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Welcome to back to the Excellence in Column Writing by Mr. Tito exclusively here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines. Tonight, we'll be reviewing Wrestlemania 32 and this review was posted immediately after the show ended. The "INSTA-COLUMN" service seems to work out well as a good customer services to readers here at LoP/WH and it also saves me time. In the past, I'd watch the Pay Per View (3-4 hours) and then spend 2 hours writing a review. By writing my column simultaneously as the event occurs, it's a win-win for everyone by getting the column posted early and letting me get a better night's sleep afterward. Heading into Wrestlemania 32, I have to admit that I'm a tad disappointed with the card. Sure, the WWE has a big injury list... But I'm still struggling with the WWE attempting to force Roman Reigns to be their #1 babyface and also appearing desperate to have Shane McMahon do his best Mick Foley inpersonation just to "save" Wrestlemania. However, my disappointment is eased because I have been given the match that *I* want and that's Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar. As I said in another column, IF you still want to be a pro wrestling fan, you to tailor what's out there to your needs. But let me say this about Pro Wrestling... What I've always wanted from Pro Wrestling is to imitate a very dramatic sporting event. And you know where I'm really getting my "fix"? NXT Takeover events. I'm LOVING those... I've reviewed every NXT Takeover Event since the Brooklyn one in August 2015 and I've given each event glowing reviews. As you'll see in my NXT Takeover Dallas Review, highly positive review. On that show, all 3 Title matches (Tag Titles, Women's Title, NXT Title) were hyped well and you legitimately felt that both pairs of competitors were legitimately qualified to be in those matches. But most of all, each contest sold itself as a valid and legitimate athletic contest. The Dallas crowd was 100% invested in those matches and PLAYED ALONG with what Revival/American Alpha, Bayley/Asuka, and Joe/Balor were selling them... That's how Pro Wrestling WORKS folks... And then you have Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn with nothing on the line... But both fought that match as if there was $1 Billion on the line or one of their friends/relatives would be released from capture if they won. Seriously... Nothing on the line but Zayn and Nakamura sold it as if everything was on the line. Hate to say this about the old promoter, but Vince McMahon could learn a thing or two about NXT. Fact is that NXT is operated and scripted by former WRESTLERS with little meddling by Triple H as their boss unless necessary. In the WWE, Vince has total control and is often destroying scripts and not listening to anyone's opinion but Executive Producer Kevin Dunn. Vince's problem is that he's too caught up with the TELEVISION aspect of wrestling rather than the actual wrestling. That's why he went nuclear on poor Titus O'Neil when he grabbed him while cameras were still rolling on WWE Network. He likes the LOOK of Roman Reigns while assuming that Roman will learn charisma, personality, communication, and in-ring ability on the fly and instantly. That's NOT how pro wrestling works and you'd think that someone who lived it, Vince McMahon, would understand the business. Just by watching his own WWE Network, he can see how Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Triple H, the Rock, Randy Orton, Batista, and John Cena all worked their way up through the midcard as singles wrestlers before FANS helped them get promoted as Main Eventers. Once the Shield broke up, Roman was pushed HARD as a Main Eventer from day one despite his lack of experience carrying singles matches. Things can get better, as many wrestlers (Cena, Rollins, maybe Orton) are coming back soon and the WWE may promote a few NXT wrestlers to the main roster... But good lord, the booking and the title situation HAS to improve in the WWE. Don't force things... As my old friend Scott Keith said about Shinsuke Nakamura, paraphrasing here: "Nakamura showed us more charisma in 20 minutes than Roman Reigns has for his entire career.". Indeed. I hope to be entertained by WWE Wrestlemania 32... But if not, it has been an entertaining weekend of wrestling provided by the WWE with NXT Takeover being HIGHLY entertaining and the WWE Hall of Fame always being fun. As the great Meat Loaf once said, "2 out of 3 ain't bad". Mr. Tito's PHAT WWE WRESTLEMANIA 32 REVIEW Opening match, I heard, was Kalisto defeating Ryback to defend the US Title. I was just arriving with 2 boxes of pizza to devour and thus missed that match. No opinion other than if Kalisto won, it's just WWE's continuation of trying to make him the "next Rey Mysterio". Sell those masks, baby. Total Divas vs. Team BAD & Blonde was up