Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[zz21]

So Shane lost. Now we had all that buildup for no reason...

But story telling amiright?

[shadowgrin]

THIS DOESN'T CHANGE A THING!

SHANE O MAC TO FORCEFULLY HAVE RAW WITH THE HELP OF BULLET CLUB!

[JaoSming]

no matter who wins the last match, this is probably one of the worst on-paper booked Wrestlemanias.

[[Q]]

Yeah great women's match, and a few cool spots in the ladder match (holy shit KO got dropped on his head on that ladder), a SURPRISE win by Zack Ryder (Awesome), and the Shane spot were the only things worth talking about.

[zz21]

I'M LAUGHING SO HARD THE CROWED IS SILENT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

what a terrible mania.

[TBM]

Lame.

[JaoSming]

I mean, it was fine in-ring, but nothing feels like it ended. Which is fine, but we could have last week's Raw tomorrow night and it wouldn't feel too out of place.

SOS, but at least we have NXT? 6/10, 4/10 if it weren't for the women's title change & match. Ladder match was supposed to be a trainwreck and it was, gloriously.

[Andrew]

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Wrestlemania 32. I thought it turned out to be a better show than it had any business being, given all the problems in the build up. There were a few really good matches, though the main event was lacklustre, and the booking on some of the finishes could've been better.

Undertaker/Shane and the Women's Championship match stole the show, and for me they're tied for Match of the Night. Taker/Shane turned out to be pretty good in my opinion, in fact it was everything that Dean Ambrose/Brock Lesnar wasn't; more on that in a moment. An absolutely insane spot by Shane off the top of the cell, and a really brutal fight despite the lack of blood (except for a couple of cuts that happened the hard way). The build was sloppy, and it would've been better if Vince coerced Taker into fighting by threatening him with the career stipulation upon announcing the match, but it kinda worked out in the end, and they did a great job. I think it was right for Taker to go over at the end of the day, though I do hope that Shane isn't done and might still be involved in an angle where he takes over RAW.

The Women's Championship match. First of all, great decision getting rid of the Divas belt and moniker (though I guess the show is coming to an end, unless it's going to be Total Women). They're trying to make the division legitimate and take it seriously, so it makes sense. As a teenager in the late 90s, the "bra and panties approach" obviously appealed, and I'm not going to get all sanctimonious about it now or anything, but since you've got some ladies who can really go in the ring these days, give them the same opportunity to have serious angles and matches. Well, as serious as pro wrestling can be, of course. It's not like they aren't easy on the eye, either. I thought it was a tremendous match, though Charlotte winning due to Ric's interference isn't the best ending they could've gone for. The future of the division looks bright though, if they keep getting a chance.

AJ Styles/Chris Jericho was a really good match that's probably going to be overlooked, partly because the finish and result is a bit iffy. Jericho winning is going to rub people the wrong way, and I'm not sure it was the right call, but I don't think it's the end of the story, and neither man ended up looking bad. Some fun and creative spots in that one, like when they switched places on the apron and Styles hit Jericho with one of his own trademarks.

Ladder match for the IC title was good too, with the usual amount of high spots and "holy shit" moments. Zack Ryder winning the match and the title kind of came out of nowhere - both in the context of the match finish, and the booking in general - but I don't hate that decision. Sami Zayn suplexing Kevin Owens onto the ladder and Sin Cara crashing on Stardust through the latter were two awesomely brutal moments.

The Rock's segment went too long, a lot of build up for an impromptu match that wasn't really a match. It doesn't do much for the Wyatt Family, but neither does their lack of direction and unclear motivation in general. I really don't mind Rock going over in six seconds (not going to bother spoiler tagging that one), but it was kind of pointless, and shows that they don't know what to do with Bray Wyatt, except have him be generically creepy. I enjoy seeing The Rock, but it was a poorly written bit.

