Happy WrestleMania 36 Part 1 slash A section roman numeral L and a half day everyone!
I can’t wait for WrestleMania 36 Part 2 hyphen 9b tomorrow!
Because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - WWE are finally
realising what major Hollywood studios figured out years ago.
You split your final movie in two parts to make more money from a slightly compromised
dramatic structure!
But that’s not the only way WrestleMania 36 will be like a cash-grabbing final part
of a franchise movie.
For the first time ever, WrestleMania has been pre-recorded, meaning WWE can edit out
bits they don’t like.
And now fans on Twitter have caught one instance of that already, with WWE removing a controversial
John Cena promo from last night’s episode of SmackDown.
Before SmackDown went on air, WWE posted a WWE.com interview with Kayla Braxton to their
social media channels.
In it, Cena cuts a worked shoot promo, where he calls Bray Wyatt’s Fiend character “Husky
Harris in a mask” - a reference to Bray’s first main roster gimmick, one that WWE continuity
try to ignore - and then seemingly shot on other WWE stars backstage:
“I’m honestly kind of fed up with situations of people who think they are entitled to get
chance after chance after chance after chance to succeed.
I’m sick of hearing a certain group of WWE superstars walk around and say ‘I deserve
this’, or ‘I deserve that’.
And maybe Bray’s the first name on that list.”
Who do you think is in Cena’s “certain group of WWE superstars” with a bad attitude?
Let me know in the comments down below whether you think this is kayfabe or not, because
I’ll be replying FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
While this was similar to Cena’s promo on the Fiend a few weeks ago on SmackDown, it
seems WWE decided he went too far - as the clip was deleted from all their social media
accounts just hours afterwards, and replaced with another take of Cena appearing much happier,
and only teasing his “strong words” for his segment on SmackDown that night.
There was no mention of Husky Harris, and no mention of the “certain group of WWE
superstars”.
And neither did Cena’s very good go-home promo on SmackDown, where he instead focused
on the Fiend spreading fear, and that he will “squash” him.
It’s the latest example of a part time WWE legend shooting on the current locker room.
On Monday’s Raw, the Undertaker cut a promo where he effectively buried the current roster
by saying AJ Styles just waited to come to WWE after the real stars of The Rock, Stone
Cold and, oddly, Booker T, had left.
Which implies the wrestlers who’ve made their names over the last decade are no good.
Dave Meltzer revealed the Deadman’s promo annoyed a “number of people” backstage
too.
And on Wednesday’s episode of Corey Graves WWE-sanctioned After the Bell podcast, Cena
was at it again, saying the current product “needs what I’m not sure it can produce.
It needs a front man or woman and that’s what will be able to define what the era is”
- which isn’t the most positive endorsement of the wrestlers WWE have pushed as the face
of its brands like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
Perhaps it’s because, as so often has been said, the WWE locker room walk on eggshells,
afraid of Vince McMahon suddenly deciding he no longer sees value in them.
As has reportedly happened to Cedric Alexander, Ricochet and Humberto Carillo.
If only there was some common trend between them!
But, for a change, Vince’s latest rule is the right one - as he’s considering anyone
leaking WrestleMania results as a sackable offense.
WrestleMania 36 was actually filmed over a week ago on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th
March - including some overnight recordings from 11pm to 5am.
But, for an industry famous for its leaks, not a single spoiler has come out from the
tapings.
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated has revealed this is because WWE has internally
decreed “Leaking information is a fireable offense”, and as there is such a limited
number of people working on the tapings, it would be much easier to uncover the mole!
That hasn’t stopped someone telling the very reliable WrestleVotes all the results,
though.
Thankfully for the leaker’s job, the Twitter account hasn’t posted any spoilers.
The Sports Illustrated article also reveals why Vince McMahon didn’t just cancel or
postpone WrestleMania - with pretty much everyone else in the company reportedly thinking going
ahead was a bad idea.
Barrasso writes “Canceling the event would run in direct opposition to all of [McMahon’s]
principles and sensibilities” and with the remainder of the year being booked, with no
definite end date to the Steve Corino restrictions in sight, Vince went ahead with the Performance
Center tapings “to control the environment he can control.”
Things you can control like telling fans that one of the biggest matches on the WrestleMania
card - Goldberg vs Roman Reigns for the Blueniversal title - won’t be going ahead because Roman
refused to wrestle at the tapings over perfectly understandable health concerns.
Which WWE knew about in the middle of last week, and both Reigns and Triple H have publicly
admitted as such, but Raw and SmackDown have still been promoting the match as if it’s
still going to happen.
