Has there been any other WrestleMania that has had the opportunity to be such a disaster? Sure others such as IX and XI, weren't great, but they knew where they were headed going into the show. This year you just get the feeling they have no clue. I've been a fan for over 30 years and for the first time ever, I have not one bit of interest in the show.
Hey, look, I've got no problem with the story being told or whatever. I don't mind if the promotion picks a guy and says "Here's the guy, we're gonna push the shit out of him" as long as they can justify it with crowd reactions or numbers or SOMETHING. I'm a wrestling fan, I know the deal. That being said, Reigns has nothing. He doesn't draw ratings, move house show numbers, sell merchandise, cut promos, or get great crowd reactions. He's a guy that some people like, and some don't, and most don't really care about.
As to the content of the e-mail, Wrestlemania 25 was really a show saved by the Undertaker-Shawn match because the rest was horseshit. Edge/Cena/Show was nothing, HHH-Orton was a disaster that lost interest every week leading up to it, Jericho v. the old-timers was a total eye-rolling deal...it was just such a lackluster show for something that was supposed to be the 25th anniversary. And I really wasn't feeling the UT-Shawn match, but it turned out so awesome that of course it's all that anyone remembers about it now.
Imagine if they have the balls to end Wrestlemania with a cheap cash-in finish that would probably end up getting a pop from the jaded crowd.
ReplyDeleteIf Rollins cashed in on Reigns the pop would be like the one when Ziggler cashed in on Del Rio.
ReplyDeleteI vehemently disagree with Scott about 25.
ReplyDeleteTriple H/Orton was a hit ass feud. They made some missteps in the booking over the final month but it had way more heat as a main event coming in than this year.
Undertaker/Shawn had a lot of excitement surrounding it.
I thought the Jericho/Legends deal was well done in the build up.
HardyVSHardy was an intriguing match. MITB is always exciting.
The Triple Threat's build was absolute shit though.
As for 31, I don't think the crowd will revolt as much as was expected to be honest. There'll be boos for sure but I don't think it'll be near as overwhelming as the past two Rumbles.
I don't think anything will top Wrestlemania 27 as being the worst ever. HHH-Taker, a bunch of ehhhh and a main event that served as an advertisement for Wrestlemania 28.
ReplyDeleteSo true on WM 25. That show sucked so hard but was saved by one of the best matches ever. It is funny to watch Orton and Hunter do a boring match as people walk out midway though.
ReplyDeleteThe stadium WMs since then have been slogs to sit through. The only good one since was thanks to about an hour of Daniel Bryan.
I agree, one of the things is that the crowd is so large and in an open air stadium that kind of revolt will be rather muted.
ReplyDeleteThey would turn Rollins into a mega-star. So they wont do it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, since Bryan is not an option, Rollins losing to Orton and then cashing in would be the best realistic scenario. Fresh new champ who people respond to with 2 feuds. You could get a summer out of Rollins/Reigns and Rollins/Orton
Hunter Orton had NO heat.
ReplyDeleteI agree WM 27 was crap but people were so jacked about The Rock returning that it did an insane buyrate and people were pumped for it.
ReplyDeleteAnd WM 28 was an even bigger draw. So it worked even if I never, ever want to watch WM 27 ever again.
18 was so bad. Jericho cleaning up dog shot. Rock almost killed in the car. No matches had a ton of heat and many of them seemed to thrown together in the last 2 weeks.
ReplyDelete26 was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, with hindsight, I find it repulsive for anyone to think Mania 20 was any good
ReplyDeleteI think Mania 20 was really good.
ReplyDeleteYea true. That one showed more that a 4 hour wrestling show is really hard to put on. At 3 hours, that show would've been awesome. As it was...first part was tough to sit thru to get to the awesome stuff.
ReplyDeleteOh stop it.
ReplyDeleteRock Hogan had no heat?!?
ReplyDeleteI've been assuming that Reigns wins the title and then immediately loses it to Rollins to they can reset with Reigns and try to rehabilitate him. Besides, it seems like "face who was screwed out of title and now is chasing" is the only thing they know anymore.
