2022 "I'm losing interest" Wrestlemania Write Up.
Mar 29, 2022 12:37:45 GMT -5
Cubs GM (Scott B), KC Royals GM (Kevin), and 1 more like this
Post by D Backs GM (Tyler) on Mar 29, 2022 12:37:45 GMT -5
To be clear, I am losing interest in WWE, not in wrestling in general. It isn't wrestling as we knew and loved it growing up, its branding and nonsense entertainment. Too many corporate rules and shitty things (Saudi Arabia?) are making it tough to watch these days.
If you like wrestling, and yourself, and value your time. Spend 2 hours a week watching AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights. I promise you, you will enjoy it.
That being said, it is still mania and there are still interesting things going on. This year, I found 7 must watch "matches" and 4 honorable mentions. Without further ado ...
Honorable Mentions: First, a gaggle of matches that will surely be good quality but have has such a shit build up story wise that I can’t bring myself to care…
Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Grayson Waller vs. Santos Escobar vs. Solo Sikoa vs. A-Kid or Cameron Grimes or Roderick Strong - Ladder match for the NA Championship (NXT - Stand and Deliver)
Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair for the Raw title (Saturday Night)
Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ronda Rousey for the smackdown title (Saturday Night)
Edge vs AJ Styles (Sunday night)
Now on to the rankings. We are doing NXT Stand and Deliver (Saturday at 1pm EST) and both nights of mania (Sat and Sun)
#7: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Bron Breakker for the NXT title (NXT Stand and Deliver)
So now they’re sending guys down to NXT when they have no other plans for them and Ziggler is the champ. Bron is the next big thing (and the son of Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner) and it shows. The dude oozes class. I dont watch NXT much since they basically purged it of every good wrestler and writer they had when they lost the Wednesday night matchup to AEW every week and gave up and moved the night it was on, but I trust these two to have a banger of a match.
The pick: Ziggler. Breaker is WELL on his way to the main roster and I would be shocked if they kept him down long enough to have a title reign in NXT first. Let Ziggler play down there a bit longer.
The Follow Up: Bron Breakker is a sneaky pick for "TBA" more on that later.
#6: LA Knight vs. Gunther (NXT Stand and Deliver)
Did WWE take the best indie guy it had in WALTER and try to name him Gunter Stark after a literal nazi? Yes. Did they immediately backtrack and change it to the more “guy in his 50s in a bowling league” name “Gunter”? Also yes. Does this make him any less of an amazing wrestler? Thankfully no.
He has the match of the year last year where he beat the absolute piss out of Dragunov for 20 minutes:
That match will be better than any match this weekend FYI, may as well just watch that lol. Anyway, Gunther is 1000% must watch TV at all times. You will not be upset.
The pick: Gunther. I love him. I will never go against him. Best theme song in the biz as well.
Follow up: There will be no follow up, no one watches NXT.
#5: RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis) for the Tag Team Titles
The RK-Bro team story has been awesome. Gable and Otis are pure gold on the mic. Street profits are two stars patiently waiting for singles pushes. This is going to be looked back on as a “its crazy that all those guys were in this match at once” moment in years if WWE doesn’t botch their careers. (More on that later)
Just enjoy some of the clips in the build up, words aren’t going to do it justice:
Former Legend Killer Orton and real life MMA weed bro Matt Riddle are a match made in heaven. Their split will be beautiful someday, but for now just enjoy it.
The Pick: Alpha Academy
The follow up: We start getting the breakup of Orton and Riddle.
#4: Roman vs Brock Title vs Title
How is the main even headline match down at #4? Well because we have seen it over and over and over for years. Roman continues to just steamroll everyone as he has done for years, albeit as a bad guy this time. Brock has gone fully insane as a pony tailed cowboy ass kicker. Each of them holds a title (world and universal. Yes I know the naming conventions are stupid). This is apparently a unification match… kinda. Listen to Brock explain it:
I truly do not care about this match. I dont know why anyone would want to see it AGAIN. Truth be told, this highlights WWE’s biggest problem. They are completely incapable of building any new stars. That are on the level of these two. Hence why they face each other every year.
The Pick: Roman (yawn)
The follow up: Brock goes away. Boring..... until The Rock shows up and challenges Roman for next year.
