After watching professional wrestling for most of my life, I gave up on it a few years ago. It was not exciting or fun anymore. More often than not, I found myself hate-watching the sport I had loved for decades. It was surprisingly easy, except for one thing. People who knew me would continue to ask me questions. Had I watched AEW? What did I think of CM Punk returning? Would WWE be better without Vince McMahon? (No. Didn’t care. Yes, but wrestling would suffer as a whole.)
By far, the question I’ve been asked the most was about the Bloodline angle in WWE. And what started as a question soon became a strong suggestion. It was no longer if I had I seen it, but I had to see it. Everyone said the same thing. It was the best angle in years. Since this is not particularly high praise, I never took the time to watch it.
Then WWE did something that took away any excuse I had to not see what all the fuss was about. They put out a two hour playlist that summarized the entire angle. And with WrestleMania and the big blowoff to the entire story seemingly coming, I was talked into watching the playlist and the Bloodline related matches at Mania.
Over the course of a few days, I watched the entire playlist. There were some neat moments. Sami Zayn was consistently awesome and the fans were really into it. I was underwhelmed, however. That being said, I understand a HUGE part of pro wrestling is in-the-moment emotion. There is no way a video recap – even one done by WWE’s top-notch production staff – can capture what people were feeling in real time. I decided to still watch the Mania matches.
I was a huge fan of El Generico and Kevin Steen back in the day, so seeing them main event WrestleMania was pretty cool. Otherwise, the match was pretty meh. Basically, today’s style of wrestling has passed me by and I find all the kickouts to finishers take away drama instead of adding any. But, the right man got the pin and the crowd absolutely loved it, so I would say it’s a good match. There wasn’t the sense of catharsis I was expecting, but the big match was set for Night 2.
Then Roman Reigns emerged victorious in one of the most anticlimactic finishes I have ever seen. The video I had spent almost a week watching and the big victory from the night before almost seemed meaningless. WrestleMania seemed like the perfect night to advance the story to its next step. Instead, it appears like there will be more of the same.
Reigns versus The Rock has been rumored for years, and at one time, it would have been a good idea. Almost a thousand days into Roman’s reign, it is not only no longer necessary, it would actually hurt the Tribal Chief. He has managed to get himself over. A win over an over 50 year old all time great does nothing for him, while a loss hurts him irreparably.
Admittedly, I was not going into WrestleMania thinking it would make me want to watch wrestling again. But, I did think it would be fun. While the first night ended perfectly, the second night was deflating. Obviously, there is more to the Bloodline story, but nothing this lapsed fan saw made me want to see it.
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