WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII Discussion Thread

[Dead Mike]

Watched this last night with a mate who watches WWE TV a lot more regularly than me these days. Last event I saw was the Rumble so going in I had minimal knowledge of what had happened during the build up. Thought it was a good show but not 'the wrestling spectacle' some here are making it out to be.

 

Bryan & Seamus - Was surprised how over Daniel Bryan was, lots of signs & the crowd were hot for him. I had no idea that this match was previously bumped off the card. All I knew was I'd seen Seamus win the Rumble & this was his big title shot. What a farce! I could've bought it if it were a straight squash like Kane/Chavo or Warrior/HTM but the fact that the kiss 'distracted' him meant it still looked like Bryan was getting jobbed out/punished & it made Seamus look weak as opposed to having him win clean & look a monster. I might've been more forgiving if this happened at 'Fully Loaded' or one of the lesser events but to get that as a title match at Mania is a really poor showing.

 

Orton & Kane - Boring to start off, the crowd were noticeably quiet & you could hear 'Daniel Bryan' chants. Orton stepped things up a bit & got the crowd onside. The aura that Kane once had has well & truly gone though.

 

Show & Rhodes - Cody Rhodes has as much charisma & charm as a crisp packet. The fact that some people on here champion him is testament to the lack of new talent WWE have, or have chosen to push in their roster. Standard match you could see on any wrestling card.

 

Divas - Meh, better than the 'Snookie' match but that's like saying a catshit sandwich is preferable to a dog shit pie.

 

Taker/HHH - Match of the night for me. Brilliant stuff from both men & the last 10 minutes was as good as any wrestling I've seen for a loooong time. There was a moment where HBK's mugging/overselling looked like he was trying to take too much attention away from the match itself but that's a minor gripe in what was a classic bout. Gonna watch this again tonight.

 

Team Teddy/Team Johnny - Essentially a 'Mania payday' for the midcard in lieu of a Battle Royal. Everyone got their spots in & they kept it short & sweet. That Ziggler bump was sweet.

 

Punk/Jericho - Great match & glad it was a clean finish. Both men came out of it looking great & although the crowd were quiet for it early on they really turned it round at the end.

 

Brodus Clay - OK so this was a piss break but really? You might look at this now as throwaway fun but in 3 years time, when someone mentions Momma Clay & her 'bridge club' it'll be deemed complete wrestlecrap.

 

Rock/Cena - I was expecting a face/face match. I fully expected the Miami crowd the be behind The Rock but I thought. Given the sheer amount of people on here forever saying 'Cena's their biggest face', 'They can never turn Cena' etc etc that he'd have a good portion of the crowd behind him? It was the crowd that made the match tbh as it started off looking a bit awkward. Plus, you could absolutely hear them calling spots to one another which took me out of the match a little. It came good in the end with the crowd going apeshit for the Rock win (I was convinced Cena would take it) but it didn't have that Hogan/Rock feel.

 

Overall a solid if unspectacular show. Made by a couple of really good matches & a massive production. But it really lacked that special Mania moment for me.

[Chest Rockwell]

Watched last night... Some great bits. My favourite match was probably Punk/Jericho, but I enjoyed the HIAC a whole lot too. The shots from the camera men inside the Cell looked really fucking cool.

 

On this chair shot debate though - I understand why they don't do chairshots to the head, I'm not an idiot. But all the chair shots followed the same routine of "one to the gut, several to the back" which got a little boring.

 

 

Where were the fucking video packages?? As someone who doesn't watch regularly, and didn't bother with build up because I assumed the video packages on the night would fill me in on the back story to date, I was left pretty confused with a lot of stuff that went on. (so put me in the "wanted a fucking Bryan/Sheamus match" camp)

 

Also, JR chats utter shite. Never let that man near a microphone again. Thrilled not to have Booker on commentary though.

 

Edit: Whoah whoah whoah... Hold up there Mike!! The Divas match was better than the Snookie match? No way! Snookie is one of the best uses of a celebrity in a wrestling match that I've seen.

[King Pitcos]

All fans over the age of about 10 are "smart" now. There are 1000s of people who buy WM alone, so throwing this match away basically says to all the people that bought mania but didn't know who Sheamus and Bryan were that they basically shouldn't care about them, because they are not worth the time at Mania.

It only says that if those people are stopwatch-fetishising gonks. And everyone in that THEY NEED MORE MATCH TIME~ category has been a huge fan of Daniel Bryan since the newzsites told them to be, about a decade ago. So there is literally nobody who watched that and went "I've no idea who these two are, but if the bookers cared about them, they would have gone at least 10-15." People saw a little cocky fucker get his head kicked in in a surprising and funny moment, and a new champion crowned.

[El Dingo Capitano]

Watched this last night with a mate who watches WWE TV a lot more regularly than me these days. Last event I saw was the Rumble so going in I had minimal knowledge of what had happened during the build up. Thought it was a good show but not 'the wrestling spectacle' some here are making it out to be.

