bigh0rt wrote:For the guys who have been watching consistently, am I way off-base here? Are the shows generally more enjoyable than that??
I'd say yes and no. It's certainly not a golden era for the WWE but you might have enjoyed the show a little more if you were more familiar with the current storylines and wrestlers. I imagine the amount of "Who the hell is that?" and "OK, so what's the history to this feud?" you were probably thinking through most of the show would have been distracting. Also, for what it's worth, Taker's last few matches at Wrestlemania have been show stealers despite the fact he's pushing 50 and pretty beaten up at this point, so his bout with Lesnar turning out to be so bad was out of the norm and certainly disappointing.
I was actually really enjoying the show up until that point. It's not as though every match was a five star affair, but I felt most of them were good enough, had a couple of cool moments and told a decent enough story. However, Undertaker/Lesnar was such a disappointment for a number of reasons that it brought the whole show down for me. But I'll get to that.
The opening segment was great. Normally, you wouldn't want to take up too much time on a major PPV with a promo, especially involving three guys who aren't going to wrestle, but it was a cool moment to have Hogan, Rock and Austin in the ring at the same time. It was fun and the crowd got into it, despite Hogan's "Silverdome" slip up. As far as "Wrestlemania moments" are concerned, that was a fine one to have for the big three-oh.
Daniel Bryan vs HHH being the first match made sense and was a very good one, in my opinion. Fast paced, Bryan's high risk stuff was entertaining, and he was booked as an underdog that still had a legitimate chance and belonged in the same ring as Hunter. I liked the story they told with him being injured further, as I figured it would make the pay-off much bigger.
The six-man tag match wasn't anything special, but The Shield were made to look strong and the double-triple powerbomb was something a little different for a cool finish. Kinda forgettable, but a couple of good spots made it fun enough to watch for me.
The 30-man Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was kind of messy as one would expect, but again I thought a few good spots (those uppercuts by Cesaro!) as the ring was cleared made it a little more enjoyable and I liked what they did with the finish. Kofi Kingston's spot where he avoided being eliminated was creative and a clever continuation of his habit of avoiding elimination on a technicality after he's thrown from the ring. Cesaro clearly has a bright future though and as the match entered its final stages, it did a decent job of helping him with his push by making him look dominant and ultimately getting the win.
Cena vs Wyatt wasn't spectacular as far as ring work is concerned, but I thought it was solid and I actually liked the story they were telling, with Wyatt getting in Cena's head and him almost losing it. You can certainly argue that Wyatt should have gone over and I think that would've helped in extending the feud, but he was still made to look pretty good in defeat. It's one of the more interesting things they've done with Cena in a while and keeps him out of the title picture for the moment, which is refreshing. Bray popping up and freaking Cena out when he was going for that first 5 Knuckle Shuffle was awesome, a very creepy visual and well-executed spot as far as the story of the match went.
So yeah, at this point, I'm enjoying the show for what it is. The in-ring action has been enjoyable enough as far as I'm concerned, some good spots (a couple of really good and awesome ones), the storytelling has been solid...time for the Undertaker's match.
Now, when Taker came out in the hat and the coat instead of the gothic hood and cloak, it honestly did cross my mind that this could be a farewell match and the end of The Streak. It would've been even more obvious if he came out wearing the mortician's gloves. Of course I dismissed that thought after a moment, as there's no way they'd end The Streak, especially with Brock Lesnar...right? Anyway, I thought the hat and coat were pretty badass, and the entrance was great as usual.
Sadly, the match was not a good one. It was too slow-paced and their styles just didn't mesh well. The crowd wasn't in to it and as much as I wanted to be, I couldn't get into it either. The fact that Taker suffered a concussion obviously didn't help and in retrospect might have made it a little more forgivable, but given the importance of the match and Brock's recklessness as a worker, it also goes to show that the whole thing just wasn't a good idea from the start.
And then, we get to the finish. Brock Lesnar wins and ends The Streak. It certainly was shocking and unexpected, but then so was a lot of stuff that Vince Russo did and we're not giving him any credit for that. It completely killed the crowd and when it happened, it looked like a mistake.
I'm admittedly an Undertaker fan, so I'm biased here, but I felt that he had earned the right to retire with The Streak intact. However, if you were going to end it, the honour should've gone to someone who was going to benefit from it long-term, not a guy who's a part-timer who has very little love of the business. Such a big moment deserved a worthier opponent and a better match, especially it also appears to be Undertaker's retirement bout. I was very disappointed in the way that it went down and it certainly affected my enjoyment of the rest of the show.
I understand that it was Undertaker's call, and that Lesnar was his choice. So in that regard, I respect his decision and the fact that he wanted to do the honours on his way out. However, the execution was bad, the result was poor and I think that it was a huge mistake. Just terrible.
AJ Lee went over in the Vickie Guerrero Invitational. I'm kinda glad because she's my favourite Diva and I think she's been misused despite the long title reign (and on the wrong side of the face/heel alignment as far as feuds with the Total Divas are concerned), but immediately following Taker/Lesnar, I just didn't care. Apparently Vickie might be finishing up with the company and her reaction after the match could be setting that up. I really wouldn't mind that; there was a time when she was a really good heel but at this point, her screeching is annoying in a bad way. There was a time when I felt it made her a good heel authority figure but it's become too much. Anyway, yeah, typical Divas fare, probably a good idea to use it as a buffer after Taker/Lesnar, and I just didn't care or pay much attention to it.
I was still feeling that hangover in the main event, but they did get the crowd back into it. The spot with the tables was brutal with Orton getting his back sliced up. The match kind of dragged when it was just Orton and Batista, but they weren't horrible and whenever Bryan was in there, things were going pretty well. I enjoyed seeing The Authority receive some payback, though I just hope it doesn't result in him being stripped of the title on RAW. In any case, it was great to see Bryan get his Wrestlemania moment and win the title. Hopefully he'll have a good run, I think winning two matches at Wrestlemania and going over three main eventers in the process is an encouraging sign that they have faith in him and they're going to try and ride his momentum for a while. But we'll see.
At the end of the day, I feel it wasn't a completely awful show because there was some entertaining stuff, but the debacle that was Taker/Lesnar does cast a shadow over the event, especially for me as an Undertaker fan. These two videos basically sum up my opinion of the whole situation:
But, having said that, I can appreciate the better matches on the card and the fun moments here and there. I'd say it's easily my least favourite Wrestlemania, but I didn't hate every single moment of it.
I guess I'll just choose to reflect on Taker's great career and its highlights, since he's obviously calling it a day.
#ThankYouTaker indeed.
at this:
You'll fit right in
R 
