Was 39 the worst ending to a mania ever?

[stoptheclocks]

There are at least three Mania main events featuring Roman Reigns that were worse.

["American Cream" Dusty Loads]

I don’t really like Cody so the ending wasn’t too bad for me lol.

[evilone]

Russo was ahead of its time, now it's official. And this wa somehow worse than most of the Russo's run-ins.

[J is Justice]

Apr 3, 2023 20:10:13 GMT -5 Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast said:

I loved this so I'm going with 39.

[clifford]

OK, its not. I feel it was an incredibly dumb decision and in my eyes may become the biggest missed opportunity for WWE in decades, but at least you have your dominant World Champion continuing his epic (though this word will certainly be disputed by a lot of people) reign. At the very very least the optics look cool, if you squint and turn your head sideways.

I always think back to Mania 27's massive wet fart of a main event finish. That was truly the worst.

Then you've Triple H and all the flat 'Mania finishes that end with him on top- 2000. X-8 and 'Mania 25. All those main events sucked the air out of the crowd and left the audience going 'meh'. I always think apathy is worse than outrage when it comes to a 'Mania main event.

And like others have said, this wasn't even the worst finish to one of Roman's 'Mania main events. His ones with Taker and Lesnar (at Mania 34) were awful.

[Zone Was Wrong]

I'd say yeah. There have been Mania's where the result wasn't what we wanted but it never felt so crushing. Hogan winning at 9 was at least a face standing tall. This was what felt like the culmination of 3 of misery booking only to end in more misery booking.

[avenger]

Apr 3, 2023 20:24:27 GMT -5 Nosnorb said:

This might be regency bias, but I would say so, even more so with Cody saying that Roman, despite needing Solo to do a run in after being ejected (why the ref didn't recognise Solo and restart the match I will never know), was the better man.

It feels like this was the one shot Cody had, and he fell short. Like WM25 and Randy Orton taking part in just a match, It feels like a dude being denied getting to the next level.

The one shot Cody has? That's ridiculous hyperbole.

He's the top merch seller, he's one of the few people that has a positive impact on TV ratings (only Sami and possibly Jey come close), he's the biggest draw in the company, and his time will come sooner rather than later. More often than not, babyfaces chasing the title always draw better than babyfaces holding the title, because their story is told and the chase is over. Top babyfaces facing a single kayfabe bump in the road only help their chase. It's not like he choked, or was booked to choke. Reigns needed three guys to help him win, and last night they started the tease of kicking two of those guys out of the Bloodline.

Cody should win the title no later than Wrestlemania 40. There's the real opportunity of creating a new star by whoever dethrones Roman. Sami's ship has probably sailed, but you can either give Jey that spot, or you build someone up with that same potential (Breakker wouldn't be my choice, but he's most likely). There's another thread asking where the heroes are, there's a common moan that the WWE hasn't created any real stars for years. This is the best opportunity they've had. Why waste it on the only guy that doesn't need it, because he already is a star?

[thecrusherwi]

Most fans loved the ending of Wrestlemania IX at the time. Everyone I knew who was watching wrestling in that era thought it was best ending to a Wrestlemania to date. Even Meltzer's reaction was "Weird and sucks for Bret, but I get it - business has been horrible since Hulk left and they have to try something".

I think Wrestlemania 2000 was more of a let down than this one. It's forgotten because of the big Rock win at Backlash, but that was such a deflating finish at the time.

[Nosnorb]

Apr 4, 2023 7:48:19 GMT -5 avenger said:

Apr 3, 2023 20:24:27 GMT -5 Nosnorb said:

This might be regency bias, but I would say so, even more so with Cody saying that Roman, despite needing Solo to do a run in after being ejected (why the ref didn't recognise Solo and restart the match I will never know), was the better man.

It feels like this was the one shot Cody had, and he fell short. Like WM25 and Randy Orton taking part in just a match, It feels like a dude being denied getting to the next level.

The one shot Cody has? That's ridiculous hyperbole.

