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What can be arguably called the biggest week in the history of pro wrestling in the United States finished up with a record setting WrestleMania, one of the craziest Raws in history, and one promotion after another piggy backing off the show into setting their own business records.
For all the negativity that pro wrestling can often breed, if you are a fan at any level, it would be hard not to find a number of things about the week that wouldn’t be either great or memorable.
WrestleMania coming to the New York market, with one of the biggest shows in history, arguably the biggest Hall of Fame in history, led to more tourists coming from all over the world than for any week ever. New York was overrun by wrestling fans, with every major promotion and every major star in town and the most successful wrestling convention of its kind.
Many shows were great. Ironically, WrestleMania itself wasn’t one of them, in a lot of people’s eyes.
WrestleMania 29, on 4/7 at MetLife Stadium, was one of the most unique shows ever, because it was viewed differently by different people. As a pure spectacle, there was a legitimate sold out audience with the pyro, the impressive stage with the various scenes representing New York.
But there were all kinds of problems and issues. The response we got varied greatly. From those in the stadium, it seemed to depend upon where they were sitting. There were hot spots where fans were going crazy and everything was over. There were spots were nothing was over except the standout match on the show, Undertaker vs. C.M. Punk. There were people who blamed the weather, saying it was too cold and that’s why nobody responded. There were others who said it wasn’t cold and that had absolutely nothing to do with it. Some said the sound of the live crowd disappeared into the sky. Others said there was no sound and the audience was dead. Others said it was loud and the television didn’t pick it up. Bryan Alvarez, there live, noted this unique fact, saying that the higher up you were, the colder it got. In many places it wasn’t that bad. In others, it was very cold and in those places, the crowd was dead for most of the show. There were a lot of issues with obstructed view seating, which seemed like a major problem.
We got tons of e-mails as the posts setting up the canopy over the ring blocked views for apparently thousands of fans. There were “We can’t see” chants early in the show, although in such a big stadium, you really couldn’t hear them. Some people who complained were relocated to where they could see better. This problem was very significant for a lot of people on the floor who had paid hundreds of dollars for tickets. One person who contacted us, who came from Europe for the first time and said he’d never come back, said he couldn’t see anything in the middle of the ring, that it took 75 minutes of complaining before he was moved and that the fans who were moved to new seats he was sitting with were pretty mad, noting many left before the main event. It was also noted that many didn’t complain, feeling they were stuck because the stadium was sold out and figured there were no other seats. Some noticed that people were being moved to a formerly tarped off area behind the hard camera and started complaining. There were people in the sections obstructed, and we got multiple reports of this from different places, talking about suing WWE. One lawyer noted to us they thought WWE should get ahead of the game and issue a statement, but it ended up not being any kind of a media story and I’m not sure if any reporters but me even asked WWE about it.
We were also told that the people who were moved were so rude to the arena staff that it was also uncomfortable, blaming the building and being abusive to the people trying to help them get a new seat, being aggressive and swearing.
Others may not have complained but left upset, having paid hundreds of dollars for obstructed view seats. Others said nothing could be done about it because it was a sold out building. But there were tons of people upset because these were high dollar seats. It didn’t turn into a P.R. issue, as nobody mainstream picked up on it like Super Bowl issues. WWE did say that when people complained they moved them.
From what we were told, people who did complain and asked to be moved were put in a long line, which caused them to miss matches and many got moved, others got tired of standing in line and went back to their seats. One reader said he had since contacted fan services about the problem, and while wasn’t offered a partial refund, was given free premium tickets to the next three events in his area and was okay with that.
There were also problems with fake Stubhub tickets, as there were people who bought secondary market tickets, went to the building, and were told their tickets were fake (this has become a real problem at all sports events). Stubhub guarantees refunds if the ticket is fake.
Besides the issue with obstructed view seating, there were other technical issues with WrestleMania, the biggest being difficulty of a lot of people to order it. We received a number of e-mails from all over the country, and from subscribers from several different companies saying they were unable to order the show. WWE officials told us they were aware of one minor issue, and weren’t sure what the problem was, but didn’t believe it was widespread nor would have any significant bearing on viewership.
