Author: Big Cal

Match 1 – Daniel Bryan Vs Sheamus – I was looking forward to this match. Out of the £15 I spend to watch WM live, £5 of it went on this match. What a waste of fucking money. So the bell rings, and Bryan wants AJ to give him a good luck kiss before they officially get into it. They kiss, and Bryan turns around into a kick to the face and is pinned, losing the WHC. What a load of fucking bullshit. I said when I reviewed this match last year that this MIGHT very well lead to something good, with Bryan’s character developing even more than it already has in the last few months. It might lead to somewhere truly great, and that’s, well, great. But that’s no excuse for doing this at WRESTLEMANIA. Do it on SD. Do it at a “B” PPV like Extreme Rules. But don’t do it at WRESTLEMANIA. Of course it DID lead to something great at the time for Bryan, and the WM rematch was TREMENDOUS, but still, DON’T DO THIS SHIT AT WRESTLEFUCKINGMANIA. Unless it involves Chavo Guerrero Jr. Then job him out in as little time as you like. DUD.

Match 2 – Kane Vs Randy Orton – Kane shook Orton’s hand last year so now they need to have a match at WM. Totally understandable… I was actually surprised by this match; it didn’t suck. Kane since his return really hasn’t looked that good, but here at WM he looked better than he has in a while. Orton kept trying to go full speed ahead but Kane would absorb everything thrown at him and then nail Randy with one big powerful looking move, allowing him to wear down the Viper and control the match. This is WrestleMania though, and Orton just keeps coming back again and again, forcing Kane to take bigger chances such as attempting the clothesline from the top rope which doesn’t go as well as he’d hoped. Neither does the chokeslam, with Randy being able to kick out! So if the chokeslam don’t work, what do you do? Super chokeslam! Was actually expecting Orton to reverse this into an RKO ala WM 21, but damn, Kane actually hit it AND got the 3 count! I legit thought Kane stood no chance of winning a WrestleMania match against a guy like Orton, but he did it. Which I guess means a re-match at Extreme Rules. Not fussed about this “feud” continuing, but it keeps Orton out of the title picture for a little while longer and with a stipulation they could have another good match. All in all, solid stuff here. Kane actually looked good, Orton in a loss still looked good as it took a super chokeslam to beat him AND he never hit the RKO so we don’t know for sure if Kane would have been able to kickout of it had he landed it. ***.

Match 3 – Cody Rhodes Vs The Big Show – One of the few matches on this show with a decent build up, and honestly Cody was the one carrying the feud with his promos and the video packages of Show’s embarrassing WM moments lol. This one goes exactly as I thought it would; Show starts dominant, Cody finds an opening for a little while, then Show mauls Cody and wins. Best part of this match was Show spearing Cody in the balls. Luckily this isn’t too long (though they might as well have had this go as long as the WHC match with Show just knocking out Cody, so the WHC match could have actually been a match). It’s not BAD, but its short and there isn’t much to it so I can’t call it good either. Just kinda there, not annoying me, but entertaining me a little. *.

Match 4 – Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos Vs Beth Phoenix & Eve – NO.

Match 5 – The Undertaker Vs Triple H – Fuck. Yes. This is where another £5 went lol. Awesome that JR got to call the match, and they actually didn’t ruin it by playing up on all the shit between him and Cole. In fact, Cole was toned down a TON all night, which was awesome. He’s decent when he isn’t being a retard. The build up to this one hasn’t been epic, but I have enjoyed it more than any other WM match build this year. The whole “uncertainty” angle with Undertaker was a great way to set up the re-match imo. I remember listening to a radio show with JR, and the host summed up this angle in a great way. It’s just like Rocky II. Undertaker is Apollo Creed, and he wants the rematch because, and I quote “I won but I didn’t BEAT him”. And that’s just perfect for this. Undertaker got the win last year, but he was unable to leave the ring on his own and wasn’t able to return until a year later. So he wants another shot at HHH to prove that he CAN beat The Game and not JUST win the match. Undertaker’s coat looks epic btw. And his new hair cut reveal isn’t nearly as bad as I was thinking. I was expecting him to be completely bald and clean shaven on top of his head, but its grown back a little and he even has a slight Mohawk going that actually adds to his new look. The cell lowers to the sound of Metallica, and I have to wonder what shitty generic rock music they’ll replace it with when they release the show on DVD/Bluray. Seriously, why bother getting music like that for JUST the one night and not including it on the DVD/Bluray releases? They’ve done it before in the part, but now they replace anything they don’t already own the rights to. Last year, Triple H ran straight into The Undertaker to start the match and would be the one to control the pace and the match for the most part. This year, Undertaker has something to prove to himself and to HHH, so HE starts the match on fire and takes the fight right to HHH, showing him that the beating he took last year isn’t going to happen again; at least, not to HIM. I’ve been reading Mick Foley’s first book as of late, and there is a chapter where he talks a little about the best way to bust someone open “the hard way”. It involves targeting the spot just above the eyebrow… and about 3 minutes into this match I noticed that Undertaker starts targeting that exact spot with a couple of right hands and a few headbutts! Blood might be a big no-no in WWE these days, but hey, if someone is “accidentally” busted open, they can’t be punished, right? Besides, who the FUCK is going to come down to the ring and stop a Hell in a Cell match between HHH and THE UNDERTAKER? Nobody with a brain. The match slows down a little for a while now unfortunately. The match is inside the cell so I guess they figure they should do SOMETHING with it, and that ends up as nothing more than throwing each other into the side of it a couple of times. There really was no need to put this contest inside HIAC. I think they did it just to say that HHH and Undertaker finally had a HIAC match. Things pick up again when HHH tries to get himself back into the match with a quick DDT. He attempts a Pedigree on the steel steps that Undertaker brought in the ring, but a back body drop puts a stop to that. A nice little callback spot I guess you could say from their previous match, except last year it was a table HHH got back dropped. Another callback spot from last year with HHH hitting a brutal AA Spinebuster, except its the steel steps once again standing in for the table and damn does it look and sound a hell of a lot worse than last year! A desperate Undertaker sees an opportunity to use Hells Gate, but HHH has it scouted and is able to power Undertaker up and set him crashing to the mat! Undertaker’s back has taken some punishment now, so it’s time for the cerebral assassin to do what he does best; go to work on an injured body part. Time for the HBK factor to get involved in the match, with HHH brutalising The Undertaker with a steel chair, causing Shawn to show some concern for the man who ended his career. Triple H tells Shawn to end it, to ring the bell and stop the suffering of one of the biggest legends, or else HE’LL end it, and it won’t be as quick and painless as ringing a bell. Undertaker makes damn sure to tell Shawn not to end it, which just infuriates HHH to the point where he brings out his trusty Sledgehammer to finish the job. HBK gets involved again, actually preventing HHH from smashing the sledgehammer down on the head of the Dead Man. Instead he looks like he’s going to ring the bell, a way he sees best to prevent HHH from not just beating HHH, but ENDING him. But its WrestleMania, and The Undertaker isn’t going to let a match end like this any time, never mind HIS show. And if Shawn is considering ringing the bell, Undertaker believes he needs to take out Shawn, and he locks in the Hells Gate! With Shawn gone, HHH is next to feel the pain of Hells Gate, and just like the end of last year’s match, HHH does his best to use the sledgehammer but he passes out from the pain! This one is OVER! Except… HBK is still out! Another referee runs down as Undertaker levels HHH with a Chokeslam, and we get probably the biggest near fall a Chokeslam has gotten in quite some time, as HHH was still out from the Hells Gate and might not have been able to kick out. The referee suffers for only making a 2 count, and then… SWEET CHIN MUSIC! SWEET CHIN MUSIC! HBK kicks Undertaker’s teeth down his throat, and sends him straight into a Pedrigee! Its over! Its over! NO!!! Undertaker WILL NOT DIE! Triple H goes back to the trusty Sledgehammer, but Undertaker sits up and nearly scares HHH into submission! It’s almost like Undertaker is remembering everything that happened to him last year, and its firing him up more than ever before! Tombstone! HBK makes the count… only 2! Shawn is GREAT here as he sits in the corner looking like an emotional wreck, knowing he almost screwed Undertaker out of his streak, and almost counted out his best friend in this “end of an era” match. We get a great battle from both men as they throw big lefts and rights at each other to the “yey!” and “boo!” of the crowd, with them starting off on their knees before staggering up and continuing it on their feet. PEDIGREE! Another 2 count, and Shawn looks like he just wants this one to end so nobody has to get hurt any more. With both men hurting badly, they begin to crawl to separate weapons. Undertaker goes for a chair, and HHH for his sledgehammer. A great visual as Undertaker has the chair in his hand, and stands on the sledgehammer before HHH can pick it up. All the chair shots Undertaker received earlier are now fresh in his mind, and similar to the HIAC match with Edge back in 2008, Undertaker looks now to give everything back to his opponent and then some. Chairshots the head have been outlawed in WWE, but the way these two have been swinging the chair for just back shots more than makes up for it. These are hard and every bit as brutal as a chair shot to the head would be. The match now really is a reverse of last year; Undertaker has destroyed HHH with chair shot after chair shot and is screaming at HHH to stay down, but like Undertaker last year, HHH refuses to, even though he has almost nothing left. Another tremendous visual moment as HHH charges at Undertaker one last time with the sledgehammer, only for Undertaker to put a stop to it and shake his head. HHH, like his best friend HBK 2 years earlier, is defiant to the end and essentially forces Undertaker to finish him because there really is no other way. Another Tombstone, and this one is over. The Undertaker is able to put his year of uncertainty behind him as he not only won, but he BEAT Triple H. The stuff that follows the match is really fucking great too. We have Undertaker and Shawn hugging, as Undertaker breaks away from his “Dead Man” character as much as possible without being Mark Calaway. And it was great to see Undertaker and HBK help HHH up and WALK him up the ramp to the back. Almost like Undertaker didn’t want HHH to go through what he went through last year. It might not have been on his own, but dammit, HHH WALKED out of WrestleMania. As JR put it, “That ladies and gentlemen, is respect”. This really was an end of an era, because it’s going to be a long damn time before anything like this is going to be able to take place in WWE. This was incredible. Better than last year. If it wasn’t for the part near the beginning of the match slowing things down and not really going anywhere, I’d throw the full ***** at it. This is one hell of a way to finish the incredible story arc that in a way began at WrestleMania 24 with HBK ending the career of Ric Flair. It really doesn’t get any better than this. ****3/4.

Match 6 – Team Johnny: David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Mark Henry & The Miz Vs Team Teddy: Santino Marella, Kofi Kongston, R-Truth, The Great Khali, Booker T & Zack Ryder – NO.

Match 7 – CM Punk Vs Chris Jericho – And here is where my last £5 went. Yep, I didn’t pay to see Cena/Rock. I’ll talk more about that when I get to it though. Before the match, Punk is backstage and runs into Johnny, who adds the stipulation that if Punk loses his cool and gets DQ’d, he also loses the WWE Title. Punk does his best to look… pissed off? I dunno. His facial expressions as of late have been fucking horrible lol, making me want to laugh during this feud more than anything. Jericho added to that with his hilarious dick headed comments about Punk’s family. Wrestling needs more dick head heels btw. Been watching a bunch of ROH stuff from Joe and Danielson and KENTA in 06 when Bryan was a heel and the other 2 were… I dunno, tweeners maybe, and all 3 just act like complete DICKS to each other and it makes their matches, be it singles, tag or triple thread, so much fucking fun. So yeah. More dick heads in wrestling please! Austin Aries in TNA is one of the best things going right now because of the way he acts tbh. The match begins with some nice little mat work, with both men wanting to prove that they are the best in the world. But Punk has more on his mind; he wants to beat the hell out of Jericho as well. Jericho sees this, and goes to work. The new stipulation allows Punk and Jericho to add a little something more to their match here. Jericho gets to be a DICK and it’s just great to watch. With the title now being able to change hands on a DQ, Jericho decides he’s going to make Punk so mad he’ll get himself DQ’d and literally hand the belt to Chris. It starts off with a couple of slaps, but that doesn’t seem to be getting the job done. So Jericho brings up Punk’s Dad, but again Punk is able to cool himself off and not fully lose control. Time to bring out the Sister card, and again Punk goes crazy but pulls himself together before he does something he’ll regret. Jericho literally BEGS Punk to hit him in the head with a chair, and it’s just awesome. He’s so fucking happy as he does it too. Only Funk and Foley come to mind when I think about people smiling and begging to be hit with a chair lol. When it becomes obvious Punk isn’t going to get himself DQ’d, Jericho has to out-wrestle Punk in order to win, and luckily for him all the things he has been saying has caused Punk to lose focus. Love the transition spot into Jericho’s “wrestling” part of the match. The suplex from the ring to the outside was a hell of a manly bump. We get some really nice back work from Chris, and the spot where Jericho throws Punk off the ropes is great due to the slow motion replay and both Cole and Lawler just going “oh MAN” at the same time while watching it. Looked sick in slow motion. Punk makes his comeback and the match becomes more of a back and forth even contest which fits in nicely with the story of both men claiming to be the best in the world. Only real complaint I have here is how Punk shrugs off the back work completely. Didn’t expect him to sell his back like death for the rest of the match, especially since Jericho doesn’t go back to it aside from the Walls of Jericho, but damn, one minute Punk is having his back worked over, and the next he’s fighting back and acting like nothing happened at all lol. Anyone else for a moment thought that Jericho was going to hit the Styles Clash when he countered a Hurricanrana into a Walls of Jericho? Just me? Ah well lol. I love how they transition seamlessly from the back and forth stuff into a finishing stretch, and do it without completely killing the concept of finishers too. I think Punk kicks out of a Codebreaker ONCE, and only because he had time to rest and recover before Jericho made the cover, and in a big match at WM that’s kinda to be expected, and in this match it really works into the story of both men being the best in the world and having what it takes to kick out of such things. They really work their submissions beautifully in the match too. Jericho finding a way out of the Anaconda Vice by using his knees is great, and then Punk finding a way to counter the counter which results in Jericho having to tap is even better. Totally loved this match. Great storytelling, starting out with Jericho trying to get Punk to lose his temper and get DQ’d, then moving onto both men just trying to prove they are the best in the world. Prefer Undertaker/HHH to it, but I’ve come to expect that I’ll like “big” Undertaker matches more than most people, and I can certainly see a lot of people thinking this was the best match of the night and other than my personal preference for Undertaker/HHH I’d find it hard to come up with much of a reason to disagree. Blew my expectations away, which were a little low as I didn’t want to be disappointed and I honestly doubted both men a little in their ability to have a truly great match with each other. Luckily they proved me wrong! ****1/2.

