Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Dolfan Watches Every Wrestlemania On Lockdown


Recommended Posts

It was odd seeing Ozzy and William Shatner in that one HoF video, and marvelling how Ozzy (in his mid 60s) looked older than Shatner (in his early 90s). But then Shatner was always a guy who looked after himself, and Ozzy... wasn't.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Oh damn it, I need to finish this.

The NXT women's pipeline had tossed up a new megastar in waiting in Rhea Ripley. (Note, I'm purposely ignoring what happened to her 12 months prior to this.)  Now, I must admit how much I hate her entrance music, but the lady is legit. WWE thought so too clearly (AGAIN, see note above) because in the '21 Rumble -- as a member of NXT -- she got 7 eliminations, before being the last person eliminated herself. She got hype packages soon after, and made her debut on Raw by challenging Raw Champion Asuka. 

Asuka, for her part, had mostly righted her career.  Winning the insane 2020 Money in the Bank "Corporate" Ladder match and unknowingly also winning the title because Becky was pregnant.  After trading the belt with Sasha Banks, she ended up holding it for the entire second half of the year and headed into Mania as a solid, dominant champion. 

Rhea gets the band behind "Brutality" to sing her to the ring, which I am pretty sure is HHH's doing.  Asuka gets an amped up version of her usual thing.  Now, on the re-watch, I know Asuka's losing and Rhea's getting put over.  I didn't quite realize at the time how stiff a match these two worked.  Like Stan Hansen & Vader would say, "take it easy girls."  They're both laying it in and drawing an exhausted crowd into it. 

Asuka did a great job of selling all of Rhea's stuff like she was fighting a pissed off yeti.  She's smaller and quicker, but every time Rhea got something, it hurt.  Eventually slowing down to Rhea's pace and that does her in. 

By the end, Asuka is trying anything she can, from armbar submissions to just kicking the fuck out of her opponent.  None of it is working.   In fact, Rhea is begging for more... when she reverses a kick into her pumphandle slam finisher (god I despise this finisher as it takes forever to set up and there are like a million reversals for it).  The Riptide is more than enough to do in an exhausted Asuka, and Ripley has mowed down the dominant champ in her Raw-brand debut to win the Raw Women's Championship. 

Massive props to Asuka for putting over Rhea huge here... even if she lost the title to Charlotte three months later, and then got stuck in a comedy tag team with the badly regressing Nikki Cross.  C'est la vie.  

End of Day 133. 

One more ride left! 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

DAY 134

So, I was in this weird place as to whether or not to include this ride in the last one, but I saw there were still like 40 minutes left, so nah...   

Titus and Hulk are back out to recap everything we've seen so far and hype the main event.  Bayley is back out to bother them -- to pretty big cheers, mind you.  

It's amazing to me when the announcers don't acknowledge what is actually happening in the crowd.  Yes, Bayley's the heel and all that, but damn it, reality is... she's infinitely cooler to see in 2021 than either Titus or Hulk.  

Of course, her role is "putting over legend" -- and legend is in huge quotation marks there, because here come the Bella Twins, to quite a mixed reaction.  Bayley does get a verbal shot or two in by saying they look like Elmo, and that John Cena's not here.  

That pissed whichever one wanted to marry him and the beatdown is on.  It should be noted though, that the crowd 100% turned on everyone not named Bayley on stage as they're booing this segment vociferously.  Anyway, they roll Bayley down the ramp and pose with the hosts and we're onto the next thing. 

This irks me incredibly, because frankly, neither Bella can tie Bayley's shoes in the ring and Bayley's an upper card act that shouldn't be humiliated by a legend.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's finish this.  
Edge had made his shocking return in 2020's Rumble. He proceeded to have the "greatest match in WrestleMania history" which was rich because it wasn't even in the top half of the matches on that show.  Then he was going to challenge for the title and got injured.  I've grown weary of this guy's schtick and am not thrilled he's now taken the 'special attraction' role that Cena & Rock had been filling in years past.  But anyway, he won the '21 Rumble so he gets to go to the Mania main event.  


Daniel Bryan is basically done.  He'd been hinting at retirement for months leading up to this and all but said this was going to be his last WrestleMania ever.  In doing so, he also said he wanted to be in the main event.  But, as a Smackdown member, that spot was filled by the Rumble winner and the champ.  So, he got to be in an Elimination Chamber match for an *immediate title shot* at the champ.  That didn't go great.  He then got another shot at Payback, which again... didn't go his way.  Well, he's now without a dance partner for his final WrestleMania and well, the fans want him in the title hunt and this worked before so...


And now the champion... Roman Reigns.  Having returned to action the previous summer after time away - depending on who you believe he refused to work with the pandemic raging out of control or he was given time off or some variation thereof - he beat the unholy fuck out of Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman and took back the title he'd never lost.  He made it abundantly clear he was now the alpha dog by beating the shit out of his cousin, Jey Uso, and adopted his new "Head of the Table" title in what has to date been easily the best move of his career.   Well, it's Mania time, Edge wants his shot and the fans want Daniel Bryan to get his last shot, so we get a triple threat.  