next... Wasn't bad... Match seemed to want to debut Lana and Eva Marie to a bigger audience and the WWE is CRAZY for trying to push Eva Marie as a babyface. Dallas fans were delivering crazy boos for her... Team Total Divas won the match, [ *1/2 ], and afterward, Nikki Bella appeared to salute what might be Brie Bella's last match. Lita debuts the new Women's Title which looks like the WWE Heavyweight Title but smaller with white trim and red on the faceplates. Beats the Divas Butterfly belt although I don't like how it resembles the men's WWE Title. Usos vs. Dudleys was a quick tag match and sadly for the Usos, they are in the "line of fire" for Roman Reigns heat. Usos won with a Superkick (huh?) and afterward, an angry Dudleys try to put the Usos through tables. However, Usos fight them off and put Dudleys through tables instead. Fans are booing heavily at the Usos, wow... Lots of video packages afterwards to fill the rest of the pre-game show. The AT&T Stadium looks HUGE although the big stage seems to be eating up many potentially unsold seats to make this show a "sellout". But the arena appears full whether the camera angles are hiding something or not. The Intercontinental Title Ladder Match is the "HOT OPENER" is up first... I can only imagine that Zack Ryder is extremely proud to finally have an entrance at Wrestlemania. And thankfully, Kevin Owens comes out LAST as the Champion. You know how I love tradition... Awesome that Cody Rhodes is wearing the Dusty Rhodes colors and dots. Ryder hits a beautiful neckbreaker out of a Stardust suplex. Thing of beauty... How Sami Zayn can muster any strength after wrestling at NXT Takevover, I'll never know. Zayn jumps through the ladder and onto bodies on the outside and then hits his through the turnbuckles DDT on Owens. Good God that guy is talented! Sin Cara did a nice spot where he jumped off the ladder and then springboarded off the ropes onto bodies on the outside. Stardust busts out a poke-a-dot ladder from under the ring. Nice. More Sami pain as Kevin Owens froggy splashes onto Zayn on the ladder. OUCH! Beautiful elbow drop by Ryder onto the Miz from the top of the ladder, looks like Macho dropping that elbow. Loved it! DEVASTATING body splash by Sin Car onto Stardust. Wow... Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn battling at the top of the ladder and Kevin Owens got DESTROYED with a suplex onto the Ladder. Miz pushes Zayn off the Ladder and just when we thought it was another Miz reign, Zack Ryder sneaks climbs the ladder and pushes Miz off... Zack Ryder gets the title for the BIG WIN! Wow, didn't see that coming... [ ***1/2 ] Some sick bumps with only the lack of psychology heading into this match holding it back from being better (only Owens/Ziggler/Zayn had heat). We'll see if WWE wants to do something serious with Ryder... The next bout, to keep the good match momentum going, is Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles. AJ is wearing the white/red tights tonight after months of black/blue. It's becoming like clockwork between these two... Just crisp, well executed action between the two. Nice reversal of the Superplex by AJ Styles on Chris Jericho. Cool stuff where Jericho caught the Pele Kick and slapped on the Walls of Jericho. What's amazing that even when both might get close to botching a move, the other is there to pick them up (Codebreaker, for example, which was using 1 leg but Styles sold it like a champ). AJ Styles might have found his finisher in what looked like an Atomic Drop but Styles dropped him like a slam. Lots of near falls follow and Styles hit the Styles Clash (tried it before, failed, and Jericho tried it too). Beautiful 450 off the ropes by Styles... Crowd is firmly behind AJ Styles as he attempts to hit the Styles Forearm off the ropes but Chris Jericho pulls in the referee to distract AJ Styles in midair and Jericho hits the Codebreaker. Happy to see Chris Jericho win, but I just wonder what WWE is thinking to let it be OK for Jericho to put over Fandango at Wrestlemania but not AJ Styles. Great match and again, I'm happy for Jericho getting a solid win... [ ***1/2 ]. Bill Simmons ringside and holding up a New England Patriots logo on his Smartphone to get some massive heat from the Dallas crowd. Very proud Zack Ryder cuts a nice promo about being proud to win the IC Title. Cool stuff on how he loved seeing HBK vs. Razor Ramon wrestle and later, he got a picture with Razor with the IC Title. Now, Ryder will go find Scott Hall backstage and get a picture with Ryder's IC Title. New Day vs. League of Nations is up next... The New Day were the prize at the bottom of a big box of Booty-O's and they have the most oversized outfits on that would make GWAR proud. My good friend reminds me that last year after Rusev lost to John Cena at Wrestlemania that he'd be a jobber by next year's Wrestlemania. He was right... Crowd is a bit lifeless