I did kind of enjoy the legends appearing after New Day/League of Nations, though it was a bit sad seeing Mick Foley struggle to walk down to the ring. I hope he doesn't try to work an actual match ever again, it's just not worth the risk. He's given us his all, and then some. Please don't end up in a wheelchair, Mick. Anyway, nothing really terrible about the match, except that I don't care for (or about) the League of Nations. No one looked bad or got buried, New Day remains over with their silly-in-a-good-way shtick. The worst I can say about it is that it was forgettable, but that's probably the best thing I can say about the match too, aside from the appearance of HBK, Foley, and Austin.

For me, Lesnar/Ambrose was probably the disappointment of the night. As a hardcore match/street fight, it wasn't all that brutal, and ended very abruptly. More of the same we've been seeing from Lesnar for ages, now. He dominates with a bunch of suplexes over and over. Same old story, I'm tired of it. The wrong man went over as Ambrose lost, and didn't look good in doing so. WWE completely dropped the ball on this one. It's not surprising; Lesnar doesn't really give a damn about the business, and they've booked themselves into a corner with him to boot.

Giving Corbin a rub by having him win the battle royal is kind of nice, but it's a pretty pointless match that stopped being interesting once Shaq and Big Show got eliminated, and Shaq being in there was kind of weird in the first place. For some reason, I did mark out a bit when he stepped over the top rope, though. Good decision on the winner I suppose, but kind of difficult to care about the match.

Alright, it all culminates with the main event, and this was probably one of the worst main events in the history of Wrestlemania, or any PPV/special event/wrestling show, really. HHH had his usual cheesy Wrestlemania entrance (though I'm not complaining about Stephanie's attire), Reigns came down to a chorus of boos despite being the babyface, and then the match itself pretty much stunk. There were some momentary pops when HHH got sent through the barricade and Stephanie got speared, but that's it. The crowd seemed as bored with it as I was. The match was slow, predictable, and aside from those aforementioned spots, not very creative. It was the right decision having Reigns win because HHH should not be the champion, but it happened in a terrible match that was a fitting end to some all around bad booking in that angle, going back to Survivor Series last year.

I still think the show exceeded my low expectations, and the parts I liked made it worth watching. A few of the matches had some good in-ring work and entertaining spots, even if the booking was a little iffy in places. In my opinion, the highs were really good. However, the lows were really bad, and the show ended with a whimper because of that disappointing main event. I'd have been disappointed if I'd paid a PPV price to see it, but for the price of my Network subscription, I felt like I got enough out of it.

[JaoSming]

Completely and totally worth the $10 a month, especially since I got 7 hours of entertainment in 1 day. That's just silly.

Some nonsensical predictions for tonight before I go on other sites.
Roman v HHH rematch, tonight, no DQ and roman wins...via Brock yet still somehow bringing Dean into it and further ruining him.
Roman v Brock setup for future
AJ & Jericho setup, again, for next PPV in gimmick match
Balor Club attacks AJ
Cena does his chorus thing and feuds with LON
Zayn v KO
Enzo & Cass debut, to fight Dudleys
Corbin just acts like a prick, gets "put in place" like ascension did and buried over the next months
Shane's lockbox is just his birthright in writing
Bayley gets called up
Mark Henry Retirement
Shaq & Snoop Dogg appearances


what I want to happen.....
AJ going heel with Balor Club debut
Nakamura v AJ
Zyder getting a run
Holding on KO v Zayn until SummerSlam
Dean v Roman with a Roman turn (will never happen)
....or Roman v Balor Club
Shane brand-splitting Smackdown & partnering with NXT (basically NXT featured on Smackdown)

[koberulz]

Charlotte no-selling the absolute fuck out of a superplex completely ruined the women's match for me.

Which is a shame, the entire package was tremendous and it was fantastic to see the women finally get treated with credibility.


I don't care if it's the end of the AJ-Jericho program or not, it's the WrestleMania match. Wrong guy went over.

The main event was disappointing. The only appeal it was ever going to have was the crowd absolutely shitting on it, which didn't happen.

