I just woke up so I won't be summarizing too much of it since I'm groggy as fuck, but the last two nights of wrestling have been really good, and I'm very excited to see what this Triple H era of WWE has in store for us.
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I absolutely hated how the producers felt it necessary to shove in an extended segment about nigger violence at the Kansas Super Bowl celebration. Not a single opportunity missed to provide a dose of trauma programming.
/I simply wanted to have some wholesome time with my grade school boys.
I don't know how much you actually paid attention to it, but I guess it's because the WWE gave the team a commerative belt & the Chiefs' General Manager's son (who is the kid that one player saved) is a massive WWE fan, so it was just easy to do it. That's not the first time I heard that phrase before, 'trauma programming', but I'm still confused by what it means.
It means it keeps people in a cycle of feeling like perpetual victims, and either self-flagellating if they are deemed as the "oppressors", or continually playing up oppression Olympics to milk victim bux if they are deigned as the perpetually "oppressed".
I was there Night 1. In person and up a few levels, it wasn't a great experience.
There are too many seats with obstructed views, and not just cheapseats. I got Club Level and the canopy support made seeing center-ring a real challenge. And while it was chilly, it wasn't that bad, but the crowd was dead outside of a few moments in each match, except for Sami/Gunther and Jimmy/Jey. Watching Night 2 at home was the better experience. I have no desire to go to another stadium show, even the Royal Rumble, after this. You would have to pay a ton of money for it to actually be worth it. But hey, I can say I went to a Mania and even saw the Rock wrestle!
The set design was also uninspired. I know they now run a ton of stadium shows so they have a base-set, but this was Mania XL! We couldn't get a giant bell or something? Also, it really felt like they skimped on the firework budget. Zero perimeter fireworks and nothing for the National Anthem.
The matches themselves were all good, though, with Sami/Gunther and Bayley/Iyo being my 2 favorites. I was not expecting Bayley/Iyo to be that good, or for Bayley to show LA Knight how you actually sell an attacked leg! Was also shocked that they kept that Final Testiment match fun! Great call bringing back Bubba for it.
Overall, a really good Mania. Probably the best in a while. Loved seeing Cody win and the big celebration after. Nothing disappointed in the ring and everything made enough sense. Looking forward to where the story goes next!
I’m interested to see what happens. 80s to Ruthless Aggression will always be my favorite time as a wrestling fan and I still watch and enjoy but not as much as before. Although it looks like HHH will be adding some elements of attitude era and he isn’t afraid to have blood sometimes. Interested to see if any debuts happen tonight or who the challengers will be for the belts. Also I’m pretty sure Rock vs Roman will happen at a later ppv.
Loved seeing Taker. Surprised it wasn’t Austin but loved seeing Taker. Just wish he had his deadman gear. This will go down as one of the all time great mania ls like 3 and others are. As a life long Hilkamaniac three will always have special memories and I’m sure kids watching last night will cherish the memories. Also glad Reigns didn’t beat Hogan’s title reign.
What directions do you see things going? I think Cody holds the belt until Mania at least. You? Who do you see beating Rhea Ripley or who do you see taking on Bayley?
Dwayne has to film like 3 movies so he's gonna be gone for a while, but I do think that Cody's first challenger is gonna be someone we don't expect, since Seth is actually injured and needs surgery, Roman's still taking leukemia drugs and that's why he's a part timer and I'm not sure what the rest of the cast wants to do.
Same with Priest, the main thing that comes to mind after the cash in is maybe Finn Balor leaves the Judgment Day?
I think two of Naomi, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair challenge the Kabuki Warriors for the Women's Tag Titles and they set up Jade for either Ripley or Bayley, doesn't matter which one to me.
The men's midcard is so weird to me, I'm not sure how they're gonna book it, but that's just me, since I only really started watching WWE again when Punk returned.
Yea I think Rock will come back for a Saudi match or something but due to him being on the board he will make more frequent appearances than before. Fine with me as he is one of my all time favs. I’d be shocked if Cody isn’t champ for a year minimum. Gunther is going to be in the title picture I think. I do believe Cargill is the one to take down Ripley. Maybe have her feud with Bianca or win Queen of the ring. Hope they make King of the Ring a big deal like it used to be
Maybe a returning Braun Strowman, Gunther, or Brock will challenge Cody.
Brock is out for the foreseeable future because he is indirectly named in the Vince lawsuit, but Gunther makes a lot of sense.
Just last week Trips brought up Brock and said he's not be iced out he's on his farm killing things.
Yea I assumed Gunther lost because he will move to the title picture
I seem to be in the minority but I loved the taker spot. Sure I wish he had the hat, but he's always been the Judge and equalizer. He serves justice, and it's his own inscrutable justice.
