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How far away were you larry?
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I was in the Bacardi suite. Its a fantastic seat for a football game.
There are maybe...500 "good" seats at a wrestling show of the WWE's magnitude. The ones surrounding the ringside area. Now, if you are lucky, and the venue is set up right, there are good seats at events where you can sit right behind the production crew on the hard camera side, too...but that's rare and very venue specific. For this event, they had the entire section behind the production area blocked off...so, no dice there.
Joe Robbie is not a good stadium to watch ANY event in the first place, really. Because they had it as a baseball and football stadium, the dimensions of the seating are really FUBAR, so, if you're sitting down in the non-bleachers that are expanded into what would be the end zone and sidelines (which are not there for any event other than WrestleMania or a ridiculous concert like U2)...it just wasn't the best venue to have an event at where the fans or "customers" are going to get their money's worth (my tickets were free, FWIW) by being immersed into the event, and it didn't help that the WWE's set up was very very nice looking, but not very functional. Anyone on the far endzone, which was across from the entrance of the wrestlers, didn't have access to seeing the jumbo tron (great HD picture), but had to settle for this little smaller screen that was shot onto a cloth that covered the Cell...unfortunately, because the Cell area was hallowed out and the big WRESTLEMANIA logo was bright as fuck and could be seen from Mars, you couldn't actually see the transmission on the canvas that was supposed to show the event, so, for 2/5ths of the entire audience, you had to watch the match in the ring, not the jumbotron or on an auxillery feed somewhere.
Not the best location to watch a Wrestling event, was SunLife. I think fans had a better viewing experience at Survivor Series at American Airlines down here. Or would have had a better viewing experience seeing a WWE show in the Bank Atlantic Center.Comment
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The WWE doesn't do intimate venues anymore, and that sucks. The WWE has gotten pretty big by doing these giants stadiums and whatnot...but I just don't dig it like I do the more intimate venues. The crowd is another character in the production in wrestling. At its core, wrestling is just another form of performance art, just a performance art that begs the crowd to participate at all times in...
Unfortunately, in big venues, you get a more controlled participation...there are so many people, that while its impressive to have tens of thousands chant WHAT or "LET'S GO CENA...CENA SUCKS!" is doesn't necessarily disrupt the show...occasionally it does for the less skilled mic workers...but it doesn't disrupt a show it is mainly a back drop or a peanut gallery for the performers to pander to. It is tough to grab the giant crowd by the balls, which is, why, when something happens in the WWE that grabs the crowd by the balls (example, the CM Punk-John Cena match @ MitB '11), it makes it that much more special, because, damnit, its hard grab 75K sets of balls in a wrestling ring in a stadium.
In a more intimate setting, the crowd is more than a back drop, it is a full fledged actively participating character in the show and with that, comes a load of problems but also a lot of potential rewards. It is actually easy to grab the intimate crowd by the balls, especially smarky ones...as smarky as a crowd at Hammerstein is and will shit on a lot of things, they are the easiest crowd to pander to and get on your side. A little flippy flop...a little chain wrestling...a little boost to the in-ring product and you could cart out some legitimate shit out there and they'd probably cheer it if it you wrapped it up in the right packaging. But if you throw some shit out there and its in a brown paper bag, even if its on fire, they'll stomp it out, and walk it back to your door and put it on your doorstep and it could ruin a show.
Both have their good, bad, and have their rewards...it is why the WWE is such a different ball game than any other type of wrestling organization...simply the production standpoint alone and how they open the flood gates to the countless fans that show up in these giant venues...its a different animal.Comment
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WWE could have made money on ECW for many years, catering to the niche audience that spends money on ROH, CHIKARA, DGUSA, PWG, etc.
ECW, if left alone and allowed to be what people wanted it to be, could have stayed in those small & mid sized buildings, as a third "tour", while at the same time acting as a pseudo developmental group. The AAA tour, if you will.
With Heyman developing the talent, WWE could have had their own little ROH-eqsue promotion where new talent could cut their teeth on national TV and in front of rabid crowds before hoping on the big show.
