Wrestlemania 37

[Johnny Sorrow]

26 minutes ago, Edwin said:

Greatest WrestleMania ever? Seriously, what a show.

It was a great show.

[Badlittlekitten]

It was a good show but I think that's crazy talk.  You need a real crowd.

[joeg]

Crazy I can't believe so many people here loved it that much. The show had 2 really good matches, 2 kinda fun matches. and 3 not so good matches. Only the main event had any sort of logical or meaningful build up, back story or heat. There was twice as much filler as wrestling. And none of the filler hyped up any of the matches or explained the back story to the matches. Probably because the backstory was so thin with most of the matches.  My eyes are still hurting from all the hard cuts. I guess the past decade has lowered the bar to a point where a major WWE show with 2 really good matches and 2 fun matches qualifies as greatest ever despite not being a good overall show. 

[cm funk]

 

Wasn't a great show at all IMO, but it was enjoyable and watchable, and that's the best you can expect from WWE these days.  Compared to the mostly unwatchable WM last year and the horribly long shows of the recent past this was a home run, but let's not go crazy with the recency bias.  I watched a handful of pandemic NJPW shows over the past year that were better than this....and I watched like 10% max of NJPW's shows.....

A very memorable main event, a couple well laid out tags, one protecting a super green giant and the other a non-wrestler, a good Cesaro-Seth match with some memorable spots and a good hoss world title opener with a surprising finish which was definitely hurt by the rain delay and the guys not wanting to kill themselves out there.  One really good match, some acceptable stuff on the undercard and a couple bathroom break matches does not make this an instant classic

First live WWE show I've watched since NXT debuted the "Capital Center" for one of the Takeovers.  Very hard for me to watch their product during the pandemic, but I also wasn't into it much pre-pandemic.  It was watchable and fun, it was nice to have the crowds back, and it didn't burn me out......quite the opposite, I'm actually really looking forward to night II now

And even with me finding it a mostly enjoyable watch, I could NOT have watched this show without beer......

[joeg]

3 minutes ago, cm funk said:

I could NOT have watched this show without beer......

Maybe that's why I disliked it so. I've used the past 6 months with bars being closed as an opportunity to cut back and start living clean. I may have enjoyed this show more had I gone through a few.  

[Johnny Sorrow]

They made all the right choices. Bobby winning popped our house, as did Cesaro and Bianca. I was making fun of Omos but the kids were marking out for the giant monster even though they loved New Day. We all took a break during the cage match, but the adults in the room popped for the end spots. 
The entire house was marking out during the main event. Loved it.

[cm funk]

26 minutes ago, joeg said:

Maybe that's why I disliked it so. I've used the past 6 months with bars being closed as an opportunity to cut back and start living clean. I may have enjoyed this show more had I gone through a few.  

I'm kind of an unrepentant drunkard at this point in my life, but it probably says more about WWE than me that I can't watch their shows without gimmicks.  It's been that way for a while now.....

whereas when watching something old and/or goofy, I can watch that shit SOBER AS FUCK.  WWE literally drives me to drink

Like, the second Hogan and Titus showed up, if I didn't have beer I would have said fuck this shit and turned it off.  With beer I just laugh at how horrible WWE is and by proxy how horrible I am for watching and condoning their shit, then I start to wonder where the afterparty is in Tampa......and before I know it Hogan is off my tv

[urbanecowboy]

I had no real excitement for anything on this show. That was a top 10 Wrestlemania show for sure. That show had no business being that great. 

[urbanecowboy]

21 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

They made all the right choices. Bobby winning popped our house, as did Cesaro and Bianca. I was making fun of Omos but the kids were marking out for the giant monster even though they loved New Day. We all took a break during the cage match, but the adults in the room popped for the end spots. 
The entire house was marking out during the main event. Loved it.

Making fun? What’s funny about him?

[joeg]

@cm funk hey, if I watched WWE regularly it would drive me to drink. Tomorrow night I may need a few. I've lost like 50 pounds as a direct result of bars being closed during the pandemic. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

4 minutes ago, urbanecowboy said:

Making fun? What’s funny about him?

I was goofing on his casual apron work. Just standing there not actually trying to get a tag. But when he tagged in and starts wrecking shit the kids went nuts. So mission accomplished.

