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JWeinCom on 03 April 2022
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First night of Mania was pretty decent. An enjoyable time overall, even if it wasn't as "stupendous" as they marketed it.

Opener was a Smackdown calibur match between Nakamura/Boogs and the Usos. It looked like they were building to something, but then the match just kind of came to a halt with a bland finish. Turns out Boogs had a legit injury, which is a shame. Not totally their fault, but a lackluster start nonetheless.

Logan Paul and Miz vs the Mysterios exceeded expectations. Logan Paul actually looked decent. Hit a nice looking blockbuster. Aside from the "celebrity" angle though, there was nothing amazing about this. But it was enjoyable enough.

Drew McIntyre and Happy Corbin was meh. It wasn't a bad match and they have good chemistry, just the build around the stupid sword wasn't very good. Ok TV level match. Hopefully McIntyre could move on. He cut the ropes while attempting to murder Madcap Moss which I guess is the payoff for the sword angle.

The best matches are the ones where you become actually emotionally invested in the outcome, and forget it's all fake. Bianca and Becky got be there. Just a great all around match playing into the extended build that played off of the storyline that had been progressing since Summerslam. Becky's in match acting is top notch, and when they look like they really care, you care. There are a couple of nitpicks, like Bianca's surge of energy at the end being a bit too extreme, but all in all an excellent match.

Seth Rollins' mystery opponent was exactly who you expected. Amazing how much much they were able to promote a match by not promoting it. For one night at least Cody seemed like a mega star. He finally got the fans on his side, and he didn't even have to set himself on fire! Will be interesting to see where they go from here. I was expecting this might just be a "Welcome Back" squash match, but they instead had a fairly long match that got better as it went on as it became less about the excitement of the return and more about the match itself.

Rousey vs Flair was just ok. There are some things Ronga does really well, but a long drawn out match is just not in her skillset right now. There were some good moments, but the transitions and stuff just weren't crisp and there were a couple of blown spots. Considering how good the two matches before were, this was a little bit of a let down. Not awful, but not Mania quality.

Stone Cold vs KO was a great example of underpromising and overdelivering. If they said this was going to be a match, people would probably be expecting too much, but marketing it as a show kept expectations low, and the match was a fun surprise. As for the match itself, well it was no Melina vs Alicia Fox. Stone Cold didn't look as good as you would hope, but also much better than you'd fear. It was some fun fluff that the 13 year old in me really enjoyed, and nothing wrong with sometimes just giving people what they want.

So overall, good night. The main problem is that even compared to normal PPVs, it felt like there was a lot of dead time. Just didn't have enough content for two whole events. We'll see if tonight is better or worse.