WM Reactions

[Swarm]

4/10

I officially tapped out after Kofi/Bryan. That was the best match on the card, felt like the main event, and I was dead after nearly 6 hours at that point. Missed (avoided) Roman/Drew HHH/Batista, Angle/Corbin, Lashley/Lil' Boogyman/and the "main event" that I read was the botch fest stinker it was expected to be. Glad to see Brock leaving as he's obviously above all this nonsense. Now the new face of the company is a ball puncher. Great booking.

[Deleted]

I crashed at the end of HHH/Batista. I don't think it was a bad show from what I saw, probably enjoyed it more than last year from what I did see, but the show's just too damn long. Kofi/Bryan was an incredible match.

[Swarm]

I thought the 2 pre show title changes were really good. Both battle royals were filled with people who should be let go. Sure, there’s a little talent in there but nobody special outside of Braun. The roster is obviously way too big. Same for all the multiple person title matches. A lot of those participants didn’t need to be there.

[Crossbones]

I went into this years WM with low expectations, but I thought it delivered more than what I thought it would. I liked the AJ Styles/Orton match. I'm find with the overall show of it.

[cman]

I missed the Cruiserweight Title match and womens battle royal, but from what I heard I didnt miss much. Overall I enjoyed mania this year. To me the only stinkers were Triple H/Batista and Corbin/Angle. Daniel Bryan/Kofi was the best on the show, and the main event wasnt a total botch fest but I think even the crowd was burned out by that point. I do agree though that they could shave off at least 2 hours and have way less multiperson matches.

[pikemojo]

I couldn't start watching until the kids were in bed so I missed quite a few matches at the beginning of the show. What I did see I liked. I've heard complaints about the main event but I thought those 3 ladies killed it. I don't know if the ending was a mistake or not but they should definitely use it to set up a feud down the line. "The only reason you even have that belt is because the incompetent ref didn't see my shoulders come off the mat!"

Anyways... I also thought Balor/Lashley was surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because I've just never REALLY loved either of those two guys. Kofi/Bryan was very good, though I have no clue why they would put the title on Kofi.

Angle's retirement match was not good. It essentially felt like Angle was told to he had to fit all of his greatest hits into 5 minutes so it never felt like there was any "connective tissue" between his big moves. Then Baron Corbin wins... I hope it wasn't actually Angle's last match. He deserved much better than that.

[Shane Sullivan]

I watched from beginning to end as I’m sick had nothing else to do. But I will say I actually enjoyed the show.

What I loved: Andrade is the next Eddie. Just in the little time he had he was the lone stand out in either battle royal.

Ricochet’s entrance. That kid genuinely was in awe of the moment and I felt it.

Iconics win: don’t care what anyone says i popped and laughed my ass off. Those two with the belts will be craptastic and I will love every minute. They are really the only true tag team since day one of their arrival.

Kofi and Bryan. Holy shit did that deliver. I kept thinking that no one is surpassing that. Wow. Bryan is the best heel. That slow methodical LaBell lock was fantastic. He was so evil. I loved it. I loved seeing Woods legit ugly cry at his buddy winning the titles. Another emotional moment. Although the box at the end and the new belt under the old one was poorly executed. Gots to sell that merch.

Samoa Joe. Such a legit bad ass character.

Cesaro’s Giant swing while Shamus beat the hell out of everyone was so great.

Angle looking at the lights. How all the legends should go out. Putting over a younger guy. Corbin will be even a biggger piece of crap now. “Look at me I retired Angle.” I can’t wait to see that guy get pounded. Great heel rub.

The Animal looked good for such a lay-off. If this match was ten minutes shorter it would have been my third favorite of the night. But it went just a bit too long.

Thuganomics flash back. I popped so much for this as I think Elias is a wasted character with no future. Back in the day I loved this John Cena.

The Man winning in the end was a good capper on the night.

The bad:
Seven hours is waaaay too damn long.

Battle royals at WrestleMania are the shits. I think It buried the talent and showcases no one. Although Almas and Sane did try to shine.

I don’t like Lesner or Rollins. So this match going first was fine got it over with.

