WWE Wrestlemania 32 (2016 - Sunday 3rd April) - Discussion Thread

[BigDaveCUFC]

Well I seen this mania, my first for years, mostly down to having time on Monday.

It isn't the worst ever (heck I watched mania 9 supposedly live...wasnt live back then) and mania 13 is also worse, plus mania 2.

I would maybe call it the most boring mania I've seen......it really really dragged and dragged badly.

ME is up there for me with Sid/Hogan as the worst ME for mania I have seen. It was just incredibly bland. Crowd wasn't into it and neither guy seemed mania ME worthy and was as if the whole match was a case of 'just get this bloody over with'

On positive note was women's 3 way, nice to see finally wwe not make women's wrestling the t*ts and ar*e toilet break. That was a very solid match.

Taker is finished, looks a shell of former self, AJ.......what have wee done to you! He frankly didn't look that interested.

It wasn't horrendous, very little sucked, but not one single thing stood out and will be a quickly forgotten mania.

Crowd was dreadful and quiet, but think it was abit like mania 3....too spaced out and open......or it died of boredom

 

[Oaf]

Right, I've actually watched WM32 back on the WWE network already now, so it's about time I did my FUCKING HUGE WRITE UP. As a warning, last year when I did it, I ended up having to post it in THREE FUCKING POSTS because I wrote so much. So yeah. TLR warning. But first...

AJ.......what have wee done to you! He frankly didn't look that interested.

Que?

One thing I liked the most about this WM was seeing the people who have clearly worked hard through their whole careers finally getting to Wrestlemania... you could how much that moment, of finally reaching the pinnacle of their career, meant to them. You could see it in the eyes of certain competitors, Owens, Zayn, the three women in the triple threat... and, for me, AJ Styles. For me, he saying "he frankly didn't look that interested" isn't just wrong, it's the complete opposite of what actually happened. Instead, I'd say it looked as if it was the single greatest moment of his life.

 

[Oaf]

Anyway, fuck it. Here goes with this, a breakdown of my trip to Wrestlemania 32 and thoughts on the show itself.

This first post will be about general holiday stuff. Dallas as a city, the WM weekend experience, Axxess and what not.

Prelude:
So I left PLIMUFF on easter Monday to head up the A38 to Exeter and then onto the M5 to get to Bristol airport. A (very short) flight later and I was in Dublin. Spent that night and the following night there. Only got one full day in the city, but it's a pretty great place. Certainly somewhere I wouldn't mind revisiting if I find nice cheap flights to the US from Dublin again.

On the Wednesday though, it was off to Dublin airport for a lengthy 9 hour flight that actually flew by. And, because you need to know because it's always the most important question regarding flights, the two films I watched on the way out were The Jungle Book (fucking fuck yeah dat fucking bare necessities) and BeetleJuice, which is one of them films I'd never seen before. Good shit, and to be honest the flight went by pretty quickly for me. Upon arriving in Dallas it was simply a case of grabbing some quick food from an IHOP that was handily right near our hotel and then off to bed to see the city tomorrow.

Dallas, as a city, is a very nice place. Like, I don't think I'd ever intended to check Dallas out and if Wrestlemania hadn't been there I'd have probably lived my life without been there. It's hardly somewhere I'd say that you need to check out before you die like other cities I've been to, but if you do ever happen to have an event that interests you in the Dallas area, it's hardly the end of the world. Anyway, the first day for us was completely WRASSLIN' free, with us just giving ourselves the day to explore the city and watching a Dallas Stars hockey match at the end. Honestly, it's the first full length NHL game I've ever sat and watched... but it was pretty fucking great! Really enjoyed it and if you ever end up in the USA and there happens to be a game of Hockey on, I'd strongly suggest going to watch it.

