I usually leave Wrestle Mania with some kind of excitement for what's next, but this year just left me flat. There really isn't much good to say about it ... But I'll try.
The Shield looked really good in their Mania debut, and the WWE continues to push these guys appropriately. While the WWE typically trades victories among the wrestlers, the Shield angle has managed to maintain its steam because they keep winning. Well done. Also enjoyed the Big Show angle to the match, watching him look on as Orton got pinned provided a tremendous shot.
Daniel Bryan got his Wrestle Mania moment. I was certain the WWE was going to break up Kane and Bryan- or at least have them drop the belts and tease a breakup that would occur next month. But the WWE let them go over tonight, and it allowed Bryan and Kane to have the moment of the night - the crowd chanting Yes in unison.
Undertaker vs Punk. It was easy to predict the winners of the three main events, but while the other two fell flat for me, this match came through. I won't go as far to say it was better than HBK/Taker I or HHH/Taker II, but I'd say it was a top-5 Mania match for Taker and easily Punk's best match at the big event.
Now some people call what Punk does "bad heat," but I'm in the group that thinks it works. His arrogance on the mic and in the ring - performing Old School, etc - made it so that people wanted to see him get his ass kicked. And that's exactly what happened. In old school fashion, The Undertaker got his satisfaction and Punk got what was coming to him.
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And now for everything I disliked -
This pay-per view featured no National Anthem - no America the Beautiful - and no pyro to kick off the show. Perhaps they did all this in the pre-show. I couldn't tell you. Which brings me to another problem I had. I paid $70 to watch this show in HD on a big LED TV. Why does that not afford me the chance to watch the pre-show in the same capacity? Why do I have to turn to a 13-inch computer screen to watch it? I understand the WWE makes money from the social media networks carrying the pre-show, but it's absurd to ask me to watch something on a 13-inch monitor when I've committed $70 to watching the product on a larger screen.
P-Diddy got 20 minutes tonight. By comparison - Jericho/Fandago got 15. The IC Title match was pushed to the pre-show because of time contraints. Four full-time wrestlers were pushed completely off the card because of time constraints. Hell, Jack Swagger, the challenger in the WHC match didn't even get an entrance! But hey - don't worry about that one because those people in attendance that paid hundreds of dollars to watch a wrestling show - and the people at home that paid $70 to do the same - got to see Puff Daddy sing a few songs from 1997.
Triple H vs Lesnar was an absolute wreck. The match had no pacing - no psychology - and seemed to trip over itself multiple times. And the crowd reacted accordingly. I noticed multiple times how dead the place was during this bout. I'm sure the WWE will call it a classic - and that some WWE marks will follow suit - but this match was almost as bad as Lesnar/Goldberg.
Rock vs John Cena. I appreciated the four promos (25 minutes in total) that were aired during the pay-per view, though I found it completely odd that the WWE was forcing me to watch video packages that promoted a match I'd already paid to see --- I mean, it was like going to a movie, and 15 minutes into it, the movie paused and a trailer for the movie I was already watching played. Surely, the WWE could've found better ways to use that time - like perhaps, they could've had ALL the matches they advertised ---- or perhaps they could've had actual Wrestle Mania caliber entrances for the main event performers.
As for the match, for the second-straight year, it was lackluster. I love The Rock, and I'm glad he came back because he's still one of the most entertaining guys in the world, but the fact is that this guy gets gassed after 10-15 minutes these days. His name can carry a card - and people will buy it, as I'm sure millions of people did - but his ability can no longer live up to the hype. That's not a knock on him; it would be unfair to expect him to be the same guy he was at 30 when wrestling was his only job, but that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed by the totality of the match. As for the finish, it should've ended when Cena faked the People's Elbow. The AA he hit there should've ended it, and it would've been much more satisfying than the sudden - no build whatsoever - finish we got.