This week and weekend has been one wrestling filled period and finally we are here at the start of the big one. Or is it? The first night at Allegiant Stadium was announced at over 60k people where it’s an open air style setup. Despite the grandeur of the event, I felt that the lead up was mostly dull and focused on only a few things that caught my interest. In a few cases, I felt the crowd shared that sentiment as a few matches just fell flat. At the same time, this week leading up to this point felt duller than one of my torturous literature classes back in college, partly why I decided to forgo reviewing last night’s Smackdown. But at least for this show, I figured to get my hits in as I made my predictions early on and wanted to see how those would compare to what happened.
Gunther vs Jey Uso
For the world heavyweight championship. While we all knew that this match wasn’t going on last on night one, it’s almost an insult to both guys that they placed this match as the official starting match for WrestleMania 41, especially when it’s for the company’s 2nd most prestigious title. Jey Uso had a LONG entrance that I skipped while Gunther came straight out. Some people commented that Gunther had the “jobber boo boo face” but I think he always looks like that.
Regardless, this was a big time carry job for Gunther. The thing that the announcers (or rather Wade Barrett) pointed out was that Jey still was the same person physically, despite his change in attitude with the promo he gave. Style-wise, I was hoping that Jey would bump up the intensity and take it to Gunther but this match was dull where the story they wanted to tell never came through. At one stage, Jey started to take a beating and began laughing insanely as though he was trying to convey that he was absorbing the punishment. It wouldn’t have been a bad idea if Jey was a halfway decent actor and knew how to work a story in his matches. That part didn’t last long but ultimately the way Jey was able to beat poor Gunther was hit his moves a few times then use Gunther’s chokesleeper on Gunther for the tap out.
Some people on reddit were mad at the finish because many feel Jey is a joke. But let’s be real and just say that the WWE is just using Jey’s momentum while they have it and a good enough story to sell to the fans. Also, as I mentioned before he’s in this position as a kind of consolation prize. There’s no real guarantee that he’ll KEEP the title for long so for all we know he might lose it back to Gunther on the following Raw. I mean I think he’ll continue to keep it as long as he has the momentum with the audience. But I think once he’s no longer in a program with a good wrestler like Gunther, he’ll be exposed fast and he’ll drop it because the WWE will find someone else with momentum or that they think can carry the belt better.
As for my predictions, I’m already 0-1. I did mention that Jimmy Uso would make an appearance, which he did to congratulate his brother. That said, when Jimmy had that belt, I kinda hoped that Jimmy would have bashed Jey’s face in with it just because it would instantly setup a feud (even if the match would be rotten) and turn Jimmy into a big time heel. Maybe I’ve just watched too much wrestling in my life at this point and just instinctively expect that type of thing.
The War Raiders vs The New Day
The tag team titles were on the line here. This was a dull/awful match. Crowd barely cared because this was thrown in at the last minute. The new New Day’s heat had dissipated and the War Raiders looked like jokes because of the Clash of Clans gimmick. It was painful listening to Pat McAfee trying to sound like he’s a big time Clash of Clans player. Even though I got sucked in at one time, there’s a time and place for these things and it just makes wrestling look cartoonish. Anyway, the only thing of note here was the new New Day stealing the win but I’m guessing they’re going to be transitional champions until Rey Fenix and Penta start teaming up and take the titles off of them. So I’m 1-1 at this point.
Jade Cargill vs Naomi
This was not a good “match.” It was almost a one sided performance by Jade in terms of displaying her raw power. Naomi is just really awful. I wanted her to change her style in becoming a heel but she seems more preoccupied by her interviews and costumes. But she misses a lot of moves. I can forgive Jade because she’s newer but Naomi has been around in the WWE for a very long time. Either she’s just damaged goods at this stage or maybe they need to give her the boot again. Just not good. That said, Jade had a few really impressive moments like catch Naomi then hitting a Jackhammer also lifting Naomi on her shoulders and flipping her for a power bomb. Naomi seemed uncertain trying to take that move because she just sat on Jade’s shoulders’ dumbly. I mean at least sell exhaustion, being dizzy or being scared. Don’t just sit up on someone’s shoulders waiting for the inevitable. The right person won and there wasn’t any interference from Bianca so far.
That said, one of the more interesting things on Smackdown happened when both Naomi and Jade showed up during the Iyo / Rhea / Bianca segment. Naomi confronted Bianca, just after Bianca started getting boos. Then Bianca went from the cocky tweener character back to emotional Bianca. Ugh. That said, I really thought that Bianca would make an appearance in this match. So I’m kinda hoping that Naomi shows up tomorrow because I don’t think that story is done. Jade might be done with Naomi and probably will move on to someone else though.