He's the top merch seller, he's one of the few people that has a positive impact on TV ratings (only Sami and possibly Jey come close), he's the biggest draw in the company, and his time will come sooner rather than later. More often than not, babyfaces chasing the title always draw better than babyfaces holding the title, because their story is told and the chase is over. Top babyfaces facing a single kayfabe bump in the road only help their chase. It's not like he choked, or was booked to choke. Reigns needed three guys to help him win, and last night they started the tease of kicking two of those guys out of the Bloodline.

Cody should win the title no later than Wrestlemania 40. There's the real opportunity of creating a new star by whoever dethrones Roman. Sami's ship has probably sailed, but you can either give Jey that spot, or you build someone up with that same potential (Breakker wouldn't be my choice, but he's most likely). There's another thread asking where the heroes are, there's a common moan that the WWE hasn't created any real stars for years. This is the best opportunity they've had. Why waste it on the only guy that doesn't need it, because he already is a star?

Cody choked. The ending to the match was an almost exact copy of the one when Drew bottled it in Cardiff. And then Cody was killed by Beastie Boy last night.

WM39 felt like the opportunity to get Cody to the next level, but instead of striking a red hot iron, WWE decided that it would be better to have Cody strike out. As for Jey, dude had his chance three years ago and has a history of DUIs. I don't see him being the one to dethrone Roman.

A megastar could have been created on Sunday, but instead WWE decided Roman needed even more heat.

[Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED!]

WM-IX: Hogan regains the title in an impromptu match. Stupid and pointless but ultimately pretty harmless. Yoko won the belt back shortly thereafter and had the run he would have had anyway,

WM-2000: Triple H retains the title after Vince turns heel. Rock cleans house afterwards to send the crowd home happy. Leads to Rock winning the WWF Title the following month in the match that probably should have happened at Mainia. Pointless but still got us to the right outcome so whatever.

WM-X-Seven: Stone Cold turns heel to win the WWF title. Kind of confusing, pretty weird ending to the show but at the very least brings an iconic moment to end the show and drew a lot of interest of what comes next. The end result turned out to kind of suck but it created some buzz at least.

WM-25: Triple H retains the title against Randy Orton in a boring wet fart match. Kind of kills Randy Orton's momentum and ultimately proved totally pointless as Randy would win the title the next month anyway.

WM-27: Double countout leads to a restart of the match. Miz wins after Rock interferes. Makes the entire Wreslemania feel like a commercial for next year's Wrestlemania.

WM-32: Boring main event leads to a predictable outcome and a coronation nobody really wanted. Roman ultimately has a decent but totally forgettable title reign. They have to continue repeating the coronation process for years to come

WM-33: Undertaker puts over Roman Reigns in an absolutely abysmal match after which Undertaker feigns retirement. Only causes the hatred of Roman Reigns to grow even greater and Undertaker was back later anyways. Bad match and totally pointless cheap post match angle.

WM-34: Brock Lesnar wins in an awful match that somehow manages to bury the whole roster at the same time to prolong a title reign that has already gone on far too long anyway. Title reign continues until he drops it to Roman anyway in a rematch at Summerslam. Utterly meaningless match which prolonged the inevitable by another 4 months.

WM-38: Awful match between Roman and Lesnar but this time with Roman winning. Roman is the undisputed champion. The bad guy wins and goes part time gaining an accolade he didn't really need.

WM-39: Roman wins utterly killing any momentum Cody Rhodes had to continue a title reign that has absolutely nowhere left to go. It's too early to say where this one goes but it is up there as one of the worst Wrestlemania endings ever.

If you want my pick I'd say Wrestlemania 34 is the worst ever ending. It was pointless, there was no possible good outcome but they still managed to find the outcome that was worse than every other possible outcome combined.

39 is bad no doubt, and deserves its spot as one of the worst ever since Cody will never be as over as he was at Wrestlemania again, and this is the third straight year we've ended with a downer "The Bad Guy wins" ending. We'll have to see where the story goes from here.