Monday 4 April 2016

Wrestlemania 32 Review



Ha, betcha you didn't know that I am a wrestling fan! But why are you surprised? Didn't I say I love fantasy? This is the ultimate scripted fantasy where mere mortals act as superhumans. Don't believe me - this is from yesterday, where a man jumped from 20 freaking feet and through a table. Oh and he's 46 years old and seems to be alive and well. If this isn't superhuman, I don't know what is.



So, for the uninitiated, Wrestlemania is like the annual Superbowl/World Cup of Wrestling from WWE, which showcases the best (they think) they have to offer. Sometimes, it is grand and breathtaking, sometimes it is boring but it draws people to watch anyway. Last nights attendance was a whopping 100,000 people. Let that number sink in. Armies can be formed from the people in that stadium!

Anyhow, the show was broken into two parts - the pre-show and the main show. I didn't watch the pre-show, so I won't write about that but the main show was about 4 hours long, so that took some watching. I won't review all matches or in any depth whatsoever but these are my impressions from the show.

The first ladder match had seven men climbing a ladder to grab a title belt dangling above (the Intercontinental Title). Yeah, they also wrestle and fight. It isn't just seven men climbing a ladder at the same time, fastest feet and hands wins. The match was exceptional with people jumping and dropping from ladders and on one occasion breaking a steel ladder in half! Yeah, like I said, as scripted as pro-wrestling may be, it is still amazing and real. They went with a true underdog, who wasn't given a chance - ZACK RYDER. The guy is a self-made wrestling star, literally and deserves all the kudos. The explosion of noise when he won was amazing.

The next moment of interest was the Women's match, which was amazing because all three of the competitors - Charlotte (Champion), Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks are amazing wrestlers. They put on heck of a match and what made it even more interesting was the fact that the winner Charlotte got the Women's Title instead of the pre-existing Divas title and received a Champion's celebration (the same as men). This is a great move for WWE, where traditionally Women's division was treated as an afterthought. Hopefully, the tag team division gets the same treatment.

I won't speak about the Undertaker-Shane McMahon match because all you need to know is in that 1 minute clip above.

The title match between Triple H and Roman Reigns was a great match. But as expected the evil Triple H was cheered by the crowd while the hero Roman was jeered and booed (yeah, we wrestling fans are weird). The match ended with Roman winning and being booed out of the stadium.

So, as a complete show review, it was quite good. WWE pulled out quite a few swerves I didn't expect (Zack Ryder yo!) but stuck to the safe routes with the big matches. Shout out to Baron Corbin for an amazing debut, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Stone Cold for an interesting interlude and the ROCK for setting his name on fire, literally.

All in all, a fun watch but and there's the but, it didn't blow my mind, which it may have given its potential.

Anyways, I have a few blog posts to write - more on the normal books and TV series, so you'll be home! But as me and Brighton say, what's life (or a blog) without some craziness.

Signing off,

Utsav

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