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SMACKDOWN WOMEN'S TITLE CLOSES THE SHOW: LIVE WRESTLEMANIA THOUGHTS FROM TAMPA

New Day against AJ Styles and Omos is next.  We finally get to see what Omos has in the tank.  Holy hell, the Styles entrance was awesome live.  Just cool pyro. AJ has his shoulder taped.  Some nice action with AJ and Kofi.  Omos and Xavier tagged in and basically Omos was Zeus from No Holds Barred without the screaming - nothing phased him.  Not even coming off the top did the trick.  He mauled Xavier and basically even did the Claw as his hand palmed Woods' face during a backbreaker.  This was all building monsters 101.    Styles came off his shoulders with a phenomenal forearm.    He wiped out Kofi and stepped on his chest, easily scoring the pin.

They set out to make Omos the next indestructible monster with New Day bumping like mad for him and making everything look insanely evil.  In that regard, it was a success.

The Braun entrance looked insane live.  Of course, Elias and Ryker attacked him as he made it to the cage.  That's the best way to make the unstoppable monster sympathetic and to put McMahon in control.   Shane tried to escape the cage but Braun stopped him and tossed him across the ring, showing his monstrous strength.  Shane regained control and sent him into the cage.  He drilled Braun with a big DDT.  Ryker and Elias tried to help Shane over the cage but Braun drilled them down charging at the cage.   Shane drilled Braun with some sort of weapon and climbed over the cage but Braun grabbed his fingers through the cage and ripped the steel fencing off to drag Shane back into the cage.  Live, the crowd loved that spot,  Braun set him up on the top and then followed him up.  Nothing good can come of this.  Braun tossed him off and Shane took a flip bump off the top of the cage into the center of the ring.  OOOOF that was rough looking.  Shane will be hurting tomorrow.  Braun returned to the ring instead of leaving, which was WEIRD.  He set up for his powerslam and got the pin.  OK, so he wanted to make a statement.  This was OK.

They brought out the WWE Hall of Famers.  Obviously, Jushin Liger isn't here.  He has to settle for this:

They had Steve Austin officially announce Wrestlemania in Dallas next year but they just said April 2022.

A horde of Easter Bunnies invaded the ring.  Is Adam Rose back?  A guy can hope.

No, it was a set up for Miz and John Morrison's entrance.  They sang their hop hop hop hop song to the ring to mock Bad Bunny. I hate to say it, but I was strangely entertained by this foolishness.

Bad Bunny got a nice pop when his music hit.  Damian Priest having a massive entrance at this level is insane to see given how far he's come since The Monster Factory and Ring of Honor.  Good for him.  He's in the time capsule now.  Bad Bunny had this INSANE action movie entrance where he was driving through Tampa atop of a truck like it was something out of Terminator.  His pop coming out was as big live as almost anyone else on the show.

There was a "Puerto Rico" chant at the onset of the match live.  Bunny wanted to start and got a big reaction for that.  Yet some people wanted to pontificate the audience wouldn't care...

The story early was that Bad Bunny was driving Miz nuts by besting him in the ring.  The crowd was cracking up at this and there were scattered "this is awesome" chants.  Miz drilled Bunny and tossed him out of the ring.  Bad Bunny came back with a satellite head scissors takedown.  Bad Bunny has given a good accounting for himself thus far.  One would have expected Damian Priest to do the heavy lifting but he hasn't even tagged in yet.  Bunny was beaten down for a long, long time.  Miz began nailing him with Yes kicks in the corner.  Bunny kicked away a Miz charge and nailed a tornado DDT.  

The crowd clapped and rallied Bunny for the hot tag.  He made it and Priest cleaned house.  Priest nailed a chokeslam but Morrison broke up the pinfall.  Everyone battled in the ring.  Priest and Bunny hit stereo Falcon Arrows.  Priest did a step up dive to the floor.  They teased a Bad Bunny dive and he went to the top and sailed off onto everyone.  Good thing they caught him, he's worth a lot of money.

Miz caught Priest with the Skull Crushing Finale but Bunny broke it up.  Bunny nailed Miz's finisher on Morrison outside and Miz was pissed.  Bunny came off the ropes with a splash on Miz and scored the pin.  This was WAY WAYT WAY better than it had any right to be.  Kudos to Drew Gulak and Adam Pearce for getting Bunny ready for this.  He delivered in spades and was absolutely awesome.  That was one of the best celebrity performances ever. 

More thoughts on Page 3!

 

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