High Road/Low Road 04.08.11: WrestleMania 27

Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road!

A brief explanation of the column: Sat takes the High Road (positive view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related “stuff” while Chad Nevett takes the Low Road (negative view).

Results for Edge/Del Rio At WrestleMania 27:

High Road: 83%
Low Road: 17%
Both Roads: 00%

Results for Cena/Miz At WrestleMania 27:

High Road: 83%
Low Road: 17%
Both Roads: 00%

Sat: My opinions on the matches are below, so I won’t include them here. I was surprised that people basically voted the same way for both matches.

Chad Nevett: I’ll say that, going into WrestleMania XXVII, I was High Road. As for, coming out, well, read on, good people…

WrestleMania 27

Sat: In case some of you have forgotten, each year after WrestleMania, we give you our thoughts on the show. Also, Uncletrunx will not be appearing because I didn’t hear back from him. I guess he was busy.

Chad Nevett: I almost forgot. I mean, this is only my second post-WrestleMania High Road/Low Road! Also, I’ll be doing my High Roads from best to worst and my Low Roads from worst to best instead of in chronological order.

The High Roads

Sat’s High Roads:

1 – The Rock Promos: The promos that the Rock did were very good and seemed to keep the crowd’s attention span. A problem I did have with the promos was that it made the WrestleMania seem somewhat like a RAW.

2 – Edge versus Del Rio: While it is weird to see a World Title match opening the show, it was the best move for the show. It have WrestleMania a hot opener and you could argue that this match was the second best match on the show. I think the match did a good job in keeping the attention of the crowd. Also, you have to give the WWE credit for not going with the obvious because people were saying Del Rio was going to walk out with the title.

3 – Cody Rhodes versus Rey Mysterio: The match was basically what I expected it to be. I was expecting Rey Mysterio to win, but the WWE did the right thing by having Cody Rhodes win because he has a ton of potential.

4 – CM Punk versus Randy Orton: This match was way better than I expected and they got quite a bit of time which I was thinking would not happen. I question whether it was smart to have Orton win since he has basically won the entire feud except for the stuff with the bus.

5 – Triple H versus the Undertaker: The match was the best one of the night, so that is basically the reason it is here. It wasn’t perfect though because it felt like they were hitting a move and then lying around though the match started to get better at the end. Also, wasn’t a big fan of the chair shot to the Undertaker’s head and while the WWE did fine them, it doesn’t matter because they can afford it.

Chad Nevett’s High Roads:

1 – The Undertaker vs. Triple H: Going into WrestleMania, I was really looking forward to this match. Maybe it’s my longstanding love of Triple H or some intuitive feeling, but I thought this would deliver above most people’s expectations. It went above mine. The storytelling is what sold me: this match was so big that both men just went for their biggest stuff right away, not wasting time with the preliminaries. But, that tactic also showed that finishers work as finishers because of the foundation laid with regular offense and how much they take out of the guys performing them. What really sold me was Triple H dominating and the allusions to Michaels retiring Flair, and ‘Taker retiring Michaels. Trips was so dominant and violent that those allusions gave off the sense that the Streak could end. Not that it would, but that the possibility was there. The idea that maybe ‘Taker was retiring was floated. Hell, Triple H hitting the Tombstone looked like the end… and the Undertaker kicking out was when he won. Triple H gave so much damage, so physically destroyed the Undertaker, and couldn’t win, so he had to lose. That was the only option then. The submission finish contained a surprising amount of drama in Triple H fighting against it and the Undertaker needing to be carried out plays into the idea that he saves up his strength for ‘Mania and that it took everything to win here. The Streak stands, but did Triple H kill off the Undertaker? I don’t know… this match really worked for me, more than it did for others. Not quite at Michaels/Undertaker level, but definitely at ****3/4. I know that’s overrating it in the view of… well, almost everyone, but it’s a match that worked incredibly well for me. (Also, on Sunday morning, I was discussing Triple H using a Metallica song with my girlfriend and was lamenting the idea of “Nothing Else Matters,” which seemed to be the chosen song given some news about that phrase being attached to the match in the program. That would make a good video package song, not a Triple H entrance theme. Thinking it over, I settled on “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as the best choice. Glad to see that the WWE was thinking the same thing. I couldn’t help but see the inclusion of Metallica as a response to Shawn Michaels’s lack of confidence in Triple H, so Trips had to get extra metal back-up to fight the Undertaker and Johnny Cash. Because, come on, this was really a fight about music.)

2 – Jim Ross on Commentary: It’s just not WrestleMania at this point without JR calling it and his involvement in the last four matches definitely helped. I don’t think I would have enjoyed Trips/’Taker nearly as much without him. I can understand not having him around full time, but there’s no excuse for him to not be at WrestleMania.

