Category: Written Reviews

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.

I consider this to be the single greatest PPV ever, not just WWF/E, and not just WM. Can it hold up?

Match 1 – Matt Hardy Vs Rey Mysterio – Bossy sprint here for the Cruiserweight title! They get under 6 minutes, and manage to throw in some nice storytelling, a fast pace, great action (all looks nice and smooth too, no botches which is impressive given some of the things they were doing and the speed they did it in) and a screwy finish to get the heel (Matt) some heat and set up to a great rematch (which happened on SD afterwards, and was awesome). They did more in under 6 minutes than most guys could do in 15. Very impressive, and a match I’ve always loved. ***1/2.

Match 2 – The Undertaker Vs The Big Show & A-Train – This was originally scheduled to be a tag team contest, with Nathan Jones as ‘Taker’s tag partner. However, it was decided before the event that Jones wasn’t ready yet, so he was “taken out” during a backstage segment on Heat before the show. The match came about during a feud between The Undertaker and The Big Show. After the HIAC match at No Mercy 2002 between Lesnar and Undertaker, Big Show attacked The Undertaker and threw him off the stage, putting him out of action until the Royal Rumble. At No Way Out, they had a one on one match, and A-Train got involved. Nathan Jones was a new Smackdown superstar, and on TV The Undertaker had taken him under his wing, so he began to help out the Dead Man against the 2 giants. Of course, all of that was pointless anyway, since The Undertaker would go alone against them anyway :p. Big Show and A-Train try to use the numbers game to take the early advantage, but ‘Taker is a wise old veteran and knows exactly what he needs to do. He even manages to hit a Chokeslam in the first minute of the match! A-Train is the victim of the move, and Show prevents the 3 count by pulling him out. Pretty funny hearing A-Train, a monstrous man in his own right, telling Big Show to “get him!” because he was unable to :p. Like I said, The Undertaker knows exactly what he needs to do in this match, so he is trying to end this one as quick as possible. Unfortunately, Show and A-Train are able to get the better of him eventually, and so the beat down of the Dead Man begins. ‘Taker tries to lock in a couple of submission holds in hopes of getting a quick tap out instead of a pin, which can be broken up easier. Show and A-Train decide that a submission victory might be a good idea too, and begin to take turns at locking in an abdominal stretch, cheating in the process. A-Train makes the mistake of getting cocky, and telling ‘Taker that he “ain’t so bad”, and even goes as far as to slap him in the face. This just pisses Big Evil off, and he starts a nice little come back. Show comes in to break up another pin attempt, and ‘Taker has had enough of the constant 2 on 1 attacks, so he just goes punch crazy, and eventually finds himself dominating his 2 opponents! Good fun! Show and A-Train again get the upper hand, with Show hitting his Chokeslam. Before he can go for a cover though, he runs out of the ring to meet Nathan Jones on the rampway! Jones levels Show with an awesome looking spinning kick, and then helps ‘Taker set up A-Train for a Tombstone, and the win! This match is a lot of fun, no doubt about that. It’s a very nicely worked handicap match too, but doesn’t really go beyond the basics of the handicap match formula, which stops it being a better match. That being said, it’s still a good match, and something I can easily sit through any time. **3/4.

Match 3 – Victoria Vs Trish Stratus Vs Jazz – Muuuuch better than last year’s triple threat. The dynamic of two heels and a babyface works better than 2 babyfaces and a heel tbh. As much as I like LITA she is a little sloppy in the ring lol, so with someone like Victoria in her place for this match, there is much less awkward looking spots and shitty looking moves lol. Stevie Richards is on the outside too to add a little to the match. He’s Victoria’s bitch. He ends up smacking himself in the head with a chair and taking a Bulldog from Trish. Victoria runs full speed into a Chick Kick and we gots our self a new women’s champion! Good diva match by WWE standards. **.

Rock cuts a promo. And I watch it. What is going on you think? Well, this happens to be quite possibly the best Rock promo ever. Not saying much I know, but I do really like it.

Match 4 – Team Angle Vs Los Guerreros Vs Rhyno & Chris Benoit – Tag titles time baby! Plenty of talent in this match (and Chavo Guerrero Jr). I liked the team of Benoit and Rhyno, especially for WM. Both guys missed last year’s WM with neck injuries, so it was cool for them to team together at this WM after recovering. Some great hard hitting action in this one, mainly with Eddie and Benoit when they go at it. Man, crazy to think they are both the main champions at the end of next year’s WM! Benoit launching Eddie into the air and catching him in a Crossface is SICK in the most awesome way possible. Rhyno hits quite possibly the best GORES ever during this match, and unfortunately it’s his GORE that ends the match… for the tag champs Team Angle. Huge fan of this. ***3/4.

Match 5 – Chris Jericho Vs Shawn Michaels – HBK’s first WM since 1998! Great story to the match going in, playing on real life, with Jericho having emulated and idolised Shawn growing up and when he first got into the business. But now Jericho wants to be the first Chris Jericho and wants to be bigger and better than HBK ever was. I like that this feud began building as far back as November 2002 (as far as I can remember) with the Elimination Chamber match at Survivor Series. Remember when they would build up feuds for WM over the space of a few months? Instead nowadays we get fatal four way matches 4 weeks before WM to decide who takes on the fucking STREAK. Start of the match is just basic wrestling holds and exchanges. Both are out to prove something here; Jericho wants to prove he’s better, and HBK wants to prove he’s still as good as he ever was. Some fun little things like HBK laying across the ropes to anger Jericho and showing that he can still be a cocky little bastard when he wants to be. Eventually Jericho gets a chance to work over the back of Shawn, and as we all know the back is what kept HBK out of wrestling since WM 14 in 1998. Nothing noteworthy from Jericho in all honesty, but things really start to pick up when Jericho gets cocky from being in control and starts emulating HBK’s move set, which drives HBK to make comebacks and show that he is still the best at doing those particular moves. The longer the match goes, the more HBK begins to feel like his old self, but Jericho seems to have a counter for just about anything Shawn can throw at him, so in the end a good old fashioned roll up finishes off Jericho, and HBK wins one more time at WM! Really good match overall. Some great storytelling and great action, with Jericho putting on a great performance, really having his first big WM match (let’s face it, triple threat at WM 2000 sucked, he was only in a short opener at WM 17, then although he was in the main event last year defending the title, his match was overshadowed to hell and the match blew too). Jericho hugging it out with Shawn at the end then kicking him in the balls was awesome. ****1/4.

GOLDBERG IS COMING! AND SO ARE LOTS OF PERVES WITH THE MILLER LITE CAT FIGHT GIRLS AND TORRIE WILSON AND STACY IN BED. They took the tag titles match off the card for that crap.

