Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

So, ended up ordering Wrestlemania, starting now with Sheamus, Big Show and Randy Orton vs The Shield.

[Lean]

Darn I missed Punk's entrance.

[Lean]

Man I think Jon got it all correct this year.

[koberulz]

Check again.

No bad matches, no horrid booking. Solid Mania.

The finish to Jericho-Fandango, however, was a mess.

[JaoSming]

Man I think Jon got it all correct this year.

yep, missed Ryback & technically never called the tag titles, but I meant to say Hell No with an idealist view on Ziggler as an alternate

I loved Punk & Undertaker since it was really the only "different" match with the taunting & yelling.

Brock & Trips was way too slow. Yay for the BOOOOOOOM HEADSHOT but it didn't have the same feel/scariness/ohshitness that Taker HHH had last year.

Cena Rock was a finisher fest.....so, mostly the same as last year?

the others, I dont know...never bought into the Swagz gimmick, tag match had a nice finish with moves back to back to back like that, and Goo was ew.

I just want to see Ryback vs Big E vs Brock vs Henry




I will expand a bit more. The match quality wasn't up to snuff for me, blame TNA, blame me not caring with the build up, but the free Punk Cena match on Raw was better than all but Punk Taker IMO.

[Andrew]

Taker/Punk was definitely match of the night. I'm sure there'll be a lot of Punk marks talking him up as carrying Taker, not to mention whining about the loss, but both men brought their A game and put on a show. Punk definitely didn't look weak taking the loss; while it may have been a predictable outcome, that doesn't necessarily make it bad and Punk definitely didn't get buried. Taker's probably only got a couple of matches left in him, but he looked alright out there, better than his cameo at the house show.

Good opener, you could see the stuff with Big Show coming a mile away but they played up that angle very well from the first refusal to tag him in. Everyone involved did a good job, The Shield looked strong without making three top singles stars look weak.

Henry vs Ryback...well, what else can you expect. Gotta hand it to Ryback for getting Henry up after the match for Shell Shocked, though it didn't make a lot of sense given the finish. Sadly, still better than Lesnar and Goldberg at Wrestlemania XX, at least they were trying.

Brock vs HHH wasn't on par with Taker vs Punk and certainly not on par with Taker vs HHH last year, but it had some pretty brutal spots. I'd call it a good no holds barred match.

Cena vs Rock was alright, but not as good as last year. Decent passing of the torch moment, but it started out too slow, killing the crowd and the energy of the match. A few good falsh finishes, though.

Del Rio vs Swagger...nothing terrible about it, Zeb Colter's promo was good and the match was alright, but nothing special. I'm not a huge fan of either guy as a main eventer.

Jericho vs Fandango had the right outcome, I think Jericho did a good job of making him look good in his debut, but I'm not sold on that character at all. To me, it has a very low ceiling, lower middle card at best. Of course, not everyone can be a main eventer and you need some utility workers/characters to fill the undercard and round out a show, but I feel even that may be optimistic. I've got a feeling he's going to be among the pre or post Wrestlemania cuts next year, unless he's repackaged.

Tag match was OK, though I was surprised at the result. I guess Team Hell No will be together for a little longer yet.

On the whole, I felt I got my money's worth. I actually pre-ordered the DVD since WWEDVD were running a pre-order competition to win tickets to an event in Sydney and I usually get it anyway and I don't regret it, nor ordering the PPV today. Not the best Wrestlemania, but a couple of the matches, particularly Taker/Punk, made it for me, so I'm satisfied.

[koberulz]

They really would've been better off replacing Diddy with the eight-man tag. Needed a breather between Punk/Taker and Brock/HHH. And I was expecting it between that and Rock/Cena, so that sort of came out of nowhere.

Starting off with two heel victories made it pretty obvious that Hell No were retaining, too. That was one of only a couple of matches with the result in doubt, so that could've been scheduled better.

I did find it a bit hard to get into, even Punk/Taker, but how much of that was to do with Mania and how much was to do with the news of the Townsville Crocodiles folding breaking midway through the opening match I don't really know.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the musical performances at Wrestlemania need to go. I guess they break things up, but a breather match like the eight man tag would be preferable.

[JaoSming]

Yeah, the musical performances at Wrestlemania need to go. I guess they break things up, but a breather match like the eight man tag would be preferable.

Punk's entrance though

[Andrew]

Stuff like that is fine, it doesn't take up any extra time and it's something different, something special for a Wrestlemania entrance.

[JaoSming]

WM Botchamania already up (new intro too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJoynihnXLM

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Another fine episode from Maffew.

[JaoSming]

Missed it, but it sounds like Raw was good

[Lean]

'taker feud with The Shield, a Ryback turn, AND ZIGGLER NOW THE WHC.

Also, that sideplates of the new WWE title now changed to "U CAN'T C ME" badge.

[Andrew]

I also heard that it was a pretty good show, going to try to catch it tomorrow (or at least some of it). I did check out the Taker segment on YouTube, it'll be interesting to see if he's sticking around for a few months instead of just getting involved in Wrestlemania season.

[JaoSming]

I dont think he took any major bumps with punk iirc can't say the same for the table so maybe there is more in the tank than years previous?


Also, because its me, the live Impact this week is scheduled/promoted as a semi-PPV. 2 out of 3 falls for the tag titles and a TLC match between Hardy and Bully for the championship.

[deihatein]

Those Fandango chants,

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

[koberulz]

The best part of the night had to be Orton starting his promo, then in mid-sentence completely forgetting his line and asking Sheamus, in full view of the camera, what it was.

The entire thing was just a farce. A Twitter poll that never got used, then a pointless match nobody was interested in dragging on way too long, well past the point where the fans were clearly not interested, particularly bizarre given that the main event only went about 30 seconds.

[Lean]

Finally seen WrestleMania.

Punk vs Undertaker is my favorite match. Brock and HHH's match was fine, but the crowd seemed to be spent.

Not that I'd like to see it but, wasn't the mixed tag team match (Sandow/Rhodes/Bellas vs Brodus/Tensai/Funkadactyls) part of the schedule? What happened?

[koberulz]

Ran out of time.

[formx]

Finally seen WrestleMania.

Punk vs Undertaker is my favorite match. Brock and HHH's match was fine, but the crowd seemed to be spent.

Not that I'd like to see it but, wasn't the mixed tag team match (Sandow/Rhodes/Bellas vs Brodus/Tensai/Funkadactyls) part of the schedule? What happened?

Was taken out of the WM card in favor of musical performances I think. The match happened the next night on Raw.

[koberulz]

Alternate WWE title designs

[Lean]

Just have seen Raw yesterday night, crowd was amazing. And I felt bad for the Orton-Sheamus match because the crowd cheered for the referee, the commentators, and just about anything they could think of except for Orton and Sheamus.

Orton forgetting his line is also something.

EDIT:

Alternate WWE title designs

From those designs, I like this one the best:



Until I saw this, I then just noticed that the new title has no eagle in it. I thought the eagle was a standard WWE title element.

[Andrew]

I don't mind that one, nor this one:



But the new design has actually grown on me.

[Lean]

Yeah me too. Perhaps the current title is the simplest one they ever had. I just wish the center plate has more gold to it. As it is now it looks hollow.