Match 8 – John Cena Vs The Rock – Urgh. It always sucks a little when they most hyped up match for WrestleMania doesn’t interest you in the slightest. I don’t like The Rock. Never have. I’m not one of those people who bitches because he left for Hollywood. I like that he left for Hollywood because it meant he wasn’t on my wrestling show any more. I don’t care much for Cena. I’m not one of those people who thinks he can’t wrestle in the slightest or have good matches, I just don’t enjoy his character. Even as the rapper. I’ve just never connected with Cena, but I’ve always at least been able to enjoy his matches when they have been good, and yeah, he’s got a bunch of them. Same can be said for The Rock, I like a bunch of his matches too. Unfortunately I just can’t find any motivation to give a shit about this match. I don’t like either guy, I don’t like their characters, and the build up to this one has been atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. They had an ENITRE YEAR to build this one up, and it consisted of the same old shit from both men over and over again. Oh, The Rock left and I’m always here. Well, Cena is a fruity pebble and a *insert takeaway food here* bitch. A year of THAT. It wasn’t good, clever or funny the first time they did it. Why would it be any of that the next billion times they said it? I hear people say that feuds these days are too short and in the good old days they could last a year blah blah blah. Well in this day and age it’s impossible to keep things going for a long time because a) there is far more programming than there was 20 years ago, and b) creative struggle to come up with an interesting angle that last longer than a fucking week. And that’s all this one was; a week’s worth of ideas on repeat for a fucking year. Nice to see that both guys get extremely long and shitty entrances from so called “singers” that I’ve never heard of and for good reason because they suck, while the WHC match got 18 seconds. Once again, FUCK YOU, ROCK. Your shitty boring pointless promo last year at WM prevented Bryan/Sheamus from happening on the show, and this year your shitty boring pointless entrance took away all but 18 seconds from Bryan/Sheamus. And fuck you too, Cena. And Vince McMahon. Now I have that out of my system, time to watch the match. Urgh. Collar and Elbow tie ups to start things off, with Cena powering Rock across the ring the first time, kinda like he was saying “LOL @ Teh Moviez Star”. Then Rock powers Cena across the ring with the second one as if to say “I may have been to Hollywood, but I’m as much of a wrestler as you as, so don’t take me lightly, bitch”. Then Rock busts out some ZOMGWRESTLING moves that shocks Cena and almost catches him off guard so much he almost gets pinned! Cena is getting frustrated, but takes a time out and this allows him to regain his composure and when he gets back into the ring, he is able to take control of the match by targeting Rock’s ribs and utilises the bear hug. Unfortunately these bear hug spots are as dull as shit and damn, I know wrestling is “fake” but come on, if you are going to talk to each other in holds, try and do it quietly lol. Takes away from the match a little, and believe me, I’m not into the match that much to begin with . After a while they take turns at hitting finishers, which breaks up the dull fest of bear hugs nicely, and then Cena goes back to controlling Rocky followed by a Rock control segment which involves his terrible attempt at a Sharpshooter. Speaking of shitty attempts at submission holds… STFU! More god awful, dull and shitty submission spots from Cena. This match is way too long. We go into the finishing stretch now, and its finishers for the most part, which I’m fine with because it’s a “huge” match and nobody is going to buy either of these being beaten by just ONE finisher. Rock goes to the ropes at one point, and in a nice throwback to his early days, lands a crossbody! But Cena rolls throw and hits the FU (or AA, whatever)! Legit thought this was it, but Rock kicked out and then I remembered something; movie stars always win! And yeah, Rock wins. Rock Bottom while Cena mocks Rock by attempting the People’s Elbow. So it’s finally over. It went on WAY too long, and if it wasn’t for the crowd I probably would have shot myself half way through. Rock/Hogan not only had a better atmosphere than this in all honestly, but the actual MATCH was better too imo. Kane/Orton was better as far as a MATCH goes. Crowd and Atmosphere were obviously better than anything Kane/Orton had, but that’s the ONLY thing this match had over it. **1/4.

Urgh, Rock as the host aka wastes a ton of time saying absolutely NOTHING that benefits absolutely NOBODY and as a result a match I PAID TO SEE gets cancelled from the show. Yey thanks WWE!

Match 1 – Edge Vs Alberto Del Rio – Edge’s final match! Good that he was able to leave before he got to the point where he was fucked… just a shame it didn’t happen about 2 years sooner when he went downhill and started sucking on a regular basis. Christian returned from injury at the EC PPV, and what does he get to do at WM? Stand on the outside. Del Rio quickly goes after the injured arm, which is of course a smart move. The only real potential I saw for this match was the arm work and Edge’s selling of it and fighting to come back, so it made me a little happy to see that neither man was retarded enough to ignore it (hey, it has been done before lol…). With Del Rio working the arm, Edge really has to use his veteran instincts to create openings for himself, which we see fairly early on when he moves out of Del Rio’s way, and Rio goes flying through the ropes to the outside. Then the importance of leaving WM with the WHC is made perfectly clear when Edge lands a top rope dive to the floor in an attempt to keep his opponent down. And with Edge creating all these openings due to being the veteran, Del Rio does equally as well by going back to the injured arm to control the match whenever Edge gets some offence in. Rather loved the spot with Del Rio hitting that big kick on Edge, going for the cover, only for Edge to get his foot on the rope and Rodriguez running past to take it off before the ref sees him. Great to see someone on the outside actually doing more than just standing around these days. When Brodus smashed Edge’s shoulder into the ring post and Del Rio went for the Cross Arm Breaker, I thought it was over, but alas, it was not to be. And a few moments later… Del Rio gets hit with a running hug and for some reason Edge actually retains the belt. Bah. Match had a lot going for it, I gotta admit, but outside of a couple of spots, there was nothing that we wouldn’t see from lower card guys in a Superstars match. It was just totally underwhelming for a WM match, and even more so for a WHC match. It wasn’t until the very end when things seemed that important and they went into a higher gear either. A little better than I expected tbh, but as I predicted, Christian/Del Rio on SD a couple of weeks back was WAY better than this. Sucks balls that Edge is still champ too. Guy’s boring and stale beyond belief. **1/2.

Match 2 – Cody Rhodes Vs Rey Mysterio – Totally looking forward to this match! Great build up, and both men talented enough to give us something great. Why does Rey always have to look like a retard at WM? After the beatdowns the last couple of weeks, Rey wastes no time going after Cody, and tries to take that protective mask off too. Not to embarrass Cody, but to remove the potential weapon. Cool to see someone in a feud with Rey NOT caring about the mask or taking it off. This time its CODY’S mask that is the focal point over Rey’s mask, and its Rey’s KNEE BRACE that is the target of his opponent. Tremendous sequence from Cody where he spins Rey around in the ropes, headbutts him with the mask, then does that leaping kick (I’m sure it has a name, but I forget these things) to Rey’s head. Makes a great sound and looks amazing. Again Rhodes looks awesome when he counters some Rey Rey offence and utilises some BOB HOLLY offence to try and put him away. Since Rey and the knee brace injured Rhode’s face months back, Cody does a wonderful job of trying to get the knee brace off, and when Rey keeps fighting back so he can’t do it, goes after the face of Rey to gain some revenge. Like Del Rio going back to the arm of Edge in the previous match, Cody keeps using the protective mask to headbutt Rey whenever Rey might be making a comeback. All in all just some great work from Cody. After some great offence by Cody, he finally has Rey down and almost out, enough to take off that knee brace and hopefully avoid getting injured again. But once this happens, Mysterio is pissed and makes sure to take the mask off of Cody and land a 619! Cody is resilient though, so Rey goes one step further for retribution, and puts on the Cody mask! A few headbutts with it and Cody looks to be out, but nope, he still fights back! So how does Cody react to having his face attacked with his own protective mask? He grabs the knee brace that he took off of Rey, and smashes him in the face! One finisher later, and Cody picks up the big win! Fucking great how the knee brace came into the finish, and actually HELPED Cody, after ruining his life for so many months prior to WM. Shocked to see Cody get the win, but extremely pleased. Great match, awesome storytelling, and perfect finish. ****.

Match 3 – The Corre Vs The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella & Kofi Kingston – NO.

Match 4 – CM Punk Vs Randy Orton – This one has potential to be good, but based on Orton’s terrible babyface match formula, it also has the potential to suck more balls than The Rock. So we have another match where the story can revolve around a particular thing; first it was Edge’s arm, then we had Rey’s head and knee brace along with Cody’s mask, and now Orton’s leg. It’s all simple stuff, but done right can really make a match. Edge/Del Rio didn’t go beyond the basics, Rey/Cody worked all aspects in their match extremely well, and now we just have to see how Punk and Orton work with the leg. Punk goes after the leg the moment the bell rings, so I guess we can expect the leg to be the main focus, which is exactly what it should be. Punk’s offence is tremendous, and Orton shows that he can sell really well too. I know he can, but some people out there seriously don’t think Orton can do anything except for an RKO. RKO countered into a kick to the face by Punk was epic. In fact, Punk has some tremendous kicks throughout the match, especially the sequence of kicks that ends with a sweep to knock Orton down into the Anaconda Vice. Despite some good selling by Orton, Punk’s offence seems to be really up and down after a while. We get bursts of greatness from him, then periods of “meh” offence where it looks like he’s just wasting time. Maybe that’s not the best way to describe it, but I’m struggling to really think of what it is I’m trying to say lol. Orton failing the hit the Punt because of his leg, but leaping up for an RKO was pretty fantastic. I would have preferred that to have landed and be the finish rather than Punk getting away and then jumping into another RKO. Some good stuff here, but some of it seemed a little dull to me and I wasn’t a fan of the finish. Like I said, should have ended with the attempted one rather than the “catch off the ropes” one. Disappointed with this one, but at the same time it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been either. **1/2.

Match 5 – Jerry Lawler Vs Michael Cole – NO.

Match 6 – The Undertaker Vs Triple H – Without a doubt the BIGGEST match on the show… and really the ONLY big match on the show. Despite my seeming man love for The Undertaker, I wasn’t too interested in this one. Based on their previous matches over the years I had a lot of reason to doubt it. And watching it live didn’t do much for me. However, after sitting through 20 minutes of Lawler/Cole and numerous other disappointments, and the fact it was around half 2 in the morning by now, I was tired and a little bored and probably didn’t pay as much attention to it. Hopefully this re-watch will do some good. I mean, back at WM 25 I wasn’t THAT impressed with HBK/Undertaker when I saw it live. Adored it when I reviewed it the next day. “For Whom The Bell Tolls” plays and out comes HHH for a rather unspectacular WM entrance. Nobody this year really had an entrance worth mentioning, including Undertaker right afterwards. Though I always enjoy Undertaker’s entrance no matter what lol. Oh, and his new coat was awesome too. Maybe one of these days I’ll look into getting a coat like that, always really wanted one. No time wasted here as HHH takes the fight right to The Undertaker with those big lefts and rights. No need to feel his opponent out; he’s been in the ring before, plus he just wants to end the Streak at any cost, so going for the big bombs right away makes sense. Undertaker just kinda shrugs him off though, launching him out of the ring. HHH throws more bombs at Undertaker on the outside, but Undertaker again shrugs him aside and sends him into the steel steps. Undertaker wants to control this match and go at HIS pace, regardless of what HHH wants to do. So HHH charges at The Undertaker and sends him crashing through the tool box, which leads to a great visual of Undertaker getting up almost DBZ style when someone is knocked into a mountain or something and they just stand back up and let the rocks fly off them lol. He stares at HHH almost as if to say “fine, we’ll do it YOUR way”. HHH is really determined to take out Undertaker here, and as a result Undertaker takes a bump into the barricade that someone of his age and condition (hip surgery a year or so ago I think) really shouldn’t be taking. But its WM and he’ll do everything he can. The fight goes onto the announcers table, and HHH takes a huge bump with a back body drop off the table to the floor, and perhaps legit injures his left arm which he favours for the rest of the match, but not in a way that prevents him from doing anything if you get me. Knowing that he is truly in for the fight of a lifetime, Undertaker knows he has to really bust out everything in his arsenal. After WM 25 when he landed on his head, I didn’t think we would see it again, especially since he didn’t do it at WM 26 and his condition has got to be worse a year later… but dammit, Undertaker continues to prove that he is still the best in the world when he wants to be, and he dives over that top rope as effortlessly as he did a decade ago when he was in way better shape. The big bumps keep coming, and Undertaker again puts his body in more risk than he should when he attempts to put HHH through a table but ends up taking a AA Spinebuster through it instead! DAMN! Watching live, and feeling how I did (bored, disappointed and tired due to the time and rest of the show so far lol), I just saw this as one giant finishing stretch from the get go with no psychology or anything. Watching it again in a much better mood, I can see it for what it really is; awesome. The match is all about HHH wanting to end the streak or die trying, and Undertaker wanting to prove to HHH that is ISN’T his time to go yet. So HHH does what he does best; be a ruthless cunt who will destroy his opponent at any cost, while Undertaker continues to fight back and kick out of anything The Game throws at him. If they had started slow, locking up and “wrestling” at the beginning, it really would have been dumb given the context of the feud, so I for one am glad that they went all out from the start. Helps that they are executing everything so well too. At some point Undertaker gets a Chokeslam in, but nobody in their right mind believes that its over lol. A Pedigree shows up too, and it too isn’t that great as a false finish, just because of what Undertaker and HBK did the last 2 years. The Last Ride spot, while again not the best false finish, was still cool because it was a great throwback to WM 17, as Undertaker defeated HHH that way 10 years ago at this very event. Undertaker getting frustrated was great to see. His character as the last outlaw might not look too different on the surface, but he really is been shown as more “human” than usual, and given the feud with Undertaker not accepting HHH’s statement that he’s done, getting frustrated like this at not being able to put HHH away really adds to the story of the match. If a Last Ride, and then a TOMBSTONE can’t put HHH away… can Undertaker do it? Can he hold on to his streak? DRAMA~! The second Pedigree is a way better false finish than the first. Like the Tombstone, it’s one of THE most protected finishers in the entire industry really (though other companies tend to use the Tombstone every now and then and NOT finish a match with it…). So seeing 2 of them not work, and then a THIRD in a very short period of time after the second one also not work was just amazing. I always go into these matches expecting Undertaker to win, but every so often a certain spot in certain matches over the last few years really makes me think that the Streak might end this time. That third Pedigree was one of those moments along with the last Superkick in WM 26 before Undertaker eventually won. MOAR Throwbacks in the match (which I LOVE btw) with HHH using the steel chair similar to how Austin used it on The Rock at WM 17 when Rocky kept kicking out of the Stunner, and then the “stay down” which was a throwback to WM 26 when Undertaker told HHH’s best friend HBK to stay down. Makes the match that much better that Undertaker actually finished HBK off after telling him to stay down and he didn’t, so with HHH saying it maybe he would actually get the win! Undertaker’s selling in this match NEEDS to be talked about too. The man really is one of the better sellers IN THE WORLD today, and has been for a number of years, even with the Dead Man gimmick. He can make things believable while still being able to be the “other worldly” character. Here he comes across as more human, as I mentioned earlier, and his selling is just impeccable. You really get the feeling that he’s at death’s door and the next big move could end his streak, and his life (kayfabe of course). And then there is the Tombstone. From HHH. Good GOD. I’m struggling to decide which is better; Tombstone kick out by HBK at WM 25, or this one. The crowd has been pretty shitty most of the night, but picked up for this match, and when Undertaker kicked out of that Tombstone they went ballistic. Almost as if THEY, like me, believed that it was over. And then it wasn’t. And it was awesome. Just as Undertaker was getting frustrated with HHH kicking out of shit, HHH begins to get that same feeling, and resorts to bringing out the Sledgehammer. He drags Undertaker to the centre of the ring, and informs the Dead Man that “Its time”. And Undertaker sticks him in Hells Gate! What a struggle this is too, with HHH trying to hang on, trying to escape. At one point he grabs that Sledgehammer, and we know that just one shot from that and it could be it for The Undertaker… but HHH is fading fast, and the Sledgehammer drops. The hammer hits the mat, and then The Game taps out. I would have preferred for HHH to simply “pass out” to really put over the “die trying” mentality that he had going into the match, but it’s a minor complaint really. Damn. Definitely, DEFINITELY enjoyed this more on this re-watch. A LOT more. A fucking TON more. This is fantastic. Truly epic. The storytelling is off the charts, the action is incredible, and the finish (while not 100% perfect) is great. This was one hell of a battle, and the selling from both men, but especially The Undertaker, is out of this world. Hell, I’ve been reading all day from numerous sites that a LOT of people believed that Undertaker was legit hurt and out of it. I just have to wonder what’s next for Undertaker after the way he was taken to the back. ****3/4.

Match 7 – John Morrison, Trish Stratus & Snookie Vs LayCool & Dolph Ziggler – NO.

Match 8 – The Miz Vs John Cena – Miz gets a great video package… while Cena is made to look like some sort of messiah or something. The fuck? I guess “Cenation” will be a religion by the end of the year… I went into this match with low expectations… and they did nothing to exceed them. This is just bad. Dull. Best way to describe this one. Only thing I can say positive about it is… ummm.. the F-U kickout from The Miz. As far as the F-U goes, being a fucking shitty move and all, it was probably one of the best Cena has done in terms of impact, and Miz kicking out of it was a shock. The double countout thing was shit, but if ANYONE honestly expected WWE to end the main event of WM like this, then you must be a TNA fan. Rock comes out (because, you know, he hasn’t taken up much time on this show yet) and talks again… Raw GM says something. Rock ignores it and somehow gains the power to make matches because he’s the guest host of WM, and the match restarts. Rock Bottom to Cena. Miz wins. I am shocked at the outcome. Miz celebrates. Rock beats him up. WM ends with Rock celebrating. WAY TO RUIN WM FOR ME ROCK! Worst. WM Main Event. Ever. 1/4*.

