WRESTLEMANIA XL - 4/6 & 4/7/2024

[Craig H]

12 minutes ago, Gorman said:

I loved Rey and Andrade's chicken-fight dive to the floor. Gotta love seeing a move that you've never seen before.

Did you notice that Michael Cole called Corey Graves the "heir apparent"? That tells me they must like Corey's work on Smackdown and are considering him to be the future top play-by-play announcer. Good for him! That would be the highest level a former wrestler has achieved as a play-by-play announcer since Gorilla Monsoon.

Yep, I caught that.

[Ziggy]

3 hours ago, Just Dave said:

Ehh. Have her squash people on tv every couple weeks until she’s ready for longer matches. This idea that she HAS to be a great worker is nonsense, especially when you’re dripping with “it factor” the way she is. There’s a mile of difference between her and Maxxine Dupri, who I literally couldn’t pick out of a police lineup full of fitness models.

Fully agreed, if Jade spent half the amount of time that she spent in AEW in WWE without being pinned, she’d will have had quadruple the amount of matches as she had in AEW. If always been a sucker for the Goldberg like pushes. They’ve done similar things with Braun and Nia Jaxx as heels. Braun turned out to be pretty good and he was a guy that was barely on NXT tv. Nia Jaxx is a terrible example because she never turned out to get any better but she has been led to a few good matches. Before coming in to WWE she worked with Dustin Rhodes, Bryan Danielson and people like that. I think it will finally click eventually but she just needs time and she won’t be held by the hand so much as time goes on. If they keep her in tags right now on these bigger shows it’s going the best way to hid her inexperience and let her shine in doses but now have her work squash matches every week like Ryback and eventually give her more competitive matches. I seen a clip about her talking about her not being young anymore but she hasn’t even started really using that bump card. She’ll be fine and I think she still has time to get really decent at least

[The Natural]

My top three from Night 1:

3. Ladder match. Feel good seeing R-Truth get his WrestleMania moment.

2. Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch.

1. Sami Zayn vs. Gunther.

[Steventon]

Pretty standard WM show, in the current era it's more about the pomp and circumstances and the entrances rather than good wrestling so I can't say I was disappointed.

Becky vs Rhea was fine. Becky hasn't been anything special since pre-pregnancy but atleast she put Ripley over clean.

There is a world where Rey/Andrade vs Dom/Escobar is a banger, but not here. It was a fine WM highlight reel.

My expectations for Uso vs Uso were low so I wasn't too bothered by their match, but can we put to bed the idea that either of them are any good as singles, because they are not. Put them back together as faces to carry on the Yeet thing which is popular for some reason.

The women's 6-man wasn't good but I agree Jade has It and can be a mega star if they treat her right. That said it was only a couple years ago Bianca was It and now she's well down the pecking order.

Gunther vs Sami was the only really strong match and pretty satisfying. They probably have a better match in them away from all the WM schmozz and melodrama, but seeing the Brainbustahhh on GUNTHER of all people was pretty sick. 

The main was fine, no need for it to be so damn long, but credit to Rock for stepping up. This type of match def helped him keep up with everyone els, def a better showing the Cena matches. Could have cut it down to 20 minutes though and nothing would have been lost. I will find it mad we get a bladejob in a segment leading up to this match, but no blood in the match itself. That's when it counts!

[EVA]

They never really figured out how to book Bianca outside of Mania. That they spent the last 3 years feeding her Sasha, Becky, and Asuka and now she’s in an undercard 6-man that was more about putting someone else over really says it all.

[Gorman]

I explained to my wife that I had to sing Cody Rhodes' theme out loud because the song has been stuck in my head since WrestleMania 39.

[The Natural]

4 minutes ago, Gorman said:

I explained to my wife that I had to sing Cody Rhodes' theme out loud because the song has been stuck in my head since WrestleMania 39.

Adrenaline in my soul.

Cody's going for double gold.

Will he finish the story?

Woah oh!

[Cobra Commander]

Oh yeah, how long has Roman been walking out with only one belt because I noticed that on his entrance last night

Anuways, if HHH has a weakness on big shows, it might involve trying to have a 3 hour show without having enough matches, leading to something having to go long or a lot of dead time.

But maybe they just retooled the concept of an intermission to make it less intrusive. The NXT show I went to in 2017 had a literal intermission for the record.

[Ziggy]

55 minutes ago, Gorman said:

 

Did you notice that Michael Cole called Corey Graves the "heir apparent"? That tells me they must like Corey's work on Smackdown and are considering him to be the future top play-by-play announcer. Good for him! That would be the highest level a former wrestler has achieved as a play-by-play announcer since Gorilla Monsoon.

