Monday Night Raw
Date: April 18, 2011
Location: O2 Arena, London, England
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole

We’re in England tonight as you can see by the location of the show.  This show was taped which might explain some differences in the look and feel of the show.  We’re apparently a week away from the 2011 WWE Draft which means this might be the last night a lot of Raw stars are well….Raw stars.  We also will likely get some more matches added to the Extreme Rules card.  Let’s get to it.

Nickelback opens us up.  Awesome.  Yes I like them.  Go ahead and make your jokes.

Here’s R-Truth to open the show in the arena.  Cole cuts Lawler and King off almost immediately and says it’s not 12 years ago.  Lawler says he likes listening to R-Truth rap.  Why do I have a problem believing that?  Truth says he’s going to preach the gospel.  He’s been down a long road of trials, tribulations and demons.  His problem now is that he’s in line to become WWE Champion.  Cena’s name is booed.  For the WWE Universe he’s fighting everybody anywhere anytime.  And that is the truth.

Cue John Morrison who says he’s happy but would be happier if it was him.  Morrison says Truth got lucky last week.  Truth says he’s in the best shape of his life.  We get a clip from last week where during a commercial a referee handed Truth some water as Cena came in.  Morrison says Truth is in good shape for someone who smokes.

Truth: “All you’re trying to do is get me to challenge you to a match for my spot at Extreme Rules.”  Morrison: “All right I accept.”  Morrison points out that Truth said he’d fight anybody and the people seem to like the idea.  Truth says he’ll do it on two conditions.  First up a bottle of water and a cigarette.  Morrison says he’ll need some luck too.  Crowd had no response at all to those three final things.

John Morrison vs. R-Truth

 

This is for the spot at Extreme Rules apparently.  Morrison takes over early and Truth hits the floor.  The fans aren’t thrilled as he gets some water and we take a break.  Back with Truth holding a headlock and then grabbing some pinning combinations for two.  Back to the headlock again as I guess Truth was tired again?  Morrison makes a small comeback with clotheslines but is takes down by a spinning kick by Truth.

Truth works on the arm for a bit and hits that suplex into a Stunner move of him for two.  Axe kick misses as does Morrison’s kick off the middle rope.  Morrison blocks the jumping downward spiral (which I think is called What’s Up but I’m not sure), putting Truth in perfect position for Starship Pain to end this in 7:08 (counting commercial).  Morrison is now in the PPV main event.

Rating: C. Just an ok match here but the water angle was kind of interesting for a nice twist.  The reaction to the change in the triple threat is kind of surprising though as they acted like it was no big deal at all.  Not a terrible match but just kind of there.  The best word I can think of for this match is basic.  It wasn’t anything great but it wasn’t bad either.  Average grade sounds right.

Truth goes off on Morrison post match, apparently turning heel.  He throws in a running knee to Morrison’s head, driving it into the railing.  Then he kind of hougs Morrison and says it’s all right before throwing him down on the floor.  He steals Jerry’s water and blasts Morrison in the head with it.  Truth says John did this and hits What’s Up on the floor.  He gets a cigarette from a fan and actually lights up.  Never thought I’d see that on WWE programming.  He blows smoke on Morrison and throws the lit cigarette at him before leaving.  Long segment here but not too bad.

Evan Bourne vs. Dolph Ziggler

 

No entrance for Bourne here other than a faint trace of his music.  Vickie does the regular entrance for Ziggler, who she claims is new and improved.  He has a haircut and dark hair now.  Well he doesn’t look like Curt Hennig anymore.  Ziggler takes over quickly but is caught in a hurricanrana.  Bourne tries to come off the ropes but gets caught by a dropkick for two.

We hit the mat and Ziggler looks like he’s unsure what he wants to do before settling on a bow and arrow kind of hold for a bit.  Bourne keeps trying to fight back with some strikes but Ziggler takes him down with ease.  A nice little string of offense by Evan ends with a spin kick for two.  He goes up for Air Bourne but Ziggler moves.  Bourne LANDS ON HIM FEET but is caught in a Zig Zag to end it at 2:10.  That landing by Bourne was amazing.

Cole is going to be knighted later apparently.

The Raw Rewind is all three of Sin Cara’s appearances.

Video of Edge’s two appearances last week, set to 3 Doors Down’s When You’re Young.  Del Rio is going to have a farewell party for Edge on Smackdown apparently.

Here’s Miz in a new shirt, along with Riley.   It looks like a baseball jersey and says Awesome.  Miz complains about being in a triple threat match and having it changed on him.  The match is going to be in a cage also where you can win by pinfall, submission or escape.  He wants a chair because he’s going to protest this change as we take a break.

Back with Miz running his mouth as we come back in mid sentence.  He’s talking about how it doesn’t matter who does something because at Extreme Rules he’s going to still be champion at the end of the match.  He sets for the catchphrase and Sin (Scene according to JR) Cara’s music cuts him off.

Sin Cara vs. Alex Riley

 

BIG height on the trampoline this week as he easily clears the top rope.  Loud Sin Cara chant starts and here’s Cena at a full sprint to clear the ring.  Well you can’t say Cara isn’t getting a good rub right of the bat.  The GM sends an e-mail to make it a tag match.  Works for me.

Alex Riley/The Miz vs. John Cena/Sin Cara

 

Riley and Cena start with the fans booing Cena out of the building.  Bulldog takes Alex down and he bails to the floor as we take another break.  Back with Cena taking it to Miz FU is blocked and Miz gets a Side Effect to send Cena into the corner.  The announcers talk about the Draft and Jerry wants to know if Cole is drafted off Raw.  My guess would be very little would change as he already does Smackdown but what do I know?

Riley and Miz hammer on Cena a bit more until Cena gets that sitout powerslam kind of move he hit last week.  That’s enough for the hot tag as Cara comes in by kind of jumping into Miz.  Things speed way up and Cara hits all kinds of dives and springboard moves to take down both opponents.  He sets for what looked like a springboard splash of some sort but Riley made the save, pulling him to the floor.

Miz rams him into the apron and takes over as they’re now the legal men.  The dueling Cena chants begin as Riley gets a clothesline for two.  Back off to the champion who can’t get his running clothesline in the corner.  Double tags bring in Riley and Cena and John initiates his ending sequence.  Before 5 Knuckle Shuffle he takes out Miz.  The champ picks up his title to leave as Cena hits the FU on Riley.  Tag brings in Sin Cara who TOTALLY misses a springboard moonsault which is enough to end this at 10:30.

Rating: C+. Not a terrible match but Cara still looks really shaky out there and can’t hit some very basic spots.  If not for the sake of a quick camera edit that ending would have looked completely unrealistic and even with it the move looked bad.  Cara is trying but he looks like he’s about to go flying to the floor any second.  Not a good sign to be sure.

Nikki Bella vs. Eve Torres

 

Brie says that she wants a rematch but Eve might get drafted to Smackdown.  Not really any kind of a threat or anything but just kind of a statement of fact.  Eve misses a baseball slide to Nikki as she’s in a Tree of Woe to let Nikki take over.  Brie I think tries to slam Eve’s knee into the apron but the contact doesn’t seem to be there.  Nikki misses a double knee drop and Eve gets a rollup to end it at 1:48.

Eve poses after her win and Cole cuts it off.  He’s going to be knighted next.

Back with Cole in the ring and he calls out Swagger.  Jack comes out in a suit holding what looks like a robe over his arm.  Swagger doesn’t look mad at him after last week.  They hug so I guess everything is ok.  Swagger pulls out a scroll and botches saying “Hear Ye” by saying “Hear He”.  Tonight we add a new item to his hall of fame career as he becomes Sir Michael Cole.

Swagger brings out a woman that is called Queen Elizabeth.  The fans boo loudly as she reads whatever proclamation she has and taps him on the shoulders with the sword.  Cole kisses the queen and tries to start a Sir Michael Cole chant.  The fans reply by chanting sucks.  Cole says to show respect because they’re all his peasants.  And speaking of peasants, he turns his attention to JR and the King.  Isn’t a King ahead of a knight?

Cole says they should kiss his feet.  Cole takes his shoe and sock off, revealing a disgusting looking foot that looks like it’s dirty and infected or something.  Swagger takes Lawler out and then grabs Ross.  JR of course refuses so the ankle lock goes on and down goes Ross onto the foot.  Cole and Swagger stand tall.

Punk vs. Orton later tonight.

Santino Marella vs. Sheamus

 

Cole and Matthews on commentary now as this is what, the 7^th or 8^th week in a row that the same team doesn’t finish commentary?  Sheamus says this might be his last chance to embarrass Santino due to the draft.  The Champion sends Santino into the corner and takes over with ease.  Powerslam is reversed and that’s about it for this sequence by Santino.

Off to that crossface chickenwing on the mat but Marella fights back up.  An elbow drop leads to a similar version of the same hold.  Total dominance for the first few minutes until Santino dodges a charge in the corner.  He loads up the Cobra but falls down in the process.  Brogue Kick ends this clean at 3:28.

Rating: D+. Just a squash here and a way to get Sheamus on the show.  Santino is a rare breed of jobber where he can lose time after time but keep his credibility based solely on his comedy.  Not much of a match but at the same time it wasn’t supposed to be.  Kind of surprised that Santino got in literally no offense.

CM Punk vs. Randy Orton

 

Punk grabs a headlock to start and the fans chant in a dueling fashion.  Orton stomps Punk down in the corner which doesn’t last long at all.  Punk fires off some knees to the head and a running one puts the Viper down.  Orton comes back and gets his powerslam to set up the RKO.  Punk shoves him off and we take a break.

Back with Punk slamming Orton and dropping a knee.  Off to a front facelock and Orton can’t seem to reverse it.  We get a GTS/RKO chant as Punk keeps up his offense.  We go out to the floor for a bit as Punk wants to know if he can get a pin out there.  Back in and it’s off to a modified triangle choke.  Orton bites the fingers to escape.  Punk tries a bulldog which is reversed into a belly to back suplex as we’re back to about even.

The bulldog hits this time and it gets two.  Punk is all frustrated since getting bitten on the hand.  He fires off some kicks but walks into the Orton backbreaks and an Angle Slam for two.  Punk clotheslines him on the top rope as we get another dueling chant.  Springboard clothesline gets two.  Punk goes up, only to get caught by a superplex for a long two.  Punk rolls to the apron which is a bad idea against Orton.  Elevated DDT is reversed into a GTS attempt.  That is countered into an RKO attempt but Punk gets a kick to the head.  Another GTS attempt is countered into a rollup for the pin at 15:44.

Rating: B-. Not a terrible match here but it certainly wasn’t enough to save the show.  They were trying and gave us a pretty good match but it wasn’t as good as their Mania match.  This was the standard long match to end a TV show and send the fans home happy which is fine, but I’d like to see Punk get one win over Orton in this feud.  Not bad, but nothing classic.

Post match the New Nexus hits the ring for the big beatdown.  Batista’s Welsh son hits his Rock Bottom/Side Effect finisher to leave Orton laying.  McGillicutty and Otunga want to do something of their own but Ryan says Orton is his.  Ryan sets for a punt but Punk wants the honor.  After taking forever, Punk charges into an RKO to end the show.  Nice ending.

Overall Rating: D. This didn’t do it for me at all.  I know it’s a show over in London so things are a bit different, but at the same time a lot of this felt like it was completely lacking.  There wasn’t a main point to most of tonight other than I guess you could say Truth’s turn.  Cole’s segment didn’t really do anything other than make him look like a bad guy which we’ve known for a long time now.  Nothing of note here and I wasn’t impressed at all.

Results

John Morrison b. R-Truth – Starship Pain

Dolph Ziggler b. Evan Bourne – Zig Zag

Sin Cara/John Cena b. The Miz/Alex Riley – Springboard moonsault to Riley

Eve Torres b. Nikki Bella – Rollup

Randy Orton b. CM Punk – Rollup

Smackdown
Date: April 15, 2011
Location: Times Union Center, Albany, New York
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Booker T

Well all of a sudden this is a far different looking show.  As of Monday, Edge, the current World Heavyweight Champion, has to retire immediately due to neck problems.  Obviously this changes everything for both Extreme Rules and Smackdown as we’re going to have to crown a new champion.  I’d bet we’ll find out something about that tonight.  Let’s get to it.

This is a version where the commercials haven’t been edited in yet, so when they go to a break the match continues right where it left off so the traditional 3:30 won’t be added.  The show also has a long post main event segment which I’d bet is after the cameras went off and since the whole video is two hours, I doubt it’ll air on TV.  This is a bonus for you I suppose.

The opening video is of course about Edge and how he has to relinquish the title after retaining it at Wrestlemania.  The line used is destiny can change in the blink of an eye.

No theme song this week as Ricardo Rodriquez brings out Alberto.  The car of the night is a 1950 Rolls Royce.  He says his name but tonight isn’t about him.  WWE lost a hero on Monday.  He’s held more titles than anyone ever in company history, which is surprising for some reason.  It was Alberto’s destiny to be champion but he didn’t expect it like this.  He does however think it’s fair that the title be surrendered to him.

After a long delay, here’s Teddy.  No one is going to present Alberto with anything tonight.  Teddy says that Del Rio did win the right to fight in a ladder match at that PPV and that’s what he’s going to do.  The opponent for Alberto will be determined in tonight’s main event: a 20 man over the top rope battle royal.  Alberto says it’s a conspiracy.  This is in WWE, not TNA dude.  Del Rio takes credit for retiring Edge and Teddy says shut up and leaves.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Kofi Kingston

 

The rest of Corre is on commentary here.  Barrett says he won the title on his own and Slater isn’t sure he agrees.  Jackson shoves Kofi away to start and Barrett says Jackson isn’t all that smart.  Jackson is a scary looking man.  We talk about the battle royal a bit and Barrett says the Corre is going to work together to make sure Barrett gets the title shot.  Slater and Gabriel both disagree.

Booker says the back of Jackson’s head looks like a tsunami hit it.  Not the best choice of words there former King.  We hit the floor and Jackson press slams Kofi onto Corre, wiping them out.  Back into the ring, Kofi tries the SOS but Barrett tries to get in.  Jackson takes advantage of the distraction and hits his release Rock Bottom (and no I won’t call it a Uranage) to end this at 2:22.  Short and mostly dominant here.

Jackson says he’s going to dominate the battle royal tonight.  Well according to his own song everything he does in life he dominates.

We see Laycool’s couples counseling with a therapist that looks like Paul Giamatti.  Layla is holding Michelle’s hand for some reason and says they’re like Bert and Ernie or Thelmer (yes Thelmer) and Louise.  “So now you’re comparing us to two puppets and two characters that drove off a cliff?”  The bluntness in that made me chuckle.  Layla asks Michelle how her back is and Michelle says it’s hurt since she’s been carrying Layla since day one.  The doctor is shushed and Michelle rips into Layla and is a total jerk to her before leaving.  Layla was borderline face here.

Back to the arena with Cody in the ring with a hood over his face.  He doesn’t feel anything anymore and tonight he’s going to hurt Rey tonight in the battle royal.  Rey is a father and there may not be any monsters in his kids’ closets but he wants Rey to become the monster they’re afraid of.  He’s going to make sure that happens but here’s Rey to interrupt and start a brawl.  619 misses but Rey eventually manages to get one in the ribs and send Cody running.

Kong vignette which is rather awesome.

Rey Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre

 

How in the world did Drew fall so far in just a year?  Also I guess the whole Kelly thing is just going to be abandoned?  Drew absolutely towers over Rey.  He grabs a powerslam for two on Rey as we talk about the battle royal a lot.  Booker thinks Drew can be a world champion.  That’s so cute.  Snap suplex gets two for McIntyre.

Rey fights him off and uses some of his speed/high flying stuff to fight Drew off.  The fans really don’t seem to care as we head to the floor.  Drew rams him into the railing in a swinging powerbomb motion as we take a break.  Back with Drew holding Rey in an armbar.  Booker thinks Drew is Wade Barrett for some reason.  I thought it was Thomas Tallahassee Jefferson or something but whatever.

Drew counters a headscissors into a backbreaker and we hit the chinlock.  Booker messes up the name again and it’s back off to the armbar.  Rey avoids a corner charge to send Drew’s shoulder into the post.  Seated senton off the top and here comes Rey.  Springboard cross body gets two.  Big boot nearly takes Rey’s head off for two.

