IWE WrestleMania 33

From Iwe

WrestleMania 33 will be the thirty-third annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by IWE for the Raw and SmackDown brands. It will take place on April 2, 2017, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It will be the second WrestleMania to be held at this venue since WrestleMania XXIV in 2008 and the third to be held in the state of Florida since WrestleMania XXVIII in 2012 at Sun Life Stadium (now known as Hard Rock Stadium) in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens.

Production

Background

WrestleMania is considered IWE's flagship event, having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.

Storylines

The professional wrestling matches at WrestleMania 33 will feature professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, IWE on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines between the characters played out on IWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown Live.

The winner of the Royal Rumble match traditionally earns a world championship match in the main event of WrestleMania. This year, it was for either Raw's IWE Universal Championship or SmackDown's IWE Championship. Kevin Orton won the 2017 match, the second time in his career, and stated his intent to challenge for his brand's IWE Championship at WrestleMania 33. On the January 31 episode of SmackDown Live, Orton warned IWE Champion Dustin Simpson, who had just won the championship from KJ Styles at the Royal Rumble, that if he manages to retain the title at Elimination Chamber on February 12, he will be taking the title from him at WrestleMania. The Wyatt Family (Orton and Bray Wyatt) then faced Simpson and former Wyatt Family member Luke Harper where Orton pinned Cena. Orton defeated Harper at Elimination Chamber, and then Wyatt won the Elimination Chamber match to become the new IWE Champion. After Wyatt's win, Orton came out on the stage and the two Wyatt Family members had a brief stare down before Wyatt continued his celebration. The following episode of SmackDown, Simpson invoked his rematch clause. Styles, however, said that he was still owed a one-on-one rematch from the Royal Rumble. Bryan then scheduled a triple threat between Simpson, Styles, and Wyatt for the title. As Wyatt made his entrance, he was attacked by Harper, but despite this, Wyatt retained. After the match, Orton came out and said that although he has a guaranteed title match at WrestleMania, he refuses to face Wyatt. Afterwards on Talking Smack, Bryan scheduled a battle royal for the following week to determine a new number one contender for Wyatt at WrestleMania. Styles, who complained that he had not gotten his promised one-one-one rematch, was the first confirmed entrant. The other nine entrants were confirmed the following week: Dustin Simpson, Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Luke Harper, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Mojo Rawley, Apollo Crews, and Kalisto. The match came down to Harper and Styles, but ended in a draw when both men went over the top rope and their feet hit the floor at the same time. Daniel Bryan announced that the number one contender will be determined on the next episode in a match between Harper and Styles, in which Styles won. At the conclusion of the show, Wyatt was about to deliver his invocation, but was interrupted by Orton, who appeared on the titantron and was at Wyatt's "kingdom" where Sister Abigail was buried. Orton then declared that he was no longer Wyatt's servant and burned Wyatt's kingdom to the ground and said he was coming for the IWE Championship at WrestleMania. Due to this confusion, Daniel Bryan and SmackDown Commissioner Shane Matteson decided that Orton would face Styles on the March 7 episode of SmackDown to determine the decisive number one contender for Wyatt, in which Orton defeated Styles.

