Live at WrestleMania In-Person Report
By Shawn Valentino, PWTorch specialist

For many fans, attending WrestleMania in-person is just a dream, but for my friends and I, it has become a yearly tradition. This year was my 11th Mania Week, and every year, the experience gets more elaborate and impressive. I hope all of you followed my daily updates at various events such as the Hall of Fame, the Hogan Uncensored interview, WrestleCon, and being at the wrestlers’s hotel. Of course, despite the stacked calendar of festivities, the centerpiece of the week is always the WrestleMania PPV event itself.

When we arrived at MetLife Stadium, I was completely spellbound by the spectacular set. Say what you will about WWE, but their production values are second to none. The Statue of Liberty display under the stars was just a gorgeous sight to behold. Unfortunately, most of the show could not live up to the incredible setting. Here are my live experience ratings of WrestleMania 29. (By the way, if any of you are wondering where the legendary Macho Man t-shirt is available, you can find it at your local Hot Topic.)




(1) THE SHIELD VS. BIG SHOW, RANDY ORTON, AND SHEAMUS

This was a fairly exciting opener thanks to the fact it involved one of the few hot new acts in WWE. The Shield has an edge and a cool factor that stands out next to the collection of cheesy, goofy characters that have been brought up through the “creative” department over the last decade. Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have a great chemistry that gives their matches a rare aura in this era where tag teams are non-existent. We were hoping for an Orton heel-turn, but I am glad that they did the right thing and had the Shield win the battle. Hopefully, WWE keeps this dynamic unit together for a long time, and books their breakup properly so each can go onto individual success. The crowd was relatively hot for this match, and it was a smart decision to put it as the opener of the pay-per-view.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 6 out of 10

(2) MARK HENRY VS. RYBACK

This was the battle of the behemoths that Vince McMahon likes to showcase at nearly every Mania. Expectations varied as to whether this would be a war between two monsters or a clunky clash of styles. Unfortunately, we suffered through the latter as this was a dull match between two beasts that did not gel in the ring. You know things are bad when there is a Bearhug spot, and the crowd was on the verge of giving these two the “boring” chant.

Henry has improved over the years, but he is still an average wrestler at best, and I think that Ryback is not even good enough to be considered a pale imitation of Goldberg, so this match had no interest level for me. From the apathetic reaction in MetLife Stadium, I was not alone. The ending, though, did bring the fans back to life, and Ryback walking around with Henry on his back was a memorable visual.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 4 out of 10

(3) TEAM HELL NO VS. DOLPH ZIGGLER & BIG E. LANGSTON - Tag Title match

This was a fairly forgettable tag team bout that failed to get the live crowd excited. Daniel Bryan and Kane have had their moments, but their act is getting old. The booking of Ziggler has not done him any favors, and Langston has not really had the television time to get the fans invested in him. Most of us expected Ziggler’s team to win the belts in this match-up, but the quality of the match was so average that we just did not care.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 3 out of 10

NOTE: This show would have greatly benefited from the Big Three matches being spread out throughout the show. The undercard was underwhelming to say the least, and having a contest with actual stakes closer to the start of the show would have helped the crowd get more involved in the show. Safe to say, the fans got their chance to get involved soon enough…unfortunately, it was not until the next day!

(4) CHRIS JERICHO VS. FANDANGO

This was the Fandango character’s debut match in the WWE, and given Jericho’s propensity to help out younger talent, the outcome was fairly obvious. The match itself was nothing special and the ending was extremely clunky, as was much of the first half of the show, but they did the right thing and had Fandango win clean. By this time, the crowd was bored and frustrated at one of the worst undercards in Mania history. In retrospect, the audience’s frustration with WWE’s uninspired creative output would manifest fully the next day, and Fandango would become a beneficiary.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 4 out of 10

- DIDDY PERFORMANCE

One of my biggest gripes of the live Mania experiences are what I see as horrible, overlong musical performances that serve as nothing but to take fans out of the action. Last year’s outings by Machine Gun Kelly and Flo Rida made me unable to get back into the main event. I am not a fan of Diddy and think he is a subpar rapper, but he does have excellent hooks and generally duets with great singers for a rousing, memorable chorus. This was on the better side of the Mania live acts, and the “Coming Home” song actually fit the theme of the night.

- ZEB COLTER PROMO

This was one of the few talking segments of the entire show, and once again Colter did his best with the shaky source material. I am a big fan of Dutch Mantell’s work here, but I believe he is being hurt by bad writing, awful booking, and a bland heel in Jack Swagger. That being said, it is characters like Swagger that could use a mouthpiece like Colter to help get heat. While it was well-delivered, the content of Colter’s promo was too contrived for my taste, and it reflected what was fundamentally wrong with the whole feud. Alberto Del Rio is completely lost in his attempts to be a smiling babyface, and the fans are not buying into his “Born in Mexico, Made in America” nonsense.