Powerbomb is blocked so Drew shifts to a hot shot.  Rey escapes and lands on the middle rope and hits a nice tornado DDT for another two.  In a very odd looking finish, Rey reverses a clothesline into a 619 and goes up for the splash.  The odd looking part is that Rey jumps for the splash while McIntyre is still on his feet.  Drew falls quickly and the splash hits to end this at 9:20.

Rating: B-. This started pretty boring but the stuff after the break had a lot more near falls and better looking moves, making it a better match.  I don’t think the ending was ever in doubt, but that’s what the position of jobber to the stars was invented for and that’s exactly what Drew is at this point.  That’s kind of a shame too but it is what it is.

Edge is walking to the ring and various people applaud him and hug him.  He runs into Kane and gets a handshake, I guess which says “sorry for the whole causing your dad’s death thing.  His….3^rd death I believe.”

Here’s Edge in his suit and sunglasses to surrender the title.  The fans chant thank you Edge and he says he’ll never get tired of hearing that.  He says this has made him think about a lot of things, like his entrance and how insane some of the matches he’s been in have been.  Wow Edge has been in a lot of gimmick matches.  Edge thinks his music is the coolest in WWE and he thanks Alter Bridge for it.  He wants to do his entrance one more time.  He’s going to go up the ramp and come out to the song one more time.  And that’s exactly what he does.

Edge does his full entrance again, complete with pyro and heads back to the ring.  Cool moment there.  He says he’s out of shape already because that tired him out.  Edge talks about how good it was that the doctors caught this early before he got hurt even worse and couldn’t get up.  He’s happy about everything he gets to do now, including wearing one of his two suits.  He bought it for $100 at JC Penny.  Well at least he’s honest.

His first world title came here in Albany so this place is special to him.  He also came up with the name Edge in Albany.  Edge’s mom is here tonight too.  What’s her name?  Cliff?  The fans chant “Thank you mom” which is rather funny.  Edge thanks her for everything and says that without her he wouldn’t be here.  Well yeah there was that whole giving birth thing.

He shifts over to the title and says that everyone holds a piece of it.  But now it’s time to do what he came here to do: relinquish the title.  Edge thanks the fans again and puts the belt down in the middle of the ring before leaving to go hug his mom.  That’s a sad moment at first but at the end of the day, it’s for his own good for the sake of his neck and his health.  Classy speech too.

That’s What I Am trailer.

Rosa Mendes says something to Edge in Spanish and Edge says he has no idea what she just said but she had him at quiero.  Alberto pops up behind him and offers a handshake but Edge leaves.

Kelly Kelly vs. Layla

 

On the way to the ring we recap the tag match last week with Michelle’s bad back.  Josh says he doesn’t buy it and asks Michelle about it.  She says no one ever accused him of being smart.  Layla goes off on Kelly to start but gets taken down and hammered on.  Cole and Michael chat a bit as Booker asks about the back injury.  Out to the floor and Kelly rams Layla’s face into the floor.  Layla is almost sent through the Cole Mine and is almost counted out before Michelle throws her back in.  Kelly gets the easy pin at 2:08.

Laycool argues post match and Michelle drills her.

The Raw Rewind is the announcement of the tag match at the PPV.

Booker wants to know how Cole could be that stupid.  Cole apologizes to Jack which I doubt will get him anywhere.

We get the same video from Raw talking about how awesome HHH vs. Undertaker was.

Battle Royal

 

Big Show, Brodus Clay, Chavo Guerrero, Chris Masters, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater, Jack Swagger, JTG, Justin Gabriel, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, Trent Barreta, Tyler Reks, Wade Barrett, Yoshi Tatsu

There is a TON of time left for this so it’s getting the big match treatment.  Alberto is on the floor also.  Kane comes out last when most people came in during the commercial.  Booker says someone has to make a pact with someone else.  There we go and I’m not going to try to call this for the most part.  Show throws JTG out to get us down 5% already.  Barreta tries to get Show out and guess what happens.  Yeah we’re down to 18.

Something I’ve always wondered: other than the final guys, is there a set order to the eliminations?  I mean I know the big stars have marching orders, but for guys like say Chavo (assuming he doesn’t make it to the final few people) is he supposed to stay in for like 8 minutes and then go when he has an opening to be eliminated, or is he told that he goes out say 7^th via Trouble in Paradise for instance?  I’ve always been curious about that.  Anyone know anything regarding that?

Anyway, Show gets the knockout punch to put Slater out and get us down to 17.  Slater is a great seller.  Show charges at Jackson and BOTH go out!  Wow I wouldn’t have bet on that one.  Del Rio applauding that is a nice touch.  Swagger and Reks can’t get Kofi out as we take a break.  We come back and nothing has changed.  They’re in the exact same place with maybe 3 seconds of time going by.  Ok then.  For the sake of timing at the end of the match I won’t be adding the 3:30 for that.

We get to the part of the show where everyone hammers on everyone and nothing is really happening.  Kofi fires some kicks at Swagger as Cole sucks up to Swagger.  Cody goes over the top but catches himself on the apron, only for Rey to hit him in the face and put him down.  Rey doubles up and gets Hawkins out with a forward roll out of an electric chair.  Kind of like a victory roll minus the pin.

Brodus takes out I think McIntyre as Chavo jumps on Clay’s back.  Chavo is gone and yes it was McIntyre.  Kane and Clay have our battle of the monsters and Kane beats him down with ease until like an idiot he tries a chokeslam.  Headbutt to the chest stops Kane but the big fried freak manages to fight back and send the big fat tub of goo up and over as we take a break.  Nothing changes again so we don’t add in 3:30 here either.  That’s really weird to see.

Barrett tries to throw Kofi but Kofi hangs on and tries to skin the cat.  I say tries to because he gets tossed out by the IC Champion.  We’re down to roughly 8-9 at this point.  There goes Reks at the hands of Christian and we are indeed down to eight.  The remaining competitors: Swagger, Mysterio, Kane, Christian, Tatsu, Gabriel, Masters and Barrett.  As I type that Christian tosses Yoshi and we’re down to seven.

Booker says everyone should go after Kane which isn’t a bad idea.  Kane goes after the members of Corre but they manage to toss him to get us to six.  They’re the only two standing as well.  Barrett goes after Masters who fights back with some valor.  Masters is sent to the apron and like an IDIOT puts the Masterlock on while on the apron.  Barrett breaks it with relative ease and kicks Masters in the face to eliminate him.  Gabriel sneaks up on Barrett and we’re down to four!  It’s Christian, Gabriel, Mysterio and Swagger.

Rey vs. Gabriel and Swagger vs. Christian are the pairings.  Rey sends Gabriel into the 619 position but can’t connect.  Gabriel charges, only to get caught in a headscissors and put out.  Christian has put Swagger down but not out and squares off with Rey.  Christian is put down but not out and Swagger tosses Rey but Rey holds on.  Rey comes back with a rana off the top that sends Swagger into 619 position.

Cole jumps up on the apron and takes the brunt of the move to score points with Swagger I guess.  Rey goes after Swagger when he realizes what’s going on and tries what can best be described as a monkey flip position to get him out.  Swagger holds on though and tosses Rey to get us down to Christian vs. Swagger.  Vader Bomb is countered but Christian can’t shove him out.

Back to Swagger in control as Cole is more or less dead on the floor.  They’re both on the apron and Christian tries the pendulum kick, only for Swagger to catch the ankle in the ankle lock for a nice counter.  Christian tries to toss him but Swagger kicks him in the chest to break that up with ease.  Christian is tossed to the apron but like an idiot heel, Swagger stops looking and Christian gets back up.  Del Rio tries to pull Christian off but can’t do it either.  Swagger charges and Christian puts him out at 17:00.

Rating: B-. Good match here with Swagger vs. Christian being a nice ending to it.  I don’t think anyone doubted who would win but it’s the right choice given who he’s replacing.  Battle royals are hard to grade but this one certainly was pretty good.  Nothing was bad and it didn’t get boring, so this worked fine.

Edge comes out to celebrate and Del Rio stares them down.  This is where I’d bet the show goes off the air.  I’m sorry if this is confusing but this is the version I found at the site I use and I can’t watch it as it airs.

Christian gets a mic and it’s time for a 5 second pose!  They even do the hands at the sides which is very cool to see.  The locker room comes out and everyone, faces and heels alike, applaud Edge.  That’s always cool to see.  Edge starts crying as he and Big Show hug.  Chavo and Rey come in and hug him also.  And here comes HHH!

He’s getting the Vince walk going so you can tell he’s waiting to get in charge.  The ring clears out other than Edge.  He goes to the apron but climbs back in and picks up the mic.  He says he didn’t know this was coming and it was the ultimate show of respect.  Edge talks about how this is great and he loves being respected by his peers.  He especially talks about Taker (not there) and Kane who he calls one of his best friends in the business.

He talks about everyone that sets up the show, down to the production people and the graphic designers and the catering.  If he goes into the Hall of Fame he can thank all of them too.  He even thanks the writers (yes he said writers) and names a few them individually.  He thanks Vince, specifically saying it’s not Mr. McMahon.  Vince apparently was the one that thought he could run with the World Title.  He’s afraid to thank Booker because it would mean an Edge-a-Rooni which hurt the only time he tried it at Wrestlemania.

The fans chant Hall of Fame and Edge says he wants to thank people he’s worked with over the years.  He says Vickie and the people boo.  Edge says that’s a sign of how great she is.  He thanks Lita for all the fun they’ve had over the years.  “Hey get your minds out of the gutters…..even though we did.”  And now, he thanks Christian.  He talks bout them growing up together and wanting to be tag champions and at Wrestlemania 16, that’s exactly what they did.

Christian has been there all the time for him and Edge wants to see where he goes.  The Edgeheads should get behind him if they could.  He says he’s said enough and the fans boo slightly.  He says he doesn’t have any spears left in him and he’s gotten to live his dream.  He has no complaints and he’s had an amazing life and a lot of that is due to the fans.  If anyone sees him come up and talk to him.

He’ll always be part of the WWE in some respect so we’ll probably see him again.  He’s going off the radar for awhile though so he can be with his dogs.  A fan shouts to give his mom a hug and he says like you have to tell me to do that.  A huge thank you Edge chant takes us back to Alter Bridge.  Edge goes out to thank the commentators and high five some fans.  He hugs his family and goes up the ramp, throws his arms up and walks to the back, ending the show.  I really hope this is put on DVD somewhere at some point as it’s awesome stuff.

Overall Rating: B. Good show here and the rating isn’t including the post show stuff.  They had to throw this together at the last minute due to the injury and we got good stuff out of it.  The post show stuff was a nice treat that you should track down as it’s a very classy exit for him.  Good show that handled a surprising change very well and left you with a good feeling.

Results

Ezekiel Jackson b. Kofi Kingston – Release Mat Slam

Rey Mysterio b. Drew McIntyre – Top Rope Splash

Kelly Kelly b. Layla – Kelly pinned Layla after ramming her into the Cole Mine

Christian won a battle royal by last eliminating Jack Swagger

NXT
Date: April 12, 2011
Location: Times Union Center, Albany, New York
Commentators: William Regal, Todd Grisham

Another week here in NXT Land as hopefully we get the announcement of the first elimination.  This season has gone on for a long time already and thankfully they’ve shifted away from the whole obsession with challenges.  I can live with boring wrestling as that’s at least not harming my intelligence.  Also tonight we get Maryse’s decision and reply to DiBiase’s ultimatum last week.  Let’s get to it.

We recap last week’s stuff with Maryse and DiBiase.

Striker brings out Maryse who says she can find other millionaires besides Ted.  She picks NXT.  Well that was abrupt.  So she’s single now?  Anyway here are the Rookies.  The hosts go over the Redemption Points standings which are as follows:

O’Neil 9

Young 7

Saxton 4

Everyone Else 0

The challenge tonight is the Power of the Punch with the punching bag thing.  First up is Saxton who gets 649.  Second is Novak with 465.  Third is 469.  Regal wants royalties from the title of this.  O’Brian gets 770 to give Rat Boy the lead.  O’Neil blasts it to give him 801 and Cannon says he’s here to win championships and is above this so O’Neil wins.  Could they push this guy any stronger?  He gets four Redemption Points.  Cannon gets in Titus’ face and says this is about him rather than everyone else.  He hits on Maryse who more or less says get out of his face.

Cue Yoshi who gets between them.  Lucky gets mad at him and challenges Yoshi for a match and invites Maryse to be at ringside.

O’Neil vs. Young later.

First though: a new WWE trailer!!!  This is called “That’s What I Am” and it has Randy Orton and Ed Harris in it.  It’s set in the 60s and appears to be about bullying.  Orton looks to be in about one scene in it, which might be the best idea possible.

Titus O’Neil vs. Darren Young

 

Pre match Darren yells at Horny and calls him a bootleg leprechaun.  Chavo warns Darren, saying that Horny is tough.  Darren takes him down with ease and we’re in the chinlock less than a minute in.  After a two count it’s off to a Cravate.  Regal wants to eat Hornswoggle apparently.  Amazingly enough we get the explanation for the arm pose during Titus’ bark: it’s the symbol of his fraternity from college.  As we have that explained to us, Darren yells at Horny and gets rolled up by Titus for the pin at 2:30.  Match was dull while it lasted.

Post match Young beats up Titus with a gutbuster and goes after Horny.  Chavo tells Young to chill and focus so he lets Horny go.

Here’s JTG and we get a recap of his bet with Kozlov.  The idea is JTG can make Novak look more fly than Kozlov could make O’Brian a beast.  Regal talked to someone at Rosetta Stone (a company that helps you learn other languages) and figured out what they were talking about.  Funny stuff.

Here’s Novak, looking kind of like Slam Master J if you remember him.  Novak just says no as JTG hasn’t gotten him a single point.  Aren’t they just tiebreakers?  The guy that Vanilla Ice looks at and says “Dude you look like an idiot” yells at Regal about what Regal has been saying about him.  Whenever Regal is ready, Novak will show him what he can do.  It was meant as a threat.

Jacob Novak vs. Byron Saxton

 

Novak is in jeans here.  Regal talks about the people he’s helped along in their careers and how they’ve all turned on him.  He’s rather upset over this as Saxton gets a clothesline to put Novak on the floor.  Regal says he always wiped his feet before he got in the ring because that was his temple.  Regal is really ticked off about this actually and it’s kind of cool to hear.

No one is really taking over here until Saxton tries to get some offense going.  Bulldog gets two.  Regal is talking about Japanese wrestling for some reason.  He said wrestlers also so expect the debut of Arn Anderson on commentary next week.  Big boot by Novak ends this abruptly at 3:40.

Rating: D+. Well I think everyone knew that it would be Novak winning here which is fine.  He’s dying for some kind of character and I guess this is better than nothing.  They’re trying at least so points for that.  The problem is that Novak is boring both on the mic and in the ring.  If he was actually entertaining in any possible way this would help but he simply isn’t at all.

We get the Edge retirement speech last night.  It blows my mind that this is real still but if Edge is losing feeling in his arms and is that hurt, by all means he should retire.  There’s no reason for him to risk paralysis or death for the sake of one more run, especially when he’s got perhaps the best resume in WWE history.  I got to watch him earlier this year at a house show and he was awesome there and had probably the match of the night.  I won’t call it a shame though, as like I said if this makes his health last longer, more power to him.  This eats up about 10 minutes.

Lucky Cannon vs. Yoshi Tatsu

 

Maryse is on commentary here.  Regal doesn’t like the Titantron video of Tatsu because it’s mainly Regal getting kicked in the head.  Apparently Lucky’s nickname, Mr. Delish, is the name of a French dish made of potatoes and cheese.  Ok then.  Cannon says it’s about HIM and Maryse says it’s about her and as long as she has chocolate, credit cards and stilettos she’s happy.  All Cannon for the early part of this until Cannon walks into a kick to the head on the floor.  Yoshi takes over back in the ring and fires off some kicks.  Spin wheel kick off the top ends this clean at 3:08.

Rating: C-. Just a match here but the commentary was funny.  Maryse is wittier than you would give her credit for.  Not terrible but it played off the main story of the show which is the right idea for this show.  They don’t have much to work with so using it well like this is a good sign.  Not bad but just a bookend for the angle.

Maryse kisses Yoshi post match and his eyes are hilarious.

