Wednesday PWTorch Livecast with Pat McNeill
Special Guests: PWTorch correspondent Shawn Valentino & Prowrestling.net alum Rich Twilling
Aired Live: April 6, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Dominic DeAngelo
SUBJECTS COVERED
The WrestleMania Experience
The WrestleMania Matches
The WrestleMania Hotel
TIME STAMPS OF COVERAGE
(2:35) Pat McNeill intro
(4:45) Rich & Shawn’s WrestleMania Weekend experience
(6:37) What other shows did Shawn and Rich attend WrestleMania weekend?
(8:30) Should Shane have defeated The Undertaker?
(13:13) Surprised to see A.J. Styles vaulted into Number One Contendership?
(16:55) Was Ryder winning the Intercontinental Title a dig at Neville for getting injured?
(19:00) Does the booking of the WM Ladder Match indicate that wrestlers need to work injured to earn their spot?
(20:56) Where do they see the NXT call-ups in six months?
(24:05) What was the WrestleMania after-party like?
(27:05) Favorite part of WrestleMania 32?
(31:05) Shaq wrestling Big Show next year?
### COMMERCIAL BREAK ###
(39:50) What was it like being in-person for NXT Takeover?
(42:10) Countdown gets ridiculed.
(43:35) Would WrestleMania 32 have been thought of more kindly if it was preceded by NXT Takeover?
(45:50) What was with the Stephanie McMahon promo at WrestleMania?
(48:30) Should Michael Cole be replaced by Mauro Ranallo?
(52:20) Bad that tag titles weren’t defended at WrestleMania?
(54:10) Shouldn’t Kevin Owens be upset that he lost the IC Title?
(55:55) What did Shawn & Rich end up doing Saturday night?
(56:55) The Rock WrestleMania segment
(59:09) What are they looking forward to the most at next year’s WrestleMania?
(1:01:05) Follow Shawn & Rich on social media
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
(4:45) The first wrestlers Rich saw when checking into the hotel were Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns. Shawn Valentino saw Stone Cold Steve Austin standing by the green room area. They have a section of the hotel blocked off for the wrestlers to train. Rich says Braun Strowman was one of the biggest people you will ever see in-person. Ric Flair apparently cut a promo on an autograph-seeking fan at the hotel bar.
(6:37) What other shows did Shawn and Rich attend WrestleMania weekend? Shawn & Rich attended Axxess and saw NXT Takeover, which was phenomenal, but they didn’t attend the HOF, which Shawn doesn’t regret missing.
(8:30) Kylin from North New Jersey calls in: would it have been more prudent for Shane McMahon to defeat The Undertaker on Sunday? Rich doesn’t think so, as the crowd wouldn’t have liked it any better if Taker lost the match. Everyone was concerned for Shane’s well-being. Shawn thinks Taker should have always won the match because it would have hurt the credibility of The Undertaker. Rich also agrees.
(11:05) Can we expect to see Bayley on the main roster soon? Rich thinks soon since she lost the NXT Women’s Title, but he thinks Sasha wins the belt and Bayley challenges her down the line, maybe sometime nearing the summer. Shawn fully expected seeing Bayley on Raw Monday, but now not until maybe Summerslam.
(13:13) Surprised to see A.J. Styles vaulted into Number One Contendership? Shawn thinks they haven’t played up Styles enough, He’s surprised Vince McMahon put him there, but now they have he hopes they do a better job of promoting him. Rich was also a little shocked at the outcome, but maybe this is where Triple H had a little influence on the decision. Let’s see how they book him in the next three months. Pat has a feeling that Jericho will foil Styles’s plans for winning the title.
(16:55) Was Ryder winning the Intercontinental Title a dig at Neville for getting injured? Rich says no, he hopes not. Given the fact that Ryder dropped it the next night may indicate something, but Shawn also agrees with Rich’s thoughts. It was more about creating a WrestleMania moment for a lovable character. Rich also adds that the live crowd ate it up.
(19:00) Does the booking of the WM32 Ladder Match indicate that wrestlers need to work injured to earn their spot? Pat doesn’t think so, neither does Shawn. He thinks they are allowing wrestlers time to heal and reiterates his last statement. Rich agrees.
(20:56) Where do they see the NXT call-ups in six months? Rich doesn’t see Cass turning on Enzo Amore like the emailer suggested. Hopefully a tag title feud down the line. He doesn’t see Apollo Crews winning a title this year. Shawn doesn’t watch much of NXT, but he sees a lot of these acts hovering around the mid-card. He sees Crewes winning the IC belt down the line, but others will be lost in the shuffle. Pat thinks The Vaudevillians will be on Superstars a lot. As for Apollo Crewes, he thinks he sees him as a success, same with Baron Corbin.
