TheVileOne

https://x.com/ivyiegion/status/1914730051964203016 If you're a Bayley fan, I totally understand being indifferent to this situation. It does feel like a frustrating bait and switch when they took out Bayley from her WrestleMania shot mainly to give fans a happy, upbeat moment with Becky Lynch, only for Becky Lynch to turn on Lyra the following night. I guess one takeaway from this is that it does potentially set up a big-time feud for Bayley and Becky later in the summer. But Bayley's contract will be up in a year and a half, and it is a good example of why it's good for wrestlers to have options if they are feeling stagnant and/or complacent and want a change of scenery.

My general thoughts: * Both nights could've shaved off some time from the main events and spread that time around elsewhere, especially Jacob Fatu vs. LA Knight and the IC title Fatal 4-way give me more of that. * Good set overall. Much better than WrestleMania 40's underwhelming, garbage set. Not as good as WrestleMania 39. That said, I did enjoy those video blocks they hung from the ceiling that slid down for the entrances for the triple threat. That was a cool touch. * The crowd was relatively better on Night 2. On Night 1 they were garbage, anemic and low energy. The fans got up for Jey Uso vs. Gunther and they did everything right to feed into Jey Uos's win. The rest of the night they were awful, though Jacob Fatu and LA Knight seemed to do a good job of waking the fans back up. * Jey Uso vs. Gunther was as good as can be expected. Jey Uso isn't a transcendent wrestler, but he's a good overall "worker." The fans wanted to see him win the big one finally, and he did. I liked that he started throwing some of Gunther's offense back at him and won with a sleeper hold. I think the good thing is that Jey Uso looks like a very vulnerable and beatable champion. Jey Uso shouldn't hold the title for 9 months or a year. He should hold it, maybe six months max. It wouldn't surprise me if Logan Paul beats him to win the title. Either way, I expect a short reign for Jey Uso. * The crowd was dead for War Raiders vs. New Day. I feel bad for the War Raiders. They finally got a WrestleMania title match, and it was such an underwhelming situation. I remember seeing them at NJPW in the USA, and fans were rabid for them to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles. They had built this grassroots fanbase, and fans were into it. Their gear last night looked cheap as hell. Didn't look like they had their A-team working on their extra-special entrance gear. * Jade Cargill vs. Naomi proves that Jade Cargill isn't built for WWE. Jade Cargill looks like she jumped out of a comic book. She's got a billion-dollar body, but she can't put it together in WWE. AEW was a much better place for her because they protected her and knew how to book matches to her strengths. In WWE, she's absolutely exposed. That finish was so awkward. * Jacob Fatu vs. LA Knight was solid. Fatu is freaking money. It's insane how fast he moves for his size. His moonsaults look insane. It really looks like he worked hard to prep his body for WWE, and it paid off big time for him. This was mainly about elevating Jacob Fatu and his overall ascension, and they pulled it off beautifully. This is sure to be the first of many title reigns for Fatu. If they play their cards right with Fatu, he can be a title contender and world champion in the next two years. He should undoubtedly be in that mix. Finish played out perfectly here. Knight put over Fatu and made him look strong. Fatu has already far surpassed Solo Sikoa in the Bloodline, it's not even funny. I feel bad for Solo. He's not terrible, but putting him in a group with Jacob Fatu only emphasizes how much better Fatu is than him. * Stratton vs. Charlotte turned out better than I expected all things considered. The fans were veering toward Stratton, and they played off that well. I liked Tiffany's Barbie entrance. I don't know what's going on with Charlotte, but it looks like she possibly lost a lot of muscle mass after her torn ACL. Clearly she's had a lot of wear and tear and been at this for a while now, so her slowing down isn't all that surprising. But considering she put over Stratton here, I think that was the right call. I do think fans are just getting tired that Charlotte takes lots of time off and only shows up for Rumble and Mania season, where she's always back in the main events. I think that's why fans are frustrated with her. * Like many main events these days, the Triple Threat was too long. It did not need to take 32 minutes. 20-25 minutes would've been fine for all of that. I mostly like the finish angle. I'm willing to see where they go with it. I did like that Roman didn't want to play along with Rollins' schtick of targeting CM Punk, and that Roman was upset with Heyman for seemingly siding with Punk. I do see heel Rollins as someone who possibly could be the guy to unseat Jey Uso, and we'll go from there. * Women's triple threat was fast-paced and fun for the most part. The fans were into it and popping for Iyo. That said, it didn't really feel like a WrestleMania match and feud. I still think it should've been Bianca and Rhea Ripley, which was the real money match and feud. At least they seem to be trying to give Iyo some effort now, which I feel like they didn't in her last title reign. * Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest was fun. McIntyre's athleticism at 39 years old considering his size astounding. I popped huge for that somersault plancha. You rarely saw Undertaker pull one off that good. Glad both guys got to have a fun, tough singles match at WrestleMania that paid off. Also enjoyed McIntyre's selfie gag replay. Nice play off the gag last year. McIntyre is an underrated heel and worker. I would also not mind if he beats Jey Uso to win the title, but it will probably go to Logan Paul. * Men's IC Title Fatal 4-Way. More of this, please. Dominik Mysterio got to a