Rate WrestleMania 38 Night 2

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Had last night as an 8 so I will go with a 6. Had some fun moments, especially Zayn/Knoxville. Overall a lot of good work up and down the show. But it lacked a lot of the moments that made me enjoy the first night so much. And I felt deflated at the finish.

[Some Guy]

6 probably. The two event matches both really delivered, the men's tag was pretty solid, and the rest just sort of exists. Also hard to be great when 3 of the 9 matches were either trash or nothing, your main event suffers because one of the guys clearly gets his bell rung, and the longest match doesn't match the story at all they had set up.

Anyways at the end of the day, this Mania 2 dayer will be remembered for the 3 special attractions matches, Cody's return, and Bianca/Becky.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 3, 2022 23:24:21 GMT -5 Chiral said:

The story of this weekend for me is they have an incredible roster of talent that can absolutely bring it, they also got some of the most game and ready celebs to wrestle, but WWE's WWE moves still loom over everything at the end of the day.

Yeah, it's look we have these cool wrestlers that can do cool stuff and we can get some celebrities that are willing to put the work in too...

but we're the WWE so f*** you we're not putting the effort to have a good show in unless we absolutely have to.

[Duke Cameron]

Didn’t watch

[Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED!]

Night 1 showed what WWE has the potential to be. A night full of starpower, exciting matches, and memorable moments.

Night 2 was the actual reality of what WWE is today: An extremely inconsistent mess, with some very good matches, but ultimately weighed down HEAVILY by extraordinarily bad booking and capped off by a dull, uninteresting main event.

I'll give it a 5.

[knightboat]

7, it was good but there were noticable things that could have been done better

[Super Duper Dragunov]

I gave last night a rounded up 7, this one is getting a 5.

HHH having his moment was very cool.

Lashley beating Omos was the right choice (wish it had been with the Hurt Lock tho)

The entire Zayn vs. Knoxville match was fun, and it was great to hear Michael Cole corpsing on commentary for like 10 minutes straight. MacAfee had some amazing one-liners too.

The women's tag match I didn't care about, and I've wanted Natalya to go away for years. The right team won though.

Edge vs. AJ was fine. A bit long, but it was okay for what it was. Interesting to see Priest align with Edge.
Also this was my first time seeing Edge's new entrance/song combo, and I dig it. Very Undertaker esque.
I do wish a darker version of Edge would show in the ring work though.

The New Day vs. Sheamus/Holland...why the f*** even do it then? I'm glad everyone got a payday, but what the shit?
I think TND are as stale as anyone, but they deserved more than like 2 minutes.

MacAfree vs. Theory was okay. Pat continues to impress.
Did NOT need to see Vince. Did NOT need to see Vince in a tank top.
And can Stone Cold please f*** off now? It took two nights to remind me why I couldn't stand him in the 90's.
Might as well have him come out tomorrow and stun the entire roster, and then leave to no backlash or comeuppance.
Do I get why they did it? Yes. Do I like it? No.

Roman vs. Brock
Hot garbage. This match peaked years ago, and it's just been rinse and repeat ever since.
The ending was lame.
The best part was the spear countered into the Kimura Lock.
Both guys should have had a better match given the prestige going into it.
Even the most adamant Roman fans would have to see that this wasn't a very good match, and didn't do him any favors.
And ofc he has to cheat in the match.
Meh.

So yeah, a 5.
Maybe a 3. Nah, a 5. Maybe in a month or two I'll give it a 3 when the newness has worn off.

Night 2 wasn't very good.

That seems to be the trend with these 2 night WM's.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

I gave it a 5. Not terrible but nothing really stuck with me much either. I thought Night 1 was much better.

[Ben Wyatt]

That Knoxville match was something that I probably should have hated on paper but was done so damn well that it was one of the most enjoyable things I've seen in years. He, Sami and the rest of the Jackass guys went all in and made it a beautiful train wreck

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

I tapped out in the middle of Edge vs AJ, just too damn tired

Fine show up to that point but 10/10 for the giant mousetrap

[Kay Faban]

I think Saturday was between a 9 and 10
Sunday between a 6 and 7

It was all set up to be another great night but the main event didn’t quite deliver. The crowd was hot during intros but kinda died. It felt like they never believed the finish was actually going to happen. Which is probably because these two have wrestled with much. The right guy won though.

I thought The Rock would be there, so I set myself up for disappointment there.

[Mid-Carder]

I'd say 6. It was fine, nothing terrible but equally nothing amazing.

[polarbearpete]

Night 1 was an easy 10. Night 2 was great but not as good as the first night, so I’ll go with a 9.

Surprised about the reactions here to Styles/Edge and Lesnar/Reigns. I thought both were great, and I’m not sure what other ending people expected out of the main event? I thought it was clear Reigns would go over semi-clean.

McAfee-Theory and Knoxville-Zayn were all-time great Mania gimmick matches. Loved Austin stunnering everyone and the Triple H start to the show.

The men’s tag title match was great and could’ve been an all-timer with a little bit more time (like the Raw tag title match a few weeks ago).

[petef3]

This probably puts me in the "hates fun" cateogry but I'm f***ing sick and tired of celebrities constantly going over the wrestlers, and wrestling itself being portrayed as something so easy that a random celeb--even an athlete--can do it at a professional level with a few months' training. And yes, that includes you, Pat McAfee.

