WrestleMania post show discussion

[Reznor]

I'm going to have to jump on the bandwagon with this one, Wrestlemania 27 blew. Arguably the least enjoyable Wrestlemania ever for me, it was definitely right down there with 15. It was never going to be my favourite as i thought the card was pretty poor in the first place, but even taking that into account, it was still a big disappointment. The first 15 minute segment of pointless crap and dead-time really set the tone for the night.

 

Edge/Alberto was a good Smackdown main event, that's all. For a PPV, it was more like what you'd expect a US or IC title match to be like, not the World Championship. When I read that the card was down to only 8 matches, i thought for sure they'd get 15-18 minutes to work a world title calibre match, but it ended up going about 10. Not offensive, but nothing better than what we can see for free by switching on Sky Sports on a Friday night. I don't have a huge problem with the opening slot, but for a feud that was pretty well built and the focus of the Smackdown brand, the fact it was worked like a a throwaway 'midcard' match devalued the title more than its place on the card did imo. I was pleased that Christian didn't turn though, but overall it was forgettable stuff.

 

Rey/Rhodes was ok, considering i just can't take to Rhodes. Saw better, saw worse. Can't really criticise much about it in it's own right, although it still didn't feel like a big match, despite getting plenty of time. If the top of the card was stacked, this would have been a decent addition to the show. If not, it's these kind of matches you look at to try to redeem the event somewhat, and this wasn't that calibre of match.

 

The 8 man was just a waste of time, it was was barely even a match. This never was going to go long, but it was farcical. They could have limited it to 5 or 6 minutes and still made it worthwhile, with everyone getting a little sequence or two to show their stuff, like at Wrestlemania 8. As it was, it even failed miserably as a piss break. It's never good when the entrances take twice as long as the match.

 

Punk/Orton was ok i suppose. Nothing spectacular, pretty basic, Punk put in a good showing, and the finish was great. Orton is really boring though. Punk would have been much better against Cena, or even throwing all 4 of them into a 4-way main event.

 

Lawler/Cole was absolute shite, i agree with the Hitman/Vince similarities. It was badly booked, Cole was anything but convincing, felt like it was never going to end, and when it did, it was stupid. Just a bad, bad segment, made all the worse by the fact it was probably the best built feud and should have been simple to book.

 

Undertaker/Triple H was a strange one, i'll probably have to watch it again (which is a complement in itself as it's the only thing on the show i'm interested in seeing again). On first viewing, It felt almost like a slowed down spotfest until the latter stages, there didn't seem to be much in the way of wrestling, or even brawling, going on. Just "your turn, my turn" stuff, a load of spots on the outside for the first 10 minutes, then the usual trading of big moves back in the ring. It was quite spectacular from the start, but it only really got interesting in the second half. I thought the pacing was a bit weird too. As understandable as it was that they were selling being half dead in the latter stages, they weren't a whole lot better looking after 5 minutes. The state of them wasn't so much a culmination of being worn down gradually - they looked wasted after the first couple of spots, and continued on like that for the bulk of the match. As a few others have mentioned, i wasn't overly keen on the tap out ending either, especially seeing as HHH actually had the sledgehammer in his hand but dropped it as though he had just fell unconscious. Overall, it was definitely WM worthy, but it wasn't great enough to carry an otherwise underwhelming show. It had it's moments, and they have to be commended for making something so predictable feel almost unpredictable for a a minute or two. Ultimately though, it wasn't a classic.

 

The mixed tag was garbage also. Just a farce, and i'm a bit surprised this celebrity chick is getting praised so much just for being able to do a backflip. Morrison and Ziggler got to do nothing, and i think that dive was botched anyway.

 

The main event was just a mess too. There's not much positive to say about it at all. On the bright side, it surely means Rock-Cena somewhere down the line. Undoubtedly the weakest mania main Event in my time though, regardless of what it builds to.

 

Some random shit;

- That Taker theme was quite good for the first 30 seconds, but man, did it begin to grate with it's repetitiveness. They should have just used that as an intro before the usual entrance.

- What was the point of those balloons for the Miz? What genius thought that up? Not that there was a lot of point in Cena's gospel choir either....

- Far too much black - Edge, Christian, Clay, Orton, Punk, Rhodes, Show, Barrett, Lawler, Swagger, Snooky, Trish, Morrison, Taker, Triple H, Miz....

- The production and set was the best thing about the show. It all looked great

- How crap and unfunny were almost all of those timewasting backstage skits?

- The show really missed having a MITB or something similar with a lot of flying. I was a bit disappointed Rey never hit some kind of dive either.

