So I woke up early today, fixed myself a coffee and then went to the various wrestling "dirt sheets" online to see their thoughts on last night's Wrestlemania 26 event. I am not a die hard wrestling fan like I was in the late 1980's and 1990's but I do watch Raw, Smackdown and TNA Impact on occasion. I will also read results and watch the odd pay per view. One that I do always try to watch is WWE's "Granddaddy of them all" Wrestlemania. I wanna give my thoughts on the matches and where I think WWE excelled and where I think they dropped the ball.
The Tag Team Championship match was ok for what it was. I guess I only had two real issues withe match. The first is that the end of the match seemed anti-climatic to me. Now it did come out of no where and logically getting hit by a closed fist that is 15 inches would probably have that effect, I just feel that it was a "Oh it's over eh?" moment. The other issue I had is that John Morrison did not really get a chance to do...well....anything. Morrision is someone who grew on me as a character and a worker and I think he offers a really unique offense that is different than most guys on the roster. I do think that ShowMiz should have won as they are an interesting team and play well off of each other.
Next up we had Randy Orton vs Ted DiBiase vs Cody Rhodes. This was not a bad match and had a cool spot of Randy Orton doing a double ropes assisted ddt on both Rhodes and DiBiase. Orton won after a boot to Rhodes and an RKO to DiBiase. It was a decent match, with the usual "double team one guy but then fight each other" moments. I think that they should have had DiBiase go over on this one though. They missed a chance to have DiBiase pin Rhodes and steal a win from Orton. Maybe have Rhodes get hit with the RKO and as Orton was about to hit DiBiase, Ted side steps the move and clotheslines Orton over the top rope. Then have him pin Rhodes. They could then tease that Rhodes is furious and Dibiase states "It was instinct." Orton does not take the pin here and still looks strong and DiBiase creates some distance with Rhodes.
The Money In The Bank Match was a tough one to predict. Drew MacIntyre or Christian were the two I thought had the best chance and the sentimental pick is Kane of course (who debuted new tights !!) There were some cool spots like Kofi Kingston using the ladder that Kane ripped in half as stilts, Evan Bourne's Shooting Star Press off of the ladder, Kane chokeslamming Dolph Ziggler on to the ladder, Kane powerbombing Kingston on the ladder and Christian's reverse DDT from the ladder. I was surprised with Jack Swagger winning and boy did it take him forever to unhook the damn case from their or what?!?!? I think they should have had someone run down the ramp and teach the poor guy how it is done. I would have rather seen Christian win the match and then cash in the briefcase at the end of the Edge and Chris Jericho match but I will go into why more when I look at that match.
I do have issue with the next match. I am a huge Triple H fan and I do take a lot of crap for that....trust me. There is no reason why Sheamus should have lost in this match. Hard for me to say that but Hunter needed to lose here. I feel they really damaged Sheamus with a loss here. Hunter could have taken the loss. It didn't need to be a clean loss but Sheamus has been criticized as being a transitional champion and as a joke as a champion but this match could have made him a legit main eventer. They will need to find a way to rebuild the momentum of this guy.
The biggest waste of a feud so far is the next match. I can not say this enough. CM Punk should have went over Rey Mysterio. Punk has the best gimmick and is the best heel in wrestling right now. PERIOD. The match could have cemented The Straight Edge Society as a true force but instead we have Rey Mysterio winning again. That is something else. Is it not weird that the only time anyone could really beat Rey was when he was world champion? I mean how many damn times does Rey need to "defend his family." His son is already taller than he is and looks more like a threat than Rey is. How can they salvage this waste of a feud now? Have Punk sway Rey's daughter to join him. I think that having Rey's daughter say that she sees where Punk is right. That he speaks the truth would allow Punk to take this loss and not look weak. Have Rey beg Punk to take him instead. Can you imagine how they could play up Punk holding this over Rey's head?
The match with Bret Hart and Vince MacMahon was what I thought it would be but with a few pleasant surprises. I loved the idea of the Hart family lumberjacks and with Vince rubbing it in to Bret that he screwed him again. For Bret to show that he out smarted Vince again was a classic. The best part of this match to me was not the hundreds of chair shots that Vince took, the crowbar shots he took or the way that Bret cinched in The Sharpshooter but the push of The Hart Dynasty. The amount of offense they got in on Vince was something else. David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd seem to have finally been turned face during this angle and may be the start of a push. They did the right thing by having the lumberjacks do some of the work on Vince. It made Bret have to take less chances and reduce the chance of him hurting himself. I will say this. Kudos to Vince for taking some serious bumps and stiff looking chair shots. I really hope they do the right thing and have The Hart Dynasty take the next step.
The biggest surprise of the night to me was Chris Jericho winning the match and keeping the World Championship. It was a really good match and both guys looked good. I was really happy with the win and Edge gets to look strong afterwards by spearing Jericho through the barricade. This is why Christian should have won Money In The Bank though. Can you imagine Edge sitting in the ring, pissed off that he lost the chance to regain the title. Jericho is outside still out from the spear through the barricade, and then Christian's music hits. Edge would be beside himself as he watches Christian bring the briefcase down the ramp, the entire time yelling "NO!" Christian rolls Jericho into the ring, hits the Killswitch and pins Jericho as Edge sits in the corner of the ring in shock. Then you would have a trio of men feuding over the title and it would really drive Edge even more over the top.
The Diva match was my bathroom break and a chance to chat up my thoughts on the pay per view at this time. Sorry for having no thoughts on this other than they could have made this match shorter and gave the time to other matches on the card.
The Batista and John Cena match really did not do anything for me as I do not like either of these guys at all. I do think the Marine entrance was a huge let down and kind of seemed really lame to be honest. I will say that John Cena gets bonus points for throwing himself amongst the fans who had the "We Hate Cena" Shirts and giving the his wristbands to the kids. I really wish I could care about the match but Cena has been made into Superman and it is hardto care about characters that have no weaknesses.
I can not put into words how awesome The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels match was. It was really something to see and I could watch these two go at it any time. This match seemed to have so much emotion and it was not even the "Streak vs Career" stipulation. It was seeing Shawn want to defeat Taker so bad just to show the world he can. To me the highlight of the match was Taker not finishing the thumb across the throat taunt and telling Shawn to stay down. It was almost like he realized he was about to end a man's career and did not want to punish Shawn anymore past that, as that was punishment enough. With Shawn doing the taunt to Taker and slapping him, it just an amazing moment as Taker flipped and did the best Tombstone Piledriver in years.
Was it a perfect Wrestlemania?!?!?! Well no but it was a damn good one. Enough to make me go home and think I had just saw something special with The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels match. Should be an interesting Raw tonight!
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