It's so much fun when you get to see the man behind the mask, and Bryan lets his mask slip as he enters.  This is going to be his last Mania, possibly ever, and he is clearly brimming with emotion.  Counterpoint is Roman, coming out looking like the unnerving soulless killer that he's needed to be his entire career, his little toady cousin Jey, is in tow.  Also Edge is there.  


What follows is a masterclass in putting over a monster heel champ.  


Edge and Bryan can't get on the same page long enough when Roman just starts plowing through them. Whenever they get some offense in, Jey sticks his weasely nose in and breaks it up. Edge finally has enough and gets Jey out of the way by planting him face first into the stairs outside sending him off to the back on a stretcher.  Bryan and Edge go at it for a while, knocking down Reigns occasionally, but never focusing on him.  Edge thinks Bryan stole his spot, Bryan thinks Edge is an unlikeable ass.   (Hey they're both right!)


So, their reward for not putting down the champ was his return to beating them both down.  Roman and Bryan are the ones mostly in control in the 2nd act of this match.  With Roman spearing Edge and Bryan sort of accidentally hitting Knee Plus on Edge.  Eventually though the bigger and stronger Reigns takes full control and unmercifully beats up Bryan, culminating with a nasty powerbomb to the announce table.  


Edge finally is back with a surprise spear to Reigns and eventually Bryan and he are trading submission spots on Reigns.  And in an absolutely badass moment, Edge has a chair-assisted crossface on WHILE Bryan applies the Yes Lock. They eventually headbutt each other back to a stalemate.  That spot is notable in that it looked super cool, and Reigns looks like even MORE of a badass as he didn't tap to EITHER guy's submission finisher.  


Edge finally knocks Bryan out, hits a spear on Reigns and --- Bryan pulls out the ref on a 2 count.  He's now clearly furious and desperate as he goes for a chair or three and waylays everything that's moving. He gets them ready for his super finisher the Conchairto and delivers to Bryan.  BUT.... Jey Uso makes a surprise return and distracts Edge long enough for Roman to recover.   He spears the FUCK out Edge, does his own Conchairto to Edge, and drags Edge's limp corpse onto the equally dead Daniel Bryan.  


Pack em.  Stack em.  Rack em.  


Reigns pins both men simultaneously to retain the Universal Championship.  He celebrates as Edge and Bryan disappear into the ether.  
---

Boy did that last match save night 2.  That final spot I'll all but guarantee came from DB's brain, as he knew he was on the way out.  What "surprised" people though was that after he lost his retirement match in April, he'd go on to totally re-invent himself as, um, Bryan Danielson in AEW. The good thing though, was he shed the WWE aspects of his character and while not really modifying his appearance, he changed the way he acts, wrestles, and interacts with the crowd. Notably killing off the Yes movement.  As of now, he's in a tag with Jon Moxley and they're probably going to skin the current champs, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, alive when they get them in a match.  

Edge finally decided to go back to his boilerplate "Psycho Heel" character, which is reminding me more and more that the dude has two modes.  Intense face and intense heel, and that's all he's good for any more. And see that's the difference between Edge and Danielson.  Because I have zero doubt that if he'd have jumped to AEW as was rumored back in 2020, he would have essentially been doing his exact same WWE stuff, just under a new name.  Hopefully his WWE future involves him bringing up younger talent and putting them over.  (Calling AJ Styles a 'millenial' recently makes me cringe though.)

And Roman... well, I think it's safe to say he's in the prime of his career.  He's definitely, 100%, the man right now.  Like, there's no one on his level, which is a slight problem because they're about to unify the championships, and if he wins at this year's Mania (WHICH HE SHOULD), there's no one around to stop him.  He's about 3 months away from passing Backlund (depending on how you cut there), and more than halfway to Pedro Morales.  But literally, short of Okada defecting to WWE, there's no one employed by WWE worthy of stopping him on his road to being the 6th member of the 1000 Day Reign club.

---

The rest of the show is fascinating, simply because of how different a position we are today.  A solid 1/3 of the roster that appeared on this show now work for other promotions or are gone from wrestling completely. In the context of the world too, we're rapidly approaching 1,000,000 lives lost due to the horrifyingly stubborn nature of the people who refuse to get vaccinated and/or take basic precautions.  It's weird, there's so much reason to despair, and yet, there's so much reason to hope. 

We'll see if this extends into a yearly thing.  But one thing I do know is this, I do appreciate all of you continuing this journey with me.  I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have and I hope you all stay safe. Hopefully someday soon, we'll get to a new normal.  Whatever that may be. 

End of Day 134. ? 

 

  • Like 8
  • Thanks 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...