Kam

WOW...talk about a blast from the past! :eek: Hope you are keeping well! I remember catching some of WCW which I think used to air late night on ITV. Once Nitro got going they aired it on TNT over here, so I watched that every week. I never watched any of the PPVs though as they never showed them over here. I've got the WWE Network but I've never really felt like watching the PPVs now, I think I'll find it pretty depressing compared to these days.

Oops - I edited my post - ECW ended a LONG time ago! I meant AEW :oops2:

I thought you were joking...until I checked! :D

I think he'll be good for AEW...although I see him more similar to MJF character wise. Speaking of the WWE layoffs, I'd like to see Rusev show up too.

I like Taker and the deadman gimmick, he's had some great matches but his age has been showing more and more. Night #2 thoughts... ‪NXT Women’s Championship Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair ‬ Charlotte ended Asuka's undefeated streak by making her tap out at WrestleMania and she never really recovered from it (maybe this year?). I hope Rhea doesn't end up in the same boat. Hopefully the plan is for them to do a rematch (when they can do normal shows again) and Rhea picks up her win then. The match was OK, I was a little disappointed with Charlotte making her tap. ‪Aleister Black vs Bobby Lashley ‬ It was alright, I wasn't that fussed about it. Dolph Ziggler vs Otis ‬ Match was OK for what it was. We've seen so many of these angles in the past where they have one of the divas fall for someone unexpected, I can't ever remember liking them. Although I had a look at WWE's Youtube channel and the most-watched clip from WrestleMania is the Otis/Mandy one with 1.3 million views (as of now). The majority of WrestleMania clips have under 500k views - so people are obviously interested. RAW Tag-Team Championships The Street Profits vs Angel Garza & Austin Theory This was ok, it felt more like a Raw match. A nice moment with Bianca running in but I was surprised they didn't mention that Ford was her husband. I guess that means this is just a one-off as I can't see her coming up to Raw yet. I'd like to see her have a run with the NXT Women's title first. ‪Last Man Standing Match Edge vs Randy Orton ‬ I liked what they did with this match but I thought it went on too long. It was almost 40 mins. It would have been better if they shortened it. There were so many moments where I thought it was about to finish but then it carried on..and on...and on. SmackDown Women’s Championship Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match Bayley vs Lacey Evans vs Sasha Banks vs Tamina vs Naomi ‬ For a moment I thought they were going to make Lacey win which would have been terrible. She's still not shown me anything that makes her a worthy titleholder. Nice little tease with Sasha and Baley but the right person won. ‪Firefly Fun House Match John Cena vs The Fiend Bray Wyatt I really enjoyed this, it was totally bonkers. It's not something I'd like to see all the time but as a one-off it was fun. WWE Championship Brock Lesnar vs Drew McIntyre ‬ This seemed just like the Universal title match with them just delivering finisher after finisher. There's not really much else to say about it as it was so short. When you look at the amount of time given to both the men's title matches (across both nights), it's less than 10 minutes combined in a 6.5 hour show! Overall, WrestleMania was okay, I had low expectations and they had a few good moments but it just didn't feel like WrestleMania without the crowd or the staging/entrances etc. ‬

There would have been some commitments with sponsors but ultimately it would have been Vince's decision. Every other major sporting event has been cancelled, WrestleMania is the only one I'm aware of that went ahead. I'm sure everyone would have understood if the event was postponed to later in the year. I think it's probably more likely Vince thinking he might be able to get more people watching/paying for it as nothing else is on. It will be interesting to see how the buyrate does, it was about $59.99 on PPV (for both nights), I wonder how many people actually paid. I'm sure most fans would have watched via the WWE Network ($9.99) but I think they might have got some casual fans to watch. We get it live but most people would probably watch it the following morning as it beings around midnight here (for each night). My thoughts on Night #1: I was disappointed with the set. I know they were limited with space but I thought they'd try and do something special to make it stand out more, especially the stage area. The song by The Weekend (Blinding Lights) really grew on me during the show - I love the 80s inspired part that they used when the graphics appeared before each match. You could tell everyone was told to be more vocal to try and add some noise to the event :) ‪Women’s Tag-Team Championship Match Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs The Kabuki Warriors ‬ Match was okay, Nikki looked good. Asuka was very loud :) I still find the team of Nikki and Alexa odd, they don't seem to fit, for me anyway. Elias vs Baron Corbin ‬ I was surprised they didn't show Rob/Mojo during the match considering their connection to it. I thought at the every least they'd show Rob/Mojo celebrating when Corbin lost. Okay match. ‪RAW Women’s Championship Becky Lynch vs Shayna Baszler I was a little disappointed by this one, I was hoping for something more, was okay. I think if this went ahead in the stadium with a crowd, Shayna would have won. ‪Intercontinental Championship Sami Zayn vs Daniel Bryan ‬ Pretty much went how I expected. SmackDown Tag-Team Championships Triple Threat Ladder Match John Morrison vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Kofi Kingston This was good, although it makes it so noticeable there is no crowd when they did some of their big spots.I quite liked the finish with them all grabbing the titles and Morrison falling off with them. (I know we've seen similar stuff before). Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens ‬ I liked Seth's outfit :) This was good, nice spot from Kevin at the end. WWE Universal Championship Goldberg vs Braun Strowman We all knew this would be quick, was fine for what it was. ‪Boneyard Match The Undertaker vs AJ Styles ‬ I was surprised by this match. I quite enjoyed it, despite the cheesy moments. I liked the entrances, use of music and pyro. Match seemed good, it's the best Undertaker has looked in AGES. There were quite a few moments that had me smiling (like when AJ was about to bury Taker). I thought we might see Michelle back considering they've mentioned her so much. I was even thinking she might have another run (after Mania) to go for one of the women's titles. Overall, it was okay. I would have preferred it if they tried to make some of earlier matches more special, it felt like it was only the main event and Rollins/Owens that had anything special to them. It was alright.

