Kalisto vs. Ryback: Winner and Reaction from WWE WrestleMania 32

Despite being faced with a much larger and more powerful opponent, Kalisto successfully defended the United States Championship Sunday night at WrestleMania 32 by defeating Ryback.

WWE described the finish: 

The WrestleMania Twitter feed provided a snapshot of one of the highlights of the match, when Ryback held Kalisto in the air while standing on the ropes: 

Bleacher Report's Chris "The Doctor" Mueller provided his initial reaction to the match: 

Kalisto has quickly developed into WWE's ultimate underdog, and that has never been more apparent than it was at AT&T Stadium when the 5'6", 170-pound luchador was faced with a 6'3", 291-pound challenge in the form of the Big Guy.

The King of Flight has made a habit out of overcoming the odds during his short time on WWE's main roster, and he did precisely that to win the U.S. title in the first place, as he defeated former world champion Alberto Del Rio on multiple occasions, including a high-profile victory at the Royal Rumble event.

While Kalisto was humming along after that, it wasn't long before the most menacing opponent of his WWE career stepped into his path.

Ryback experienced a change in attitude following Fastlane that saw him go from a happy-go-lucky babyface to a more complex character who was more focused on getting to the top of WWE than pleasing the fans.

That led to the Human Wrecking Ball challenging Kalisto to a WrestleMania match and declaring that a good big guy beats a good little guy every time.

Ryback's memorable line gave Kalisto no shortage of incentive to pull off the upset, but other motivations were also driving him, as he explained in an interview with WWE.com: "My nephews and nieces look up to me now. They tell me that they want to follow their dreams. That's really big, to know I'm having an impact on their lives. That's a message of lucha that I want to spread. Whatever you want to do in life, you can do it. Don't say 'never.' Nothing's impossible."

While WWE has often been called the land of giants over the years due to Vince McMahon's apparent affinity for large, muscular wrestlers, the company has always been partial to a great underdog story as well.

That was quite apparent during Rey Mysterio's time with the company, and WWE had an opportunity to start the process of putting Kalisto on a similar level at WrestleMania.

As pointed out by Scott Fishman of the Sun Sentinel, a Kalisto victory on the big stage had the potential to carry a great deal of weight:

WWE had a big decision to make. Should it push a traditional Superstar like Ryback or someone who deviates from the norm such as Kalisto?

While Ryback seemed to be building plenty of momentum and trending toward winning the United States Championship for the first time during the road to WrestleMania, Kalisto was ultimately given a major vote of confidence by beating the Big Guy.

WWE must now make the victory worthwhile by putting Kalisto in intriguing storylines and restoring some of the U.S. title's prestige that has been lost in recent months.

If WWE manages to pull that off, then the masked Superstar has a chance to be one of the company's most popular faces for the foreseeable future.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.