But, I got Takeover for my $9.99, so can't complain too much.


ETA: Also, five heels and one babyface won, not counting the Rock's match. It's 6-1 to the heels if you go by crowd reaction for Reigns, 5-2 if you go by booking. I'm not counting the Shane/Taker match either, as that was really a match between two babyfaces, but the commentary certainly seemed to be angling at Shane being the babyfacier of the two...so that's 7-1 to the heels on the night that's traditionally about putting babyfaces over and sending fans home happy.

[shadowgrin]

My WM review.

Hearing Fort Minor for the intro promo gave me hope that something good might come out of this WM.

The Miz allowing the lesser talent to go over him for the win in the ladder match, The Miz always a class act a true champion.
I'm wondering what made Vince/Steph/HHH decide to finally dig out Ryder from where they buried him years ago.

Jericho silencing the crowd in a good way, unlike that of the main event.
Gay community rejoice with the Styles loss.
WWE should stop babying AJ in getting him up to speed with the 'WWE way' by pairing him up with Jericho. As good as Jericho is he's slowing AJ down, Styles needs to be feudin with them NXT boys (Owens, Zayn, Balor,...)

New Day making a good case why racism should still exist.
Seeing Alberto del Rio being wasted like this by the WWE is sad man.
He may not be in wrestling shape anymore but Austin's beer catching reflexes is still there.

Brock-Ambrose is such a disappointing match. The only good thing about it was the promo before it.

Women's three-way match was waaay better than Brock-Ambrose lol.
Good to see Charlotte now has a ring presence, last time I watched her a plank of wood had more ring personality than her.
lol at Cole getting confused between Becky and Sasha because of the red hair, at least you can't accuse Cole of being racist.

MONEY SHANE VS DEADMAN IS THE REAL MAIN EVENT.
This proves again that as long as Vince lives the Undertaker will always have a WWE contract to take care of him. What better way to take care of your son who hasn't wrestled in years by putting him on the ring with your most trusted employee. Undertaker tapping Shane's face before giving him the Tombstone gave me the feels, reminds me of that part in Babe where the farmer said, "That'll do pig, that'll do."

Andre Royale match was the restroom break for the crowd I'm guessing, no longer the divas match which was usually the case.

Cowboys cheerleaders was more entertaining than Lesnar-Ambrose.
Rock must be having a new movie soon, so the WM segment.
JUAAAN SEEENAAA!
Time to put the Wyatts in the cabinet of 'wasted WWE ideas' ?

That Steph-HHH entrance is the reason why Shane had to return, to save WWE from more of that.
Steph's outfit making us understand why Macho Man had to do what he had to do. Ooooh yeah *Macho voice
Reigns is like a combination of everything that was bad about Cena.
Shit main event.

Shane O'Mac-Undertaker and bringing back the Women's championship are the only two things that can be considered as memorable WM moments in this one.

Fuck spoiler tags.

[koberulz]

Also, I had to stop watching just before the women's match, leave, and come back to it a couple of hours later. So I didn't really notice, but holy shit FIVE HOURS?! I can't imagine actually sitting through all that in one go.

EDIT: Apparently WWE went the old WCW gimmick of prompting fan chants. Unbelievable.

[JaoSming]

I did the full 7 hours in a row. WooooOOOOooooooooooooo.............


I don't even want to watch Raw tonight, I don't want to get sucked in by some little strand of hope that anything could turn out good.

[[Q]]

I don't dislike Roman but nothing really makes me want to like him either. Either way, mad props to him as it looked like he legit dislocated his shoulder when he went through the barricade. HHH was also yanking on it immediately after too.

My cousin was there and she said everyone was booing the shit out of Roman.

The Miz allowing the lesser talent to go over him for the win in the ladder match

I don't think miz is in a position to "allow" anyone to do anything at this point lol

Sucks that we'll have wait for the one show a week to see what happens next on nxt (yes, I avoid taping spoilers)

[bigh0rt]

The entire show top to bottom was booked and executed poorly. On even a mediocre show, the bright spots from last night are afterthoughts.

