More Mania Thoughts

Almost fell asleep while I was writing that earlier stuff today, so here's my slightly more in-depth rundown:

Man, were my predictions ever wrong. I mean, I think I was off on more than half of the matches, which has to be a personal low for me in roughly 20 years of watching these things...

Had to arrive at the Toronto-area movie theater some two hours in advance; we got a tip that the place was starting to fill up around 4:30 eastern time and rushed over there. Had to be a sellout -- some 200 people at least -- at the venue, a record for this particular theater.

Cena-Show was a BAD choice for an opener. Still, it was a decent match with the right ending.

The Bobby Heenan-Mean Gene skit was funny as hell, though you KNEW this had Mae Young written all over it... and, uh, why was Bischoff looking for The Undertaker exactly? Did they plan to wrap that angle up, or did Bischoff just give up when he saw what Taker looked like?

Even though I know a lot of you had called this one, the Jericho-Christian ending shocked the hell outta me. Literally, I have no hell left in me.

I thought Snuka was going to be in The Rock and Sock's corner -- what happened? Did he forget? Perhaps one too many coconuts to the head, brudda.

Orton winning WAS the right decision (sorry, Jeb) even if I didn't call it beforehand. Sets up nicely for Foley Vs. Orton at Backlash or whenever. The Flair-Rock stuff was classic.

I was SHOCKED and APPALLED when Sable et al didn't adhere to the rules in their evening gown match. How can you have an evening gown match with no evening gowns? I plan to file a petition to president Jack Tunney... er, maybe not.

Hall of Fame stuff was cool, though I was half-hoping for Superstar Graham's torso to fall apart while on stage. And WHAT was with Rabbi Ventura there? Did Bobby Heenan almost fall off the stage?

Speaking of which... Ultimo Dragon, I know you were nervous and all, but slipping on the biggest stage of them all? Sorry, but you deserve a Nelson Muntz style 'Haw Haw' for that. Match itself was solid.

Brock-Goldberg was extremely disappointing to me. Not sure who was at fault there, but I don't think the fans are entirely to blame. Even Austin seemed like he didn't want to be there. But the best was Goldberg going back the ring, just so he could take the Stunner. You could just TELL he wanted to get out of there and leave. I feel bad for him. I really do.

I don't feel as bad for Brock; he can come back whenever he wants with the best heel gimmick of them all: The Sellout.

I didn't at all like the Eddy-Benoit backstage promo. Of course, it made sense later.

Memo to Undertaker: You've had, what, six months off? Would it have killed you to GET YOUR ASS TO A TAILOR SO YOU COULD FIT INTO THE OLD DEAD MAN OUTFIT? THAT WAS THE IDEA, RIGHT? TO COME BACK AS THE OLD GIMMICK? I MEAN, WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? THE DRUIDS DIDN'T FEEL IT WAS BELOW THEM TO DRESS LIKE GOOFS, NEITHER DID PAUL 'I ATE THE URN. OH YESSSSS' BEARER!!! COULD YOU NOT HAVE JUST PLAYED ALONG???? Way to kill an otherwise great night.

The two matches I really wanted to see delivered big time. Here's hoping to a long reign for Eddy Guerrero; he deserves nothing less. Chris Benoit winning was unexpected (to me; I thought it would be Michaels) and it was one of those mark-out moments where all of us gathered in the theater were gasping for breath when he had HHH in the crossface. There was literally an explosion (who am I now, Gorilla Monsoon?) from the crowd when he won.

Personally, I'd rank this one behind only WMIII and WMX-7 as the best overall Mania ever.