Hi folks! Hope you enjoyed WrestleMania week. Having watched four PPV events in as many nights, I think it’s good to summarize what we’ve seen and share what I believe were the best & worst shows. I like ending things on a high note, so let’s begin with some of the worst experiences.
The Worst
Impact Wrestling’s United We Stand
As a fan of this company for over a decade, it may rank as one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen them produce. Not only was it meant to represent six promotions (Impact, LU, AAA, MLW, Dragon Gate & Wrestle Pro), it was doing so during WrestleMania week. The venue? The Rahway Recreation center, and yes it’s as “indy” as it sounds. The pre-show was conducted by the young “kid” referee going around with a camera. Production was terrible, the ring was small, and the crowd was dead throughout. They had major sound issues too, and some entrances (Havoc & Lucha Bros) were severely delayed. And who featured in the main event? 50+ year old RVD & Sabu against the red-hot, lightning quick Tag Team Champions The Lucha Brothers.
Ace Austin’s dive off the Ultimate X structure, and parts of the Monster’s Ball (Callihan vs. Havoc) were pretty cool. But outside that? Johnny Impact earned an X-Division title shot for no reason (he’s the World Champ). Team Impact lost AGAIN to Lucha Underground due to one of their team members betraying them. Even LAX vs. Low Ki and Ricky Martinez couldn’t save this card. Joey Ryan vs. Tessa Blanchard was the only interesting bout, once you see past all the gimmick-y stuff from Ryan. RVD & Sabu (more so) bogged down the main event, and there was nothing extreme about this “Extreme Dream Match”. Kudos to the talent for doing what they could, but they didn’t have a lot to work with at this extraordinarily weak event.
ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard
I’m not watching either promotion regularly (always tune in for Wrestle Kingdom each year), but I had to check this out as it’s historic being hosted in Madison Square Garden. And I wasn’t disappointed! But there were moments which .. in my opinion, hurt the show to the point it could not beat NXT TakeOver’s perfect card. The first example was Kenny King staying on the outside of the battle royal til the last moment to eliminate both Jyushin Liger & The Great Muta. It was really special seeing these legends, and fans were seriously in to the showdown. Is Kenny a heel? It doesn’t make sense considering who won the ROH title later. And since when was he World Championship material? Whatever’s going on, the fans loathed the decision. Luckily Muta & Liger got their own back on him.
Next up was a squash match with Rush going over Dalton Castle in 15 seconds after making a grand entrance. I don’t get it? Castle beat up his boys again .. which isn’t new. Last time I saw ROH he was feuding with them, so they must’ve got back together .. and are splitting up again? I don’t know. Felt like a waste of time.
Speaking of which, the New York City street fight changed from being Bully Ray vs. Juice Robinson, to Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon, to a six-man tag all in the space of an hour. We also had to endure a dude called MegaRan trying to rap over a rap song and make it sound good. Not that he was terrible .. just that it was seriously out-of-place.
Bully came down to the ring and stared at MegaRan for a while. The fans wanted him to annihilate this guy .. but he didn’t! Even letting MegaRan insult and square up to him .. and that’s not the Bully Ray I know. The Bully Ray I know would’ve torched his ass through a flaming table. That’s how you give fans a payoff after being audibly tortured. Also, what happened with The Beautiful People Velvet Sky & Angelina Love? I liked the surprise, but have seen others commenting about “ROH getting more like TNA”; is that a bad thing?
The rest of the card was sweet though. Clearly, the New Japan stuff out-shined what Ring Of Honor had to offer. Found it funny in the main event buildup when Okada repeatedly stated “New Japan has the best wrestling, New Japan is the place to be”. Like a big middle finger to AEW, and possibly some tough love directed at ROH as well. And I almost forgot about Enzo Amore & Big Cass jumping the rail in a worked shoot .. does anyone want to see these guys employed by ROH? No? Figured as much.
