The Natural Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 There's a Vine in this article where you can pretty clearly hear Rollins say to Reigns, "Thank you soooo much!" Bleacherreport.com/tb/dgjY3 I thought Rollins was speaking to Reigns at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Anyone booing Reigns after this performance needs to just go away. And whatever Brock is making he is fucking worth it Not taking anything away from Reigns, and I think this match was a good jumping-off point for rehabilitating him going forward, but I think most of what was transcendent about this match was all about Brock being 1) such a monstrous human that everybody looks vulnerable and sympathetic when he's ragdolling them, and 2) a crazy dude on a part-time schedule who is willing to eat legit strikes to make his opponent look good, in part because he knows he doesn't have to do it again for 6 months. That's a unique combination that nobody else on the roster can/would/should bring to the table. Like, I can't see Kane being like, "Sure, Roman, just punch me in the face for real tonight." Or Big Show being willing to Nigel McGuinness himself on the ringpost. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I liked this show better than the Tokyo Dome show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 But at the same time, Lesnar needs guys who are willing to be ragdolled six ways to Sunday--Cena, Reigns, probably a couple of others. Lesnar deserves a TON of credit. But let's not undersell what Cena and Reigns did at Summer Slam and WM. They were given a job, and they delivered in spades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fresh Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 I liked this show better than the Tokyo Dome show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Show your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fallacy! Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 One thing about the announcing, aside from "this is a moment!!" is that Michael Cole was full of shit in some Sports Illustrated interview a week ago where he said he doesn't know the outcomes of any of the matches, because he wants to be surprised. I think too often, his announcing so obviously gives away what is or isn't about to happen that it hurts the outcome of the match. I think tonight after the second or third F-5, he was like "THAT'S IT, THIS ONE IS OVER, NOBODY IS KICKING OUT OF THREE F-5's" (something to that effect) which is an obvious sign that yes, this dude IS about to kick out. He ALWAYS does that shit. "And this one is over, we have a new champion folk....OH WOW HE KICKED OUT!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I caught the Youtube version of the main before it gets taken down and man, that was great. I was on the edge of my seat when Reigns finally made his comeback, which is all you can ask for. When Brock went into the post I thought "Heyman is standing there with the blade just in case but Brock managed". Taking the gloves off could be a new thing, Reigns came out great from taking such a mauling for literally 90% of the match, Brock is gonna be out for blood and Rollins comes off as the best heel in the company (sans Stephanie). Him running back up the ramp was so chickenshit. The only way the end didn't really make sense was for him to not kick Lesnar out of the ring and take advantage of the most wounded man first, but the way it worked with the spear spot (which was a really good spear) leaves that complaint in the dirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I liked this show better than the Tokyo Dome show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What did you think was better about Mania than the Tokyo Dome? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 There's a Vine in this article where you can pretty clearly hear Rollins say to Reigns, "Thank you soooo much!" Bleacherreport.com/tb/dgjY3 EDIT: Why the fuck are links so hard to post on this board? Especially from your phone? I couldn't hear anything but I did play it backwards and it told me that Jake Roberts was the Higher Power, whatever that means. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norwegian Rudo Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I'm only disappointed that Lana throwing her shoe into the ring led to nothing. I saw someone speculated that the shoe throwing was done out of necessity rather than because they wanted to do something with it. Basically Lana couldn't take the bump in heels, so they had to get her out of them somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Mann Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Two nice touches I didn't notice until the second time around: -They made sure to give Ambrose the Holy Shit Bump to make sure he'd be too incapacitated to do what he pledged: Stop Rollins from cashing in. -As a character, Brock's one weakness is his own hubris, and I said months ago that would be the thing to cost him the title. Had he not made Reigns into dogmeat in five minutes like he could have, it wouldn't have let Reigns back into it and subsequently put Brock in a