ARN - WrestleMania 32 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The grand-daddy of them all, WrestleMania 32 was live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. 2016 is a major year for WWE leading to this WrestleMania and it begins in early January which John Cena getting injured. What do you remember about that injury and how John felt about missing a WrestleMania at that time?

There’s a “short build” to Mania as Road Block...a WWE Network event...is the last pay-per-view sized show beforehand which is main evented by Triple H defeating Dean Ambrose to retain the WWE Title he won at the Royal Rumble. Do you think with Triple H’s return to the ring he was still able to go at a main event level?

Also returning in the run up to this WrestleMania is someone not many ever expected to see on TV again...Shane McMahon. Shane left the WWE under his own power and returned to push to a Hell in a Cell match against the Undertaker. Was this Shane different from the one who left in 2009?

At Road Block Charlotte and Natalya worked a great match for the WWE Divas Title. Was this around the time the WWE & Vince in particular felt it was time to push the women more seriously?

Ryan Ward is promoted from writing for NXT to Smackdown. What do you think of him and his ideas?

Neville breaks his ankle in a match with Chris Jericho on Raw and it turns into the infamous Jericho - Charles Robinson live TV confrontation when Robinson doesn’t realize Neville is hurt. Who do you think was in the right in this situation?

In the run up to Mania it’s reported that The Rock, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and John Cena will be on the show in some way, shape or form. Do you think WWE went back to them too many times instead of getting behind younger talent? Do you agree with not promoting them and saving them as a surprise of sorts?

Taker and Shane are pushed as the main event with the stipulation if Shane wins he gets control of Raw and Undertaker can never wrestle again at Mania. Do you remember the original story behind this and why it never went anywhere after the pay-per-view?

Luke Harper blows out his ACL in a dark match on the go-home Raw. How tough is it to see a guy like that get hurt right before a WrestleMania?

WrestleMania is a whole week of things and that includes NXT Takeovers, WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies, and WWE Axxess. Did you attend any of these and what did you think of them?1

Arn if you could give me some words and memories about each member of the Hall of Fame Class:

• Sting
• Big Boss Man (Ray Traylor)
• Stan Hansen
• The Fabulous Freebirds
• Charles Wright (The Godfather)
• Jacquline Moore
• Snoop Dogg
• Joan Lunden

Let’s get to the show Arn.

This Mania will always be remembered as the Mania which drew over 100,000 people. Did you get a chance to walk out during the show and take in the crowd during a match and the sheer size of the arena? Anything you would compare it to?

The WWE would claim 101,763 people were in the stadium but Dave Meltzer has reported 93,730 paid to a total gross of $17.3 million. That number is just staggering is it not?

This show is not looked at as a critical success and in fact was voted the worst show of 2016 by Wrestling Observer readers. It was voted 27.7% thumbs up, 41.4% thumbs down with 30.9% in the middle.

Do you remember what matches you agented?

1. Kalisto pinned Ryback to retain the U.S. title in 8:56. The stadium was empty for this match as there were major problems with getting fans into the building with entrance ways shut down. There were “Goldberg” chants immediately. Ryback undid the padding on a turnbuckle, but Kalisto gave him a drop toe hold and Ryback’s head hit the exposed metal. Kalisto followed with the Salida del Sol for the pin. This felt like a dark match in the sense both guys seemed like they were being held back from doing anything past the basics because it was a long show and not to burn out the crowd, unlike last year where everyone seemed to try and have a big show performance. *½

What did you think of this with the big guy vs little guy psychology and Kalisto going over? Do you think this match was put together to help get the show started knowing it was going to be close to 7 hours?

2. Team Total Divas (Alicia Fox & Brie Bella & Paige & Natalya & Eva Marie) beat Team BAD & Blonde (Lana & Summer Rae & Naomi & Tamina & Emma) in 11:23. Brie went to the top rope but Lana shoved her off the top and Brie caught her neck on the top rope. But Brie came back winning with the Yes lock. For Total Divas, they had Nikki, still wearing a neck brace after surgery, running out to celebrate with Brie, since it was her retirement. **1/4

Lot of time here for the women and obviously with Brie retiring she goes over. What did you think of this?

