I predict the Network won't be able to handle the bandwidth and thousands of people will miss out on seeing the Shield decimate the Director of Chokeslams and his goons the Corporate Outlaws. Also they won't get to see Bray Wyatt destroy the legacy of the Cenation and Randy Orton retain his title in typically dastardly fashion. Erick Rowan will be one of the surprise entries in the battle royal and will win that motherfucker.
"A man who is 'sound of mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key." - Paul Valéry
I predict the Network won't be able to handle the bandwidth and thousands of people will miss out on seeing the Shield decimate the Director of Chokeslams and his goons the Corporate Outlaws.
Agreed.
John Cena will win against Bray Wyatt because, come on, he has to. Can't have the favorite of the kiddos falling to fear and evil and all that.
Yes Guy will beat Trips in their match in some surprise maneuver and getting his spinach from the fans after Trips beats his ass all over the ring. Even so, Trips will show up for the three-way and probably cost Si Dude the title. Orton retains. Fuck Batista.
The Streak will remain unbroken. Eventually, it'll have to end, but Brock Lesnar is hardly worthy to do that. Who is? No clue. Maybe Kane? Maybe.
Winner of the battle royal is Big Show. Yes it's predictable, for a reason. Seriously, someone else is gonna get this Andre the Giant thing? In the words, or word as the case may be, of Miz... really?
First Female World Champ (4x) First Female Grand Slam Champ Massive Melee winner 2013/14 High Roller's winner 2014 Cooperative Champ w/Zane Scott Cooperative Champ w/Gabriel Baal Cooperative Champ w/ Jet Somers Cooperative Champ w/ Donovan Hastings Cross-Hemisphere Champ, IYH 2016 Chaos Champ, BG 2017
Post by DrunkenBuzzsaw on Apr 6, 2014 18:27:04 GMT -5
Bray wins, The Shield wins, Taker wins, and Daniel Bryan becomes the champ.
Prediction for next year...Takers streak will end. At the hands of Bray Wyatt.
2018 Hall of Fame Inductee OWF PDA Champion (1x) OWF Tag Champion (1x - w/Meyhu) 2015 Pool of Blood Co-Winner Chaos Champion (1x) Cooperative Champion (3x - 1 w/Jez; 1 w/Cyp; 1 w/Somers) 2013 "In Your Hands" Battle Royal winner 13 Title Reigns in career
Post by DrunkenBuzzsaw on Apr 6, 2014 23:36:08 GMT -5
my connection was fine until halfway through the main event, and then buffered or whatever for about three seconds, and then was fine the rest of the time.
2018 Hall of Fame Inductee OWF PDA Champion (1x) OWF Tag Champion (1x - w/Meyhu) 2015 Pool of Blood Co-Winner Chaos Champion (1x) Cooperative Champion (3x - 1 w/Jez; 1 w/Cyp; 1 w/Somers) 2013 "In Your Hands" Battle Royal winner 13 Title Reigns in career
Post by Lord Hastings on Apr 7, 2014 0:10:15 GMT -5
I had a completely shitty time trying to watch it on the Network, but that may have been because I wasn't watching it "live" and didn't get it started until about 8:30, playing it from the beginning. It skipped all over the place until after 11.
Opening bit with Hogan/Austin/Rock was a fun moment. Really liked HHH/Bryan, hopefully have a new star born with Cesaro, and the Shield's squash victory was appropriate.
I thought Cena/Wyatt was telling a great story, but the ending was flat. I will happily raise my hand and admit that I thought the idea of this match was silly and pointless when it was first rumored, and I was proven wrong, I enjoyed this feud. I actually don't have a problem with Cena winning, but I'd have rather seen the mind games fully play out, have Cena snapping entirely lead to his victory, which would have been a true victory for Bray in the context of the story. I'm sure they'll play up Cena's attacks on Rowan and Harper and that Bray took him to a dark place, but it felt like ultimately a shell of what it could have been.
Legit fell asleep during Taker/Lesnar. Never found this feud engaging at all. Woke up as Taker was leaving in sad panda mode. I think it's fucking ridiculous to have the streak end to somebody who barely even qualifies as a part-timer. Now we're left with a situation that feels to me like if you don't have Lesnar go on to win the title at Extreme Rules and then hang around for a bit, you pissed away THE STREAK. Obviously Taker was good with this or it wouldn't have happened, but just...blah.
