shiznak Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) Yup, knew it was going to be a terrible Wrestlemania. I mean, the matches itself weren't bad, but rather the bookings and outcome of those matches were just terrible. It started off great with them throwing us a curveball, and letting Ryder win the IC title. The crowd loved it, and I was genuinely happy for him, after what they put him through with the whole Cena-Eve Torres-Kane debacle a few years ago. He totally deserve that WM moment. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I didn't really mind Jericho winning his match against Styles, especially if this is Jericho's last Mania. Although, I would have booked Styles a bit more stronger than he appeared. Sure he kicked out of the codebreaker, and forced Jericho to break off the walls twice, but what they should have done with the finish of the match was, Styles kicking out of the codebreaker, when Jericho counters the phenomenon foreman into a codebreaker. Then, Jericho could applied the liontamer, where Styles will have no choice but to submit. To me, that counter spot is just one of those ultra finisher, where you would think, that's it he's finished, but if Styles kicked out of that, the crowd would have been in awe and probably lose their minds. Plus, that would have solidify Styles as a main event superstar, since you rarely see guys kick out of those spots. The New Day match, I can't really comment on it, because I didn't really have any interests in it. Having Stone Cold delivering stunners was the only good thing that came out of that match. Ambrose vs. Lesnar, I knew for sure that either The Wyatts were going to cost Lesnar the match or Lesnar is going to do his suplexs, dominate Ambrose, and leave. The typical Lesnar scenarios. Really boring, and as predictable as the main event. The triple threat divas match, certainly lived up to it's expectation. By far the best match of the night. Didn't care who won, it was a great match all around. Fast pace with a ton of near falls. The only thing that could have made it better was, if Bayley magically showed up and it turned into a fatal-four way. I knew going in I wasn't going to like the Cell match. It's just one of those spotfest matches, that I'm not really keen on. But mad props to Shane, for doing his leap of faith spot and the ending where Taker gave Shane the little "good try, son" tap on the face, was pretty hilarious. I was hoping Shane would have gotten the victory, though. The Undertaker is one of my favourites, but he's getting up there in age, and has really lost his deadman aura. Battle Royal, meh. I'm just glad Big Show, Kane, or Mark Henry didn't win. I was kind of hoping John Cena was going to be a surprise participant, and win the whole damn thing. Wouldn't that be something? When The Rock ripped off his pants and he was in his wrestling gear. I'll admit, it brought a smile to my face, that we were actually going to have an impromptu match with him and Bray. Then, when I saw it was Rowan, and not Bray. I knew then and there, it was going to be a simple squash match. I was shocked at the ending of the main event, that Reigns didn't get boo'ed out of the stadium. Seriously though, it wasn't necessary a bad match, but everybody saw this coming an universe mile away, maybe two. I was hoping that they would pull another swerve and have someone help Triple H retain, maybe the Balor Club or Samoa Joe, but that was only wishful thinking and I doubt they would screw Reigns twice at Wrestlemania. Moral of the story, Superman always wins, except in Superman vs. Batman. Edited April 4, 2016 by shiznak 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil B From The Pack Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 The Reignmaker Romano Reignsu BEREIEVEO DATU TATERU TATSUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 7 hours ago, JV77 said: LOL wow! As I said, you might as well add Dean didn't use the chainsaw to behead Lesnar to your list of complaints.. I would suggest to stop watching WWE right now, it's clearly not for you. Nah, I'll just keep watching; for every $&!# show like mania; you get that gem like Nakamura VS Zayn that reminds me why I keep watching and complaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicklas Bo Hunter Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) Let's see Damien sandow gets the loudest crowd reaction during the battle royal when he steps in the ring and then gets thrown out in 2 seconds by a celebrity? Yet Baron Corbin who literally did nothing in that match and really is a nothing won just cause he is big? The only cheers he got were for nxt ffs. What the hell did sandow do for crying out loud. Even Darren young got a chance in the ring. What a display of disrespect to a great wrestler. Edited April 4, 2016 by Nicklas Bo Hunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_bassi13 Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Pre-show Kalisto vs. Ryback - I mean it was what it was. Nothing special to the match, but good for Kalisto at least. Happy he got something, even if they're making his run look unimportant, and are hampering it with a one dimensional Ryback feud. Team Total Divas vs. Team BAD and Blonde - Again, another throw away match. I wanted Team Blonde to win, but they weren't going to, and I wasn't going to get bothered by a match of this insignificance. Good on Eva Marie and Lana for actually going out there and wrestling well. No one did poorly, and the match rolled smoothly. Good for them all. Nothing at all to write home about, but it was there. Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz - This was probably the most ultimate of filler from this pre-show, and at the end of the day it was maybe the weakest match on the entire card. I really dislike the Usos, but they were probably the right choice here. Main Card Intercontinental Ladder Match - This was a great start to the show. Who could possibly have seen this one coming? Such a great moment for a man that the WWE had spent the last 5 years $&!#ting on because he managed to get himself over on his own time. He was far from my favourite choice, and maybe far from the most logical one too, but I think that's what made it work so well at the end of the day. A lot of smooth spots, and I think everyone involved at least looks okay, if not good coming out of it. - Such a good start, but I shouldn't have been surprised that this ended up being the second highest point of the show, because this is the WWE after all, and shame on me for having expectations, lol. AJ Styles vs. Y2J - 2 points here. One, I think the match was pretty disappointing when it came to quality. It was totally a good match (better than most on this card still), but it seems like they didn't save a single thing for this 4th match, making everyone who complained about this match sounding redundant, being right. It seemed like a more aggressive grudge match, but it was still a total repeat. Could have done so much better. - I'm a massive Y2J fan. He's my favourite of all time, and it's not even close. But even I was pissed off to see him win. I thought it was a swerve for the sake of a swerve, but as the whole show went on I realized it was really just the beginning of a bigger issue with it. The babyfaces were not going to be getting over tonight, especially not any of the popular ones who could possibly challenge Reigns. Also the issue of older wrestlers going over for no reason whatsoever. That was a massive issue too. League of Nations vs. The New Day - "Oh hey, I have an idea! Let's take the hottest act in the entire company, and have them job out against the guys we've had job out against everyone in the company. That'll be great!" - It was a pretty great entrance for the New Day, so that started pretty hyped. The match itself was pretty average though. Nothing wrong about it, but it was standard Raw 6-man tag affair. Nothing to distinguish it. And to top it all off, they took the biggest thing going for the company, and had them job out to the guys that Roman Reigns has beat multiple times in a handicap match. - And to top off giving the bad guys the win, they're going to have a bunch of legends who will never wrestle again, and have them make the victorious heels look like total goofs. I mean I at least reacted for Stone Cold, and seeing him stunner people was cool, but that why make a match like this about him? I remember people being optimistic about the New Day having a "crowning moment" tonight, but they were placed at the bottom of a total pole with retired 50 year old wrestlers, and glorified jobbers. Lesnar vs. Ambrose - Like AJ/Y2J, I think this was another match that struggled to live up to its hype or its potential. There were some decent spots, and certain aspects of it did look brutal. But this along with his Roadblock match have showcased how one dimensional Lesnar is starting to feel. The WWE loves branding and they're harping too hard on this "Suplex City" thing. It's ruining a lot of the excitement and variety he could bring to his brutality. This was way too tame for a street fight, by both parties. - Of course Ambrose didn't win. I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. This one like the main event was easy to call from a mile away. People thought Ambrose could win at Fastlane, but they were only kidding themselves about what the WWE thinks they have with him. People thought Ambrose could win at Roadblock, but they were only kidding themselves about what the WWE thinks they have with him. People thought that he could win this non-title match no stakes match tonight, and I say "really, when Reigns could be the first guy to beat the guy who beat the streak later this summer? Be real, lol." - And so it was that the tradition of letting all the babyfaces loses to try and create an environment where people have to cheer Roman because he's the only one to save us all continues. I think my biggest issue with this (and even the two matches above it), was that Ambrose wasn't even allowed to come out looking strong in any way after it. He fought for a short while, took an F5, and then took a nap. I mean the right thing to do would to have at least made him look like a fighter who wouldn't stay down, and kept coming at Lesnar despite getting more and more hurt, but no, That was a burial. Charlotte vs. Sasha vs. Becky Lynch - Highlight of the entire night. And it's not even close. I mean $&!