The Official Wrestlemania XXVIII Thread

[EmpireWF]

Punk tweeted during the night...

just capped off my night with a talk with @R_Roddy_Piper about promos. Best day ever.

Imagine that conversation

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

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.

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.

 

[Bigpapa42]

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?"

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

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.

 

[EmpireWF]

lol

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.

HBK added plenty IMO. In the 2nd half of the match with his scared shitless expressions when Taker just wouldn't die, awesome stuff.

 

[Pills]

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.

 

[Liquidrob]

I read a lot of your guys posts on wrestling and I must say this is the nerdiest thread yet you guys have made, congrats

 

[Bigpapa42]

HBK added plenty IMO. In the 2nd half of the match with his scared shitless expressions when Taker just wouldn't die, awesome stuff.

Yeah, I need to rewatch it. Watching it last night, the middle of the match seemed really dull and HBK seemed to take away more than he added. Someone else made some good points about HBK's role so I need to go back and pay more attention.