What WrestleMania means to me (and a little bit of Dynasty) – By Wrestle G
Hello NoDQ.com readers it’s me Wrestle G and as it’s WrestleMania season, I am locked in for everything this week.
I hope everyone else is well out there and we are all hyped for Mania. I know it’s been a less than stellar build but sometimes the best Manias come out of that with the talent more determined to put on a show and back themselves. I’ve a sneaky feeling we may see that come to fruition this year.
Just a quick few notes about Dynasty this weekend, I thought it was a solid PPV, there is such a high bar with AEW PPV’s that even a show as solid as Dynasty felt like a slightly more run of the mill offering from the company. But I loved the show and I was surprised at some of the results, it seemed set up for a Cope and Christian Tag belt run. I’m not sure how much more steam is left in their feud with FTR I’m not so sure and so I’m not really sure where Cope and Christian go from here.
Elsewhere on the card it was nice to see Kevin Knight get his first big championship, it’s a big step for him I do think he sometimes comes across as the most green of most of the top prospects in wrestling at the moment (thinking Leon slater and Je’von Evans specifically here) So having a big title is a big test and chance for Kevin to show what he has and to grow a little bit. I’ll be intrigued to see who his first challenger is.
Muy match of the night though and no one will be surprised to hear was Ospreay and Mox. I’m never usually a huge fan of Mox matches, but Ospreay brought something different out of him and I enjoyed it. It looks like Ospreay will be tied up with the Death Riders for a little bit longer.
The main event delivered and Kenny did MJF a real solid put over job even allowing him to kick out of the Fallen Angel which is probably one of the most protected moves in all of professional wrestling. But the Devil beat the God. I don’t think any of us really believed what happened Wednesday against Darby Allin would actually happen, but that’s for another column….
As much as I love my AEW this week is all about Mania….
What WrestleMania means to me
The first WrestleMania’s I ever watched was WrestleMania 9. I know exactly what your thinking, how on earth did I fall in love with WrestleMania after that?! But as a kid you don’t know any different right?
That Mania 9 tape was taped from Sky sports in the UK, but it was an encore taping, so it didn’t even have the full match list on it. It was years until I discovered that there were two doinks in a match on the show! But what struck me was the setting, it felt important, it felt different, it felt special…. of course, watching back now you see a stinker of a match between undertaker and Giant Gonsalez and Hulk Hogan screwing over Bret and Yokozuna’s booking.
But as a new wrestling fan the spectacle of WrestleMania instantly told me it was a special event that I needed to watch, that as a wrestling fan I couldn’t afford to miss. My next WrestleMania experience shortly after 9 is when I discovered my local video store had WrestleMania 3 and 4. Watching Mania 3 about 8 years removed from the build up and not having seen the career ascensions of both Hogan and Andre the very fact this match was on a WrestleMania card meant that I got it.
I didn’t live through it, but I got it. But I don’t think I would have had the same buy in, the same immersion if it wasn’t a match taking place at a WrestleMania. And there are a few reasons for that.
- The Grandeur of the setting. WWE putting 3 million people (or whatever overinflated number it was) into the Silverdome. Watching it for the first time it didn’t look small time, it looked bigger than even a boxing event, it was on par with a football (the UK football) game. 10’s of thousands of people waiting to see these two square off. This wasn’t your run of the mill wrestling show I would watch each week with Todd Pettingill introducing the matches. This MEANT something.
- The look of the competitors. Hogan and Andre looked larger than life, WrestleMania simply gave them an extra inch or two to their presentation. These are two of the best of all time and the fact that they didn’t square off all the time (at least in the year or so preceding the match)
- The Commentary – Gorilla Monsoons immortal words have echoed across wrestling history, but the whole match he is on point and Jesse is the perfect foil. There’s something about Mania that brings out the best in broadcasters as well as well as talent. Their words carried the importance of not just this main event but the match itself.
It’s safe to say I was captivated by WrestleMania from watching 3 and 4 I preceded to binge as many others as I could get my hands on. Each event just made my love for it more and more, the uniqueness of the look of each event the intrigue in seeing what new wrestlers had come to WWE in the year between events which new guys were at the top of the card. My deep dive into Mania history just cemented me as a wrestling fan.
Then I had my first ‘Live’ mania experience, the first Mania I watched where I had been following the build up and watching regularly. Mania 10 was the first one about Hogan who had jumped ship to WCW. But that didn’t matter to me and indeed didn’t really matter to the Event. Both Bret Hart and Shawn Michales stole the show and put a foundation in for their time as top guys in the company.
The Ladder match between Razor Ramon and Shawn was Mania magic. At the time the match concept was extremely unique and was fitting for the event. Seeing these guys put their heart and soul into something so new and to see them stepping up on a show in MSG. I couldn’t believe my luck seeing something so special for my first invested WrestleMania show.
Much like Wrestling as a whole I was hooked from then on. Now here we are 30 something years later and I’ve never missed a Mania. My love for it also stems from the fact that for one weekend a year my Nerdy hobby and obsession is shared with so many casual viewers, I’ll get text from friends who said they watched, my social media will have clips from random people who never usually post about wrestling. It finally feels like all the time I spend watching, writing, consuming wrestling is worth it. That I get this sport I love shared with the world.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to attend 3 Manias going to 29,31 and 32. That felt like the icing on the cake of my Wrestling Fandom. The anticipation of the main events, the surprises, the celebrities, the entrances. I will say this to you, and I know price is much more of a factor now than it has ever been. But if you get a chance to go to a WrestleMania you take it. You go and you go full throttle and do as much as you can. You won’t regret it.
What does WrestleMania mean to me? Well this picture of me celebrating Dolph Zigglers cash in on Raw after mania 29 might explain a bit more…..
Haha, as you can see, It means so much, it’s been the yearly pilgrimage, it’s been the comfort blanket that no matter how bad a year of wrestling may have been, Mania would give me something. It’s the bright spot I can direct potential new fans to. And this weekend I won’t be thinking about Ari Emmanuel, I won’t be thinking about Asuka potentially being left off of the card, I won’t care that LA Knight has been booked like shit again this year. For two nights I will just sit and watch and take it all in. I’ll let my inner child take over and have some fun.
I hope all of you will to.
Until Next time,
Cheers,
G