Oaf
Maharajah
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2015
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WWE Championship
The Rock © vs John Cena
Wow, straight to business this year seemingly. None of the massive entrances like last year, not even a pre-match build up video, just John Cenas music and bang, off we go.
For the most part, this was what we got last year. Aside from a couple slow head locks and sleeper holds, it kept a good pace and stayed entertaining enough for the opening 10 minutes or so. Though Cole did manage to call a crossface an STF, which just reinforces his status as a brain farting plonker.
Then it picked up a bit, and they got the opening finishers out of the way, as rematches like this often tend to. Nobody think’s they’re going to put each other away with their first finisher, so they often seem to just plough through the first couple of finishers to get them out of the way. I remember they did the same thing in HBK/Taker II as well.
From there on out, it was just an exchange of finishers, and they managed to do something that even Punk and Taker failed to do… make me think, at times, that I was wrong about my prediction for the outcome. There were a couple of times when it really looked as if The Rock would win it… least of which was probably the highlight of the entire show for me… Cena once again going for the peoples elbow, only to fake Rock out, try an AA… then get that countered into a Rock bottom. Played off of last years ending brilliantly, and I actually thought that Cena being a twat had cost him again.
We then got the biggest exchange of countering finishers EVER… followed by a few hit finishers… followed by more counters… until, eventually Cena hit him with a 6374569th Attitude Adjustment, and finally put The Rock away.
I’m not sure what the final count was, but I’m sure Rock ate 4 AA’s and 1 Rock Bottom, while Cena must have had about 3 Rock Bottoms and a peoples elbow. Yeah, it’s pretty “cheap” booking just to have shitloads of finisher kick outs, and some argue that it “weakens” them in future… but I never agree with that argument. The next time Cena hits an AA, I’m sure it won’t look “weakened” by this match.
It was a decent match, but felt a bit like… I don’t know, The Amazing Spiderman. You’re watching it and you may be enjoying it and hell, you may even think it’s better than the last time around… but it had an element of “been there, done that” about it. It was sort of like Bioshock 2 compared to Bioshock, in that it may have been technically better but lacked that spark it had the first time around. Still, I enjoyed the hell out of it and got really into it. For the second year in a row, I’d say that it was great match, just not a classic.
Then we got… a handshake. I know, cringe, urgh, whatever. That’s how many people feel about that, and fine. I’m happy with it though. This doesn’t mean that they’re “friends” now. It just means that they respect one another… which is sort of what the feud is all about. Dislike of one anothers personality, with complete respect of one anothers careers and achievements.
There’s a good chance that this could actually be The Rocks last ever match. He’s not yet confirmed for WM30. And if this is the end, I think it’s a pretty perfect way to go out… much better than it would have been had he left after WM20. He went out in the main event of Wrestlemania, defending his WWE title, against one of the biggest names in wrestling history. To end it on that note, and I know I’m possibly in a minority in saying this, but it feels like a perfect full stop on one of the greatest careers of all time to me.
Of course, saying all of that… surely we’re going to get Rock/Cena part III… right?
So that’s Wrestlemania 29 out of the way then. My thoughts… it was ok. If it were a regular PPV, I think I’d be saying it was pretty good. But by Wrestlemania standards, I think it fell quite short of what we’ve come to expect. It lacked that one true “Wrestlemania classic”, and it hurt the show as a result. Punk/Taker was great, but not up there with Takers last 4 efforts, and Rock/Cena II was great, but lacked the spark of last years match. Overall, I guess it was a bit of a case of just going through the motions, which isn’t what you’d really want for Wrestlemania. They just played it super safe, going with easy matches, safe results (other than Henry/Ryback, which was ballsy) and we’re not really left in an interesting place come the end of it. It felt as if, maybe, they put a few too many matches on the card and had to rush it a bit... I mean, we didn't even get a single backstage segment! Plus they had to completely remove the 4 vs 4 tag match...
Matching it up against past Wrestlemanias, I’d give it a 5/10. It was never boring, and to the shows great credit, it managed something that very, very few Wrestlemanias have done in where not a single match felt throwaway or was terrible. But it never reached the heights we’d hope it to reach and with all of the pieces they had to play with and the shows great potential, it never really seemed to get out of 1st gear. I saw IGN.com call it “WrestleMEHnia”, and that’s probably the best way of putting it.
