Where does Bundy vs SD Jones WM1 rank?

Is Hogan/Rock at X8 the most underrated WM match of all-time? You never really see it discussed in terms of being a GOATish match but I just re-watched it and it's just amazing knowing the whole story. These two really just understood what wrestling is all about. Everyone knows the story, The Rock went in the babyface and Hogan, as apart of NWO, the heel, but the Toronto crowd was heavily behind Hogan from the start.

This may have been The Rock's finest work. The entire match was filled with little bits you wouldn't notice if you didn't know the two of them re-worked the match on the fly based on the crowd reaction. Stuff like taunting Hogan, being hostile towards the ref, spitting on Hogan's belt before whipping him with it angrily with the ref down, and then of course over-selling to Hogan hulking up like only The Rock can. It's obviously not the greatest worked match ever, Hogan was fairly limited at his age, but the story told, the improvisation, and, most importantly, the phenomenal crowd, make it all-time for me.

5* match thread on another forum

The amount of people that put this at 5* makes me feel like it's incredibly overrated.

I love this match btw. I just believe that there are quite a few better WM matches and that's why it's not brought up very often. Also, Hogan's current status with WWE doesn't help.

For comparison I watched Cena/Rock at XXVIII and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Not on Hogan/Rock's level but still a fine match. It tried to tell a similar story but Cena was more of a tweener and The Rock wasn't as over as Hogan was at X8.

My biggest complaint is Cole. Holy **** is he awful at his job. I can't believe J.R is still alive and this assclown is the lead announcer. It makes me ****ing sick. MULTIPLE times you see him in the background not even watching the match but reading from a piece of paper as the action goes on in the ring. His call after the first Rock Bottom is "Rock did it! Rock did it! Cena kicks out." It should be impossible for there to be as big a difference in ****ing announcing as there is between J.R & Cole but somehow there is. J.R is raw, it genuinely feels like he's calling a match he doesn't know the outcome to, with Cole it's so much easier to remember the whole thing is scripted. I would bet that this match would be more highly regarded with J.R calling it. Does anyone like this guy? Seriously how the **** is he employed?

Cole's good at his job. He's not what we want, though.
wrt why not JR? Cole has the look of a sportscaster. JR doesn't. He's like the Roman of commentating.

Example of how Cole is "good at his job"? He adds nothing, is constantly butchering names/moves, and kayfabe just goes out the window with him. Again, with J.R you forget what you're watching is scripted. He adds emotion and excitement to his calls. With Cole you just wish he'd stfu.

His job is to shill products and get Vince's points across. He does that just fine. Hey, I wish he'd just fall off the face of the earth too but that's not going to happen*. This is actually OT but kind of related, I believe he commentated the UK tournament a few months ago and he received all kinds of praise for the job that he did there and everyone (probably correctly) assumed that he wasn't under Vince's thumb while doing so. It's not like he can't commentate, Vince just doesn't want it.

*Rumors are that that's actually going to happen somewhat soon. He's reportedly looking to fade into an off screen backstage role relatively soon aka when they find a suitable replacement.

I think it's quite properly rated. Most people rated it quite a bit higher than they would have just going by the work. I think it could be up there as far as most surprisingly entertaining match, but not underrated.

Co-sign that Hogan/Rock gets as much love as it deserves. Which is a lot. It was a huge deal and still shows up regularly on GOAT WM match lists.

I also think it is rated properly. The crowd has a lot to do with and is the prime example of what a good one can do for a match. The flip side of that is any NXT show.

As for Cole, I will reiterate what iso said and that if you want to see what Cole is capable of, watch the U.K. tournament. And if you aren't sold then, another one that I constantly shill here is his work in the Japan house show they did about two years ago. What you hate about Michael Cole isn't Cole's fault. He simply does what he is told.

Bump for Feldman

WRESTLEMANIA 34

Well it looks like I never posted my write up for 33, and I don’t have my notes anymore, so I guess I will forever have an incomplete list of Wrestlemania write ups. Unless of course I go back and watch 33, so..... I guess I will forever have an incomplete list. Without tipping my hand too much, the theme of this year’s Mania seemed to be emotion. The matches that had emotion as part of the build and also during the match were fantastic. Those that didn’t just fell short. With that said, on to the show.

