WWE WrestleMania 34 review: What we learned, takeaways and future projections

WWE Championship Match

AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

What we learned: I think we learned here that a heel Shinsuke Nakamura is going to be a lot of fun to watch.

There was absolutely no way that this WWE Championship Match at WrestleMania between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura (just saying that is freaking amazing) was ever going to live up to the hype. Their match at Wrestle Kingdom 10 a couple of years ago was a classic, and while this match wasn’t quite what that one was, it was still very good. It would have been impossible to duplicate something like that, but I’m pleased with what I saw on Sunday night, even if not everyone quite feels the same.

The psychology here was excellent. I think most people were expecting these two to just start whipping and flying around at the start, but the pace was slower and it was more mind games in the beginning. Styles slapped Shinsuke really hard and then twisted things by giving Nakamura a taste of his own medicine with a knee to the face and we were off and running from there.

Styles seemed to be one step ahead for a while and would counter seemingly every time Shinsuke would get the advantage. But Nakamura would finally be able to take control and got some hard shots in there. But again, Styles had a counter, and I was really into this one, even if the New Orleans crowd seemed a bit disappointed with how things were going. I think people were just expecting something different, perhaps some more aerial attacks or flips or something, but they told a great story in that ring. The submission counters were done well, and that played right into the finish as Styles countered the Kinshasa right into the Styles Clash to get the win after about 20 minutes. Like I said, not everybody liked this but I dug it.

What’s next: We obviously haven’t seen the last of this rivalry. Just when it seemed like we were getting what we got earlier in the night with Charlotte and Asuka, Nakamura turned the tables and hit Styles with a low blow and then literally continued to kick the champ while he was down. This was a great swerve and should add some depth and flavor to Shinsuke’s character moving forward. The rematch should be the highlight of Backlash next month, and the build to that should be very entertaining with Nakamura’s new attitude.