Impact at least benefited from taping their shows with audiences in advance. Plus, they’ve been using Broken Matt Hardy-level skits with Rosemary at the center of all of them. Taya Valkyrie is leading a Kardashians knockoff stable, and Rosemary hung out with them drinking mojitos and attempting to suck their souls. She also got involved with Su Yung and Havok’s storyline, rescuing them after Evil Wizard James Mitchell banished them to The Undead Realm.
But her bit in the bar was meta. She was complaining how mortals fixate on one specific thing too much. Raven, sitting two stool down, disagreed with her that it was a bad thing. He said he gets the most joy out of life by hating Tommy Dreamer. They could be in rest homes bound to wheelchairs, and Raven would still figure out a way to wheel over to Dreamer and cut his IV tubes.
For context, back in ECW, Heyman booked Tommy Dreamer vs Raven as the popular jock vs the weird kid. Raven always won their matches, because Dreamer didn’t need to win to get over. Dreamer finally got his win in a “loser leaves ECW” match when Raven was leaving for WCW.
I hope Rosemary never winds up in WWE. Vince wouldn’t get her schtick and bury her.
Cody is absolutely cracking me up on commentary tonight. During the Darby vs Sabian match, he bragged about AEW’s rngside barriers. “These are bike racks, folks! We don’t use padding like other companies.”
Tony added “And you cover them with cloth too.”
Cody responded, “You know who picked them out? This guy!”
Brodie Lee took a few more shots at Vince. He emulated Vince eating steak and scolding his underlings for sneezing. Vince is said to consider sneezing a sign of weakness.
It’s also being reported that Dana Brooke and Rey Mysterio have self-quarantined and that a number of other talents are showing symptoms and likely won’t make the show either.
This is quickly turning into the most cursed supercard in wrestling history.
Supposedly there is a bunch of taped stuff, but Roman Reigns being out is big. That was a marquee match [almost said marquis :D]. I think McIntyre/Lesnar has much more potential given Goldberg’s lack of talent, but as much as I like McIntyre, Reigns is a bigger name. The article I read said WWE supports Reigns’ decision, but I can’t help but to think Vince is furious. Vince is not the most understanding person when it comes to illness-related issues.
Cornette, in his in-infinite wisdom, thinks holding WrestleMania is the absolute worse decision McMahon has made. My own personal opinion is that there are simply no good decisions that could have been made. I don’t know how much longer TV can continue as it is, nor do I know if this will hurt ratings even after we return to normal.
Strowman is now Goldberg’s opponent, and from what I’m reading the whole shows have been taped already so they could get it done before FL’s stay-home order went into effect. Miz, Paige, and Lawler have also reportedly self-quarantined. Andrade is also out with an injury, and Austin Theory (!) is now Angel Garza’s partner for their title match against the Street Profits.
I requested the weekend off long before things went south, and I’m honestly looking forward to how completely surreal and bizarre this show is going to be.
SD last night still promoted Roman vs Goldberg, and replayed his WM match with HHH from 5 years ago. They also made Miz & Morrison vs New Day and the Usos, but looks like that’s going to change. Replace Miz with Bobby Roode maybe?
I guess they aren’t staffed enough for last minute edits. Did Asuka and Miz get hurt in this taping? Asuka has a bunch of YouTube videos about staying in Orlando and she seems fine. This will be one strange WrestleMania.
Miz was reportedly sick when he showed up for tapings, which is what lead to Roman refusing to work 'Mania. From what I’m reading, the triple threat that was announced last night is actually going to be a singles match between Morrison and one Uso.
Thanks to COVID-19 and injury, Austin Theory’s going to be in WM!
I saw him a couple of years ago at an EVOLVE show in Concorde NC. I could tell he was going to make it big someday. He was kind of like AJ Styles with a crew cut. He then made the leap to NXT. He may have jobbed a few times, but he’s been on TV and hasn’t languished in non-televised house shows like half their roster. Now he’s replacing Andrade to tag with Angel Garza vs the Street Prophets, and is sure to wind up in the SRSGGO – Seth Rollins Stable of Guys to Get Over.
Credit where it’s due - WrestleMania was taped over a week ago, and I haven’t seen any spoilers in the sheets. I guess WWE actually can control information when the number of people in the need-to-know circle is small enough.
Anyway, here are my WrestleMania predictions. Or are they post-dictions? Can you predict something that’s already happened if you don’t know what happened yet? Now I’m confused.
BORK LAZER vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship. Drew wins this one. He’s finally getting the push they wanted to give him a decade ago, and he’s actually earned it now.
Bill Goldberg vs. BROWN STRONGMAN for the Universal championship. It’s clear that Goldberg was meant to drop the belt to Roman Reigns here. Conventional WWE logic would dictate that Goldberg should retain for now and then lose to Roman at the next PPV, but MITB has already been cancelled and right now we have no idea how long the post-WrestleMania furlough is going to last. I say they give it to Braun, because it’s about damn time he had his big moment.
Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler for the Raw women’s championship. Shayna absolutely should win this one and go on to be as dominant on the main roster as she was in NXT.
Bayley vs. Lacey Evans, Sasha Banks, Naomi & Tamina for the Smackdown women’s championship. I’m gonna say Lacey should win this one.
Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte for the NXT women’s championship. Rhea should retain here, because it’ll establish her as a top contender on the main roster, and Charlotte losing because of her hubris will make a great turn in her character arc.
The Street Profits vs. Angel Garza & Austin Theory for the Raw tag team championships. The Profits win here, but they do so in a way that puts over Theory as a potential future world champion.
Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross for the women’s tag team championships. Alexa & Nikki win, because Vince forgot until just now that they even have a women’s tag title and figures that beating the Japanese girls will be good for America.
Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan for the Intercontinental championship. Bryan wins, because it’s been awhile since he’s had a great WrestleMania moment.
John Morrison vs. an Uso for the Smackdown tag team championship. Morrison retains for his team, because Miz getting down with the sickness threw the original plans out the window and there’s no time to re-book things now.
Edge vs. Randy Orton, last man standing. Edge wins, because his being able to return to the ring is even more impressive than Daniel Bryan’s return.
The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles, “boneyard match”. Undertaker wins, because he’s the Undertaker.
John Cena vs. The Fiend, “Firefly Funhouse match”. This is almost definitely going to be even cheesier and more godawful than the House of Horrors match, but in the end, CENAWINSLOL.
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins. Owens wins by countering a Blackout into a Stunner.
Elias vs. Baron Corbin. Corbin wins, because Vince is exactly as determined to make Corbin the king megaheel today as he was to make Roman Reigns the king megaface in 2015.
Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley. Black wins, because the entire Lashley/Lana story arc has completely gone off the rails and it’s time to put the whole thing to bed and forget it ever happened.
Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler. Whoever wins, we all lose. (So Otis, I guess.)
Call me a mark, but I’m, dare I say, excited for 'Mania.
I think it’s going to be a really unique show and I’m eager to see what the WWE does with the presentation of it. They had a handful of weeks to get used to no-audience taping, get their feet wet, and now we’re going to see the fruits of that labor.
Even the matches themselves, on paper, aren’t godawful. Should be a fun and interesting couple nights!
Night One was better than I expected to be. I’d say the main downside of having an empty arena is that the finishes don’t really have the pop they ought to, but I liked the way the wrestlers upped their trash-talk game to fill the silence. JBL was surprisingly bearable on commentary, even, doing some straight color commentary instead of bickering with Maggle and shouting catch-phrases every five seconds.
Kevin/Seth and the ladder match were both great. Becky/Shayna and Bryan/Sami felt a little underwhelming. Braun beating Goldberg was definitely worth it, but I have a sneaking suspicion they’re just going to job him to Roman at whatever the next PPV winds up being.
The Boneyard match, surprisingly, turned out to be awesome. It felt like something Lucha Underground could’ve done if it had had a bigger budget, and definitely beat the pants off of the pre-taped location shoot matches WWE has done in the past (House of Horrors, I’m looking in your direction.) It was pretty cool to see Taker as the American Badass again, with a bit of Deadman mixed in during the second half.
Cutting the show in half seems like it was a good idea, since they kept the card right at the three-hour mark and I’m not feeling burned out with six matches left to go like I was at this point last year. We’ll have to see how Night Two works out, though.
Generally agree with you. The woman’s tag match was a good opener, and when Asuka’s heart is in it, she puts on a great show. As usual, I personally was underwhelmed by two big beefy wrestlers showing their in-ring limitations, especially Goldberg. But that’s partly on me, as I want a Goldberg fan from the beginning, and he never did anything to win me over. I did like Styles/Taker. I think not having to bring the match back into the arena helped, the main fault with the House of Horrors. Lastly, I think Zayn/Bryan’s was better than you did, looking that they kept shenanigans to a minimum and no special stipulations.
Worst of the night was the women’s tag IMO, but I think that’s because Asuka does nothing for me and never, ever has and she never shuts up.
The best of the night was Bryan and Zayn. It sounds a bit dumb to say, but the way the match went and the way the guys were all talking to each other made it super real to me. Like if wrestling were real (it is) and these guys were in a real match (it was real, wrestling is real) this is exactly how I figured it would play out. It was great.
I liked the Boneyard match too because it was so different than what WWE normally does. It wasn’t as zany or as good as the two Final Deletions were, but it was entertaining, told a good story, and was a good use of talent.
Until Reigns dropped out…was Braun on the card at all? Or did he just go from not on 'Mania to winning the championship?
