I realize in hindsight that I was rather.....kind about last year’s Wrestlemania. I admit that I was caught up in the spectacle, and wasn’t as objective as I should be. Wrestlemania 32 had horrendous booking, and in the months after (Hell, to be honest, the rest of 2016) had cause some awful damage. There were some cool introductions on RAW the night after, but it was very obvious that there was far more bad than good. Will this Wrestlemania prove to be a far superior event? Will it do far more good than bad? Well, check it my review below, and enjoy.
Arena
Before I go into the preshow/kickoff portion of the review, I should make mention of the arena, as it seems to be a character this year as well. Given the tagline “The Ultimate Thrillride”, it only makes sense that it’s a spectacle: it is the largest stage I’ve seen so far since I started doing reviews on the event, and a rollercoaster was built into the stage. The ring they made was awesome as well, with a second decorative ring built on top. The ramp was unusually long, as it was measured at 70 or 80 yards long. The arena was also far more packed at the beginning this year than last year, with the report of 70,000 people in the seats, and later on it was reported that the total number of individuals there was 75,245. This year the New Day were the hosts, but surprisingly they didn’t have than many moments throughout the show, but it was the first time they appeared. They didn’t come out of a giant box of Booty O’s, but instead were dressed up in Final Fantasy themed garb, and it was wonderfully ridiculous given their nature.
Neville vs Austin Aries (Cruiserweight Championship)
Prediction: Neville
Actual Winner: Neville
- This was one of the few matches on this entire show that I didn’t have much investment with. I haven’t had much time with the cruiserweight division, and seeing as how the whole group just comes across as another part of the show, It doesn’t really pull me in. On the other hand, Neville is actually a good candidate to be the head of the division, as he actually has a lot of skill, although he still looks goofy as hell. Austin Aries was a good opponent for him as well, and to be honest this was actually a good match to start off the preshow/kickoff. Both men used a lot of locks & holds, and there were a lot of close calls the entire time. Ultimately, Neville won due to the Red Arrow, and is still your Cruiserweight Championship.
Only complaint: There was a commercial about one-fourth/halfway through the match. It was for Snickers I believe, and really disrupted the flow of the bout. WWE, you really couldn’t help yourselves, could you?
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Prediction: ?
Actual Winner: Mojo Rawley
- To be perfectly honest, I did really have much invest in this match either. Ever since the first memorial battle royal, it’s essentially been turned into a joke & dumping ground for wrestlers that aren’t getting used on the card. I didn’t even have a guess as to who would win, and the fact that Mojo Rawley won was proof of how much this match is so minor. It was even worse when the big guys, particularly Brawn Stroman, were taken out early in favor for those that didn’t seem like they were going to win. The only reason that Mojo even won was because he had outside help from Rob Gronkowski, and the only reason that Rob helped was because one of the superstars (Jinder Mahal) messed with him. It honestly should be a surprise that Mojo won, since him & Rob had a picture with each other a day or two ago. My least favorite match on the preshow/kickoff
Dean Ambrose vs Baron Corbin (Intercontinental Championship)
Prediction: Dean Ambrose
Actual Winner: Dean Ambrose
- There are people who hate this match. There are people who hate Dean Ambrose. There are people who hate Baron Corbin. I’m hear to say......you’re somewhat right. The match itself, while not terrible, certainly was not great. Dean deserves some criticism, but not too much. Corbin......yeah, Corbin is horrendous! In Dean’s defense he was a bit more flexible when compared to Corbin, and was willing to go a little more down the high-flyer route, and unlike Corbin, seemed to be having fun. The two kept pinning each other constantly, trading pin after pun, but Ambrose got the pin with a End of Days/Dirty Deeds combo, and still holds the Intercontinental Championship
Mainshow
AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon
Prediction: ?
Actual Winner: AJ Styles
- Let’s start off with the 1st match of the night, and let me say that this was a lot of fun. Not my most favorite match (More on that in a bit), but definitely one of the best. You had two good combatants, there was a solid story, and both sides looked great. Shane didn’t have as ridiculous of a spot (He jumped through a table instead of falling 17 feet onto a table), but he was bumping around constantly with AJ, who helped Shane put on a hell of show. It sort of turned into a street-fight at one point, with tables & trash cans. The two kept trading move for move, hold for hold, but ultimately AJ won due to the Phenominal 4-Arm. Hopefully the story between the two is over with & things move on.
Chris Jericho vs Kevin Owens (United States Championship)
Prediction: Chris Jericho
Actual Winner: Kevin Owens
- Let me start off by saying this: the talent between these 2 is impressive. Both have fantastic histories in the wrestling business. My problem is that their feud comes across as incredibly childish, and I think Kevin Owens at this point is too annoying as a heel. He started off being a heel because he said he did it “for his family”, but that aspect seems to have been dropped for a while, and now is just a fat bully. That said, the two had a fantastic bout, with each using their character traits quite well. Owens constantly berated Jericho & smacked him around, while Jericho came out with a scarf with lights twinkling (Think hipster Christmas tree), and had his usual smug swagger. Owens managed to use a power bomb on Jericho on the ring corner, and then got the win, becoming the new United States Championship.