[MoS]

This made my heart gloriously warm

[RingoPlaysDrums]

- The weather delay being announced as soon as they came back from the show opening was almost tragically poetic. For a moment it just didn't look like this was going to happen. 
- The set is incredible. Absolutely loved it, particularly after the last big one at 35 was such a huge letdown. Top tier Mania set and I love the cannon pyro.
- Hogan & Titus's introduction was both awkward and shite but I'm guessing they were dragging out what they were going to say in order to kill a bit more time and allow everyone to retake their seats. Titus looked dapper though.
- Opener was great. They worked their asses off, especially Drew. There were a couple of moments later on where they looked a bit lost and perhaps it went a bit long. McIntyre missing the claymore because MVP shouted something was dumb but all in all I think they delivered a really good bout to open the show. I popped for Lashley retaining. I thought Lashley might have been more popular with the fans. Maybe Vince will change his mind and put THB back together.
- Women's tag turmoil wasn't much. I don't think second was the best slot for this match. People were still chomping at the bit and ready for something more substantial to stick their teeth into. It took the wind out of things a bit.
- Cesaro & Rollins had a banger that could have done with more time. Memorable spot with the stomp attempt countered into the spinning uppercut as well as that mad no hands spinning move Cesaro did. Big win for Cesaro I guess.
- Omos was amazing. That was exactly what I wanted. I'm sure it was all planned and rehearsed extensively but everything he did looked great and he ooked genuinely unstoppable. I liked AJ calling for the one foot cover. Their future tag matches could follow the same template and be pretty entertaining. I don't know how long he'll stay hot as he likely becomes more and more exposed but for now it's working a treat. 
- I expected the worst from Strowman/Shane so was pleasantly surprised it wasn't completely dreadful. Strowman looked great in his entrance. Emerging from all that smoke roaring and looking absolutely jacked. I liked the spot where Braun ripped out the mesh. Big bump from Shane for the finish as you'd expect. Fine.
- Kind of thought that Bad Bunny would impress after all the talk about his training in the performance center and that's exactly what happened. This was actually a lot of fun and the finish got a big pop. His entrance was suitably grand. Big Damian Priest got to look like a big deal alongside him.
- Main event absolutely delivered. They needed to deliver a great match for this show to really be considered a success I think and they did that. This was a hell of a showcase for Belair who came out of this looking like a star. The roll through from the dive into the gorilla press walk up the steps was impressive, as was the delayed vertical suplex she did and the two 450 splash attempts. Sasha went for Belair's hair constantly throughout the match and so that brutal hair whip was a great pay off. It was such a good moment. I kind of wanted a few more minutes of this but it was still a genuine delight.
- The show exceeded my admittedly quite low expectations. Pretty much everything delivered or overdelivered. It was a lot easier to watch at around 3 hours than usual and it was just a treat to see a wrestling show in a big stadium with fans after so long. 

[El-P]

Damn, I really can't stand the vibe this company is giving me. 

Why is Vince looks like he's made of wax ?

Titus & Hogan was godawful. At least Hogan did not get shit, seems like the crowd either did not care of legit booed.

Ahh, throwing people into the WWE barricade. I do not miss that...  Lashley really doesn't have a lot of presence, but he sure is a hundred times better than ten years ago. On the other hand, the production and announcing is way distracting (and very annoying) when you're used to not-WWE-production-and-announcing. The cuts are nauseating. How can you people watch this shit every week and not get headaches ? Match meandered in the middle, but turning into a bombfest was the way to go. I mean Lashley is much better, but he doesn't strike me as a great worker either. Good match with I'd say a cool nice stretch. Nice guilt trip booking too.

Hey, Bayley, you got your Mania spot. Happy, girl ?

Bille Kay & Lana make Big Swole look like Jaguar Yoyota. WOW. JUST WOW. Nia is gonna give the TV screen a concussion just looking at it. Liv Morgan was crying on YOutube before the show, now she's crying because she has to work with Billie. This is Diva era level shit. Also, Carmella looking that good was basically a Sasha Banks magic trick I guess. Billie is hilariously terrible. And now for something totally the same, Dana Brooke. Mandy falling on her ass ! Remember when she looked like a breakout star ? Did Cole say "Sparkplug Morgan" ? She a Nascar pilot now ? She's a doing a good job nonetheless. FUCK ME !!! "There was an error !" THIS IS WCW PEOPLE !!! WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO NOW ? IMPROVISE ? Hey, Tamina, daughter of a "legend", like Cole said. Hogan, Snuka, we get some legends for sure... Seriously, I don't wanna hear anything about AEW women not looking polished or whatever the fuck. Some of these girls have years of experience and they look awful. Poor Liv & Ruby, they have to carry all this dead weight. Tamina paying hommage to her father by killing a girl. Fuck that result. Nia vs Tamina, feel the wrestlecrap coming.