3 – CM Punk vs. Randy Orton: Like Triple H/Undertaker, this was just two guys trying to kill one another. Some good working over of the knee and selling by Orton. I liked how he made the injury look bad enough to slow him down, but not keep him off his feet. Both of these men are so adept at wrestling in character.

4 – Cody Rhodes vs. Rey Mysterio: As much as I like the idea of Rey Mysterio’s WrestleMania outfits, how stupid will this costume look in five years? Minor gripe for a really solid match. I liked the psychology surrounding the masks. Rhodes going over was surprising and I’m really interested in seeing what happens with him next.

5 – The Promo Videos: Once again, the WWE did a stellar job with these. My only negative: they didn’t use them before this show! Come on!

The Low Roads

Sat’s Low Roads:

1 – Sheamus versus Daniel Bryan: I don’t understand why the WWE moves a match to the pre show. It seems like every year they have to move one match, so I think the best solution would be to book one less match. Also, it was disappointing to see a match that was heavily hyped be moved down.

2 – The Corre versus Kane/Big Show/Santino/Kofi: There were major problems here. If you didn’t want Kozlov in this match, then why not just have him at ringside on RAW and have Kofi introduced as an original competitor. As for the match, a multi man match should not be ending in 2 minutes.

3 – Michael Cole versus Jerry Lawler: The match dragged on longer than it should have and Michael Cole got way too much offense. The reversal of the decision was stupid as well. But, besides that, Stone Cold was good and it was nice to see Michael Cole suffer in the ankle lock.

4 – Snooki, Trish, & Morrison versus LayCool & Ziggler: You would think this is here because of Snooki, but that isn’t the case. Snooki was fine in her role and did better than expected. The main reason this is a low road is because of Ziggler and Morrison not being utilized enough in this match. They should have done way more than they did.

5 – The Miz versus John Cena: The match wasn’t very good and it seemed to be dragging at times. The double countout made sense to get the Rock involved, but they could have done something else to get him involved. Also, Miz came across as being lucky which doesn’t help him because he really hasn’t beaten anybody except an announcer.

Chad Nevett’s Low Roads:

1 – Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan: This didn’t piss me off as much as the bumping of the Colons vs. Miz & John Morrison to unify the tag belts at WrestleMania XXV did (I was really looking forward to that match). When there was talk of bumping a match off the card for time (and what a packed card it was for a four-hour show!), the eight-man tag match seemed like the natural choice. No belts involved, a crowd-pleaser line-up… pretty much the makings of a good WrestleMania dark match. Then, they bumped this match and I figured at least I could see it on the DVD. Two words killed that: battle fucking royal. What were they thinking?

2 – Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole: I was in the minority with my absolute hatred of this feud. I was looking forward to this match for the simple reason of it ending the feud. I liked the beginning with Lawler taking out Swagger and Cole cowering in the Cole Mine. After that, it was just long and tedious and had a bullshit swerve ending that didn’t do much but piss everyone off.

3 – The Eight-Man Tag Match: The entrances were longer than the match. Okay, that could be wrong… but the fact that no one can say with certainty off the top of their head is telling. This was the bare minimum. And, sadly, a match that would have gone two or three times as long on Raw or Smackdown.

4 – The Intergender Tag Match: This wasn’t the trainwreck I expected, but it wasn’t good either. All those hoping for Morrison and Ziggler to come out looking good can’t help but be disappointed.

5 – The Rock: I liked the idea of his opening promo, but it suffered from going too long. Throw in some stupid backstage segments and applying the whole ‘guest host’ thing to WrestleMania works just as much as it does when they applied it to Raw. Hell, it followed the same pattern: opening promo that may or may not have anything to do with what’s going on, some bad attempts at backstage comedy, and interference/participation in the main event.

6 – The Miz vs. John Cena: Up until the finish, I was digging this match more than most. I wasn’t loving it, but I was entertained. The Miz focusing on Cena’s head was an interesting strategy and he looked good doing it. It began with that first headlock and continued throughout the match, playing into his finisher. I’d like to see the Miz play that up even more. The finish was not good. The double countout wasn’t helped by restarting the match and having it end immediately thanks to a Rock Bottom. I did find it funny that the Miz’s video before the match (which was awesome) put this whole thing into perspective: it wasn’t the Miz vs. John Cena. It was Cena vs. the Rock, and the Miz vs. the WWE with Cena acting as a stand-in. Honestly, the Miz could have been facing anyone and the story would have been the same. Some would see that as a negative, but I see that as a big positive. The Miz’s story was all about him with his opponent almost irrelevant. Kind of cool.