#3: Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn - Anything Goes Match
A lot of times when a celeb joins up for mania season there are complaints. “They are just promoting a movie” (true), “they haven’t paid their dues” (kinda true), “they can’t hack it in ring” (false). If anyone has taken infinitely more and worse bumps over the years than wrestlers it is the creator of Jackass. While he is a skinny little man, he is 1000% willing to put himself through ANYTHING for our enjoyment.
Sami Zayn is an annoying heel that is a phenomenal worker. This is kind of his perfect assignment. He is great on the stick (as is JK) and can definitely make any hokey celeb match interesting. Probably most importantly, he can wrestle so well that he can protect Knocksville from killing himself during this “anything goes” match. Will they drink donkey semen? Probably not. But you know SOMETHING insane is going to happen here. When its all said and done, this is likely what most people will talk about first thing Monday.
They have also been doing the work outside the ring promoting this one in funny ways. Like this: www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a38985489/wwe-sami-zayn-jackass-forever-premiere-johnny-knoxville/
The Pick: Knocksville
The follow up: Jackass Forever is a hit movie.
#2: Kevin Owens vs(maybe?) Stone Cold Steve Austin
This coming in at #2 is a testament to how weak this years mania really is. This, to be clear, so far has been billed as a “talk show segment”. Kind of. Rumors swirled weeks ago that Stone Cold would be back for one last match this year. Then KO started talking an awful lot of shit about Texas (where this year’s Mania is being held). Then… nothing happened for weeks. Until this video dropped online one night:
“A fight or whatever”. Its still very unclear what will walk out from behind that curtain when the broken glass hits. We all are hoping for a vest and knee braces, but we should all be prepared for jeans and an AUSTIN 3:16 tee shirt. The man is 57 years old and hasn’t wrestled in over 15 years. However, even the hint of a possible match is enough to land us at number two.
This also is slated to be the closer of night one of wrestlemania. So ending it with a talk show segment would be lame to say the least. We’ll see how it goes but I have hopes for a 10 minute match where the crowd is going balistic. KO has been a good troll in building this up, especially after the Austin reveal:
The Pick: Austin
The follow up: No follow up. One off.
#1: Seth "Freakin" Rollins vs. TBA
An odd choice at number one but to be honest, its the only one that really matters. The heavily rumored TBA person is Cody Rhodes. For those who haven’t followed wrestling closely over the last few years, Cody quit the WWE and started the new rival company AEW. Since starting AEW they have gone from plucky underdog to legit alternative. AEW is old school. Stories up and down the card, character development, keeping wins and losses records so they matter, #1 contender rankings, constant surprises, and massively successful PPVs.
During Cody’s stint in AEW he was either at the top of the card or running a relatively prominent program. He gave their heel the biggest rub possible (MJF, the current best bad guy alive) during their break up and feud. And perhaps most relevantly, he had always been VERY critical of “the old company” and their way of doing things.
Cody’s contract expired and was not renewed by AEW in spite of him being the Executive Vice President of the company at the time (and one of its co founders). The dispute was apparently over money. The split was amicable enough, but not enough to keep him from allegedly signing on for WWE in a big spot at Mania. Is it a work? Is it real? Is TBA even Cody at all or some other lackluster return (Shane O’Mac again?). Who knows? But it is far and away the most potentially significant moment at Mania. It would be the first star to jump the other way from AEW to WWE.
Notable stars who have gone to AEW: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan (now Brian Danielson), Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), Chris Jericho, The Hardy Boys, Christian, Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era, Keith Lee, Ruby Riot (Ruby Soho), Andrade, Billy Gunn (and his kids), Alister Black (Malaki Black), The Revival (FTR), Goldust (Dustin Rhodes), Jack Swagger (Jake Hager), Mark Henry, Swerve Strickland, Big Show, Evan Bourne (Matt Sydal), Rusev (Miro), Neville (Pac), Sting, and of course William Regal. Along with the voice of JR and Tazz.
So It has literally been one way traffic to greener pastures so far. Cody (if it happens) will be the first one to ever go the other way. This would signal a new era of competition and hopefully cause WWE to start actually booking enough interesting things without calling on 1997 nostalgia 25 years later to do something interesting once per year. Here’s hoping.