 

To sum up, i agree with a lot of earlier posters saying it felt more like an extended episode of RAW than the biggest show of the year, and not a very good one at that. There was probably less wrestling time than most 3hr PPVs, and far too much nonsense and pointless filler. Whilst one epic match and 3 others with pass marks might sound like not bad going on the face of it, that doesn't tell half the story of just how weak this show was.

[Dash X]

I enjoyed the show last night and just finished re-watching and it has grown on me quite a bit plus was a bit drunk / tired last night so had to refresh my memory. It was defiantly a strange mania with no title changes and a monday night raw feel ending. plus I was gutted about the U.S title match.. Could of done without the Snoop Dog skit but then again Ryder singing Friday was fantastic. For the most part I enjoyed the backstage stuff with the Rock and a nice moment with Stone Cold. I wasn't happy with the World title match up first. Again gutted here as I was sure Del Rio would take the title although Edge and Christian smashing up the Car at the end should further the feud and hopefully Del Rio as world champion will come soon enough.

 

Other than those few gripes it was defiantly enjoyable. The production was very impressive. I thought both Punk - Orton and HHH - Taker were the best matches on the show. Heel Punk is tremendous his expressions are gold, the match really impressed me as recent Orton matches can sometimes be a bit dull. This one far from it. Undertaker - HHH was a good brawl and some cracking spots. Really felt like a epic encounter to me. I loved the ending to the Taker match. Told a good story with Taker barely hanging on to the streak even if it near killed him. It was a bit over the top but most things are in the WWE these days. Also for a second I doubted the streak with Hunters Tombstone.. Edge of your seat stuff right there.

 

Cole - Lawler was entertaining as hell, the stuff with Austin, Booker T etc was great classic mania moment with the stunners. Also Swagger was on excellent form as usual. Got to give him credit for damn near getting run over by Austin on the quad by jumping out of the way at the last couple of seconds. I think it is pretty clear that Cole will turn out to be the anonymous general manger and take the heel GM Role.

 

Rey vs Cody was a decent match and with Cody getting the win looking strong.. I hope they continue with Cody's disturbed gimmick. And the mixed tag and 8 man tag matches were short and sweet so I didn't have a problem with them understandable due to time constraints. If it was up to me I would of had the U.S Title match in place of these.

 

Miz got a hell of a build up vid and a good amount of offence in the match so I'm happy with that plus kicking out of the FU was a good moment. Like I said the ending to the show felt like a RAW kind of deal. Very interested in where it goes though. I think we will see Miz - Cena rematch at Extreme Rules and possibly a Cena - Rock match down the line at either SummerSlam or even WrestleMania next year. It is in the The Rocks home town so would make sense for The Rock to have his return match at WM28. Over a years build to a Mania match?.. It could work.

[The Dart]

- That Taker theme was quite good for the first 30 seconds, but man, did it begin to grate with its repetitiveness.

 

Try being at Axxess, where it played nonstop for the whole 4 hours in his graveyard area, but so you could hear it if you were within about 200 metres of the graveyard.

[reychampion]

I hated the ending to the main event, was literally screaming NO!!! as the count got up to 10. I knew Rocky would restart it but felt so flat after that. WM should not end with a countout.

Rock destroying both didn't improve my mood, doesn't help anyone apart from the Rock.

I wish somebody has seen it weren't going down well and sent out Corre or New Nexes to destroy Rock and Cena. Leading to Austin's music hitting and JoMo and Orton accompied by Austin running down and beating down Nexes or Corre. concluding with a stunner on the leader. Then all 3 posing while Cena and Rock face off. would have been a better WM moment.

[RepoMan]

I got so bored with Taker's theme that, at points, it started to sound like the Scrubs end credits theme.

 

Seriously.

[The Invisible Boy]

I'm not overly bothered about anything that happened really (bar one or two small things) as long as tonight's Raw doesn't mess up anything and make anything that did happen at Wrestlemania seem as though it didn't matter.

 

The small annoyances:

 

Having the World Heavyweight Title on as the opening match. I did say before that Alberto Del Rio didn't really appeal much to me and I didn't "get" the hype from a lot of fans. I gave him a chance though after the Rumble and must say he has been okay, Brodus Clay and Ricardo have helped his character a lot, without them I probably wouldn't care as much about him though. I just think having the guy win the Rumble and go on to the "main event" of Wrestlemania, which turned out to be the opening match, and then lose as he did, well it just made me think WWE have decided he isn't top star material now, which was how I felt about him in the first place.