Quick side note: Owens avoided a pin by putting a finger on the bottom rope. I’ll leave it at that.
Bailey vs Charlotte Flair vs Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax (4-Way Women’s Championship)
Prediction: Nia Jax
Actual Winner: Bayley
- I’ll say this: the women’s division has been improved since they were stopped being called divas. There seemed to be a fire lit under their asses, and everybody seemed to be doing a little better. That said, not all of the girls have been great, and thus I didn’t have much investment. When compared to the other women’s match however, there was a little more organization going on. I wanted Nia Jax to win because she’s the women’s division’s current tank, and she would be different.....nope! Nia was taken out by Charlotte, Sasha, and Bailey, and that’s when I really didn’t care anymore. Sasha was taken out next, which was surprising, and thus Charlotte & Bailey were left. For a second I thought that the Women’s title would get put back on her, but then Bailey managed to get her over the top rope, and thus she’s still our Women’s Championship.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs Cesaro & Sheamus (Triple Threat RAW Tag Team Championship Ladder Match)
Prediction: Enzo Amore & Big Cass
Actual Winner: Matt & Jeff Hardy
- No, you’re not hallucinating! The Hardy Boys made a shocking & surprise return to WWE after a long time, but it was actually a clever return. The New Day came out after the other teams did, and for a moment it almost appeared as if they were going to insert themselves into the match, which would have been nice. To be perfectly honest, I lost all track of what was going on, simply because of the fact that Matt & Jeff Hardy came back to a WWE ring. It wasn’t the “Broken” gimmick they were using in TNA (Long Story), but rather their old selves. There was so much action, it was almost captivating. The Hardy Boys won as they should have, and I had the most fun watching this watch when compared to everything.
John Cena & Nikki Bella vs The Miz & Maryse
Prediction: John Cena & Nikki Bella
Actual Winner: John Cena & Nikki Bella
- If there was a match that could be called predictable, it would be this one. The rumors that Cena would propose to Nikki were flying around for weeks before, and they only cropped up more as it got closer. As Mish from the Wrestling Soup podcast said: “They’re the new Macho Man & Elizabeth”. WWE hasn’t had a power couple in a long time, and it seems that Cena & Nikki are that new couple. It’s a shame, as Miz & Maryse deserve sometime in the spotlight as well. Granted, Miz’s heel gimmick is far too annoying at this point, but you can definitely make some arguments for him & Maryse to be the power couple of WWE. Despite on who gets what, the man itself was nice. Nothing spectacular, but you can see what they were going for.
Seth Rollins vs Triple H (Non-Sanctioned Match)
Prediction: Seth Rollins
Actual Winner: Seth Rollins
- Another match that I though was predictable, although not quite as much. Triple H always seemed to have the upper hand in the buildup, and when he went back onto Seth’s knee, it almost appeared that Triple H was going to be the one to win. Once the two of them got into the ring, this foggy nature was somehow thicker. Seth was fighting as hard as he could, as Triple H was fighting dirty constantly. Whether it was interference from his wife, or because of a move the ref didn’t see, he always had the upper hand. At one point Seth & Triple H were trading pedigree for pedigree, but this resulted in him bumping into his wife, and she fell through a table that was setup. This distracted Triple H long enough for Seth to setup one last pedigree, and he managed to get revenge against his former mentor.
One other point: Triple H’s entrance this year seemed weaker in comparison to the last two Wrestlemanias. This time around, it was just him & his wife coming down on his 3-wheel bike, and were being led to the ring by a motorcade. Still badass, but not quite as “Showy” as previous events.
Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton (WWE Championship)
Prediction: Randy Orton
Actual Winner: Randy Orton
- Like the AJ & Shame match, this bout had a lot of story behind it. Essentially, Orton slithered his way into the Wyatt family, and over the course of a few months gained Bray’s trust, while at the same time weakening the family for his own gain. In the weeks before, things escalated to the point where Orton burned down the Wyatt compound, destroying the resting place of Sister Abigail in the process. With that said....
This was a good match. Not as monumental & great as the buildup led me to believe, but there was still some fun to be had. Of note were the entrances for Bray & Orton: Bray came out to his typical theme song, and the crowd had their phones up to become his fireflies like normal. However, Bray had a host of LED fireflies on the ramp, and the crowd was unusually quiet as the eater of worlds came down to the ring. It all came across as supernatural & ethereal, to the point where I was actually a little weirded out by it all. Orton wasn’t quite as spectacular, but he did have an LED snake follow him down the ramp. At certain points in the match Bray was trying to psych out Orton, and the ring has disgusting stuff like worms & bugs projected onto it. Orton won, but with how the story was it almost seemed like Bray was more in the right to keep the title.
Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar (Universal Championship)
Prediction: Goldberg
Actual Winner: Brock Lesnar
- I should state that I hate.....no, I loathe Brock Lesnar. I won’t get into it here, but to me he’s the wrestling equivalent of the antichrist. I never watched Goldberg in his WCW days or his limited time in WWE, but when he came back I have to admit that he was something of a curiosity to me. He was basically the man that Ryback copied off of for his gimmick, and just looked like a guy you didn’t want to mess with!
The match itself wasn’t a long one: Some sources say it was 7 minutes, but the majority of people have cited that it was actually 10 minutes. Regardless, it really wasn’t much, as it was a lot of suplexes, speaking, and a healthy amount of clubbering. Then, whether you want to say it was predictable or not, Brock Lesnar became the new Universal Championship. Hopefully he doesn’t hold it hostage like he did with the last championship belt he had.
Alexa Bliss vs Mickie James vs Carmella vs Natalia vs Becky Lynch vs Naomi (Smackdown Women’s Championship)
Prediction: ?
Actual Winner: Naomi
- I really don’t have much to say about this one. I wasn’t that fond of the 4-way match, but there was at least.....something with that one. With this, it seemed like nothing more than a buffer for the match after this one. To be honest, this came across like a match at the height of the Diva era, and not in a good way. That said, there were some goofy moments that were a little fun: Elzworth
coming to the defense of Carmella, and Natalia putting 2 women in a figure-4 at the same time. Other than that, I had nothing invested here, although Naomi getting her title back was a nice touch.
The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns
Prediction: The Undertaker
Actual Winner: Roman Reigns
- I dreaded this match. Rumors were swirling around that Undertaker would be losing this match, and to be honest I didn’t believe them. Roman Reigns has been booed constantly since the shield split, and he went down a solo path. The booing has only been getting louder & louder since then, and here it was particularly deafening. WWE clearly has been hearing the fans on this, but given that Reigns won, they obviously don’t care, as Reigns is their new guy, and they’ll continue to shove him down our throats. It’s very obvious that the throat shoving will continue from here on out.
That being said, this was an alright match. Undertaker looked good, but it’s obvious that he wasn’t on his a-game. There were moments where he seemed like the wind was knocked out of him, and other times he made a botch or two. Still, he put on a show as good as he could, and him & Roman went at each other like dogs. Sadly, Roman ended up defeating the Undertaker, and thus buried a legend. There was a solumn moment for Undertaker, as he took off his wrestling garb, put them into a neat pile in the middle of the ring, and walked off into the sunset that was the back of the stage. A great sendoff, but an awful match.
Overall Impression & Rating
Wrestlemania 33......you surprised me! Outside of some faults, this was one of the best Wrestlemania events I’ve seen so far! WWE must have realized that the booking of 32 was awful, and thus we were given a far more even event in terms of who won. There were few matches, much less moments, that I disliked/hated. The company really went all out with this event, and in my eyes, WWE managed to get a brownie point back from me. Good job!
Wrestlemania 33 gets a 8 out of 10.
So that was my look at Wrestlemania 33. Definitely my favorite of the shows I reviewed so far. Now it’s time to check out RAW, and see if it carries Wrestlemania’s momentum.
Monday Night RAW
Hour 1 (8:30 On):
- I’ll start off my saying that I missed the first half hour of the show. My folks were finishing a movie, so I could only hear what was going on. I will say, it was electric: Undertaker came out I believe for 1 final sendoff, but Reigns came out shortly afterwards and the arena immediately unleashed a torrent of boos. How horrendous you ask? Check this out (Watch the first few minutes):
WWE RAW 4/3/17 (After WM33) Chants & Pops
After that, Goldberg apparently showed up to thank the crowd, and said that he would be gone for a bit, but didn’t say that he was completely done. I actually tuned in mostly through a match with the Hardy Boys vs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, with Matt getting pin to win the match. From there Neville came out to gloat about his win from the night before, and issued a challenge for any of the cruiserweights to come out & fight him. Out walked Mustafa Ali, one of the newer members of 205 Live. There was promise at first, but Neville essentially dominated the match, and predictably won.
Hour 2:
- The 2nd hour started off with Vince McMahon showing up at the arena. He was at the show to announce the new general manager of RAW, as Mick Foley was fire a week or two earlier. However, the crowd managed to get a second round of “Roman Sucks” chants in, to which he chastised the crowd. From there he talked about Stephanie’s bump through the table, and the crowd cheered profusely (She would be out for a little bit, and I would have cheered if I was there). Afterwards, he said that the new GM was one of the individuals in the hall of fame 2017. Out came Teddy Long, and he & Vince had a quick comedic moment, but instead it was Kurt Angle that was chosen to be the RAW general manager. Kurt gave a few words, and walked back to his office.