But yes, Friday was our first proper Wrestling day, with an Axxess session in the evening. And who did we meet at axxess? Well, basically, one of the people in ALL OF WRESTLING that I'd have had near the very top of my "want to meet" list. PAUL. FUCKING. HEYMAN. Oh yes. The man showed up half an hour late and the queue took another hour and a half, and the meeting was only like 15 seconds long. But holy shit, it was worth it. That man. To shake his hand. To have a chat. Wow. By far my favourite ever Axxess meeting. Which is saying something, because I managed to meet Piper last year mere months before his death.
We also went and met Rusev as well, which was pretty cool. Last year at Axxess he was being very "in character". Wouldn't crack a smile, seemed like a robot. This year though, he really seemed to be enjoying himself and actually seems like a pretty funny guy, which you wouldn't suspect We spent a fair bit of time sat watching NXT though, which features matches with NXT superstars and some Q and A sessions, both of which have high and low points.

But I just want to take a moment to basically talk about something I talked about last year... just the sheer magic of being in a Wrestlemania city for a wrestlemania weekend. For me, more than Axxess, more than Raw and more than WM itself, it's probably the absolute highlight of the entire experience. Just walking the streets and seeing so many people in wrestling shirts. The banners all over the place. And just little moments. The magic of walking around a museum in my brand spanking new New Day shirt and coming across another person wearing a new day shirt in said museum who I'd never met before... and just looking at each other before giving each other a smile and a "NEEEEW DAAAY!!". Walking around a Wallmart just outside of the AT and T stadium that was SWARMED with WWE fans, hearing from across the aisle "AAAAAAAW WALLLLLMARRTT!! DON'T YOU DARE BE SOWAH! JUST CLAP FOR YOUR TWO TIME CHAMPS, AND FEEEEEEL, THE POWAH!!!". Seeing Zack Ryders dad randomly walking the streets the day after Wrestlemania (!). And a brilliant 20 minute or so experience just after Raw had finished, outside of the American Airlines Center, where there was a dude playing a saxophone... and he was getting surrounded by Wrestling fans, giving him "this guys awesome!" and, of course, "better than Roman!" chants... so he starts playing wrestling music on his sax... and then the entire circle of people start going nuts. He plays stone colds music, and people start dishing out stunners to each other. HBK's music, and there are super kicks flying everywhere. Drunk idiots trying to do spinaroonies. Two people dressed up as the Dudley Boyz randomly showing up and doing the "get the tables" schtick. And so much more. Just a circle of drunk wrestling nutjobs having an awesome time and creating one of the highlights of the entire trip.

Anyway, back on track...

Saturday was another Axxess session, and we only bothered meeting one dude this day... Damien Sandow. He's unforunately fuck all in WWE right now, but I always thought he's great. And his queue wasn't too bad, either. Though we spent most of the day just watching NXT again... which turned out to be a great move, as we got to see a surprise appearance from Austin Aries (who'd debuted in NXT the day before... so this would technically be his second ever match under the WWE umbrella?! ), ,a great Q and A with Sheamus and a really entertaining Q and A with Rusev and Lana (seriously, these two are a heck of a lot funnier than they come across as on TV!) and some other good shit. Oh yeah, including

Sunday was, of course, the big day. Axxess again in the morning... and we actually spent the entire thing at the NXT ring. There was a Q and A with Jim Duggan... at first I couldn't really be arsed with it, but again, he was actually great to listen to. But then the matches... Austin Aries showed up yet again, American Alpha defended the tag titles against Dash and Dawson... and SHINSUKE FUCKING NAKAMURA SHOWED UP FOR A MATCH! The ring area got absolutely packed for his match... we could have probably had our pick of the meet and greet lines, but we weren't going anywhere. A great morning... but a greater evening awaited.

I'll get onto Wrestlemania and Raw in the next post. Yeah, I'm already cutting my losses... I'll do the "other" stuff in this post and then a proper WM post in the next one. Assuming it all fits into one...

Once Raw is over on these WM holidays there is always a bit of an empty feeling. I remember last year, the day after Raw I left to go to Vegas... no doubt Vegas won me over in the end, but I just couldn't enjoy it for the first day or so because I just wanted to be back in that WM environment. And it was sad in Dallas too... walking around on the Tuesday and Wednesday, seeing the amount of WWE shirts severely diminished, all of these little interactions with fans dying down. It went from being a WM city, to just being... well, Dallas. Which, as I said, isn't a bad thing per se... but after everything before it, it was a little depressing.