Lita did the interview saying how they were changing the name of the title to the WWE women’s title. She put over the three women wrestling for the title later. She said how they were much more than divas, they were superstars.

This was long overdue don’t you think?

3. The Usos beat The Dudleys in 5:18. Not much to this. Jey pinned Devon with a superkick. After the match, the Dudleys jumped the Usos and laid them out and got the tables. The announcers pushed they were hypocrites since they vowed no more tables. They went to power bomb each Uso through a table, but the Usos blocked it and Jey gave Devon a superkick at the same time Jimmy gave Bubba a superkick. They put the Dudleys on tables and Jey came off the top on Devon and Jimmy on Bubba, putting them through the tables. *½

This was exactly what it should’ve been. Young guys go over the older guys and take advantage of them with their own gimmick.

4. Zack Ryder won the IC title in a seven-way ladder match over Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, The Miz, Sin Cara, Dolph Ziggler and Stardust in 15:25. This was a great opener. Stardust was out in polka dots to honor his father, the one who days before his death said for people that he didn’t want people to remember him with the polka dots. The Miz climbed up and the fans were hating the idea of his winning. He stalled at the top so I guess Ryder was slightly late, and then Ryder shoved him off and grabbed the belt. Ryder celebrated in the ring with his father after the match. ****¼

Great stuff here and all very good workers which helps. Did the right guy win you think?

5. Chris Jericho pinned A.J. Styles in 17:07. Styles got a near fall with a springboard 450. He went for the springboard moonsault but Jericho pushed the ref in his path, and Styles changed trajectory right into a codebreaker for the pin. ***¾

How good were these two in the ring together? What do you remember of AJ’s debut with the WWE and how everyone thought of him? Was this the match that he needed to prove to Vince he could be a top guy?

6. The League of Nations (Rusev & Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio) beat The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E & Xavier Woods) in 10:02. Barrett from the outside hit Woods with the bull hammer elbow and Sheamus followed with the Brogue kick on Woods for the pin. **½

After the match, Barrett talked about how no three men in history could go toe-to-toe with them. Out came Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Steve Austin. Austin got the biggest pop of the show. The New Day pulled Barrett out of the ring. Michaels went after Del Rio, Foley after Sheamus and Austin sold for Rusev. Foley put Mr. Socko on Sheamus, Michaels superkicked Del Rio and Austin hit Rusev with the stunner. Rusev did this gigantic sell job for the stunner. Then Michaels hit the superkick on Barrett, Foley put Mr. Socko on Barrett and Austin hit the stunner on Barrett. The New Day came in and started dancing. Foley and Michaels were dancing with them. Woods wanted Austin to dance as well. Austin danced for a second, then kicked Woods and laid him out with the stunner.

There’s been talk after the fact of how everyone was unhappy with the match and not thrilled about being part of the after match. Do you remember seeing this or hearing it and do you think Austin, Foley & Michaels were used correctly in this setting?

7. Brock Lesnar pinned Dean Ambrose in 12:49 in the no holds barred street fight. Lesnar destroyed Ambrose early. And in the middle. And in the end. The story was that Ambrose had no chance with Lesnar, but with the use of weapons, was able to get short periods of advantage before Lesnar beat him up again. Ambrose tried to hit Lesnar with a barbed wire bat, but Lesnar ducked, hit a German suplex on Ambrose onto a pile of chairs, and then used the F-5 on the chairs for the pin. ***¼

The infamous Dean Ambrose interview with Steve Austin where he talked about how Brock didn’t want to do anything because he was planning a UFC return hangs large over this match looking back at it. Do you think Lesnar took it easy and Ambrose got frustrated leading to this match?