Overall Rating: B-. Amazingly enough this was a pretty entertaining show.  The lack of stupid challenges and the rise of WRESTLING MATCHES on here helps a lot.  I’m more than happy with three matches a night and one quick challenge.  They have small stories here but they really do need to cut some of the fat here.  Probably the best show of the season, which is a good sign.

Results

Titus O’Neil won the Power of the Punch Challenge

Titus O’Neil b. Darren Young – Rollup

Jacob Novak b. Byron Saxton – Big Boot

Yoshi Tatsu b. Lucky Cannon – Top Rope Spinwheel Kick

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 11, 2011
Location: Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Josh Matthews

Tonight we’ll likely begin the build to Extreme Rules.  We didn’t have much time last week as the focus was on Mania fallout and of course next year’s Wrestlemania main event being set up.  It should be interesting to see what Cena does to fill the next 50+ weeks.  No matches on the Raw side have been announced for the PPV so we should get something tonight.  Let’s get to it.

On Tough Enough there was a teaser that Edge says his career might be over.  That came out of left field.

Cole gets a special introduction as the only undefeated superstar in the WWE.  “What’s up Jerry?”

Here’s Cena to open the show properly.  He talks about how this is a great time to be in the WWE Universe because last week there was an announcement made that turned WWE upside down.  Cena talks about the announcement that was so big it takes a year to digest.  The match can’t just be a match though, so that match needs to be for the WWE Championship.  Therefore Cena needs to win the WWE Championship, so he issues a challenge for right now.

Instead he gets Randy Orton.  Orton says that Cena may want a title shot but he had his already and lost.  Orton says Cena should step aside and let someone that won their match at Wrestlemania get a shot.  Cena gets ready to reply but here’s John Morrison.  He says we’ve seen this show (referring to Cena vs. Orton) before but now it’s better because John Morrison is involved.

Before that though here come Vickie and Dolph.  Vickie says she should get the shot because she pinned Morrison.  But if not her then Dolph.  Ziggler says he isn’t here on Raw to waste his time on Cena.  He’s never faced Miz for the title so the line starts with him.  Don’t worry though because everyone will get title shots when he’s champion.

We’re not done yet because here’s R-Truth.  He says that the gospel truth is that he’s never had a WWE Championship match.  I think there’s a reason for that Truth.  An e-mail says that there’s a new cobncept match.  It’s a 5 man gauntlet match.  Tonight (presumably) there will be two starting and another enters at a preset interval.  You can’t get a win until all five are in and the winner meets Miz at Extreme Rules.  I think those are the rules at least.  It was a bit hard to keep track of.

Lawler vs. Swagger later.  If Lawler wins he gets a rematch with Cole.

There’s a video of a baby doll with its head taken off.  You can see the person holding it, clearly the soon to be debuting Awesome Kong.  She laughs crazily.

Divas Title: Eve Torres vs. Brie Bella

 

Brie allegedly won a Divas battle royal to win this shot.  Wasn’t that weeks ago and she got the shot already?  Eve brings a marker to have an X put on Nikki’s hand so we know she’s on the floor.  That’s rather intelligent.  Brie takes her down to start but Eve makes her comeback with a dropkick and the standing moonsault for two.  Eve gets her in the Tree of Woe and when she’s being taken off there’s a switch.  While Nikki is being taken out Brie sneaks up on her and an X-Factor gives Brie the title at 2:20.  Weak match but all the girls looked good from a looks perspective at least.

Sin Cara debuts next.

Back with Eve being all upset about losing and Gail comes in to say she knows how it feels.  Eve says all the Divas are the same.  Natalya gets the same response.  Tamina walks up to get something and just keeps walking.  Ok then.

Sin Cara vs. Primo

 

The fans cheer for Sin Cara as Primo hammers away.  He tries to toss Cara into the air so Sin Cara lands on his shoulders and backflips off.  Out to the floor and a slingshot rana sends Primo flying.  Primo is thrown back in but gets a baseball slide to send Cara back out.  We hit a modified chinlock as Primo is getting way too much offense in here.

Cara chops away and gets another rana to get the crowd going a bit more.  Powerbomb is countered into a very fast and hard sunset flip.  Primo goes up but gets kicked in the head.  They stand on the top rope and Primo falls, sending Cara to the floor.  A C4 2000 (Downward Spiral with a backflip off the top) ends Primo at 4:30.

Rating: D+. I haven’t seen this big of a blown debut in a long time.  Primo controlled the majority of the match and whenever Cara got something going, Primo would hit something to slow him down.  You couple that with the botch at the end and this was a glorified train wreck.  At least the ending was good.

We get a clip from the end of Raw last week with Corre running in.  During the live chat on NXT last week Howard Finkel said that was very stupid of them to do.  When the Fink comes down on someone, that’s not a good sign.

Corre is in the ring and Barrett says he used to see them as equals, but if they can’t hold up their end of the bargain then there’s no point in continuing.  Gabriel takes offense to it and says the 450 has taken out more people and he’s a 3 time tag champion.  Slater says WE are three time tag champions.  Jackson says he made Corre legit.  He gets cut off by Santino’s music though.

Here are Santino, Henry, Bryan and Bourne.  Santino says if they’re the Corre then they’re the A.P.P.L.E.: Allied People Powered (by) Loathing Everything (you stand for).  This fight is for Kozlov so APPLE POWERS UNITE!  And yes Santino really said that.

Corre vs. Apple

 

This is joined in progress as we come back.  The Apple name is hilarious if nothing else.  Corre is in control hammering away on Daniel Bryan.  I wonder if he regrets leaving being the king of the indies yet.  Gabriel gets a hilo for two.  After a nice long beating it’s the hot tag to Santino who cleans house.  Cole makes apple jokes the whole time.  Everything breaks down and Bryan throws out a suicide dive to take out Barrett.  Cobra is loaded up and a reverse DDT ends Santino at 3:37.

Rating: D+. Nothing special at all here other than to show that Corre is mostly united at least.  Bryan sells very well so the match was about as good as it was going to get given what they had to work with.  Not a terrible match but all things considered it was just ok.  At least the right team won.

We talk about Lawler vs. Swagger and here’s JR to be in Lawler’s corner.  Cole makes fun of Ross so JR tries to break into the Cole Mine.  When that fails he hits Cole with his hat.  Jerry gets up to take out Swagger and we go to a break.

Jerry Lawler vs. Jack Swagger

 

If Lawler wins he gets a rematch with Cole at Extreme Rules and gets to pick the stipulations.  If Swagger wins then Cole never has to face Lawler again.  Cole and Ross are at ringside and are on microphones.  Swagger controls with basic stuff to start, namely hammering on Jerry.  Cole keeps talking trash as Jerry makes a brief comeback, including taking a brief victory lap around the ring.

Headlock by Swagger is reversed by a belly to back suplex.  Ankle lock goes on and Jerry does as Ross says by getting to the ropes.  Cole shouts MOMMY at Jerry during the hold.  Josh isn’t talking during the match.  Swagger grabs an armbar and cranks on it a bit.  Ross: “Your guy had you in an ankle lock and now has a wrist lock.  Show’s how stupid he is!”

Cole calls Swagger Jackie as he rams Jerry into the buckle.  Lawler Lawlers Up and hammers away.  Cole keeps running his mouth so JR finally blasts him.  The distraction allows Jerry to grab a rollup for the pin at 5:18.  Swagger’s face after it is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Rating: C-. A lot of that is for the commentary/talking alone.  JR’s line is one of the most obvious yet brilliant lines I’ve heard in a long time and shows the basic lack of psychology that is present in wrestling today.  Not a great match or anything but given who was in there, this was solid.  And no, I’m not saying this was better than the previous two matches.  They’re not on the same scale and shouldn’t be.

Cole rips into Swagger post match, blaming him for everything and saying he paid good money for his help.  It was all Swagger’s fault that he lost.  Then he slaps Swagger and runs.  Jerry grabs the mic and says we need to talk about Extreme Rules.  He picks the obvious tag match: JR/Lawler vs. Swagger/Cole.  Smart thinking actually.  Jerry reminds Swagger that Cole just slapped him in the face.  Cole panics as Swagger looks like he’s about to eat him.

We get a video package of wrestlers both past and present talking about how great Undertaker vs. HHH was.

Edge is talking to Cena and will be heading to the ring next.

Here’s Edge as JR, King and Matthews are doing commentary now.  Please, I beg of you, pick a team and stick with it.  This rotating lineup in the middle of the show is getting annoying.  Anyway Edge says he’s going to ramble a lot in this.  He says a lot of people thinks WWE doesn’t hurt and he wishes that wasn’t true.  8 years ago he had a neck injury and had spinal fusion surgery to correct it.

He knew he was wrestling on borrowed time but recently he’s been losing the feeling in his arms.  He’s taken some tests and managed to make it through Wrestlemania, but the tests tell him he has to retire.  The doctors have said he has no choice but thankfully they’ve found out now and he’s not going to be in a wheelchair.

Edge breaks down into tears as I’m thinking this isn’t a storyline at all.  The fans chant thank you Edge and he says thank you guys.  Edge talked to Christian who has been his best friend for 27 years.  Edge was mad at himself but he’s still a fan of the WWE.  He talks about going to Maple Leaf Gardens with Christian and seeing guys like Demolition, the LOD and Hogan.

Then he went to Wrestlemania 6 and saw Hulk Hogan vs. the Ultimate Warrior and said he’d be doing that.  Fast forward 18 years and it was him in there against the Undertaker.  Now he’s won more titles than anyone in WWE history and had his last match in a main event at Wrestlemania and gets to retire as World Heavyweight Champion.

Edge has been in this business for 19 years and he grew up in front of these people.  He runs through his career from running through the streets of New York to doing posing for the benefits of those with flash photography to a live sex celebration (“luckily with Lita and not Vickie Guerrero”) and he hopes that he’s earned the fans’ respect.

He’s going to miss this and tomorrow he doesn’t have to wear tights and now he gets to eat ice cream.  He says he’d do it again, even getting hired by JR.  He drops the mic and gets a standing ovation.  No Alberto, no interruptions, nothing else.  If this was a work, give this man an Emmy right now.  He does his pose on the stage and his music plays him out.  Heavy stuff man.

We’re back and everyone, faces and heels, is applauding Edge.  Even Vickie, Dolph, Corre, everyone.  Dustin Rhodes is there in a shirt and tie.  Still no Alberto or Christian.  No word on the title situation yet but I’d assume Christian will take his place in the ladder match for the vacant title.

Cue Miz to a nice pop actually.  He’s on commentary here.

John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison

 

Two will start and then it’s a standard gauntlet match, last man standing wins.  Ziggler locks on a chinlock after some back and forth stuff.  Lawler asks Miz who he’d prefer to face and Miz says he can’t hear him over his awesomeness.  Josh is reading something and not seeming to pay attention.

Orton fires off some offense and looks down at Miz.  Ziggler hides in the ropes to avoid the RKO.  He can’t avoid the elevated DDT though and Orton sets for the RKO.  The Nexus returns though and distracts Orton, allowing him to be pinned at 2:43.  Well I didn’t see that one coming.  Orton has to fights off the Nexus but Ryan takes him out.  Orton is left laying as we take a break.

Back with Truth vs. Ziggler.  Miz runs down Truth, wondering which version of him would come up.  Lawler asks who Miz would rather face and Miz says he’ll face either of them.  Chinlock goes on by Ziggler as Miz talks about not getting respect.  If Cena wanted icon vs. icon he should have challenged Miz.  Miz says he’s not a talker.  Lawler responds with a facepalm.

The in ring stuff is rather boring, mainly because everyone knows Truth doesn’t have a chance here of winning the whole thing.  Truth hammers away with right hands and gets a sitout gordbuster for two.  Ziggler comes back with a neckbreaker as the fans aren’t exactly thrilled by this.  Out of nowhere Truth gets a jumping downward spiral to put eliminate Ziggler after 4:00 (all times other than the final are of the two in the ring, not overall time).

Morrison is next and will face Truth after the break.  They exchange a bunch of pinfalls to start us off until Morrison hits a breakdancing legdrop and throws on a chinlock.  Miz keeps bashing everyone and is sounding like a less insulting version of Mystery Science Theater.  They hit the floor and a double clothesline puts both guys down.  Both guys slide back in at nine and we keep going.

Morrison gets all angry and takes down Truth with some running offense, including a leg lariat.  Truth reverses into a suplex/Stunner.  He picks Morrison up for a suplex but shifts him to the side and catches him in a Stunner.  Cool looking move.  Morrison gets up and hits his kick off the middle rope but misses Starship Pain.  The jumping Downward Spiral sends Truth to the final two at 4:51.

Cue Cena as it’s him vs. Truth for the shot at Miz.  I didn’t see this one coming.  We’re going to start this up after a break.  During the break we’re told Edge will surrender the title on Friday.  This looks more real every second.  Back and we’re ready to go.  Miz comments on the dueling chants and Cena hits a dropkick to the champ’s shock.  Cena hammers away and hits a new move: a combination powerslam/side slam for two.

Release fisherman’s suplex gets two and Cena goes up top.  Top rope Fameasser gets two and I have a feeling this isn’t going to be as easy as it seemed.  Truth makes the comeback and “hits” (read as it misses by about 8 inches) his spinning forearm for two.  The downward spiral (that needs a name) can’t hit and Cena initiates his ending sequence.  Cena sets for the FU but Miz and Riley run in and hit both guys at the same time for a double DQ I guess.  The last pairing ran 5:36 and overall counting commercials it ran 30:40.

Rating: C+. The grade is for the whole thing rather than any individual segment.  Hard to really grade this as there isn’t much of a precedent for it and the whole match was choppy.  Luckily this had a lot of time as the matches where people are eliminated in about a minute are rather annoying as they’re ridiculous any other time of the year.  Not bad, but hard to grade.  Ending was good though.

Miz says there’s no #1 contender and we get an E-Mail.  There are now 2 #1 contenders: Cena and R-Truth, and there will be a triple threat match at the PPV.  Odd choice but ok then.  Cena and Truth have a weird bromance moment for a bit as they slap each other on the back rather fiercely and Truth glares at Cena as he leaves.

Overall Rating: B. Well it can’t be said nothing happened here.  We have a new stable (and yes I know it’s a joke), a new #1 contender, a new champion and one of the biggest stars of all time retired.  The wrestling here clearly wasn’t the point and for a show with this much going on that’s more than understandable.

Results

Brie Bella b. Eve Torres – Sitout Facebuster

Sin Cara b. Primo – C4 2000

Corre b. Apple – Slater pinned Marella after a reverse DDT

Jerry Lawler b. Jack Swagger – Rollup
Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison went to a double disqualification when Alex Riley and the Miz interfered

Smackdown
Date: April 8, 2011
Location: Times Union Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

We’re kind of in the new year here on Fridays as Edge is still World Champion.  Tonight we’ll probably start the build to Extreme Rules.  Since we’ve kind of passed go here, it’s rather hard to tell what else is going to go on.  It should be interesting as things usually are on this show.  Let’s get to it.

The theme song opens us up.  I guess the enemy this week is wrestling as this isn’t a wrestling company anymore.  The fact that Vince thinks this will get them more accepted by the mainstream is absolutely hysterical and head shaking at the same time.

Cue Alberto minus his car.  Is there a reason why he doesn’t have one as he apparently has like 50 of them?  He says that destiny can be delayed as it was at Wrestlemania.  He blames Edge and Christian for delaying his destiny and destroying his car.  It’s not about the money though, but those cars are like his children.  He starts to talk about revenge but is cut off by Edge.

Edge comes out in a tow truck which is pulling the Rolls Royce.  Nice bit there.  He says that if this car is like his child, Del Rio needs to love it unconditionally.  With a little tender loving care it can be fine again.  Edge pulls out some spray paint and writes something that I think was just scribbles.  Del Rio says he almost got him to tap out at Mania but Edge points out that he didn’t do it.  Alberto wants a rematch and Edge says no because there are people more deserving of title shots.

The driver of the tow truck honks the horn and it’s Christian.  Edge says Christian has beaten Del Rio multiple times so obviously Christian is ahead of Del Rio in line.  Here’s Teddy who makes Del Rio vs. Christian for the shot at Extreme Rules.  The match at the PPV will be a ladder match.

We’ll get to see Cena and Rock again tonight.  By that I mean the same thing from Raw.  They say highlights though which helps a bit.

