Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

Wrestlemania 29 Thoughts

goodhelmet

By goodhelmet
in Pro Wrestling

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 296
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Superstar Sleeze Community Regular

Superstar Sleeze

Posted
Posted

While the basketball game is at halftime (Lets Go Blue!), might as well write up my thoughts on last night show, which I was at live and in vivid technicolor. I was also at Wrestlemania XXVIIII last year and I thought this one blew it out of the water. I had way better seats this year though as I was in the lower bowl as opposed to on the floor by the ramp. Raked stadium seating is so much better unless you in the first couple rows on the floor. I never felt cold, but I was layered up.

 

I am a sucker for pomp & circumstance as much as any wrestling fan, but I think this was fine as there were a ton of fireworks and cool entrances from Taker & CM Punk. It could have been better, most definitely, but it was better than Miami. I think it is a valid criticism that they were a little no-nonsense when I like a little bit of nonsense, myself.

 

I agree with Childs' breakdown on the top three matches. Each was very distinctives and there is plenty of room to judge the matches very differently.

 

Now where I am shocked is how lukewarm you all were towards the undercard. I thought that was something where this Wrestlemania kicked the past several Wrestlemanias in the ass. I really dug the Shield/Babyfaces matches. I was irked that the fans booed Sheamus while they cheered Orton. I would hear arguments for other, but I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE since last September. He is the best offensive wrestler they have. The ring was not mic'd well, but you could still hear his shots. I love his physicality. I agree that Show playing Ricky Morton was so strange when Sheamus is also so good on the defensive side of wrestling. What I think this match did so well was play up all the babyfaces spots. It was just an incredibly fun babyface shine segment. The Shield did not play up their gimmick with their chaotic pack mentality as much, but in the situation they still worked fine. This worked as a great opener because of the hot babyface action and great work by the Shield. you could tell the Big Show was just shoehorned into the match did fill out the sides by the ending, which only pissed off more than Ryback wasnt in this match.

 

Mark Henry vs Ryback was so disappointing. Ryback is so much better than a Goldberg/Warrior because he can actually work a normal wrestling match due to his willingness to sell/bump. This match was plodding and just was an underwhelming. I liked the finish a lot because 1. It was great psychology 2. Sets up the rematch with the question, Can he Shellshock him? Then of course the post-match was retarded for reasons already explored.

 

The crowd (very stereotypically smarky) was red hot for Daniel Bryan. The callback to last year was a great false finish as everyone around me popped up. I thought the match was a fun collection of spots, but that was it. The Shield match outstriped this one for me, but that isnt really a slight against this match, which was a fun popcorn affair. I was very happy to see Bryan get the duke with a diving headbutt. Big E has the fuckin worst-looking finish in the WWE right now. So fuckin awful.

 

Jericho vs Fandango was a bit better than I think you guys are giving it credit for. Besides the obvious Lionsault fuck up, I didn't see any sloppiness from Jericho, but watching it live you can miss these guys. I thought Jericho was wicked phsyical and really brought out some nice violence lighting up Fandango while in pissed off babyface mode. Then he was taking some nice bumps to make Fandango make him look like a million bucks. Fandango was there and I think he needs some more seasoning. I had this right in there with the Shield match and was a really nice undercard match.

 

Del Rio vs Swagger was overall pretty forgetful. I am a Swagger mark. This gimmick sucks for him, but I am always impressed by his stature and overall athleticism. I love watching him on offense especially the Swaggerbomb. The spot of the match was Del Rio gouging Swagger's eyes while he had him in the cross-armbreaker. Of course, they got a little intricate in their ode to Shawn Michaels with the reversals. The finish was out of nowhere and just felt anti-climatic, which was the theme of the night.

 

CM Punk vs Undertaker was a match totally elevated by the crowd. Holy fuck, besides the Raw before Money In The Bank 2011, I have never heard a crowd so fuckin hot. The smarks were reveling into their douchebaggery by cheering for CM Punk and that got the rest of us really vocal for Taker. The angle for this set this match up to be so much better than the Lovefests with the Kliq the past four years. Undertaker came out hot because he wanted to fuck Punk up and thus they worked a much tighter style. Even though the finish was never doubt, the ride getting there was most definitely great. That slimy, scuzzy, summy CM Punk got his comeuppance at the hands of the Ultimate Authority of the WWE and other finish seems silly. My one quibble was the GTS -> Tombstone (only with even more No-Sell) should have been finish instead of the false finish because the finish was just a little cooler than that. The spot of the match for me was the Undertaker powering up out of the Anaconda Vice. Out of the big three matches, Undertaker was the one most going for revenge that is why I think some babyface no-selling is in order because it is his emotion that renders him impervious to pain.

