Wrestlemania 27 Thoughts

I usually do a post every year where I give my thoughts on WWE’s Wrestlemania Pay-Per-View.  However, I haven’t been watching much wrestling lately, and I didn’t order Mania this year because I thought the card was pretty weak.  However, I’ve been reading the results as they are posted online, and I wanted to post some thoughts about the show.

• The only match on the show that I was really interested in was Triple H vs. The Undertaker.  But it isn’t worth paying  the price to order the show for one match.

• Even though there is a Money in the Bank PPV now, I was still disappointed the match wasn’t on Mania this year.  That was a factor in my decision not to order the show.

• I think Alberto Del Rio was put in a main event position too soon.  I also don’t find his character interesting.  His inclusion in one of the Title matches was another reason I didn’t order Mania.  It is interesting to note that Del Rio vs. Edge didn’t turn out to be one of the main events on the show,  In fact,  it was the first match.  I think that shows that WWE management realized this wasn’t a main-event quality match.  After all, when was the last time the World Title match opened Wrestlemania?  Edge and Christian destroyed Del Rio’s car after the match, so I’m wondering if he’ll have a reduced role going forward, or if we’ll even see him again at all.

• The match that I was second-most interested in was Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan.  They made it a dark match and didn’t even show it on air.  I would not have been pleased with that if I’d ordered the show.  Plus, they changed the match to a Battle Royale half-way through the match (it was a Lumberjack Match at first).  So, the U.S. Title Match between Sheamus and Daniel Bryan was won by The Great Kali.

• The 8-man tag match involving The Core lasted around 2 minutes.  I wouldn’t have been pleased with that either if I’d ordered the show.

• Triple H vs. Undertaker was reportedly awesome.  It’s still not worth the price of Wrestlemania for one great match, though.

• I just read the finish of the main event, and I don’t like it.  I realize outside interference is a part of pro wrestling, but it shouldn’t determine the finish of the Wrestlemania main event.

That’s all of the the thoughts I have on this year’s Wrestlemania.  I realize I can’t rate it fairly having only read reports online and not having watched the show.  But from what I’ve read, I’m glad I didn’t order it.  And that’s too bad, because as a pro wrestling fan, I used to consider Wrestlemania to be a must-see show.

 

 

Wrestlemania 26 Thoughts

It’s time for my third annual Wrestlemania Thoughts column!  I watched Wrestlemania 26 on PPV last night, and below I’ll give my thoughts on each match.  I enjoy rating matches on a 4-star scale, with 4 stars being the best, so I’ll include my rating for each match as well.  Since I’ll be giving the results of the matches, you’ll probably want to skip this column if you haven’t watched the show yet and plan on doing so.

Pre-Show:  Yoshi Tatsu wins a Battle Royale

The majority of the WWE wrestlers who weren’t on Wrestlemania were in this Battle Royale.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know they were doing the Battle Royale this year.  It was shown on WWE.com only, so I missed it.  I was both shocked and pleased that Yoshi Tatsu won.

Rating:  Didn’t see it

Match #1:  Big Show & The Miz d. John Morrison & R-Truth

This match was good – while it lasted.  It only lasted about 5 minutes.  They just didn’t give these guys time to get going, which I don’t understand.

Rating: ** 1/2

Match #2:  Randy Orton d. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes (Triple Threat Match)

I’ve had a hard time getting into this feud, because Orton has gotten the best of DiBiase and Rhodes every time they’ve faced off.  Wrestlemania was no different.  DiBiase and Rhodes double-teamed Orton for the first several minutes of the match, but they eventually started fighting each other, which gave Orton the opening to get the win.  I’m amazed at the cheers Orton is getting now.  You’d have thought The Rock had made his return.

Rating: **1/2

Match #3:  Money in the Bank Ladder Match – Won by Jack Swagger

I must say I was very surprised by the winner, but this was an awesome match, and one of the best two of the night.  Among the many highlights was a Shooting Star Press off the ladder by Evan Bourne, and a Twist of Fate off the ladder by Matt Hardy.  And once again, they managed to do something I’ve never seen in a ladder match before.  Kane broke one of the ladders into two pieces, and Kofi Kingston used the pieces as stilts to try to reach the belt.  The action was so fast and furious that I don’t even remember exactly what happened at the end – except for Swagger taking about a minute to get the briefcase down because he couldn’t unhook it.

