WRESTLEMANIA 32 POST SHOW THREAD

[Guest Edwin]

13 hours ago, Kyuubi said:

Thank god for NXT because I'd be done with wrestling after tonight.

??

[RIPPA]

8 minutes ago, Craig H said:

So I saw the tweets, but never saw RF. What was the story there? Was it just you guys spotting RF in the front row?

Yeah - he first was shown during Fifth Harmony's signing.

But then when they cut to the announcers (I think it was when they went to intro all the different announce crews) he was directly behind Cole

I knew he was around this week and he was tweeting photos with various wrestlers

 

[Brian Fowler]

How is RF still tolerated? Unless you thought he was just a fan and font know who he is, wouldn't you tell him to go fuck off and get out of Dallas?

[steve]

He was looking the part last night, too. Super creepy.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, The Natural said:

 

Was that belt supposed to provoke memories of perusing Hustler in my youth?

[(BP)]

Max Landis at ringside being the human avatar for the internet reactions to the booking was pretty great.

[evilwaldo]

You are all missing the biggest problem and it has been around for years.  

There is one main event heel.  The Authority.  Nobody on the heel side has a chance of getting over because The Authority has to be to the top heel on the show and they have been for years now.  It feels like decades because the act is that tired.  

When Rollins returns we can watch him chase the title for six months and then drag out another tired title reign for a stale character.  His MITB chase was stale since we knew he had no shot of cashing clean against Brock.  His title reign was fun for a month or two.  But when Rollins comes back he will be forced down our throats in the Main Event picture when he belongs in the mid card.

[SirSmUgly]

54 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

We were all losers last night.

I actually derived some enjoyment out of the show for knowing that it would be awful going in and getting a kick out of just how right I was. 

You know, I wasn't going to watch WM, but I was at home and figured "Why not." I'm at the point where I don't have expectations for the main show. Things are not going to change there for many reasons. Something like Sasha not winning or Zayn not winning would have got me fired up even two or three years ago, but now I accept it and move on. They have no interest in anything but making corporate connections with ESPN or whoever, and kudos to them for how well they've been able to do that. 

As someone who has only seen one full RAW in six months (the Seattle one where DB retired that I attended) and who did not watch most of FastLane (and what I did watch, two matches, was not while the show was on live), I've learned that I should watch the Rumble, WM, and Summerslam, and Elimination Chamber if they do that show since I love that gimmick so much. Everything else is treading water to get to those first three shows where the results also continue to tread water, but at least there might be some cool entrances or such. 

I would assume that most people who watched this show had no actual investment in the characters or booking and had no investment in the matches outside of aesthetics. If you still are invested at this point...then yes, you lost last night. But really, your strategy should be to skip RAW, SD, Main Event, Superstars, and most of the PPVs and just watch individual matches as the people who slog through this stuff post them in the Best WWE Matches or Main Event/Superstars thread when you have time. 

About the ladder match: I think that match finally revealed to myself that I don't really enjoy contrived car crash spots and crazy dives for the sake of crazy dives. Guys were killing themselves and doing objectively cool shit that I didn't care about. I can watch wild brawling for the sake of wild brawling or fancy matwork for the sake of fancy matwork, but dives for the sake of dives totally loses me for whatever reason. 

[Brian Fowler]

Almost forgot the real highlight of the night. Some smartass had a "Shooting Star Press City" sign

[rzombie1988]

1 minute ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I actually derived some enjoyment out of the show for knowing that it would be awful going in and getting a kick out of just how right I was. 

You know, I wasn't going to watch WM, but I was at home and figured "Why not." I'm at the point where I don't have expectations for the main show. Things are not going to change there for many reasons. Something like Sasha not winning or Zayn not winning would have got me fired up even two or three years ago, but now I accept it and move on. They have no interest in anything but making corporate connections with ESPN or whoever, and kudos to them for how well they've been able to do that. 

As someone who has only seen one full RAW in six months (the Seattle one where DB retired that I attended) and who did not watch most of FastLane (and what I did watch, two matches, was not while the show was on live), I've learned that I should watch the Rumble, WM, and Summerslam, and Elimination Chamber if they do that show since I love that gimmick so much. Everything else is treading water to get to those first three shows where the results also continue to tread water, but at least there might be some cool entrances or such. 

I would assume that most people who watch this show have no actual investment in the characters or booking and have no investment in the matches outside of aesthetics. If you still are invested at this point...then yes, you lost last night. But really, your strategy should be to skip RAW, SD, Main Event, Superstars, and most of the PPVs and just watch individual matches as the people who slog through this stuff post them in the Best WWE Matches or Main Event/Superstars thread when you have time. 

About the ladder match: I think that match finally revealed to myself that I don't really enjoy contrived car crash spots and crazy dives for the sake of crazy dives. Guys were killing themselves and doing objectively cool shit that I didn't care about. I can watch wild brawling for the sake of wild brawling or fancy matwork for the sake of fancy matwork, but dives for the sake of dives totally loses me for whatever reason. 

The first two paragraphs sounded like you were reading from my brain. I also only saw the DB retirement and stick to NXT specials, Rumble, some of the main events and Mania.

[Ramsey]

For what it's worth, my 11 year old daughter who made snacks, wore her Asuka t-shirt and did her hair like Bayley to watch Mania with her dad walked out after two hours and said "this is boring."

This was a shit show.

[RIPPA]

This was my move of the night as I still have no fucking clue how Sasha fucking saved this

 

[SirSmUgly]

Oh yeah, NXT I watch everything from. It's my favorite promotion going right now. However, I just accept that NXT is for fans who like a show where wins matter, characters grow, and people who get over get pushes because the bookers are paying attention (see: American Alpha winning the titles not even a year after they were packaged together as a tag team). 