for this match but only because the League sucks... They were heavily into the New Day's entrance so therefore, it's on the League. Pretty dangerous spot by Big E with the spear through the ropes, as he landed a bit funny on the outside after hitting 3 league members. Eventually, the 4 on 3 numbers were too much and the League wins the match. Nice finish, as Xavior tries to hold the tights for the pin, gets kicked out of it, takes a Wade Barrett forearm, and then takes Sheamus's kick. [ ** ] Afterward, the League of Nations is proud of their victory and said they could take on any 3 guys ever in the company... That prompts Shawn Michaels (in tights), Mick Foley, and Steve Austin to each come out and attack. With some New Day attacking on the outside, the WWE Hall of Famers dominate the League of Nations. Hey, with BOTH Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin both out there and performing wrestling moves... Does that count as my prediction for both of them coming back to wrestle at 1 more Wrestlemania? When the League were cleared, New Day's music hits for some dancing... They tried to get Steve Austin to dance and after getting Austin to dance, he hits a stunner on Xavior Woods. By the way, Shawn Michaels looks in amazing shape... Oh please come back... Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose is up next as Michael Cole says this is "the first street fight in years at Wrestlemania". I guess he forgot about all of the other no-DQ matches that have occurred at Wrestlemania over the years. Paul Heyman debuts a new thing to put on WWE t-shirts: University of Violence. Interesting comment by JBL: "Brock is the most decorated combat fighter of all time". That's actually hard to argue against... Brock dominates to start with several German Suplexes but the equalizer is Dean Ambrose unloading with a Kendo Stick. More Germans! Brock takes 2 Kendo Sticks and snaps them in front of Ambrose to show that he doesn't need them... More suplexes as Lesnar is enjoying keeping Ambrose the Kendo Stick away from him. Shot to the nuts on Lesnar and now the Kendo Stick is unleashed again by Ambrose. Ohhh, beautiful move by Lesnar by jumping to the top rope and hitting another suplex on Dean. Fire extinguisher by Ambrose and now chairshots unleashed. Dean throws lots of chairs into the ring... One of Brock's Germans had Brock landing on that pile of chair. Dirty Deeds on the chair, but 2 count only (Heyman thought about interfering). Barbed wire bat time but Dean missed and took a German Suplex on the chairs and then a F5 on the pile of chairs as well. GAME OVER, Brock wins. [ *** ] Match was good but not a classic. I expected Dean to take more bumps but he instead used more weapons instead. Seemed a bit short on time, too... Interesting Snickers commercial between Ric Flair, Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, and Charlotte. Whoooooo... Hall of Fame time... Good class and it was enjoyable to hear Sting and the Freebirds last night from what I saw. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte is up next and Lita was in the ring with the new Women's Title. Good ol' Snoop Dogg was on hand to sing for her cousin. Cool stuff! Charlotte comes down (champion out last, thank you) with a robe on that contains parts of a robe Ric Flair once wore. Early on, the 3 ladies are trying to get the quick pin on each other. During this match, I'm arguing with my buddies on how good these 3 were in NXT while they just care about Ric Flair being ringside. Yep... Charlotte slaps on the Figure 4 on Becky Lynch and Sasha hits a splash on Charlotte. SICK German Suplex hit by Becky Lynch on Sasha Banks. Ouch! Crazy dive through the ropes by Sasha and then Sasha argues with Ric Flair on the outside as Sasha pulls him into a diving Becky Lynch. Ric Flair gets his fix by selling a move, whoooo... Charlotte hits a big Moonsault on Sasha/Becky on the outside. Double Natural Selection by Charlotte but 2 count only on both ladies. Just can't pin them. Becky goes on the offensive and has Charlotte locked in the arm bar. Sasha attacks and locks Becky in the Bank Statement. Then Charlotte attacks and locks in the Figure 4. Reversal and Becky pulls Sasha to the ropes... Match is heating up as NBA Jam would kinda say... After a Bank Statement attempt, Sasha gets thrown out again by Charlotte and the Figure 4 and then Figure 8 is applied. Ric Flair holds Sasha Banks on the outside to disallow her to break that move, Becky taps and Charlotte gets to hold the new Women's Title. I like the respect of that... Sasha Banks just isn't replicating her NXT awesomeness on the WWE main roster so therefore, I approve Charlotte retaining. Great women's match on the big stage, though, but mostly from Charlotte acting as the heel and Becky Lynch facilitating the offense. [ ***1/4 ] Next match is Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker in a