Rating: ***1/2

Match #4:  Triple H d. Sheamus

This was a really good match.  It was much better than the main event of Triple H vs. Randy Orton last year.  Sheamus looked really strong, even kicking out of a Pedigree at one point.

Rating:  ***

Match #5:  Rey Mysterio d. CM Punk

This is one the matches I was looking most forward to, and I must admit I was disappointed that it only lasted around 6 minutes.  They just didn’t give these guys enough time to put on the kind of match they are capable of having, and that’s a shame.

Rating:  **1/2

Match #6:  Bret Hart d. Vince McMahon (No Holds Barred Match)

I realize that Vince McMahon is 60 years old.  I know Bret Hart hadn’t wrestled in 13 years and has had a number of health problems since he last wrestled.  Still, I expected more from this match than we got.

I really didn’t care for the storyline where Vince tried to buy off all of Bret’s family, only to be double-crossed and find out that all of the Harts were there to help Bret.  All of them, including current WWE tag-team The Hart Dynasty, helped Bret beat up Vince.  I would much rather have seen Bret vs. Vince one-on-one, but the Hart Attack off the top turnbuckle to the floor by Tyson Kidd and DH Smith was cool.

The match was really lackluster.  The crowd didn’t seem into it, and even the announcers didn’t show much enthusiasm.  The match did get interesting at the end, however, when Bret decimated Vince with a steel chair.  Bret gave Vince some stiff shots, and must have hit Vince 20 to 25 times.  He seemed to be enjoying it, and he bent the chair all to pieces.  Vince then tapped out to the Sharpshooter.

Rating: * 1/2

Match #7:  Chris Jericho d. Edge to retain the World Title

This was a good match, if not quite up to the standards I expected from these two.  But after all, Edge hadn’t wrestled for the past several months due to injury.  The coolest part of this fight didn’t happen until after the match, when Edge speared Jericho off of the announce table and through the ringside barricade.

Rating: ***

Match #8:  The Heel Divas d. The Face Divas

There isn’t much to say about this match, except that it was awesome to see Vicki Guerrero do a Frog Splash (or give it her best effort anyway).  The ending of the match was botched a little bit, though, because they had the only referee in the history of pro wrestling who stopped counting when the shoulder of the wrestler being pinned came off the mat, even though it really was supposed to be the end of the match.  This led to Vicki basically bouncing up and down on the victim and then covering her again for the win.

Rating:  1/2 star

Match #9:  John Cena d. Batista to win the WWE Title

I heard this match was better than most fans probably expected it to be.  The reason I say I heard that it was good is because I spent most of this match on the computer checking my e-mail and so forth.  I guess I just didn’t expect it to be that good.  I’m not going to give this one a rating – it wouldn’t be fair since I barely watched any of the match.

Rating: Didn’t pay enough attention to the match to rate it

Match #10:  Undertaker d. Shawn Michaels

This match was awesome.  Some might say it wasn’t quite as good as the match these 2 put on last year at Wrestlemania, but that would be like saying winning $99.9 million in the lottery wouldn’t be quite as good as winning $100 million.

The highlights are too numerous to list them all, but one of the most amazing moments in the match was when Michaels did a moonsault off of the top turnbuckle onto Undertaker, who was lying on the announce table.

At the end of match, both guys were kicking out of each finishers like crazy:  Chokeslams, Sweet Chin Music, Last Ride, Tombstone – they were kicking out of everything.

The end the match was cool, too.  After Shawn kicked out of a Tombstone, he grabbed onto The Undertaker’s pants as he desperately tried to pull himself to his feet.  Taker seemed to show a brief moment of remorse, yelling at Shawn to stay down, and seeming reluctant to dish out any more punishment.  Then Shawn punched taker in the face, which resulted in a look of rage unlike any I’ve seen before crossing The Undertaker’s face, followed by a Tombstone which shook the ring.  Taker finally got the pinfall at this point.

What was even more impressive about this match is that Undertaker’s leg really seemed to be bothering him badly for most of the match, yet he toughed it out.  This match might very well go down in history as the match of the year for 2010.  I just can’t say enough good things about it.

Rating: ****

Closing Thoughts

• Despite there being some things on the show that I wasn’t crazy about, I thought this show was better top to bottom than the past several Wrestlemanias.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wrestlemania 25 Thoughts

As I did last year with Wrestlemania 24, I wanted to give my thoughts on Wrestlemania 25, which I watched last night.  I like to rate matches, so I’ll give each match a rating between zero and 4 stars.  Since I’m going to list the results of the matches, you might not want to read any further if you didn’t watch the show yet and plan to order the replay.