 

The Corre vs. Santino, Kofi, Big Show and Kane. Well I am a Corre fan and was hoping they'd be made to look strong but I'm not moaning about the actual outcome of the match but just the sheer lack of time given to it. The outcome could have still had Corre lose as long as they were made to look strong after a long match but having three guys who hold three pretty supposedly important Titles and the guy they have been bigging up as a monster who can lift the Big Show lose in a matter of minutes at Wrestlemania, well it just totally destroyed the monster character for Ezikiel and lost credibility for the three Champions.

 

Not really an annoyance but I would have liked to have seen Punk have something up his sleeve, like a new Nexus member or a returning Nexus member, it just wasn't in Punk's heel character to not have a plan like that.

 

 

 

Anyway that's all on the annoyances really but just a few thoughts on the rest of the show:

 

The way Michael Cole won the match was hilarious and genuinely made me laugh thinking about the betting thread with people saying Lawler was a certainty. I think it makes a fair bit of sense too so that Cole can still be smug about beating Lawler at his first Wrestlemania and so on.

 

The Undertaker vs. Triple H was unbelievable and the No DQ rule really helped to make it seem different from the last two years matches with Shawn Michaels. I thought the way Taker looked beaten up and was unable to walk out was a great way to finish. It sort of has fans believing now that he is getting older and each year is a bigger challenge for him to win, by doing that I think WWE is trying to have us think that next year he might not be able to keep up with his opponent and might lose as this year he just about won and then barely got out of the ring by himself.

 

I see a fair bit of moaning about the end of the Cena vs. Miz match but I thought it was fine, I thought it was a good thing having Miz kick out of the Attitude Adjustment too, it made him look strong. The video build up to his entrance with him looking at the screens of his past and WWE's past was brilliant too.

 

Nothing much to say about the other two matches but it was good seeing Cody win as the heel and get his revenge on Rey Mysterio and hopefully continue the feud a bit. The Snookie match, well I must say I was shocked when she did her flips and stuff but it was pretty much as I expected, Snoookie getting the pin for her team, wasn't Morrison supposed to have a new look or something though?

[Ron Simmons]

Didn't like the WH title opening the show, but I'm kinda glad Edge retained. It totally makes the Rumble look meaningless, given it's been around 4 years since a winner has won at Wrestlemania, but I'm not as hot on Del Rio as some others seem to. Cody Rhodes on the other hand...? Smackdown has a decent roster of heels for Edge to feud with, Cody, Barrett, Swagger (with Cole cheering him on) and McIntyre could all make fun feuds both in and out of the ring.

 

Hated the backstage segments, they were far too cheesy though I'll admit the Regal rap had me smiling.

 

I'm glad Miz retained, but all in all the show fell flat seriously for me. Even Michael Cole couldn't save it.

[ThePhenom]

Didn't like the WH title opening the show, but I'm kinda glad Edge retained. It totally makes the Rumble look meaningless, given it's been around 4 years since a winner has won at Wrestlemania, but I'm not as hot on Del Rio as some others seem to. Cody Rhodes on the other hand...? Smackdown has a decent roster of heels for Edge to feud with, Cody, Barrett, Swagger (with Cole cheering him on) and McIntyre could all make fun feuds both in and out of the ring.

Even though I loved the show, I still think that after being booked to loose in that 8 Man Tag so quickly, there is no way that they should have Wade Barrett in World title matches. I can see Alberto winning the title in a Triple Threat rematch at the next PPV, with Christian in it.

[Foale]

Awesome Video Package Introduction

The Rock opening the show like only he can

Best opening match to a WrestleMania ever

Solid Rhodes/Mysterio match

William Regal rapping

WrestleMania-sized Cobra followed by a hilarious Knockout Punch

A Stone Cold/Rock Staredown

A mid-air RKO

HBK getting his standing ovation

"Jerry!" *smash* "Jerry!" *smash* "Jerry!" *smash*

Three Stone Cold Stunners

19-0 (complete with top rope suicide dive, never thought he'd do it again)

Trish Stratus.

JR/King commentary

Miz's rise to fame video

Cena's epic entrance

Rock Bottom to John Cena

 

 

WrestleMania was awesome. You people suck.

[air_raid]

It totally makes the Rumble look meaningless, given it's been around 4 years since a winner has won at Wrestlemania,

 

It's been exactly 4 years since the Rumble winner has won at WrestleMania, but I think far more damning than that is that only one of the last six Rumble winners has actually gone on last, i.e. truly main evented WrestleMania and that was Orton in 2009.