However, there were major issues with those ordering the PPV on the Internet through the WWE web site. The feed went down for two hours. At that point, people who had ordered were able to see the show from start to finish on a two hour delay. Some who did said there was bleeding over of the audio from the post-game show while they were watching the main matches. We did get significantly more complaints regarding those ordering it on the Internet as compared to the complaints about being unable to order the television. In addition, many people couldn’t access the post-game show.
The app also crashed during the show. There were plans on the show to do as they do for Raw, and push people toward going to the app, but those were changed and the announcers were told not to mention it because of the crash. Also, because the app crashed, people who tried to order the PPV through the app couldn’t do so.
WWE officials said there were digital PPV issues for people with desktop and personal computers, but issues didn’t affect people ordering on Xbox, Samsung, mobile or tablet users. We got one report from someone who disputed that, saying he ordered through Samsung and it didn’t work. They noted that they sent out messages to all who had ordered when the stream was fixed. Everyone at that point, from a little after 9 p.m. Eastern, could watch the show from the beginning and said most of those watched it on a delay.
If there was a consensus view, it was that for a WrestleMania, it was overall below par, certainly from a PPV standpoint. It was not a bad show. Every wrestler was out there working to their best ability and only one match, Mark Henry vs. Ryback, I’d call not good.
Only one match was great. There were a lot of talented wrestlers who had their times cut, and in one case, their match cut, partially so the big three matches would have time to tell their stories, but partially also because of things like PSA’s, which are really better served on television shows than PPVs. There were a lot of injuries coming out of the top three rematches. When it came to the top three matches, Cena came in hurt but didn’t appear to get hurt worse, and Undertaker was fine, but everyone else got hurt at one point or another. There were tons of ideas for backstage vignettes and other videos cut. The crowd did hurt the show from a television standpoint, being so cold for many of the matches. It was part of the issue of going to an outdoor show in a cold weather climate. It’s probably not the best idea on one hand, but running the show in the New York market was clearly the best thing for the company.
A lot happened. John Cena beat The Rock to win the WWE title in a match where Cena came in with a broken thumb and battling food poisoning. Rock during the match tore an abdominal muscle, tore his adductor (a muscle in the hip) and suffered a hernia. The initial injury took place when he took the first Attitude Adjustment. He continued to wrestle and it’s his belief the muscle continued to tear from his pelvis as they went to the big moves and near falls, and by the time the match was over, both his abdominal and adductor muscle had torn completely off the pelvis.
The match, as far as layout, went exactly as planned. Nobody was aware that night that Rock was injured. A lot of the wrestlers were surprised the next day because he wasn’t acting hurt at all after the match.
The story of the match consisted of them kicking out of each others’ finishers over and over, and building on crossing up spots from their match the previous year. The match was very good, but the crowd wasn’t nearly as hot for it as it was the year before. Ultimately, the build up for the first match was better. The crowd hated Cena, and wanted Rock to win. They did pop for the finish when Cena won, but that often happens when people see a major title change.
The months leading up to the show indicated a lot of changes in the business. There is a feeling of not wanting pro wrestling to be predictable. The problem is, from a traditional standpoint, when pro wrestling is at its most successful, it is mostly predictable with a few swerves, not many, thrown in. This show was built on three major matches. The Rock-Cena storyline in theory should have ended with Rock putting Cena over. Cena is the full-timer who has to carry the company. They kept the title off Cena for more than a year to make his chase that much more important. In the end, Rock should lose, and endorse Cena. It only made sense. The problem was, and this was really clear two years ago that whenever Rock shook Cena’s hand, people hated it. The one thing that was a positive is the people expected the title change and while they booed, it wasn’t an ugly reaction.
The original plan for Raw was for Rock to do a promo, and at the end, get laid out by Lesnar, which would have set up one of the main events for next year’s show. According to those in the company, Rock was the one who came up with the angle. But after Mania, Rock rushed back to Miami after the show to see his personal orthopaedic doctor to check the severity of his injuries and consult on what to do next, given the “Hercules” movie was set to start filming in May. It was described as a panic late Monday afternoon, as Vince McMahon led the team in having to redo the entire show.