I hate face Miz. Glad he lost. Shane takes a great ass kicking. But this match sucked.

About half the matches could have been removed and it would have been epic. I want to say Kofi and Bryan going on last would have been the move as the main event was just a good match. Although I wonder if the crowd could have mustered the pop it had for Kofi if it had to wait three more hours. That crowd did do a good job selling matches even though they had to go seven hours. I think only the Roman and Drew match suffered from crowd fatigue.

I had no expectations of this one and after takeover I thought WM would be dead on arrival. I was very entertained and enjoyed the payoffs.

[Swarm]

I agree about Almas. Blue chip prospect. Like Braun, deserves better than that battle royal.

[Tournament Master]

I refered to the show last night as the Wrestlemania House Show. Almost all the good guys won. Was fun, but exhausting in person. I think next time I will do the indie stuff and maybe NXT and skip mania itself...unless my son wants to go.

[ajcostello]

I missed the pre-show stuff due to family obligations but I honestly don't feel like I missed anything noteworthy, really.

Before I get too deep into my thoughts on the show, I feel a strong need to say that the show was WAY TOO G'DAMN LONG. I (kind of) understand that they want to do all the battle royals and triple threats and fatal four ways and whatnot to give everyone a chance at being on the card but honestly? I don't think that everybody DESERVES to be on the damn card. Maybe it's me being an old man shaking my fists at the sky and yelling at kids to "get off my lawn!" but I remember a time when you had to actually do something that people cared about to get booked on the big show. I miss those days.

I will also say that with all the wrestling and wrestling-related stuff over the last week I am very much burned out. Too much of something you love is still too much.

As for Mania itself? Here goes.

I didn't mind Brock/Rollins going on first because I absolutely can't be convinced to give a crap about Lesnar at all. Your mileage may vary.

Smackdown tag team title match was just too many guys in the match and all trying to get in their spots and it just wasn't something that felt organic to me. It really did feel, to me, like they wanted to put as many guys on the PPV as possible, regardless of anything resembling interest.

Kofi/Bryan was wonderful. Even with the finish being spoiled by WWE themselves. I still loved the story that those two told.

I think the Samoa Joe squashing of Rey was a good thing as it reminded people that Joe can be a great heel character to be taken seriously as a bad ass.

I was disappointed by Angle wrestling Corbin to start with, so the finish left me feeling flat. I get it that Kurt did the right thing by putting someone over on his way out. I get that and I respect that, but I just wished it was with someone other than who it was with. I've never liked Baron Corbin and no, it wasn't because he's a heel and I'm supposed to hate him. I just don't care for him or his work. I'll say this much, though: since he got rid of the Venom symbiote that was attacking his head and started covering up his soft midsection, my appreciation of him has increased exponentially. Still don't like him. Nothing anyone says will convince me to change my mind.

Didn't care for the Triple H/Batista match for reasons that I won't get into here. I thought Triple H's entrance was stupid and if he was going for a Mad Max vibe, I think he was a few years too late to cash in on that one. I thought Dave looked great, though.

I actually liked Miz/Shane WAY more than I thought I would. And I say that as someone who doesn't think that Miz should ever work babyface or that Shane McMahon should have never been put over as "the best in the world". At all. Again, I won't go into my usual diatribe about all the things that I dislike about the McMahon Family and how they keep insisting on putting themselves over as better than their talent that they have recently said are so important to them.

Fun seeing retro John Cena even though I have zero interest in anything that Elias does or has ever done for that matter.

I thought there were too many fatal four ways on the card, and the women's tag match was no exception.

And, as for the main event? I have never made my feelings about them shoehorning Charlotte into things unknown. And I get that there were probably reasons. And I understand some of those reasons. I still feel, however, that making it a triple threat match kinda took the drama out of Becky winning the Rumble to earn her title shot, really. Like, why go through all the effort of telling the story of Becky's Heroe's Journey if it was just going to end up the way it did? Anyway. Yeah, the ending looked bad, but overall I liked the match. F**k Ronda Rousey. I've never liked her and I hope she goes away forever.