 

HHH vs Brock - this was nowhere near the incredible bout they had at Summerslam (yes, I truly believe that bout last year was a legitimate MOTYC and will defend that match until I am blue in the face). This match has zero heat. Dont let anyone fool you. You could hear a pin drop in that arena until the finish. I love Brock to death, but HHH is not very good as a babyface at all (not that you didnt really already know that). This match went way too long and had some of the normal HHH deadspots, but it was not a fucking awful match. It was a decent match that didnt deliver. I think with one simple booking change they could have made this into a great match. You just do the Valentine/Tito storyline from '85. Tito learned the figure-4 in retaliation just so he could break Valentine's leg. If you run 4 weeks of vignettes of HHH learning the Kimura to break Brock's arm, how fuckin badass would that have been. Then all of sudden those Kimura attempts by HHH would have meant extra. What was nice about this match was the finish was actually hot and the climax because they didn't bust a zillion finish and it was actually built up logically. I think on rewatch with some piped heat by the WWE sound engineers I will like this match a lot more on rewatch. This match did not deliver, but it was not awful

 

 

Rock vs Cena II fuckin sucked. It was the worst display of WWE main event/Kliq epic I have ever seen. The callbacks were the only thing fun about this, but learning of The Rock's injury maybe that can excuse this. There was a small boring chant during the Rock's sleeper and the heat was nowhere near the heat level in Miami. The right guy went over. I have been a Cena fan since Money In The Bank 2011. I know, I know I am a Johnny-Come-Lately, but better late than never. Well this was the worst Cena match in forever. I know someone brought this up that this was similar to Punk/Cena and he thought it was hypocritical to like one and not the other. I couldn't disagree more. I am no Punk fanboy and that TV match was incredible. It wad laid out perfectly as a way to Cena earn his victory by unlocking his level of his offense (yes there was a little bit of that in this match) before each had to bust moves that the other wouldnt expect (piledriver vs 'rana) to pick up the win. I am willing to elaborate more on this but we under halfway to go before the game ends.

 

In sum, I thought this was way better than the past two Wrestlemanias (and I was at the Miami one) and was a really fun live experience. Even though, the main event sucked, my brother and I still had fun ragging on it. Oh yeah, as a huge 80s metal fan, seeing Living Color live was wicked bitchin'

 

I don't feel like this was at all deserving of all the jeers it has been getting. I thought it was a good show with a fun undercard, an incredible match with Punk/Taker, a well-structured albeit underwhelming Brock/Trips and a shitty main event hey they can't all be winners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Superstar Sleeze Community Regular

Superstar Sleeze

Posted
Posted

I have only seen the opening segment, but fuck this crowd. My brother said it sounds like all the assholes from the Hall of Fame (the most disrespectful and embarassing crowd I have been a part of) showed up for this. The smarky Miami crowd was fun and playful with all their "Yes!" fun. These are just a bunch of jaded pricks. Though watching Cena worked them was excellent.

 

I don't want to see a face vs face match for a long time. This news comes to great disappointment to me as Mark Henry was fresh and interesting fodder for John Cena. I am higher on Ryback than most, but this is not an effective use of him. Ryback mowing down the Shield is what would be the best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Matt D Community Regular

Matt D

Posted
Posted

I kind of hope they go for a three way. I know grumpy people hate those but it could be a lot of fun.

Clamoring for a triple threat really kills your fundamentalist wrestling fan gimmick

 

I don't think it's that hard to break a three way in an interesting structural way. There are other factors that generally prevent it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kostka Newbie

Kostka

Posted
Posted

Why would Ryback job to Mark Henry last night if he was set to be Cena's next challenger?

I think they want to do a three way feud, and since he won at Mania, Henry can eat the fall in the three way to even it out. I would've stuck with Cena/Henry because there's no way Cena is losing the belt this soon after all of this build, and yet another failed Ryback title shot is borderline comical.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Johnny Sorrow Community Regular

Johnny Sorrow

Posted
Posted

I really do love the post-wrestlemania Raw crowd.

I was seriously laughing my ass off during the Orton/ Shaemus match. The whole "How many different random chants can we do" stuff was fucking great. And "Thank you Big Show!" for him ending the match was priceless. I'm proud of my home state. And as far as the "We are awesome!" one, I took it more as the crowd being smarky goofy than smarky self congratulatory.

The only thing the crowd didn't chant during that whole match was "MAURY! MAURY!" :lol:

 

Oh and the crowd singing Fandango's theme was the greatest thing I've ever seen. And they kept it up as they were leaving.

 

 

https://vine.co/v/btWLDKPHT6a :lol:

 

That's the best.

 

Oh and this from last night.

 

Posted Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Strummer Collaborator

Strummer

Posted
Posted

They were supposed to kick of the Rock/Brock angle tonight to lead to next year's Mania. I assume it will be a 3 way for the title since Henry didn't get pinned and went over at Mania.

 

Shield v Taker/Kane/Bryan should be fun but we all know who's taking the fall for the face team

Link to comment
Share on other sites
goc Newbie

goc

Posted
Posted

Hopefully tonight was a wake up call to the zombies running this place.

 

It's sure to be dismissed as "hardcore" fans (aka them dang interweb fans) who went to Mania and not a reflection of the feelings of the WWE Universe.

 

It's pretty much true though. In no other arena would the Sheamus/Orton match gotten that reaction, nor would Dolph's Cash In. It's why I couldn't help but laugh at another board proclaiming how much of a star Dolph really is based off his reaction. That he's never gotten close to before. When has a MITB Cash In NOT gotten a huge reaction?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...