Wrestlemania thoughts (Spoilers, obviously)

Well, overall I thought it was a bit of a mediocre show. Some stuff was good, but nothing was brilliant, and some of the matches seemed quite short in actual content. As always, the production was top notch, but I don't think it was backed up by the in-ring content. Perhaps a sign of things to come in the new "Entertainment" era of WWE.

Random thoughts not necessarily in show order:

Edge .v. Del Rio was OK, but it was nothing you wouldn't have seen on Smackdown, and having it curtain jerk the live show was perhaps an indication of the fact that the WWE have lost faith in Del Rio. Losing several times in a row on Smackdown, and then losing at Wrestlemania, he is pretty much finished as a serious threat now. Shame they didn't pull the trigger on an Edge/Christian feud.

Cody Rhodes and Mysterio had a decent match, but Rey's offence consists of all of four moves these days and I am bored stiff of watching him. He's utterly redundant now that Sin Cara is on the scene anyway.

Orton and Punk was also decent, although you could see half the spots, including the finish, coming a mile off.

The 8 man tag match annoyed me. You have the IC champ and the Tag Champs in a match that lasts about a minute and a half? Really? Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when IC and Tag Title matches were the backbone of a Wrestlemania. Waste of time.

Can't believe they got Lawler/Cole so wrong. They let Cole have FAR FAR FAR too long working Lawler with offence he was woefully ill equipped to dish out, and in the process they totally lost the audience to the point where they got a "boring" chant. For a match where at the start the crowd was baying for Cole's blood. They should have had Swagger interference, a short bit of Cole winding the crowd up, Lawler comes back and batters him. Still with the DQ win for him if you like, but at least give the crowd what they wanted.

The 6 person tag match, another fecking waste of time.

The Backstage segments - yes we have time for Snoop Dog raps, but not enough time for the US title match to be shown on the actual PPV?

Triple H .v. Taker was a good match, and was a nice reversal to have Taker basically be battered down but refuse to lose. I quite liked this match - though it was no Taker/Michaels.

The main event just seemed.....lacking. There was very little real content in it. I can't remember a spot I particularly liked or a segment I thought was Mania worthy. And then the Rock's appearance at the end. Well it was all a bit predictable.

2 years running now I won't be buying the Mania DVD!

I just got done watching a review that echoed most of these feelings... but pretty much calling it the worst Wrestlemania in memory for decades.

The only good match being HHH and Taker, with EdgevRio and PunkvOrton being "forgettable but merely competent fare for a free Raw on network tv but not for WM" at best, and the rest of the show, especially the main event being irredeemable dogshit.

Cena completely off his game, confused, lost, pointless, and there are even people speculating that Cena has thrown this match on purpose to try and bury Miz. Other people saying that Cena was concussed very early on, and was dazed and forgot what to do and how to do it, wandering around through the majority of it. Either way, pretty much everyone agrees this match suffered and sucked, even for him.

People have noted that Cena usually steps up his game for Wreslemania. Instead, here, he lost every bit of his game. The major debate seems to be whether or not it was on purpose. But not so much whether the match was good.

Likewise the general consensus on the other half of the matchup seems to be that Miz was doing nothing in the match whatsoever, and that these two just worked horribly with each other and had nothing to work with, and the match pretty much being boring dogshit awful before the horrid finish and dogshit awful after the horrid finish.

Rock was merely an afterthought.

I actually watched the live results, myself and was completely baffled out of my mind at how absolutely little fucking sense the slightest bit of this made, whatsoever:

Snooki, Pee-Wee Herman, Cole winning the match, Cole trying to wrestle a full match and the crowd shitting on it, the US title being outright fucking dropped off the show, the worthless Corre match of them being buried, that lasted 90 seconds. An utter fucking disaster firing off on all cylinders of what-the-fuck-is-this.

I've been all over, looking at what what people have said, and looking at the majority of opinion on this, and from what i've seen, almost everyone agreeing that is pretty much going to go down in history as being the shittiest, most disappointing, and lamest Wrestlemania effort.

I really thought the build-up lost steam halfway through it, but I have to say that it at least sounded "decent" even after I stopped caring at about the 3rd to last week in, but I had no idea it would be the train wreck it ended up being, according to everyone else's feelings.

It really sounds, from all of the findings i've dug up trying to get internet opinions, reviews, and watching the results myself updated live as they happened, that I am SO glad that I didn't waste my own money or time watching it.

My condolences to anyone who paid money for it.

Doesn't sound like it was worth my money, going from the online reviews I've read. Glad I didn't get it.

I thought the Royal Rumble winner is meant to headline WM anyway? Oh well.

