OH I KNOW RITE?? It's not like WCW in 1996, when the NWO happened and became the biggest angle in the history of wrestling with Hogan, Nash and Hall... at ages... 43, 37 and 38.... oh wait.... OR... OR... Undertaker in his Ministry of Darkness days... he was awesome then!... at age 35.... Hmm... Well it wasn't like the Austin 3:16 era (1996-2001), when Austin was bringing back another golden era of wrestling.... from ages 33-38. They should go with younger guys!! They only had a record gate for Wrestlemania, 8.9 million dollars for one event. SOMEONE NEEDS TO TEACH THEM HOW TO PUT THESE EVENTS ON?!?! AMIRITE?? [/sarcasm]
On a serious note.... some thoughts... Daniel Bryan v. Sheamus was a real let down. If Bryan was hurt, as someone said, then I understand why it was done, but as a fan I was really really disappointed. I was looking forward to this, and literally turned my head to say something to someone, heard the three count off to the side, turned back and missed the whole thing. Couldn't believe it. Letdown. Orton v. Kane was just kind of there for me. It seemed like any other Monday Night Raw match, and that's not really good, but they were clearly saving as much time as possible for other things later. The finish was nice though. Top rope chokeslam. Divas - I got up to pee. I missed the first part of this for the aforementioned reason, but got back in time to see Maria Menounos' terrible acting, and I was able to say to my friend, "Please don't have this freakin' entertainment reporter go over your champion." Sure enough, Maria rolls up Beth for the win. Le sigh. Hell in the Cell was awesome. I didn't even notice how LITTLE they used the cell, which tells me even moreso how awesome it was. Some people seem like they didn't like the "Will Shawn stop it" stuff in the middle, but I thought it made sense. This was a five star match, brought down to four or four and a half if you didn't like the "Will Shawn stop it" stuff. Great storytelling, smart pacing and the right finish. Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show -- Well, Cody's robe was badass. He's a future star -- not for that reason -- but he just has it all. I kind of think there were two goals here, clear Cody for a step up to near-main event level, and give Show his moment. The match was shorter than I would have liked, but what there was, was good. Show's spear on Cody's second kick attempt was a good spot. 8-Man tag for GMs -- I gotta be honest, I spaced out during this match. No entrance music for individual guys, no interest in the angle for me. I spent most of this match talking to people there. No one really felt like they missed anything. I called this bathroom break number 2, especially if your bathroom break involved doing a number 2. Punk v. Jericho was off the chain good. What a great match. The Jericho DQ-baiting in the beginning was excellent, mostly because he used it right there at the outset, when Punk would have been most frustrated about the new DQ stipulation. Even better was that when it didn't work, he stopped baiting him with it. That's smart booking, I think, because Punk should have cooled down on that issue a bit into the match and just got to fighting, and he did. Everything looked really crisp for the most part, and I thought Punk was channeling some early Randy Savage (even pre-Macho Man days) with some of his work, especially with the quickness from move to move. Storytelling through the match was top notch too, the chain wrestling was smart, and I loved the finish. Rock v Cena was really good. It wasn't Hogan v. Rock good, but that was a five star match for all the drama and historic setting, so that's like saying lobster isn't as good as lobster with a good butter sauce. Rock makes everything interesting, just by being the Rock, and I'm completely baffled by anyone who doesn't think Cena is just great as a pro wrestler. I doubt he'd do well in olympic wrestling, but the dude is Pro Wrestler personified. He's got everything there is to get about the business. So, I liked the match, saw the finish coming a mile away, but I thought Punk/Jericho and Trips/Taker were both better. Still, three matches at four stars plus is a pretty good Mania -- even considering the disappointing opener, the Maria Menounos nonsense, Brodus Clay dancing with a bunch of people in old lady wigs and Santino and Mick eating crab legs.
I thought it was a great show. I even enjoyed the divas match. When you have hot broads in sexy attire rolling around in the ring, what's not to like. That Maria is one piece of fine ass. Taker delivered as always. You knew punk-y2j was going to be good. Rock-Cena was almost perfect. It might not have the historical power of Rock-Hogan but from a technical wrestling match standpoint, this was a better match. They even talked about ths during rocks dvd, what made the Rock-Hogan match so good was the crowd. If you watched that match with the volume down, it's almost unbearable to watch. They did like 6 different moves, total. Say what you want about Cena, but the guy is a performer. His mic work is top notched and it showed as he clearly outperformed Rock on the mic. He also holds his own in the ring as well. Where was Brock Lesnar? I have a feeling that was just some April fools joke.
This was a good post, but you could have been even more effective. Throughout wrestling's golden age (80s-91 or so) wrestling was full of older wrestlers who are still top draws. It wasn't until the WWF started losing all of their stars to either WCW or movies (piper and Hogan) that they started the "New Generation" gimmick in the 90s and Vince convinced WWF fans that wrestlers needed to be young to be cool.
I know, I just didn't wanna overkill it. Used to be the rule that they "paid their dues" for a good 5-10 years before getting a crack at "the show".
The Rock has been unimpressive in his promos leading up to WM and was very unimpressive last night. He looked like the 40 year old Hollywood star that he is. He was gassed about halfway thru the match, Cena deserves a ton of credit for CARRYING Rock the whole match.
I miss the intensity of Goldberg. I miss the lunaticness of Mike Foley. I miss the awesome ring generalship of the heartbreak kid. wwe needs to quit holding on to the past and let the new talent fully take over.
agreed they have to start pushing their young guys way more. Like I said I haven't watched wrestling since like 2004, but looking at wrestlemania the top draws are undertaker, hhh, hbk, the rock, jericho etc. Maybe it's cause their young talent has no mass appeal, but come on now, undertaker is about to go on social security he should not be wrestling anymore.
For those who say wrestling is not real: Sure it's scripted. But: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8_VPBVRFXLg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They are not holding onto the past, they are merely celebrating it. Taker's streak is a great thing, you guys would rather they just not do it? Also Cena was in the Main Event, I think he counts as young talent. So does CM Punk, so does Miz who was in the main event just last year. If you want to see a company that does it wrong look at TNA
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that cena promo was hard to watch. it's not his fault the crowd hates him but damn no respect whatsoever. lesnar pop was phenomenal.
