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I was pretty underwhelmed overall. The ladder match was ok, but I expected better. The HHH/Sting match was ok (the DX and NWO run ins were pretty cool). I think Sting should have gone over in that one though. The Brock/Reigns match was brutal as hell. They were both so stiff in that match. I think Brock even busted his head open without blading when he hit the ring post. If he did blade, I didn't see it. That was my match of the night. Oh yeah, Undertaker looked so much healthier this year compared to last year which I was glad to see. Overall I thought the whole thing was just so-so. Its also sad that the HHH/Steph/Rock/Rousey segment lasted longer than any match tonite.

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But the matches you didn't mention (Orton/Rollins and Cena/Rusev) were great. I think Orton/Rollins might have been the best match. Right there with the main event, though it's hard to compare the two. Worst match was probably Bray/'Taker. But between the Rousey segment and the ending... definitely a memorable night.

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I couldn't start watching tonight until around 9, and WWE Network has been wonky for me, so I've missed a good chunk of the show, but the IC title match was really good as expected, and the main event went better than I thought it would. In fact, I think it would have felt more significant if it just ended as a 1 on 1 match, but good on Rollins being the champ. Seems like Reigns was trying to be as stiff as possible, making Lesnar bleed through punches alone a couple of times, and that seems like such a freaking bad idea! Lesnar could break his arm or something easily if he wanted to.

By the way--Mr. Sinister was on the card tonight!

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The only reason I watch Orton matches is because I like seeing the innovative ways that he uses the RKO. He reminds me of DDP when he would hit a diamond cutter out of nowhere, otherwise I find Orton bland and boring. The Cena/Rusev match was pretty good. I just wish Rusev would have won and continued on his undefeated streak. I could see him becoming a big monster heel character like Umaga was when he first debuted.

I just feel that people like Cena and Orton (and others) don't need to have a belt at this point in their career to be over with the crowd. They should be putting over the younger talent like Rollins, Cesaro, Rusev, etc.

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Well, sorry for the long post. I'm just still excited coming back from Wrestlemania. I couldn't tell how it came off on TV, but it was a great show live. I still think NXT overall was more fun, but man, the electricity of the main event was something.

When I got in, I ran into Vinnie (Cameron's boyfriend) and Eva Marie's dad and brothers at one of the many concession stands. They are from Total Divas, if you didn't know. There wasn't any cameras following them taping for the show. I saw the 2 other Uso brothers (I think) nearby and oh my gosh, they look exactly like the Usos! They could legitimately pass for quadruplets! I knew it wasn't them since the Usos had a tag match on the preshow. I talked to one of them but he didn't seem to really want to talk so I left to respect his privacy. I still wish I got a pic with him since the resemblance is uncanny! Mick Foley was in one of the upper balconies and acknowledged the crowd once in a while. Rhonda Rousey came in during the ladder match.

The tag match was surprisingly good. Cesaro/Kidd were the clear favorites. But the hometown Usos (or rather last Uso standing) got a good reaction too.

The battle royal, man, that ending was a huge let-down. Lots of support for Hideo Itami, though. Mizdow was the clear favorite at the end. The New Day/Big Show spot was pretty entertaining.

The ladder match overall was a fast-paced non-stop match. And Ziggler is one fast man.

Orton/Rollins was a solid match. That ending was an "RKO outta nowhere!"

The Sting/HHH match was pretty slow until it got to the DX/NWO run-in. After that, the place was alive. It was awesome! I didn't see HBK sneak in, but people near me saw him sneak ringside. And that HHH intro was crazy! It sucked that Sting lost. After the match after everybody else left, Sting stuck around inside the ring by himself while the video for whatever ad or match was next. You could tell he was soaking it all in.

After that match, it was pretty much intermission/piss break. I enjoyed the musical act, but most people were out of their seats grabbing a bite or whatever. Not sure if you heard some drums during HHH/Sting, but Travis Barker was practicing the drums in the middle of that match. They set up the musical act while HHH and Sting were wrestling.

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The crowd wasn't too into the Divas match. Which was a complete 180 from NXT where everybody got extremely excited for both of the Divas matches that night. I was surprised there was no CM Punk chants during this match or at any point during the night. I'd say that is a good thing.

Hall of Fame was cool. Connor got a real good ovation from the crowd.

Rusev/Cena was another solid match. From my vantage point, I couldn't see the tank intro due to the tent covering the camera area. I had good seats, but that tent covered the entrance ramp view. So I'm bummed I missed seeing that live, or even on the screen. Crowd was a bit split but I'd say Rusev had more support with the crowd, though. Lana fell far during her bump. It was kind of scary to me seeing that live. That new Cena move was cool. The springboard stunner. Makes me wonder if NXT is making everyone step up their game.

After that match, there was some long video package (I forgot what it was) but Steph and HHH came into the ring while the video was playing. They were standing there for several minutes. During that time, there was a really loud NXT chant from the crowd. Both of them just smiled at that.

