WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII Discussion Thread

[Statto]

Ric Flair must have been dis-hearted if he was watching backstage, to see a title he in some form held on numerous occasions lost and defended in many wars over the past couple decades, be reduced to they opening match on the biggest wrestling show of the year

 

Key point in bold. Wrestlemania isn't the first-time effort of a 16-year-old 'promoter' in his local village hall. Going on first isn't 'jerking the curtain' in the same way (I would suggest it isn't on ANY WWE show.) You don't have to put the first-weekend trainees in a battle royal on first, the guys who've done two weeks training and maybe a bit of backyarding in a tag second, building up to a main where you send your "World Champion" out there to be carried by Doug Williams or Zebra Kid or Sim Snuka or whoever you've brought in who can actually wrestle. They're going out there to get the show off to a big start.

 

Now, did I love seeing it be a sub-30 second 'match'? Not really, but I can see the reason it was. Contrary to popular belief, WWE don't have a spreadsheet on the booker's iPad that calculates how many seconds of a show a talent "deserves", and it doesn't churn out things like "Brodus Clay dancing warrantes 37.5% more Wrestlemania screen time than Daniel Bryan, Sheamus & the World Heavyweight Championship combined". The thought process was almost certainly more "Daniel Bryan (the character, not the man who plays it - it has nothing to do with his past or who he's wrestled for) is a slimy little git with short-man syndrome, who bullies his even tinier girlfriend and has weaselled his way to retaining the World Heavyweight Championship for months. Sheamus is an unstoppable freight-train who's been on a roll since winning the Royal Rumble. Wouldn't it be good for him to get some comeuppance on the biggest show of the year by being beaten really quickly, in a way which will give many entertaining future storyline possibilities, not least the ability to claim his loss was a fluke?"

 

For all those saying Bryan was "squashed", here's a question - say the formulas in the mythical Wrestlemania Screen-Time Calculator were written by a spreadsheet-geek who happens to be a massive RoH fan (hey, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch....) and it scrapped the Brodus dance segment (which, in a related point, was there to provide a comedy buffer between the very good WWE Championship match and the MOST HYPED MATCH IN HISTORY, and did a decent job - Brodus got a HUGE pop considering what the crowd had just seen and were about to see), the musical performances, the crab-eating segment to hype another network's unrelated TV show (ok, that WAS bollocks....), the promos for next year's show, and given Sheamus & Bryan 8 minutes. What if Sheamus had come out, beaten Daniel Bryan all over the ring for 8 minutes, then made him tap out to the LeBell Lock for kicks? Is that any less of a squash than a quick knock-out kick to the head to a champ who was unprepared due to his own arrogance? Or indeed if Bryan had got 7:56 of offence then the same thing had occured?

[Cannibal Man]

Wouldn't it be good for him to get some comeuppance on the biggest show of the year by being beaten really quickly, in a way which will give many entertaining future storyline possibilities, not least the ability to claim his loss was a fluke?"

 

Alternatively, why would anyone want to put any more time or cash or effort into following a feud that went down the shitter in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania? Whoever who won or lost, doesn't factor into any kind of ill feeling toward the match really, since i'm a fan of both men and i'm happy to see Sheamus with the title. But having your biggest show of the year open with a WHC match that lasts all of 18 seconds, and thus has a good portion of the crowd chanting bullshit and the name of the heel throughout the following match just makes nae sense to me.

 

I'm not arsed about whatever bullshit 'it's the chuffin' smarks that are wrong 'ere' bollocks people are attributing to this - At no point during this feud did I hope that Sheamus would have the match over, done and dusted with his foot up Bryan's arse for the pin in under a minute, and going less time than a commercial for a programme about fish which followed it. I wanted to see them have a match, didn't get one, got severely cheesed off. Seems logical.

[Big Benny HG]

I thought WrestleMania this year was superb, best one in years.

