WWE Championship - WM 33

[AkydefGoldberg]

Orton wins to become Champion.

A meh of a match but tbh the crowd seemed a tad tired so it helped to give them a rest. Match itself was notable for some ring tricks by Bray during intervals in the match..

[Messiah]

Awful match. As someone who really liked their storyline, I hope they don't face again.

[Str8Shooter]

Awful match. As someone who really liked their storyline, I hope they don't face again.

This. This match may have been the worst of the night. I'm usually a defender of both guys but they should be feeling terrible today about that performance on that kind of stage after months of build. A disappointing match.

If Orton can't have a great match with Styles next then it'll be hard for me to stand up for him again.

[Everlong]

It's weird because Orton is typically one of their most reliable performers on the big stage. But this match was utter shit. They didn't appear to have any chemistry and the tricks in the ring were weird.

Also, it's an awful look for Bray, who people have been saying deserves a shot to be in a big match at Mania for ages. If this is what he can do with that opportunity, then he shouldn't get that chance again.

[Messiah]

I don't think the blame should be placed on Wyatt and/or Orton. I think it was just a terribly constructed match. For starters, it was short as hell at 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Not that every match has to be long as I actually enjoyed Miz/Maryse vs Cena/Bella, which was the shortest match on the show excluding Goldberg/Lesnar and the SmackDown Women's match, but they had no time to tell a story fitting to the storyline. It was just bad and on top of that, they tried to do too much gimmicky stuff in a short amount of time. I think the idea they had could have worked, but the execution was awful.

[Str8Shooter]

Why can't Orton or Wyatt accept any of the blame? They should still have been able to put on a decent match in 10 minutes. The match was way too slow for a 10 minute long match. The crowd was dead except for their grossed out response to the projections of worms and bugs in the ring.

Maybe their time was cut, but still, these guys are veterans at this point they should have been able to adjust the style of match if needed.

[The Legend]

Length of match had nothing to do with how bad this match was. The overproduction of the insects was bad, but even the biggest problem was the way Orton and Wyatt were working, 10:30 felt like 5 minutes too long. It was just a horrible conceived situation all the way around.

[KaiserGlider]

Wyatt and Orton just don't have good chemistry in the ring, but I think most of the blame should go to Bray as I don't remember him ever really having a great singles match except with Daniel Bryan at the Rumble and maybe Cena at Wrestlemania 30. Bray is the type of wrestler than can hang with someone good but can't carry an average guy.

By no means would I call it a "bad" match though. Just not good enough considering how big of a match it was supposed to be.

[Hanley!]

In hindsight, having this match be for the championship was a really bad idea.

This was probably the sixth most anticipated match on the card, which is a bad look for the company's most prestigious title. It was somewhat positioned that way over the last few weeks, but the fans seemed to see it in that position from the start. This was nobody's choice for the main event.

Wyatt never got a chance to get over as a main event level guy. Now that he's lost the title, he doesn't feel like a former champion. He doesn't have the credibility or the popularity where it feels like he belongs in that group. And a failed first title run can be hard to recover from.

Also Orton is the champion now. Who the fuck wants to see Orton as champion coming out of Wrestlemania? And as a face! He's such a nothing character at the moment and he's got absolutely no momentum behind him. Him holding the belt makes me less likely to watch Smackdown.

Putting the belt on Wyatt was a decision that still boggles my mind. I just don't see the logic there.

[Str8Shooter]

Someone on reddit used the quote, "the idea of a big Randy Orton match is always better than a big Randy Orton match"

Orton just isn't a compelling character right now. And Wyatt seems like he should be a compelling character but for whatever reason they've never really figured out who he is and what they want him to be. Just listen to the crowd during their Mania match and the tepid reactions the goofy stuff has gotten on Smackdown from the crowds. Now they have a "House of Horrors" match which could be filled with more goofy stuff. And the PPV isn't for 6 weeks!

They should have just ended the feud at Mania and moved both guys onto new things.

[The Legend]

In hindsight, having this match be for the championship was a really bad idea.

This was probably the sixth most anticipated match on the card, which is a bad look for the company's most prestigious title. It was somewhat positioned that way over the last few weeks, but the fans seemed to see it in that position from the start. This was nobody's choice for the main event.

Wyatt never got a chance to get over as a main event level guy. Now that he's lost the title, he doesn't feel like a former champion. He doesn't have the credibility or the popularity where it feels like he belongs in that group. And a failed first title run can be hard to recover from.

Also Orton is the champion now. Who the fuck wants to see Orton as champion coming out of Wrestlemania? And as a face! He's such a nothing character at the moment and he's got absolutely no momentum behind him. Him holding the belt makes me less likely to watch Smackdown.

Putting the belt on Wyatt was a decision that still boggles my mind. I just don't see the logic there.

That's not even including the hot potato problem that belt is having right now. Cena gets it and loses it in a blink of an eye, Wyatt loses it almost as quickly and now for the love of all that is pure, hopefully Orton loses it pretty quick too. And that brings up a point that hopefully gets remedied in the "shakeup" who is the next guy on SD that is actually capable of holding the belt for a little while?

[KaiserGlider]

Someone on reddit used the quote, "the idea of a big Randy Orton match is always better than a big Randy Orton match"

Orton just isn't a compelling character right now. And Wyatt seems like he should be a compelling character but for whatever reason they've never really figured out who he is and what they want him to be. Just listen to the crowd during their Mania match and the tepid reactions the goofy stuff has gotten on Smackdown from the crowds. Now they have a "House of Horrors" match which could be filled with more goofy stuff. And the PPV isn't for 6 weeks!

They should have just ended the feud at Mania and moved both guys onto new things.

The goofy stuff was the only thing that made their match stand out and it was the only time the crowd seemed interested in it. So I don't hate the prospect of a "house of horrors" match between them in the future. I see it going one of two ways - either they'll overdo the cheesy spooky stuff the way WWE loves to sometimes, or they'll have a unique match that will be more interesting that another generic slugfest. The bar they have to clear won't be high since their first match tanked, and this time they have the benefit of not being stuck in the middle of a 5 hour show full of big matches.

[The Legend]

My biggest problem with the effects was WWE seemed to be ridiculing the tactic themselves. Wyatt has to do it three times and in the end it's totally ineffective. We've never seen anything like that before, it was an actual total surprise. The WWE should have had it happened once and had it lead to Wyatt actually pinning Orton. That would have taken the effects from totally ridiculous and pointless to effective and on some level decent storytelling. It would have led to a reason for the next match and some doubt whether Orton could actually win a House of Horrors match or whether Wyatt was always going to beat him on mind games. In the end now, we know Wyatt's mind games don't work on Orton and so the match is useless.

[Hanley!]

I heard someone say that the last time the images flashed up, it should have been of a snake. Then Wyatt could have been startled, Orton could have hit the RKO at that point and then won the title.

It would have still been hokey bullshit, but at least there would have been a story to the match with a (semi) logical pay-off. Instead they let Wyatt do this silly spooky shit all through the match and Orton just completely no sold it and got the clean RKO victory that felt "out of nowhere" in a really bland, deflating sort of way.

Would Orton have even been able to see the weird images considering they were being projected onto him? The whole idea was just badly conceived. Wyatt continues to be the worst booked man in wrestling. He's one of the few characters in the company where there's such a fine line between him being complete gold and complete shit, and they still can't find their way over to the right side of that line.

[KaiserGlider]

I heard someone say that the last time the images flashed up, it should have been of a snake. Then Wyatt could have been startled, Orton could have hit the RKO at that point and then won the title.

That would have been a much better finish. Damn it!