By Matt
It’s been two weeks, two whole weeks since Wrestlemania, but it feels like a lifetime. Between the Superstar Shakeup and the notoriously short attention span of wrestling fans, the Mania buzz has died down and we can look back with some perspective. More than anything, we need that perspective. People – myself included – treat mania like the last few pages of a book, the payoff before we start a new book all together. In a way, this approach isn’t all wrong. Mania is traditionally where some of the biggest storylines come to a head, but it is also where some of the biggest stories start, where transitions happen, and where wrestlers are elevated. What was ending, beginning, and sort of treading water is coming into focus now.
My gut response to Mania was that it was a good show with some pretty high highs, but also with some dreadfully low lows. With two weeks of perspective it is crystal clear that WrestleMania had a lot of good, some bad, and some really ugly
The First Three Matches – GOOD
Wow – what a hot start. After the first three matches I thought we might be looking at not just an all time great Mania, but an all time great show. Styles and Shane over delivered in a pretty big way. Styles’ recent track-record is well documented and Shane always holds his own in big matches, but this was probably the best match of the night and that surprised me.
Jericho and Owens followed that with their own deceptively good match. This one isn’t getting as much praise around the wrestling circles I move through. In fact, most people in those circles seem to generally be down on Owens, but I thought this was a really fantastic match. It ebbed and flowed like some of the memorable Punk and Jericho matches, filled with lots of nuanced momentum shifts and fun reversals. It was smart and well executed, just good solid wrestling to more or less paid off one of the best stories in the company over the past few years.
The third match built on the momentum as the Sasha, Bayley, Charlotte, and Nia put together a fun and coherent 4-way elimination match. That first section where they played up Nia’s strength, doing a 3-1 bit, was particularly good. The latter parts of the match didn’t quite live up as much, but they were pretty damn good all the same.
Even though the momentum train sort of stuttered to a stop before literally falling off the tracks sideways later, these first three matches really stood out and hold up after the Mania excitement has worn off.
The Proposal – UGLY
It isn’t that this was bad or even unwelcome, but it just felt… off. Were they trying to prove The Miz right, because that is kind of what it looked like, and that is in no way a real criticism of the happy couple. If they are happy together, awesome, but as a public performance I kind of wanted to like this more than I did. Maybe it is because I am not into the show… or the Bellas (as characters). Maybe it was because it felt kind of (read: very) predictable. I am not exactly sure why, nor do I really care, but this just came off clunky and contrived to me.
Randy Orton’s Revenge – BAD
Ugh… what a fucking waste of time. Fuck this nonsense. What was the point of all that? Why put the belt on Bray Wyatt only to have him pass it right over to Orton. Look, I don’t hate Orton. This isn’t sour grapes because he is champ. It is sour grapes because this felt like such a waste of time and energy. This feud was primed to push Wyatt to the next level. Randy Orton pushed him further than anyone ever had before. He opened wounds that should have turned Wyatt into a different kind of monster, a different kind of scary. But…. But…. RKO OUTA NOWHERE! RKO OUTA NOWHERE! AmIRight?! Ugh, such bad storytelling. Even though this was always sort of Randy Orton’s story, I really felt the last month of work they did on it turned everything and it should have become Wyatts. The WWE World Championship was bound up in a transitional storyline this year at Wrestlemania… awesome. This was the biggest letdown of the night and no amount of dust settling is going to change my tune on it
Brock Lesnar vs Bill Goldberg – GOOD
I went on a lengthy tangent here about how shitty the booking for this match was and I stand by that. I 100% stand by the fact that they should have booked the whole thing differently that it was ass backwards. I also said I had hope that the match itself would deliver and for the most part it did. It wasn’t as good, as violent, as brutal, as big as it probably could have been, but it was much better than it could have been. It was certainly better than smoke and mirrors they were using to pass Goldberg off as a wrestler, let alone a champion, before this. Hell, this is probably the best match of Goldberg’s career if we are being honest (The DDP match is probably the only one even close). Brock vs Goldberg was unequivocally a high point of the show. They didn’t mess around, getting right down to business with the high impact stuff. They had one goal, to reestablish Monster Brock and guess what… mission fucking accomplished.
Undertaker’s Final Match – UGLY
It is really unfortunate that the prolonged goodbye for Taker didn’t work out a little better. They played a game of chicken with time they kind of lost. Taker’s retirement was years in the making. We knew it would be at mania; we knew he would put over a younger wrestler; and, we hoped it would be memorable. Unfortunately, while the everyone was waiting for the right time and the right guy Taker got old, too old. The days of The Undertaker stealing the show at ‘Mania were long gone and as much as I like Roman Reigns, he wasn’t ready to carry this level of drama. Art imitates life and life imitates art; in a way this match hit pretty close to home as The Undertaker was too old to be out there and just couldn’t get it done. It wasn’t the worst we have seen from Taker (not by a country mile), but it wasn’t what the old gun slinger deserved.
Undertaker’s Farewell – GOOD
The match may have been somewhat disappointing, but his slow emotional goodbye was anything but. I am not a super sentimental person in real life. That probably isn’t true. I am not outwardly sentimental in real life. That said, I get a little tore up when wrestlers by those high drama moments in wrestling. I probably like the HOF stuff more than I let on. Danielson’s ROH and eventual career farewells were rough super rough. Savage reuniting with Elizabeth and then riding off into the sunset (or so we thought) was high art, a love story for the ages. I watched Ric Flair’s goodbye in a dive bar with a young woman I had been seeing for a few weeks. She, despite all logic to the contrary, kept hanging out with me after I drunkenly tried to explain why it was an emotionally potent moment. Taker’s farewell might have joined the ranks. It was everything it should have been. It was simple, dark
The Flow of The Never Ending Show – BAD
I love wrestling… I really do… but it is too much and it ultimately takes away from the product by the end. Wrestlemania weekend is awesome and part of my burn out is my fault. I watched 6-7 indy shows and a few old ‘mania matches over the course of 3-4 days. I also insist on watching Mania live instead of waiting until the next day and surfing through it, but it is Mania weekend… it is for soaking oneself in wrestling until you are pruney and exhausted. Either way, Mania is too long. It is a marathon and even without all the extra it would be draining. I know there is no way around it now. This is the way it is and the way it will likely be for the foreseeable future. I will probably feel the same way about this next year, but the sheer amount of wrestling is always going to make it hard to fully indulge in the main event.
There you have it. Wrestlemania (and the entire weekend) was so jammed pack with wrestling goodness (and not so goodness) and now – for another year – it is behind us. I am planning on attending the festivities live next year and am already looking forward to indulging in and then subsequently complaining about ocean of wrestling that will crash down on New Orleans.
Markout Mountain 