WrestleMania 34: Difference between revisions

WrestleMania 34
WrestleMania 34
	File:WrestleMania34ALT.jpg Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
Promotion	WWE
Brand(s)	Raw; SmackDown
Date	April 8, 2018
City	New Orleans, Louisiana
Venue	Mercedes-Benz Superdome
Attendance	78,133
WWE Network event chronology
← Previous; NXT TakeOver: New Orleans	Next →; Greatest Royal Rumble
WrestleMania chronology
← Previous; WrestleMania 33	Next →; WrestleMania 35

Browse history interactively

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Revision as of 02:22, 9 April 2018

WrestleMania 34 is an ongoing thirty-fourth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It takes place on April 8, 2018, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Production

Background

WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event,^[6] having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.^[7] The event will be the second WrestleMania to be held in the state of Louisiana and the second held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which previously hosted WrestleMania XXX in 2014.^[8] On October 30, 2017, traveling packages for the event, with accommodation ranging from $1,150 to $8,525 per person, were sold;^[9]^[10] tickets went on sale on November 17, 2017, with individual tickets costing from $35 to $2,000.^[9]

On April 8, prior to the start of WrestleMania, WWE and Snickers will hold the WrestleMania Block Party at the Champions Square plaza. The tailgate event will feature appearances from WWE Hall of Famers Alundra Blayze and Ric Flair as well as appearances from active competitors Tamina and R-Truth.^[11] American duo Chloe x Halle will perform "America the Beautiful" to kick off the main card of WrestleMania.^[12]

In March 2017, before WrestleMania 33, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that WWE's long term plans ("which obviously could change") for WrestleMania 34 was to "once again build for a year and have the big coronation" for Roman Reigns, who would still be a heroic character "between now and then" and beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship "to fully replace John Cena as the lead babyface of the company",^[13] while the "idea" for Lesnar's role "for years now" was "to become a monster, be unbeatable, run through everybody, and then lose to Roman Reigns".^[14]

Storylines

The card will include matches resulting from scripted storylines and have results predetermined by WWE on the Raw and SmackDown brands.^[15]^[16]^[17] Storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live,^[18] and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.^[19]

At WrestleMania 33, Brock Lesnar won the Universal Championship and Roman Reigns defeated The Undertaker;^[20] Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman then teased a match between Lesnar and Reigns for the title since they were the only two to have defeated Undertaker at WrestleMania.^[21] Over the following year, Lesnar retained the championship in various title defenses, including a fatal four-way at SummerSlam, where Lesnar pinned Reigns.^[22] Since the 2018 Royal Rumble winner chose to challenge for SmackDown's world championship at WrestleMania 34, Lesnar's challenger was determined at Elimination Chamber where Reigns won the Elimination Chamber match,^[23] which in turn set up a rematch from WrestleMania 31, which did not have a decisive winner between the two.^[24] Lesnar was advertised for the February 26 episode of Raw, but did not appear. Reigns criticized Lesnar for hiding behind his contract and said that Lesnar did not respect WWE and that he had no respect for Lesnar.^[25] The following week, Heyman said that Lesnar would retain, and come SummerSlam, he would be both Universal Champion and UFC Heavyweight Champion, insinuating that Lesnar would make another return to the UFC. He said that Lesnar would be there next week; Reigns warned Lesnar to be ready for a fight.^[26] Lesnar, however, was again absent. Reigns expressed his frustrations and demanded answers from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who temporarily suspended Reigns for disrespecting him and guaranteed that Lesnar would appear the following week.^[27] That episode, Reigns appeared, despite his suspension, to confront Lesnar, so Raw General Manager Kurt Angle had him handcuffed by U.S. Marshals. Reigns assaulted the Marshals, after which, Lesnar brutally attacked the handcuffed Reigns, who was taken out on a stretcher.^[28] A similar vicious attack would ensue the following week, concluding with Reigns suffering an F-5 on the steel steps.^[29] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Heyman said that if Reigns were to beat Lesnar, Lesnar and Heyman would not be seen on Raw again. Reigns then came out to seek revenge and attacked Lesnar with five superman punches, but Lesnar recovered and performed an F-5 on Reigns.^[30]