At WrestleMania XX in 2004, Goldberg defeated Rob Lesnar in their first match against each other. Both left the company after the event, but Lesnar returned in 2012. After twelve years, Goldberg returned in 2016 and immediately began a feud with Lesnar, thanks in part due to the IWE 2K17 video game, which featured Lesnar on the cover and Goldberg as the pre-order bonus. This culminated in a match at Survivor Series, in which Goldberg humiliated Lesnar by defeating him in one minute and twenty-six seconds. Both then competed in the Royal Rumble match; Lesnar entered at number twenty-six and dispatched of several other wrestlers before Goldberg came out at number twenty-eight and once again humiliated Lesnar by quickly eliminating him from the match; Goldberg was soon after eliminated by The Undertaker. The following night on Raw, Lesnar and Paul Heyman appeared and challenged Goldberg to one final match at WrestleMania 33. On the following Raw, Goldberg accepted Lesnar's challenge to officially set up the match. Before their match, Goldberg will be facing IWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens for the championship at Fastlane on March 5. On the February 20 episode of Raw, Lesnar and Heyman said in an interview with Michael Cole that if Goldberg wins the Universal Championship at Fastlane, Lesnar will challenge him for the title at WrestleMania, as that would be another thing for Lesnar to conquer. Goldberg appeared the next week and promised that he would defeat Owens and be the Universal Champion going into WrestleMania against Lesnar. At Fastlane, Goldberg kept his promise and defeated Owens to become the Universal Champion, thus turning his WrestleMania match against Lesnar into a Universal Championship match. Immediately after on Raw Talk, Heyman said that if Lesnar doesn't defeat Goldberg, it could be the end of Lesnar. The next night on Raw, Lesnar confronted Goldberg and offered to shake his hand to congratulate him. Goldberg refused and Heyman said that at WrestleMania, Goldberg would be "Brock's bitch" and Lesnar attacked Goldberg with an F-5.

In 2014, The Shield (Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns) were involved in a rivalry with Evolution (Triple K, Kevin Orton, and Batista). After The Shield defeated Evolution in back-to-back pay-per-view matches at Extreme Rules and Payback, Batista out of anger left Evolution and IWE, which disbanded Evolution. Triple K then revealed his "plan B": Seth Rollins. Rollins attacked his former Shield brothers and joined Triple K in The Authority, turning heel. Rollins would be the forefront of The Authority for over a year: he won the then-IWE World Heavyweight Championship (now IWE Championship) at WrestleMania 31, but was forced to vacate the title in November 2015 due to injury. Rollins returned in mid-2016 and was |drafted to the Raw brand. He faced Finn Bálor for the inaugural IWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam, but came up short. After Bálor was forced to vacate the title due to injury, On the August 29 episode of Raw, Rollins faced Big Cass, Kevin Owens, and Roman Reigns for the title, in which a returning Triple K, who had not been seen since WrestleMania 32, helped Rollins to eliminate Reigns, but then turned on Rollins by giving him a Pedigree, allowing Owens to win the championship. The incident was only passively mentioned the following week, but went unaddressed by Rollins until the December 5 episode of Raw, where Rollins called out Triple K. He continued his antagonizing of Triple K on the December 26 episode, calling him a coward to Raw Commissioner and Triple K's wife, Kaila Matteson. On the January 23, 2017 episode of Raw, during Rollins' match with Sami Zayn, Triple K's music played, distracting Rollins and allowing Zayn to win Rollins' spot in the Royal Rumble match. Because Triple K runs NXT, Rollins appeared at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio and challenged Triple K to a match. Triple K came out and signaled for security. Rollins fought back but was taken away. In a follow up interview, Triple K said that there is a difference between the Triple K that created NXT and Triple K the wrestler, before seemingly accepting the challenge. On the January 30 episode of Raw, Stephanie confronted Rollins about his appearance at TakeOver. Rollins said he would stop at nothing to get to Triple K before Kaila revealed that Triple K would be there later that night. Triple K showed up, talked about how Rollins disappointed him, before calling Rollins out. As Rollins made his way to the ring, he was attacked by NXT call-up Samoa Simpson, who made his main roster debut. Simpson's attack on Rollins re-injured the same knee that had sidelined him for six months. Rollins followed up with a series of Tweets, stating that he will stop at nothing until he defeats Triple K. It was then reported that Rollins would be out of action for up to eight weeks. Rollins appeared on the February 27 episode of Raw to address the status of his injury. Rollins blamed himself for being in this situation because he should have known that Triple K would turn on him. He then said it looks unlikely that he would be at WrestleMania 33. Triple K came out with Simpson on hand, and told Rollins not to come to WrestleMania, because if he does, he will end him. Rollins then declared that he would be at WrestleMania, even if it was the last thing he did. The next week, videos of Rollins' rehabilitation were shown. Triple K responded and said that Rollins is ignorant for going against doctors advice and trying to compete at WrestleMania. The next week, Triple K got into an altercation with General Manager Jon Foley, after which Rollins came down and attacked Triple K signifing that he was cleared by doctors.