ReplyDeleteAs far as crowd reaction, I think Brock will massively, massively be the fan favorite.
Of course, Wrestlemania 30 had the OPPORTUNITY to be a gynormous disaster, if they had not changed course at the 11th hour.
ReplyDeleteStill one of the top five Wrestlemania main events of all time.
ReplyDeleteThe heel had all the heat. The face got none. I was surprised that it wasn't austin-hogan and Nash-rock
ReplyDeleteTo everyone that still can't watch a Benoit match because of what he would go on to do, the Benoit of the time of the match did nothing of the sort.
ReplyDeleteI'm 1 Raw behind, but I'm ok with Reigns just cause it's somebody new, and they desperately need another "made" guy. Plus I was a huge mark for him when he was with The Shield so I see a potential star inside him.
ReplyDeleteI can't argue Bryan getting back the title he never lost and slaying the Beast is the better option, but I'm not as down on Reigns as some. Plus the rub of beating the guy who beat the Undertaker should go to a younger guy.
And this letter writer is a prisoner of the moment. WM29 was worse. At least with Reigns they're trying something. 29 was tired and uninspired.
Rollins cashing in on Reigns at the end of Wrestlemania would absolutely bring the house down. The less popular Reigns is the closer we get to Wrestlemania the better a chance this has of happening.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, on topic I think the thought of this being a "disaster" are way out of proportion. This is going to be an event of ** - ***.5 matches all the way through. It will be competently worked but utterly forgettable. I don't think that's a disaster, I think that's just representative of what WWE is in 2015.
If Nash was in any condition to work it probably would have been those pairings. As it was, WWE was completely right to not book him, he basically got hurt every time he exerted himself during that angle.
ReplyDeleteFor a WM main event, a ** match is basically a disaster.
ReplyDeleteBut too long
ReplyDelete27 and 29 are my least favorites.
ReplyDeleteBrock/Roman will at least be better than Miz/Cena even if they have to go the full Hogan/Warrior route and have the entire match laid out step by step and memorized (which they should do just based on principle).
ReplyDeleteHow many matches did that show have, 12, 14?
ReplyDeleteUm..... 14?
ReplyDeleteYeah, too many matches, too long of a show.
ReplyDeleteI doubt WWE/more specifically Brock will go the extra mile in trying to get a great match out of Roman. Plus Cena/Miz was about a ** match from what I remember.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that they're barely even trying. What did Reigns do in the time between his return and winning the Rumble? Nothing. He couldn't even beat Big Show. He won the Rumble in one of the least spectacular victory performances ever. Since then he's been regularly bested by Big Show & Kane. Beating Bryan was the first credible thing he's done, but instead of it being the start of his journey, WWE acts like it's elevated him to legend status. And those promos of his...
ReplyDeleteCut out both tag team title matches and the cruiserweight open, and the show is much better
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty sad that Hogan became the best worker of the three during this period.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the amount of matches, it was the amount of filler/angles between the matches that made the show incredibly long.
ReplyDeleteYou know what was wrong with 25? It wasn't the fucking 25th anniversary!!! Are you born one year old?!
ReplyDeleteYeah, plenty of other WrestleManias were much bigger potential disasters. It's just that since this is the one currently about to happen, it's automatically the Worst Thing Ever. We'll probably be saying the same thing about next year's event whatever the card is.
ReplyDeletegoing into WM9 the company fully expected it to be spectacular
ReplyDeleteand WM12 was built up at something epic to
We are all watching a TV show booked by the whims of a 69-year-old's boner.
ReplyDeleteforgot Edge/Booker T fighting over a nameless shampoo commercial that never happened
ReplyDeletethe match had heat, the build up was awful... the car crash that was never mentioned again
ReplyDeleteRock/Hogan rules. Fuck the lead-up. I didn't watch a single wrestling show for like a year and a half prior to WM18. But I was tuned in with bells on for that match. And loved every minute of it. Same with Shawn/UT at WM25. I don't know how the match was conceived or anything that led up to it....and I didn't need to. The names on the marquee for those two matches sold them (not the case here with Brock and Reigns) and both matches delivered (which I dint think will happen here).
