I’ve been completely slammed at work, so I haven’t really had much of a chance to write about my thoughts about the grandest show of them all™, but on the other hand, with the entire week now behind us, I’ve had more time to play catch up with everything from the pre-pre show (NXT TakeOver), the pre-show, the entire five-hour clusterfuck that was Wrestlemania itself, highlights from both the following Raw and Smackdown, as well as the first NXT show post-Mania.
Needless to say, I have opinions on all of it, otherwise this post wouldn’t exist.
It goes without question that NXT TakeOver: New Orleans was the clear superior show over the last week, and I’m really beginning to question the WWE’s methodology of pairing TakeOvers with the big four PPVs of the year. According to multiple sources (wrestling personality autobiographies), it’s been stated that Vince McMahon himself and his production team have this idea that crowds have a finite number of “pops” AKA crowd reactions per night, and that certain wrestlers have been discouraged from saying certain things or doing certain moves that would elicit a pop at a point of the show that would be one less pop for during the main event.
Although the terminology is kind of silly, there’s no denying the idea that crowds do have finite amounts of energy, and that it is entirely possible to burnout a crowd with shows that go too long, or there simply being too many shows to catch. That being said, all of the aforementioned shows occurred in the same two venues within New Orleans, and sure thousands of people converge on a city whenever Wrestlemania is in town, but it’s safe to assume that the same people are often times the ones hitting up all of the shows all week long. I love wrestling as much as the next smark does, but I for one have zero desire to go to that many shows in a week. Give me TakeOver, and I’ll be content to watch the rest of the programs on my projector from the comfort of my cushy leather recliner.
Back to the point, I think WWE isn’t maximizing their pop potential by pairing TakeOvers with the big four shows of the year; if anything at all, it’s almost counterproductive to the logic of burning out crowds, especially when the facts have been that the NXT roster has been routinely outperforming their main roster counterparts for the better part of the last two years now.
It almost feels like that Marvel storyline where Hydra infiltrated SHIELD and right underneath their noses resurrected the entire organization from within and ultimately took over. That’s what NXT kind of feels like, with Triple H being the evil megalomaniac pretending to play on both sides the ball, but he’s really working for NXT-Hydra the whole time, trying to ultimately upend the WWE as a whole from Vince McMahon. And with a roster full of Ring of Honor and other independent expats who know how to work, especially in comparison to the WWE Performance Center monkeys, it’s almost like a guerrilla federation growing and gaining power right underneath the WWE’s umbrella.
TakeOver: New Orleans was easily the strongest show of the entire week, and every match was quality from top to bottom. It’s hard to say who was the best match of the night, because everyone worked their asses off throughout the entire card, and every match had at least one moment where my butt scooted to the edge of the metaphorical seat. I’ve already said my piece about Adam Cole and the new North American Championship, but I am still happy to see that as far as not jobbing, Cole had the night of his life, winning a new belt and retaining the tags in double duty. But everything else from Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler, Andrade Cien Albas vs. Aleister Black to Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa were all classic bouts that told great stories, were executed wonderfully, and left me with feelings of having watched some decent professional wrestling.
As a whole, Wrestlemania was kind of a letdown. I’m disappointed that they’ve decided to denigrate so much to the ‘pre-show’ so when you start watching the program on the vaunted WWE Network, it actually starts off with the Intercontinental match, which is actually the fourth match into the night. But if the WWE is concerned about audience burnout, my first piece of advice is to not have a show that’s literally seven hours long for starters; if viewers at home feel like they can barely stand after watching five hours of wrestling, imagine what it’s like for those crammed into shitty venues like the New Orleans SuperDome for seven hours, plus whatever else consumes time on site?
Not a single match was truly memorable throughout the entire card, and as a whole it was a disappointing show that makes me more skeptical that the WWE can’t ever come close to delivering on the monumental levels of hype that they throw towards the show. I’ve already stated my opinions on the Japanese Job Squad, although I do think the potential of a heel Shinsuke Nakamura are pretty good, but I was pretty disgusted with the treatment of the RAW Tag Team Titles when Braun Strowman literally chose a child to team with in order to squash two hard working horses for the company. Like, the WWE could have chosen absolutely anyone at all to elevate with a tag team championship match, but they literally flushed it down the toilet with the whole Nicholas bullshit.
