Dolfan in NYC Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Kevin Owens stealing Day 1 is a very pleasant surprise. Honestly, this wasn't that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 I miss wrestling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Jeremy Borash carried Undertaker to his best Mania match since wrestling Shawn. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Kino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Give Borash ALL THE FUCKING MONEY! That was amazing. Rest of the card was pretty good too. I imagine Braun's reign lasts until Roman can leave his house and not a second more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 If campy, overproduced shit is the only way Taker can work anymore, then so be it. That was phenomenal. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 (edited) I loved this show, folks. They should’ve just used Aretha instead of that America the Beautiful supercut, but since they did they’re absolute cowards for omitting the DX Band. Gronk on mic reminds me of rookie Sting promos. He had nothing to really say, but gosh he was enthusiastic about it. I enjoyed just about everything on the card. I didn’t even mind Elias/Corbin, which is a miracle. I was way into Becky/Baszler. This was one that was helped by the empty arena because it sounded brutal. I had a feeling we’d see a Bret flash pin for the finish. Pleasantly surprised she didn’t sit in the clutch for like three minutes teasing a tap out. Sami/Bryan was a thing of beauty. It didn’t even feel like a modern WWE match. I don’t know if we would’ve gotten it in quite this fashion if it had been in front of an audience, but if it had the crowd would have gone banana. One nice thing about the ladder match was there were half as many guys having to lay around on the outside for their next spot. Though all that brutality in an empty room started to remind me of my local indie shows. Cute finish. KO missed an opportunity not coming out dressed as a Roman centurion. Owens going full Martin Riggs by talking shit while getting beat down with the chair was great. It’s never not funny to me to hear the ringing noise when someone gets hit with the bell. Neither half of this overstayed its welcome when I expected it to. Braun/Goldberg wasn’t the pleasant surprise Brock/Goldberg was at Mania a few years ago, but it was fine under the circumstances. The Boneyard Match was edited like Bohemian Rhapsody, but that’s okay because I got to hear Biker Taker talk that shit. It is strange we veered from AJ proving his greatness in-ring to him and like twelve guys trying to recreate the ending of Casino. This is easily the best of their efforts to bite off of the original Hardy compound stuff. Honestly knowing there isn’t a crowd sitting in their hands restlessly watching this on a monitor makes it a much better experience than most of these remote deals. We’re done at 10 o’clock! This show was what we used to expect from the biggest card of the year. Settling issues with grudge matches and big fights over championships. I had way fewer complaints about the way it was timed than I have in the past. Even if tomorrow is only half as good, I think it’s hard to argue the two day experiment shouldn’t become the norm. Edited April 5, 2020 by (BP) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Not sure what was crazier... the KO highspot or John Morrison WALKING THE LENGTH OF THE RING ROPE WITHOUT ASSISTANCE then hitting a Spanish Fly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Just now, Raziel said: I imagine Braun's reign lasts until Roman can leave his house and not a second more. Roman’s a weak man who’s afraid of the virus. Braun’s the real big dog now. Woof! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
For Great Justice Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Boneyard Match was fucking awesome, legit. Borash with Michael Bay money. Shit was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 4 minutes ago, nofuture said: Jeremy Borash carried Undertaker to his best Mania match since wrestling Shawn. The ‘97 match, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Anyone that shits on that Boneyard match needs to be kicked off the fucking board Okay sorry I have been drinking heavy tonight. But seriously if you hate that match fuck you go watch EVOLVE or some shit 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 This was.... AMAZING. Damn. Everyone worked their asses off of course. I think they should have done more to liven up the set in the performance center but that's my only gripe, really. I mean, they should probably have a few people in the crowd too to make some noise. But otherwise the ladder match was very good and Owens/Rollins was very hard hitting. I liked Becky vs. Shayna but I didn't like the finish. Braun killing Goldberg was delightful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 1 minute ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said: The ‘97 match, right? I assume he means the Houston Wrestlemania. The match I still say is the greatest match I have ever seen live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 And then obviously the BONEYARD MATCH.. I was all in at the super ridiculous entrances.. AJ's trolling and Undertaker coming down the road on the bike like the Terminator. That was godly produced for what it was. I loved it. I'm ready for Night 2. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Damn. That was some "Walker Texas Ranger" shit. And I mean that in a good way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Not at all familiar with 2020 WWE, I only watched ... Gulak vs Cesaro: Interesting narrative with Cesaro going for the Neutralizer early and paying for it as Gulak started on the arm. Consistently great selling from Cesaro even when he didn't need to sell necessarily. It made things like Gulak hitting the clothesline off the apron more believable: Cesaro wasn't just standing around waiting for it. He was struggling to get feeling back in his arm. The heel/face dynamic was a little inverted. Cesaro was the one getting hope spots, like when he almost caught Gulak on the outside before getting armdragged or with the european uppercut that he couldn't follow up on because he used his bad arm. I'm assuming they were playing this up with Gulak as the underdog which made both Cesaro going for the neutralizer too early and the overall