Wrestling Discussion Thread

I heard some rumours that the tag championships bout will kick off the show. Luckily, from the projected running times of each of the matches, it seems each match will get a good chance to shine, unlike LOL18SECONDS last year.

More Sandow goodness: here

Quite looking forward to WrestleMania tonight. I've got tonight and tomorrow off of work - as do quite a few of my mates - so we'll probably cram into someone's front room with a few tins and catch it live. I think a lot of the results could go either way, but I'm intending on sticking an accumulator on with Paddy Power with wins for The Rock, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar (big heel win needed on the card, could see Shawn Michaels being involved somehow), Alberto Del Rio, Ryback, The Shield, Sandow's mob, Jericho, Hell No and The Miz.

Same actually, despite all the snark and negativity surrounding the show and the quality of the card, it's still WrestleMania, and if you can't be excited for that, then I don't know why you're a WWE fan.

I'm getting really hyped for it now, my Dad and my only mate who's really into wrestling are sitting down to watch it tonight. I'm forgetting all of the smarkiness when I sit down to watch, I know I'm going to mark out for Taker, for Rock, for Jericho, regardless of what's been said on the Internet before.

There you have it: another WrestleMania been and gone. I liked how each match was allowed time to develop, how there was no excess fat (in the way of matches between jobbers/women nobody gives a toss about) and how there was no unfunny backstage skits. There were things that I didn't think were that amazing though - but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.

What did everybody make of WrestleMania?

Thought it was alright, nothing spectacular, but it had its moments. CM Punk VS Undertaker was without doubt the best match of the night. Triple H/Brock Lesnar and John Cena/The Rock were okayish, felt the crowd was a bit burnt out by the time both these got on, but they got in to both of them eventually, but they never got as loud as they did when Punk/Taker was on.

The undercard matches were a bit meh. I honestly don't know why they don't try and make those matches feel bigger. We won't remember most of those matches by next week, don't know why WWE doesn't give some more freedom for these guys to have a match that people may remember. In a way, this is my problem with WrestleMania these days. Most of the matches last night wouldn't look out of place on a lesser PPV. It's WrestleMania! Give me something more! Anyway, was enjoyable enough overall.

I remember making the comment that if Wade Barrett Vs. The Miz was happening in my back garden, I'd close the curtains. Some of the matches they could have offered just wouldn't have stood out. With the exceptions of Rey Mysterio and possibly Antonio Cesaro, I don't think that anyone omitted from the card was really missed. I think WrestleMania was probably as good as it could have been, even if some of those undercard matches were par for the course.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing WWE move on from Rock/Cena and Triple H/Lesnar. While it's unfortunate that the crowd wasn't at it's loudest for they two matches, it has to be said that both of those feuds peaked in 2012. I'm ready for something new...though I'm not necessarily expecting it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mania, up until the final two matches. The Shield match was great, Henry/Ryback was entertaining, as was Jericho's match and the tag championship bout. I wasn't particularly enamoured with the WHC match, but that was made up in heaps by the Punk/Taker match. Edge of your seat stuff, that bout. It just goes to show what a solid build-up to a match can do for it. I reckon if the PPV had ended there, I'd be solidly satisfied and be singing Mania's praises.

Brock/HHH was good, but as others have said, the crowd weren't really into it until the end. I thought it was good though, just tough to follow that Punk/Taker match. Rock/Cena, I really didn't like it. The crowd were so out of it, and the ending to the match was shite. There was no hype like the Punk/Taker match or no intensity like the HHH/Brock match. It was just a dull match.

It felt like the crowd were just waiting for finisher sequences. I honestly think that this helped shape the finisher-heavy main event on the fly. That or the fact that John Cena genuinely has that few moves.

Phillips wrote:

I'm ready for something new...though I'm not necessarily expecting it.

Well it's the day after WrestleMania, and change normally happens now. It's the day where WWE start over, and start trying and doing new things. You could be surprised.

The amount of Rock Bottom attempts and counters was a bit much. Although I seem to remember the Rock/Austin match at WrestleMania 19 was similar, I'd need to rewatch that to confirm though.

Phillips wrote:

That or the fact that John Cena genuinely has that few moves.

I think the Punk/Cena match a month or so ago really showed that Cena can put on a great match with a somewhat varied moveset. The match with the Rock took that away though. That AA/Rock Bottom sequence before Rock DDT'd Cena took the piss.

I'm excited for Raw tonight though. The post-Mania Raw crowds are always great, and I'm expecting Cena to get a hell of a lot of boos.

Interested to see how things line-up for Extreme Rules now. Has been rumoured that CM Punk is taking time off, he worked through injury last night, and was supposed to be pretty banged up afterwards. Also rumoured that both Brock Lesnar and The Rock will be working that PPV, Rock and Cena VS The Shield maybe?

I'm hoping for some new faces - I remember that they freshened things up last year with the debuts of Ryback, Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow, Tensai and no doubt a few others. Something on that scale - with sustained pushes to the top, if the ability level merits it - would suit me fine and dandy.

Maybe it's time to pull the trigger on Dolph Ziggler's Money In The Bank.

Apparently Punk's just not working house shows for a while, but will still appear on Raw. I'd rather see him take some time off and get back to health, the man's put in a lot of good work for WWE over the past two years, he deserves it.

I'd hate if that's how The Shield go down. I think it should be Ryback's job to stop them, he's been damaged the most by them.

As Phillips said, it'll be interesting to see who gets called up from NXT as well. My money's on Paige to freshen up the Diva's division and Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero) to freshen up the midcard scene. Christian's due to come back soon as well. They've got Sami Zayn (El Generico) to bring back some high flying prowess, and I'm fairly certain Bray Wyatt (formerly known as Husky Harris) will be getting called up too.

Aye, mania was fun stuff oh I saw a tweet from someone who was there saying "disappointing" which I find quite unbelievable its people like this that only seem concerned with how a PPV finishes rather than following the story that's being told.

@Jay
Those would also be my top choices for the next group to step up as well.

Word going around at the minute is that The Rock has left the arena where Raw is tonight. It's unknown whether he's been given permission to leave, or has walked out, but he was scheduled to be involved in a big angle tonight (apparently to set-up *sigh* a WrestleMania 30 match with Brock Lesnar). Raw is apparently being rewritten as we speak.


Saddest sight I saw this weekend was this picture of Bobby The Brain Heenan taken of him at the Wrestlecon event. So sad how bad he looks, he was said to be in good spirits though.

I've been reading that too. For all his talk of his love of the business, if that's true, then that's a real dick move on Rocky's part. I figured Rock vs Brock would be coming up anyway - Rock's going to be a part of Wrestlemania XXX in some degree, and I don't want him against Taker. Rock and Brock could put on a decentish match.

How about that Raw crowd eh? As I said on twitter they should ship that crowd in every week.

Da da da dada da da da dada [fandangos theme]

I adored that episode of Raw. I was marking out a lot, laughing a lot - I was fully entertained. It felt like a completely fresh WWE, I can only hope this continues moving onwards.

Brilliant! I love that it completely threw off the commentary team as well & just essentially turned them into a part of the crowd.

It was refreshing to see a crowd having fun at a WWE event.

Fandango's theme is just outside the top 10 UK iTunes chart.

And just outside the top 50 on the official charts.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xywjoo_wwe-wrestlemania-30-the-undertaker-vs-fandango_fun