Read on for my thoughts on last night's WrestleMania.
Pre-show:
Weird stuff as usual from Bray. This is going to be awesome.
I love Heyman's promos. Amazing stuff.
Cool promo from D-Bry. I liked it a lot.
I like making the tag team title match an elimination match. It throws in some more flavor to it.
Good promo from Cena. I wish he took more matches this seriously.
I enjoyed the promo from The Shield. I'm ready for the new era.
Thank you, Zeb. I wish there was a line about Samoans not being REAL AMERICANS, but that was fine for what it was.
Awesome first fall. They're warming things up nicely.
Good second fall, too. Keep your eyes on Cesaro as a future star.
Great match all around! Everyone deserves credit for making that one work.
Good post-match to keep that angle going. I'm ready for the official breakup.
WrestleMania XXX:
That opening segment kicked all kinds of ass. They played off the Silverdome slip-up pretty well. Part of me wanted to see a match set up there between the Legends, but it would never live up to the hype. I loved how they segued the old into the new.
HOLY #$&%ING #*$&! That was a good deal better than I expected from HHH vs. Bryan. I was thinking it'd be a slow, methodical encounter to suit HHH's style, but damned if he didn't bring it. They told one hell of a story there and I hope HHH gets credit for holding his own with a star at the top of his game.
Obviously Bryan's got his work cut out for him in "recovering from that injury". Really intense stuff.
NAO have a lot of pressure to deliver here. It might be their last big PPV match.
$*%#!!! Solid showing from The Shield there. They've earned their stripes.
Ehhhh... I'll at least pop for the Danny Davis appearance. It felt kind of silly otherwise. Nice to bring things down from the intense opening matches, though. That's the problem when you have so many highspots.
I'll split the battle royal up:
- Yoshi Tatsu appearance! I knew he was still in NXT from time to time, but we haven't seen him on the main roster in a while.
- Thank goodness Khali didn't win!
- Cool elimination from Rhodes and Goldust.
- WHAT!!!??? A David Otunga sighting!? Didn't see that one coming.
- Funny spot with Fandango and Sheamus.
- Thank goodness Cesaro won and not Big Show. I was going to scream if that happened. Congrats to Cesaro getting a big moment tonight.
Cool post-match. Hopefully that's something of a torch-passing moment from the older stars to the newer ones.
Really cool opening visual for Wyatt vs. Cena. The match itself was AMAZING. I don't think it really hurt Wyatt to lose if he rebounds well from here. He got a really good showing in and they told a heck of a story. I hope we still get Wyatt built to a main event program with Bryan for the title.
HOLY #*$*ING @*$&! IT #*$*ING HAPPENED! BROCK LESNAR ENDED THE @*#ING STREAK! THERE'S NO WAY!!! I seriously can't believe that just happened. Is Taker retiring now? What the heck's going on? I don't know what to believe anymore. The match itself was really, REALLY cool with the MMA influences, but I'm absolutely in shock with the Taker loss.
OY. That was quite the clustermess. Honestly, we probably needed something so crazy to bring things down from the shocker to end all shockers.
I would have popped for something else with the WM1 main eventers, but that was cool for people who have no business wrestling these days.
That was @*#$ing AMAZING! Great story told with the false finishes and the like. I do think they threw in too many "Bryan's not coming back from this" spots after he survived a big match with HHH earlier in the night, but I'm certainly not complaining about the ending! I think WWE set things up for a new era tonight, and by and large I think we're looking at a bright future for the company.
Cool post-match. I hope they don't reign on Bryan's parade too much tomorrow. He did overcome Herculean odds, though.
More wrestling coming up.
I think the one match/segment that stands out more than any one is that Lesnar won, and in a negative manner to many (which is kind of a shame with how Bryan has worked his way up the mountain in a positive way). It's definitely good to get fans interested and shake things up, but I can understand how the majority are a bit miffed at it being Lesnar that ended the streak.
ReplyDeleteMy (and I'm sure others, as well) justification is more along the lines of it makes less sense to have Lesnar, a part-time guy whom many believe it part of the company for a paycheck, dethrone Undertaker when more "credible" guys like HHH, HBK, and Orton have all failed. I can definitely understand the criticism.
I'm not completely upset about Undertaker losing his winning streak. I understand he's humble and classy to be open to losing it. My beef, along with many others, is centered around how Lesnar can break the streak when many hall-of-fame caliber or hall-of-fame inductees have not. What is your take on it?
It's a bit of a shame it takes the shine away from Bryan a bit in that he's not the No. 1 person that's being talked about. In fact, Lesnar was the No. 1 search on Yahoo last I checked. He proved again that he can overcome many odds - physically and mentally - to be the guy on top of the mountain. Hopefully he can go far and can actually have a decent-lasting title reign.
You mentioned this subject before, but where do you believe Cesaro will go from here now that he won the battle royal and seemingly has taken a turn for the better by outdoing guys like Big Show and Sheamus?
There are two main things I'm taking away from the Streak ending:
ReplyDelete- I think this is much more about Taker losing than Brock winning. We knew Taker wasn't going to be wrestling forever. I'm guessing he might have thought WM30 was the time to finally bow out. I don't think it's any kind of plan to build Brock or anything. Brock is pretty much just in WWE for the light schedule and pay.
- The other theory is WM30 being a milestone WrestleMania and the goal being to move things toward the future. WWE sent a message with no one past the age of 40 winning. Taker, HHH, Kane, Show and the New Age Outlaws all were used in a way to spotlight newer, younger talent (Taker less so than the others).
Honestly, I'm OK with Taker losing for those reasons. He's earned a life after wrestling at this point and I can't blame him for wanting to ride off into the sunset (if that is what this is all about). Taker's a 49-year-old married dad. He's got to be financially set for life and looking to get away from the physical toll of WWE.
Personally I think I would have liked for the End of an Era match to have been Taker's last match. 20-0 with HHH and Shawn would have been pretty cool. I can't complain with him working with Punk and Brock, though.
I hope Bryan does have a good, long reign. I'm not 100% sold on that being a sure thing, but they have a chance to really do right by him. I can see him still being an underdog no matter what.
I believe both HHH and Cena are really high on Cesaro, so he's got a bright future ahead of him. Him speaking multiple languages makes him great for press interviews and such. I don't see things changing away from the older names overnight, but there will almost definitely be a changing of the guard during the next few years. I'm looking forward to it!