That's how he's always been best to me, and I liked seeing itm
Yea I figured it would be Austin but I’m never sad to see the Taker and he is one of my top 5 all time favs. Wish he had his costume though. Looks like he was on his way to grab some food and got a call
It should have been Austin.
Taker should have slammed Reigns (for kayfabe reasons).
Austin should have stunned Rock (for kayfabe reasons).
Both would have made sense in that regard.
I marked out when Cody won. I thought the ending was a tad bit over produced. Not a big fan of Priest being Heavyweight champion. I don't think Cody will have the belt a long-time. I'm interested in who his first challenger will be. And everyone knows the Raw after Mania is normally chaos, so I'm going to be watching tonight
They had to have Damien cash in then or he'd look like a total retard for not cashing in on Cody. Though thank god they didn't do a Seth and have Damien make it a triple threat so Cody could win and Roman remain unpinned.
Priest with the MITB was always a bad choice and don't see him doing anything as champion.
As an old fan it was a treat for me seeing Rock and Taker. I’m happy for Cody but I figured since last year he was going to win it. Now the interesting thing will be who is his next challenger
The Win did seem the right thing to do, but I thought they may swerve us. A little part of me was hoping Roman would win, and anarchy would reign
Ha! Last year I was shocked. I was thinking no way it happens again.
Seth came out looking like a total geek at the end getting no offense and being a literal shield for Cody in shield gear. Not a great weekend for Seth, heel turn incoming?
Undertaker's cameo jumped the shark. They could've done a bigger brawl but instead opted for an one person comes out does his spot, next person comes out do their spot on the previous person. As someone who watched the attitude era I found that segment to be lacking. Roman won so many matches via interference you'd think a mob would've been out there to exact their pound of flesh while the Bloodline hold the line (fantasy booking I'll stop)
Gunther and Sami match was meh when compared to the match with Walter and Ilja Dragunov. Sami is a bigger star than Chad Gable but they could've tore the canopy off with Gunther and Gable in a 40 minute classic. God knows they had the time seeing how the main event ended before 10:40. I don't dislike Sami but the helluva kick is such a weak finisher.
Saw the cash in weeks ago, it had karma's a bitch written all over it, personally I didn't feel need CM Punk injected into it. Would've been better (IMO) if CM Punk didn't and can spend the next few weeks smiling and nodding saying I prayed for this and it happened. But instead we'll get 'I made it happen.' which to me is very heavy handed Meh it's wrestling for the wrestling audience.
Overall it was a fun two evenings. But the REAL main event is this Wednesday night!
My mistake on the Gunther and Sami match, that was night one. And it went 15 minutes. Gunther losing in a 15 minute match is -_-!
there was only two one on one match on night one excluding Rhea and Becky because that's a woman's match.
Usos going for about 11 minutes (11!!!) and Gunther and Sami going for 15.
Being it was night one there wouldn't be any fear of a mat classic overshadowing Roman and Cody's main event. They should've gone 20-25 and give people who you know... want to watch wrestling something to see on the fucking show. Old man yelling at clouds.
Also, hearing a lot of people saying "so refreshing they're calling it professional wrestling again!"
astronaut meme always has been don't need them to say it, I'd trade them keep calling it sports entertainment and superstars over them calling it pro wrestling while plastering vodka ads and prime drinks on the fucking mats.
Them calling it sports entertainment, calling the fans the WWE Universe, etc was a Vince thing, and this whole build to WrestleMania, this whole renaissance of the WWE only happened because 1) AEW is semi-viable competition for talent and 2) Triple H took over creative from Vince.
A lot of why WWE was what it was for the 15 years before Vince got forced out is because Vince would throw a fit and re-write episodes of Raw and Smackdown the day of, so shit wouldn't even make sense. The terminology thing however is entirely just a "Fuck Vince" thing.
I'm aware the why, don't care what they call it. No one in the last 20 fucking years ever said "Hey I got tickets to the sports entertainment show this Friday, want to go watch our favorite superstars in a sports entertainment match together?" It was some Vince hang up and it never bothered me, mostly because I'm always watching whatever else other than WWE post Ruthless Aggression era.
Bad take from me, shouldn't lump it with the product placements, but those irritated the hell out of me. Reminds me of that one promotion that had a big nestle crunch advert in the middle of their mat in the 90s. I can't remember the company but it was pretty damn tacky.
I think the Prime stuff makes Logan Paul an even bigger heel than he already is, considering he said it's gonna be on the mat at every PLE/PPV.
The Dude Wipes plastered everywhere, especially on the ring post where you would see it and someone's butt right on top of it, was definitely way too much.
Yea I always hated “performer” and “sports entertainer”. What made it dumber was that it was called world wrestling federation/entertainment.
Yes the real main event in front of 4 people watched by 50,000 people on tv. And the big draw is footage of CM Punk. There biggest draw is a guy from WWE who wrestled one match this year.
