Wrestlemania 38 - A Stupendous Weekend in Dallas

[Perry]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

Don't think tonight will better it tbh.

You can just vision the Edge/Styles match lasting an hour.

[The Gaffer]

Not sure why they've given up on backstage segments completely in the last few years with it, too. You've got four hours to kill, throw a bit of variety into the mix! You have all those legends knocking around town, the goofy segments with them used to be great fun. 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

I'm in the mood for more wrestling, but Survivor Series 96 looks more enticing than night two. 

In fairness, I’d choose Survivor Series 96 over virtually anything, apart from the 1992 Royal Rumble.

49 minutes ago, Perry said:

So I hear that next year will also be a 2 nighter.

Hear from who? I mean, other than it’s blindingly obvious they’ve done a two night format for three years and would be morons to go back to trying to fit everyone onto one card that lasts six hours.

[DCW]

Really enjoyed it. Bianca/Becky was fantastic. Bianca really is a cracking babyface. Delighted with the KO/Austin stuff. They definitely could have advertised it as a proper match too. I've never seen that Boogz lad but he seemed a bit of craic, shite about the injury. Cody looked a star, even if its all downhill after this, he was right to jump back. 

The only things that bring it down are the stupid 3D models, the commentary (the 3 Raw lads may as well be robots & Cole interrupting that annoying twat McAfee when he was trying to actually tell a story about what we were seeing in ring was infuriating.) The endless videos and not one backstage interview was bizarre as well. 

Not a hope tonight can top night 1. Also are the Dallas Cowboys now just called the NFL Cowboys? sounded odd when commentary kept repeating it!

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by DCW

[air_raid]

Worth remembering about Cody’s star reaction, on top of “first night back,” this was a member of the Rhodes family in Texas. Might have been a cant-miss, really.

Edited April 3, 2022 by air_raid

[DavidB6937]

10 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Hear from who? I mean, other than it’s blindingly obvious they’ve done a two night format for three years and would be morons to go back to trying to fit everyone onto one card that lasts six hours.

There was an ad for it last night and it had both dates on it.

[air_raid]

Just now, DavidB6937 said:

There was an ad for it last night and it had both dates on it.

Ah. So, not so much of an “I hear” so much as “the company explicitly stated.”

[DavidB6937]

I can just about cope with the weird symbols and stuff but it's the shit like Giant Roman and that weird Undertaker that just look like they hired a design intern and let them loose.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I have a theory that Cody became so annoying in AEW because he’s so absurdly WWE. Watching last night, you just realise it’s in his bones.

I guess that was always the funny thing about his rebellion against WWE… no one’s more WWE than him. Grew up in that company, learnt in that company. Dresses like he belongs in that company, talks like he does, behaves like he does, wrestles like he does. He has the sort of self-importance that era of WWE chosen ones did.

He has all the WWE tropes, for better or worst (depending on what you like). He’s all hammy, big movements and slower pacing, and slow, dramatic entrances and big circuitous promos. Once AEW became more than an outsiders fuck you to WWE - when it had novelty value seeing one of the WWE’s biggest and brightest pupils leading the rebellion with sledgehammers and thrones and that gimmicky anti-HHH shit he did - and had to just be it’s own company, he stood out like a sore thumb.

I’m not going to watch WWE weekly any more than I was previously, but I’m glad for him that he’s landed where I think he’s probably always wanted to be deep down. I’ll keep an eye out for his stuff to see if he wins the big one, if nothing else. On balance, for what he’s done for the business, he deserves it as much as anyone.

Bloodline vs wrestling’s other royal family should be an easy story to tell, if nothing else.

Edited April 3, 2022 by d-d-d-dAz

[poetofthedeed]

I don't care how much they paid him, WWE should fire Kevin Owens on the spot if he ever tries to wear anything except all black ever again, I reckon he dropped about 2 stone but the red look made him look like a fan, last night he looked like a stone cold killer, pardon the pun.

[air_raid]

27 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Bloodline vs wrestling’s other royal family should be an easy story to tell, if nothing else.

They’ll have a job, most of them are dead. But I fancy Bret could still excellently execute Roman and the Usos by himself.

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, air_raid said:

They’ll have a job, most of them are dead. But I fancy Bret could still excellently execute Roman and the Usos by himself.

Hey don’t shoot the messenger. If you’re entrance theme upon your return starts with “wrestling has more than one royal family”, I’ve got to think you’re on a collision course with the guy whose basically been doing a royal family of wrestling gimmick for what feels like the last 3 decades.

[Vamp]

Apart from the meandering Flair vs. Ronda (which was wrestler who's been pushed to the point where she clearly doesn't need to improve against a wrestler who's never really had the opportunity to improve) I enjoyed pretty much everything. It was a fun show. 

I saw some people elsewhere complaining that there was too little wrestling and too much time stalling at the start (cheerleaders, etc) which is bonkers to me. It's the Super Bowl of wrestling, and people only watch that for Marvel trailers and half time shows. It's that logic that's robbed us of backstage comedy segments. 

It's also very jarring to see wrestling fans complaining about Cody's finish being made to look weak when I felt that the Cody and Seth match felt like they had pretty much free reign to do what they wanted. Which makes it even more surprising that it was good as it was. 

Becky clearly went out there to prove a point and did it. Her title match felt like the real main event. Since wrestling fandom law demands that you have to compare WWE to AEW with every show, its like night and day between how much the women mean in WWE and in AEW. 

It's mad that it's taken this long to get one last Austin match, that it wasn't billed as a match and that it was against Kevin Owens of all people. Watching him you could kind of see why. He's clearly made peace with the fact that he can't go at that pace anymore or reach the expectations he once had of himself and just went out there to make sure everyone had a good time. It went way longer and he took way more bumps than I expected but it was just a joy to watch. 

 

 

[TildeGuy~!]

Becky/Bianca was tons of fun, really enjoyed it, Logan Paul eh??? He really was the star of that match, super impressive and great heel work.

I was tired so waited until Cody made his entrance before switching off as had work this morning, will watch the rest later prior to Night 2 which has no chance of being anywhere near as good as last night.

[Perry]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Ah. So, not so much of an “I hear” so much as “the company explicitly stated.”

Well I heard from a mate that had seen the announcement last night, as I obviously stuck to my guns and didn't watch it.