. It seemed to work for WrestleMania 31.
Plenty of fans were bemoaning how this had the potential to be one of the worst WrestleManias ever. But the pay-per-view was strong from top to bottom and had one of the best finishes to a major event since last year's WrestleMania, and it might even have topped that.
It's always a lot of fun looking ahead after the event and analyzing how the biggest matches on the card will affect some of the company's biggest stars going forward.
WrestleMania 31 Results
| Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (c) vs. New Day vs. Los Matadores vs. The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championship | Tyson Kidd and Cesaro |
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal | Big Show |
| Bad News Barrett (c) vs. Stardust vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Luke Harper for the Intercontinental Championship | Daniel Bryan |
| Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton | Randy Orton |
| Triple H vs. Sting | Triple H |
| The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee and Paige | AJ Lee and Paige |
| Rusev (c) vs. John Cena for the United States Championship | John Cena |
| The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt | The Undertaker |
| Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship | Seth Rollins |
Biggest Talking Points
Does WWE Care About the Minor Titles Now?
It's not groundbreaking to say that WWE has treated the Intercontinental and United States Championships like garbage over the last few years. The titleholder regularly loses on Raw, and there's a title change every other pay-per-view.
Seemingly every time a talented, young wrestler captures either belt, the question is asked as to whether he can bring the IC/U.S. title back to relevance. The answer always ended up being no.
This time, though, it might actually be different. Two of the biggest stars in the company currently hold the secondary titles.
Daniel Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship in a good ladder match with a great final sequence between he and Dolph Ziggler. Former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas felt the finish really helped build up the importance of the occasion:
One year ago, WWE trusted Bryan so much that he headlined WrestleMania 30 and beat Evolution to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Yes, winning the IC title is a bit of a demotion for Bryan, but this doesn't seem like a token decision by WWE, especially with the way the company played up the IC title's lineage. This looks like a serious push to make the belt relevant again.
Meanwhile, the biggest star in the company now owns the United States Championship. That alone will offer some short-term legitimacy for the belt. Every time Cena defends the U.S. title, it will be a vastly bigger deal than if it's Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger or anybody else.
Of course, elevating the United States Championship is somewhat dependent on Cena playing up the importance of the belt and it not just being another accessory. Also, the U.S. title won't really mean that much if Cena immediately drops it to Rusev at Extreme Rules.
At Least Rusev Got to Ride into WrestleMania in a Tank
Speaking of Rusev, he'll be playing the part of Bray Wyatt from WrestleMania 30.
Rusev might have had the greatest entrance in the history of WrestleMania. Just when you thought it couldn't get better than having fake Russian soldiers march out and Lana carrying the U.S. title under a massive Russian flag, Rusev rides to the ring in a tank for crying out loud.
Indy wrestler and former WWE developmental talent Chris Hero felt it was a major step up for The Bulgarian Brute:
After the patriotic video leading into Cena's entrance, you knew the match was only going to end one way, a result that was a foregone conclusion when this feud began.
The finish to the match also allowed Rusev to look strong in defeat. The problem is how he moves forward without losing a large bulk of his heat.
It's the same issue Wyatt suffered from after he lost to Cena at WrestleMania. His character took a nosedive following that defeat, and he really didn't start putting things back together until his feud with The Undertaker.
Almost anything Rusev does over the next month or two will be a big step down from the weeks leading into WrestleMania, and should he defeat Cena to recapture the U.S. title, he'll likely go right back to where he was before the rivalry with Cena began: defending the U.S. title against a handful of upper-midcard guys stuck in neutral.
That's How You Cash in Money in the Bank
In many ways, the finish to WrestleMania 31 was like that of WrestleMania 9. Seth Rollins entered a match in which he wasn't originally booked and stole the world title from somebody who had earned it more.
The biggest difference is that Rollins was supposed to be the bad guy instead of a conquering babyface like Hulk Hogan.
Seriously, WWE couldn't have booked the finishing sequence of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match any better. Rollins looks like a genius, and neither Roman Reigns nor Brock Lesnar look all that bad. If anything, Reigns looks even better after WrestleMania than he had been going into the show.
In a way, a feud with Rollins is the best thing that could happen to Reigns right now.
The company wanted so badly to make the Royal Rumble something special, an achievement Reigns had worked for months to obtain. In the end, it felt hollow, like something that was simply handed to him, much like Batista's win in 2014.
There wasn't any sort of natural build to Reigns' career after The Shield's breakup. He never ditched his Shield gear or The Shield's theme and entrance. It just kinda felt like WWE threw him into the main event scene without allowing him to establish himself as a singles wrestler.
CM Punk also made light of how WWE wanted to make Reigns look strong time and again. Before his injury, seemingly every Raw ended with Reigns standing triumphant after hitting somebody with the spear. You can only do that for so long before it starts to become counterproductive.
Now, Reigns can have an honest-to-goodness chase for the WWE title. He'll not only have to beat Rollins—somebody with whom he has past history—but he'll also have to topple The Authority. Those are legitimate obstacles in Reigns' way.
Lesnar will also likely be inserted at some point along the way, and who doesn't want to see a rematch between those two?
Beating Lesnar would've made Reigns look strong, but feuding with Rollins over a few months and finally capturing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship will have so much more meaning.
