I like John Cena.
There I said it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t identify with the guy but I’m not meant to. He’s not there to appeal to grumpy music obsessives like myself. We’ve got CM Punk for that. Neither is he here to win over those that want to see great technical wrestling. Because hello Daniel Bryan. No, Cena is here to appeal to the kids, to the people that want their first hero to look up to and he plays the role perfectly. Plus he’s been involved in more great matches than people give him credit for (after all, CM Punk wasn’t wrestling himself at Money In The Bank 2011 was he?), he’s very rarely given any time off and works tirelessly for charity. He’s a great role model for kids. Well, as long as you ignore that whole ‘is getting divorced because he supposedly got caught having grown up cuddles with a porn star’ thing. But hey, nobody’s perfect…
All of this makes the main event of Wrestlemania 29 aka Operation Look Can You Lot Stop Booing The Good Guy all the more frustrating. People that don’t like Cena were never going to pick him over The Rock, no matter how much of a ‘road to redemption’ story they tried to write it as. Plus it’s hard for fans that watch week in week out to care about a rematch between the top guy in the company and a guy who is barely ever involved. To be fair this match is a step up from their match at last year’s Wrestlemania, with Cena actually showing a cockier, more aggressive side than he’s shown in a long time. But I’m not sure there was really anyone that didn’t predict the outcome of this match way in advance.
‘Predictable’ is not a word I would use to describe the match between The Undertaker and CM Punk. You could of course look at the fact that Taker was 20-0 at Wrestlemania and had beaten many bigger, stronger and more dominant guys than Punk. But Punk played the unhinged, tasteless psycho so well in the lead up to their bout that you just felt that maybe this year was the year that The Streak would end. The match is a total nail-biter and, as someone who was there at Metlife Stadium that night, I can tell you my heart was in my mouth on many occasions. Match of the night by an almost embarrassing margin.
The problem with Brock Lesnar vs Triple H is that it has to follow Punk/Taker. The crowd was completely spent and the match suffered as a result as many big spots were met with the kind of “Can’t we just have a lovely lie down for a bit instead” response from the fans.
Elsewhere, an impressive match sees The Shield make their Wrestlemania debut against the team of Randy Orton, Sheamus and Big Show. There is surprisingly good chemistry between the two teams and it opens the show in a great way.
Speaking of debuts we see the first in-ring appearance of Fandango as he takes on living legend Chris Jericho. Maybe Fandango is nervous but he does seem to make a few pretty big errors that throw off the rhythm of the match but then hell, if your WWE debut was at Wrestlemania in front of 80,000 people you might be forgiven for being a bit edgy too. The guy clearly has immense talent and manages to walk that fine line between being a straight out heel and a comedy figure brilliantly.
The DVD set itself is a mixed bag – they could’ve done with cutting out a few of the extended promo videos and got the whole event on one DVD. It’s quite nice having the Hall Of Fame ceremony in its entirety but I don’t think I’m alone in asking WHY OH WHY OH WHY are there not at least highlights from Raw the following night?! The show was widely held to be not only one of the best Raw’s ever but actually better than Wrestlemania itself (I was at both and yes it was) so it does feel like a wasted opportunity. Given the choice between watching P Diddy’s utterly pointless set at Mania or seeing 16,000 people lose their shit to Fandango’s theme music, I know what I’d pick every time. And it would require me to let the A’s breathe.
Overall it’s not the strongest Wrestlemania but its certainly worth picking up. The highlights are genuinely great. It’s just a shame that the whole thing was seemingly built around trying to get John Cena over with people that will always dislike him and that’s more or less impossible. But don’t worry John. I like you.