Cesaro vs Rollins was terrific. Just great stuff. The verbal spot was goofy, but that's WWE style I guess. Nothing bad to say about this (damn, I realize I have more to say about bad wrestling). Oh yeah, stop bitching about stuff like the superplex/falcon arrow, which looks cool as hell and is just a spot. None of these have been finishers for 35/20 years, so a combo of two non-finishers is not gonna be one unless you make it one. Pro-wrestling is semiotics, moves are just signs. Same things for kicking out of the pedigree. People have kicked out of the pedigree 10 years ago in TNA. Really, bitching about this kind of stuff only means this : you're old and you think your youth was yesterday when it was actually 20 years ago.   Anywoo. People acting like this was a Cesaro carry job are being goofy too. Cesaro was all kind of awesome, but Rollins was also excelling (not at the same level, but still). The punt counter was wonderful, great finish, cool winner. MOTN thus far.

The New Day have been around for 20 years at this point it seems. Kofi won that world title, remember ? Yeah, doesn't matter. Wow, no idea who that tall mofo is but he sure is tall. His absolute non-urgency when AJ tried to tag him had me rollin. Performance Center training best training, or something. This match is stupid thus far with that tall goof looking like a tall goof. That Kofi splash was ace though. Hey, a non selling giant in 2021. Yawn. That shit was boring when Zeus was doing it. Gimme some falcon arrow/450/DDT combo instead. Funny how the crowd popped big when he entered the ring and now they are like "Yeah, this is actually boring" and only popped back when AJ did his big spot. Worst of 80's wrestling shit. You think this is gonna get over long term in 2021 ? I know the WWE audience is boomers, but even then, this won't fly for very long. Hell, he couldn't sustain the buzz for more than a few seconds.

STEEL CAGE WITH SHANE-O MAC !!! WHERE THE FUCK IS MY X-BOX REMOTE ????????????????????????? GOTTA HEAT UP MY BATHROOM, I'M GONNA NEED A SHOWER AGAIN, I'M GONNA FEEL SO DIRTY LOOKING AT ..... Oh fuck, Jerry Lawler, now I really need a shower, right fucking now ! At least they did not bring him for the main event. Awww here comes the money. The guy looks ready to take over the Capitol ! Omos, Strawman, big tall guys who can't work. Feel the good old WWE pattern here ? Oh yeah, some fuckery already. Shane wasn't afraid or Taker, why would he be afraid of this big tool ? Really, Mania at this point is like Shane-O Mac's OnlyFan account. But apparently no one in the crowd has subscribed.

Hey Bayley ! Shane & Braun had a match at Mania but you don't ! 

Liger not giving a flying fuck.

Drew talking about the BRITISH flag ? How dare you ? Scotland independence now !

The nWo guys really needed Bischoff to do the annoying airplane spot with them.

The rabbit army had me laugh uncontrollably. Yeah, I'm a 45 year old kid. Miz & Morrison kinda sucked though. WWE can't do funny. Just give me an army of rabbit and I'll laugh, but don't try to be actually funny, because you can't. Also, recap packages AFTER the intro is the DUMBEST idea, I have no idea why they do it, it makes no sense whatsoever. This whole feud looks legit horrible. How people have tolerated the Miz for all these years, I can't fathom. He was ok for two seconds when he had Maryse at his side and he was doing terrible Yes Kicks. So, I'm sure this is the "Celebrity X is better than 90% of the roster at pro-wrestling" moment that we get EVERY TIME on the board. Can we get Bianca vs Sasha already, this has been dragging forever since the funny bunny army and the match has not even started. And no, I don't give a flying fuck about Bad Bunny. I wouldn't care if Booba would show up at Mania. Wait, yes, of course I would. Not sure what is more offensive though, Miz' execution after 15 years or Morrison's haircut (really Johnny, WHAT THE FUCK ?). Hey, Bad Bunny is busting out some lucha libre shit, he's going into my GWE list. Fuck me, they are having an actual pro-wrestling match instead of going for the cool short celebrity match smokes and mirrors.... with the Miz trying to be Arn Anderson... vomit. This show has literally died since the awesome Cesaro win. Ok, that babyface comeback is waking everybody up. Dives ! CANADIAN DESTROYER ! Bad Bunny best rookie ever or something. It was ok and I guess pretty fun if you're into Bad Bunny and can block out Miz on offense.

