Rate WM

[Circled Square]

Lana throwing her heels in the ring was funny.

[Daz]

Lana throwing her heels in the ring was funny.

[KaiserGlider]

I gave it a 9. Maybe the best PPV I've ever seen. Or as good as WM 30 at least.

Andre the Giant Battle Royal was great. Better than the Royal Rumble. Of course didn't like Big Show going over everyone, and I thought the trend of bad decisions would continue throughout the rest of the show, but I was wrong about that. So in hindsight, I think this was a fun match that put over Sandow a lot.

Ladder match was great as expected. The pace was crazy, it felt like I was watching a TNA X-Division match. Bryan winning was the right call.

I was surprised that Orton/Rollins were going on so quickly after the ladder match. I thought that spelled doom for them and meant they were getting a 10 minute slobberknocker with a dead crowd. But I was wrong. They had a great match with an incredible finish. I picked Rollins to win in the Roundtable, but with a finish like that, Orton deserved it. Plus with the way the main event ended, Rollins being taken out here was a good call.

It's been a good show so far, but here we are kicking right into Sting/HHH without any filler beforehand. And once again I thought, "this is going to fall flat and the crowd will be dead". Nope. Fucking NOPE. Sting and Triple H tore the fucking house down. Sting did all his signature spots and looked great. The crowd was super hot throughout the whole thing. I did not expect the nWo/DX showdown at all, that was an awesome way to keep things hot and prevent the match from cooling down like it could have. A lot of cool spots were had and I did not expect Triple H to win (though I had a sneaking suspicion he was going to). But I don't think the loss hurts Sting at all. What a freaking match. At this point this is the best hour and a half of wrestling I've seen in a long time.

I'm exhausted from marking out, so here we go with the much-needed filler. I dig the WM theme song, so it was a cool performance from Skylar Grey. Not so much for the other song, but whatever. Now they bring the Hall of Fame guys out. Ok cool, I've cooled down. I'm ready for some wrestling again.

Divas match? Not quite what I meant, but whatever. I don't remember what happened here, expect Paige looked very good.

Rusev entering on a motherfucking TANK. What a badass. And Cena with a... standard entrance? They could have cut that video package out and done a special entrance for him. This was a very solid match if not really memorable, aside from that springboard stunner from Cena. Rusev loses to the surprise of no one, but like Sting earlier I don't think the loss hurts him. With the way Lana got taken out, we could be going for a Rusev face turn which could be cool.

Now I think this was the lowest point of the show. It was cool to see Rock and all, but this segment dragged. Rock waited forever to start his promo, Steph spoke too much and overall this thing could have definitely been shortened and done on Raw instead. The crowd loved it though, so whatever.

That last segment ate so much time that we didn't see the video package for Wyatt/Taker, which was the best one. Anyway, Bray with a slooooooow aaassss entrance. Undertaker looked 5 years younger. I wish he would have never gone bald, he looks much better like this. This match was okay for what it was. Could have been better, could have been worse. I feel like the story of the match was lost a bit, or not mentioned enough by the commentators. For example, when Bray and Taker were engaged in that slugfest and Bray won, Cole could have said "when was the last time someone beat Undertaker in a fistfight? Maybe the Undertaker truly isn't as good as he used to be". Or when Bray kicked out of the Tombstone. Like I said, could have been better, could have been worse. In the end though, the match accomplished what it needed to, and the crowd loved it, so it's all good.

Reigns/Lesnar. Holy shit. This match was everything it could have been, and more. From Lesnar just completely beastmoding Reigns via Summerslam, to Reigns exposing Lesnar's weakpoint (steel, every match Lesnar has lost since 2012 has involved his head colliding with steel), and then trying to take Lesnar down with several Superman Punches and Spears, to Lesnar just beasting out of it with an F5. Then Seth motherfucking ROLLINS came down and all hell broke loose. What a way to end the match. What a way to end Wrestlemania, that was better than last year's finish because it was unpredictable. Goddamn, what an end to Wrestlemania.