At the Royal Rumble, SmackDown's Shinsuke Nakamura won the men's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns, earning himself a world championship match of his choosing at WrestleMania 34. After the match, when questioned on which champion he would challenge, Nakamura chose WWE Champion AJ Styles;^[31] a matchup previously teased at Money in the Bank during the titular ladder match.^[32] At Fastlane, Styles successfully defended the WWE Championship in a six-pack challenge, confirming the Styles-Nakamura match at WrestleMania.^[33] On the post-Fastlane episode of SmackDown, Styles and Nakamura expressed respect for each other, but Nakamura promised to deliver a Kinshasa to Styles at WrestleMania and become WWE Champion.^[34] On the March 27 episode, Styles was in Nakamura's corner for Nakamura's match against Shelton Benjamin. After defeating Benjamin, Nakamura said he only wanted Styles at ringside to show him how he would beat him at WrestleMania. Benjamin and Chad Gable then attacked Styles, who was saved by Nakamura, who teased performing a Kinshasa on Styles.^[35] On the final SmackDown before WrestleMania, Styles warned Nakamura to not take him lightly and referenced their previous encounter in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, stating that WrestleMania was bigger than the Tokyo Dome. Nakamura responded and said he was not taking Styles lightly, but he knew Styles well and Styles' emotions would cause him to make a mistake. The two later teamed up to defeat Gable and Benjamin. After the match, Styles teased performing a Phenomenal Forearm on Nakamura.^[36]

After failing to win the Elimination Chamber match, Intercontinental Champion The Miz said he should main event WrestleMania 34 anyways as he felt that his title was more important than the Universal Championship. He demanded a challenger for WrestleMania, to which Seth Rollins came out and defeated him. After that, Finn Bálor also came out and defeated Miz. The following week, both Rollins and Bálor confronted Miz, leading to a 2-on-3 handicap match between Rollins and Bálor and The Miz and his Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), in which Rollins pinned Miz. Afterwards, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled The Miz to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Bálor and Rollins in a triple threat match at WrestleMania.^[26] On the March 12 episode, The Miz interviewed his WrestleMania opponents on Miz TV, which ended in Rollins and Bálor jointly taking out Miz and Rollins attacked Bálor, who later defeated Rollins.^[27] On Miz TV the following week, Miz and The Miztourage faked a breakup and attacked Bálor and Rollins, who overcame the attack, after which, Bálor attacked Rollins.^[29] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Rollins defeated Bálor in a rematch.^[30]

Also at the Royal Rumble, Raw's Asuka won the women's Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Nikki Bella. As a result, Asuka earned the right to challenge for a women's championship of her choosing at WrestleMania 34.^[31] On the advice of Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, Asuka postponed her decision^[37]^[38] until both women's champions had defended their titles at Elimination Chamber^[23] and Fastlane, respectively. Following Charlotte Flair's successful defense at Fastlane, Asuka appeared and indicated that she would challenge for the SmackDown Women's Championship.^[33] On the March 12 episode of Raw, Asuka explained that she had chosen Flair as she wanted to challenge the best women's champion in WWE.^[27] On SmackDown the next night, Asuka confronted Flair, who vowed to end Asuka's undefeated streak.^[34] On the final SmackDown before WrestleMania, Asuka appeared following Flair's victory over Natalya. Flair said she was ready for Asuka, but asked Asuka if she was ready for her.^[36]

After Alexa Bliss won her second Raw Women's Championship in August 2017, she formed a friendship with Nia Jax, who also had championship aspirations. Jax failed to earn a title shot at the Royal Rumble and also lost to Asuka at Elimination Chamber in a match that would have added her to Asuka's championship match at WrestleMania 34.^[23] After Asuka defeated her in a rematch on Raw, Bliss consoled Jax and said she deserved a championship match.^[26] When Asuka explained her reasons to challenge Charlotte Flair, Bliss and Mickie James confronted Asuka and called out Jax to wrestle Asuka; when Jax did not appear, James stepped in and lost the match. Later, during Jax's match, a conversation between Bliss and James, who were unaware, could be heard and seen on the TitanTron. Bliss said that she was just using Jax and made fun of her, which greatly upset Jax.^[27] The following week, Bliss issued a fake apology and continued to insult Jax, who eventually came out and chased Bliss to the backstage area. When Bliss complained to Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, he scheduled her to defend the Raw Women's Championship against Jax at WrestleMania.^[28]

After defeating The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson), Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus said they had defeated every tag team on Raw and issued an open challenge to any tag team to face them for the titles at WrestleMania 34.^[26] On the March 12 episode, a brawl broke out between all of the tag teams and Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled a tag team battle royal with the winning team receiving a championship match at WrestleMania. Braun Strowman interjected himself into the match and won by last eliminating Karl Anderson.^[27] The following week, Angle decided that Strowman would receive a Raw Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania as long as he found a partner. Strowman said that he did not need a partner, but would have one. He then defeated Cesaro,^[28] and then Sheamus the following week; had Sheamus won, Strowman would have revealed his partner.^[29] Strowman again teased revealing his partner the following week if Cesaro or Sheamus agreed to face his partner. They agreed; Strowman went backstage and returned as "Brains Strowman", and Cesaro and Sheamus retreated.^[30]

