El-P

The logo screams early 90's too. Yeah. Sounds great.

Please, no tearjerker promo from Taker.

Like Billy Gunn ?

Really ? Damn, it didn't strike me the last few years if that was the case then.

Global, uh...

One small detail, I was very surprised to see French announcers back at ringside. This hasn't been the case since Raymond Rougeau left, and although WWE programming are all over the TV in France, the product isn't nearly as hot as it was a few years ago during the peak of Cena's reign of terror (when you could see kids with Cena merch regularly, even my nephews got into it at that point before forgetting about it). And as far as I know, since Pat Patterson is gone, there is no French connection backstage either. So I wonder why they are being brought back at ringside. Are they still strong in Quebec ? (well, you can point out that the next boss of the WWE is named Paul Levesque, of course… I wonder if he has any French ties at this point though).

Yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind too.

Probably, he's a trooper. But they need to refresh his character. This Wyatt feud is not the way to go. He's the same old same old Cena.

I would have wished a grand surnatural post-match ceremony for Taker after his last match, instead we got a bad match in which he looked toasted and a very human-like walk up the ramp a-là Shawn Michaels. I would guess he's done, yeah. Very underwhelming way to go, but this looked like the one match too many, so in hindsight and kayfabe it kinda make sense that he lost. I have no idea why anyone would want a Taker vs Sting match anyway. It was a dream match in 1997. 17 years ago.

That's what I thought too. Now, despite the underwhelming card as a whole, there was indeed the feeling of a change of the guard with guys like Cesaro, the Shield, Bryan being put over huge, Taker losing, HHH losing and getting some more in the main event (kudos to Steph for bumping in high heels on the outside, dangerous for the ankles), NOA & Kane getting squashed. It seems like they won't ever dare to do anything different with Cena, and he's getting old, banged up and boring, and I'm not buying the Wyatts, but still, with the whole Network launch and the business model probably evolving big time, these are very interesting times indeed.

Yep. I cringed.

So. I enjoyed the first hour immensely. Awesome opener, the best ever probably, with Hogan, then Austin then The Rock in the ring at the same time. Hogan Silverdome blopper made it even better, and Hogan selling it along Steve & Rocky was funny as hell. The three biggest name ever. Then HHH vs Daniel Bryan. Damn, this must be one of Trip's best match ever. And Stephy did her best Woman impersonnation. Didn't get bloated, didn't do any dull brawling either. Great ridiculous entrance by HHH. Great post-match too. Damn, I was fired up. And then… well… Modern WWE reminded me that I can't get too excited. The Shield match was a squash, so it was decent bu still, kinda useless on a WM card to me, especially when there was so few matches on the card to begin with. Although Cesaro winning the way he did was excellent, the battle royal in itself was a waste of time. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena. The Wyatt's entrance was great. From there it was all downhill. Terrible "acting" match at the beginning. Cena getting enraged was embarrassing to watch, and Bray Wyatt is just way too manufactured to be believable. Then it turned into a vaunted overlong WWF semf-conscious epic with counters and kicking out of finishers galore. Yawn. Taker vs Lesnar. Great entrance by Taker, better than last year. But damn, the match was just nothing forever then kicked in into kicking ot of finisher's galore and. WTF ? Really ? Taker losing his streak to Lesnar who's been turned into just another guy the previous year, after a totally underwhelming build and a snoozefest of a match ? I was bored with the streak anyway but this is just a ridiculous decision. The reaction of the crowd was priceless though, but you can feel the total downer it was. Heyman's selling of the victory was one for the ages though. So, next year is the last match for Taker I guess. Looks like the tank is empty. I fast forwarded during the Divas match, let's be serious. Orton vs Batista vs Bryan. Thankfully it turned into somewhat of a fun Attitude Era like dog and pony show, because Orton vs Batista was a dead match. The match really picked up thanks to HHH and Stephy, coming through the crowd no less which was a nice touch. I can't believe I'm saying that, but apart from Bryan who was the obvious star, this card was saved by Paul & Stephy doing exactly what they needed to do. Cool post-match (who was the woman with the little girl ? they weren't acknowledge on commentary). So yeah. No RVD (couldn't care less), no Sting (which would have been a big moment if done right). A terrible end to the streak. Really, this show was all about Daniel Bryan supported by HHH and Stephanie.

