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Post by bossrock on Apr 3, 2022 14:07:08 GMT -5
Will co-sign on Busick-Moxley. FTR-Briscoes from Supercard was also excellent.
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Post by mvz on Apr 3, 2022 17:36:54 GMT -5
Night 1 of Mania exceeded my admittedly modest expectations. Bianca-Becky was fantastic and Austin’s return felt special. Nothing was actively bad. It’s a long night but a fun watch.
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Post by microstatistics on Apr 4, 2022 0:07:54 GMT -5
Lynch/Belair and Zayn/Knoxville felt like low-end MOTYCs. Charlotte/Rousey was terrible. Lesnar/Reigns III made their WM34 match look good and made the WM 31 bout feel like a transcendent achievement of human civilization.
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Post by nintendologic on Apr 4, 2022 5:59:05 GMT -5
I was too tired this weekend to watch Mania live, so I've been cherry-picking the matches that piqued my interest. Based on that, night one was a resounding success. I need to watch it again to be sure, but right now I'd call Lynch/Belair the greatest women's match in WWE history. Seth/Cody was shockingly great as well. Sadly, it appears that that night two was a major letdown. Edge/AJ was apparently way too long and ended with a Damian Priest run-in to boot. And Brock/Roman was a lesser rehash of the same match they've been having with each other for the past seven years. Reversing the face/heel alignment in a matchup that is long past its sell-by date is like putting a new hat on Malibu Stacy.
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Post by [Darren] on Apr 4, 2022 10:13:56 GMT -5
Lynch/Belair is probably going to be the match that will age the best for folks. Just great stuff.
Roman/Brock was disappointing to me. Though I knew it was after that McMahon stuff went on for an hour. It’s a shame we haven’t gotten a classic match out of this, my favorite version of Brock Lesnar.
I had only ever seen Omos at last years Mania and the Rumble and I was impressed. I love big dudes and I think Lashley worked his ass off to make that match something fun. But it wasn’t to be. I was most disappointed in that match above all.
Austin/KO was such a cool spectacle. Just one of my favorite things as a fan. I do have some reservations about it still but I loved it.
Cody/Seth was cool. Just the most silly little epic style of match that those two could ever have. It’s not really my thing but it worked. It hit for me on that level at least. Such a cool entrance for both.
Edge/AJ was surprisingly good for how I feel about both guys. It went on too long and laid a turd at the finish but I was invested. Not bored for a second.
Sami v. Knoxville was one of the most genuine pieces of pro-wrestling I have seen in years. Every spot was set up and paid off perfectly. Sami’s masterclass performance as a pro-wrestler. A genuine GME candidate next time around. I’ll make a thread for it when I figure out what I want to say about it.
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Post by kas on Apr 4, 2022 17:32:41 GMT -5
Cosigning the love for FTR/Briscoes, Becky/Belair, and Cody/Seth, 3 truly great matches. Haven't caught up on Night 2 yet, but probably the only match I'm gonna check out is Sami/Knoxville. Roman/Brock being underwhelming shouldn't really come as a surprise, but I made the mistake of getting my hopes up because of how much I enjoyed the build to the match.
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Post by tetsujin on Apr 4, 2022 17:38:49 GMT -5
Man just watched Mox/Busick. That shit was INTENSE. I can't believe how much better Moxley looks in this setting, his matches with Kross, Dickinson and specially Barnett have been pretty great and this one with fucking Biff delivered as well. He should work like that in AEW too, he'd be much more consistent, though I will say that he still looks pretty cool to me there, and between his stuff in AEW and his ocassional Bloodsport appearances, the guy shows much more versatility that you could expect. Great job by both motherfuckers there, possibly the best match of the WM Weekend (and that's saying something because I loved Lynch/Belair and I asume FTR/Briscoes was tremendous too, still gotta watch that).
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Post by bossrock on Apr 4, 2022 18:23:16 GMT -5
Bianca-Becky was great but I think Bianca-Sasha last year was better. Cody-Rollins was very good even if it felt like a combination of a typical big Cody match (YMMV) and the WWE "epic" (YMMY even more). Knoxville-Sami was terrific. I expected they would do something fun but this completely blew me away. Might be the best comedy match ever.
Lost amidst all the excitement was a really good Top Flight-Young Bucks match and a fun Lee-Hobbs match on Rampage. Gresham-Bandido was also really good on Supercard.
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Post by mvz on Apr 4, 2022 19:24:33 GMT -5
I am with Darren, It may be recency bias but Zayn/Knoxville will probably rank for me next time around. That was the most fun I have had watching wrestling in … possibly ever, and that’s what this is all about. Just hilarious from beginning to end.
