March 29th, 2015
Location: Santa Clara, California
Venue: Levi's Stadium
Attendance: 79,976
Theme songs: "Rise" by David Guetta ft. Skylar Grey; "Money and the Power" by Kid Ink
Welcome to day 31 as our journey takes us back to California for the sixth time in history. Levi's Stadium was selected as the domain as the sun shined brightly for the grand spectacle.
As day turned into night, one of the best surprises in history came at the end of the show, which nobody saw coming.
The opening note to make would be the logo, as for the first time since WrestleMania 14, a number or roman numeral wasn’t added to signify which edition of the show it would be. Vince McMahon began to hate the number in the WrestleMania logo and opted to remove it starting this year and moving forward.
The reasoning being (I kid you not) was solely on the fact that he felt WrestleMania would appear old if the number kept appearing. Not as if signifying which edition it was made it prestigious, right?
The tradition of “America the Beautiful” had returned as singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc was selected to honor the United States.
The evening's theme was "Silicon Valley," as WWE focused on the technological advances since WrestleMana's inception and showed with the stage design.
In the opening video package, WWE got rapper/actor LL Cool J to help welcome the world to WrestleMania 31. Personally, this is one of my all-time favorite openings to a WrestleMania and would instantly get you excited.
Thanks to the sun, no pyro opened up the show, and the sea of fans was shown to get the festivities underway.
Only seven matches were scheduled on the main card in a record low, two happening on the pre-show.
The night opened with a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. Bad News Barrett was trying to retain his title against Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Stardust, Luke Harper, and R-Truth.
Daniel Bryan outlasted the rest and climbed the ladder to win his first Intercontinental Championship. After the amazing ending from the year before, Bryan pulled off what he did last year to close the show, win a championship.
Once again, the Divas Championship wasn’t defended at WrestleMania as champion Nikki Bella and her sister Brie faced off against AJ Lee and Paige in a tag team match. Lee would set up Nikki in her Black Widow submission and force her to tap out.
For Lee, it would be her final WrestleMania as she would leave the company later in the year. For Paige, she would compete one more time on the grand stage before leaving, returning, and being forced to retire due to a brutal neck injury.
In October 2014, Randy Orton turned his back on The Authority and attacked Seth Rollins, who joined shortly after WrestleMania when he turned his back on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose.
That began a long feud between the two and culminated at WrestleMania. Just as Rollins was going to seal the win with a curb stomp, Orton gave the new meaning to “RKO Outta Nowhere” when he elevated Rollins in the air and caught him with his signature RKO.
Long story short, beware of the viper.
Right after WrestleMania 30, Rusev was called up to the main roster from NXT and would be dominant. With his manager Lana by his side, he would rise to the top of the midcard and win the United States Championship. At the FastLane pay-per-view the month before WrestleMania, Rusev defeated John Cena to retain his championship.
Cena would ask for a rematch and get it after he put Rusev in his STF submission and refused to break the hold until Lana granted him the match.
Making his WrestleMania debut, Rusev entered on a freaking tank while Russian soldiers stood at the stage with Russian flags. Rusev hadn’t lost by pinfall upon being called to the main roster, so the odds were in his favor.
Guess who ruined another WrestleMania debut in back-to-back years? Cena would find his way to give Rusev his first pinfall loss and claimed the United States Championship.
John Cena doesn’t like the word “fun.”
Let’s get into the three things that stood out to me from WrestleMania 31.
Retirement wasn't in question
WrestleMania 30 had fans gasping for air when The Undertaker was handed his first loss on the grand stage thanks to Brock Lesnar after twenty-one straight victories. ‘Taker would vanish once again and not be heard of for a long time.
As 2014 went on and into 2015, Bray Wyatt continued to raise hell in the WWE, even though he lost his WrestleMania debut against John Cena. At FastLane, Wyatt would try to push his limits and see if he can wake up the dead.
On an episode of Raw a few weeks later, Wyatt brought out an urn in the hopes of attracting the deadman. When he opened the urn, smoke began to come out, and ‘Taker’s gong went off in the arena. In an instant, the urn was switched out with Wyatt’s rocking chair, and the big screen at the stage had the WrestleMania logo with a message that said, “The Man Comes Around.”
A bolt of lightning struck the chair and was set on fire as Wyatt laughed away, realizing The Undertaker said yes.
Initially, this had many fans (myself included) wondering as to why The Undertaker was going to have another match. After the emotional ending from the year before, many concluded that it wasn’t worth seeing The Undertaker compete at WrestleMania again.
Not to mention, The Undertaker looked very fragile in his match with Lesnar, and upon hearing he had to be rushed to the hospital immediately after, fans also thought he couldn’t keep going.
WrestleMania 31 had arrived, and Wyatt came out first, waiting for his opponent. Even before Undertaker made his entrance, it was still doubted or didn’t feel real that he would fight at WrestleMania again.