point where he became so hated and so reviled that fans are now loving him. The rizz always rises to the top. I never imagined Dominik becoming this good, but the kid is good. He knows how to work. He understands the little things. When he turned heel, he absolutely embraced and did all sorts of things to make the fans hate him, and he looks like an oily bastard. And all those heelish things are now why fans love him. In the post-fight show, he was talking about getting some chicken tendies and fans were cheering him. He's like the Gen Z champion. Finish was freaking perfect with Finn almost getting the pin, then Dominik breaking it up with a Frog Splash and stealing it. I figured something like that was going to happen. Felt like an appropriate Eddie move, something Dominik is also very conscious of and subtly plays into for his character. I think everyone came out of this looking good. Penta loses nothing here, really. Bron had the belt for a good six months this time, but I feel like they are only now starting to understand what works with Bron. He's got the best-looking spear in this business, so now he can just spear Carlito every week. And hey, good on Carlito for bumping like a fiend for Bron and making him look like a badass with those filthy, gnarly-looking spears. I popped huge for Bron's Frankensteiner. Bron's athleticism is insane. Dude looks like a thick chunky slab of meat, but he moves like a junior heavyweight. It's insanely fun to watch. I think once Bron figures out the right character thing, which he's still finding, he will be on his way and get to that world title level. He's not quite there yet. He's got all the tools, and I think he proved here that he's a great worker and he can put everything together. He's just got to figure out the character mode that really clicks and works other than being Steiner Jr. But his athleticism and in-ring charisma are so smooth, crisp, and crazy, once/if he does figure it out, it's going to be insane. Seriously, did you see that Frankensteiner? He does it just as good, if not better than his uncle, the way he snaps it off. My only complaint about this match is that I wish it had five more minutes. * I'm kind of meh on forcing this Orton match but I guess it was a good breather sort of thing, and Joe Hendry got to have a WrestleMania moment so good for him. He pretty much got squashed, but I mean what else was going to happen wrestling Orton at Mania? I didn't really love it, but it was fine I suppose. It is WrestleMania after all. * Logan Paul vs. AJ Styles. I'm surprised this got close to 18 minutes. I don't think it needed that much time. Styles is clearly nearing the end. I think Styles packing on all that extra muscle during his time off was a bad idea because, between that and his wear and tear, it's slowing him down. Paul didn't really have that one viral spot to put this match over the top. I did like that even though Kross wasn't working a match at Mania, they seemed to be advancing his storyline with AJ and played into it. I like Kross, and I hope this means they are finally doing something with him. I'd hate to see him get released in the next year since he's one of the more interesting characters in WWE right now. * Yeah, Bayley got treated like garbage here. They put together a big return and moment for Becky at the expense of Bayley, which I think was unfair. I thought this was kind of a random match to book at WrestleMania in the first place. No match for Chelsea Green, the incredibly over Women's United States Champion either. Lyra Valkyria is good. She's very cute. She's the women's IC champ, but she hasn't really found her character yet. The good news is that she's young and has time to develop. That said, the match was nothing special. It felt like a waste to me, and also very disrespectful of Bayley to just toss her aside like that. Should've had Bayley feuding with Chelsea Green instead of this bait and switch trash. * Everyone seems to be sour on John Cena vs. Cody, but I didn't mind it really. I don't really think it needed to go over 20 minutes, but it did what it needed to do. Frankly, I'm surprised it took fans this long to finally start souring on Cody's schtick. It happened in AEW, too in a shorter amount of time. Cody is very obnoxious, so it's not surprising. But fans surprisingly bought into the whole finish the storyline and truly believed it, which is fine. But Cody finished the story and didn't really have any compelling feuds or storylines after that. He was stuck in a rut of "matches" and/or underwhelming matches with The New Bloodline and Solo Sikoa, which were mostly trash. But this match accomplished what it needed to accomplish. It gave Cena the title. So Meltzer did end up being right about The Rock not working WrestleMania after all that. People give Meltzer a lot of garbage, some of it is deserved, but he was right on here. And here I thought The Rock posting that Hawaii video was a trick. I do wish parts of Cena's heel turn played out better, but I did enjoy how, at the press conference, he refused to answer any questions and called all the reporters out for doing clickbait. Truthfully, I didn't hate the match. It's far from the worst WrestleMania main event. Now I'm curious if fans booing Cody is just a Vegas thing or if this is going to be what we have to look forward to in the summer, and if fans continue to grow tired of Cody, how WWE will deal with it. I think it was also a problem that Cena and The Rock weren't on TV more to build up this matchup. Also, I do think it's a problem that Cena isn't wrestling very much right now and his feud with Cody wasn't very physical. But Cena winning the title for right now is fine. It's not like he needs to hold it a long time. He could lose it by SummerSlam if not earlier. Heck, if fans continue disliking Cody, that just might turn him babyface again. All criticisms aside, I'm fine with the result though, and I think people were being a bit too hard on this match.

