Mania as it happens.

[Loss]

Punk/Jericho was awesome. By far, the match of the night. Outstanding.

[Frankensteiner]

Match was great, the one I was looking forward to the most. So glad it delivered.

[goodhelmet]

Punk vs. Jericho

Live, there were huge pockets of chants but never the entire stadium at once early in the match. Taker-HHH had the spectacle prize but this was the best match prize. Crowd got into the last 5 minutes big time. I'll watch this on tape but it felt better than the Jericho-Edge match from a couple years back but the same crowd vibe.

 

Brody's Clay got over huge live.

 

Oh fuck, Cena is getting booed the fuck out of the building....

[Childs]

Those musical intros were awful and buzz killing. I don't think this show has been awful match for match, but I kind of hate it.

[KrisZ]

Father & son

 

[Loss]

Rock/Cena was a very good match, worked really well for its audience. Cena may have outworked Rock in this one. At first, it felt like modern Hogan/Warrior, but as the match went on, it felt like a Tokyo Dome main event, which was great. I think Rock going over was dumb and I think Cena is hurt by this loss if they don't use it to turn him heel. How can they not?

 

Now, we move to Brock and Rock. Yay. Can't think of much that would interest me less than headlining the next show with that.

 

They just told their audience that the Attitude Era was better than what we get currently. Whether that's true or not, I don't understand promoting that message.

[goodhelmet]

Rock vs. Cena

I took a smoke break for the intros so I was cool with not having to deal with that bullshit. However, the only thing I think may have trumped this as a live experience in the past ten years was Rock-Hogan. Was Rock-Hogan in a dome because I could only imagine the sound if it didn't disappear into the sky. If Rock-Hogan was an open arena then that would be a hell of an accomplishment. Looking back on the night, the matches were shit save for Hell in a Cell, Jericho-Punk and Rock-Cena but I think everyone who goes to a Wrestlemania will walk out happy they went to the show. Dylan can back me up on that one. For those of you who bought it on PPV... Sorry.

[Death From Above]

Only praise I have for the cell match was, oddly enough, the cell basically being redundant. I was worried they'd do something really fucking stupid (more in the vein of worked stage collapses BY GAWD HES BROKEN IN HALF callbacks than actually breaking anyone in half) but instead they settled for public masturbation, which was the best of the bad options.

 

Very dull show. I can't stand modern long "epic" wrestling.

[KrisZ]

Manias are like Super Bowls....never the best games of the year and sometimes you get lucky but the spectacles are phenomenal.

[Frankensteiner]

Rock/Cena did not need 30 minutes (neither did UT/Triple H but that's a different issue). Rock/Hogan went 16 minutes at X8 and that would have been the perfect length for tonight.

[Dylan Waco]

I posted this on the DVDVR first, but these are my thoughts on first watch (though I do indeed back up Will about seeing Mania live)

 

Didn't care for the show at all, but honestly it might have been partly due to the atmosphere of watching it in a recently revamped bar, with shitty seating.

 

Opener immediately pissed me off and was made worse by the tons of feces that was to follow.

 

Orton v. Kane was as good a match as it possibly could have been and actually had a couple of sequences that I really liked. But it's Orton v. Kane - there's not a match on the roster involving "top" guys I could have cared less about.

 

I thought Show v. Cody was pretty bad. The dosey do shit to set up the weak finish was just...not good. Cody really came across like the Cody that I thought looked really lost v. Booker T on the house show I went to in Dec.

 

Divas tag was comically long and just odd all around.

 

At this point I thought there was no question that the first hour was the worst opening hour I could recall on a Mania.

 

From there the show got better, but there was nothing that really knocked my socks off or even came close.

 

HITC is a match I probably would have liked live, but on tv it didn't connect with me at all. I thought last years match was decidedly better because it was a match about HHH v. Taker. The first half of this match had the feel of an old gay couple trying to make a touch decision about putting down a beloved pet. Just lots of hammy stuff that I didn't like at all. The match had bigger "build" than last year, but I liked the bomb throwing nature of last years match better as it fit the two guys involve. Also - and I know I'm probably in the minority - there wasn't a single near fall I bought in this match. Last year the tombstone fall really was a kickstarter to the match and made me believe. This year there was nothing even close to having that feel. It was laid out as well as it could have been and for WWE bioepic style matches it was hardly bad. But I just didn't buy any of it.

