Wrestlemania 37 - April 10th & 11th

[IANdrewDiceClay]

20 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Made me smile. Wouldn't shock me if Hogan conives himself that they booed Titus. 

Well, they are in Florida, so ...

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Good night of the ol rasslin' there. What looked like it could be an epic disaster turned out to be a fun, feel good (!) show. Liked the variety - Hoss match, diva's style trainwreck, wOrkRate sprint, daft Big Men, fun celebrity wrestling and a traditionally built Main Event. It was great to hear that initial roar for Drew's big entrance and the stadium looked wonderful. Unfortunately, the crowd noise was an issue for me and became more of a problem as the show went on as the sweetening got more and more obvious.

I didn't quite get into opener. It might've just been me trying to adjust to the atmosphere. Typical WWE though. They seemingly done everything they can to cool Bobby Lashley off then he goes over anyway. Man, Drew's had a rough go at it and probably deserves better. Thought his promo with MVP while everyone was scrambling was great stuff.

I was drifting off during the tag turmoil, keeping an ear out for the surprise entrants. But wow, they really did just put that on the card. The nepotism in this company is relentless.

Thrilled Cesaro got his Mania moment. Cracking little match with hardly an ounce of fat on it. The 'UFO' spot was the one moment all night that had me completely forget the stadium was only a quarter full. Seth is half way tolerable in this position and the campaign ad is the best character work he's ever done. That stiff elbow rattling the back of Cesaro's head though. Ouch!

They're so obsessed with big men that they threw all psychology out the window in the tag title match. I kind of love Omos. He looks incredible and has a ton of charisma. But he can hardly do anything! Least the crowd seemed into it.

I hate Shane and wish he'd fuck off forever, but fair do's. At least he's dedicated to killing himself in the middle of the ring.

Bad Bunny is the man! Blow away performance by the lad. The Miz is obviously a pro and did a fabulous job guiding him through it, but Bunny nailed all his spots and his selling and appealing to the crowd was better than most vets. All time great entrance too. 

Main event was real good. Bianca hitting all her impressive power spots while Sasha worked brilliantly around her, looking every bit the Ace she always should've been. Sasha's a gem and made Belair look like an utter star. The crowd sweetening was really distracting at this point though, and I don't know why as the crowed seemed perfectly into it. 

I just need Bayley continuing the weekend being an agitator (although the fools have inadvertently turned her babyface) and then for Becky to shut her up and night 2 will immediately be a success. 

Also, lol at the Hulkster getting booed when they thought they could get away with it. Just send him home. 

[Yakashi]

After the result of the women’s tag last night I’m convinced the Bellas are getting added and winning the belts. I just can’t see how they’re going to do a double heel match with two of the worst tag teams in history. I can’t imagine even Twitter geeks that call these women Queens would want to see that. At least the Bellas are over and Nikki is pretty good. I’d take Nikki vs Shayna for 4 minutes with no one else tagging in. That would be good.

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, Yakashi said:

After the result of the women’s tag last night I’m convinced the Bellas are getting added and winning the belts. I just can’t see how they’re going to do a double heel match with two of the worst tag teams in history. I can’t imagine even Twitter geeks that call these women Queens would want to see that. At least the Bellas are over and Nikki is pretty good. I’d take Nikki vs Shayna for 4 minutes with no one else tagging in. That would be good.

See I thought maybe something like that but an addition felt more likely to the initial qualifying match rather than just straight into the title match. But hey its WWE so either way wouldn't surprise me.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Maybe my fever dreams have come true and Ronda and/or Becky actually are back tonight to kill everyone in that match and get a pop.

Never going to happen, and doesn’t make sense, but I’d happily go for a surprise Ronda and Becky tag team nicking the belts as part of their slow build to a singles match in the main event of next years Mania.

Edited April 11, 2021 by d-d-d-dAz

[Mr Butternut Squash]

42 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Seth Rollins should never, ever, ever, ever be a babyface. Ever. He has been glorious in this run and him and Cesaro I thought had the match of the night. The usual "Push Cesaro to the mooooooon" comments came out just after the match, and no. I love Cesaro, but not everyone you love HAS to be a main eventer. I genuinely don't think he is that level. Which is fine obviously.