SHOW NOTES

- I’m glad for once I know I wasn’t the only person who had no idea who the America the Beautiful singers were. And why in the blue hell are Chloe and Holly, or whatever their names are, going to revolutionize music as we know it. It was just silly.

- Real nice match to start off with the IC title triple threat. I personally would have chosen the Shane/Bryan vs KO/Sami match, just for the giant pop Bryan would have received coming out first, but I guess that is just me.

- Seth as a white walker certainly was an interesting choice, and I also enjoyed Finn’s total embracing of the LGBT community. I have dice come to understand that this is something he has done his whole career, and I think it’s pretty cool.

- This opener was fantastic and you could feel how important it was to all three guys that they open the show in an awesome fashion. I think they all wore their emotions on their sleeves during this match for different reasons. It really contributed to a fantastic match

- I loved both entrances for the Charlotte vs Asuka match. Charlotte’s was especially great as a call back to her Wrestlemania debut as part of HHH’s entrance at Wrestlemania XXX.

- This match was just awesome. The ending hit me out of nowhere since I was fully expecting Asuka to win. Maybe I could have done without the show of respect afterwards but everything else was top notch.

- Even with the inclusion of Rusev, this US title match was the match I was least looking forward to the entire night. I was actually disappointed that it wasn’t included on the kickoff show, and I think if they had they could have given a couple other matches a little more time.

- This match was the first of the night that just lacked emotion from the participants. After his entrance, Rusev just appeared to go through the motions, maybe because he knew he was going to do the job. If they don’t push him soon, I fully expect to see a report that he has asks for his release. He can’t be enjoying himself with they way WWE treats him in comparison to how the crowds love him.

- When I saw that Rousey/Angle vs HHH/McMahon, I just figured that Rousey wasn’t to the level they needed her to be at, and as a result we were going to get a shorter match with a lot of gaga to hide her weaknesses. I couldn’t have been more wrong. She along with all four wrestlers played their parts excellently.

- I also should have known better on the length. This match was the longest of the night and that means that HHH has been a part of 9 matches that were longest of the night. He also tied for longest once and was second longest 5 times.

- Again, emotion was the key to this match, and a big part of that was from th crowd. The pop they elicited when Rousey tagged in for the first time was off the charts. Another big spot was when Rousey had HHH in the armbar. They were dying for HHH to tap there. In hindsight they were probably right as the match seemed to go on a minute or two too long. But it was still a very entertaining match.

- I did like how they didn’t shy away from having short matches this year. And while longer matches are usually better, some times you need to have a short match or two to break things up a bit. If done correctly they can add to a great show. The triple threat tag match for the SD titles were an example of that. A five minute match was perfect for where it was in the show and also for getting the Bludgeon Brothers over.

- Was there ever a doubt that Cena vs Taker was happening. I can appreciate trying something a bit different with regards to presenting a match at WM, but I think they took it a bit far. I will admit I was enjoying watching Cena in the crowd during the Kickoff and early main show segments.

- While Taker looked the best I have seen him since I started watching again, I think having him win in a two minute squash was the correct call. No need to overexpose him like they have the last few years.

- It was really nice not to have a bad music act to get pissed off about during the show. I guess Limp Bizkit was already booked for a county fair or something.

- In case I didn’t mention it before, emotion played a giant role in this show. I don’t think it played a bigger role than it did in the Bryan/Shane vs KO/Sami match. This match probably had too much from everyone involved. Shane was performing hurt in real life and was finally going to get his revenge in the story line. KO and Sami who believed they have been wronged by both Daniel and Shane were fighting for their livelihoods. And Daniel Bryan, well what else can you say about a guy who was told he needed to retire 18 months prior, and now had a second chance at his dream.

- I will say that I totally didn’t understand the need to reason for laying Bryan out before the match only to have him make a comeback during it. Everyone was already geeked up for this match, I’m not sure how much it actually added to it. But it was still a great match.