(24:05) What was the WrestleMania after-party like? Were people disappointed? Shawn said it typically depends on the location. Wrestlers ended up showing around 1:00 a.m., but it was still a great celebration. Rich says there was a huge sense of pride with the production that was put on. He said Sasha was back training in the ring after the show.
(27:05) Travis from Kansas City calls in: what was their favorite part of WrestleMania 32 this year? For Rich, it was Sasha Banks’s entrance. He’s a big Banks fan and a big Snoop Dogg fan. For Shawn, it was Shane’s effort in the HIAC match. As critical as he was of him the past few weeks, he thought Shane went all out. A moment Shawn will never forget. Pat won’t blame Shane for the build-up for the match. For Pat, it was the A.J. Styles and Chris Jericho match. Travis asks if we know what the actual attendance was for the show? Pat has heard that the actual attendance was 98,000. Legitimately it is the most attended WrestleMania show ever (and not counting North Korea, it is the most attended wrestling show ever).
(31:05) Jay from Tampa, FL calls in: Shaq teases that his feud with the Big Show isn’t over, and that he implied that the Big Show and Shaq will have a tables match at WrestleMania 33. Rich likes the fact that they put the battle royal on the main show, but as far as Shaq goes, he shouldn’t be saying stuff like that.
(39:25) Drew Galloway will be on the show next week
(39:50) What was it like being in-person for NXT Takeover? Shawn says it was the show of the weekend, Zayn vs. Nakamura was the match of the weekend. Rich agrees. Takeover was the WrestleMania of WrestleMania weekend.
(42:10) Dolph Ziggler’s WWE Studios “Countdown” movie trailer gets ridiculed.
(43:35) Would WrestleMania 32 have been thought of more kindly if it was preceded by NXT Takeover? Rich doesn’t think so – the main event is what dragged it down. Shawn also agrees. Pat says WWE potentially created a lot of good will in the NXT Takeover event.
(45:50) What was with the Stephanie McMahon promo at WrestleMania? Shawn thinks they just wanted to get Reigns over as a face, which wouldn’t have worked. He thinks it was ridiculously over the top (in a good way). Rich thinks they painted themselves into a corner with Reigns so they had to pull everything out of the bag, which they did that.
(48:30) Should Michael Cole be replaced by Mauro Ranallo? Rich would like it, he’s been very good on Smackdown. He’s got that classic announcer voice. Shawn saw Mauro Ranallo at the hotel bar. Shawn asked when he would replace “that idiot” Michael Cole, which led to awkwardness. Pat says WWE is looking for different announcers than what we are: promote products and different things all while getting yelled at by Vince through the headset.
(52:20) Do you think there was a lapse that the Tag Titles weren’t defended at WrestleMania? Shawn doesn’t think so, there isn’t much of a division anyways and that match with New Day provided an opportunity to have the legends appear. Rich agrees that the titles should be built up to have them mean something if they were to be defended on a flagship show like WrestleMania so it wasn’t a huge loss.
(54:10) Shouldn’t Kevin Owens be upset that he lost the IC Title? Rich says absolutely he should have been upset, especially since the title was so important to him a couple weeks ago. Shawn agrees – it’s a shame that WWE has brainwashed us into thinking that the titles don’t mean anything anymore.
(55:55) What did Shawn & Rick end up doing Saturday night? They hung out at the hotel bar and saw the wrestlers after the HOF let out.
(56:55) Shawn liked The Rock segment, he just didn’t like the six-second match. He thought The Rock was good, not as good as the past couple of years, but still entertaining. Rich doesn’t think that The Wyatt Family was buried by the segment, Bray didn’t get beat up, it was Rowan, a low man on the Wyatt totem pole. He looks forward to see where this may develop after Bray gets healthy.
(59:09) What are they looking forward to the most at next year’s WrestleMania? Seeing familiar faces from all over the world that they didn’t keep in touch with all year, the fact that NXT is growing and since WWE will be in Orlando next year, Rich feels that they will pull out all the stops for it. Shawn totally agrees – it’s the total experience. It’s like a city take over.
(1:01:05) Follow Shawn on Instagram & Twitter @shawnvalentino. Follow Rich on Instagram & Twitter @therichtwilling.
SCORE & REVIEW
7.5: If you’re suffering from that Post-Mania Hangover, this may help cure a few ailments. Shawn and Rich’s in-person accounts of being at the show shine a brighter light on the WrestleMania experience, despite the event itself not being a critical success. I think the most interesting parts of the episode were hearing of their time spent at the wrestlers hotel, including Flair at the bar and Shawn’s awkward conversation with Mauro Ranallo. Nothing too wild to write home about this week, but a good show to ease the loss of wrestling’s super bowl.
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