The Pick: Rollins
The follow up: No one from WCW ever won a returning match, there is no way AEWs star goes over Rollins. 0% chance.
My last note: Go watch AEW. It is the wrestling we all loved in 97-01. It is so so well done.
If you like wrestling, and yourself, and value your time. Spend 2 hours a week watching AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights. I promise you, you will enjoy it.
That being said, it is still mania and there are still interesting things going on. This year, I found 7 must watch "matches" and 4 honorable mentions. Without further ado ...
Honorable Mentions: First, a gaggle of matches that will surely be good quality but have has such a shit build up story wise that I can’t bring myself to care…
Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Grayson Waller vs. Santos Escobar vs. Solo Sikoa vs. A-Kid or Cameron Grimes or Roderick Strong - Ladder match for the NA Championship (NXT - Stand and Deliver)
Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair for the Raw title (Saturday Night)
Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ronda Rousey for the smackdown title (Saturday Night)
Edge vs AJ Styles (Sunday night)
Now on to the rankings. We are doing NXT Stand and Deliver (Saturday at 1pm EST) and both nights of mania (Sat and Sun)
#7: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Bron Breakker for the NXT title (NXT Stand and Deliver)
So now they’re sending guys down to NXT when they have no other plans for them and Ziggler is the champ. Bron is the next big thing (and the son of Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner) and it shows. The dude oozes class. I dont watch NXT much since they basically purged it of every good wrestler and writer they had when they lost the Wednesday night matchup to AEW every week and gave up and moved the night it was on, but I trust these two to have a banger of a match.
The pick: Ziggler. Breaker is WELL on his way to the main roster and I would be shocked if they kept him down long enough to have a title reign in NXT first. Let Ziggler play down there a bit longer.
The Follow Up: Bron Breakker is a sneaky pick for "TBA" more on that later.
#6: LA Knight vs. Gunther (NXT Stand and Deliver)
Did WWE take the best indie guy it had in WALTER and try to name him Gunter Stark after a literal nazi? Yes. Did they immediately backtrack and change it to the more “guy in his 50s in a bowling league” name “Gunter”? Also yes. Does this make him any less of an amazing wrestler? Thankfully no.
He has the match of the year last year where he beat the absolute piss out of Dragunov for 20 minutes:
That match will be better than any match this weekend FYI, may as well just watch that lol. Anyway, Gunther is 1000% must watch TV at all times. You will not be upset.
The pick: Gunther. I love him. I will never go against him. Best theme song in the biz as well.
Follow up: There will be no follow up, no one watches NXT.
#5: RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis) for the Tag Team Titles
The RK-Bro team story has been awesome. Gable and Otis are pure gold on the mic. Street profits are two stars patiently waiting for singles pushes. This is going to be looked back on as a “its crazy that all those guys were in this match at once” moment in years if WWE doesn’t botch their careers. (More on that later)
Just enjoy some of the clips in the build up, words aren’t going to do it justice:
Former Legend Killer Orton and real life MMA weed bro Matt Riddle are a match made in heaven. Their split will be beautiful someday, but for now just enjoy it.
The Pick: Alpha Academy
The follow up: We start getting the breakup of Orton and Riddle.
#4: Roman vs Brock Title vs Title
How is the main even headline match down at #4? Well because we have seen it over and over and over for years. Roman continues to just steamroll everyone as he has done for years, albeit as a bad guy this time. Brock has gone fully insane as a pony tailed cowboy ass kicker. Each of them holds a title (world and universal. Yes I know the naming conventions are stupid). This is apparently a unification match… kinda. Listen to Brock explain it:
I truly do not care about this match. I dont know why anyone would want to see it AGAIN. Truth be told, this highlights WWE’s biggest problem. They are completely incapable of building any new stars. That are on the level of these two. Hence why they face each other every year.
The Pick: Roman (yawn)
The follow up: Brock goes away. Boring..... until The Rock shows up and challenges Roman for next year.
#3: Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn - Anything Goes Match
A lot of times when a celeb joins up for mania season there are complaints. “They are just promoting a movie” (true), “they haven’t paid their dues” (kinda true), “they can’t hack it in ring” (false). If anyone has taken infinitely more and worse bumps over the years than wrestlers it is the creator of Jackass. While he is a skinny little man, he is 1000% willing to put himself through ANYTHING for our enjoyment.
