FINAL THOUGHTS
My first time through – and remember, I was doing live coverage at the time and pretty heavily distracted by it – I wasn’t in love with this year’s WrestleMania. And admittedly the second time, there are some pretty glaring things to point out. I’ll address them all at one time, because I don’t want to spend too much time picking on what WWE did WRONG.
- The build to this year’s show was extremely short, and really killed my excitement going in. It wasn’t until this weekend that I began to grow anxious for the event. As such, I really didn’t get behind WrestleMania until the CM Punk match, and that drastically hurt the way I view the show pay-per-view.
- Ryback continues to lose, and WWE continues to push him as a dominant competitor. Tell me, why am I supposed to be supporting this guy now?
- Dolph Ziggler is a future World Champion – presumably in the next two months – and has a terrible record. His last big victory was over John Cena at TLC, and that was more about getting John over as a broken man than anything else. This guy should be running Smackdown right now, right behind the World title picture. Instead he’s midcard fodder for guys like Kane. To steal a phrase from Shane Helms, “wassup with dat?”
- The whole of WrestleMania felt incredibly rushed. It was almost strange to see Rock/Cena with no pomp and circumstance leading into their match. No backstage angles, surprise appearances; it just didn’t have the same “spectacle” feeling as past events have had. WWE had a lot of star power at the event this year, but they were used on Twitter and Tout instead of on pay-per-view. Bad move.
- I don’t actually know what the reasoning for this was, but WrestleMania just felt short on time. Like I said, there was a lack of extra-curricular activity. I think this is mostly the fault of the 3-hour episodes of Monday Night Raw. Watching a 4-hour PPV used to be a treat that felt like it took all day. Now it’s just a bit longer than what we’re used to on a daily basis.
- Everything that was Mark Henry and Ryback.
So those are my major complaints. I wanted to get them out of the way, because I feel like a lot of people are coming down WAY too hard on this year’s WrestleMania, and not acknowledging what WWE did correctly.
It’s true, there was a distinct lack of build to the show this year. But that being said, CM Punk and the Undertaker had a deeply personal match with moments that stole the show, not just at Mania, but every week on Raw leading up to it.
Triple H and Lesnar, while not the highlight of the night, were great. For part-time guys, they can still work incredibly well in the ring. That’s especially true for Lesnar, who was never really around long enough to become a veteran of the sport. So for him to be that solid, and to land picture perfect tosses and suplexes half a dozen times, is impressive.
The rest of the undercard, while not terribly exciting or promoted, was technically sound. Fandango’s debut set him aside immediately as a future player in WWE. Keep an eye on him for sure. And while many are forgetting about the Shield’s victory because of its placement on the card, there’s a lot there to be grateful for. Plus there’s a payoff with Big Show, Orton and Sheamus to look forward to. Plus, the World Heavyweight title match was a technical treat, and I really truly had no problems or complaints with it. The main event was incredible – after watching it twice – and far exceeded my expectations. I feel like this is going to be another WrestleMania that gets better with age, as we look back a few years from now on some good matches, and a few break-out moments that paved the way for the future.
FINAL RATING: B
Top Five Matches
1. The Streak – Undertaker lays Paul Bearer’s soul to rest
2. Redemption – John Cena becomes WWE Champion
3. Freedom – Alberto del Rio kills the bigotry of Jack Swagger’s America
4. Insert Coin to Continue – Triple H beats Lesnar; keeps The Game alive
5. Believe – The Shield picks up another high profile victory
