Wrestlemania and Monday Night Raw!
So I had a pretty good weekend just gone, I spent sunday evening at my friends place waiting in anticipation for the biggest night of the year... WRESTLEMANIA! This year it took place in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, New York. With a record crowd of 80,676! The second highest recorded since Wrestlemania III. To be honest I wonder if half of them were asleep most of the night because there seemed to be a lack of reaction to most of the matches.
My friends and I were hyped when the show started, after playing WWE '13 for a few hrs before hand, it kicked off with the pre-show in which The Miz faced Wade Barrett (c) for the Intercontinental Title. The match was short and sweet and a great way to warm up the crowd, with The Miz picking up the title and becoming the new IC champion. I was personally really happy for The Miz as I think he's a much better and convincing champ.
Main show:
The Shield vs Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show.
I was really looking forward to this match as Randy is one of my favourites, but I was skeptical as to how this match would turn out. I did have a theory that maybe as Randy was sorta being the "voice of reason" within the group that maybe he would have a heel turn and Show would face turn. I was so wrong.. Boo had the match pegged from the beginning, Show turned on them all and despite the match being dominated by the team Randy lost out, he was pinned and Big show stood there looking on. No intervention from him and The Shield won. I can't say I'm not disappointed but it was kinda predictable that things were not going to be straight forward.
Mark Henry vs Ryback.
One of my least favourite matches of the night, Mark Henry is so boring to me and I truly can't believe he was on the card for WM. Ryback can be just as tedious for me sometimes, don't get me wrong he is a sheer force but I just found this match monotonous. The best part was the shell shock after Ryback lost.
Team Hell No (c) vs Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston.
I gotta say I love Kane and Daniel Bryan as a team, whoever thought up that idea deserves a man point, they're the perfect mix of crazy and dysfunction. I was really looking forward to this match, it also marked the match debut of Big E. We have seen little snippets of the 2 moves he possesses in the build up to WM and again I found myself disappointed in what the WWE has been pushing. We already have Ryback so why did we need Big E? I like Ziggler as a character and he's not a bad wrestler at all. I however like my friends knew that Team Hell No would retain the titles because Dolph was still yet to cash in the Money In The Bank contract. There would be no point giving him and Big E the titles only to make him World Heavyweight champion too. The match was short and was pretty alright so far during the show.
Fandango vs Chris Jericho.
After weeks of having promo after promo, walk outs from matches and that stupid pointless dancing gimmick and song, we finally got to see what Fandango/Johnny Curtis can do in the ring. There has been alot of hype around him, pegging him as a new high flyer and future face of the WWE. Feuding him with Jericho since his epic return at the Royal Rumble, I was interested to see how he would prevail on the greatest stage. I mean what a night to debut! But as before I was disappointed, and not just with the new guy... Jericho jobbing? My friends and I are really disheartened that a talent such as Chris is reduced to job to a really pointless and mediocre future superstar. I just hope he gets better and manages to win people over at some point.
Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Jack Swagger.
I was really looking forward to this match, the storyline that's been building between these two has been pretty heated and it became personal when Zeb Colter made this all about race and America. I also gotta say I really like face ADR and I was rooting for him to beat the big mouths.. not only to make a statement against racism but to also just generally beat the crap out of Swagger who by all accounts should have been fired when he was caught and charged with DUI a few weeks back. I really am shocked that the WWE has gotten away with creating such a controversial storyline, I mean it's really become somewhat ridiculous as of late. Swagger even went overboard and broke Ricardo Rodriguez's ankle during a show. I can't express how happy I was that Del Rio retained the title, making Swagger tap out was a highlight, he's definitely upped his game alot since being the champ, I just hope he remains face for a little while longer.
The Undertaker vs CM Punk.
The Phenom's much anticipated match with the infamous and ultimate heel of the moment. With the passing of Paul Bearer and the disrespect shown my Punk, it was only a matter of time before The undertaker would rise to the challenge of facing him at WM. Punk was determined to be placed as the one who would end the streak of 20-0. However this was never going to happen, I love Punk but it's just not really believable that Taker would be defeated on HIS stage at this point in his career. As predicable as the result may have been, the match certainly lived up to expectations. This was my favourite of the night and by far one of the best matches I've ever seen Punk in. Using Taker's "Old School" move on him was the biggest disrespect of the night. But as predicted Taker prevailed, you gotta give it to him even at his age he can still give it some. Punk gave it his all, and showed that he has earned his right to be on the main card again.
Triple H vs Brock Lesnar.
Boo's favourite HHH in a No Holds Barred match against "The Beast", was set to be another highly anticipated match. Straight after the Taker/Punk match as well, it was for most of my friends and I the last match of the night. Most of us didn't care for the main event. It was all about the two giants of Taker and HHH, and as usual the C.O.O of the WWE didn't disappoint. This was set to be a bloody match based on weeks before, with Brock breaking HHH's arm twice before, plus breaking HBK's arm too, and in return HHH split BL head open. It was gunna be a hard act to follow. But they pulled it off, and it looked as gruiling as ever, with both men battered and bruised. It ended as predicted with HHH winning and keeping his career and position within the WWE. Also finally shutting Paul Heyman up with both of his clients losing during the night.
The Main Event The Rock (c) vs John Cena.
Once Twice in a lifetime should have been the tag line. I had absolutely no interest in this match, I didn't feel that either of these two should be champion. The Rock is a part timer who is never there and never defended his title whilst holding it. John Cena walks around the ring with a metaphorical silver spoon in his mouth. I can't stand either of them and to be honest I didn't watch any of the match, I spent the 25 minutes scouring twitter and tumblr. There's not much to be said about it really, other then it was obvious Cena would win, because Rock has more commitments to making movies where he plays the same character each time. I do know that a lot of people felt like he was slow and looked out of breath compared to Cena, maybe it was to do with the ripped abdominal muscles he sustained during the match but I'm sure he will be back at some point to talk about something I still won't really care about.
Lastly I just wanna acknowledge a few title changes that happened on Monday Night Raw.
The Miz (c) vs Wade Barrett.
I am really annoyed that this match ended with the title being returned to WB, as I said I think it's about time Miz was champ again and I cannot think of a reason as to why the WWE would do this... maybe someone can enlighten me?
Dolph Ziggler cashes in the Money In The Bank contract.
Alberto Del Rio is clearly suffering an injured knee after his match with Swagger and this is the perfect time to strike, Ziggler cashes in and even though ADR put up a good fight Ziggler is crowned new World Heavyweight champion. I'm interested to see how this changes the group of Big E and AJ.
So all together a good couple of shows, however I did find myself enjoying Raw much more then Wrestlemania which is abit shocking. I'd love to know what others think of both shows.
