‘WrestleMania 34’ Gets Rowdy: 9 Incredible Moments From WWE’s Biggest Night of the Year

The war of words came to a head at WrestleMania, when Olympic medalists Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey finally battled Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team match.

With bated breath, the world witnessed Rousey’s first match as a WWE superstar. The former UFC champ looked focused and ready, even wearing a kilt to the ring in tribute to her hero, the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. The “Authority” didn’t come to New Orleans to play either, and wrestling’s most powerful couple looked ripped.

In the end, their cheating methods failed to hit the mark against the Olympians. Ronda was fired up and had Steph (and even “The Game”) seeing stars. The submission specialist also used a devastating arm bar to score the victory, as Dana White looked on from the crowd. How did Ronda fair in her WWE debut? Very well indeed! The future looks ROWDY.

In the weeks leading up to Mania, John Cena tried everything he could think of to raise The Deadman in order to whip up a dream match at WrestleMania 34. With no reply from the Undertaker, Cena was forced to buy a ticket and enjoy the “The Show of Shows” from ringside instead.

The problem with dreams: Sometimes they turn into nightmares. Just as all hopes of a Phenom sighting were seemingly lost, Taker appeared, and Tombstoned Hollywood’s next big thing into oblivion.

While one-man wrecking machine Braun Strowman is supremely capable of beating more than one man at the same time, WWE rules state that an individual cannot challenge for the RAW Tag Team Championships, and so a partner was required at WrestleMania ahead of the match. But who would dare associate themselves with the “Monster Among Men”?

Suspense building, Braun announced that he was advertising for a tag partner, and anyone in the crowd would do. The job was filled by… a little boy at ringside named Nicholas.

With the rules now loosely satisfied, Strowman (and Nicholas) created a bizarre WrestleMania moment: beating The Bar and becoming the brand-new RAW Tag Team Champions, making the 10-year-old Nicholas the youngest RAW Tag Team Champion in history.

Roman Reigns arrived in New Orleans to rid the WWE of a Champion that wrestles just a handful of matches each year. Brock Lesnar had negotiated a contract with WWE that allowed him to effectively work part time, and Reigns was determined to permanently relieve Lesnar of his sparse Title defense duties.

To the surprise of almost everyone, Reigns failed in his quest and was left in a bloody mess as WrestleMania went off the air. Rumors of “The Beast Incarnate” wanting to return to the UFC may have been premature. For now, Brock Lesnar is still your WWE Universal Champion… and if you have a problem with that, you can tell him yourself.

Charlotte has been a dominant force since entering the WWE, holding on to championship gold for much of the last couple of years. Asuka, on the other hand, is a relatively new face in WWE rings, but has smashed records and walked into WrestleMania as an undefeated challenger. The crowd felt Goosebumps as Charlotte made a grand entrance only Ric Flair’s daughter could pull off.

In a thriller, The “Empress of Tomorrow” ultimately bowed to the Queen, tapping out and losing her winning streak as a result. Asuka, however, proved to be a more than worthy opponent, and we can only hope that these two will clash again soon!

As Finn Bálor made his way to the ring for his Triple Threat challenge for the Intercontinental Title, members of the New Orleans LGBTQ community joined him on stage. Bálor proudly wore new ring attire too, sporting a rainbow design. Profits from the sale of his new t-shirt will go to GLAAD.

“The Balor Club is a product of having a positive state of mind,” Balor told Muscle & Fitness hours before his bid to beat The Miz and Seth Rollins.

While Rollins took home the IC Title on this night, Bálor’s message of hope leads us to think that a championship is just around the corner for the fighting Irish man.

For the wrestling purist, Shinsuke Nakamura’s WWE Championship battle against AJ Styles was undoubtedly the most hotly anticipated match of the night—and it didn’t disappoint.

The Phenomenal One went blow for blow with his challenger from Kyoto. Both men were determined to walk out of WrestleMania as Champion. Much like the match, the crowd was split 50/50 as fans cheered their favorite combatants on.

A thunderous Styles Clash helped AJ retain the keys to the kingdom, but Nakamura took the loss badly and attacked Styles post-match, leaving him in a crumpled heap. If the 78,155 people watching in the Superdome—and the millions of viewers around the world on the WWE Network—get their way, a rematch will surely be granted. And next time it’s going to be even personal.

As soon as Daniel Bryan declared himself fit to return to in-ring competition, he became further embroiled in a feud with his colleague Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens and Sammi Zayn.

A Tag Team match was set: Should Owens and Zane lose, they would be out of WWE. With everything to fight for, the dastardly duo went straight for Bryan in the hopes of sending him into a permanent retirement—and it almost worked.

With Bryan hurt outside of the ring, Zayn and Owens outnumbered McMahon, but Shane-O-Mac held strong and Bryan willed himself back into the fight. In fact, the YES! Man scored the eventual victory by submission, forcing Zayn to tap out.

Fearing that Nia Jax would be an insurmountable opponent, Bliss tried to keep Jax from the RAW Women’s Title picture by becoming her best friend. That friendship disintegrated on Monday Night RAW when “Little Miss Bliss” was overheard mocking Nia’s size. With Jax bent on revenge, a Title match was finally made.

The emotionally wounded challenger wasted no time in taking out Bliss’s partner in crime, Mickie James. She then set her sights on the smaller Champion. Bliss scrapped and clawed to hold on to her belt, but Jax “isn’t like most girls,” and blasted Alexa with a devastating top rope Samoan Drop to win the RAW Women’s Championship.