In mid-2016, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens began teaming and assisting each other. Jericho played a part in Owens winning the vacant IWE Universal Championship, as Jericho interfered in Owens' match against Neville, which allowed Owens to qualify for the fatal four-way match for the vacant title on the August 29 episode of Raw. The pairing of the two ultimately led to them becoming best friends. On Jericho's Highlight Reel on the September 12 episode of Raw, Sami Zayn, a former friend of Owens, questioned the friendship, but Jericho defended Owens, and soon after began "The List of Jericho", adding people's names to it who he deemed were "stupid idiots". Jericho assisted Owens in retaining the Universal title against Seth Rollins at Clash of Champions, and again at Hell in a Cell. Owens and Jericho were then made co-captains of Team Raw's men's team at Survivor Series. They ultimately lost to Team SmackDown, but during the match, Owens used Jericho's list to attack KJ Styles, who was about to eliminate Jericho. On the following episode of Raw, tensions were high as Jericho was about to blame Owens for using the list as a weapon. Owens defended himself, stating that he was trying to protect Jericho. The two then agreed that it was Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins' fault for the team's loss. Rollins then faced Owens for the Universal title in which Jericho was banned from ringside, but Jericho still interfered in the guise of a masked fan. The following week, Reigns challenged Owens for the Universal title, but questioned his ability to win a match without Jericho. Owens declared that he did not need Jericho, and the match was scheduled for Roadblock: End of the Line, where Jericho also faced Rollins. At the event, Jericho lost to Rollins due to Owens' failure in assisting him, and later, Jericho attacked Owens with the Codebreaker, giving Owens the win in his match by disqualification. Jericho then revealed that it was his plan so that Owens would win and retain the title. The two then challenged Reigns for his United States Championship in the following weeks, leading to a handicap match, where Owens and Jericho both faced Reigns in which Jericho won the title. Reigns received a rematch for the title, but lost due to interference from Owens. At the Royal Rumble, Reigns had a rematch for the Universal title, where Jericho was suspended above the ring inside of a shark cage. Despite this, Owens retained due to interference from Braun Strowman. On the February 6 episode of Raw, Goldberg interrupted Jericho and Owens' promo and Goldberg challenged Owens for the Universal Championship at Fastlane. Jericho accepted on behalf of Owens, which was made official to the dismay of Owens. The following week, Jericho held a "Festival of Friendship" for Owens to show his appreciation. Owens presented his own gift to Jericho in the form of a new list. Jericho gladly accepted until he saw his own name on the list, which was revealed to be the "List of KO", and Owens brutally attacked Jericho, who was taken to a medical facility. At Fastlane, just as the bell rung for Owens' match against Goldberg, Jericho's music played and he appeared on the stage, causing a distraction for Owens, which cost him the match and his Universal Championship. The following night on Raw, Jericho said that he screwed Owens for betraying him and then called Owens out, demanding an answer as to why Owens betrayed him. Owens said that they were never actually friends, and that he only used Jericho. He said that he attacked Jericho because Jericho became useless to him after Jericho accepted Goldberg's challenge on his behalf. Jericho then challenged Owens to a match at WrestleMania 33, which Owens accepted only if Jericho put his United States Championship on the line, to which Jericho happily agreed. Owens said he would eventually get a rematch for the Universal title, but wanted to take the U.S. title from Jericho first.

