WWE Wrestlemania 25 Review

Now that all the dust has settled on Wrestlemania 25 here are my thoughts looking back at The Grand Daddy of them All.

Money in the Bank

As with each year there were some great innovative spots which as predicted were lead by the likes of Shelton, Christian and Kofi. I thought the pacing of the match could have been better as it was very noticeable when wrestlers were missing or taking a break. I thought it was good to have CM Punk create history with the win and getting him going again but the ending could have been a lot better.

25 Diva Battle Royal

The commentators did a rubbish job on this one at times had no clue who was in the ring and who was getting thrown out. As predicted Santino got involved and it was funny to see him in Drag as Santina which provided our comedy moment of the night.

Chris Jericho vs. The Legends

Luckily this match didn’t go long. The only legend that proved he could still go was Steamboat and there was a good five minutes or so between him and Jericho after the others had been eliminated. Jericho picked up the win but as predicted Rourke jumped in the ring at the end and beat on Jericho.

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

These two put on a good little match but due to the MITB using so many ladders Jeff couldn’t use his specialty. As I hoped for Matt got the win and they have built the match as a feud that could long continue, the innovative ending looked sick.

Rey Mysterio vs. JBL

This match had me thinking back to Adam Bomb vs. Earthquake at WM10. Was over in the blink of an eye as Rey Mysterio picked up a quick win leading to JBL announcing his retirement. I’m glad JBL got to retire on the biggest stage in his own home state but to do it like that was awful.

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

As expected match of the night by far as these two put on a drama packed thirty minutes of action. Undertaker took some sick bumps especially one to the outside which looked like he had dropped on his head. This match had lots of false finishes and some great back and forth action but in the end it was The Streak that was maintained as Taker ended up the victor.

John Cena vs. Edge vs. Big Show

This match was better than most expected and gave some good spots including a brilliant ending which saw Cena go one further than he did at WM20 when he did his finisher on Big Show by picking up both Big Show and Edge. As predicted Cena won the belt although I would have much preferred to see Edge retain.

HHH vs. Randy Orton

What an anti-climax if I ever did see one. After two months of great build it was all ruined by Vince’s want to send the fans home happy and have the face end the main event with the Title. They tried to do a different style in the match which was more of a fight style than pure wrestling but it just lacked the intensity and I can’t say I was that surprised to see HHH winning after year upon year of loses at Mania but it just made no long term sense.

Overall

There should be more than just one great match at Wrestlemania that’s what you expect from the other PPV’s. I thought it was scandalous to see the tag title match getting pushed to the dark match when we had ten minutes of Kid Rock giving a terrible performance. This was the worst Wrestlemania I have seen in some time, Wrestlemania 11 still holds the record of worst ever Wrestlemania for me but this wasn’t far off.

WWE No Way Out Review 2009

With two Elimination Chamber matches and a well built Shane McMahon / Randy Orton match I was looking forward to No Way Out especially as this was one of the few PPV’s we get for free in the UK.

Good Points

A major push for Edge

After being the top draw on Smackdown for some time WWE furthered his gimmick of being the Ultimate Opportunist when after he lost the Smackdown Chamber interjecting himself in the Raw Chamber match and winning the title in a move reminiscent of when Jericho interjected himself in to the title scramble match many moons ago.

HHH back on top

It is great to see HHH back as champ. Hopefully they give him a long run with the title. After a few years of losing Mania main events it will be interesting to see if he can go in to Mania as champ and leave as champ although if Orton decides to challenge HHH it could be a short reign.

JBL / HBK storyline over

Was glad to see this storyline put to bed with HBK getting the win and I the process getting himself out of his contract with JBL hopefully this will free him up to have a good feud for Wrestlemania.

Bad Points

Orton pushed to the side

After winning the Rumble and his feud with Shane McMahon which built to their match at No Way out I thought his win was very much overshadowed by everything else going on and their match didn’t deliver on the build. Shane didn’t do any bumps better than what he has done in the past and I didn’t feel the intensity which this match needed was there.

Too many last minute changes

Now the odd last minute spontaneous change is good as it adds to the unpredictability factor but it just seems to becoming too commonplace and making the show hard to follow and hard to predict. A good swerve is when you don’t predict it is going to happen but when you look back on it you are kicking yourself for not seeing it coming.

Overall

A wild and entertaining night by the WWE but by having an Elimination Chamber match as the first match out it rather killed the next hour or so of matches before the other chamber match.

WWE Royal Rumble Review 2009

Following on from TNA’s Genesis earlier this month this weekend it was WWE’s turn to put on their first PPV of the year that being their annual Royal Rumble. I always think that the Royal Rumble is a great event to start the year off with as it is an exciting event which is truly different from any other PPV of the year.

Good Points

The Swerve

Was great to see Matt Hardy swerving his brother and costing him the title after cracking him with a steel chair. For weeks and weeks the fans on the internet had been predicting the return of Christian to cost Hardy the title but this was a great twist. This storyline will give them the chance to wrestle each other at Mania if played right which is probably what they have been dreaming about for some time.

It’s not over

HBK played his role brilliantly in the JBL / Cena title fight. After a poor match he laid out both JBL and Cena but left JBL on top to get what he thought would be the win. It wasn’t to be though as Cena kicked out and went on to win the match but now where does this leave HBK? Whose side is he really on?

The Rumble match

I will get on to some of the bad points surrounding the Rumble match later but there was some great stuff happening in there. RVD’s return for the Rumble match was brilliant and a surprise to many, the pacing was good, they really built the ring up well and let a handful of wrestlers really have some great moments in there.

Bad Points

Too predictable

After weeks on the blog saying that they weren’t building anyone for the Rumble match the first few minutes of the broadcast was dedicated to it with a video package which featured a heck of a lot of Orton and surprise, surprise Orton went on to win it. I think anyone that couldn’t spot that Orton was going to win it is blind, normally the match is great because you aren’t sure one hundred percent who is going to win.

Botching a match

Melina and Beth Phoenix showed us some really innovative spots and really tried to push the envelope but by doing this they botched quite a few moves. If they had just toned it down a little bit they could have had a really good match which came across crisp but instead you were worrying if one of them picked the other up if they were going to drop them by accident or not.

Overall

For Storyline development it was a superb show with four great matches already in the pipeline for Wrestlemania if they follow through properly on what they have started here. It was that good I will forgive the obvious ending to the Rumble match as at least with Orton it will now build some interesting storylines.