- Another match that fed off emotion was the Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss match. This match was all about Nia giving the bully in her little friend the comeuppance she deserved. I think the beat down of Mickie James beforehand was great and also helped tell the story. My only criticism complaint would be, this should have been another squash. I’m my opinion 10 minutes was too long for this match. With the way it was built I think half that time with Nia getting 90-100% of the offense was the way to go.

- It is really nice to see Nia as a face, since it seems to be who she is naturally. I don’t think her as a heel ever came across as credible. I also think the crowds feel that way too because she is now over many re than ever before.

- When they did the brand split 2 years ago and started to build Nia and Braun in a similar way, who would have thought Nia would be the first one to win a title?

- Now for the most disappointing match of the night. AJ/Nakamura was the match that I have been looking forward to since Shinsuke debuted on Smackdown last year. Unfortunately it under delivered when the time came. I don’t blame the wrestlers though. This match was undermined by the ****ty build, which as I have stated a million times so far lacked any emotion whatsoever. It was like WWE just thought they could go out and perform an exhibition and the crowd would eat it up. Wrong! I also think the match suffered from its placement on the card. The crowd just had nothing left at this point. It would have taken a huge effort to get them to react at all.

- And why did they wait until after the match for Shinsuke to turn heel. Imagine how much better this match could have been if Shinsuke turned on AJ a month ago after a match on Smackdown. I just don’t understand it. Hopefully now they can build something decent for the Saudi Arabia show or something.

- As much as the previous match was a disappointment, the payoff for Braun’s partner was equally disappointing. I don’t know why I get sucked into this whole mystery partner thing, because it never pays off, but a ten year old kid? Seriously? At least it was a short match.

- The main event. What else can we say about the main event. This was the goofiest booked match in a long time. I don’t get the whole thing year long build to culminate in Roman getting pinned clean.

- It was a shame to see the crowd turn on this match as quickly as they did, but I guess you can only voice your displeasure in a wrestler so khe ch before breaking out the beach balls. It also didn’t help that everyone fully expected this to be Brock’s last match.

- They didn’t learn from when Brock busted Orton open that maybe using legit elbows to hardest someone isn’t the beat way to draw blood. There is really no way to control what happens when the elbows start flying.

- Why did Brock need to remove his gloves before throwing said elbows?

- This match did ruin what was a really good show with regards to finisher lockouts. 5 F5s? Really? So ridiculous.


AWARDS TIME

Match of the Night

Rousey/Angle vs HHH/Steph. This match beats out Charlotte vs Asuka for match of the night. It was highly entertaining from start to finish. My favorite spot was when Rousey first entered the match and flipped Steph over the top rope. What a great spot.

Worst Match of the Night

I could have gone a couple different ways here but I decided on Braun/Nicholas vs The Bar. This had an awful mystery partner payoff, and also really didn’t offer anything in the ring. The only saving grace was that it was short.

MVP

HHH. He was just fantastic during his match. He can still go at his advanced age and he also carries Angle, who just looks like it’s time to hang em up, to a decent match. He also had great interactions with Rousey.

LVP

I’m not sure anyone really had a bad night, but I guess you can take your pick from the US title match. They all just seemed to show up because they were told they had to have a match.

SHOW RANKINGS

This show was really good. Like top 10 almost top 5 good. I think with a better WWE title match it would have been a top 5 show.

X-SEVEN
VIII
XXX
III
XIV
XIX
34
NY/NJ
23
Play/31
X
XX
XXVIII
22
VI
VII
XXVI
X8
33
V
XXV
XXIV
21
1
13
XII
XXVII
IV
XI
IX
Star/32
2
XV





Well that’s it for this year. I guess I’ll see you guys here next year.

I have completed reading all these, well done to those that have completed it. I crapped out at wrestlemania 10. I've started it like 4 times over the last couple years, but never finished a write up. I am obviously thinking about giving it another go since I'm back here posting, lol.

I think instead of writing 5000-8000 reviews, which were fun, I may shorten it to brief analysis of each match, though being wordy is sort of my thing, as evidenced.

Decisions, Decisions.