 

Is this still a thing then? For me, the argument for Cesaro is that he should have at least got a crack in a main event slot as a title challenger at some point in his career. Not to be an actual Guy.

[Mr Lawrence]

Skimmed through it, but not really for me. Are there any rumoured surprises or returns for tonight? Can put in spoilers, no one floats my boat on the current roster.  

[ColinBollocks]

All in, just felt a little under whelming.

Outside of Bad Bunny and Shane just wanting Vince to tell him it's alright, the most interesting part of the show was the rain delay as you could clearly sense they were flying by the seat of their pants at breakneck speed.

I felt sorry for Drew, but that was maybe the point. The match just seemed to go on for ages and never really got going, then the finish wasn't the best for protecting the babyface. Maybe why I found it hard to get into the remainder of the show, as it was such an underwhelming match. Wasn't even a good opener, so good shout not putting it on last.

Bad Bunny v Brock Lesnar is the match we want.

Bianca Blair is one of the most likeable people they've had in a long time. I know next to nothing about her character but she's got such natural charisma and the daft Kardashian ponytail is a great look.

For me, everything else just seemed to blend together.

Edited April 11, 2021 by ColinBollocks

[AndyUK]

Thought it was a very fun first night to be fair, I give them a lot of (deserved) criticism but will happily praise them when they put on a good show. Nothing really outstayed its welcome at all.

-Opening with the roster was great and Lashley and Drew put on a great first match even if I was surprised that they had Lashley win. Hopefully we get that Lesnar match.

-Tag Team Turmoil was shite but it quickly recovered with Cesaro and Rollins, which was terrific and could've even done with an extra 5 minutes.

-The RAW Tag Team title, Steel Cage and Bad Bunny matches were a really fun trio of spectacle matches. The exact sort of thing you want from Mania. 

-Belair and Banks killed it in the main event. Bianca looked a star and I can still hear the sound of that hair whip.  

[Perry]

Becky has been dropping her usual cryptic clues about appearing at Mania, so it's obvious that she's not going to show. And is Ronda really coming back soon? Meltzer reported that her contract officially ended a few days ago.  Then again, if it is true, it's going to be an awesome SummerSlam. Just in time for the fans returning on a regular basis.

[JLM]

Enjoyable night one. My current exposure to the product is that I only follow RAW and Smackdown via POST Wrestling's reviews, but watch all of NXT and most of NXT UK. As a result, I'm generally more invested in the NXT graduates. Sometimes I have to pretend they returned to their home planet like Poochie when they get called up, other times I am pleasantly surprised.

Really enjoyed the rain delay content and loved seeing some unscripted promos. Mixed quality on those but that made it all the more fascinating to watch. Kevin Owens in particular knocked it out of the park. 

Was great to hear the crowd noise and see the big stage and pyro and all that good stuff after sitting through so many empty arena shows.

Drew vs Lashley was good stuff. Had a nice brisk pace to it for a hoss battle and a hot crowd behind it. They've done a lot of great work with Lashley and The Hurt Business but I still think he's missing something. His overall look is spectacular, but he still doesn't seem to have 100% conviction behind what he does. His facials are sometimes good but sometimes he looks vacant and you can see him trying to think about his next move or even what face he should have on. It's like he's aware that his resting expression still makes him look like a giant baby and he's consciously trying dance around that unfortunate issue. I'd have preferred them to keep The Hurt Business going for a bit as they help to complete the package a bit. He still has MVP though, what a fantastic little renaissance he's had. 

But yeah, hard hitting stuff with a result that surprised me. I liked them not flip flopping the belt and fully getting behind Lashley. Obviously a big shame for Drew not to get the big Mania win when so much of his push has been in empty arenas, but I think Lashley probably needed this more. I like seeing submission finishes protected too. 

The tag team turmoil match was a complete shit show. Although I follow the results, I haven't actually seen Dana Brooke for quite a long time, she looks unwell. Breaking up the Iconics remains one of the most baffling decisions in recent years. This was a mess. Tamina is the drizzling shits. You'd think she'd at least have a passable splash from the top by now, but no.

Like many others I'm hoping they have some kind of swerve for night two, because Natalya and Tamina wrestling on both nights is complete insanity to me, and there isn't a fan alive who wants to see them face Shayna and Nia. I'm sad that so much of Shayna Baszler's main roster run has been spent in this joke of a women's tag division. 

