WrestleMania XXVII Review

Following on from my WrestleMania XXVII opinions and predictions post the next logical step was to write a match-by-match review like I did for last years event, so here it is.

Obviously it’s not a good idea to continue reading if you haven’t finished watching the show, but for those who have please feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section.

WrestleMania XXVII

It’s been quite some time since I’ve participated in this blogging lark, and upon logging in to this site I noticed there’s still a pretty consistent daily visitor count and the occasional comment still coming in, so for those reasons I thought it was time to bombard you with my ramblings once again.

Alrighty, in typical fashion I’ll continue to largely ignore the usual world news stories and the like, so with that in mind today’s blog is about the upcoming wrestling show WrestleMania 27, due to air tomorrow night (April 3rd).  I have to make a confession before we go any further, I’ve not watched any WWE broadcasts since last years’ WrestleMania.  This is partially due to gradually losing interest as I get older and Vince McMahon continuing to cater to a family friendly audience, but it’s mainly because I cancelled my TV sports package recently so I can’t watch it even if I wanted to.  Tomorrow nights show is obviously a Pay-Per-View so I can and will be ordering that separately, and I regularly read the so-called ‘dirtsheets’ online so I fortunately have a vague idea of what I’m talking about.

Smackdown vs Raw 2011 Review

The WWE Smackdown vs Raw series has gradually started to overcome it’s lacklustre predecessors reputation in recent years, with the 2008 version in particular reaching new lows.  So, how good is the latest effort?

Gameplay

A fair few changes have been made to this years’ Smackdown vs Raw, the most noticeable being with the control system. Basically it’s been revamped in ways which I’m personally not too fond of, in previous series entries the control system has always been smooth and enjoyable to use; Smackdown vs Raw 2011 is almost the exact opposite and takes quite some time to get used to. Fortunately as soon as you fire up the game you’re greeted with a training ring, so you can thankfully get used to the difficult controls at your own pace.

WrestleMania XXVI Reviewed

I have to start by saying I haven’t watched wrestling regularly for some time, the last time I took any real interest in the WWE in particular was last August to be precise while writing a blog post about Monday Night Raw.  With that being said I was still vaguely aware of what was going on in the world of professional wrestling by way of various dirt sheets and the odd half hour of Raw or Smackdown here and there, but despite an ever-increasing lack of interest in the product I was still eagerly anticipating WrestleMania this year.  I’ve watched it every year since WrestleMania XII, and I probably will do for many more years to come, so after watching my fourteenth wresting extravaganza I decided to give a match-by match review of the event.

As always comments, critique and opinions are more than welcome, I’d love to see what fellow wrestling fans thought of WrestleMania XXVI.

Big names to host RAW in the future

Fans of WWE show Monday Night Raw will know that in recent weeks they’ve put together a ‘guest host’ gimmick for the show, attracting some big name already like Seth Green and particularly Shaquille O’Neal but more importantly gaining a 10% viewership increase since the idea began as well as mainstream publicity.  As it turns out the news site Lords of Pain is reporting that even more big names have already signed up to host the show, including Bob Barker, Al Sharpton, Nancy O’Dell, Floyd Mayweather and LeBron James.  Either because I’m British or (more likely) largely ignorant regarding American celebrities I’m not familiar with those names excluding the last two, but it sounds pretty good all the same.

Shaq is perhaps the most famous person to host Raw to date

Not only that, other celebrities are reportedly in talks with the WWE to also host a Raw show, which the writers are hoping will continue right on through until possibly WrestleMania 26 next March.  These names include Pete Wentz, Ashlee Simpson, the Osbournes, Danny DeVito, Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, Jimmy Fallon, Rachael Ray, MC Hammer, Woody Harrelson, Serena Williams and Ashton Kutcher which are people I’m familiar with and hoping they’ll give it a go.  The Osbournes in particular would be fantastic.