Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[JRH]

Only one guy smiling there (Heyman).

[C.S.]

Ridge Holland started a GoFundMe after getting released during an injury and then having his contract terminated early because he spoke out.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-father-of-3-heal-without-losing-everything

Top donors: 

• Chelsea Green - $1000 per month 
• Kyle Fletcher, Nick Massie (Young Bucks), and Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal) -  $1000 each

[flyonthewall2983]

I have a sinking feeling if the ring boy scandal will somehow be included if not already shared in what’s not been redacted of the Epstein files.

I can’t be the only one.

[flyonthewall2983]

Close enough, Ashley Massaro’s name is mentioned in the latest batch 

[JRH]

So apparently the WWE is considering NOT having WM in Saudi next year due to what's going on in the Middle East.

[sek69]

If this war keeps going, they may not have a choice in the matter. If nothing else it's going to be very hilarious if the WWE Hall of Famer In Chief ends up costing them what I would assume is their biggest payday ever. 

[El-P]

In other news :

https://www.postwrestling.com/2026/04/02/janel-grant-adds-new-details-to-allegations-against-vince-mcmahon-brock-lesnar-wwe/

Brock Lesnar actively took part in sex trafficking Janel Grant. At least another unnamed talent was also part of it. And considering Vince's mentality, it's obvious it had to be a big star. Enjoy Sex-traffic Mania everybody

[El-P]

Whoever pays for this is a fucking idiot. And a rich fucking idiot at that. 

Seriously now. Who the fuck ?

[Blehschmidt]

I am not against people wanting to meet the wrestlers they like, but seriously... Can you imagine? A fucking grand to stand next to Reigns for 6 seconds, he probably says "How Ya Doin?" and then someone screams "NEXT!!!" and your done. You have to be truly insane.

Last month I got an autograph and a picture with Stan Hansen and we talked for several minutes afterwards and it cost me 40 bucks.

 

[El-P]

I mean. For about half the price you can get A seats for All In. Which I already find outrageously expensive BTW (I was gonna go the second year and then I saw the prices and nope. I *can* do it, but I won't). This is just indecent.

[DMJ]

The fact that there is somehow a "$70 service fee" (included or not) for a "photo" on your cell phone is just *chef's kiss* of greed.

These bloodsuckers would charge you extra if Roman happens to fart and you smell it. 

 

[El-P]

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/stephanie-mcmahon-thanks-vince-mcmahon-in-wwe-hall-of-fame-speech-crowd-chants-thank-you-vince/

Trash people.

Trash company.

Trash audience.

[El-P]

The gift that keeps on giving.

As last year's Mania PR disaster was the outpouring coming out of MAGA fuckhead (hi Roman) and racists shits (hi Heyman), this year's theme seems to be that they are insecure little bitches totally panicking on the verge of their product not being nearly as hot as it used to be. Next year Saudi ? Holy shit.

That ESPN partnership certainly has been one of a kind...

[hammerva]

Not sure I have seen a Wrestlemania that feels less like a Wrestlemania than Night 1 of this show.   They are portraying this as a 1 match show.   And I really need to see the breakdown of wrestling to commercials because it feels like it is about best 65/35 wrestling if you include things like entrances and after match shit.

[Timbo Slice]

Cody’s entrance alone was longer than the women’s title match. 
 

A company so far up their own ass it can’t even see it get kissed goodbye. 

[El-P]

So, looking at the results and reactions, it was quite a disaster. Less than 90 minutes of actual wrestling on a four hour show. Wow. People who paid ridiculous sums of money to attend this, congrats, you're officially the dumbest pro-wrestling fans ever. The biggest marks in the history of marks.

Cody Rhodes is now involved in the two most universally panned Mania main events, back to back. I guess the "finishing the story" angle was also in the literal sense.

7 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

Cody’s entrance alone was longer than the women’s title match. 

That's another interesting stats. Also, how ironic that is that the year they put Stephy in their shit Hall of Fame, the women matches at Mania went back to sub 7 minutes nothing affair. Most of them involving, well, Divas era personality. On that subject, how much gaslighting is going on there ?

The amount of disrespect is amazing. 😂

Oh yeah, Paige. Her being AEW woman's champ feels like a fever dream at this point.

Stephanie Vaquer sure made the right choice. She took less money to "live her dream" to have a sub seven minutes match at Mania. But gooners are big fan of her move (which BTW was made "famous" by Madison Rayne years before in TNA), so that's a thing I guess.

Thankfully Day 2 will have a banger with, let me check.... oh. A Jade Cargill match. Yup, sorry. Ain't happening.

Also, was Ted DiBiase Jr. in attendance and showed on cam ? Isn't he supposed to be in prison or something for scamming old people with his scammy religious zealot father ?

The main event sounds straight out of the worst Russo playbook in term of making no fucking sens whatsoever. 

And apparently, grand Mania intros be like....