But as Triple H told ESPN this week, WWE have a “unique” plan for how Roman’s absence
will be revealed on SmackDown - implying a huge angle where Braun Strowman will replace
Reigns to fight Goldberg.
And last night they did just that…
With a tweet.
They revealed Roman is getting replaced by Strowman with a tweet.
A tweet with no explanation on why Reigns is no longer in the match.
Classy move, WWE.
At least the rest of SmackDown was actually pretty good.
Miz TV opened the episode, which turned into a brawl between Miz, Morrison, The Usos and
the New Day.
I’m glad that match is also definitely still happening and I can look forward to it.
Spoiler: it’s not, as The Miz was sent home sick during the tapings, and it just became
a singles ladder match.
Up next was a Triple Threat between Lacey Evans, Naomi and Tamina, with Sasha Banks
and Bayley on commentary - which Tamina won in pretty dominating fashion, following Banks
and Bayley distractions.
Sasha and Bayley tried to become Tamina’s friend afterwards, but she beat them up too.
WWE are obviously building her up as the Five Way’s monster heel to overcome.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks of solid booking isn’t enough to cover up for…*checks notes*
TEN YEARS of bad booking.
The retro match of choice this week was Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania
24.
I’m sorry, I love you Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania 24, but this had
no connection to any feud or storyline currently being built for WrestleMania 36 - like all
the other archive matches Raw or SmackDown have played so far.
Michael Cole is still telling us it’s Elias vs Corbin at WrestleMania - I have no reason
to believe that isn’t the case! - and then just drops in it’s now Goldberg’s now
defending his Blueniversal Championship against Braun Strowman this weekend, as if Reigns
was never a part of it.
Oh, so that’s ‘the storyline’ Triple H said he didn’t want to spoil in his ESPN
interview.
The Steve Corino pandemic is unprecedented, and there is no perfect way to deal with the
upheaval it’s caused in WWE.
But even with that proviso, this is one of the promotion’s most blatant, transparent,
flagrant abuse of false advertising, deliberately done to mislead fans, using the “card subject
to change” bullcrap because they quite clearly never had any plan in place.
At best, it’s ridiculously lazy storytelling, revealing a complete indifference to your
own product.
At worst, it’s a con-job, tricking fans who don’t keep up with the dirtsheet news
into thinking Reigns was still wrestling on the card.
With all that said… the SmackDown hacker reveal was actually really cool.
Combining two of the most engrossing parts of SmackDown in recent months, the broadcast
glitches started to be accompanied by the text: “The Truth Will Be Heard” - which
paid off in Dolph Ziggler beating up Tucker too much in their match.
Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville and Otis all ran out to stop Ziggler’s prolonged beatdown
of Tucker, when the glitches cut to a shadowy, hooded figure, who, in a distorted voice,
says “Were you paying attention?
I told you the truth will be heard” before turning back to his...hacker panel desk thing?
- Solomon Crowe! - and revealing secret footage proving Sonya and Dolph planned this whole
thing.
It was Sonya who had texted Otis saying Mandy was running late, working with Dolph to break
the couple up after Otis cost them a victory months ago.
This was well-thought out, and a great payoff to two very good stories, setting up the next
chapter of the feud, and the possibility the hacker glitch man will reveal more ‘truths’
in WWE.
But not that Roman isn’t in the Blueniversal title match.
Daniel Bryan beat Shinsuke Nakamura via DQ in a great match to set up Bryan vs Sami Zayn
for WrestleMania.
And the main event saw a fantastic promo from Cena, accepting Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Fun
House match, whatever that is.
It was then that Wyatt’s dolls - they’re action figures! - started appearing at ringside,
saying they were going to play with Cena forever inside the Funhouse, for The Fiend to then
appear on the crow’s nest.
And then, just like a horror movie, the atmospheric ringing sounds built and built to a jumpscare
of Mr. Rogers Bray Wyatt appearing next to Cena and yelling Let Me In.
It’s weird how I found Broken Matt Hardy’s AEW teleportation dumb, but Bray Wyatt teleportation
cool.
I guess that’s my classic AEW bias.
But also because there is an explanation grounded in reality as to how Bray could get away,
with the lights cutting off - rather than the impossible appearance of Matt visually
teleporting in front of our eyes.
That was SmackDown - let me know what you thought by pressing the i above my head and
voting in the poll!
This was a solid show that effectively built towards its WrestleMania matches.
But the whole Braun replacing Roman thing is genuinely unforgivable - making this show
Smack Bang In The Middle.
IndyMania Day One will premiere later - where you can help support all the indy wrestling
promotions fighting for survival right now!
Set a reminder by clicking the video on the right!
And want to know 10 other wrestling shows that survived real life disasters?
Click Adam Blampied’s latest list below that.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.