There’s a rematch of the 8 man tag from Mania next that Josh says has a twist tonight that they’ll explain when we come back.  Now I’m no genius, but given that the graphic of the match says “2 out of 3 falls”, I’m thinking it’s in a cage.  I could be wrong though.

Corre vs. Big Show/Kane/Kofi Kingston/Santino Marella

 

We get a clip from the PPV of Show knocking out Slater and that looked AWESOME.  Kofi’s tights are lime green tonight.  It looked like there was a small edit during Kofi’s entrance but I could be wrong.  The video and song seemed to jump forward a bit.  Gabriel vs. Santino to start us off.  Slater comes in quickly and Corre takes over.  Remember that this is 2/3 falls.

Santino reverses a right hand into a throw and it’s off to Kane.  Show beats on him for a bit also and we get the Andre/Snuka splash with Kofi on top of Slater for two.  He sets for Trouble in Paradise but Gabriel and Barrett make the save as we go to a break.  Back with Kane working over the Intercontinental Champion in the corner.  Booker sounds out of breath for some reason.

Off to Jackson to face Kane.  Jackson gets Kane into the corner and Corre alternates in and out very quickly to hammer away on him.  Finally it’s off to Gabriel who gets a missile dropkick on Kane for two.  Kane finally remembers he’s fighting a cruiserweight and launches Gabriel to the mat.  Off to Kofi who cleans house and gets the first fall off a top rope cross body at 5:30 shown of 9:00.  Kofi looks shocked that he actually got a pin.

We take another break and come back with Slater vs. Santino.  Booker keeps going on and on about being ahead on points or something like that.  Santino escapes a sleeper but is taken down by a forearm for two.  Santino speeds things up and loads up the Cobra (I still can’t believe a move that Jon Lovitz taught him caught on like it did) but gets his head kicked off by Barrett.  Wasteland ties us up at 7:23 shown of 14:23.

Why doesn’t Barrett just cover him again?  There was no mention of a rest period or anything like that.  Barrett hammers away and it’s off to Slater again.  Jackson comes in and this should be a slaughter.  Clothesline in the corner gets two as Big Show DIVES to make the save.  Off to Gabriel and we hit the chinlock.  Show starts a weak Santino chant.

Gabriel misses a cannonball kind of move and it’s off to Kane.  Big side slam to Barrett gets two as does the top rope clothesline.  Everything breaks down as Corre takes over.  Kane sets for a chokeslam but all of Corre comes in to take him out for the DQ in the third fall at 11:10 shown of 18:10 (assuming 3:30 for commercials.  I watch a preairing from Australia so it’s hard to say for sure).

Rating: B-. Nice long match here to treat this like a match that deserved to be on Wrestlemania.  I like that they allowed this to play out so that Corre doesn’t look completely inept.  Also, when’s the last time you remember getting a nearly 20 minute match on free TV after getting a 15 minute one on Raw?  This worked rather well and was better than I expected.

The winners beat up Corre post match, including a triple (Santino helped) chokeslam to Jackson.

Sin Cara is still coming, even though he’s already been on Raw.

Cody Rhodes vs. Trent Barreta

 

I love Cody’s character right now.  At the forums I post on someone made a great point: Cody’s reaction to this is all the more psychological because everyone can see he looks exactly the same but in his mind he’s hideous now.  That’s very interesting.  Cody takes him down quickly and hammers away.  Trent gets a springboard dropkick to get two though so maybe this won’t be a total squash.  Russian leg sweep gets two for Cody.  This is the aggressive Rhodes as he sends Trent into the post shoulder first and Cross Rhodes ends this at 1:30.  Ok so maybe it was a squash.  Too short to rate.

Post match Cody beats on Trent some more until Rey makes the save.

We get the Rock vs. Cena confrontation from Raw again.  Eats up almost 15 minutes.  I get that it’s a major moment, but you could easily trim it down by at least half.  There’s no real need to use 1/8 of your total show and about 1/5 of your TV time to just show a segment from the more watched show.  I get that it’s huge, but they do this every week.  I’m curious about Corre if nothing else.

Edge says he hopes Christian wins because he’d love to have a ladder match with Christian.  Christian implies he’d win in the ladder match and says Edge can cheer for Alberto if he likes.  The camera stays on Christian after Edge leaves and he looks at the belt which Edge forgot.  Edge comes back and Christian says keep an eye on that, referring to the belt.  No sign of tension or anything here.

Laycool vs. Kelly Kelly/Beth Phoenix

 

Is Natalya injured or something?  I haven’t seen her in months.  Apparently she’s been on Superstars.  Ok then.  Josh asks Cole why he’s not in his singlet tonight.  Cole almost says he’s not wrestling tonight but cuts himself off to say entertaining.  The level of idiocy of this continues to astound me.  So remember people: this is an entertainment feature, not a match.  So in other words we have girls in small outfits performing choreographed moves while coming out to hip hop/R&B music while on a platform above the guests and gyrating around with other women.  Sound familiar to anyone else?

Beth vs. Michelle to start us off with Beth destroying her.  Michelle is knocked into Layla so Layla is yelled at.  Backbreaker gets two for Beth.  Layla is tagged in as Laycool argues.  After a scary press slam, Kelly is brought in and does her Tarantula kind of move to Layla.  X Factor gets two.  Layla reaches for a tag and McCool falls to the floor like Layla did, allowing Kelly to roll Layla up for the pin at 2:50.  Far more story advancement than match and that’s fine.

Laycool argues in the aisle.

We get a clip from Raw of Cole spraying barbecue sauce on Lawler.  In the arena Cole asks who shot JR.  HE DID!  Cole brings out Swagger who says training Cole was easy because Cole is smart and talented.  Swagger declares Cole the new Mr. Wrestlemania.  They take a victory lap but some music hits.  It’s Sin Cara who does his trampoline jump into the ring and takes Swagger down using a variety of speed moves including a corkscrew plancha to the floor.

We get the end of the Miz/Austin clip from Raw which was good.

Layla comes up to Michelle in the back and hands her a paper.  They’re going to have couples counseling.  Michelle says they’re not a couple.  Layla says just show up.

Decent length video recapping the Hall of Fame inductions.

Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio

 

Lot of time for this one.  We take a break before Christian’s entrance which is a nice perk because it means there will be some more time before the first break in the match.  Edge comes out to be on commentary.  Edge isn’t sure who he prefers to face as Christian is good with the ladders also.  Edge has been in 19 ladder matches.  That’s insane.

Christian takes Del Rio down with a headlock to start us off.  Both are sent to the floor at different times with Christian being the last one in the ring.  Big dropkick sends Del Rio crashing onto the floor again.  We take a break and come back with Christian being slammed into the steps.  Del Rio takes over and chokes him on the ropes back in the ring.

Time to start on the arm now as is Del Rio’s custom.  Christian fires off a bit right hand and goes up which gets him nowhere.  Well he went up but it didn’t advance him in the match anywhere.  Maybe I should just move on.  Superplex puts both guys down and Christian plays possum to get a cradle for two.  Edge is ripping into Cole here and it’s rather funny stuff.

Back to the floor again with both guys via a Cactus Clothesline from Christian.  Better than up their noses with a rubber hose I guess.  Christian fights back and gets an elbow off the middle rope for two.  Top rope cross body gets two.  Ricky Steamboat he is not.  Killswitch is reversed into an attempt at the armbreaker but that is broken up also.  Del Rio sends him into the corner and grabs the armbreaker but Christian gets a rope.  Christian sets for something but Brodus stops him.  Edge spears Brodus but the distraction allows Del Rio to hit the enziguri off the top for the pin at 10:30 shown of 14:00.

Rating: C+. Surprisingly enough this wasn’t very good.  It’s not bad but I couldn’t get into this one at all.  They were trying but at the same time nothing ever really got going.  Del Rio winning is probably the best choice as Edge vs. Christian is a potentially big match that needs to be on a big stage.  That being said I think we can pencil it in for Over the Limit.  Not bad, but I wasn’t huge on this one.

Overall Rating: B. Good show this week as it was very wrestling heavy and we had multiple storylines advanced at the same time.  Things seem to be staying the same after Mania but that’s ok I guess as it tends to be the custom after Mania.  Good show here but then again that’s par for the course here.  They’ve gotten very good at the use of squashes to advance stories which is incredibly hard to do in today’s product.  Solid show overall here though.

Results

Kane/Big Show/Santino Marella/Kofi Kingston b. Corre via DQ when all four members of Corre were in the ring at the same time

Cody Rhodes b. Trent Barreta – Cross Rhodes

Beth Phoenix/Kelly Kelly b. Laycool – Kelly Kelly pinned Layla with a rollup

Alberto Del Rio b. Christian – Enziguri

NXT
Date: April 5, 2011
Location: Time Warner Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Todd Grisham, William Regal

This is week number five and now we’re back to the regular kind of NXT shows where we only lose 10 minutes a week to the main show building stuff.  The season needs to get moving along though as we haven’t heard about an elimination yet and I can’t take much more Jacob Novak.  Anyway this is kind of a new year show in the WWE logic so maybe the energy from last night will carry over here.  Let’s get to it.

Now that I’ve found what city this is in, we can get going.  WWE.com recently redesigned, making it a lot harder to

We bring out the rookies and go over the scores.  O’Neil has 9 points, Young has 7 and everyone else has zero.  The first challenge is a trivia game.  The idea is a category is named and you have to give an answer in that category as we go down the line.  First up is Wrestlemania 27 winners.  Young says Bret Hart right off the bat and is gone.  Cannon asks where Matt’s girlfriend was last night because Cannon does.  O’Brian can’t come up with anything.

Next category is 2011 HOF inductees.  We have Novak, O’Neil and Saxton left.  Novak is gone because he repeats Bob Armstrong.  Category 3 is name any former NXT rookie.  After saying themselves they list off the Nexus and this goes on for awhile.  No girls named yet until Titus repeats Saxton and gives Saxton the win and 4 points.  I’d bet almost anything on him winning whatever match he’s in tonight.

Titus/Horny vs. Young/Chavo tonight.  Yes, it’s Chavo vs. Hornswoggle again.

Jacob Novak vs. Conor O’Brian

 

Kozlov’s arm is in a sling.  Conor works on the arm to start as we talk about the color of Novak’s tights.  Now he works the leg.  I think this is supposed to be a long running feud on NXT.  The problem with this is that Rat Boy is the far better of the two, which coming from me you know isn’t a good thing.  Novak takes over with various stuff and gets a neckbreaker for two.

We hit the chinlock with O’Brian in trouble.  Regal talks about the NXT guys going around at Mania weekend and picking the brains of legends and pros, which is a good job by Regal of playing up the whole “they’re rookies” thing.  Regal insists he never threw European Uppercuts but rather British Uppercuts.  While he goes on about that, O’Brian rolls Novak up for the pin at 4:15.

Rating: D. Again, these two are just there.  It’s the problem with this entire show and the majority of the WWE farm system: these guys are just people.  There’s nothing distinguishing the vast majority of them other than Cannon being the ladies man or whatever he is.  This is definitely the biggest proof of that as these two are the most generic people I can remember this side of Johnny Curtis.  Dull match from these two as usual.

Cannon comes up to Tatsu and says he’s sorry for last week and that he thinks Maryse likes Tatsu.  He points out that Maryse is right over there so Tatsu should ask her out.  Tatsu does, apparently not caring that DiBiase is right next to her and gets beaten up as he should.  Maryse yells at Ted but Ted says Yoshi couldn’t afford Maryse, which makes Maryse leave with him, seemingly willingly.

Long video on the Hall of Fame class of 2011.  Carey was gracious at least and acknowledged he didn’t do much.  Why Bob Armstrong is in there is beyond me.

Kozlov brags to JTG about how his rookie beat JTG’s rookie.  JTG says Novak’s rookie is generic.  JTG’s rookie is Jacob Novak if you’ve forgotten.  This is like some weird argument at a little league game.  They make an unspecified wager on who can make their rookie look better first.

Darren Young/Chavo Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle/Titus O’Neil

 

Make this quick.  The rookies start us off as we debate whether or not Titus should ever tag in Horny.  Titus has an incredible look but he looks like he’s had a total of 9 seconds of ring time.  Horny doesn’t want a tag so it’s Titus vs. Chavo.  We hear the history of Chavo vs. Horny as my head shakes.  Chavo does what he can but he’s not a miracle worker.

Horny tags himself in and the pop is of course big.  Horny wants Young and what the leprechaun wants the leprechaun gets.  Young gets on his knees as we waste a lot of time.  They actually do a test of strength and Horny kicks him in the ribs.  There’s the tag back to Titus who gets a powerslam and barks.  Chavo gets knocked to the floor which is called a tag and Titus lays down for the frog splash.  Horny bites Chavo’s leg and hides under the ring to prevent the move.  Young comes at Titus but walks into the Sky High (I heard this was called the Clash of the Titan but I’m not sure) to end it at 4:30.

Rating: C-. For a comedy tag match this wasn’t too bad.  Titus isn’t as bad as he was in the second season as he now has a big power move like he was needing badly.  Horny was there for the kids and that worked fine.  Not horrid here but it’s nothing I ever want to see again.

We get the full Rock/Cena thing from last night.  I’m not sure if they’re going to make it all the way to Wrestlemania and I’m not sure if it’s a great idea, but it’s certainly something worth paying attention to.  Rock saying he respects Cena and getting booed for it does not come off as a good sign at all though.  Fashion advice from the Tooth Fairy is still a good line.  I still don’t get the Corre’s involvement or why Booker laughed when they came out.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Ted DiBiase

 

Well at least this has some build to it.  We also get Tatsu’s awesome song so that helps a lot.  Regal talks about fighting a hunchback over a tattooed dwarf, incorporating a Percy Sledge song in the same sentence.  DiBiase takes him down quickly and gets a double stomp off the middle rope.  Regal says getting rid of Maryse would enhance his career.  Grisham says that Tatsu would like to have his samurai sword pierce her heart.  Wouldn’t that kill her???  He also calls this a Haku as Regal said it was poetic.  And then Ted goes off on Tatsu and gets disqualified for beating on him too much at 2:00.  Ok then.

Maryse yells at DiBiase so DiBiase says it’s NXT or him and she has a week to decide.

Overall Rating: C. This was probably the best show this season but I’m not sure how much that’s saying.  The matches weren’t anything great but the pacing was better, they kept the challenges to a minimum and the comedy was a bit better.  Not a good show but FAR less annoying this week, which is a huge upgrade for them.

Results

Byron Saxton won the Hot Seat Trivia Challenge

Conor O’Brian b. Jacob Novak – Rollup

Titus O’Neil/Hornswoggle b. Chavo Guerrero/Darren Young

Yoshi Tatsu b. Ted DiBiase via DQ when DiBiase repeatedly punched Tatsu

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 4, 2011
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re finally on the other side of Wrestlemania and not a ton has changed on Raw. The Miz is still champion, Cole can still run his mouth (I still don’t get that one) and Rock vs. Cena is still going on. Tonight we begin the build up to Extreme Rules and also have the debut of Sin Cara which is something a lot of people have been looking forward to. Let’s get to it.

Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are on commentary to open us up. Whoa.

John Cena will call out the Rock tonight.

HHH opens us up wearing sunglasses for some reason, possibly a black eye. He talks about being incredibly nervous last night and even mentions wrestling him at Wrestlemania before but it was nothing like this. Big bruise on the left hand (his left) side of the Game’s forehead. HHH says he hit Taker as hard as he’s ever hit anyone and they left it all in the ring last night, but for him it wasn’t good enough.

No one has ever taken the pain like Taker has and HHH doesn’t know what to do. The crowd looks HUGE here and the Cole Mine is at ringside with caution tape over it. It was a man that was carted off last night and a lot of people are saying he’s done now. He wants to say one thing. He takes off the glasses and there’s tape on his nose. HHH says thank you to the Undertaker for giving him the fight of his life last night. Undertaker will be back and HHH will be waiting. The fans give him a standing ovation as he leaves.

Apparently Cole is going to invite Lawler out for a match, which is why Lawler has some pads on.

Austin is here tonight and will introduce the cast of Tough Enough.

Jerry is talking to JR about his match last night when Cole comes out in his gear. Jerry doesn’t seem incredibly bothered by the outcome last night. With Shawn now in the Hall of Fame and Cole at 1-0, he‘s the new Mr. Wrestlemania. Jerry says that Cole needs to shut up because a computer beat him. Lawler says he had Cole screaming like a little girl. Cole says how about a rematch (Cole never says with him) and Jerry says let’s do it right now. Cole says not with him, but with Swagger.

