Author: dtm666

I ramble about things.

RAW After Mania (April 8th, 2024) – Starting A New Story/Era/Whatever

One night after AEW aired its All In footage for people who still give a shit about that mess, I decide to write some musings on the RAW After Wrestlemania that took place this past Monday since that’s kind of a tradition ’round these parts or something. You’ll be pleased to know that I actually sat through all three hours… well, okay, I skipped commercials and some minor bits here and there, but still I saw most of the show. That has to be worth something, right?

Well, not really…

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Ramblemania 40 – WWE Wrestlemania XL

Date: April 6–7, 2024
Venue: Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance –
Night 1: 72,543
Night 2: 72,755
Combined: 145,298

Yeah, so despite some Network issues and a last minute decision to go watch the new Godzilla X Kong movie this weekend – great popcorn flick, by the way – I was able to watch both nights of Wrestlemania XL and, well, it certainly lived up to the XL part if nothing else.

I actually wanted to hold this off for another week or so before posting

So the show opens with Paul “Triple H” Levesque (who is actually introduced as such – thanks, Paul E!) coming out and welcoming us to a new era in WWE. You can tell that it’s a new era (yes, it is) because there’s a Prime bottle decal in the middle of the ring; something that WWE has never done before. Prime is the energy drink brand of that Logan Paul fellow. I tried some. It’s medicinal, but that’s about it. But more importantly, this is the first Wrestlemania without any involvement from [REDACTED] and that is readily apparently with a lot of the little touches you wouldn’t normally see, like backstage bits with the wrestlers walking to their entrance, unique camera angles, and things of that nature. This is stuff I noticed when watching the last couple PPVs, but seeing it at Wrestlemania really hammered home that a changing of the guard was needed to freshen things up from a production and visual standpoint. I like that personally.

With that in mind, on with the show…

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Impact (April 4th, 2024) – The Generational Clash That Actually Happened…

Good news, everyone. Cody Rhodes finally finished his fucking story.

What does this have to do with TNA? Absolutely nothing… but I understand they also have a guy named Cody under contract. Maybe we can convince him to finish his story… whatever that ends up being.

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THE BITE COMMENTARY #01 – The Final Word On McMahon

So, you’re probably wondering why, on the eve of Wrestlemania 40 Weekend, I’ve decided to touch on this dirty piece of business. Well, it’s pretty simple. I just finished my Ramblemania Rewind series where I just rewatched and redid all my Ramblemania musings… and while I’ve enjoyed revisiting these shows, I can’t help but feel that the experience has been somewhat tainted due to the actions of one man. And for the past couple months, I’ve been largely silent on the matter because, well, I want to keep this blog on the upbeat side of things. Talk about things I like, praise the good stuff, poke some fun at the bad stuff, and just generally shoot some breeze.

The focus of this particular post is none of the above. In fact, it is quite deprived. And it is something that has tainted a lot of good memories for me. A lot of good memories regarding a form of entertainment that has been a large part of my life for the better part of three decades. A form of entertainment that was brought to heights of popularity thanks to the vision of one man. A man who has done more to propel this form of entertainment to new heights than any man could hope to achieve. A man whose influence permeates every aspect of this form of entertainment.

A man whose legacy is forever tainted due to recent circumstances.

And I’ve been silent on this issue because, yes, I want to keep maintain some sense of fun on this blog… but also because I simply didn’t have the words. What could I say about this business that hadn’t already been said? What was I feeling about this whole thing? How does this affect a lifetime of memories, of which this man was a part of? I didn’t quite have the words… but eventually, I found a few words. And I wanted to share those words before Wrestlemania 40 took place. And I wanted to

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Ramblemania Rewind 39 – WWE Wrestlemania 39 (2023)

Date: April 1–2, 2023
Venue: SoFi Stadium – Inglewood, California
Attendance:
Night 1: 67,303
Night 2: 67,553
Combined: 134,856

Yes, we’re back on this show again… and you know what that means?

I’ve written about my thoughts regarding this show last year and watching a year later – even taking into account everything that has happened since then – my thoughts more or less remain consistent. So the good majority of this Ramblemania Rewind is going to read like something of a repost, save for minor tenses and things of that nature.

Wrestlemania 39 took place last weekend; two nights of Wrestlemania, with one night easily considered to be one of the best Wrestlemania cards ever put together and the other night… well, you know.

