Do Not Listen to @RosenbergRadio. Listen To the Internet's Premier CM.

 *Blog post was started on April 13, 2020

WrestleMania 37:  Do Not Listen to @RosenbergRadio. Listen To the Internet's Premier CM.

Disgruntled's Real Championship Wrestling needs a wrestling blog, so I guess it was timely for this need to come during the week after WrestleMania. This means I might have to catch up on NJPW's Road to Wrestling Dontaku before I go to bed tonight. It will be mostly tag team affairs, but it should amuse me more than Night Two of The Show of Shows did.

If you complain about the failure of AEW's Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, then you should be bitching about the entirety of the second night. Having shat the bed during my first dark match when I was training under Danny Daniels, I know that impressing the crowd to kick off a show is almost as important as the main event.

There maybe a bit of hyperbole there, but the lesson I gathered from this bout was that failing out there just made the entire sport look fake. That failure resulted in everyone else on the card needing to disprove what I had just executed. It is not as hard to win the crowd back when the audience is not just going to get up and leave after spending their cash, but in the age of television, if the first match pisses off the viewer, they can just change the channel. Xfinity is my cable TV provider. Thus, I did not pay for WrestleMania because Peacock Premium with Xfinity is included. There is a PlayStation 5 in my house, you know what that means.

Is this why Tucker Carlson has great ratings? Was part of the Fox deal for Smackdown ensuring that WWE would not cut into Fox News's prime-time of hate? Is Fox encouraging WWE to suck to get disenchanted viewers searching for simple, racist solutions to their life? At least I got a tweet for next Monday out of this blog post.

We were all hoping for "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt to return to form. The Undertaker has retired and it is obvious that we want another supernatural character. All you have to do is not book him into the title scenes, and it should work. Granted, you have to let him win those bouts for that to work. When the two guys running the company were the same guys doing it back when they created Taker who are notorious for not changing with the times, why do they think this is the one think they should try and reinvent the wheel with? Chat me up Bruce.

This bout was followed up by the Women's Tag Team Championship title defense which is the result of bad booking dating back to at least 2016. If you were not part of the Four Horse Women of Wrestling, being in the actual title pictures is an after thought. It is a shame because the crowd was behind the efforts of the match's grizzled veterans, and I think they would rather have seen them get a WrestleMania moment than to see the reign of powerhouses Vince McMahon does not understand continue to be the face of a fledgling division.

No person with taste likes Logan Paul, so he took away from the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn bout. Without the strong indie show presence around Tampa this year, I think we could have saved the United States title change till Monday Night Raw. A Brogue Kick to the face of a moonsaulting opponent may have saved the show that WrestleTalk deemed a zero out of five.

Big E and Apollo Crews had a good bout, but it seemed like it was only to put over a new character instead of the new champion. If Big E does not get to run at the WWE Champion, he will be stuck further putting over a guy with limited range. AEW exists because we do not want to see the 80's and 90's WWF style. Dabba Kato better have a moonsault that floats or he will lead to many a channel being changed or simply overshadowing the talent in Crews.

If Rhea Ripley and Asuka had the same producer as Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks, I would feel like I was cheated if I was one of the participants. They had a fun match, but there was no sense of storytelling there. It should have been an indie slobberknocker, but you know WWE will not let that happen.

As for the Main Event, I think WrestleMania has a sour taste if a babyface or the most over guy does not leave the winner. WrestleMania 2000 with Triple H was disappointed as they made it about how evil the McMahons could be instead of the wrestlers. WrestleMania X-7 worked because we thought we were going to love heel Austin. WrestleMania 31 worked because we did not want to see Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar walk away as champion, so Seth Rollins was the best alternative. This was why WrestleMania 34 was a failure.

When it comes to WrestleMania 37, I know Reigns is the most over character, but he is a heel and this is the night where they are to get the comeuppance. The final pop would have been huge if either Edge or Bryan would have won and definitely be a greater reaction than what Reigns got. What makes this the wrong call. We now know we are going to have to just accept that it would be stupid for anything to change over the next year. Reigns is just going to destroy his challengers until someone gets over organically, except WWE will not allow anyone to get over organically.

After a successful first night of WrestleMania, many said that the groundwork for the future of WWE was being laid out. The second night showed us that the performers may be different, but the thought process is going to be the same. I said at the beginning of this blog that I should watch Wrestling Dontaku tonight. This means AEW has successfully gotten me to overlook NXT.

Why would I want to tease myself when you have the NHL (AEW) playing like the grittier AHL (NXT)? If you know the the guys will have to abandon the preferred style of play when they are at the top level, why support them? WrestleMania Sunday just showed me that tribalism is more important than ever for the wrestling business. We have to get further behind All Elite Wrestling in hopes it will make Vince McMahon want...no, need to one up his competitors.

No amount of schilling from Peter Rosenberg is going to fix this. Listen to Dave Meltzer and all will be well.

 

Current Disgruntled's Real Champions in Wrestling:

The 90th Disgruntled's Real World Heavyweight Champion:

AEW's World Champion Kenny Omega (2)

The 47th Disgruntled's Real World Women's Champion:

AEW's Hikaru Shida

The 148th Disgruntled's Real World Tag Team Champions:

AEW's Matt and Nick Jackson, "The Young Bucks" (3)

The 48th Disgruntled's Modern Poser Champion:

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (3)

The 152nd Disgruntled's OCHO Champion
(WWE US, IWGP US, Television, Intercontinental,
North American, X Division, TNT, National) 

WWE United States Champion Sheamus (2)

Darby Allin has had only five title defenses in his 150-plus day range. If you are going to put your champion in a feud where the belt does not matter, does it really matter?

Apollo Crews's IC championship victory came via assistance while Sheamus and Riddle stole the undercard. Sheamus is also the more established champion.

When it comes to Ring of Honor, there just is not enough established talent to book the Television Championship well. Impact's X Division is too cruiserweight centric right now. The pandemic still hinders the NWA's National Championship scene. 

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