@Knox - I amended your post to include the poster/scheduled matches, we might as well make this the official discussion thread :) I know some of the matches have changed but I've left it to how WWE have it announced at the moment. This feels so surreal for me. I cannot believe we're going to get WrestleMania with no crowd, I just can't see it feeling special at all. I would have preferred it if they delayed it. They could have set something up in the storyline to say, all WrestleMania opponents had to stay away from each other until the event was rescheduled. In the meantime, they could have run some alternative feuds for a month or two. Rather than looking forward to the event I'm kinda dreading it. I hope I'm wrong and they put something great together but I can't see it happening.

I thought it was another good episode. I hadn't seen the trailer so was surprised to see a battle. In the past, they'd tend to hype it up over lots of episodes before we finally got to it. Since the mid-season break it's nice to see them speed up the pace. I'm enjoying the show again. I feel like Negan's plan was to infiltrate The Whisperers however it will probably be harder than he anticipated. I'm intrigued to see if Alpha might test his loyalty by asking him to kill one of the Hilltop community. I'm expecting him to turn on Alpha and co...I just don't know how long we're going to have to wait before that happens. I hope the Stephanie/Eugene plot doesn't end up in a scenario where things seem too good to be true - we've had that SO many times before!

Ah, that explains the match then :P Part of WWE's problem is they seem to switch superstars from jobber status to attempting to make them look like threats without any kind of progression to make them a threat. If WWE capitalised on this match and built Gulak up, I'm sure he'd do OK as he's not had that much exposure on the main roster. However, knowing WWE, I wouldn't be surprised to see him used as enhancement talent within the next few weeks/months. Just look at Cedric, was main eventing Raw a while back and now he's a jobber. It's really hard to care about them when they go up and down like this. WWE seem to be obsessed with shortening names, Erik Rowan to just Rowan and Andrade 'Cien' Almas to just Andrade are 2 more examples. I know it will be an unpopular opinion, but I find him cringey, he seems to try too hard. I forgot to mention that, yup - looked good!! During matches I assumed it was just some of the women doing it of their own accord rather than being asked to. The thing I find more frustrating is when they're told to tear up when they win a title (some of the men fall in this bracket too). Most of these moments seem so forced it's silly. Agreed on this...they built it up so well...then it just went downhill. Didn't Liv pass out a few minutes earlier in the same match? :)

I've not watched that much WWE over the past few weeks but I tuned in to Elimination Chamber... Drew Gulak vs. Daniel Bryan I haven't seen Smackdown in a few weeks so I had no idea this was on the card. After seeing Gulak jobbed out since his move to Smackdown, this one surprised me. Good match but some pretty stiff moments! I wonder if they'll end up as a tag-team... Andrade © vs. Humberto Carrillo (United States Championship) - Okay match, nothing really stood out to the usual stuff we've seen from these two in their Raw matches. Aleister Black vs. AJ Styles (No Disqualification Match) - This was okay too, I was hoping for more. I thought we'd see Undertaker due to all the rumours of him taking part, he got a nice pop from the crowd. Men's Elimination Chamber Match: For the Smackdown Tag Team Championship (Miz & Morrison ©, The Usos, The New Day, Heavy Machinery, Lucha House Party, and Ziggler & Roode) - This one had some enjoyable moments in, Heavy Machinery seem to be getting over with the crowd. I thought it was funny when Otis was expecting Dorado to jump off the cell at him so he kept waiting in position but Dorado was busy getting in position for his big spot :lol: That Otis bump looked great with a nice gasp from the crowd too. Wasn't expecting to see Tucker do that dive off the top of the cell either! The Street Profits © vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy (Raw Tag Team Championship) Alright match, nothing really stood out, seemed like a pretty standard Raw match. Braun Strowman © vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, and Sami Zayn: 3 on 1 for the Intercontinental Championship I had the result spoilt for me for this one so it wasn't a surprise. I've got a horrible feeling that Sami will end up in a squash match with Strowman at WrestleMania. Women's Elimination Chamber Match (Natalya, Liv Morgan, Shayna Baszler, Asuka, Ruby Riott, and Sarah Logan) I quite liked Baszler destroying every one, exactly what she needed. Asuka made me laugh with her mocking Baszler in her pod :p I would have liked Asuka to have a little more offense but storyline wise it made sense with her arm injury. Overall, it was okay, some nice moments but it didn't leave me excited for Mania, at all.