This was the first time that I was actively looking forward to a Wrestlemania. Hell, it was the first time that I was actively invested in a major WWE storyline without all of the usual trappings that would be associated with. I was actually enjoying the ride that they were taking me on for the first time in a long, LONG while. I was actually intrigued by how things were going to turn out. And Wrestlemania turned out to be a tale of two shows. One show living up to the hype and delivering the pay-off to one of the most engaging storylines in years and the other… well, you know the old saying about the more things change…

The funny thing is that at the end of night one, I could safely that I had a good time. I will go so far to say that night one was one of the best Wrestlemania cards put together on PPV and it all came together thanks to all the superstars who made it happen. The way I saw it, Night One went down exactly as it should and everything played out exactly as it needed to. It was a good feeling.

But as the good feeling started to fall away, there was a dark thought came to mind. A thought that was fleeting and yet that fleeting moment was enough to cast doubt on the second night. It was the thought that if Night One is where everything would go right, then Night Two is where everything would come crumbling down.

Sure enough…

Okay, let’s get this over with.

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Ramblemania Rewind 38 – WWE Wrestlemania 38 (2022)

Date: April 2–3, 2022
Venue: AT&T Stadium – Arlington, Texas
Attendance
Night 1: 65,719
Night 2: 65,653
Combined: 131,372

A lesson to be learned: just because you call something stupendous doesn’t necessarily make it so.

Yes, I used that opening line in the original Ramblemania post. Yes, it’s still valid.

Anyway, this is Wrestlemania 38. Another two-night affair that I recall taking me several days to get through because it was so damned long. The good news is that I was able to watch this show in two nights, meaning I sat through each night without interruption. Unfortunately, each night of Wrestlemania 38 were witnessed days apart and if I’m going to be honest, that was the only way that I would even consider giving this thing a shot. My main complaint with this show was that it was too damned long – each night was roughly four hours a night and a lot of these shows felt considerably bloated.

What helped this time around was a lot of fast forwarding, skipping through the non-wrestling bits and extraneous commercials. Even with a wonky Network interface, this helped in making these shows more tolerable than usual.

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Ramblemania Rewind 37 – WWE Wrestlemania 37 (2021)

Date: April 10–11, 2021
Venue: Raymond James Stadium – Tampa, Florida
Attendance Night 1: 17,946
Attendance Night 2: 18,501
Combined: 40,806

“It’s Like Having Two Days Of Colonoscopies.”
Jim Ross on two nights of Wrestlemania

For some reason, I found that quote from WWE Hall Of Famer, AEW Announcer, and former Dippin’ Dots pitchman Jim Ross funny. And considering I’ve had my share of colonoscopies over the years, that certainly sounds like an apt analogy.

Wrestlemania 37 would be the first WWE show since the pandemic shut everything down to host a large number of fans. We’re not quite at full capacity yet since COVID was still a prominent heel and we wouldn’t get filled arenas until that year’s Money In The Bank PPV (although AEW would beat them to the punch with their Double Or Nothing show from Daily’s Place). Still, for what it’s worth, the crowd was .

WWE decided to keep the two-night format that continues to this day, thus making Wrestlemania bigger than ever. Some people would question the decision to do this, but honestly, I thought it was the right move. A one-night Wrestlemania lasting ten hours or so was simply too much of a chore to sit through and since I would end up watching those shows over several nights, the decision to make two nights at three-ish hours a piece makes it much more manageable… so long as they keep it that length and not go overboard… as they are prone to doing.

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Ramblemania Rewind 36 – WWE Wrestlemania 36 (2020)

Date: April 4-5, 2020
Venue: WWE Performance Center – Orlando, FL
Attendance: 0

So… 2020 was an interesting year. I lived it. You lived it. We all lived it. No need to go into the details. Because WWE sure as hell wouldn’t and… yeah, let’s not go there.

Anyway, due to prevailing circumstances, Wrestlemania 36 and all subsequent WWE programming for the foreseeable future would move from their originally scheduled locations to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, where the only audience greeting the talent would be watching from their homes on television. Empty arena matches were a gimmick once upon a time. Hell, promotions holding shows in closed studio settings with no fans was often a sign of troubling times. Never in a million years would I expect WWE to hold such shows in such a format, let alone a Wrestlemania… but here we are.

Even watching these years later, it’s still such a surreal sight. And while the rest of the world was pretty much shut down, the wrestling business would continue onwards, whether it’d be WWE, AEW, or even Impact at times. There’s always the discussion of whether they should or shouldn’t have done so, but what’s done is done… and for the most part, the business survived. And for what it’s worth, this is the first Wrestlemania to be held over two nights; a tradition that would continue to this very day. Mind you, I still would’ve preferred a single, four-hour show, but given the option between a single TEN HOUR show, and two slightly smaller ones… I’ll go with the two-night option.

So here we are… Wrestlemania 36 in an empty Performance Center… what could possibly go right?

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