Wrestlemania 41 Discussion Thread

[air_raid]

2 minutes ago, MPDTT said:

WALTER (I can't call him Gunther)

Gunther is a far better villain name. Walter was the softie in the Beano.

[I Bent My Wookie]

My only real gripe so far, and for that I'm quite grateful is the commentary on this and NXT.

Both times I took the put some music on approach and watch on mute with subtitles because McAfee and Barrett were jarring, and Booker T doing his best Kurt Angle over Sharmell impression over Steph Vaquer was more awkward to explain to my housemates than men in tights hugging each other.

[Callum1993]

I enjoyed the show overall. The Main Event I thought was great and I don’t mind the pairing of Heyman and Rollins. The rest of the card was all fine. Nothing really stood out but every match was average to good. 
 

Tonight’s card looks better on paper so hopefully it can deliver. It is a weird one though in that it really doesn’t feel like Wrestlemania weekend. Whether it’s because of the disastrous week WWE have had in terms of PR or just the weak build to Mania it feels a bit off. 

[Daaaaaad!]

36 minutes ago, MPDTT said:

Tiffany Stratton brings nothing to the table apart from her looks. Felt bad for Charlotte — she deserves a more compelling opponent.

This is a rotten and vaguely sexist take.  

[TheScarlettChad]

35 minutes ago, air_raid said:

HOT TAKE : that was alright, actually. Bell to bell, I enjoyed everything I’ve watched properly and none of the results made me shake my head in confusion or frustration.

Result of Saturday Night’s Main Event was interesting, turn may have been predictable but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes “how” can be as interesting as “what” they do. Match ended up in another video game L2 spamfest as we knew it would, but I decided to enjoy it anyway. Let’s just hope the OTC has a couple more dates to fill this side of the Charity Shield, Romans Revenge really can’t be spun out too long after he took the pin, it really wouldn’t be creatively satisfying if he sat on his arse for another 7-8 weeks as Rollins inevitably gloats on telly every week.

What you mean, without stakes? If winning a “WrestleMania Main Event” (but not really) isn’t enough stakes, you had

…. Jokes aside, Seth’s on Raw, right? Tell me winning a match this big doesn’t justify him taking first shot at Uso. Stakes don’t have to be explicit in a fake sport with no league table and invisible rankings, sometimes winning a big match gets you going places.

Was it not? That’s what it sounds like.

Seth as first challenger isn't a bad shout. Especially with Heyman in his corner. Still crap. 

[TheScarlettChad]

1 minute ago, Daaaaaad! said:

This is a rotten and vaguely sexist take.  

He's trolling. The show wasn't bad at all. And vaguely? He was saying she has nothing but looks. How is that anything other than sexist? 

[air_raid]

Minor gripe I forgot to mention - Rollins’ little diatribe against Punk to Reigns about “he shouldn’t be here” and “he’s the outsider” was the white dogshit-worst antithesis of “show, don’t tell.” Roddy Piper is rolling in his grave at this latest bastardisation of the “Tell me a story in the ring, not on the mic” principle. Not literally tell, you clowns!

[Daaaaaad!]

2 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

And vaguely? He was saying she has nothing but looks. How is that anything other than sexist?

I assume his justification will be that there have been several underwhelming men who, one could argue, have only been employed or positioned highly because of their looks - physique and such. To be clear, I’m not looking to mitigate this bullshit by any means. I still think it’s a shitty sexist comment. 

[Version1.0]

Was anyone else confused when the commentators kept talking about Charlotte winning her 15th World Title when her intro graphic noted 13 World Titles and 2 nXt titles? 

Surely would have been her 16th?

[air_raid]

7 minutes ago, Version1.0 said:

Was anyone else confused when the commentators kept talking about Charlotte winning her 15th World Title when her intro graphic noted 13 World Titles and 2 nXt titles? 

Surely would have been her 16th?

She’s a Flair, you’re not meant to know the real number.