ReplyDeleteI can see why people don't care to watch his matches. It's a personal decision. Personally i agree with you. I'm more bothered by the fact that the crossface is still used. Cena used it on Sunday. It wasn't an stf the second time. Even Cole called it that. Pretty uncomfortable watching knowing that's how beniot killed his son.
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to defend WM25 a bit. There was a lot of crap there, but UT-Shawn was awesome (duh), the MITB and Matt-Jeff matches were both in the ***1/2-ish range, and Steamboat coming back looking like a man 20 years younger was WAY cool. It wasn't a GREAT show, but it was no disaster.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that they're not trying; it's that they're failing miserably. Instead of making Reigns a non-talkative monster, they give him awful lines to go out and deliver poorly in overly long promos, and book him in matches longer than he can handle, which makes him look average. And then in his big Rumble win he basically sits around and does nothing, even in the sequence in which he eliminates Big Show and Kane. They just make him look bad in every conceivable way, including forcing him down everyone's throat when the crowd obviously still wants to see someone else get a chance at a run on top.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this. I don't think Brock gives a single shit about saving anything, and the crowd will be primed to shit on the match at the earliest opportunity, especially if Bryan steals the show in the undercard.
ReplyDeleteDepends on which match it is. WM always has one or two clunkers.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how WWE went the extra mile to make sure Bryan wouldn't upstage anybody at the Rumble (by having him be eliminated earliy), I'm pretty sure WWE will make sure Bryan doesn't steal the show at WM. They'll either give him little time to work a match or they'll purposely give him a bad agent to lay out the match for him.
ReplyDeleteI'll not count the early WM's because workrate wasn't important back then.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with MitB matches is that while they're great, it's very hard to remember which match is which and which wrestler won the match.
ReplyDeleteSome would say it's still not, but at any rate, are we talking main events only or all matches? Because he was speaking about the entire card and every single WM has had a clunker or two on it. You need them. You can't keep a crowd at fever pitch all night.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. This is really bad.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest shower of the year is utterly forgettable and that's NOT a disaster?
ReplyDeleteWhat's cool about making it a PPV was that it's a guaranteed good show for the most part. MiTB 11 was an all time great show. The others including last years were entertaining as well.
ReplyDeleteOh no, I was just referring to the main events, I know all shows need filler matches, but If your biggest show ends the night with a ** match then it'll most likey get shit on/not being remembered.
ReplyDeleteYou can stop watching after Eddy's match and it's still a great show.
ReplyDeleteYep, that drove (and still drives) me crazy when they kept repeating that falsehood.
ReplyDeleteThis year we'll get half as many matches and twice as much filler.
ReplyDeleteIt's the culture of this blog. And the internet in general. Negativity turned up to eleven. The hyperbolic baby boy society that carries on endlessly regurgitating the same pissing & moaning, "Oh noes right now is the worstest time ever" with a complete lack of self-awareness. No introspection, just zilches blaming the wrestling show for ruining their (lack of a) life.
ReplyDeleteI tend to say out of the daily mass threads...has Meltzer's piece about Bryan and Reigns in the latest WO been discussed? I think it's one of the best things Dave has ever written. Maybe THE best non-obit.
ReplyDeleteI often think about what would've happened if The Undertaker ended The Streak, and then they put up on Orton vs. Batista. They're very lucky to dodge that scene.
ReplyDeleteI am so ready for the Reigns experiment to fail. It's going to be a laugh riot.
ReplyDeleteYeah, in a bubble WM 25 has some good stuff, I think. I liked this version of the Hardyzzzz feud more than the '01 version - lots of decent little matches. Plus we got a good showing of Steamboat on a few occasions out of the angle with Jericho.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's sad and damning all at once.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget: Undertaker sacrificed two decades of mythology in order to build Brock up, just so he could lose to Reigns.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same company that booked him to lose in 8 seconds on the first match of the show. I'd argue the booking of that match four years ago was due to the rise in his popularity. And it's backfired on them ever since. They've gone out of their way for years to make him look weak. He had two great months last year, otherwise he's jobbed to the authority both on and off screen.
