The Eden Park crowd of almost 30,000 got their money's worth, if not the result that the majority would have wanted, as the Crusaders sneaked home to win 19-18.
It was a scrappy win for them, but Todd Blackadder will be going home a lot happier than from the corresponding fixture a year ago when his side lost after holding a healthy halftime lead.
The relief among the Crusaders was almost palpable after Weepu, a second-half replacement, had his drop goal attempt charged down for the Blues right on fulltime.
It meant the Crusaders started the season with win after losing last season's final against the Reds and Blackadder will be heading back to quake hit Christchurch a satisfied man.
The Blues, on the other hand, will be bitterly disappointed. They controlled large periods of the match but couldn't score the points they probably deserved. The Crusaders were left clinging on by their fingernails in the end.
We caught a glimpse of young Tyler Bleyendaal, Dan Carter's stand-in at first-five, who probably shaded his battle against Michael Hobbs.
His jinking run near the end of the match should have resulted in points but instead the Crusaders coughed up another of their many penalties. This is an issue they will have to fix.
For Weepu, on at first five, after 58 minutes, with Hobbs moving to second-five, it wasn't quite the star turn he could have been expecting after his World Cup heroics.
He was sent flying by a Robbie Fruean fend and landed on his considerable bottom, but the men outside him generally impressed tonight.
Isaia Toeava's defence was outstanding at times, particularly his tackled on Fruean in the second half which stopped a try, and Rene Ranger was a constant threat at centre.
The second half was a curious affair with only three penalties scored. Play at times got bogged down in between flashes of brilliance as both teams got to grips with Chris Pollock's rulings at the breakdown.
The Blues settled quicker than the Crusaders in the first half and scored two tries within the opening 10 minutes.
First Chris Lowery and Jerome Kaino charged down Israel Dagg's attempted clearance - with Lowery the benefactor - and then David Raikuna scored his first Super Rugby try, taking advantage of poor Crusaders defence and a big overlap.
The Lowery try in particular would have stung the Crusaders, coming as it did after five minutes and due almost entirely to All Black Dagg's hesitation in attempting his clearance.
It was a soft try and Blues' tails were up when wing Raikuna stuck his hand out to touch down in Ryan Crotty's tackle.
In the meantime, though, Bleyendaal had been chipping away with his accurate goalkicking. He had closed the gap to 7-3 and then 12-6 with two easy looseners before a piece of Robbie Fruean magic allowed the Crusaders to take the lead.
The big centre had the Blues defence backpeddling down the left and his dummy too easily fooled the home side. His two supporting players would have had a few things to say had Fruean been tackled but he is a hard man to stop 10m from the line.
With a four-point buffer, the Crusaders were cruising. Their forwards were finding a nice rhythm after some early shocks from the big hitting Kaino and the dangerous Blues backs saw little ball.
The last four minutes of the half would have jolted the visitors back to reality, however, with the always dangerous Rene Ranger scooting off on a 60m run before he was stopped by a combination of Read and Sean Maitland, and Alby Mathewson knocking on after going close from an attacking scrum.
The Blues also had a chance to close the gap with a penalty goal as the seconds ticked down but they decided to go for touch and the chance was lost. They may rue that decision given the late dramatics and Weepu's miss.
Bleyandaal was well short with two of his penalty attempts in the second half but was a calm figure in the No10 jersey. Fruean was a handful and halfback Andy Ellis got busier as the game wore on.
Kaino was immense in defence for the Blues, with Charlie Faumuina showing up at tighthead prop.
Read and loosehead prop Wyatt Crockett caught the eye among the Crusaders forwards.
Blues 18 (Chris Lowery, David Raikuna, tries; Michael Hobbs con, pen)
Crusaders 19 (Robbie Fruean try; Tyler Bleyendaal 4 pens, con)
HT: 16-12