I don't care how good Logan Paul is or could be as a full-timer. Or Bad Bunny. Or Johnny Knoxville. WWF/WWE has used celebrities to incredible effect in the past but this all feels like shameless asskissing. Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper weren't actually beating full-timers.

[Kalmia]

I gave it a 5. The opener was hot and I had tons of fun with the Sami Zayn match. AJ vs. Edge was fine, and the other tag matches were just kinda there.

The Austin and McMahon stuff was great for nostalgia, but I came out of this WM weekend thinking that Steve Austin is far and away the biggest star WWE has. As he's in his mid-50s and can't wrestle anymore, that doesn't make me want to watch the weekly shows and invest in future talent. Neither does calling Austin Theory a future Universal champ only for him to get beaten by a commentator (and I hate Theory, but don't throw those lines away on guys who are getting beat by non-wrestlers)

[thecrusherwi]

Apr 4, 2022 9:35:15 GMT -5 petef3 said:

This probably puts me in the "hates fun" cateogry but I'm f***ing sick and tired of celebrities constantly going over the wrestlers, and wrestling itself being portrayed as something so easy that a random celeb--even an athlete--can do it at a professional level with a few months' training. And yes, that includes you, Pat McAfee.

I don't care how good Logan Paul is or could be as a full-timer. Or Bad Bunny. Or Johnny Knoxville. WWF/WWE has used celebrities to incredible effect in the past but this all feels like shameless asskissing. Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper weren't actually beating full-timers.

I do agree with this to an extent. I remember Piper mentioning how he and Orndorff made sure at Wrestlemania I to not sell for Mr. T and Hogan the same way. He said something along the lines of when T is in there, if he punches us or slaps us that we don't go down and if he wants to slam us, it has to be mostly amateur stuff. But when Hulk is in there, we fly for him. And once I heard that, it's very noticeable in that match. They wanted to ensure that they look like the stars so that when Mr. T goes home tomorrow, the new audience will want to stay and watch them. If you tuned in for Logan Paul or Johnny Knoxville, or hell even for Stone Cold, I'm not sure why you're watching Raw tonight or next week.

[polarbearpete]

Apr 4, 2022 9:35:15 GMT -5 petef3 said:

This probably puts me in the "hates fun" cateogry but I'm f***ing sick and tired of celebrities constantly going over the wrestlers, and wrestling itself being portrayed as something so easy that a random celeb--even an athlete--can do it at a professional level with a few months' training. And yes, that includes you, Pat McAfee.

I don't care how good Logan Paul is or could be as a full-timer. Or Bad Bunny. Or Johnny Knoxville. WWF/WWE has used celebrities to incredible effect in the past but this all feels like shameless asskissing. Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper weren't actually beating full-timers.

McAfee is a highly athletic dude who is proficient in the ring but he still only beat a lower-midcarder with a flash pin. Knoxville beat Zayn in the most unclean manner possible, with tons of gimmicks and outside interference. He wasn’t made to look like he was actually better than Zayn. And Paul is a big dude who looked good in the ring but they still had Miz get the pin.

And this is nothing unusual for WWE. Mr. T won the main event of Wrestlemania. Piper then couldn’t beat Mr. T at Wrestlemania 2. Lawrence Taylor won the main event of Mania 11. Tyson knocked out HBK. Rourke knocked out Jericho. Mayweather beat Big Show, etc

[Ryushinku]

They kinda laid an egg compared to Night 1. Shame.

The opening tag got things off to a suitably hot start, but then it never really seemed to pick up a gear.

I liked the Jackass comedy match, inventive Loony Tunes stuff. AJ-Edge was pretty good, just, felt like it should've been excellent and wasn't. Main event was okay if the same old same old. McAfee did great.

The rest was okay, mediocre or bad in turn. I'd say 4 or 5, an average score.

[petef3]

Apr 4, 2022 13:25:01 GMT -5 polarbearpete said:

Apr 4, 2022 9:35:15 GMT -5 petef3 said:

This probably puts me in the "hates fun" cateogry but I'm f***ing sick and tired of celebrities constantly going over the wrestlers, and wrestling itself being portrayed as something so easy that a random celeb--even an athlete--can do it at a professional level with a few months' training. And yes, that includes you, Pat McAfee.

I don't care how good Logan Paul is or could be as a full-timer. Or Bad Bunny. Or Johnny Knoxville. WWF/WWE has used celebrities to incredible effect in the past but this all feels like shameless asskissing. Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper weren't actually beating full-timers.

McAfee is a highly athletic dude who is proficient in the ring but he still only beat a lower-midcarder with a flash pin. Knoxville beat Zayn in the most unclean manner possible, with tons of gimmicks and outside interference. He wasn’t made to look like he was actually better than Zayn. And Paul is a big dude who looked good in the ring but they still had Miz get the pin.

And this is nothing unusual for WWE. Mr. T won the main event of Wrestlemania. Piper then couldn’t beat Mr. T at Wrestlemania 2. Lawrence Taylor won the main event of Mania 11. Tyson knocked out HBK. Rourke knocked out Jericho. Mayweather beat Big Show, etc

T never got the pin, though. And most of those other examples are precisely why I've gotten tired of it, even if they were good in isolation.

[Mozenrath]

I went 8 on night one, so this feels like a 7. The good was real nice, some negatives brought it down, but night one had more stuff in the middle to compensate for that.