Wrestlemania 37 - April 10th & 11th

[BomberPat]

Night two was an absolute slog, but thank fuck it was two nights. I can't imagine I'd have enjoyed the Bad Bunny match quite as much if I knew there was another four hours or more to go. Imagine getting into hour four or five and having to sit through the Fiend and that tag team match. Eesh.

Ripley vs. Asuka was great, Owens vs. Zayn was solid, though I'd have liked to have seen both given a little more time. I drifted in and out of sleep during the main event. Outside of those matches, though, the show was a lifeless husk, and The Fiend and Randy Orton somehow managed to do worse than the last time they were at Wrestlemania together. Whoever made the call to open the show with that needs a good talking to.

Contrast that to the actual joy of both Night One's main event and the Bad Bunny match, and last night only looks more miserable. 

[Chili]

I think I peaked at most of the hype videos than the matches. 

But the main event was really enjoyable. I won't be staying to watch the product but with Mania there is almost always something good. The camera cuts weren't though, makes you actually hurt at points. 

The Bellas. We deserve what we get don't we. 

And yeah, what is Greg Hamiltons vocal ticks about, going lower or upper in the middle of syllables at points. He looked like Andy Richter at a function. 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Chili

[tiger_rick]

17 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

No, it’s an opinion.

Thanks, I'm familiar with the concept. And in my opinion, a hyperbolic one, based on the reasons given.

[SaitoRyo]

Nothing makes a world title WrestleMania main event like having several plugs for Snickers, complete with giant 3D graphics, in the middle of it. 

Really added to the drama I thought! 

[Project Nim]

Night two thoughts - did hogan come out and say “ho ho ho” initially? Those boos were outstanding though, well played Tampa. 

Should have had Gobbledy Gooker in that box. Live crowd seemed to like all the hocus pocus in the first match. I’m being incredibly generous here but maybe I view The Fiend negatively the same way some people probably thought The Undertaker character was a load of bollocks early in his run with the entrance and “methodical” pacing to his matches. 

Heard either Tamina or Nia say “lay it in” I’d be wary saying that to either of them. Match went way too long and had too many spots where someone was clearly stood waiting for someone else. First 50 minutes of the show weren’t good.

Sami’s dancing was me ten pints deep. Owens and Zayn worked hard.

Is Riddles gimmick now that he’s an annoying twat? Those cartoon birds, good Lord. I’m too old for this shit. Credit to Shaemus for pulling out of the top rope White Noise when he slipped; could have really hurt Riddle there. Admittedly he sorted that right out soon after. 

Enjoyed the Nigerian drumming match.

Women’s title match was just too slow for me. Most matches just seem to go on for too long.

Oh the crowd did not want to see The Bellas give that beatdown to Bayley.

Main event time; a main event with true uncertainty of outcome. The network goes today and I won’t miss the jump cuts, I felt bastard seasick. What was the crowds problem with Bryan?

Overall, not a patch on night one for me.

[Supremo]

Night 2 was mostly boring. Nothing had any type of spark or felt like it got out of second gear. It felt like hours four, five and six of one long show despite being split into two nights.

Ultimately, I think the novelty just wore off. Once the big setting, live crowd and fireworks couldn’t carry it anymore they had to rely on some actual substance, of which there’s almost none. Asuka vs. Ripley and Riddle vs. Sheamus were the perfect example. Both solid matches but how could anyone possibly care about the woman who randomly turned up and challenged for the belt with no build up or the dickhead on the scooter?

Edited April 12, 2021 by Supremo

[MVP RULZ]

I enjoyed Night 2 but do agree Night 1 was the more enjoyable portion

A lot of that did have to do with the fact it was the First time seeing the fans back, seeing the Stage and a real big time feel to Wrestling again for the first time in a Year, and the weather issues added an extra layer of unpredictability and excitement to precedings.