Wasn't he cleared to Wrestle a few years ago? 90 % of the audience probably forgot or never knew he was an actual wrestler. Unless he wants to somehow work an angle as an announcer like Lawler did during most of his WWE run he has no reason to ever take a bump again. He's still young relative to the time you subtract from the time he was away from the ring. It would be foolish for him to want to start be working in the ring especially for someone who had never wrestled on the main roster 

[WebConn89]

Gunther-Sami could have went 10 more minutes easily and they could have cut 15 minutes from the main. As fun as that tag was I’m not sure it had to go 45 minutes.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

48 minutes ago, EVA said:

They never really figured out how to book Bianca outside of Mania. That they spent the last 3 years feeding her Sasha, Becky, and Asuka and now she’s in an undercard 6-man that was more about putting someone else over really says it all.

I think part of it is the audience got tired of seeing her go over constantly (at least I know I did). The never ending feud with Bayley sucked, and did nothing for Bayley long term. Just like I think the Iyo and Bayley match for tonight has had a horrible build and it doesn’t matter who wins as even if they put the belt on Bayley it’s not made out to be a big deal. 

What I’m most looking forward to tonight besides seeing Cody finally get the belt is what they end up doing with Damian Priest. Do they actually let him ruin Drew’s big moment, or do they job him out like a geek like they did to Theory with his briefcase last year? I also feel like there’s a good chance that the US Title match ends up being match of the night. I’m pretty sure I’m higher on Logan Paul than most people, and Orton rarely disappoints on the big stage, plus KO is just KO. He can’t do any real wrong in my book.

[Cobra Commander]

*checks to see who currently holds the cursed WWE Women’s tag team titles*
 

hey it would make sense for Bianca/Jade to win those titles because they just wrestled Damage Control last night

[TheVileOne]

One thing is I don't care for plucky babyface Jade. I think she needs to be baddie Jade just in WWE. And if she can just get her spots in and crush a bunch of women like cans, I think that can work. The key will be once she gets in there with a top-level women if they can have a believable match for the WWE audience on a PLE.

[Cobra Commander]

6 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

One thing is I don't care for plucky babyface Jade. I think she needs to be baddie Jade just in WWE.

would Baddie Jade be more effective if it comes after a turn? as opposed to if she was just bad from the start?

there's probably a generalized sort of bully storyline they could go with where when everything is going great them she's great, and then if some adversity is introduced, her mood changes?

[Octopus]

I’m a Roman fan. He has IT to me. I love his swagger and mannerisms in matches. Great facial reactions. I find his matches to be fairly formulaic, but that could be more blamed or attributed to booking(?). Even with that, I find him to be a special talent that is ~Era~ defining. WITH THAT IN MIND, it’s like Hogan v Rock where my enjoyment of it is almost completely with the pandemonium of the crowd reaction. When they’re loud and getting wiggly, it is electric. When Philly is cold and needs their soft and delicate fingers to be firmly comforted in their tiny little Jean pockets, then I’m bored. Even in my boredom, he does just look cool as fuck. The whole build I felt Rock was taking more of the Spotlight, in the match I was in awe of that beautiful and rightfully arrogant Tribal Chief.

I think I’ll post a list of the things I liked later. 

But for now I’m just gonna say I REALLY hope Rock hands Cody’s bloody weight belt to his crying mom. That is a visual that was said that I think would be CiNeMa to pay off. I’m oK with the tag match being tame as long as the singles blood feud match w/ shenanigans is paid off with fountains of blood and Prime Energy.

[blitzkrieg]

2 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Oh yeah, how long has Roman been walking out with only one belt because I noticed that on his entrance last night

Last June. HHH gave him a belt which is the "Undisputed Universal" title, at which point he stopped carrying the two belts. This came around the same time all the top-tier champions got new belts and Raw got the World Heavyweight Championship as their main belt.

[Just Dave]

6 hours ago, Godfrey said:

The problem is how you express yourself. If I did the same thing to AEW people would get upset, it's cool

That’s probably fair. For whatever reason, I NEED everyone to know how bad this show was.

Also, I did say from the top that wwe’s product has never been less “for me.” If I want a concert, I’ll watch a concert. If I want an action movie, I’ll watch an action movie. If I want to watch pretty people emote poorly, I’ll watch “Outer Banks” on Netflix. For months all I’ve heard about is how good the in ring product has gotten in wwe. I saw the same overproduced, overcommercialized nonsense as when Vince was in charge, only now brought to you by DudeWipes.

Edited April 7 by Just Dave

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, Octopus said:

I’m a Roman fan. He has IT to me. I love his swagger and mannerisms in matches. Great facial reactions. I find his matches to be fairly formulaic, but that could be more blamed or attributed to booking(?). Even with that, I find him to be a special talent that is ~Era~ defining. WITH THAT IN MIND, it’s like Hogan v Rock where my enjoyment of it is almost completely with the pandemonium of the crowd reaction. When they’re loud and getting wiggly, it is electric. When Philly is cold and needs their soft and delicate fingers to be firmly comforted in their tiny little Jean pockets, then I’m bored. Even in my boredom, he does just look cool as fuck. The whole build I felt Rock was taking more of the Spotlight, in the match I was in awe of that beautiful and rightfully arrogant Tribal Chief.

