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WRESTLEMANIA 33 POST SHOW THREAD


RIPPA

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I could have skipped the last two hours of this show and been happy.  Hell, if I'm honest, my internet connection could have cut out after Aries/Neville and I would have just shrugged and moved on with my life.  Everybody else has really touched on the highs and lows of this show, so it's not really necessary for me to.

One thought I had: if the Hardyz get clear ownership of the broken gimmick, they need to do away with the Attitude Era music.  Other than that, it was really cool to see them back.

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 Overall, this was a pretty average show. Definitely a step up from last year's shit-fest, but still way too long and not much in the way of high-end matches. At least the right person went over in most of the matches.

Aries/Neville was the best match of the night. Looks like Orlando was a lot better about getting people in since the arena was mostly full for their match. Crowd was hot since it was the first match and both guys looked good.

I was surprised Braun was eliminated so quickly in the battle royal. Mojo is a passable winner that no one cares about. The security guard biting on Gronk being a shoot was hilarious.

Agreed that Ambrose was mailing it in, although he looked like that last year too. This match kinda sucked and had a couple really bad botches.

AJ/Shane was an interesting choice as the opener, but the crowd was really into it. Not really a match that played to Shane's strengths, but he got his bumps in and AJ did his thing. Better than I expected, but not great.

KO/Jericho was a poor man's version of KO/Sami.

The Raw women's match was pretty good, if not a bit short. They hit their big spots clean, and I liked the work with Nia early. Sasha should've stayed in longer, but that's a minor issue since Bayley was the focus.

The tag title ladder match was fun and the Hardys return felt like a big deal. Enzo and Cass got kind of screwed, though. This was probably their last chance for a win that would really elevate them. They've been chasing for too long now.

The mixed tag should've been shorter. Glad the crowd didn't shit on the proposal too much.

HHH/Rollins was way too long. Standard HHH match even though everyone could see the psychology problems coming from a mile away. The camera work on the Steph table bump was really nice and actually caught me by surprise.

Bray/Orton was so bad. Those special effects would've been perfect for the 95 Hogan/Dungeon of Doom feud. The ring work was the same boring stuff we've seen from these guys the last couple of years, and that finish made Bray look terrible.

Brock/Goldberg was exactly what it should've been. Both guys spamming their big moves with Brock making one athletic counter to get the win. It's not saying much, but this was easily their best match together.

The SD women looked kinda off, but at least they got on the show. Good flexibility by Alexa in that submission.

Roman/Taker was just sad. All this match proved was how much Taker needed to be taken out behind the barn. Botches everywhere, and no chemistry to speak of between the two of them. I guess the one good aspect of Taker looking so washed-up was that the crowd wasn't any more upset when he lost than after any other Roman match.

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1 minute ago, El Dragon said:

 

Also, hey, let's just forget the late 2000's, cause Miz certainly wasn't over in his run up to winning the fucking WWE Title. Nope. Completely fabricated.

 

 

Well lets look at that. Miz and Morrison were a very over tag team and Miz deserves credit for the work he did, 

But then they broke the team up and Miz was not very over despite giving him multiple titles and Money In The Bank, His fortunes did not really seem to change until he was paired with Daniel Bryan. With that he actually was over and managed to carry some of the momentum in his title win. The feud with Jerry Lawler was over because Lawler is an all time great. 

Then shortly after Mania, it fell apart. I just remembered he did have the Riley feud and Riley was over briefly. So he deserves credit for that. 

 

8 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

nytime he has been given a chance he has been over" He got a fucking Title program at Summerslam that was met with crickets. His feud with Rusev in 2015 was basically the tombstone on the grave of Rusevs push after Cena. He has consistently failed to stay over in recent years when he's been given something. If anything, in most other programs, he's taken whoever he's worked with and dragged them down with him, all the while having matches that generally consistently underwhelm.

Well most of this is incorrect, 

He was pretty over in the Rusev feud despite the awful booking. He has done well in various crummy programs and done well enough. He was not going to elevate bad material, but he kept himself over. 

Now lets say the garbage you are spouting has merit. It just means he is tied with Miz. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

nd Miz's entire "shoot comment" thing was built as a comeback to Bryan saying "he doesn't think Miz is a very good wrestler." The entire fucking idea was that Bryan was taking shots at Miz, and Miz returned with shots against him, fired back up. It was that segment that got Miz heated up to begin with. Bryan was getting his shots in against Miz the entire way: The thing is Miz's points were generally better, and delivered with more passion.

There were a lot of obvious shots Bryan could have taken at Miz and did not. Now whether this is because he was not allowed or nor sharp on the mic, I don't know. 

What I do know is, Miz owes a lot to Daniel Bryan. 

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Interestingly (Or maybe only interesting to me!), for all the upset at the booking of the old guys and part-timers stealing the spotlight, in almost all of the matches, age-wise, the younger competitor/team won.

-Neville is 8 years younger than Aries
-Mojo Rawley was one of the younger guys in the Battle Royal
-Ambrose is a year younger than Corbin
-Styles is 8 years younger than McMahon
-Kevin Owens is 14 years younger than Jericho
-Bayley is 2 years younger than the average age of her opponents
-Rollins is 17 years younger than Triple H
-Lesnar is 11 years younger than Goldberg
-Naomi is 2 years younger than the average age of her opponents
-Reigns is 21 years younger than Undertaker

The ones where the older wrestlers won:
-The Hardyz were 8 years older than the average age of the teams they beat
-Cena/Bella's average age is 2 years older than that of Miz/Maryse
-Orton is 8 years older than Bray Wyatt
 

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11 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Trips started working the wrong knee which was amusing. Announcers caught on and he seemed to figure it out.

