A Few More Thoughts on Wrestlemania/The Raw Crowd
Since 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.
Mania was still nowhere near as bad as Mania 27.
Ziggler cashing in was awesome and i’m looking forward to him as champion as are a lot of people. The crowd was fun, made the show interesting. It’s professional wrestling stop taking it so seriously.
I’d hands down rather watch WM25 than last Sunday’s show. Not even close for me. As for the crowd Monday, entiringly self-serving. Though I got a bit of pleasure out of the Orton/Sheamus match. They’re both completely vanilla and WWE has given no reason to get behind either of them other than ‘because we say so!’
I watched Wrestlemania (SO glad I didn’t pay for it), and the show itself was what I thought it would be for the most part. I read this in another review of the show, and it was right, Punk vs. Taker was the only match on the show that felt like an epic, and it did steal the show (4.5 star rating from me).
You’re an EXTREMELY easy grader if that match was 4.5 stars.
So your saying it wasn’t a great match? easily match of the night?
It wasn’t a great match. And sure, match of the night, but the weight of that statement is dependant on the strength of the card.
If you grade it based on the rest of the card sure. But if You say it’s a 4.5 stars on merit alone. I don’t see how that can be wrong. I personally thought it was good even great at times. The saving grace to a bad show.
Once again, you’ve misunderstood my point. Seems to be a reoccuring theme. It was not great. The end.
It was not great in your opinion. That does not make it so. Stop being a prick.
Raw did a few things that wrestlemania could not and that’s why I’m saying it was good
Fandango a young star got over, at mania he was a ‘meh whatever’ guy but after raw his entrance theme is in our charts and will have to be played on the radio Sunday because of this… Better exposure than rock vs cena 2? Probably
Zigglers moment was so over it couldn’t be a bad decision, the reaction to the win by the crowd and zigs stable made it amazing, and seeing a younger guy elevated is exciting, there’s new life in the world title for the time being, because one of the best in ring guys holds the belt, ziggler beat cena a couple of ppvs ago, followed it by entering the rumble 1 and making the final few, he’s credible
Ryback entering the title scene. He’s bulletproof on losing right now, but seeing him take out cena leads to an interesting turn of events
Take these add the shield and raw leaves a much sweeter taste than mania did, hopefully it can build momentum to extreme rules
Was what ryback did supposed to be a heel turn? I’m seriously asking because, The crowd reaction certainly didn’t make it look that way. It also didn’t make any sense from a story perspective. Where they supposed to be friends?
Looks like a face turn, well more of a face turn.
Being remembered doesn’t equal good to say the least.
So let me get this straight….
1) Dolph Ziggler winning the World Title is “stupid?” The last time I checked, the guy is one of the best wrestlers in the company.
2) The best Raw of 2013 so far sucked, huh?
1. You mean the guy who has lost time after time after time and has yet to maintain a reaction without Vickie and/or AJ at his side? Yeah I wouldn’t putt he belt on him.
2. That’s very amusing indeed.
It was certainly the most entertaining raw of 2013. That’s for sure. The best well it’s only april there’s still plenty of time for a blow away raw to come along. Perhaps they’ll get smart and cut an hour.
So you think the Crowd enjoying themselves in a dismal wrestlemania and raw was a bad thing? Cuz you know we don’t want them to have any fun. The crowd should be like that every week. Letting the company know they are not going to stand for the stupid shit they pull, which you just listed. The only way to affect change is to make your voice known.
That crowd made Ziggler’s Title win feel important. It also gave a big boost to Fandango. Which i’m all for especially in fandango case. He may not be Randy Savage, but at least it’s something new.
So the crowd should be like ECW’s. That company that is still thriving to this day? Or ROH, where if you’re lucky, you can catch them at midnight on Saturday, providing you don’t live in a major city.
It could have been important on its own had he deserved a world title or been booked like a big deal for the last….oh two years or so when he’s been a jobber to the stars.
Hey at least they were having a good time. Which is the point of going to a wrestling show. You don’t tell the audience, home or live who to like. They tell you.
True they haven’t been treating Dolph with much respect but if you watched raw for the very first time that night. Perception is reality and to a lot of people dolph seemed like a very big deal. Question is can they maintain the momentum.
I would hardly say there’s anything realistic about that crowd.
However, since they cheered this guy:
He must belong as the top face of the companyf or a long time right?
So long as you compare it to all the arenas that boo him.
But hey they booed him relentlessly throughout the show. So the clip in which he got cheered must prove your point.
I have no idea why you wouldn’t want a crowd to react that way. They were bored and wanted to have fun. I also don’t know why you are so against anyone disliking old john boy up there. They turned a boring fairly bad show into something to remember.
It just didn’t have the feel of a Wrestlemania, nothing felt “epic”. The main event was bleh and like you said the best matches weren’t anything resembling a classic. Just like the build-up to this years Wrestlemania, WWE phoned it in.
So your saying Dolph’s winning of the World Title was stupid? From what I heard it was the right move. As for the Crowd on Monday I still think they were awesome. Where else are you going to get that? I didn’t find them that disrespectful at all and Vince apparently enjoyed them from a tidbit I read earlier this week.
As for WM 29 I enjoyed the Show,it still ranks above 9 & 11 were are considered the Worst Manias ever.
I’d blame the packages more than P. Diddy. He was on for about 8 minutes. Then entrances of Lesnar, HBK and Triple H ran longer than that. Even with whatever free time the show would have without him, it wouldn’t have amounted to much.
Though for me the show was not bad at all. Better than Wrestlemania 25 & 27 so for me, I’d say that’s a win.