Divas Title match was much better than I expected, once the messy beginning was out of the way. Had a hot finish, liked the tower of doom spot. We saw spots in this match that we don't normally see in women's matches. Encouraging.
Main event was everything that it needed to be. I really liked that all the interference happened in the middle, it was appropriate stuff but might have felt like an overbooked ending, but the ways things went down worked very nicely.
WWE Network frustrations aside, this was one of the better WMs in years. For just $10 a month? WHAT A VALUE!!!
Post by Red Bull Icon on Apr 7, 2014 1:10:40 GMT -5
fucking Network. I get the wife to tell ME it's a great value and I should sign up. Never bought a PPV before. Sign up when it opened, look forward to mania, then deal with the kids and get lost in Cosmos and the wife until she goes to sleep. Sit down... fucking streak is broke.
eh at least I got to see the Jake's and Warrior's speeches at the HOF last night.
Ours froze and buffered several times, one time knocking us out completely and telling us to either "retry" or go back to the WWE Portal. Hit "Retry" and it went right in. I have to say, it went more smoothly than I had expected, but then considering what I expected, almost anything is an improvement. Alright, breakdown-
The tag team match: Can someone explain to me why this match wasn't on the actual WrestleMania show instead of that useless Divas crap? Oh right. We need T & A. Carry on.
Thoroughly enjoyed the spot with Stone Cold, the Rock, and Hogan. What would have made it better, for me, would have been Rock and Austin hitting their finishers on Hogan and then sharing beers. Especially if I didn't have to listen to him talk first, that would have been super. But I realize that couldn't happen. Ah well. Dreams and all that.
Trips/Bryan. LOVE LOVE LOVE Trips entrance. Completely badass, as was befitting the King of Kings. And then Bryan came out. Crap happened, not gonna lie, I fast forwarded because... Bryan. And already knew what was gonna happen anyway. Blah.
Cesaro shocked the hell out of me. I fully expected Big Show to walk away with that win (as per my prediction), and in some ways, it feels kinda like they were trying too hard for a "shocker" ending. Who wouldn't expect Big Show to win the first ever Andre the Giant memorial... whatever the hell it was? That's not to say Cesaro didn't deserve it. Hugely impressed with him, and hopefully this is him getting away from that stupid "We the People" gimmick and Jack Swagger.
The Shield match was way, way, way too short. I did like the new SWAT gear though, that was pretty nifty. Wonder if that'll become standard wear or just for WrestleMania. Either way, as much as I love the New Age Outlaws, loved seeing them get their asses kicked by the boys in black. Oh, and Kane too. Apparently the Shield did their job a little too well as Billy Gunn was coughing up blood after that double triple powerbomb.
So on to my second favorite entrance. Bray Wyatt's. Yeah, I said it, his entrance last night was pretty damned badass. No, I'm still not a Wyatt fan. This is the match I actually came in on (watched the above stuff after the show was over) and it was a pretty decent one, to me. I will say that the point when Cena had planted Bray and was feeding off the crowd, did the "Can't see me" shit, turned back and Bray's in a backbend? I lost my shit. That was some scary fucking shit and no lie, I'd have left the damn ring, tossed my wristbands at him and called him the winner right there. Cause fuck that spider shit. Yeesh. Anyway, I know some people are pissed that Cena won, but really, it had to happen. As I've said before, Bray Wyatt was trying to disrupt all that is Cena. Turn him evil, whatever. Cena can't do that. He is this generation's Hogan. Cenation=Hulkamania. He simply can't fall like that. Yet.
Taker and Lesnar. I hate even typing that second name. I thought for a second Lesnar was gonna tap to the Hell's Gate and I loved it. But he didn't. And then he kicked out of the Tombstone Piledriver. And we saw how winded Taker was getting through the match, how it just wasn't up to his usual quality. I still never thought he'd lose. Walked out of the room to check on the kids, come back and Chad's having heeby jeebies. What's up, I ask, without even noticing my tv which was loud with audience participation is now fairly quiet. ANd he tells me Taker lost. And I look at the screen and I was one of those shocked fans in the audience. Kept waiting for an official to call back the decision. It's not so much the fact that the streak was broken, it's the fact that it was Lesnar who did it. Lesnar who doesn't even deserve to be in that ring with him much less end that streak. I realize he had to sign off on it. Doesn't make it any better or easier to swallow. Quite honestly, after seeing that, I was pretty much ruined on the rest of the show.
