I'm looking forward to every match on the card except Logan Paul vs AJ Styles... I'd like to see Paul vs Roman, as I find it funny that Roman seems to trash the Prime Energy drink display most of the time he's in action :D

McIntyre vs Priest could be the potential show stealer, but they'll likely pull out a lot of stops to boost the Cody vs Cena match - so I think it's a bit of a long shot, but I think these two have the best shot at pulling it off.

I can't help but to be curious about who they have planned to partner with Lyra, and Orton's opponent. Any match or promo with Liv in it, to me, has that feel having a firecracker and lit matches in it, so I'll never count her out.

And for the IC title, I'm hoping Dom pulls out the win, but I don't think they can go wrong with any of those four.

I think I misinterpreted your comment to be saying that Charlotte vs Tiffany was Tiffany's best match, which I don't think is what you were saying.

But, so far, any ratings I've seen for Flair and Stratton put it in the 2.5-3.5 star range. On Cage match it is sitting at a 7.4.

Charlotte vs Rhea at 39 was 4.5 to 5 stars for every site I could find that does that sort of thing and is still available. Lowest rating I could find was 4 stars. On cagematch it's a 9.1.

Obviously, there's no perfect way to judge a match, but I stand by my assessment, and that seems to be the general concensus. Chartlotte vs Tiffy was pretty good, at best. Charlotte vs Rhea was great at worst. Different leagues seems a fair description.

I think that while the build has been meh, the women's triple threat can be very good. All three women have put on great matches with other opponents, so it's just a matter of if they can do it with each other. The four way has the potential to be really fun. Drew vs Priest has potential with the stipulation. And Randy vs ??? is interesting because it could be anyone. Even me. 

I'm not super excited for anything else but the main event, but I feel like a lot of matches have the potential to exceed my expectations.

Night 2 is off to a great start. Women's title match didn't have the same level of storytelling of the men's triple threat from last night, but they had some very athletic spots that avoided looking toooo choreographed. Last night's main event was more of a typical WWE style main event, this was a little closer to what you might see on NXT or AEW. Both good in their own way. Ony problem is that even though this was certainly not a short match I think another 5 minutes or so would have brought it to another level.

Ah now this is more like it. Second great match in a row. Drew is always great and Priest put on his best performance I can recall. Part of what makes Mania mania is that sometimes people just somehow step it up. Drew should be main eventing Mania soon.

I do hate the stadium show ramps. Especially in multi man matches.

XD AND THE CROWD EXPLODES FOR DIRTY DOM! Somehow Dom has turned face and it was a hell of a Mania moment to cap off a great match. Bron Breaker gets to drop the belt cause he's clearly on to bigger and better things. This undercard is way overdelivering so far.

Did not see Joe Hendry as the mystery opponent for Orton. Not an amazing match but the a fun moment. Would've rather seen Hendry go over.

I dunno if it's just because he has go away heat with me or because it just wasn't that good, but did not enjoy the Logan Paul vs AJ Styles match very much. 

I'm glad I was proven wrong - aside from the AJ Styles vs Logan Paul match which I didnt really pay attention for the most part (just the entrance and ending) - good night so far, much better track record compared to last night.

To be honest, it kind of feels like they only had enough good stuff for a great one night show and just put some filler on night one.

Women's tag match was a good old school tag match which was elevated by everyone playing their parts perfectly and the excitement of Becky's return. Happy to have her back. Wish that Bayley had a role on Mania though.

Wonder how they'll react to Cody and Cena. Kind of feel like Cena may be the face.

They need to chill with product placement XD

That is a decidedly mixed reaction. Yeah, the fans have gone for Cena. 

Well that was... interesting? The fans were definitely more pro Cena throughout the match, but there were some Cody fans pulling him. The ending was just... kind of meh. I think that building the finish around Travis scott was maybe not the way to go. I think most people were expecting something more afterwards. The Rock, we knew Stone Cold was in the building. It didn't feel like that should have been the money shot. 

This kind of feels like a bit of a worst case scenario. Fans don't get to celebrate Cena's last mania and breaking the record but they also don't hate him enough for the moment to work as a heel. I dunno, it just felt weird and slightly deflating. 