Thank you. I thought I noticed that. Good to have confirmation.

 

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Meh, I found the show to be mostly bland, but at least I can say that the only real time I was bored was during the live musical performance.  Unlike last year where it felt like the whole thing dragged as soon as the Women's match was over.

Bray/Orton was not only bad, but comically bad. That overhead ring projection shit will become a source of laughter for years to come. I can't tell if that kind of thing is thought up by Bray or creative, but either way it's all that laughable attempt at horror that has hurt his career. When he debuted it was intriguing because it was all suggestion without showing too much. 

Was not upset at the length of Trips/Rollins. After so many years I expect two things out of Triple H matches at Mania: A super corny entrance and a needlessly long match. All of my expectations were met. And I am guessing another new expectation will be Steph will take a bump  by way of accident as her only comeuppance for being an overbearing authority figure all year.

All that said we got the Hardys back, AJ/Shane had a heated opener, Owens got the US title so there might be meaning with it now, Brock/Goldberg was as good as it could have been, and Bayley got a big Mania win. I'll take that.

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I haven't read anyone's thoughts yet but I actually enjoyed most of this show.  The first oh.. maybe two hours or so were spectacular.  AJ/Shane was better than I could have ever expected. It was quite the spectacle. Owens/Jericho was solid, not great but decent. 

I really loved the RAW Women's match but it was too short on time.  Everyone was clicking. There were some great spots from Sasha and Charlotte and I liked them all ganging up on Nia Jax too. But yeah it was too short.  It needed another 5-6 minutes but still it was a solid match.

Hardys showing up was a huge moment too. 

Brock and Goldberg just throwing bombs for 5 minutes was everything I wanted out of it. It was like an old Smackdown game where both guys just had unlimited finishers. I loved it.  One of my favorite sub-5 minute matches ever probably. 

I felt happy for Naomi winning too but again it was too short on time. 

Everything else was dragged out.   Rollins/Hunter is what everyone feared.  It had a cool finish but took too long to get there. 

Orton/Bray what the fuck was that?   I actually liked the "creepy visual" stuff but then RKO 1-2-3.  Why?  Who asked for another Orton title reign? 

Taker/Reigns was not good.  The story was right out of the HBK/Flair and Taker/HBK playbook but it did not work.  Match was a mess and clearly Reigns isn't the guy they want him to be.

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I would like to talk about Lesnar / Goldberg from a narrative perspective.

At Survivor Series, Goldberg shocked an overconfident Lesnar.  At that point, it could be a fluke. Then, in the Rumble, Goldberg shocked him again.  At this point, the story is going fine. A flaw has been exposed in a dominate force and it can no longer be considered a fluke. However, at in this match, Lesnar changed nothing. He wrestled the same match he always does, absorbed all the same punishment as before without having any answer for it, and just overcame it. The character learned nothing and didn't have to grow at all. It is an incredibly pointless and nihilistic story. It's the story of someone failing their driving test twice and then, doing no studying and changing nothing about how they approach it, take the test a third time and manage to pass it. Who could care?

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@The Natural love you to pieces, but I think you're taking the wrong read from the Reigns photo.  Obviously I'm a fan, so I'll admit to possible bias.  But that's the look of a guy who ultimately hated taking out WWE's version of John Wayne.  He got the victory, but there's little joy in it.

It's getting late. I'll talk more later today (I should be in bed!)

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The irony is that on paper I'm very satisfied with the booking decisions and for the most part the assholes in Creative put the right people over, but watching it first hand I was like OH MY GOD THIS FUCKING CARD WHEN WILL THE PAIN STOP I HAVE TO GET READY FOR WORK~!!

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6 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

in kayfabe senses, Lesnar's training involved learning to leapfrog over the spear

In wrasslin' physics, it has always baffled me why no one has ever tried to leapfrog over the spear so that Goldberg crashes shoulder first into the turnbuckle.

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I seemed to be the only one really liking Rollins vs HHH. The only way it'd been better to me would have been Rollins having his own move to finish off his former mentor. It would have been a simple way for him to distance himself from the authority.

The only thing I would have liked added to Cenas vs Mizzes would have been Miz and Maryse holding each others hand in a desperate attempt to avoid the double AA.

 

Goldberg v Lesnar was funny to look at, but Hooker put it right. Brock stopped selling everything the second he got another go at suplex city.

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Just now, J.T. said:

In wrasslin' physics, it has always baffled me why no one has ever tried to leapfrog over the spear so that Goldberg crashes shoulder first into the turnbuckle.

especially considering how often they do "running shoulder-first into the post" spots

also, the WM ringposts made the "run into the post" spots in Ambrose/Corbin sound a bit nasty. Interesting acoustics.

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I don't understand the viewpoint of calling this one of the worst Manias or even a bad show.  Everything ranged from solid to great except Orton/Wyatt and Taker/Reigns.  It was a very long long LONG show, I get that but it's not a surprise..  these have been extremely long since at least WM 20 which I think was also five hours.

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14 minutes ago, Casey said:

 

That was such a great moment and where it started to sink in that I guy I grew up watching is both very human (credit to Undertaker protecting his gimmick) and completely done. 

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