Wrestlemania 2020 - Spoilers, rumours, etc

bennyl10

Seem to have been one of the few who really enjoyed the women’s tag.
Minus the bad edit for the near fall, I thought the 4 of them did their best to create an atmosphere without having a crowd.

Some decent spots aswell and it (hopefully) sets up Asuka against Kairi going forward. Has potential to be a phenomenal match!

Lord TSC

I adored the Taker/Styles stuff. That sort of cheese is what I love in wrestling. I wish they’d do something with Taker as some Biker gang leader, with some minions doing his bidding (and covering his inability to wrestle).

Matches were what they were. I worried for Brawn when Goldberg hit a load of spears. I do think he should have been champion years ago, and feel sorry for him it’s not in front of a crowd, but still glad to see the title on a full timer.

I wonder if the fact Becky retained and Braun won is because if they have to go on hiatus for a bit, they want the titles on “safe” people, who can do interviews and fit into stories be it in two months or longer,

Necro

Loved the first part of Mania in the main. Owens/Rollins, ladder match and of course Taker/Styles the standouts.

Delighted for Becky too tbh, Baszler just appears to be a charisma vacuum despite being fairly decent in the ring.


Folks if ye are bored in the interim, I'm running a best PW Theme Music tournament over in Forum Games at the moment, more than welcome to join

Tournament Thread

Cherry_Cola

Matt Hardy walked so AJ and Taker could run Goes to show what's possible in a location setting and this probably will get us a few more years of Taker matches. Himself and Sting would even have a decent showing in that setting!

CastorTroy

Was stupid that Truth was out after a poor forearm to the chest. Besides, if ever there was a time to not be out and about with the 24/7 title, now is the time.

I've said it before but one thing I don't like about Morrison is how he raises his arm before doing a flip. It's what you do when starting out but not after many years experience.

Monokne

I thought the show was better than anyone had a right to expect.

Becky-Shayna, Uso-Kofi-Jomo, & Rollins-Owens all overcame the atmosphere to have good matches that you could get into. I did not think that was possible in the environment.

Zayn-Bryan & the womens tag overdelivered in their own way.

Corbin-Elias and Strowman-Goldberg were men playfighting in an empty warehouse. Surprised they went with Braun. He is ice cold.

I enjoyed Taker-Styles for what it was. It's absolutely not what I look for in wrestling but you just had to take it on its own merits. It was great fun.

briany

I disagree that there should be more cinematic wrestling. If it was more commonplace, the novelty would wear off and all you'd be left with would be the nagging thought that what you're seeing and hearing is stuff that'd be left on the floor of a hastily-made direct-to-Crackle action movie.

Itssoeasy

I think the undertaker match was a good way to hide his limitations and I'd take what we got last night over seeing the undertaker start okay and by the end of the match clearly struggling. I've seen enough of those thanks.

Itssoeasy

So we have three hours of mania then two documentaries one of the undertaker and one on edge. This may be a good night of WWE programming.

mixed up

It wasn't too bad until the boneyard match, switched off midway through that, seriously cringe and pathetic, if we have to look forward to more of that then please f**k off undertaker and don't come back this time.

Loughc

Itssoeasy wrote: »

So we have three hours of mania then two documentaries one of the undertaker and one on edge. This may be a good night of WWE programming.

I think the taker thing is just a first look like 15mins or so. I don’t think it’s a full episode.

ricero

mixed up wrote: »

It wasn't too bad until the boneyard match, switched off midway through that, seriously cringe and pathetic, if we have to look forward to more of that then please f**k off undertaker and don't come back this time.

Jasus I say you are great fun.

It was a bit of craic in these unprecedented times. Fair play to Styles, Taker and of course the gold standard, WWE.

Pure entertainment.

HanFiredFirst

That was the drizzling ****s and so much for being the big player in wrestling stealing the Matt Hardy gimmick match and Lucha Undergrounds style to try and make match the Allen and Mark something, Small time from Vince.

J. Marston

Stole it and improved upon it.

Lithium93_

J. Marston wrote: »

Stole it and improved upon it.

And then absolutely bloody ruining it, using it when it's not called for.

leggo

I enjoy when you can see an almost determination to be angry at WWE no matter what. You didn’t have to enjoy the match but there’s really nothing there worth the rage that I’m seeing from the odd person here and elsewhere. Lucha Underground are dead and were a pretty scummy company in the end trying to hold wrestlers ransom for no pay, Matt Hardy is getting creative freedom and seems delighted with life in AEW, and WWE have been doing off-site random matches like this since Goldust/Piper at WrestleMania 12...nobody ‘owns’ the concept of shooting a wrestling match like a cheesy action movie. Should producers of action movies claim they were stolen from like?! You’re angry but whoever it is you’re angry on the behalf of probably doesn’t care or even agree.

It’s fair game. If you didn’t enjoy it, grand, you didn’t like one wrestling match. There’s enough things to be stressing over these days without having a conniption on boards.ie about this like. :pac:

showpony1

I have seen criticism of how WWE handled Matt Hardy badly when they did such a good job of this for The Undertaker.
It's the Undertaker at Wrestlemania - believe it or not i'd say not as many care about bloody Matt Hardy and his daft character.