Lastly, the worst part of the ladder match was when Jay Lethal decided it would be smart to dump two ladders forming an “X” (someone put a ladder through another to make it) over the top rope to the floor. In doing so .. he almost injured a fan as it came crashing down on the first row. Officials rushed straight over, apologizing profusely for a good five minutes. Luckily no harm was done, as the fan stayed in their seat and enjoyed the rest of the show.
Wrestlemania 35
Went in with low expectations as it was never gonna’ beat TakeOver or G1 Supercard for match quality. In fact, there was only really one great match (fan reaction) and that was Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston. In the women’s battle royal, I felt bad for Sarah Logan as she would’ve benefited greatly from the win .. but instead, WWE did a “Kenny King” and had Carmella take it after slyly waiting on the outside (isn’t she a face?). Braun Strowman winning the Andre The Giant battle royal was inevitable, and the match forgettable.
I was stoked seeing Rollins vs. Lesnar on first, but the way he won was anti-climactic. Three curb stomps and it’s over? The win didn’t feel real at first. I recently commented in an article about the heat Lesnar’s mustered over the past few years, but WWE flushed it all down the toilet here. It’s nice getting the title back full-time .. but the “Beast Slayer” made it look a little too easy (despite suffering a brutal beating beforehand) to be remembered fondly.
Probably me, but I never got into AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton. Just not enough to get invested; it was filler which needed implications for the winner & loser. I was a fan of the result of the women’s tag, but something seemed off about the match. In fact, I’d say all the women didn’t work to the standard we’ve seen before. Joe squashing Mysterio was understandably a big disappointment for some, as was Balor’s quick win over Lashley. Drew McIntyre being made to look weak against Roman Reigns was possibly the most irritating thing of the night; everyone agrees Drew should be made to look good in defeat.
And of course there’s Batista vs. Triple H. I didn’t care for it fourteen years ago, and I still don’t. Why was it the longest match on the card? HHH does not need an ego boost, so why not give extra time to the main event? I’m still looking for the fans who asked for this to happen like a Where’s Waldo (Wally) book. The only positive? It got Ric Flair on the show somehow.
And to close this section .. WrestleMania was too long! There’s no wonder why fans aren’t popping for the main event when thousands have to sit still over 7 hours. You don’t need to get everyone on the card, and there’s too many grand entrances. Security also ruined what should’ve been a quietly rewarding Hall of Fame ceremony; by letting a fan jump in the ring and spear Bret Hart to the floor.
The Best
Impact Wrestling’s United We Stand
Like I said above, Tessa Blanchard vs. Joey Ryan was the only semi-interesting match on the card. They worked really well together, and even the “penis throw” near the end didn’t deter me from being impressed with the chemistry they showed. if you’re seriously in to ECW nostalgia, Tommy Dreamer, RVD and Sabu were there .. but don’t expect any miracles.
GCW Bloodsport: Heard about it, but did not watch it. Josh Barnett’s GCW promotion held an event called Bloodsport which included MMA athletes and wrestlers. The show blended MMA fighting with wrestling, delivering something worthy of being named an “absolutely amazing, thrill-a-minute show” in a review by WrestleTalk. If it peaks your interest, avoid the spoilers below and watch it. Perhaps someone who did see it can elaborate on what made it one of the best shows of the week in the comments? Thanks.
- Dominic Garrini def. Phil Baroni via reverse decision
- J.R. Kratos def. Simon Grimm via knockout
- Davey Boy Smith Jr. def. Killer Kross via submission
- Masashi Takeda def. Jonathan Gresham via stoppage
- Chris Dickinson def. Andy Williams via submission
- Frank Mir def. Dan Severn via submission
- Hideki Suzuki def. Timothy Thatcher via knockout
- Minoru Suzuki vs. Josh Barnett went to an overtime 25-minute time limit draw
NXT TakeOver: New York
What can I say? Every match brought something. War Raiders vs. Black & Ricochet set the tone for the night in a thrilling opener. Dream vs. Riddle was unique, and Riddle looked great despite his first singles loss. The women probably had the weakest match of the show, but they were still better than anything the others did at Wrestlemania.
