Paco
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 7,145
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Post by Paco on Mar 29, 2016 16:08:53 GMT -5
Yeah, a lot of "31 turned out great" posts this past month and I'm always like "really?"
I really liked Rollins vs. Orton & LOVED Reigns vs. Lesnar (yup, that was a shocker). The rest? Not so much. I'm over the Ladder clusters (and another one this year...yay). Vince's sad Monday Night War ego trip manifested in HHH vs. Sting. And the rest (filler women's tag, Cena & Taker matches all of no real consequence...look at Rusev & Bray this year...yup)
If I had to rank it among the Manias, 31 would be in the late-10's/early 20's out of 31.
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BRV
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants him some Taco Flavored Kisses.
Posts: 16,974
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Post by BRV on Mar 29, 2016 16:36:43 GMT -5
In the immediate aftermath of WrestleMania 31, I think I referred to it as the best WrestleMania in over a decade, possibly the best since X-Seven. Looking back on it, I think almost all of that excitement was based around how awesome the main event was and how stunning Seth Rollins' cash-in was. In that regard, it's like watching a movie that is kind of boring but the final act blows your hair back so much that you regard it with rose-colored glasses. (The perfect comparison to this would be "The Witch", a supremely boring and plodding movie for the first 60 minutes with an insane, no-holds-barred final 30 minutes)
But looking back on it, from the moment Triple H pinned Sting to the start of the Bray Wyatt versus Undertaker match, the show doesn't just slow down, it comes to a screeching halt. That's almost 100 minutes of the show, almost half of its run time.
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Post by Big Bad Kahuna on Mar 29, 2016 17:20:29 GMT -5
Ladder match and maim event were awesome, everything in between ranged from good (Rusev/Cena, Orton/Rollins) to mediocre (HHH/Sting) to retarded (Rock/Rousey/HHH/Steph segment)
Middle-of-the-run but entertaining WM
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Post by Rolent Tex on Mar 29, 2016 17:23:52 GMT -5
Mania 31 suddenly cut out on me after Sting/HHH.
Or I turned it off.
Either way.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Mar 29, 2016 17:24:44 GMT -5
Thw great stuff on it drowns out the memories of crap stuff.
That said it is a four hour show with under ninety minutes of wrestling.
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Eunös ✈
Dalek
Duck Feet Expert
Tolerated, just not practically liked.
Posts: 59,201
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Post by Eunös ✈ on Mar 29, 2016 17:25:58 GMT -5
I went into WM 31 with low expectations, I really wasn't expecting a great show at all but it ended up being a lot better than I predicted. Certainly not an all time great but exceeded what I was expecting.
I'm doing the same this year, going in with low expectations in the hope I will end up pleasantly surprised with the end result.
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Post by Bear Skin Rug on Mar 29, 2016 17:26:32 GMT -5
As soon as it was over, pretty much everyone said it was superior to WM 30. Good to see that people have come to their senses.
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Post by Vice honcho room temperature on Mar 29, 2016 17:30:19 GMT -5
It had some fun stuff (Rusev in a tank best Mania moment ever) but the results and the matches were pffftttt imo or okay at best.
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Post by Starshine on Mar 29, 2016 17:40:09 GMT -5
As soon as it was over, pretty much everyone said it was superior to WM 30. Good to see that people have come to their senses. I definitely think it's better than 30 overall. Outside the Bryan matches, that show has almost nothing going for it.
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RIHT
Hank Scorpio
Wanted a title with "YOU'RE WELCOME!" Close enough.
Hey-yo.
Posts: 5,897
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Post by RIHT on Mar 29, 2016 18:17:38 GMT -5
It was better than expected, but it was expected to be horrendous. The horrible build will be remembered, and WM 32 is shaping up to be in a similar situation, except with more potential for huge moments with gimmick matches and less potential for sending the crowd home happy with no Seth Rollins and MITB.
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Post by HMARK Center on Mar 29, 2016 18:48:10 GMT -5
It was better than expected, but it was expected to be horrendous. The horrible build will be remembered, and WM 32 is shaping up to be in a similar situation, except with more potential for huge moments with gimmick matches and less potential for sending the crowd home happy with no Seth Rollins and MITB. I actually think they're going to figure out a way to send the crowd home at least reasonably happy, since it's sitting right there: figure out how to turn Roman heel. I can remember people thinking they'd never let Bryan win the title at WM 30 (which I thought was silly to think, WWE wasn't in the mood for a riot), that they'd just coronate Roman last year, but WWE doesn't want to end their biggest show of the year in a chorus of boos; they'll figure out something. The issue is more that the build up has been horrendous for two years now, and if last year's anything to go by, even if they pull off WM well, the follow-up will be hot garbage. Yes, Rollins won the strap last year, everybody got excited...and then Rollins had one of the worst title reigns since Rey Mysterio, and like Rey it had nothing to do with his wrestling/talents and everything to do with the awful booking. So the buildup is awful, the follow-up is bad, but the big event itself is "ok", a formula that lets the cycle continue. Maybe WWE's falling viewership will catch up to it too much for that to continue, but it just seems like a bad cycle to get caught up in.