Match 1 – R-Truth & John Morrison Vs The Big Show & The Miz – Unified tag titles on the line in the opener here. How the fuck did Miz go from opening WM to main eventing WM in a year? Guy deserves to be on the pre-show at best. Useless Jiz. Match is short, thankfully, but given the time it gets, it’s a surprisingly good and fun tag contest. I say surprising because everyone bar Show sucks. And Show is definitely the MVP of the match as well, which isn’t a surprise because like I said, everyone else involved in the match sucks lol. Not much else to say really. **.

Match 2 – Ted DiBiase Vs Cody Rhodes Vs Randy Orton – Oh god this looks so dull and generic on paper. Which is exactly how all 3 wrestlers look, and how I could describe their “characters” at the time. Hell none of them have really changed that much. Rhodes had a chance with the mask thing but then they gave him a moustache and assumed that was all he needed. This match is dull as shit. Not surprising though tbh. *.

Match 3 – Kofi Kingston Vs Jack Swagger Vs Christian Vs MVP Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs Drew McIntyre Vs Matt Hardy Vs Dolph Ziggler Vs Kane Vs Evan Bourne – Fuck me, how many bloody guy do they need to put in this match lol? Boy, this match was… there. No spots or moments that really stand out to me enough to mention. Swagger wins, after spending half an hour unhooking the briefcase (which obviously was edited from the DVD lol). And that’s that. Think this might be worse than WM 22’s MITB match. **.

Match 4 – Sheamus Vs Triple H – Huh, did Sheamus get less pale over the years? STRAPPING, BURLEY AND STRONG! That’s how Michael Cole describes Sheamus. TIE YOUR MOTHER DOWN, HERE COMES TRIPLE H. Uhhh, Striker, that was QUEEN. Triple H is the KING OF KINGS. I kinda get it, but yeah, not quite there lol. This is a good, solid match. It’s all about Sheamus wanting to make his mark on the WWE in his first year. He already “ended careers”, beat CENA for the WWE title, and now he wants to beat The Game on the grandest stage of them all. And he does a pretty awesome job of really beating the fuck out of him too. He’s HHH’s boy so obviously HHH is gonna make sure he looks good, but most importantly, despite getting a huge push so early in his career without really deserving it, Sheamus really holds up his own. And Sheamus would continue to improve over the next year or so and by 2012 would legitimately be one of the best workers in the company. Definitely a top 3 guy in the company that year based on great TV matches and PPV performances. In the end, HHH manages to get the win, but only just. Match felt like they had been through a small war by the end, and even though Sheamus lost he came out looking great. Did exactly what it was intended to do. Wasn’t great by any means, but definitely a GOOD contest at WM. ***.

Match 5 – CM Punk Vs Rey Mysterio – Oh look, Rey is dressed like a complete tit again. DRESS NORMAL AT WM YOU TWAT. Good job the guy is talented lol! Punk is in his SES phase at this time, and if Rey loses he must join them. Rey is fighting the odds right from the start, constantly getting distracted by Serina… Sarina… the bald chick and Luke Gallows (DOC), allowing Punk to control the match. Match isn’t that long here, but reminds me of Rey/Hardy from WM 19 in a way. They don’t get the length of match they deserved, but they manage to fit as much as possible into the match as they can without it becoming just a bunch of moves with each guy trying to fit stuff in for the sake of it. SES play a great part on the outside, constantly screwing up Rey’s comeback attempts, until it finally backfires on Punk and Mysterio gets the win. I never really understood the booking behind this whole feud though. They just kept throwing Punk under the bus, when surely it would have been FAR more interesting for them to have had Punk like… WIN at some point, and make Rey join the SES. Then you can play up on Mysterio having to follow Punk, deal with morals and shit, and then finally after a few months get a chance for redemption by once again facing Punk for his freedom. Instead Rey won, then Rey won, and Rey won, then Show destroyed the SES and shit went to hell. Ah well, we got some good matches out of it at least, and this was one of them. ***1/4.

Match 6 – Vince McMahon Vs Bret Hart – Oh sweet jebus no. If you’ve seen it you’ll understand. NO.

Match 7 – Chris Jericho Vs Edge – A year ago they formed a tag team and became tag champs, and were set to go on a big run with the belts. Then Edge got injured. Fast forward to the RR, Edge returns and wins! At the EC, Jericho wins the WHC and that sets up this match because Jericho mocked Edge for getting injured or something. The main build for this is Edge screaming SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR for like 2 months. Yeah that didn’t get tiring. I WAS BEING SARCASTIC. Edge is the RATER R SOUP-R-STAR. LOL at Matt Striker. THEY ARE BOTH FROM CANADA SO THEY TRAINED TOGETHER AND TRAVELLED TOGETHER. Yeah I don’t think it quite works like that. Did Regal and Barrett train together? They’re both from England so I guess so! Gotta love the dead crowd here, only getting into the parts of the match where Jericho is doing something to hurt Edge. First 3/4 of this match is honestly pretty dull though, regardless of the crowd giving a shit or not. There was no reason for them to get into the match, nor me. Then Jericho counters a Spear with the Code Breaker and things pick up. Mainly because instead of pointless back and forth shit, Jericho actually gets to control the match. Back and forth stuff can be great, and can even make for a good match if that’s the main structure, but that didn’t fit this match at all. Was always gonna be about Jericho going after the recent injury of Edge, with Edge desperately trying to hold on and somehow beat Jericho to make his return mean something. Just a shame they took so long to get into all that. Then as things are picking up, Jericho decks Edge with the title belt, Edge kicks out, another Code Breaker and this one is over. Damn. Really liked this on last watch. Hell, so far this entire event is not living up to my memory of it. Used to consider it a top 3 ‘Mania. Not even with the main event with this make it even close to that. Shame. **.

Match 8 – Michelle McCool, Vickie Guerrero, Alicia Fox, Layla & Maryse Vs Beth Phoenix, Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, Gail Kim & Eve Torres – NO.

Match 9 – John Cena Vs Batista – WWE Title match! Focus of the match is on Cena’s neck, as the last time these two faced (SummerSlam 08), Cena got his neck injured and actually had to take TIME OFF. Shocking I know. Batista does a great job attacking the neck, and at one point hits a real sick looking DDT that honestly looked a little botched, not in the sense that it didn’t look good, but that it looked like Cena really did get fucked up from it lol. Despite Batista’s good work though, Cena’s superman shit keeps screwing the match up a little. For example, Batista counters the 5 Knuckle Shuffle with a Spinebuster, and seconds later Cena has Batista locked in the STFU like nothing happened to him. Kinda like HHH/Batista from Backlash 05, where HHH did some fucking awesome back work to Batista, then Batista completely murdered the match by ignoring it completely for the finish. Well ok, nowhere near as bad here as Cena still sells the neck in between all his little superman comebacks, but still, I don’t like him shrugging it off for a few minutes while he does something then decides to go back to selling when it suits him. MASSIVE Batista Bomb, which should have ended the match, but Cena is winning so he had to kick out, and Batista’s shock face makes up for it all anyway lol. Cena ruins shit again though by no selling the Batista Bomb to not only counter another one, but then counter the counter to his counter (you following this?) with a stupid strength spot leading into another F-U (Or AA by this point). Thank FUCK Batista kicked out of it because it looked retarded. OH MY GOD CENA STOP IT! He comes off the ropes, gets caught in a massive Spinebuster, and again completely fucking ignores it, counters a Batista Bomb attempt, locks in th STFU and wins. FUCK YOU. Batista brought all sorts of awesomeness to this match and Cena cancelled it out. I’m far from a Cena hater when it comes to his ring work, but matches like this make me at least understand why people don’t like him. He completely fucked up everything Batista was doing. Sell? Nah, SUPERMAN COMEBACK! Urgh. Hard to rate this one. Cena was terrible and Batista was awesome. **3/4.

Match 10 – The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels – Fuck YES. When it was getting towards the end of the show, and only this match and the WWE Title match were left, I assumed the title match would end the show. And then the Title match happened first. People can complain all they want about the fact that the title should have main evented the show, but fuck it. They’ve done it before, and the matches they had in place of a title match at the main event were fucking shit (HHH/Jericho, HHH/Orton etc). Last year this match didn’t main event, and the matches that had to follow it were fucked. The crowd were dead after cheering so much, and everything fell flat. And with the rematch being billed as an even bigger match, with HBK’s career on the line, it was obvious that nothing would be able to follow it again, so WWE made the right choice this year. Oh, and to anyone thinking that the “credibility” of the titles might be affected by not main eventing WM… what credibility? Having the belts change hands every month near enough doesn’t make the belts credible to start with. Besides, it’s all fake :P. It’s funny how last year when I watched HBK/Undertaker live, I didn’t think it was as great as I do now. It was only when I watched it again that I loved it even more. But with this match, watching it live I was marking out like a little kid, and I quickly threw ***** at it. Now I just have to see if that rating will stick on this watch. The marking out began for me when Undertaker made his entrance with his fancy new coat. It just looks… cool lol. I like to interpret him wearing it and having the hood on as him looking like the Grim Reaper or something, and he is here to inform Shawn Michaels that his career is over. Undertaker probably just wore it because it looked cool, but hey, I can turn almost anything Undertaker does into a logical positive :P. Both men stare each other down before the match starts, and Shawn gives Undertaker the cut throat sign, symbolising that he intends to end the Streak. Undertaker didn’t like that, so he charges out of the corner, and we get a similar start to their match last year, only at a MUCH quicker pace. After last year, both men know exactly what to expect from the other, so they are clearly trying to finish this thing as soon as possible before they potentially make a mistake. Speaking of mistakes… Old School from The Undertaker, and when he lands, his knee gives out. Either Undertaker really did hurt his knee (and it wouldn’t surprise me, his knees are fucked), or he did the best job at selling an injury since Christian in his ECW match with Swagger last year (thank you Viva for that one lol). Shawn takes advantage with a kick, but Undertaker is still too strong and remains in control for now. But then Shawn fakes a Superkick, and when Undertaker flinches (nice throw back to last year’s match), his knee again buckles under him. Shawn sees this and gets a smirk. Yeah, he already knew that Undertaker hurt his knee, but in the back of his mind he could have been thinking that Undertaker was taking a page out of HBK’s book by faking an injury (again, a nice throw back to last year’s match where Shawn tried it). But when Undertaker was still seemingly in pain, Shawn realised that the Dead Man was indeed hurt. And this is where I was able to suspend my belief and just watch the match as nothing more than a fan, a mark, an idiot (or moron, or just plain stupid, I forget which word was mentioned earlier in reference to someone being able to suspend their belief during this match) whatever the hell you want to call me… and I couldn’t decide who was going to win. Shawn was fighting for his career, and Undertaker was hurt. Similar to last year with Undertaker’s dive over the ropes, only this time Shawn, like I just mentioned, is fight for his entire career. He has to be more determined than ever before. As hurt as The Undertaker is, and despite how it turned out last year, the Dead Man STILL attempts to dive over the ropes, but Shawn clips the knee and goes right back to work on it. This is WrestleMania though, and no matter how hurt Undertaker is, he will never stop fighting. Shawn hits the flying forearm, kips up, and walks right into a Chokeslam! Undertaker knows that Shawn always likes to kip up following that move, so he scouted it and capitalised on it. Shawn comes back, takes Undertaker to the outside, but Undertaker continues to battle through the pain, and he channels WrestleMania 8 against Jake Roberts, and Tombstone’s Shawn on the floor!!! Undertaker rolls Shawn in the ring, and goes for a quick cover, but Shawn kicks out. I didn’t think it was over there, and from the reaction of the crowd, neither did they. Considering the time Shawn had to recover, and the fact he kicked out of one last year, I don’t think anyone saw it as a credible finish. More tremendous selling from Undertaker when he collapses while trying to hit the Last Ride. Shawn uses this time to go for an elbow drop, but Undertaker gets his knees up! Again, The Undertaker sells tremendously when Shawn lands on his knees. Hells Gate is locked in, but Shawn counters it! I guess you could put it down to two things here; Shawn making sure he does everything he can to save his career, and Undertaker’s knee being so screwed up that he didn’t have full control of the move. A couple of back and forth finishers between the two now, with a couple of near falls, and while I did get caught up in the moment watching it live, this time I’m not as into them lol. Yeah, even watching live I knew they weren’t going to end the match, but seeing it happen for the first time was just better than on a re-watch. Still isn’t taking anything away from the match for me though. The table is set up for a table spot, which I predicted as soon as it was announced there were no DQ’s or Countouts. Loved what they did with it too, teasing a Last Ride, Superkicking ‘Taker onto the table, and then having Shawn hit a fucking incredible moonsault. Now, was Shawn SUPPOSED to land on Undertaker’s knees, or was he supposed to land on his chest as usual? I don’t know, but honestly I don’t care. Undertaker sold his legs again like fucking crazy, and it fit in perfectly with the story of Undertaker’s legs being fucked. So honestly I don’t care if it was a “botch” or not. Like the dive last year, it ADDED to the match rather than hurt it. And now the part where I nearly had a heart attack (it happened last year, and dammit, it happened again this year lol). Following the moonsault through the table, Undertaker was nearly done. So Shawn tried to end it once and for all with a huge Superkick, and I honestly believed 100% that it was over. When Undertaker kicked out I legit cheered lol. When a match can make me CHEER at my TV when I am sat watching it at home, you know it’s doing something right! My heart continues to take a pounding when Undertaker hits a second Tombstone, and Shawn manages to do what he failed to do last year… kick out! Not even close to the Tombstone kick out from last year, but it still did its job. And now for the finish. Beautiful. Perhaps my favourite finish to any match ever. Undertaker pulls down the straps, goes to signal for another Tombstone, but looks down at Shawn and stops. He tells Shawn to stay down, almost like he knows what he has to do, but doesn’t want to do it. He already said in a promo during the build up to the match that he wouldn’t take pleasure in ending Shawn’s career, and it came across so well right here. So you ask, WHY? Why wouldn’t Undertaker want to end Shawn’s career? Unlike 1997/1998 when they first feuded, last year’s match and this year’s match had NOTHING to do with sheer hatred. It was about the Streak last year, with Shawn wanting to prove he could end it. This year it was about the Streak once again, but with Shawn NEEDING to end it more than just proving he can. And The Undertaker had to respect Shawn for going to these lengths to try and do both. So Undertaker had sympathy for Shawn… but Shawn wasn’t going down without fighting until the very end. He wasn’t going to just give up. He gave the cut throat taunt once again, just like he did at the start of the match, and SLAPPED the Dead Man across his face! In a lot of ways, it was like Flair/HBK from WM 24. Shawn didn’t really want to land that last Superkick, but Flair basically begged him to do so, and Shawn was essentially begging Undertaker to finish it here too. So Undertaker does, and he does it with perhaps the biggest and best Tombstone of his career. He literally jumped in the air, and came crashing down with Shawn going head first into the match. 1… 2… 3! Good GOD! What a motherfucking masterpiece of a match. Best WrestleMania match ever. The story, the emotion, the action, the intensity… everything was there, and everything was perfect. *****.

The 25th Anniversary of WM! Except it was only the 24th Anniversary of WM. Why are WWE so fucking retarded when it comes to shit like this lol?