narrative (with Gulak being so focused because if Cesaro took over, even once he'd be in real trouble) make sense. Finish worked well as he had to come up with a no hands solution, and he had a familiar (if ancient) one in his deck. I could have used a couple of extra minutes, maybe Cesaro actually getting control for a bit longer either early or late but for the time they had, this was very good. Women's tag: I don't think I've seen much of either team. Kairi and Bliss matched up from a size and perkiness perspective. The shine had lots of fireworks (and dives) with the heels really working for the transition. There were about three hot tags, all of which were hurt due to the lack of a crowd and not quite enough anticipation. The match probably would have been served better with one longer one with Bliss since she did well with her hope spots (though having Asuka to cut her off helped). Using both the twisted bliss and the big elbow drop as ways to break up pins was cute and effective. Finish felt really flat without a crowd. I'm not sure what else you can say but that. Becky vs Shayna: I think Becky came off better than usual here. I haven't seen any of her stuff for the last year or so, really, but I know she had a hard time holding the crowd before that. Ironically, I think this one might have. They really took it to each other and the acoustics helped every shot seem nasty, mostly hard hitting with attempts to lock on the finishes but with that little underlying story of Becky slipping into her old ways in the face of Shayna's tenacity was good but Shayna almost pushed her past it with the shots on the floor. She still snuck it out on a banana peel, like Bret did with Austin when he was coming up at Survivor Series. This worked well but it was hard to live up to the first minute or two and felt more like a first match than anything else. Bryan vs Sami: One way to make these matches work is by hitting really hard (and they did here too), but the most important way, I think is to have the wrestlers really, really, really care about what's happening. If they're that invested, then it won't matter if there's a crowd or not. Sure the crowd would help and they'd give a bunch more heat for Sami playing chickenshit, but at the end of the day, it was Bryan that was reacting. And he was reacting so well that he didn't need them. Sami was drawing heat FROM Bryan and it drove the match. I liked that the finish was just a one hit KO on Bryan. It felt more cheap that way. By this point, I realized that they never would have booked this Mania if everything had gone right, but if they had, it probably would have been one of the best in years. Goldberg vs Braun: As if two 12 year olds looked up the "infinite finishers" code in a video game. Taker vs AJ was incredibly enjoyable, and I absolutely loved the moment of Taker appearing behind AJ with all the light. Great trash talking. Needed more talk of Taker making him famous. Should be Taker's last match. Something positive to go out on. I skipped Corbin vs Elias, Owens vs Rollins, and watched the first 2 minutes of the ladder match, hated the missed kick choreography and monkey flip shit and decided to not think of it again. Best Mania since 30 so far, weird as it may be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 (edited) I would have preferred LImp Bizkit but if you are going to play new Metallica then that really is the best song from the new Metallica. Except for Corbin vs Eiias and maybe Goldberg vs Braun I though this was a great Night 1. I was ready for a huge disappointment given the pre show and Gronk being the most annoying asshole in the world but man all the matches really delivered to me Unless Jeremy Borash is doing Cena vs the Fiend they are so fucked tomorrow. Edited April 5, 2020 by hammerva 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 I was thinking about that. It's definitely been better than WrestleMania 32 and maybe some others. I am ALL IN on the two nights. It was a very brisk 3 hours. Grudges were settled. Everything had time to breathe. Now I can throw it on tomorrow and not feel burned out. The match card for tomorrow is pretty promising too.. I think it's going to be another good night. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maciej Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Boneyard ruled, and, honestly, I thought everything else was at the very least good as well (maybe Goldberg/Strowman aside? and if the only bad thing is 2 minutes long, that's more than fine). I dunno if I'm just being a softie trying my hardest to appreciate what all these wrestlers are doing trying their hardest to have memorable Mania matches in a crowdless and wildly unsafe environment, but I found it surprisingly easy to drown out the lack of crowd noise and just get into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Oh yeah, definite props to everyone smart enough to realize the only way to make this watchable is to work super snug. Becky-Shayna was the one match tonight I was really looking forward to, and they did their level best. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 I have zero idea what has happened, I'm still trying to get this shit to play, but this was my experience I described in the other thread: Not commenting on the show itself, but the WWE Network is fucking garbage. I'm watching on my browser since I'm playing a game on my other monitor and I just started the show 30 minutes ago. First, when I clicked on start from the beginning, it started live. Refreshing really quickly got me back to the same screen where I could choose to watch live or watch from the beginning. Again, I chose to watch from the beginning. I fast forwarded through a couple things and I'm watching Becky vs Shayna. Then it freezes. It won't unfreeze. I scrub to rewind and the player starts playing again, but the play, skip ahead, and skip backwards buttons won't fade from the middle of the window. I deal with it through the Becky vs Shayna match until I figure I can just refresh and know on the timestamp where I should go to to resume. NOPE. Now there's no fucking option to watch WrestleMania. Fucking laughable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Conn Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Show wasn’t bad. Boneyard Match stole the show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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