Sami Zayn is an annoying heel that is a phenomenal worker. This is kind of his perfect assignment. He is great on the stick (as is JK) and can definitely make any hokey celeb match interesting. Probably most importantly, he can wrestle so well that he can protect Knocksville from killing himself during this “anything goes” match. Will they drink donkey semen? Probably not. But you know SOMETHING insane is going to happen here. When its all said and done, this is likely what most people will talk about first thing Monday.
They have also been doing the work outside the ring promoting this one in funny ways. Like this: www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a38985489/wwe-sami-zayn-jackass-forever-premiere-johnny-knoxville/
The Pick: Knocksville
The follow up: Jackass Forever is a hit movie.
#2: Kevin Owens vs(maybe?) Stone Cold Steve Austin
This coming in at #2 is a testament to how weak this years mania really is. This, to be clear, so far has been billed as a “talk show segment”. Kind of. Rumors swirled weeks ago that Stone Cold would be back for one last match this year. Then KO started talking an awful lot of shit about Texas (where this year’s Mania is being held). Then… nothing happened for weeks. Until this video dropped online one night:
“A fight or whatever”. Its still very unclear what will walk out from behind that curtain when the broken glass hits. We all are hoping for a vest and knee braces, but we should all be prepared for jeans and an AUSTIN 3:16 tee shirt. The man is 57 years old and hasn’t wrestled in over 15 years. However, even the hint of a possible match is enough to land us at number two.
This also is slated to be the closer of night one of wrestlemania. So ending it with a talk show segment would be lame to say the least. We’ll see how it goes but I have hopes for a 10 minute match where the crowd is going balistic. KO has been a good troll in building this up, especially after the Austin reveal:
The Pick: Austin
The follow up: No follow up. One off.
#1: Seth "Freakin" Rollins vs. TBA
An odd choice at number one but to be honest, its the only one that really matters. The heavily rumored TBA person is Cody Rhodes. For those who haven’t followed wrestling closely over the last few years, Cody quit the WWE and started the new rival company AEW. Since starting AEW they have gone from plucky underdog to legit alternative. AEW is old school. Stories up and down the card, character development, keeping wins and losses records so they matter, #1 contender rankings, constant surprises, and massively successful PPVs.
During Cody’s stint in AEW he was either at the top of the card or running a relatively prominent program. He gave their heel the biggest rub possible (MJF, the current best bad guy alive) during their break up and feud. And perhaps most relevantly, he had always been VERY critical of “the old company” and their way of doing things.
Cody’s contract expired and was not renewed by AEW in spite of him being the Executive Vice President of the company at the time (and one of its co founders). The dispute was apparently over money. The split was amicable enough, but not enough to keep him from allegedly signing on for WWE in a big spot at Mania. Is it a work? Is it real? Is TBA even Cody at all or some other lackluster return (Shane O’Mac again?). Who knows? But it is far and away the most potentially significant moment at Mania. It would be the first star to jump the other way from AEW to WWE.
Notable stars who have gone to AEW: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan (now Brian Danielson), Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), Chris Jericho, The Hardy Boys, Christian, Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era, Keith Lee, Ruby Riot (Ruby Soho), Andrade, Billy Gunn (and his kids), Alister Black (Malaki Black), The Revival (FTR), Goldust (Dustin Rhodes), Jack Swagger (Jake Hager), Mark Henry, Swerve Strickland, Big Show, Evan Bourne (Matt Sydal), Rusev (Miro), Neville (Pac), Sting, and of course William Regal. Along with the voice of JR and Tazz.
So It has literally been one way traffic to greener pastures so far. Cody (if it happens) will be the first one to ever go the other way. This would signal a new era of competition and hopefully cause WWE to start actually booking enough interesting things without calling on 1997 nostalgia 25 years later to do something interesting once per year. Here’s hoping.
The Pick: Rollins
The follow up: No one from WCW ever won a returning match, there is no way AEWs star goes over Rollins. 0% chance.
My last note: Go watch AEW. It is the wrestling we all loved in 97-01. It is so so well done.