Match 1 – CM Punk Vs Mark Henry Vs MVP Vs Finlay Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs Kofi Kingston Vs Christian Vs Kane – Mark Henry in a MITB ladder match. Makes me mark out so damn much. He should win one this year. Imagine a guy like Henry with the briefcase? Man, what a line up for this match. Replace Kofi for someone good and this would be the best on paper ever. Christian is over like fuck in this match. Why Vince doesn’t do more with him baffles me. Henry and Kane climbing a ladder together and battling it out is certainly a sight to see. Shame Henry only got about 3 steps up lol. Everyone else in the match jump in and try to get rid of the 2 monsters from the match. Wise decision. With the 2 monsters down, everyone climbs the ladders… only for Kane and Henry to come back in and knock both ladders down, and again the match is left to Kane and Henry! LOL, Henry nearly murders a referee by launching a ladder to the outside. HOLY SHIT at Shelton’s dive off the ladder. A big spot like that has been missing for the most part since… well since the first MITB match tbh. Oh man at them teasing Henry going to the ropes. Kofi may be a useless shite 99.9% of the time, but at least here he is able to come up with some UNIQUE ladder spots, something that is very hard to do this day and age because there have been so many damn ladder matches and everything has been done lol. Climbing the ladder while Henry is holding it up was great. Shame Henry didn’t quite catch Kofi the way he wanted, but still, catching him for a WSS on the ladder was awesome. Tons of great spots throughout this match, and I remember a bunch of people complaining about all the botches and shit. Uhhh… there’s Henry not catching Kofi the way he wanted to earlier… and the sunset flip powerbomb Shelton tries on MVP. And THAT’S IT. The Killswitch off the ladder wasn’t even close to being botched btw. Oh fuck, the ovation for Christian when he knocks Shelton off the ladder and bounces himself back up is immense. And yet WWE didn’t think he was popular enough of anything to give a real push to beyond dominating ECW in 09. Punk and Kane end up being the last 2 on the ladder, and after numerous kicks to Kane, Punk is left all alone and wins the MITB match two years in a row! Kinda sucked at the time to have someone win back to back, but fuck, what they did with it was awesome so all is forgiven! Love this match. Far better than the last few MITB matches for sure. Great bunch of guys involved, some epic spots, and plenty of UNIQUE spots too. Underrated it seems. ***3/4.

Match 2 – Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal – Oh man what a fuck up this was. They had some shitty 10 minute Kid Rock concert while the divas made their entrances, so we didn’t know who the fuck was coming in/returning etc. And to top it all off, they couldn’t get the rights to Kid Rock’s concert for the DVD so the match literally starts with everyone already in the ring. Not watching this shite, especially since it’s won by a MAN. NO.

Match 3 – Chris Jericho Vs Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper & Ricky Steamboat – Loved the build for this one. Especially with Flair getting CUT, because WWE had banned blood a while back and this was the first time we’d seen any for a while. Really put the angle over. Shame they had to revolve this whole match around The Wrestler movie, because fuck, that sucked balls. Just watched the Steamboat documentary last night too, so I’m excited to see this match again. Piper starts things off, and he does fine considering his age and everything that’s happened to him health wise. He throws big punches, and even puts on a show for WM by hitting things like a drop kick and sunset flip! The only bad legend in this match is Snuka, who even in his prime was pretty fucking terrible based on what I’ve seen lol. And of course STEAMBOAT is the fucking man in this match. I remember absolutely losing my shit when he starting throwing out armdrags. Guy looked tremendous considering he had to retire in 1994. Snuka goes out first and fairly quickly, so we don’t have to put up with his shite for long. Piper is gone shortly after, but at least he looked good. But ah well, this just means we are left with STEAMBOAT who looks like he never stopped wrestling for a day in his life. Awesome stuff between Steamboat and Jericho, with Steamboat flying around just like he did back in the day, countering a ton of stuff that Jericho throws at him, and really makes us believe that he can win. He ends up taking a codebreaker though, and Jericho is victorious. Whole match just makes me smile. Steamboat still rules the world. ***.

Match 4 – Jeff Hardy Vs Matt Hardy – Oh WWE, what were you doing? So Christian was ready to return, and it was pretty much set that he was gonna be the guy screwing up Jeff’s life all this time. But because everyone KNEW it was going to happen and WANTED it to happen, Vince decided to not give us what we want and throw Matt into the situation instead, and we end up with a feud about Matt killing Jeff’s dog. LMAO at Lawler defending Matt for killing Jeff’s dog. DEFENDING MATT FOR KILLING HIS BROTHER’S DOG. But terrible build aside, this is one hell of a fucking fight! They really put over the personal hate from the feud by trying to murder each other. Battering each other with a variety of weapons, including a fucking HOOVER. Had to laugh at JR talking about all the great TLC matches they’ve teamed up and WON at WM. Uhhh Jim, they only had ONE TLC match at WM. And they didn’t win. In fact I don’t think either of them has ever won a TLC match lol. Definitely think this match is pretty underrated. It’s fucking awesome. Great spots, a real sense of HATE, and an awesome fucking finish with MATT going over! Everyone go re-watch this bad boy! ***1/2.

Match 5 – John Bradshaw Layfield Vs Rey Mysterio – IC title match! Rey wins in seconds. JBL retires. For the second time. Against Rey. And Rey is dressed like a tit. DUD.

Match 6 – The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels – I think I have died and gone to heaven, because The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are about to have a match together for the first time since 1998 :D. The build up was awesome. Every segment involving these 2 men was just so incredible to watch. Shawn dressing up as a white Undertaker, getting the better of ‘Taker on numerous occasions, and going to the graveyard made for great TV. The Undertaker getting the opportunity to talk more than he has in over 5 years was incredible. Shawn coming down from… wherever he came from… dressed all in white was awesome. The Undertaker rising up from under the stage was awesome. Building this feud up around the light and darkness I think was creative, and was done in a way that didn’t seem cheesy at all, like some ‘Taker storylines can end up being. The atmosphere in my living room with just me in it was incredible as I awaited this match to begin, so the atmosphere in the arena that night in Houston must have been incredible. I envy each and every person that got to witness this epic and historic WrestleMania match live. I also loved how The Undertaker just stood at the top of the ramp for a few moments, seemingly staring down Shawn before he even gets into the ring. Doesn’t really mean anything, it was just great for me personally lol. The bell rings, and this epic encounter is under way! The Undertaker doesn’t rush into anything, and neither does Shawn. When they do collide, its Shawn using his quickness to dodge The Undertaker’s strikes, and is able to land some chops. ‘Taker manoeuvres Shawn into the corner, and I saw something this time around that I didn’t see before. Just as The Undertaker looks to get hold of Shawn, HBK looks like he fakes a Sweet Chin Music attempt, and The Undertaker hesitates for just a moment, allowing Shawn to get out of the corner! It appears that the last few weeks with Shawn landing those superkicks have had an effect on the Dead Man! The Undertaker looks to trap Shawn in another corner, but this time Shawn taunts the Phenom with a DX crotch chop, causing ‘Taker to make a mistake and charge right into the corner, again allowing Shawn to escape by simply jumping over him. Shawn has avoided all of the attacks from ‘Taker, but he finally gets some of those big strikes in, and Shawn quickly fakes a knee injury to try and get away, but ‘Taker is having none of it! Another mistake by ‘Taker, as he charges into another corner, and ends up going knee first into a turnbuckle. Shawn wisely goes for the knee, and locks in a figure four! The Undertaker has a long reach though, and is able to fight his way out of it! Using his size and power, The Undertaker is able to control Shawn for a little while. Chokeslam coming up it seems… but NO! Shawn counters into a Crossface! The Undertaker uses his power once again to try and get out, and is able to at least stay off his stomach for a little while. The crowd haven’t stopped making noise since the match started, and I haven’t stopped smiling. It’s hard to believe, but I am actually enjoying his match MORE on this watch! HBK starts hitting some of his signature sequence of moves, which usually always leads up to Sweet Chin Music. Before he can hit the elbow drop though, The Undertaker sits up! Shawn jumps off the ropes anyway, and is caught by the throat! Chokeslam attempt is again countered, and Shawn goes for the superkick again! The Undertaker again hesitates when he sees that kick coming, and falls to the ground. Figure four attempted again, but ‘Taker locks in Hell’s Gate! This could be it, The Undertaker could finally beat Shawn, and make it to 17-0! Mr WrestleMania gets to the ropes, and the hold is broken. This match will continue :D. Shawn gains control once again, and sends The Undertaker to the outside. HBK climbs the ropes, and flies through the air with a moonsault! Unfortunately for him though, The Undertaker moves out of the way, and even manages to give Shawn an extra push to the floor! That looked sick! It’s one thing for guys to miss moonsaults in the ring, but from the top rope to the outside, it’s just insane. Speaking of sick and insane… The Undertaker gets back into the ring, sees Shawn is slowly getting up… and comes flying over the ropes with his famous dive! Shawn knows The Undertaker all too well though, and just like ‘Taker did with his moonsault, Shawn moves! Not only that, but a little throwback to their HIAC match here as Shawn puts a camera man right in the action! What’s so sick and insane about all of this you say? How about the fact that The Undertaker lands HEAD FIRST on the outside?! You can literally see an indentation on the floor mat where ‘Taker’s head hit. Watching this live, I thought that The Undertaker was seriously hurt. Eventually, the referee gets back into the ring, and starts a very slow 10 count. I swear to god, I legitimately thought that The Undertaker would be unable to make it back into the ring, but at the last second, the Dead Man breaks the count! Holy fuck was I in suspense there lol. Shawn isn’t happy that The Undertaker made it back into the ring, and sets up for the superkick, but ‘Taker catches him and hits an amazing looking Chokeslam! Tombstone attempt, is reversed into a Sweet Chin Music attempt, is countered into another Chokeslam attempt, it countered into Sweet Chin Music! The Undertaker is down, but so is Shawn! HBK finally makes the cover, but ‘Taker kicks out and keeps his streak alive! The Heart Break Kid gets back up, and before he can do anything, is grabbed by the throat again! The Undertaker decides to go for a Last Ride this time though, which Michaels tries to counter, but still gets thrown up into the air, and lands with a crash! 1..2..kick out! How the hell is Shawn doing this? I expected the likes of Kane and Batista to kick out of these high impact moves, but Shawn? Incredible. They are really putting Shawn’s resilience over here, and also driving across the point that perhaps the light is greater than the darkness. What the hell is this? The Undertaker going to the top rope? An elbow drop? No, not just an elbow drop, this is a Shawn Michaels like elbow drop! Mark out moment! Shawn avoids it though, and the match is still going on! Both men are back up, and Shawn is almost sent over the ropes, but he skins the cat, and The Undertaker catches him and hits the Tombstone! This is it, the streak is still alive! 1. 2. KICK OUT! HOLY FUCK! Only one man to my knowledge has ever kicked out of the Tombstone, without there being a period of time between the cover/count, and that is Kane. Now, Shawn Michaels can be added to that elite list! The Undertaker’s face when Shawn kicked out is a sight to see as well. Man oh man, this match needs to end soon before I have a heart attack lol. Shawn is finally able to hit the big elbow, and he begins to tune up the band. Will this be the last song for The Undertaker and his WrestleMania streak? SWEET CHIN MUSIC HITS! Shawn covers straight away, but it is STILL not enough to keep down the legendary Phenom!!! How often is it that we hear a WWE crowd chant “This is Awesome”? That alone should tell you just how incredible this match has been so far! Both men are up, and the back and forth battle begins. Shawn lands a shot, Undertaker lands a shot, back and forth, back and forth… boot to the face! The Undertaker got the better of Shawn in that exchange. Another Tombstone attempt is avoided by Shawn! How much more of this can either man take, or even give? Shawn catches a boot to The Undertaker’s face now, and climbs to the ropes one more time. Moonsault! This time it is on target, but good god almighty, The Undertaker catches him, and lands another Tombstone! The cover, the 3 count! This match is over! The Undertaker is 17-0 at WrestleMania, and has FINALLY beat Shawn Michaels! This match can only be described with one word: EPIC. Both men put on performances of their careers right here. I had a lot of expectations going into this match, and they were able to completely shatter them. We might as well skip ahead to 2010, because NO MATCH is going to beat this one for me personally (unless they have a re-match and do even better 😛 ). It’s also without a shadow of a doubt, The Undertaker’s greatest WrestleMania match up to this point!!! :D. *****.

Match 7 – Edge Vs John Cena Vs The Big Show – Vickie is married to Edge. She and Show are kinda having an affair. Cena is a prick. And that is the build up to the WHC WM match! LMAO, Chavo Guerrero Jr is demoted from an 8 second title match loss the previous year… to pushing his Aunty to the ring in a wheel chair. Pretty much the only spot he deserves in wrestling. Army of Cena’s come out. I think with that kind of back up, he’s gonna win lol. Match is a ton of fun, from Big Show dominating early, Edge sitting back and letting Cena take out Big Show, Show getting tied up in the ropes and having to watch Cena nearly win the title, Show getting put through the barricade, the look on Cena and Edge’s faces when they realise they could actually work together to eliminate Show from this match, Edge catching Cena off the ropes with a Spear, Cena lifting both Edge and Show up for the F-U for about a split second… but then Cena wins and that kinda sucks lol. Really good match, put together nicely and lots of fun moments throughout. ***1/2.

Match 8 – Triple H Vs Randy Orton – This match was build around some real serious fucking HATE~!… so what do they do? Put a bunch of dumb rules in place to prevent it from being the match it SHOULD have been. One of the dumbest fucking decisions WWE made. Orton took out HHH’s family (The McMahon’s) including his WIFE… and yet if HHH gets DQ’d or counted out he loses the title. Because uhhh… Vickie Guerrero said so. Why the fuck didn’t Vince step in and make this No DQ and no countouts instead? He returned the Raw before WM ffs. RKO in the first minute. And Orton… doesn’t even attempt a  pin. Instead he goes for a PUNT and gets Pedigreed. Now both men are hurt and already I don’t give a fuck about this match lol. LMAO, HHH gets back into the match by splashing some water on his face. ALL BETTER NOW! Triple H targets the neck of Orton, following up on his promise to break his neck (awesome promo btw). OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FUCKING DULL. HHH retains after the ref gets taken out and he can use the sledgehammer for a little revenge. DULL AND SHITTY. *.

The first WWE event released on Bluray!

Match 1 – Finlay Vs John Bradshaw Layfield – Belfast Brawl to kick start WM, and who better to have a “fight” than 2 tough bastards who like to hit and be hit? Watching these two guy batter each other with weapons is soooo much fun. Finlay putting the cookie sheet in front of JBL’s face and punching it is a highlight only to be surpassed by JBL lobbing the trash can at Hornswoggle’s head! Suicide dive from Finlay right into a trash can lid is awesome too. Some great shots taken by both guys in this one. Just a super fun fight. LMAO at Finlay trying to grab the lid and isn’t able to. Takes him about 4 attempts to pick it up. JBL eventually wins, which was kinda odd given the feud (JBL beat the crap out of Hornswoggle, Finlay’s son, inside a steel cage), but ah well. FUN. ***.

Kim Kardashian is backstage talking about MITB because… I dunno. Had absolutely no idea who she was back in 2008. Now in 2013 I know that she is famous for… actually I still technically have no idea who she is. Bunch of perves talk about her arse a lot. And that’s it. Seriously, what does she do? Did she have some terrible one hit wonder songs that someone like me (brain cells that are still alive) would have avoided like the plague? Was she in one of those terrible reality shows like Big Brother, and just kept going even after winning/being evicted? WHAT DID SHE DO TO GET FAMOUS AND HOW DOES SHE KEEP BEING FAMOUS? WHY AREN’T I FAMOUS? MY ARSE IS BIG TOO DAMMIT.

Match 2 – John Morrison Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs CM Punk Vs Mr Kennedy Vs MVP Vs Carlito Vs Chris Jericho – First MITB was 6 guys. Second was 6 guys. Third was 8. Now 7. Uhhhh ok lol. Morrison does a moonsault off the ropes to the floor… while holding a ladder… and wow… I used to be really fucking impressed with that. Now? I didn’t give a fuck. I don’t know why. It just did NOTHING for me. Didn’t even look good lol. I popped for the sunset flip powerbomb suplex off the ladder at least! And kinda laughed at the ladder crumbling under Shelton when it wasn’t supposed to. Huh, there is a ladder set up against the ring apron and barricade like last year… except I have no idea how/when/why it was done. Other than to set up a spot that is likely gonna come of course. And there’s the spot. Shelton goes through it. LIKE SPIDERMAN! Yeah, because Spiderman often jumped from a rope and landed on a ladder. Hate that overused line in wrestling. MVP looks like he is about to win… until MATT HARDY makes his return and screws his former tag partner out of the win! Massive fucking pop for his return. Poor Punk in this match btw. He seems to take some really hard shots from the ladder throughout the match. But I’m sure he didn’t mind too much because he wins! Woo! Nice callback to the previous MITB match with Punk knocking Kennedy off the ladder as he’s about to win… just would have been nice had that been the finish. Instead Punk turns around and walks right into a Code Breaker. But then still wins anyway so woo! Match is good, but not awesome like I used to think. The first MITB match really is untouchable at this point. ***1/4.