More excited for Wednesday, since that SJW CM Punk may be about to be exposed for the assault-and-battery loser he is.
"I didn't attack him. I just choked him a little bit."
I think they dropped the ball when they didn't rebrand Jack Perry as Jungle Punk and let him wear long bois and come out to a DDP's entrance level rip off to cult of personality.
And yes, CM Punk is everything Jon Moxley said he is.
Only reason he's on his best behavior now is because the little weasel knows he can't big-time talents backstage in WWE like he could've in AEW.
Never a fan of the guy, was glad he went away, made money betting against him in UFC (love him for that) and said at the time when he joined AEW this guy is going to be nothing but problems in the long run. Turned it he was nothing but problems in a short run.
Yeah it must have sucked having Punk bring attendance and views to the product. Now will get another Osprey vs some Japanese goof in front of an empty arena.
Yeah I guess I'm wrong, it's much better when he was around to do two matches before going on the shelf for eight months. Bring back Mr. Glass.
As for the empty arena I'm with you on that one, WrestleTix has them on average of 3k to 5k attendance per show, which isn't too shabby and would look much better in a smaller venue and I'd be all for that. I'm assuming Mr. White Claw doesn't give a shit and is happy to just fill the seats facing hard cam to give the illusion that they're capable of doing arena shows like WWE are, thus "competing" with them. Which gets you murdered on social media but casuals tuning in doesn't look at that stuff, and AEW fans wouldn't care. Those who bitch (like you) either don't watch or hate watch so who cares?
CM Punk hurt is more compelling than any other person on the roster. You're marking out for the prospect of a tape of him being shown. How sad is it that you are still dependent on the guy for views and he hasn't been there for months.
CM Punk wore abortion-supporting shirts onto live broadcasts to push his personal agenda where it doesn't belong.
CM Punk had his return on Collision print "Support Trans Kids" on the promotional ice cream bars.
Fuck Punk.
I didn't even bring up politics when shitting on CM Punk, didn't need to. I'm done ranting about it. I just wanna close with CM Punk's relevance, his legacy, during those years he was off jobbing in the UFC and writing comic books is literally WWE fans chanting CM Punk as AN ACT OF REBELLION against the product they're seeing in the ring.
Think about that.
The days of CM Punk putting up good matches like the one on Raw with Cena ten years ago are long gone, his laurel, the younger fans doesn't even know that CM Punk, they know him as the name people chant when Vince booked another shitter.
CM Punk being injured was the best thing to happen to WWE since it gives them a few more months of selling his merch before he's exposed as a Miz tier wrestler. (Okay that's a troll, Miz is pretty good)
Fuck Mr. Glass, I got my CM Punk in WWE bingo card and I'm one backstage incident away from getting a bingo and some free ice cream.
I mean, technically, they ARE bringing back Mr. Glass.
Real glass.
"Go cry me a river."
And AEW has trannies on the roster, and gay dudes cutting promos on scissoring each other.
Again: No one gives a shit about Nyla Rose. Nyla is only ever brought in to lose to a woman. If you watched the show, you'd know that.
You're talking about The Acclaimed. Only ONE of them is gay--Anthony Bowens. Max Caster is straight as an arrow, and judging by his Twitter, may even be a born-again Christian. They just found a catchphrase and a hand gesture that got them over--I can't blame them, it's wrestling, when something works, you stick to it. Resulted in a career resurgence for Billy Gunn, of all people.
If AEW were woke, they wouldn't have given Sting the perfect retirement tour for the last three years--lest we forget, Steve "Sting" Borden is very devout--and also wouldn't have made fellow born-again Christian Chris Jericho their first-ever champion...oh, and also make a pastor's sons (The Young Bucks) executive vice presidents. The theme to Being The Elite, written by said pastor, even called them "good Christian boys" (50 seconds in).
Where are you getting this false info? The SCjerk subreddit?
By marking out you mean finally ending all the speculation and rumor to one of the biggest to happen in wrestling in 2023?
Yes. I'm glad we get to see it.
And no, Mr. Glass isn't compelling, Drew Mcintyre carried him. and his commentary game was weak. Both pre-show and in the booth.
The biggest thing to happen in wrestling involves a guy you said is bad for business fighting in a locker room. Geez man that speaks volumes about AEW.
in wrestling which includes wwe my dude... what else happened last year in WWE outside of Sami getting a push with the bloodline story? Roman defending a handful of times in a year?
Just being honest Punk assaulting people backstage is some dark side of the ring level shit so yeah it's big and will be talked about. Stop me if I'm telling lies.
I was going to see it for a friend's birthday party. Sadly I caught a horrible cough and didn't feel like spreading it outside my household.
I've told my friend old wrestling jokes to make up for it. I wish I could smell what he was cooking.