 

I thought Bryan vs Sheamus, Triple-H vs. Undertaker, Punk vs. Jericho and Rock vs. Cena were all absolutely brilliant. Really, really great.

 

I loved the hell out of the opener/World Title match. Bryan has been a prick to everyone for months, constantly weaseling his way into keeping the title, comes out here with this big fancy entrance, does a real smug kiss to his lady and then gets kicked right in the mouth and it's all over. Serves him right, and no-one expected that. Just fantastic.

 

Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes and the 12-man tag were also good, fun matches and the Brodus Clay bit was hilarious. I nearly fell off the sofa laughing when Clay told everyone to get their phones out and call their mama, and the camera managed to find some douchebag on the phone and put him up on the big screen and EVERYONE laughed at him.

 

The only poor bits of the entire show were the Divas tag and Orton vs. Kane.

 

Well, well worth the

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Nobody seemed to care when Kane did it to Chavo. And poor Chavo had far more to lose than Daniel Bryan does. It makes a blind bit of difference. Thats the whole thing. Sure it would be nice to see a Sheamus and Daniel Bryan match go longer (but that will happen on TV and the next PPV anyway), but there is not one single chance in hell that this will damage Daniel Bryan in anyway. How can it? Its all about the character. He's been a complete knob to his lass, to his fans, even Michael Cole's pals with him now. This big gladiator was chomping at the bit to get his hands on Bryan and he got exactly what was coming to him. Its what happens in wrestling. The heel gets a kicking on the biggest show of the year, and then bitches about it after. Sheamus looked awesome as well.

 

I heard this on the Observer Live show earlier. They said if it had gone five minutes and Bryan lost it would have been far worse, because 5 minutes is a squash. 18 seconds, getting attacked on the blindside taking someones finisher isnt a squash. And people must be watching at different show to me, because whent the ref counted three the place popped. It kicked off Mania with a big reaction, which was more than can be said the last few years. You got a few people chanting bullshit as people were quiet watching a skit on the big screen, but thats about it. It was a nice start.

[patiirc]

Christ on a bike, that was much better than last years dismal effort. Top night at The Assembly in Preston, must have been 50-100 in there. Drank like a fish all night, surprised I'm not dead today.

 

DBryan vs Sheamus- Laughed at this in a good way. I thought it was fun for 18 secs or whatever. Belts dont matter these days and Bryan doesnt really need it anyway, but that's probably just me

 

Orton vs Kane- This was pretty decent I thought, found myself getting into this. That's not bad considering I dont really care about the two wrestlers particularly. Kane was always going over after losing to Cena or else any 'Monster' aura would have been dead in the water.

 

The Foley skit was fucking awful, proper cringe inducingly shit. Foley still got pops from the pub crowd though

 

Cody Rhodes vs The Big Show- Big Show finally gets his Wrestlemania moment in a match which wasn't rubbish. I thought Cody looked good at times during this

 

The Diva's match... Hmm yes, well it happened, was a fag break match. Was Kelanwhatever her name was, bum stain from ring dirt? It certainly was in an embarrasing place

 

Triple H vs Undertaker- I wont go mental and say it was the best thing ever. But it was good. I really got into this and enjoyed it immensely.

 

Team Teddy vs Team Johnny. Team Johnny were always going in this match werent they? As a multiman match it was pretty good. Some nice looking offensive stuff from Kofi and R Truth, and the 3 man flip on the outside after Henry killed Hornswoggle was pretty good. Easy to spot turn that lead to the win, but it was decent enough.

 

Chris Jericho vs Punk- Another solid match with a fantastic end to it. Wonder where Jericho goes from here? Will these two will continue to feud as the months go on?

 

The Rock vs Cena- This was surely Warrior/Hogan all over again and would have been planned out way in advance? Seemed to be a bit flat. Rabid crowd helped it along and the wrestling was decent enough I guess. I said before it didnt need to be a 5 star match to serve its purpose. It wasnt. I'm not sure how The Rock winning helps any either as it basically says to the rest of the roster, that you are shit if a part timer can come in and beat your best bloke. and bringing the likes of Lesnar back and stuff just screams of WCW's quick fixes before it tanked. Old= ratings, is a shame. The WWE really need to start building their full time guys to be something more than fodder for returnees or there will never be cream that rises to the top and it will be a hard road to come back from.