Pre-PPV Match – Tag-Team Unification Lumberjack Match:  Carlito & Primo Colon d. The Miz & John Morrison

After looking forward to Wrestlemania for days, WWE disappointed me before the PPV even started when I read that this match had been pulled from the PPV at the last minute.  Only the fans in attendance in Houston saw it.  To my knowledge, it didn’t even air on WWE.com.

I was disappointed for several reasons.  First, I just don’t like it when WWE doesn’t deliver something they advertised.  Second, The Miz and John Morrison worked as hard as anyone for the past 12 months, regularly wrestling on Raw, Smackdown, and ECW.  They deserved to be on Wrestlemania.  Finally, moving the match off of the PPV cost all of the lumberjacks their chance to appear on Wrestlemania.  It’s amazing how many wrestlers on the WWE roster didn’t appear on the show.

Match #1 – Money in the Bank Ladder Match:  C.M Punk def. Kane, Mark Henry, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, MVP, Finlay, and Kofi Kingston

As has always been the case with Money in the Bank, this was a good match.  The wrestlers put themselves through a lot of punishment.  It must be hard to keep coming up with new moves to do in ladder matches, but they threw a couple in.  One of these saw Kofi Kingston climb a closed ladder that was being held by Mark Henry.  The other saw Shelton Benjamin run across a contraption consisting of three ladders in order to powerbomb MVP from the top of a standing ladder, although he lost his grip and MVP just crumbled to the ground.  It was also amazing to see see Benjamin do a forward flip off of a very high ladder onto all of his opponents.  It was a fun match from start to finish, with my only complaint being that it was too short at just over 10 minutes.

Rating:  ***

Match #2 -  25 Diva Battle Royal: Won by “Santina” Marella

I was disappointed in this match.  I love battle royals, I thought WWE dropped the ball at every turn with this one.

The first problem was that they didn’t do any introductions for the divas at all.  They walked to the ring during Kid Rock’s performance, and they passed by so quickly that it was hard to spot who all was in the match.  This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if all of the Divas in the match were current WWE divas, but they had several returning Divas making special appearances.  There were so many girls in the ring that it was almost impossible to tell who all was in the there, and in fact, most of the returning Divas (Sunny, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, Jackie Gayda-Haas, Victoria, and Joy Giovanni) weren’t even mentioned until they got eliminated.  I’m glad all of these women got to compete in the match.  Molly is one of my favorite wrestlers, and Sunny still looks great.  But why invite them to Mania if they were going to basically be ignored?

The second problem with the match is that it only lasted about 5 minutes, which certainly isn’t long enough for a 25-participant battle royal.

The final problem is that this turned out to be nothing more than a comedy match.  Santino Marella snuck into the ring dressed as a woman, and he won the match.  His silly dance afterwards wasn’t the least bit entertaining, and we didn’t even get to see Beth Phoenix beat him up, even though Santino eliminated her.

With this match, the WWE managed to make a joke out of their entire women’s division in the span of about 5 minutes.

Rating:  1/2 star

Match #3 -  Handicap Elmination Match:  Chris Jericho d. Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper, and Ricky Steamboat

Jericho eliminated Snuka and Piper pretty quickly, which left us with a one-on-one match between Jericho and Steamboat.  It was one of my favorite parts of the show, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Ricky Steamboat was simply amazing.  He retired in the early 90s due to a back injury, but it didn’t look like he had been away from the ring for a day.  He was just as good as ever.  As my friend I was watching the show with commented, Steamboat is still better than a lot of the active wrestlers.  However, Jericho caught Steamboat with the Code Breaker after a few minutes and picked up the win.

I can’t say I liked what happened after the match, though.  Ric Flair was in the legends’ corner for the match, and I expected him to get revenge for the beatdown that Jericho gave him on Raw a couple of weeks ago.  However, Jericho took Flair out again and tossed him from the ring.  This led to an expected, but rather bad, confrontation between Jericho and Mickey Rourke, with Rourke knocking Jericho out with a single punch.