"For the first time ever two black women in the main event at Wrestle Mania". They fucking did it. I died. The White Supremacist President supporter who had Hulk "I guess we're all a bit racist" Hogan on the show twice are putting themselves over in the wakes of the BLM movement demonstrations for being WOKE-AS-FUCK. Why am I not surprised ? Moral value as a capitalistic product to turn social awareness into symbolic capital into economical capital. Ah ah ah fuck you so much WWE, you're the worst, as always. We're that close to Stephy inventing female black athletes being recognized and featured at the highest level.

Anyway, great intro for both. Watching this match, it's like Bianca is a female Jeff Cobb from a few years ago. Great in spots, incredibly impressive doing incredibly impressive athletic stuff, but not so great in-between. Meanwhile, I watch Sasha and I get this old AJ Styles/Ric Flair feel of a totally elite worker leading the other one by the hand and working around the limitations and greenness. She was like SO ACE in this match. Total veteran-like work. And the match was totally designed for BeLair to come off like a star, and so she did. I'm sure Sasha was like "Don't worry girl, you'll go through this fine" in her ears at some points. But is it me or the crowd kinda went silent at some points and there was definitely piped in noise ? That braid shot at the end was awesome (the girl in green first row jumping out was pretty great). Great finish, great ending. The very first time I saw BeLair I thought she could be special so good for her, hopefully they don't screw her up now. As far as Sasha goes, well, this was one hell of an impressive job. Best of the Horsewomen, by a wide margin.

So. Basically three matches worth the watch, Drew vs Lashley was very good, Cesaro vs Rollins was great (and MOTN really, technically speaking) and Bianca vs Sasha was an excellent/great main event with an AWESOME performance (the best of the night) by Sasha. As far as women main eventing Mania, this was everything the three way was not and a total success, with the right woman winning and the right way to end the night. Considering the awfullness of the later Mania, for these three matches only and the Bad Bunny stuff if you're a fan, this was a pretty damn decent Mania night honestly. 3 hours is fine and well enough.

[Mr Wrestling X]

Talk of them returning to the one night WM "classic" format next year.

Don't see it, there's an abundance of talent and too much money to be made from having a two night spectacular. Throw the post-Mania Raw into the mix and you'll get (assuming things go back to normal in the world) a huge surge of tourist income for host cities.

[El-P]

5 hours ago, MoS said:

This made my heart gloriously warm

Yeah, that's awesome. Not sure she thinks that way, but she has to know she was at that elite level where she totally made the other girl. Of course she's probably glad for Bianca, but there has to be a feel of pride in that "Well, that's how you do a main event job, people. Yep, I killed it."

[NintendoLogic]

Doesn't Hikaru Shida use the falcon arrow as a finisher?

[El-P]

In WWE ?

....

Anyway, I remember her mostly winning matches with running knee strikes.

[cm funk]

I think this might be the end of my wrestling fandom.  it was fun to get drunk and watch, but if that's what it takes?  

we'll see where I'm at when night 3 starts

[ZThomas]

Yesterday was my first time using Peacock tv. Did anyone else have a problem with going back through the live stream 

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Sasha the GOAT.

[PhilTLL]

1 hour ago, Mr Wrestling X said:

Talk of them returning to the one night WM "classic" format next year.

Don't see it, there's an abundance of talent and too much money to be made from having a two night spectacular. Throw the post-Mania Raw into the mix and you'll get (assuming things go back to normal in the world) a huge surge of tourist income for host cities.

My hunch is if that results in thousands of empty seats in the upper deck on each night instead of one big sellout, they won't do it.

[RingoPlaysDrums]

Well they initially announced one date for next April but the ad last night apparently just said "April 2022" which has people wondering if they will in fact keep the two night format. I would prefer that myself but it seems unlikely, especially as they're running such a big stadium. Didn't they struggle to fill it for one night last time?

[PhilTLL]

If the 4/3/2022 date is correct, maybe they're reevaluating whether to put Mania on the same weekend as the Final Four. They've done it plenty of times before, but never with an extra night directly against the Saturday night games.

Hell, if they really want to impress, they can do night one at the new baseball stadium and night two at Jerryworld.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

If there was any kind of viable indy scene for them to squash these days, running two nights of NXT and two nights of Mania would do it.  Since there isn’t one, I think they’ll do it on one night unless Peacock insists.