 

Bryan & Seamus - Was surprised how over Daniel Bryan was, lots of signs & the crowd were hot for him. I had no idea that this match was previously bumped off the card. All I knew was I'd seen Seamus win the Rumble & this was his big title shot. What a farce! I could've bought it if it were a straight squash like Kane/Chavo or Warrior/HTM but the fact that the kiss 'distracted' him meant it still looked like Bryan was getting jobbed out/punished & it made Seamus look weak as opposed to having him win clean & look a monster. I might've been more forgiving if this happened at 'Fully Loaded' or one of the lesser events but to get that as a title match at Mania is a really poor showing.

 

Orton & Kane - Boring to start off, the crowd were noticeably quiet & you could hear 'Daniel Bryan' chants. Orton stepped things up a bit & got the crowd onside. The aura that Kane once had has well & truly gone though.

 

Show & Rhodes - Cody Rhodes has as much charisma & charm as a crisp packet. The fact that some people on here champion him is testament to the lack of new talent WWE have, or have chosen to push in their roster. Standard match you could see on any wrestling card.

 

Divas - Meh, better than the 'Snookie' match but that's like saying a catshit sandwich is preferable to a dog shit pie.

 

Taker/HHH - Match of the night for me. Brilliant stuff from both men & the last 10 minutes was as good as any wrestling I've seen for a loooong time. There was a moment where HBK's mugging/overselling looked like he was trying to take too much attention away from the match itself but that's a minor gripe in what was a classic bout. Gonna watch this again tonight.

 

Team Teddy/Team Johnny - Essentially a 'Mania payday' for the midcard in lieu of a Battle Royal. Everyone got their spots in & they kept it short & sweet. That Ziggler bump was sweet.

 

Punk/Jericho - Great match & glad it was a clean finish. Both men came out of it looking great & although the crowd were quiet for it early on they really turned it round at the end.

 

Brodus Clay - OK so this was a piss break but really? You might look at this now as throwaway fun but in 3 years time, when someone mentions Momma Clay & her 'bridge club' it'll be deemed complete wrestlecrap.

 

Rock/Cena - I was expecting a face/face match. I fully expected the Miami crowd the be behind The Rock but I thought. Given the sheer amount of people on here forever saying 'Cena's their biggest face', 'They can never turn Cena' etc etc that he'd have a good portion of the crowd behind him? It was the crowd that made the match tbh as it started off looking a bit awkward. Plus, you could absolutely hear them calling spots to one another which took me out of the match a little. It came good in the end with the crowd going apeshit for the Rock win (I was convinced Cena would take it) but it didn't have that Hogan/Rock feel.

 

Overall a solid if unspectacular show. Made by a couple of really good matches & a massive production. But it really lacked that special Mania moment for me.

 

 

 

The fact you had minimal knowledge of any of the build up is probably why you didn't enjoy this Mania as much as loads of other posters on here though. To watch something clean means you are watching purely on a wrestling match by wrestling match basis devoid of any real excitement or personal preference to outcome. It is the build up and the storylines leading into something like this that truely add the gravitas of what you then sit down and watch.

[Dead Mike]

Surely if there's one event that a casual fan should still be able to get into it's Wrestlemania? How much emotional investment did you have in Cody Rhodes?

[Chest Rockwell]

Video packages would have fixed this problem entirely!

[El Dingo Capitano]

Surely if there's one event that a casual fan should still be able to get into it's Wrestlemania? How much emotional investment did you have in Cody Rhodes?

 

Me and Cody are like this... (I'm crossing my fingers in a we're close way)

 

but yeah fair point mate although If I went and watched the FA cup final between Man U and Arsenal but didn't support either team then I'm surely not going to be into it as much as the other 90% of the people there

[JLM]

Rhodes is a good example of how watching the TV made the match more interesting. I started watching regularly again at the time of Jericho's return, and until then I'd agreed with your opinion of him. However, during the TV build for the match with Big Show he was excellent in his role as a sort of cocky little fratboy shit who you want to see slapped.

 

Agreed that video packages would have rectified a lot of these problems though, particularly when Mania attracts extra viewers who don't watch the weekly TV religiously.

 

Also completely disagree about Bryan/Sheamus. Him getting squashed in a five or ten minute match would make him look a lot weaker than getting blindsided by what he can claim afterwards was a fluke and a cheap shot. Also his title win and entire run with the belt was full of flukes and cheap shots, so it was a fitting way for him to drop it that hasn't harmed his character at all. I can see why people who wanted to see the match and didn't get it are disappointed, but from any other angle than that I can't say it was a bad decision at all.

[Michael_3165]

I have a few gripes about the show to be honest.. but there was some good in it.

 

1) The Rock vs Cena was decent but something just wasn't "clicking" right for me. I was expecting some epic match but maybe because the expectations were SO high it couldnt be met. Good enough match but it reminded me very much of Rock vs Goldberg where it was a decent enough match but didn't quite make the epic match feeling.

 

2) Taker vs HHH was immense and my favorite match on the card. Fantastic stuff and great psychology. I will say though that it really shows how lacking in star power they have when the best match on the card features someone who has had one match in the last year. I don't believe many of the new school lads can match this in terms of ability which is a shame

 

3) Rhodes vs Show wasn't BAD but thats purely because Show had this massive "iam havin a good time" smile on his face which was kinda infectious! Seeing Rhodes get beaten all over the place helped as I have no interest in his non gimmick.

