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Hits & Misses
HITS & MISSES: A Torch Specialist's First Live WrestleMania

Mar 30, 2015 - 1:50:07 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

Last night was my first live WrestleMania. I have been a WWF/E fan since 1988 when I was eight-years-old. While I have attended numerous Raws and Smackdown tapings, house shows, and even two PPVs (2004's No Way Out when Brock Lesnar lost the WWE Championship to Eddie Guerrero - maybe I'm a Lesnar jinx? - and 2011's Elimination Chamber), I had never had the chance to go to WrestleMania. After 27 years, when they announced they were finally coming to the San Francisco Bay Area, my home for life, I knew I had my chance.

My wife and I got through security and into line at the gate right at 1:30 which is when they were supposed to open. They were about ten minutes late. As we waited, there were a lot of Lets Go Cena / Cena Sucks chants, plus plenty of Ric Flair Woos, and even a loud "Let Us In!" chant. Once the gates opened, the crowd responded with a very excited Yes! chant. More John Cena and Daniel Bryan inspired chants, plus a few attempts at some others like an AxelMania chant were heard as we made our way to our seats. I think it is very telling that the fans were chanting for Cena and Bryan at this point. There were no chants for Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns. Cena still gets the biggest total reaction.

Lillian Garcia got a nice reaction. Michael Cole was met with boos. JBL got a nice ovation and Jerry Lawler got a huge one. Obviously, there were still a lot of empty seats at that point and for the opening Tag Team Championship match. I did hear several times throughout the day people trying to start New Day chants, but they never caught on (big surprise). In the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, Ryback seemed to be very over with the fans. But, Mizdow was the star. He got his moment with The Miz so he didn't really need the win.

I will say now that the show is just too long. The first match started at 3:00, making it basically a five-hour show. It was very hot. Levi's Stadium got a bad reputation right away last year as being too hot with far too many seats in the sun and not enough shade. That was the case for us. But, the heat really wasn't that big of a deal. However, along with the length of the show, it did contribute I think to zapping some of the strength of the fans and we were starting to drag during the third hour of the actual PPV. However, The Rock's appearance helped pick us up again.

Daniel Bryan got a huge reaction both when he came out and when he won the Intercontinental Championship ladder match. Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose also got very good reactions. The match was very good and a great way to start the show, though from where we were sitting it was hard to see the belt hanging above the ring. Also, we weren't sure what was going on with Stardust's ladder.

Randy Orton got a nice ovation, but it wasn't huge. I wonder if his reaction would have been stronger if he hadn't played all the games with The Authority after returning at Fastlane? I think WWE cooled him off. He was definitely a fan favorite, but I think he could and should have gotten an even bigger response. That finishing sequence with him hitting the RKO on the elevated Seth Rollins after the Curb Stomp attempt was awesome.

Just seeing Sting in the WWE ring got a "This is Awesome" chant going. Triple H's Terminator entrance was cheesy to me. I'm curious how others felt about it. After a few basic moves, there was a "You Still Got It" chant for Sting. Some people around me started heckling that chant yelling that it was too early to tell if he still had it. The nostalgia with DX and the NWO was fun, but didn't seem to fit with the story. It was cool to see all of those guys, but it pushed the WWE vs. WCW story too hard which should never have been a component of the match. Sting said on Raw that he was not fighting for WCW, yet his old WCW mates came out to help him (even though they were his enemies in WCW and Hall & Nash are Triple H's close friends, and Sean Waltman was in both factions, so it didn't make a lot of sense).

As I said it was fun despite all of this and the crowd ate it up. We were on our feet from the time DX came out for the rest of the match anticipating other run ins. After Sting kicked out from Sweet Chin Music, the guy sitting behind me started a Goldberg chant which picked up decently, though not hugely. Stage hands were setting up already for the rap performance on the stage, but we didn't know what they were setting up for. It looked like pyro machines which made some of us think Goldberg would be out next since he comes out through the sparklers. I don't think this was widespread, but it was strong in the sections near me.

By the time the match ended, we realized that the set up was going to be for the concert, so we left to get some food. We missed the backstage scene with Daniel Bryan which is disappointing, but we only missed that and the performance, so we made it back to our seats right as Paige was coming out for the Divas tag match. There wasn't much reaction to that match at all. I was surprised that I didn't hear any C.M. Punk chants during that match, or at all (there were a few small ones before the show, but not many). Really, this crowd did not try to hijack the show. In addition to the lack of Punk chants, there was no Fandangoing (or anything else like it), no chants for the announcers, no wave, no O-lay, O-Lay, O-lay, O-lays, etc. The show was good and the fans stayed engaged with the actual product and didn't go into business for themselves. I'm wondering what the crowd will be like on Raw tonight.