position where he couldn't prevent the cash-in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 the Lana in heels thing was fine. It foreshadowed the finish when she'd jump up on the apron and it played on things she's done before. She was trying to do anything she could to distract Cena and disrupt the STF. And it worked. Rusev got to the ropes a second later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Mann Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 It worked, except: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I liked this show better than the Tokyo Dome show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Show your work. No problem. The short answer is just that NJPW isn't my thing. I'm sure I'll catch shit here, but I'll just say personal preference. I'm at a point in life where New Japan's "pro wres = serious business" vibe just bores me. I'm not a fan of it. I don't follow NJPW as much as most of us here but I DL'd the show because of all the acclaim. So because of my lack of context, a lot of it was it was guy I don't know #1 stoically stiffing the shit out of guy I don't know #2. It wasn't fun. Also, I have to get it off my chest: Nakamura making spastic faces and goofy gestures, in general acting like a developmentally-disabled person, do not equal charisma, to me. His match with Ibushi left me flat. Just picking on that match in particular: Wrestling is fake and has its own ridiculous physics that you just accept as part of the deal. Rebounding when Irish-whipped, suplexes only hurting the recipient...wrestling has always been this way. But when you strip away that and just have a wrestling match that is dudes doing nothing but simulating MMA strikes, to me it's not even wrestling anymore, just fake MMA. We know what repeated strikes to the head do. This style of wrestling just murders my suspension of disbelief. And Ross and Striker were seriously fucking horrible. I mean god awful. Striker was leading Ross through it as best he could and Ross was trying to shoehorn every match's narrative into his usual tired schtick. Reference John Wayne again, I beg you. It never gets old. Anyway, it's personal preference. Wrestlemania was a comic book. Wrestle Kingdom was a pretty talented writer trying to be Tolstoy. I like my wrestling more fun. No disrespect intended to any of you who like NJPW better; we all like different things. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playa Shunna Ver 3.0 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I really though the shoe was a homage to the WCW Flair-Hogan Woman's shoe angle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I watched some of this with my sister. It was fun because of her. The show was mediocre. Brock has lots of charisma. Reigns is a tough dude. WWE needs to find a way other than finisher spamming to make meaningful near falls. This was no WM 13, but it was not near WM 17 or 3 or anything. Pretty forgettable I am perplexed by some of the folks who seem defensive about people not loving the show. Weird, polarizing time to be a WWE fan. I had not planned on watching and ended up doing so, and I do see that maybe I just am disinterested in the shows completely and on a different wavelength than the typical WWE fan. My sis liked a lot of it too, and she generally enjoys the direction of the shows. I will catch Bizarro RAW because of the weird atmosphere, but I think I will take a break from the main shows otherwise and stick to old shows, NXT, NJPW, etc. I am glad that people really enjoyed it, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jREcyZJrls Brock Lesnar wasn't kidding when he said Roman Reigns was going to get an ass kicking unlike any other he's received and he was gonna fuck up Roman Reigns. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bink_winkleman Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I watched some of this with my sister. It was fun because of her. The show was mediocre. Brock has lots of charisma. Reigns is a tough dude. WWE needs to find a way other than finisher spamming to make meaningful near falls. This was no WM 13, but it was not near WM 17 or 3 or anything. Pretty forgettable I am perplexed by some of the folks who seem defensive about people not loving the show. Weird, polarizing time to be a WWE fan. I had not planned on watching and ended up doing so, and I do see that maybe I just am disinterested in the shows completely and on a different wavelength than the typical WWE fan. My sis liked a lot of it too, and she generally enjoys the direction of the shows. I will catch Bizarro RAW because of the weird atmosphere, but I think I will take a break from the main shows otherwise and stick to old shows, NXT, NJPW, etc. I am glad that people really enjoyed it, though! Yeah, same here, but I think I may watch a bit more. I enjoyed the show, and was considering not watching after Mania if the show fell flat. So I was really down on the last few months. Mania brought me back in for a bit, I think, and the idea of Rollins, Bryan, Cena and Cesaro running around with belts is very appealing to me. But all-in-all, it seemed like just