At Roadblock: End of the Line, Charlotte Flair defeated Sasha Banks to win her record fourth Raw Women's Championship, ending their long feud, and as per a post-event stipulation, as long as one of them were champion, the other could not challenge for the title. Flair then began a feud with Bayley, resulting in a championship match at the Royal Rumble, where Flair retained the title. The next night on Raw, Bayley pinned Flair in a tag team match, thus granting her a rematch for the title on the February 13 episode of Raw, where she defeated Flair to become the new Raw Women's Champion, thanks to help from Banks. The following week, Raw Commissioner Kaila Matteson confronted Bayley, telling her that she had to relinquish her title due to Banks interfering in the match, but Bayley refused. Flair then came out and invoked her championship rematch for Fastlane, which saw Bayley retain after Banks interfered, which subsequently ended Flair's undefeated streak in singles matches at pay-per-views. The following night on Raw, Banks said that her and Bayley should face off for the title at WrestleMania 33 as it was a dream of theirs to face each other at the event. Flair came out and demanded that she should have a rematch due to Banks' interference and said that Banks was only pretending to be Bayley's friend and that she interfered due to the Roadblock stipulation. Raw General Manager Jon Foley then announced that Flair and Banks would face off in which the winner would challenge Bayley for the title at WrestleMania. However, Stephanie changed those plans. She kept Flair in the championship match at WrestleMania, but allowed Banks the opportunity to be added to the match if she could defeat Bayley that night. Banks defeated Bayley to make the Raw Women's Championship match a triple threat match at WrestleMania.

On the Royal Rumble pre-show, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. Cesaro and Sheamus invoked their rematch, but lost due to interference from Enzo Amore and Big Cass. On the February 20 episode of Raw, Enzo and Cass defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to receive a tag title match against Gallows and Anderson at Fastlane, where Gallows and Anderson retained the titles. A rematch occurred the following night on Raw, where Cesaro and Sheamus got involved, costing Enzo and Cass the titles. Later on, Raw General Manager Mick Foley announced that Cesaro and Sheamus would face Enzo and Cass on the March 13 episode of Raw and the winners would go on to challenge Gallows and Anderson for the titles at WrestleMania 33. The match didn't crown #1 contenders because Gallows and Anderson got involved. General Manger Mick Foley announced that Gallows and Anderson would defend the tag titles against both teams in a triple threat tag team match.

At Elimination Chamber, Naomi defeated Alexa Bliss to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, but due to injury, she had to relinquish the title on the February 21 episode of SmackDown as she was not able to defend the title within 30 days. Bliss then demanded that the title be awarded to her since Naomi could not face her for a rematch. SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan instead had Bliss face Becky Lynch for the vacant title, in which Bliss won. The following week, Natalya hinted that she wanted to face Bliss for the title. On the March 7 episode of SmackDown, Bliss, who claimed to be the greatest female wrestler on the SmackDown roster, said that her WrestleMania 33 opponent would not be Naomi due to her injury, that it would not be Nikki Bella for similar reasons, and that it would not be Lynch, who she had beaten several times already. Lynch then came out and said she would become SmackDown Women's Champion at WrestleMania. Natalya then came out and said she would face Bliss for the title, to which Bliss said no to Natalya's surprise. Bliss' ally Mickie James then said she would be the one to face Bliss for the title at WrestleMania to Bliss' surprise. Bryan then came out and said that since Bliss is apparently the greatest female wrestler on the roster, she would have the chance to prove it as she would be defending the title against all available female wrestlers on the SmackDown roster at WrestleMania, much to the dismay of Bliss. Bliss and James then teamed up and defeated Lynch and Natalya, and James turned on Bliss after the match.

On the March 7 episode of SmackDown, Mojo Rawley became the first wrestler to announce his participation in the 4th annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Afterwards on Talking Smack, Apollo Crews announced that he would be in the match. On the March 13 episode of Raw, after plans for a potential match with Shaquille O'Neal fell through, it was revealed that Big Show would be part of the battle royal. On March 14, Curt Hawkins and Dolph Ziggler were revealed as participants.