Monokne

Post Wrestling, who would have a pretty hardcore fan base, did a poll which had about 3000 votes and ended up with 89% saying they loved the Boneyard match and 11% saying they hated it.

I am very much a traditionalist with wrestling and I love mat based, submission heavy wrestling - my favourite of all time is Bret without question, and I love Shayna's matches which often polarise. My point being, the boneyard match was a million miles removed from what I look for in wrestling.

However, I thought it was fantastic. You can only really evaluate it based on what it was - a pro wrestling match in a movie - and on that level, it over-delivered. The editing, soundtrack, dialogue & plot were all on point. To make an aged comparison, it felt like Taker was John McClane and AJ was Hans Gruber. Yippekiyay.

To those that didn't enjoy it, I would echo what Leggo said. Just own that - I don't like it, it's not my cup of tea etc. The outrage about it is baffling to me. Surely you didn't expect anything else?

CastorTroy

I'm curious, of the non regular posters do ye usually watch the weekly shows as well or just Mania/the big 4?
Not saying your opinion is right or wrong, just interesting to see the opinions for the more irregular watchers.

Could be a poll there to see if regular watcher and did you like it.

showpony1

Monokne wrote: »

However, I thought it was fantastic. You can only really evaluate it based on what it was - a pro wrestling match in a movie - and on that level, it over-delivered. The editing, soundtrack, dialogue & plot were all on point. To make an aged comparison, it felt like Taker was John McClane and AJ was Hans Gruber. Yippekiyay.

it was great - i was sitting there watching Elias vs Baron Corbin thinking why did i bother staying up then went away buzzing after the show with that Metallica tune stuck in my head and i don't even like them!!

sky88

Well I know Matt gets a lot of the credit and rightly so but don’t forget Jeremy borash was also a huge part of what made it work in tna and looks like he was heavily involved for last night

Understand why people don’t like it as not traditional but I do love it myself

S.G.M.

I only dip in and out of following WWE. Enjoy it but don't commit to watching it.
However, this stuff without the crowd is just awful imo. It's not worth going ahead with it.
The crowd is everything.

showpony1

2ndcoming wrote: »

Did you actually read my post, or just that line?

Your point was all of the matches should have had some unique element like the Boneyard match as was taped & they could have done more - matches like Baron Corbin vs Elias don't warrant it and would take away from the main event.

I think given the restrictions, time they must have had to come up with this spectacular match its greedy to want more, we should appreciate we got one of the great Wrestlemania main events even with these circumstances.

showpony1

sky88 wrote: »

Jeremy borash was also a huge part of what made it work in tna and looks like he was heavily involved for last night

he's being given a lot of credit for this when its unconfirmed if he was involved.

J. Marston

showpony1 wrote: »

he's being given a lot of credit for this when its unconfirmed if he was involved.

Someone on Reddit posted a picture from the set and he was there speaking with AJ, Taker, Gallows and Anderson.

LineOfBeauty

showpony1 wrote: »

Your point was all of the matches should have had some unique element like the Boneyard match as was taped & they could have done more - matches like Baron Corbin vs Elias don't warrant it and would take away from the main event.

I think given the restrictions, time they must have had to come up with this spectacular match its greedy to want more, we should appreciate we got one of the great Wrestlemania main events even with these circumstances.

Mr T and Hogan team up to take down Piper, Hogan slams Andre, the megapowers implode, Hogan passes the torch to Warrior, Michael's boyhood dream comes through, the Austin era begins, Austin /Rock end of an era, Benoit's 18 year odyssey, Cena/Rock 1 and 2, Bryan wins the big one..... A dodgy pre recorded B movie fight scene.

Rock77

CastorTroy wrote: »

I'm curious, of the non regular posters do ye usually watch the weekly shows as well or just Mania/the big 4?
Not saying your opinion is right or wrong, just interesting to see the opinions for the more irregular watchers.

Could be a poll there to see if regular watcher and did you like it.

I used to watch all the time, then just watched the month or so before Mania to catch up with storylines before the the big one.

I watched this in hope more than expectation. I found it slightly better than I expected, Taker match was as good as they could have done. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t wrestling, no near falls or that kind of excitement.

I liked the ladder match, Rollins Owens was decent but some of the other matches were shockingly bad..

I think for me the lack of crowd really makes an ordinary match look terrible but a decent match is watchable with no crowd, I didn’t think it would be.

showpony1

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Mr T and Hogan team up to take down Piper, Hogan slams Andre, the megapowers implode, Hogan passes the torch to Warrior, Michael's boyhood dream comes through, the Austin era begins, Austin /Rock end of an era, Benoit's 18 year odyssey, Cena/Rock 1 and 2, Bryan wins the big one..... A dodgy pre recorded B movie fight scene.

it was the best match to go on last at Mania since 31.

While they couldn't really have put this on a screen in front of 70,000 people live - i think this would still have been considered a "Mania Moment" if they put this on the normal show.

they'd need to have the match start on screen and finish in arena if do again in LA.

showpony1

Liv Morgan and Natalya fighting in silence now is a stark contrast to the last match i watched last night!

ThePott

Hoping Night 2 opens with an In Memoriam of AJ Styles