Jerry Lawler vs. Jack Swagger

They slug it out a bit and Swagger takes over. A charge into the corner misses and Lawler hammers away but can’t get anywhere. The fans are hot for Jerry. That didn’t sound right. Slam by Swagger but he misses a leg drop. Vader Bomb misses and the Titantron seems to be flickering. Lawler hammers away and gets a dropkick. King goes for the middle rope punch but Cole comes in. Jerry goes after him, only to get locked in the ankle lock for the tap out at 3:55. Swagger won’t let go though and the decision is reversed.

Rating: D+. Nothing special but then again this was just to further the feud between Lawler and Cole. We’ll ignore the fact that the blowoff should have come last night but at the same time, who cares about logic? Anyway this was just ok with Swagger never being in any real danger. Also it’s good that they had him lose on a technicality as he can’t afford many more losses.

Post match Cole goes into the Cole Mine and finds JR’s Barbecue Sauce. He gets ticked off and sprays it on JR who chases him to the back. So now we have no commentary.

Punk/Rhodes vs. Mysterio/Orton next.

Back with Cole ranting about JR. He’s on commentary now with Booker and Josh.

CM Punk/Cody Rhodes vs. Rey Mysterio/CM Punk

Orton and Rhodes give us a Legacy reunion to start us off. Rey comes in and gets a shot to the face, sending Cody to the floor as we take a break. Back with Orton vs. Rhodes again as Randy drops the knee of him for two. Off to Rey who gets beaten down. Cody gets caught in a small package and it’s off to Orton again.

Punk tries to wrap the bad leg around the post but gets sent into the barricade. Chop block by Cody and Randy is in trouble. Punk sets for the GTS but like any good villain, waits too long and Orton escapes. RKO doesn’t work and it’s back to the leg as we take a second break. When do you ever see that anymore?

Back with Orton in a leg drop but he almost immediately gets a hot tag to Rey who comes in with a seated senton to Punk. He sets for the 619 but Rhodes gets the Beautiful Disaster to take Rey’s head off on the way for two. Back off to Cody who hammers away on Rey even more. Punk works on the arm a bit more as we hit the 15:00 mark for the first time in forever on Raw.

Double tag brings in Orton to use his vast array of clotheslines on Rhodes. The fans are wide awake now after being a bit quiet earlier. Elevated DDT to Rhodes and Randy goes into his zone. HUGE pop for the possibility of the RKO too. Punk distracts so Orton settles for the Angle Slam, likely resulting in that mean old hacker going after the completely innocent Kurt’s Twitter again. 619 sets up the RKO to end it at 16:32.

Rating: B-. I liked this here but for some reason Punk wasn’t in there that much for the first half. It’s nice to see a long match that has the time to build into something decent and this did. These four work pretty well together and they did here. Good stuff overall and a nice little surprise on Raw.

Austin is heading to the ring and runs into HHH. They shake hands and Austin says it was a hell of a match and wants to be there if it happens again. These moments between the big three are pretty awesome.

Sin Cara is coming. Still.

Here’s Austin to talk about Tough Enough. He brings out the kids to his ring. There are 14 of them. The trainers are Bill DeMott, Trish Stratus and Booker T. There’s only going to be one winner. They all get to introduce themselves and Austin gets annoyed when one guy talks too long. I won’t go through all of them as there’s not much to say. One looks almost exactly like Alicia Fox. Miss USA gets a nice ovation looks rather good. One girl is Latina and speaks Spanish. One is named Eric Watts but thankfully it’s not the more famous version.

They get done and the fans chant “stun them all”. Apparently that girl that looks like Fox does so for a reason: it’s her sister. Austin talks a bit more and here are Miz and Riley (in a tux). Austin says no one is ever going to tell him about being tough or having valor again. We see a clip of Miz getting speared to the floor last night and apparently getting a concussion. I wouldn’t doubt it for a second after his head bounced off that concrete.

Miz heads to the ring and tells the rookies to take a long look at them. He offers Austin a chance to hold his belt. He says Austin thinks he has one more run in him. The fans chant one more match and Miz challenges him to one more match right now. Austin says clear the ring and Miz jumps him. He runs off and it’s down to Austin and Riley.

Riley hammers away but Austin remembers that he’s Austin and beats the tar out of him with the Thesz Press and FU elbow. Big old Stunner sends Riley to the floor. He tosses beers to the Tough Enough kids and the fans aren’t thrilled. Austin walks over to Cole and pours some beer in the Cole Mine.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Evan Bourne

No car tonight. Cole talks about how Austin pouring beer on him was him showing how impressed Austin was and initiating him into the brotherhood. Points to Cole for trying as hard as he can here. Alberto controls early but gets caught by a spin kick. That’s about the extent of Bourne’s offense there though as down he goes. Out to the floor and it’s all Del Rio. Chinlock by Alberto and Bourne starts his comeback with various strikes and rollups that get him nowhere. Bourne goes up but the enziguri sets up the Cross Armbreaker to end it at 2:42. Just a squash.

We get a video on Axxess from the previous week. These are cool things to do and it makes WWE look good which is always a good thing.

Cole talks about giving Lawler a rematch next year in the art show but is interrupted by Vickie. She blames Laycool for the loss last night and is in tights. Ziggler wants a mixed tag RIGHT NOW. They head to the ring and we take a break.

Dolph Ziggler/Vickie Guerrero vs. John Morrison/Trish Stratus

Obviously the match is accepted and the guys start us off. Off to the girls after some basic stuff and Vickie actually beats trish up a bit. Something resembling a leg drop misses and it’s back to Morrison. Ziggler gets a big clothesline to turn Morroison inside out and Trish has to save. Dolph gets in his face so she drills him. Moonlight Drive KILLS Ziggler and Starship Pain ends this clean at 3:27.

Rating: C+. A lot of that is for the kick. That thing looked and sounded great. Ziggler selling the hell out of it helps too as Ziggler looked like he got hit by a train. Nice little tag match here and it’s good to see Trish sticking around past Mania. I want to see more of the guys fighting too as they seem to have good chemistry together.

US Title: Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan

Bryan has the ring jacket back and Sheamus now wears red, white and blue. Sheamus throws him around to start and takes his head off with a double axe handle. Cole talks about how awesome he is again and Sheamus hammers away on Bryan even more. Bryan rolls out of a chinlock but gets caught in a tilt–a–while backbreaker which is now called the Irish Curse by Cole.

Bryan starts his comeback with some clotheslines and a running knee strike for two. Sheamus kicks him in the knee and tries the real Irish Curse which is countered into the LeBell Lock which can’t go all the way on. Brogue Kick ends this at 3:59. Not much here and Bryan was never in any real sense of control.

Rating: C. Just a match here without anything to it for the most part. Sheamus has dominated Bryan in almost every match they’ve had save one. Still a good little match though to set up what’s coming next, which I’ll get to now.

With Sheamus posing the lights go out and it’s SIN CARA! He points at Sheamus and charges the ring, diving over the rop rope and hitting all kinds of high spots, sending Sheamus to the floor and hitting a HUGE dive from the top to the floor, taking out Sheamus. This is like Rey Mysterio back in 96 which if you’re familiar with him is a huge compliment.

Here’s Cena to more insane booing. He says that there was a guy who said he was coming to Wrestlemania to whip some candy ass and Cena is glad he did because otherwise the ending of Wrestlemania would have been a draw. That’s a good point actually. Cena congratulates Miz on coming into and leaving Wrestlemania as the champion. He says that Miz has earned the people’s respect.

That brings him back to that certain someone. That someone doesn’t like Cena that much but he’s here tonight. He was supposed to be the guest host of Wrestlemania but very quickly got into some business. That would be Cena’s business, meaning they have business to settle right now.

Cue Rock to an eruption. The fans chant Fruity Pebbles. Rock says that of course he got involved. Just because Rock has been away that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know about Cena. Cena lives and breathes WWE and Rock says that he is one of the best WWE Champions and superstars of all time. However, Rock just doesn’t like him.

Rock says they’re very different but they both want to be the best. Well other than where they shop as Rock goes to department stores (I guess they sell sleeveless Brahma Bull shirts and workout pants at department stores now) and Cena shops at Baby Gap. Cena: “Oh great. Fashion advice from the Tooth Fairy.”

Cena says Rock is the man of the people and the people want to see one match. Never else can you see a match like this so does Rock want to talk or does Rock want to bring it. Cena takes the hat and shirt off and Rock says he has no idea what he just asked for. Rock says he‘ll bring it, but let‘s bring it on the grandest stage of them all. Rock vs. Cena, Wrestlemania 28. Rock sticks out his hand and Cena shakes it, ending the show. Wow are they really going to wait that long?

The music looks to end it and…..here‘s THE CORRE??? Rock and Cena fight them off and it‘s a People‘s Elbow for Barrett followed by an FU for Slater. Cena‘s music plays but Rock hits a Rock Bottom on Gabriel. They stare each other down again and Rock says he‘ll see him at Wrestlemania. They shake hands again and Cena leaves, ending the show.

Overall Rating: A-. As hit and miss as Wrestlemania was last night, this show hit very well. We got continuations of storylines, the debut of a new character, development in Rock vs. Cena and some decent wrestling to boot. I’m not sure where they’re going with Miz or Bryan and various other characters but there was definitely an energy to this show that is carrying over from last night. It wasn’t quite perfect, namely due to Cole getting annoying on multiple occasions but the good certainly outweighs the bad here, making for a great first show post Mania.

Wrestlemania 27
Date: April 3, 2011
Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 71,617
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Jerry Lawler, Booker T, Jim Ross
America the Beautiful: Keri Hilson

Well here we are.  It’s the biggest night of the year and we’re heading to Georgia for the first time in Mania history.  The main events are John Cena vs. The Miz for the Raw Title, Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio for the SD Title and HHH vs. Undertaker (not II of course).  This is the night we’ve all looked forward to, and there’s that Rock guy here too.  Let’s get to it.

The dark match was the US Title match but it turned into a non-title battle royal with Khali eliminating Sheamus to end it.  I’m assuming the US Title match will be later.

Note that this is being written live so please excuse any marking out moments.

Keri Hilson, some singer I don’t know, sings America the Beautiful.

The voiceover guy here is like an old vaudeville voice which is kind of cool.  Up first: here’s THE ROCK!  The Great One looks…well great.  The arena looks awesome too.  Actually it’s a stadium but whatever.  After posing forever he teases the FINALLY before hitting it.  Bunch of Fruity Pebbles signs in the crowd.  Rock promises this will be electrifying.  Time for a little game: the Rock says Yabba, the people say Dabba.  This somehow takes up FIFTEEN MINUTES overall and he does a huge IF YA SMELL to end it.

Video about the major moments in Mania history and the big ones tonight.  Standard awesome intro video.  I know they were cutting out the wrestling but this is ridiculous.

There’s the traditional big fireworks display and we get a match!

 

Smackdown World Title: Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio

 

WHAT THE HECK???  THIS IS THE OPENING MATCH???  The intro is great for Alberto as the video where the car comes from is designed to look like his driveway at his estate so he’s driving out of it.  That’s awesome.  Clay is here with Alberto.  Here’s Christian to back up Edge.  I think shenanigans may be afoot.  This gets the big match intros because it’s a big match.  Can’t fault their logic there.

I’m watching on a stream so I’ll do my best on the times but I make no guarantees on their accuracy other than in general.  Edge fires away early on as Cole talks about the arm.  Naturally that triggers an attack on said arm which is in trouble early.  The arm work continues as is intelligent.  Alberto goes to the floor so Edge flips forward over the ropes and lands mostly on Del Rio in a cool spot.

As the champion comes back in though Del Rio pulls him off the top in an armbar.  The Cross Armbreaker is countered into the Edge-O-Matic as Edge gets two.  Out of nowhere the armbreaker goes on but Edge rolls through to escape.  Dueling chants begin.  Edge goes up again but Del Rio gets the running enziguri to take him down for two.  Christian and Clay get into it and Christian goes flying via a suplex.

Edgecution sets up the attempted spear but Alberto avoids.  He stops in the corner and Clay grabs the arm and rams it into the post.  The armbreaker goes on full force after a bit of a block.  Edge reverses into a rollup/cradle move that makes Alberto break it up to escape.  Edge gets the Edgecator and Alberto is in trouble.  Clay tries to come in but Christian gets the tornado DDT off the apron to the floor to take him down.  Del Rio escapes but walks into the spear to end this at approximately 11:00.  Wow that was abrupt.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t terrible but dude, 11 minutes for this?  That’s in the level of Cena/JBL at Mania 21.  Not a bad match but it felt like a match that could have easily been on Smackdown as a regular main event.  Alberto didn’t need to get the title yet so at least the right man won.  Still though, 11 minutes?

Edge beats up the Rolls Royce post match.  By that I mean he destroys it with a crowbar.  Why Alberto doesn’t go after it is beyond me.  Alberto yells for Christian for some reason.  Oh ok Christian was helping with a ball bat.  I need to pay more attention.

Cole talks about being in the main event and is in a suit, as is Jerry.  They….they couldn’t really be putting that on last could they?

Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes

 

As Rhodes comes to the ring we get the video recap of this.  In short, Rey hit Cody with a 619 with a metal knee brace that Cody exposed earlier in the match, injuring the Dashing features of Cody.  If this is a few years later, look up Dashing Cody Rhodes for an awesome heel in 2010.  Rey’s character this year: Captain America.  Ok that’s not bad.

Rey “helps” Cody take the jacket off as Cody is all afraid of being seen.  Rana takes Cody down but a shoulder block shifts the momentum immediately.  Cody immediately goes for the knee which is a bit odd but whatever.  Beautiful Disaster leaves Rey seemingly dead but it only gets two.  I could definitely see this being the modern Bob Orton injury angle which could work for months if played up right.

A rana is eventually countered into the Alabama Slam for two.  That’s one of the things I like about Cody: he incorporates things from his past into his offense, which is a sign of him growing.  Also he stopped having the big Triforces on his boots which was definitely a face thing.  Cody gives Rey a neck massage which I’d assume is to get his arms tingling right?

Mysterio tries to speed things up a bit but gets caught on top and it’s a delayed vertical suplex from the middle rope which is pretty awesome.  That only gets two though.  The crowd is mostly into this but is kind of quiet.  Granted that’s what a superhero comeback is all about.  Cross Rhodes is avoided and we hit the floor for a bit with Cody’s face being sent into the apron.

Back in the ring and a seated senton means we speed things up a little.  Rey kind of looks like something you would see in a Captain America cosplay contest.  Wheelbarrow suplex by Cody gets two.  Rey finally gets him in 619 position but it gets caught and Cody hits a slingshot to send Rey’s throat/chest into the middle rope for two.  Cody tries to take the knee brace off and manages to get it, meaning Rey’s knees are about to snap like a Kit Kat.

Rey fights him off to a bit and gets a moonsault press for two.  Cody’s mask comes off and he gets sent into the 619 position.  You can see Rey’s not moving the same without the knee brace.  Rey goes up but the splash meets knees.  Big kick to the head gets only two as this is a good match.  Rey puts Cody’s mask on and I’m not sure if Cody knows it or not.  Rey gets some running headbutts to send Cody reeling and a swan dive gets….two.  Wow I would have thought that was the finish.  The referee throws the knee brace out and Cody hits Cross Rhodes for the shocking (but good) pin at approximately 12:15.

Rating: B. I was into this and it was a solid match.  Also, thank goodness Cody won here so he can continue his Phantom of the Opera kind of thing.  I’m very pleased with this as Cody continues to be one of the best guys in the company at this point.  I’d love to see him get a quick title feud with Edge but I doubt it’ll happen.

Snoop Dogg is with Teddy Long and Snoop is looking for talent for a tour he’s got coming up.  Teddy has some WWE talent to audition for him.  Regal does a rap and it’s again hilarious.  Khali and Beth Phoenix do a song from Grease and get hooked more or less.  Zach Ryder sings something that is apparently from a chick named Rebecca Black and Roddy Piper hits him with what might have been a coconut.  Piper looks good.

Tatsu and Masters do We Will Rock You with Masters doing the pec dance to the drums.  Horny is going to do a rap apparently but he can’t talk.  Teddy and Snoop leave and Horny raps while the Bellas dance.  At least we got the good looking twins.