For those remaining two days, we basically just checked out everything we wanted to see before leaving the city, which included going to see a Dallas Mavericks game... they played the Houston Rockets (Local derby ) in a ridiculously close game which ended 96-94 to the Mavs. Second time going to watch NBA after watching the Lakers last year in LA, and again, something I'd say everybody should go check out.

Anyway, that's it. On the Thursday it was a case of getting on a plane to Philidephia, another plane to Dublin and then one more to Bristol... and then the ride home.

Anyway. Wrestlemania stuff coming up next.

 

[Oaf]

Oh cock it. It seems I've got to go for now, so won't be able to do a full write up. I'm going to need like a couple hours for that, I'm sure . But before I go...

Let's briefly talk about this fucking place:

Holy mother of god. I've seen and been in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Same goes for legendary buildings like Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the great pyramid at Chichen Itza and what not. But I don't think I've ever been as impressed with a man made structure as I was with the AT and T stadium. It looked huge on television, but it didn't do the place anywhere near justice. Levis Stadium last year was superb, the best stadium I'd ever been in, a modern marvel. But jeeeeez. It seems so small time compared to that beast. It's funny, because while I was there I was sure it was reminding me of something but I couldn't think of what. The day after, it dawned on me... the grand canyon. Just the huge, gaping, vast emptiness to it from side to side.

To put it into perspective for Wrestling fans... I'd always thought of the Hell in a Cell structure as being a massive entity. Here, it was about 3 minutes of looking at the stadium before I even noticed it was there... dangling down in the vast emptiness on it's own, a mere speck above the ring... and when I saw it, I honestly wondered if they'd just changed it to a cage match or something, because I was so sure that the cell wasn't supposed to look that small.

 

[Oaf]

Right, let's try this again.

Wrestlemania 32!

Getting to the arena is an absolute pain from downtown Dallas. We ended up getting an Uber, and the driver said that it's actually designed specifically to be hard to get to from down town to keep the poor people away from Arlington, which is the "posh" area of the Dallas area... but yeah, we got there and the beautiful AT&T stadium was impressive from even the outside. After grabbing food and having the above mentioned awesome walmart experience, we finally got into the queue...

Now, since WM I've heard the stories of how shit it was for a heck of a lot of people trying to get in. Personally, my own queue was a little late in moving (gates were supposed to open at half 3, probably opened at about 3:50) and getting in seemed, relative to how it apparently was for others, rather painless. We got in and got the first views of the set and such and it looked incredible. We got to our seats, which were actually pretty damned great.

Anyway, let's get on with the actual show...

Opener:

Ryback vs Kalisto - US title

Not a bad match by any stretch, for me. It's a shame that so many were struggling to get in, as this almost felt like it took place in front of an empty arena. Some cool moments (as you should expect with a guy as powerful as Ryback when given somebody as small as Kalisto to toss around). Probably the right result as well with Kalisto winning, which surprised me as I really had a feeling that Ryback would come out on top here... with his new look and such I think WWE want to try to repush him once again. I expect him to take the title soon, still...

Team Total Divas vs (sigh) BAD and Blonde

It was while watching this match back on the Network where I first got an idea of something I'd seen hinted at. I'd heard that the audience noise had been a bit suppressed on the network by WWE... and when I saw Eva Marie get involved when watching it back, I couldn't help but feel that that's exactly the case. Live at the stadium, she was absolutely HATED. It was about as negative a reaction as I ever saw anybody have. Like, it equalled Reigns at least years WM. In fact, looking at close ups of her on the big screen, she looked fucking emotionally destroyed by it... so much so that I actually felt a bit sorry for her It picked up the boos a fair bit on TV... but it still didn't feel like it did justice to the sheer volume created live in the arena.

