PWP Nation’s Bruce Hart talks about his thoughts on WrestleMania 32 and the WWE Hall of Fame.
Greetings.
It’s been an eventful week in the WWE, what with the Hall of Fame inductions, the record breaking 100,000 plus live gate at WrestleMania, the crowning of new Intercontinental and World heavyweight champions and the appointment of Shane McMahon as the new boss of Monday Night RAW, among other things. This week, we’ll assess what transpired at WrestleMania and consider some of the implications, going forward.
Overall, I had decidedly mixed perspectives about the big show. Some of the matches and story lines were exceptionally good and more than lived up to the hype, while other aspects were illogical, contrived and counter productive. In any case, I’ll render my perspectives, here and now on what went down in Dallas on the weekend.
The night before WrestleMania, the WWE held the annual WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Not only was the whole thing way too long and drawn out, with far too many sanctimonious sermons, but some of the ass kissing was so excessive that it almost became a parody. Beyond that, several of the inductees really had no business being inducted into the Hall in the first place – certainly not when far more worthy candidates like the Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, my brother Owen, iconic former NWA world champions like Lou Thesz, Whipper Watson and Pat O’Connor and legends, like Bruiser Brody, Danny Hodge and Ivan Koloff, to name just a few, continue to be snubbed to get in the traditional way.
Aside from that, even though it was probably meant to be in fun, I found the Godfather’s whole schtick, in which he shamelessly showcased his entourage of “whores,” to be offensive and tasteless. I sure as hell couldn’t envision some iconic Hall of Fame baseball or football player bringing a bunch of hookers with him up on the podium as he was being inducted into Cooperstown or Canton, could you? I shouldn’t be having to point it out to the powers that be in the WWE, but It’s ill conceived crap like that that invites derision and ridicule upon the wrestling business and is also unfit for kids, who are the foundation of our fan base.
Anyway, I’ll endeavor to render my take on the matches, starting from bottom to top.
Kalisto def. Ryback to retain the United States Championship: The fact that the once prestigious United States title was being contested in a pre-card preliminary match tells you how insignificant that belt has become. Even though these guys both appeared to try hard, their styles certainly didn’t compliment each other and, as a consequence, the match never really got off the ground. It’s kind of sad to see Ryback – who, not that long ago, was a vaunted one man wrecking crew (”feed me more!”) now doing jobs for guys half his size. I’m wondering who he pissed off in the office to be treated as such.
Team Total Divas def. Team BAD & Blonde: Like so many other matches on the card, this match was unnecessary and almost redundant, given that there was already a Divas triple threat title match, nor were there were any prevailing issues between most of the divas. The match itself was okay, but nothing special – just the usual over choreographed high spots and the usual divas fashion show stroll down the walkway prior to the match to showcase their new outfits.
Chris Jericho def. AJ Styles: To nobody’s surprise, this match was one of the best on the WrestleMania menu, sustaining a brisk pace, integrating some nice high spots, a few well timed false finishes and building to a plausible but compelling climax. I have no problem with Chris Jericho having gone over, as he’s been doing a great job as an old school heel, but I was, nonetheless, surprised to see AJ Styles having to do the job in the middle, given that he’s been hailed as the next big thing in the WWE. I also figured they would have taken it into t consideration, how short the WWE is of decent faces these days, what with the absence of Neville, Cena and Daniel Bryan, plus the fans’ ongoing unwillingness to embrace Reigns as a face. Hopefully Styles’ loss isn’t a sign that he’s going to be chewed up and spit out – like Dolph Ziggler, Ted DiBiase Jr., John Morrison and other seemingly promising new faces, who suddenly and inexplicably fell from grace. That would be a waste, in my estimation.
Zack Ryder def. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Sin Cara and Stardust to win the Intercontinental Championship in a Ladder match: These guys, all of whom are pretty good workers, sustained a decent pace and did some nice spots, albeit a few too many – but that’s to be expected, I suppose, given it’s WrestleMania. I was kind of surprised and disappointed though to see Owens – who’d been doing a pretty good job as the IC champion, having to drop the strap to Ryder – who was only a last minute inclusion due to the injury to Neville.
Even harder to fathom, Ryder then dropped the strap a day later to the Miz on Raw, none of which seemed to serve any great purpose or make any sense. No offense to Ryder or Miz, who, I’m told are decent guys, but about all that did was further diminish the magnitude of the IC title, which at one time was a pretty prestigious title, once worn proudly by bona fide superstars like Mr. Perfect, the British Bulldog, Tito Santana, my brothers Bret and Owen, Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels – many of whom ascended to the world title from the Intercontinental.
Charlotte def. Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch for the WWE Women’s Championship: Giving credit where credit is due, this match was one of the best divas matches I’ve seen in a long time. One of the things that made it so good was that, for the most part, they refrained from doing too much of the usual sterile, over-scripted high spots and whatnot and mainly concentrated on old school, back and forth wrestling, with little or no frills or artificial additives. (I wonder if Charlotte’s dad, Ric – one of the greatest old-school practitioners of all time, had anything to do with that). In any case, I was pleased to see Charlotte retain the strap, as she’s just starting to hit her stride as the champion and there are several other worthy contenders on the horizon, such as Paige and Nicky Bella that she can probably do business with.