Q, I heard from a friend who attended that the boos for Reigns the entire time were deafening, and insists the mics must have been turned down as I described to him that it was tough to hear them, although you could make out some 'Roman Sucks' -- he insisted they were unbelievably loud, among other anti-Reigns chants.

Such a disappointment with that show, which is amazing, since expectations were so incredibly low.

[Andrew]

They've mishandled Reigns' push immensely, desperately trying to force the issue despite the fact he's not getting over as a face. I don't dislike him either, but it's been a sloppy transition into the main event scene for his character. I'd prefer him to be champion rather than HHH because at least he's a younger talent they're trying to build and not a semi-retired executive who's the son-in-law of the boss, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement.

[zz21]

They just cant let Zack get over can they?

[shadowgrin]

So, Raw...

WWE should stop babying AJ in getting him up to speed with the 'WWE way'

Heh, that was fast from WWE. Hope he's not buried.

This development could be a good setup for Bullet Club's introduction, maybe as his stable or the one he's up against if he wins it.

The Miz allowing the lesser talent to go over him for the win in the ladder match

I don't think miz is in a position to "allow" anyone to do anything at this point lol

HAHAHA SUCK IT Q. YOU CAN'T DENY GREATNESS LIKE THE MIZ.


Entrance of that 4th man is amazing. That should be part of his entrance now.

[[Q]]

Q, I heard from a friend who attended that the boos for Reigns the entire time were deafening, and insists the mics must have been turned down as I described to him that it was tough to hear them, although you could make out some 'Roman Sucks' -- he insisted they were unbelievably loud, among other anti-Reigns chants.

Yeah she said they were booing him like the ENTIRE match. WWE HAD to be ready to mute that shit

The Miz allowing the lesser talent to go over him for the win in the ladder match

I don't think miz is in a position to "allow" anyone to do anything at this point lol

HAHAHA SUCK IT Q. YOU CAN'T DENY GREATNESS LIKE THE MIZ.

So they basically undid all of the good they've done with the title in one night? How do you go from KO to that? funny, they already had a Miz IC title non-photoshopped graphic ready. Makes me wonder what the original plan was before Neville got hurt, and how this was obviously throwing someone a bone. At least Miz got another IC title to replace the one he lost in a bet to Xavier Woods what an idiot

Entrance of that 4th man is amazing. That should be part of his entrance now.

Was nice to see he's right back in to his old spot on the roster... it'll be nice to see AJ get a shot and job to Reigns.

[JaoSming]

Roman v HHH rematch, tonight, no DQ and roman wins...via Brock yet still somehow bringing Dean into it and further ruining him.
Roman v Brock setup for future
AJ & Jericho setup, again, for next PPV in gimmick match
Balor Club attacks AJ
Cena does his chorus thing and feuds with LON
Zayn v KO kinda? ...no
Enzo & Cass debut, to fight Dudleys
Corbin just acts like a prick, gets "put in place" like ascension did and buried over the next months
Shane's lockbox is just his birthright in writing
Bayley gets called up
Mark Henry Retirement
Shaq & Snoop Dogg appearances

what I want to happen.....
AJ going heel with Balor Club debut
Nakamura v AJ
Zyder getting a run
Holding on KO v Zayn until SummerSlam
Dean v Roman with a Roman turn (will never happen)
....or Roman v Balor Club
Shane brand-splitting Smackdown & partnering with NXT (basically NXT featured on Smackdown)

2!....2.5? ....w/e

great gif moment for Cesaro, ready to be let down with the AJ positioning, KO & Zayn, fight forever, please

[[Q]]

I thought Bayley was going to interrupt Charlotte's rant
Was wondering if they'd match up KO & Reigns which would be stupid because the audience already loves KO and hates Reigns. It'd be the opposite of what they wanted.
I thought Cena vs LON was a good guess, but I guess they needed New Day to go over after losing last night and needed a reason to write Barrett out

[bigh0rt]

Interesting RAW. I don't think I've ever heard a crowd so vocal. It was nice and detrimental, at different times. The boos for Reigns were certainly loud and prevalent, and you saw maybe an inkling of a turn happening when he spoke. It's basically a done deal at this point, as far as I'm concerned. They refuse to cheer him no matter what you do. Having him defend against over-face Styles is certainly something I'm interested in seeing. I'm much happier with Reigns the heel champion than Reigns the face champion, if it comes down to that.

