WrestleMania 23 Thoughts
I already shared my thoughts about this last night on Club WWI, but to those who don't subscribe, here's what I thought:
Money In The Bank: I was surprised that Edge didn't take this one (one of 5 predictions I was wrong on, to boot), but Kennedy wasn't a bad second choice at all. This wasn't quite as powerful as the previous two MITB's, though I did like that there was no wasted time in there at all, so very well choreographed. Also there were a couple of memorable spots, between Jeff Hardy breaking Edge's back through that ladder and Kennedy destroying Hornswaggle.
Kane vs. Great Khali: Exactly as expected; no more, no less. Kind of insulting that they compared this to Hogan-Andre, though. One of the matches I got right.
Chris Benoit vs. MVP: A much better showing than I figured MVP would give us, so good on him for keeping up with Benoit. Again, not the ending I expected, but I can't really complain too much because the announce team put over Benoit big-time.
Batista vs. The Undertaker: Another one I got right, much like 99 percent of the world. Still, this was better than it had any right to be. Though I'm not a Taker fan, per se (sorry RK), buddy worked his ass off, and it was easily the best performance he's had since Kurt Angle over a year ago. Batista had some nice spots as well, though it was clearly Taker carrying the match.
New ECW vs. Old New ECW: I thought the point for this was to, you know, do some hardcore spots or something here. Guess not. I did NOT see Van Dam et al winning this one, but it wasn't anyone's best effort or anything.
Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga: You know this one was choreographed and overbooked to death, but who cares? They did a fantastic job of playing to everyone's strengths, and Lashley looked huge in winning here, which was what I was hoping the end point would be here. Both guys took uncharactertistically good bumps, and my respect for Umaga grows by the PPV. Plus, Austin stunning Trump? I called for it, but didn't really think we would be so lucky as to actually see it. Good show, men. And for those keeping score at home, the last one of the night I'd call correctly.
Ashley vs. Melina: Whatevs.
John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels: In a word, underwhelming. I would have rather they started out with more back and forth, as would the crowd have. As a result, they lost the audience with the sloooooow pace, and never quite got them back. Don't get me wrong, after the first 10 minutes or so, things started cooking, and Michaels' piledriver of Cena on the steps was absolutely SICK, but I think these two guys were capable of doing so much better. Plus, as I ask at the end of virtually every PPV, why Cena? It's not that I dislike him, but maybe after holding the belt "20 of the last 24 months", it's time to give someone else a chance, no? And where do they go from here?
Overall, this doesn't QUITE match up to last year's Mania, but not a terrible show, either. Plus you had the Cryme Tyme/Eugene/Extreme Expose/Fabulous Moolah/Mae Young/Slick/Jimmy Hart/Dusty Rhodes/Mean Gene/Gerry Brisco/Pat Patterson/IRS/Ricky Steamboat (!) dance party, which is a vignette I wouldn't have believed was happening had you told me about it 24 hours earlier.
Labels: Rasslin' Thoughts
posted by Bulldog @ 6:11 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Overall, not a very good show for what Wrestlemania should be, and what the current WWE roster is capable of creating.
Money in the Bank. The weakest of the three MitBs, and the more matches of this type I see, the more I realize how amazing the original TLC matches were. There were a couple decent spots, and enough people in the match to keep it moving, but the suspense was nearly non-existant and the best participant may well have been someone not technically in the match - Hornswaggle. There were enough bodies to come up with a few unique multi-person spots, but instead it fell flat. Plus, given that this was a 4 hour show, with only 8 matches, I thought this would go longer than 20 minutes.
Kane vs. Great Khali. Horrid. Kane had an easier time slamming Khali than Khali did of Kane. The guy is completely useless. I think the fact that he actually CAN'T get down to make a pin proves that. I feel really bad for Kane. There's only so much you can do with someone that limited. I think this was barely 5 minutes long, which on one hand was good, but made me wonder what they were going to shove into the show to fill up time.
Benoit vs. MVP - A decent showing and probably the start to a feud, but it only went 10 minutes as well.
Batista vs. Undertaker - I had read that Cena/HBK was going to close the show, but I was a bit surprised to see this so soon. I guess that shows that even the WWE realized that the card was crap and needed to be split up. Batista gassed, but not nearly as badly as I was expecting. Taker was excellent, and continues to amaze me. I feel like he gets better and better through the years. He's definitely in the best shape he's been in since early on in his WWE tenure. The outcome was predicable, but who cares. I really like when he breaks out the MMA style stuff, so personally, I'd like to see him get away from Batista as quickly as possible and feud with someone like Benoit. And for it's importance, I thought this match could have went 5 minutes longer as well...but the typically excellent entrance/exit beefed it up.
New Breed vs. Other Guys. What in the hell was that? A 6 minute 8-man tag match? Am I watching Impact? Even though I don't watch ECW, there was HUGE potential to make this into a gigantic, all-over-the-arena brawl. Looking at the card, I thought it had the potential to be a real showstealer, but holy shit did it suck. And the one match were I could have USED an introductory video package to inform me of the storyline background, I got nothing.
Billionaire stuff. This actually exceeded expectations. I was afraid it was going to go on and on and on, but for all of Vince's downfalls, he tends to come through in the clutch and the aftermatch stuff was excellent. Although after the clothesline it looked like Donald was stabbing Vince in the neck with a pen instead of punching him and he botched the Stunner, Trump's pathetic attempt at encouraging Lashley throughout the match had me in stitches. Shane? Great. Austin? Awesome fun. Did it do anything for Umaga or Lashley? Probably not, but it made for a great clusterfuck.
Chick match. Horrible. Ashley is a stick. I know I'm mean, but I was seriously hoping she'd injure herself. And who WERE some of those vapid broads at ringside? I can't even convey how much I hate the women's "division".
Cena vs Michaels. Two piledrivers in one show? Sacrilege! I liked the run-in by the half-naked guy at the start of the match. It almost made me forget the retardedness of Cena's entrance. Almost. Look at Michael's expertly work the knee for 5 minutes! Look at Cena completely forget to sell it as soon as he gets the advantage! Flexing it twice does NOT constitute selling John. That being said, the match itself was alright. I figured Cena would win, but it just really irked me that he won with the STFU. I'm not a huge Cena-hater either, but that move annoys me. (Much like Sting's shitty, shitty Scorpion deathlock.) It really is time to get the belt off of him.
Other stuff? The McMahon/Steph/Baby thing was beyond crap.
The Trump/Boogeyman segment was moderately humourous.
Hall of Fame...that just made me long for Mr. Perfect. And you should stop making fun of Mr. Fuji. He looks like he could die any day.
Dancing thing? I didn't care until Slick showed up. That boy should be managing Cryme Tyme. Nostalgia makes all things look better.
Overall, not good. The few sweet smelling moments were overpowered by the stench of crap. It may not be the worst WM ever, but it was damn close. Although if Arethra Franklin had have played the national anthem on the piano with her enormous boobs, I would have given it 5 stars.
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