Wrestlemania 38 - A Stupendous Weekend in Dallas

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, SaitoRyo said:

Hell, put him in a programme with Owens or Edge or something, just keep him and Roman apart for a long, long time. 

Anything shorter than “forever” will not be long enough for me.

I’ll say this much for Stone Cold, he’s still had a better last match than most, if not all of his peers.

[I Bent My Wookie]

I enjoyed both nights but in fairness I went into the shows with zero expectation of anything being mind blowing so anything that was remotely good, like all the mens tag team matches, Cody/Seth, Knoxville and Zayn and Belair/Lynch for me meant that I really enjoyed myself, knowing I could dip out and back in the following morning if I got too zapped. 

I think that's why I enjoy WrestleMania, even if I am someone who'll watch all AEW programming and find great fun in it but not so much WWE these days, they know how to put on a big event and make it feel a big fight feel. The packages between matches helped explain everything great for a casual viewer and the entertainment upside they've got from this will do them wonders I'm sure. 

[FUM]

I get people like different things but I’m quite surprised at the negativity on here towards the show, night two especially.

I’ve been rapidly losing interest in WWE to the point I wasn’t even sure I’d watch WrestleMania but I gave it a shot and thought it was an excellent two nights. One of the best Manias in years to be honest.

I get no show has the fun of when we were younger but they done enough to keep me entertained and that’s all I really wanted from it.

Enough excitement to feel like a WrestleMania which Mania hasn’t done for years. Night 1 was better but I think Night 2 had enough to keep me going. 

 

[The Gaffer]

I'd describe the reaction on here as pleasantly passive, to be honest. The general consensus seems to be that night one was great fun, WWE are really good at this, but it's not for us most nights of the year. That's an easy pill to swallow in a world where AEW are doing the business. 

Here's Vince withering before a stunner before one of his horcruxes kicked in, if anyone missed it. 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Gay as FOOK

[Jacko]

Being here for WRESTLEMANIA was insane, got to see my childhood hero stone cold wrestle, got to see vince McMahon “wrestle” got to see undertaker be inducted on Friday night and then got to see hhh come out last night, all my childhood dreams come true.I don’t no how it come across on tv but brock vs Roman had such a big fight feel.

Pat McCaffe is so over with the crowd apart from the big stars biggest pop of the weekend.

The zayn vs jackass match will be polarising but live it was so much fun

[air_raid]

3 minutes ago, Jacko said:

Pat McCaffe

Licensing opportunity here.

[Max Power]

Highlight for me was when Vince was in the ring after his match and Theory's music hit and Vince shit his pants cos he thought it was Austin's music.

The daft old bastard couldn't tell the difference.

[SpykeDudlei1]

50 minutes ago, Max Power said:

Highlight for me was when Vince was in the ring after his match and Theory's music hit and Vince shit his pants cos he thought it was Austin's music.

The daft old bastard couldn't tell the difference.

I’m glad you’ve confirmed I wasn’t imagining that. 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

[Mr Kennedy]

4 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

There was enough good (or otherwise entertaining) stuff spread over the two nights for me. 

Owens and Zayn were two of the weekend's MVPs for sure. Both did their jobs perfectly in very different scenarios and deserve a lot of credit for their work up to and on the show itself. 

Cody return was a good moment but the match didn't do a lot for me. In fact, a lot of the wrestling didn't, but I think that's mainly because I don't like the modern style so much. 

Thinking about it, I probably enjoyed the Austin farewell match and the Jackass stuff more than anything else. Felt like the Texas crowd agreed with me. 

I know Brock is Brock and he'll always be in the title mix, but I'd like him to move away from Reigns now. Cowboy Brock is a lot of fun and there could be a really interesting dynamic with some other members of the roster.

Hell, put him in a programme with Owens or Edge or something, just keep him and Roman apart for a long, long time. 

You think Brock is sticking around post Mania?

[Merzbow]

I can see Brock staying, he seems to love wrestling now and even watches events from the back while giving people advice after their matches. He's a changed man.

[SaitoRyo]

10 minutes ago, Mr Kennedy said:

You think Brock is sticking around post Mania?

I believe Dave 'Melty' Meltzer said he was going to be wrestling at WrestleMania Backlash and Money in the Bank (in May and July). 

[The Gaffer]

Watched the Knoxville match back with more sleep. 

I've never been happier to be wrong about how I thought a match was going to turn out. I think it's one of the best novelty matches ever. The Jackass bag of gimmicks, Wee Man's bodyslam, Wee Man getting a bigger pop than Cody Rhodes, Darkshark at WrestleMania, Party Boy corpsing his way through the whole thing. I even appreciated and had a genuine laugh at Cole's Naked Mideon callback and Pat McAfee - as he has done lately - just clicked for me and I bought him as the most WWE thing ever. 

It was like a weird mix of modern day WWE razzle dazzle, the Attitude Era and WrestleMania IX. 

Honestly, it was fucking brilliant. Even Dave Meltzer hated it. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Gay as FOOK

[FUM]

One negative I did forget to mention in my post - camera cuts to the crowd during pinfalls. What the fuck is that about? 
 

These have got to be some of the highest skilled producers in the world as far as wrestling goes - surely they cannot think that is a good idea.

[Perry]

12 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

I believe Dave 'Melty' Meltzer said he was going to be wrestling at WrestleMania Backlash and Money in the Bank (in May and July). 

If they're doing a stadium show for MITB, then you'd think Brock will definitely be booked.

On a side note, seems very odd that MITB will be held in a stadium.  Remember when stadium shows used to be a novelty and exclusive to WrestleMania?

[Jonny Vegas]

I got up for these with my son and my brother who was visiting as my son's nearly 5 and wrestling daft.

Overall I enjoyed both nights (night 1 more than night 2) however some of the positive reactions or how positive the reactions have been particularly on social media are baffling to me.

I think a lot of why i enjoyed it was that I had very low expectations. Whilst it was enjoyable I think largely it papered over the cracks that have been widening for years now and didn't take any steps towards fixing anything after Mania.

If I was to go back and think of the top 5 highest profile moments they would be;

Bianca Belair redemption story and beating Becky Lynch for the title. 

Austin retirement match and farewell in his home state.

Sami Zayn comedy match against the star of an MTV show in its peak of popularity 20 years ago.

Cody Rhodes return.

McAfee/Theory/McMahon.

The issues for me is that outwith Belair I would argue nobody was really furthered or benefitted tremendously going forward.

Austin/Owens was brilliant and for me is excused from any criticism.

If the Knoxville match was done 20 years ago it would have been absolutely huge but my son absolutely loved it.

Cody returned to an amazing reception and he will likely get similar tonight on RAW. Mark my words however, give it 3 months and nobody will care. That's not bitterness, I love Cody but some people have short memories as to just how tedious he had been for ages in AEW.

Having your "next big thing", whether he should be or not, losing to a commentator/podcaster only for that person to then lose in a comedy spot to a 76 year old immediately after is absolutely baffling to me.

The New Day getting squashed in 2 minutes in Big E tribute gear was astonishing as well.

As a stand alone 2 nights of entertainment, it was fine and I certainly wasn't left with the feeling I was never getting the time I'd spent watching it back as I had with the last few WWE shows I've seen. 

Going forward however it still feels like a massive overhaul is needed, they're in desperate need of new stars or the next generation of main eventers and nothing apart from Belair was really done to further that.