Divas? Who gives a damn. Waste of time match. Next.
Main Event. Didn't pay a lot of attention to it because... Taker. I had pretty much ceased to care at this point. Saw Trips come back out to cause problems. And then the sledge hammer. And I rejoiced because I thought... yes! Yes! Yes! Here's where they make up for that farce of Taker losing and have Trips take out Goat Boy with the sledge hammer. Wait... why is the Goat touching Trips' sledgehammer?! He's not worthy! He's not worthy! Sadly, I knew when Bryan was being strapped to that stretcher that he was going to win. It's too dramatic of a move to make and not use it. And they did. And then I said Fuck WWE. My only consolation is that Bootista didn't win.
I don't think I even want to watch RAW tonight.
First Female World Champ (4x) First Female Grand Slam Champ Massive Melee winner 2013/14 High Roller's winner 2014 Cooperative Champ w/Zane Scott Cooperative Champ w/Gabriel Baal Cooperative Champ w/ Jet Somers Cooperative Champ w/ Donovan Hastings Cross-Hemisphere Champ, IYH 2016 Chaos Champ, BG 2017
I paid 5 dollars for an old-school experience of watching closed-circuit big screens at a local casino. Yeah 5 bucks to watch, 3 dollar beers, 3 dollar cheeseburgers. I spent less than anyone to see this show.
Let's go:
HHH vs Bryan - Arguably the best opening match in the history of Wrestlemania. Only thing I think would rival it is Bret/Owen from 20 years ago. Yeah, 20 years ago. I felt old typing that.
Shield vs NAO/Kane - Perfectly acceptable and damn destructive squash match from the new generation of guys. I liked the trend it was going toward.
Battle Royale - I initially said when this was booked "If it's not FOR anything... give it to Big Show." I stand by that statement but I love what they did instead. Holy fucking shit Cesaro is going to be this year's Fandango. People love this guy. I only hope they actually pull the trigger on him. He could be an awesome heel.
Bray vs Cena - I said when this one was coming up (after seeing the first three matches go to the young blood) that Cena should probably win this match. Bray did NOT have to win to look like a million bucks... but if Cena did put Bray over, he'd be over for good. I'm not upset about the Cena win. It makes sense with what happened later.
Undertaker vs Lesnar - Okay. Fuck. Fuck all of this at once but... this is the reason Cena didn't lose to Wyatt. If you're a kid and your heroes are Cena, Daniel Bryan and Undertaker... could you really take the thought of Undertaker losing the streak AND Cena losing to Wyatt in back to back matches? I don't think so. Lesnar winning makes Wyatt lose his match and I'm convinced of it. Now, onto the fact that the fucking streak got broken here... by Lesnar. If this was Undertaker's wishes... and this is his last match ever... who am I to judge what he wanted? If he hand picked Lesnar to do it, then so be it. But I just call into question the theme of this year's Wrestlemania... the young guys going over. What does the streak now mean, now that it's over and finished by a part-time MMA guy who might not be at the next PPV? What does this do for Lesnar? Does this catapult him into a feud with Bryan? Sure... but then what? Feed him to Bryan at Summerslam... only to lose to the Yes Movement? Or do you KILL the Yes Movement and make Lesnar this unstoppable fuck-all that needs to die at next year's Wrestlemania. And to who? So many questions... but again, if it was Taker's wishes to have it die here... I don't question a thing.
Bryan vs Orton vs Batista - I'm going to give credit where it's due. Orton carried this year as the top heel. He did a helluva job. Batista was, well, he was Batista. He had a helluva showing in this match and did a damn good job in the role given. I found so many parallels to Chris Benoit in the opening and this triple threat match (the germans, the crossface, the headbutt, etc) and I find it fitting that ten years ago we had Eddie and Benoit in the ring at the end with the belts... and now we've got Daniel Bryan with both belts.
Okay, overall, this has to be in the top 5 Wrestlemanias ALL TIME. Yes, ALL TIME. One could argue that 17 and 19 are interchangable as the top spot... then probably 3... and that's where I put 30 at. Right after those 3. Talk to me... tell me otherwise.