Brock Lesnar def. Dean Ambrose: If nothing else, I was pleased to see a straight finish in this match – without Ambrose producing a damn chain saw, kendo stick or whatever the hell else – none of which has a whole hell of a lot to do with wrestling. Having said that, I’m not really sure what, if anything, they really accomplished here, as even though he got his hand raised, the match didn’t really serve to get Brock over that much. As for Dean, I’m not sure how taking a few dozen Suplexes, and getting the crap beat out of him for most of the night and then getting pinned in the middle after that, served to get him over. I still think that Ambrose has the potential to be a marketable face – kind of like a cross between my old “loose cannon” crony Brian Pillman, with a bit of Daniel Bryan’s never say die resolve, but the way they’ve been using him lately, seems to indicate he’s on the road to Jabroneyville, which is too bad, because there was some serious potential there, or so I thought.
The Rock, John Cena & The Wyatt Family: I wouldn’t really call this debacle a match, as it was essentially just a long, drawn out promo – with the Rock insulting and making fools of Bray, Rowan and Strowman for about twenty minutes, then destroying Rowan in a pseudo match, after which Cena and the Rock ran the Wyatts out of the ring.
I assume the ostensible objective of this whole seemingly pointless endeavour was to give the fans a chance to “smell what the Rock was cooking,” but it was far too long, predictable and contrived. Seeing as neither the Rock or Cena are going to be fighting any of the Wyatts anytime soon, I’m not sure what the point really was, other than to nullify whatever heat and momentum Bray and the Wyatts have spent the past couple of years trying to build up.
Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal: Overall, this match wasn’t bad – your typical three ring circus of mauling and brawling, with newcomer Baron Corbin, somewhat surprisingly, emerging victorious over a motley menagerie of jobbers, retreads and blasts from the past, with about the only guys you might term stars in the whole thing being Big Show and Kane. Even though the WWE saw fit to put Corbin over, I didn’t think the whole endeavor really served to establish him as an awe inspiring new monster heel or anything like that, as he didn’t really do that much in the battle royal and only came in at the end to get a cheap win. If they were wanting to get him over and establish him as a force to be reckoned with, they probably should have just had him annihilate some half decent face – such as Dolph or Sin Cara.
Undertaker def. Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match: This match, in many ways, was the best match on the card, with both putting in command performances – culminating in Shane’s death defying twenty foot leap from the top of the cage through the announcer’s table – after which, he was tombstoned, pinned and carried out by paramedics, seemingly signalling the end of his career in the WWE. The next night, however, on RAW, Vince came out and, after putting Shane down, halfheartedly announced that he was going to give Shane a chance to redeem himself, if only on a trial basis, as the new boss of RAW. While it’s nice to see Shane back in the fold, so to speak, I, nonetheless think they could orchestrated this whole charade a lot better.
If it had been my call, I would have had Shane, somehow emerge victorious against Taker and gain control of RAW himself, rather than it being begrudgingly handed over to him by his spiteful and untrustworthy father – who, from what I can discern, still has the power to dismiss or fire him, if he does anything to piss him off. That kind of tenuous, limp dick status doesn’t really cut it – certainly not as much as if Shane had pulled off the big win and was now running RAW on his terms, not his dad’s. Having said all of that, I still think it’s a huge step in the right direction to have brought back and hopefully they’ll put aside a lot of the contingencies and whatnot and let him! be the ostensible impetus for some long overdue and badly needed reform in the WWE, which, I’ll discuss, in greater detail in an upcoming edition of Hart Murmurs.
Roman Reigns def. Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: The last match on the card garnered decidedly mixed reviews. All things considered, both of them deserve a lot of credit for having busted their asses and investing their blood, sweat and tears for the cause. Hunter, in particular, I thought, rose to the occasion, giving everything he had, including doing a job right in the middle and showing, once again, why he’s deservedly called “the Game.”
Roman also, I thought, worked his ass off and did everything he could to rise to the occasion. Having said all of that though, I’m not really sure if they succeeded in their objective – which, ostensibly, was to establish Roman as an iconic face of the franchise type babyface champion, along the lines of icons, like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, the Rock, Bret “Hitman” Hart and Daniel Bryan.
Judging from what I saw and heard (and, I suspect, what most of you saw and heard, as well), there, unfortunately, seemed to be more booing than cheering when Roman finally won the belt, which certainly doesn’t bode well for a long and glorious title reign for him – not, at least,as a babyface champion. I wouldn’t write off Reigns just yet, but they need to be a lot more in tune with the so-called WWE Universe, if they’re going to maximize his potential as a face of the franchise type superstar.
There are a number of ways I think they can accomplish that, but we can discuss that in more detail in next week’s column. I’ll wind up my retrospective on WrestleMania for now though, but will look forward to catching up with you all next week for more Hart Murmurs.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @PWPNation and give a listen to Bruce’s weekly radio program on the PWP Nation Radio Network, “Hart Beat Radio” every Saturday afternoon. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.