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With WWE WrestleMania 34 almost upon us, we are taking a look at five things you might not know about recent ‘Mania events.
In this article, we focus on WrestleMania 33 – a show best-remembered for Matt and Jeff Hardy’s unexpected return and The Undertaker’s ‘farewell’ after he was defeated by Roman Reigns.
The event also saw Brock Lesnar defeat Goldberg to begin his lengthy reign with the Universal title, while John Cena proposed to Nikki Bella after they teamed up to defeat The Miz and Maryse.
#5 Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar wasn’t the original plan
After an absence of over 12 years, Goldberg made his WWE in-ring return in November 2016 to face Brock Lesnar in the main event of Survivor Series.
The WCW legend explained on Booker T’s Heated Conversations podcast that he had agreed to a one-match deal with WWE and that he was treating the encounter with Lesnar as the final match of his career.
However, following the success of his surprise 86-second victory over “The Beast”, WWE decided to continue the rivalry between the two men, culminating with Lesnar defeating Goldberg for the Universal title at WrestleMania 33.
#4 Vince McMahon agreed to Chris Jericho vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Kevin Owens defeated Chris Jericho for the United States Championship in one of the most-anticipated matches of the night at WrestleMania 33.
However, Y2J revealed in an interview with Inside The Ropes in January 2018 that he was impressed by Shinsuke Nakamura after their match at a live event in July 2016 and he originally asked to face him again at ‘Mania.
Vince McMahon agreed to the request but, after such a good reaction from audiences to his partnership with Owens, Jericho then asked to face KO instead.
#3 It was Jeff Hardy’s first WrestleMania win
While The Undertaker racked up 21 consecutive WrestleMania victories before finally losing to Brock Lesnar in 2014, Jeff Hardy was on the losing side in all six of his WrestleMania matches between 1999 and 2009.
“The Charismatic Enigma” failed to win in multi-man matches at four events between WrestleMania XV and WrestleMania X8, as well as an eight-man ladder match at WrestleMania 23, while he was also defeated by brother Matt Hardy in a singles match at WrestleMania XXV.
That run finally came to an end at WrestleMania 33 when Jeff and Matt returned to WWE to win the Raw Tag Team titles in a four-team ladder match.
#2 Vince McMahon didn’t like Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens
The WWE Network continues to give fans a glimpse of what life is really like as a WWE Superstar, with perhaps the biggest peak behind the curtain coming during Kevin Owens’ ‘365’ documentary which aired after the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Footage showed Owens asking Vince McMahon “Are we good?” after his match against Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 33, to which Vince simply replied “No”.
KO went on to explain how the WWE owner was disappointed with his performance in the match, and it was clear from interviews throughout the documentary how much the comment from Vince affected his confidence in the weeks and months that followed.
#1 Roman Reigns was disappointed with his performance
Roman Reigns defeated The Undertaker in the main event of WrestleMania 33, with many people thinking the outcome was going to lead to the retirement of “The Deadman”.
As it turned out, ‘Taker is now set to return to face John Cena at WrestleMania 34, but the match with Reigns still felt iconic at the time because fans thought they were witnessing the final moments of a legendary career.
However, Reigns wasn’t such a fan of the match. Speaking with CBS podcast In This Corner recently, he said he learned a lot from working with Undertaker but felt his performance “in some way wasn’t good enough”.
He added: “Maybe it could have been better on my behalf, but I always hold Undertaker so high in that regard that I just feel like maybe I could have been better."
