Wrestlemania 32 Thoughts

WWE finally broke their own all time attendance record packing nearly 100,000 fans into the impressive AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas but sadly Wrestlemania was a really underwhelming ho-hum show. That's not to say there were no big moments or good matches but this show fell far short of what a Wrestlemania should be. Fortunately for WWE the name "Wrestlemania" is almost enough for a sell out these days but how long that will continue to be the case is questionable after what the company have produced recently. Here are my positives and negatives from the big event...


+ Positives
Lita's announcement on the pre-show that the "Divas" name and championship were being scrapped was very welcome. The ladies will once again compete for the Women's Championship and like their male counterparts will be referred to as "Superstars". The awful Divas title belt was replaced by one that looks similar to the WWE World Heavyweight Title... Brie Bella was allowed to leave WWE on her own terms and even got her hand raised in the process. A pleasant surprise... The Intercontinental Title ladder match was the best match of the night. Lots of cool and crazy spots and plenty of excitement... AJ Styles versus Chris Jericho was a really good bout that was built well and the crowd appreciated it more as it went on... I liked the New Day's entrance. It was certainly unique... Steve Austin's appearance along with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley was a great moment of nostalgia that the crowd ate up. Austin's entrance brought the biggest pop of the night. Michaels looked in a great shape... Brock Lesnar had a solid street fight match with Dean Ambrose... The Women's Title match was very good and although it seemed the right time to give Sasha Banks the belt I'm not too disappointed as I think it would benefit her more to have a longer feud with Charlotte and defeat her in a one-on-one situation... Shane McMahon's leap of the top of a very tall Hell In A Cell cage was insane. Yes there was something underneath the announce desk to help cushion his fall but it was still an incredible risk. His Coast To Coast (Van Terminator) manoeuvre was also well executed... The Rock's appearance was another cool moment and I don't think his surprise six second victory over Erick Rowan did any harm. John Cena's return was nicely timed and by and large got the desired reaction from the crowd. Rock looked and sounded as great as ever... Speaking of looking great Triple H's physique was ripped and he had obviously gotten himself into tremendous shape for the big show (either naturally or otherwise). He didn't look anything like as good as this at Royal Rumble.