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Mar 29, 2016 18:58:46 GMT -5
Why was there a 40 year long Authority promo in the middle where the payoff was them TEASING Steph actually getting any karma? Because they held it in an outdoor stadium in California in the spring, they had to kill time for it to get a little darker before Taker's match.
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Pushed to the Moon
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Tony Schiavone in Disguise
Working myself into a shoot
Posts: 15,819
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Post by Pushed to the Moon on Mar 29, 2016 20:20:58 GMT -5
I liked it. The RKO was so rad it basically gave the rest of the show and instant 5 star rating.
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Post by Gravedigger's Biscuits on Mar 29, 2016 20:30:30 GMT -5
As soon as it was over, pretty much everyone said it was superior to WM 30. Good to see that people have come to their senses. I definitely think it's better than 30 overall. Outside the Bryan matches, that show has almost nothing going for it. Yeah, I agree with you there even though I'm sure we're in the minority. The only good matches on the show were Bryan's matches and the only truly memorable moment outside of that was the streak ending. I mean that still puts WM30 above about half the other WrestleMania's but I don't see how it's miles ahead of WM31. WM31 which had three good matches and no bad matches.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2016 20:31:15 GMT -5
I thought it was solid but unspectacular and unlike say 30, which I've seen plenty of times, I've never had any desire to rewatch it. In part because there really aren't any matches on it I like all that much.
I think it benefits from lowered expectations really. Everyone was expecting a terrible show, so getting one that was decent was a nice surprise.
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Post by Mister Pigwell on Mar 29, 2016 20:33:22 GMT -5
I have fond memories of it because as I've said, it was my first show with the kids. We're going to rewatch it for the first time tomorrow so I'll report back if it holds up for me or not.
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Mar 30, 2016 2:09:00 GMT -5
Why was there a 40 year long Authority promo in the middle where the payoff was them TEASING Steph actually getting any karma? Because they held it in an outdoor stadium in California in the spring, they had to kill time for it to get a little darker before Taker's match. And yet they still entered in daylight, meaning that seg was a waste
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Post by Raskovnik on Mar 30, 2016 2:33:26 GMT -5
I was there and thought the matches were exceedingly mediocre for the most part, made worse by almost no one I wanted to win going over. I was already bitter after Big Show moved over Itami, not that it was realistic to want him to win the whole thing but I wanted him to at least get a better showing. They completely lost me after having Steve lose, the shitty aftermath of that, that horrid promo in which Triple H completely buries everything and to this day has received no comeuppance for, then Bray losing to top it all off. Almost all of the matches told dreadful stories if you think about it. Sting debuts in the WWE to end the Authority, insists that it's not WCW vs WWE but getting rid of the Authority once and for all....then he loses a WCW vs WWE match and shakes Triple H's hand, only to get buried later and look like the ultimate goober. The worst part is some people f***ing defend that, haha. Cannot imagine what is going through their minds, but there you go. Bray Wyatt feuding and cutting promos on himself only to get put down by Old Man Taker was also a bummer, when the story they tried to tell with Taker LATER THAT YEAR would have made infinitely more sense if Wyatt went over and proved that Taker had definitively lost a step. Wyatt gets to truly become the New Face of Fear, and Undertaker's transition to crazed, nutkicking wildman out for vengeance actually makes sense now. Really simple stuff.
I had to go back and look at the full card because I couldn't even remember half the shit that was on it. Orton vs Rollins felt like a Raw main event, don't see the love for it and I like both of those guys. I cannot remember anything from Cena/Rusev other than the result, Rusev coming out on a tank, and Lana looking pretty good. Only Seth cashing in and saving the day brought me back to life. Then when I got home and saw everyone f***ing loved it I was legitimately a bit taken aback. I wasn't even sure that we had watched the same show. You'd think that I'd have a much higher opinion of it just because I was part of the crowd and everything but no. The highlights of the show for me were Tatsumi Fujinami staring at me almost the entire time he was on stage because hardly anyone else knew or cared who he was but I was stoked to see him so it probably made things a bit less awkward for him, getting to see Daniel Bryan wrestle and win the title, getting to thank Kevin Nash in person, and getting to see my boy Seth Rollins win the big one.
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