Soon enough, ‘Taker came out to a massive ovation and still wanted to show he can still go in the ring.
Hours before WrestleMania began, Wyatt wound up hurting his ankle as he was warming up for his match. The two would work around the injury and keep it slow-paced to protect the ankle.
Looking refreshed and healthier from when the WWE Universe last saw him, he put up a great effort against Wyatt, playing mind games with him throughout the encounter.
Surprisingly, the match was solid. I was surprised to see Undertaker continue to put on a decent performance in the ring.
After a second tombstone piledriver, Undertaker would overcome Wyatt and pick up his 22nd win at WrestleMania.
The WrestleMania record stood at 22-1. It was great to see The Undertaker back in the ring, but that “1” continued to haunt the world, and the match didn’t have that special feel anymore.
A stinger
When WWE bought WCW in 2001, tons of talent would continue their careers in WWE while a select few would walk away.
One of those that walked away was Sting. After numerous failed contract negotiations, Sting would continue his career in TNA wrestling, leaving fans wondering “What if?” in terms of seeing him in WWE.
When Sting reached the end of his contract with Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) in early 2014, fans speculated that he would finally jump to WWE.
The speculation grew when Sting was announced as a pre-order bonus for WWE 2K15 in July. At the San Diego Comic-Con Convention, Sting made a surprise appearance during WWE’s panel for their new line of action figures with Mattel.
With all these appearances unofficially confirming he signed with WWE, fans began to wonder if this would turn into an in-ring appearance.
Fast forward to Survivor Series in November, and the WWE Universe received a massive surprise.
During the traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match that pitted Team Cena against Team Authority, if Cena’s team lost, everybody would be fired. If Team Authority lost, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would lose all power in the company.
With Dolph Ziggler left from Team Cena and Seth Rollins left from Team Authority, Triple H helped Rollins try and give his team the win. When Triple H brought out his corrupt referee to seal the match, the cry of a crow sounded in the arena, and everybody saw the debut of somebody that was long overdue.
Sting would confront Triple H, hit him with his signature Scorpion Death Drop, and put Ziggler over Rollins to give Team Cena the win.
Triple H was stripped of his power thanks to Sting and wanted revenge. At FastLane, Sting accepted the WrestleMania challenge that Triple H laid out.
For Sting, not only was he set to make his WrestleMania debut in Santa Clara, but he was also making his WWE in-ring debut, hoping to pull out the win.
The bout would have No Disqualifications, which left the playing field wide open in what can happen to attract more interest.
After two incredible entrances from both Sting and Triple H, the two began to fight, going back-and-forth right off the bat.
Midway through, Sting put Triple H in his Scorpion Death Lock submission hold when music began to play, getting everybody to look at the stage.
Triple H’s “D-Generation X” (DX) group members X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn came running down to the ring to assist their partner. It was suddenly 4-on-1, and with no disqualifications, it seemed as if Triple H was going to get away with one.
Just as Triple H grabbed his sledgehammer, music that wasn’t heard at a WWE event since 2002 played and caught the crowd's attention.
The original trio of the New World Order (NWO) (Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall) made a surprise appearance and headed down to ringside to take care of DX and keep the playing field even for Sting. Considering that Sting and the NWO never got along in WCW, it was a great sight to see men who helped elevate their former company coming together at WrestleMania.
Sting managed to put Triple H back in his Death Lock. However, Shawn Michaels, the fifth member of DX, came running to aid his best friend and superkicked Sting in the hopes of helping Triple H win.
The decision to put Triple H over resulted in negative backlash from fans. Many critics had thought Sting should have won, considering it was his debut and how long he waited to wrestle in WWE.
Fans also thought it was unofficially WCW vs. WWE, and Vince wanted to remind everybody that WWE triumphed at the end of the Monday Night Wars in 2001.
Wherever your opinion lies, to me, it was still great to see Sting finally compete in WWE. Unfortunately, Sting would be forced to retire after he sustained a neck injury against Seth Rollins at the Battleground pay-per-view a few months later.
Even if he’s way past his prime (as some say) and “too late” for him in joining the company, at least he got a taste of what it feels like to compete at WrestleMania and, more importantly, spend some time in WWE.
"A triple threat match?!"
In May 2014, Triple H and The Authority announced they had a “Plan B” when he, Randy Orton, and Batista couldn’t defeat The Shield.
“Plan B” had Seth Rollins hitting his Shield brother Roman Reigns with a steel chair. As Ambrose showed a shocked face and wanted to hurt Rollins for his action, Seth began to attack him and ended The Shield.
Rollins would join The Authority and began his best run in WWE. He would win the Money in the Bank contract a few months later, allowing him to challenge for a championship match at his convenience.
With The Shield disbanding, Reigns and Ambrose went their ways in the hope of finding success as single competitors.
