Kind of late on this but whatever. It's a good thing though so I can talk about the Raw on Monday as well.
So Sunday started off with Dragongate USA's Mercury Rising PPV. I missed the first match because hooking my computer up to my cousin's TV didn't work, but the PS3 web app pulled through where as the X-Box 360 never worked for me.
So Scott Reed vs. Caleb Konley started the show for me, and I was surprised with how good this match was, because the tag team matches from the scene are too filled with outside interference for me to have really enjoyed. Shenanigans at the end allow the bad guy, Scott Reed. The Super Smash Bros vs. DUF was a good match. The downside being that it looks like Uno dislocated his shoulder again.
Chuck Taylor vs. Brian Kendrick was a fun match, as any match with a swamp monster at ringside should be. Lots of nice back and forth before Kendrick picked up the win. The next match was the high flyers fray and it was awesome. Christina Von Eeries arrival in the match was cool and good to see her hit some nice moves before the Young Bucks superkicked her a ton of times to get the pin. I was disappointed to see Del Sol get eliminated so quickly, but he did hit a beautiful springboard reverse hurrincanranna before he left. Felt bad for Facade as he got no reaction from the crowd, but whatever. Fox eliminated him with a meteora from the top of a ladder which was awesome. Ricochet came down and hit Fox with a 630 on a ladder to let the Bucks eliminate him, and then there was a great 2 on 1 sequence with the Young Bucks taking on Uhaa Nation. Uhaa ends up getting the win with a rollup and then hitting his awesome standing moonsault/shooting star press combo.
John Davis vs. Orange Cassidy didn't last long, but it was a solid comedy match to start with neither man moving out of the corner to attack for a minute to start the match. Davis eventually had enough shenanigans and beat up the ref and all of the Gentleman's Club including the Swamp Monster. Then we have Ricochet, Gargano & Swann vs. EITA, Tomahawk TT & CIMA and this was my favorite match of the day. There was tons of action from everybody as well as Swann getting the shit chopped out of him for most of the match. Just everything you'd want from a DG six man and Richochet picked up the win and earned a title shot. There's some good stuff after the match with Gargano being a heel towards CIMA as well which hints there will be a CIMA vs. Gargano belt vs. belt match.
Shingo vs. Akira Tozawa was the main event of the show and it was awesome, and everybody who left the show early for Mania is a fool. Hard hitting action and the finish of this match was awesome with all the fighting spirit shown that leads to tons of head drops and great near falls. Shingo gets the win with two Made in Japans and a huge lariat. My favorite show of the weekend was this one, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't buy the replay option for it.
Then it was time for Mania and I liked that the show was mostly wrestling based. No backstage stuff and only a couple of video packages, but I could have lived without them, especially the big break between Punk/Taker and Lesnar/HHH.
The opening matches were all solid and used their time well. I've realized this is long so I'm not going to go into huge detail with them. I was surprised Ziggler and Big E. didn't pick up the win, but I guess WWE doesn't plan on breaking up Team Hell No so it makes sense. I didn't foresee Henry beating Ryback at all, that was crazy in a good way.
So for the main events Punk vs. Taker was the best as everybody was expecting and it was a really good match. I don't know why Lesnar/HHH went after this, they couldn't follow it up. Punk mocked Taker perfectly throughout the match and they just did everything right. Damn that announce table for not breaking for them on the elbow drop to the outside. One of the best matches of the weekend. HHH vs. Lesnar was a little long, but I still liked the match. It did plod at times, but it was violent, and physical and I loved that about it. A really good finish for the match as well. Rock vs. Cena was better than last year, but at the end it seemed to be too much of escaping the finisher and then finally hitting the finisher that wins. That works better in Puro where wrestlers have several finishers and they do it with some speed and impact. Still a good show over all and worth watching.
Raw the next night was awesome because the crowd made it that way. WWE made a lot of good decisions on that show, but the crowd was phenomenal. The pop for everything Ziggler did while cashing in Money in the Bank was awesome. The crowd shitting all over Sheamus/Orton was great and the random wrestler chants was awesome, as was them doing the wave, and then cheering for themselves. Obviously their masterstroke came when Fandango came out and they hummed his theme music, and then continued to do that for the rest of the night, when they left the stadium, and when they rode the train home. It was fucking magical and a great way to cap off four days of wrestling.
These posts are pretty fucking dense so next year I'll try and break it up better so it's not so rough to read, but I can't help it, I get pretty excited about wrestling.
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