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Post by [Darren] on Apr 4, 2022 20:19:04 GMT -5
Mox/Biff was fantastic. Probably won’t revisit it ever but if they tried another one I’ll be first in line.
Yet to see FTR/Briscoes
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Post by [Darren] on Apr 5, 2022 11:21:28 GMT -5
Finally watched FTR/Briscoes. Hell of a match. I think a little bit of everything for wrestling fans. Solid story going in that you could feel from the crowd and see on the competitor’s faces, logical progression, great tag team strategy, big bombs with a fun finishing stretch and enough juice to go around.
I’m not sure how it holds up in a broader context but this hit the spot in first viewing.
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Post by [Darren] on Apr 5, 2022 11:22:30 GMT -5
Also, I loved the way Dax sells his wrist after punching. Just a wonderful touch
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Post by kas on Apr 5, 2022 12:36:24 GMT -5
Zayn/Knoxville was basically a DDT match in a WWE ring and I loved every second of it.
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Post by Cap on Apr 5, 2022 16:12:47 GMT -5
A few random thoughts.
FTR v Briscoes wound up being my match of the weekend. It wasn't as punchy as Mox/Biff or maybe "fun" as Sami/Knoxville, but it was really elegant/violent storytelling at some of the hightest levels for me. If it weren't for a match I consider an all-timer more or less kicking off the year It would be hard to top this for MOTY.
Biff v Moxley was my kind violence. Just fantastic, grit your teeth and swing for the fences stuff. I think that is where Moxley really excels and it is very well where Biff could in his post WWE career. It certainly aligns with his style more broadly. I didn't get to watch anything else from this show yet, but I may try to go back eventually. I heard it was good overall.
Bianca v Becky was sort of incredible to me. For me, it was match of Mania by some distance, even if there were other matches that were as or more satisfying in different ways. At the risk over simplifying things based on gender, there was a 90s joshi-esque vibe to their entrances and over the top special event gear. It was all delightful and gave this a sense of gravitas that - oddly enough - the show only captured in certain moments for me.
Charlotte v Rousey felt like a chore. I was looking forward to Rousey's return. I haven't watched much of the build, but I haven't heard much praise. She felt a little exposed in this, working a longer match and needing to carry a bit more of the weight. Maybe I'm wrong... maybe it's a chemistry issue... but this just didn't feel like the showing I was expecting.
Regardless of what you think about Cody, I think his debut felt big. It doesn't make any sense to me as to why Vince would choose him in this context, but the Mr AEW vs Mr WWE vibe was fun and the debut felt surreal. I don't know where this goes from here, but Cody "jumping ship" is exciting. It adds a wrinkle to the wrestling landscape that I am interested in. I wasn't a huge fan of the match, but the moment was neat.
Austin v Owens (and the entire segment) was more or less WWE-perfect. This felt so different from a lot of the nostalgic act stuff they do, partially because Austin has been pretty selective about getting physical... partially because he just feels like he is on another level of legend... and partially because it was laid out perfectly. KO deserves a ton of credit here. He presented just the right amount of threat without ever taking the spotlight off Austin. We all knew what we were getting at the end but we had to wait just long enough. Austin looked to be in solid shape and more than held his own in terms of making this as fun and special as it was.
Zayn vs Knoxville was an absolute blast. I won't go quite as far in my love as some, but I totally get it. Seeing this on someone's list wouldn't seem crazy to me. I like the DDT comparison. It felt like the Jackass crew and Zayn watched a little DDT and then watched Home Alone and put the match together. It was fun, life affirming wrestling comedy. In that, it was totally what I expected and I don't get how anyone expected anything different. The fallout about this is a bit odd. Even if it is only a few people who weren't fans, what in the world were they expecting? Like Owens was the perfect choice to work with Austin, Zayn was the perfect choice to work with knoxville.
Brock vs Reigns was a bit of a let down to me and the only reason I want to talk about it is that it sort of feels like a microcosm of the WWE style. If you can find a way to add something interesting and unique to your version of that or you can be the first to innovate within the genre it really pops, but otherwise there is a pretty solid cap on it anymore (at least for me). This was an ok version in the abstract. They threw bombs and they threw them pretty hard, but it felt like they were playing the greatest hits. Some unhinged sloppy brawling around the ring would have done so much more for me than the spear through the barricade, for example. It is a shame that Reigns got hurt because it definitely feels like they brought it home early and that made everything a touch flat.
I haven't watched Styles v Edge yet, but the rest of mania was solid, but nothing worth spending too much time on. Overall, I didn't see a ton of the indie stuff around mania, but what I saw I enjoyed. Mani itself was more fun than I thought it would be. Glad to see positive buzz around it and hope they can carry some of that at least into interesting wrestling.
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