And of course there’s my absolute favourite match of the year (so far) between Pete Dunne and Walter. Huge respect to both for putting on a clinic which built and built as time went on. Pete Dunne has done the UK proud. In the main event, something seemed a little off in the beginning between Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano (possibly lack of chemistry), but they went ahead and delivered a solid two-out-of-three falls with a feel-good ending to a solid 5-star PPV. Cannot fault anything .. except Shayna Baszler retaining, but that’s more about how good she is at making me hate her than anything else.
ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard
Went in to this with zero expectations and here’s what I loved about it. You could tell everyone was stoked (except Naito, but he’s never happy) to be working in Madison Square Garden. I liked how they mixed ROH and NJPW duties as well. The pops for Jyushin Liger and The Great Muta made the pre-show worth watching. Jeff Cobb vs. Will Ospreay .. oh my god. The three-way junior heavyweight title match? So much fun; they certainly made other, similar divisions look bad. I’ve not seen much of PCO outside of random videos, but I enjoyed his “electrifying” entrance and tag match as well.
As a Brit, I was really happy when Zack Sabre Jr got a massive submission win over the “Ace of New Japan”. Also, you can never have a bad match between Naito & Ibushi, and I have to laugh because WWE had Ibushi signed .. yet they let him go. Despite it being a little clunky here and there, the three-way Ladder match for the ROH title was pretty good. Not excellent, but enough to be entertained. The “F**k you Taven” chants and title win were fine with me, because he’s clearly found a way to wind up the ROH fans.
Oh boy .. that Okada though, he’s a superstar wherever he goes. Enjoyed the storytelling between Jay White, Gedo and Okada, and I was fully expecting Jay to retain, so it was refreshing (yet maybe not for some) to see Okada get the title back. I think Jay is better chasing it anyways, as he’s young and has plenty of time to win again. Okada remains the franchise player of New Japan.
WrestleMania 35
It’s about making moments, and while we didn’t get the best quality wrestling, it was filled with several memorable moments:
– Was not expecting Tony Nese to win, and having watched him since he showed up on TV for TNA Gutcheck, his rise to this WrestleMania victory has been enjoyable to follow.
– Curt Hawkins finally breaking his undefeated losing streak! It was not a foregone conclusion; although they never really earned the title shot. I think they worked really well here, and it may be a kick in the teeth to the tag division .. but at least Hawkins finally achieved something.
– The Universal Championship is coming home to Monday Night Raw!
– The Smackdown tag title match was one of the better worked. Gold stars to all involved. It was so good I didn’t mind The Uso’s picking up the win.
– WrestleMania was IIconic! *super hero pose*
– Kofimania was definitely running wild, and the post-match celebration heart warming. Moments like these don’t come along too often.
– Enjoyed Angle vs. Corbin because it wasn’t about burying the current star. Angle is a pro, and any wrestler on the way out should be passing on the torch. Angle put Corbin over because it was the right thing to do. Congrats to Kurt on an amazing career. It’s true, it’s damn true.
– Wasn’t disappointed with the main event as it’s hard to gauge when the audience is thinking about their beds. Should’ve got more time like, but I think the right woman won. The slight dusty finish with Ronda (everyone expected Charlotte to take the fall) was unexpected, and likely leads to a rematch down the line. “The Man” has arrived as the #1 above all else, and she is the undisputed Women’s Champion.
Conclusion
All in all, it’s been a long week filled with ups-and-downs, but I got through it fulfilled. Only regret watching one show, and the others delivered more than I allowed myself to hope. TakeOver takes the #1 spot for me, while WrestleMania takes #2 for its moments and G1 Supercard #2 for the wrestling.
What do you think? Which show was the best during the week? Which was the worst? And what were your favorite & worst moments? Please let us know your experiences. The site would like to thank you for sharing WrestleMania week with us. Cheers everyone!