Match 3 – Batista Vs Umaga – UMANGA! Raw Vs SD match for WM. This was the best they could come up with for Batista apparently. Nothing against Umaga, but he wasn’t exactly “great” nor did he have any “great” matches that I can think of atm (I’m not a fan of the LMS match with Cena remember). Batista on the other hand, while not being “great” on his own, had the incredible series with Undertaker in 07 and was really coming into his own finally. OOO OOOO OOOOMAGA chant is awesome. Of fuck, NERVE GRIP. Should be banned along with the Bear Hug. FUCK YOU NERVE GRIP. Match sucks. Batista Bomb is botched at the end. 1/2*.

Match 4 – Chavo Guerrero Jr Vs Kane – ECW title match! Kane won a battle royal on the pre-show to get this match. Kane shows up behind Chavo Jr, hits a chokeslam and wins the ECW title in 8 seconds! This is AWESOME. Can’t give it a DUD because any match where Chavo Jr gets fucking BURIED in 8 seconds in a title match at WM is fucking awesome. *.

Match 5 – Shawn Michaels Vs Ric Flair – Flair was inducted into the HOF the night before, and if he loses here, he must retire… and go wrestle somewhere else. Yeah, small print that we weren’t made aware of I guess haha. LEAVE THE MEMORIES ALONE! Plenty, and I do mean plenty, of good shit in this one. HBK was handpicked by Flair to be his WM, and quite possibly LAST, opponent, so HBK was conflicted yet at the same time honoured. Flair picked him because he wanted to test himself against one of the best ever in the Show Stopper, and for the first time in years Flair looks like the Flair of old, not old Flair. He showed signs back in 2003 in that WHC match with HHH, but since then he evolved into the role of “crazy old man Flair” which was awesome and stuck to the strengths he had left in his old age. But here he really did look like the Flair form the 80’s, albeit not quite as good haha. He pulls out moves we haven’t seen in years, and really tries to go all out to prove himself against a guy like Shawn Michaels. Shawn gets chance to hit Sweet Chin Music down the line, but hesitates, and ends up being locked in the Figure Four! Cool spot, and would be made better with how they follow up on it during the finish a little later. Shawn takes a crazy moonsault bump onto the announce table, which doesn’t break the way he wants and he ends up cracking his ribs or something, which prevents him from bridging out of a pin shortly after. People bitch because it was botched… but I don’t understand why. The guy just went ribs first for REAL into the table, and the bridge spot was either a “botch” that worked perfectly into the match… or great selling that again worked perfectly into the match. Win win imo. Flair gets superkicked in the face, but is able to kick out when his career is on the line. Shawn tunes up the band again, but Flair is barely able to get to his feet… but it was Flair playing possum, and once HBK comes over he gets a low blow for his troubles! The dirtiest player in the game is showing his true colours with everything on the line. He continues to cheat to escape the clutches of HBK, but none of it is enough to keep Shawn down. Another superkick and Flair still keeps going, so Shawn goes into the corner once more, but is again hesitant to do it. However Flair tells him to give him everything he’s got, as anything less would be an insult to the greatest of all time. I’M SORRY. I LOVE YOU. SWEET CHIN MUSIC. And the career of Ric Flair is over. A really good match still, that holds up well and everything, but despite me being a big Flair fan and considering him to be the greatest of all time… the emotion of this match lasted only for the first watch when I saw it live. After that; nothing. And I don’t really know why. SOME people out there actually lowered their rating of the match simply because Flair wrestled again in TNA… which is fucking retarded, but I lowered my rating simply after giving it another watch and not “feeling” it quite like before. It was the same here. Great match, but I don’t “feel” anything from it, which kinda sucks for me tbh. ***1/2.

Match 6 – Ashley & Maria Vs Melina & Beth Phoenix – NO.

Match 7 – Randy Orton Vs John Cena Vs Triple H – WWE Title match. Last year Cena got injured by Mr Kennedy, so they did a storyline with Orton taking him out (Orton was the challenger for the title at the time). At No Mercy, HHH and Orton wrestled for the vacant title. HHH won, then had to face Umaga later in the night, before defending against Orton in a Last Man Standing match where he lost it. Cena returned early in a huge surprise at the RR, won the match, and didn’t want to wait for WM to get back at Orton. They had an awesome, awesome match at No Way Out, where Orton got himself DQ’d, thus screwing Cena out of the title. And then somehow a triple threat match was made. I forget lol. Just watched the match and… well… I genuinely don’t know what to write about it. It wasn’t bad, far from it… but I don’t know what the hell to say. It was far more than just MOVES like the WM 22 triple threat was, but at the same time it lacked the story and emotion of the WM 20 triple threat. It’s in between them in that it has a little story (everyone has a history with each other) and its more than just moves, and the moves it does have are all very nicely done sequences… but I don’t know think it has anything that really needs to be written about it lol. Finish makes me laugh though. HHH gets punted in the head by Orton, who pins Cena to retain the belt after Cena took a Pedigree. The PUNT was very deadly at this time, having taken out guys the previous year and whatnot, and the commentators put it over at the end of the match too… yet HHH somehow manages to attempt to break up the pin and is able to sit up and stare at Orton while he has his hand raised in victory. Way to sell the move, Trips! LOL. ***1/4.

Match 8 – The Big Show Vs Floyd Mayweather – Hells yeah. I said during my WM 11 review that Bigelow/LT was only the second best celeb match at WM. Meet the first. Loved this feud. Show making a surprise return at NWO after taking a year off to train as a boxer and whatnot, looking healthier and fitter than ever, and attacking Rey was cool. They Mayweather jumped into the ring, smashed Big Show’s nose, and ran off into the crowd as Big Show charged after him. Was an incredible angle for sure. Got everyone talking. And even though Show was supposed to be the heel, Floyd is such an unlikeable guy on TV that the roles were reversed as far as the fans are concerned. This whole match is just worked perfectly. From the cat and mouse stuff, Floyd using his speed and quickness to get some shots in on Show, then Show finally getting his hands on him and sticking to basic stuff that still looks impressive coming from a guy his size, but can be done with a lot of safety to a guy who isn’t trained to be a wrestler. Immensely fun bout. Both guys are great in it. Floyd is cocky, thinking he can knock Show out with ease, while Show is determined to simply get his hands on this outsider and break him in half. Fans practically begging Show to beat the hell out of Mayweather is awesome too. Best celeb match at WM for sure, and probably the best celeb match ever. Go watch it. ***1/2.

Match 9 – The Undertaker Vs Edge – I had been looking forward to seeing Edge/Taker one on one for so damn long, and it was finally time. The legendary Phenom of WWE makes his way to the ring first, and comes out in attire similar to that of 1998. It was an awesome sight to see for such a huge ‘Taker fan/mark like myself. Will The Undertaker’s streak become 16-0 or 15-1? The outcome was pretty obvious, but like a lot of The Undertaker’s recent WrestleMania matches, there was always a chance his streak could come to an end, due to his opponent. Batista and Randy Orton were the most recent opponents that made me believe that they could beat him, while Kane (WM14) and Triple H were the only other 2 that come to mind when I think of guys that had a chance. Edge can now be added to that list. A great match. Both men put on a tremendous performance and have a match truly deserving of the main event of WrestleMania. The match starts off slow and is more methodical than ‘Taker’s last WrestleMania match. Edge goes after the back of the dead man and starts to wear him down. Every time The Undertaker attempts one of his signature moves, Edge either counters or kicks out! he longer the match goes, the faster the pace becomes and the better it gets. Edge continues to outdo the Phenom, countering the Tombstone and the Snake Eyes followed by the Boot (which he counters with a drop kick). The Undertaker, while getting out manoeuvred by Edge, is able to kick out of everything he receives. In what has become a tradition for big matches with The Undertaker in them, he hits the “Dead Man Dive”, which is always amazing to see for a man his size and age (yeah, that’s right, I named his dive! 😛 ). The referee gets knocked down towards the end, and Edge, as the opportunist he is, grabs a camera and nails ‘Taker with it. The Undertaker gets up though, and Tombstone’s Edge! Another referee comes running down the very long ramp way and into the ring to make a cover, but Edge manages to kick out! The end comes when Edge Spear’s ‘Taker, but he kicks out. He hits another Spear, but as they both fall, The Undertaker locks in his new submission hold! Edge holds on for as long as he can, but in the end he taps out. The Undertaker has just become the World Heavyweight Champion once again, and is now 16-0 at WrestleMania!!! The Undertaker may have left the winner, and the World Heavyweight Champion, but Edge left looking like a million bucks, as they say. It’s not often the loser of a match comes out looking so strong, but after his amazing performance in the match, countering The Undertaker’s moves and kicking out of everything, he looked stronger than ever. ****1/2.

ALL GROWN UP.

Match 1 – Jeff Hardy Vs Mr Kennedy Vs Matt Hardy Vs Edge Vs Randy Orton Vs King Booker Vs CM Punk Vs Finlay – Ha, when King Booker comes out, JBL says the HOF has a spot for him. 6 years later and he’s actually going on. Kayfabe title wins mean a lot when it comes to the WWE HOF I guess, because he was damn sure never a good enough wrestler to make it. YEAH I SAID BOOKER T SUCKS. Unlike the first 2 MITB Ladder Matches, we now have 8 guys in it, just so they could fill WM with as many guys as possible. HOLY SHIT FINLAY PULLS OUT THE FIRST HIGH SPOT BY DIVING OFF THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR LANDING ON EVERYONE. Who the fuck would have expected that lol? Usually they have the usual jumpy guys jump around first, leading to someone we wouldn’t expect to jump jump last. You know what I mean. Right? Better do. LMAO at Booker going for a ladder and getting the Hornswoggle stepladder instead. The ladder is short. Like his career should have been because BOOKER T SUCKS. Everyone takes turns at dominating everyone, with Booker going first and he sucks, hitting shitty spinebusters. Then does a spinaroonie to a big pop because he’s a babyface… oh wait no he isn’t. Like how they play up on the history of Edge and Matt, with Matt trying to set up Edge to take the same bump that Joey Mercury did a few months ago that smashed his face up. And then eventually Edge is taken out when Matt convinces his brother to dive onto Edge while he’s on a ladder set up between the ring and the barricade, breaking the ladder and both men. Matt is the smarter brother; gets Jeff to kill himself and Edge, taking them both out of the match, leaving Matt all fine lol. Anywho… yeah… everyone takes a turn at dominating. Spots happen, but aside from the Jeff killing Edge one, nothing stands out because let’s face it, we’ve seen everything else before. Well except for a midget taking a bump from the ladder. Kennedy wins. His bad luck kills his career and his MITB opportunity. LOL. Shame because he was actually really good from mid-06 to mid-07 in between injuries. Afterwards he was just terrible. And went to TNA and got worse. LOL. Just wonder how he would have done had he not got injured again and actually won the WHC. Maybe his career could have been saved. Not a fan of this one really. **1/2.

Match 2 – Kane Vs The Great Khali – Apparently they wanted Hogan Vs Khali to try and recreate WM III match. Instead they got Kane. Kane slams Khali at one point. If I remember correctly anyway. I’m not sitting through this fucking shite. NO.

Match 3 – Chris Benoit Vs MVP – US title time. 2 years in a row Benoit  has walked into WM as US champ… will it be 2 years in a row where he loses it too? SPOILER: No. He retains lol. Now to find out how! Benoit’s last ever WM match before he *disappeared forever and nobody knows why*. They work the mat to start with, where MVP gets to show us what he can do when he isn’t facing someone like Kane who he feuded with early on in his SD career. He had good matches with Kane, as well as Undertaker, but he couldn’t do the same stuff with them that he can with Benoit. So really this is a “career” match for the guy as he can finally prove his worth against one of the best ever (He wasn’t really credible enough to have that kind of match with Undertaker yet). MVP finally gets in control and smartly works over Benoit, targeting the arm, while Benoit keeps showing us that he’s the veteran, managing to find openings that most guys wouldn’t find. Finish kinda comes out of nowhere, and somewhat falls flat, which is a shame. The match was just kind getting going and then it stopped. Will have to check out their 2/3 falls match to see if that holds up as being really good. This was fine, but could have been so much more. **3/4.

Match 4 – The Undertaker Vs Batista – Going into this match back in 2007, I was unbelievably excited for it. Not because I was expecting a classic between the two (I had no faith in Batista being able to put on a great match), but because I was absolutely certain that The Undertaker was leaving with the title, and that’s just awesome :D. Not only was the WHC on the line though, The Undertaker’s 14-0 WrestleMania winning streak was on the line too. The Undertaker, after finally winning the Royal Rumble for the first time in his career, wanted the title perhaps more than ever. Batista, after coming back from injury in mid 06, had won the WHC once again and was determined to keep hold of it and prove to everyone that he was not only on The Undertaker’s level, but he was better. This match might have been on 4th, but like The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25, for me it is the REAL main event. It’s the main reason I bought the PPV, it’s the main reason I bought the DVD. Teddy Long doing the ring announcing was a nice touch too, making the whole thing seem that much bigger, as he was the General Manager of Smackdown and this match was huge. Batista’s entrance was nothing special, just his usual stuff, but The Undertaker got another epic WrestleMania entrance with the druids carrying the flame torches (plus his entrance is usually epic to start with lol). I know it seems like I am rambling a bit, but all of this stuff really built me up and got me excited as hell for this match, and if I’m going to review the match, I feel I need to include all of this too :P. The bell finally rings, The Undertaker comes out of the corner with his usual fighting stance, but just as quickly as he leaves his corner, Batista is running full speed into the Dead Man with a spear! Batista showing the world, and The Undertaker, that he is not intimidated, that he has no fear, and that he will do anything to win. Back and forth they go, keeping the pace quick as hell, which is impressive as hell given the fact that both are big guys. The fans are firmly on The Undertaker’s side, despite Batista being one of the biggest faces in the company. Let’s face it, how many people could still get cheered at WrestleMania against a face Undertaker? Batista continues to show everyone that he will do what it takes to win, when he takes to the ropes, and comes flying off with a shoulder block! The Undertaker recovers and flies across the ring for his leaping clothesline, then goes for a Chokeslam. I love this part, with The Undertaker trying to Chokeslam Batista, and Batista using all his strength to keep ‘Taker’s hand off his throat. They continue to keep up this amazing pace, going to the outside, where we see the usual “Undertaker WrestleMania Spot” as he dives over the ropes to the outside. But even after that, Batista continues to come back and take the fight to The Undertaker, showing that he may be the biggest threat to The Undertaker at WrestleMania. An awesome looking Running Powerslam from one announcer’s table to the other is just more offence from Batista to show us that he is taking out all the stops to beat the Dead Man. The crowd, and myself, are just going crazy for all of this amazing action, and it’s not even in full gear! Last Ride out of the corner looks to solidify a 15-0 win streak, but Batista kicks out, hits a Spinebuster, and then a Batista Bomb! Now, going into this match I was pretty certain that The Undertaker was going to win, but when he hit that Batista Bomb, my belief was suspended, and I genuinely thought that the streak was OVER. I wasn’t the only one, the fans in the arena all seemed to be thinking the same thing, and when The Undertaker kicked out, the place erupted. Incredible. This unbelievable match eventually ends with a Tombstone Piledriver, and I mark the fuck out as The Undertaker is once again the World Champion :D. There is a reason I consider this the MOTY for 2007; it’s just fucking incredible. Batista brought his A game, perhaps for the first time ever (IMO he was better here than his HIAC with HHH), and The Undertaker brought his A game too, perhaps better than ever before. It’s a faced paced, action packed encounter that tells a simple story very well, and it never gets old. It’s also the best Undertaker WrestleMania match so far! ****1/2.

Match 5 – RVD, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman & Sabu Vs Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von, Matt Striker & Kevin Thorn – ECW Originals Vs The New Breed. I remember this being terrible, and looking at the “talent” involved, I have zero interest in seeing it again. NO.