And judged on its own merits, well the match kind of sucked. Cena was working at a deliberately slow pace, either to try and prevent the crowd from getting into it, or to make sure he didn't get injured. But whether it was the plan to give the fans a mediocre matchup or it just kind of happened, the end result is a mediocre matchup. 

Bunch of people were saying that Jey Uso vs Gunther should have main evented and hindsight being 20-20... yeah, that probably would have been a better call. Even if this made sense from a story perspective it's hard to argue this match was worthy of main eventing mania. 

 
So night 2 is an inverse of night one. Instead of a mediocre undercard getting elevated by a fantastic main event there was a great undercard and a main event that missed the mark. And, those things happen. It's a bit rare that just about everything clicks.

Interested to see how Mr. Levesque handles this. Since he took over, it felt like everything was just falling into place and the audience was in the palm of his hands. And now maybe he'll have to adjust, which is something Vince was really not great at in his later years. 

Edit: And thinking about it more... how did this make any sense? The whole thing with the Rock was so that John Cena could acquire the services of Travis Scott? So he could slowly walk to the ring and break up a pinfall? 

Maybe it's just because I've always been a HHH fan, but this kind of feels like the Rock fucked up the main event. If the Rock was not going to be involved at any point past elimination chamber, the whole angle makes no sense.

That main event was....not as good.


Night 2 felt like it had better matches but the worst main event while Night 1 had worse matches in general but the main event was the best.


Anyways, Cena's 17 time champ!

My favorite match of Night 2 was the Damian Priest VS Drew McIntyre match.

Man, every time I come back they push me away.

I stopped watching WWE in 2018, then started watching AEW in 2019 or so and the difference between the two promotions is so obvious I genuinely don't know how anyone can actually prefer WWE. Between the years of them disrespecting the fans to the grossly absurd focus on marketing and making money over the art of it all, I just have a hard time enjoying the actual shows. Their women's division is good and while I have my thoughts on HHH he clearly cares a lot about pro Wrestling...but every little thing about WWE's style screams corporate America.

They have the spectacle and the wrestlers are good to great but it really does feel like all the artistry of the performance is waylaid in lieu of more sponsorships and spectacle.

The matches just suck 95% of the time. They aren't given enough time, there's no room for in-ring storytelling, the actual plots are usually paper thin and shallow, etc. Yeah, there are occasional good matches and good storylines but when the card on a random dynamite show regularly has longer, more interesting matches than WRESTLEMANIA you have a problem.

Seriously, I watched this show, both nights, from beginning to end and the entire time it felt like it was nothing special aside from the entrances and the set. That wrestlemania set was awesome! But the matches? How did anyone ever think that was good enough? There was almost no tension, no storytelling, no complexity, and no depth to any of them. The entire night 1 was so bland I felt like I was ripped off...and it came free with NEtflix. Those match lengths were abysmal. Who the fuck genuinely thinks Rey Fenix and Chad Gable deserve less than 10 minutes? That's not enough time to build up a story in the ring; it felt like the cliffnotes version of a match. This is the biggest show of the year and only 3 matches went 15 minutes or more? How does anyone think that's okay? And the other four matches were all about 10 minutes or less.

And all the matches save the main event genuinely sucked.

JEy Uso and Gunther started with all the spectacle you'd hope but was a 16 minute slog where very little happened, way too many rest holds (until the end), and it was just boring from top to bottom. IT felt like a generic throw-away match on a random weekly TV episode more than anything else, not the winner of the royal rumble toppling a world heavyweight champion at the biggest show of the year. Mid. 5.6/10

New Day vs War Raiders was garbage trash. no Big E (not even as interference)? slow, short match that ends in fucking shenanigans out of nowhere? What the fuck is this? How is this satisfying or worth any amount of build up? 2.4/10

JAde Cargill CANNOT WRESTLE. Naomi can but she cannot. She is strong but any time I see her on screen I skip it (unless it's live). Nothing happened, no satisfying payoff, no real depth. Garbage match (Even though again, Naomi was doing her best and she's actually good). 1.8/10

