WrestleMania I'm just so underwhelmed.

[Snowman1]

For the record, I didn't watch Wrestlemania. I had a friend visiting, and thought that fooling around on Call of Duty was a better use of my time than watching a PPV that was so poorly built as this one.

Lets start out with the positives: From all I've heard, the wrestlers themselves deserve a lot of credit for this show. Most of them put on a good performance, the wrestling was all fine and dandy. That's no real surprise. But the buildup did them no favors as it really didn't have that "Wrestlemania feel" to it. That's even less of a surprise.

But WWE themselves deserve no credit for this PPV. At all. When I was reading what was going on live, I just found myself thinking the same as during the Rumble, hoping the predictable shit didn't happen, constantly forcing to be a mark and be in denial that everything wasn't so painfully obvious. HHH was winning. Taker was winning. ADR was winning. Cena was getting the "torch passed". Predictable shit isn't bad as long as it isn't actual shit, and in many of these cases it was. But wait, you mean Big Show didn't become close friends overnight with Sheamus and Orton, and he was still a self-serving bitch all along? SHOCKER. Biggest storyline anticlimax since Hogan announced his retirement on Impact to get out of his match with Sting at BFG 2011.

(Granted, we got one swerve. None of us saw Mark Henry going over Ryback. Congratulations, instead of 1 star made by this PPV, you get 0. Applause. Maybe that's a "smart mark complaint" but when Austin himself said there's only one main eventer on the roster, it's hard not to let that affect your viewing of the show)

And I bring up that moment in TNA for a reason, that's really where I am with WWE right now. At the time, WWE was finally trying something cool with CM Punk being the voice of the smart-marks, meanwhile in TNA we just had Sting enlist an army of clowns to steal the title from a jobber faction amid 50 ref bumps. You were so optimistic towards WWE which really made TNA and their same old shit feel incredibly underwhelming.

But you know what TNA did then? Dump Vince Russo on his ass and put the belt on Bobby Roode. They've rarely looked back. What will WWE do? Maybe fan backlash is what it'll take to cause some change, but they'll probably just look at us as "lol 10%" like they always do. Guess what, Vince: Just the "lol 10%" tuning out doesn't get you a 2.2 rating. Maybe, as a great philosopher once said, "this place isn't going to change until Vince McMahon's dead", but we can hope. Hope, like we were hoping for Cena to not win the Rumble like we all predicted in July.

I really, really hate being so negative. I love this business in large part because I love you guys, and because there are plenty of guys in the back (Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Rhodes, Sandow, Rollins, Ambrose, Kofi, Cesaro, Titus, Christian, Henry, Del Rio, Dibiase, Kidd, Mysterio, Riley, Jericho, the Uso's, a motivated Barrett, even Miz, Cena, and Big Show at times) who I really enjoy watching on TV each week. The WWE roster right now is awesome, the best they've had in a while. It's just a shame that they have to deal with this corporate structure, horrendous creative team, and Vince.

End rant.

 

[Rysenberg]

Bumping this thread so everybody can read and like the above post. Really great summary of WWE at the moment.

The bit that gets me most is Ziggler and Bryan being stuck in the lower card, lumbered with those two incumbents, and getting a colossal reaction in 3-4 minutes of wrestling; While Triple H, in a match that got 3,054,575 vignettes every Raw, got crickets. Bryan is so over it's just ridiculous now, the crowd absolutely erupted for him at the start of the match. Couldn't they have just had him face Brock? Seriously? The crowd would have absolutely loved it. Ziggler as well, why didn't they have him face ADR? It makes sense in just about every way possible, would have been a better match, and the crowd would have been electric.

It's getting to the point where I reckon it's just Vince being stubborn for the sake of it. He must know we're right. He must look at these young guys and know that they deserve a push. He must look at these babyface characters - Cena, Orton, Sheamus etc - get weak reactions and realise that this whole face/heel concept is outdated. He's bonkers but he's still an incredibly smart man; his downfall is that he absolutely refuses to admit defeat to people who have been telling him these things for years - even though deep down he knows they're right.

 

[Crayo]

Could not agree more. This post has 6 likes for a reason. Fantastic post. It completely sums up my feelings for WWE right now, and I'm supposed to be the eternal optimist. I do think change is on the horizon because how long can part-timers draw as much as they have recently? I would have never thought 2 or so years ago when Rock came back that I'd actually be pleased that he's gone for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love Rock so much, but if he's put into a feud that benefits NO ONE, or somebody that doesn't need it, and then takes the main event and all the decent built, he can gtfo. Same applies for Lesnar.

Those two main event spots could have been based around an actual interesting storyline for The Shield, consisting of 3 wrestlers with HUGE potential, and an actual MITB match. MITB matches never disappoint, but WWE are so whipped by the common dollar that shoving a match everyone loved onto a PPV makes more sense to them. My point is, the three "main events" normally make Wrestlemania, and they absolutely sucked this year. This year we were provided with Rock/Cena which everyone predicted correctly, Brock/HHH which everyone predicted correctly, and the most obvious "streak match" we've had in years. It was abysmal.