ReplyDeleteI was at both shows, and I can easily say that I remember all of MITB '11 (best show I've been to), and the only thing I remember from Wrestlemania 25 is that I saw the best match of all time.
ReplyDeleteNailed it. That's the most frustrating part of this whole thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's a yearly tradition that people write to Scott freaking out about the Mania build.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. People freaked out about Wrestlemania 29 too.
ReplyDeleteIn that new "30 years of Mania" book, Orton and HHH openly say they knew they were doomed having to follow Taker/HBK, no way they could come close to wowing a crowd after that.
ReplyDeleteHe would had looked stronger last year after his rumble showing than he has this year. It's been said a million times on here, bother Rollins and Ambrose have looked better since the break up. And Ambrose never wins.
ReplyDeleteYou wonder what would've happened if The Undertaker defeated himself?
ReplyDeletePunk v. Orton was awesome
ReplyDeleteTo say HHH v. Orton was a disaster is just not true and pure revisionist history because of the match sucking.
ReplyDeleteWhile some of it was eye-rolling (The HHH home invasion) there were a lot of strong moments, including the segment where Orton laid out Stephanie and the crowd freaking out over the McMahons returning
The real disaster was the match not have anything to do with the build.
Exactly.And every year the predicted (or hoped for, in some cases) disaster fails to materialize. OK, some of the last few Wrestlemania' s have been lackluster,but none have been disastrous and some have been very good indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe match needed to be a crazy AE style brawl.
ReplyDeleteYou want to talk disastrous look at Wrestlemania 2. Luckily 3 more than made up for it.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree about the internet being a hive of negativity and hyperbole in general, I think it's a bit harsh to single out this blog. People here are happy to fall over themselves praising something if it's good (NXT, WK9, Lucha Underground) but will absolutely complain about stuff that sucks. The WWE sucks right now. It is absolutely deplorable, in fact, so of course people are going to tear it to shreds and bitch about the ways it could be made better. Especially when many of the things that could improve the show are being done by the same company on NXT.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many people here actually blame Raw for making their lives any worse. I'd think it was generally accepted that people come here to discuss wrestling because there are few people in the real world and few places with relatively sane people online with whom wrestling can be discussed. I'd assume most of us post here about wrestling and then go on about our normal, non-wrestling activities. Like comic books, videogames and masturbation.
Rock vs. Cena ll crushes Brock vs. Reigns, Punk vs. Undertaker crushes Bray vs. Undertaker, and Brock vs. HHH crushes HHH vs. Sting.
ReplyDeleteIt's really not even close.
Pointed out before but telling that in that "30 Years of WrestleMania" book, Orton and HHH both openly say they knew they were done for after HBK/Taker, no way they could get the crowd over after that and that a decent build never paid off like they wanted to.
ReplyDeleteAlso good how HHH openly acknowledges the whole DQ stip was a terrible idea that kept the match from being the wild brawl it should have been.
Maybe we're all crazy for expecting anything different. Sheamus beats Cena for his first title way too soon, Miz was given a long run way too soon, and Roman is next in line. It's almost like they purposely push their own guy to prove us wrong.
ReplyDeleteThey're running out of costs to cut to hide the money they're no longer making. Heaven forbid they shut down Total Divas!!!
The network is awesome for us, but they've already stopped producing any original content shows. WWE24 has had one episode. Rivalries? Mania Rewind? I want them to succeed as much as anyone, but the only thing that seems to be thriving anymore is NXT. This is all about making money right?
WM 25 is still the only Mania I've never watched. If not for the network, this would be the second.
ReplyDeleteYea and people acted like Wrestlemania 29 was going to be a dark day in the company and the fans would shit all over Cena winning.
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather HHH v. Sting than Brock v. HHH for the record.
The roster quality alone should ensure this show doesn't get WM 9 or 11 bad but the roster quality is also the reason the show shouldn't be this pathetic building up to it. It's gonna be interesting to see how it ranks among the bad Wrestlemanias.
