Ok, I'm late getting to this but I only watched WM this afternoon, and have not long got back from work. My take on Wrestlemania 32 with the pro and con moments from the four and a half hours or so:
Pros
- Intercontinental title ladder match. A very entertaining contest from some of the WWE's lower card and NXT performers. They outshone many of their senior peers in the company with plenty of crashes, bangs and wallops, everything you'd expect from a multi performer ladder match. Sami Zayn looks real talent. The ending was great - a very good bump/push for Zack Ryder winning the title. WWE did something different this time and made a genuinely pleasing change of title holder - something that was severely lacking from the car crash that was Fastlane.
- Baron Corbin's push in winning the Battle Royale. Eliminating the big guys (Shaq O' Neil and Big Show) early on allowed that to be a lot more interesting than even the Royal Rumble was in January. It gave Corbin and the Social Outcasts a decent set. Echoing the sentiments of my colleagues, some excellent talent emerging from NXT.
- The triple threat women's championship match, for the most part (see below for a con), was very entertaining. Thank goodness WWE now has more than just one woman who can wrestle. Sasha, Charlotte and Becky are tremendous talent, and it's about time WWE's women are allowed to show off their ring skills instead of just being models and sideline lackies.
- Stephanie McMahon's outfit. Christ, I almost creamed my pants when I saw her boobs and legs in that Game of Thrones style decor!
Cons - (sorry, there's more of these than pros)
- Ric Flair's interference in the women's triple threat. Jesus, I wish that guy would keep out of the matches. He's had his time, I'm tired of him constantly helping Charlotte win and retain the title. Let the current ring talent perform. That women's triple threat was really good, it deserved a clean ending.
- The Rock and John Cena. Absolutely pointless and shameful waste of over half an hour in which the Wyatt Family get buried yet again. This was the biggest let down of the entire night for me. We have to keep having Rock come back and do his monologues that bury current performers. It's so tiring.
- Jericho beating Styles??!! Why?! Ruined a decent match and AJ Styles deserved a WM win.
- Roman Reigns. Lacklustre performance (and that's being kind). I'm already annoyed with the WWE for making him look bad with the pathetic promos they've written for him. The poor guy gets booed out of every arena now because of it. But then they have him win the title. A far better ending would have been for Reigns to lose but do so gallantly, in a similar way to then heel Austin did to Bret at WM all those years ago, when he passed out in a pool of blood after refusing to submit to the Sharpshooter. The fans might have began to respect him a lot more. Not happy with HHH burying talent and giving himself the title so many times, but a steadfast performance by Reigns would have been more important than the end outcome. It would have gained him respect from the fans and put the heat on the Authority - they are supposed to be the heels afterall.
- Undertaker / Shane weren't as exciting as I was hoping. A Hell in a Cell could have had more. In the Shane storyline I still think this has way more to run though. I still think this proposed takeover could be the main angle of this year. We might find out more in tonight's RAW. Can't see Taker carrying on much longer though, he looks knackered now in every match. I'm actually frightened he might get seriously ill during these matches these days.
Overall I think the direction is lacking at these PPVs these days. They seem to miss so many opportunities and make themselves look a bad company. I'm pleased they're promoting talent with a strong NXT roster, and I'm pleased that there were some title changes which didn't happen at the pointless Fastlane. But the way they close matches is so misguided at times and there's a lot of wasted minutes on these shows. Definitely need improvement in the promos and time filling departments.