But yeah, to be fair, I dreaded this match but it wasn't terrible. It had a few ok moments and ran for an unoffensive length. it was always obvious that Brie would grab the big pin on her way out, but screw it. I don't think people really cared about the result of this one. I didn't.


Andre The Gia-WHAT NO OK
Tables match WHAT NOT THAT EITHER OK
The Dudleys vs The Usos

Overall, this match was just a strange as fuck thing to have happened. It was ridiculously short. Perhaps because the show started later than anticipated with the problems getting people in, so this match was sacrificed. But even ignoring that, why not make it a tables match? Or do something completely different, as others have also said in this thread, and I will elaborate on later...

For while it was running, Bubba did some great smack talk... of course I didn't know that until watching it back as I couldn't hear him live, but he was great in this.

Then that post match stuff... ugh. Awkward as fuck. Honestly, I'm not sure why people boo the Usos as much as they do. I actually think they're superb, a couple years back while they were the tag team champions I thought they had the best match of the PPV for about 4 or 5 PPV's in a row. So I'm not sure why they get a few boo's... but doing stuff like this won't help win people around to them. Put simply, everybody wanted to see The Dudleys, on their return to WM after so long, put somebody through a table. And NOBODY wanted to see them put through a table. But that's what we got.

Cue the opening stuff. Epic opening is epic.

IC title Ladder Match

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn vs Zack Ryder vs Sin Cara vs Stardust vs The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler

For the second year in a row, we open with the IC title ladder match for the people who are too good for the Battle Royale, but not able to fit into their own 1 vs 1 matches. EVEN THOUGH WE HAD A FUCKING AWESOME 1 VS 1 MATCH THAT WROTE ITSELF HERE. But no. Nobody wants to see Zayn vs Owens, right? We get Kalisto and Ryback instead for the US title. Much better.

On the topic of those two, oh my JEEZ. I actually think the majority of these guys were superb here, but those two owned the match. Totally the most over people in it, and they both put on the sort of performance you just knew they would in their first Wrestlemania outing. And, honestly, the crowd was awesome for this one too. Or at least it felt like it to me. It was easily the most invested the crowd got into for any match all night. And I actually think it's probably the most under rated match of the card, in the fact that I think it may well have been match of the night.

Each year at WM we tend to get a multi man ladder match. And even when one of these matches isn't great it's usually at the very least very entertaining... but I actually thought that this was the best ladder match WM has seen in a long, long time. Like, since MitB became a thing. A really invested crowd and a bunch of superstars who put on great performances, as well as a fair few great moments.

And yes, let's get onto that ending. Strange, for sure. I must admit that when Ryder won, as a guy who was really into Ryder back when he had his youtube show, I enjoyed seeing him get his moment. Even though it made no real sense and I joked to my brother that he'd lose it within 24 hours (and what do you know...)... but to be fair, at least this hopefully opens Owens up to bigger and better things. I was fully rooting for him the following night on Raw in that fatal four way, hoping that it was the exact bigger and better thing he was heading into (though as it turned out, that bigger and better thing was for somebody else who had a strange loss at WM32...)... but to be honest, I'd probably sooner see him get a proper 1 vs 1 feud now for a few months with Sami Zayn first. The post WM PPV's have a knack for giving us the matches we should have had at WM and having them absolutely deliver (Sheamus vs Bryan, anyone? 17 seconds at WM... pretty much match of the fucking year the following PPV in a 2 out of 3 falls match)... PLEASE GIVE US THIS WWE. And story wise, it looks like they're heading that way anyway... fingers crossed.

As for Ryder losing straight away to The Miz... I don't mind. He had his moment. Being honest now, Ryder isn't really ever going to be a real asset to WWE. At least, and I may be alone in thinking this, not as much as The Miz is. Yes, I still think he's awesome, given the chance. He's still a brilliantly entertaining heel at times and I'm sure his run as IC champion can be entertaining.