In terms of my predictions, I honestly didn’t pick one or the other. My “pick” was more based on whether or not Bianca would show up. I got part of that right because of the Smackdown segment so it was more conditional. Nonetheless, because I was wrong about Bianca here, I will penalize myself. 1-2.
LA Knight vs Jacob Fatu
US title match. Jacob Fatu came out with Solo Sikoa who went back to the dressing room I guess. Match wasn’t bad but I ended up missing a portion because my video cut out. What I saw was okay but I felt the crowd was mixed here because they like/respect both guys. I kinda felt bad for LA Knight because anytime he builds up a little momentum, his knees get cut from under him. In this case, it was justified in that Jacob Fatu is one of the hottest things in the WWE. So Jacob Fatu won with a clean ending surprisingly. Or maybe not so surprisingly since the WWE are relying more on clean finishes these days. So I’m giving myself this one because it’s one of the only finishes that really made sense. 2-2.
Rey Fenix vs El Grande Americano
The big news is that Rey Mysterio Jr got injured (again) on Smackdown. It looked like his knee got torqued somehow (probably when one of the Creed brothers dragged him from the apron to the floor; btw is it me or are those two just really green and sloppy as hell?). So they substituted Rey with the other Rey. El Grande got the win not surprisingly so because he’s got the winning gimmick. Some people weren’t happy that Rey Fenix was put in to job this early after recently debuting. However, you have to think that as a last minute substitution, he got to have a WrestleMania match. So there’s the compromise. Other people thought that Dragon Lee should’ve been here but he’s not the big guy at the moment, despite Mysterio believing so. While I didn’t predict Rey Mysterio Jr. to get injured the night before, I did predict El Grande to win. So that’s 3-2.
Tiffany Stratton vs Charlotte Flair
The Women’s Championship was at stake here. Match started out a little uneven with more brawling. Tiffany can’t hit worth shit and I think she was nervous for the first half. There was an awkward move where they ran the ropes and it looked like one of them (possibly Tiffany) got lost. Charlotte clearly carried the match here. I thought maybe midway through the match Tiffany might’ve gotten gassed. She looked a little out of it and had to recuperate. By the end, Tiffany’s moves weren’t crisp any longer. Like her rolling senton looked like it lacked steam. I think she was trying to survive. Poor Charlotte jobbed here. I know people hate Charlotte but the WWE is making a huge mistake continuing to keep the belt on Tiffany. She can’t carry these matches if she’s getting gassed. Maybe it was the heat of Vegas. I can’t tell. But the stuff that Tiffany normally can do well didn’t look good so I’m worried she’ll crack soon.
As for Charlotte, the only thing for her to do is have a feud with Jade and possibly Giulia. Unfortunately, they’re pushing Stephanie Vaquer in NXT but I think Giulia is the one they need to get for Charlotte. Otherwise, Jade is the only thing of interest for her that can be a real challenge for her to sink her teeth into at this point in her WWE career. As for me, even if I feel that Tiffany is green, I still missed the prediction here. 3-4.
CM Punk vs Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins
For my money’s worth, this was the most important match on this WrestleMania because it centers around Paul Heyman. This is the only match that had the most interesting story that has kept me hooked. It wasn’t a great story but it was interesting because of the people involved. Punk came out to a live performance from Living Colour doing “Cult of Personality.” Not a bad song and they sounded good. Paul Heyman accompanied him to the ring and you could see Punk was emotional because he got to accomplish his dream here. But what did I say about his requirements? He only needed to be in the main event, not necessarily win it. Wade Barrett mentioned he did need to win it but that never was part of the core story line.
Match was okay. They did some brawling in the crowd, Roman did a crazy dive over the barricade onto both guys. Punk hit a Doomsday Device on Rollins where Reigns hoisted Rollins on his shoulders. It got pretty brutal at times but I didn’t see anything that looked outrageously dangerous that hurt anyone. At one point, Rollins tried to convince Reigns to team with him to eliminate Punk forever from the WWE. Instead, Reigns nailed Rollins then hit a huge power bomb on the announcer’s table on Punk. I think Seth received one as well.