I noticed Amell too but thought it can't have been him since he wasn't mentioned at all. Glad to see you enjoyed it as much as I did!

I watched Revolution - I thought it was excellent! Jake Hager / Dustin Rhodes - Good opener, did what it needed to do Darby Allin / Sammy Guevara - How over is Darby?! He's got a great look/presence, some nice moments in this one. I'm glad Darby one but I'd like to see Sammy pick up some more wins. Good match. Kenny Omega and Adam Page / The Young Bucks - Great match, my favourite from the night, I didn't have any idea who would win or if any of them would turn on each other, really enjoyed it. Nyla Rose / Kris Statlander - This was my least favourite match of the night, it was alright but nothing stood out for me. MJF / Cody - This was good, I was hoping for something a little bit more but I still enjoyed it. Pac / Orange Cassidy - This one surpassed expectations, really enjoyed it, was a fun match where both men came out looking good. Jon Moxley / Chris Jericho - Loved Jericho's choir! This was good too, I thought Jericho would retain but I'm OK with Moxley taking the title too. Overall, a fun show (helped by a very vocal crowd) with some great matches!

I hadn't even thought about Rhea until Charlotte mentioned '...A CHAMPION', then we heard the rumblings of Rhea from the crowd. I'd actually quite like that but will be worried for Rhea. Asuka lost to Charlotte at Mania, I can see the same thing happening to Rhea. She's got some great momentum going for her (along with Keith Lee), I hope they don't ruin it.

That Edge beatdown was brutal! I was hoping we might see Shayna...but I guess there is always Smackdown :)

I have to admit, the Royal Rumble has always been one of my favorite matches so I was looking forward to this. Opener was OK, better than I expected but I'm still bored with this feud. I was thinking they'd do a 6 man match at Mania between Corbin/Ziggler/Roode vs The Usos and Reigns but I think that might be too far away to keep them dragging this on until then. Women's Rumble was OK, Bianca looked great, kudos on them making her look so strong. I was hoping for a Baszler win although I'm not surprised with Charlotte winning. If she didn't win, they would have found a way of fitting her in one the marquee matches. Going back to Baszler, as she wasn't in so long and her eliminations were pretty quick, she didn't seem to stand out as much as Bianca to me. I hope we might see Baszler on Raw to let her anger out...on Charlotte :) I thought having Santina enter was a nice touch, got a good pop too. Baley/Evans was alright although as I've said before, Evans hasn't impressed me in a single match yet. I was dreading they might give her the win with the added focus of her daughter at ringside. Fiend/Bryan was OK but to be honest I'm finding The Fiend matches pretty boring. I'm SO HAPPY they got rid of the red lighting though! Asuka/Lynch was OK - I thought both looked pretty strong, we all knew Becky was winning. I enjoyed the Men's Rumble, some random thoughts: - I thought they might try and go all the way with Brock, they really got me with the Rey/Big E and Kofi team, thought they would be the ones to get him out! - Poor Shelton Benjamin - LOVED Brock's reaction to Keith Lee, turning to Heyman 'Who's this MF' :p - I heard rumblings about Edge a while back so it wasn't a major surprise but definitely a nice moment. It was heartbreaking to watch him retire so this was obviously an emotional moment for him. Great reaction from the crowd, many of whom looked totally shocked - I noticed AJ was injured...then I saw going over to Edge to get him to eliminate him. I wonder if there was meant to be a bigger moment for the two - leading to a match at Mania? Oh and seeing Karl Anderson's reaction when AJ gets eliminated is funny, he's thinking WTF - I thought it would have been better if Seth got AOP and Murphy in the ring and tried to get them to take everyone out but oh well - With Drew eliminating Brock (great reaction from the crowd again) I thought he had a good chance of winning so again, it wasn't a major surprise but a nice moment again. He's worked so hard since they let him go previously, I'm happy he's getting his moment