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Post by CM Punk'd on Apr 5, 2018 23:16:11 GMT
WrestleMania usually brings out the best in everyone. But that's not always the case.
For every five star classic that appears in the industry's ultimate climax, there is another that's destined to be flushed away in the mounting pile of WrestleCrap.
That same attitude towards matches, also applies to the cards themselves. If there's more good matches than bad, fans will leave happy, with memories that'll last a lifetime. If not, you'll hear about it, and they'll want those memories wiped away.
So looking back, what were the matches and cards that left that bad taste in your mouth?
One minor rule to the matches list. They must have lasted at least one minute. So no matches like SD Jones/King Kong , or Rooster/Heenan, or Hart Foundation/Bolsheviks.
To get things started, I'll give you my lists.
Top 5 Worst Matches:
1. Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez (IX) 2. Snooki, Trish Stratus & John Morrison vs. LayCool & Dolph Ziggler (XXVII) 3. Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man: Hell in a Cell (XV) 4. Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal (25) 5. The Kat vs. Terri (2000)
Now, my Top 5 Worst Cards
1. XI 2. 2 3. IX 4. 2000 5. XXVII
Now, it's your turn.
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Post by Baker on Apr 6, 2018 0:31:52 GMT
Worst Match- Lawler vs. Cole was the first thing that came to mind. I forget the 'Mania. I was actually looking forward to that match. In fact, it's the only reason I watched half that 'Mania on a wonky live stream. A few minutes of Cole running around like a coward followed by a few minutes of righteous Lawler beat down would have been satisfying and fun. Or, hell, just recreate Lawler/Kaufman spot for spot. But that thing just dragged on and on. And I think there was some goofy screwjob finish? DUD city.
By all accounts Bret/Vince was basically Lawler/Cole II but I was lucky enough not to see that one. So it's off the hook.
Let's see...I'm not very good at remembering bad matches. Or Diva's matches. Wait. Was that redundant? Anyway, I'm usually just like "Well, that sucked." and move on. So I'll boringly echo some of the OP's choices.
Undertaker vs. Gonzalez (9) Undertaker vs. Bossman (15) *The Snooki match was fine. I think people just hate on it because they don't like Snooki. She did an athletic thing or two. That's more than anyone was expecting. Rest of the match was basic forgettable tv-style wrestling. Hmm...I vaguely recall Piper vs. Bad News @ 6 being terrible. So that makes 4. And....Goldust/Piper @ 12! Good grief! That was an awful sports "entertainment" mess. That'd be my #2 behind Lawler/Cole. So....
1. Lawler vs. Cole 2. Goldust vs. Piper 3. Undertaker vs. Gonzalez 4. Undertaker vs. Bossman 5. Piper vs. Bad News
Worst 'Mania's (chronological order)
2 was boring and weird. 4 mostly consisted of rushed tournament matches in front of a quiet crowd (or was 5 the one with the quiet crowd? I forget) Nobody seems to remember a single thing that happened at 6 other than Hogan/Warrior. 11 was boring and bad (Bret/Mr. Backlund is another Worst Wrestlemania Match contender) 15 & 16 were both bloated, nonsensically booked messes that exemplified "bad" Attitude Era. Maybe sometimes "everybody gets a payday!" isn't such a good thing. Both were one match shows but I'll take the Triangle Ladder Match over Austin/Rock. So 15 "wins" out.
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Post by PB on Apr 6, 2018 0:52:43 GMT
The Snooki match wasn't even the worst match on that card! Cole/Lawler was such an abomination of a match I cannot understand how you would pinpoint a harmless, fun and short celebrity match that did it's job perfectly. Let's not forget that Cole/Lawler dragged on longer than Del Rio/Edge and Rey/Cody. The Snooki match was a harmless 3 and a half minutes and she even did a handspring back elbow!
Speaking of terrible matches dragging on too long. Let's not forget that McMahon vs. Bret went for 12 minutes in a similar style, except Bret couldn't even take any offence. So it was a 12 minute beat down. Awful, and alongside Edge/Jericho not delivering, prevented 26 from being the all-time great Mania it could've been.
Oh, and in case you haven't guessed that matches going longer than they need to is a pet peeve of mind, Roman Reigns vs. Triple H bored everyone to tears for 27 minutes at 32. That's one of the top ten longest matches in Wrestlemania history, and no one cared about any of it.
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Post by Big Pete on Apr 6, 2018 8:07:02 GMT
I really wanted to like Lawler vs. Cole, but the segment lasted 30 minutes and killed what had otherwise been a fun show up to that point. The 'to be continued' finish didn't help matters much either. Eventually they had the match they should have had at a subsequent PPV but by that point, the horse had already bolted.
T&A vs. Head Cheese maybe one of the most out of place matches I've ever seen on a card. T&A only started teaming semi-recently, I believe on Heat of all places whereas Head Cheese was the classic let's throw two guys together and hope they can make something good. Despite having three pretty good hands in the ring, nothing about the match clicked and it really kills the flow of the show. To me, it was the type of match you would see on a WCW PPV, something like Brian Adams & Scott Norton vs. Fit Finlay & Jerry Flynn.
As far as utter bombs are concerned, Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan really backfired on the company. Bryan was originally supposed to be the first guy to ever cash-in his Money in the Bank briefcase and walk out without the title. However, Henry got injured, so he got pigeon holed into this role where he'd relay the title to Sheamus. Going in, everyone thought this would be one of the designated work-rate matches of the show, but the WWE decided to pull a surprise and only have the match go 18 seconds. Suffice to say it backfired big time and the crowd let them know about it on the next night of Raw with a ton of Daniel Bryan chants. So much so, they actually brought Bryan out after the show to cut a babyface promo just to send the fans home happy. In a way, it was probably one of the best things to happen for Bryan, but in terms of it getting Sheamus over as the face of SD, it tanked hard and Sheamus never recovered.
