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Wrestlemania 38 - A Stupendous Weekend in Dallas


RIDDUM_N_STYLE

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12 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

@Loki Seth 'Freakin' Rollins is his actual ring name now. Why, I don't know.

https://www.wwe.com/superstars/seth-rollins

 

Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t surely mean they can’t call him “Rollins” say 20% of the time surely.

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Just throwing in my 2 cents a couple of days after skimming through the Mania shows, here's what has stuck:

Becky v Bianca was bloody brilliant. To me, it was one of those bouts where you feel something could go horribly wrong at some point because of how manic it was. That ramped up the tension and the fans in the stadium were behind behind it all the way. I don't watch the weekly shows, just round-up videos etc., and this was still great to me, despite the awkwardness of Becky being a heel.

As said in posts above, Stone Cold v Kevin Owens was great for fans of a certain age. It wasn't amazing but it did the job, although the transition from talk show into official bout was much flatter than it should have been. They can be proud of it though, I'm sure.

And so can Sami Zayn (again, as mentioned before me). I've met a few friends in the past couple of days that used to watch WWE and when they asked if I saw Mania, this was the only match I would talk about. Ridiculous, but everyone did their bit! It totally helps when the people in the crowd are so behind someone or something, and suspend their disbelief etc and not shit on something.

That also goes for the Pat McAfee match. Forget the crap with Vince, but the stuff with Theory was a spectacle. Again, I don't watch the weekly shows but when I dip into round-ups here and there, I am completely content with McAfee's enthusiasm in small doses. More on-screen talent should be as buzzing as he is to be on television. Don't care a jot about Austin Theory but what can you do, eh. Vince deciding to have a match truly was stupendous.... for a few seconds, then it just ruined everything that went before it.

I did not watch the Logan Paul tag match but I may check it out at some point after the positive reaction he seems to have received.

I always remember WrestleMania 21 being the most disappointing and boring to me at the time because Cena/JBL and HHH/Batista featured about 5 wrestling 'moves' in total (I know it's not all about moves) and a whole load of punch/kick and bags of obviousness. And I just didn't like any of them at the time. Orton v Trips at Mania 25 was much more boring for other reasons. Reigns v Lesnar unfortunately is up there with them, for me. There was possibly a slight doubt about the outcome but everything was so by-the-numbers it was depressing. What a chance to throw out even ONE wild spot or a twist to make it memorable. What a waste.

As suggested earlier, trimming the fat and having all this on one night would be perfect. But either way, going from these shows to a 3-hour Raw with adverts upon adverts upon video packages upon backstage interviews - all while someone is ALREADY in the ring waiting to have a match - will always just be too bizarre to me.

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4 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

That's why I loved his Naked Mideon line, too. There's a great commentator and by all accounts a great guy in there. I'm sure there's some prevailing online thought that he's a corporate mouthpiece who would sooner do the red carpet at the Oscars or go back to being a war correspondent but that's horseshit. You don't survive as long as he has in his current position unless you love the business and know quite a bit about it. 

Binge watching the Super Six era of Smackdown Cole is rather good. Part of it is Tazz and being coached by Paul Heyman but that shows that you give the guy the right people round him and it works. 

Good Michael Cole- Tazz, JBL (first stint as commentator) and McAfee are his partners

Bad Michael Cole- Lawler, JBL (second stint) and Corey Graves are his partners

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I watched night two after reading the results for night one and figuring the second night was probably worth a punt. 

 

I've been off WWE viewing for just over a year now as I only really have time for one wrestling show and I decided that's going to be AEW (having babyfaces I could get behind helped)

 

Anyway, the main thing I noticed is just how slow all the in ring stuff felt. Hot take, I know, but because I'd never got into much outside of WWE I'd never really felt it before like I did for Mania. It's not like they tell better stories either.

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Watched my one wrestling show of the year. Didn't watch the pre-shows because they weren't on WatchWrestling.

