TPWW Forums - View Single Post - The Best and Worst WrestleMania Build-Ups

**Mr. Nerfect** · 03-28-2019, 11:46 AM

For the best build-ups, it's hard to look past the significance of Manias III, V, XIV and something like VIII for Flair/Savage, but for a show that got me excited to see almost everything on the card, top-to-bottom, I'm going to throw out a vote for WrestleMania 21.

The promotional material heading into the show, based around the movie parodies, was a little silly at times, but it put me in a good enough mood to watch some wrestling, which is rare for WWE's humor, which usually makes me want to throw myself in a crate and ship myself to OVW. Christian asking Stacy Keibler if she's into sadomasochistic action is forever burnt into my memory, and I'm okay with that. Even Chris Benoit delivered got some chuckles out of this one. He's pretty funny for a murderer. I'm pretty sure Vince didn't have the transcript of a five-minute Snuka set in his briefcase in '83.

Tag team partners fighting each other might not be the most heated story heading into a show, and Eddie and Rey might not have had a raging classic, but the anticipation of them having one was there. I still remember Rey's "no hands, Ma" plancha onto Eddie. It was no Halloween Havoc '97, but it was no Halloween Havoc '91 either.

The first-ever Money in the Bank had my Ladder Match nerd ass pretty excited. I'm not going to lie and say I hated Kane at the time, but even if you did, this was probably one of his more effective uses at a WrestleMania. Jericho and Benoit were pretty cool after their respective 2004s, but they definitely deserved a place on the card, and the story of three former World Champions and three rising stars laying it all on the line for a title shot was, before it was hammered into a standard WWE event, a pretty innovative and exciting idea. And Shelton fucking brought it to this match before he would end up becoming the token Money in the Bank guy before Kofi filled that token role. I'm swear I'm not reaching for a political point there.

I've never been the biggest Undertaker fan, but Orton turning heel to go against him felt like it would could have completed a trifecta of the OVW Class of 2002 taking full flight in the company, until it came out that Orton had injured his shoulder. That's good enough reason for Taker to keep the streak intact, right? And if Trips wasn't going to put the guy over, Taker wasn't. They had dropped the ball with Orton in 2004, but this felt like a return to -- if not form -- potential.

Kurt Angle was absolutely amazing in the build to his match with Shawn Michaels, and this was without a doubt the match I most wanted to see. The sexiest boy toy in professional wrestling and Shawn Michaels had been kept on separate shows to this point, and them having a match felt like one of the few times WWE was going to deliver on a dream match, as touched in one of your Christmas podcasts (I think it was a Christmas one -- I'm usually drunk around that period of time, so I might have forgotten. But what I have not forgotten is "Sexy Kurt," and I think it should be a strong contender to close out your show.

I had already soured on John Cena at this point. Being a smart-ass internet fan, I totally bought into the narrative that guys should earn their spot -- they told the journeyman story with both Benoit and Eddie the year previous. Cena was getting the clear push, and I now come to appreciate that making a star like that is crucial to a company's direction. But the boner beat Booker T in the Best of Five, winning the US Title from himself, and then cut the legs off Carlito, which may not seem like a big loss now, or at the time, but did to me. And that fucking US Title belt. I mean, the regular US Title was ugly, but that doesn't mean you have to keep having low standards for yourself. But the actual build-up was pretty good, save for Orlando Jordan winning the US Title. It should have been Doug Basham. I kid. Cena probably should have taken the US belt into Mania and had an Ultimate Warrior moment on a much smaller scale.

Heading into Cena vs. JBL (oh yeah, he was there too), Cena won a tournament against Kurt Angle at No Way Out, who got a bye in the semis, which made Cena look mighty impressive and furthered the story of Angle's quest to ultimate greatness, fueling the Michaels program. Beating someone as actively dogged as Angle was at the time really made it seem like Cena's time was now. All 11 minutes of it. But was anyone craving a longer JBL match after that 280-day reign that felt like Sammartino's record was about to be broken?

I give Triple H a hard time, but I've got to give the cunt some credit. He did really go to bat for Batista here. Granted, similarly to JBL, I think many fans were just happy to see something...anything, different. They probably would have popped for Doug Basham here. It could be argued that the "Reign of Terror" was bad for business overall, but at least it spiked things when he finally got his. And they didn't make Batista look like an idiot as they so habitually do with their babyfaces heading into this. Big Dave vs. Real Paul gets a thumbs down into a thumbs up from me.

There was also the Piper's Pit segment featuring Steve Austin and Carlito. Okay, the show also had Trish Stratus vs. Christy Hemme and Big Show vs. Akebono. But tits sell tickets, right?

In a few of those matches, I've referenced the actual matches as they played out themselves. They're not part of the build, but I felt it important to mention, because even if a build to something is great, if it disappoints then it can sully the memories of that false excitement. You can take a Christy Hemme home, but if you end up in a crying game situation, you aren't going to go around bragging about it. I don't mean that as a transphobic comment -- when I say "crying game" I mean sitting alone and watching the end of WrestleMania IX. Or maybe just watching this year's show?

WrestleMania 21 got me excited, and I even heard buzz from buddies who had dropped out of following wrestling heading into it. When you did your Ranking the WrestleManias series, I think this placed in the top ten. I remember agreeing with the rough placement it got. It's not the greatest Mania of all-time, but this show was the closest Triple H got to headlining a show with 1 milion domestic buys, and I feel that is indicative of its excellent build.