an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday night. Sting/HHH was fun and I loved it, but it was also hilariously bad. That Terminator entrance was especially awful. Orton/Rollins and Bray/Taker were both meh, **-ish matches. Rusev/Cena was a blast, and Rusev had what was probably the only real "moment" when he rode in on the tank. Dude was immortalized. And while I appreciated the result, I didn't like the ladder match. But I'm extremely over clusterfuck high risk matches with a bunch of mid-carders laying around and taking turns getting their shit in. The Rousey segment was cool, but ran on. The main was great and all, but five stars? I dunno, man, five stars to me is a match that you'll want to watch again in twenty years, and I can't say this was any better than Brock/Cena or Cena/Rollins/Lesnar. I wouldn't call this a top ten 'Mania, or a best show of the year. But you know what? That doesn't matter. This was a great time and it doesn't have to be a historical game-changing Wrestlemania full of MOMENTS™ to be considered a success and a win for the WWE and its viewership. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glfpunk Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 <p> HHH AND THE ROCK! RONDA ROUSEY! HOLY SHIT! MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING FROM THE EXCITEMENT AND INSANITY! People who think that Rousey isn't as popular as LT are out of their fucking mind. Get the fuck out of the wrestling bubble.Placing Rousey and LT in the same level of popularity is EPITOME of "wrestling bubble". No one outside of wrestling/mma circles could pick her out of a lineup. LT is legitimately one of the most famous athletes of the last 40 years. I'd say easily top 15 as far as just people knowing who the fuck he is. You think in 15 years people will remember Ronda tapping out someone like they do Joe Theismann being crippled by LT? You may have literally lost your mind. Yeah because in 15 years Ronda will have tapped someone less than 15 years ago. LT retired from football 22 years ago and the Theisman thing was 30 years ago. Ronda is the top female athlete in an individual sport and lives in an age of social media. LT was one of the best linebackers of all time in a team sport... Where they wear helmets...nearly 30 years ago...in the newspaper age. More people know who Ronda Rousey is. Including people who would otherwise have no business knowing who Ronda Rousey is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRGoldman Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Wow guys, it's almost as if different people like different things about wrestling. Bonkers, I know. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Wow guys, it's almost as if different people like different things about wrestling. Bonkers, I know. GTFO with this crazy talk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I'm still amazed by Reigns and Lesnar. It didn't feel like anything else on the show. I hate to say "realism" but Lesnar just makes you feel like these dudes, Cena, Reigns are in the fight of their life. And Reigns deserves a lot of credit because he took the beating but aside from that he nailed all of his spots, sold like an ace and made everyone a believer. It's one of the best WM main events ever. I truly believe that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 (edited) Also, the Usos wore 49ers colors to Levi Stadium, so its only fitting that one immediately had to leave due to injury and the other one went on to lose both matches. Edited March 31, 2015 by BobbyWhioux 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_MJ_ Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Does anyone even keep track of the Andre battle royal? I didn't even know Cesaro had won one...until he made a joke about no one in WWE mentioning it In the past year. I dont think a long Rock/Rousey segment is the pivotal reason why WWE find the battle royal and, even some if its participants, dispensable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Everyone can evaluate matches differetly but I think you had one all-time ***** classic (main event), two ****+ matches with Rollins/Orton and the ladder match, and everything was *** or so (divas tag exempted). Combine that with the best spectacle garbage match since Hogan/Vince, two legit shock angles with the main event finish and the Rock/Rousey angle, and some of the best entrances in the company's history and it's impossible to praise this show enough. It's not WM 17, but it's the best top-to bottom Wrestlemania in maybe a decade. Did anyone think that was even possible a week ago? Did anyone think this show had any shot of being even half as good? I think when you look at all the factors it's one of the best "big shows" of all-time. I agree with all this. I'm also thinking Lesnar/Reigns may be *****. Wouldn't be surprised if Meltzer gives it ***** either. The only thing keeping Reigns/Lesnar out of all time super classico 5 star range for me is the finish. I know WHY they did it but they didn't NEED to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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