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WWE WrestleMania 37 Results: Bad Bunny and Bouts That Exceeded Expectations

Mike Chiari

As a whole, WrestleMania 37 was an entertaining and successful show that sent the 25,000 fans in attendance at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on both nights home happy.

The fact that the main events delivered helped The Show of Shows immensely. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair for the SmackDown Women's Championship and Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan for the universal title both lived up to expectations, but it was the matches that exceeded expectations that tied everything together.

With WrestleMania 37 officially completed, here is a closer look at a few of the matches that were better than anticipated and helped make the marquee event a deep and memorable show.

       

Bad Bunny and Damian Priest vs. The Miz and John Morrison

Hardcore wrestling fans often dread celebrity involvement at WrestleMania, but there are rare occasions when it goes well and the celebrity puts in the work needed to prove they belong on that stage.

Such was the case on Saturday when Grammy Award-winning musician Bad Bunny teamed with Damian Priest against The Miz and John Morrison.

The match was put in a huge spot as the second-last bout of the show on Night 1 prior to Banks vs. Belair. Given how it was being featured, it would have been easy for it to flop.

Instead, Bad Bunny fared far better than anyone could have expected, and he played a much bigger role in the contest than most thought he would.

The assumption was that Priest would do most of the in-ring work for his team and absorb some punishment before making the hot tag to Bad Bunny, who would then hit a few moves, leading to the win for his team.

Instead, the roles were reversed, and Bad Bunny did much of the heavy lifting. In addition to executing moves at an impressive level, the rapper sold like a veteran and did a great job taking a beating at the hands of Miz and Morrison.

There tends to be a gatekeeper mentality when it comes to pro wrestling, so it is tough for outsiders to gain acceptance, but Bad Bunny seemed to do precisely that in just one match.

Along with Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Big Show and Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, Bad Bunny helped set the standard for celebrity matches at WrestleMania, and he likely secured himself plenty more work with WWE in the future.

         

Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon

As far as storylines go, Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon may have been the worst in WWE entering WrestleMania, but it didn't stop them from putting on an entertaining match.

The potential was there because of the steel cage stipulation and McMahon's penchant for always going the extra mile on The Grandest Stage of Them All, but it is still fair to say there wasn't much excitement surrounding the contest.

The booking of Shane-O-Mac getting the upper hand early by attacking Strowman with a steel chair played up well to the storyline of McMahon being smarter, but it was a sequence later in the match that really engaged the fans.

At one point it looked as though McMahon was poised to exit the cage and win, but he got overconfident and taunted his rival, which allowed The Monster Among Men to spring into action.

Rather than reaching over the cage and pulling the WWE producer back in over the top, Strowman used his immense strength to tear through the cage and pull him back in that way.

Then, The Monster Among Men threw McMahon off the top of the cage and to the mat, and Shane-O-Mac made it look great by doing a flip in midair.

It was far from a technical classic and won't be remembered as an all-time great match, but Strowman and McMahon succeeded in taking a pretty bad storyline and turning it into an entertaining bout.

The potential was there for the crowd to hijack the match and hate on it, but the two combatants did their jobs well enough to prevent that from happening.

        

Sheamus vs. Riddle

Another match that didn't have a ton of hype surrounding it prior to WrestleMania was the United States Championship bout between Sheamus and Riddle.

Riddle was used as a comedic character in the weeks and months leading up to WrestleMania, and it wasn't until a couple of weeks beforehand that Sheamus entered the fray after attacking The Original Bro with his own scooter.

Regardless of what the story is, Sheamus and Riddle are two Superstars who go all out and put on consistently strong matches when the bell rings, so it probably should have been expected that their match would be great.

As part of a stacked Night 2 of WrestleMania, however, there wasn't much talk about the match, and it seemed like most viewed it as filler.

Ultimately, though, the contest was anything but filler, as both men put together a physical affair that ended in phenomenal fashion when The Celtic Warrior caught Riddle with a Brogue Kick when he was in the middle of a moonsault.

In terms of pure match quality, Sheamus vs. Riddle was among the best contests of the entire weekend, and it undoubtedly helped strengthen the WrestleMania undercard as a whole.

Both Sheamus and Riddle deserve more moving forward in terms of how they are portrayed on television and what storylines they are placed in, but they did themselves a huge favor with how well they performed on Sunday.

         

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