The Rock/Rousey segment was awesome. Only thing sucked was how Rousey just gently threw Steph around. It was disappointing and the crowd boo'd that since we expected something more physical towards Steph. But overall entertaining. Seemed a bit long since they jumped right into Bray entrance with no video package hype.

To me, Taker/Bray didn't seem to live up to the hype. Undertaker looked really really healthy, though. That's probably the best thing I could say here. The Bray spider pose/Undertaker sit-up came off funny to the crowd. Not sure if that was the intent, but it had a lot of people busting out laughing. It was during this match that the sun finally set.

The main event. Wow. First off, when Roman came to the ring, no one knew what the heck was going on. It was several minutes of his music playing and no one had a clue where he was. Not even a spotlight showing where he was coming down. It was only when he hopped over the barricade that people finally knew he was there. It was really awkward for the longest time. His Iron Man ground smash was pretty cool live with the pyro. But Lesnar's pyro came out a few seconds late. After the first few minutes, it was clear that Lesnar was the alpha. It quickly got really, really uncomfortable watching his domination for so long. During the match, they showed the #1 trend was "Suplex City" and the crowd loudly chanted that afterwards You could feel the energy in the arena that this was a main event. No other match tonight had this feeling. Whenever Reigns got some offense, man, you'd think it was Cena in the ring. Reigns smiling during the beating seemed a bit awkward too.

Rollins coming in was a total surprise. He probably saved the main event. Right before he inserted himself in the match, it felt that Reigns was going to win and you could feel the crowd almost turning into a riot. The crowd definitely was 100% behind Rollins and that left everybody going home happy. Rollins celebrated for a while and then left. Then Reigns' music played while he slowly made his walk of disappointment with his head down going up the ramp. Brock and Heyman stayed the longest and left last. Even all the announcers left during Rollins' celebration. Brock looked pissed the entire time after losing. But then again, he looked pissed after he got busted open each of the two times.

So overall, I was entertained by this Wrestlemania. And tomorrow night will end my Wrestlemania weekend with RAW. Hopefully it'll be a good show!

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Being part of the post-Wrestlemania Raw was a blast! Wrestlemania's main event was electric for all the right reasons. Raw's main event was electric for all the wrong reasons. I mean, Rollins/Kane/Big Show vs. Orton/Ryback/Reigns? No one wanted it so the Raw main event got hijacked. I was so surprised the wave lasted for as long as it did.

So many funny chants throughout the night. I will say I wasn't too proud of the certain chant towards the Divas and their significant others during the Divas match, but it was funny. Overall, the crowd supported the Diva's match and it was pretty good. The usual CM Punk chants started, but the crowd eventually turned on that and chanted "AJ Lee" instead. Finally!

Brock's destruction was crazy! JBL literally was under the flipped table the entire time. I didn't know who Lesnar grabbed but I could tell by the crowd's reaction it was Cole. I felt a little bad for Byron Saxton. He sat on the ground when he called matches by himself looking into the monitor under the table like a kid camping under a sofa pillow tent. It was only later when Lawler came out they eventually got chairs.

I was surprised Ziggler started getting some boos. I guess it was just a pro-Bryan crowd. Great match, though. And Sheamus looks like a rooster, haha.

During the Superstars taping, they had lighting issues during Luke Harper vs R-Truth. The lights kept flickering for a while during the start of the match. Then the set's LED lights (not the lights lighting the ring, that was okay now) turned off and restarted after a bit. This was like 10 minutes before Raw started. I thought the live broadcast might have been in trouble.

When Lillian announced the presale for the next WWE Raw event in San Jose, the crowd erupted in a "We! Don't! Live! Here!" chant. Lilian's expression was funny as if she thought she offended the crowd.

What a fun night. I guess WWE didn't want Smackdown hijacked either since they have it in another city far away this year. Hope you all enjoyed Raw too!

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What I caught of Raw was pretty good, though the post-WM Raw is usually one of the best of the year. My only disappointment with Brock was that he didn't go after Stephanie, but maybe that's later. Kind of weird that no HHH was around. Maybe they're trying to really push this as Stephanie's company? The Bryan/Ziggler match was awesome, of course, and it was cool that Ambrose got the title shot against Cena. I was surprised that the Luchadores were so popular with the crowd, as it seems like they had flat reactions from the NXT crowd most of the time. Nice seeing "Neville" make his debut as well.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who knew that Rollins was going to chicken out of the Lesnar match when he showed up to the arena without being forced to, came into the ring so full of piss and vinegar, etc. laugh.png As-if. Rollins is turning out to be a great, classic chickenshit heel. Seems like we don't have enough of those in the "postmodern" wrestling world we live in with antiheroes and Lesnar types all over the place. Randy Savage or Ted Dibiase would be proud.

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NXT got a lot of love last night. Lots of random NXT chants. Loudest NXT chant was the "How you doin'?" one. There even was a "Breeze is gorgeous" chant. I still don't know what made it to TV yet. The Lucha Dragons have been on Main Event and Superstars for a while so I was surprised they got a really great reaction.

I started watching some of Raw and it seemed like the crowd got somewhat edited. Or rather muted. During the Ziggler/Bryan match, Ziggler definitely got some loud boos. But it didn't seem very bad on TV. Perhaps it was just my section? I'll watch more later to see if this was the case. I'll be able to tell during the main event. smile.png

Sting's promo post-Raw sounded like he was talking to Vince saying "I'm here so use me or else your loss". Of course a deafening Undertaker chant erupted. But I'm sure Sting will be back in some form on TV.

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They muted the crowd from the Divas match on, when the chants got a little blue. Bryan Alvarez (who was there) and Dave Meltzer (who was not) talked about it on their post-show report. During that last half hour or so it was really hard to make out most of the crowd chants, which might be for the best. It was pretty dumb of them to put Reigns out there as the "surprise mystery partner" and not expect him to get booed. Having Kane and Big Show out there didn't help either.

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They did show the wave. In fact, the camera pulled away from the match and was zooming in and out, following the wave, in order to highlight it. Would have been hard to avoid without editing, as Rollins just stopped for a minute while the wave was going. Commentators mentioned it, as well.

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Finally watched the rest of Raw. Yep, WWE has implemented some sort of audio filtering. Doesn't sound too bad most of the time, especially all the Reigns booing.

One thing has been on my mind since before Wrestlemania with all the rumors of the Intercontinental title on Bryan and the US title on Cena. Do you think the WWE will try to unify them in the near future? But first, let's face it. John Cena has a new shirt, so that probably means he will have the belt for at least 3-6 months. I see the US title as a storyline reason for John Cena to not be in the main event and face younger talent so they can measure up to Cena's level. Every once in a while he keeps saying he's the gatekeeper or whatever and you have to go through him to take his spot. I personally like the idea to see him with a bit more fresher opponents. Him and Ambrose was good and I feel Ambrose looked stronger after that match. But the pool of likely contenders are basically the same as the Intercontinental title. Cena was part of the WWE/WHC title unification where he lost the lower tier title. I just keep getting this deja vu feeling seeing him with the US title trying to bring it up before taking it off the table. But I'll get behind a Cena/Bryan unification match.

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I thought his new US title shirt was pretty dumb, since it telegraphs that he's not losing the title any time soon. I think Cena as "champion emeritus" (Dave Meltzer's term) status makes sense, but only if he's going to occasionally going to put the younger guys over. They can't just think that putting Ambrose or somebody in the ring with Cena automatically elevates them. The guys that worked with Cena and ended up worse off after that program (Barrett, Wyatt just off the top of my head) is a lot longer then the guys he elevated.

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  • 1 month later...

I just saw the video, damn. But this isn't surprising to me. He beat the shit out of himself for years in the indies, before even getting to the WWE. The human body can only get pushed so far. A cruel irony that all the work he did to get himself to the top is responsible for him not being able to stay at the top very long :( Reminiscent in some ways of Rick Rude or Magnum TA, who when they finally were able to get to the top of the heap were struck down by injuries, ending their in-ring careers.

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Or Brian Pillman, who became the hottest guy in wrestling, worked himself into a position to capitalize on that as a free agent, then wrecked his ankle in a car accident.

Yeah, all those years working so hard are catching up to him. I hope that, if he can make it back, he'll be able to adapt and work a less physical style. I think he will, since he's that talented; it's more a question of if mentally he can keep himself from taking crazy bumps. It's really sad though.

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Danielson seems like the kind of guy who would rather just retire than come back and wrestle more meekly. But for sure, he could just have technical, ground-and-pound matches where he doesn't jump off of ladders and do backflips, and would still be one of the most entertaining in-ring wrestlers on the roster.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting night for wrestling. NXT Takeover special aired, and not to spoil anything, but the Becky Lynch/Sasha Banks match was light years ahead of anything else on the card. Amazing match. There was a surprise at the end of the night too...

And Dave Meltzer is reporting that Destination America is going to cancel TNA Impact when there's an opt-out clause in their contract in September. This might finally-mercifully- be the end of the road.

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And Dave Meltzer is reporting that Destination America is going to cancel TNA Impact when there's an opt-out clause in their contract in September. This might finally-mercifully- be the end of the road.

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I only saw the last match from tonight's show, as I started late and the network was acting screwy. I thought the progression of the match was disappointing, as was the way the reveal at the end played out.

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I watched the NXT special and I agree the womans matches where the best thing on it. I'm a big fan of NXT but out of all the stuff they have done that is the weakest special so far. There was nothing really wrong but it just safe nothing gripping.

They seem to have upgrade the entrances for everyone and upgraded the entrance stage bit as well which for me kinda took away from the whole thing. The last match was kinda mehh and I have to agree the reveal good as it was, was weak as well.

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