Wrestlemania. The Grandest stage of them all. The extra-special more expensive pay per view. The spectacle. The pageantry. The life. The love. The laughter.
Either you watched it or you didn’t. I, for the first time in my entire life, bought a PPV. Couldn’t watch this show in the company of people… cuz they frown on you taking off your pants and laying around at Hooters. Trust me.
Sooooo…
ShowMiz vs. Morrison and R-Truth
Exactly what I expected. I liked that Morrison actually did starship pain when the Miz wasn’t there and not some BS version of “missing” the move. It is little stuff like that that shows that that that that that that… sorry, had a that seizure. It shows that Morrison understands how crappy it looks when someone does a safe, “no water in the pool” version of a top rope move.
Show swats Morrison out of the air. This is exactly how it should have been booked. Get over the idea that if Big Show catches a little high-flyer, it is over. I think Miz and Show work well together as a pairing. Show is great at doing what he does. He is the “big man.” No moonsaults. No step up ranas. He squishes things… and he has charisma. He can talk and be goofy just as easy as be menacing and tough. This pairing should elevate Miz pretty well… until the Fed does what they always do and squander the value of what they have going for them.
Triple Threat
I had quite a discussion with a certain bastard son of 100 corpses over this. Here is how I view it: It is convoluted in its booking. The two impressionable young guys who are constantly abused by their more experienced heel mentor with explosive anger issues finally break free form his control… and they are the heels? Furthermore, the mentor isn’t a full on face, he is a tweener at this point, and he is leaning pretty heavily into heel country. Thus, it is never really presented as to who you should root for. Now, Mr. Dark feels that they have booked Legacy as heels, and all of the bookings have (correctly) been pointing Legacy as the heels. Also, the crowd is popping like mad for Orton, so clearly they are not as confused on the issue as I am.
Orton going over didn’t make any sense. It seemed like a pretty weak way to end a feud. Also, Orton used the “punt” on Cody, which is as heel of a piece of offense as he has. However, had one of Legacy gone over, it wouldn’t have ended the feud… if it is indeed over… This kinda seems the point of having the match at mania.
Money in the bank
Quick, can you name all ten participants from memory? Besides Jimmy DeMarco and Logan, I mean. Yeah, too many dicks on the dance floor, in my opinion. It seemed like there were so many people that everything quickly became forgettable. No crazy dive from Sheldon, which was sad. I wanted to see him stand on the briefcase and dive onto people. I liked Kane choke slamming… someone? onto a crowd of people on the floor. Koofey had the memorable stilt walk, and I liked the briefcase spot. I liked that Swagger couldn’t unhook the briefcase even more. To quote Jimmy, “That was god’s way of showing the WWE booking team that Swagger doesn’t deserve it.” There is something about swagger that I like. Maybe that he teamed with Dr. Death on occasion. I hope the briefcase gives him the rub that teaches him how to be good in this sport. But really he will probably lose it in a kissing contest to Leila, who will sell it to Ted Dibiase. His dad is rich, you know.
Trips vs. Sheamus
It made no sense for HHH to win. Getting buried off a snap Pedigree kinda undid the shine that all of Sheamus’ offense got him. On the plus side, it can end the feud so Trips can go back to feuding with Orton and Cena.
Here is the deal with Sheamus. He didn’t deserve the push he got. He is a big vanilla giant. However, he is there, so there is no point in complaining about it. He is where he in the pecking order. The Fed has done a decent job of setting up why we should give a crap about him (something TNA can’t seem to grasp. Samoa Joe, one of the biggest names in Indy wrestling, gets abducted on live TV, and everyone gives a collective shrug?) He needs a lot of work on his personality and some refinement on his ring work, but they at least understand the machination of HOW to create new talent.
Rey v. Punk
It was a good match. It made sense. It worked in everything it needed to. It would have been a fine match… at SummerSlam. But with this being Mania, there was nothing transformative about it. It didn’t even seem to end the feud. My guess is that they go ahead with the Hair vs. Mask match (probably at SummerSlam.) Really it is a good thing. They see that the feud has legs and decided to run with it a bit longer. But the one sided stip seemed kinda lame. Just let them do a great match. Again, Mania should start or end a feud, not be a memorable match in it.
Also, never would have guessed that was an Avatar outfit. I mean, I didn’t see Avatar, but I know what those blue things looked like. I would have rather seen Rey in a Rorschach mask and trench coat. But that is just my personal geek flavor preference.
Bret and Vince
Why in the name of God would you expect Bret’s ENTIRE family to sell out? Really, each and every one, there to honor their father’s contributions to the sport, all hate Brett? All of them?
The match went too long. Sam is right; it was a match between a 65 year old man and a stroke victim. No one expected a wrestling match. Vince sold like a champ. Brett has decent looking punches. They should have skipped the pry bar stuff and have Vince grab the chair. Brett should have got the chair off of him as he was about to tee off on Diane, hit a few solid shots (like he did. I liked Brett’s chair shots,) do a stomp with Vince’s leg in the chair, and then Sharpshooter. Even better, do a lazy sharpshooter with Vince underneath the chair and Brett sitting down, lazily enjoying his victory. Also, just how much did Bruce want to be over? Jesus he was trying to go in business for himself, but who pops for the ref?
It was a match build to pop the crowd once the Sharpshooter was applied. It did that. It just could have done it quicker and given an extra 5 minutes to an actual wrestling match.
Jericho vs. Edge
I liked the match. I think they should have done a spot to get over the “Edge is a risk taker” idea a little more, but overall it was a solid match with good work on both sides. I like that they didn’t take the gold off Jericho.
Now, after the match… WTF? Who cast the healing spell on Edge’s ankle? When did his Berserker rage kick in? Why the hell would you not have the energy/ pain threshold to kick out of a codebreaker, but then magically come to life to get your heat back after the match? And if you do wake up enough to get revenge, why run on the injured limb (that was the main selling point of the match) like you are Usain Bolt? You couldn’t have hobbled and done a one man con-chair-to? I think this was the Epic fail of the night, because you had so much farther to fall after that match.
Divas
The 10 diva tag match was booked by a 14 year old boy playing a video game as far as I can tell. This is actually a good thing. Everyone hits a finisher 2 minutes in. Vickie messes up the finish and proceeds to hump whosits on the mat a few times, and then scores the pin. Pointless except for getting the ladies a better payday.
Batista vs. Cena
Wow. Just wow. No matter how over you want Cena to be an believe he is, he just isn’t. Why did he have a military entrance? He isn’t even doing the Military-themed gimmick anymore. Pretty standard work from these two. A few nice false finishes and I liked the reversal. It is good that Cena knows that he has his detractors and can work around them and even laugh with them. Posing with a bunch of dudes who have anti-Cena shirts is a great promo tool.
HBK v. Undertaker
A great match. Really, a top notch effort from those two. Had WrestleMania XXV never happened, I would be extolling the virtues of this great, Mania level quality match.
But WM XXV did happen.
Thus, as good of a match as this was, it didn’t surpass their last effort. Taker sold like he was teaching a clinic on how to make people care about you, emphasized by the fact that he never sells pain that much for anyone else. The jumping tombstone was a good finish. I hope Shawn stays gone for a while. It was a good send off, no need to sully it with a cheap return in 6 months.
OVERALL
It was decent. A few good matches, some that failed to really grab hold, but nothing that really screamed horrible (except for maybe the post match stuff with edge). Not sure that it was worth what I spent on it, but I am glad I got to see it. Also, I am sorry we had to cancel the “Tickle Andy” contest.
Maybe next time it will be “Tickle Jake.”
Perhaps SummerSlam?
-Ryan