The Rusev entrance was met with a lot of boos. The America is Great video got a very positive reaction other than boos the few times George W. Bush was shown. John Cena got a huge reaction. I would say that it was a pretty even 50/50 split. I didn't see a lot of kids and there were far more men than women in attendance, so it wasn't just the kids and women cheering for Cena. But, despite the pro USA sentiment, he still got a lot of Cena Sucks chants. It can be hard to compare one pop to another over the course of five hours. But, the overall reaction to Cena was certainly one of the biggest pops of the night. The match itself was pretty good, about what I expected.

The Authority got a babyface reaction at first, but it turned into huge heel heat pretty quickly as they are both so good at playing their heel roles. But, it does make things murky when we are cheering for the attendance record announcement from Stephanie McMahon one moment, but booing her the next. I was really hoping for The Rock and was very happy to see him. Rock got a huge reaction. It was so fun to keep chanting for him, not allowing him to talk. He was his usual great entertaining self. A lot of fans caught on pretty quickly that he was going to get Ronda Rousey, even before he started walking in her direction. She also got a huge reaction. I wonder what Vince McMahon thinks of a UFC star getting such a huge reaction at a WWE event. I mean she was more over than Paige or A.J. Lee. We were disappointed by her lack of physicality towards Stephanie McMahon. It just looked awkward as she sort of pushed her around which drew boos. I guess the idea was that she was going easy on her, just to send a message, but that didn't come across well to the live fans. That's where you miss the announcers helping to tell the story. But, the boos didn't last long as Rock got the fans back very quickly at the end.

Bray Wyatt's entrance with the scarecrows was very good. It was very cool to see Undertaker in person even at this point in his career where you can't expect that much out of him physically. The match was better than last year. It wasn't great, but it was what it needed to be. Undertaker hit all of his signature spots. Wyatt got in plenty of his own offense. I had said to my wife that I was really hoping that Wyatt would do his weird spider walk towards Undertaker who would then do his sit up so I was very happy to see that happen. All of Taker's signature spots got big pops as did the win. I was disappointed that they didn't post 22-1 on the screen at that point, but not surprised.

The main event was very interesting. I would say that Roman Reigns got louder boos than Brock Lesnar got cheers. Lesnar definitely had a strong babyface reaction, but Reigns got a bigger heel reaction. The few times Reigns teased some offense got loud boos. I think this might be a case where Lesnar's part time schedule is hurting his response. Plus, he has been a heel and only turned babyface by a crowd that is happy he resigned with WWE and really didn't want to see Roman Reigns win the WWE Championship. I think that is why the fans cheered so much for Seth Rollins's Money in the Bank cash-in. In addition to just wanting to see history, it allowed for a Title change without the Title going to Reigns. The Title change did get a huge pop and the crowd cheered loudly for Rollins at that point. Also, the finishing sequence with the spear followed by the Curb Stomp was very well done. The fans enjoyed counting along with Paul Heyman for Lesnar's suplexes. We didn't realize that he had yelled "suplex city" at Reigns, but we saw that it was trending on the big screen, so that started a "Suplex City" chant. All in all, this main event certainly delivered more that was expected.

I don't think having Reigns take over from Cena as Super Reigns is the way to get the fans to cheer for him. This was 90 percent boos for Reigns. Cena was over as a babyface at WrestleMania 20. He lost a lot of the crowd over time for multiple reasons. But, he was way more over with the crowd when he got his first WWE Title match at WM 21 than Reigns is now. It is night and day. Reigns clearly wasn't ready for this spot and while he did okay here, WWE hopefully knows not to push him at this level as a babyface, though I'm guessing they still will. The Rollins win certainly does set up some strong possible title defenses for him moving forward.

So to sum up, I will say that this was a great event to watch live. The matches all delivered well. We had some nice surprises with DX including Shawn Michaels, the NWO including Hulk Hogan, and The Rock, plus Ronda Rousey's involvement. The show was better than I expected it to be. It was too long. I didn't need to be in my seat for five hours. But, I really can't complain too much about such a wonderful day. I just hope WWE moves forward with a better product than we've had for the most part so far in 2015.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at his NEW email address - jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.


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