HELL IN A CELL match. Well, I guess this isn't the main event after all... Cool moment for Shane by having his sons dance with him on the big stage. Love that Undertaker entrance... Shane hits the Crane Kick from Karate Kick to start... PUT HIM IN A BODY BAG, YEAH!!!! Slow punching and knees by the Undertaker to start. Seriously... Undertaker should be able to manhandle this guy in 10 seconds. But hey, Shane no-sells the Snake Eyes to the corner and hits a back elbow. Undertaker begins to pound on Shane after that like a hard legdrop on the apron and then a Last Ride Powerbomb. Shane kicked out of that former finisher... Sigh. Undertaker brings in the steel steps and as he's trying to pick Shane up, Shane slaps on the Triangle choke on Undertaker. Shane McMahon, submission specialist... Chokeslam on the steel steps, but Shane kicks out. How? Shane fools Undertaker into charging him into the stairs and then elbow from the steps. Shane goes for the pin but Undertaker hits the Triangle Choke (Hell's Gate) as Shane should NEVER break that. Somehow, common human being Shane McMahon reverses that into a Sharpshooter. Really? Shane hits the Coast to Coast (or Van Terminator) on Undertaker with a trash can... It was nice, but hardly worth a "You Still Got it". Are you Dallas fans watching the rest of the match? Undertaker grabs Shane and slams him through the cage wall... Shane caught the end of the announcer's table which makes me wonder if a concussion just occurred... Undertaker and Shane get on a platform where the ringbell is and with Shane locking in a Sleeper hold, Undertaker drops both into the announcer's table. Nice spot... Some shots to the head on Undertaker from a toolbox and then monitors and now Shane climbs the cage. Oh boy... Shane climbs to the very TOP of the cage and drops straight into the announcer's table when the Undertaker moved. HOLY COW. That's INSANE. As I said in my predictions, Shane has to do his best Mick Foley impersonation to win this match. Undertaker easily carries him to the ring and after some taunting, he hits the Tombstone for the 1, 2, 3. Undertaker retains employment and Shane FAILS to win control of Monday Night RAW. Match was mostly a bigtime wrestling superstar selling for a regular human being until the SICK bump helped salvage the match. Sick bump deserves 5-stars and Coast to Coast was nice, but the match itself was kinda sad for the Undertaker having to sell for a regular human being. [ **1/2 ] Still baffled by the psychology of how this match was created... Why would Shane agree to such a match with so much on the line? Why would he agree to that match? Good choice of the "cool down" match between co-main events this year with the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Bunch of jobbers get to come out to Flo-Rida theme music but then the stars get entrances... Mark Henry, Kane, and Diamond Dallas Page?!? Whoa... Big Show and then Shaquille O'Neil appears! Holy cow! Hey, is that Tatanka? No Wyatt family. Now everybody clears the ring but Big Show and Shaq. Everybody eventually teams up on Shaq and Big Show to eliminate both. In other news, Shaq will be in the WWE Hall of Fame, celebrity wing, next year. Baron Corbin is also in that ring which makes his WWE debut? DDP hits the Diamond Cutter and I suddenly mark out... I'm not seeing much promise in this Battle Royal, as the Social Outcasts are proud of surviving until they run into Kane, Baron Corbin, and Mark Henry. Final Four was Darren Young, Bo Dallas, Kane, and Baron Corbin. Kane tossed Bo and Young and afterward, Baron Corbin tosses Kane. Wow... That's a big moment for him in his WWE debut and a nice way to make a quick impact. Pretty lackluster Battle Royal with starpower but I was happy with the outcome. [ ** ] To get the crowd pumped, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders come out and then the Rock comes out, goes to the back, and returns with what appears to be a T-Shirt gun? Nope, it's a flamethrower and he lights up letters spelling "ROCK". The Rock gets in the ring and grabs a mic... He's trying to pump the Dallas fans up and announces that the WWE attendance record has been broken with 101,763 attending in Dallas tonight. Beats the reported 93,000 (or some say 78,000) set by Wrestlemania 3. Good to see the 100,000 broken by Wrestlemania. Rock said "now the show is about to get good" but then the Wyatt Family FINALLY appear on Wrestlemania with their entrance. Wyatt cuts a scripted in-character promo on how it's the Wyatts' moment and how he'll destroy him in front of Rocky's fans. Now the Rock's response and he's mocking the Wyatts heavily. I can just hear the Internet Wrestling Community blowing the brains out right now after the Cracker Barrel stuff, parents are related, and breast fed until he's 26 years old. But then the Rock says to Bray Wyatt... "I've been watching you for a while... You have the