Big Bossman was Hardcore Champion, so he technically held a WWF singles title.

Fightful reported last month that WWE was showing interest in Jeff Cobb. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1jz5l35/becky_lynch_recalls_vince_cussing_her_out/?ref=share&ref_source=link Becky Lynch's story from her book about Vince McMahon yelling at her on the Raw after WrestleMania 35, claiming she ruined the selling of a punch from Lacey Evans.

Ultimately, I think Vader was just a bad fit for the pacing, environment, and overall aesthetic of WWE. It sucks because Hogan and Hogan bringing in all of his friends kind of pushed Vader out of WCW, and then he never found his groove in WWE. But he did go back to Japan and had decent success there again. However, Vader failed to get his issues with substance abuse and weight under control, which also did him no favors in WWE. But his impact and legacy are undeniable.

I'm confused why they brought back the Legacy Wing, didn't they discontinue it years ago?

They got Triple H and Luger this year. What more do they really need? The Rock, Batista, William Regal, Mickie James, Demolition, AJ Lee are some bigger names they haven't inducted yet. That's just off the top of my head. There are probably plenty of guys like they can they drip out over the next decade to WrestleMania 50. I agree about the lack of criteria, and I think it's becoming a problem.

Bigelow has been rumored for the WWE Hall of Fame in the past, but he's yet to be inducted. I think he's definitely WWE Hall of Fame worthy. As for Observer Hall of Fame, I guess it depends on the metrics you typically go by. I think he pretty consistently established himself as a credible worker who could work with anyone despite his size. Plus, he had a pretty iconic look and headlined a WrestleMania.

OK, but then are you saying Bam Bam Bigelow isn't worthy of a Hall of Fame career? The Bella Twins and Michelle McCool do, but Bigelow does not? But keeping that in mind, who is worthy of a Hall of Fame moment but doesn't have the career credentials? Maybe you could induct Heath Slater for having kids and saving his career with a contract. Santino Marella maybe. But even then, that sort of feels like a backhanded weak enthusiastic induction.

WWE inducting "moments" or matches right now into the Hall of Fame is stupid and makes no sense. They phased out the specific wings and awards of the Hall of Fame a while ago. If they want to do this, they need to roll out proper rules and categories for the Hall of Fame. Instead it feels like they are flying by the seat of their pants with the Hall of Fame. Doing Bret Hart vs. Austin feels wildly redundant.

Bret Hart hated working with Vader as well, so it wasn't just Shawn Michaels being a primadonna. Jim Cornette's bias shows once again when it's with his friends. Vader clearly hurt people in the ring and it goes beyond just being "snug." When does it stop being snug or stiff and start being reckless? Was Vader a great worker and an iconic worker? Yes. Was he reckless, and did he hurt people? Also yes. How hard is it for someone to wash their gear? Couldn't he get a rookie to do it for him? Mark Henry was doing that type of stuff when he came in for Yokozuna. Jim Ross was like his supervisor, and if his supervisor is telling him to do it and make these changes, he should make the effort. Yeah, some of what happened to Vader in WWE was clear sabotage by WWE and Vince just not getting Vader. However, some of it was through Vader's own actions and not trying harder to advocate for himself.

