by Mic » Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:57 pm
My Wrestlemania thoughts:
-Am currently watching the tremendous NXT Takeover show. These are becoming more of a highlight than the WWE PPVs.
-Bret getting attacked at the Hall of Fame ceremony was horrible. With his health issues that could have gone a lot worse. Poor Bret just can't catch a break
-The Mania stage, which is usually a highlight, was really bland. After getting the same set-up for Raw, Smackdown and almost every PPV, the best they could come up with was a huge screen?
-Hogan made fun of himself for saying the wrong stadium name in his Mania 30 promo. He actually got it a bit wrong this year, saying Metlife Centre instead of Stadium.
-Heyman coming out and getting the title match happening straight away was good, making an interesting way to start the show. With the weak build up, it kind of made sense to run it early in the show. I don't think Rollins winning with a low-blow did him any favours though (although it did set up an eventual rematch).
-AJ vs Orton was fine. The huge pop from the crowd was apparently from the production crew turning off the blinding lights that made it impossible to look at the ring for many fans.
-For a 4-way tag, the tag-title match was good. 14 months ago Nakamura won the Rumble! Ricochet was a stand out, as he normally is.
-Miz vs Shane was done well (I don't recall that type of match with it going into the crowd happening at many Wrestlemanias). That is until the ending; it made no sense that Miz would do a suplex from that height (and the fall looked very weak on a heavily padded surface when the replay was shown).
-The women's tag match was a mess, and on a ridiculously long show it could have been left off. The Aussie girls, who did almost nothing all match, winning the titles made little sense. It sounds like Sasha Banks agrees.
-Kofi vs Bryan was easily match of the night. It didn't seem like this feud was a long-term plan at the start of the year, especially with the way it was booked in the weeks prior with Vince setting up a gauntlet match, and then another one the following week for no reason, was stupid. But despite WWE's efforts to stuff it up, the story told went down a treat. Daniel Bryan was definitely the MVP of the show. He should get some good heat if/when he wins the title back.
-I liked the way Samoa Joe was booked to look like a bad-ass. but a shame it had to be against Rey Mysterio, who deserves better than a 1-minute squash.
-Reigns vs McIntyre was ok. I thought Reigns coming back would have been a good time to freshen up his look, change his entrance song, introduce some new move-sets etc, but no, still the same thing after quite a few years. He'll be back to being heavily pushed (and "boo"ed by crowds) in no time.
-The build-up to HHH vs Batista made no sense, with Batista attacking Flair (who he has always talked up/respected) just to get a match with HHH (who he beat every time he faced during their feud a whopping 14 years ago). No surprise it was again HHH's match that was the longest on the show, and like his recent singles Wrestlemania matches it was boring and twice as long as it needed to be. A shame he didn't lose and have to retire (not that anyone thought he would) and just stick to booking great NXT shows.
-I was convinced Undertaker would 'walk with Elias' on the show - a huge shock that he didn't appear. Old-school Cena was a pleasant surprise, was great to see him come out not being all smiley and goofy.
-I hated everything about Kurt's retirement match against f'n Brian Corbin.
-Demon Balor winning the IC title was fine, but WWE don't seem to know what they want to do with Finn. He was far better as a heel in Japan - might be time to give that a go.
-The build-up to the main event was a couple months of mess, but the girls definitely should still have been the main event. Their entrances were cool. Being a 3-way was going to make it difficult to have a classic, as was the tired crowd (apparently it was after midnight when the match started!). Becky didn't really shine in the match like she should have, and the horribly booked & executed ending ruined it a fair bit, but it was certainly not from a lack of effort. A Rousey vs Lynch match would be huge and could headline next year's show (especially considering that there are not many men's match-ups that could at this stage).
-7/10 overall for me for this year's show. It kept me awake on what was a very late night watching it all after work.