People were spending money on ECW DVD's and PPV's and the ratings on SciFi were strong well beyond the initial nostalgia period. Heyman was all set to change the direction from hardcore nostalgia to MMA inspired "serious" wrestling. It would have been different enough to satisfy the smarks into thinking it was "cool" despite being big corporate wrestling.
But Vince had to have his extremists and vixens and Bobby Lashley's and it sputtered out to the tune of a 90,000k buy PPV embarrassment at the end, because they drove off the smarks and the mainstream could not give a single fuck. I guess smark money wasnt green or something. Vince insisted that "a few thousand vocal northeast fans" was all the old ECW vision could attract, but the DVD sales, One Night Stand buyrate, and early TV ratings proved that to be false. He's just stubborn and needed to do it his way. And it failed.Comment
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Punk tweeted during the night...
Imagine that conversationjust capped off my night with a talk with @R_Roddy_Piper about promos. Best day ever.
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ECW could have been their developmental system. Let Paul E run it, and let it ride. Just stick to the north east corridor of the country...the name brand alone was worth sitting somewhere on SciFi or something...a nice AAA brand...at first, the show was pulling much higher rating than TNA. Then went to TNA level ratings the more Vince got his nose into it.
Then...its like Vince lost interest, and the C show became decent again when they let the young guys take over the show.Comment
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I think I may have to rewatch that Mania to decide where it really falls. A ton of absolute crap and some stuff I really enjoyed. Not absolutely certain if I enjoyed the good because it was that good or just because it wasn't terrible like Orton/Kane and the Diva's.
The most enjoyable part of the night for me wasn't the event itself. It was being able to watch it with some knowledgable fans. I've gotten used to watching with guys who are casual fans at best, if not solo. But decided to take up an offer from a coworker, and it turns out him and another coworker are pretty hardcore fans. Some of the other guys there were more casual fans, but there is just something awesome about being to drop Fingerpoke of Doom, Judy Bagwell, and "The Prototype" references that guys actually get. It was like watching with a bunch of guys from here.
Taker-Trips III left me conflicted. The middle part of the match seemed just poor. Did a decent opening and strong finish make up for it? That's one I definitely need to watch again to get a real handle on. HBK added so little - just the SuperKick-Pedigree spot and then helping to carry Trips out. Outside that, he actually seemed to detract from the match.
Pretty sure that Jericho tapped out to Punk, he patted Punk on the head. Thought that was even funnier than Cena clearly calling spots with The Rock... "You wanna go into a DDT next?"Comment
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Just finished the Undertaker-HHH match...
It was good.
They didn't use the cage too much, the match was snail paced slow (it was a 30 minute match that had a story that could have been condensed into 15, but the pace was hella slow), it wasn't exactly a move-for-move dynamic match either, and I'd say it was overbooked, but it wasn't, but there was a lot of booking there and then they ended up only going half way with each aspect (lack of using the cage as another character...understandable because you had another character in Michaels in there, and I have no idea how I feel about Michaels in the match...he ain't winning an Oscar though).
BUT
It told a good story, the production of the match was amazing, it was an epic clash of titans that was exactly what WrestleMania is supposed to be about, and just did an overall good job.
I give it ****, which was what I gave last year's match but it wasn't as good as last year's match...that match had you on the edge of your seat, this one didn't, so, its more like a ****-. It was more story and spectacle than ring work, but it worked for me...wrestling can be different things, this one was all about the story and ridiculous spectacle of it all, and for that, it worked.Comment
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So... what does Brock do? Where does he fit?
He HAS to come in as a heel. I think Punk/Jericho continues, as does Rock/Cena. If anything, depending on UT's dates... I can see a HHH/UT promo where HHH leaves to let UT celebrate, and Brock comes out to destroy him.UglyChristmasLights.com - Celebrating 10 years with the 2011 collection!Comment
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I read a lot of your guys posts on wrestling and I must say this is the nerdiest thread yet you guys have made, congratsLiquidrob's Top 10 Fighters Rankings
The 10 Fighters Who Changed The Game
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