Wrestlemania Weekend

 

Even as I've grown more and more detached from WWE's product I still get excited for Wrestlemania weekend. Even with all the shitty business practices they embrace and how terrible of a person Vince McMahon is it doesn't matter. A life's worth of memories of getting together with friends and family to watch Wrestlemania is just a thing that sticks with you. No matter how bad the year of wrestling has been Mania always offers the promise of great action and huge moments. And I can't discount the excitement I get toward all the indie shows that take place that weekend as well. It's just a four day bacchanalia of wrestling where there is always something to watch. Covid ruined my plans to go to Tampa for Mania in 2020, but I'll make it to a mania weekend in person live, but watching the shows even at home is still a good time.

Some years how hardcore I go with watching everything waxes and wanes. I remember the WWN days and trusting their pretty terrible streaming services, at least with GCW on Fite the only thing I really have to worry about is their bad audio. I do miss out on watching with people live after moving to Florida away from all my friends, but live tweeting with people helps to provide some of the same feeling at least. My favorite photo with my brothers is us outside in the snow grilling during mania with me in shorts and rocking wrestling shirts. We also got some kegs because my cousin worked at a beer distributor, but it was so cold that it broke the taps in them and kind of wasted most of the beer until we drank it flat. It was still a good time.

This year I'm thankful for Fite+ so I don't have to spend a fortune to get all of the shows and there's only a few outliers to spend extra on. I started the weekend of wrestling off with Bloodsport 9 which featured the long awaited return of Kota Ibushi to the ring after injury in a phenomenal match with Mike Bailey. Bloodsport just offers a fun and different style of wrestling, but one I really enjoy as a fan of MMA as well. It's fun to see the wrestlers modify their style to fit that especially high flyers like those two and Johnny Bloodsport who delved the most into pro wrestling style with his match against Royce which I really enjoyed. There were a few weak matches, but overall a really good show that wrapped up in under two and a half hours and ended with a good main event that saw Timothy Thatcher get the submission victory over Barnett.

I'm watching the DDT show as I speak and it's been a fun show. I vaguely know most of the DDT regulars through my friends who love the promotion and clips I see of people and of course it's got some US based wrestlers I know which helps as well. Joey Janela and Tetsuya Endo had a really good match against each other. Plus the highlight that is happening as I type this is Eddie Kingston getting to team up with Jun Akiyama. And of course I got to see Yoshihiko in action as well.

For upcoming shows Joey Janela's Spring Break should be fun, they always are, RoH Supercard of Honor is a ridiculously stacked card that should be amazing and could be the show of the weekend, and Gringo Loco's the Wrld on Lucha show should be good as well.

And of course there is Wrestlemania itself which looks like a very good show. I'm disappointed they are doing two nights, but if you can fill a 70,000 seat stadium two nights in a row of course you're going to do it and get more money. It looks like we're going to finally see the Bloodline unseated from all of the titles which should provide awesome moments for both nights. Trish and Lita returning to action with Becky against Damage CTRL looks like it should be a really fun match that is one I'm really looking forward to. The feud for Bianca vs. Asuka hasn't been very hot, but both women are great in the ring so it should be a great match.

It's just a magical time in wrestling that happens once a year and no matter what kind of wrestling you like there's something for you to like and people who are ready to experience it and share their experiences with you.