Going old school and the worst match I've seen from the earlier shows has to be Brutus Beefcake vs. David Sammartino. A 10 minute draw, which felt more like 20 minutes and the two most over guys were on the outside of the ring - Johnny Valient & Bruno Sammartino. It's just the epitome of killing time and the cure for insomnia.
HHH vs. Orton was another bomb of a match. I'm not sure what it was about HHH but he made sure that Randy Orton was only going to get so over. He killed his push in 2004 after Foley had got him over as a superstar, did it again in 2008 and just for old-times sakes, did it again in 2009 when Orton was really getting over. These days the narrative seems to be that nothing could follow HBK/Taker and they weren't allowed to really sell the intensity of the feud, but that doesn't excuse HHH going over the way he did. It really sucked the life out of the promotion at that point and even though they'd later commit to an Orton reign, the horse had already bolted. As boring as Raw has been, I don't think it ever got as bad as it did in 2009 with the guest hosts and Orton being pushed on top despite being booked awfully for the most part.
That's five, but I could easily go on. Goldberg/Lesnar WMXX, Bossman/Taker WMXV, Butterbean/Gunn WMXV, Corre/Show & Kane & Kozlov & Santino, WMXV Women's Battle Royal and the Four-Way at WM2000 has one of the most ridiculous heat segments of any match I've seen I almost want to toss it in. Having Foley partner up with HHH is just one of the most insulting things I've ever seen a bunch of wrestlers try and get away with. That and maybe the Sting vs. HHH match. Is there such thing as promotion appropriation? Because Sting & the nWo being best buddies and Sting shaking HHH's hand afterwards maybe the most hilariously bad piece of wrestling I've ever seen.
Top 5 Worst Shows 1. XV - This was the first Wrestlemania I ever watched and afterwards I didn't get the big deal. At the start of the show they do this big spiel with Freddie Blassie which makes it out to be this once in a life-time event and it really felt like nothing more than an elongated Raw. Outside of being enamored with Shawn Michael's voice (he had to be moonlighting as Rowlf the Dog's voice actor right?) the only thing that impressed me about the show was the presentation. As somebody who was used to watching Nitro, I couldn't get over how polished everything was. Jericho's Wizard of Oz comparison in the Monday Night Wars DVD was spot on.
2. X-8 - Maybe a controversial pick, but considering all the talent they had, this was the best they could come up with? HHH/Jericho in the main event, Booker T & Edge fighting over shampoo, Steve Austin facing off against Scott Hall, Kurt Angle against Kane and so on. I know a lot of people really enjoyed Rock/Hogan & Flair/Taker, but even those were disappointments. I really wanted the nWo run to be successful, so to see Hogan do the job his first month in and basically kill the angle off by going babyface was the final nail in the WCW vs. WWF narrative. Taker/Flair ages better, but I was used to Flair being an old semi-retired guy in WCW and American Bad-Ass Taker was just the worst. Even though I was really into Rob Van Dam at the time, his match with William Regal for the IC Belt felt beneath him and I was bummed they were putting the brakes on his main event push.
3. XXV - Just a really ho-hum Mania really. Outside of Steamboat/Jericho killing it and the HBK/Taker match living up to the hype, the show was just so underwhelming. Punk won the briefcase for the second time in two years with no reason to believe this run would be any better than the previous. Santina won quite possibly the sloppiest women's Rumble of all-time where the best part (the entrances) were lost so we could enjoy a Kid Rock concert. Then the rest of the card was just a series of underwhelming matches - Jeff/Matt, Cena/Edge/Show, Orton/HHH - all ** and nothing of importance was gained.
4. XXIX - The main image I have of this show is The Rock humbly raising Cena's hands up the entrance ramp while the New Jersey crowd boos. Keep in mind, we had three years worth of television just to get to this moment and in the end the fans hated Cena more than they ever had. It also effectively ended The Rock's in-ring career since he suffered so many injuries through out, he nor any studio for that matter were dumb enough to let him work another match. Then in the semi-main you've got HHH getting his win back over Brock in a completely unnecessary match. Then there was the poorly thought out Del Rio-Swagger feud where they tried to make Del Rio into a sympathetic character instead of just an ass-kicker. Finally there was Jericho-Fandango which I think was the tipping point for Jericho in terms of doing jobs. The match was awful and a real waste of everybody's time. Punk really worked his arse off against The Undertaker and may have had the last great Taker match, but there was absolutely no tension in the match.
5. XXXIII - Is this show still going? It was like a NJPW show where every match has to go long, except the action wasn't as snug or spectacular. They went overboard with the special attraction matches. These days 1, maybe 2 is enough to spice things up but with 6 it can really drag the show down. I also thought the way they put the card together was really sloppy. They started off with an AJ Styles match and they went all out inside the opening 20 minutes. That would have been the perfect spot for guys like Neville & Aries to be in, instead they give us one of the hottest angles and one of the best wrestlers right away. Then to follow up with Jericho-Owens, the hottest match on the show, in the build-up spot just threw the show off course. The match wasn't that good either and after the AJ Styles bout, nothing else came close. The only two matches that really stood up were the Raw Tag Team belts because it was a wonderful surprise that the fans wanted and the Goldberg/Lesnar match because they put it together beautifully. Goldberg did everything to get the W, but Brock found an extra gear that he just couldn't go with at his age. I just think they didn't put their best foot forward with this show.
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