 

I don't particularly mind that the Rumble winner hasn't automatically gone over year after year the way things used to be in the "good old days," because it shouldn't be about painting "WINS THE TITLE AT MANIA" on someone and killing all the suspense, more a good way of making that challenger look really strong and building towards a match that people want to see. The premise of "win the Rumble, headline Mania" is wearing very thin, and looks more like bullshit every year. This year Alberto won the Rumble and opened the fucking show, so instead of being up there with Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels in terms of "main eventing WrestleMania", he's actually rubbing shoulders with Koko B Ware and the Headbangers. Not that I suppose it matters, when in terms of build, he won the Royal Rumble by last eliminating Santino, and has been losing to Christian every week.

[Dash X]

Awesome Video Package Introduction

The Rock opening the show like only he can

Best opening match to a WrestleMania ever

Solid Rhodes/Mysterio match

William Regal rapping

WrestleMania-sized Cobra followed by a hilarious Knockout Punch

A Stone Cold/Rock Staredown

A mid-air RKO

HBK getting his standing ovation

"Jerry!" *smash* "Jerry!" *smash* "Jerry!" *smash*

Three Stone Cold Stunners

19-0 (complete with top rope suicide dive, never thought he'd do it again)

Trish Stratus.

Miz's rise to fame video

Cena's epic entrance

Rock Bottom to John Cena

 

 

WrestleMania was awesome. You people suck.

good post

[Murtz]

I've read some people comparing Wrestlemanias to a 'season finale', which is what it used to be, but the last few years its been anything but that. Look at WM25, Orton clearly should have won the title, but he didnt, and ended up winning it in a meaningless mid card match at Backlash (punting HHH too, if that happened at WM25 people may have had a completely different opinion on the main event).

 

WM24 - Orton retains the belt against HHH and Orton, but HHH ends up winning it in a meaningless mid card match at Backlash.

 

Same thing goes for this year, Del Rio really should have won the title, but instead he might end up winning it in a meaningless mid card match at Extreme Rules.

[Shit Poster]

I thought Wrestlemania was very good. I don't like Mysterio but him and Cody put a great match on shame it was not for a US title or something like that.

 

The Rock thing didn't really work for the whole show and him being their didn't help the PPV. It probably got more buys for it but on the grand scheme of things he was just not needed.

 

Jomo with girls vs Ziggler with girls was ok for what is was and snooki showed some great skill at the end that I would not have thought she could. Never judge a book by its cover thats for sure.

 

Jerry vs Cole went on far too long could have cut it in half and then had the US title match. It served its purpose and was a good idea for the finish Jerry had won but reversed the decision will give Cole more heel heat and more shit to give to Jerry

 

I said on here ages ago Alberto Del Rio would lose, its not a bad thing though. This will define him which will be good. He can now go on the rampage saying his destiny was stolen from him this will push him further than just sticking the title on him and allows him to develop a more sinister side before becoming champion.

 

Triple H vs Undertaker was a classic just watched it back again. I loved the slow pace and the tables were turned on Taker for the last two years he was telling Shawn to stay down this time he got battered. The chair shot to Triple H back as well was evil. The Tombstone by Triple H looked fantastic and I did think he had him. The match really served its purpose and Takers selling at the end was 1st rate.

 

Jerry Lawler and JR together commentating was fucking awful. They might as well get a spoon and eat each others asses to much love going on. You need a contrast they were in full love fest mode. JR wouldn't stop telling us anything goes its a no holds barred match we know you dick stop going on about it. They totally bombed on the commentary for the last two matches. Just goes to show how good Cole is he called Mania excellently until he got battered.

 

The Miz vs Cena was awful. Cena looked like a shell of man for some reason. The video for The Miz was class as well. Cena's entrance was shit he suddenly turned into man of god is worthless. The crowd dislike him turn him heel. The Rocks involvment was pointless as well. Take out Cena but should have left The MIz. Double count out in the main event of Wrestlemania was a fucking awful decision and they done it to accomadate The Rock. Good to see The Miz win though and he will be a great main eventer for years to come. I would love to see him have a year long run with the belt make it mean something again.

 

I liked the show I thought it was really good just the match placement and the commentary at the end let it down.

[AVM]

I thought, on the whole it was actually a pretty good PPV. My only real gripe is the finish to the PPV. Incredibly weak. If they wanted that kind of finish, they should have put Triple H vs. Undertaker on last (which also had a weird finish, but I thought it was all in all a great match).

[air_raid]

Good to see The Miz win though

 

Indeed it was, shame it wasn't clean. Has neil chosen your new login yet?