{"id":3423,"date":"2016-04-10T20:26:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T04:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=3423"},"modified":"2016-04-10T20:48:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T04:48:50","slug":"ladders-legends-legacy-wrestlemania-32-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/ladders-legends-legacy-wrestlemania-32-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Ladders, legends, and legacy: WrestleMania 32 analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Jamal Smith \r\nSports Editor<\/pre>\n
As a lifelong professional wrestling nerd, I came into WrestleMania 32 pessimistically. Because I grew up watching WWE during the \u2018Attitude Era,\u2019 the watered-down, PG-rated product that the WWE has been putting out on their weekly programs, RAW and Smackdown, has at times, been painfully unbearable to watch.<\/p>\n
WWE\u2019s efforts to make its programs more family friendly, in my opinion, has taken away most of the excitement that I long for and grew up watching. The match results have been predictable and often left me scratching my head.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, going into WrestleMania, the grandest stage in sport entertainment, WWE\u2019s roster was decimated due to injuries which left superstars John Cena, Randy Orton, Sting, Daniel Bryan, and others out of action.<\/p>\n
So, why do I still watch it if I don\u2019t enjoy it? For me, it\u2019s like a bad car accident; you don\u2019t want to look at it, but for some reason you have to.<\/p>\n
Even with all the indications that WrestleMania wasn\u2019t going to live up to my expectations as a wrestling fanatic who looked back at wrestling\u2019s glory days, I still cleared my schedule on Sunday, March 3, ordered a pizza, and plopped down on my sofa to watch the show.<\/p>\n
The first match on the main card, a six-way Intercontinental Championship ladder match, pitted Kevin Owens, the current champion, against six other WWE superstars. The match was an instant classic, and all the competitors put their bodies on the line with dangerous falls and creative usage of ladders.<\/p>\n
Just when I thought Owens would retain the title, a lesser known mid-carder, Zach Rider, climbed the ladder, ripped off the championship belt hanging high above the ring, and became the new Intercontinental Champion. This unexpected curve ball left me speechless and set the tone for the rest of the pay-per-view.<\/p>\n
To my sheer delight, the proceeding matches continued to produce unexpected outcomes: Chris Jericho defeated the phenomenal AJ Styles, and the League of Nations dominated the New Day.<\/p>\n
As the League of Nations celebrated in the ring, out came Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and Steve \u201cStone Cold\u201d Austin who cleared the ring of the heel stable, and gave the fans a throwback to the \u201cAttitude Era.\u201d They weren\u2019t the only legends to make an appearance; the Rock electrified the record-setting 101,763 in attendance at the Dallas Cowboy\u2019s AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas when he beat Luke Harper in only six seconds.<\/p>\n
The next match was the highlight of the night: a triple threat for the Women\u2019s Championship. The current champion, Charlotte Flair, defended her belt against the talented Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch in a 30-minute match that was arguably one of the best matches I have ever seen. The three women shined on the biggest stage and showed that the women\u2019s division should be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
The remaining four matches were outstanding. Shane McMahon said a prayer before jumping off the 20-foot Hell in a Cell through the announcer\u2019s table, but ultimately lost the match. Brock Lesnar defeated Dean Ambrose in a street fight. Roman Reigns became the new World Heavyweight Champion after defeated Triple H in a slug-fest, and finally Shaquille O\u2019Neal made an appearance in the Andre the Giant battle royal.<\/p>\n
With the lack of superstars and the fledgling creative team, WWE could have easily produced a sub-par product, but instead, they came through big time at WrestleMania. It was extremely entertaining from start to finish, while still staying true to their family oriented product. Hopefully the WWE creative team can ride the momentum, but only time will tell.<\/p>\n
Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportwou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a lifelong professional wrestling nerd, I came into WrestleMania 32 pessimistically. Because I grew up watching WWE during the \u2018Attitude Era,\u2019 the watered-down, PG-rated product that the WWE has been putting out on their weekly programs, RAW and Smackdown, has at times, been painfully unbearable to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}