Towards, the end they started going to submissions which kinda killed the crowd because no one really would buy a finish like that from them (cf. Kawada’s Stretch Plum). Eventually, both Seth and Reigns got knocked down so that Heyman could grab a chair and hand it to Punk. Because the match was no DQ (aka Lazy Booking), Paul slithered into the ring next to Punk so that he could geriatrically bend over to deliver a low blow to Punk. Then he groveled to Reigns in swearing his perennial loyalty to his tribal chief so that Reigns could nail Punk with a few chair shots to the back. As Reigns turned towards the prone Rollins, Heyman directed Reigns to his final victim, only to also give a shitty low blow to Reigns. Then he handed Rollins the chair (with Rollins’ back turned away from Heyman) so that Rollins could nail Reigns with the chair, hit a curb stomp and feel redemption after years of dealing with Reigns.
See what I meant by how Heyman is the centerpiece in the WWE? The only things bigger than Heyman are Triple H and HBK. But at least they only make cameos whereas Heyman literally fills up the screen from week to week. Anyway, my prediction was a DQ (didn’t realize this match was a no DQ) and thought Brock would show up. But I guess they’re putting more eggs in Rollins’ basket. I did hear about this betrayal and that Seth would win. But I’ll concede that my actual prediction was way off base. 3-5.
Final Thoughts
Outside of the main event, this show was bland as fuck. The type of matches I wanted to see didn’t happen. Instead, there were “performances” rather than what I would consider actual wrestling matches. For instance, Jade “performed” well. Jacob “performed” well. The closest thing to a traditional wrestling match in my book was Charlotte vs Tiffany and I give the credit to Charlotte for that one. But oh man this show was wretched. Sadly, this was the show I wanted to see! So tomorrow’s night 2 I’m not looking forward to outside of the main event just to see what Cena will do.
Next, let’s talk a bit about the Hall of Fame ceremony. I only caught bits but holy damn was that dull. There was a meme going out of all the various wrestlers actually falling asleep themselves during the ceremony. The speeches mostly were bland as fuck. I liked seeing Lex stand but the whole “god” spiel by Page turned me off. I like Page but never sell me on god. The other notable act was Bret and Austin. Bret looked like he didn’t really care to be there so he let Austin do the speaking. When they unveiled the “trophy” or whatever, I swear it looked like a fucking PoE Chaos Orb. Both and Punk laughed at the appearance. Then Austin got some beers to drink with Bret and McAfee. Punk backed up and was quietly acknowledged in the background that he doesn’t drink. LOL.
On top of that, other news was the WWE acquiring AAA. People are looking at this as the beginning of global domination/monopoly of pro-wrestling. I personally don’t care because no one has done anything to create anything competitive to the WWE. You can’t call what AEW does competitive at this stage with the stupid shit they pull.
The other news I read was how Becky Lynch is supposed to take over Bayley’s tag spot with Valkyria. Some people are miffed about that because of how hard Bayley works etc. I mean, I hope no one there is reading my blog and taking me too seriously. I will say that the problem isn’t entirely Bayley here though but just how I think management views how weak she is with Valkyria. Becky would give Valkyria some oomph but it might turn against them since it’s effectively taking a spot away from Bayley. I mean, why even both having that stupid tag team gauntlet with Bayley involved in the first place if this idea was done in advance?
And I like Becky. I can’t blame her. I just think the booking in the WWE right now is downright atrocious. They’re even pushing fossils and can’t get away from them or they push people who are too green. There’s no good gradual growth middle ground where people are ripe. Like by the time some of these people are ready, they’re already beaten up and broken down because of their road schedule and the shitty modern style. People talk about Jey Uso’s win but it’s really a consolation prize where people got behind him since they probably felt bad for the guy for being the underdog for so long. They kept Roman on top for way too long or the whole Super Cena thing where they’re relying on only a few people. Some of that was McMahon’s fault. But I think the WWE is in a weird state.
The bright side is that we have people like Jacob Fatu, Gunther and Bron Breakker. Those three are clear main eventers in the next 1-2 years. Unfortunately, Gunther is in his late 30s so that window for main eventing has to occur sooner than later. But he’s certainly ready to be the top dawg. The rest I’m not sure about because of how bad their matches are and the fact that there’s not enough places for them to gain more experience that doesn’t do the “modern” style. I am hopeful for Ricky Saints too but they need to bring him up in the next 3-6 months. He can’t stick around in NXT forever.
At any rate, I might try to stick it out with the WWE until Raw. The Rollins – Heyman thing is interesting at least so I want to hear what Heyman has to say for himself.
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