ReplyDeleteI was at 29. It was awful.
ReplyDeleteI was at 29 too. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteDifference is we knew what we were getting at 29. Cena-Rock and HHH-Lesnar had already happened so as long as the wrestlers stuck to their respective formulas the rematches weren't going to suck, and even if Taker had lost a step Punk was guaranteed to bring his A game.
ReplyDeleteThis year, we have no idea if Sting can be carried to anything worthwhile, or if HHH is able to do it. We don't know what sort of shape Taker is in(and he looked old enough last year) or whether people will still give a shit now that the streaks not on the line. And no idea what Lesnar-Reigns might be like, even hypothetically. Artistically speaking, they're really rolling the dice this time.
WWE have a roster full of talented guys, the problem is that no-one's over.
ReplyDeleteOnly because Brock vs. HHH was totally played out by the time we got to Wrestlemania (just like 25 with Orton). Cena putting over The Rock was a given, but at least we knew they'd have a great match. Who knows what we'll get with Reigns and Lesnar....
ReplyDeleteTrue. 2 is almost completely forgotten these days.
ReplyDeleteYeah but they really fucked him over during his push. All they had to do is continue the character he was in the Shield. Have him run through motherfuckers. Keep him mostly silent aside from a cool catchphrase now and then. Just kick fuckin ass and be charismatic.
ReplyDeleteI agree just saying it's not as bad as 9 or 11 where there was barely any talent at all on top of nobody being over.
ReplyDeleteWhich wouldn't be as bad if Reigns was given an actual push and many victories and accolades leading up to this.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna disagree a little bit here, to me, the problem is not necessarily him talking, but his lines ABSOLUTELY SUCK a lot of the time. Yes he can be pretty inconsistent on the mic, but the guy does have charisma, and can occasionally cut a good promo. I think they're so desperate to create another Cena/Rock but they dont' exist right now.
ReplyDeleteI don't fault Reigns at all; he's doing what he can. The problem of course is he's not ready to do what Vince wants. Vince's proclivities got in the way of good sense.
ReplyDeleteThe scripted nature doesn't allow new Rocks to show up. Even a guy with Bret's mic skills would be tough enough to find.
ReplyDeleteWWE brought it on themselves at 25 by calling it the "25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania" when it was really the 24th.
ReplyDeleteYeah last years show was thought to be a disaster going in. And the previous year's. And the year before that. Shit, every one since the advent of the web has seemingly been worse every year. Crazy how it works.
ReplyDeleteTypo, I fixed it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think the only real shitty ones of the last decade were 25 and 27. And even still both of those had MOTYC on them.
ReplyDeletePlus, you kicked all kinds of ass in the MITB Ladder Match! :P
ReplyDeleteSorry man. Probably not happening. Trust me, I want him to have a showcase, but it's likely that they're going to undermine him at all turns moving forward.
ReplyDeleteYeah you're probably right. We're probably just being knee jerk about the whole situation. Maybe its just our way of adding drama to the show.
ReplyDeleteI think it'll be a boring show that should've been great and I think that's what's pissing people off the most.
ReplyDeleteAbout 3 weeks in I started digging the HBK/Undertake build.
ReplyDeleteAlso Edge and Cena were doing EVERYTHING in their power to get a revisited angle over. And I was digging it, up until they added Big Show to the mix.
The biggest star that WWE has destroyed is the WWE Championship.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, they had two world champions that people cared about.
Now they have zero.
They have a champion that's so invisible that, in the final RAWs leading up to Wrestlemania, people aren't even aware that he's gone.
Yeah but now the WWE Championship can't leave them and become a star on its own.
ReplyDeleteBy the time HHH/Bryan and the triple-threat were added, I was pretty sure that show was going to be sweet.
ReplyDeleteThe buildup to the Hardys' match was great and the match was pretty good, too. Other than that and Taker-Shawn I didn't care about the other stuff, though.
ReplyDeleteBy what definition was Rock-Cena II a "great match", just out of curiosity?
