So I’ve just got a refund on a pre-order for a ridiculously bloated and completely superfluous version of Star Wars Battlefront I & II with a borked online that I was never going to use and with not enough substantial updates to make me want to give up the old versions that I already have, which work just fine for my needs.
Anything on Steam that’s worth getting? That’s also cheap as shit?
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)”
Is it a sorcerer or a fire fly? Does it really matter?
I didn’t watch RAW last Monday – had better things to do… but I did catch the Cody Rhodes promo… specifically, I caught the Cody Rhodes promo that other people uploaded because WWE’s own upload is cut down and censored, which is silly if you’re going to allow that shit on TV.
Personally, I thought it was a good promo and honestly, the fact that Cody dropped a couple colorful metaphors here and there showed that WWE is more than willing to let their talent push things a little depending on the situation. Is there a double standard present when the big stars are allowed to cuss while everyone has to adhere to PG standards? Of course, there is… and honestly, I don’t mind the PG limitations; it just means you have to be more thoughtful in regards to how to cut your promos. God forbid we need more horrible women promos where every other line is calling each other a “bitch” or something.
Let’s be real here: the story here is less about Cody vs. Roman for the title so much as it’s Cody vs. The Rock. And regardless of how you feel about the way things turned out with the whole Rock/Roman/Cody deal, when it comes to cutting promos, there is no one better than the Rock. That dude is on a whole other level compared to everyone else. Hell, he was on a whole other level two decades prior when the WWE roster was full of great talkers. Now try to find someone who can match Rock’s charisma and wit today. Good luck with that because you’re not going to find any.
After Rock’s colorful promos on Twitter and also on Smackdown, Cody needed to up the ante with his comeback. He might not be able to get to Rock’s level in terms of promos and comebacks, but he had to at least try. And for what it’s worth, I thought Cody did great. It wasn’t the emotional bit that he did last week; he actually showed some intensity here and he needed to do that without restraint. Otherwise, if you weren’t going to let Cody rip on Rock the way he did, then you may as well open the show with Cody eating a bowl of cereal backstage like a total loon.
The sad truth is that as much as I’m enjoying the back-and-forth between Rock and Cody, it seems like Roman is becoming a bit of an afterthought. That’s not something you want to see out of your reigning Undisputed champion of three years and counting. It’ll be interesting to see how this interaction between Cody and Roman turns out this Friday on Smackdown, because at the moment, Roman is in danger of being put in the same position as The Miz was when he was WWE Champion over a decade ago. Sure, he main-evented a Wrestlemania, but nobody gave a shit because it was all about Rock vs. John Cena.
And if I’m going to be honest, this highlights another reason why I feel a Rock vs. Roman feud would’ve been the drizzling shits. Roman might’ve improved a bit as a promo guy, but even Dwayne would’ve destroyed him in promos. Imagine what a fully-motivated Rock would’ve been like against this guy… and then Roman would kick his ass at Mania and we move on with our lives.
Listen, I still believe Cody should’ve finished his story last year – then none of this would’ve happened… but at least I can say that I’m enjoying the ride so far that’s mostly the result of dumb luck than anything. We’ll see what happens next.
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)”
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