Chris Jericho vs AJ Styles

A very good match, but you sort of always knew it would be. Jericho is (in my view) pretty over rated as a wrestler, but given the right opponent, he can still have very good matches... and AJ is certainly the right opponent. As for that ending with Jericho winning... well, at least now I have the fact that I know that Styles went on to a huge win the following night to make up for it. And fuck it, Jericho surely has to win SOMETIMES, right? It's a joke how often he loses... so much so that it actually comes off as a shock when he actually does win.

Going back to the following nights Raw actually, I was sure Jericho would win that too... it would have been sooooo WWE to do that. Tease a super intereting prospect (or three, any of Owens/Reigns, AJ/Reigns or Cesaro/Reigns sounds so fresh and exciting to me) and then just go down the tried and tested route of having somebody take on another of the old attitude era veterans. I'm sure that AJ has zero chance whenever he fights Reigns. But still... it's superb to see WWE actually make this sort of move.




The New Day vs The League of Nations

Probably the first real blot on this Wrestlemania for me, in more ways than one.

First though, let's not overlook that fucking entrance. Oh my god. Fucking incredible. But with that being said...

WWE didn't even seem to know what they were doing with this match, and neither did the wrestlers. The previous day at Axxess with that Sheamus Q and A I mentioned, Sheamus actaully said that the LON would be "taking home the tag titles"... so even at that point, SHEAMUS, A GUY IN THE FUCKING MATCH, still thought that the titles were on the line. And when did it change to 3 vs 3 instead of a handicap match? So inconsistent...

Then the match itself... it just wasn't all that great. It was good in spots (Big E's double spear/suicide dive thing taking out 3 people!) but for the most part it was just a boring beat down on Xavier from the LON. It was a Raw standard match for most of it, which is a shame. And then... New Day lose?

During the WM weekend in Dallas, New Day were easily the most over things on the roster. In terms of random shout/chants in the streets and the sheer volume of people wearing New Day shirts, at least. Why did they lose? To push the LON, who nobody really cares about anyway?

Well, no, not even that.

Austin, HBK and Foley got involved.

Before I get onto the negatives, I'm not going to lie. If I could undo that segment, I ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT. Understand... as into Wrestling as I am, for me, Stone Cold is THE GUY. THE. GUY. He's the guy who got me into it in the first place and always has been and always will be my number 1. He was the one big big name who I felt I missed out on not seeing last year... seeing him this year was about the most emotional I've ever got over pro wrestling. So, regardless of the rest of everything else, for me, this was actually the part of the entire show that I enjoyed the most.

BUT.

You had the LON go over the New Day... and then you had HBK, Austin and Foley bury the LON (As well as stunning Xavier). So basically, the results of this match:

Who looks good:

HBK

Austin

Foley

Three wrestlers who aren't in the current roster and we likely won't see again for a year or two. They didn't need it. They could have had Austin come out to the ring with a toilet, take a dump, and it'd have been the most over part of the show.

Who comes off looking worse:

Rusev

Sheamus

Del Rio

Barrett

Four people who desperately need something. They aren't terrible wrestlers, but NOBODY CARES ABOUT THESE GUYS. Give us a reason to. Getting owned by those three is not the way. And the other who come off looking worse:

Kofi

Xavier

Big E

The three most over people on the roster. Those three could have fucking main evented and been worthy of it, they're that over. But instead, they lose the match and gain nothing from the show.

So, in short... three people who absolutely did not need any kind of a push got a big push at the expense of SEVEN CURRENT ROSTER SUPERSTARS who could have all done with it instead. AWFUL isn't the word for that kind of booking.

Still. I saw Austin live. YES!

And the other thing... there was so much potential to do something GREAT with the tag division on this show. New Day/Dudleys/Usos/Lucha Dragons or something in a TLC sounds like GOLD. Throwing it away for this match and the Usos/Dudley match was madness.

For everything WWE have done with the womens division over the last year, they now need to do the same for the tag division. And they have the talent for it. The above teams, plus throw in the likes of Enzo/Big Cass or any of the numerous great teams for NXT... they can do it. They made the terrible divas division great again. In comparison, the tag division should be easy.