Gonna watch it tomorrow morning...

Considering where Hall and Waltman were just a few years ago, the Kliq reunion was a damn pretty cool sight. DDP was pretty great, and he deserves shitloads of credits. Although I never cared for Lita, I thought she was pretty cool herself with all those stories. But damn, watching all those guys make me feel old. Taker's tribute to Paul Bearer was classic.

Oh man… What the fuck was Cole thinking ?

Oh man, the cosplay match. First time I truly realized that love for Japanese pro-wrestling had fucked up an entire generation of hardcore fans and workers. Joe cosplaying as an All Japan big 4 and the crowd cosplaying Korakuen Hall was embarrassing to watch. Total post-modern pro-wrestling. I hated this with a passion.

Agreed about that "Not anymore!" soundbyte getting really grating really fast. Thankfully they didn't really include the Nasties in the nWo, that would have been awful. They do look like two idiots here. Scott Hall dropping the Full Metal Jacket "Me love you long time" line for whatever reason. Nasty Nick. Damn it's kinda creepy to see Hogan and Flair's kids during this Nitro era knowing how they would end up. The Liz angle is actually really good and well done, and they made the most sense out of it. Gotta love the notion that we're supposed to think Hogan is a legit movie star.

Funniest story in the ICP shoot is Hugh Morrus throwing a fit because he's supposed to be the fat guy doing a moonsault. What a big pussy this guy is. No wonder he acts like a bully.

Agreed, Uncle Eric talks a good game when he's not being punked out. I guess they didn't plan to have him joign the nWo yet.

Of course. He's Andre's son.

Indeed. The Warrior one cracked me up. Odd they would me so spot on with the other ones and totally fucked up with Vince.

Damn, Dean is dry. Yeah Tony is good here. I didn't know of this angle before.

The beatdown and angle is great. nWo taking over the booth is great. Vincent debuting, not so much. Served no purpose at all except a not so funny pun at Vince. This is the beginning of nWo getting crowded with useless hacks sadly. Also, the remainder of the broadcast showed why an nWo TV show would not be a good idea. Of course with most the stars on the roster in Japan, it was a smart way to do things and it was fresh at the time, but watching it back now it just brought back bad memories of Souled Out...

Well, April's Fool, of course I don't look forward to a 20 minutes HHH match, who am I kidding ? But yeah, they did a good job turning their mistake into somewhat of a long-term storyline which adds way more intrigue than most past Manias. Although the issue is having to go through yet another HHH match, but most of all a main event involving Orton & Batista, who are two black holes at this point, so pretty much 100% of my interest lies in watching Bryan celebrate in the ring at the end and that's it. The entire card looks dull and thrown together. Two battle royal ? Really ?

I must admit Steph & HHH have done a really good job in the last few weeks, to the point I actually (gasp) kinda look forward to the Bryan vs HHH match just to get more of HHH bumping around and Stephy throwing a fit at the end. Well, if all goes well of course, but at this point, with this ridiculous self-aware video, it can't go wrong, right ? RIGHT ? Anyway, I lost every bit of interest I could have had for Taker vs Lesnar on paper, the streak always bored me and Lesnar doesn't look special anymore. And Taker ain't losing. Still don't care one way or another about Cena vs Wyatt. The undercard is nothing with two useless matches after the opener which has too many names thrown in already. The Hogan moments will be embarrassing, as will the comedy and diva stuff, as usual. So, at this point, my interest has been reduced to basically a HHH match (holy shit, what I am saying ?) and the final moment with Bryan getting immerged into 70k people chanting YES at the end of Mania.