Rating: *** (Because of the Jericho vs. Steamboat part of the match)

Match #4 – Extreme Rules Match:  Matt Hardy d. Jeff Hardy

I hesitate to criticize this match, because it was a good bout.  Jeff Hardy put his body on the line doing a move that could have seriously injured him when he did a springboard from a tall ladder over an even taller ladder to do a leg drop from 20-25 feet in the air.  The guys used all sorts of weapons against each other.  The finish came when Matt hit Jeff with an awesome-looking Twist of Fate while Jeff had a folding metal chair around his neck.

Having said all of that, however, the match was lacking something.  Given the build to the match and the hatred that the Hardys should have been feeling for each other, I was expecting an epic match that would go down as one of Wrestlemania’s best.  Aside from the spot with the ladders, however, it was pretty much a run-of-the-mill WWE style hardcore match (which is to say it wasn’t as good as most matches in the original ECW).  Again, it was a good, enjoyable match, but it just didn’t deliver what I expected from these two at Wrestlemania, especially considering their involvement in much better TLC matches at Wrestlemania a few years ago.

Rating:  ***

Match #5 – IC Title Match:  Rey Misterio d. JBL

I was quite puzzled with this match.  JBL made his triumphant return to Texas as a champion, and then made history just like he’d promised to do:  by losing the match in 21 seconds.  I’m guessing that is probably the shortest IC title match not only at Wrestlemania, but in WWE history.  After the match, JBL grabbed the microphone and said “I quit”.  If that was really JBL’s last match, he sure went out in an unceremonious fashion.   There isn’t much to say about the match – it wasn’t long enough.

Rating:  * 1/2 (Rey’s moves looked fine, I just can’t give a very good rating to a 21 second match)

Match #6:  Undertaker d. Shawn Michaels

As I expected, this match stole the show.  The guys worked very hard for 35 full minutes.   There wasn’t a dull moment.

One moment that stands out in my mind in particular is when Shawn missed a moonsault off the top rope to the floor and landed with an impact that looked certain to break some bones – but didn’t as far as I know.  Another was when Undertaker got a head of steam and jumped over the top rope to the floor – where he crashed into a cameraman and landed on his head.

Shawn kicked out of the Chokeslam, the Last Ride, and a Tombstone.  Undertaker recovered from at least one Sweet Chin Music.  Taker finally got the better of Shawn after a second Tombstone.

For the second year in a row, HBK was involved in my favorite Wrestlemania match, as Shawn vs. Flair tore the house down last year.

Rating: ****

Match #7 – World Title Match:  John Cena d. Edge and Big Show

I can’t really think of much to say about this match.  It was a classic case of a “better than I thought it would be” match, but that’s because I didn’t expect much from it going in.

Rating: ** 1/2

Match #8 – WWE Title Match:  Triple H d. Randy Orton

I always hesitate to criticize wrestlers who go into the ring and put their bodies on the line for our entertainment, but there isn’t any way to sugarcoat it – this match was DULL.  Given the build to the match, I thought they might do something special with this one, but they didn’t.

The most exciting (but also kind of strange) part of the match was when both guys hit their finishers in the first 3 minutes of the match, to little effect.  The rest of the match was slow and plodding.  As with the Hardys’ match earlier, it was pretty devoid of emotion given the hatred the guys should have been feeling for each other following the events of the past few weeks.

The end of the match wasn’t even interesting.  There weren’t any back-and-forth near falls as I expect from a Wrestlemania main event.  Triple H simply decimated Orton for the last several minutes of the match and finally pinned him.

If this wasn’t the worst Wrestlemania main event ever, it has to be close.

Rating:  *

Closing Thoughts:

• I didn’t think this was the best Wrestlemania ever, but it wasn’t the worst, either, despite the surprisingly bad main event.  I enjoyed it, and that’s what matters.  The 4 hours went by quickly and I didn’t get tired of watching, so I think that speaks well that it was a good show.

• I thought it was interesting that two talents who no longer work for WWE on a regular basis – Jackie Gayda-Haas and Jimmy Snuka – made the show, while their relatives who are full-time employees of WWE – Charlie Haas and Sym Snuka – didn’t appear.

• WWE advertised this as the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania, but it wasn’t.  It was the 25th Wrestlemania, but it was the 24th anniversary.  The only way it could be the 25th anniversary is if you count the first Wrestlemania as the first anniversary.  That would be same as saying your wedding day was also your first anniversary.

Wrestlemania 24 Thoughts

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.