The Rock © vs John Cena
Wow, straight to business this year seemingly. None of the massive entrances like last year, not even a pre-match build up video, just John Cenas music and bang, off we go.
For the most part, this was what we got last year. Aside from a couple slow head locks and sleeper holds, it kept a good pace and stayed entertaining enough for the opening 10 minutes or so. Though Cole did manage to call a crossface an STF, which just reinforces his status as a brain farting plonker.
Then it picked up a bit, and they got the opening finishers out of the way, as rematches like this often tend to. Nobody think’s they’re going to put each other away with their first finisher, so they often seem to just plough through the first couple of finishers to get them out of the way. I remember they did the same thing in HBK/Taker II as well.
From there on out, it was just an exchange of finishers, and they managed to do something that even Punk and Taker failed to do… make me think, at times, that I was wrong about my prediction for the outcome. There were a couple of times when it really looked as if The Rock would win it… least of which was probably the highlight of the entire show for me… Cena once again going for the peoples elbow, only to fake Rock out, try an AA… then get that countered into a Rock bottom. Played off of last years ending brilliantly, and I actually thought that Cena being a twat had cost him again.
We then got the biggest exchange of countering finishers EVER… followed by a few hit finishers… followed by more counters… until, eventually Cena hit him with a 6374569th Attitude Adjustment, and finally put The Rock away.
I’m not sure what the final count was, but I’m sure Rock ate 4 AA’s and 1 Rock Bottom, while Cena must have had about 3 Rock Bottoms and a peoples elbow. Yeah, it’s pretty “cheap” booking just to have shitloads of finisher kick outs, and some argue that it “weakens” them in future… but I never agree with that argument. The next time Cena hits an AA, I’m sure it won’t look “weakened” by this match.
It was a decent match, but felt a bit like… I don’t know, The Amazing Spiderman. You’re watching it and you may be enjoying it and hell, you may even think it’s better than the last time around… but it had an element of “been there, done that” about it. It was sort of like Bioshock 2 compared to Bioshock, in that it may have been technically better but lacked that spark it had the first time around. Still, I enjoyed the hell out of it and got really into it. For the second year in a row, I’d say that it was great match, just not a classic.
Then we got… a handshake. I know, cringe, urgh, whatever. That’s how many people feel about that, and fine. I’m happy with it though. This doesn’t mean that they’re “friends” now. It just means that they respect one another… which is sort of what the feud is all about. Dislike of one anothers personality, with complete respect of one anothers careers and achievements.
There’s a good chance that this could actually be The Rocks last ever match. He’s not yet confirmed for WM30. And if this is the end, I think it’s a pretty perfect way to go out… much better than it would have been had he left after WM20. He went out in the main event of Wrestlemania, defending his WWE title, against one of the biggest names in wrestling history. To end it on that note, and I know I’m possibly in a minority in saying this, but it feels like a perfect full stop on one of the greatest careers of all time to me.
Of course, saying all of that… surely we’re going to get Rock/Cena part III… right?
So that’s Wrestlemania 29 out of the way then. My thoughts… it was ok. If it were a regular PPV, I think I’d be saying it was pretty good. But by Wrestlemania standards, I think it fell quite short of what we’ve come to expect. It lacked that one true “Wrestlemania classic”, and it hurt the show as a result. Punk/Taker was great, but not up there with Takers last 4 efforts, and Rock/Cena II was great, but lacked the spark of last years match. Overall, I guess it was a bit of a case of just going through the motions, which isn’t what you’d really want for Wrestlemania. They just played it super safe, going with easy matches, safe results (other than Henry/Ryback, which was ballsy) and we’re not really left in an interesting place come the end of it. It felt as if, maybe, they put a few too many matches on the card and had to rush it a bit... I mean, we didn't even get a single backstage segment! Plus they had to completely remove the 4 vs 4 tag match...
Matching it up against past Wrestlemanias, I’d give it a 5/10. It was never boring, and to the shows great credit, it managed something that very, very few Wrestlemanias have done in where not a single match felt throwaway or was terrible. But it never reached the heights we’d hope it to reach and with all of the pieces they had to play with and the shows great potential, it never really seemed to get out of 1st gear. I saw IGN.com call it “WrestleMEHnia”, and that’s probably the best way of putting it.
But of course I'll be gone a good couple days before that, so it's 43 days until my flight.
Fuck. Total mind blank. I've got it somewhere in some email. ARGH. What's your hotel called? It may be the same one.
