Wrestling Discussion Thread III

I had quite good fun watching WrestleMania 37’s first night. There were plenty of individual bits of brilliance amongst all the hardworking performances. Opening with the whole roster made it feel like the momentous occasion that I guess it really was for all those performers, agents and owners. 

I thought Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre put on a pretty good first match, even if I truthfully expected them both to really go all-out. I don’t think they did, and I think in that sense it was a slight disappointment when considering that this was the first WWE match in front of an audience in over a year. I was surprised that they had Lashley win after all the build-up for McIntyre. Not complaining, just surprised. Fingers crossed that this leads to a match with Brock Lesnar.

The Women's Tag Team Turmoil was utter keech. Full of botches and crap performances, it just emphasised the gulf in quality between the top female performers in WWE and this dug meat. It's mental that folk like Natalya, Carmella and Dana Brooke have been kicking about for years, yet seem to be no better than the day when they first entered development. Like, how do you stay this shite for so long? 

Cesaro and Seth Rollins was nothing earth-shattering, but it was very good with respect to the time it had allocated to it. I could say the same for the RAW Tag Team Championship and Steel Cage matches too - I thought the three of them were pretty good fun. That Bad Bunny tag team match was immense, a superb testament to the professionalism and endeavour of everybody involved.  

I thought the SmackDown! Women’s Championship main event was the dog's hairy bollocks, delivering in a massive way and being well worthy of it's top billing on the night and history-making status. Definitely the best match of a pretty successful Night One. 

The second night was a step down, maybe owing to the novelty of the live crowd, stadium setting and fireworks being gone. That said, it was still a solid enough show. The Orton/Fiend opener and the Women’s Tag Team Championship were predictably shite though, just an awful start to the show. Who produces this utter toilet with The Fiend and Alexa Bliss by the way? Get them all sacked and let Randy Orton move onto a quality feud now, ta.

Things quickly recovered with Sami Zayn Vs. Kevin Owens. This probably wasn’t the best match that they’d ever had, but it was a quality Greatest Hits setlist from the two. Plus, Logan Paul didn’t get too involved for anything other than a ponsy wee shove and to eat a Stone Cold Stunner. I was happy with that - good stuff.

The next three matches - the US, IC and RAW Women’s Championship matches - really didn’t have much of a spark, I thought. Barring a couple of individual spots and Big E and Rhea Ripley’s entrances, I didn’t think there was much to tell these apart from the stuff you’d see on the YouTube highlights of the weekly shows. Still, they were all absolutely fine. 

The main event of Night Two might have been even better than the main event from the night before. There seemed to be a genuine chance that any of Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan or Edge could have won, and I thought everybody involved worked their bollocks off to provide the best match they could. It ended WrestleMania on a high, though after such a decisive finish I wonder where Roman Reigns goes from here…?