- Negatives
The United States Title match taking place in front of a virtually empty stadium. Apparently fans had trouble getting into the arena due to an electronic error with tickets... Lita proclaiming that the winner of the Charlotte/Sasha Banks/Becky Lynch match would be the "first ever WWE Women's Champion" conveniently forgetting the title previously existed for over 50 years... Bizarre choice of winner in the Intercontinental Title match. Zack Ryder's victory was a huge moment for him personally but came out of nowhere and made little sense. Coupled with what happened the next night on Raw, what was the point? Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn surely should have been the focus here rather than an afterthought... Another strange choice of winner in the Styles/Jericho match. It's bad enough that they'd already wrestled three times this year but newcomer Styles should never have lost the big match at Wrestlemania as it's the one people will remember. Jericho did not need the win here and considering Styles was to be the next contender for the World Title made this booking decision even more stupid. Not to mention the fact that he went down fairly clean also... The New Day are one of WWE's most over acts and they were placed in a nothing match and lost all so the League of Nations could get beaten up by Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels. This made the League look like complete jobbers and the New Day worse for being beaten by them... Dean Ambrose's role of nearly man was cemented in his loss to Brock Lesnar. Even with weapons at his disposal Ambrose could not slay "The Beast" and spent most of the match on the defensive before being beaten... Shane McMahon taking Undertaker to a 30 minute Hell In A Cell match was simply not believable. A 46 year old non-wrestler who only took part in matches on special occasions in his prime years should not be allowed to be Undertaker's equal. And what of the "huge" stipulations in this match? They were barely even mentioned during or after the match so what was the point? Regardless of believability the match was poor and only became intriguing when they left the cage. This match appeared to be designed just to show how tough Shane is. Well he is a McMahon after all... The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was rubbish. Just a bunch of nobodies in a filler match that meant nothing. Shaquille O'Neal's appearance was a surprise but amounted to nothing. Shaq has gotten so big he looks bigger than Big Show these days... I don't think The Rock and John Cena beating up the Wyatt's was as bad as what the League suffered (Cena is a current top star and Rock has been active in recent years) but it was another case of sacrificing talent at the hands of the real stars... The main event was a big letdown. Too long, boring, predictable and the fans just weren't into it. Reigns got the expected boos but not as bad as it could have been. Triple H dominated with methodical offense which wouldn't have been as bad if the crowd were rallying behind the babyface, but of course they weren't. At the end of the match Reigns' music was turned up extra loud to cover any boos... Stephanie McMahon was sure enough given a big role in the main event from her well delivered but cringe worthy declaration to being very prominent at ringside and involved in a big spot in the match. The McMahon family are the stars you know... At nearly five hours (seven including the pre-show) the show was far too long. Perhaps the main event might've got a better reaction at the end of a four hour show with ten minutes cut from it? ... This came across as a show to put the hardcore fans in their place. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, New Day, Sasha Banks, Dean Ambrose all lost despite being big favourites with the fans. Shane McMahon's loss means the never ending heel authority angle will continue and we have a number one babyface/world champion who is less popular with the masses than the polarising John Cena... Crowd cues; WWE decided to use the giant screens to try and control what the crowd chanted including "New Day Rocks", the suplex count in the Lesnar/Ambrose match and strangely "Woooo!" for Charlotte who was the heel. I've also heard many reports of WWE tampering with crowd noise levels such as turning down the mics in areas of the stadium where fans were booing Roman Reigns...  That attendance record; As is common knowledge the 93,173 indoor attendance record at Wrestlemania III was make-belief. The real number in the Silver Dome was a still very impressive 78,000. That number was beaten at Wembley Stadium for Summerslam in 1992 with 80,355 but they couldn't announce it as a new record because it didn't beat the fictitious one from 1987! So this year it would all be put to rest anyway and a new attendance record would be set at Wrestlemania 32 so they wouldn't have to lie anymore, right? Well, sort of. WWE did legitimately break their real and pretend all time attendance record on 3rd April 2016 with 93,730 fans packed into the AT&T Stadium but the number of 101,763 was not true (there were actually 97,769 in the building but that includes all staff and personnel). After proclaiming all year that they would break 100,000 for the show WWE were never going to admit to 'failing' by announcing a number under 100k. All that has happened is a new lie has replaced an old one.


Overall
A very long show that will be remembered for the attendance, Shane McMahon's crazy stunt and cameos from the big stars of the past. Bizarre and perhaps spiteful booking made an underwhelming card going in turn out to be as disappointing as expected. The matches on this show would've been fine for a Network Special but for a Wrestlemania in front of their largest crowd ever this was not good enough.

Royal Rumble 2016 Thoughts

I thought Royal Rumble 2016 was a good show, I enjoyed it a lot actually. The Last Man Standing Match for the Intercontinental Title was a great battle with some clever spots mixed in to the usual weapon based brawling. I liked Kevin Owens rolling to the outside after a Dirty Deeds on a chair as he was unable to climb to his feet. I also liked the finish as enough time had passed to make the viewer forget about the stacked tables on the outside. I wasn't so keen on Dean Ambrose's ability to jump to his feet (albeit on a nine count) after going through a table from the top rope and then suffering the Pop-up Powerbomb as I felt it weakened Owens' finisher. I also didn't like this match going on first as I feel it lessened it's importance and hurt the next couple of bouts as the crowd were on a comedown.

I feel like I've seen New Day versus The Usos a thousand times and this felt like just another match between them. Xavier Woods on the outside was more interesting than the action in the ring for the most part. There was a cool finish though as Big E caught Jimmy on his shoulder and finished him off with the Big Ending.

