*Blog post was started on April 13, 2020
WrestleMania 37: Do Not Listen to @RosenbergRadio. Listen To the Internet's Premier CM.
Disgruntled's
Real Championship Wrestling needs a wrestling blog, so I guess it was
timely for this need to come during the week after WrestleMania. This means I
might have to catch up on NJPW's Road to Wrestling Dontaku before I go
to bed tonight. It will be mostly tag team affairs, but it should amuse
me more than Night Two of The Show of Shows did.
If
you complain about the failure of AEW's Exploding Barbed Wire
Deathmatch, then you should be bitching about the entirety of the second
night. Having shat the bed during my first dark match when I was
training under Danny Daniels, I know that impressing the crowd to kick
off a show is almost as important as the main event.
There
maybe a bit of hyperbole there, but the lesson I gathered from this
bout was that failing out there just made the entire sport look fake.
That failure resulted in everyone else on the card needing to disprove what I had just
executed. It is not as hard to win the crowd back when the audience is
not just going to get up and leave after spending their cash, but in the
age of television, if the first match pisses off the viewer, they can
just change the channel. Xfinity is my cable TV provider. Thus, I did
not pay for WrestleMania because Peacock Premium with Xfinity is included. There is a
PlayStation 5 in my house, you know what that means.
Is
this why Tucker Carlson has great ratings? Was part of the Fox deal for
Smackdown ensuring that WWE would not cut into Fox News's
prime-time of hate? Is Fox encouraging WWE to suck to get disenchanted
viewers searching for simple, racist solutions to their life? At least I
got a tweet for next Monday out of this blog post.
We
were all hoping for "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt to return to form. The
Undertaker has retired and it is obvious that we want another
supernatural character. All you have to do is not book him into the
title scenes, and it should work. Granted, you have to let him win those
bouts for that to work. When the two guys running the company were the
same guys doing it back when they created Taker who are notorious for
not changing with the times, why do they think this is the one think
they should try and reinvent the wheel with? Chat me up Bruce.
This
bout was followed up by the Women's Tag Team Championship title defense
which is the result of bad booking dating back to at least 2016. If you
were not part of the Four Horse Women of Wrestling, being in the actual
title pictures is an after thought. It is a shame because the crowd was
behind the efforts of the match's grizzled veterans, and I think they would
rather have seen them get a WrestleMania moment than to see the reign of
powerhouses Vince McMahon does not understand continue to be the face
of a fledgling division.
No
person with taste likes Logan Paul, so he took away from the Kevin
Owens/Sami Zayn bout. Without the strong indie show presence around Tampa this year, I
think we could have saved the United States title change till Monday
Night Raw. A Brogue Kick to the face of a moonsaulting opponent may have
saved the show that WrestleTalk deemed a zero out of five.
Big
E and Apollo Crews had a good bout, but it seemed like it was only to
put over a new character instead of the new champion. If Big E does not
get to run at the WWE Champion, he will be stuck further putting over a
guy with limited range. AEW exists because we do not want to see the 80's
and 90's WWF style. Dabba Kato better have a moonsault that floats or
he will lead to many a channel being changed or simply overshadowing the
talent in Crews.
If
Rhea Ripley and Asuka had the same producer as Bianca Belair and Sasha
Banks, I would feel like I was cheated if I was one of the
participants. They had a fun match, but there was no sense of
storytelling there. It should have been an indie slobberknocker, but you
know WWE will not let that happen.
As
for the Main Event, I think WrestleMania has a sour taste if a babyface
or the most over guy does not leave the winner. WrestleMania 2000 with Triple H
was disappointed as they made it about how evil the McMahons could be
instead of the wrestlers. WrestleMania X-7 worked because we thought we
were going to love heel Austin. WrestleMania 31 worked because we did
not want to see Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar walk away as champion, so
Seth Rollins was the best alternative. This was why WrestleMania 34 was a
failure.
When
it comes to WrestleMania 37, I know Reigns is the most over character,
but he is a heel and this is the night where they are to get the
comeuppance. The final pop would have been huge if either Edge or Bryan
would have won and definitely be a greater reaction than what Reigns
got. What makes this the wrong call. We now know we are going to
have to just accept that it would be stupid for anything to change over
the next year. Reigns is just going to destroy his challengers until
someone gets over organically, except WWE will not allow anyone to get
over organically.
After
a successful first night of WrestleMania, many said that the groundwork
for the future of WWE was being laid out. The second night showed us
that the performers may be different, but the thought process is going
to be the same. I said at the beginning of this blog that I should watch
Wrestling Dontaku tonight. This means AEW has successfully gotten me to
overlook NXT.
Why
would I want to tease myself when you have the NHL (AEW) playing like
the grittier AHL (NXT)? If you know the the guys will have to abandon
the preferred style of play when they are at the top level, why support
them? WrestleMania Sunday just showed me that tribalism is more
important than ever for the wrestling business. We have to get further
behind All Elite Wrestling in hopes it will make Vince McMahon want...no, need to one up his competitors.
No amount of schilling from Peter Rosenberg is going to fix this. Listen to Dave Meltzer and all will be well.
Current Disgruntled's Real Champions in Wrestling:
The 90th Disgruntled's Real World Heavyweight Champion:
AEW's World Champion Kenny Omega (2)
The 47th Disgruntled's Real World Women's Champion:
AEW's Hikaru Shida
The 148th Disgruntled's Real World Tag Team Champions:
AEW's Matt and Nick Jackson, "The Young Bucks" (3)
The 48th Disgruntled's Modern Poser Champion:
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (3)
The 152nd Disgruntled's OCHO Champion
(WWE US, IWGP US, Television, Intercontinental,
North American, X Division, TNT, National)
WWE United States Champion Sheamus (2)
Darby
Allin has had only five title defenses in his 150-plus day range. If
you are going to put your champion in a feud where the belt does not
matter, does it really matter?
Apollo
Crews's IC championship victory came via assistance while Sheamus and
Riddle stole the undercard. Sheamus is also the more established
champion.
When
it comes to Ring of Honor, there just is not enough established talent
to book the Television Championship well. Impact's X Division is too
cruiserweight centric right now. The pandemic still hinders the NWA's
National Championship scene.
@thewrestlingpurist - instagram