Corre vs. Santino Marella/Kofi Kingston/Big Show/Kane

 

The change of Kozlov to Kingston was kind of a surprise but I’m pretty sure if was officially announced.  I can’t complain a bit there either as Kofi should be on the card.  Santino vs. Slater to start us off here.  Big kick by Santino misses so it’s off to Show who cleans a few rooms.  You can’t really say cleans house for one guy.

Show rams into Slater in the corner but Jackson runs him over.  Everything breaks down almost immediately and Barrett takes Trouble in Paradise.  This is moving around too fast to call.  Cobra time and it hits Santino.  The Knockout Punch ends Slater and the match in about 1:40.  Yeah there was a point to this.  No rating of course.  That punch was SICK in the replay.

Rock hits on Eve in his first appearance in 45 minutes.  He talks about making magical moments.  For instance whoever comes around the corner next (without Rock looking) is going to get a magical moment with Rock.  And it’s Mae Young.  I was thinking it would be her.  She wants the People’s Strudel.  Rock says that Mae should be after Moses’ strudel.  Rock have Eve escort Mae to her seat.  Mae spanks Rock for fun.

Rock does the around the corner thing again and IT’S AUSTIN!!!!  I was hoping this would happen as it flat out needed to be done.  This is like an old western.  They’re both retired and it’s an incredible moment to say the least.  They shake hands and say it was good to see each other.  Totally AWESOME moment here and something that absolutely had to happen.

We recap Punk vs. Orton.  In short, Orton punted Punk in the head two years earlier and cost Punk the title.  Punk waited two years to get his revenge and sent the New Nexus after him.  This more or less crippled the entire feud as it just died when Orton ran through Nexus the entire time.  Oh and Orton had a bus for some reason and Punk hit him in the knee with a pipe or something so the leg is bad.

CM Punk vs. Randy Orton

 

Punk goes for the knee early but that gets him clotheslined.  Out to the floor and Punk is sent into the steps but he jumps/steps over them which I don’t remember seeing before.  He kicks the steps into the knee of Orton to take over.  The fans chant for Orton as Punk hits a top rope cross body for two.

Orton fires back with the backbreaker and Punk is down a bit.  He tries to fight out of the corner but Punk gets something like a jawbreaker onto the knee.  That’s a new one.  Orton gets caught in the Tree of Woe and Punk hammers away.  Punk gives the sign for the GTS which of course doesn’t work as Punk does what any idiot villain does and walks around before he tries anything.

Randy escapes over the back and tries the RKO but gets kicked in the head for two instead.  Punk goes to the outside but gets crotched.  His reaction is awesome to say the least.  The fans want a DDT off the top so Orton goes up.  And the fans get something similar in the form of a superplex for two in a NICE callback to Orton’s papa (that was Bob’s finisher).

Punk fights back and actually gets the figure four around the post and does it to the correct leg!  Leg lock back in the ring and it’s almost an Indian Deathlock.  Orton fights out and gets the Angle Slam.  Finally Cole doesn’t call it something stupid.  Orton goes insane again and hits the Thesz Press to ZERO reaction.  Punk fires back with kicks and a leg sweep and there’s the Anaconda Vice!  The hold makes no sense given the knee work but it’s not going to be the finish anyway.

Orton is in trouble but he manages to roll out of it and into the ropes in a nice little counter.  Punk goes to the apron and stands on the bottom rope because he’s not that intelligent.  He gets sent into the post and the elevated DDT takes him down.  Orton slams the mat and doesn’t break his arm this time.  The face is awesome to say the least.  He takes FOREVER though and you know it’s not hitting here.

Instead he backs up for the one legged punt because you know he can get a running start after not being able to stand a few minutes ago.  Thank goodness Orton falls down on the approach.  Punk looks all psycho and his hair is even freakier.  He goes over to Punk and gets….not caught in the RKO as Punk shot out of the back.  I thought it was a botch but that was intentional.  Here’s your big RKO spot as Punk tries the springboard clothesline but jumps into a nice RKO to end it at 14:40.

Rating: B-. I’m not a fan of Orton but this was pretty good stuff.  They gave it some time and the knee worked pretty well as Punk went into the air rather than having to jump.  Pretty good here but you kind of have to wonder where this goes from here as well as where Punk goes.  Granted that’s the point of watching tomorrow I guess.

Rock is with Gene Okerlund (do your own caps) who says that Cena’s #1 fan is coming here to confront Rock tonight.  And it’s Pee Wee Herman.  Gene wears Cena gear and Herman does the Rock’s line.  I don’t care for Herman so this was nothing at all.

Hall of Fame time.  Abdullah can barely walk.

Sunny looks good for the most part.  She needs to just flash the crowd and get it over with.

Animal in a tux looks weird.  Ellering is there too, complete with sunglasses.

Drew Carey is murdered by the crowd and rightfully so.

Armstrong gets no reaction at all, probably because no one knows who he is.

Duggan gets a nice ovation and there’s a bowtie on his 2×4.

And now for the one that matters.  Yep the roof is gone.

We get a Wrestlemania Recall….which is from Raw.  It’s Cole throwing soda in Lawler’s face.  I hope this is next and it is.

Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole

 

Booker T and JR are on commentary with Josh.  They both get intros, I guess to buy the guys time.  As JR is coming to the ring, Cole interrupts him, complete with an orange hoodie and headgear and shorts.  I give up.  Cole runs his mouth about Lawler being old and all that jazz.  Oh and he runs down the barbecue sauce.  Well at least this isn’t the main event like they hinted at.  Cole keeps stalling for time for Lawler which is fine.

Swagger comes out to no reaction at all.  We get the pushups but in mid push the glass shatters and Austin is here with ATV and I think a new shirt.  Cole took off the hoodie and is in a singlet.  For no apparent reason Cole jumps off the apron when Austin is charging around it and has to hide in the box.  Lawler comes out to his regular music thank goodness.  He looks a bit like Shawn with his attire.

Somehow this is the best built match of the night.  Lawler is in his usual attire in the ring as Cole stands on his desk in the Cole Mine to warm up.  Austin says ring the bell and sends Lawler after Cole.  Swagger charges and gets sent into the post and then the barrier.  Cole begs off and is close enough to a mic for us to hear him.  He offers a handshake through a hole in the box.  Is that like a glory hole for idiots?

Lawler pulls on Cole’s hand and rams his head into the box.  Jerry finally climbs into the freaking box and beats the heck out of Cole.  This is awesome.  Jerry destroys him and gets him out of the box.  Into the GM podium he goes and Jerry tosses him into the ring.  Swagger gets up and drills Jerry to put him down.  Cole gets something close to a baseball slide to the send Jerry down.

Ankle lock by Swagger when Austin is distracted.  The comeback for this is going to be awesome.  Austin counts incredibly slowly and Cole works on the knee.  Cole might have a 3 Stooges tattoo on his back.  That’s something I really didn’t want to know.  The fans say Cole can’t wrestle.  Well he’s not a wrestler so I think that’s ok.  The fans think this is nonsense.  Such an impatient generation.

Cole tries a Vader Bomb (screw that Swagger Bomb stuff) from the bottom rope and Jerry powers out of it.  Jerry gets some punches in but Cole goes back to the leg.  The fans say boring so Cole pulls a strap down and puts on the AnCole Lock.  Jerry doesn’t seem to mind and kicks Cole off to wake up the crowd.  He walks it off and Cole is caught.

A mudhole is stomped….kind of.  Swagger throws in the towel and Austin is like WHAT?  There’s a Stunner for Swagger as the fans are way into it now.  And now it is time to pay.  Austin looks at his watch and Cole slaps his hand away and SHOVES AUSTIN.  Big right hand by Lawler and the beating is on.

The fans get behind Lawler as the punches come in hard and there’s a dropkick.  With a point to the sign and the strap coming down it’s a jumping punch from the middle rope.  That gets two as Jerry pulls him up.  This has to end with the Piledriver.  Jerry grabs the ankle lock and Cole taps.  Austin makes sure it’s really a tap in a funny bit.  Cole insists he gives up and there’s the bell.  Dang it that should have been the Piledriver but the ankle lock ends it at approximately 14:00.

Rating: C. This was a letdown for me.  First of all the ankle lock was a pretty weak finisher and Cole was on offense too long.  It wasn’t bad but they needed to change a few things out there to really make it awesome.  This needed a Piledriver but I can understand Cole being afraid to take it or whatever.

Post match it’s time for a beer bash and Booker gets in the ring.  Jerry takes a beer but doesn’t drink it (he’s a known non-drinker).  There’s a spinarooni for Mania and why is this about Booker T again?  Stunner to Booker and more beer is consumed.  Jerry hasn’t drank any it seems.  We get an E-Mail of all things to interrupt this.  The referee overstepped his boundaries and the winner is Michael Cole by DQ.  Please let this be a late April Fool’s joke.  Amazingly it’s not and Matthews gets a Stunner.  And the show is officially killed.

This should have been easy and they screwed it up.  I’m in awe of their utter stupidity here.

We get a video of Wrestlemania Week and I do not care.  I’m still stunned at the utter stupidity of what they just did.

Lawler and Ross are on commentary now which is cool but they couldn’t do that without the whole stupidity thing there?  Yes I’m harping on it but man that was idiotic.

We recap HHH vs. Undertaker with a package we’ve seen a dozen or so times now.  In short, HHH wants to break the Streak because there’s nothing else for him to do.

Undertaker vs. HHH

 

There’s a rock version of Taker’s theme which is WAY too up tempo for him.  Oh wait that’s for HHH.  Oh man it’s For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica.  That’s cool but dude, it’s HHH.  Ah there’s All About the Game.  That’s more like it.  He has an army and a crown and yeah you get where this is going.  Still cool though.  Taker does his usual awesome entrance to Johnny Cash.

The song loops as the entrance takes too long.  Or maybe that was just the second verse.  The lightning goes off when Taker removes his hat.  The crowd is surprisingly quiet.  This is no holds barred and they slug it out immediately.  Taker grabs him by the head and fires him over the top with ease.  We go to the floor and HHH actually wins a fistfight.  His reward is being thrown into the steps.

We set up the announce table (Spanish of course) but HHH spears Taker into the Cole Mine to destroy it and put Taker down.  Taker looks up at HHH and is all ticked off.  Back in the ring and they slug it out again.  Taker works on the shoulder and here comes Old School.  That of course doesn’t work but this time you can’t blame it on him shouting OLD SCHOOL at least.  Another clothesline sends Taker to the floor as HHH is favoring his left arm.

Now they set up the American announce table as Lawler is in an Austin shirt.  Pedigree is countered as is the chokeslam but there’s a backdrop off the table to the floor and he’s holding that arm and wrist again.  Oh yeah that thing slammed into the ground HARD.  The fans chant 19-0 as the match more or less stops.  Taker busts out the Taker Dive which at least cleared the ropes and hit HHH.  It wasn’t great but at least he hit a person and not the floor.

We start using the steps and someone shouts about Shawn either being here or not being here to save HHH.  Taker sets for a tombstone I think but gets countered and hit with a headbutt.  Taker tries a running charge but gets caught by a spinebuster into the table/through the table, whichever you prefer.  This has been big spot, lay down, big spot, lay down for about 8 minutes now.

Back in the ring and a chokeslam gets two.  Taker loads up the Last Ride but gets rammed into the corner.  More dueling chants begin and HHH fires away with punches in the corner.  Taker tries the Last Ride but HHH counters in a nice callback to Mania X7 (which had nothing to do with these two facing each other.  That’s never happened at Mania.  Silly people) Pedigree is reversed as is a big boot to the face, the latter being via a spinebuster for two.

HHH goes to the floor and grabs a chair which of course goes across the Game’s back.  Pedigree out of nowhere gets two.  Last Ride gets a long two as we’re in that same formula from earlier.  Taker gives the throat slit but the Tombstone is of course….not reversed for two.  HHH kicked out of the tongue sticking out thing!  I know they’re wanting this to be epic and while it’s good they feel like they’re trying to be epic rather than actually being epic.

Taker sets for another Tombstone, this time on the chair.  Instead it’s a DDT mostly on the chair to put both guys down.  Somehow this has been going almost 20 minutes.  They both struggle to their feet and there’s a decent Pedigree for a long two.  If Scott Armstrong didn’t have the biggest hitch in his count this side of something with a very large hitch in his count, this would have been over a long time ago.

A third Pedigree is kicked out of as this is bordering on stupid here.  We get it: you can kick out of the Pedigree now DO SOMETHING ELSE!  Both guys are down and HHH gets the chair.  BIG chair shot to the head of Taker and he’s in big trouble.  Taker does his best Terry Funk shaking impression as HHH shouts what’s wrong with you.  He gets grabbed by the throat for his troubles but Taker can’t hold it.

Taker says bring it on so HHH does a throat slit.  Tombstone hits Taker and of course it gets two.  They try to play this off as some huge thing but dude, no one thought that was going to end it.  HHH goes to the floor and it’s sledgehammer time.  HHH holds up the hammer but Taker pulls him down into the Hell’s Gate and HHH is in trouble.  He drops the hammer and is in big trouble.  HHH tries to stand but is fading fast.  He gets the hammer again but can’t get a shot to the head.  HHH TAPS OUT to end this at approximately 29:10 but I had some stream issues so I’m not sure how accurate that is to the second.

Rating: B. Well it was brutal, but at the same time did anyone really believe this was ending with anything other than a big sign that said 19-0?  The whole big spot rest big spot rest got really annoying and it made the match feel a lot longer than it should have.  Good stuff, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time it ran too long and that hurt it in my eyes.

Taker gets checked out by a trainer post match and they do the big exit with both of them leaving at the same time.  Taker can barely walk and keeps falling down.  He falls down next to the ring and they have to get a cart to take him out.  I’m not sure if this is legit or not but I’m leaning towards it being so.

Good time for a Don’t Try This at Home no?

Wrestlemania 28 will be in Miami as we all knew.

Laycool/Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison/Trish Stratus/Snooki

 

Please….make it short.  Dolph is officially the business associate.  Not sure if they had covered that before but it’s official here.  At least Laycool looks incredible.  Trish should never be allowed to not wear leather.  And here’s the draw, Snooki.  Oh dear.  Well I guess she’s an improvement over Bieber.  I can’t wait for like three years from now when this is totally dated.

The girls go at it early and the guys pull them off.  Trish and Michelle start us off officially.  Trish tries to tag in Snooki early but I think the small one doesn’t want in.  Matrish leads to an attempt at a Faithbreaker but Trish counters into a facejam.  McCool counters the Stratusphere and they fight on the buckle with both crashing to the floor.  Everything breaks down and Morrison hits Starship Pain to the floor to take out Ziggler.

Off to Snooki and let the booing begin.  She does a handspring elbow into the corner which is still a stupid move.  A cartwheel into the WORST SPLASH EVER ends McCool at 3:15.  Snooki was in the match for a total of 12 seconds.  Note to future girls wanting to be a Diva: don’t bother marrying Undertaker or working to become awesome.  Get on a bad reality show and get in fights in bars.  You’ll get wins at Mania.  No rating due to it being short and it ticking me off.  Match was nothing special to say the absolute least.  Perhaps the worst celebrity match ever.

There’s a new attendance record for the Georgia Dome of 71,617.  That’s always cool to hear.

It’s time for the main event of Cena vs. Miz.  Yes, the Miz is wrestling in the main event of Wrestlemania.  BE JEALOUS!  No recap at all and it’s time to go.  I guess we’re running behind.  Ah ok here’s a package as we see Miz’s rise to the top and interspersed with various world title wins at Mania.  Miz is looking at a screen watching all this.  We get the DEMON CHILD and clips of him on Real World and Tough Enough and doing all kinds of stupid things before he got serious and AWESOME as a result.

This gets the music video treatment about how everyone hates Miz but he keeps winning.  Miz having his back to the camera the entire time is great.  This transitions into a video about the feud with Miz constantly getting the better of Cena.

Raw World Title: The Miz vs. John Cena

 

Miz runs through some things that look like balloons saying AWESOME.  This is MIz’s moment and it’s working.  Riley has the varsity jacket with him here and Miz has his coat also.  Must be chilly in Atlanta.  Cena’s big entrance this year: a full on gospel choir.  We actually have a prayer with clips of Cena growing up and being awesome I guess.  They actually say Jesus here which is a bit different.  This takes a long time also, as has everything else tonight.  After the prayer the choir actually sings Cena’s theme in full on gospel style.  And then he sprints to the ring in a new shirt.