To piggyback onto my earlier thought that I feel like WWE Creative exists to be contrarian to fan opinions, this was no more prevalent than this year’s Wrestlemania, where the popular opinions to win their matches, pretty much all lost. With the one exception being the Kurt Angle/Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H/Stephanie McMahon match, although I wouldn’t have put it past the power couple to throw a swerve there and have Rousey immediately turn heel to have them destroy Angle or something. But Nakamura lost, Roman Reigns lost, and Daniel Bryan didn’t turn heel on Shane McMahon, so just about every major prediction that was ever cast by the fans all failed to come to fruition as I get the impression Creative sat in an office scouring the internet looking for popular opinions, and then formulated the finishes of the matches based on doing the opposite of what was coming in as the popular votes.
Needless to say, the show was weak, and I’m glad to have had the luxury of watching it a little bit late, so I could screen and fast forward through all of the bullshit of the night, instead of having to sit through promo after promo that ended up being longer than most of the matches themselves.
Also John Cena jobbing to the Undertaker was another instance that served no purpose or benefit to any of the parties involved.
As for the TV shows after ‘Mania, nothing of any particular interest really occurred in my opinion. The crowds were obnoxiously loud and chant friendly like they are after every Wrestlemania, as they’ve all fed into the meme that they themselves perpetuated about being loud and chanting during the RAW after Wrestlemania. And as expected, there were some surprise returns, some NXT callups, and other “shake-up” moments, but nothing that really captured much excitement for me.
I mean, they called up No Way Jose of all people? Brought back Bobby Lashley? The Authors of Pain seemed ready, but I’m not sure that I agree with the whole splitting from Paul Ellering, especially on day 1 of their main roster career, but at this point, who really knows what Creative is thinking? Needless to say, RAW was as lackluster and uninspired as Wrestlemania was; and I can’t really say that Smackdown was that much better.
Making Paige the General Manager seemed like an obvious move that lacked any surprise or shock value; considering her formal retirement from the ring due to neck injury, but the fact that there’s a movie being made about her life and career means that the company can’t afford to let her go when there’s press to be done means that she still needs something of a position to earn her paycheck, so the GM it is, especially since Daniel Bryan is back to wresting.
And speaking of Bryan, way to basically do nothing with his momentum from returning in Wrestlemania, and giving away a potential dream main event with AJ Styles immediately. All of which were ruined by the heel 101 tactics of the newly turned Shinsuke Nakamura, whom I admittedly like his “Sowwy I speak no Engrish” attitude when it comes to cutting promos.
And of course, there was the immediate jobbing of Charlotte, just nights after winning the ultimate prize the company had left to offer, with ending Asuka’s streak. Sure, it was after a beatdown from more NXT demotees, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay and Carmella cashing in her Money in the Bank, but still the only one this truly hurts, is Asuka, the woman who carried a brand and all the potential of the women’s division in her own hands.
The only real takeaway I get from the TV after Wrestlemania is the sense that the swamp is being kind of drained: from NXT. By unloading trash like No Way Jose and the Iconic Duo, I feel that it makes NXT that much stronger by not having them weigh down the rest of the roster. Sure, Ember Moon and the Authors of Pain had to go as well, but it’s like a trade in professional sports; sometimes you have to include some assets in order to unload some liabilities, and that’s exactly what NXT did. And it perfectly feeds into the whole meme of NXT Superstars “getting demoted” to the main roster.
Which brings us to the Golden Child, NXT; despite the fact that I give off the impression that they can do no wrong, their first episode post-Mania was a stinker as well, with literally two matches and like 40 minutes worth of recaps and worthless screen time. I will say that I think there is a lot of heel potential with Lacey Evans, but they have got to stop jobbing her eventually and letting her actually build some momentum, before she becomes NXT’s Heath Slater. But nothing is worse than a “main event” featuring Heavy Machinery versus the horrible duo of Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli, even if it was a deliberate device in order to introduce two more fat guys in War Machine Raiders; I know these guys have some talent, but they’re still fat ugly guys, and those types don’t tend to last too long under the WWE banner.
Either way, ultimately, a week of wrestling like such, during the biggest time of the entire year for the industry doesn’t bode well for keeping my interest. I actually feel like the scales are shifting a little bit in my personal fandoms, and there are times I’m telling myself that I might actually feel like watching baseball over wrestling these days, but both of them sometimes take a backseat to a compelling show to marathon through on Netflix instead too.
