WWE WrestleMania 31 live results: Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns, HHH vs. Sting

Welcome to WrestlingObserver.com’s live coverage of pro wrestling’s biggest night of the year, WrestleMania 31 from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.  We will start with the preshow matches at 6PM/3PM ETPT.

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

TYSON KIDD & CESARO VS. NEW DAY VS. LOS MATADORES VS. USOS FOR TAG TEAM TITLE

Very good opener with lots of creative team spots and blind tags.  New day was Kofi Kingston & Big E.  Jey was taken out early with a shouler injury so he wasn’t ready after all.  There was a spot where Jimmy Uso & Naomi did a double dive.  There was also a chicken fight double team superplex which set up Jimmy doing a splash off the top on Big E.  Cesaro blind tagged in, threw Jimmy out of the ring and stole the pin.

ANDRE THE GIANT BATTLE ROYAL

Long match  The final three were Big Show, Miz and Mizdow  Of course it set up Mizdow throwing out Miz.  They spent what seemed like minutes with Miz wanting them to work together and Mizdow refusing.  Miz got mad and was yelling at him for a long time until Mizdow threw him out.  Mizdow and Show went several minutes.  They were trying to sell it like Mizdow winning would be a miracle  Mizdow kept getting hope spots and near finishes and locked him in a guillotine and teased pulling him over, but Show broke it and threw Mizdow out to win  They pushed the story that Show had never won a Battle Royal throughout the match. Show and Ryback were pushed as the dominant guys.  The guys from the tag title match were in, as was Alex Riley.  Very good as Battle Royals go.  Cesaro teased slamming Show over like last year but Show got away slammed him over.  As for Hideo Itami, he got rag dolled and thrown out by Show.  Didn’t do much else.  There was also a spot where Show threw out all three members of The New Day.  

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For what it’s worth, rumors in the press box are that The Rock will shoot an angle with HHH after HHH beats Sting, and not in the main event.  I guess we’ll see.  The other press box rumor is Bray Wyatt has a badly sprained ankle but he is going to wrestle.

LADDER MATCH FOR IC TITLE OPENS THE SHOW DANIEL BRYAN, R-TRUTH, DOLPH ZIGGLER, BAD NEWS BARRETT, LUKE HARPER, STARDUST, DEAN AMBROSE

Super match as expected with Bryan and Ziggler on the top of the ladder frantically head-butting each other and then doing ram head-butts until Ziggler fell off the ladder and Bryan pulled it down.  The big spot was Harper power bombing Ambrose over the tiop rope onto a ladder bridge.  Ambrose stayed down after.  Barrett was giving everyone bull hammers.  Stardust did a lot of cool spots as well.  There was a series of dives to open the match.  Not the super crazy spots of ladder matches in the past, but great nonetheless.

They showed a tap out ad whch included Roman Reigns doing a one-arm barbell press of 135 pounds which is impressive as hell both for balance and strength.

RANDY ORTON VS. SETH ROLLINS

The smart money was off because Orton won with a Rollins curb stomp turned into an RKO, which the crowd went nuts for.  These guys were both on.  Rollins kicked out of an RKO and Orton kicked out of a curb stoimp early  Rollins also did an Asai moonsault and his back landed badly on the announcers table.  Orton gave RKO’s to both Mercury and Noble before the curb stomp that he kicked out of.  Rollins also missed a somersault twisting press off the top and landed on his feet when Orton moved.  Rollins was his usual top flight self and Orton was a few steps above usual.

They just showed Ronda Rousey in the crowd with Marina Shafir.

The story is that Wyatt rolled his ankle working the match out in the ring earlier today.

Ambrose seemed like he was bleeding from the back of his head. 

There are actually a lot of empty seats all over the stadium still.  Most are in the upper deck

STING VS. HHH

Really elaborate ring entrace by HHH with the Terminator constume and clips from the movie.

This was a crazy spectacle.  From where I was, it got easily the most reaction of the night.  HHH won with a sledge hammer spot.  First, DX, as in Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and X-Pac came out and intefered.  This led to HHH delivering a pedigree but Sting kicked out.  HHH got the sledge hammer but the NWO, as in Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, came out.  There was an NWO vs DX brawl on the floor.  Sting used the scorpion deathlock and HHH went to get the sledge hammer again but Hogan pulled it away from him  Sting used the scorpion death drop but HHH kicked out.  Shawn Michaels superkicked Sting but he kicked out.  Billy Gunn gave HHH the sledge hammer but Scott Hall gave Sting the bat.  Sting used the bat to break the sledge hammer.  Sting made a big comeback but HHH use the top of the broken sledge hammer on him for the pin  Sting and HHH shook hands and it was portrayed as if the Monday Night War was over and all the legends were together for a final curtain.  People loved this match.  Sting was really over as a face particularly wen he did a plancha onto DX an the place went crazy.  This was done in a way like it was the end of Sting and they allowed him to lose with grace.  HHH had a really nasty bruise on his right leg from early in the match  Sting had a bruise under his arm as well.