Match 6 – Triple H Vs Booker T – WHC match time. Apparently the build up to this was all about race, and how HHH didn’t think a black guy like Booker could be world champ. I swear I never thought any of this was race related back in the day. I just assumed HHH thought what I thought; that Booker shouldn’t be world champion because he’s fucking terrible! That being said, if there was ever a time for Booker to become world champ, it was here and now (maybe we could have been saved from the King Booker crap in 06. Imagine no King Booker as World Champ on SD 06… but instead someone GOOD. Oh god, I love SD 06 as it is, but if they had a great world champ that year? *day dreams about the potential awesomeness of that*). Referee Nick Partrick. Ric Flair on the outside. Booker T in the match. World Heavyweight Title on the line. This screams WCW all over. HHH’s entire 2003 was spent with him sucking 99% of the time and burying any WCW talent he came into contact with lol. Match revolves around Booker T trying to prove to the world and to HHH that he IS worthy of being a world champion. He is constantly fighting back from everything HHH throws at him, never really allowing HHH to get in full control until later in the match. This forces HHH to resort to things he usually wouldn’t do, including coming off the top rope, where Booker counters with a kick (ended up looking kinda like Booker hit a SCM lol). So with Booker T being able to come back and counter everything, Flair has to get involved to cause the unfair advantage. Using the steel steps he injures Booker’s knee, and now HHH can work over the leg and wear down his challenger. GIVE UP YOU DAMN FOOL! Flair on the outside is awesome. Crowd are pretty fucking DEAD for anything HHH does, but absolutely explode when Booker does anything. It’s like they all kinda EXPECTED Booker T to win so they bought into any pin attempt from him. And with how the build up went I guess I can’t blame them, even if I never for a second wanted him to win, or really thought it would (for the reasons that everyone else though he would, anyway). Lawler is awesome on commentary btw (shocking I know, he sucked pretty much since he returned after Survivor Series in 01). His jabs at Booker’s criminal background is awesome. HOUSTON HANGOVER! How many times did Booker do that in WWE? I remember him doing it to Big Show (Vengeance 02?), and then here. Any other times? Booker sells the leg tremendously, which leads into the finish. He tries to capitalise after the Houston Hangover, but just collapses and gets Pedigreed. HHH takes about 20 seconds to cover due to the fact he just took the Houston Hangover, and this one is over. Ask a Booker T fan about that and they’ll claim there was about a minute between the Pedigree and the cover lol. I always liked this match. Great stuff. Booker looked better here than he EVER (and I seriously mean that) did in his entire career. His best match ever not including large multi-man matches (where he was never a major part in those matches getting high ratings). ***3/4.

Match 7 – Vince McMahon Vs Hulk Hogan – Great build to this match, with plenty of genuine personal issues between them. It was a match people wanted to see. And then it happened. And it lasted 20 minutes. And I fucking hated it. BUT I hated Flair/Vince from the 02 RR, then when I watched it for my RR reviews a few months ago, I ended up loving it. Everyone else seems to love this match, so will my opinion change like Flair/Vince? Honestly I hope so because I don’t want to have sat through this only to still hate it lol. Worst spear/double leg take down from Hogan at the start, followed by some awful fucking punches lol. Whole thing is pretty dull until about half way in when Hogan decks McMahon with a chair and proceeds to beat the fuck out of him. LOL, highlight is poor old Hugo Savinovich getting decked with a chair and busted open too, when Vince ducks a chair shot. More chair shots. Both guys bleeding. Leg drop off a ladder through a table. Steel pipe comes out and we get that AWESOME visual of a crazy McMahon with blood pouring down his face as he raises up from the ring apron. PIPER! ROWDY RODDY PIPER!!! FINALLY, SOMETHING TO MAKE THIS MATCH INTERESTING! Teases hitting McMahon with the pipe, but he decks Hogan and we all saw it coming light years away. Hulk up, leg drop, win for Hogan. This is still shite. They could have condensed this into 5 minutes. Start with the chair shots, do the table spot, bring out the pipe, then Piper, then do the finish. 1/2*.

Match 8 – The Rock Vs Steve Austin – Third time at WM. Austin won the last 2 matches, now Rock is back from Hollywood because he has unfinished business. He’s done everything else, now all he has to do is beat Austin at WM before he can fully leave for Hollywood. Video package has Limp Bizkit, and is really good, though not quite on the level of WM 17. Austin is out to destroy Rock right from the start. He doesn’t NEED to beat Rock like Rock NEEDS to beat him, it’s more of a case of he WANTS to beat Rock to prevent Rock from beating him. Some sweet chop blocks from Rock send Austin crashing down, and Rock begins to work over the Rattlesnake. He even pulls out a Sharpshooter, nice call back spot from their previous WM match (or at least it can be viewed that way). Rock is feeling confident now, so he puts on Austin’s vest to add insult to injury, but it just seems to anger Austin. ROCK BOTTOM BY AUSTIN, WHILE ROCK IS WEARING AUSTIN’S VEST. STUNNER BY ROCK WHILE WEARING AUSTIN’S VEST. Match turns into a giant finishing stretch from here, with plenty of finisher kick outs, but unlike a lot of matches these days it makes sense given the story. 3 Rock Bottoms from The Rock is what finally puts Austin down. Just like it took 3 matches at WM for Rock to finally win. All goes back to the great promo Rock cut earlier in the night. “The only thing that matters, everyone remembers… is ACT 3”, and that is what this match is. Act 3. Where Rock finally wins, and does it with 3 Rock Bottoms, but the first two don’t matter because everyone just remembers the final one that puts Austin away. Just a wonderfully simple story told in a great way combined with a great match to begin with. And while we didn’t know it at the time, this would also be Austin’s last match. Should have been Rock’s too tbh, because he didn’t do shit worth mentioning following this. Absolutely nothing he’s done has even come remotely close to being as good as this. I’m a bigger fan of this match than most people, and even on this watch, I’d place it ahead of their WM 17 match. ****1/2.

Match 9 – Kurt Angle Vs Brock Lesnar – The match that almost never happened. Angle’s neck was fucked going into WM, and nobody was sure if the match could happen. Remember the match on SD where they did the Eric Angle switch? Originally they were going to put the title on Lesnar there (fuck knows who would have been his WM opponent). But Angle agreed to wrestle at WM and then go for neck surgery, and thus this match was still able to take place. I was hyped as fuck for this one back in the day. Haven’t seen it in a while either so I’m looking forward to it again. Their SummerSlam match is a ***** match imo, and their Iron Man is probably the best Iron Man match ever (Rude/Steamboat comes close). These two had great chemistry all stemming from their competitive nature due to their amateur wrestling backgrounds. Basic mat stuff in the beginning as both men use their amateur backgrounds to try and gain control and prove who the better WRESTLER is. Ends up being a stalemate so out come the GERMAN’S and Lesnar takes them better than guys half his size. Fucking LOVE the one into the turnbuckle; works perfectly with Lesnar having injured ribs, giving Angle something to focus on. Lesnar is still a fucking BEAST though and keeps fighting back and using his power when he can, but Angle continues to try and wear down his young challenger using those injured ribs to his advantage. Angle tries everything he can to keep Lesnar down, including the deadly Ankle Lock, but nothing is going to derail the next big thing tonight. F-5! Angle kicks out, so Lesnar hits another… but doesn’t go for a cover. Instead Lesnar tries for a WM moment… SHOOTING STAR PRESS! And he lands on his head. OUCH. Great visual, and a crazy moment that will forever be remembered at WM… but damn, in the words of Tazz “HOW IS LESNAR NOT DEAD?”. Lesnar managed to get another F-5 in, and he becomes the new WWE champion! Thought this was mostly really fucking good, but the finish falls flat (on its head…) after the botched SSP unfortunately. Doesn’t affect my opinion on the match too much, but enough to lower my old rating just a little bit. Still, a great main event for WM. ****.