What we do know is that his schedule is getting even busier, even with no wrestling dates planned, over the next several weeks. He has to do promotion work over the next several weeks for both the new “Fast and Furious Six” and “Pain and Gain.” Then he starts shooting the new “Hercules” movie in Budapest, Hungary, and that will take several months.
Because of that, he basically told his orthopedic surgeon when options were given to him that surgery right now isn’t an option, because it would lay him up and force a delay in “Hercules.” It’s a tricky situation because he has to look like Hercules, so the timing of the injuries, which have to greatly limit his training, couldn’t be worse. There is the chance that after filming the movie, he’ll get the surgery, which would lay him up for months.
What that means for wrestling is that obviously he’s not going to be around for a while, but he wasn’t planning on being anyway. I wouldn’t have expected him back until next year’s WrestleMania season. As far as even that goes, the jury is out. He did five matches on this comeback and he suffered a partially torn hamstring in the first Cena match, and these more serious injuries this time. He does love wrestling, and you can see it when he’s cutting promos on Raw, because it’s been a big part of his life and he has great reverence for it. He also loves being a part of seeing the popularity of the business go up, and wrestling is clearly more “cool” right now when compared to the fall and the change is far more than just the usual seasonal shift.
There are still a few potential matches, one with Lesnar, another with Undertaker, that he could do at Mania that would be a big thing. On the surface, the options seem limited after that, but he only needs one option and there’s a year for another star to rise. On Raw, Booker T brought up the idea of Rock being entitled to his rematch and that wouldn’t have been a scripted line if they didn’t want it in people’s head. I don’t think that’s a good idea for next year’s Mania, nor that it’s even considered since the plan clearly is Lesnar, if he’s going to come back. If it was at SummerSlam (which is probably doubtful with the injuries) or Royal Rumble, I don’t think the rematch negativity that was there in at least some circles would be there. And again, until we see the PPV numbers, we don’t know if there’s any validity to the rematch complaints. How many times have we seen people complain about UFC main events and then those shows end up doing remarkably well? There are a number of factors in play. Among them, WWE summer business, how Mania does, how well he heals up, what his schedule is like, age, having the physique he wants to have for movies is conducive to long, physical, pro wrestling matches and willingness to accept injuries as part of doing a few matches or one match a year. Who knows if what he thinks today will be what he’s thinking, or what Vince McMahon will be thinking, at the end of the year when the Mania plans are being made. I think it’s obvious the movie studios won’t be wanting him to do wrestling going forward because of the injury risk, but I don’t know if they were thrilled about it going in. He was advised for years to stay away from wrestling while he built his name, but his mentality several years back, when he had established himself in Hollywood, was to go back. There are strong arguments from his perspective on both sides.
Lesnar was pulled from the Raw show when word came that Rock wasn’t going to be there, because it’s now the start of a new contract and he has very limited television dates in his deal over the next year. They didn’t want to waste one of them without something major, and with everything in question, they had no big alternate on a few hour notice. Lesnar was knocked out by a knee early in the HHH match and really didn’t recover for about five minutes. It wasn’t obvious in the match but HHH had to lead him through for a few minutes until he got his wits back. The match was very physical. HHH’s arm was in a bad position during one of Lesnar’s slams of him on the ring steps. He thought he broke his arm, but didn’t call to go home and they finished up everything planned. He had X-rays that showed bone bruising but no break. He also had second degree burns on his arms and torso from the dry ice machine stuff getting all over him just before his ring entrance. Shawn Michaels, at ringside, took a shot from Lesnar and he was bleeding badly from the nose. It was believed he had a broken nose, but the next day, he said his nose wasn’t broken.
