I'm as bad at keeping this thread updated as I perceive everyone else to be with keeping the other one going
.
Watching the excellent WrestleMania Saturday panel at Axcess right now waiting for red carpet Hall Of Fame build up at 1, mofos. The Network is the bomb diggity. I've been treated to Ziggler going around insulting people, Bad News Barret presenting his ten worst WrestleMania moments, the Usos buying some shirts, Renee Young running into Scott Hall's biggest, gayest fan and Ric Flair being really mean and shirty towards Mick Foley.
It's mostly the total hype fodder thing full of repeat video packages that you would expect but I sorta like that thing building to the big day. I used to leave the 10 minute Box Office preview show on a loop all Sunday when I refreshed newz sites maniacally years ago.
That sit down interviews with The Shield should be played on Raw every week until they combust. For all the promise people are talking up about Roman Reigns it still doesn't seem like the entire crowd are on board with him. And a lot of the crowd if you watch don't seem to know how to react when the groups music hits. I loath having to use the term 'casual fan' but in lieu of anything different there does seem to be large swathes of kids in the crowd who aren't sure how to react yet to the more ill defined, tweenery Shield.
The video package firmly casts them as three intelligent, plugged in human beings though. Even Alex Riley picked up on the fact that even though they spoke almost exclusively in "we're going to step over everyone and own this business" platitudes there was still a sense of humility about them for the fact that they had reached this point in the first place. They're really cool guys and get that fine balance people like Bryan and Punk have failed at at times between looking like guys you would meet at a gig and looking like guys who are still wrestlers that would kick your head in. I'm looking froward to the follow up parts.
I'm also really looking forward to WrestleMania. The build up has in parts been solid in parts subdued. Overshadowed by the Network launch with a lot of it being thrown together far too late. It's all been about Bryan though no matter what other angles seemed to be coming to the fore more over the past year or so. I'm not mental for the guy and am skeptical of where they could go with a title run [Extreme Rules] but the WrestleMania Yes moment is the clear light of day for this show. And I'm assuming even though long term it won't be a good long term strategy or even the guy they want to go with at all they've realized that the show has sold itself as best it can at this point and that you may as well go with the obvious Kodiak moment. If only for awhile.
I mean if Triple H wanted to go on and win the whole thing too that would be fine. Basically though my feeling is this WrestleMania will fall in to the 'surprisingly good' category. 29 and 27 were both some of the worst in recent memory. Provided they nail a decent time format, throw loads of nostalgia at us, and have the handful of big time matches deliver it should all be pretty good. And the Hall Of Fame! I'm as excited for that as anything because I can watch the whole thing on the Network.
It's WrestleMania weekend still, isn't it. I've found myself hopelessly excited as usual. Enjoy it everyone.