Street Fight

Brock Lesnar vs Dean Ambrose

This match was building very, very nicely. I had high as hell hopes for it, and it was delivering... a great story being told of Ambrose and his weapons vs Brock; THE weapon... constant streams of offense being shut down by yet another suplex... this was going well. And then it just seemed to end. The match ran for 13 minutes... it felt like it ended half way through. It almost felt like Ambrose just forgot to kick out, I was that surprised to see it end where it did. It seemed to be building to an epic conclusion and looked set to be a great Wrestlemania match... and then just died before it had a chance.

For what it was it was good. But it felt like it just died before it had a chance to be great. Almost felt like a waste of these two. It actually only ran 2 minutes longer than the 5 vs 5 divas match, and 4 minutes less than AJ vs Jericho... as what was billed as one of the main events, that's a bit confusing.

As to the result, I may be in a minority, but I wanted Lesnar to win this. Ambrose never wins, true... but this felt like the wrong place to start him actually begining to become a winner. It's too far. You don't go from losing as much as Ambrose does to beating fucking Brock Lesnar over night. I'd love to see Ambrose finally start to get some of the wins he deserves over the next year and look like somebody who should be Lesnar by WM 33... but this just felt like it would have been odd if Ambrose did win. I was just thinking it'd be along the lines of Ambrose takes a beating and eventually goes down, but gets all the "what a fight he put up, he took such a beating but kept going" BS... that'll have done. But unfortunately, with the match ending so soon, it felt like he didn't even get that. As a result, I'm not sure that either Brock or Ambrose look any better off as a result of the match.


WWE Womens Championship

Charlotte vs Becky vs Sasha

Aaaaah. "womens championship". Sounds good.

But jeez, I love what they did with the Womens division on this night. In fact, it may well be my favourite thing about Wrestlemania 32 overall. Simply upping it to a "main event" type match was enough. Changing that god awful butterfly title would have been enough. Simply renaming it the "Womens title" would have been enough. Making it look like a different colour WWE title, to signify it's importance would have been enough. But doing all three, while giving us these three in a triple threat for it? Wow. The "Divas revolution" is over. The Womens division is HERE. And looking better, and more important, than ever.

All three of them delivered us a great triple threat, and pquite comfortably the second best Womens match I’ve ever seen at a Wrestlemania (Trish vs Victoria vs Jazz at WM 19 being the best still). As to the result? Well, obviously Sasha would have been the logical choice but I get the feeling that WWE are looking to have Charlotte on a pretty big run. In fact, I’d say it’ll go on at least until Nikki comes back.

Would have been nice to see a clean finish, but it still didn’t take too much from the match, I reckon.


Hell in a Cell

The Undertaker vs Shane Mcmahon

Good entrances here. I liked Shanes kids coming out, it really tied into the “Mcmahon legacy” thing with the story. I mean, I thought the story leading into the match was overall an absolute mess, but screw it, at least they got that right. And I never got a “proper” Undertaker entrance last year, due to him coming out in the blazing sun… so to get the darkness and that proper Undertaker “feel”. I always said that seeing a live Undertaker wrestlemania entrance was a real bucket list thing and I got robbed of it a bit last year… this year made up for it.

As for the match, I thought it was fine. Perhaps a bit slow and Shane is hardly the most technically brilliant wrestler on the planet but it told the story well. Of course, we all knew they’d be breaking out of the cell and where that would lead… Shane taking out the bolt cutters confirmed that. But there was no way Shane was having one match in all this time, in a HIAC at WM and NOT taking that bump. But before that, it was awesome seeing that he can still pull off the coast to coast! Always a sick move.

So yeah, then there was that bump. I have to say, seeing it in person, wow. Seeing a man free fall that far live and in person is actually scary as fuck. I never thought I’d get to see a HIAC live… let alone actually see somebody plummet off of it. Hell, I didn’t think WWE would actually let anybody do that again with this new, bigger cell!

But yeah, for me the match was great overall, not just for the one bump. Maybe a bit slow, but I don’t think the pace took too much away from it.