WWE was looking for their next stand-out star behind the scenes as John Cena began to fade away and get more integrated into Hollywood. That man would be Roman Reigns.
A cousin of The Rock and Samoan descent, WWE saw potential in Reigns and wanted him to be the company's next face.
However, as fans noticed Reigns was given a bit more attention than other superstars, they began to turn the cheers into jeers and reject him as the top star.
What started as a small selection of boos eventually filled the entire arena, and fans wanted nothing to do with Reigns.
In the 2015 Royal Rumble match, fans in Philadelphia turned hostile and loudly booed Reigns. When Roman was in the final three with Kane and Big Show, fans grew even louder when they realized who was expected to win. As Reigns eliminated the two giants, both returned to continue to hurt Reigns until The Rock made a surprise return to help his cousin.
Rusev (who was never eliminated) tried to outsmart Reigns but was eliminated shortly after. Roman earned the right to be in the main event of WrestleMania 31. Despite The Rock raising his cousin’s arm in victory, fans continued to boo Reigns and made it clear he was the wrong choice as the next big star.
Meanwhile, as Reigns was climbing the ranks, Brock Lesnar would crush John Cena at SummerSlam to easily win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The decision to hand the title to somebody who wasn’t full-time with the company also drew fans' ire.
When Lesnar retained his championship against Rollins and Cena in a triple threat match at the Royal Rumble and Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan at FastLane for his WrestleMania spot, the main event was set, and nobody was happy about it.
To WrestleMania, we go, and after an already entertaining night, Lesnar and Reigns went on last to see who left Levi’s Stadium with the top prize.
Right off the bat, Lesnar hit a German suplex and his signature F-5 to put Reigns away quickly but to no avail.
Surprisingly to everybody, both men gave one of their careers' best performances and put on a fantastic match. The champion and challenger got physical and held nothing back, even with Lesnar bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
As both men laid in the middle of the ring exhausted, Michael Cole at the broadcast table said, “who will capitalize?”.
Enter player three.
In a stunning surprise, Seth Rollins came running in with his Money in the Bank contract and told the referee he wanted to be added into the match.
Per the briefcase rules, a championship opportunity could be granted at any time in any location. It never states it can’t be done DURING a championship match.
Rollins made history as he became the first man in history to not only cash in his opportunity midway through a match but cashing in at WrestleMania. Somehow, since 2005, the idea of using the briefcase at WrestleMania never came to mind. Mr. Kennedy stated it in 2007 but lost the briefcase to Edge, who cashed in on SmackDown.
Referee Mike Chioda rang the bell, and the main event was turned into a triple threat match. Rollins kicked Reigns out of the ring and nailed the curb stomp onto Lesnar.
As he checked up on Reigns to make sure he was down, Rollins again went for another curb stomp before Lesnar picked him up for an F-5.
However, Reigns came back in the ring and speared Lesnar. As Roman was down after the spear, Rollins took advantage, hit the curb stomp, and made history.
A match that advertised two men competing for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship had none of them walk away with the glory.
Seth Rollins took his newly won title and ran up the ramp to stand with his prized possession and close the night with fireworks lighting up the sky.
It’s been considered one of the best WrestleMania endings in history and indeed was the heist of the century.
Final thoughts
I was at my friend’s house catching WrestleMania 31. I, along with four others, made our predictions before the night started on who would win.
We left an option that said, “Seth cashes in?” and nobody said yes.
I was jumping up and down when Rollins came running in. With the rise of Roman Reigns throughout the year, nearly everybody assumed he would leave Santa Clara as champion. Believe me when I say that it was a relief to see Roman not win.
WrestleMania 31 left us with an incredible moment that is still talked about to this day and will continue to do so for a very long time. If WrestleMania produces those moments that are spoken about in such high regard, it did something right.
Now I know for WrestleMania 30, I said it can be considered one of the best of all time. However, WrestleMania 31 can also be up there in conversation, even leaving some critics calling it the best anyway.
I think it’s fantastic that WrestleMania once again had back-to-back great years, something WWE fans hadn’t seen in roughly ten years.
Many wondered if WrestleMania 32 would follow its predecessors after the success in Santa Clara and make it a threepeat in great shows.
Well, not really. The following year would take us to Dallas, in which a new attendance record was reached. Unfortunately, it would feature a main event that nobody wanted and nothing to interrupt it.
Results:
- Daniel Bryan def. Bad News Barrett (c), Stardust, Luke Harper, Dean Ambrose, R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler - Ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship,
- Randy Orton def. Seth Rollins
- Triple H def. Sting - No Disqualification match
- AJ Lee and Paige def. Nikki and Brie Bella (via submission)
- John Cena def. Rusev (c) - United States Championship
- The Undertaker def. Bray Wyatt
- Seth Rollins def. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar (c) - WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Rating: A
Thanks for reading. Look out for tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 32.
4 days away until WrestleMania 35.
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