Sorry, I had to get another Triple H dig in there.

03-28-2019, 11:46 AM	#5
Mr. Nerfect Posts: 60,919	For the best build-ups, it's hard to look past the significance of Manias III, V, XIV and something like VIII for Flair/Savage, but for a show that got me excited to see almost everything on the card, top-to-bottom, I'm going to throw out a vote for WrestleMania 21. The promotional material heading into the show, based around the movie parodies, was a little silly at times, but it put me in a good enough mood to watch some wrestling, which is rare for WWE's humor, which usually makes me want to throw myself in a crate and ship myself to OVW. Christian asking Stacy Keibler if she's into sadomasochistic action is forever burnt into my memory, and I'm okay with that. Even Chris Benoit delivered got some chuckles out of this one. He's pretty funny for a murderer. I'm pretty sure Vince didn't have the transcript of a five-minute Snuka set in his briefcase in '83. Tag team partners fighting each other might not be the most heated story heading into a show, and Eddie and Rey might not have had a raging classic, but the anticipation of them having one was there. I still remember Rey's "no hands, Ma" plancha onto Eddie. It was no Halloween Havoc '97, but it was no Halloween Havoc '91 either. The first-ever Money in the Bank had my Ladder Match nerd ass pretty excited. I'm not going to lie and say I hated Kane at the time, but even if you did, this was probably one of his more effective uses at a WrestleMania. Jericho and Benoit were pretty cool after their respective 2004s, but they definitely deserved a place on the card, and the story of three former World Champions and three rising stars laying it all on the line for a title shot was, before it was hammered into a standard WWE event, a pretty innovative and exciting idea. And Shelton fucking brought it to this match before he would end up becoming the token Money in the Bank guy before Kofi filled that token role. I'm swear I'm not reaching for a political point there. I've never been the biggest Undertaker fan, but Orton turning heel to go against him felt like it would could have completed a trifecta of the OVW Class of 2002 taking full flight in the company, until it came out that Orton had injured his shoulder. That's good enough reason for Taker to keep the streak intact, right? And if Trips wasn't going to put the guy over, Taker wasn't. They had dropped the ball with Orton in 2004, but this felt like a return to -- if not form -- potential. Kurt Angle was absolutely amazing in the build to his match with Shawn Michaels, and this was without a doubt the match I most wanted to see. The sexiest boy toy in professional wrestling and Shawn Michaels had been kept on separate shows to this point, and them having a match felt like one of the few times WWE was going to deliver on a dream match, as touched in one of your Christmas podcasts (I think it was a Christmas one -- I'm usually drunk around that period of time, so I might have forgotten. But what I have not forgotten is "Sexy Kurt," and I think it should be a strong contender to close out your show. I had already soured on John Cena at this point. Being a smart-ass internet fan, I totally bought into the narrative that guys should earn their spot -- they told the journeyman story with both Benoit and Eddie the year previous. Cena was getting the clear push, and I now come to appreciate that making a star like that is crucial to a company's direction. But the boner beat Booker T in the Best of Five, winning the US Title from himself, and then cut the legs off Carlito, which may not seem like a big loss now, or at the time, but did to me. And that fucking US Title belt. I mean, the regular US Title was ugly, but that doesn't mean you have to keep having low standards for yourself. But the actual build-up was pretty good, save for Orlando Jordan winning the US Title. It should have been Doug Basham. I kid. Cena probably should have taken the US belt into Mania and had an Ultimate Warrior moment on a much smaller scale. Heading into Cena vs. JBL (oh yeah, he was there too), Cena won a tournament against Kurt Angle at No Way Out, who got a bye in the semis, which made Cena look mighty impressive and furthered the story of Angle's quest to ultimate greatness, fueling the Michaels program. Beating someone as actively dogged as Angle was at the time really made it seem like Cena's time was now. All 11 minutes of it. But was anyone craving a longer JBL match after that 280-day reign that felt like Sammartino's record was about to be broken? I give Triple H a hard time, but I've got to give the cunt some credit. He did really go to bat for Batista here. Granted, similarly to JBL, I think many fans were just happy to see something...anything, different. They probably would have popped for Doug Basham here. It could be argued that the "Reign of Terror" was bad for business overall, but at least it spiked things when he finally got his. And they didn't make Batista look like an idiot as they so habitually do with their babyfaces heading into this. Big Dave vs. Real Paul gets a thumbs down into a thumbs up from me. There was also the Piper's Pit segment featuring Steve Austin and Carlito. Okay, the show also had Trish Stratus vs. Christy Hemme and Big Show vs. Akebono. But tits sell tickets, right? In a few of those matches, I've referenced the actual matches as they played out themselves. They're not part of the build, but I felt it important to mention, because even if a build to something is great, if it disappoints then it can sully the memories of that false excitement. You can take a Christy Hemme home, but if you end up in a crying game situation, you aren't going to go around bragging about it. I don't mean that as a transphobic comment -- when I say "crying game" I mean sitting alone and watching the end of WrestleMania IX. Or maybe just watching this year's show? WrestleMania 21 got me excited, and I even heard buzz from buddies who had dropped out of following wrestling heading into it. When you did your Ranking the WrestleManias series, I think this placed in the top ten. I remember agreeing with the rough placement it got. It's not the greatest Mania of all-time, but this show was the closest Triple H got to headlining a show with 1 milion domestic buys, and I feel that is indicative of its excellent build. Sorry, I had to get another Triple H dig in there.