WrestleMania 40

I must say, that is a hell of a card.

We must never forget why they went to two nights. The 7-hour WrestleManias that ended after midnight on a Sunday night can never ever come back.

Fully believe if WWE stopped showing video packages before every single match (the same ones they show all the time leading up to the show), they’d knock off at least an hour to the show.

Maybe I’ve just grown so used to liking AEW’s PPV style of match, match, match, etc. You might have one or two packages, but that’s what Zero Hour is for with the Wrestle Aunts highlighting everything

But I’ll agree, those video packages WWE used to do back in 2001-2004ish were fucking great. This still stay in my memory 20 years later.

Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t also part of it them looking at Wrestle Kingdom and going, “Oh we can do that bigger and better?”

“I’m a huge proponent of writing the last page of the script first. It’s always to the advantage of long-term storytelling,” Heyman says. “I don’t think it was ever done better, ever, than the Brian De Palma–directed movie Carlito’s Way, because the very first frame of the movie tells you the ending. The first scene in that movie is the end of the movie. Then you’re taken on a ride with these characters that are so layered. The audience is truly emotionally invested in them to such a degree that when you know the movie is coming to the conclusion, you have forgotten what the ending is, and you’re rooting for Carlito, even though you were just told less than two hours ago he’s going to die on that train platform at the hands of this person in front of his soon-to-be bride. The magnificence of that storytelling is, to this day, so dramatically underappreciated. I’ve always been of the belief that the launch of the story is the first push toward the conclusion. The finish is everything.

“All that being said,” Heyman continues, “I think I would suggest the ending of this story has already been rewritten multiple times because the world has changed since the inception of the Bloodline story. And therefore, what was a clear vision of how this should play out almost four years ago changed along the way based on not only the audience’s investment in the characters and the stories, but the world itself—society itself, pop culture itself, sports culture itself has all changed. And now we can see the trajectory that we’ve been on takes us so much further than we ever initially imagined.”

Not much on tv tonight with a break in women’s basketball action. Might make the peacock purchase. The Final Boss has me intrigued.

I will watch the Paul Heyman speech at least 10 times this weekend.

Only thing I saw was him talking about how they can cancel you 100 times but you’ll come back stronger time 101.

Also put over Hunter for essentially saving WWE from he who shall not be named bullshit.

And I saw Stephanie in her ECW hat looking hot. So much so that people just apparently forgot her involvement with knowing stuff about Vince’s antics.

Rock's Ladies' Frames would have been a great call-in moniker for the old Taz show.

Pat McAfee and Punk is a match made in heaven. Except instead of a snake coming out of a present, Punk's going to swing on Pat and get punched in the throat.

Alexa Bliss 2015-2018
Rhea Ripley 2019-present

I will never feel bad about the lack of Buddy Matthews push in WWE or AEW. Dude is doing just fine at life.

Match was a decent opener.

They have a Rhea problem. She’s so fucking good that no one is even close to her level (either brand and especially NXT).

Unless you go all in on Jade or even Giulia? No clue.

Rhea’s never been hotter though, literally and in a wrestling character sense.

The crowd is going to turn her all the way face, right?  That can be the excuse for her losing.