My assumption is that NXT is the bone that fans like myself have been thrown from the E. I allow myself to get invested in those wrestlers and storylines, and I'm rewarded. That's good enough for me, honestly. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

21 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

Play bluegrass covers of the world's most depressing songs

Give that to Elias Samson

[Nice Guy Eddie]

15 minutes ago, steve said:

He was looking the part last night, too. Super creepy.

More creepy than usual?

[steve]

Probably not, but that's the first time I've seen RF in years so it was fresh to me.

[Michael Sweetser]

Austin looked like one of those guys on the indies in 2000 with the knock off Austin gimmicks.  He even had the cheap-looking "DALLAS 3:16" shirt and weekend warrior paunch to go with it. 

[Rev Ray]

46 minutes ago, Craig H said:

So I saw the tweets, but never saw RF. What was the story there? Was it just you guys spotting RF in the front row?

He was sitting right behind the announcers.

[Sublime]

It was strange that Foley looked the best out of the three legends, the Austin description above is pretty spot on and Michaels has aged alot since retiring. Foley looked the best he has in years, maybe decades.

[JonnyLaw]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I must apologize

Apparently Mania was our fault

 

 

1 hour ago, Cristobal said:

...which side is the joyless nitpickers?

As someone who took refuge here from tOA's joyless nitpicking, I assumed tOA.  (Idol was far worse than jdw at the joyless nitpicking.)

[CastleVania Rey]

4 hours ago, The Nature Boy said:

Am I the only Dean Ambrose fan left on this board?

He's my favorite guy still, though at this point it's like being a fan of the Chicago Cubs. You just are prepared for disappointment always. Easier to root for Kevin Owens these days.

[The Nature Boy]

2 minutes ago, Sublime said:

It was strange that Foley looked the best out of the three legends, the Austin description above is pretty spot on and Michaels has aged alot since retiring. Foley looked the best he has in years, maybe decades.

All of us should start doing DDP Yoga. That's all I take away from Foley, Jake, and Scott Hall. 

[Josh Mann]

1 minute ago, Sublime said:

It was strange that Foley looked the best out of the three legends, the Austin description above is pretty spot on and Michaels has aged alot since retiring. Foley looked the best he has in years, maybe decades.

I get why they didn't advertise it tho. You advertise it, then they actually have to work a full match and has the danger of being a letdown. You don't, then they can just do their one spot each and it's a happy bonus for the fans. 

[Phantom Lord]

I liked the show for the most part. I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. Was surprised that Ryder actually won. I just hope he doesn't lose it right back tonight or something.

Not shocked that AJ Styles lost in his Wrestlemania debut. Of course the most over group would lose to the least over heel group. I just think that's more a "no one will have an undefeated streak" anymore thing than a "fuck you and your history pal"...but it is Vince, so who knows.

But man if Austin has that one match left in him, I want him and Rusev. Rusev taking that stunner was Scott Hall and The Rock times a billion.

Brock/Ambrose was fun with Dean killing himself, but it was also a huge waste for both of them. These street fight/no holds barred/hardcore matches are pointless without blood. I liked the better story of Brock not being able to put Dean down.; Ambrose didn't need the weapons. But eh, Brock doesn't care. He gets paid either way.

The Women's match was probably the best match of the night. It's a shame they rushed the presentation of the new women's title because that would have been nice to do on RAW with some build up over the day. Sad that Sasha didn't win, but this is Charlotte's division and them two are gonna have a hell of a feud. I'm just sad Becky will now get lost in the shuffle.

I was really shocked to see HIAC come on essentially in the midway point of the show. Before the battle royal. I thought for sure it would end the show. From a story standpoint the match made no sense. They didn't even try to make a story that made sense. Shane wanted the company...but other than that they didn't really give much more though than that. Undertaker was doing Vince's bidding...no he's not...yes he is...no he's not...oh it's just cause he feels like doing the match. Well what ever. Again, HIAC is another match that needs blood but I enjoyed this trainwreck. I loved Shane and his kids coming down to the ring. I also loved The Undertaker once again using what should have been Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon stage set for the 45th anniversary tour that never happened.

Was it crazy that Shane of all people was all "bring it it on deadman" yeah, but it made for some fun moments. I loved seeing him lock in the Triangle on Taker. Was sad they didn't call it the Hells Gate and say he had Taker in his own move. You gotta give it to Shane for being ballsy enough to jump off that cage. Also thank God the flood magically had airbags that just puffed up under the table. I thought with the cell having an opening it would allow for someone to run in and let Shane win and set up for a match next year with Taker. But Taker wins and tonight we're gonna get a rambling Vince promo about all this that will make less sense than the build to the match.

The Rock had Spaceballs The Flamethrower.

Skipping to the end, Good God Stephanie. Triple H continues to have great matches. I don't want to see him end this comeback. But man, Reigns as this overcoming the odds Cena 2.0 babyface is just gonna suck. The WWE didn't help themselves  by dumping the audio on the crowd. I mean I thought the match was all right, but Roman just can't carry a Wrestlemania main event especially at a level like this. Ambrose might have been able to with that match he had with Triple H at Roadblock (assuming he won and all), but yeah The Roman Empire...if they don't turn him heel this will be a horrible failure of biblical proportions and I will feel sorry for Roman because it's not his fault. It's all on Vince for pushing him too fast to the top.

[Ramsey]

I don't know, man. Foley was still walking like a 75 year old man and Michaels looked pretty cut. Austin looked like the bouncer at a bar that features monthly darts tournaments.