I do think this show highlighted one negative of moving to 2 nights permanently

A lot of appeal to Wrestlemania is the setting, stage, big time feel etc which adds a real novelty to the show

Night 2 loses a lot of that allure having seen it all before on Night 1

EDIT: similar to Supremo, posted whilst I was posting

Edited April 12, 2021 by MVP RULZ

[BomberPat]

2 minutes ago, MVP RULZ said:

A lot of appeal to Wrestlemania is the setting, stage, big time feel etc which adds a real novelty to the show

Night 2 loses a lot of that allure having seen it all before on Night 1

EDIT: similar to Supremo, posted whilst I was posting

There's definitely something to that. Them using the exact same intro package (which was basically the same one they used last year) for both shows certainly didn't help.

In a weird way, I think the rain delay really benefited Night 1. After a year of everything being weird and self-contained, something genuinely spontaneous and unexpected was a really welcome change, and meant that there was a slow build in terms of excitement to see the show once it eventually started.  

Night 2, by contrast, probably had the worst opening of any Wrestlemania. A lengthy video package we've already seen and wasn't funny the first time either, a nobody singing America The Beautiful, followed by Hulk Hogan doing bad comedy, and then one of the worst Wrestlemania matches ever to open the show proper. No wonder it all felt flat after that lot.

[StrongStyle]

'The Gratitude Era' is an expression I didn't fully understand until I watched this show. I'm getting really sick of everyone and their granny coming across as a mark. Rhea Ripley was the poster girl for it all weekend: that shot of her being tearful during the opening on Night 1 was understandable and relatable given the context and the idea that finally, the world might be returning to some sort of normality. But when the time came for her match, this geeky posturing just completely took over: we're supposed to buy her as a monster and yet, her whole demeanour just screamed 'MARK'. You could practically see the cogs working in her head at every milestone ("I'M MAKING MY ENTRANCE AT WRESTLEMANIA"/"I'M BEING TOLD BY FANS THAT I DESERVE TO BE HERE"/"I AM BEING BOOKED AS A BIG DEAL AT WRESTLEMANIA")

It's becoming really disingenuous. By all means, organic reactions can sometimes be great (Rhea: look at Bianca's reaction) but this forced 'epicness' and standing about with tears in your eyes is very tiring. It is the product of working in front of wanky crowds in the indepedents, so it is indelible and the idea of being grateful/having an interminably long match like Adam Cole to force an 'epic'/any indie trope you care to mention definitely diminishes the spectacle.

Cesaro just about got away with it, but that's because after the career he has had so far, he probably just about earned a 'YOU DESERVE IT' chant. The guy is incredible and everyone was happy that he got the chance to put on an absolute banger at WrestleMania. For the rest, it is hackneyed and surely the fact that it even happened without the influence of Europeans or fans from across the States shows how ingrained it is by this point.

[Nick James]

I think adding Daniel Bryan was actually a hindrance to the Main Event and i went in to that match wanting him to win. The crowd we not as bothered about him as they were about Edge and Roman, which was a huge surprise and it just made Bryan feel like a spare prick at a wedding. Very surprised at the crowd reaction to Edge, i thought he would have been booed. 

I love how the comms team completely ignored that the big lad who assisted Apollo was the highly pushed Dabba Kato from Raw Underground. They really don't want to refer to Underground as ever being a thing, do they? 

Randy Orton in white gear looked absolutely tremendous. Hogan dressed as Captain Morgan, did not. 

On paper, Night 2 should have been the winner, but Night 1 was the better of the two. 

[Supremo]

Are the freaks online still trying to dissect Bray Wyatt and act like there’s some deep, clever mythology? Or is everyone now happy to admit it’s a load of bollocks?

Bray is Zack Snyder. He’s great at creating some cool visuals but everything crumbles the moment he tries to apply it to the actual craft and make something coherent.

”How can we get The Fiend back into his old gear, rather than having him wrestle dressed like the Toxic Avenger?”

”Magic?”

”Fucking genius!”