 

Team Teddy v. Team Johnny was pretty weak for the first portion, but I did like the stretch run a lot as it had that sort of Smackdown/Raw main event vibe which is what I wanted out of the match. Henry and Ziggler were a lot of fun in the match and even though the shit with Eve was annoying and undermined it, Ryder actually came across like a fairly big deal to me.

 

Punk v. Jericho was good, but the camera angles were horribly unflattering for a lot of the shots, making numerous spots look far worse than they would have otherwise. When my daughter is sitting next to me saying "fake" every third spot there is a problem. I liked Jericho's back targeting, though I didn't think much of Punk's selling of it. Still this had some really big bumps and the finishing stretch was about as good a multi-reversal submission stretch as you are going to get. That's not something I'm a huge fan of, but it was well done.

 

I like the main event, but Rock winning just felt wrong. Granted Cena winning would have felt wrong too, but that's the problem with a match like this. Cena heeling in a variety of ways was pretty cool. Not sold that the bearhug was the right base to work and there was a point where it really felt like a match where Rock was just trying to get his shit in, but by that point in the night I was pretty cranky so who knows how true to form that was. I did think the finish worked pretty well and over all I really thought Cena put in a heck of a performance. But as a whole I didn't think it approached being a great match.

 

Kind of funny really that I thought the build for the show sucked but was still really looking forward to the show in terms of in ring stuff. As it stood there wasn't a single match I would "nominate" in a MOTY thread.

 

Oh..and Rock calling the DDT spot on camera was the most amusing thing of the night

[NintendoLogic]

C/Ped from DVDVR.

 

I'm in Alexandria for business, so I had to watch this in a bar. Here are some preliminary thoughts.

 

First of all, the relative lack of video packages was interesting. You figure they'd use it to give the good workers more time to work, but it seems they used it to give more time to the pointless filler matches. Second, Michael Cole seemed to be on his best behavior. He mostly stuck to play-by-play, and he even toned it down during the Johnny/Teddy match. Then again, the bar was pretty loud, and I didn't hear a whole lot of what the announcers were saying. So if Cole said something egregiously stupid, I apologize for missing it.

 

Bryan/Sheamus was an act of pure troll genius. In all seriousness, though, it's yet another example of the ass-backwards mentality of this company where the big PPV matches set up the soap opera bullshit rather than the other way around. I think they figured Sheamus winning quickly and decisively would pop the crowd, but the opposite ended up being true.

 

Kane/Orton was better than I expected. I especially dug the Choshu/Hashimoto lariat tribute spot. The crowd at the bar was pretty into it too. Orton's dropkick, him kicking out of the first chokeslam, and the super chokeslam all got huge pops.

 

Show/Rhodes also exceeded my expectations. I don't see the point of putting the IC title on Show, though. The only people who could conceivably be a threat to him are ridiculously above that title.

 

The Divas tag match was an abortion. Beth having to come out to Eve's music was bad enough, and jobbing her out to an injured non-wrestler was the icing on the cake.

 

The Castle Grayskull play set in HHH's entrance was epic.

 

I really enjoyed the HIAC match, and I was firmly in the thumbs-down camp for last year's Taker-HHH match. This one was a gloriously overbooked mess in the best possible way. They spent too much time on HBK's internal turmoil, and they ran out of steam toward the end. But I was thoroughly entertained. It's not something I'd want to watch over and over, but as an over-the-top Wrestlemania spectacle, it was great. The three of them hugging it out afterwards was lame, though.

 

The GM tag match was what it was. Mainly, it confirmed that Zack Ryder is the only person in wrestling dumber than Sting.

 

Punk/Jericho was good. It was the spiritual successor of Angle/Benoit with the nearfalls and submission reversals, but it was about as good as that kind of match can be.

 

I wish they hadn't shown Brodus' mama. She should be left to the viewer's imagination like Maris on Frasier.

 

So Cena is back to wearing jorts. I guess the troops have received enough tribute for the time being.

 

Rock/Cena was pretty good, but it was all over the place structurally. One minute Rock is viciously slamming Cena's head into the steps, the next he's working a raise the arm three times babyface comeback spot. Not to mention the finisher trading in the middle that came out of nowhere and went nowhere. I don't understand how a match they had a year to plan out could be so disjointed. I can't imagine that they'd want to decisively put a part-timer over their biggest star, but I don't see how this feud can continue. Rock cost Cena the title at WM27, laid him out after their match at Survivor Series, and won clean at WM28 in a match Cena said meant everything to him. What can you do after all that except say that Rock is officially Cena's daddy?