Earlier today I was thinking that WWE's problem when it comes to Wrestlemania is that it treats Wrestlemania like a "spectacle" where every match needs to end clean and everything needs to be tied up in a happy bow. Instead of coming into Wrestlemania with the mindset of "let's put on a great PPV that just so happens to be in a stadium where some people get special entrances." Well, tonight WWE had that mindset. This was a great PPV for sure and I enjoyed it. Definitely surpassed my expectations, and I don't see how Raw can possibly surpass this. Some parts were slow (Rock segment to some of Bray/Taker) but even then it was fun and the crowd was loving it, so nothing was really bad tonight aside from the finish of the battle royal. But that was pre-show.

Match of the night: Sting/Triple H tied with Lesnar/Reigns
Entrance of the night: Rusev. Triple H's was kinda cool, but a a bit too over the top
Moment of the night: Rollins cashes in
Other... moment of the night: The giant sign with that guy's face in the middle of Steph and Rock

[The Legend]

I went with 7/10. Honestly, there were some great moments and matches, but there was more to not like than I thought there would be. First of all, the amount of filler was staggering. The concert was useless, the Rock, Rousey, Steph and HHH segment was about three times longer than it had a purpose of being. The fact that it's 2015 and it appears readily available that last night kicked off what looks like a year long DX vs NWO feud (I can't be the only one that sees a 4 on 4 Survivor Series elimination match coming) is kind of baffling.

That being said, the bonus was there wasn't a bad match on the card. The ladder match was a blast and had some unbelievable spots in it. HHH vs Sting was a fun trip down memory lane for a night and I enjoyed it last night and the fact that they made the match better than it had a purpose of being. Taker and Wyatt brought it and made it a really good match. The Divas match was a better women's match than WWE has brought us in a while. Cena and Rusev delivered and Rollins vs Orton was my favorite match of the night.

I wasn't a fan of how they really did the MITB cash in. It was too much of a flurry at the end of the match that didn't really let what was happening sink in for the viewer. Also, I know I'm probably the only one here, but I wanted to see an end to that match of Reigns vs Lesnar. I mean Reigns was on fire last night bloodying Lesnar and making that one of the best matches I've seen from big men in a while. I loved the physical nature of the match.

[prophet]

I figure I'll rate the show the same we I did before it began.

+1 - Mizdow finally breaking away from The Miz and getting the massive reaction he deserves
-1 - Big Show winning the Battle Royale
+1 - Daniel Bryan winning the IC title
+1 - Orton and Rollins was a really good match with some nice spots. That final RKO was a thing of beauty
+1 - Sting
+1 - Cena and Rusev was another good match and whilst I wanted Rusev to win putting another mid-card belt on a mega-star is a good thing
+1 - Ronda
-1 - Taker and Wyatt's entrances losing all mystique due to the horrible lighting
-1 - Wyatt losing
+1 - Brock Lesnar is the greatest seller of all time
+1 - Roman Reigns looked like an animal, showing incredible heart
+1 - KING ROLLINS

6/10 - happy with that.

[Kirbi]

I gave it a 7, although it might've been more of a 6.5 for me.

A lot of the matches were good, but a fair amount of stuff didn't work for me:

- I didn't appreciate some of the finishes ('Taker and HHH's particularly.)
- HHH and Sting's "spectacular" entrances were truly awful, and most of the entrances were a bit too long in general.
- Again with HHH and Sting's match, the interference from the nWo didn't make a lick of sense. Are they banking on us knowing the WCW story here, or not knowing it?
- The lack of build still hurt some of the matches. A well-built match is better; all other things being equal.
- The segment with the Rock (etc.) was the worst thing in the entire world. It's not a bad idea at all, but it was mangled in the execution; it took fucking forever.

Looking at this, I wonder how much could've been improved if they'd had even one more match on the card. It needed one.

Still... that's a hell of a finish. Rollins FTW! (And that match was proper order, too.)

[Hanley!]