At the Royal Rumble, The Undertaker was a competitor in the titular Royal Rumble match. Roman Reigns, who lost his Universal Championship match earlier that night, entered the match at number 30 and eventually eliminated Undertaker from the match. The two had a stare down and Reigns claimed that the ring was his yard now; for many years, Undertaker had claimed that the ring was his yard. On Raw Talk immediately following the Fastlane pay-per-view, Jerry Lawler asked Reigns what he would do if someone bigger came into his yard. Reigns was unsure how to reply, but said that he was the top dog in the IWE. On the March 6 episode of Raw, Braun Strowman, who lost to Reigns at Fastlane, called Reigns out, stating that Reigns got lucky, however, The Undertaker came out instead. The Undertaker stared down Strowman until Strowman left the ring. As The Undertaker was about to leave, Reigns came out and got in Undertaker's face. Reigns said that Strowman called him out, not the dead man and again claimed that the ring was his yard now. The two had a stare down and both looked up to the WrestleMania sign. The Undertaker then delivered a chokeslam to Reigns. A match between the two at WrestleMania 33 was confirmed the following week.

At Fastlane, Neville retained the IWE Cruiserweight Championship by defeating Gentleman Jack Gallagher. On the March 13 episode of Raw, it was revealed that a Fatal 5-Way Elimination match between T.J. Perkins, Tony Nese, Austin Aries, Akira Tozawa, and The Brian Kendrick was scheduled for the following night on 205 Live to determine the number one contender for Neville at WrestleMania.

At Elimination Chamber on February 12, Nikki Bella and Natalya had a backstage confrontation that lead to Natalya shoving Nikki into Maryse and accidentally covering Maryse in make-up powder. Later that night, The Miz attempted to eliminate Dustin Simpson from the Elimination Chamber match, but Simpson ended up eliminating Miz. On the February 21 episode of SmackDown, Nikki and Natalya's Falls Count Anywhere match led to the backstage area, where Natalya again shoved Nikki into Maryse. Maryse retaliated by hitting Nikki with a curtain rod, costing Nikki her match. In that episode's main event, The Miz attempted to eliminate Simpson from the IWE Championship number one contender's battle royal, but instead got eliminated by Simpson. The Miz returned later in the match and caused Simpson's elimination, despite already being eliminated from the match, and mocked Simpson with Simpson's "you can't see me" taunt. On the following episode, Simpson was the guest on Miz TV where Miz criticized Simpson for being a hypocrite, as Simpson had went off on The Rock for leaving the IWE and going to Hollywood, and now Simpson was essentially doing the same thing. Miz said that he works as hard if not harder than Simpson, yet he does not get the opportunities that Simpson does. Miz then said that he came back and eliminated Simpson from the battle royal because he wanted to be the one to prevent Simpson from being in the main event of WrestleMania 33, and wanted Simpson to know what he felt when Simpson defeated him for the IWE Championship back in 2011. Miz also said that Simpson manipulates everyone to get what he wants. Simpson retorted that if that was the case, then he would be standing in the ring with The Undertaker. He then criticized Miz for copying other people's gimmicks and moves, which caused Maryse to slap Simpson for insulting her husband. Nikki then came out and chased Maryse off and Miz retreated with her. On the March 7 episode after Simpson and Nikki defeated James Ellsworth and Carmella in a mixed tag team match, The Miz and Maryse attacked Simpson and Nikki as the two were kissing in the ring. The Miz said he was tired of Simpson's lies and said his relationship with Nikki was also a lie, unlike his relationship with his wife Maryse. Afterwards on Talking Smack, The Miz and Maryse said that Nikki was where she is at now because of Simpson, and that Nikki was jealous of Miz and Maryse because Simpson will not marry Nikki.

Matches

Announced André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal match participants

     – Raw

     – SmackDown

     – NXT

See also

• List of IWE Network events
• List of IWE pay-per-view events

References

External links

Template:IWE WrestleMania Venues