ReplyDeleteIf you make someone look bad by requiring them to do their basic job (wrestle matches and cut promos), that's not a good sign for that guy.
ReplyDeletethe battle royal was fun, and both the tag title and Tito/JYD vs Funks matches were good...
ReplyDeleteNo, I know exactly what you mean. I hear the same thing every year, so this is not news to me.
ReplyDeleteI need to locate it, that's for sure. It sounds amazing.
ReplyDeleteI think aside from a brief period in Razor's WWF run, Hogan has actually *always* been the best worker of the three. Scary, I know.
ReplyDeleteSo, you thinking we're going to get some NXT promotions the Raw after?
ReplyDeleteYeah, but the basic dynamic was all wrong, too, with Orton winning the Rumble as a heel and going in as challenger only to lose at his hottest moment...it was all very weird. Should have been HHH coming in as challenger to avenge his family and win the title if that was the story they were going to tell. And then they put the belt on Orton in that meaningless six-man the next month anyway. I never got that.
ReplyDeleteNobody thought last year was going to be a disaster. And nobody thought WrestleMania 28-29 were going to be disasters.
ReplyDeleteNo, you don't. You hear it at all.
ReplyDeleteThey're going to take that huge roster of talent and put them all in one Battle Royal.
ReplyDeleteIdea for the blog: Let's stop making shit up about what people said going into previous Manias. Just because someone may have said something doesn't mean "people" were saying anything. This is the Fox News equivalent of saying "some people say Barack Obama is Muslim." Just because some people are ignorant doesn't mean it applies to the community here across the board. Shove your broad brush up your ass.
ReplyDeleteYou're wrecking his gimmick with your facts.
ReplyDeleteI may be alone, but I thought his promo last/this week was really good. Confident, matter-of-fact, and not cutesy at all. I totally buy his "I've never fought anyone like Brock, but Brock's never fought anyone like me" view. He did the same thing during the snowed-out "Raw" a few weeks ago, and I thought that was really good, as well.
ReplyDeleteJust let the guy do his thing, Vince, he has it under control.
Rock-Cena I was overlong, Rock-Cena II cut out the fat and had a brisker pace. Dosen't make it a great match (and I never made that claim) but it's better than its predecessor.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, at the time, I can't really think why "Hulk makes a shocking return to save the day" WOULDN'T be huge. I have to imagine that it not only was looked at as a huge mark-out moment, but also a chance to open some interesting new dooors (Hogan/Narcissist at "Summerslam", or Hogan/Bret the following year, for instance). Hindsight is 20:20 and all, but seemed to make sense at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd"WM12" was basically marketed as the greatest technical/aerial wrestling match of all l time.
I dug the first Rock vs. Cena just like you, Scott. ****1/2 in my book as well.
ReplyDeleteBecause of that, I assumed Rock vs. Cena II would be great as well.
To be fair, everyone pegged last year as a disaster when Batista returned and won the "Rumble". It wasn't until the "winner moves on to the main event" stip was added to Trips/Bryan that people began to feel differently.
ReplyDeleteAnd 29 was referred to as "Rematch-Mania" for a reason; not necessarily a disaster, but definitely bland in terms of being able to do something different and exciting instead (Rock/Punk, Rock/Cena/Punk, Punk's 500-day reign against The Streak, Brock against someone else, etc.).
I thought it was fairly obvious that they were going all-in on Bryan beginning in February. I know people thought WWE was going to pull a bait-and-switch, but they were putting a lot of effort into the storyline and there was no way they would job him out to Triple H in the opener.
ReplyDeleteI recall people complaining about the build to WM29 sucking, but yeah, definitely not a disaster.
WM20 is ruined by hindsight. Prior to June 2007, it's a top-five Wrestlemania --- even with all of the filler, it still had Eddie/Angle, Jericho/Christian, Evolution/Rock N' Sock, a couple of not-great matches but feel-good big moments in Cena's US title victory and Undertaker's return, plus the epic triple threat main event and what was (at the time) a classic storybook ending. With that ending completely tainted, however, the bad really does outweigh the good.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure WWE has any good agents anymore. Isn't Jamie Noble the one booking the Rumbles? He seems to be doing terrible work. (Mercury may be exempt if he was the one booking and laying out those awesome Shield matches for two years.)
