The biggest event in the Pro Wrestling Calendar in several years has being WWE’s annual big pay-per-view event Wrestlemania. With it being live this weekend on April 10th and 11th, we look into the event more and decide whether we are going to be watching.
About
WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE is an integrated media organisation and recognized leader in global entertainment with its focus on “Sports Entertainment”. It consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. They currently provide Sports Entertainment content to 180 countries in 28 languages, provided a 24/7 streaming service and have 1 billion Social media followers combined.
The best way we can describe what they call Sports Entertainment is:
- Several Soap Opera like storylines written to be compelling to watch for several different reasons to then reach dramatic conclusions in the ring.
- If real is MMA, Sports Entertainment/Pro Wrestling is the fake stuff. The moves they make are scripted to a point and the finish is predetermined. It is basically a soap opera on steroids (metaphorically).
Wrestlemania
Every event reaches a conclusion and they tend to leave the big stuff to Wrestlemania. This year with Covid attacking the world, events with fans have been few and far between. Wrestlemania is going to have fans this year, after no fans for nearly a year.
WWE are aiming to pull out all the stops to make this event the biggest it can be. Will it go out with a bang? We are not sure ourselves, so we look at the reasons you should and should not buy the Event.
Pro/Con – Do You Like Sports?
For the first reason, it can be considered both a pro and a con depending on what you like to watch.
If you like MMA for the fighting and love the rivalries on offer. This will fit the bill with PPV building weeks worth of stories to conclusions, usually with a nifty reminder before the match starts.
If you like most sports for the competition aspect, this will also fit the bill. Most matches are built to look to be a competition in the ring, with the competitors fighting to one up each other to win the bout.
However, if you like the realism of sports. UFC having weight categories, Men vs Men, Women vs Women, bouts just using fists. This is not always the case. WWE is focused mainly on the Entertainment aspect and will build storylines to take things up a few notches from realism.
We like both sides of the coin, so this is a pro for us.
Pro – The Network
If you want the best option to buy the PPV, you should stream it on the WWE Network. The WWE Network is their version of TV Streaming service where you can see their current content and all their PPVs (local markets have slight time delays on depending on local TV contracts).
Once you buy a month of the network, you might as well enjoy some of their other content. For us in the UK, we could decide to watch shows from our era in what they call the Attitude Era or we could watch stuff from any time.
If you live in USA, The Peacock has bought the rights to the library, you will the same effects of having the Network itself.
We currently have the WWE Network and depending on the quality of Wrestlemania we may keep or cancel it.
Pro – The Big Matches
WWE have done well by giving an identity to their big storylines and putting a good focus on them in their shows. Their top two matches to watch out for are their top title matches:
- WWE Champion Bobby Lashley Defends Against Scottish Drew McIntyre
- Universal Champion Roman Reigns defends against Edge and Daniel Bryan (1 vs 1 vs 1)
Bobby is having a great heel (evil) character run on their Raw Brand of shows. He is showing great personality and has a well defined submission hold to finish off his opponents. Drew is the charismatic Babyface (good guy) looking to capture the gold.
Meanwhile on Smackdown, Roman again is a good heel character looking unstoppable with Edge and Daniel Bryan looking to stop him for different reasons. Edge is a returning good guy with bad guy tendancies while Daniel is looking pure babyface.
Both stories we could delve into what has happened but that would ruin it for you.
Con – Not Much Undercard
The top matches on the shows have had well defined storylines built to come to dramatic conclusions. Usually when it comes to Wrestlemanias’ we could say 75% of the matches we like, honestly we cannot say 50% are going to be good to watch.
There is not actually that many matches worth watching, with allot decided only the last week or two. So not many have had good builds and have lack of story.
Imagine watching a soap opera and having a dramatic storyline take only one episode to go through that entire arc. If stories are worth telling, they take time and need lots of time to build. Viewers need time to invest in the characters.
Our Thoughts
We could say more but we suggest if it intrigued you to go back to the product, to read up more on their official site and to watch some highlight videos too. For us, WWE is only as good as its storylines and the shows have being hit and miss with some of them.
Will we be watching? Yes. However we may watch later and just watch the important matches.
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