Also pulled from Raw was C.M. Punk. Punk suffered both an elbow injury, and worsened a knee injury, both from a spot where he came off the top rope with an elbow onto Undertaker who was on the Spanish announcing table. The table didn’t break, and apparently his leg smashed into the side of the table on landing. His elbow swelled up immediately, but that injury nobody was taking about after the show. His knee was bothering him going into the match and it worsened. He was getting an MRI this week to find out the damage. Punk wasn’t pulled due to the injury. He was originally scripted to do a promo, and was backstage at the show. When the show was re-written, the decision was made not to have him on because of the belief that audience would cheer him so much and that wasn’t what WWE wanted. So they had Paul Heyman, who was cheered heavily, only do a backstage promo (so the cheers wouldn’t be as noticeable) and he said how Punk would be talking, but not until next week’s show. The idea was to build something for the next week.
On the world title front, Dolph Ziggler cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Raw instead of the PPV. It was a huge moment with the live crowd going crazy. In many ways, because people “wanted” that special moment at Mania, were chanting for Ziggler all through the Del Rio vs. Swagger title match and were mad they didn’t get him coming out, it made the reaction even stronger when he did the cash in on Raw.
It was really an awesome spot. Ziggler’s win was put over by Michael Cole like it was a babyface win. Dating back to his program with John Cena, it was clear Ziggler was going to end up as a babyface at some point. But on Smackdown the next night, he was still a heel, making the point that he won the title in spite of the crowd, not because of them, and wrestled Chris Jericho in the Smackdown main event.
In many ways, Raw the next night came off as more entertaining. It was the same audience, the most hardcore of the hardcore fans. Even when they were seemingly protesting, they were having a good time. But on Smackdown the next night it became clear that what happened on Raw, may have had to stay at Raw.
Raw was all about the crowd. It was very reminiscent of the ECW Arena, except it was 13,000 people instead of 1,000. The crowd, very European in make-up, acted like a soccer crowd with constant chants and singing. The thing that everyone got into was singing Fandango’s music. It took place all through the third hour of the show. The company went with it, and after the show, played his music again. In leaving the building, people were in a celebratory mood, still singing his song. Cars were honking their horns to the song. At the train station people were singing the song.
It appeared when the show was over, that Fandango’s song was going to be this year’s version of the “Yes,” chant, which is still strong a year later. And maybe it will be. But in Boston, it was the opposite reaction. Fandango got the “You can’t wrestle” treatment, and was viewed as the same heel he was a week earlier by most of the fans there.
The Boston TV crowd usually boos Cena, even thought it’s his home town. But this was a more kid-oriented crowd, and he was cheered like crazy.
So after the show was over, and the dark match ended, Cena followed up with everyone’s fun and try to make people sing Fandango’s theme. He tried and tried, he hummed it, and this is the lead babyface in a crowd that he was over in. Some bought into it but the reaction we were told is that most didn’t care. He brought Fandango to the ring and the crowd booed him, but he was clearly playing heel. Fandango said how Boston didn’t deserve him, and Cena called him Fan Douchebag, and laid him out. He took a choke slam from Kane and then a choke slam from Bryan, and all the faces left the ring. He was selling the beating and did the “My name is Fandango” deal while selling. They ended the show playing his music. There were people singing along. How many probably depends on where you were in the building, because I had people who were at Raw who said it died and almost nobody did and others who said it was substantial. The general reaction seemed to have been a few tried to start the singing, but most didn’t pick up on it.
The reaction from Raw is that it was Europeans, in particular Brits, who were in huge numbers at Raw, and the singing and chants is reminiscent of soccer games. Lots of the rest of the crowd went along with hit.
There was a campaign going on after TV in the U.K. to get Fandango’s theme song to No. 1. It reached as high as No. 11 at press time and the hope was to keep it there through the weekend, so it gets mainstream play on the weekend radio top 40 rundown shows.
This is not unprecedented when it comes to WWE in the U.K. In the early 90s, when WWF was really hot coming off the SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium, Simon Cowell, before he became a celebrity in the U.S., produced the WWF song “Slam Jam” that reached No. 4 in 1992. In 1993, the “WrestleMania” song reached No. 14, and also in 1993, a song called “USA” recorded by Jim Duggan reached No. 71. Duggan made frequent appearances in those days on the BBC kids show “Going Live” that helped with that.
Whether this is a short-term fad, and it almost surely is, the timing couldn’t be better since undoubtedly Fandango will be the reacted to like a gigantic star again on the 4/22 Raw from London. But after that, it’s anybody’s guess.