#, my least favourite of all the three, and maybe the worst decision of the three, won, and all I could think was how good for her this was, I wanted Becky to win. I thought Sasha should win. But you know what, Charlotte deserves some love for the work she's been putting in to. Her heel run has helped give a lot of credibility to the division in a way that no one has in over a decade. So I'm not upset at all, and can appreciate this all before they all take turns at the title moving forward. They all deserve it. - They got their new title. They all got the fanciest entrances of the night. They got fireworks and confetti before. They got fireworks afterwards. Good on the WWE here. They really followed through with making the women look like wrestlers for once, rather than a sideshow. - Easily the best match of the night from a standpoint of technical wrestling, and storytelling. Stole the show so easily, but it's not like there was anything to steal. I mean the next most impressive thing was Zach Ryder winning a secondary title, so the competition was certainly lacking. But on its own, this was certainly a fantastic match. - Oh, and look hey the heel won again. Go figure. At this point I couldn't stop making the "Don't worry guys, the WWE will have Roman save us" jokes, because they stopped being farcical, and became an obvious trend they were building towards, and the mentality they wanted/expected us to have. Dear lord. Shane vs. Undertaker - I think this is the one where the booking decision deflated me in the worst way. I mean it's obvious afterwards that Shane was only signed to do this one match, and that the promise of his storyline was just a distraction to build the match with before Undertaker just went over. But one of the few pieces of hope in the whole thing was that Shane actually took control of Raw and began fixing things. Obviously they had no intention of that from the beginning, but without it the match just falls flat from a storytelling perspective, because Shane was supposed to finally stop "the authority" who have been killing Raw both in a literal and storytelling standpoint over the last many years. But now we have Roman to continue railing against them instead. Oh, goody. - I loved that high spot from the cage. It will rightly become iconic. Good on Shane for agreeing to take such a spot, knowing full well it was only in the context of doing the job. I mean this guy came out of his retirement, for a company who he doesn't like or respect (it's why he left in the first place, and it's why it looks like he doesn't want to be sticking around going forward), jumped of the fricking hell in a cell for them, just to give his dad a spot to fill the card with when he got desperate. All in the name of taking a loss. Dude is a legend. - Babyface lost. Again. Obviously. You haven't been paying attention if you thought otherwise was going to happen. Decent match of spots. Props to Shane for putting his body on the line to entertain us. But I'd take back that massive fall if it meant anyone was shaking up Raw instead moving forward. Just look at how they booked this PPV. Someone needs to save us. Now we know it's not Shane. Andre the Giant Battle Royal - When Baron Corbin winning is one of the highlights of your show, you're probably doing the rest of it wrong. I mean I just finished watching a PPV on Friday where I was actively cheering against the guy more than anyone else on the card, so it's telling in its own way that I was just happy to see something with him instead of more of there crap. Like at least a young guy who needed it went over for once. With the way this whole PPV was going, I was worried that Kane or Mark Henry was just going to dump everyone over and stand tall. - Remember during the match, my cousin was just like "Hey, is that Tatanka?" and I was thinking, is he making a racist joke against someone in the ring... before hey look, it's actually Tatanka, lol. Like he just walked in with the rest of the roster like he was just one of them. Didn't mind that at all. - With the way the PPV was going, I was hoping to God that Big Show was not the last guy entering, because there was no person in the ring that could have used the win for momentum (outside of Corbin) so I was just waiting for another song.... and we get &^@#ing Shaq. I saw the name, and for a second I was just reeling through my head to think of any wrestlers with that name, before settling with the understanding that they're actually sending out the Shaq. Why? They love this celebrity nonsense a little too much. And did they really think him doing nothing with the Big Show for a minute was going to elicit a reaction? And they had him throw the biggest fan favourite over the ropes like he was nothing too. Like that was going to get him cheers. People love Sandow, Vince. Did they not here the pop he got for just entering the ring then? What part of that is lost on him? Moved from confused indifference to boos before he was mercifully eliminated. The Rock and Cena vs. The Wyatts (or whatever you want to call that mess of a segment) - Wyatt's weren't even on the God damn card, but still you manage to make them look like total incompetent idiots. Good job WWE. And here I thought you could do something like put them in the Battle Royal and give them a moment. Why have Bray show up on Raw and stroke the WWE title if you're just going to do this garbage to them at every PPV. People don't have the attention spans and memory of a goldfish. They remember that Wyatt has zero chance. - So the Rock's whole purpose of showing up was supposed to be to just the WWE over, and trumpet their attendance record to give themselves a fireworks laced pat on the back? It was so incredibly stupid and time wasting that I totally bought it with the way this garbage Wrestlemania had been going. I was like, okay, at least he's gone, but you're going to really strain to make me give a crap when he shows up next time... and then things somehow got worse. - I think Bray and The Rock were trading some decent promos, where The Rock was putting Bray over, and the crowd straight up told Vince and the people backstage that Bray has something and that they'd like to see him taken somewhere. So when The Rock challenged him, I thought he might actually get a chance to do something... And then it was Rowan standing in the ring. And at that point I was just waiting for Cena to come out so I could roll my eyes even harder that I was looking at the back of my skull. And they were buried. - This was the worst thing about the whole PPV. This segment. These are guys who they want to present as strong, but can't, because they always take the job. Instead of giving them a moment on a big stage, they just bury them even further down the card. Why? For the Rock? For Cena? Reigns vs. HHH - The match of the night was here... Oh, I'm not talking about this joke of a main event. I'm talking about the fight the production crew was having with the live crowd and their mics, trying to edit out the boos. That $&!