I was starting to think I've been missing out in not seeing WM but I don't feel that way now good work WWE

But hey, at least Cena didn't take 10 minutes to get to the ring, spend 5 minutes deciding who to throw his shirt to, then take 3 punches, a kick and a finisher and get pinned, and scratch Miz's neck trying to escape the pin!

Actually I think Cena apparently took a long time because he had some kind of singing choir in his entrance, or something. I'd have to see it, but i've seen people say it was pointless and silly.

But Cena has made an annual tradition of having his entrances at WM changed to pointless and silly things for years.

Way to echo my sentiments completely, Dave. No kidding, I felt the same way when watching it. What should have been a great show without them having to even TRY ended up failing spectacularly.

It's interesting how the match I wasn't really looking forward to - Taker vs HHH - was the best one of the night. While they seemed to jump right into second gear right away instead of building it up (probably due to Taker's limitations now), the story near the end was really well done. I actually felt as though Trips was going to beat him at a few points. Excellent in-ring storytelling.

Aside from that though, nothing special. The main event fell flat for me; John Cena had another ridiculous entrance (Jacks and I were both rolling our eyes watching that), Miz got completely overshadowed, there was that BS count-out false finish (false or not, you don't have that sort of thing in the main event of Mania), and even then it ended a few moments after restarting.

Even The Rock's appearances did nothing for me; it was just the same stuff he's been doing leading up to the show. It was cool seeing the Rock Bottom again, but that was about it. I actually felt that Austin's involvement in the Lawler-Cole match (wasted opportunity though that whole thing was) was a hell of a lot more entertaining.

What a let-down. I remember when Mania was a big deal. Not so much this year, regardless of how much they try to convince us it's the "pinnacle of pop culture" or whatever.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out what the hell they were trying to do with Cena's entrance. Was it "The PPV in the South - right, that means bible belt - right, lets get a choir out there". Were they trying to sell Cena as a Jesus figure or something? It was just amazingly awful and sucked the energy out of the thing.

I do wonder if he got messed up early on, because he seemed utterly off his game and unfocused. And while I rate Miz as a performer, he's perhaps not yet at the level of a HBK or a HHH where they can lead someone through a match when that happens and call it on the fly. It was just flat and happening and the energy was gone.

In fact, the whole show felt just very thrown together. Whilst I said the production was good, I only meant in terms of "nice set and nice pyros" the actual organisation of the show was awful, and the whole thing just didn't have the flow and energy you expect from a PPV, let alone THE PPV.

BTW, in my post I was referencing Jeff Hardy's recent TNA title bout with Sting

I didn't see WM so didn't see Cena's entrance, or any of the show at all in fact. But might have to YouTube HHH vs. Taker to see what the fuss is all about.

Watched WM yesterday round a workmates, and I agree with everything David said about the show.

The first match took me by surprise, as I was expecting Edge vs Del Rio to be the main event match. It wasn't though. Instead, it was a RAW quality main event that set the tone for a crappy PPV. Not a bad match, but not great either.

Cody Rhodes vs Rey Mysterio wasn't a bad match either. Also not great either. Some OK moves, but nothing WM worthy.

The tag team match was utter crap. Shame Koslov wasn't in it, but he wouldn't have made it any better. They should have split this match in two. Kane and Big Show should have challenged for the tag team titles, while Kofi and/or Marello should have challenged for the Intercontinental title. Instead though, we had an 8 man tag team match which lasted less than two minutes and did very little to push any of the wrestlers involved in it.

Orton vs Punk was next, and it was another decent yet not WM worthy match. I told my workmate how it'd end before it happened, and I was right. That's how predictable the match was.

Then we got to the best built up match of the lot, Lawler against Cole. For all the great building up they did, the match itself was done all wrong. Cole tried his best to take charge of the match, but he looked terrible. The crowd didn't enjoy it, and neither did I. Stone Cold was the best thing about this match, and he was the referee. Bad ending to a excellently built up match.

The mixed tag team match... DULL! Snooki's flip thing into the corner was quite impressive, given that she's a little blobby thing. The weak move that finished the match was bad though.

HHH vs Taker was the match of the evening, and the only match that was WM worthy. Not the best built up match of the lot, but HHH and Taker both wrestled very well and the story they told in the ring was very good. Taker wouldn't die, even after three Pedigree's and a Tombstone Piledriver. The way the match played out had me thinking HHH was going to win at a few points.

I won't go into the Cena vs Miz match because it's already been discussed, but I agree with all the negative things that have been said about the match. A terrible way to finish the PPV off.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this years WM is the worst WM ever. Even a classic between HHH and Taker couldn't save the PPV from being terrible. I'm so disappointed with the PPV as a whole.

I thought last year sucked balls as well, but as Taker v HBK II was better than Taker v HHH I might just have to agree this was the worst of the lot. Mania 11 wasn't great by any means, but it felt like a WrestleMania. This just didn't.