 

4) Womens match was ok, better than I expected. A few of the girls need to put on some weight though, it looked painful at times

 

5) Kane vs Orton was a bit of a dud... just couldn't get the crowd (and subsequently me) into it at all... too kick punch and headlock heavy. This should have been much better

 

6) Punk vs Jericho had massive potential but it fell in the same category as Edge vs Jericho of WM 26... two good workers just not going together quite right. It seemed a bit disjointed and didn't really pick up all that well... I think Jericho either needs to put more effort in or not be booked in these semi main event spots because he hasn't got the factor he used to have imo

 

7)I was disappointed massively by the lack of action in the Sheamus vs Bryan match if only because they CAN have good matches. Ithink it was a disservice to Sheamus (who can't be loving his "fastest title change" match) and Bryan who should have been given alot more offense. Just wasn't working for me.

 

All in all it was solid but, similarly to WM 27, just didn't quite hit the mark. On a side not (and no this isn't a spoilet IMO) if they could have thrown RAW on Monday onto the WM card that would have worked.

[DJ Kris]

 

- The likelihood is that having the match go under 20 seconds wasn't because of a conscious decision (like with Warrior / Honky) but because they ran out of time and it was deemed a "sacrificial match."

Why is that the likelihood? Comments like this are why people are pointing and laughing at those getting upset. WWE saw fit to make Bryan World Champion and have him hold that title going into WrestleMania, the made a decision to have Seamus win the Royal Rumble and go onto to face Bryan at WrestleMania. They could have given those opportunities to someone else, they could have put a title on The Rock or Cena if they'd wanted. So the likelihood is that this is the way they wanted to tell the story, and nothing at all to do with timing.

 

I can totally understand people being upset because they wanted to a good match out of 2 solid workers, but some of the comments about Diva's match getting longer, this that and the other taking up time like time had anything to do with it is just getting annoying.

[Chest Rockwell]

I've just remembered my "unintentionally funny moment of the night" for Wrestlemania.

 

After the Hall of Fame announcements, everyone up on stage was shaking hands and hugging each other, but they all just ignored Mil Mascaras and Yoko's kids, because presumably no one actually knew them.

 

That got a good laugh from the room when we were watching.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

 

- The likelihood is that having the match go under 20 seconds wasn't because of a conscious decision (like with Warrior / Honky) but because they ran out of time and it was deemed a "sacrificial match."

Why is that the likelihood?

 

Admittedly I have no evidence, but it's just personal belief. And considering they outright moved the exact same match from last year to the preshow certainly dosen't convince me otherwise.

[olliej149]

Rock vs Cena was the highlight for me. I think when you take into account the build up, plus the crowds reaction i dont think you can fault it. Also I genuinely didn't think the Rock would win so that was a great surprise (especially as I'm not the biggest fan of Cena)

 

HHH vs Undertaker was amazing as well. Not much really to say that hasn't been said already but it was just an amazing build up and brilliant from start to finish. I also think Shawn Micheals did brilliantly as well

 

CM Punk vs Jericho is another great match but one that a lot of people dont seem to think worked. I'll admit i hadn't followed the build up to this all that much but I got into it really well. I think Punk reminds me of a younger Jericho in many ways so it was a great match.

 

Rhodes vs Big Show was also good for a mid-card match. A lot of people knock Rhodes saying he's boring and has no charisma but personally I think he's a decent mid-carder, and its nice to see someone who can wrestle without any cheesy gimmick. Although admittedly i think without a gimmick he will struggle to headline any WWE shows. It will also be interesting to see what Big Show will be like as IC champion. Hopefully this isn't just leading to a rivalry with Show and A-Train when he returns

 

Sheamus vs Bryan a real shame that this match had to pan out like this as these two definitely deserved the chance to put on a decent match, but it will probably lead to a long rivalry and possibly a rematch next year

 

Team Jonny vs Team Teddy An ok match but it seemed a bit like this was just a way of using up all the guys who deserved a match at Mania but couldn't be worked in any other way

 

Overall a great show. Fantastic atmosphere and a lot of incredible memorable matches

[DJ Kris]

Admittedly I have no evidence, but it's just personal belief. And considering they outright moved the exact same match from last year to the preshow certainly dosen't convince me otherwise.

But last year was a totally different situation. Matches often get bumped to pre-show and in that case it likely was due to timing, but they're not gonna do that to their World title match, that's just stupid. I honestly can not believe this was anything other than the plan. Or something such as Bryan slipped in the shower the night before and couldn't wrestle so they figured this was their best way out, but I'm going with this being what they wanted. I also agree with those that think this tells a good story and makes both men look good.

[LaGoosh]

I thought the show was fucking brilliant and pretty much perfectly booked all the way through.

 

And the Bryan/Shaemus match was spot on. Don't worry ROH indy fapper nerds, you'll get your 20-30 minute match next month. This is Wrestlemania baby and it's supposed to be all about the big spectacle. Both Shaemus and Bryan will come out of this stronger.