# was hilarious. Like you'd hear 100,000 audible boos fall deafly silent, presented as some sort of natural sound. The WWE vs. their fans is the best feud going on in the business today. - The match itself was drab, and the best they could do was just have Reigns hit the exact same moves he does every match. Not a single arm drag, or suplex, or punch, or any hold or strike of any kind that he hasn't already done so many times over. It was just a basic match going through the motions. The psychology and the emotion of it all was along the lines of Orton/HHH from Wreslemania 25, in that it wasn't present at all. - Hilarious to see them break their strict policy against violence on women, in order to to get a cheap pop for Roman. Like it worked in that it helped mitigate the boos when he won, and got a few people on the TV side to clap when he won. But I mean as soon as the match ended, that aforementioned fight between the production crew and the audience went into full overdrive, and the boos eventually took over as the credits were being hit. - Lol at the notion that he was going to go heel. It's like the whole Ambrose thing I was talking about earlier. Watching the show like anything could happen is fun, but it's about kidding yourself before they slap you across the face with the inevitable. And the inevitable was slapped on here, cold and wet as possible. Overall So what did we leave with? Status f'ing quo. Nothing has changed, and like that Shane loss really exemplified, nothing is going to change. Like if they pulled the right results, with only a swerve or two, it's something where people such as myself could try and ignore the main event to just enjoy the rest. But they cut off the nose to spite the face, and manipulated the rest of the event in such a negative way to try and mitigate and manipulate the reaction to their main event, and that's what bothered me the most. Not just one individual booking decision. But face after face losing so it could all be about Roman. Jeez. I've had a night more to think it over now, and I still say it was an awful event. One of the worst PPV's I've seen in wrestling, and I've been through some bad TNA and WCW ones, without even mentioning the garbage that WWE sometimes put out there. In terms of Wrestlemanias, it's the worst I've seen live, like I said in my first impression. It's not even a question. Makes Wrestlemanias 15 and 2000 look like Wrestlemania 17. Of the ones I didn't watch right away, it was better than 2 and 9. But to say it's better than those clustrer&^@#s isn't saying anything positive at all. Bottom 3 of all time. As bad as a show can be, I've never seen one actively hate and try and spite me like this one did. That's what makes it unique. In the worst way. One of the best parts was a Snickers commercial. Just watching Takeover on Friday, you can see the night and day in the difference of quality between that production and this. Like the purest of night and day. At least the Raw after Wrestlemania is always fun regardless of how mediocre, or in this case awful, Wrestlemania itself is. Try and manipulate the crowd mics on this one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awalk Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 NXT Takeover Dallas was the best PPV I've seen this year. Even with a few in-match botches. Storytelling and drama galore. 'Mania had an NTH of that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_bassi13 Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, Nicklas Bo Hunter said: Let's see Damien sandow gets the loudest crowd reaction during the battle royal when he steps in the ring and then gets thrown out in 2 seconds by a celebrity? Yet Baron Corbin who literally did nothing in that match and really is a nothing won just cause he is big? The only cheers he got were for nxt ffs. What the hell did sandow do for crying out loud. Even Darren young got a chance in the ring. What a display of disrespect to a great wrestler. You're not wrong. I mean I know you come here a lot to talk about how they need to use Damien Sandow, but he got one of the biggest pops of their night. Like Ambrose/Y2J levels. For a guy who hasn't appeared on prime TV in like a year. Turned a celebrity in Shaq into a straight up heel. The same thing happened at the Royal Rumble. The crowd just loves the guy. I'm starting to think he slept with Stephanie, or killed Vince's puppy. Or something. Edited April 4, 2016 by g_bassi13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaNuCkSLoUiE23 Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) 10 hours ago, TheHitman said: Made the terrible mistake of watching the pay-per-view live at Strawberry Hill theatres. Some of the dudes in there antagonizing kids were despicable. I was there too. That undertaker kid was the best. Edited April 4, 2016 by CaNuCkSLoUiE23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiboynux4lifee******* Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 its a joke how WWE rides the rocks cocktails, Stone cold needed to be more involved in the show. It was in Dallas after-all. Would have been awesome to have Stone cold come out to save the rock, from the Wyatts instead of Cena. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHitman Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, CaNuCkSLoUiE23 said: I was there too. That undertaker kid was the best. Absolutely. 37 minutes ago, desiboynux4lifee******* said: its a joke how WWE rides the rocks cocktails, Stone cold needed to be more involved in the show. It was in Dallas after-all. Would have been awesome to have Stone cold come out to save the rock, from the Wyatts instead of Cena. They don't want anyone to get a better reaction than Rock, which Cena also did. Edited April 4, 2016 by TheHitman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_bassi13 Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) Apparently the paid subscriber count to the WWE network in the US is down from this point last year. Their stock dropped 7% after it was announced in a corporate conference call. The sharp fall was in response to the idea that they weren't confident in their ability retain enough of the subscribers who joined for the free trial, because free trails made up 30% or so of their current base. They slipped going into December, because that made sense, as it was December, but it didn't rebound like they wanted it to, and it looks worse than it did last year, in the States. Or rather that growth has slowed to a crawl, which is what probably hurt the price more than anything. Edited April 4, 2016 by g_bassi13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swflyers8 Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 Shane is running Raw tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awalk Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 haha omg so.. basically so far everything that happened last night was pointless? :D wwe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_bassi13 Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 I love how they prefaced Raw by saying that this crowd is a bit crazy and who they cheer and boo don't reflect the views of the WWE Universe. That $&!# is hilarious. But I look forward to seeing Shane in the context of this episode. Because why not. Make lemons out of lemonade. Before the garbage comes back next week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Sparkle Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 (edited) theres wade barretts exit lol crews is gonna be a big player on raw if they take care of him. hes come a long way since he debuted in nxt Edited April 5, 2016 by Twilight Sparkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awalk Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 40 minutes ago, g_bassi13 said: I love how they prefaced Raw by saying that this crowd is a bit crazy and who they cheer and boo don't reflect the views of the WWE Universe. That $&!# is hilarious. But I look forward to seeing Shane in the context of this episode. Because why not. Make lemons out of lemonade. Before the garbage comes back next week. I thought the same thing... The TV audience isn't smart enough to figure that lil trick out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awalk Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 4 hours ago, g_bassi13 said: Apparently the paid subscriber count to the WWE network in the US is down from this point last year. Their stock dropped 7% after it was announced in a corporate conference call. The sharp fall was in response to the idea that they weren't confident in their ability retain enough of the subscribers who joined for the free trial, because free trails made up 30% or so of their current base. They slipped going into December, because that made sense, as it was December, but it didn't rebound like they wanted it to, and it looks worse than it did last year, in the States. Or rather that growth has slowed to a crawl, which is what probably hurt the price more than anything. They should have tried to do some storytelling at Wrestlemania instead of just spot-city. How are you going to get subscribers when you aren't telling stories and there is no drama.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaNuCkSLoUiE23 Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 Is Baron Corbin supposed to be the real deal? He hasn't impressed me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiznak Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 I'm guessing Jericho is going to win the #1 contender match, so he can put over Reigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_bassi13 Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 2 minutes ago, awalk said: They should have tried to do some storytelling at Wrestlemania instead of just spot-city. How are you going to get subscribers when you aren't telling stories and there is no drama.. Has to do with the lead up to the PPV more than the PPV itself. That's what the numbers would be reflective of. Either way it's not good. And the Wrestlemania that they put out there probably won't help those numbers. The free subscribers are more casual types who really wanted free Wrestlemania, and the hardcore fans that they angered compose the paying subscriber base. They're not going to be unsubscribing en masse or anything. But their overall numbers won't exactly be climbing. They're kind of at a market saturation impasse. Shows like that only grind against their already established audience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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