They announced the new shows for the WWE Network, a WWE Swerved show, a WWE Too Hot for TV hosted by Jerry Springer and an all new Diva search.

In trying to put over Daniel Bryan as IC champion they brought out Pat Patterson, Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair to endorse him  Bryan looked like he was in heaven.  Flair chopped Steamboat.  Bret Hart then congratulated Bryan.  Then they all did “Yes” chants.  Ron Simmons showed up and said “Damn.”  Real good stuff.  So far this show is a home run.

BELLA TWINS VS.  A.J. LEE & PAIGE

The finish saw A.J. make Nikki submit to the black widowl  It was the second time she had used it  Lee had kicked out of the forearm and Paige had kicked out of the rack attack.  Short match, tons of people went to the concession stand but match was fine.

No sign of Sheamus. 

HALL OF FAME INTRO TIME

They didn’t give entrances for anyone but Kevin Nash, who got a full NWO musical entrance.  It was hard to tell where I am about the reactions but Conor Michalek and Randy Savage got big reactions.  It seemed pretty quick.

RUSEV VS. JOHN CENA FOR U.S. TITLE

They have the Russian flags with guys in uniform set up and it looks like cannons or something on the stage.  Lana is back.  Rusev came in on a tank.  They came out to the Russian national anthem and then played Rusev’s entrance music. 

Cena won he title with the Attitude Adjustment ending the unbeaten streak after Rusev charged and knocked Lana off the apron.  Rusev was screaming at Lana who was crying.  Both had used their submission finishes as Cena used the STF but Rusev slammed him out.  When Rusev had the accolade, Cena got up and backed Rusev into the turnbuckles to break it.  Great heat for that. 

The Horsewomen are in the front row having a ball while Cena thanked Betty Skaaland.  Ata Johnson was next to Skaaland in the front row.  Good match, maybe not as good as their last PPV match.

They are pushing the AT&T Stadium WrestleMania for next year in a commercial on April 3, 2016.

76,976 is the fake number that the Super Bowl can’t beat.  There are actually a number of empties in he upper deck.  HHH ay be setting up Rock comng out.  He said he owned Sting just like we own every superstar and Diva.  They kissed in the ring.  Rock out  Well, that’s the match.

They did a long angle where Rock and HHH and Steph went at it.  We’ll talk about it more but Stephanie slapped Rock and dared him to do something about it.  He left the ring like he was whipped, stopped in front of Ronda Rousey.  They did a long stardown, all kinds of great lines back and forth including Rock saying she’ll pull his insides out and use them for a jump rope.  Stehaniie said she and Ronda were friends.  It ended with Rock attacking HHH and Rousey hip tossing HHH.  Stephanie tried to slap Ronda but she grabbed her arm and twisted it.  Stephanie bailed.  It looked like they were setting up a mixed tag.

This was a pretty incredible angle.  Rousey didn’t say much but she gave her stare.  There were long pauses as the crowd soaked it up.  There were lot of Rousey chants even before she got in the ring and Ronda’s gonna kill you when she was in the ring.  Stephanie was incredible here. 

UNDERTAKER VS. BRAY WYATT

Undertaker won with a tombstone piledriver after blocking Sister Abigail.  It wasn’t a great match, but seemed acceptable enough.  Undertaker lost 20 years in age in the last four months.  He did the old school rope walk and fans popped big.  He did the Hells Gate but Wyatt punched his way out.  Undertaker did the tombstone but Wyatt kicked out and Undertaker kicked out of he first Sister Abigail.  I’ve been doing a million things at once because of the Rousey angle but the match seemed fine.

BROCK LESNAR VS. ROMAN REIGNS FOR WWE TITLE

Incredible match and finish.  It was similar early to the Cena vs. Lesnar SummerSlam match where there were a ton of suplexes over and over  Lesnar hit one F-5 early but didn’t try the pin.  He hit a second one and Reigns kicked out.  He hit a third one and Reigns kicked out again.  Reigns threw Lesnar into the post and Lesnar bled like you wouldn’t believe.  He was bleeding all over the place and Reigns made his comeback.  Reigns hit several superman punches and Lesnar didn’t even go down.  He finally put Lesnar down on the third Superman punch and hit two spears but Lesnar kicked out.  He tried a spear but Lesnar picked him up and gave him another F-5.  Lesnar collapsed.  Both were dead.  Seth Rollins came in and handed the ref the brifcase.  It became a Triple Threat match.  He went for the curb stomp on Lesnar, Lesnar put him on his shoulders for an F-5.  Reigns then speared Lesnar and both went down.  Reigns and Lesnar were dead and Rollins gave Reigns the curb stomp and pinned him, so Rollins won, Lesnar didn’t lose and Reigns was portrayed in a totally positive light in losing.  Really brilliant booking her because you can do Reigns vs. Rollins now and Lesnar against both guys, and even Lesnar vs. Reigns because nobody won that match.

This was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.  Several great matches, a killer angle and very little that wasn’t good.