Also cool to see Enzo & Cass, who I saw some of in NXT and enjoyed. Corbin I don't think has a place where he fits nicely; nor do I really think he did in NXT. He's just another guy to me. Which isn't a bad thing, cause he works well, and is a fine enough heel. But I have low expectations.

I'd really like to see a good buildup for Owens vs Zayn at SummerSlam. I hope they do it right, because that's something that can pay off big time. It's also a feud that doesn't need a title involved to be done very well, so I'm less upset about KO dropping the IC Title. Slightly annoyed that it's on Miz, since there's a wealth of great characters who could help continuing to elevate the belt the way Owens has in recent months, but I digress.

Can we get Jericho just on the mic and not in the ring anymore? He's still above average compared to the rest, but he's a shell of himself, and I hate seeing his flabby old ass work anymore. Not when I was such a massive fan a decade and two decades ago. He's still the best on the mic, but let's get him out of the ring, save for a brief appearance here and there as a special guest.

Somebody mentioned Barrett leaving the WWE earlier in this thread. I guess last night cemented that? The League of Nations are so terrible. Get them off my television.

Turn the Usos heel and have them be Reigns' cronies. Otherwise, get them off my television.

Get the Dudleyz off my television after Enzo & Cass work their first segment with them. They're done. They're A+ Indy guys anymore. They do not belong on a Live WWE event wrestling. Go away.

Get Bo Dallas into a gym immediately. I missed him in NXT, but hear he was A+. I've been underwhelmed and unimpressed by every single second of his WWE tenure. You wear spandex for a living, guy. Exercise for me one time and don't just come out with your dad bod and weird, greasy hair and creepy smile. You look like a Create-A-Wrestler.

Get the rest of the Social Outcasts off my television.

Get Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins (when he returns) on my television as much as possible, with proper pushes that allow them to be the top 3 heels in the company that they deserve to be. The way they handle Wyatt is unbelievable. The stratosphere is the limit for his character, and they just do everything so poorly. It is the exact opposite of Rollins, who I think they did a great job with before injury.

Get Bayley on my television, and like 75% of the other Women's Wrestlers off of it for good.

Get Finn Balor on my television in the WWE and see if he resonates as well as I think he could.

Get the US Title off Kallisto and get him and Sin Cara back into the tag team fold. That's where they belong. They're entertaining and good there.

Get The New Day on my television as much as possible. Unbelievably talented and entertaining. Made no sense for them to not go over at Mania, and I'd like to see them drop the tag titles soon so they can go after singles titles while remaining a faction together. The New Day. So hot right now. (Is Big E a homosexual? I'd bet my paycheck he is. Not that there's anything wrong with that. If he isn't, somebody should tell him he is.)

Get AJ Styles on my television as much as possible. But God get him some new music. Guy is absolutely incredible to watch though. So entertaining.

Get a pair of tights, or something else, on Dean Ambrose. The jeans have run their course. Nine months ago.

[shadowgrin]

This Miz hate. The great ones are always hated.

AJ Styles... get him some new music.

THEY DON'T WANT NONE.

[zz21]

Get Uhaa... erm... Apollo Crews v Brock Lesnar on my screen. If anyone could believably crush Brock its Apollo imo.

[bigh0rt]

This Miz hate. The great ones are always hated.

AJ Styles... get him some new music.

THEY DON'T WANT NONE.

I need the Miz on the nexg season of The Challenge.