At WrestleMania 31, then-UFC star Ronda Rousey appeared alongside The Rock and embarrassed The Authority (WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon).^[24] She made some appearances over the next couple of years and was rumored to compete at 2018's Royal Rumble match, but denied she would be at the event.^[39] Following Asuka's victory in that match, however, the now-former UFC star appeared, confirming that she had signed full-time with WWE.^[31] During the official contract signing at Elimination Chamber, it was confirmed that Rousey would not receive special treatment, but would have her debut match at WrestleMania 34. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, whom Stephanie (now Raw Commissioner) previously had threatened to fire and whom Triple H had turned on at Survivor Series, then brought up the incident from WrestleMania 31 and warned Rousey that Triple H and Stephanie wanted revenge. Rousey threw Triple H through a table and was slapped by Stephanie before eventually signing her contract.^[23] The following night on Raw, Rousey demanded an apology from Stephanie, who complied. As Stephanie was leaving the ring, Triple H attacked Angle.^[25] The following week, Stephanie said Rousey could choose any Raw wrestler as her opponent at WrestleMania except the champion; she chose Stephanie. When Triple H objected, Angle pointed out that both Triple H and Stephanie had contracts as wrestlers and scheduled a mixed tag team match pitting Stephanie and Triple H against Rousey and himself.^[26] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, both teams met in the ring for a Q&A session, which ended with Stephanie putting Rousey through a table.^[30]

Throughout the summer of 2017, Kevin Owens feuded with SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon; at Hell in a Cell, Kevin Owens defeated Shane in a Hell in a Cell match thanks to the help of his friend-turned-rival, Sami Zayn.^[40] Zayn explained that he acted out of disappointment about not getting the expected opportunities at SmackDown and realized that Owens was right all along in his questionable actions.^[41] Owens and Zayn continued their feud with Shane, including attacking him at Survivor Series^[42] and Shane threatened to fire them if they lost their match at Clash of Champions,^[43] while SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan seemingly favored the two by giving them WWE Championship opportunities: first at the Royal Rumble where AJ Styles retained his title against both in a handicap match, despite a controversial finish that Shane ignored,^[31] and again at Fastlane where Owens and Zayn were among the five challengers. During the latter, the feud escalated as Shane broke up pinfalls by Owens and Zayn.^[33] Shane then took an indefinite leave of absence, but as one last decision, he scheduled Owens and Zayn to fight each other at WrestleMania 34. Owens and Zayn reacted by brutally attacking Shane.^[34] The following week, Bryan, whose last match was in April 2015, revealed that he was medically cleared to compete again.^[44]^[45] Later, he fired Owens and Zayn for their attack on Shane and received a beat down.^[46] In response, Bryan said he regretted favoring them and scheduled a tag team match pitting himself and Shane against Owens and Zayn with the latter being rehired if they won.^[35] On the final SmackDown before WrestleMania, Shane was also cleared to compete, and Bryan said that Shane was right all along when Shane had told him not to trust Owens and Zayn. Bryan and Shane said that after WrestleMania, Owens and Zayn would never be on SmackDown again.^[36]

At Fastlane, Randy Orton won the United States Championship from Bobby Roode. Following the match, Jinder Mahal, who felt that he should have been in the match, attacked both men, but he and Orton received a Glorious DDT from Roode.^[33] On the following episode of SmackDown, Roode confronted Orton and invoked his rematch clause for WrestleMania 34. Mahal interrupted and defeated Roode in a match, but suffered an RKO from Orton.^[34] The following week, Orton was scheduled to defend the United States Championship in a triple threat match against Roode and Mahal at WrestleMania.^[47] On the March 27 episode, Mahal teamed with Rusev to defeat Orton and Roode, who turned on each other after Orton attacked Roode with an RKO. Backstage, Mahal said he would get Rusev a front row seat at WrestleMania to watch him win, but Rusev wanted to be in the title match since he pinned Orton, which was made official, making the U.S. Championship match a fatal four-way.^[35] The following week, Rusev defeated Mahal, but received an RKO from Orton, who had a staredown with Roode.^[36]