ability, you have the charisma, you got the tats, you got the beard, you got it all... You're revolutionary, you're a leader", etc. Rock says "you're knocking on a door that you don't want me to answer" and then makes a Hot Pockets joke (not the eater of worlds). Rock calls out a referee for a match... Rock had his gear ready underneath his clothes. Rock vs. Erick Rowan... Wait, what? Rock Bottom off the get! Probably a Wrestlemania record in 6 seconds. After that short match, the Wyatts surround the ring and guess who appears? John Cena. Whoa! And they are destroying the Wyatts with all of their trademark moves. Fans better worry about catching those Rocky elbow pads, as they were down his trunks for the segment. The two embrace in the ring, salute fans, and that's it. Not sure about that Camp WWE show on WWE Network... Should I drop acid before I watch it? Speaking of dropping acid, we get a bizarre entrance with a video where armies of individuals with steel plates covering their mouth and then Stephanie McMahon acts majestic and tries to talk down the audience. I guess the Terminator entrance had to be topped from last year? Bunch of guys with skull masks and WWE Titles are following Triple H and Stephanie to the ring... Man, they are really trying to get Dallas fans to HATE Triple H? Oh, that didn't work... HUGE boos for Roman Reigns. Ouch, not good... The MAIN EVENT was Roman Reigns vs. Triple H as I give the FINGER OF SHAME to the WWE for making the WWE Champion, Triple H, come out first. I don't care if he has a ridiculous entrance... Champions come out second and it only adds gasoline to the Reigns fire by letting him come out second following the champion. Roman gets booed hard during the entrance and fans cheer HHH even after Stephanie scolds the fans. From the get, Roman's head slips out of Triple H's headlock as he rolls him to the ground. Triple H tosses Roman over the ropes and the fans cheer. Now, "Roman Sucks" chants... HHH hits his usual offense and when Reigns mounts his own, boos... More "Roman Sucks" chants and Triple H regains the offense. NOT GOOD... Roman is submitting to Triple H carrying the match and historically, HHH is actually a better seller than a deliverer of offense. We're either getting boos or just nothing frome fans... And Reigns looks bad with that weird shirt tonight. Some spots with the table and Reigns hits a spear on Triple H through the ringside wall. Superman punch is missed and Triple H hits an armbar... An armbar?!? Unusual for HHH. Reigns powers Triple H out of the armbar and into a powerbomb twice... Impressive, but we've seen him do that before... Stephanie gets pissed at the referee and actually gets in the ring. Then, by accident, Roman Reigns speared Stephanie! Dallas fans popped for that! Pedigree gets 2 count only after Reigns was in shock that he hit Stephanie. HHH hits his knee move and Reigns bounces off the match for the Superman Punch. Reigns goes for the Spear but HHH hits the high knee. HHH goes for the sledgehammer but Reigns hits 2 Superman punches and then a Spear to win the WWE Title. After 2 straight Wrestlemanias of changing plans, the WWE stuck with their plan and Roman won the match. Match started off incredibly slow but improved with time. Fans are booing Reigns heavily, though, and that might not be good in the longrun. [ **3/4 ] Lots of fireworks on the outside of AT&T Stadium, which was also present during Charlotte/Sasha/Becky. The LAST WORD: Show had some good matches but nothing that stood out. We're looking at a WWE in repair or in transition. Something better has to happen after Wrestlemania 32 with several wrestlers getting healthy again, new signings, or NXT developmental call-ups. Given the circumstances, the show wasn't that bad... Just not something that would merit repeat viewings, however. It was nice to see a bunch of older stars having nice roles on this show but WWE needs new faces to be properly developed to become the stars of the future. When Cena/Orton/Rollins were hurt, it caused WWE to become desperate and ask Shane McMahon to do Mick Foley bumps and WWE try to push Reigns to the moon. Things are just not working... WWE has the entire Summer to figure it out and get things right by SummerSlam. Otherwise, they'll have to pray for John Cena to carry things... Do fans really want that or do they want something new? For this show, [ B- ]. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. Like Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo Wii U? Then check out my pro-wrestling based courses within Course World --> Search: - WrestleWar - ID: AEAC-0000-01C3-4578 - nWo Run-in - ID: 2274-0000-01B3-5AC0 - WCW Wargames - ID: 7BAA-0000-01B0-8F99 - WWE Royal Rumble - ID: 7B38-0000-01A3-2F4C - Pro Wrestling Mario - ID: E290-0000-0199-7AC7 © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2016
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