WWE WrestleMania 33 Results: Worst Booking Decisions from Massive Event

WWE WrestleMania 33 captivated audiences and left them buzzing about the matches, moments and Superstars who defined the broadcast.

From The Undertaker's last ride to Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship victory to The Hardy Boyz's shocking return and Raw Tag Team Championship victory, the show was rife with strong booking decisions that will undeniably affect the WWE product well into the future.

Not every booking choice should be celebrated, though.

A seven-hour event Sunday night in Orlando, Florida, WrestleMania gave fans plenty to gripe about, too.

From questionable decisions involving the female talent of WWE to the most mind-numbingly ridiculous outcome imaginable in the night's premier Kickoff Show match, they were decisions that could adversely affect many of the Superstars directly involved.

What were the worst booking decisions from the 33rd Showcase of the Immortals?

Take a look for yourself.

Mojo Rawley Wins the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the Wrong Reasons

It is one thing to select a charismatic young star like Mojo Rawley to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal because management believes in him as a face of the company's bright future.

It is another thing entirely to book him to win a match strictly because the company values the mainstream media attention it will garner from the presence of his best friend, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Sunday night, Superstars such as Braun Strowman, Big Show, Sami Zayn and Dolph Ziggler had their credibility sacrificed for a three-second mention on ESPN and some social media posts about Gronk running through Jinder Mahal. That is detrimental to logic and goes against the long-term success of WWE.

Yes, WrestleMania was built on celebrity involvement, so Gronk's appearance is not out of the ordinary. But WWE had spent months building Strowman into an unstoppable monster and Zayn into a lovable underdog that needed a win in Sunday's match to put him over the top.

Instead, both of those competitors were dispatched of unceremoniously, eliminated as if they were afterthoughts, while Mahal, Epico and NXT's Killian Dain outlasted them.

Arguably the worst-booked match on the entire seven-hour presentation, the contest did nothing to help anyone and too much to hurt key players from the Raw brand.

Rushing the Women

The single most memorable moment of an otherwise underwhelming and unsatisfying show last year was the realization of the Women's Revolution. Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks tore the house down in Dallas with a phenomenal Triple Threat match that saw Ric Flair's daughter become the new women's champion.

Considering the strides the women had made in the year that followed, including headlining pay-per-view events and main eventing Raw, one had every reason to expect the female talent would take on a significant role in WrestleMania 33.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

In the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championship matches, the action was rushed. The eliminations in the red brand's offering came fast and furious. Nia Jax saw her reign of dominance come to an abrupt end, while Banks hardly contributed to the bout despite being the most over performer involved.

On the SmackDown side, the women were barely able to get their own signature stuff in as time constraints weighed heavily on the overall quality of their bout.

WrestleMania should have been a shining night for two divisions that became such integral parts of Raw and SmackDown following the brand extension last July.

While Naomi had her defining championship moment in front of her hometown crowd, and the Raw Superstars entered the stadium with all the pomp and circumstance reserved for the industry’s top acts, their contributions were limited and rushed.

The result? A disappointed fanbase who had spent the last 12 months emotionally investing in the female performers and the stories they told on a weekly basis.

The Entire WWE Championship Match

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt sucked.

That may not be the most elegant way of putting it, but given the six-month build to the contest and the many parlor tricks and theatricalities that were used to tell the story behind it, one would have assumed both WWE Creative and the Superstars themselves would have brought more to the table Sunday night than they ultimately did.

Instead, they relied on projections of various insects onto the canvas to create a visual that captivated fans but could not mask the underwhelming nature and flat feel of the contest.

On a night in which Orton needed to convince fans that he is a recreated and re-energized character they should be excited to have as WWE champion, he once again failed to perform up to the moment.

Ditto for Wyatt, whose first opportunity to compete on the WrestleMania stage as WWE champion was marred by theatricality and deception rather than athleticism and drama.

A monumental disappointment that does nothing but hurt the perception of SmackDown as an equal to Raw.

No Stipulation in Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens

Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens is a match that deserved a special stipulation attached.

The feud that preceded it was an emotional roller coaster, one of friendship-turned-hatred that fans ate up each and every week.

Jericho entered WrestleMania seeking revenge. WWE Creative failed both him and Owens, booking them in a basic singles bout rather than a hardcore, Extreme Rules or No Holds Barred match that better suited the tone of their program.

They wrestled a strong match, but it paled in comparison to the bout they could have had with the right stipulation attached.

Much like the WWE Championship match between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, to a much lesser degree, their contest felt like a letdown considering the intensely personal story that accompanied it.

On a night where Goldberg and Brock Lesnar brought their epic rivalry to a close in fitting fashion, and Triple H and Seth Rollins nearly stole the show with their unsanctioned match, Jericho vs. Owens felt like one with more to offer fans but was severely limited by the constraints of a typical WWE wrestling match.

The New Day Disappoints

When it was announced The New Day would host WrestleMania, the prospects of Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods being left off the card were suddenly forgivable. One of the most over and entertaining acts on the WWE roster, they would have the opportunity to make an impact and create moments beyond the squared circle.

As fans found out Sunday night, that was not the case.

New Day barely made an impression during the seven-hour pay-per-view. They were on screen three times and did nothing to impress the audience at any point. 

That is through no fault of their own.

Time constraints and a strict script limited what they were able to do. Had it not been for their introduction of The Hardy Boyz just before the Raw Tag Team Championship match, their impact on Sunday's broadcast would have been nonexistent.

That is majorly disappointing for an act that made history in 2016, becoming the longest-reigning tag team champions in WWE history and a major marketing and merchandising asset to Vince McMahon's promotion.

Sunday night, they were done a massive disservice in a role they should have thrived in.