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Chapter 1: What are the initial reactions to WrestleMania this year?
Now, back to Whiteley.
This is the pinnacle of entertainment. This is WrestleMania.
Our annual review of WrestleMania. This was from Vegas across Saturday and Sunday. So Sunday and Monday in Australia. My colleagues for this, Eddie Corns. Eddie, welcome back. Thank you for having me, Jared. Welcome. Thanks, Jared. So it's largely thumbs down from our loyal wrestling correspondents. I think it's up there with one of the worst WrestleManias ever. Barrett, way too generous.
Not a fan of this year's WrestleMania. Too gimmicky. At... The backdrop is really interesting here and the ESPN deal, which you can always tell with a wrestling crowd, once it was announced and the visceral response of the crowd suggested it wasn't very popular. Give me the background here.
So obviously this was the first pay-per-view or premium live event that was on ESPN's new streaming app. And it was also on ESPN and ESPN2. Correct. For the first hour. For the first hour. So there was a bit of a simulcast as well. So really WWE and ESPN have gone into this big partnership and the fans, well, they weren't so responsive.
Yeah, I mean, it's also $40. It's $40 US, which is a lot of money. And we normally get the bad end of the stick internationally with wrestling events. But we just pay for Netflix, and it's awesome. You get Raw, SmackDown. In America, you have to pay for three different things, and it's a lot of money. So it's tough for the fans. Crowds were down.
So it was Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Correct. Yeah.
Now, I was at Allegiant Stadium last year for WrestleMania, and that, I reckon, is the problem. This is a repeat market. They've gone back to back because last year's was so successful that they've thought, let's just do it again.
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Chapter 2: How did the ESPN partnership impact WrestleMania's reception?
But there's a lot of other factors, too. Last year was John Cena's last WrestleMania appearance. Last year broke all records. And eventually, when you break all records, there's going to be a point where you just don't break it anymore, especially, as Eddie mentioned, cost of living pressures and I think these were the highest ticket prices in quite a while.
Yeah, they were. And last year was riding the coattails of WrestleMania 40. This year had a pretty terrible six-month build up to WrestleMania. So people weren't excited and it was just too expensive.
As a television product, it lacked one of the key planks of the WWE.
It did. So it had barely any video packages, so many ads, which was just ridiculous. There was only about two hours of matches and two hours of ads, which is unbelievable for a paid live event on both days. So that was ridiculous as well.
I have to tread carefully here since commercials are what pay my mortgage, but it was one of those things where all of the pomp and circumstance you're used to, and I think if we use a footy terminology, if the AFL grand final was outweighed by commercials and live performances and less football than the actual spectacle, then you'd see a bunch of uproar.
And really, that's what a lot of wrestling fans are. It's like, this is WrestleMania. We want to see four hours of wrestling, not two. two hours and 35 minutes of wrestling and the rest adds.
Yeah. The, and it was in daylight the whole way through. So, you know, my view, I think it's all entrances and fireworks and the rest can please itself. It did feel like they tortured the entrances and didn't have the nighttime. Yeah.
light show the presentation lacked this year the stage wasn't as good as previous years it just felt like they didn't quite have a theme normally there's a theme for wrestlemania they didn't have that and like you said the light shining through the big sunroof at allegiance stadium just didn't make the entrances look as good as they normally do
Especially when you've got a like-for-like comparison with literally 12 months ago, because we saw how awesome the stage was at last year's WrestleMania at Allegiant Stadium. We saw that when it went into the dark for those main events, how awesome it was. And you've been to Allegiant Stadium. You have too, Eddie. It's a tremendous world-class facility. And it's a real spectacle that was...
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Chapter 3: What were the main criticisms of this year's WrestleMania format?
What a counter. Rip tied. Rhea wins the WWE title.
It was a good match, like I said. I mean, it was an interesting build for those two. They didn't quite nail the lead in, but I thought when they got in the ring, it was good. I would have liked them to get five more minutes. I don't know what you think about that, Nims.
Yeah. Well, first off, this is probably Jade Cargill's, who was the women's champion going into it. It's her first title defense after having it for over 160 odd days. And it's the best match she's ever had in her career. But that's because Rhea Ripley is that good. For those that don't know, Adelaide Girl, she's been doing this for quite a while now.
She's been a guest on this program many a time. And in fact, this is her fourth world title that she had at WrestleMania. Her first was in 2021. And after WrestleMania 39, you spoke to her after that win, Jared. And she just keeps leveling up more and more. But it was, as you said, Eddie...
All of the women's matches weren't given the time that I reckon was needed, but I guess they had to squeeze in one more ad for the Hulk Hogan docker.
I know. The best part of wrestling is wrestling, and it felt like they forgot that this year.
So it does tell us about Rhea's place. So she had that injury when she was the champ, correct? And now she clearly holds the status to be worthy of the championship again.
Absolutely. And the fact that this is the fourth time she's won it at WrestleMania, there's not a lot of people that go into WrestleMania as champion and walk out with it. So the fact that they've chosen this to be her crowning glory is a real testament to her. And she's still one of the biggest stars, male or female, in the company.
I mean, and not the Adelaide bias here, Eddie, but you've got to admit that when she goes back home and when she comes back to Australia, she also wears her pride of being an Adelaidean on her sleeve.
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Chapter 4: How did the crowd's response differ from previous WrestleManias?
The people who had been following Cody and Randy, not only for the last seven weeks, but for 15 years, Cody wrestled as the bad guy for whatever reason, which didn't make sense. And overall, it was just a main event that didn't really feel in place with the storyline that they were trying to tell.
Absolutely not. And there was a storyline that was built in. They've got 20 years of history. Randy Orton was legitimately Cody Rhodes' mentor when he debuted in 2007. So you've got all this background in history. And for some reason they thought, no, no, we'll put that to the side. Let's involve Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll instead.
Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Yeah, no good. And then night two, Roman Reigns and CM Punk.
Another spear to Punk. Cover by Roman.
Proud a new champ.
Got it. Yes or no? Absolutely yes. Unbelievable. Two of the greatest of all time just putting on a show. There was no involvement from anyone else. It was just one-on-one. It was perfect.
That's what was so surprising, that it was just an old school brawl between those two guys. Because we've seen for the past couple of WrestleManias, bloodline involvement. It was almost like the Avengers assemble. There was just so much happening. And the fact that this was just a pure story of Roman Reigns, who's got issues with Punk.
saying that he's too old, he shouldn't be at the top, and Punk with the spirit, but just not having the body to live out that dream. And it was just a perfect main event. As Eddie said, no interference, nothing. It was just pure pro wrestling. Went for over 30 minutes as well, and that's what we wanted. Like you said, we wanted wrestling.
Intros went for 16 minutes. I timed those.
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