Match 6 – Umaga Vs Bobby Lashley – Battle of the Billionaires. Even though Vince isn’t a billionaire anymore and hadn’t been for years. Hair on the line too. Did anyone expect Vince to win? Austin is the guest ref. Something he did quite a few times over the years after he retired. Got to the point where people didn’t care. Lashley has the match won in about a minute, but Estrada puts Umaga’s foot on the ropes to break the count. So Lashley kills Estrada. Way to keep Umaga looking like a monster, having him basically beat in a minute. Lashley takes a great bump outside when Umaga side steps him and sends him through the ropes. Austin gets a Samoan Spike, and fuck me, takes a hell of a bump from it for a guy who had to retire with a bad neck and bad knees. Shane McMahon shows up to get involved. He goes coast to coast with a trash can in front of Lashley, puts on a ref shirt and goes for the count but Austin pulls him out… and takes another Samoan Spike LOL. Stunner from Austin, Spear from Lashley, and McMahon gets his head shaved. Match is pretty dull until Shane shows up tbh. **.

Match 7 – Melina Vs Ashley – NO.

Match 8 – John Cena Vs Shawn Michaels – This was supposed to be Cena/HHH II, but luckily HHH tore his quad (weird to say I know lol), and HBK took his place, which let’s face it is FAR more interesting. If only Rock got hurt this year and they couldn’t do Cena/Rock II. HBK is fucking awesome early on in this. He out wrestles Cena, as well as dodging those big rights and lefts from the champs and comes back with some jabs to the face to frustrate him. Similar to the HHH/Cena match last year in a way, as HBK is out to prove he’s the better wrestler than Cena, only this time it actually makes sense lol. Cena keeps trying to get back on offence, but Shawn has an answer for everything. Shawn goes after the legs of Cena for a little while, which Cena sells tremendously, and Shawn makes it all interesting too, not so much with what he does but how he does it; taking a shot at the leg then trash talking Cena as he’s writhing in pain. But Shawn makes a mistake, going to the well once too often with his shoulder attack to Cena in the corner, and Cena is able to move, sending Shawn head first into the ring post, busting him open! Cena can now mount a comeback, and plenty of people complain that Cena no sells the leg work here. Well… he doesn’t. The leg work only took up about 4 minutes of the match, and it wasn’t 4 minutes nonstop of leg work nor did Shawn do anything extreme to the leg either. So Cena holding his leg after certain moves, trying to shake it off etc for a short time after is honestly all he NEEDED to do. So stop complaining you fucks! Poor referee gets superkicked. PILEDRIVER ON THE RING STEPS! God I love that move. Cena’s head is busted open from that, and Shawn now feels that Cena is pretty much dead in the water. 5 moves of doom, and Sweet Chin Music is tuning up… only for Cena to counter with one hell of a fucking clothesline! Awesome cut off spot. But like most of this match, just when Cena looks to build momentum  HBK as the big match veteran is able to counter in some way. But as the match goes on, the POWER of Cena keeps allowing him to create openings, and it’s his POWER that allows him to get HBK to his shoulders, keep him there and finally give him the F-U! Shawn kicks out and again seems to get in control… until it’s that POWER of Cena that allows him to catch Shawn from the ropes, power him up to his shoulders and… HBK counters, SWEET CHIN MUSIC… NO! Countered by Cena who goes for the STFU! Shawn counters that, but Cena counters again and this time locks it in! Awesome sequence, but Shawn is too close to the ropes and again the veteran is able to escape the clutches of Cena. SWEET CHIN MUSIC CONNECTS! Cena kicks out, but both men are spent. They hold onto each other as they get to their feet… and Cena goes for yet another F-U! Shawn escapes but Cena counters him before he can do anything else, and locks in the STFU again! And like WM 22, the match ends with a tap out! Back to back WM’s and Cena made DX tap out! Great match, better than the previous year’s main event. Shawn was great as the veteran with an answer for everything, and Cena was great at using his power to gain the upper hand whenever he could, and as the match went on he upped his game until he finally beat the more experienced challenger. ****.

On paper back in 2006, I really wasn’t that into this show. Then I watched it live and had a TON of fun. I always remember it as being a fun event rather than a truly good event, so at the very least I’m hoping to have fun with this one still.

Match 1 – The Big Show & Kane Vs Carlito & Chris Masters – Tag belts match kicks off the show. Kane really steps it up for WM by hitting things like a DROP KICK that he never normally would go for, as well as a clothesline from the top rope to the outside! Show is going at a faster pace than usual as well, and all of these things result in the match being a really fun, albeit short opener. Masters & Carlito essentially get squashed lol, but in super fun fashion. Show takes a nice double flapjack bump for his whole 30 seconds or so as FIP lol. Masters counters Kane’s clothesline from the ropes with a Masterlock! Show breaks it up, but Kane is right back in the fire so to speak when he takes Carlito’s back breaker finisher thingy. Masters & Carlito try to take advantage of Kane being hurt and Show on the outside, but some miss-communication ends with Carlito getting chokeslammed and the tag champs retain. FUN FUN FUN. **1/2.

Match 2 – Matt Hardy Vs Ric Flair Vs Finlay Vs Lashley Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs RVD – MITB ladder match 2! Damn, Lillian looks FIIIINE. So this match has pretty much been the worst MITB ladder match for me for a very long time. Would have to watch some of the more recent ones to really compare it to them, but for now it’s the worst or at very least one of the worst imo. Can it do better on this watch though? It’ll have an uphill battle. Part of my dislike for this match comes down to who is in it. Flair, Finlay and definitely Lashley really shouldn’t be in ladder matches. Certainly not a MITB match which outside of the first is really build around spots. While all 3 men are involved in some spots in this one, they really can’t do what a lot of other guys can. Lashley would probably break if he took 2 or 3 big bumps, Flair would turn to dust, and Finlay… well Finlay is more of a “smash you in the face with a ladder” than a “jump onto you from a ladder” kinda guy. They just don’t FIT into these kind of matches imo, despite the fact Flair had a tremendous TLC match with Edge earlier in the year. But being singles allowed them to do more, whereas these big multi-man ladder matches are really just spot after spot after spot with each guy taking turns at jumping off shit lol. So moving on to the actual match. Spots and spots and more spots, with Flair taking a suplex off the ladder early on and being taken out of the match for a little while. Guess they realised this wasn’t really the place for him so he doesn’t come back until later. Didn’t like this match this time around still. Just doesn’t do anything for me. None of the spots really look that impressive, closest thing is seeing Flair at his age take a suplex off the ladder. There isn’t any kind of big story to the match either like the first one, so the match is just a bunch of somewhat unimpressive spots that we’ve seen a billion times in numerous ladder and TLC matches in the past. Some dumb spots too, like RVD being alone in the ring and doing a 5 star frog splash instead of trying to get the briefcase. But that doesn’t matter because he still ends up winning. Yawn. Not happy with the result lol. Not happy with this match.  Gone down quite a bit, which I wasn’t really expecting. **.

Match 3 – John Bradshaw Layfield Vs Chris Benoit – US title time! JBL wants to win the title and beat Benoit so he can claim himself as THE greatest technical wrestler since he beat Eddie Guerrero for the WWE title, and now wants to beat Benoit for the US title. Shame they had to include Eddie into this since they were already spewing it at us for the WHC match. But that aside, Benoit Vs JBL is something I wanna see! 2 guys known for being pretty stiff in the ring. Usually ends up being pretty awesome :D. Benoit goes for a Crossface early, and it was great to see JBL try to counter it by locking his hands together, only for Benoit to smash the fuck out of them with his fist. I dig shit like that, in case you didn’t know by now :P. JBL seems to be focused on the back of the head and the neck of Benoit, which will no doubt help him to set up the Clothesline from Hell as well as take advantage of Benoit’s previously broken neck. JBL’s punches are epic too. Nothing fancy, just a big fat man throwing his fists into someone else’s face as hard as he can. Nice to see some similarities between the Finlay/Benoit/Regal matches here as well, mainly with the stiffness that I already mentioned, along with how everything they do feels like they really had to fight to do it. One instance is a superplex by JBL. Before he is able to hit it, Benoit tries to headbutt the fuck out of him first to get him away, but in the end JBL is successfully in hitting it. Pretty funny to see JBL hit the 3 Amigos (which in Keyfabe was disrespect, but in reality was nothing but respect for Eddie, as JBL was a friend of his), and then great to see Benoit bring them out as well to show JBL how they are REALLY done. More of the “fight to do anything” with JBL making sure Benoit doesn’t hit another German suplex on him, followed by the Clothesline from Hell being reversed into a Crossface which is reversed into a roll up (with ropes for leverage)! JBL beats Benoit, and becomes the greatest technical wrestler of all the times!!! Really liked this first time around, and I still really like it now. Plenty of what I like in a match, and hell, I’m even upping my rating a little! ***1/2.

Match 4 – Mick Foley Vs Edge – Hardcore match! Great feud, that would go on to evolve with the two of them teaming up to fight ECW that leads to a rather epic 6 person tag at One Night Stand 2006. Oh and plenty of great promos too. Man, Foley looks FAT as hell coming to the ring, and wearing a weird shirt too, despite having his cactus t-shirt and trademark red plaid. Hmmm… I smell something fishy! Foley dominates at the start, but Edge quickly comes back with the help of LITA on the outside handing him weapons! SPEAR! This one is over! But wait, Edge is hurt! What happened? Ahhh, the strange shirt was covering up the fact Foley wrapped barbed wire around himself in order to counter the spear! Kinda like Bret and Goldberg in WCW, only with 100% more barbed wire! Both men bleed, and we get plenty of good old fashioned HATE~! combined with some sick bumps, and even LITA bleeds and takes some great bumps, something I highly doubt we’d see the likes of the Bella Twins and Funkabitches take. Helps that LITA actually had passion for the business and genuinely wanted to be in it and be in it as a WRESTLER of course. Unlike a lot of hardcore matches, this one isn’t just random spots for the hell of it. Both guys wanna destroy each other, and the progression of the weapons and spots that are used is done perfectly. When the likes of a cookie tray doesn’t work too well, the barbed wire bat comes out. That doesn’t work, so outcome the thumbtacks. And then when that doesn’t work… it all leads to the big finish with a flaming table! Everyone knows this spot, and it’s a fucking great spot, with Edge spearing Foley off the apron and right into the table that was set on fire! BUT not only that, I totally forgot that earlier in the match, Edge sprays the lighter fluid ON FOLEY! So a Spear off the apron through the flaming table, and this one is over. Incredible match. Always thought it was great, and now I like it even more! Tremendous stuff from both men AND from LITA! She plays a big part in the match from handing Edge weapons, taking bumps, bleeding, and setting the table on fire. Practically nothing to hate about this match tbh. ****1/2.

Match 5 – Booker T Vs The Boogeyman – Bollacks to this. NO.

Match 6 – Trish Stratus Vs Mickie James – Switching to my unedited version of this match! Loved their match at NYR 06 (was probably the MOTN for that PPV lol, or at least even with HHH/Show), and I never thought this was as good until my last watch where I thought it was better. Build up was great; Mickie was awesome as the psycho lesbian heel. Think AJ but without PG constraints, and going after the divas rather than the men lol. Trish is fucking pissed after all the shit Mickie has put her through in the last couple of months, and man does she beat the fuck out of poor Mickie early on. Great spot where Trish catches a kick from Mickie and pushes her down into the splits position then kicks her in the head. But a kick is what puts Mickie on top when Trish misses a chick kick on the outside and ends up kicking the steel ring post, and thus begins Mickie’s attack on the leg. Mickie is great at working over the leg, just being crazy and violent with the whole thing. Crowd are firmly behind Mickie, mainly because she was just too fucking AWESOME to boo at the time rather than Trish being shit. Great selling of the leg from Trish as she makes a comeback, and Mickie is great at constantly using the injury to gain control. So why did I get out my unedited version of this show to watch just this match? Well because WWE edited it (duh), and they edited out some awesome LESBIAN related stuff! MICKIE GRABS TRISH’S CROTCH AND LICKS HER FINGERS. Great finishing stretch to this match, with some hard hitting moves by WWE diva standards. Finish is great too, even though they fucking edited it. Mickie kicks Trish in the injured leg, then goes for Stratusfaction, but the injured leg buckles on Trish and Mickie can’t perform the move, so she nails Trish with a Mick Kick and wins the title! WWE edited the Stratusfaction claiming it to be a botch, but honestly it worked perfectly into the match even if it was. Awesome match, great performance by both of them. ***1/2.

Match 7 – The Undertaker Vs Mark Henry – The Undertaker had a pretty good year overall in 2005, thanks to his feud with Randy Orton. His 2006 started off good too, as he had a near 5 star match with Kurt Angle at No Way Out for the title. Then it went downhill, starting with this match. Henry had cost The Undertaker the WHC in a rematch with Kurt on Smackdown, so this match was made, and for some reason it was turned into a casket match. This match didn’t have the best of feuds behind it, but at least they did a good job of building Henry up as a decent threat (though nobody in their right mind thought he would win lol), having him beat Angle in a non title match, put Angle through a table, take out Batista, and even put The Undertaker through a table. So at least they were half trying :P. ‘Taker does a good job of selling for Henry, really putting over his strength. The theme of the match seems to be “can The Undertaker knock Henry down?”, as he keeps hitting big clotheslines, and even Old School, but fails to take down the World’s Strongest Man. Fun spot with Henry going for his Body Guillotine, where he goes through the ropes too, but The Undertaker moves and Henry goes right through the ropes and lands in the casket! He looks terrified at first, but gets his bearings and drags The Undertaker in the casket, and they have a brawl while being inside the casket. Impressive spot with The Undertaker hitting his corner Last Ride spot, finally taking Henry down, which causes Michael Cole to bust a nut. This is then followed by an even more impressive spot, as The Undertaker hits his signature top rope drive, clearing the casket too, and landing on Mark Henry! The Undertaker then shows us HIS strength, as he picks up Mark Henry and Tombstones him! All that’s left for him to do is roll Henry into the casket, and this one is over. Like the majority of WrestleMania 22, this is an extremely fun match. It’s not one of his best, but it’s still got “watchablilty”, and a number of memorable spots. The match told a nice simple story, with The Undertaker trying to overcome the power of Henry and just take him off his feet. **1/2.

Match 8 – Shawn Michaels Vs Vince McMahon – We had a hardcore match earlier, now time for a no holds barred match! Difference? They can’t pin each other outside the ring lol. Gotta love all the names they have for essentially the same match. STREET FIGHT. EXTREME RULES MATCH. NO DQ. FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE. HIT EACH OTHER WITH WEAPONS AND THE REFEREE WON’T DO ANYTHING. McMahon has the most awesomely terrible power strut ever. Poor King and JR. HBK throws Vince on them. What a nice guy he is! He also uses some cable to choke Vince out. BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN. HBK goes to hit Vince with his Muscle and Fitness Cover, and JR just screams “HIT HIM IN THE HEAD WITH IT AND SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS!”. JR rules. The Spirit Squad aka Dolph Ziggler and the others who all quit the business show up and attack Shawn while Vince recovers. Shawn buries them. So Dolph hasn’t exactly moved up much since then lol. So Shawn takes care of the SS, allowing Vince to sneak up behind Shawn and gain a little advantage until he goes for a superkick of his own which doesn’t go well and Shawn is back in control. JR is awesome on commentary, screaming for Shawn to pretty much murder Vince lol. His voice is awesome too, a mix between Gordon Solie and Lance Russell (JR’s voice gets gravelly when he gets angry or really excited), which is probably why I like him as much as I do lol. SHANE JUST GOT HIS AS BURRIED IN HIS DAD’S CRACK. Which made no sense because it was his head, but sounded awesome anyway lol. In case you can’t figure it out, Shane McMahon came to help his dad. He gets his face shoved in Vince’s ass, then gets handcuffed to the ropes and beaten with a kendo stick then is forced to watch HBK destroy his dad. BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN. Vince bleeds, gets hit with weapons, superkicked, and then the final blow is an elbow to Vince who is inside a trash can on a table. Great spot, and the DX chop got a massive pop (and would again later in the night which got people buzzing about a DX reunion which ended up happening). Tremendously fun match with HBK basically squashing the shit out of Vince in the best way possible. And then Vince giving Shawn the middle finger while being stretchered away is great along with JR’s call of the whole thing. ***.