- The New Day came out to a wild chorus of cheers, and issued an open challenge to any tag team that was interested in a match. To the crowd’s surprise, The Revival from NXT came out to answer the challenge, and utterly decimated The New Day. From there we saw Angle in his office, when Enzo & Cass came to greet him. It ultimately ended up turning into an angle, where Kurt gave the two a match against Cesaro & Shaemus later on.
- A 6 women tag-team match helped conclude the second hour, with Dana Brooke, Sasha Banks, and Bailey going up against the returning Emma, Nia Jax, and Charlotte. This actually reminded be of the Smackdown women’s match from the night before, so there wasn’t much investment from me at all. Although, seeing Charlotte get beat up by Emma & Nia was a nice touch.
- Hour 2 was rounded out with another segment with Kurt Angle. This time he was with Sami Zayn, when Jinder Mahal came in & interrupted the two of them. Kurt didn’t want a fight to break out, so he setup a match for then in the third hour.
Hour 3:
- Hour 3 started off with Brock Lesnar coming out to wild cheers & chants from the crowd. Paul Heyman continues to be his funny & sarcastic mouthpiece, and eventually went to call out Roman Reigns. Instead, the pair got Brawn Stroman, and the arena went wild. It looked like the two where going to have a brawl, only for Stroman to back out, prompting the crowd to boo & chant “Bullshit”. Then, we had a segment in the back with Chris Jericho before he & Seth Rollins teamed up, only for Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe to promptly take him out. Enzo & Cass then had their match with Cesaro & Shaemus, and won their no. 1 contender spot for the RAW Tag-Team Championship. Sami Zayn had his match with Jinder Mahal, in which Sami rightly won. RAW then concluded with the match between Jericho, Owens, and Joe. His replacement partner for the bout was the returning Finn Balor, who got a huge pop from the crowd. Everybody put on a hell of a show, and in the end Seth & Balor stood tall.
Overall Impression & Rating
RAW definitely has some fun & exciting moments. It wasn’t perfect, but RAW managed to hold onto a lot of the energy & intensity from the night before. I can only hope that this energy is used for the rest of the month & beyond. Otherwise, it’s right back to business as usual.
RAW gets a 7.5 to 8 out of 10.
So that was Monday Night RAW. It seems the norm at this point that the RAW after Wrestlemania, and this one was no exception. Now, for the first time, it’s time to see Smackdown post-Wrestlemania, and see if it continues with it’s new lease on life.
Smackdown
Hour 1 (Recap):
- I ultimately can’t talk about the first hour of Smackdown. My folks were watching a new episode of NCIS, and thus I couldn’t watch what happened in the first hour of the show, so I can only recap what happened: Erick Rowan reunited with Bray Wyatt, Naomi defeated Alexa Bliss for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, and Tye Dillinger def. Curt Hawkins (Meh). There were probably some other stuff that happened, but I can’t find what that stuff was.
Hour 2:
- I tuned in with Miz & Maryze standing in the ring (Still in their Cena/Nikki getup from their skits in the past few weeks), only for Shinsuke Nakamura from NXT to make his Smackdown appearance. He got a pretty big pop from the crowd, and they were chanting his name as well. From there we had a street fight between Dean Ambrose & Baron Corbin, in which Corbin won (Gotta have that even-steven booking). Shane McMahon came out to talk about the superstar shakeup his Father mentioned the night before, only to have AJ Styles come out in what seems like a confrontational moment, only for the two to somehow find common ground. Austin Aries had a quick moment, promoting 205 Live. Smackdown concluded with a match between the Wyatt Family against Randy Orton & Luke Harper. Orton & Harper won, but only because of a moment of magical shenanigans from Bray, as he was outside the ring, only for Rowan to eat the pin from Randy.
Overall Impression & Rating
If I had watched all Smackdown, I would be able to give you a full picture. Hearing things come down the grapevine, it sounded like there was some fun stuff. Sadly, I couldn’t tell you everything. This is the part of the review where you’ll simply have to look things up for yourself.
Smackdown gets a 5 out of 10.
So that was Smackdown, and thus the conclusion of Wrestlemania & the 2 days afterwards. Certainly eventful, and maybe one for the history books. Hopefully, this positive energy carries over to other WWE events this year. Now to continue on with Compilation Month next week, where another of the Teutonic 4 of Thrash reveals itself. See you then!
***
If you want to see what I thought of last year’s Wrestlemania, check out the link below:
Wrestlemania 32 Review
No comments:
Post a Comment