As most of you who are regular readers of my blog probably know, I’m a fan of professional wrestling. As such, I watched Wrestlemania 24 last night, and I wanted to post my thoughts about the matches. I like to rate matches, so I’ll be assigning a rating to each match, with 4 stars being the best.
If you haven’t watched Wrestlemania yet and you plan to do so, you probably won’t want to read the rest of this post, as it contains the results of each match.
Pre-PPV Match: Kane wins a Battle Royale to earn an ECW Title Match
This match was originally announced as being part of Wrestlemania, but they moved it to the pre-show to make sure they’d have time for the other matches on the PPV. To my surprise, they didn’t show this match on TV at all, not even during the official pre-show before the PPV. The only way to watch the Battle Royale was on WWE.com. It was an entertaining match, but it wasn’t the best Battle Royale I’ve ever seen, as it only lasted 10 minutes.
Rating: **1/2
Match #1: Bradshaw d. Finlay (w/ Hornswoggle) in a Belfast Brawl
This was a fun match that included a ton of the usual hardcore match weapons, including trash cans and tables. It was actually my 3rd-favorite match on the PPV, but keep in mind that I really like gimmick matches.
Rating: ***
Match #2: C.M. Punk d. Carlito, MVP, John Morrison, Kennedy, Chris Jericho, and Shelton Benjamin in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match
This was my favorite match of the night. The guys really put their bodies on the line in a dangerous and thrilling match.
In addition to the usual spots that are seen in ladder matches, they threw in some new ones as well. One such spot saw two ladders wedged together at the bottom, which led to John Morrison climbing a ladder that wasn’t even open and was being held up only due to being wedged in the other ladder.
Shelton Benjamin took some insane bumps in this match. In one of these, he took nasty fall as the ladder he was trying to use to do a move collapsed. In another, he was thrown from the top of a ladder that was inside the ring, which sent him crashing through a ladder that was propped up between the ring and the safety railing. The impact broke the ladder he fell on in two.
The ending was well-done also, with C.M. Punk knocking Chris Jericho backwards off of the ladder, which led to Jericho getting his leg caught between the rungs and hanging helplessly upside-down as Punk grabbed the briefcase the was hanging over the ring. This was an amazing match.
Rating: ****
Match #3: Batista d. Umaga
I didn’t expect much from this match, and that’s about what I got from it. At least it was short. Some matches deserve to be given a lot of time, but this wasn’t one of them, so I was glad they kept it to a length that was appropriate to the match (less than 10 minutes, I think). It was a typical match between two power wrestlers, with a lot of brawling and the occasional power move. I see this phrase used a lot in various contexts, but it fits here very well – this match was “good for what it was”.
Rating: **
Match #4: Kane d. Chavo Guerrero (c) for the ECW Title
This barely deserves to be called a match. Kane snuck into the ring from the crowd instead of walking down the entrance ramp, so Chavo didn’t know he was in the ring. As soon as Chavo turned around, the bell rang, Kane choke-slammed him, and got the pin. The match lasted about 6 seconds. This was a very disappointing match that de-valued the ECW title even further. The only reason I gave this match even a 1/2 star rating is because the bell did ring at the beginning and end, so it was a match. About the only way a match could be so bad that I’d give it zero stars would be if it didn’t take place at all.
Rating: 1/2 star
Match #5: Shawn Michaels d. Ric Flair
Since Flair lost, this was supposedly the last match of Flair’s career. If that is true, it was a great match to go out on (although Flair should have won his last match). Flair and Michaels both worked very hard. This was my second-favorite match of the show.
Flair did a lot more different moves in this match than he has done in most of his matches late in his career, including a flying body press from the top rope, and a vertical suplex where he held Michaels in place for several seconds before dropping him.
Michaels hit (and missed) some big moves as well, the most impressive of which was actually a missed Asai moonsault that saw Flair move out of the way and Michaels land on one of the announce tables, breaking it. He also hit a top-rope moonsault onto Flair, who was outside the ring on the floor.
Flair hooked Michaels into the figure-4 twice during the match, with Michaels escaping. I thought it was cool that Flair also escaped from the variation of the figure-4 that Michaels has been using lately, and I also liked that it took three Sweet Chin Musics for Michaels to put Flair away (with Flair kicking out the first one).
There was a lot of emotion portrayed in the match as well, with Michaels pulling up short the first time he went for Sweet Chin Music because he couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Michaels saying “I’m sorry. I love you.” to Flair right before hitting the third Sweet Chin Music to win the match.
I fully expect to see Flair wrestle again at some point, but if this was his final match, he went out in style on the grandest stage of them all.
Rating: ***1/2
Match #6: Beth Phenix & Melina d. Maria & Ashley in a Lumberjack Match
This match was beyond bad. It was nearly unwatchable. The women’s champ Beth Phenix was stuck in this mess while the two best female wrestlers in WWE (Victoria and Mickey James) were relegated to standing outside the ring and acting as Lumberjacks (simply because they’ve never appeared in Playboy – I guess that shows the value WWE places on women’s wrestling). The most entertaining part of the match was when the lights when out for about a minute due to a technical problem and Jerry Lawler wondered if The Undertaker was on his way to the ring. We also saw Santino Marella interfere in the match, only to be punched by Lawler and clotheslined by Snoop Dog.
Rating: 1/2 star
Match #7: Randy Orton (c) d. Triple H & John Cena in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Title
Others might disagree, but this match didn’t go anything for me. I thought it was quite bad. I’ve seen much better matches from all three of these wrestlers. They’re capable of much better than this.
I’m not sure what it was, but this was one of those matches that was just missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on. It was sloppy and run-of-the-mill. They tried to do one or two unique spots, but they just didn’t work. I also thought it was a poor decision for Triple H to use the Crippler Crossface during the match, which brought back some bad memories that WWE would be better off not drawing extra attention to. On top of everything else, this match was too short, coming in at just around 15 minutes.
I normally like multiple-man matches (with the traditional singles match actually being among my least-favorite types of match), but if I’ve ever seen a case made as to why Wrestlemania main events should be singles matches, this would be it. This was just a terribly disappointing match.
Rating: *1/2
Match #8: Floyd Mayweather d. Big Show
I don’t really have much to say about this match, other than that it shouldn’t have happened. 140 pound boxer Floyd Mayweather defeated a 420 pound, seven foot tall wrestler in a match where anything goes. Right. At least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Due to the entertainment factor, I actually rated it higher than the WWE Title Match, which illustrates just how bad I thought that match was.
Rating: **
Match #9: Undertaker d. Edge (c) for the World Title
This match was solid, if not spectacular. Both guys worked hard, and in the end, I thought they put forth an effort worthy of a Wrestlemania main event.
Rating: ***
Additional Thought
* I think every WWE title belt should be defended on the biggest PPV of the year. The fact that the IC title, U.S. Title, Women’s Title, and neither set of tag titles were defended on the show is ridiculous.
