The Rock’s promo at the opening was great. It was weird not to start with a match, but I was glad that it showed Rock was the “host”, and not just tacked on for advertising reasons and to have a fun main event. When I say Yabba you say Dabba. ahahaha.
Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio – Wow, really? Alberto lost? After all this time I still don’t get the inclusion of Christian into the equation. I really hope it builds to something post-Mania otherwise I’d say this entire feud has been poor. Really solid match though. ***
Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes – Wow, Cody wins! And he looked awesome too. Rey basically cheated to win, hit all of his signature moves, and Cody still kicks out of everything, finally leading to him outsmarting Rey and taking the win. I hope for a bright future for Cody Rhodes. ***1/4
I won’t really go into it, but lets just say Regal, Khali, Ryder (especially), Piper, Hornswoggle, and the Bellas = Win.
The Corre (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Ezekiel Jackson) vs. The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella, & Kofi Kingston – I don’t think I’m going to give this one a rating. It was so quick and very unstructured. I don’t really see what the point was. Glad Kofi got his Wrestlemania paycheck, although I feel bad for Kozlov as he’s really come a long way in the past year. N/R
I jumped out of my seat when I saw The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin face to face. Just a simple segment like that reminded me why I love wrestling Sports Entertainment.
Randall Keith Orton vs. C.M. Punk – Great match, if only due to the fact that it let Punk show us what he had in him. Orton was actually pretty great in his selling too. Really hoped Punk could get a Non-MITB win at Mania, but Orton is just too big right now, I guess I can understand. The spot at the end was great too. ***1/2
Ahahaha, The Rock + Mean Gene + PeeWee Herman, can’t really go wrong there.
Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler (Special Ref: Stone Cold Steve Austin) So I can’t rate this sadly, at least for now. I don’t know how fair it would be rate this on a wrestling scale anyways, as opposed to an entertainment scale (See: Mayweather vs. Big Show). But the reason I can’t rate this is at the restaurant I was at, DirecTV crapped out for about a good 5+ minutes, and we went from Jerry Lawler shoving Cole’s face into the Cole Mine to Cole beating up Lawler in the center of the ring (how the hell did that happen?). It seemed really entertaining though from what I saw of it and I marked so hard for getting JR back, but I’ll have to update at a later point. I think it’s BS that they took away Lawler’s Wrestlemania win though, but loved seeing all the carnage we went through to get good ol’ JR and Lawler for the rest of the show. N/R.
Triple H vs. The Undertaker (No Holds Barred) – I am really conflicted about this match. I thought it was a great showing, although it does look like the last great technical showing we will have ever seen from ‘Taker was against Shawn Michaels last year. This heavily relied on weapons and the hardcoreness of the stipulation, and I was hoping to see more of a match. It felt really slow at times, but that could be due to Triple H’s rustiness and The Undertaker’s age. With that said, the spots were great, Undertaker kicking out of Triple’s Tombstone was probably one of the biggest reactions I’ve had to a kickout. They did a great job of making me believe that the streak was over, and it was great to see The Undertaker still manage to go 19-0 after all of that. Really curious what the post-match angle was about (if it was a post match angle…), but it looks like Undertaker’s last match at Wrestlemania will be next year. While not being able to touch his past two performances, Triple H and The Undertaker showed the rest of the locker room how to put on a show. ****1/4
Dolph Ziggler, Michelle McCool, and Layla vs. John Morrison, Trish Stratus, & Snooki – Well that was….quick. Pretty harmless, but I can’t believe we lost Daniel Bryan & Sheamus for this (and the 8 man tag for that matter). The men were never even legal, and Snooki got the expected pin. I liked seeing the teams coordinate though when it came to attire. Snooki’s already done more than Drew Carey, she’s gotten a win at Wrestlemania, so expect her to be in the Hall of Fame one day. Great. *
The Miz vs. John Cena (WWE Title) – Wow, talk about disappointing. It was actually going really well up until the “Excuse for The Rock to come out” ending happened. They hit their moves pretty well, and seem to work decent with each other, but then the Double Countout happened. The Rock restarted the match though in another well done promo at the end of the show. The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom to give the heel the main event win for the first time in forever, but then The Rock gave The Miz the People’s Elbow, to send the fans home happy. Actually, with that crowd, I think Cena losing already made them happy. I’m excited to see where this all goes, but its a shame The Miz has to get lost in all of it. I get why it was the Main Event compared to our No Holds Barred match, but the ending just ruined the flow for me. Side-note, pretty cool to see The Miz pin Cena at Wrestlemania after their feud a year and a half ago made The Miz look like a fool who could never pin Cena even on RAW. My how far he’s come. **
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Again, huge finger of SHAME for bumping Sheamus and Daniel Bryan off the card (and they changed their match while it was a Dark Show Match too, so they don’t even get to be on the DVD). Replace the 6-Mixed Tag and the 8-Man Tag and you would have had a ****+ show easily because nearly everyone brought their A-Game tonight. One of the better Mania’s in recent memory in my opinion. Check it out. MVP’s of this show would go to Triple H and Undertaker for giving it their all for 30 minutes and The Rock for “bringing it” to the show and making it feel like a special event.
Overall Rating: ***3/4
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