(5) ALBERTO DEL RIO VS. JACK SWAGGER - World Hvt. Title match

This was a product of what takes place when lame, undefined characters are thrust together in a title match. By this point, most of the crowd had tuned out of the show because there had to be something that resembled an inspired effort. Most of the audience was waiting for Dolph Ziggler to come out to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase at the end. Thankfully, WWE listened to the fans by derailing a feud that was already a trainwreck by having the Showoff take the belt the next day on Raw. This was completely forgettable in every way.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING : 3 out of 10

(6) UNDERTAKER VS. C.M. PUNK

Opinions were mixed going into this contest whether it would live up to the Dead Man’s sensational series of WrestleMania classics over the past half-decade. The atrocious storyline leading into this battle did not do it any favors, especially after the epic tales of the past few years. This far surpassed the hype, and was by far the most sensational part of the show.

Undertaker was able to pull out another great showing despite the fact that he does not have the same athleticism he did during the Shawn Michaels series. The real star of the show, and the night, was C.M. Punk, who delivered an absolutely inspired performance that elevated this match to the lofty standards that we have come to expect from The Streak. I thought this was his best singular performance in WWE. His tremendous athleticism and heel mannerisms finally woke the audience up after being bored throughout most of the first-half of the show.

Unfortunately, because of the goofiness of the build-up, there was no point where I believed that Punk could win and it lacked that added drama of the last few years that The Streak may be in jeopardy. Lousy creative plotting aside, this was easily the hottest the crowd was the entire night, and despite the fact we knew Taker would win, they took us on a tremendous ride.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 9 out of 10

(7) TRIPLE H VS. BROCK LESNAR

I mentioned earlier that spacing out the main events could have greatly benefited this show, especially in energizing a bored crowd. This may have been the match that was the biggest victim of the show’s pacing and order. The Game and Lesnar had a solid brawl with some very good spots and decent intensity, but they were received by a lackluster reaction to say the least. Much of that can, once again, be attributed to the convoluted booking and character development.

I was in the stadium for Ric Flair’s retirement match as well as Shawn Michaels’ final bout with Taker, and there was an emotional atmosphere in the stadium. In contrast, Hunter’s stip was a meaningless addition that the smart crowd did not buy into, and I completely forgot that Triple H’s career was on the line. Additionally, the badly botched Lesnar return has caused a tepid response to his formidable presence. It is as if the live crowd does not know how to react to him, and most of it is a result of shaky booking, but it is also likely because people have seen him in real fights.

It has been an awkward transition for Lesnar, and many of his weaknesses, including lack of promo skills and depth of character, have been exposed. Additionally, these two do not have a strong chemistry in the ring so it has resulted in some weak crowd response. I am not in favor of lots of interference in big matches, but I think Michaels and Paul Heyman could have been more involved in this one. HBK was a major factor in last year’s Hunter-Undertaker match being such a classic, and I feel he could have livened up this one as well. However, I thought this was much better than their Summerslam effort, and if the crowd were hotter, it would have been a decent WWE-style main event.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 7 out of 10

(8) THE ROCK VS. JOHN CENA - WWE Title match

Last year, this match was labeled as “once in a lifetime.” Unsurprisingly, after a successful buyrate, they decided to go back to these two for the main event. This year’s build was much better than the alienating insider shoot digs the two took at each other for Mania 28. They put on a solid main event in Miami, but I found it over-rated and I was taken out of the show by the awful musical performances that accompanied their entrances. By the way, one of the highlights of this year’s show was not being subject to another atrociously goofy John Cena entrance. That along with the intergender match being scratched made me thankful the show went long.

I enjoyed this year’s match much better than last year, and I felt the storytelling was much stronger because they could play off the previous bout. I really enjoyed the parallel structure moments, including when Rock attempted the Five-Knuckle Shuffle. That was a great false finish as many of us thought it was over. The finale was not popular, but I thought it was the best they could do with the story they wanted to tell. Although Cena generally makes me embarrassed to be a wrestling fan every time I see him, I thought Rock telling him he “came back for this moment” was a classy touch.

LIVE EXPERIENCE RATING: 7 out of 10

WWE was really smart in focusing on Rock, and making the story about the end of what is likely his final run as WWE champion. Cena was about to get booed out of the building so they distracted us from what was for most fans an unhappy ending. Just like the lame Triple H retirement story, nobody bought into the “redemption” story that never played out in front of our eyes.

Being in the audience for nearly all of the main festivities this weekend, I saw fans send a loud message to WWE Creative that they were unsatisfied with the stale product. I was curious to see if WWE would do something different that would at least result in an edgier, cooler top Superstar, but the story remains the same with dorky, pandering Cena front-and-center. Perhaps the raucous Raw crowd sent a message, which will result in a more inspired effort from WWE Creative. It was a seemingly uninspired effort that resulted in a fairly enjoyable, but not entirely memorable WrestleMania this year.

Please send questions, comments, and feedback to valentino.torch@gmail.com and check out my book, "The Showstopper Lifestyle," on Amazon. Feel free to add Shawn Valentino on Facebook.

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