Icon Vs Icon. Flair Vs Undertaker! Oh and Hogan Vs Rock too, but eh, FLAIR VS UNDERTAKER BABY!!!

Match 1 – Rob Van Dam Vs William Regal – Second year in a row where Regal is involved in the opening match with the IC title on the line! Regal is more gritty and nasty in his matches now compared to where he was last year at WM. His series with Edge over the IC title is pretty much where he started being his old self again (everyone check out the Edge PPV matches, Vengeance 01, RR 02 and NWO 02 btw because they are great), and with a guy like RVD he can really get some nice shots in because RVD isn’t exactly a light worker with those kicks of his (he’s known for busting people open with them because he’s not as careful as he should be… ha, just noticed Regal is bleeding from the mouth as I type this out). KNEE TREMBLER makers an appearance, but it isn’t his finisher so it’s not seen as a major move, which is odd because he just ran full speed and smashed his knee into the side of RVD’s head lol. Match is back and forth all the way with both guys hitting some nice stiff shots and getting their signature moves in. Regal countering that unique kick that RVD does when he catches someone’s foot into the awesome half nelson suplex that Regal is known for makes me giddy as fuck. At the start of the match Regal goes for brass knucks, but RVD kicks them out of his hands. After the suplex Regal picks them up off the floor, the ref catches him and takes them away, so he pulls out another pair and… gets kicked in the face. 5 Star Frog Splash and RVD wins the IC title. Bah. Shitty result, good match. ***.

Match 2 – Christian Vs DDP – European title match time! Match was only made on Raw the week before WM lol, but they had a backstory so it’s all good. Basically, Christian was on a losing streak and would have tantrums in the ring. DDP, being the positive person he is, helped Christian to overcome his tantrums and losing streak! Christian won a match on Raw, DDP was happy for him, then Christian turned on him because he didn’t need him anymore! Even in 2002 DDP was helping people! This match is so much fun. Great back and forth match, with some fun spots. Loved when DDP went to punch Christian, do Christian ducked, only for DDP to get him in the powerbomb position and hit the spinning sit out powerbomb! DIAMOND CUTTER! DDP retains the title, then gets on the mic and makes Christian feel so bad he has another tantrum. LOL. I like this a lot. ***.

Match 3 – Goldust Vs Maven – Hardcore title match! Maven is the champion after beating THE UNDERTAKER (with help from The Rock during the build to their NWO match). Starts off good, with Goldust really laying it in to Maven, and Maven taking a few nice bumps. Then they get into the ring and have a couple of hilariously botched spots with the trash cans. GOLD SHOVEL! Remember folks, before HHH was burying everyone in sight, Goldust was doing it in style! The 24/7 rule is of course in full effect, and Spike Dudley shows up and steals the title! Crash chases him to the back, and throughout the night we get a bunch of mini-matches for the title, with Maven winning it back at the end of the night. Fun while it lasted. *.

Match 4 – Kurt Angle Vs Kane – This match is happening because… uhhh… I can’t for the life of me remember. And there isn’t a video package to help me lol. I actually remember not knowing why it was happening back in 2002 as well lol. Something about Kane having a head injury is mentioned so that’s… about the only backstory I got lol. Angle takes advantage of it by nailing Kane with the ring bell before the match can start (because hey, the bell can’t be rung haha!). Kane being the monster that he is, manages to shake off the effects of the ring bell, but Angle is relentless and won’t give Kane a moment to rest. Cool to see someone like Kane get overhead belly to belly suplexed. Some good stuff in this match no doubt, and it’s far from bad, but damn, it’s such a throwaway match, which is a shame because Angle had probably his career year in 2001 in terms of character, popularity and matches. Finish is absolutely shit as well lol. Could have been so much more tbh. **3/4.

Match 5 – The Undertaker Vs Ric Flair – Fuck yes. THIS is the match that needs to be seen at WM 18. Hogan/Rock was built up as the big important “Icon Vs Icon” match, but this match to me was easily the bigger match. Screw Icon Vs Icon, this is LEGEND VS LEGEND. Two of the greatest of all time. Build up for this match was awesome as well. Rock/Hogan’s was… well shit, but this was tremendous. We’ve got ARN ANDERSON, David Flair getting his arse kicked, Flair punching a fan and getting arrested, Flair giving up his 50% ownership (temporarily) just so the board will grant his request for the match. Just awesome stuff. Not only that, but this whole thing all really began the brand split too (which was a great idea at the time, when they actually gave a shit about the brand split). This match is just an all out brawl. Normally I would get bored with long brawls, but these 2 kept me interested all the way. I don’t get why they made such a huge thing about Hogan/Rock finally wrestling at this event, when The Undertaker/Flair is just as big. Flair is one of, if not the biggest legend in wrestling, and The Undertaker had been a HUGE star in WWF for just over 11 years at this point. To me, this match was way bigger than Hogan/Rock, but of course WWF don’t think so, which is why it was build up completely different to Hogan/Rock. Most of the match is just The Undertaker beating the living hell out of Flair, with punches, kicks, and a huge superplex. It wasn’t like a normal superplex, where they are only on the second rope, but it was a top rope superplex, which is impressive on its own, but even more impressive when it’s done by a near 7 footer and a 50 year old man with back problems. Flair eventually makes a comeback, and starts to beat the hell out of ‘Taker with a led pipe. The Undertaker doesn’t really sell the Led Pipe shots too well, as he pretty much recovers straight away, but Flair still manages to stay in control. Figure Four applied by Flair, and The Undertaker falls back down and is pinned for a 2 count. He then sits up, and Flair is shocked. The Undertaker grabs Flair by the throat, stands up and Chokeslams Flair for a 2 count only! Great stuff! For some reason The Undertaker attacks the ref (in a no DQ match…), but before he can hit Flair with the led pipe, Arn Anderson appears and hits his trademark Spinebuster! Huge pop for that, which only gets Flair a 2 count. The Undertaker then proceeds to beat down Arn, until Flair makes the save with a chair. The Undertaker takes the chair shots, then knocks down Flair, and sets him up for the Last Ride. He doesn’t seem to be able to get Flair up, so he hits a Tombstone instead. 1..2..3. The Undertaker is now 10-0 at WrestleMania! This is just one of the many amazing matches The Undertaker would have in 2002. This is also up there as one of his absolute best WrestleMania matches as well! This was also Flair’s best match in probably 5 years, and for The Undertaker to be able to do that is quite an achievement considering that Flair had confidence issues with his abilities thanks to WCW. ‘Taker’s WrestleMania match the year before might have been a perfect example of an Attitude Era brawl, but this was a perfect example of a brawl, period! ****1/4.

Match 6 – Edge Vs Booker T – The feud that started over a shampoo commercial in Japan. And it resulted in a match at WRESTLEMANIA. My head hurts just typing that. It’s amazing how little interest I have in watching this. So fuck it, I ain’t gonna. NO.

Match 7 – Steve Austin Vs Scott Hall – Whole build up to this was weird and stupid as hell. Austin gets attacked by the NWO a couple of times… so they he kidnaps Hall and beats the shit out of him and whatnot… and somehow this leads to a match. Uhhh… why? Austin got his revenge, right? Made Hall look like a bitch too. Not good. Austin was just coming off his incredible 2001 run, but was really burnt out from it now and unfortunately he isn’t on the same level any more. Hall unfortunately was never the same after he left the WWF in 1996. He was making more money and having to work less, giving him more time to give in to his demons (hopefully his time with DDP can help him out, it’s doing wonders for Jake Roberts so far!!!). So 2002 Hall Vs 2002 Austin really isn’t the “dream” match it could be. 1997 (pre-neck injury) or 2001 Austin Vs 1995 Scott Hall (Razor Gimmick) would certainly have been a match I’d have paid to see. This isn’t AWFUL or anything though, don’t get me wrong. They do the best they can given their own personal situations at the time, it’s just really hard to look past the fact that it could have been so much better. Hell, even if Hall came in 2001 for the Invasion and worked Austin it probably would have been 10x better. Anyway, enough of thinking about how much better it could have been lol, I should just concentrate and enjoy what they ARE doing. Hall is a favourite of mine, going back to his Razor days, and while I was never a big fan of Austin, his 96/97/01 stuff is enough to sway me to like him. Nash is on the outside, and keeps getting involved. Strange that they didn’t place Nash in this match tbh, because he looked to have been in better shape (though he might have torn his quad sooner this way lol). Best thing this match has going for it in all honesty is the punches. Both guys throw some great right hands, and love to throw them often. Oh and Hall bumps off the Stunner awesomely. Screw that fake bouncy shit Rock does, Hall is the man when it comes to Stunner sells. Oh and Angle too, always liked how he did it. Ref gets taken out, and Hall ends up getting multiple stunners, Nash gets ones too, but then the second ref gets taken out. They tease the Outsiders/Razors Edge, and the place fucking comes unglued. But it was near the ropes, and dammit, I have whenever anyone goes for a move that is set up in the powerbomb position near the ropes, because 100% of the time someone is going over the damn ropes. Fucking hate that spot. Especially because it means we don’t get the move, and dammit, I want a Razors Edge at WM! Stunner by Hall! 2 Stunners to Hall! Second one was awesome. Austin wins. Match is… well not good really. Which is a shame because I so wanted it to be. Even taking out of consideration what they could have done at different times etc, it isn’t good. *.

Match 8 – The Dudley Boys Vs The Hardy Boys Vs APA Vs Billy & Chuck – 4 corners elimination tag team titles match! People complain about the recent musical performances at WM… fuck, this needs to be bitched about at the same time too lol. A bunch of shitty bands who have done about 4 songs up to this point. APA tear shit up at the start of this match. Man, I don’t think any of these teams aside from Billy and Chuck are even together by the next PPV thanks to the draft. So yeah, APA are just beating the fuck out of anyone and everyone in the beginning of this match. Billy and Chuck, Dudley Boys (Hardy Boys are too scared). Fucking sweet Clothesline from Hell to Billy who turns inside out and then some, but he isn’t the legal man. 3-D to Bradshaw and fuck, APA are gone. Bah. Hardy Boys and Dudley Boys have their long history so it’s cool to see them go at at. Oh fuck, Stacy shows her ass, gets spanked and kissed, allong Bubba to recover and with the help of Billy, hits a doomsday device on Jeff! Match essentially turns into a Hardy’s Vs Dudley’s match, so it’s pretty good. Weird, disjointed counter sequence into a reverse DDT that allows Jeff to tag out. Dudley’s got for the WAAASSSUP headbutt, but Billy shoves D-Von off the ropes and he lands through a table that was set up earlier! Dudley’s are gone! Billy & Chuck Vs Hardy Boys part if pretty much just one big finishing stretch rather than slowing down and going into a normal tag match, and it’s a lot of fun. Billy & Chuck retain the belts. I really like this match, never hear anything about it so I’m assuming it’s also underrated too lol. ***.

Remember how I said the hardcore title gets changed a bunch of times throughout the night? Well, the highlight happens here when Molly Holly who decked Hurricane Helms with a frying pan and won the title, gets smacked in the face with a door… by CHRISTIAN. Awesome. Creepy little bastard that he is! Shame he doesn’t keep it.

Match 9 – Hulk Hogan Vs The Rock – Man, on paper, this looked absolutely utter SHITE to me lol. But I was extremely surprised with just how good this turned out. Expecting it to hold up all the way. Besides, how can I NOT love a match where Rock is a babyface and gets BOOED out of the building?! Another bad build up involving the NWO and WM 18. The whole truck being smashed into the ambulance with Rock inside was fucking retarded. Like I already said, Flair/Undertaker build up blows this out of the water. Sure, that match wasn’t build up to be as BIG as this match, but it ended up looking bigger and better through the build lol. Fuck me this crowd is awesome. Hogan does nothing more than shove Rock into the corner and pose, and they absolutely EXPLODE. YOU AIN’T NUFFIN, MEATBALL. Oh man, Hogan with the THUNDERLIPS trash talk. Great to see The Rock slowly getting pissed off at the people for booing the hell out of him, while cheering like crazy for Hogan despite all the heel stuff he’s doing. Raking his back, low blow, using the belt to whip him… yet when Rock returns the favour they absolutely shit on him! Rock Bottom and a Leg Drop from Hogan isn’t enough to keep Rock down, but 3 Rock Bottoms and a People’s Elbow end the match and give Rock the win. Fun finishing stretch for sure. Rest of the match is ok, made better by an incredible crowd. Honestly though… I didn’t think as much of the match as I used to lol. Still really good for what it is, but I wasn’t quite feeling it like I used to. ***.

Match 10 – Jazz Vs Trish Stratus Vs Lita – Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad lol! LITA and TRISH! Yey! Fast pace or this match with plenty of moves being thrown about, and a lot of stiff sounding shots too lol. Oh and some usual awkward spots that we get in diva matches when they try things that, well, only the guys should be doing in all honestly. Lita teases taking off her top but then doesn’t, so -***** for that. Not really sure what to make of this one. It’s weird. *.

Match 11 – Chris Jericho Vs Triple H – Wanna talk about shit builds for matches at this event? Look no further than this. HHH Vs Stephanie is pretty much the build up. Jericho is Stephanie’s bitch, cleaning up dog shit and whatnot. But Jericho is the champion so he has to be the one to wrestling HHH lol. Instead of leaving Stephanie out of it (though her tits do fall out of her top later in this match…) and having HHH Vs Jericho for the title, building on the fact HHH injured his quad in that tag match involving Jericho, and Jericho still locked in the Walls after he tore it and whatnot… they do the whole Stephanie Vs HHH with them breaking up bullshit. Urgh. At least during the match they use the story of the leg injury and shit, with Jericho going after the leg. It’s smart and shit, but fuck is it DULL. When it comes to HHH Vs Jericho, HHH should always be the heel and Jericho the face. Really doesn’t work the other way around imo. PEDIGREE TO STEPH. And her tits can’t stay in her top too well. LOL. Pedigree to Jericho, new champ. Yawn. **.

Widely regarded as THE greatest WM event ever. I’m not one of those people who think that though. However, it IS a good (great even) event and a ton of fun to watch still. And with my original version of the show (ebay + people who don’t know how rare something is = happy Cal) allows me to watch it completely unedited and WITH the My Way song.

Match 1 – Chris Jericho Vs William Regal – IC title match. Jericho pissed in Regal’s tea, so Regal got pissed and is now trying to murder Jericho. Regal is also the commissioner. He was awesome back then as a character but wasn’t quite into his grove as the deadly gritty bastard that he used to be and would be again soon enough. I WILL MAKE CHRIS JERICHO FEEL HE’S BEEN HACKED UP WITH A BLOODY HATCHET. Gotta throw that line in their from a Regal promo that is part of the video package for this match. Regal hits some fucking awesome and unique throws/suplexes here. One of my fav things about the guy, along with his disregard for other people allowing him to just murder them with awesome uppercuts and forearms. Shame he was watered down for the first year in WWF. Regal reversing the Walls of Jericho into the Regal Stretch is sweeeet. Regal really is the best thing in this match, but that isn’t saying Jericho is useless or bad, just that Regal is awesome as fuck. Finish kinda feels flat, with Jericho getting the Lionsault and the win out of nowhere essentially. But aside from that, this is a good and fun opener. Regal rocks. **3/4.

Match 2 – APA & Tazz Vs Right to Censor – God I fucking hate the RTC. They were awesome heels lol. Their entrance music makes me want to strangle them. LMAO Tazz is so small he almost falls through the ropes instead of bouncing off the top rope! Tazz takes a bit of a beating, tag to Bradshaw and then this one turns into a nice chaotic brawl with everyone getting involved. Some BIG fucking bumps from big guys like Goodfather and Bradshaw, then a nice big Clothesline from Hell and this is over. Short and sweet, RTC lose at WM, people are happy. *3/4.

Match 3 – Raven Vs The Big Show Vs Kane – Triple threat match for the hardcore title! Absolute destruction in this one. Awesome. ONE MIGHT SAY THAT RAVEN WANTS TO CRACK KANE’S CRANIUM. ONE MIGHT SAY THAT I JUST SAW RAVEN’S HEAD GO THROUGH A WALL! Raven’s head literally puts a hole in a wall. Awesome. LMAO at Show trying to padlock off an area to keep Raven to himself. Kane breaks the lock in about 2 seconds. Should have saved a spare one for Mark Henry all those years later in that cage match. RAVEN THROUGH A GLASS WINDOW. KANE AND BIG SHOW THROUGH A DOOR. KANE AND SHOW THROUGH THE WALL. Then Raven just shows up through a door and attacks them both lol. GOLF CART CHASE! They crash and nearly take out the power to the arena. LMAO Kane driving a Golf Cart with a referee in the back. A billion stars just for that. Raven gets run over too. Awesome. Nice big spot from the stage to end this one, and Kane becomes the new Hardcore champion! Boat loads of fun and awesome spots. FUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUN. ***.

Match 4 – Eddie Guerrero Vs Test – European championship match time! Saturn has the most awesome hat ever. Match starts off fast, Eddie trying to use his speed but Test just bounces him around and looks to be in firm control, until he gets his leg caught up in the ropes. Eddie targets the leg, but Test doesn’t give a fuck and even holds all of Eddie’s weight on his back while also IN A SLEEPER and somehow his leg doesn’t bother him. Sweet tilt-a-whirl into a POWERBOMB by Test though. That’ll redeem his shitty selling. Low blow behind the ref’s back, then Saturn comes in for a swinging neck breaker, but Test ain’t giving up that prestigious European title so easily! Malenko comes down to get involved, and Eddie decks Test with the title belt for the win! This was ok. Short match, nothing much to it, but fun enough. **.

Match 5 – Kurt Angle Vs Chris Benoit – Big fan of the opening part of this match. Both guys are absolutely determined to lock in their submission hold, and end up exchanging holds on the mat as both men are desperate for control and trying to make their opponent tap. Despite being the Olympic Gold Medallist, Angle is unable to out-wrestle Benoit, so BAM. Right hand decks the Crippler, and this one turns into a fight. Benoit wasn’t expecting it, allowing Angle to really work over Benoit. But Benoit is a tough bastard and won’t stay down for long, so this match soon becomes and back and forth affair with both men again going for a submission victory, and I quite liked a lot of the counters both men came up with for them too. Angle taps out, but the ref is hurt and doesn’t see it. Since he now knows he can indeed lose this match via submission, he decides to go for a pin win instead, as that might be safer. Some finisher kick outs… then a boring roll up and Angle wins. You know I liked a lot about this match. It was good, it really was… but I didn’t get that “epic” feeling from it that I used to back in the day. Felt like it was missing something and I have no idea what it is. Still good and I still like it, but nothing more. ***1/4.

Match 6 – Ivory Vs Chyna – NO.

Match 7 – Vince McMahon Vs Shane McMahon – Father Vs Son Street Fight. Owner of WWF Vs Owner of WCW. Mick Foley as special guest referee. Foley was originally supposed to be Vince’s opponent, but personal issues between them prevented them from getting it done. Real shame, especially since they never had a true end to their angle in December when Vince fired him. But ah well, this was a ton of fun on last watch. Apparently WCW guys were supposed to get involved too, but one of them (Stasiak?) leaked it in an interview and they ended up watching the show instead (not a bad punishment, but of course the others would no doubt have preferred to have been involved in the show rather than just watching it). This match really has a bunch of angles all thrown together. Foley and Vince. WCW and WWF. Shane and Vince. Stephanie and Trish. Vince and Linda. And to WWF’s credit, they all get some sort of conclusion here, except for the WWF vs WCW one as that was obviously only just beginning with this match. So here we have 2 non wrestlers, the owner and son of the owner of the company, beating the hell out of each other and taking risk after risk after risk. Must be great for the boys in the back to watch their boss and his son do all this shit when they really, REALLY don’t have to do anything. Then again some of the boys might hate it because they are outshining them in every bloody way lol. TRISH SLAPS VINCE! TRISH TURNS FACE! TRISH AND STEPHANIE CAT FIGHT! Vince after being slapped looking up and seeing his wife is awesome. He looks absolutely fucking disgusted and mouths “you BITCH” to her lol. Foley makes sure Vince doesn’t do anything, but then gets cracked in the head by a steel chair and Vince throws his sedated wife (long story lol) into the ring to watch him beat the hell out of their son. Man, what a fucking pop for Linda STANDING UP. Low blow ever to Vince, then Foley gets back involved. Awesome coast to coast to Vince with a trash can in his face, and Shane picks up the big win in a superawesomemegafun match. ***.

Match 8 – The Hardy Boys Vs The Dudley Boys Vs Edge & Christian – This one is TLC II! Triangle Ladder match at WM last year involved tables. Then E&C began making chairs their signature weapon, so we got the first ever TLC match at SummerSlam. Rematch-a-Mania right here! In fact, a few rematches her. This happened last year at WM and again at SS. Ivory Vs Chyna happened at the RR. Austin Vs Rock was the main event of WM 15. BOOO THIS EVENT SUCKS! LOL. LMAO at when D-Von goes for a table. He goes outside, looks at a table that’s already set up. Grabs it. Lets go of it. Goes under the ring. Doesn’t see any so he grabs the original table and decides to use that. And then FOR NO REASON AT ALL HONEST they set up 4 tables on the outside. Oh man, Christian takes on hell of a bump off a ladder to the outside. I think like everyone else, he was supposed to get caught on the ropes… but he cleared then completely and… nope, the replay shows he was clearly always aiming for the floor. NOT AS IMPRESSIVE NOW. Spike, Rhyno and LITA LITA LITA LITA LITA all get involved for their respective teams. Cool to see D-Von and Christian both handing from the belts and battling after the ladder got taken out from under them. LOL at Jeff trying to use the ladders as stepping stones, only for them to fall. We get the big Spear from Edge off the ladder to Jeff who ends up hanging from the titles. Looked impressive, but we’d seen it before (the often forgotten tag ladder match between E&C and the Hardy Boys on Raw in 2000. I think it made it to the second ladder match set though, so there are no excuses people!). Remember those 4 tables from earlier? Well they actually were set up for a reason OMG! Only good thing about that spot is that they used the giant ladder for it, so they could set the ladder up in the middle of the ring rather than the stupidly obvious (and utterly retarded) placement of the ladder near the ropes. With the help of Rhyno, E&C win the tag titles at WM 2 years in a row! This is good, but not great tbh. Last year’s triangle ladder match blows it away imo, and the first TLC is a big step above this too. And we’d get an even better TLC match on SD in a month too. ***1/2.

Match 9 – Gimmick Battle Royal – Heenan and Mean Gene commentating on this one! LOL, they take up 10 minutes just with introductions for this one. Though half of that is waiting for the Iron Sheik to actually make it down the ramp. Haha, Heenan calls Mean Gene Tony. Best part of this match tbh is the commentary between Heenan and Mean Gene as everyone makes their entrances. Match is garbage, but dammit, some great nostalgia watching these guys. Pretty funny that Jim Cornette is probably in better shape than 90% of the wrestlers involved in this. ONE MAN GANG. Actually just watched a WCW match of his earlier today. Against the SUPER GIANT NINJA. It was terrible. And OMG was the US champion. In 1996. I wonder why they had Tugboat as… Tugboat rather than Typhoon. I WANTED A NATURAL DISASTERS REUINION DAMMIT. Lol, the entrances last twice as long as the match. Rumour has it that the Sheik only won because he wasn’t physically able to take a bump over the ropes lol. I enjoy this, screw the haters! *.

Match 10 – The Undertaker Vs Triple H – Poor Undertaker. His WrestleMania match in 1999 was so bad, he had to take some time off, and even considered retirement… Ok, so that’s not exactly true, but for a man like The Undertaker, having a match as bad as the HIAC with Boss Man can’t be good for him :p. In late 1999, The Undertaker took some time off to heal from an injury (I want to say elbow… but I’m not sure). I’ve read rumours that he was supposed to be back in time for WrestleMania 2000, but in February that year, he suffered a groin injury and his return was postponed. I don’t know if any of that is true, since it came from the internet :p. In The Undertaker’s absence, Triple H had emerged as a huge star, and was the top heel in the company at this point. ‘Taker had always claimed the ring as “his yard”, and HHH was now claiming that The Undertaker’s “yard” was right in the middle of HIS world. Naturally, they would want to find out who really ruled the ring, so we got a WrestleMania match out of it. I really enjoyed the whole build up for this match, with Stephanie getting a restraining order on The Undertaker, Kane helping out, and HHH just being his awesome 00-01 badass self. Even though this WrestleMania was in Houston Texas, the home town of The Undertaker, Triple H (the HEEL), got his entrance music played live by Motorhead. No idea why they decided on that, other than HHH probably wanted it to happen because he is a huge fan of Motorhead lol. Doesn’t bother me though, I like Motorhead too :p. WrestleMania 17 is often considered to be the best WrestleMania, and even the best PPV of all time. I disagree with that, but I will agree with the people who say this is the defining Attitude Era PPV. Everything on this PPV, aside from the Gimmick Battle Royal (LOL), just screams Attitude Era, and this match is right up there as one of the biggest Attitude Era style matches of the night. The match starts, and it begins as nothing more than a brawl, which is all this match would turn out to be. However, in this case it is FAR from being a bad thing. The feud had become personal, so it made sense for them to brawl, especially The Undertaker as that was his main style during this time period. The Undertaker dominates the early minutes of the match, until HHH slows things down with simple but effective wrestling moves. Triple H has ‘Taker down, and as soon as he does, he goes out for the sledgehammer! Just as he is about to level the Dead Man with it, the referee takes it away! Pedigree attempt is reversed, and the referee takes his first bump of the night. Huge Chokeslam from The Undertaker, but Triple H kicks out! ‘Taker is pissed off, and attacks the referee (who would not move for about 10 minutes now :p )! Now the match starts to heat up, and we get one of the better Attitude Era brawls. They end up in the crowd, and work their way to a structure set up by WWE to hold technical equipment and cameras. It has multiple levels, and they keep climbing to the top level, where The Undertaker Chokeslams Triple H to hell! Well, if hell was a nice soft mat, then he was indeed Chokeslammed to hell :p. The angle we saw on the PPV looked cool though, until they started to show replays where you could see how soft his landing was :p. We then see how soft it is again, when The Undertaker launches himself off the structure with an elbow drop! Sure, the landing was soft as fuck, but this is wrestling, so I didn’t really expect them to land on concrete from that height lol. They eventually find their way back to the ring, and the referee is still down. The Undertaker is in firm control, and notices the sledgehammer in the ring. He picks it up, looks at HHH, feels the scar on his head from the sledgehammer shot he received a few weeks earlier, and decided it was payback time! Triple H does what he can to avoid the sledgehammer shot, and we end up with a back and forth slugfest in the middle of the ring! Triple H goes for a Tombstone, but The Undertaker reverses and lands his signature move! However, the referee is still out of it, so The Undertaker decides to land the Last Ride too! He elevates the Game up, and crashes down to the mat himself! Triple H grabbed the sledgehammer on his way up, and nailed ‘Taker in the head! Very smart move by Triple H! The referee is awake now, and makes the count, but The Undertaker kicks out! ‘Taker is busted open, so HHH targets the wound with numerous rights to the head in the corner. The Undertaker reverses this into a Last Ride out of the corner, and gets the win at WrestleMania, and in his home town! This is far from a wrestling classic, but it’s still a damn classic! Like I mentioned earlier, it is one of the better brawls of the Attitude Era, between two of the top starts in the WORLD. I’m not usually a big fan of all out brawls, but when they are done right, like it was here, they can be awesome. Definitely a great WrestleMania moment for The Undertaker, defeating the top superstar of 2000 at the biggest show of the year in his home town! ****1/4.

Match 11 – The Rock Vs Steve Austin – Yeah, the build up video for this complete with My Way is AWESOME. AWESOME I TELLS YA. No DQ stip is seemingly randomly added at the beginning of the match, but as we all know, there was a reason in the end. Somewhat of a unique stare down between these two before the match, when Rock is posing on the ropes and Austin is stood at the other corner not taking his eyes of The Rock and has a little smirk on his face. With that out of the way, Austin takes the fight right to the Rock and this one is ON bitches! Big brawl here as you would expect, and Rock is a total cunt when he bullies the referee and scares him so much he falls over the steel steps. THAT’S YOUR PEOPLE’S CHAMPION! Austin gets revenge for poor Hebner by smashing the ring bell into Rock’s face and busting him open. AUSTIN IS THE REAL HERO DAMMIT! LMFAO, how did I never see this before? Austin is smashing Rock’s head on the table, then the referee tells him to stop and we just see The Rock in the background fall through the table, breaking it. So tables have been hating Rock since 2001? Despite Austin getting revenge for the steps stuff, he’s a bit of an annoying prick by constantly getting in Austin’s face for doing illegal shit (IT’S NO DQ, FUCK OFF EARL). But Austin is pretty relentless, just mauling The Rock until the ref distracts him long enough for Rock to make a comeback, and now Rock wants revenge for being busted open. Smashes Austin’s head into an exposed turnbuckle, then BAM, ring bell into his face too. Crowd boo The Rock. I cheer the crowd. Austin is busted open too, but keeps fighting. Rock is just the same, fighting through the pain and the blood, even managing to lock in a… uhhh… leg submission hold thingamabob. Austin does the same, and JR calls it a Sharpshooter, but trust me, it ain’t no Sharpshooter lol. Neither of them can do it right, however I do appreciate what they were trying to do, with both men bleeding while sat in the hold, just like WM 13 with Bret and Austin. Rock keeps getting to the ropes after numerous Sharpshooters, so Austin pays homage to his Ring Master days and locks in a Million Dollar Dream! THIS is how much the title means to Austin. He had to leave wrestling for a year to get neck surgery, and he’s come back from that, won the RR and now main eventing WM in his home state. He NEEDS this win, and it becomes more and more clear the longer this match goes on. Rock however just keeps coming back, forcing Austin to get more vicious. Busting Rock open, using the Sharpshooter, going back to the Million Dollar Dream… and still The Rock fights back, even landing a Stunner of his own. Then, Mr McMahon of all people shows up ringside! People’s Elbow… and McMahon pulls The Rock off of Austin! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? ROCK BOTTOM BY AUSTIN! Not even that gets the job done! McMahon grabs a chair, and Austin holds The Rock up! Are Austin and McMahon working together? SAY IT AIN’T SO! Rock STILL won’t stay down and Austin is PISSED. He NEEDS to win this match dammit! ROCK BOTTOM! Vince causes a distraction, so Austin can recover and nail the Stunner! KICK OUT! Austin absolutely cannot believe it, so he grabs the chair again and absolutely MURDERS The Rock with it. Chair shot after chair shot after chair shot after chair shot until finally The Rock can’t go on any more, and Steve Austin is once again the WWF Champion! And then it happens… Austin and McMahon shake hands! STONE COLD IS SHAKING HANDS WITH SATAN HIMSELF! So this is still awesome. Finishing stretch has to be up there as one of the best too. The devolution of Austin in this match is awesome as he gets more and more angry and paranoid that he can’t keep The Rock down, and aligning with McMahon in order to finally get the one thing he wants the most is just icing on the cake. ****1/2.

AKA WrestleMania 16: No Singles Matches Allowed.

Match 1 – D-Lo Brown & The Godfather Vs The Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan – Boy does this match just scream “WRESTLEMANIA”! To its credit though, it isn’t bad. They keep up a nice pace with the exception of Bull and his fucking bear hug (ARRGHG FUCKING BEAR HUG!!!), and I always liked Bull’s scissor kick thingy (would go on to be his finisher, but here it’s a normal move for a 2 count lol). Godfather being super over combined with HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS on the outside make this a fun opener, nothing more. I’ve definitely come across much worse matches that were even less pointless too. *3/4.

Match 2 – 15 Minute Time Limit Hardcore Battle Royal – So we get a bunch of guys fighting for the hardcore title. Match is 15 minutes long. Hardcore title is on the line, and can change hands numerous times during that limit. Whoever is the champ at the end is… well the champ. Unlike the future Scramble matches that WWE did, everyone who wins the title is the official champion. Oh and you can only pin the actual champion to win the belt. Its less confusing if someone competent explains the rules lol. I’m not that guy. This match is crazy fun. Just a ton of guys whacking each other with weapons. Tazz wins the belt about 30 seconds in, then Viscera takes it from him and holds it for quite a while with people actually avoiding the big man, except for the APA who just wanna beat up someone. Poor Crash is busted open and I’m not entirely sure he was supposed to lol. Pete Gas bleeds too. Hard to tell what are blade jobs and what are accidental because everyone is just constantly getting hit in the head with a variety of weapons. Vis eventually loses his belt when the APA slam him off the ropes and beat him up, then pile 3 or 4 guys on top of him lol, giving FUNAKI the title! Taka is pissed and decks his own partner. THAT’S HOW IMPORTANT THIS TITLE IS! Funaki gets the fuck out of there and we end up backstage… where members of the Mean Street Posse end up winning the title! MEAN STREET POSSSE HAD SOME TITLE WINS! Finish sees everyone on the outside while Tazz, Crash and Hardcore battle it out in the ring. Crash wins the title back with 30 seconds left (though looked like Tazz kicked out…). Tazz locks on the Tazzmission, then Hardcore smashes a glass jar or something over their heads and goes for a pin. 1… 2… and the ref randomly stops counting… then the clock runs out… then Hardcore is announced as the champion and even Howard Finkle doesn’t understand. Botch? Botch. Fun shit though. **3/4.

Big video package for the WM weekend/fan axxess thing… and oh hey, UNDERTAKER AS THE AMERICAN BAD ASS! Never noticed that before lol. So to everyone who said it him returning at JD looking like that was out of the blue… FUCK YOU! 🙂

Match 3 – Al Snow & Steve Blackman Vs T & A – HEAD CHEESE! TRISH’S TITS! CHESTER MCCHEESYTON! THIS IS THE GREATEST WRESTLEMANIA OF ALL TIME! But seriously though, Al and Steve were a great team, and I loved the Head Cheese stuff. Funny shit. And Trish’s tits are great of course LOL. T & A were a good team too. Surprised that they never won the belts in 2000. 2 Cool got them for a month, why not T & A? Always loved this match, still do after this watch too. Really fun sprint between two new teams trying to make their mark on the biggest show of the year, to hopefully build momentum for them as they work their way to a potential tag title shot. They throw everything they’ve got at each other until in the end its Test and Albert that pick up the win (with Al and Blackman not staying together for long after this). CHESTER THE MOLESTER. LMAO. He gets kicked by Blackman after the match. **3/4.

Match 4 – The Hardy Boys Vs The Dudley Boys Vs Edge & Christian – Tag titles are on the line, in a triangle ladder match! Like the previous match, we have tag teams trying to make their mark on the grandest stage of them all, only this match is for the tag titles and is a ladder match, which means they can make a MUCH bigger mark way easier too. Love how this triple team feud all developed. Started in 99 with Edge & Christian Vs The Hardy Boys, resulted in a tag team ladder match. The Dudley Boys showed up on the scene, and basically while E&C and the Hardys were battling each other to see who the better team was, those DAMN DUDLEYS went after the tag titles and won them at No Way Out. And of course who can forget that AWESOME tag team tables match at the RR between the Hardys and the Dudleys. So now it was time to combine the feud between the Hardys and E&C with the tag team champions, and well, from this point on it was MAGIC for nearly 2 years. Everyone holds their own here and everyone puts their body on the line in order to give the fans something special. Starts with just ladders, but of course that favours the Hardy Boys who are the more daredevil team and are smaller and lighter, therefore faster, than everyone else, so The Dudley Boys need to even things up with the TABLES. I like how this match allows them to bring in tables and not just be a case of “ladders are cool but what about tables too? Let’s use tables because… TABLES!”. Instead The Dudley Boys being the “masters” of the tables decide to bring them out in order to cause more damage to their opponents and also gain a bigger advantage, something they need since they aren’t comfortable with ladders (a pre-match promo reveals they are afraid of heights, so they need every advantage they can get). Oh and D-Von’s selling of a double suplex off the ladder is AWESOME. Guy looks like he’s having BACK SPASMS. Bubba’s powerbomb to Matt from the Spanish Announce table through a table is awesome. Always like powerbombs where people hold them above a shoulder rather than straight in the middle (with a crotch in their face). Looks more brutal imo. Whole match is just awesome, with some really memorable spots. Big Swanton off a ladder to Bubba through a table in the isle way. Bubba’s powerbomb to Matt through the table. And then the “walkway of death” with 2 ladders holding up a table to walk on, which leads to Matt being thrown off at the end and the table he goes through just fucking SHATTERS, leaving E&C to grab the belts! Holds up immensely well and is still one of my favourite ladder/tlc style matches between these 3 teams. ****1/4.

Match 5 – The Kat Vs Terri Runnels – Closest thing to a singles match here… and it’s a “Cat Fight” where you win by throwing your opponent out of the ring. Not just over the top rope like a RR/Battle Royale… but through the ropes, under the ropes… doesn’t matter. Val is the guest ref too. I’m skipping this shite. NO.

Match 6 – Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn Vs 2 Cool & Chyna – 6 matches in… and it’s already the FOURTH tag match. LOL. So Eddie wants Chyna, Chyna wants to murder Eddie (until Raw 24 hours later, then she loves him. Women. Make up your damn minds!!!). The rest are just there because I guess WWF didn’t want a man Vs women match at WM. LMAO at Lawler teaching JR “hip terminology” like “DO-RAG”. DOUBLE WORM! Eddie on his hands and knees crawling away in fear from Chyna and grabbing hold of the ref is awesome.  Referee: WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? LMAO. Then Scotty gets double teamed on the outside and whipped into the barricade… and we literally see Grand Master Sexy stood WATCHING HIS PARTNER fly past him on his way to crashing into it. LOL. Eddie grinding while Chyna’s head is between his legs is awesome. Press Slam to Eddie… while she holds his nuts! Chyna pins Eddie. At WM! LOL. Poor Eddie, he never had much luck at WM, between losing to people like Chyna or just not having good matches. Which is weird because the guy was fucking awesome. *.

Match 7 – Kurt Angle Vs Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho – Triple threat 2 fall match for the IC and European title. First fall is for the IC title, second for the European title. BOB BACKLUND is the reason this match is happening, claiming he was showing Kurt “tough love” and wanted him to prove that he could be the best ever. Kurt has yet to show us that he’s the best ever, and since he’s been going downhill for the last 5 or so years I don’t think he’ll end up anywhere near the best ever lol. So I used to really like this match. I’m genuinely confused as to why. Normally even if I stop liking a match, I can SEE why I used to like it, but usually by then my tastes have changed and it’s just not my thing anymore. This match? I’m lost. NOTHING was good. It was literally “I suplex you, I pin you, he breaks it up, he suplexes me, he pins me, you break it up, you back breaker him, you cover him, I break it up, I back breaker you, I pin you, he breaks it up, he suplexed me, he covers me, you break it up” repeated a few times, then Benoit pins Jericho to win the IC title. Then Jericho pins Benoit for the European title. Fuck this shit. 1/2*.

Match 8 – Road Dogg & X-Pac Vs Kane & Rikishi – Well, from one tag match to yet another. 5 tags in 8 matches. Yey. They’ve been doing the whole Kane Vs X-Pac angle since like… October of last year? And the big pay off match is… a random tag match with Rikishi? WHY? Heels pretty much get decimated, but in super fun fashion during this short match. STINK FACE TO TORI. Tombstone to X-Pac and this is over. Kane gets his big revenge. Sort of. Kind of. Not really. But I guess it’ll have to do. PETE ROSE! CHOKESLAM! STINK FACE! Wish we got more Pete. He could have showed up backstage during the hardcore match Kane was involved in next year. Should be a WM tradition dammit. This was short but fun. *1/2.

Match 9 – Triple H Vs Mick Foley Vs The Rock Vs The Big Show – WWF Title is on the line in a fatal four way elimination match with a McMahon in each corner! Stephanie in HHH’s, Vince in Rock’s, Shane in Show’s, and Linda in Mick’s. I’m not even going to get into the build up for this one because there is a LOT that I would have to talk about. All I’ll say is that Show won the RR but the awarded the match to The Rock anyway. Then Show beat The Rock at NWO to win his WM title shot. And then The Rock still ended up getting in the match lol. Foley was kinda random, but hey, he finally got to live his dream by wrestling in the main event of WM so I’m fine with that. Show begins to start dominating early, so everyone teams up against him for a moment until Foley decides he just wants to MAIM THE GAME instead, but gets a chair shot in on Show allowing Rock to hit the Rock Bottom… and Show is the first to be eliminated about 5 minutes into the match! See ya, Show! HHH is left alone with 2 people who absolutely hate him, so he tries to convince them to join forces with him… and gets double teamed for his troubles. Eventually they break down and Foley and Rock have no problems beating each other down as well as HHH, until HHH finally convinces Foley to join forces with him. He and Foley can take out The Rock, then Foley can have HHH all to himself. Foley likes that idea and so begins the destruction of The Rock! Woo! KILL HIM, MICK! Foley ends up injuring himself for real when he doesn’t jump far enough and crashes into the edge of the table rather than going through it and landing on The Rock. HHH tries to improvise and drive Rock through the table anyway but the damn thing just doesn’t seem to want to break lol. With Foley hurt, HHH sees his chance to get rid of him, and after 2 Pedigrees, Foley sort of retires again. And now we are left with Rock and HHH, the match everyone says should have been the main event anyway. Yeah, maybe it should have been, but then what would have happened at Backlash? I’m fine with WM being like this in order to have BACKLASH 2000 in all its awesome glory. PILEDRIVER ON THE STEEL STEPS. Love that spot regardless of who does it. Match gets a little dull now unfortunately, and drags on a little too long. McMahon then turns on The Rock and HHH becomes the first heel to leave WM as the champion (Hulk was still with WCW at this time so he couldn’t come out and challenge for the belt LOL). Match is ok. Gets dull in parts, and Show being part of it was pointless since he got eliminated fairly quickly. Swerve with Vince was fairly obvious. Oh and of course Rock still have to have the last word and ends up giving everyone a Rock Bottom and shit. He’s like Cena in that he can’t sell the affects of anything. ***1/4.