As to the result, I was actually delighted with it. Everybody wanted Shane to win… which honestly, I didn’t care about. So, yes, his character would be running Raw… but would have anything actually changed? No. We’d still get Reigns bringing in the “Roman empire”, and other silly decisions. It would do nothing but change stuff that doesn’t actually change anything really.

Meanwhile, after 22 people tried and failed with only Lesnar conquering the streak, I feel like it’d have shat all over the streaks legacy to have Shane Mcmahon overcome it here. Overall on this night, if what the majority of people seemed to want to happen had happened (with both Ambrose beating Brock and Shane beating Taker) I feel like it’d have really weakened everything about that WM record of what is now 23-1. I mean… Lesnar is still getting the pay off for beating the Streak… if he’d lost to Amrbose, that’d be gone. And if Taker had lost to Shane, that’d take away Lesnar being “the one” in that 23-1… Lesnar could have come out of WM32 having lost everything he’s built over the last 3 years in one night. And if Taker had been beaten by Shane, it’d have made the likes of HBK, Triple H and others who tried and failed seem a bit fucking weak as well.

So between this match and the Ambrose/Lesnar one, purely because of the streak, I’m glad the results went as they did.

Andre the Giant Battle Royal

This match had much more build last year and made the preshow… it had next to none this year and made it to what would have been the penultimate match? DAFUQ.

I LOVE the idea of a rookie surprising everybody and winning it. But I just don’t rate this Baron Corbin guy. I’ve never seen anything about him to suggest he’s particularly great. He’s just… tall. With a look that you just know Vince and his boys love. And that’s usually enough in WWE to see yourself into situations like that… and also enough, if pushed wrong, to see yourself become Roman Reigns.

Last year, Hideo Itami (who I do rate) won a tournament to take part in the match. If he’d won it as a shock winner then, it’d have been brilliant. Or if they’d used this as a chance to instantly elevate somebody a bit better… Nakamura, Aries, whatever. The list goes on. I just dislike that it was used on Corbin. I may be wrong, perhaps he’s great and I just haven’t seen any of his good stuff yet. I’ll give him a chance, but he didn’t exactly do anything to win me over on Raw, either.

The Rock did some stuff.

He took about an hour to enter with his flamethrower and all. Probably a bit dull watching on TV, especially after the show had already gone on for so long, but as somebody there live it’s obviously always one of the highlights of the night to see The Rock show up, so I enjoyed every second of it.

He got in the ring, did his bit about the crowd, and then The Wyatts showed up. And, similarly to seeing a proper Taker entrance earlier, I finally got to experience a proper Bray Wyatt entrance in the dark as well. And man, it must have surely been his best entrance of all time… 100,000 lights in the crowd, it looked incredible in there. Then, of course, the Wyatts got buried because that’s seemingly all they’re good for.

Cenas back though, which is good. Oh, come on, yes it is. He had a fantastic year in 2015 until his injury and brought the US title to a whole new standard (which was obviously undone as soon as he lost it, but still, it was great while it lasted).

Anyway, hang on… The Rock is going to have a match! ALL RIGHT! WOW! I GET TO SEE THE ROCK HAVE A WRESTLEMANIA MATCH LIVE AGAINST BRAY… Oh no it’s just Rowan. But still, WOW I GET TO SEE THE ROCK WREST-oh it’s over.

Poo.

It’s just a shame that The Wyatts just cannot ever actually come across as the dominating powerful faction they try to come across as. They always feel so damned weak that it’s amazing when they come out on top of everything. So yeah. 3 more current roster stars buried to remind us of how much better the attitude era stars were. Again, this is the WRONG WAY AROUND, WWE! Imagine how great the Wyatts would look right now if they’d destroyed The Rock at Wrestlemania.


WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Roman Reigns vs Triple H

Man, the TV cameras didn’t pick up half of the hatred thrown Reigns way here. He was crucified every single time he so much as threw a punch.