I'm giving it a six. I wanted to go lower, but a good main event and a good finish does a lot to save a show. When I went to bed yesterday, I was thinking of this as a below average Wrestlemania. But when I watched the last hour today, it went up a lot in my estimation.

So it's a six. Just about. It would have probably been a seven except that the build was so terrible. For a Wrestlemania to get a perfect 10/10 from me, I'd really need to be invested in some of the matches and the poor build for this show made it impossible to invest all that much for some of these. Take Undertaker vs Wyatt as an example. It was a good match, but I would have added a whole star to the exact same match if I had a real reason to care going into it. As it was, the outcome didn't matter to me.

Here's my breakdown of the show.

The Bad:

- Some of you probably noted this one as a highlight, but that Triple H vs Sting match was awful. Just fucking terribly booked. In fairness to Sting, he put in a good effort out there. It wasn't the performances that bugged me here, but the booking. None of this made sense. All the interferences and hijinks were kayfabe shattering and completely wrong for the tone of the feud, not to mention nonsensical. And the wrong guy won. I won't harp on about this, as I'll probably give this it's own thread.

- Triple H & Stephanie's segment with the Rock & Ronda was awful. I didn't even mind the idea this time. It would have been a cool moment. But they dragged it on four times longer than it should have been. It got beyond boring. And they kept mentioning "Wrestlemania moments" and things like that, to try and convince people that this was one. Let the moment speak for itself. If this had just been a quick promo by the power couple, followed by an interference from the Rock and a quip from Steph that caused Ronda to jump the guardrail and kick some ass, I would have been on board. But it was beyond tedious in the end. Also Rock's childish jokes were not landing with me. His material used to be better than that, right?

- The tag team championship match was a mess. Everyone was just running in and hitting their spots, which is absolutely fine and can be a lot of fun. But this one just got away from them. Nobody knew much what was going on and it was hard to keep up or care by the end.

- The musical performance. It's a waste of Wrestlemania time that could have been used on another match.

- Most of the entrances didn't work. Triple H's terminator thing was pure cheese. Sting's entrance didn't begin to suit his character and Cena's laid it on way too thick. And the daylight took something away from the entrances of Wyatt and Undertaker.

- It still felt like too many old names won the big matches. I thought Wrestlemania 30 might be a turning point in that regard, but we still have a little way to go. Though Rollins winning the last match made a bit of a difference there.

The Good:

- The ladder match was fun. It wasn't great though. Probably one of the worst that we've seen at Wrestlemania. But that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable. It just could have used another 5 minutes and either some bigger spots or a little more creativity. I loved that people were climbing the ladder quickly for the entire match though. Good opener.

- The Divas Match was good too. Decent story told throughout. I think people were being unfair on the story leading up to this match. They put more effort into creating a story prior to their match than just about anyone else on the card. Paige got her moment to shine here, which was cool. The stuff with AJ being sucker-punched, leaving Paige without anyone to tag in was clever. It teased dissension between the two without them ever having to get annoyed at each other. The only problem I had here was that when AJ finally got the hot tag, she acted like she was fresh, when she had spent all her time until that point laid out at the side of the ring.

- Undertaker vs Wyatt was good. Freaking impressive performance from Wyatt considering his injury. He deserves props for that. Undertaker was back on form too. This didn't feel special to me, but the match itself was on point. Now that the streak is gone though, Undertaker can't just show up and expect people to treat it as one of the highlights of the night. If he wrestles next year, I hope he does more to build the match.

- Rusev vs Cena was very entertaining. Third best of the night in my opinion. Rusev was always going to lose this one, and that was the right option. But I'm happy they didn't have him submit and they even implicated Lana in the finish to save face for Rusev. It's nice to see them protect their heel in defeat. This leaves room for this feud to develop further into a submission match of some form at Extreme Rules, or they can just end things here while both guys still look strong.

- The video packages were not nearly as good as they have been in other years (last year had a couple of great ones), but they were still pretty good at creating a bit more hype. WWE are pretty consistent in this area. The set was kinda cool too.