7 – Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio: If we have a Both Roads section, this would wind up there, but, since I have to choose, I’m giving this the thumbs down. I liked that it was opening the show. Bookending PPVs with world title matches is a good idea considering the first match is the second-most important match on the card. It needs to kick things off right and I think where this match suffered was trying too hard to be a crowd-pleaser. This would have been fine on any other PPV, but, for WrestleMania, this didn’t feel like a world title match at all.

Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?

High Road
Low Road
Both Roads
OR

Simply write “High Road”, “Low Road”, or “Both Roads” in the comment section.

E-Mails:

These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.

Alex Writes:

World Title Match: High Road
This has been a great feud, with an excellent build. I fully expect Alberto Del Rio to win (but you already knew that). Del Rio’s story arc since his debut has been totally great and this is the only way to end this “act”. I like the involvement of Christian here and think the WWE is setting him up to feud with Del Rio later this year.

Orton/Punk: High Road.
Just due to Orton looking like a psychopath and Punk looking so unconcerned and devious.

Rey Mysterio/Cody Rhodes: High Road.
In my opinion this is the best built match of the card. The evolution of Cody’s character has been fantastic, instead of just coasting with what what was a great gimmick, they’ve turned it up a notch to great results. I expect Cody to make his career on Sunday night and be champion before the end of 2011. I do miss his grooming tips though.

Corre/Miscellaneous: Low Road.
There has been almost no build here and the match doesn’t seem likely to crack even 2 stars. Barret and the Corre deserve better story lines then this and need experienced opponents who can make them look good in the ring.

Sheamus/Daniel Bryan: Low Road.
Build? What build?. The match should be stellar though, Bryan always brings it in the ring and Sheamus has improved to the point that he can put on great match with anyone whose initials aren’t RKO.

WWE Championship Match: High Road.
Come on the Rock made a little kid dressed like John Cena cry, what more do you want? Plus the Miz has been amazing in this feud, both in the ring and on the mic he has looked like he belongs on the same level as Rocky and Cena. Anybody who still thinks he’s just a reality star pretending to be a wrestler is a moron. The only negative that I see here is that Miz should retain, but he almost definitely won’t.

Sat: After RAW, I was thinking that the Miz looked like he doesn’t belong with the Rock and Cena and that was proved even more after Mania. I do agree that the Miz looked amazing when he was getting the upperhand on Cena.

Chad Nevett: I don’t think it was that the Miz doesn’t belong with the Rock and Cena on a talent level, it’s that they had their own story going on and the Miz didn’t belong in it. There was no place for him.

Comments:

Below are the comments for last week’s columns and our responses. Every comment will not be included because it makes our lives a lot easier. The comments section was last looked at on Tuesday Night Pacific Time.

ROH Commish Writes:

Mania has been disappointing since 24. 25 was a one match show. 26 was much better on paper than in reality.

I think 27 will be another ho hum show. No money in the bank hurts the card but MITB was quite poor at 25 and 26 so no real loss. WWE really should do whatever it takes to get Rock to come back and wrestle. Rock should be wrestling on this show but the Cena feud has been very weak and poorly explained.

Sat: I don’t know what is, but WrestleManias have not been living up to the hype.

Chad Nevett: It would be fun to dissect the last few WrestleManias and see where the company is going wrong. Is it focusing too much on current stories without an eye to the epic? Trying too hard to force ‘WrestleMania moments?’ Because the last few have looked good on paper and just didn’t come through in execution.

Guest#4541 Writes:

“The WWE generally has rematches of the WrestleMania matches, so there is no need for this to be a unsaid number one contenders match. The problem is that they are building this as some kind of blood feud and it doesn’t even feel like that.” — To quote Michael Cole, you are a faggot. I don’t get how you can nitpick fucking everything. Do you enjoy watching or are you a masochist and just love torturing yourself? You’re the problem.

Sat: Hopefully you realize that we are giving a view even if we don’t believe it in the High Road and Low Road section. If you want our thoughts, then you should read the sections were we respond to emails and comments.

Chad Nevett: I love idiots who don’t get the concept of this column. It’s not complicated, Anonymous Chickenshit Cowards of the Internet, but I’ll lay it out one more time: one of us tries to come up with as many positive arguments for a match/angle/story/character and the other responds with whatever negative counterarguments he can think of it. It’s an exercise in rhetoric and creative thinking, not an opinion column. If our opinions happen to line up with a given topic, that’s a bonus. But, hey, every time someone is convinced we genuinely think an argument we’re offering only because it’s our job to, I always take that as a compliment.

Rick Writes:

High Road

It’s here in Atlanta, and I’ll be there along with two Axxess Sessions and the Hall of Fame. Whether or not it actually ends up that way or not, it’s gonna be a High Road in my mind right now. I’m just hoping for a Miz victory that leads to a match between Cena and The Rock down the road. Edge is always solid at Wrestlemania and Del Rio’s no slouch himself, given 15-20 minutes, it could be a fantastic match.

Sat: The one thing you can’t argue is that the WWE does a fantastic job with the Axxess.

Chad Nevett: When you throw in the other wrestling shows run on WrestleMania weekend, how can you not love the event as a whole? It’s really become something big and cool. I just hope it comes to my neck of the woods soon so I can join in.

The Trademark Experience Writes:

This year’s Wrestlemania looks like shit on paper. The only way WWE can salvage this is by booking the right people to go over and really using this PPV as a launchpad for the youth movement. Del Rio, Miz, The Corre, and Cody Rhodes all need to go over, and decisively. Yeah, it might piss off the live crowd to have so many heels winning at Mania, but they need to start booking for the future. They’re gonna get the buys thanks to Rock and Snooki, now it’s time to use that audience to help rebuild.

Sat: If I wasn’t writing a column on WrestleMania, I would not have been watching and I would have checked it when it came out on Blu-Ray.

Chad Nevett: I liked it on paper. It was a little light on compelling stories, but the matches had potential. Too bad it wasn’t realized in a lot of cases.

Ambien Walrus Writes:

Good column, but I am getting sick of people complaining about Triple Threats that don’t have two heels. Anybody forgetting that WM 20 had Benoit and HBK as faces and HHH as the only heel and is seen as one of the best Triple Threats ever.

I say if you know the workers can pull off a 3 Way it doesn’t matter whether they are faces/heels. In fact it makes for more interesting matches since we don’t see heels at a disadvantage very often.

Sat: That thought did cross my mind, but I decided to ignore it because I couldn’t come up with anything else.

Chad Nevett: I’ve never understood that argument either. Who cares how many faces or heels are in the match? If you always go for the same combination, you’re only going to see so many types of stories told.

s1rude Writes:

Whew. Here we go…

Del Rio/Edge w/Christian: High Road. I like Del Rio and his style of heel plays off well against these guys. If we’re heading towards Edge v Christian, that feud benefits from a longer build – so I’m glad that it’s being teased out as a facet of the Del Rio match. If I was booking it, I would keep E & C as allies after Del Rio wins here leading to a Christian – Del Rio feud that culminates in Capt Charisma winning the belt and a jealous Edge turning on him. Not that that has anything to do with the HR/LR of this match, but…

Orton/Punk: High Road. Because it’s Punk, and everything he does works for me even when the stuff around him in an angle pisses me off
(btw – nice work by both of you guys on the less familiar road)
Mysterio/Rhodes: High road. I like this feud. While he’s not a personal favorite, I agree that Rey has nothing to prove. Like last year, this has been a super build for what is essentially a mid-card feud.
Eight-man tag: Low road. After all the time spent building the Nexus/Corre guys this year, this is what they get at the big dance? A match destined to be 75% comedy with no stakes? Wow. At least the other multi-person tag has divas AND celebrities as an excuse. Not to mention that all of Kane’s great work building himself as a main-event heel is pissed away so he can be a goofball face for this match. TNA called, they want their booking back…
US Title: High Road. It’s two good workers in a match for a strap. Boom…booked.

Miz/Cena: High road. Maybe I’m fooling myself, but I don’t know how this is going to play out, and for this jaded wrestling fan, that’s (excuse me) AWESOME. Miz as the third wheel in the build completely fits his character and he can use that to continue to get heat following Mania regardless of the match’s outcome. I do agree that the Streak has to go on last – they’ve done such a good job of promoting it for so long now that Taker has to be the main event until he’s done. Sat’s point is an excellent one, the Mania streak is once a year (hell, once in a lifetime) and it’s not fair or smart to ask anything else to follow it.

Sat: While I want to see Christian as world champion I don’t see it happening. Plus, I really hope they don’t turn Edge again. You make a good point about Cody/Mysterio having a super build. They’ve been building this since the Rumble. I don’t think Miz/Cena really were hurt by following Taker/HHH. Seems like they just screwed up by themselves which I was not expecting.

Chad Nevett: The Snooki match was used wisely as a buffer between the two matches, so I don’t think the WWE Championship match was hurt in any way from following ‘Taker/Triple H.

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Your reasons for taking the High Road, Low Road, or Both Roads and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road are welcome at [email protected] or in the comment section. Your reply will be included in next week’s column.