But hang on, I’m getting ahead of myself here. First, lets address Stephanie. Never try to act again, please. Holy mother of god, that speech she gave. Everybody sat around me was just laughing at how awful it was. Jesus Christ. Triple H made up for it, eventually, with a suitably epic entrance in what will surely be his last ever entrance with the WWE championship.

As to the match, I don’t think it was awful. Possibly the least entertaining match of the night, if you take away the crowd interaction, and a pretty poor match when compared to other WM main events, but it was still ok. The thing is, as much as people moan about Reigns, he is usually capable of putting on very good matches, and the same goes for Triple H, so I don’t know if there was ever really a danger of it completely sucking.

The exception being, I guess, once Triple H started becoming obsessed with god damn arm bars… only then did it started to get a bit dull.

But it picked up again and then, surprisingly, WWE ACTUALLY WENT AND DID IT. Reigns wins. Clean. Game over. Match over. Wrestlemania over. All hope is lost.

Going back to Triple H’s entrance again and Stephanies speech (I know, I’d rather not have to think about it again either, but bare with me a second here) it almost read like a mixed message. Here’s what I thought…:

The start of the video had a bunch of people with their mouths welded shut…

WWE intention: Obviously supposed to represent us, the “WWE universe”, the repressed and silenced majority under the thumb of the authority.

My reading: It did represent us, the “WWE universe”… but in the sense that no matter how much we vocally opposed the match and didn’t want it to happen, it was happening regardless. We may as well have had our mouths welded shut…

Then Stephanie talks about tonight being the “end of hope”…

WWE’s intention: We all want Reigns to come in and dethrone the king of kings, toppling the authority and freeing us from Triple H’s reign of terror!

My reading: We HOPED, especially after last year, the WWE had something up their sleeve. That they wouldn’t actually usher in this Roman Empire that nobody want’s to see. But it happened. And it was, truly, the end of hope.

Seriously, watch that whole opening segment again (ok, I know you’d rather not have to endure Stephanie again, fair enough) from the perspective of it being about “Reigns is winning this no matter what, so shut the fuck up WWE fans”… it totally works in that way.

It was pretty cool once the cameras stopped rolling and Reigns sodded off, though. Triple H got up, it played his music and he went down to his family sat at ringside and gave them all hugs. Then, totally out of character, took time to appreciate the WWE fans in the arena. Up the entrance ramp, pointing at the WWE logo, then at the fans, mouthing something along the lines of “you guys make this company” or something. He looked truly humbled by the reaction he’d had and appreciative of the fans.

Regarding the result, though… I remember last year… with Seth cashing in. It capped off an overall amazing experience. It was the highlight of the show, the show being the highlight of the massive 24 night holiday I had in the USA, and that holiday possibly being the highlight of my life. Thus, on that logic, I think it’s reasonable to call Seth cashing possibly the greatest damned moment of my life And after the show, walking home from Levi’s stadium, everybody was BUZZING.

This year was just the opposite. There was no buzz come the end. Just a sullen silence. I went to a near by Jack in the Box and got a burger, and it was overall a pretty depressing experience. None of that excitement from last year, just a kind of stunned disbelief that WWE had done what they’d done. It’s funny how the result of that one last match can completely change an experience.

The show overall, then. I see everybody shitting on it online, but it’s not been too negative here on 1FF. I’d probably go along with the majority of you, really.

For the most part, I think most of the negativity comes PURELY from the result of the main event… to me, that shouldn’t detract too much from the 7 hours or so that came before that result happened. In fact, watching it live and in person, up until the end of that match, I wasn’t enjoying it any less than last years WM, which is seen to have been one of the best in a long, long time.

Probably a 5/10 show for me, if I were to try to take my bias out of it. I mean, shit, if I were being honest I’d give the experience a 10, which just kind of goes to suggest that even if you went to one of the very worst WM’s live I’m sure it’d still be the experience of a life time I mean, if I hadn’t gone to Wrestlemania 31 last year, this would still have probably been the greatest thing I’d ever experienced.

Edit: oh look, it all fit into one post. Thank fuck.