Cesaro vs Rollins was a good match but I didn't really care. Cesaro is incredible in the ring but I still do not care if he wins or loses and never have. 10 years it's been like this. This is THE BIGGEST WIN OF HIS CAREER apparently, we shall see if anything changes but I won't hold my breath. 

New Day vs Styles and Omos did its job. It was odd seeing the babyfaces isolate the heel for most of the match, but the story was that they knew they were dead if Omos got the tag. And indeed they were. Enjoyed Big E coming back to do the New Day intro. I thought Omos was protected well here. He is green but he does look to have a bit of physical charisma and some good facials about him. He already looks far more comfortable and convincing as a giant than Khali, for example. 

Bad Bunny/Priest vs Morrison/Miz was as good as you could possibly hope for. I was very impressed. Amazing work from all three of the pros, and massive credit to Bad Bunny who has clearly put in so much work. Definitely one of the better celebrity matches we've had. Also glad to see Priest get on the card. Towards the end of his NXT run he really started to come across like a star and looked more than ready for his call up. So far, aside from a preposterously long singles match with Elias on RAW, he looks to have been handled well. 

Shane vs Braun was better than I expected. That bump from Shane was insanity. A flat back bump into the ring from that height has to be way worse than falling through stuff that breaks and cushions the impact. What a nutter. I still think Braun's probably quite stupid though. Throwing a man off a thing doesn't change that. 

Loved the main event. Bel Air had future mega star written all over her in NXT, but she got called up earlier than I thought she would and was worried she'd struggle. Great choice to put her with Sasha here. The build for this has been a bit hit and miss, but on the night I think this was one of Sasha's finest performances, she made Bel Air look incredible. The beauty of NXT is that we've been able to follow Sasha's whole path from rookie to NXT star to main roster "superstar", all the way up to her now playing the heel veteran trying to protect her spot against the next Sasha Banks. She played that role to perfection, and it looked like she got Bianca to snap into character very quickly after the initial genuine emotion of the moment had got the better of her. Also I think that is the nastiest hair whip I've ever seen from Bel Air. Good grief. 

Overall a fun night one that didn't drag for me. Very excited for the triple threat and the women's title match on night 2. Rest of the card looks good too aside from the women's tag title match. Also I hope the Bayley stuff is going where everyone hopes it's going. On course for a solid Mania this year.

Edited April 11, 2021 by JLM

[tiger_rick]

I wasn't particularly interested but the weather situation made me curious and I ended up watching almost all of it. Honestly, I've no intention of thinking too much about the outcomes because it'll be back to the same old shit from Monday and I won't be watching so it just doesn't affect me. Not even going to mention Michael Cole botching the finish to the main event... 

All I can say is that as a standalone show, I thought it was fun, entertaining and the action was good. That first half an hour while they were padding was so good. I've said before but WWE give these guys and girls such a brilliant grounding and then micro manage them to within an inch of their lives. This just showed, again, how good they all are. KO was magnificent.

Well done, WWE.

[Perry]

Now we know why they moved the start time to 8e for both nights of Mania, so they could start the show just as it turns dark to hide the emptiness of the stadium.  They had it blacked out so much that you couldn't tell if there had been 2,000 or 25,000 fans in attendance.

[DavidB6937]

1 minute ago, Perry said:

Now we know why they moved the start time to 8e for both nights of Mania, so they could start the show just as it turns dark to hide the emptiness of the stadium.  They had it blacked out so much that you couldn't tell if there had been 2,000 or 25,000 fans in attendance.

And yet they still put cardboard cutouts there which seemed a bit odd if the crowd wasn't going to be obvious anyway.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I thoroughly enjoyed that. Just the fact that there was an audience again lifted it so much. It had a new energy. It felt special. It felt like WrestleMania.

The rain delay was absolutely thrilling. Off the cuff promos and pure professionalism coupled with scrabbling unpredictability. Brilliant.

I was happy with all the matches. Was rooting for Drew and was gutted when he lost. Cesaro vs Rollins was great, the Tag Title and Cage matches were both loads of fun, and Sasha Banks was fantastic - that braid whip!

Bring on night 2.

Edited April 11, 2021 by HarmonicGenerator
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