DAY 1

The Usos vs Nakamura and Boogs - first time I've seen Boogs. Looks like the usual recent WWE big lad with the stupid facial expressions and all. Not a bad one to start with, Nakamura still looks like nothing except a good entrance. The Usos are still ace.

McIntyre vs Corbin - fucking Corbin, out here dressed like a B&M Waylon Mercy. He was funny for about five minutes when Pat McAfee was calling a bum ass, now he's reverted back to 'form'. I fucking hate him. McIntyre looks the absolute business though, he should be on top of this company. This was a waste of time.

The Miz and Logan Paul vs The Mysterios - The thing about Paul is that even though him and his brother are truly awful people, he does at least treat everything he tries his hand at seriously. He was genuinely great here, like WWE are so good at these celebrity matches. He's already the best heel on the roster, he totally gets it. Amazing. Dominik is absolutely terrible though and his outfit was shit but even he couldn't stop this match from being fun.

Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch - The best match of the two nights. Becky looks amazing with the new hair and the Priss from Blade Runner eye makeup. Bianca is one of the few babyfaces I've seen in forever who's genuinely likeable and not even slightly obnoxious with it. Superb match from start to finish. They should be making Bianca the top babyface in the entire company.

Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins - For a company that likes taking people's names away, adding one to Rollins is fucking stupid. Really good match, this, I've never minded these two in the ring. Can't stop staring at that tattoo though.

Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey - One day Rousey will find some gear that fits and she doesn't spend the whole match adjusting her tits and arse. Counting down the days until Charlotte breaks her dad's world title record. This was really good.

Stone Cold vs Kevin Owens - Too much talking and then the match and here's Austin bumping like it's 1997. Ridiculous. Did exactly what it needed to. Austin looked in ridiculously good shape, bloody hell.

DAY 2

Tag team triple threat - I couldn't enjoy a second of this because Riddle was in it. I cannot stand the stupid fucking barefoot tossbag. Why can't Otis open his eyes? Street Profits looked great though.

Bobby Lashley vs Omos - Fucking hell, Omos is absolutely shit. He barely looked co-ordinated enough to walk. He'll go far!

Johnny Knoxville vs Sami Zayn - Perfect. The timing on everything in this was just spot on and Zayn was clearly having the time of his life. McAfee and Cole on commentary were brilliant as well.

Women's fatal fourway - Spent the whole thing looking at Rhea and Liv's outfits tbh. Rhea's bloody massive as well. Was alright but I don't think anyone cared.

Edge vs AJ Styles - Don't know why nobody's talking about this, this was a superb match. Great old-school stuff even if the ending was a bit shit. Styles takes the loss though, so a bad night for the gay community.

Sheamus and Ridge Holland vs The New Day - What was the point of this other than to have Pete Dunne acting like Hornswoggle? He's only slightly taller as well.

Pat McAfee vs Austin Theory - No idea why McAfee is so popular but he looked great in this, WWE got it right again. Theory looks an absolutely huge star, and another rare natural heel. Put the world title on him and fast and whoever beats him is made.

Reigns vs Lesnar - Brock Lesnar's having the time of his life, ridiculous how he's nailed this babyface turn despite, you know, being Brock Lesnar. They finally did it with Reigns though, huh. The biggest star around now. Problem now is who the fuck beats him. Pretty good match though, even if it was the usual between these two.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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24 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Watch their reaction to Wee Man’s Powerslam. Fantastic.

I've been catching up with the terrific Reliving the Monday Night Wars series on YouTube and Michael Cole just popped up for the first time. Cole is weeks away from his 25th anniversary of being front of camera for WWE. Great that he can still jump out of his chair with glee. 

Edited by Onyx2
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I don't know how popular an opinion this is, but I'm all over those two on commentary. McAfee has given Cole a completely new lease of life and they always look like they're having a great time on the shows. Appreciate they aren't to everyone's tastes, but I find them fun. And wrestling is supposed to be fun after all. 

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