For those who went to 'Mania

[Guest Redhawk]

First of all, I didn't see Brock's SSP all the way. The guy in front of me held up a sign just as Brock jumped. Me and my cousin couldn't tell right away that he'd missed and we didn't catch him landing on his head. I just remember thinking, "He's way too far away." But since I thought that was going to be the finish I figured something went wrong. Plus, afterwards, Brock looked fucked up. He had a LOT of people down there helping him.

 

I went to get some food during the catfight "match." What happened?

 

It seemed like the crowd was bored for a lot of the Angle-Brock match. It was hot for the entire Rock-Austin match, and Hogan-Vince was just all over the place. Loud one second (especially for Piper) and "boring" chants and laughter the next.

 

Other than that, how was it as a live event? I thought it was great. No complaints, except for HHH winning and deflating the crowd (my section, at least).

[Guest papacita]

I went to get some food during the catfight "match." What happened?

 

You didn't miss much...just a lotta ass and Coach getting his pants pulled down.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

It seemed like the crowd was bored for a lot of the Angle-Brock match.

Can't say that I'm surprised about this. Not only due to the obvious and well-known limitations, but because mat wrestling is still not over in the WWE environment.

 

Still, I was a tad surprised at the lack of pop for both their respective entrances.

[Guest Special K]

As a side note, Jericho was star of the night in terms of crowd reaction. Best heel heat of the night, then he actually won a lot of the crowd over, and the crowd really bit HUGE for the hug at the end, myself included.

 

A couple things killed the crowd, Kane and RVD were pretty big over, and their loss left the crowd wanting. After Rey also lost, the crowd was pretty dead. HHH also killed the crowd heat.

 

The crow d was 1/2 and 1/2 Rocky/Austin it seemed (though Austin got a great inital pop), but at the end of the match it was just stunned silence. Can't say as I blame'em.

 

Hogan was BIG over, the match was not. Peopl just wanted a 5 minute match with a hulk-up I think.

[HurriShane 0]

The crowd really was split during the Austin/Rock match, I'd say it was probably 60/40 Austin but the Rock fans were louder. It got a little quiet at the beginning of Brock/Angle but it definitley picked up once the match got going. Although, I was a little surprised by the reaction Brock got when he won the belt, it wasn't as loud as I expected maybe because of the SSP.

HBK and Jericho put on an awesome match and there was lots of HBK chants during the match, even a few Y2J ones as well. There was almost silence after HHH beat Booker. The place was out of control when Goldberg was announced for Backlash and Piper may have gotten a bigger pop than Hogan did when he came out. But during the Hogan/Vince match the crowd was firmly behind the Hulkster the whole way.

[Guest Redhawk]

One more thing I noticed: At the merchandise stands, the selection was REALLY bad. They only had stuff for a handful of guys -- Hogan, Austin, Rock, Steiner, Lesnar, HHH, Michaels, Undertaker and Rey Mysterio. They didn't even have anything for Kurt Angle or Booker T, and they were both fighting in World Title matches. How do they expect to make new stars when they only really push a few people? As it is, you've got the whole stadium crawling with Undertaker T-shirts just because there's no variety.

[Guest Brian]

Everything came off dead from the platinum section pretty much.

 

Tito was first row, behind the spanish announcer's table. Really cool, laughing about the Undertaker's jutigatame. Pictures and autographs with everyone, looked like he was there on Rock's invitation.

 

Jericho was the star, as it looked like he was calling almost all the audibles.

 

Problem is, they didn't promote Angle/Brock at all like a main event and then put it on right after the two matches they promoted as main events.

 

Kenedrick's going to turn heel on Rey when Rey wins the title. You heard that here first-hand.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

I thought that the Angle/Lesnar match was really solid and wasn't as restricted as I thought it was going to be. I enjoyed the mat wrestling and the counters that both men would pull off to avoid the other one's finisher. I think the crowd was just dead because it was a huge crowd and sometimes it's hard to absorb the match if the crowd is really big. That's just my opinion.