I think I’ll post a list of the things I liked later. 

But for now I’m just gonna say I REALLY hope Rock hands Cody’s bloody weight belt to his crying mom. That is a visual that was said that I think would be CiNeMa to pay off. I’m oK with the tag match being tame as long as the singles blood feud match w/ shenanigans is paid off with fountains of blood and Prime Energy.

I guess it worked. If someone can eat McDonald's long enough, they can be convinced it's filet mignon.

Roman Reigns is boring, pedantic, and generic as a wrestler. His moves elicits no reaction. His promos elicit barely a reaction. You would think a heel on his level at this point would lead to the audience clamoring to climb over the railings to beat his ass whenever he does anything. Nope. Whatever fans he has point their index finger in the air when he does while the rest of the crowd sits on their hands and stare at their phones or begin to get up for a bathroom break. The Bloodline came to Philadelphia, took a shit in the ring, and that was the Rock/Roman vs Cody/Rollins match last night.

Reigns is going to beat Cody tonight, sod off for the rest of the year, and maybe come back around Summerslam or Survivor Series to possibly face another wrestler about as dull and lifeless as he is at this point, Gunther. And the crowd will go mild.

I hope I'm wrong and Cody does beat Reigns but I've seen this story before. It doesn't end well.

[jaedmc]

I enjoyed the show for the most part.

Becky/Rhea was okay, loved the finish.

R-Truth was probably the wrestler who elicited the biggest response in my house. Which is great for him, probably not great for the rest of the roster. Didn't care for the rest of the ladder match tho.

Sami/Gunther was awesome and I marked out for the turnbuckle brainbuster. I remember turning to my son saying "I think he's going to do it," and we both were on the edge of our seat wondering if it was going to happen. No disappointments.

Last night was one of those moments where Andrade felt like a much bigger deal than almost anyone else in the match. He always surprises me like that. Seems to always have a match where I think "This guy is awesome, why is he not focused on more?"

Poor Asuka can't win at Mania. Fuck everything.

The Usos. Sigh. I like Jey. But this match didn't have the fire and intensity to match the story they told. Which is the case for a lot of matches these days.

I liked most of the opening bit of Bloodline vs. RnR. I didn't like extended beat down on Seth and I actually blame Cody for that. He just kind of stood there like a dope for most of it. Took too long for him to finally walk in an slap the Rock out of the Sharpshooter. Match picked up in the finishing stretch and had me going again.

Mama Rhodes yelling BULLLSHEEYET at the Rock was spot of the night.

I had a lot of fun, but I'm looking forward to what I'm guessing will be a bonkers night 2. Still thinking it goes full Avengers Endgame for the main event. And I'm ready for it. I don't think there's an angle they can pull where Roman wins that'll keep me around after tonight. And I love Roman. But it's time.

[Curt McGirt]

Could somebody make a gif of the Pedigree (attempt) on Rocky? I'm trying to imagine it and can't gather if it's his arms or his back that couldn't bend. It sounds like trying to Pedigree one of those old LJN WWF figures. 

[Hamhock]

I'm not entirely sure why Philadelphia keeps catching backhands in this thread, but:

• the Wrestlemania crowd is from everywhere, and not made of 70,000 local denizens
• there's only a few of us on the board formerly/currently from there, and we already hate ourselves more than anyone else could

[Octopus]

43 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

I guess it worked. If someone can eat McDonald's long enough, they can be convinced it's filet mignon.

 

you’re in a lot of trouble, buddy

[jaedmc]

53 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Could somebody make a gif of the Pedigree (attempt) on Rocky? I'm trying to imagine it and can't gather if it's his arms or his back that couldn't bend. It sounds like trying to Pedigree one of those old LJN WWF figures. 

Like specifically the Macho Man figure. 

[Robert S]

56 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Could somebody make a gif of the Pedigree (attempt) on Rocky? I'm trying to imagine it and can't gather if it's his arms or his back that couldn't bend. It sounds like trying to Pedigree one of those old LJN WWF figures. 

That Pedigree gave me a good laugh. My assumption was that the arms were the problems. Considering that Cody did not even try to bend the arms I assume they did run through the bigger spots beforehand in the PC and there were issues with a lack of flexability of a certain 51-year-old.

[Just Dave]

I’ve talked about the shit I didn’t like, but in the interest of good faith discussion, I’ll say that someone should win an Emmy for that continuous shot of Sami Zayn backstage where he was running into his family and Gable & Owens. As someone who’s done camera work & production, that’s not easy and deserves kudos.