Saraya never seemed to fit in well or find her groove in AEW. Fans quickly turned on her with the "This is my house!" business, and they had to turn her heel as a result. I'm happy for her that she got to wrestle at Wembley Stadium and win a title, though. That's a great comeback story after overcoming a career-ending injury.

I think parts of it are definitely solid because the wrestlers are over, the product is hot, and the wrestling is mostly good. But as I said, the cracks are showing because WWE has too much TV time and too many guys than they know what to do with, and it's clearly straining Triple H and his team. As another example, John Cena isn't even scheduled to appear on Raw or SmackDown after next week's Raw.

Sadly, the cracks in WWE's creative are really starting to show in the build to WrestleMania. They've got too many guys than they know what to do with, too many guys who have been working hard and want their shot, and not enough slots to service them all. Uso vs. Gunther has completely run out of steam, and they haven't been treating him like a top guy. Shouldn't Gunther have come out and tried to like hospitalize Jimmy Uso to play mind games with Jey? Where are they going with this Grand Americano business? I don't get it. Frankly, I don't really care about CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns. A Triple Threat makes no sense to me. It seems pointless. Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk could've been huge and had a lot of intrigue. Instead, it's a dumb Triple Threat. Now it feels like WrestleMania is going to be Cena vs. Cody and a bunch of multi-person clusterfrells.

Push Harley Cameron and have her beat Toni Storm for the world title. #FeelTheWrath

This was my least favorite episode of the series. Was pretty boring overall.

Now that he's turned heel, John Cena has to win at WrestleMania. Cody's life should be utterly ruined. And then Cena will throw a rubber chicken at him at the end of the show.

That doesn't sound like good creative.

I don't get bringing in Mike Bailey as Karate Man unless they are trying to make him like GSP. Making Orange Cassidy vs. Hechicero your main event the next live TV show after your big PPV is idiotic. I also don't get doing a tournament to crown a contender for Kenny Omega right before you're doing the Owen Hart tournament for another title shot. Seems redundant.

I like both women, but I don't get Giulia losing the title so quickly right now. She's just held it two months. People are saying she's hurt and banged up, but if she's hurt and banged up why work a 10+ minute match tonight? Instead, you could've let her rest and then built up the champion versus champion match for Stand & Deliver. Just seems strange because Giulia seemed to be the bigger prospect and had more hype and attention after her debut.

https://www.tmz.com/2025/03/11/cj-perry-miro-renew-wedding-vows/ It's a Rusev Day miracle.

So if you're going to make that comparison: Santino Marella who beat freaking Umaga in his debut match and won the Intercontinental Title. Santino Marella who was sustainably pushed throughout his WWE career and became a two-time IC champion, United States Champion, and Tag Team Champion. Harley Cameron should've beaten Mercedes Mone, plain and simple. You could've created a new star and spiced up Revolution simultaneously.

Not a good way to book a major title match on your major PPV event. A lack of experience you say? That didn't keep AEW and Tony Khan from booking Jade Cargill to the moon and making her undefeated for years. She became the first TBS champion and held that title for over 500 days. She was highly protected and pushed like Goldberg throughout that run despite her lack of experience in every area. Her AEW debut was the first time she was ever on a live microphone. It matters not. Harley Cameron is money. Give her the rocket ship too.

Mercedes Mone wrestling Momo Watanabe in a nothing match no one cares about this weekend on PPV is a good reason why having her beat Harley Cameron was a gigantic mistake. Had Harley won, you could've easily extended the feud into Revolution and had a way to quickly give back the title to Mone and/or create a new star for the roster. Even if Mone were to win it back this weekend you just created another contender and added some much-needed intrigue to the PPV and roster. No offense to Momo Watanabe fans, but this match kind of came out of nowhere especially when there are a lot of women already on the roster who aren't getting booked or appearing on TV.

I always thought Abadon had a cool look and gimmick and Comoroto had potential. Sad to see them leave. Losing Dark and Elevation did more damage than I expected. They at least served an important purpose in giving some other talents matches and ring time.