Part-Timers Hijacking WrestleMania Season

[Lizuka #BLM]

I find it kind of hard to fault Goldberg at Mania 33 too much in hindsight because the KO title reign was absolute trash and the Jericho match was a giant pile of nothing.

[Mozenrath]

Jan 21, 2024 22:03:47 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Jan 21, 2024 20:15:36 GMT -5 Gerard Gerard said:

I'd argue The Rock was a bigger offender at WM32 than ol' Hunna. He ate up what felt like an hour between a flamethrower, an absolutely nothing promo and a 6 second match with Erick Rowan. At least HHH was involved in an ongoing program.

Nah, the Rock was a nice surprise and his moment was much more entertaining and well received than the entire build and match of Triple H-Roman.

Rock had a good moment. Unfortunately, it was stretched out into like 28 moments long.

Triple H vs Roman was going to have issues, regardless, but putting it at the end of one of the most overlong, tedious Wrestlemanias was sending those two out to fail. They really should have had the match itself be a short one to at least salvage things.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Why is this in a “worst” format? What if we actually enjoyed a lot of these comebacks?

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Jan 21, 2024 19:02:05 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

Other: Brock. I feel like if he stayed in UFC, the wwe would be a lot better off. Maybe we get a Cena heel turn and a better 2017-2018

Long term, for sure. His initial return was brilliant though.

[Tea & Crumpets]

Triple H at 32.
I've never come round on Roman. He's still to me a B+ player sort of guy, the guy you can put AGAINST a top champion or give a transitional run to. His superpush has had me watching less WWE than I ever did and I've by no means been a regular for a long long time - Covid killed my interest in wrestling because it was too awkward watching empty arena shows, but Roman has not brought me back, I'm hugely uninvested in his segments/matches and just waiting for his run to end.
Never come round on HHH either, he was another who was fine as the antagonist to the guy or a filler champ but the worst part of Raw as champion. Rewatched Mania 19 recently as I'm on a Ruthless Aggression kick and him beating Booker T only feels like an even worse decision with age. He had no business being in the main event at WM32, total desperation to get Reigns over as a face and didn't work for me, the least interested I've been in a Mania Main Event basically ever.

[Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story]

Jan 21, 2024 22:49:30 GMT -5 DichEvans said:

Jan 21, 2024 19:34:30 GMT -5 Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story said:

That doesn’t mean people have to like it.

Did I say they did lol

You didn't outright say it, but it's pretty easy to infer that you did by saying fans should "understand" why they booked it.

[salz4life]

Wanted to say Hogan at 9.... but Goldberg at 36 really screwed The Fiend.

[Push R Truth]

There's a decent chance the answer to this in a couple months will be Punk at the upcoming WM.

[BRV]

Jan 22, 2024 9:45:13 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Wanted to say Hogan at 9.... but Goldberg at 36 really screwed The Fiend.

The fans weren't getting behind him this time, either. When Goldberg bested Kevin Owens in 2018, he still had fans cheering for him. But by the time it happened again in 2020, the fans had soured.

I went back and watched his promo on SmackDown after winning the Universal Championship, and the reaction from the live crowd is 50-50 at best. And Goldberg kind of heels it up, laughing at the fans' response.

[WoodStoner1]

Regarding 2000...at that point could we count Mick Foley, who had "retired"? Even he admitted the same.

Otherwise, I'd say Hogan for actually affecting the Mania itself. Batista is a close second, but only if XXX happened the way it was originally going to.

Goldberg I'll say ruined other things, but ON THE WAY to his WM match. He didn't really affect the Mania(s) itself.

[clc]

Jan 22, 2024 7:18:16 GMT -5 BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps said:

Why is this in a “worst” format? What if we actually enjoyed a lot of these comebacks?

Hogan beating Yokozuna saved that Mania!

Yokozuna was awful. A guy pretending to be Japanese that only had enough stamina to do like 3 moves. Most of his matches are him gasping for air barely able to stand. Presence wise, he was a like a 4th rate Andre the giant. Hogan had to look down at him.

