What's the story?
Ex-WWE Writer Brian Mann joined us on The Dirty Sheets on our "Wrestling Therapy" show to discuss and dissect this year's WrestleMania card. You can hear the full interview by clicking the Soundcloud link below:
In case you didn't know...
Brian Mann worked for the WWE in 2011, a time when the WWE was particularly interesting, as it included the “Summer of Punk” which you can read about here. During the interview, Mann recalls the writers asking each other, “how are we gonna screw this up?” after Punk won the WWE Title from John Cena at Money in the Bank in Chicago.
Brian Mann can currently be heard every week on The Law Podcast. He reviews old episodes of Monday Nitro from the year 2000. The show is called “Keep it 2000” and is hosted by Brian Mann and Nate Milton.
The heart of the matter
Over the course of the discussion, there were many highlights. Mann mentioned that he had been told that Goldberg and Lesnar would not go on last. He added that this was not because officials were concerned about the quality of the match, but because of the significance of The Undertaker and Roman Reigns encounter, although he did not confirm if The Undertaker was retiring or if Reigns was turning heel.
However, as we publish this piece, it's possible plans may have changed again, back to Goldberg vs. Lesnar going on last. Mann stated that WrestleMania could be a crazy time with constant changes, given Vince's somewhat fickle nature, and that all of WWE creative team would be working tirelessly during WrestleMania season.
Mann also stated that:-Talking Smack was one was of the best the things the WWE does. He also suggested that the WWE should implement the concept into its regular television, instead of hiding it on the Network.-He would have booked Cena vs. Taker, and revealed the match has been planned and scrapped several times over the years.-Finn Balor was the replacement for Seth Rollins to face Triple H, had Rollins not been ready.-He didn't want Daniel Bryan to wrestle again, as the WWE won't even clear him for one last retirement match.-Both Raw and SmackDown after ‘Mania would be highly relevant and eventful. However, Mann would not disclose further details while we were recording, as he said he wasn't a fan of spoilers and that his Twitter account would never become a spoiler account.-The WWE is likely to hold back on all the speculated title changes, and we ran through the Title matches of the card.
What's next?
WrestleMania 33 takes on April 2nd and will emanate from Orlando, FL.
Author's take
WWE writers come in for a lot of criticism, however, they certainly are not as involved and influential as people believe. It’s also clear from this interview, that they aren’t just TV sitcom writers who don’t understand the business, another widely thrown around accusation.
Mann is clearly a huge wrestling fan with great knowledge and ideas about the business. As far WrestleMania 33 goes, it would be fair to summarise that, although Mann doesn’t hate the WrestleMania card, he certainly feels it could have been better.
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One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