 

 

Best PPV from WWE this year, but it raises some questions that will need answering pronto for the future of the business

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The Diva's match... Hmm yes, well it happened, was a fag break match. Was Kelanwhatever her name was, bum stain from ring dirt? It certainly was in an embarrasing place

It was fake tan and makeup from the stinkface she did.

 

Wonder where Jericho goes from here?

The next PPV's in Chicago. So probably he'll beat Punk there infront of his Mam and Dad or something. Probably be a good idea to do that pouring beer down his neck angle that's been rumoured.

[ajmcstyles]

Only saw a few matches as I was trying to sleep but gave up.

 

Diva's match - Yawn

 

Orton Vs Kane - Was ok to watch seen worse.

 

Cody Vs Big Show - Would of like to see Cody dominate a bit more build him up as someone whos gunna be huge. also that Spear by show looked nasty. On the replay you can see Show hits cody right in the nuts.

 

HHH Vs Undertaker - It wasn't the match I was expecting but it was a good match. Takers back looked liked BJ Penns face after Nick Diaz bashed it in for 3 rounds. On the topic of chair shots to the head, I thought they were barred now in WWE. What annoyed me about that match and ive said this before and ill bring it up again, be I cant stand that Cell it looks awful compared to the original (the smaller one) its hard to explain but there was better psychology in the old cell and you could do alot more with it, it felt like a cell like deadly device than the big PG version that was used last night.

 

Cena Vs Rock, only saw the last F-U and onwards. Looked like the finish was slightly botched but glad to see the rock win and clean.

 

Also a note on the World Title match

According to F4WOnline.com, WWE had planned for the World Title match at WrestleMania to be a quick bout several weeks ago, however there were some officials who lobbied to have that idea changed.

 

The reason why WWE ran such a short bout is because the company wanted to set a new record for the quickest title match at WrestleMania, which was previously held by Kane and Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Title at WrestleMania 24. However, last night's World Title bout did not beat the record, as it lasted 18 seconds and the Kane/Guerrero match lasted 8 seconds.

 

What bothered me is the missing MAGIC about Wrestlemania this year, the buzz as someone mentioned it might be the UFC being more popular or I've grown out of it but it didn't feel Xmas came early like Wrestlemania normally brings.

 

Still got 2 World Title matches to watch and the GM Match? Are they worth watching?

[melina_mma]

People are ripping into the Diva match but tbf it was one of the better diva matches of the 20's

[AndyUK]

Very good show, best Mania in years.

 

Sheamus vs Bryan wasn't the best way to start for me. I guess we know why they didn't give it much buildup now. I was looking forward to seeing what sort of match they'd put together but it wasn't to be. I got over it though. It gave Sheamus a memorable Wrestlemania moment and it meant the three top matches got the time they deserved.

 

Orton vs Kane was fine for what it was and was what I expected, apart from Kane winning. Guess we're gonna get a gimmick match between the two at Extreme Rules. Rhodes vs Big Show was decent and a good end to that feud. The Divas match was nothing offensive and that whatever you call it move Kelly did was pretty cool. Overall, an unspectacular first hour without anything being really bad. The show really, really delivered after that though.

 

The HIAC match was ace, some great storytelling from all involved. Taker and HHH staring each other down to Metallica while the Cell came down around them was epic. The chairshots were brutal, the visual of Taker's foot standing on the sledgehammer was like something from a film. They definitely got me with HBK getting ready to ring the bell and the Sweet Chin Music into Pedigree finish too. I actually thought, shit, they're gonna end the streak like this? After that, Taker, HHH and HBK going up the ramp together and embracing was a brilliant Wrestlemania moment. Not quite sure how I'd compare it to last year but it was great.

 

The GM match was fine for what it was. Got a lot of people on the card and it gave everyone a chance to do their thing. Pleased Team Johnny won too and Eve kicking Ryder in the balls was hillarious. Guess we're gonna get some intergender feud now.

 

Punk/Jericho was very good, I'm glad they got the time they deserved. It started off slow with Y2J trying to get Punk disqualified but that was good storytelling. As it wore on, there were some great spots, the springboard into the Codebreaker and the Frankensteiner into the Walls being the best. The finishing sequence with the Walls of Jericho and Anaconda Vice was ace too.

 

Rock/Cena was everything I hoped it would be. It had a great big match feel to it and the musical performances before that definitely helped too. It was a different sort of Cena match too, as he was the guy in control and the ring general, which just shows how good he has become. The Rock's done a hell of a job in his two matches considering how long he's been out of the ring. The crossbody into the Attitude Adjustment definitely spot got me. Pleased The Rock won, I think it was the right thing to do, even though I wasn't expecting it. It'll be interesting to see where they go with Cena now because they could put together something really good, I think.

 

Overall, the big matches all delivered and were all given enough time to do so, which was really pleasing.

[windoesnot]

Top night at The Assembly in Preston, must have been 50-100 in there. Drank like a fish all night, surprised I'm not dead today.

 

Bugger, I knew I should have gone to that

[SteelEdge]

Just trying to think of the last time Cena lost a 1 on 1 match completely clean. Am I mistaken or was it in the 60 minute match with HBK on Raw just after Mania 23? Nearly 5 years without losing clean is insane!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Batista SummerSlam 2008 he lost clean.

[tiger_rick]

What bothered me is the missing MAGIC about Wrestlemania this year, the buzz as someone mentioned it might be the UFC being more popular or I've grown out of it but it didn't feel Xmas came early like Wrestlemania normally brings.

"Normally"? Some of the recent WrestleMania's have been garbage. This one had all the feel of the biggest wrestling event you ever watched. If you didn't feel it, the problem's you, not WWE.

 

Just trying to think of the last time Cena lost a 1 on 1 match completely clean. Am I mistaken or was it in the 60 minute match with HBK on Raw just after Mania 23? Nearly 5 years without losing clean is insane!

Why would your #1 babyface lose clean? Austin and Hogan rarely did either.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I'm going to come back later with a more in depth review of this show, once i've washed last nights underpants.

 

I'll sum up;

 

There are probably tonnes of reasons why 'Taker/Triple H and Rock/Cena aren't the first and second, in that order, best matches of all time but for, at least, the next six months I won't want to hear a single one of them. For me, this 'Mania was as close to perfect wrestling has been for years and years and if you genuinely leave this show underwhelmed, or having not enjoyed it, then I don't think that in 2012 professional wrestling is for you. Perhaps it never has been. This show, actually, wasn't just great relative to lowered expectations it was just great.

[Big Jock Knew]

I'm going to come back later with a more in depth review of this show, once i've washed last nights underpants.

 

I'll sum up;

 

There are probably tonnes of reasons why 'Taker/Triple H and Rock/Cena aren't the first and second, in that order, best matches of all time but for, at least, the next six months I won't want to hear a single one of them. For me, this 'Mania was as close to perfect wrestling has been for years and years and if you genuinely leave this show underwhelmed, or having not enjoyed it, then I don't think that in 2012 professional wrestling is for you. Perhaps it never has been. This show, actually, wasn't just great relative to lowered expectations it was just great.

 

This kind of reaction needs to be nipped in the bud. "If you didn't love it, wrestling's not for you". I adored the Undertaker/Triple H match and enjoyed the Rock/Cena match. But people are well within their rights to have complaints about Rock/Cena. It was big, loud and intriguing but I wouldn't say it had anywhere near the buzz of Rock/Hogan the first time around or even Cena/Punk from the summer just there.