Cena is of course mostly booed out of the building.  This is listed as Cena’s 8^th straight Mania main event which is a relative term as some of them were in the middle of the card.  The bell rings twice for no apparent reason and they lock up.  Miz controls early but Cena gets a hip block to get us back to even.  Cena with some nice technique to get a headlock but that doesn’t last long.

They’re in a long feeling out period here and Miz stomps away to end that.  Miz takes over with basic stuff but gets caught in a gutwrench suplex for two.  Miz misses his running clothesline in the corner which hit earlier.  Top rope Fameasser hits for two.  Big boot to the head of Cena gets two.  They botch something so Miz gets a dropkick to the ribs to send Cena to the floor.

Back in the ring and Cena starts his finishing sequence but can’t get the FU.  Short DDT gets two for the champion.  A Let’s Go Miz chant starts up as he escapes the STFU and gets caught in a neckbreaker for two.  Miz unhooks the buckle which gets him nowhere.  Cena gets the STF but Miz grabs the rope.  Riley sends Cena into the exposed buckle and Miz gets the Skull Crushing Finale for a long two.

Down goes the referee and wouldn’t you know it that it hits just a second before the FU.  Riley comes in with the briefcase and down goes Cena again.  Naturally that only gets two as the fans are finally back into this.  Miz goes for the case but hits Riley and walks into a HUGE Attitude Adjustment for TWO!  Wow I would have bet on that being the ending there.

Out to the floor and Cena kills him with a running clothesline to send him over the barricade.  Big old spear onto the concrete by the fans and that looked sick.  They’re both dead and this is going to be a double count out.  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???  This can’t be.  That had better be a legit injury or we’re not done yet.

And here’s Rock to make sure this doesn’t suck.  There’s an e-mail and Rock says that it doesn’t matter what the GM thinks so this is restarting, no DQ, no countout, no time limit.  Cena goes for the FU immediately but walks into the Rock Bottom and MIZ RETAINS!!!  The pin was at 19:30 overall, counting the big stoppage.

Rating: C-. Even with the ending this was still pretty boring.  They’re not hurt which is always a good thing but dude, did we need a false finish in something like this?  It’s the main event of Wrestlemania for crying out loud.  I get that you needed Rock out there, but make something better than that.  I’m not impressed here at all which is hard to do with me at Mania

Miz holds up the title post match and Rock looks at him.  The beatdown is on and it’s a People’s Elbow for Miz.

Overall Rating: C-. This was a VERY hit or miss Mania and it’s going to have a very mixed reaction I think.  A lot of the booking is just kind of out there, namely Cole/Lawler.  I get that they’re setting up for future shows but at the same time this is WRESTLEMANIA!  There’s some good stuff but nowhere near enough to make this really work.

There are times when you just do certain things and this is one of them.  Not impressed here at all and this is a huge fall down from last year.  Rock helped, but there’s only so much he can do.  Summerslam and Raw tomorrow better be AMAZING.  The ending helps this but certainly doesn’t save it.  WAY too rushed of a show and that’s the downfall of it.  I’ll probably have more to say on it later but that’s my initial reaction.

Results

Edge b. Alberto Del Rio – Spear

Cody Rhodes b. Rey Mysterio – Cross Rhodes

Kane/Big Show/Kofi Kingston/Santino Marella b. The Corre – Big Show pinned Slater after a punch

Randy Orton b. CM Punk – RKO

Michael Cole b. Jerry Lawler via DQ when Steve Austin got involved in the match

The Undertaker b. HHH – Hell’s Gate

Snooki/John Morrison/Trish Stratus b. Laycool/Dolph Ziggler – Snooki pinned McCool after a splash

The Miz b. John Cena – Miz pinned Cena after a Rock Bottom from the Rock

And I thought Starrcade 97 stood alone as the dumbest ending of all time.  The GM reversed the decision because Austin overstepped his boundaries as referee or something like that.  I’m stunned here.

Wrestlemania 26
Date: March 29, 2010
Location: University of Phoenix Stadium, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 72,219
Commentators: Matt Striker, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler
America The Beautiful: Fantasia

Well, here we are. This has been one of the best hyped Manias in a LONG time and I could not wait for what was coming. Seriously, the card looked perfect and just about everyone that mattered was on it. The two biggest stars are fighting for the WWE Title. The Royal Rumble winner is fighting his former partner who turned on him.

Two legends are fighting in a career vs. streak match. This is old school booking at its finest and it’s worked like a charm. Pay attention Vince: keep things simple. Oh and Bret Hart and Vince are going to FINALLY end the Montreal Screwjob after over 12 years. Nothing major though. Let’s get to it.

Fantasia CANNOT SING. It sounds like an elephant stomping on my mother. The opening video is about everyone wanting to have their Wrestlemania moment. That’s the big thing indeed and that’s what it should be about. This is without a doubt the biggest night of the year and as JBL puts it the lights are on bright and everything is right here. That’s what Wrestlemania is all about: everyone wanting to steal the show.

It’s a beautiful thing and when it hits, there is nothing close to it in wrestling. They kind of run down the card without mentioning anything by name. This is really well done. That song I Made It is growing on me rapidly. It makes sense if nothing else so that’s all you need at times. Apparently this place is called the Toaster. Sure why not?

Unified Tag Titles: John Morrison/R-Truth vs. Big Show/Miz

Sweet GOODNESS there are some pretty ladies there. As X said, where are they the rest of the time? Yes, the pyro is cool in slow motion. Dang Miz’s theme music is awesome. Don’t expect a ton of criticism on this show as I thought it was awesome. The jacket on Miz…might be cool. I’m not sure though. I’d love to be the costume master for a company like this. It’s just awesome to get to pick the tights etc for these guys.

Imagine the memories of all of those various props and clothes in there. The ramp is really long so I have time to fill in here. We have a Spanish announce team. That and King being in a tux are nice things to get thrown out once in awhile. Now if only we had some John Wayne cufflinks. The arena looks awesome by the way. Apparently we’re in Romania for the first time ever tonight. Good show to start with I guess. Miz and Morrison start us off.

Morrison does that breakdancing legdrop of his. He’s athletic if nothing else. Show goes for maybe a Vader Bomb but Morrison kicks him in the head. This nearly kills Truth as Show falls backwards. Whose side is Morrison on here? Starship Pain misses. Show catches Truth’s plancha. That’s freaking insane. I mean Truth is a grown man and was coming down at Show. He just caught him. That’s insane. And Morrison goes for a springboard move and gets punched for the pin. What the heck was that?

Rating: D. This felt like about 4 minutes were edited out or something. It came from nowhere and just felt awkward. To be fair though, no one cared about this and it was just a way to get the tag titles on the show. Also, they knew this would be forgotten by the end of the show so why not just get it out of the way?

We recap the events of Mania week and it looks awesome. There was a golf tournament, an art show, and of course Axxess. Blast it looks awesome. Oh and there was a reading challenge too. Can’t beat that.

Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes

Remember, this is NOT a handicap match. DiBiase has the look far more than Rhodes does and it’s not even close. That could be due to the white boots he’s wearing that make him look like a freaking moron but that could just be me. Orton is WAY over. Thankfully the next night on Raw Vince got the hint and did the full face turn that he had been dying for the past few months. Remember, this is NOT a handicap match.

Everyone throws dropkicks to start. If nothing else Rhodes is cool for the Triforce. Legacy beats up Orton and you know what’s coming. Hey, did you know there are over 70,000 people there? We’re 20 minutes in and we’ve only mentioned that 8 times or so. Didn’t know if it was clear or not. Orton gets a few punches in and the place POPS. They try a leg sweep/clothesline combo but Rhodes completely misses his leg sweep.

Make that a chopblock as I forgot my move names there for a bit. Legacy EXPLODES! Rhodes channels his former jerk…I mean partner, Hardcore Holly, with an Alabama Slam. While DiBiase throws some bad punches at Rhodes, Orton gets up. In the coolest spot of the first hour or so, Orton hits the double DDT on Legacy. That was great , of which both members of Legacy have decent looking ones. Orton humps the mat as usual, waiting on Rhodes to get up.

No RKO though as Orton channels his inner Ray Guy (He’s a punter in the Hall of Fame. How weird does that sound?) and Rhodes is out for good. DiBiase goes for Dream Street but Orton gets a sweet little counter into the RKO and the POP! The fans love this guy to say the least. And we get the sweet pose. Love that thing.

Rating: D+. Not much here, but at the same time they did the right thing. Orton needed to beat these two to put them behind him and move on to a feud with a heel. The RKO got a pop so that’s all that matters. This was exactly what it was supposed to be. Oh and to all you morons that say one of Legacy should have gone over, you’re an idiot.

Don’t try this at home. I mean it. Do it at school or at your aunt’s house. Just DO NOT TO IT AT HOME!

Vickie and her heel Divas talk about their match. I don’t pay attention because Michelle looks good. Jillian comes in to sing and Santino shows up. He bites a Slim Jim and Jillian becomes Mae Young who of course kisses him. Another bite and it’s Mean Gene. Ok that makes things better. One more bite and it’s Melina. Dang that hair is hot.

Money in the Bank

Kofi is out first and is more or less the weakest of the three favorites. His hair looks like a buffalo came in it. He’s wearing white trunks here for some reason. He’s only been qualified for 6 days at this point. MVP is in second. No one cares. At least he’s not in red anymore. Bourne is third so we have our high flier. Three Raw guys so far. Fourth is Swagger to a nice reaction. He debuts the Angle look here and those pushups…don’t appear here.

That sucks because they rock. Shelton is 5th and he belong here. Matt gets a nice pop. Ziggler is in next and I legit forgot he both existed and was in this match. McIntyre, one of the other favorites, has the majority of his entrance cut which sucks. He’s IC Champion here in case you forgot. Kane….you need a better push. Yes I know that’s one of the biggest debates here. Get over it. He has a big black eye which might be from Shawn on Monday.

Christian gets a decent pop as the odds on favorite. There are a ton of ladders and there we go. Drew goes for it maybe 30 seconds in so of course it doesn’t work. In a cool sequence, everyone goes up but everyone else pulls them down. Bourne touches the case and FTS wants to cry. Swagger is in front of the turnbuckle, Matt is in front of him, a ladder is in front of them, Kofi is thrown into the ladder.

That…wouldn’t hurt as much as it would seem to. Ziggler almost gets there but we remember he’s Dolph Ziggler so we know it’s not ending yet. Kane powerbombs Kofi onto a ladder. Freaking OW. I’m not sure if I like the ten men or not. On one hand, it keeps things from being all boring and whatnot as you have someone getting hurt and then others coming back and then repeat. On the other hand, yeah right. Striker says some people think Swagger can carry the WWE. HA!

In a cool spot (shocking I know) there’s a ladder in the ring and Swagger is under it. Matt and Christian have a ladder each and ram it through the rungs to spear Swagger with it. I like that. Bourne and Christian fight on the ladder that’s bridged between the rope and the ladder in the middle like a scaffold. Bourne knocks Christian down and like an IDIOT hits a shooting star press onto Christian. Yeah he deserves to get beaten here.

Matt takes a front flip onto the scaffold ladder. Yeah he’s broken SMACK DAB IN HALF! Sorry the Oklahoma guy got me there for a minute. Naturally this is a spotfest, but what did you really expect? Kane gets a BIG pop when he makes a save. He throws a ladder at Ziggler which is freaking cool looking. Dolph gets put between a ladder and gets worn out with it. Yep it’s broken. Trouble in Paradise puts Kane down.

In a BRILLIANT spot, Kofi takes the two pieces of the ladder and walks from the corner to the middle using them as stilts. That’s AWESOME. That is why these matches stay awesome: making new spots like that. Drew makes the save but Matt stops him. I would have bet on that being the ending. Matt stays up there FOREVER but can’t get the thing off. That’s just idiotic but whatever. Seriously, he has like 5 chances to get it and doesn’t do it.

Matt: YOU ARE AN IDIOT! Christian takes him down with the reverse DDT so Cole says it was a Twist of Fate. Yeah, the hint would be that Christian is ok. Swagger is back now and it’s him vs. Christian.

Swagger puts Christian down…and fiddles with the case…and fiddles with it…and writes the great American novel…and WINS THE THING. THAT is your Mania shocker right there. No one, and I mean NO ONE saw this one coming. Match felt short, which you’ll hear a lot more tonight. Had to pause there. Norcal’s explosion is still giving us tremors.

Rating: B. This would start at a B in case you were wondering. These matches are ones that you can’t grade like a normal match based on the amount of people and the gimmick involved in them. While not as good as some of the others, the idea is cool.

Naturally WWE is going to have a PPV about it instead of letting it be a Mania exclusive but that’s their idiocy for you. Swagger winning is a legit shock though so I can complain about that one at all. Solid stuff though but I could have gone for more people in the ring at once and more spots.

Ad for Extreme Rules.

Hall of Fame time, and for once the class is AWESOME. When Mad Dog Vachon is the worst wrestler and smallest star, that’s saying A LOT. Gorgeous George’s wife is awesome. I want to see Uecker’s speech. That could be hilarious. Ted DiBiase is the best heel of all time. End of argument. Yes that includes Hogan and Flair. That laugh is just amazing.

FINK!!! He brings out the Class of 2010. The entire Hart Family represents Stu. I want to punch Bruce in the face.

We recap HHH vs. Sheamus. This was almost the world title match but they woke up and realized it should be a regular match which I can more than live with. Apparently Sheamus is jealous of HHH. That makes sense. I’d be jealous of his wife if nothing else. HHH eliminated him at Elimination Chamber to really set this up. We get Ultimate Warrior clips. That’s saying a lot.

Sheamus vs. HHH

The view from the top of the stadium with the tiny ring in there is awesome looking. They say no one has had a first year in WWE like Sheamis has. That’s true. When Lesnar did three times what Sheamus did in one year, it was WWF still. HHH gets a nice pop but it doesn’t hold up that long. Ok I’m wrong on that one. HHH has made Wrestlemania? Not sure on that one. HHH looks a tad chubby here. Maybe that’s just me. Ok the entrance is still cool.

He looks like a huge star and he’s supposed to. Talk about a contrast of skin tones here. HHH goes for a Pedigree about a minute in. That’s credited to Mania experience. Uh, why? Isn’t that called going for a finisher early? I’d want to do that in any match. Since HHH got big in the Attitude Era, we hit the floor. The figure four goes on and Flair is reference. Does that make AJ and HHH some kind of brothers? Ok, we get it: HHH is a veteran.

Oh and he’s the Ace of Spades now. What the heck does that even mean? Sheamus likes to yell when he kicks people. It’s rather annoying. Stop it. DO YOU HEAR ME YOU MILKY SKINNED IMBECILE??? Hey that actually worked. He channels his inner British Bulldog and hits a running powerslam. Nothing wrong with that. HHH breaks the momentum with a DDT. That might not work due to that hair though.

Striker: Tie your mother down, here comes HHH. So Striker has random shouts of incestuous bondage. Right. We get a nice finisher reversal sequence that ends with Sheamus hitting the bicycle kick. He gets another after HHH kicks out but both guys are down. Isn’t that a witch? HHH falls on his face and Striker says it’s experience. Lawler has some sense and says it might have been dumb luck. Thank you Lawler. And there’s a Pedigree from nowhere for the pin. Ok then.

Rating: B-. This was pretty solid I thought. It came off like a main event level match and that’s what it was supposed to do. Also, there was a big thing here about how Sheamus should have won. Ok, that’s just stupid. HHH is a bigger star and at the big shows, the bigger stars are supposed to win.

This guy debuted a year ago and he’s wrestling a 12 time world champion at Mania. What more do you want? It’s his best match ever by about a mile also, so this worked out fine. Good match, but not a classic like Lawler claims it is.

Slim Jim Ad. OH YEAH!

We recap Rey vs. Punk. This was a cool buildup I thought but it could have been a bit more. Rey sang Happy Birthday to his daughter and Punk interrupted him. Rey cost Punk his spot in MITB. Rey’s son Dominic is taller than he is. That’s the same kid from 05 in the Eddie feud. That’s just amusing.