Throughout 2017, The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) and The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) fought at various events over the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The original feud ended at Hell in a Cell in the namesake match with The Usos victorious.^[40] The New Day earned another shot at the titles at Fastlane, but the match ended after both teams were attacked by The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan), injuring Jey, Kingston, and Woods.^[33] On the following episode of SmackDown, Big E and Jimmy teamed up to take revenge, but were defeated.^[34] On the March 27 episode, New Day's Big E and Woods faced The Bludgeon Brothers, who won by disqualification after The Usos attacked them. A triple threat tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship was scheduled for WrestleMania 34.^[35]

On January 23, 2018, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore was released from WWE, vacating the title.^[48]^[49] A separate general manager was then appointed for 205 Live, which was previously controlled by the Raw General Manager.^[50] On the January 30 episode of 205 Live, new general manager Drake Maverick (formerly Rockstar Spud in Impact Wrestling) scheduled a 16-man single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, culminating with the finals at WrestleMania 34.^[51] Over the next couple of weeks, Cedric Alexander, TJP, Kalisto, Roderick Strong, Mark Andrews, Drew Gulak, Buddy Murphy, and Mustafa Ali advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Gran Metalik, Tyler Bate, Lince Dorado, Hideo Itami, Akira Tozawa, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher, respectively.^[51]^[52]^[53]^[54] Over the next two episodes, Alexander, Strong, Gulak, and Ali advanced to the semifinals by defeating TJP, Kalisto, Andrews, and Murphy, respectively.^[55]^[56] On the following two episodes, both Alexander and Ali secured their spot in the tournament final by defeating Strong and Gulak, respectively, to compete for the vacant Cruiserweight Championship on the WrestleMania pre-show.^[57]^[58]^[30]

On the March 12 episode of Raw, a Battle Royal open to any female performer of any brand was scheduled for WrestleMania 34. The match, originally named in honor of WWE Hall of Famer The Fabulous Moolah, was introduced to serve as a female counterpart to its male version, the annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.^[27]^[28] However, a few days later, the match was renamed "WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal" due to the backlash from fans and critics regarding Moolah's past and treatment of other women.^[59] Like the men's match, the reward is the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal Trophy.^[30] The main storyline going into the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal was the friendship between Bayley and Sasha Banks. For weeks prior to the announcement of the match, the friendship between both women became more and more strained. At Elimination Chamber, Banks turned on Bayley in the namesake match.^[23] Banks then became the first to announce her participation in the battle royal on the March 19 episode of Raw.^[28] The following week, Bayley confirmed her participation and was confronted by Banks, who wanted to talk about their recent issues, but a backstage brawl broke out between them.^[29] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Banks saved Bayley from a post-match ambush by Absolution's Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. Banks expected Bayley to be grateful, but the two instead fought. It was later confirmed that both the men's and women's battle royals would occur on the pre-show.^[30]

Determined to compete at WrestleMania 34, free agent John Cena entered himself into the Royal Rumble match to earn himself a world championship match at WrestleMania, but failed to win.^[31] He then qualified for the Elimination Chamber match, hoping to earn a shot at the Universal Championship at WrestleMania, but again failed.^[23] On Raw, Cena challenged The Undertaker, whom he had never faced at WrestleMania, but as that match was apparently impossible, he used his free agent status to go to SmackDown to look for another WrestleMania opportunity.^[25] On SmackDown, Cena defeated WWE Champion AJ Styles in a non-title match to become the sixth competitor in the WWE Championship match at Fastlane,^[60] giving him the opportunity to go to WrestleMania as the WWE Champion,^[26] however, Styles retained.^[33] Cena returned to Raw and pondered attending WrestleMania as a fan, but then decided to once again challenge The Undertaker, stating that it was not the WWE executives who were keeping it from happening, but Undertaker himself.^[27] By the following week, Cena had not received an answer. Cena urged Undertaker to come out, but instead, Undertaker's (kayfabe) brother Kane appeared and attacked Cena with a chokeslam.^[28] Cena then faced Kane in a no-disqualification match where he taunted Undertaker, performing his signature sit-up and throat slash gestures, as well as the chokeslam. After defeating Kane, Cena continued his antagonizing of the dead man.^[29] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Cena still had not received an answer. Cena said he would not enter the men's battle royal or be Braun Strowman's partner to not take a spot from the full-time talent, especially since he lost his last five pay-per-view matches. He said he was not mad about not having a match, but was mad at Undertaker for not answering.^[30]

Results

No.

Matches*

Stipulations

Times^[74]^[75]

1

Matt Hardy won by last eliminating Baron Corbin^{[Note 1]}

30-man battle royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy^[61]