Ex Smackdown Writer's view on Wrestlemania and 'wrestling'

FORMER WWE Smackdown head writer Dave Lagana has branded WrestleMania 27 a success — but only if you were looking to see an 'entertainment' show, and not a wrestling event.

Coming in the same week as the company officially dropped the word 'wrestling' from their name — becoming simply WWE rather than World Wrestling Entertainment — Lagana granted an exclusive interview to SunSport.

Speaking on Rob McNichol's One Sided Ring Podcast he told us: "For the look, the slickness and the overall presentation, I thought it was a very good entertainment show.

"If you bought the PPV for wrestling, you did not get a lot of that. Vince McMahon's not selling you wrestling any more, people, he's selling you entertainment.

"I thought all the finishes were really good. That's why I give the show a thumbs-up. Certain things didn't feel like Wrestlemania, but all the finishes made sense and they were very creative.

"I thought Cody and Rey was really good. I liked Punk and Orton too. The one thing I didn't like was the really good spot where Randy's knee gave out, as they did it on the Monday before.

"But I thought it was a one-match show, as far as 'WrestleMania-quality' matches, and that was Taker and Triple H.

"I thought the finish of the show was a tad disappointing, especially as you paid $65 to see a Cena-Rock confrontation and to see them go at it, only to find out the next day - for free - that they'll fight a year from now."

As someone who was involved in the creative process for seven Wrestlemanias, Lagana's insight into the construction of this year's show is fascinating.

He says that he thought the event was lacking several ingredients which stopped it being a classic.

Lagana added: "This year's show really missed Money in the Bank and Shawn Michaels. Those two things not being on the show really hurt the overall wrestling quality of WrestleMania.

"Pulling Daniel Bryan from the show hurt too, it just felt that at the end of the day it felt like the matches were all muted. It felt like something you would see at a Smackdown, or even a house show.

"Maybe they wanted to mute everything down so the Taker match would feel bigger, I don't know what the intention was, but the end result was a show that, when you look back, might be the most disappointing WrestleMania since WrestleMania 15.

"This show was definitely not on a par of, say, the last eight Manias."

Find it hard to disagree, I like Lagana, he always talks sense and doesn't come across as to "i know better than you"

I didn't miss the MitB match as such, the last 3 years was short on realistic main event potential, I'd hoped they would use that void to build good feuds, the got it right with Orton/Punk and Cody/Rey it would have been great to see Barrett get a good single feud and win, I would have held off Big Show/Barrett until Mania, going over Show with Wasteland with Show on his shoulders would have been epic IMO

Good interview - I agree with him about the main event, the Cena/Miz match was poor compared to the other main events, however I disagree with him about the Punk/Orton match - it had wrestlemania quality to me: that match was nearly as good as the Taker/HHH match and for pure wrestling probably was. But he is spot on about Vince's priorities - Vince sells 'entertainment' rather than wrestling, but considering he mainly does it through the medium of wrestling it just becomes watered down and confusing.

I thin regarding the Punk match he just wasnt happy that ortons leg gave way at the same point it did on Raw, I totally agree.