The Great:

- The Battle Royal was done really well. Big Show winning was a disappointment (though if they had actually used the story about him not having won a battle royal before and him wanting to prove himself as being as good as Andre BEFORE the match, then I would have been okay with it). But there was still a lot to like. Curtis Axel had a hilarious albeit predictable moment. Miz and Mizdow's split was done well. And I was actually on the edge of my seat cheering for Mizdow towards the end, which rarely happens.

- Rusev's boss entrance. All the other big entrances were disappointing, but the big Bulgarian riding a tank was a pretty awesome sight. This both looked cool, and worked with his character. That's what they should be going for.

- Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton was a brilliant match. Best of the night. These two have good chemistry together and I hope to see another match from them soon.

- I think it's worth mentioning this separately: the finish for the Rollins vs Orton match was spectacular. In a night with a few lackluster finishes, that one was absolutely outstanding.

- The main event was very good. I always said that I thought that Lesnar and Reigns could have a great match. Maybe not as good as what Lesnar and Bryan could have had, but I thought those saying that this would be crap were being needlessly pessimistic (and that's coming from me). I enjoyed the main event a lot. It had a great atmosphere.

- LESNAR! I thought he put in a particularly great performance. He was full of fire and it really drove the main event. He's been on top of his game in his last few matches. I hope he keeps it up now that he's lost the belt.

- KING ROLLINS! Great way to end the show. I'm surprised they did it, but it's cool to see them finally using the Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania. I'm happy for Rollins too: he's been the real MVP of the WWE over the last year. Getting to end the biggest show of the year with the title in his hands must have been an incredible moment for him.

[VaderBomb]

The show was decent at best.

The ladder match was pretty mediocre, like a poor man's MITB match. It should have gone ten minutes longer and they could have incorporated more wrestling to fill in the space around the spots. It's a disgrace that we just got a WrestleMania match involving Bryan, Ambrose and Ziggler and they each used one or two (being generous) wrestling moves each. I understand that it's a ladder match, which are always full of spots but don't put your best technical wrestlers in a match where there's too many guys and not enough time.

Orton vs Rollins was a solid match, probably the best of the night. That RKO at the end was a thing of beauty, they must've practiced that spot over a hundred times to be sure that they would nail it. I didn't mind Orton winning because it heightened the chance that Rollins would cash in his MITB contract later on.

Triple H vs Sting was alright, but nothing to write home about. It was surreal to see Sting in WWE and the DX/nWo stuff was fun, although it doesn't make much sense that the nWo and Sting were working together. It also didn't make sense to see the clique fighting amongst each other considering that they were all hugs the previous night. It's also bizarre that Hogan makes these constant transitions from yellow and red to black and white. Doesn't make any sense from a logical point of view. I loved the Sweet Chin Music delivery from HBK to Sting. It was a great and honestly unexpected moment because of how quickly it happened. I marked out for that one, for sure.

Triple H going over was shit. Sting should have won and there is seemingly no reason why Sting should have shaken Triple H's hand after the match. I'm curious as to how they continue this relationship.

The Divas tag team match was a solid little match but nothing too special. Cena beating Rusev was the right decision and I wish that people would stop being so hard on Cena at this point. He's in the mid card now, shouldn't the haters be happy? I'm not a huge fan of his but I would have cheered for him if I was at WrestleMania. I would have also swapped the placement of the US Championship match with Sting/HHH.

The lighting really fucked with Wyatt and Undertaker's intros. I wish that it started getting darker during the HHH/Sting match. The match itself was alright. Taker looked great and the moment when he sat up and scared Wyatt was a classic bit.

The main event was pretty good. It was cool to see Lesnar dominate Reigns, and the Rollins cash-in was fucking awesome. All around I'd rate it a 6/10. Nothing inherently bad but it surely wasn't a great PPV.

EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention that I was waiting all night to see the battle royale and then I see on a commercial that it happened during the pre-show. Total bummer. I don't even care that Big Show won, I just wanted to see it.