Match 9 – Kurt Angle Vs Randy Orton Vs Rey Mysterio – World Heavyweight Title match time. Eddie died so they gave Rey a big push. He won the RR, then lost his title match to Orton at NWO, then randomly got put back in the match because… Eddie died? Oh and Angle is the champ, but he doesn’t matter in the match lol. So lots of people were pissed at this time with the Eddiesplotation going on. Can’t blame them, BUT it is stupid to claim that the ONLY reason Rey got a push is because of Eddie’s death. Sorry, but Rey was gonna be getting a big push at some point anyway. He spent the first half of 2005 dominating Eddie in matches (winning wise), and was HUGELY over, and was rumoured to be in line for a big push anyway. Then Eddie past away, and decided to push Rey at that time in memory of Eddie (and let’s face it, who would you rather have the push; Rey or Chavo Jr? Yeah, thought so. So shut up). This match is… well, pretty terrible. Under 10 minutes, and it’s just a total SPOTZ match and nothing more. Both Orton and Mysterio look weak by tapping out to Angle, only with the ref down which was stupid. They just do moves and nothing more. Looks spectacular, but has absolutely nothing else going for it, and moves on their own mean dick. Rey wins the title, goes on to have a shitty booked title reign. *.

Match 10 – Candice Michelle Vs Torrie Wilson – NO.

Match 11 – John Cena Vs Triple H – WWE Title Match! Entertaining entrances. BEHOLD THE KING. THE KING OF KINGS. CM PUNK AS A CHICAGO GANSTER. Love how they glorified the MURDERING GANSTERS for Cena. Cena tries to look all cool and menacing dressed in a long coat like Gangsters did back then… but I can’t take him seriously in those 3/4 shorts or whatever the fuck they are called. WEAR SHORTS OR WEAR TROUSERS. I miss HHH’s Lemmy Moustache. And his long hair. He looks stupid with short hair. I miss Cena’s… uhhh… yeah he’s been the same for far too long, and none of his look actually looked good. Cena gets booed out of the building, and HHH is over as fuck as a face. They acknowledge it on commentary (makes a change from today, right lol?), and put a nice spin on it saying that “traditional” wrestling fans are cheering HHH because he’s more of a “wrestler” than Cena is. Complete fucking bullshit but I appreciate what they were trying to do, especially given the build for this match that was essentially HHH claiming that Cena CAN’T beat him because he isn’t as good a wrestler as he is. JR at least says how it annoys him that Cena gets called a bad wrestler when he isn’t. Fans chanting “you can’t wrestle” at Cena makes me lol. Though that being said, I was probably agreeing with them back in 06. Atmosphere is awesome for this one. Just a perfect example of a “big fight feel” match in wrestling. They work the story of HHH being a better wrestler by having HHH control Cena and come up with a counter every time Cena tries to get on a roll. Meanwhile Cena sticks to the very basics of what he is capable of; big punches, suplex and backdrops. Ref takes a low blow, and out comes Mr Sledgehammer and down goes Mr Cena! 1…2… KICK OUT! HHH can’t seem to beat Cena with wrestling, and now he can’t even beat him with a sledgehammer! HHH is off his game now, and Cena tries to take advantage with an F-U! HHH kicks out, so Cena goes out of his depth with a cross body. He misses, HHH tries for a Pedigree… and Cena counters with the STFU! So much for not being as good a wrestler as HHH! The Game taps out, and Cena retains the title! Great match. Atmosphere certainly helps it, along with the excellent JR commentary. Then we have the great story of HHH being the better wrestler, so Cena despite being the champion has to fight from the bottom right from the get go, and as the match goes on he gets better and better and eventually proves the game wrong by out wrestling him and making him TAP THE FUCK OUT. ***3/4.

WrestleMania goes Hollywood! AKA some of the wrestlers parody movies for the adverts.

Match 1 – Eddie Guerrero Vs Rey Mysterio – On paper this should have been awesome. Instead it wasn’t. In fact it’s my least favourite match from either guy ever. Just horrible. A massive blip on their incredible 2005 series. Eddie just doesn’t look “on” and Rey is constantly pissing about with his mask. Takes me out of the match and seems to take them out of the match too. Gets worse with every watch and this is no different. Thankfully they go on to do MUCH better. MUCH BETTER. But it still confuses and saddens me that this is what they manage to pull out at WRESTLEMANIA. *.

Match 2 – Chris Jericho Vs Christian Vs Chris Benoit Vs Kane Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs Edge – The first ever Money in the Bank Ladder Match! Whoever climbs the ladder and successfully retrieves the briefcase will be able to cash it in at any time within the next year for a title match! Damn, look at all that CANADIAN talent! Kane’s entrance is awesome. Last year they had graphics of a New York skyline on fire. This year they set fire to a bunch of ladders at the top of the stage! Everyone tries to jump him on his way down to the ring, but he steamrolls over them all and charges down to the ring to try and get a ladder before everyone catches up with him and he gets a double suplex on the floor. Everyone starts flying over the ropes to take as many people out as possible, but Kane is the one left standing in the end when he takes to the ropes and dives on everyone on the floor! Always impressive to see someone the size of Kane do that. Shelton was great too with his dive, similar to how Undertaker does it, only he flipped over at the end. One of many Shelton spots that would help him cement his name as a MITB MVP during his time with WWE. The Ladder pulls its weight here too, taking a nice bump off a German suplex lol. Benoit starts going crazy (uhhh… yeah) and tries to put as many people as he can in the Crossface, so Kane smashes a ladder onto one of his arms to show him the pain everyone else has been feeling. And thus begins the incredible selling of Benoit’s arm that would become a big part of this match, and a big part of it being great. One of the other big parts is of course Shelton’s great spots, and he keeps them coming. Always great when you can have a ladder match where a lot of the spots actually make sense and shit. Shelton’s numerous risks makes sense for his character in that he’s young and still relatively new to the singles scene (as of the draft the previous year), and being his first singles match at WM and with such high rewards on the line, he is determined to make an impact and do whatever he can to win. Then you have Benoit who keeps taking big bumps, all of which focus on his arm, giving him more and more reason to really sell it and give us the story of Benoit being injured and trying to fight through the pain to win the contract. Benoit is such an awesome seller, he continues to sell the arm WEEKS after WM. And while those two are the big parts of the match, everyone else had something going for them too. Kane is the big powerhouse who can take out everyone in a split second when he needs to, changing the whole match. Christian is the sneaky little heel with Tomko on the outside trying to help him at any given chance. Edge is beginning his ultimate opportunist gimmick and the finish is really where he shines in that sense. Honestly though, Jericho actually seems out of place lol, which is funny considering kayfabe wise he’s the guy who invented this match, so you’d think he’d have a bigger part. So yeah, in the end Edge comes in from out of nowhere, smacks Benoit in his bad arm with a chair and steals the win! Just an incredible match, and definitely the best MITB match ever. Doubt any of the others will beat it. ****1/2.

Eugene randomly shows up returning from injury or something. His music doesn’t play until he’s half way to the ring which kills any kind of pop he might have gotten lol. Muhammad Hassan and Davari show up to talk shit, then HULK HOGAN comes down to a massive, massive pop to make the save. He was inducted into the HOF the day before, hence his appearance.

Match 3 – The Undertaker Vs Randy Orton – The Undertaker was a Legend. Randy Orton was a Legend Killer. He had taken out (aka RKO’d lol) numerous wrestling legends up until this point, and after a mediocre face turn and disappointing WHC run, Orton was looking to redeem himself by defeating one of the biggest Legends of all time at WrestleMania; making him the first and only person to do so. However, The Undertaker is unlike any other Legend that Orton has faced so far, and would not give up so easily… I remember all the internet rumours around this time, all claiming that Orton was indeed going to win, and finally put an end to the Streak. While I have been caught up in The Undertaker’s last 3 WrestleMania matches (23, 24 and 25), this is the one match where I went into it believing that The Undertaker was going to lose. It made the whole situation even more interesting that it already was! ‘Taker gets perhaps his lamest WrestleMania entrance to date, as they try to have him “float” to the ring (aka stand on a moving platform that is hidden by all the smoke :p ). Just looks… lame. Orton’s entrance is more noteworthy at this WrestleMania, even though it is absolutely nothing special. He basically moved down to the ring pretty fast, not running, but not taking his time either. He spent no time in getting into the ring, and was showing no fear. A great way to get Orton over IMO, as simple as it was. Orton gets put over a little more from the very start of the match, as he wins a couple of exchanges against The Undertaker, which frustrates the Dead Man, and causes him to begin to throw those big soup bones. However, Orton keeps himself in the game, nearly hitting an RKO! Nice spot with ‘Taker countering the RKO, throwing Orton out of the ring and into the side of the announcer’s table (which DIDN’T injure Orton’s shoulder, so that’s a big achievement in itself 😛 ). ‘Taker takes his fair share of bumps too though, missing a big boot in the corner and getting caught up in the turnbuckle, then getting dropkicked off the apron into the guardrail. The Undertaker keeps coming back, as we basically expect from his these days in his Dead Man gimmick, but Orton stayed on his level, took punishment from The Undertaker, and constantly put a stop to any momentum the Phenom was building. I can’t even begin to imagine how much bigger this match would have been if Orton didn’t have the face turn in 2004, because he was already getting some major heat in this match, but a lot of people couldn’t forget about that relatively awful face turn that slowed down his growth as a major star. I loved how Orton reversed the Last Ride attempt out of the corner, something that a lot of people are sick of. It showed us that Orton had really done his homework, and came to WrestleMania fully prepared to win. Bob Orton Jr (Randy’s Dad)’s involvement was a nice addition too. Speaking of nice… the Chokeslam reversed into the RKO is one of the most awesome things to happen in an Undertaker WrestleMania match. Watching live, I truly believed that the match was over right there, but somehow the Dead Man kicked out! Orton signals for a Tombstone, since his own finisher didn’t work. The Undertaker reversed it into a Tombstone of his own, and is able to pick up the win in his hardest fought victory since his WrestleMania 14 match with Kane! 13-0 now, and this is his best WrestleMania match so far. A great back and forth contest for the most part, with Orton looking better than ever during the whole thing. This was also the best The Undertaker had looked for a couple of years too, and I’m not sure if he could have looked as good as he did if he was in there with that many people, but Randy was one of those guys. Looking back on the match, if Orton had won and ended the Streak, I would have been fine with it. Orton looked like gold, and at the time he was pretty great both in the ring and as a character, unlike now where he bores me to death :P. ****1/4.

Match 4 – Trish Stratus Vs Christy Hemme – NO.

Match 5 – Shawn Michaels Vs Kurt Angle – Man, just look at this WM. 5 matches, and we’ve had the awesome MITB ladder match, Undertaker Vs Orton and now this? If only Eddie/Rey delivered, this would be one awesome start to a show. Hell it still is an awesome start to a show lol, but could have been even better. Ok, so I’m not the biggest fan of Kurt Angle. He does far too much shit that annoys me more than anything when I watch him wrestle. But even I call this a dream match. I wanted it to happen just as much as anyone else. And while I don’t (could change as I watch it here) consider it to be the greatest match of all time or anything, I do really love it, so I am absolutely looking forward to watching this! HBK starts things off with a slap to Angle’s face, and all this does is piss Angle off who starts to mat wrestle HBK and show him up. So HBK responds by taking the match to the mat too, locking in a headlock that seems to take Angle off his game a little as it’s not the kind of thing you’d expect HBK to do, especially against a guy like Kurt. A lot of people have a problem with this, and well, I do kinda get it in the sense that they do the headlock stuff for a little too long. Ok, so HBK locks in a headlock and takes Angle off his game because he isn’t expecting this approach. But then once Angle settled down and shit, being the Olympic Gold Medallist and shit, shouldn’t he have just been able to tear HBK apart and escape something as simple as a headlock? Once they get passed the headlock part though, things definitely get better. Shawn continues to surprise Kurt by having more of a mat based game, this time applying different holds to keep Angle at bay, all the while Angle is still able to provide counters and reversals to show us that he IS the better mat based wrestler. With HBK frustrating Angle, Angle decides to try and turn this into a brawl and they begin to exchange rights and lefts in the corner and from here the match goes to another level. ANGLE SLAM INTO THE RINGPOST. Was supposed to go back first into it, but was more of his leg than anything else, but the story of the match is the back stuff so we know what they wanted to do, not worth hating on the match because it wasn’t executed perfectly lol. The back work works well on a couple of levels, as HBK has the history of back problems thus “weakening” his back, and a great deal of Angle’s offence involves suplexes which target the back, and of course Angle’s finisher, the Angle Slam, targets the back too. So we have Angle having a REASON to hit so many suplexes, and HBK being able to sell his back and show his pain etc which he is great at… until he kips up lol. No matter what Angle does to HBK, this is WrestleMania and the self proclaimed Mr WrestleMania has even more will to win and resilience at this event than any other. He begins to make his big comeback following a huge moonsault on the outside. He does his 5 moves of doom sequence, tunes up the band… only for Angle to catch him in the Ankle Lock! Fuck me, I’ve actually heard people complain about this too. Oh he didn’t go after the leg/ankle before this point so why is he trying to win with the submission now? Uhhh… maybe because it was the best way to counter the superkick? What should he have done, grabbed the leg of Shawn, then let go of it to attempt an Angle Slam that Shawn could have countered far easier than he could have potentially countered the Ankle Lock? Morons. The Ankle Lock doesn’t work as Shawn makes it to the ropes, so what does Angle do? Attempts an Angle Slam this time! And what happens? Shawn counters. Another Ankle Lock attempt as it was more effective before, but Shawn is able to see it coming this time and counters, only to be hit with the Angle Slam! All of this sequence actually makes sense to me in a kind of “realistic” way with Angle simply going for what is easiest to do in that situation, then when it doesn’t work he goes for something else. Speaking of, HBK kicks out of the Angle Slam, so Kurt has to resort to drastic measures with a moonsault of his own! HBK moves, Angle crashes and burns. And now something in the match that does kinda bug me. Angle hits an Angle Slam off the ropes. His finishing move. From the ropes. A SUPER Angle Slam. Which sends HBK crashing down back first. His injured back. And it doesn’t end the match. That’s where things go into “overkill” territory for me. But things are made up for when Angle just grabs Shawn and starts talking trash because he had the audacity to kick out, and Shawn responds with Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere! My favourite part of the match haha. HBK is far too hurt to make a cover straight away, so when he does Angle can kick out. Both men are hurting bad and stay on the mat for a little while before Angle gains almost a second wind as quick as a flash locks in another Ankle Lock! Shawn refuses to tap out at WM, but Angle applies a grapevine with the Ankle Lock, and Shawn can’t do a damn thing, and eventually has to give up and tap out. Wow, I actually liked this more than my last watch. First time I saw it I thought it was incredible and ****3/4. Then I watched it again and it went to ****1/4 which is still a superb rating, but I didn’t think it was THAT great. Watched it again a while back for a top 100 matches poll and while I kept my rating, I liked it more. This time around I actually liked it even more. Not as much as the first time, but certainly enough to up my rating! ****1/2.

Piper’s Pit time! He went into the HOF the night before. His guest? Steve Austin. Love them slapping each other rather than shaking hands. Perfect given who they are. Then Carlito shows up to ruin it. Bah.

Match 6 – The Big Show Vs Akebono – A sumo match. NO.

Match 7 – John Bradshaw Layfield Vs John Cena – WWE Title time. JBL has held the belt for 10 months now. The longest reigning WWE title run since Diesel in 1995. And here comes the up and coming, hugely popular John Cena to try and end the 10 month reign. This match in a few words: JBL dominates, Cena makes a very short superman comeback and wins out of nowhere. And that’s the end of this historic 10 month title reign. Yey. Bullshit. DUD.

Match 8 – Triple H Vs Batista – Oh man was the build up to this match awesome or what? We have the whole Evolution stuff, then Orton being kicked out and from there we had a ton of tension in the background between HHH and Batista that was played up on brilliantly. They did a nice slow burn face turn for Batista, and when he finally Powerbombed HHH through the table and announced he was facing HHH at WM, the crowd fucking erupted and he became one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. Once again, despite being the heel, HHH gets his theme music played live to the ring lol. Always feels weird to me when the heel gets that treatment. But who am I to complain? It’s fucking MOTORHEAD so it’s all good. Not the shite we’ve had in recent years (WM 28 being a huge and terribly shitty example of some of the worst live music from some god awful “singers” to ever be performed at a wrestling event). So the slow burn build up for this match was incredible… and then it all goes downhill for the match lol. The main problem with this match is time. It just seems to last FOREVER. 21 minutes for a Batista match should not happen lol. Make it around 12 minutes long and this probably could have been really good, but all the good stuff (and there IS a lot of good here) is overshadowed by the overly long parts that really bore the shit out of me. Not exactly what a WM main event should be imo. Batista was far too green still to work a match this long. Still, better than the WWE title match lol. **1/2.

Where it all begins again… except that saying didn’t really mean a damn thing lol.

Match 1 – The Big Show Vs John Cena – Cena’s first ever WM! Yey woo exciting right? And his opponent is the US champion The Big Show, someone who Cena would face again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again over and over and over and over and over for the rest of time in a bunch of really fucking shitty, dull, boring predictable matches. BUT THIS WAS THE FIRST I THINK SO YEY. First singles between them anyway. They’d had interactions since Survivor Series when Cena turned face and joined Team Angle (or Benoit? One of the two…) over Team Lesnar which Show was a part of. Some RR stuff too, then a triple threat at No Way Out to determine the #1 contender for the WWE Title (won by Angle). But possibly their first singles match, or at least their first big singles match. Being so early still in his career, Cena IS viewed as the genuine underdog here, so the Giant Vs Puny Man structure works really nice here, especially at the time because you could believe that Cena could just as easily lose the match rather than win no matter what. Plus Cena isn’t the face of the company so he was able to look more vulnerable and he didn’t have his Super Cena comeback yet. Show throws Cena around, slams him down, crushes him with all his weight, while Cena keeps trying to fight back at all costs only to end up getting swatted down again by the giant US champ. COBRA CLUTCH by Big Show! F-U to Big Show… and BIG SHOW KICKS OUT!!! Cena is shocked, what is he going to use now to beat the giant? Deck him with a chain of course! He teases it, but the referee makes him take it off. While the ref is seeing to that, Cena decks Show with… uhhh… word life knucks or something lol, then follows it up with another F-U and Cena becomes the US champ! This was pretty good. ***.

Match 2 – La Resistance Vs Booker T & RVD Vs Jindrak & Cade Vs The Dudley Boys – The first of 2 four way tag title matches… because WWE wanted EVERYONE on the card for WM 20 is seems lol. Urgh, the shitty mashup theme for Booker and RVD is as shitty as they are at wrestling and tag champs. Yeah, Booker and RVD are the tag champs going into this match. 9 years later and Booker T is getting inducted into the HOF in the same arena. I hope Shield attack him on his way out to the stage. INJUSTICE that such a shitty fucking wrestler is being inducted. This match… happens. Guys do moves. Giant NOTHING match if I ever saw one. Booker and RVD retain the titles. Pointless as fuck. 1/4*.

Coach is sent to find The Undertaker, and ends up stumbling across Mean Gene and Bobby Heenan coming out of a room with Mae Young and Moolah. Heenan being dragged in by Mae screaming “not again, not again, I haven’t been well” and his arm trying to keep the door from shutting is hilarious.

Match 3 – Chris Jericho Vs Christian – Fuck yes. FUCK YES. Love the shit out of this match. LOVE IT. Made me a Christian fan too. Build was great. Christian and Jericho making a bet to see who can get laid first by Trish and Lita, then Jericho falling for Trish for real, Trish finding out, Christian getting jealous because Jericho is spending too much time trying to court Trish than concentrating on their tag team. And then we also have Christian acting like a creepy little bastard hitting on Trish. Just awesome stuff. THIS is how you build to a WM match. Tim White is the referee. I thought he got fucked up in that HIAC match in 2002 and couldn’t referee any more so he killed himself. Repeatedly. On camera. For like a month straight. Ah what do I know. So guess what? This match is still sweeeeet as fuck. Jericho is great early on, looking to HURT Christian and managing to use some of his high flying offence into his HATE~! filled offence too, and does it perfectly. Then the transition spot for Christian to gain control involves a back suplex over the ropes to the outside, and the first camera angle makes it look like Jericho’s head smashed on the apron on the way down. Then they showed another angle and completely ruined it lol. Bastards :P. They eventually bump heads and from there Jericho gets the chance to come back, and we go all out into a back and forth match with both guys doing anything they can to win. Despite splitting from Edge in 2001, Christian was still mostly stuck in tag teams for the next few years so he never really got much of a chance to show how good he can be in singles competition. And when he did get a chance he was stuck in shitty feuds with the likes of Booker T (that awful IC title run they had together in 2003). But it’s great to see Christian step up his game at WM against a guy like Jericho and end up looking like the greatest thing ever, and from here on out Christian would be mainly a singles guy and boy did he ever run with that. Shame WWE never gave him a fair shake, though at least when he returned in 2009 he had the opportunity pretty much every week to look awesome. TRISH shows up looking smoking hot, while Jericho and Christian continue to go back and forth, both now desperate to just get the win before they take much more damage. This is also the night we find out that Trish likes it rough! Christian throws her into the corner, Jericho checks on her but she elbows him in the face “by mistake” and Christian rolls him up for the win! And then is happens… SLAP TO JERICHO! She joins Christian because she likes it rough! ARE YOU TELLING MMMM MMMM ARE YOU TELLING ME CLB HAS GOT THIS BEAUTIFUL WOMEN? The hell happened to JR lol? Match is still awesome. Not quite as awesome as before, but maybe I was just throwing a higher rating on it because most of this show was dire and I loved this so much. ****.

Match 4 – Mick Foley & The Rock Vs Ric Flair, Batista & Randy Orton – Well this still sucks. Yeah, I don’t like it. I’m one of about 6 people in the world who doesn’t seem to like this match. You’ve got a very green Batista, Flair in his old age who isn’t into his crazy old man grove yet, Rock who hasn’t wrestled in a year and doesn’t look good (I swear half of his punches completely miss), Foley who isn’t quite in the shape he wanted to be in (would change that for Backlash), and then Orton who is the best guy in the match who is also somewhat green but not as bad as Batista. Best part of this match is Flair mocking the People’s Elbow. Rock tries to mock Flair’s strut a few times but ends up looking like a retarded robot instead. Orton pins Foley clean with an RKO. Foley is disappointed. Helps build to their Backlash match, but honestly I don’t think it was needed. They should have had their singles match here instead. Ah well, we get another month of them feuding still, though I guess they could have fitted that stuff in before WM if they didn’t bother with The Rock crap. *.

Match 5 – Sable & Torrie Wilson Vs Miss Jackie & Stacy Keibler – NO.

Match 6 – Tajiri Vs Shannon Moore Vs Ultimo Dragon Vs Rey Mysterio Vs Nunzio Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr Vs Billy Kidman Vs Jamie Noble Vs Akia – Dammit, they cut out Dragon’s fall during his entrance on the DVD. I still have the unedited version that I taped back in the day though. So this is a Cruiserweight Open for the CW title. 2 guys start (Dragon and Moore), then when someone gets beat, someone takes their place until someone wins the match overall and is champ. Some decent action, couple of nice spots here and there, nothing more. **.

Match 7 – Goldberg Vs Brock Lesnar – A “dream match” at the time, and boy was everybody disappointed! Both guys were leaving the company after this match, everyone knew it, and they both phoned it in BIG TIME which caused some major resentment from the live crowd. Lol, half of this feud seemed to be between Austin and Lesnar (Austin was the guest ref)… which makes no sense since there was never gonna be a pay off. Guess they just wanted to keep Austin looking good as he was actually staying around a little afterwards. They do fuck all for a great deal of the match. Goldberg wins. Austin stuns both of them. DUD.

Match 8 – Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty Vs The Basham Brothers Vs The Self Proclaimed World’s Greatest Tag Team Vs APA – Damn, what it is with the seemingly random tag champs going into this show? Booker & RVD, and now Rikishi & Scotty? Crazy to see Bradshaw here, knowing that he would be the WWE champion in a few months time, and wouldn’t lose it until WM next year! Yet another pointless match at this event, just like the first 4 way tag titles match. Urgh. Best thing about this match is the final minute or so where Bradshaw just fucking murders EVERYONE before Rikishi pins Danny Basham to retain the tag belts. 3/4*.

Match 9 – Molly Holly Vs Victoria – Women’s title on the line, and the loser gets their head shaved (or just if Molly loses she gets shaved? I dunno. I don’t care). NO.

Match 10 – Eddie Guerrero Vs Kurt Angle – WWE Title time, and Eddie Guerrero is defending! Was awesome to see Eddie with the belt back then. Massive, MASSIVE mark out moment to see him win it at NWO the month before against Lesnar. Sadly I never liked this match. Hell I thought these two had pretty bad chemistry overall, with the exception of their super fun and really good 2 out of 3 falls match on SD. LOL, Molly Holly is still getting shaved on the entrance ramp while this match takes place. Might I just say that the MSG crowd are pretty fucking SHIT at this event. However, the early goings of this match are dull as fuck so I don’t blame them for not caring here. Front headlock. Arm bar. Headlock. YAWN. Angle can’t even do a slow paced match right lol. Eddie eventually ends up injuring his mid section after a failed dive, so Angle works that part over but not in any kind of exciting way. LMAO at Cole complaining that Angle is punching Eddie, shouting that it’s a wrestling match, not a boxing match, yet was likely marking out like a little girl when Rock was punching people earlier in the night. Eddie makes some nice come backs, but completely and utterly ignores the mid section that he hurt and had worked over. What is it with guys going all retarded when they face Kurt Angle? Benoit was the same. They just seem to forget about basic wrestling selling and storytelling. Frog Splash from Guerrero doesn’t end the match, and Angle is able to recover nice and quickly to lock in an Ankle Lock. Eddie looks to be in bad shape and realises that with the Frog Splash not working, he has to lie, cheat and steal his way to victory. He unties his boot to try and help the blood flow to his ankle, and from there Kurt goes for another Ankle Lock, Eddie slips out of the boot, and rolls up Angle for the win! Great finish, but fuck the rest of this match was terrible. *.

Match 11 – The Undertaker Vs Kane – WrestleMania X was where “It All Begins… Again”. Part of that was The Undertaker “beginning again” so to speak, by leaving his American Bad Ass/Big Evil gimmick behind and returning to his roots as the Dead Man. At Survivor Series 2003, The Undertaker faced Vince McMahon in a buried alive match. While Vince got destroyed in the match, it was The Undertaker who ended up 6 feet under… thanks to his own brother Kane! For the next couple of months, Kane would constantly take great pleasure in letting people know that he was the one who killed The Undertaker. Then, at the 2004 Royal Rumble, just when Kane was building momentum… the lights went out and the gong went off. For the next couple of months, Kane would receive many “signs” that his brother was alive and well, and ready to return at WrestleMania to get revenge! There is so much about this match that I love. Firstly, the build up was fantastic. The mind games played by The Undertaker without him even appearing was done so damn well. Then we have the entrances. Kane’s was pretty good, with the whole city background on the stage being on fire. The Undertaker’s was just epic though, even more so than WrestleMania 14. It had a similar set up, with the druids coming out holding torches and creating a pathway. However, this time we were greeted with an “Ohhhh YEEES!” by PAUL FUCKING BEARER, who was also making his return since 2000! WWE really knew how to keep people in suspense with this too, making it the second to last match on the card, and also waiting a little while longer before The Undertaker’s music hit. The pop when he does finally come out is great. How I would have loved to have been in attendance that night, to witness the return, and the entrance, of The Undertaker. I remember reading comments the next day about how everyone hated the way The Undertaker looked when he came back, but the people in attendance didn’t care, and neither did I. The fact he was back, and as the Dead Man, regardless of how much he still technically looked like he did when he was the ABA, overshadowed any of the negatives. Unfortunately, one of those negatives happens to be the actual match lol. Once the return and entrance is over… there isn’t too much to this one. Kane’s character had completely changed since their WrestleMania 14 match 5 years ago, and his in ring abilities had gone downhill too. Plus the booking of the match was more of a squash match, so we didn’t get the incredible brawl that we saw all those years ago. They start off with a pretty decent brawl, then transition into the FIP spot (holy crap, 12 matches in and that’s the first time I have mentioned FIP! :p ). A couple of sloppy moments, but for the most part it’s ok, just extremely basic and forgettable. ‘Taker doesn’t take too much offense from Kane though, as this is a squash match for the most part. The biggest moment for Kane in the match is when he counters Old School into a Chokeslam (after Undertaker tries to counter the Chokeslam with a Chokeslam of his own though lol). Kane thinks he has things in control, until The Undertaker sits up and gets another massive pop. Nothing Kane does has any effect on The Undertaker, which causes Kane to become afraid, and eventually leads to his downfall. Tombstone from The Undertaker, which gets another massive pop, and this one is over. This match really isn’t about the match when I look back on it. It’s just a way to bring back The Undertaker in his Dead Man gimmick, and Kane was a perfect opponent to be fed to him. When I look at it as more than just a wrestling match, I really enjoy this one. His return was epic, his entrance was epic, and the fact he used a Tombstone to finish Kane instead of the Last Ride (which I liked, but got bored of during his ABA/Big Evil run towards the end) was epic. Far, far from being a classic, but overall it isn’t bad. **1/2.

Match 12 – Triple H Vs Shawn Michaels Vs Chris Benoit – At the RR at the start of the year, Chris Benoit won the Rumble match, allowing him to challenge for the title in the main event of WM. During the same event, HHH and HBK had a brutal (and I don’t mean violent…) Last Man Standing match for the WHC which ended in a draw. HBK wanted a rematch, but Chris Benoit jumped from SD to Raw in order to challenge for the WHC at WM! HBK desperately wanted in the match, and found a way when he superkicked Benoit before Benoit could sign the WM match contract. Benoit was still getting the title shot due to the RR win, but now HBK was the main who signed the contract to also get a match. And thus the first ever triple threat match for a major title at WM is made! Kinda crazy to think it took WWE 20 years to give us a triple threat for the title at WM. Then they started throwing them at us over the next few years and none of them came close to this one. Mainly because the story’s going in to them sucked (love triangle with Vickie/Edge/Big Show and then randomly Cena thrown in?). Gotta love how this really does feel like a TRIPLE threat match for quite a while, with all 3 guys going at it without having to have one guy taken out, 2 guys left in the ring, guy on the outside comes back in so another guy goes outside and so on. Then when they do switch to having just 2 guys going at it, the third guy is taken out with something that makes you believe he would stay away for a while, for example HHH getting superkicked. Of course the best example of this is when HHH and HBK both suplex Benoit from one announce table through another, allowing Shawn to have Triple H all to himself. A cool moment… until you realise that it’s another chapter in the HHH Vs HBK story and they’ve been having shitty battles for nearly 2 years now lol. Thankfully the action between them is actually really good here. Both HBK and HHH do some nice blade jobs, putting over how much of a WAR this match is. Benoit makes it back to the match eventually, to break up a pin attempt following a Pedigree. Awesome superkick to Benoit while he has HHH in the Sharpshooter. Crowd really get teased at the end, thinking that HHH might pull out the win when Shawn tunes up the band, goes for Sweet Chin Music only to be sent flying over the ropes by Benoit, who turns around to have HHH waiting to Pedigree him! Luckily Benoit counters into a Crossface, and HHH lasts as long as possible before finally tapping about! Benoit is the new World Champion, for the SECOND TIME. Yeah, WWE really played up on this whole “Benoit never won the title in his 15 year career” or whatever… but he won the title in WCW during his last match lol before coming to WWE. Anyway, still a huge moment. Great build to it from the RR, and the MSG crowd go nuts for him finally doing it. Eddie Guerrero, the WWE champion, comes out to celebrate with his friend. Great moment that will forever be tainted in the eyes of many fans because of what Benoit went on to do. Match is great, and while I’ve never loved it as a ***** match like a lot of people, I’ve still always thought very very highly of it. Now? Well I still think it’s pretty fucking great, just not as much as before. ****1/4.