OT: Wrestlemania XXX
Coming to you live from the Mercedes Benz arena in New Orleans, it's Wrestlemania 30. The Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment! The Showcase For the Immortals! Let the Good Times Roll! I'm Really Excited About Fake Fighting!
Should be a star-studded affair. You've got Hulk Hogan hosting, with expected appearances from Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, (maybe) C.M. Punk, and musical performances but somebody I've probably never heard of unless it's Bob Seger or some hipster band you'd catch on Alt Nation or Sirius XMU.
Last night was the Hall of Fame induction, where The (Ultimate) Warrior tried his hardest not to lose his mind, Mr. T. rambled about his momma for 30 minutes, they kinda, sorta glossed over a guy who mighta, probably covered up a murder, Lita rambled while everyone memorialized the deceased real-like mortician Paul Bearer, and Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall proved that you can clean up your life no matter how many times you'd to screw it up.
As for the card, it looks to be a bit uneven but could signal a passing of the torch, so to speak, as emerging talent such as Daniel Bryan (he of the viral "Yes" chants - give it up for Sparty), The Shield, Bray Wyatt, and Antonio Cesaro and the Usos look to be making strong pushes to ascend to the top of the WWE.
Brief Breakdown:
In the pre-show, they'll have a Fatal 4-Way between champion The Usos and challengers Los Matadores, the Real Americans, and Curtis Axel/Ryback ("Rybaxel"). I expect the Usos to retain, but when you've got a tiny bull and a guy known for swinging huge men around, you might have a Gallagher moment for the people in the front rows.
The Shield, "Hounds of Justice" and three of the emerging stars in the company, will be battling "Korporant Kane" and the returning New Age Outlaws in what should be a route by the Shield. Still, there are rumbling of a breakup with the unit so that Roman Reigns can pursue a major singles push, so there is a bit of intrigue and uncertainty built in.
There will be two free-for-alls, as the woman's title (damn you to hell "Divas) will be defended in a single-fall, 14-person match featuring every woman on the roster broken down nicely between "Stars of Total Divas" and Others. While conventional wisdom holds that champion A.J. Lee will lose her belt, I could see her retaining and dropping the strap either tomorrow at Raw or on the next PPV after the situation with her new fiance C.M. Punk is resolved.
The other clusterf*ck is the innagural 30-man Andre the Giant memorial battle royal, which includes a fun little trophy handed to the winner. I remain consistently disappointed in life that more things don't have fun little trophies, so maybe this will be a start of something new. Expect The Big Show to win, though I could see Sheamus or one of three unannounced competitors to surprise the world (if that's the route, my money is on Rob Van Dam). Should be fun regardless.
John Cena will do battle with the unconventional Bray Wyatt, another new-blood performer people expect big things from in the future. Cena is the current icon of the federation, the Poochie of wrestling who is its biggest (and most polarizing) star and by all accounts a pretty good guy outside of the ring (granted the most Make-a-Wishes in history). Wyatt is rocking a pretty transcendent role as a Bayou cultist known for crazy promos and even crazier mannerisms. Cena should win, but all that matters is how Wyatt looks throughout the match. Cena typically has great matches when pushed, and Wyatt is the type to bring out the best from both psychological and physicallty points.
The Undertaker puts his perfect 21-0 Wrestlemania streak on the line against "The Beast" and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. The Undertaker has never lost a match at Wrestlemania, and while most expect the streak to end at some point, few expect it to be to a part-timer like Lesnar. That said, Lesnar may be the most intimidating performer in WWE history, and at the bare minimum most fans expect it to be close enough to shoot-fighting that both men will be leaving with injuries. The streak should live on, though I expect there to be a large number of near-falls and (maybe) the surprise appearance by Sting, who has publicly been calling for a match against Undertaker for years.
In what will undoubtedly be the first of double-duty for both performers, Daniel Bryan will battle Triple H for the right to compete later that night for the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. In story Triple H is the COO of the WWE and Daniel Bryan the people's choice and internet darling, and the past couple of monhts have been marked by the blurring of lines between reality and kayfabe as Bryan's fans have vociferously been calling for his inclusion in the title picture despite his last run being lackluster from a PPV sales point. Triple H has spent the past couple of weeks running down Bryan and his fans, and expect nothing more than a barn-burner when they two wrestle. My money is on a Dusty finish that leads to both men being inserted into the championship match.
