Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialWrestlemania Rant - The ramblings of a frustrated Super Fan

Wrestlemania Rant – The ramblings of a frustrated Super Fan

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So another Wrestlemania has been and gone and yet again I was left wondering at what could have been; how different things could of turned out, the what-ifs quickly turned into why-nots and i soon realised that once again the WWE had let me down and as a highly loyal fan i’d been duped into believing that this Wrestlemania was going to be Spectacular in every sense of the word…

As a huge wrestling fan (not a mark as I don’t agree with fans calling themselves marks) since the late 80’s I’ve been on a wonderful journey with the WWE, and like everyone else have experienced a wild roller coaster of a ride from 80”s superhero’s to 90s gimmicks, to the new generation, to attitude era and beyond. I’m not a writer, i’ve never wrote a blog post in my life but on the train into work yesterday morning i felt i had a lot to get off my chest.

I’m not going to talk about the current product as that alone requires an entire blog post by itself but let’s just say I’m not a fan of the PG era and very rarely watch WWE television today, however I do subscribe to the network, read every wrestling related blog, listen to every podcast and always come back to watch every PPV.

A couple of months back I found myself waking up on a Tuesday morning following RAW, upon checking my phone to read the latest ewrestlingnews, I found out the prodigal Son had returned to claim back what was rightfully his and man did he come out with an explosive bang, possibly one of the loudest pops i’ve heard in a long time…not only was Shane McMahon back on WWE TV, he was back to take over Monday Nigh Raw, or so we thought…

The promos back and forth leading into Wrestlemania were great and came across almost like a real shoot with Shane kind of being the voice of the people and sharing his frustrations with the current product and direction the company was gong in…although I did sense early on that Shane was only back for one night only, as if the WWE powers that be suddenly went into panic mode (squeaky bum time as we like to say in the UK), when the realisation kicked in that half there talent roster (ok slight exaggeration, but most of there main roster) was not going to be back in time for Mania…which meant they needed to pull out something special as before the return of Shane O’Mac the WM32 card was looking pretty shoddy at best, very lacklustre

With the return of Shane O’Mac, and pitting him against the Phenom, WM32 suddenly caught my eye and I was hooked in to the storyline..what appealed to me the most was the thought that maybe WWE Execs had finally realised things weren’t going too well with the PG era, unfortunately more and more Superstars were getting serious injuries, ok some of which were pure accidents but maybe some are due to taking risky bumps to try and make a name for themselves or “grabbing the brass ring” regardless Shane was speaking from the heart or so it felt and it made me feel like maybe the good time were returning.

WWE did a very good job (and I really mean that) of selling me a PPV on the basis that this Wrestlemania would be full of twists, “TURNS!!!”, surprises and unforgettable moments? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that got suckered in to buying this especially if you are around a similar age to me (33), but we all bought into it. Why? Because we love the WWE and have done since we were knee high to a grass hopper (RIP Roddy Piper – WM8 promo), for fans like me it really isn’t a hard sell, i’d watch Wrestlemania no matter what the card was but bringing Shane back and playing this angle got me intrigued.

So the final card for WM32 on paper actually looked ok, we were also teased with the return of THE ROCK in some shape or form and no doubt we would see a few Legends pop up throughout the show.

The morning before the big event, after staying up until 4am (UK time) watching the HOF, i finally after weeks of processing endless outcomes, gave my predictions on how WM32 would go down. To be fair there was only ever 2 matches that interested me on this card;

Shane McMahon vs The Undertaker

I assumed Undertaker would go over, as much as I wanted Shane to win to take over the reins of Raw, I knew this wouldn’t be Undertakers last WM as 1) he couldn’t go out losing to a guy that isn’t a wrestler, less face it Shane is good but he’s not a “professional wrestler” and never has been (although to be fair he could give most of the roster a run for their money), yes he’s a great athlete and takes ridiculous bumps but after the 22 Superstars that fell before him, it would be a huge insult to those guys if Shane went over…and 2) i really felt Shane was only here for a flying visit as behind the scenes we all knew he was only back to save the buy-rate for Mania as an on-screen character and does not actually have an active executive role within the company.

However….and i thought this whilst i was watching the match, where was Vince during this match, wouldn’t it of been a good idea to bring him out half way through? Perhaps just before Shane took that huge bump?

Then with Vince screaming at Taker to get up and finish him whilst he was laying there staring at Shane wide eyed, mouth open, wouldn’t it of been cool if Taker dragged Shane back into the ring, grabbed the mic, took his gloves off and said you know what Shane if it means that much to you to take over Raw, it’s yours…and with that he flips the bird to Vince lays down on the mat pulls Shane’s hand across his chest and let him pin him, 1, 2, 3.

The emotion this ending would of brought to fans around the world would of been epic.

Taker could of then stood up and officially retired from in-ring duties and following his very emotional and sad goodbye speech where for once he broke character and kayfabed, he could of thanked everyone and the two men could vow to lead the WWE into a new era.

Taker would of gone out on a huge high, he didn’t ‘lose’ so to speak he gave Shane the win for the greater cause.

But NO the obvious happened…the two men go at it, trading blows, Taker dominates, Shane makes a comeback, takes a crazy bump, Taker wins…where was the imagination and creativity there, its all just so obvious?