Edited April 12, 2021 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

Just now, Supremo said:

Are the freaks online still trying to dissect Bray Wyatt and act like there’s some deep, clever mythology? Or is everyone now happy to admit it’s a load of bollocks?

Almost immediately afterwards, someone on Twitter replied to a WWE "what did we just say?!" Tweet "explaining" that by bringing back The Fiend, Alexa Bliss also brought back Sister Abigail, who's now possessing her, and as she gets stronger the Fiend gets weaker, and a bunch of people were replying to it as if that's actually what was going on, and not just WWE winging it.

If I could expunge any two words from wrestling, it would be "Sister Abigail". Responsible for more dogshit fantasy booking than anything else in history.

[pitseleh]

Night 2 was a much weaker show than Night 1, but that main event was easily the best match of the weekend so it evens it out. All the guest host stuff with Titus, Hogan and Bayley was painful. I was expecting a better pay-off than the Bellas returning. Titus looked visibly bored to tears by the end of their last segment together. 

Not much to say about the Fiend/Orton opener. It was shit, only slightly better than all the panto stuff they were doing during the empty arena days. Bliss bleeding was cool visual at least. I could happily never watch anything involving Bray Wyatt again. 

Despite some botches, I enjoyed the women's tag a lot more than I expected. Baszler is a total star. Everything from her facials to how she attacks a limb is ace. Natayla and Tamina have over a combined 30 years of experience and they still botched a lot for two wrestlers that seasoned, but they made up for it by not being afraid of taking a rough-looking beating from both Jax and Baszler.

Zayn/Owens was fun, but they've had much better matches together. Only a guy like Zayn could pull of his gimmick as well as he does. 

Riddle showed signs of why I was such a big fan of his when he was on the indies during his match with Sheamus. He pulled off some incredibly impressive moves and spots with total ease. Combined with how he reacted to the Speaking Out movement and the allegations made against him, WWE's handling of his gimmick has totally killed him. Decent match that would of been a lot better if they actually had a likeable babyface in there. 

Crews and Big E had a run-of-the-mill weapons match. The drums were hardly used at all. 

I was fully expecting for Rhea/Asuka to be the match of the weekend, instead it just kinda happened. There was zero heat for this. Ripley looked like a star during her entrance, but the actual match felt like it never got going and it ended out of nowhere. Ripley taking a DDT from the apron to the outside and brushing it off like it was nothing was the only thing that irked me. This was a massive disappointment. 

The main event was incredible and was one of the best things WWE have put out in a good while. I felt that everyone had a chance of winning this and I was at the edge of my seat during the finishing stretch.  I can take or leave Edge, but this was his best performance since he came back. Reigns pinning both Edge and Bryan was a fantastic way of cementing him as the biggest full-time wrestler they have. 

[tiger_rick]

29 minutes ago, Nick James said:

Very surprised at the crowd reaction to Edge, i thought he would have been booed.

I think I wondered recently what made them sour on the Edge/Roman match given there were no fans to react to any of it? You're right, it looks an incredible misread. I'd be more interested to know now. Social Media? Personal preference? Bryan being on the booking team?

[d-d-d-dAz]

If my missus left me tomorrow because she wanted to fly to Florida and simply investigate the possibility of shagging Roman, I’d 100% understand and accept her decision.

The man is utterly phenomenal.

At first I thought they were going to be stupid and announce Edge the winner as he was technically on top of Bryan, but Edge’s shoulders being down has probably dampened that conspiracy.

The show 2 was alright. Dull, took itself too seriously but broadly fine. I enjoyed most of it. 
 

I would say shitty Bray Wyatt can get in the sea, but he’d probably emerge dressed as the kraken only to magic himself back into his Everton mint trousers the massive shitarse. 

The best part of the opener was before Randy kicked into serious mode, and was just mucking about on his entrance.

Randy deserves a proper, magic-free run now. Stick him in with Lashley or Roman or something. Let him go and be free in his lovely white pants.

Edited April 12, 2021 by d-d-d-dAz