Rey Mysterio vs. C.M. Punk

Oh sweet Punk has a mic. Punk needs to actually win a match once in awhile to make this gimmick work perfectly though. These promos get better every single time. Rey is dressed like a character from Avatar tonight. Oh just take me now. It can’t get stupider than this. It just can’t. Yep, Rey looks like a moron dressed like that. He truly does. Gallows interferes early and it’s Punk in control. Straightedge prevails again!

Punk’s tights make me think of GI Joe for some reason. Aren’t the Na’vi really tall? See, the costume makes no sense. Punk gets a SICK kick to the side of Rey’s stupid looking head. We get a CM Punk (sucks) chant going and Rey kind of botches a backflip off the top rope into a DDT. It was close though. And Rey manages to tick me off again by doing the Eddie dance before throwing out a Frog Splash. HE IS DEAD. LET IT GO. I freaking hate the 619.

After some botched heel interference, the springboard splash ends this, saving him from joining the Straightedge Society and gaining him…nothing at all. Ok then. Not agreeing with the ending here, but it could be ok I guess. Oh and Cole says you never mess with another man’s family. I don’t see why not. Eddie did it and he gets a dozen tributes a year.

Rating: B-. Pretty good stuff here I thought. These two have decent chemistry together, but like I said I would have preferred Punk to win for a few reasons. If nothing else this could continue though so that’s a perk. Pretty solid stuff here overall.

We recap Bret vs. Vince. No way am I recapping this. If you don’t know this story by now, why are you here? The image of Vince in Bret’s sunglasses is cool.

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon

Man that is weird to type. Bret is in street clothes here. That’s the right thing to go with I think, as if nothing else he’s likely not in the shape he was before so why embarrass yourself? Are you listening Flair? Vince comes out and says that he has insurance for this match and it’s going to be a lumberjack match. And of course they’re the Hart Family. Bruce is a douche, period.

When they came out, it couldn’t have been much more obvious what was coming. Oh great Bruce is the referee. And of course the Harts turn on Vince before the match starts. Bret’s first punch gets a pop. Bruce, ever the douche, counts when Vince is on the floor in a match with no countouts. Vince is on the floor and the whole family beats him up including a Hart Attack from the top via the Hart Dynasty. Vince hasn’t landed a single shot.

He does however find a tire iron under the ring. Bret gets about 10 shots in with the tire iron over a few minutes. He goes for the legs and the fans go nuts. Nope not yet. Nice tease there though. He sets for it again but it’s a low blow instead. Good to see some old Bret stuff in there. David slides in a chair…which Bret sits down in. Ok this is a bit awkward. Also it’s amusing that Lawler is behind Bret here when he used to HATE Bret.

SWEET chair shot from Bret. He goes OFF on him with it for a total of TWENTY chairshots, breaking Austin’s record of shots to Rock at X7. And then he puts on the Sharpshooter and kills the Montreal Screwjob forever. Vince literally did not hit anything, not even a punch.

Rating: A+. Now before X jumps down my throat for this, you have to consider what this was about. This wasn’t about a competitive match or storytelling or anything like that. This was about Bret getting revenge on Vince. Vince never should have gotten anything in here and literally he didn’t.

Bret completely destroyed him for ten minutes and then the match ended with Vince giving up to the Sharpshooter. That is all you could have wanted out of this and the most infamous moment in wrestling history can be laid to rest. That alone makes this perfect.

Now can we make Bruce Hart fall into a hole?

Mania 27 will be in Atlanta.

The attendance is announced. That’s always cool. Of course we launch fireworks that few in the arena can see. Ok then.

We recap Edge vs. Jericho, which is a simple revenge story. This year they kept things simple and it worked very well. Jericho was showing some emotion here and it worked very well. Oh and spear, spear, SPEAR!

Smackdown World Title: Chris Jericho vs. Edge

This should be good from an in ring perspective if nothing else. Edge looks to have lost a bit of weight. They start by feeling each other out as you would expect I would assume. It is a bit odd that they try to make their tag title reign sound important when they were together what, maybe a month? Jericho and Edge trained together? I don’t remember that. Jericho is controlling which is what you would expect. Oddly there was no control period by Edge. That’s most odd.

Hey, did you know Jericho beat Austin and Rock in the same night? Edge hits a nice running clothesline from the apron to the floor. It’s the simple moves that work the best sometimes. Edge hits a sunset flip from the middle rope. Ok then. Codebreaker is blocked. Pretty good match so far. Edge, complete with the great looking eyes, goes for a spear but in a SWANK counter, Jericho jumps over and more or less gets a schoolboy into the Walls.

Since Edge is a face though he doesn’t tap. Has that ever beaten a prominent face? The Edgecution hits but of course it’s not called that anymore because the announcers suck. They point out that Jericho never gets hurt. That’s very true actually. Jericho goes for a spear but winds up hitting the Codebreaker for two. Jericho goes for the ankle which makes sense. As someone with very bad ankle problems, it really is smart to go after them if you’re fighting someone.

Walls go on again but Jericho switches to a half crab. Well he did train with Lance Storm. The crowd is having fun with this. He gets to the ropes in case you were wondering. Jericho goes for the belt but that doesn’t work. Ok never mind it does since the referee goes down. A really bad Codebreaker gets the clean pin.

I would not have seen that one coming at all. Post match, Edge gets him on one of the tables and after a running start, spears the living tar out of Jericho into a barrier which clearly will be an injury spot.

Rating: A-. That’s likely too high but I really liked this match. It was entertaining the whole time through but it needed a few more minutes. I really like the surprise ending where Edge loses when he was more or less seen as a lock. That’s risky booking but here I think it came off very well. Very good match and definitely the best of the night so far.

We talk about the battle royal before Mania which Tatsu won. Good for him.

Face Divas vs. Heel Divas

Seriously do the rosters matter here? It’s 5 on 5. That’s all you need to know. Vickie is one of the heels so of course she’ll be the focus of the whole match. Beth looks great in white. That is all. So everyone beats up Vickie until Michelle makes a save. They alternate back and forth with everyone coming in and hitting someone with a finisher until we’re left with Beth and Vickie. Michelle puts Beth down and Vickie hits a “Hog Splash” on Kelly for the win. She managed to botch a cover. That’s hard to do. This was like 3 minutes long.

Rating: F. Seriously, what the heck was this? Eddie, I never thought you were anywhere near what people made you out to be, but you deserve better than this.

Time for Cena vs. Batista. I know you know the story so I’ll spare you the details. The crowd exploded for the graphic coming onscreen.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Batista

Love them or hate them, this is THE money match right here. Period and end of story. There is no other combination that is a selling point like this is right here. This is what Mania is supposed to be about: the biggest stars in the world squaring off for the world championship. I’ve loved the buildup for this and it was what I was looking forward to more than anything. Oh and Cena’s thing this year is a group of Air Force drill people spinning rifles until Cena runs through them.

Far better than last year if nothing else. We start with the feeling out period as the announcers argue over who is stronger. That’s an interesting argument actually. The idea is Cena’s neck injury from about a year and a half ago is still bothering him. Sure why not? Batista counters the FU into a DDT that was PAINFUL looking. Apparently if your opponent’s arms and legs go limp, he’s in trouble. Ladies and gentlemen, the insights of Matt Striker!

If your opponent is losing the ability to support their own weight, THEY COULD BE IN TROUBLE! And the fans have already turned on Cena with the Boo/Yay thing. And then there’s a very face pop for the Five Knuckle Shuffle which is countered into a spinebuster. You would think there would be a shift to booing there but not really. STFU is hooked and we’ve cranked it into a higher gear. In a cool spot, we hit a test of strength on the top rope. That’s new if nothing else.

Five Knuckle Shuffle from the top as he channels his inner Jannetty. Yes, a Marty Jannetty move landed in a Mania main event. Batista Bomb gets two and a mouth from Batista that could swallow Molly Holly alive. Jannetty and Molly Holly got mentioned in this match. Wow. Cena gets a SWEET counter into the FU out of a reversed Batista Bomb. He rolled from slipping over the shoulders to what looked like a tombstone to the FU.

Amazing and he threw Batista about a mile but it only got two. In almost the same spot that his neck got hurt in, Batista catches Cena in a spinebuster from the top. ANOTHER Batista Bomb is countered into the STFU for the tap. It looked like a weak version but the shot of Batista’s leg made up for it. Cena being named a 9 time champion just makes it seem a bit weak though as it always does.

Post match, Cena celebrates with the crowd and we see a guy saying Cena sucks and Cena acknowledges him. That right there is something I freaking LOVE about Cena. Guys like Hogan got a mixed reaction like that and acted like they were still the most over thing ever. I’ve always hated that as it’s just idiotic.

It’s like when WCW said there isn’t a seat to be found as we scan over the crowd seeing all the tarped off areas and empty seats. Cena talks about the booing. It makes him seem more down to Earth which I like for a change.

Rating: A. Sweet match here as these two continue to be the Austin/Rock of their generation. Like I said this is the money match of this generation. The chemistry here is undeniable as Cena is one of the few guys that brings out the best in Batista. This is what a Wrestlemania main event match should be about and it delivered in a big way.

Another Extreme Rules ad.

And now, it is time. This had to be the last match, period. Flair vs. Shawn should have been as well but that’s another story. I’m again not bothering to explain this one as it’s Career vs. Streak. End of explanation. They call it the most anticipated match in Mania history. Not sure on that one.

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

Well here we go. This is one of two matches this show was sold on so you know it’s going to be good considering who’s in it. This many years after he debuted, Taker’s entrance is still awesome. Taker is rocking something that makes him look a bit like a boxer which works. We hit the staredown and Shawn does Taker’s throat slit. Keep that in mind. Taker dominates early, hitting Snake Eyes and Old School in the first minute or so.

He tweeks his knee on Old School though and Shawn goes for it. Old guys know psychology. Shawn goes for the arm which makes sense as it takes away the Tombstone and Last Ride. Oh and remember there are no count outs or DQs. Both finishers miss and the crowd is liking this a lot. And now back to the knee. The arm work was brief so that’s fine. Taker teases the rope dive but Shawn slides in and takes out the knee again. Good after what happened with that move last year.

Shawn busts out a figure four and much like Flair, PUTS IT ON THE WRONG LEG. The straight leg gets hurt. How hard is that to get? Nip Up is caught in a chokeslam. I like how he just launches him with those at times. An ankle lock is on as Shawn is fine maybe 8 seconds later. He gets the heel hook out of it and Taker is in trouble. He gets out though because Shawn isn’t an American hero. Shawn gets tombstoned on the floor. Ok then.

Shawn is dead apparently. Someone comes out to check on him and of course the match keeps going. Striker, CALM DOWN! The Last Ride hits but Shawn kind of counters into an X Factor so the impact is lessened. I can forgive him for being up quickly for that. Shawn gets out of Hell’s Gate with a nifty counter where he jumps over into a rollup. That was ni…SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Of course it gets two but that came from nowhere. The camera missed most of it.

I love stuff like that as it makes things feel more shocking. Taker blocks another kick and hits the biggest Last Ride ever for two. Shawn was at least 11 feet in the air. Awesome looking. Taker looks furious.

And now, we go to the floor. This might not end well. Why do they take such care of the monitors? I’ve never gotten that. And I mean in kayfabe before you freak out on me. Taker goes for a Last Ride through the table but Shawn counters and hits Sweet Chin Music to put Taker on it. He slowly climbs up to the top rope and launches a picture perfect moonsault.

Now if only he had hit Taker’s chest and not his leg. I legit thought his leg was seriously hurt for a bit until he got up on it a bit later. Back in the ring Shawn hits the THIRD superkick and IT gets two. This isn’t quite last year’s match but it’s VERY close. Another kick is blocked into a chokeslam but his knee is out. Tombstone also gets two and the crowd is losing it over these twos. Taker is LIVID. There go the straps. Shawn hasn’t moved yet.

Taker starts the throat slit but can’t finish it. Just like he did for Jeff Hardy, he can’t bring himself to hurt him anymore. After he shouts at Shawn to stay down, Shawn does his own throat slit, admitting he just can’t do it. He then does the unthinkable and slaps Taker. This was four days ago and 3000 miles from me and the look on Taker’s face scared the heck out of me. Taker is livid and picks up Michaels for a JUMPING TOMBSTONE.

Shawn is of course legally dead now and the career ends. No music plays at first, which is a very nice touch. The crowd isn’t sure what to do. I collapsed when he got the pin on my first viewing and it’s still a tiring match to watch. Taker staggers up and does his pose as 18-0 flashes up on the screen.

That, to say the least, is mind blowing. More on that later. Taker gets him to his feet and they shake hands like they should do. It’s Shawn’s moment as Mr. Wrestlemania gets a standing ovation. He walks up the ramp, and Jerry Lawler puts is perfectly: Shawn, it’s over. Good-bye. Thank you.

Rating: A+. It’s not as good as last year’s was, but this was an epic match to say the least. We knew who was going to win, but that’s ok here to me. The ending was perfect as Shawn gave up and was defiant until the end. If someone is going to end it, Taker is a fine choice and the angle was perfect.

It’s a very emotional match, but that takes nothing away from the quality of it. The best word I can think of for this is satisfying. Everything you could want is in here and it’s a fitting end to the show. Shawn, I was never a big fan of your’s, but your career was remarkable to put it as low as I can. I’ll miss you.

Overall Rating: A. GREAT Mania. Nothing at all feels slow on here at all. Even the Divas match is at least fast paced and at three and a half minutes with hot women, how much can you really complain? This had it all as there is history, title changes, surprised, tons of emotion and a perfect card. Shocky made a comment that it’s in the top three Manias ever and he might be on to something actually.

It’s behind 17 for me and off the top of my head that’s it from a quality standpoint but I haven’t thought about it much. This was a great show though with the big matches all being great and the others being very good as well. Nothing was truly bad other than the Divas match which is totally overlookable. Great Mania and ABSOLUTELY worth seeing. I loved it.

And now for three bonus sections. Of course I’m going to do more for a Mania review. It’s the biggest show of the year and I started my reviews with Mania.

To begin with, this Mania set up the upcoming year rather well. As always, Mania marks both the beginning and the end of the year. Cena is back on top which is fine as he should be there. Jericho was a shocker to retain for me and maybe they’re showing confidence in him.

Swagger, Sheamus, Punk, Christian, Kofi and others are ready to take this company over while the current generation of stars in Cena, Batsita, Orton and HHH can more than hold down the fort and bring those guys up. That’s how you have a good company: a well rounded new generation that is ready to take over. I have high hopes for the company as the roster is clicking and the stories have been great thanks to them slowing things down and going with basic angles.

The older generation is dying away as Montreal is finally laid to rest and Shawn is retired now. That’s how things should be as guys from 8 years ago like Cena and Orton are the top guys now and they have been groomed for these spots. I have high hopes for this company as this is the best its looked in many a year.

Item number two is the Streak. This my friends, is the most amazing achievement in wrestling history. “But KB, all it means is he’s been booked strong at one point a year.” Yeah that’s nonsense. To begin with, the Streak didn’t mean anything until 2001. I don’t think it was even mentioned until around that time. Second, think of this. Shawn Michaels is called Mr. Wrestlemania. He’s wrestled at that show 17 times.

Mr. Wrestlemania has not competed at Wrestlemania as many times as Taker has won there. Let that sink in for a moment. The Streak is an angle in and of itself. What was the argument between Shawn and Taker over both times? Nothing other than beating Taker at Wrestlemania.

There is no equivalent to it in all of wrestling and there never will be. To even be around for 18 years is an accomplishment. The thing is just amazing and hopefully it will never die. It’s my favorite part of the show and it never fails to deliver.

And now we move to the white elephant in the room. Shawn Michaels, arguably the best performer ever, has retired. Like I said I was never the biggest Shawn fan, but to deny his talent or the impact he had on wrestling would be ridiculously unfair to him and his legacy. He changed the way a lot of wrestlers perform and there are many reasons why, all of which you can see by watching him.

He stole the show so many times and retired as better than probably 95% of the wrestlers in the world. He went out on top on his own terms which is all you can want. He was one of the best ever and maybe the best ever, but that’s an argument for another time. I’m sad to see him go, but glad that he went out like this. In his speech the next night on Raw he more or less said he wasn’t going to TNA which is great as he would likely wind up jobbing to people beneath him.

Also, if he ever wants to, Vince would welcome him back with open arms. His exit was classy and perfectly done and to me it would be a shame if he came back, but I could live with it. It’s sad to see him go, but nice at the same time as he can go in peace. Have a good retirement Shawn. You’ve earned it.