As for that championship match, champion Randy Orton and Royal Rumble winner and future Drax the Destroyer Bautista are already in. Their feud has been met with lukewarm-to-hostile response from the fans since it was announced, necessitating the inclusion of Bryan and/or Triple H. Reading the teas leaves this should be a 4-man battle for the title, and knowing how excited WWE is about public spectacle and "Wrestlemania Moments" I expect Daniel Bryan to emerge victorious, leading a stadium full of delirious fans in a record-breaking "Yes" chant to close the show.
*****
Enjoy!
Edit: And yes, I really don't care if they think this is relevant. It's the off-season, UM is out of the NCAA tournament, and it sounds like a bunch of people are going to watch a show tonight about midgets and dragons fighting (which, btw, is a good show even though I don't personally like it that much). I leave it to the mods to pull it if they want, but everyone's tired jokes about it being fake and "hurr hurr"-ing about it are unnecessary. Don't post here if you don't care about pro wrestling.
This is top-5 at the bare minimum. I watched Wrestlemania 2 on tape - THAT was an atrocity.
If it was executed better and/or had better matches, I think it could have worked.
Whben Hogan-Bundy is your ending, it's just rough. Though Piper-T. was funny given the 80's-style racial barbs.
WM11 was the worst.
NOTHING will come close to that.
Monkeys flinging poo would be better than Lawrence Taylor (yes, the football player) against Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event.
It being at the Hartford Civic Center says all you need to know about the state of the WWF and the product at that time. 11 was the worst, 9 would be second with 2 as the third.
8 is still my favorite for some reason....to this day nothing for me has topped Savage/Flair.
That was a great match, and Piper-Hart had a really fun IC title match that I remember loving because the finish had Hart pinning Piper while in the sleeper.
JYD beat Greg "The Hammer" Valentine at Wrestlemania I via count-out after Valentine totally not-racist-but-just-part-of-the-script ranted against JYD for a couple of months. And then I looked it up and JYD lost a tag match against the Funk brothers at WII. But I think the match was against Harley Race at WIII in Detroit, which had JYD bowing to Race as a result of the loss.
I really liked the Lesnar upset, largely because of the way they sold the shit out of it. The silence after the three count was eerily remniscent of the Kordell Stewart hail mary. Letting that stunned silence hang in the air for a minute before Brock's music came on was great, and the crowd reaction shots were great as well.
I know the initial reaction is disbelief and hate towards the decision, however I'm fine with it and I'll wait until the story comes out on why it happened, too. The Wrestling Observer or one of the more reliable rags had a story that a few years ago Taker pitched losing to Lesnar at Mania and it got shot down. For all we know, Taker could have decided to end the streak and go out that way, so I'm not going to blame WWE/creative for making that decision until more comes out on it. If the above story was true, then I'm thinking Taker wanted to pass the torch on to Brock for a while and he's going out on his terms. It certainly shocked the hell out of everyone and got everyone talking, that's for sure.
Brock may be part-time, but he's still got a lot of years ahead of him, he's a huge name, and this kind of monumental victory plays right in to his character. It's a lot more believeable to me that someone with his credentials in wrestling and UFC ends the streak. Kind of hard to complain about Brock being part-time, too, when Taker was a once-a-year attraction. Maybe they're going to keep pushing Brock as the Beast and have him fill that attraction role at the major shows (kind of like they have been but now they got more ammo to back it up with this win). The important thing now is where do they go with Brock from here.
I agree completely about Lesnar. Only booking problem now is that they really don't have a guy to go up against him. (Just did Big Show and Henry a couple months ago.) I'd wager they'll now continue to build Roman Reigns and it'll be Lesnar v. Reigns at WM31.
I agree. And some people pointed out that you needed a huge name to beat Taker because otherwise that would be the guy's legacy. With Lesnar, you have a big name with an established career; beating Taker is a feather in his cap, but not the whole hat. Kind of like Michaels retiring Flair and Taker retiring Michaels. You need a big name to take you out or its threatens to swallow up the young guy.
I would have let Cena do it. He could have gotten considerable heat for it and made a heel turn in the process. But WWE would never let that happen.