There was yet another US Title switch as Kalisto defeated Alberto Del Rio which begs the question why they felt the need to put the belt back on Del Rio 24 hours after Kalisto's original title win. The hot potato approach does nothing but devalue a championship. There was a great near fall for Kalisto towards the end but the match was only okay and was a bit clunky in places.

I felt Charlotte and Becky Lynch had a good wrestling. I liked the no nonsense punch counter to the Figure 8 but the finish involving Ric Flair was a bit daft. Sasha Bank's post match angle with Charlotte went down a storm with the live crowd. Hopefully they'll build this towards Wrestlemania and not throw it away at Fast Lane.

The Royal Rumble match was really entertaining but there's something really wrong with 46 year old Triple H winning the WWE World Title and headlining the "biggest Wrestlemania of all time" as the company's top heel. I realise Seth Rollins' injury messed up their plans but this is what happens when you don't create new stars. It's a real shame the likes of Rusev and Bray Wyatt have been damaged so much. I don't have a problem with Triple H versus Roman Reigns as the story makes sense and has been built well, I do have a problem with it being for the world title in the main event of Wrestlemania. I thought Triple H didn't look in the greatest shape and his arms have shrunk quite a lot. The other marquee match set for Wrestlemania is Brock Lesnar versus Bray Wyatt which sadly doesn't fill me with much excitement either. Wyatt has been reduced to the role of jobber to the stars in the last 12-18 months and a lot of work needs to be done to repair the damage done to him.

Rumble match observations: I think WWE should be concerned with the level of boos aimed at their star project Roman Reigns not to mention the roar of cheers that went up when he was dumped out of the match by Triple H. It's quite obvious that Reigns is beating Hunter for the belt at Wrestlemania and surely the last thing they want is the show to end with their new star babyface being showered with boos ... Rusev being dumped out by Reigns in less than 90 seconds shows how far he has fallen ... AJ Styles got a huge pop as he made his debut and put in a really good first performance in a WWE ring. A positive start for him for sure ... Chris Jericho, who looks a bit heavier these days, was this year's endurance man as he lasted 50 minutes in the match. Could a young up-and-comer not have been given that role? ... R-Truth's 'comedy' spot must've gone over my head ... Kofi Kingston did his annual spot of leaving the ring over the top rope without being eliminated only for the cameras to miss his actual elimination ... The Authority were so desperate for Roman Reigns to lose the World Title that they forced him to defend the title in the Rumble from the number one spot and then Vince McMahon instructed the League of Nations to pull him from the ring and attack him until he was unable to continue. Why not just have the three men throw him over the top rope? As it was Reigns was helped to the back but of course, he would be back ... Braun Strowman was given the star treatment as he eliminated Kane and then the Big Show. Unfortunately nobody seemed to care ... Owens limped to the ring and eliminated AJ Styles to loud boos. It was to be expected ... Sami Zayn then eliminated Owens to a big pop which was a nice nod to their NXT feud ... Brock Lesnar got a huge pop too as he entered the match just as the Wyatt's were taking over. Lesnar battered Strowman for no selling his clothesline before eliminating him, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. Lesnar's showdown with Bray was cut short as the Wyatt clan re-entered to eliminate Brock. I'm not sure what was stopping them remaining in the ring to help Bray win the match as already eliminated participants are apparently allowed to do whatever they want ... Predictably Reigns returned to the ring and ran riot for a while before Triple H entered as number 30 to a big pop that was nothing compared to the booming response when he eliminated Reigns from behind ... The crowd was hot for the final two (Triple H and Dean Ambrose) but it was obvious that Hunter was going to win here so in some ways the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.


Hopefully Wrestlemania will mark the end of The Authority. The so called 'superstars' being treated like lowly workers who are lucky to have a job is really counter productive and needs to end. They've been doing the heel authority gimmick for 18 years now, it's time to move on.