The show was solid in the ring but safe and, in some cases, flat out bad booking is killing it in my mind everytime I try to feel too good about what I saw.

There WAS good/solid wrestling throughout this card. Same thing with in-ring match construction/story. Considering the people involved in-ring and backstage...not surprising. The WWE has too many great wrestling minds employeed to have bad match construction on the biggest show of the year. It ain't happening. The part-timers got covered pretty well...everyone except Rock...that finisher fest made it too obvious that he has like no offense. Side note: I wish HBK was still wrestling, but he gave his shit up to get away. And he basically pushed The Streak into a ridiculously crazy stratosphere. That fucker is awesome to this day..he ate the shit outta that F5.

However, we all (should) know the best wrestling is more than 'good wrestling' and solid match construction...especially in the WWE universe. At a big show, SOMETHING HAS TO HAPPEN. A story has to be told and advanced or concluded in epic fashion. Under that ideology, the sackless booking when they had set up so many possibilities feels borderline unforgivable right now.

Of course they got Taker right. Punk showed his ass by continuing to clown the urn. He cheated. He kicked out of stuff...he did all he could, but Taker is Taker and the streak must live. I get it. Besides that...man...

1. Cena. They booked perfectly for 2+ years for a turn at a big event. Cena having the throwed off look on his face when Rock said 'I'ma beat you...again' during the build...awesome! The Rock/Cena 2 match itself was also laid perfectly for the turn. There were boos galore at Cena. 'Fuck y'all for booing and fuck the Rock and his punk ass offense' facial expressions and body language from Cena was great. They went overboard with the finisher fest because Rock has nothing else. It felt like the Smackdown games where you don't even care by the time you win with your 8th finisher. And for Cena...when he faked the Rock out on the fake People's Elbow, THAT was the sequence that could've led to an epic and jackass Cena heel turn. But no...we get more finsher reversal/kickout fest until an eventual dud victory. To make it worse, those dudes were in the ring and up the ramp on some old Apollo Creed and Rocky running on the beach cuz we're friends now shit. I'll be damned.

And the frequent Rock/Cena packages throughout the show...awwww man...brutal! The ONLY way to pay it off was to have something happen with Cena. But no...by the numbers. Cena gets a 'now we are even' win. If this doesn't lead to a Cena turn or something awesome, we lost. Cena beating everyone as a superman face and being champ all summer <> awesome.

2. Dolph jobbed AND didn't cash his MiTB in. WTF WWE!? This will end up being another Smackdown video game situation where we won't care as much as we should by the time it happens. Hell...I'm thinking Ziggs might lose his briefcase at this point.

3. Flair and HBK got retired at Mania to put over excellent stories and matches. HHH couldn't do that to put over the 'Brock is crazy as shit! He'll hurt you and your friends cuz he don't care, y'all!' story..which is sad considering he's basically ALREADY FUCKING RETIRED! Let Brock break your shit again, or just play dead when he F5s you into the steps, get retired, and go grope on Stephanie! How hard is it Haitch!? Cena is the 'redemption' guy for this show already! Folks don't care enough about you, HBK and Billy Gun getting roughed up by Brock! Put somebody over! Damn! (c) Ron Simmons.

4. ADR/Swagger was sneaky good cuz both of the wrestlers involved are sneaky good, but again...by the numbers booking and disrespectful card placement. But who cares? You EYE-Talians everywhere should rejoice! The rich Mexican American guy and his helper homie triumphed over the racist rednecks! Now the rednecks should just go away..cuz they lost. But they won't.

5. The Shield went over. This is good. But Show being a 'bad teammate' after a month of 'I don't know if we can trust Show as a teammate' was wack and it helped no one. And it kinda stole the thunder of the Shield's win.

Now, WWE could fix a lot of this with a few cool things in the next month or so. For now, the IWC is asking a lot of questions about how the future was NOT set-up at this show. The booking said the following: Cena and Punk are major players. Everyone else is either a part-time/special attraction or not major. Watch out for Fandango though. Also, calling all Mexicans! They aren't important or anything, but cheer for ADR and Ricardo until we find somebody to replace Rey Jr. Arrrrribba!

The next year and next year's Mania needs to be a 'put over the guys who have been waiting to be put over' festival. Kinda like the one where Eddy and Benoit went over. I need a Dolph title situation of some kind if they're gonna do it. Get American Dragon outta Team Hell No and back into something important. And Taker should just take the main event so we can quit having his streak story and match murder the rest of the show.

Jimaveli


>putting this up early since I know a few of you are attending
>live, plus I'm about to fire up the grill and get these ribs
>and wings smoked before everything starts. I'm hoping Cold
>Truth is right this show is great, otherwise this may be the
>last time I drop money on a WWE pay per view, $70 is that
>bullshit.....
>
>
>Tonight's Card
>
>Pre Show Match - Wade Barrett vs. The Miz for the
>Intercontinental Championship
>
>Ryback vs. Mark Henry
>
>Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show vs. The Shield
>
>Team Hell No vs. Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston for the WWE
>Tag Team Championship
>
>Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match
>
>Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger for the World Heavyweight
>Championship
>
>CM Punk vs. The Undertaker
>
>The Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship
>
>
>
>okunre2013.tumblr.com/ | @okunre2013
>ATL :: 2013 :: 7/5 – 7/7 | #kickball | #tubing | #debauchery
>
>
>You gon' live forever
>Whether you want to or not
>Some of us gon' end up holy
>Some of us gon' end up hot.....