Aside from the WWE and world title change this past week, the only other title change was the IC title, where The Miz won the title from Wade Barrett at WrestleMania, only to lose it back to Barrett the next night on Raw. Miz is filming a made-for-TV movie for ABC Family called “Christmas Bounty” shortly. Given that it’s the IC title, which is anything but a money belt, it really doesn’t matter what they do with it. The match was moved to the pre-game show of Mania, and cut to four minutes. I have no idea why, with a 60 minute pre-game show, you only have one match, let alone cut it to four minutes.
In addition, the advertised Brodus Clay & Tensai (now called Sweet T) & Cameron & Naomi vs. Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow & Bella Twins match was taken off WrestleMania due to time constraints. All were unhappy but it was said Rhodes was in particular. The match would have likely ended up as a buffer in the middle of the main matches, so it would have been in a death position to get any reaction. They ended up having the match on Raw, but even there they barely got two minutes.
They are taking a long break between PPV shows, with the next not being until 5/19, Extreme Rules, from St. Louis. Right now, the main event on that show is scheduled as John Cena vs. Ryback for the WWE title, as Ryback turned on Cena during Raw. He was cheered like crazy for doing so, and it was hardly booked like a big shock. After Cena had beaten Mark Henry via count out, Henry laid him out. Ryback came in for the save, and with the audience watching, they all were expecting the Ryback turn and went wild. Ryback had flattened out as a face greatly, and perhaps it was inevitable. The chant was way over, but as a heel, part of the process would be to ditch leading fans in chants. He’s the most limited guy in the ring of anyone pushed, but it’s a new match-up on top.
As far as the post-Mania programs go, Henry is scheduled to be programmed with Sheamus. This was on the original Mania lineup before they changed the undercard. Kane & Daniel Bryan appear to be on a collision course with The Shield, also a match that at one point was earmarked for Mania. Antonio Cesaro appears to be starting a program with Kofi Kingston over the U.S. title. Dolph Ziggler looks to first be programmed with Alberto Del Rio, which may be a tough one because people like Ziggler so much and Del Rio didn’t get where they wanted him to be as a face, but it’s very important to have him as a face for the Hispanic market. There’s also been a tease of Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger, which would make Ziggler a face.
Randy Orton, Big Show and Sheamus are still programmed with each other. WrestleMania ended with Show turning on his partners, but his promos and the fan reaction to him has been more as a face because the story has been to make fans feel empathy for him. But nothing has been done strongly to make Orton and Sheamus as heels, even though all the little hints of an Orton turn are there. Plus, Sheamus is being moved out of this program to work with Henry, as a backstage angle where Henry laid out Sheamus was shot in Boston on 4/9 and will likely air on this weekend’s Smackdown how.
Monday’s Raw crowd isn’t a good barometer as to Orton and Sheamus, but as much as they may have helped the show, they made Orton and Sheamus come across like guys the fan base was rejecting when you’ve got two of the top full-timers in a match that hasn’t been done in a long time and having chants of “End this match.” Plus, you had the poll, with no outside influence of telling people what to do, the fans live cheered Orton more than Sheamus when both asked for the match with Show, and the people at home voted 77% for Orton, and with the Henry program, it doesn’t appear Orton turning on Sheamus is in the cards.
The obvious wildcard among the top guys is Punk. His injury situation is in question. But Punk and Cena are by leaps and bounds the two biggest stars at this point.
They debuted both a pre-and post-game show with a desk and analysts similar to what UFC does on Fuel cards and after all major shows. Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes were on it, which begged the question of why Ross was there and not at all part of the broadcast, even if it was just for one of the three main events.
Due to so much going on this week, we are going to do our Hall of Fame coverage article this coming week. During the ceremony, Trish Stratus announced that she was pregnant and due in September.
_________________ Drop In wrote: I'm picturing a 12 year old Bob Loblaw bitching out a Randy Savage Wrestling Buddy for botching his finisher. Also envisioning Bob Loblaw getting bitched at for lighting the living room table on fire for said finisher.
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Still need to process this entire thing.