Night 2 should be much better, with Oba Femi getting the rub from Sex Trafficker Shithead, a Trick Williams match (bwahahahaahah hey I saw him in TNA ok, I know what he's all about people, no one is gonna fool me)... Main event sounds like hell on paper too, between old-ass gassed out Pepsi Phil vs dullard Tribal Chief probably going full "Absolute Cinema" mode with Moments tm and DIALOGUES for 45 minutes.

The one good news is that this year TKO did not buy NOAH or something. That is a positive.

[Robert S]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

(...)

Also, was Ted DiBiase Jr. in attendance and showed on cam ? Isn't he supposed to be in prison or something for scamming old people with his scammy religious zealot father ?
(...)

He was acquitted of all charges a couple of weeks back.

So WWE is on Netflix here since the beginning of April. For whatever reason I thought I might want to check out Wrestlemania, but I got fed up with it before even the first match started (and remembered why - disregarding ethical reasons - I completely dropped off that company a couple of years back). It started with Lin-Manuel Miranda doing a completely emotion-free narration (as in "I am doing this for the paycheck) of the introduction video, followed by citizen Cena given a content-free promo, followed by LLM Michael Cole welcoming us. When I saw that the first match was Usos & LA Knight vs. Austin Theory, Logan Paul and some Youtuber, I was "nah, I'm good, let's rather watch some indy shows of that weekend".

[Blehschmidt]

From a 411 recap:

Usos/Knight vs Vision/"Celebrity" - 7 minutes

McIntyre vs Fatu - 14 minutes

Women's 4 Way Tag Title - 8 1/2 minutes

Lynch vs Lee - 8 minutes

Gunther vs Seth - 16 minutes

Vaquer vs Morgan - 7 minutes

Rhodes vs Orton - 24 minutes

 

So less than 90 minutes of wrestling on Wrestlemania. They also timed the entrances for the main event at 16 minutes, which is as long as the longest match on the show up to that point. Just, Wow.

[El-P]

2 hours ago, Robert S said:

He was acquitted of all charges a couple of weeks back.

Oh I'm sure he was... US Justice system...

BTW, John Cena looking like an AI version of Vince McMahon is certainly a thing now.

[JRH]

Something tells me that if Bruno Sammartino was still alive he definitely wouldnt be remaining on WWE's side by this point 

[El-P]

Fun fact : both Hyan & Maya World vs Divine Dominion and Marina Shafir vs Alex Windsor in the pre-show of Dynasty were longer matches than any women's match at Mania...

Speaking of DiBiase, I got a kick of that one :

 

 

[Coffey]

It was just so fucking... embarrassing. Like, genuinely.

The Liz Morgan entrance? Are you shitting me? What on earth, man. Can't sing, can't dance... supposed to be a pro-wrestler & she's wanting to cosplay as Britney Spears from the 90's now. The McIntyre/Fatu match was a glorified Hardcore match straight out of the Al Snow WWF days. Drew McIntyre comes out with a sword because he thinks he's the Highlander & "The Samoan Werewolf" comes out wearing a K-Mart Dora the Explorer backpack. Just immediately killed his aura. Opening with the 6-man match featuring a bunch of people that no one gives a single fuck about was a choice. All to give us a bunch of different angles of a 5-foot-tall YouTuber doing the same spot we've seen Shane McMahon do for thirty years. Paige is washed & has been for a long time, so of course they brought her back. Even though previously they wouldn't even clear her, now she's a champion. Makes sense. Bianca comes back... to tell everyone she's leaving again. Y'know it's funny, Jim Cornette got a lot of shit when he said he hated booking women because they would always get pregnant & leave... but now we've seen it with Becky, Naomi, Alexa & Bianca.

The fucking commercials & ad breaks & "we'll be right back!" segments for a service you have to pay for is lunacy. Like we know they sold out & we see the terrible ads on the wrestling mat but even the fuckin' tables got ads on 'em now. Brought to you by Carl's Jr. 

El-P done been right about this sloppy shop, MAGA company but some how getting rid of Vince McHands & being bought out by TKO turned these ketchup hot dog eating motherfuckers into Idiocracy. It's got what plants crave.

I can't even get excited about the new big upcoming star Oba because I read some of his dumbass political views & it immediately soured me on him. What are we doing!? I hate this social media, influence era. 
 

[Embrodak]

Being incensed by wrestlers’ political views continues to be a bit bizarre to me, like if anybody gets a “could not care less” pass in my book it’s the technically-petit-bourgeois dudes and dudettes who get dropped on their heads for a living. Obviously an avowed white supremacist or incel or whoever would be the exceptions to this, but vanilla MAGA/pro-cop/anti-mask/whatever? Eh.

[tcg91]

Embarrassing.

[El-P]

Oh, I did not even know Oba Femi was actually MAGA Femi. Maybe they can get Nicki MAGAJ for his entrance ? (I mean, the subtle wordplays are infinite now, it takes less effort than AI to shitpost). Does he even realize who Elon Musk is and where his family's fortune comes from ? 🤣

And since we're speaking of dumb fucking fucks, after last year hilarious Roast with Trump's favorite "comedian" that had Paul Heyman do a joke about deporting people, here's the teaser for this year's Mania comedy special :   

Glenn Jacobs, he's smart, he reads books...