Roman Reigns vs HHH

So i mentioned ‘twists’ and “turns’ earlier and capitalised the word ‘turns’ as this should of been the moment creative finally did something ‘creative’, listened to the fans and turned Roman heel.
They’ve refused to do it with Cena after all these years…SURELY they couldn’t be so ignorant with Roman.
I can’t actually remember the last time the WWE did something this huge? I can only ever remember WCW doing this kind of huge surprise character switch with Hogan back in 96 and look how that panned out…ground breaking, revolutionary.

This was the final match on the card, the MAIN EVENT, up to this point the card was quite predictable with the only surprises coming for me were Zach Ryder winning the IC title (wow what a run that turned out to be, poor guy, really why bother?) and Charlotte retaining the championship, I was sure Sasha was going to go over.

Whilst i mention the Women’s Championship i was really confused here when Lita announced the new Women’s belt, and sold it like this was the first of its kind? What was the belt before the tacky-looking, silly butterfly divas belt? I’m pretty sure they used to have a proper legitimate Women’s Championship belt…anyway sorry for diverging.

So the main event was here, and as i watched Stephanie very theatrically introduce her husband I found myself asking the question ‘what am i watching here’ it felt very different and all of a sudden very ‘unwrestlemania’ like, come to think of it very ‘unWWE’ like, almost like a west-end stage show, something you would see in shows such as ‘Cats’ , ‘Phantom of the Opera’ etc, it just didn’t feel right, i know HHH is a big deal but would anyone else be allowed to do an entrance of that magnitude if they weren’t married to the bosses daughter and the current COO of WWE.

So this was the chance to turn Roman heel, and I would of done it by him turning on the biggest over babyface of all time The Rock (Roman’s cousin)

I wouldn’t of used Rock the way he was used at WM32, I felt it seemed like an after thought, almost a ‘holly crap we forgot to do something with the Rock, what shall we do’

I know lets just stick him out there and let him announce the indoor attendance record (and let him come across like the attendance record was all down to him, thanks Rock) and then we can send the Wyatt family down as we forgot about them also and they can have a little thing in the ring…good idea WWE Creative Team.

NOOOOOO!!!

The Rock should of come out much earlier on to do the attendance thing, say “Hi”, thank everyone and then leave as if we weren’t going to see him again for another year…Let the fans feel they’d been short changed when they were promised something big, make them angry, get them to BOOO!!!

He then could of come down in the main event half way through after Stephanie had interfered for the last time during the match….after multiple exchanges between her and Reigns and her sticking her heels in every chance she could, Rock finally had enough his music hits and he comes down to an electric reaction from the crowd to be at his cousins side and be in his corner.

Somehow (and this could of gone down in lots of different ways) the Rock and HHH could of got into something which resulted in The Rock almost handing RR the win and belt on a plate…

RR would then turn on Rock and explode saying he didn’t want to win it like this and he didn’t need his help and blaming Rock for always wanting centre of attention and under the constant spotlight etc etc…instantly turning him heel, as he brutally attacks his cousin in the middle of the ring.

This could of lead to an epic very traditional babyface vs heel main event at WM33 in Orlando, both of which is the home state for both men (Miami and Pensacola).

Or maybe it could of lead to a HHH v Rock WM33 main event, as they hinted that at WM31 they then could of done the epic mixed tag team bout and brought into the equation Steph and Ronda Rousey….again something they alluded to at WM31 but nothing came of it.

Bottom line they could of done anything with the main event with the outcome RR wins and turns heel….they didn’t necessarily mean HHH turning babyface its doesn’t always need to be a double turn.
But NO the obvious happened…the two men go at it, going back and forth at one another, RR wins cleanly in the middle of the ring and stays babyface. This was almost done to show fans ‘see HHH can put people over and doesn’t always have to win’

It’s like creative sat there and thought, hopefully now after seeing the efforts of RR and the fact that he beat The Cerebral Assassin, The Game, HHH…there gonna love him.

Nope fans still don’t like him and BOOOOO’d him like crazy…he’s never going to be over.
So WM32 came to very predictable, not creative end and in the eyes of Vince, HHH, Steph and all the writers and producers they did it…they pulled it off.

They delivered a record breaking attendance PPV and covered up the fact very well that a lot of big names were out and they still sold the place out (or nearly)…and the plan for Shane to come back and tease a takeover served its purpose well and managed to put asses in seats.

But what they failed to deliver was a show full of twists, “TURNS!!!”, surprises and unforgettable moments…
I hear a lot from past talent on podcasts, about the current product and a lot I have to agree with, I hear the likes of Vince Russo talk about the current writing team or committee and how different it is today from when he was head writer, but seriously, 12 guys in a room writing for WWE came up with these match outcomes…come on guys this is Wrestlemania, pull out all the stops, think outside the box, go to the extreme…give the fans something to talk about.

Your efforts are not good enough.

So off the back of Mania, Shane comes out on Raw and Vince says after everything ‘oh actually after all you went through last night you can have a go of controlling Raw…why not’’
Really????? Really??? (in my best Miz impression) Really???

Rant over…

P.S – Michael Cole in the 3 way women’s title match…WTF??? surely he can tell the difference between all 3 ladies? Becky and Sasha look quite different Mr Cole. Once was bad, twice was ridiculous but 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th times was just a sackable offence in my opinion.

#BringbackJRandtheKing

Also final thing i promise…why can’t WM be on a Saturday can anyone tell me why it’s always been on a Sunday night? Us poor guys in the UK have to stay up until 4am if we want to watch it live, we all have work the next day?

Why not do it on a Saturday, its a win win for all, as it also gives the entire company a chance to spend the Sunday with there families instead of going straight into MNRaw, surely it makes sense.

#WMonasaturday

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