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is what Brock was upset about --- he refused to do any extra 'training/layout' sessions with Reigns prior to Wrestlemania and Vince held him off RAW out of spite.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that Taker has offered to lose the Streak several times over the years, so I don't think he cares about it nearly as much as the fans do.
ReplyDeleteWM17's build was pretty weak. It's remembered as stronger than it was solely due to the "My Way" video for Austin/Rock, and particularly the focus on Austin's "I need this more than you know" quote, as the idea of a desperate Stone Cold hadn't at ALL been the focus of the preceding several weeks. Time was wasted on, of all things, which corner Debra would be in for the match. Anyway, WM17 turned out to be probably the best Mania ever.
ReplyDeleteWM19's build was pretty weak, yet it turned into a pretty awesome show that's a top five or six Mania in my books.
WM21 has an incredible build but is only remembered (perhaps unfairly) as an okay Mania since Cena/JBL and HHH/Batista were only C- matches instead of classics.
WM22's build was pretty weak and confused, yet it ended up being a pretty good show.
WM25's build was pretty solid but it resulted in a below-average show.
WM26's build was awesome but since the show was only 'pretty good,' WM26 gets kind of a bad rap for not living up to the massive hype.
WM29's build wasn't anything special and the show was pretty mediocre.
WM30's build was very haphazard but the result was one of the best Manias ever.
27 was just as uninspiring. Lots of random cobbled together matches and a title credibility killing angle in Rock/Cena/Miz
ReplyDeleteUh...OK byd
ReplyDeleteThat's some revisionist history we got going on
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think it was HOW he pushed them BUT the big mistake was to bring Bryan back before Wrestlemania. Who had thought that he ever would come back? Had they waited until the RAW after Wrestlemania... this whole Reigns thing would have been much different.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely true, but I doubt this will be a ** affair and I also kinda doubt it's gonna close the show.
ReplyDeleteWrestlemanias 21-29 just blur into one for me. Mainly due to my up and down fandom during the period. If you said "Wrestlemania 26" I'd have to count back on my fingers and think of the Royal Rumble that year just to remember one or two matches.
ReplyDeleteYep. Steamboat somehow managed to pull a good match out of Hercules as well, and the main event was pretty fun at the time.
ReplyDeleteWatching Hogan vs McMahon. Even this has more heat than anything you'll see at Wrestlemania 31.
ReplyDeleteWrestlemania 25 has Taker/Michaels.
ReplyDeleteWrestlemania 26 has Taker/Michaels.
That's all I got off the top of my head.
Totally agree about X-7. They pulled it out of the bag with that "My Way" video. It still gives me goosebumps to watch it now.
ReplyDeleteHas there ever been such an amazingly hammy and daft moment that was so AWESOME as Linda getting out of her chair at X-7? The crowd went NUTS. For Linda McMahon. Getting out of a chair!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth taking off her skirt to distract The MegaBucks?
ReplyDeleteSummerslam 99 WWF Title Build:
ReplyDeleteNumber One Contender Match: Triple H vs Undertaker vs Chyna: Won by Chyna
Number One Contender Match: Chyna vs Triple H: Won by Chyna
Number One Contender Match: Chyna vs Mankind: Won by Mankind
Undisputed Number One Contender Match: Triple H vs Mankind: Double Pin
Leading to Austin defending against Triple H and Mankind.
Still had more heat than Lesnar/Reigns.
Somehow I liked Chyna enough to buy her as a legit threat. As I said before, my dad and I really liked her back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI stopped caring after Wrestlemania 26 - and never seen the last four.
ReplyDeleteI remember the build up of 15 at least had the remote possibly of being Foley vs. Sustin.
Which is why they book
ReplyDeleteHogan/Cena as the main event right now.