8. Charlotte retained the women’s title in a three-way over Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch in 16:01. Lynch used a fisherman suplex off the top rope on Charlotte and Banks put the Banks statement on Lynch, but Charlotte broke it up. Charlotte then used the figure eight on Lynch and Ric Flair grabbed Banks’ leg to keep her from making the save, and Lynch tapped out. ****

This is the match that really proved that the women coming out of NXT were ready for prime time don’t you think? Looking back at it, how special was it seeing one of the guys you traveled the world with being down there for his daughter’s victory knowing everything the family had gone through? Did you see these three building into the big stars they are today?

9. Undertaker pinned Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match in 30:03. The work in the match was pretty bad. Undertaker looked out of shape. Shane looked in shape and he can do cool things and moved great for his age. Considering his level of training and ring time he did really well, but that’s not an excuse to go 30:00. Undertaker tackled Shane into the gimmicked part of the cell and they tumbled out. It went from a bad match to a spectacle from here. Shane pulled out a tool box and hit Undertaker in the head with it. He hit him a few times, as well as hit him with a monitor, and put Undertaker on an announcers table. He climbed up the cage. Fans were chanting “Please Don’t Die.” It took forever. He got to the top and must have been thinking, well, there’s no turning back. But he paused, prayed and jumped. Even though the table was gimmicked, he was still falling from 15 to 17 feet and if he missed his target, he’d have been in a lot of trouble. Undertaker moved. Shane hit the table perfectly and sold it like he was dead. Undertaker threw Shane in the ring. Shane begged for more and Undertaker hit the tombstone piledriver and pinned him. It went way too long and the first 25 minutes were bad except for the gimmick spots. **½

This has to be an agent’s nightmare. 30 minutes to lead to a dangerous stunt that could go terribly wrong. How terrifying is it to watch this and do you think it’s all gone too far when you watch something like this?

10. Baron Corbin won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal in 9:41. The first 2:30 were all about Shaq and Big Show. Shaq looked monstrous, two inches taller than Show, and he looked wider and bigger, although Show was fatter. It killed Show’s world’s largest athlete gimmick when Shaq looked so much bigger than him. They did a staredown. Kane tried to break it up and they both choke slammed him. Then everyone started beating on both in opposite corners. Show threw half the roster away and Shaq threw the other half. Corbin came from behind Kane and threw him over at 9:41. At least they used the Battle Royal to try and make a new star in his debut. *½

All everyone remembers from this is Shaq vs. Show and barely remembers Baron Corbin won it. What were your memories of Shaq & Show during this and give me some feedback on Shaq from his match in AEW?

The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders came out to dance. The Rock came out when they were done holding a giant flamethrower. Rock announces the crowd number and the Wyatts interrupt.

11. Rock pinned Erick Rowan in :07. The bell rang and Rock hit the rock bottom and got the pin. It was announced that Rock won in a new WrestleMania record time of six seconds.

John Cena comes out and saves Rock from the rest of the Wyatts and they clear the ring. What a moment considering their history.

What did you think of all this?

12. Roman Reigns pinned HHH in 27:10 to win the WWE title. Reigns went to spear HHH, who moved, and he laid out Stephanie to a big pop. She took it great. HHH then hit the pedigree but Reigns kicked out. Reigns hit the Superman punch. He went for a second one, but HHH hit him with the high knee for a near fall. Stephanie, who rolled to the floor, handed HHH a sledge hammer. HHH went to use it, but Reigns twice beat him to the punch with a Superman punch. HHH then went to use the sledge hammer, Reigns ducked and hit the spear for the pin. ***¼

This was finally the crowning achievement the WWE always wanted for Roman Reigns but it fell flat considering the length of the show and he still wasn’t seen as the guy by the crowd. Do you think this was a failure at the time?

Well Arn we talked about how it was voted as the worst show in 2016. What say you? Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle?