Category: Wrestling PPV Musings

Date: April 6th, 2014
Venue: Superdome (or is it Silverdome?) – New Orleans
Attendance: 60,000-65,000 (need further verification for actual figure)

First off, looking back in hindsight, bold choice in going with the roman numeral 30 on your Wrestlemania 30 logo. I don’t think we need to imagine all the NC-17 related jokes that you can come up with regarding that title alone. (NC-17 referring to the motion picture rating for adult content, not the handle of a now-defunct Youtube personality who fell off the face of the Earth.)

Anyway, Wrestlemania XXX is one of those interesting beasts that’s interesting to look at because it’s interesting in hindsight. It was under a much different regime of WWE compared to today’s WWE – well, for a variety of reasons, but we’ll focus on the creative side alone. Anyway, the company was dead set on bringing back former WWE superstar turned proper actor Dave Batista back to win the Royal Rumble and challenge reigning WWE champion Randy Orton in the main event of Wrestlemania. For a milestone Mania, we needed a milestone main event and that… well, in hindsight, not quite that big of a deal, if I’m being honest.

Had things gone according to plan, that’s how it would’ve gone down. Unfortunately, the WWE Universe had other ideas. ‘Cuz there was this fella named Daniel Bryan that people took a liking to and the result was a YES movement that not only took over WWE events, but other sports as well. It got to the point where the crowd was reaching almost riotous levels and WWE pretty much had no choice but to pivot as a result. Hmm, doesn’t that sound familiar…

Anyway, let’s revisit this show and see how well it’s held up.

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 30 – WWE Wrestlemania XXX (2014)”

Date: April 7th, 2013
Venue: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, New Jersey
Attendance: 74,300

When I wrote the original Ramblemania post for this show a couple days after its conclusion, the first word I wrote – and pretty much the word I used to describe Wrestlemania 29 as a whole – was “underwhelming.” And of all the shows that I would expect to label as underwhelming, this was not it.

Wrestlemania 29 has a number of marquee matches going for it. It featured The Rock defending his WWE Championship (that he won from CM Punk at the Royal Rumble – a decision that proved to be somewhat controversial) against John Cena in what is jokingly billed as “Twice In A Lifetime.” It also featured CM Punk attempting to snap the Undertaker’s long-running Wrestlemania win streak (spoiler: he fails), and short-haired HHH attempting to get his win back from Brock Lesnar after the pasting he got at Summerslam the year prior, promising to retire if he didn’t get the job done… even though he was kinda, sorta retired by this point by virtue of the fact that he cut his hair to be more presentable in the office… or something.

So I thought this show was underwhelming when I first watched it back in 2013… but that was eleven years ago. What’s the verdict on this show now? Is it a better show than I gave it credit? Does it even hold up?

Well… only one way to find out, I guess…

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 29 – WWE Wrestlemania NY/NJ (2013)”

Date: April 1st, 2012
Venue: Sun-Life Stadium, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 78,363

ROCK VS. CENA – ONCE IN A LIFE-BWAH! HA! HA! HA! HA! YEAH, GOOD ONE, P—…

Fuck me, I can’t even use that joke, either, can I?

Yeah, so long story short. Wrestlemania 28 is a better show than Wrestlemania 27, but not one that I would call an all-time classic or one of the better Manias, even. And hey, Rock beating Cena to kick off what would eventually be dubbed “John Cena’s Worst Year Ever” or something… yeah, let’s get into it.

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 28 – WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII (2012)”

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 27 – WWE Wrestlemania XXVII (2011)”

Date: March 28th, 2010
Venue: State Farm Stadium – Glensdale, AZ
Attendance: 72,219

This was the show where Shawn Michaels had his last match, the show where Bret Hart had his first match in WWE since 1997, and this was also the show where… well, that’s all I remember from this show. I recall this being a good B-level show and honestly, I’d say that opinion holds up… but yeah, let’s get into it.

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 26 – WWE Wrestlemania XXVI (2010)”

Date: April 5, 2009
Venue: Reliant Stadium – Houston, TX
Attendance: 72,744

The 25th iteration of Wrestlemania… often called the 25th anniversary of the Wrestlemania… which means there’s a Wrestlemania Zero that took place in 1984 that nobody knows about.

It probably goes without saying, but Shawn Michaels and Undertaker truly stole the show here and even in their advanced ages, they still managed to produce a truly fucking awesome match that holds up rather well years later. See, I’m not always fed up with old guys hogging the spotlight and stealing the show – only old guys who can’t go and have no reason to do so (hello, Terry). And if the show ended there, it would have been fine… but then you have the two World title matches. Surprisingly, Cena was in the better match, whereas HHH/Orton, not surprisingly, stunk up the joint. Seriously, leave it to Triple H to kill any good will left in the show on the final match of the evening. In either case, a massive let down in regards to the championship bouts.

The whole show in general is rather… meh. Better than I had originally thought of it, but still well below standards. Jericho vs. the Old Timers was surprisingly watchable thanks to Ricky Steamboat, who could still go at the time (don’t get any ideas), but Money In The Bank was above-average at best and botchworthy at worst, the Divas Battle Royal was an affair best forgotten (and you wonder why Trish Stratus and Lita opted not to participate), and the rest of it didn’t really stick out in my mind. In fact, the only other thing that really made this show special was Stone Cold Steve Austin’s last hurrah where he just saluted the crowd and drank beer… that, to me, was more exciting and entertaining (not to mention a fitting closure to a great career) was better than anything the McSon-In-Law could crap out of his anus on this “meh” show.

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 25 – WWE Wrestlemania 25 (2009)”

March 30, 2008
Camping World Stadium – Orlando, FL
Attendance: 74,635

Apparently, this is the biggest Wrestlemania under the sun… I’m sure that’ll be the case until Mania hits Saudi Arabia and then we can call THAT… never mind.

Anyway, Wrestlemania 24… a show that I don’t recall all that much other than it was where Ric Flair had his last match… in WWE… and quite frankly, in hindsight, we kinda wished that it was his last match if his post-WWE career was anything to go by. Besides that, however… yeah, this was one of those shows where I was completely blanking out and I could at least recall something in the main event scene, but not this time…

But enough about that. How was the actual show?

Well…

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 24 – WWE Wrestlemania 24 (2008)”

Date: April 1st, 2007
Venue: Ford Field, Detroit, MI
Attendance: 74,287

In 1987, Wrestlemania III took place at the Pontiac Silverdome and provided the template for every Wrestlemania going forward… even if it took us a few years to actually follow that template.

Twenty years after that landmark event, we have Wrestlemania 23, where the big headline event is the supposed “Battle Of The Billionaires” between then-WWE chairman Vince McMahon and future President of The United States Donald Trump. The battle would pit McMahon’s chosen avatar – reigning Intercontinental champion UMAGA – against Trump’s chosen avatar – reigning WWECW Champion Bobby Lashley – in which the losing billionaire would have their head shaved. No doubt there was an appeal in wondering which of these heads would meet the razor blade… well, for some people, at least.

The fact that Wrestlemania 23 is known primarily for THAT encounter above all else paints a pretty grim picture of the overall WWE landscape. And unfortunately, that branding has inadvertently tainted this show somewhat, given how the reputations of both men are somewhat tarnished in recent years. And I’m going to be honest; I wasn’t too keen on revisiting this one for that reason alone. Watching the battle of two long-since disgraced individuals is about as appealing as watching a match between Jimmy Snuka and Chris Benoit in a Woman On A Pole match. If that very thought disturbs you, then good. I’m sharing the misery with everyone reading this thing.

In any event, I did watch the whole thing… and… well…

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 23 – WWE Wrestlemania 23 (2007)”

Date: April 2nd, 2006
Venue: AllState Arena, Rosemount, IL
Attendance: 17,155

Fun fact: The theme song for this year’s Mania was Peter Gabriel’s hit song, “Big Time.” Which is a bit ironic because if there’s anything that Wrestlemania 22 felt like the least, it was “big time.”

I can recall this show not doing much for me back in the day. The card on paper was a bit lacking, they had just bumped the PPV price tag, and honestly, I was more excited for the returning Saturday Night’s Main Event show that was taking place… which ended up being a bust, but that’s another story, entirely. Now I do recall in the original Ramblemania posting saying that I felt this was a pretty good show in spite of the lack of anticipation, even if it did feature a couple things that bog it down a bit. This was also the first Mania after Eddie Guerrero passed away and… well, that’s relevant in our Smackdown World title match, which is a three-way.

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 22 – WWE Wrestlemania 22 (2006)”

Date: April 3rd, 2005
Venue: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Attendance: 20,193

Wrestlemania 21 Went Hollywood in 2005… which meant we got a bunch of WWE Guys re-creating classic scenes from classic movies in order to promote this Wrestlemania 21 PPV, which is emanating from the Staples Center in LA… not quite a big stadium setting and not only that, but these trailers – and there were some good ones – did the biggest mistake any movie trailer can do; they show off all the best parts and so by the time you watch the movie, you’re going “That’s it?”

I don’t know where I was going with that, but in any event, we have Wrestlemania 21, which is notable for kicking off the next era of WWE by way of crowning two new champions who would carry the company for the rest of the 2000s. Just in terms of seeing new main event talent being coronated and established, this serves as an important show in that regard. It also helps that this show

Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 21 – WWE Wrestlemania 21 Goes Hollywood (2005)”