Wrestlemania Review
Anyone watch any wrasslin’ this weekend?
Of course you did. It was Wrestlemania XXVI Weekend! And here are my reactions to the biggest show of the year…
Pretty spectacular looking set and a great but cheesy opening montage of ‘Wrestlemania Moments’. We open the show with…
Big Show & Miz v R Truth & John Morrison
How long has it been since the Tag Titles featured at Wrestlemania? Although the belts were unified at last years Wrestlemania, the match was on the preshow not the pay-per-view. In fact, you have to go back to 2006 to find the last tag title match at Wrestlemania. So I was pretty surprised to see this match had made the PPV. I had expected it to be cut and added to the preshow. It wasn’t all that bad…until the finish. Morrison springboards, Show punches him from the apron and covers. Rather surprising and a little odd. Still, it was short and unobtrusive.
Ted DiBiase v Cody Rhodes v Randy Orton
This wasn’t as dull as I was expecting (Yes, expect me to say that about a few matches. It’s meant as a compliment, honest!). Orton was pretty inventive in holding off the double teaming in the early going. Soon enough, the Rhodes and DiBiase team started to crumble and Orton capitalised, punting Cody and hitting an RKO on Ted for the win. It was a textbook ‘handicap’ three way. The story came across rather well.
Vickie Guerrero cuts a terrible promo backstage and Santino plugs Slim Jims in an embarrassing segment. I guess it was meant to be funny. The lack of Michael Cole’s forced laughter said it all.
Money in The Bank
I have to say, I think they’re throwing far too many guys in to this match now. It was hard to pick a winner, because clearly the match was filled with every wrestler stuck in midcard hell. Kofi using the broken ladder as a pair of stilts was fun, but this match is so overdone now…maybe they should lay the gimmick to rest for a few years? Jack Swagger wins, taking ages to unhook the bloody case. I wouldn’t be against Swagger winning if they’d done ANYTHING with him in the past few months. I just didn’t see the point.
Triple H v Seamus
I honestly expected a snoozefest here, but actually found the match to be surprisingly entertaining. I can’t remember the last Triple H match that I truly enjoyed – I just find him a little dull and tired (and his opponents don’t help his style!). H and Seamus showed some great chemistry tonight. Triple H gets the Pedigree and the pinfall. I would have like to see Trips put Seamus over at Wrestlemania – especially considering how terribly they’ve promoted Seamus since winning the Title (and losing it). The WWE Champion wrestling in the opening match on Raw was never a good thing. Let’s hope strong performances like Sunday help strengthen his position on the card.
CM Punk v Rey Mysterio
Rey seemed to take a lifetime to come through the curtain. I presume his entrance was botched? He’s also come dressed as one of the aliens from Avatar – it wasn’t all that convincing, prompting Jerry Lawler to explain it to us watching at home. This was a decent match. Pretty much what you’d expect from these two. Rey hits the 619 and gets the victory.
Vince McMahon v Bret Hart
We’ve waited so long for this match. Can it possibly live up to the hype? For months I asked myself if Bret was fit to wrestle. I figured if he was unfit to wrestle, they’d have just put him and Vince in somebody’s corner (a la McMahon/Trump at Wrestlemania 23). But he’s in the match! Surely this’ll be good. Well…no. In fact, if you’d have told me this match would be the one big dud on the card, I’d have called you crazy. It was terrible. It involved the entire Hart family as lumberjacks, some unconvincing crowbar attacks and one elbow drop from Bret. In fact, the match basically consisted of an elbow and the sharpshooter. I guess we should be thankful that a line has been drawn under Montreal. To be honest, I’m just disappointed Bret would choose to end his career in such an awful match.
Chris Jericho v Edge
I was really, really hoping this would be higher up the card than this. I thought the Royal Rumble winner won a Title shot in the Main Event? I guess the Royal Rumble concept is pretty redundant with that terrible Elimination Chamber PPV. Anyways, this match lives up to my expectations. Plenty of fantastic counters and a logical story. Obviously, Edge wants to get the spear and Jericho keeps dodging his attempts to hit it. It made for a superb match. Jericho wins after hitting Edge with the belt, followed by a Codebreaker. This no doubt indicates this feud will continue, which is a good thing. Still, I’d have given this match an extra ten minutes…
Womens Tag Match
If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know I don’t do Womens Matches. The fast forward button gets used for the first time in the night…
Batista v John Cena
Undertaker has his winning streak, but Cena has a streak of incredibly cheesy Wrestlemania entrances. This year, there’s a Air Force drill team swinging bayonets. It’s impressive, I suppose. But they’re there for John Cena, which makes them automatically shit. This match was bearable. Again, not as bad as it could have been, but no classic. Unsurprisingly, Cena wins the title. He then poses with a bunch of guys in ‘We Hate Cena’ T Shirts. What a douche.
Undertaker v Shawn Michaels
I was pleasantly surprised to see this in the Main Event slot. No grand entrance for Michaels told me that this match was going to be serious. It certainly lived up to last years match. (While we’re on the subject – for the record, I thought last years match was overrated. Sure, it was great. Best WM match ever? Not by a long shot. There were far too many false finishes for me. There’s only so many times a guy can kick out of a finisher before it seems a bit silly…) I loved the ending, with Taker shouting to HBK to stay down. It really felt as though he was dropping out of character. Then Michaels slaps him and boom! Tombstone and pinfall. Undertaker is 18-0 and Shawn Michaels is retired…for now. I always find it so hard to get emotionally attached to these stipulations when guys are either being forced in to retirement or just blatantly have no intention of staying retired. Look at the emotional Ric Flair farewell. Where is he now? Michaels looked as humbled as I’ve ever seen him as he took his final bow. If this truly is the end of his career, he’s certainly gone out on a much higher note than Bret Hart.
All in all, a decent Wrestlemania. Better than last year. Some matches were surprisingly good, some shockingly bad. My only gripe would be the short match length of the lower to mid card. But I wouldn’t sacrifice a minute of Jericho/Edge or Taker/HBK for any of those matches, so I guess it balances out. Perhaps WWE should stop trying to cram absolutely everyone on the card. That way time can be better allocated to the feuds that people want to see.
Raw results and analysis as soon as I get around to it. Feel free to leave your Wrestlemania reactions. How did you rate the PPV? What were your high points and low points?
Good writeup, Monkey.
I agreed for the most part. Well, the whole thing, really. I dig Sheamus and don’t see why people are so anti him.
I was embarrassed for Bret. Why did he come back for that?!