Lesnar/Goldberg Reaction at this Year’s Mania

By Scott Keith on March 16, 2013

Hey Scott,

So I was thinking about the upcoming Mania card: is there a good chance that WWE is gonna have to deal with a "Lesnar/Goldberg at Mania 20" type reaction during the main event?
First off, we all know that the typical Mania crowd is as smarky, pro-bad-guys as it gets. Then put that into NEW YORK CITY (well, Jersey, but same crowd) and you've got a perfect storm of bizzarro crowd.
Now look at the undercard, which seems almost designed to piss that crowd off. It's pretty much a lock that Punk and Lesnar are doing jobs, one of which to Triple H of all people. Those are not gonna go over well. Throw in the fact that Ziggler, Jericho, and Bryan are all currently not even booked on the show, and so one would assume that even if they did get on in would be in some short throwaway match that doesn't allow them to do much of anything. (Except probably job.) So again, that's not gonna make the live crowd happy. THEN throw in what is sure to be a heatless Del Rio vs Swagger match (seriously, the live crowds have been absolutely dead for everything involving these two the last few weeks.) that will probably end up getting a fair amount of time.
Add all that up, throw in a 20-minute musical interlude by some unknown emo-rappers (WWE's music genre of choice), and by the time that main event comes around one could see the live crowd being in a bit of a pissy mood. ESPECIALLY when they all know they're about to sit through SuperCena winning the title again. At that point, who knows what the reaction is gonna be. I suspect that the crowd will be significantly less in love with The Rock this year than last, which could lead to A) An overall muted reaction from the crowd, ala Triple H vs Orton at Mania 25, or B) All out "same old shit" and "boring" type angry chanting.
So what say you and the Doomers? Am I overstating how much the smarky NYC/Mania crowd is gonna react to seeing their favorites get the shaft all night? Do you think WWE is anticipating this at all, and might counteract it with some alternative booking? (Lesnar or Punk actually going over, or Cena turning heel?) Very curious.
Thanks!
-Worst in the World

I think you're overstating the smarkiness. I think the RAW afterwards, like last year, is going to be smark overload, but Wrestlemania is generally more of a casual crowd. I think if anything it'll be more of a HHH-Orton situation where an unexpected great match is going to burn out the crowd and the main event will be dead rather than nuclear heat.

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