[TheScarlettChad]

I do think Charlotte tried intentionally to make that match bad, and Tiffany being the ace worker she is, pulled it back.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I made these notes as I went, as I said i'd give a review to my mate who's gone over to Vegas - so, apologies if it's a bit scattergun.

An opening video with a Triple H voice over? It's almost a fucking parody at this point.

The video said it was 'real' three times... maybe my read on HHH was wrong, maybe he is as embrassed by wrestling as Vince was @LaGoosh!

The intro didn't feel big time in any way. The juices weren't flowing.

Seeing Triple H in the ring made me laugh...  the sodding ring announcers are giving him a standing ovation. This guy is a fucking joke. At this point I genuinely didn't know if I had the energy for this.

No national anthem? Not very MAGA.

Pat McAffee yeeting on a table makes me furious. I think I hate this company. When did they get this annoying? Rumour has it Jey Uso's entrance is still going on.

Gunther with a normal entrance. I want to praise the Lord for that, but you know that's Triple H's way of telling him it's back to the IC Title. No ones ever had a clearer 'i'm losing, lads' entrance. They may as well have cut to a commercial or something and come back with him already in the ring.

Jey Uso is rubbish. I really don't like watching him wrestle. I think we're in 'worst world champion' ever territory. But, the Gunther reign has been poor and the fans still seem at least a little bit invested in Jey so why not. I could really have done without the bit where Jey laughed and no sold Gunthers strikes, given Gunther's strikes are about all he's got at this point.

It was quite a sad title match this, with a bit of a naff ending. A champion who's been failed being dumped for a champion who's probably going to fail.

Lol at them accidentally playing the Survivor Series sting twice after Jey won. Probably the last time this felt like a good idea.

How did this New Day match make Mania? Fast forward.

Jade Cargill is an absolute superstar, but they need to chill on these skin tone bodysuits. A few people have worn these recently and I don't get it. Either don't wear the suit, or wear a different colour. 

I was nervous to see if Jade had got any better in the ring. She hasn't really, but she does enough impressive stuff that it's probably okay. Her finisher is great as it allows some decent selling by the opponent to the hard cam before she drops them. This was awkward at times, but some good stuff down the final stretch, and I think I preferred this to the Jey/Gunther match.

Jacob Fatu is a mask guy? I'm even more in than I was before. The LA Knight entrance was so flat, it really made me laugh. Who was that poor production assistant in the headset who had to drive him in? Couldn't they have found *anyone* even slightly famous or glamorous to do that? Or even someone at least willing to dress as a chauffeur?

Similar match to Jade/Naomi, in a way, only with Jacob being a lot better than Jade as an actual wrestler. I didn't think the match was great (it was fine but you only get so much from an LA Knight match), but had enough impressive spots to make it fun and - crucially - it was better than Jey/Gunther. Probably match of the night at this point, but it really feels like WWE need a few more 'wrestling' wrestlers. 

This El Grande Americano stuff is my kind of grappling. Tremendous promo video & tremendous entrances. It's hard not to think that Chad Gable could be doing so much more for them, but in a year where Mania is flat as a pancake it was nice seeing this match given such prominence.

Michael Cole missing the call on Rey kicking the metal plate was so shit, but easily the best match so far (but that probably says more about the other matches). I didn't love that they had Rey Fenix get beat, but I guess there was enough dirt on the finish for it not to hurt him too much. Really looking forward to them sending El Grande Americano to AAA, but I was sort of hoping this was just going to be a simple babyface win and unmasking. Crowd should have given this more. 

I couldn't do Charlotte/Tiffy. I was bored of wrestling that was just fine and couldn't watch a Charlotte Flair match. I stopped the fast forward at one point and Charlotte was doing weird backwards rolls around the ring whilst Tiffy waited in place. Weird. Were Tiffy's teeth fucked up at the end?

I was thinking how lame Seth Rollins' entrance was when Wade Barrett called it 'the coolest ever' and I'm starting to wonder whether in the last year I've just fallen completely out of sync with WWE.

The Roman entrance was a thing of beauty. Subtle, but felt big time. What a star. Wish I didn't know how he voted.

That CM Punk video was lovely. It would have hit so much harder if this was a one on one match. Nice to have a live band performance for once which wasn't completely awful and the sound wasn't completely shite. 

Big love for the fact that CM Punk finally got his Wrestlemania main event so dipped into the wardrobe for a scabby hoodie for old times sake. Even bigger love that he got Heyman's foundation all over it.

I don't love that this match descended into trash cans and 'we want tables' chants. But that's a personal thing, as someone who has a pretty strict idea of what a Mania main event should be and doesn't like Triple threats anyway. Besides that, the action was good and they're all big stars so it at least it finally felt like something that could be mistaken for a match that belonged on a show like this.

The best stuff was when they were all in the ring and really playing with the idea there were 3 people in the ring; Rollins pushing Punk off into an improvised high knee to Roman, the double DDT, the impromptu doomsday device... that sort of thing. Triple threats are always better when that's the focus, rather than a series of 1v1 spots whilst someone disappears from focus for a bit.

Some really fun sequences in this match, but it was almost completely without heat as try as they might there was no real single, cohesive story here. It was three good singles feuds squashed together, but the match was probably as close to as good as it could have been given it was a (mostly) poorly booked Triple threat that no one really wanted.

Lovely to see some snapped wood and shards on an announce table bump. Best announce table bumps in history.

Surprised they went with the Rollins/Heyman ending given how thick they've laid it on in recent weeks but probably the best ending with the most opportunities for new stories.

A good main event in fairness, but not one I'll watch back any time soon.

It was a fine show with a good (but not great) main event. It didn't feel big time and even some of the 'big' stuff they did try felt cheap.
 

Edited April 20, 2025 by d-d-d-dAz

[Harvey Dent]

It was an okay show for me. I don’t know if it was bad microphones on the crowd, but there seemed to be all the atmosphere of a Michin entrance on Smackdown for the most part. 
 

Jade/Naomi over delivered, Jacob Fatu is the man, the Punk video package and entrance left me with a huge smile and the main event was really good. 

[RedTwoster]

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

No national anthem? Not very MAGA.

I wonder if they were worried, because of MAGA, the international audience would boo the anthem or America the Beautiful, so ditched it completely to avoid this becoming a news story.

Firstly, AAA. I can’t see how this can be viewed as anything other than bad news. It’s an odd example, but we used to have loads of local radio stations across the UK, until they were bought up by the companies Bauer and Global. Eventually, they were almost all rebranded as either ‘Heart’, ‘Capital’ or ‘The Hits’ because the conventional view is that there’s strength in a single brand. How long is it before AAA becomes WWE Mexico for the same reason? 

Secondly, the show itself. They need to get better at pacing their shows. If you tuned in out of curiosity, you were left waiting 19 minutes before your first match. And that would be fine if you were getting interesting stuff in between, but no one needs to - or surely wants to - see wrestlers arriving every single show. Do something different, for fuck’s sake.

The main event was good, but utterly pointless. If there were stakes, I’d care more, and I’m not counting the love of Paul Heyman as being that. 

Naomi/Jade was the only match that felt like it had earned its place on Wrestlemania, and it was mediocre. Jade’s improving, but she’s still not where you would hope. Naomi is better than the push she receives, and I hope she’s not relegated down the card now that this feud is (presumably) over.

I find Tiffany Stratton very grating as a character, but I’m glad they didn’t put the title on Charlotte, who is significantly worse. I’m not sure what you do with Charlotte now though.

It’s a shame that it took them this long to put the tag titles on New Day. They’ve cooled off so much, and that was an avoidable outcome.

El Grande Americano is a waste of Chad Gable. If he’d gone to AEW when his contract reached an end I suspect he’d have had a Ricochet-like rise. He’s so talented, but this is Shorty G levels of destructive, as far as his credibility is concerned. It’s not for me at all.

[lanky316]

4 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

no one needs to - or surely wants to - see wrestlers arriving every single show.

You say that but Sky Sports have spent years milking their "team arrives for scheduled game!" breaking news. It's just part of adding to their sports broadcast style.