What can we look forward to though? The three part-timers stealing spotlight instead of "passing the torch" to youth are gone for a while, so more spotlight on the actual roster -- which is a great roster -- is there for grabs. We can look forward to somebody getting that push into the main event scene with Cena. Whether you like Cena, or Cena reigns, you can not deny that it does help build stars. Look how amazing Wade Barrett looked in the main event with Cena during his Nexus days. We can look forward to an undefeated dominant Shield which can get back into relevancy, and then the eventual split with them that will bring gold. We can look forward to Punk returning from his rumoured break and probably returning with a gimmick similar to his Summer of Punk one.

All in all, this Wrestlemania being one of the worst ever might just turn out to be a positive. Yep, I managed to find positives from this Mania, I really am the leader of #TeamOptimism.

 

[GrammarNazi82]

*standing ovation for Bully* So so very well stated, and a wonderful -- yet disheartening -- summary of WWE. Doubt anyone could have said it any better. The wrestlers in general do the best they can with what they have and what opportunities they are given, but WWE is letting them down while Vince lets the fans down continually with not delivering the opportunities the wrestlers deserve and have earned.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

You've managed to take my months and months of bitching and turn it into a succinct thread pointing out all of the major fallacies of WWE.

They are just a bunch of lazy bastards who could not care less how terrible they are because plenty of blueberries still make their pockets fat.

 

[Pop Tatari]

Excellent post Bully Rain,i never watched mania as well just checked the results when i got up today.

No wonder certain talent have been very dismissive to theses part timers, all that air time for Lesnar just for HHH to get his win back,could of happened on a episode of raw. No point whatsoever for Lensar to return,only he and HHH benefited from the pay day.

How is young talent supposed to grow and be the future of the company when they are being held back?

 

[Cloud]

My thoughts everything until the last two matches of WM was great but Trips and Lesnar, Rock and Cena bored me to tears and really brought down WM.

 

[Crayo]

Think this is one of the most liked posts in the site history lol. Congrats bro.

 

[GrammarNazi82]

Think this is one of the most liked posts in the site history lol. Congrats bro.

:

@"Bully Rain" =

 

[Snowman1]

Think this is one of the most liked posts in the site history lol. Congrats bro.

Haha thanks! If you don't mind me asking, what's the record?

(See, this is the great thing about being a smartmark, and how us "knowing too much" isn't killing our love for the business. Think our collective frustration as a fanbase was really turned on us on Raw. WM killed my buzz for the product, and then they dragged me back in on Raw and it felt fantastic.)

 

[Irwin R. Schyster]

This is all old news and probably not going to change for a while. Vince finds his big stars and sticks with them because he feels 'comfortable'. He is afraid to let someone else get ahead, which is fucking stupid, because a lot of guys have the potential to be up top. Cena is his Hogan, he feels 'safe' with Cena up top, and, regardless of the boos he gets at times, he is still hailed as the hero, the poster boy of the company, and his popularity still outshines the hate he gets. That makes Vince happy and he doesn't want to put time and effort in to other guys, he would rather just sit back and let his 'established' wrestlers continue to dominate the main event.

I mentioned this in another thread, but, build ups can't happen properly like they used to because there are far too many fucking PPVs. Same guys on just about every card, almost always the same outcome, and then you see the same guys fight AGAIN on Raw/SD. It's like deja vu every single week.

When they do try to give a new guy a chance, the guy usually ends up disappearing. Bo Dallas is a pathetic fuckwad, but, finally, they had someone different going after someone who has made a name for himself in Barrett. Then...uh....yeah....he just fucking went away and slipped back on to NXT. Regardless of how pathetic he is, he got people talking, and was a new face on Raw. How does one go from making an impact at Royal Rumble, eliminating 6 people and being one of the longest participants in their debut, to upsetting Wade Barrett, to just disappearing in to the Raw shadows and going back to NXT? They get momentum going and then randomly stop it.


This also happened a few years ago when Swagger was getting his first major push. He was so over and then, wow, what the fuck, WHERE DID HE GO? It was like he just fell off the face of the earth.

Vince seems to be a pussy when it comes to change. He likes his champs, he likes his big names, he LOVES his roiders, he doesn't want to take a chance. It makes no sense when it comes to people like Bryan because he is over as fuck so there is no need to have him sticking around with Kane. Both of them can do just fine on their own, and a huge solo Bryan push, well, Vince has to be absolutely dunce to not know this would be a well received push.


I think most people in the WM betting that was held here got most of their answers right. That's pathetic when the winners are so predictable (minus Henry, I honestly thought Ryback was going to take that one).

The writing is built around laziness.