 

No Brock and no blood in the Cell were letdowns. But other than Bryan/Sheamus, every match that had the potential to be good was at least decent, and I got a little something from the matches I expected nothing from. Based on that, I give it a thumbs up.

[Strummer]

other than the opener I liked the show. Orton/Kane was better than I expected but man Kane is just so awkward in his movements in the ring. I don't think he's bad per say just awkward. I even liked Show v Cody even if they were out of position in some spots. Show is bumping better now than he did in his 20s.

 

The Cell match is going to be polarizing. It was dramatic for sure. While I was watching I knew the net would rag on Shawn because of his acting. The worry wort putting his hands in front of him with the "Oh My goodness" look was probably the best

 

 

Team Ace/Long was better than expected

 

Loved the last 2 matches. Rock was blown up and Cena did a good job doing the work in some sequences

[Strummer]

wow the reaction to Bryan/Sheamus has to be the worst since RVD/Hunter at Unforgiven 02. Have no idea what they were thinking. But as Meltz noted it had been planned for months

[Tim Evans]

Wasn't HHH bleeding in the cell? It wasn't much but it was noticeable. Taker's back looked sick after all those chair shots.

[Chess Knight]

wow the reaction to Bryan/Sheamus has to be the worst since RVD/Hunter at Unforgiven 02.

I'd hate to go terribly off-topic, but what was the complaint there? Did anyone expect/hope (a) HHH v RVD in 2002 to be that good or (b ) Rob to win?

[FLIK]

I still think Sheamus/Bryan going crazy short was a good idea.

 

Ideally you want to have both a great match and a memorable moment at Mania but from day 1 I was 99% sure they weren't gonna get enough time to have the former so atleast this qualifies as the latter.

 

Mania's littered with stuff that looked great on paper, got a few mins and thus ended up being completely forgetable

[Strummer]

wow the reaction to Bryan/Sheamus has to be the worst since RVD/Hunter at Unforgiven 02.

I'd hate to go terribly off-topic, but what was the complaint there? Did anyone expect/hope (a) HHH v RVD in 2002 to be that good or (b ) Rob to win?

 

 

b

 

it was obvious from the build that it was going to set up Flair turning and teaming with Hunter but people hated Hunter so much and with all the dreadful stuff on RAW most just got their hopes up. RVD was really over too. Not as much as the previous year but still popular. It was an amazing reaction

[Dylan Waco]

I still think Sheamus/Bryan going crazy short was a good idea.

 

Ideally you want to have both a great match and a memorable moment at Mania but from day 1 I was 99% sure they weren't gonna get enough time to have the former so atleast this qualifies as the latter.

 

Mania's littered with stuff that looked great on paper, got a few mins and thus ended up being completely forgetable

I would have rather had a really good ten minute match like Finlay v. JBL for example, than that shit. They could have recovered but the rest of that first hour ranged from horribly uninteresting to outright terrible. Certainly the worst hour of a WWE ppv I can remember in a long, long, long time.

[FLIK]

I'm also fine with it because they'll get 20+ on the nxt ppv, probably the next after that and possibly a few times for free on tv too since WWE rematches everything to death.

[Victator]

The divas match was hilarious. They do an injury angle for the celeb and she still wins. Glad Beth got a pay day, but that was a huge "Fuck You" to someone who deserves better.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The divas match was hilarious. They do an injury angle for the celeb and she still wins. Glad Beth got a pay day, but that was a huge "Fuck You" to someone who deserves better.

Maria managed to win while having Aunt Flo from Red Bank show up while wearing white pants. That's great and who cares at the same time.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Mania was fucking great.

[Victator]

Its just a new low for WWE star fucking.

 

Shit even WCW never hit a low like that. If WWE booked the David Arqutte win. he would of simply pinned Jarrett cleanly.

[kjh]

I think Rock going over was dumb and I think Cena is hurt by this loss if they don't use it to turn him heel. How can they not?

 

Now, we move to Brock and Rock. Yay. Can't think of much that would interest me less than headlining the next show with that.

 

They just told their audience that the Attitude Era was better than what we get currently. Whether that's true or not, I don't understand promoting that message.

Personally I think that Rock winning works much better for a rematch, as I don't see much point in another match between the two if Cena had already defeated the outsider he's been burying for a year. Given this result, I think they announce Rock vs Cena II and Brock vs. Taker tomorrow night for Mania next year, unless they squeeze the former into the SummerSlam card, which would probably be preferable as I'm not sure WWE could drag it out in a compelling manner for another year.