...Brother!

[Ben Wyatt]

Goldberg at Mania 33 was fine.

Goldberg at Mania 36 was not

[Tenshigure]

Jan 22, 2024 9:45:13 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Wanted to say Hogan at 9.... but Goldberg at 36 really screwed The Fiend.

The Fiend character's mystique was all but destroyed by that point, the 1-2 punch of Hell in a Cell and Crown Jewel with Seth did it absolutely no favors (not to mention the character had zero business having a belt to begin with).

Sure, Goldberg beating The Fiend was a joke, but let's not act like the months leading up to the defeat were any good either. From July til that infamous HiaC match, the character work was unmatched. From the end of that horrific match onwards, nothing could have saved The Fiend from its downfall.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

The Rock's antics at WM32 felt very...extended to me. And I outright hated that they did the Cena match again at 29 when the triple threat with Punk made so much more sense. But I was into the Rock/Cena stuff at 28 and if they do it this year with him and Roman, I'll be into that.

Goldberg/Brock was a great short match, but it did not need the title when Jericho/KO were so hot with Kevin's betrayal. As happy as I was to see Jericho finally become US champion (which he strangely never did in WCW either) and then putting over KO, that match should've been for the Universal.

[Legion]

There are times the part timers come in and I get it, as it's there as a way to try and get lapsed fans or casuals to put eyes on the product and potentially get sucked back in via their old favourite and just maybe find a new favourite and stick around.

Then there are times like anything with Goldberg where it led to nothing but him trouncing the very people he should have been there to put over.

Give Rock shit for his 3, but at least he did the job to the new top guy and passed that torch.

[Soultastic]

Gotta go with Rock at 27, together with Taker and HHH. It felt like it derailed the booking of the show, like "only care about them pls, we know the main event sucks but Rocky's there!".

Honestly if HHH had done what he did at 32 but with a babyface that people actually wanted, it would've been good.

[khali]

It’s definitely got to be Hogan not only for it being the most heavily politicked one, but it’s also one where nobody but Hogan got anything out of it, nor was there even the potential to get anything out of it. It didn’t even happened in an advertised match, so there wasn’t even some argument of popping a good buyrate out of it.

And then Hogan got the title and did nothing with it. There was not one defense of the title on the house show runs. Only after Yokozuna won the title back did he and Hogan do house show dates together. So it really served no purpose outside of making Hogan happy.

[fw91]

Jan 22, 2024 8:00:39 GMT -5 Tea & Crumpets said:

Triple H at 32.
I've never come round on Roman. He's still to me a B+ player sort of guy, the guy you can put AGAINST a top champion or give a transitional run to. His superpush has had me watching less WWE than I ever did and I've by no means been a regular for a long long time - Covid killed my interest in wrestling because it was too awkward watching empty arena shows, but Roman has not brought me back, I'm hugely uninvested in his segments/matches and just waiting for his run to end.
Never come round on HHH either, he was another who was fine as the antagonist to the guy or a filler champ but the worst part of Raw as champion. Rewatched Mania 19 recently as I'm on a Ruthless Aggression kick and him beating Booker T only feels like an even worse decision with age. He had no business being in the main event at WM32, total desperation to get Reigns over as a face and didn't work for me, the least interested I've been in a Mania Main Event basically ever.

I’d give them a pass on this one. No excuse for a shit match but the injury bug was so bad, HHH was the most sensical choice given the storyline. He didn’t rob anyone of a spot like other part timers have imo.

[Instant Classic]

Goldberg at 36 was whatever cause it was the Covid era, but 33 ruined what could have been a world title feud between KO and Jericho. Batista would have been worse if Bryan wasn’t added.

[JCBaggee]

It's gotta be Rock at WM27. Already a weird lackluster WrestleMania, all he did was turn the main event world title match into a scapegoat to build towards the next year's event.