[Guest notJames]

I would imagine that the 3+ hours prior to the Main kinda sapped a lot of the crowd's energy. That and the questionable booking *cough*Kliq*cough*

[Guest Brian]

Well, it wasn't hyped as the main event and the two matches that were went on before it. But will they ever learn to hype the main event as a fucking main event?

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Well, it wasn't hyped as the main event and the two matches that were went on before it. But will they ever learn to hype the main event as a fucking main event?

Not if it doesn't involve one of the elitists. Sorry to come off as so jaded, but it's clear as day that anyone who isn't on Vince's favorites list isn't gonna get a fair shake no matter how talented they are or how logical it may be for them to be a top tier player.

[Guest Brian]

Yes, but what was the point of not hyping it well and then putting it on as the main event?

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Yes, but what was the point of not hyping it well and then putting it on as the main event?

Probably just because they weren't sure if it was Angle's last match and it was Brock's "big" moment. Although they didn't build it up as a main, I was glad to see it go on last because it's Wrestlemania and the WWE title SHOULD be the main event and Brock's big moment didn't need to be buried with matches that went on after that, which would almost have made it an afterthought.

[Guest Brian]

The point is they shouldn't be treating the title match as secondary in the first place and shouldn't be making that kind of decision last minute, especially given the circumstances.

[Guest goar]

My section was very much behind Jericho, Rock, and to a lesser extent, Angle. I was exhausted by the time McMahon-Hogan started let alone Kurt-Brock. I do think HHH's win had alot to do with that though.

 

We were surprised at the complete lack of run-ins. We expected Christian, Nash, Goldust, Goldberg, Jeff Hardy, somebody besides Roddy Piper to make a run-in so they could cash a WrestleMania check. In previous years they've tried to get everyone on the card somehow and this year there was no effort. We did know who WOULDN'T be doing run-ins because the entire lower midcard was sitting in the press box with their wives and girlfriends.

[Guest Redhawk]

Maybe they didn't want to book it as the main event because they were waiting until "gametime" to know how Angle's neck felt. Hyping it as THE main event and then Angle wakes up that morning feeling bad and, oops, you're fucked. But if he felt good going in they can go, "Alright, we can run this match last," since it was still booked as one of the four possible main events.

[Guest Brian]

At that point, they had protected him to the point where they knew he was committed to making the match. They also didn't push the match that well before they knew the extent of his injury or that he needed surgery.

[Guest RedJed]

Not sure if anyone noticed it, but I sure did since our comps weren't ringside as expected (lower level in a 100 section, must have been seats for some of the family and friends of the workers and etc since we were right next to a cousin of Lesnars or something, and some of the old Tough Enough cut people were sitting around us too like Jaime) I noticed people filing out during Lesnar-Angle around the area I was in. Shocked me to say the least.

 

I thought the show was pretty strong and the atmosphere there was one of a kind in all of the shows I've ever been to.

 

Postitives:

Thought the Bizkit song into Takers entrance was well done.

 

HBK-Jericho was a great match, lifted the crowd from the dullness of that first hour

 

Quite a bit of excitement when the Goldberg vignette came up on the screens, as much as I don't want to admit it

 

Pace of the show was pretty good, I'm actually glad the Taker-Womens-Tag matches weren't given anything crazy liek 20 minutes. Could have done more with Rey and Hardy though, they could have made that into a memorable opener if it would have been given time to develop.

 

Top of the card was solid, even HHH-Booker, sans the finish.

 

Negatives:

We got fucked on our tickets from what apparently we previously had. The guy who we were originally working through was doing sound for Bizkit and had everything set up for us weeks in advance. Problem was he quit Bizkit last week so out went everything else. Fortunately we were able to line something up the day before the show from Jerry Brisco, or else we would have had to at least pay for tickets (they had released 8,000 more during the weekend). But the seats weren't as great as what we first were lined up with. But it still didn't really change the enjoyment level of the show since from our spots we still had a decent view.

 

First hour drag on, liek I said. Long segment with another Bizkit song and that catfight junk was pointless too.

 

Sucked ass trying to get back to the hotel after the show, the traffic was a bitch and a half