JAcob Fatu vs LA Knight was...it was fine. I honestly don't remember most of it. I didn't hate it or anything and Fatu is a lot better than you might expect and LA Knight is a lot of fun but this match was....honestly fine. 6.2/10

Rey Fenix vs Chad Gable was...so much wasted potential. Two amazing wrestlers getting LESS THAN 8 MINUTES in a nothing match with a stupid shenanigans ending? What is this fucking mess of garbage. At least some of the action was good. 3.5/10

Tiffany Stratton vs Charlotte Flair baffled me. My roommate walked by right as the match was starting and I chose to gloat about how the women's division is SO GODDAMN GOOD NOW...then this? Charlotte is the one that is getting all this praise? She looked like a newborn deer getting her legs and Stratton was no better. I've seen both of them wrestle good matches before but this was just clumsy, clunky, slow, and boring as sin. 2.7/10

The only wrestlemania worthy match on the first night's card was the triple threat Main Event! IT's the first time I've actually LIKED punk's work since his return in AEW a few years back, Seth is always awesome, Reigns is still so weird to me (Why is his character so dominant despite him being portrayed as a dumb-assed knuckle dragger? Insert political rant here). HEyman's turn was brilliant, the match rarely felt boring, the twist was actually well handled if a bit predictable and it had some truly great moments. Solid 9.3/10 (Seriously, probably the match of the entire weekend for me and I hate Punk).

Then night 2 started and....it seemed to genuinely improve. There were a couple bad matches but overall I liked it a lot more.

The women's championship Triple Threat between Rhea, Iyo Sky, and Bianca Belair was truly outstanding. If it wasn't preceded the night before by the one with Seth, Punk, and Reigns, it woulda been the best I've seen in a while. The action was crisp and well paced, they got almost 15 minutes to work with (coulda had more), and everything looked so CLEAN....THIS is the sort of women's wrestling I wish I coulda shown my roommates. Everyone did an outstanding job here. The only thing keeping it from match of the weekend was the relative lack of story. IT was just a VERY good match. 9.1/10

Drew vs Damian Priest was also pretty fun. Seemed shorter than it was, actually, and some of the action was appropriately violent. The ending was good, too. I do think it coulda gone harder but getting the gnarly stuff out is best saved for special occasions. I actually really loved the part where Drew tried a claymore on PRiest while priest's head was in the chair and it was countered by a chokeslam as well as the countering of Old School into the tables and the ending. Fun match but it did feel muted relative to the seething hatred between them. 8.4/10

Dominik vs Bron Breakker vs Finn Balor vs Penta was another fantastic match whos only real fault was its short length. ten and a half minutes for this sort of match seems really short but they did the best they could with the time they had. Again, fast paced, lots of fun action, and one of the only matches on the card that had actual in-ring storytelling with Dominik and Finn swapping between allying and fighting each other. Loved dom winning, loved the interactions, loved the psychology. 8.7/10

Randy Orton vs Joe HEndry. I almost hesitate to even rank this because the actual match was a nothing burger. It was just the emotional payoff of Joe Hendry showing up and ORton giving him an extra RKO afterward. I know it's nobody's fault that Owens didn't get to be involved here and this was still kinda fun but the match itself was nothing of value. I dunno, 4.0/10 because the vibes surrounding it were still pretty cool.

Logan Paul vs AJ Styles? Oh fuck off with this shit. Yeah, Logan Paul can actually wrestle but his presence here (and the fucking prime stand next to the commentary table encapsulates pretty much everything wrong with WWE in general and Wrestlemania in particular. All them sponsorships and garbage 'influencer' culture dialed up to 12. If this was like a parody or satire I'd think it was pretty funny but we all know Logan Paul is 100% Sincere and AJ Styles deserved better. And the shenanigans with KArrion Kross was dumb as hell. (Man, AJ Styles keeps getting shafted at Wrestlemania...remember when he fought SHANE FUCKING MCMAHON? Ugh). 1.9/10

Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch vs Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Not sure if I'm missing something but it genuinely feels like the only interesting thing about this match was Becky Lynch. And even then she hardly even had an 'impact' on the match. She showed up, people cheered, they played the 'how long will it be before they tag her in' game...then from there it was basically a generic, throw-away match you'd expect somewhere in hour 2 of raw. IT wasn't terrible but again...8 minutes is kind of insulting. NO WRESTLEMANIA MATCH SHOULD BE UNDER 10 MINUTES and this year had 5 matches under 10 and two more just over 10. When AEW does shows most matches hover between that and 15 minutes at least....and somehow rarely feel drawn out or sluggish. MEh-nitution. 5.6/10

Then the main event with Cena and Cody was just boring as fuck aside from a few cool avalanche moves. I get that Cena's a heel now but they did it in the most bland, generic way possible. the "I don't need you, you turned your back on me' schtick is so fucking bad and the only guy who's done it well in the last fifteen years or so is MJF (And even I thought that was his worst work.) Him basically not having entrance music for his final show was so dumb. I know he's a great actor and I know he can play a villain but he's so cartoonishly bad-guy'd here it'd feel like parody if it wasn't played straight. And cody is such a bland face it feels like 1989 again. Cody was GREAT in Bullet club and fine in AEW (I think the whole schlocky super face thing is so ... not for adults), but in WWE he's so fucking boring. This whole match felt like a Hogan Match and while I do agree with Cena winning for the story I hated everything else about it. 1.2/10

What a garbage, insulting show where so little happened. The main event of night 1 felt worthy, and the opening few matches of night 2 did as well but that was a handful of matches on the 'grandest stage'. of the 14 matches I'd say 4 of them were worthy of being on the card and of them two of them were only just barely.

For comparison....AEW Revolution had 12 matches total (9 on the main card) and those matches were 9, 9, 12, 19, 18, 18, 10, 8, 12, 28, 29, and 26 minutes long. OF them, THREE of them were given 5 stars and most of the matches also got 4 stars or better (with the shortest matches on the main card being 10 and 8 minutes were the worst matches and the only ones I Found boring). I don't put TOO much stock into meltzer or star ratings but after watching both shows I can say with certainty that there's a VERY good reason AEW was highly rated and WWE regularly is not. The matches, the art, the performance just doesn't get enough time. IT's all spectacle, and it's ONLY spectacle. Style over substance, which sucks because they have amazing talent. It has been for most of the time I've been watching.

For the record I hardly even watch AEW anymore so it's not like I'm a fangirl or anything. I watch just the PPVs of both shows and catch up on the plots in between and it's so clear what show is putting on better wrestling. AEW regularly has better action, better storytelling, better wrestling, and better writing by a country mile and I Don't know how anyone can watch something like Wrestlemania, see all these short matches where nothing happens and there's next to no psychology, and still be interested. It's all so shallow when it could and should be so much more. ESPECIALLY Wrestlemania.

Honestly a disgrace and a shame. I'd love to love it but man, every year when I come back and watch the shows between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania I'm baffled and dumbfounded by how boring it is compared to AEW and NJPW. Seeing other promotions then going back to WWE is a reminder how vast the discrepancy is between GOOD wrestling and WWE.

I'd say at least WWE has NXT but that's been trash since the 2.0 rebrand and Bron bReakker kicked through the X. Garbage. (Also he's hardly better than Goldberg, a wrestler that's all vibes and aura, almost no skill.)

And last week AEW put on an all-time Dynamite. It was PPV worthy. With no racist remarks post-show from a wrestling Manager, unlike WWE. Imagine that. Nor does AEW openly endord Maga like WWE has been lately. Not even a us vs them thing. WWE is a trash company. Still follows Vince playbook and trying to be the only promotion out there and be as petty and horrible as possible in practices. Maybe the on-screen product week to week is decent. Cool, but the company is trash. HHH Is a cunt. Nick Khan is a cunt. Paul Heyman is a cunt.

The Joe Hendry thing makes more sense now.

If Orton vs Cena is the plan, which sounds good on paper, Orton had to win, and in a convincing way. They couldn't put someone like Rusev in there, because debuting someone big with a loss wouldn't have been a good thing, and Randy had to win. Joe Hendry was someone who people would be happy to see but wouldn't expect to win. And I think his fans were probably happy to see him there and have a moment, even if it was a brief losing effort. Probably made the best out of a bad situation.