You guys all need to stop whining with your "we want the guy we like in the main event" and "If we can't have the guy we want we want the title run "built well" and to "make sense"
ReplyDeleteI don't hate WM9. Do I lose street cred by saying that?
ReplyDeleteNo, if the reason you like it is because of heenan backwards on the camel
ReplyDeleteSo many people come out now and say "Am I the only who loves Mania 9?" that I think it may actually be a majority.
ReplyDeleteWrestlemania 21 has Batista winning the title - and Cena underwhelmingly defeating JBL and Hogan shows up.
ReplyDeleteWrestlemania 22 has ... I'm not sure if this was the infamous Cena vs. Triple H match or not? Or if this was the Triple threat version.
Wrestlemania 23 ... Mickey James as a lesbian stalker - getting a babyface reaction in Chicago. Oh and they try to build Kalhi vs. Kane as a match equal to Higan vs. Andre.
Wrestlemania 24 ... I'm sorry, I love you - POW!!!!
Wrestlemania 25 ... Taker vs. Shawn
Wrestlemania 26 ... Taker vs. Shawn II
Wrestlemania 27 ... Taker vs. triple H and Miz wins a main event.
Wrestlemania 28 ... The rematch and Cena/Rock
Wrestlemania 29 ... Cema/Rovk II
Wrestlemania 30 ... Hogan returns to the silverdome, brother... Uh ....
That's one reason.
ReplyDeleteI like the setting. Very unique. There are some decent enough matches (although a few bad finishes) and I like the atmosphere. Aside from Taker/Gonzalez I'm never bored watching it
Exactly. The card was actually pretty good: Tatanka vs HBK, Steiners vs Head Shrinkers, Doink vs Crush, Money Inc vs Mega Maniacs, Luger vs Perfect, Bret vs Yoko. Only the Razor / Backlund squash and Taker vs Giant Gonzales wasn't so good on the paper.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you didn't stop caring after Wrestlemania 25. The Lightness lost to the Dark!
ReplyDelete2 has Jesse Ventura doing play by plsy and Hogan vs. Bundy - shad up
ReplyDeleteActually I think taker forgot to kick out due to the concussion.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's the reality era and this means, that kayfabe is over and we can't say: "Well, if Reigns wins the Rumble he must be better than Bryan. ;-)" but we know that Bryan is better, so we want to have him in the WM main event.
ReplyDeleteThey could save it only, IF they incorporate the reality with kayfabe. If Reigns admits, that the fans want Bryan and not him, they have to shift the heat away from him to somebody else and not let him go clean over Bryan, which means nothing today.
A lot of kids I've talked to love Roman Regins. I think the Roman Regins hate is simply the new Hogan hate. When in reality Hogsn has always been as awesome as the Miz.
ReplyDelete12 was fun to watch three years later when you see Austin with no heat.
ReplyDeleteNo one ever said wrestling fans we're Rhode's Scholars who thoroughly enjoy high class entertainment. That being said, it was a pretty cool moment.
ReplyDeleteLol, or the wwe product just sucks. Glad you're enjoying it though!
ReplyDeleteHogan
ReplyDeleteHogan
Hogan
Hogan
I'm not convinced I've even seen 23 and 24
ReplyDeleteIt would be that kind of pop but with 80000 people.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't saved until July 2011 and was still part of the world as you now are. I got sick of wrestling by 2008, but if still watch the major shows until about late 2010. I always liked Taker back then.
ReplyDeleteWell, in fairness what was Brock supposed to do? Never lose again?
ReplyDeleteHe's supposed to use this new mythology (or whatever you want to call it) to put another guy over.
CIRRRRRRCLE OF LIIIIIIIFEEEEE
presumably you lose to a guy who the majority of fans see as a hero
ReplyDelete"The Most Must-See WWF Superstar"? sounds pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteto a certain extent they even thought the same, that's why they didn't change his outfit, music etc. (them being afraid he might get less reactions if they had repackaged him)
ReplyDeletea lot of people were excited about The Rock coming back (and up until very shortly before the show it didn't seem that far-fetched to think they would switch to Cena vs. Rock instead).
ReplyDelete