Greetings everyone for a special edition of The Stomping Ground with your humble host, Mike Gojira! As you may have noticed, I officially have my own icon here at the Pulse. I’d like to personally thank Penny Sautereau-Fife for spending time, despite her concussion, to help me out. You go, girl!
As promised, I decided to jump on the “Multiple Thoughts” fluff piece bandwagon that everyone has taken a liking to. Rest assured that this will not be a regular occurrence for moi. I will also have my regular column this Friday as always.
So here are my completely random (yet numbered anyway) thoughts on last night’s Wrestlemania XXVII:
1. Where to begin? The official crowd attendance was over 71,000. Big deal; I had a record 26 attend a Mania viewing party in my condo. As Glazer can attest to, that was a tough sell but it managed to work out.
2. Midway through the PPV one of my larger, not-too-bright friends attempted a drop kick that shook the household and probably scared the living shit out of my neighbor downstairs. Thanks, Alex.
3. Odd choice to open the show with the World Heavyweight Championship match. I thought it was a great opener, as Edge and del Rio put on quite a show. Oh, and by the way: I WAS THE ONLY WRITER ON THE ROUNDTABLE TO CORRECTLY PREDICT THAT EDGE WOULD RETAIN. That is all.
4. WTF?! Why did I have to hear from a friend as the PPV started that Bryan/Sheamus was the dark match and that it turned into a Battle Royal won by the friggin’ Great Khali? Don’t give me that BS “time issue” crap they use all the time. They pulled that two years ago with the Tag Team Championship Unification match between Miz/Morrison and the Colons to make time for Kid Rock.
5. If anyone made a star of themselves at Wrestlemania XXVII, it would have to be Cody Rhodes. The crowd was actually behind him as Captain Mysterio (what a ridiculous outfit) took him to the limit. Consider Rhodes the Younger officially over.
6. So, let me get this straight: they take the United States Championship match off the PPV, the Corre “injures” Koslov the day before their big match, and we get a two-minute beating courtesy of Big Show/Kane/Kofi/Santino? Logic, thy name ain’t WWE.
7. Regal rapping was hysterical. In fact, the whole Snoop Idol skit was hysterical. “It’s Friday, Friday…” God, I hate that song.
8. Wait, let’s go back to the Corre’s match. You have the Intercontinental and Tag Team Champions and you job them out to the COBRA?! Granted, Big Show ended it with his KO Punch, but still, you’ve effectively told the world that your titles are meaningless. What was the point of Santino’s victory last Monday if his team was going to win yet again?
9. In the Roundtable, a comment was made about Snooki’s Thesz Press, which I thought was pretty good. How about that handspring back elbow she hit on McCool? That was sweet.
10. Orton and Punk was a great match that deservedly got all the time in the world. Punk and Orton are masters of the facial expression and were awesome at telling a great story. Punk’s avoidance of the RKO followed by his top rope error was a great end to an excellent match.
11. The Rock was truly electrifying as a host. His opening monologue set the stage for the Showcase of the Immortals. His backstage segments were awesome as well. It’s too bad that…well, we’ll get to that further down the list.
12. I love how Tinie Tempah’s song, “Written in The Stars,” is the theme of Wrestlemania. Isn’t it ironic, then, that we only hear the chorus sung by his musical guest for the song, Eric Turner?
13. The Streak lives! That was a brutal match with a lot of nasty spots. I personally think Taker overdid it, but that’s what the business does to you. He just had to try to top XXV and XXVI. The end of the match was shocking, but it’s most likely due to the fact that Taker is legitimately hurt. The probable reason for the Hell’s Gate submission finish was because he couldn’t get up. Look back at the end of the match if you don’t believe me; he held Triple H close to his head for a long period of time, probably telling him he couldn’t continue.
14. I think we just saw that The Miz could not deliver in the main event. This is due to many reasons. First of all, the crowd mostly shits on Cena so Miz could not effectively be the heel everyone wants to see get his comeuppance. Secondly, everyone knew The Rock would get involved so they were just playing the waiting game. Thirdly, the match was essentially built up as Rock vs Cena with a side of Miz. Yes, he consistently got the upper hand for weeks. Yes, he is still WWE Champion. But when it’s all said and done, the main event did not sit well with many. The only thing my crowd cheered for was The Miz retaining.
15. Lawler got the best of Michael Cole, finally. Austin asking Cole if he gave up as he vehemently tapped out was the highlight of the night. The only bad thing to come out of this match was the reversed decision. Do we really need this storyline to continue? The match should have ended the hostility between these two, not exacerbate it.
16. This was the first time I heard anyone booed for going into the WWE Hall of Fame. Nice job, Drew Carey.
17. Overall, the show started strong and fell apart after Taker’s injury. The Corre match stunk, the decision to remove the US Championship match was nothing short of idiotic, and the main event felt emotionless and dead like Triple H/Orton at Mania 25. I was disappointed.
That’s that. As always, check me out on Fridays. I’m off to bed. I had a LOT of cleaning up to do.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
