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It’s the 25th \”Anniversary\” of WrestleMania!
00:00 Intro
01:49 Money in the Bank Ladder Match
04:29 Kid Rock concert/25 Diva Battle Royal
07:08 Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat \u0026 Jimmy Snuka
10:02 Extreme Rules: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
13:12 Intercontinental Championship: JBL vs. Rey Mysterio
14:47 Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker
16:34 World Heavyweight Championship: Edge vs. John Cena vs. Big Show
19:50 WWE Championship: Triple H vs. Randy Orton
24:36 Final Thoughts
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WWE WrestleMania 25 Review – TJR Wrestling
The 25th WrestleMania featured the match that is, in my opinion, the best match in WWE history. Undertaker and Michaels gave us a ic that …
Source: tjrwrestling.net
Date Published: 2/24/2021
View: 8985
Reviews: The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania – IMDb
Easily, The best WrestleMania in recent times. The Showstopper and The Deadman deserve a standing ovation for their contribution in WWE. Mickey Rourke’s cameo …
Source: www.imdb.com
Date Published: 4/23/2022
View: 8270
Customer reviews: WWE: WrestleMania XXV – 25th Anniversary
Shawn Michaels match!!! It is an instant ic and arguably the best WrestleMania match of this decade. Most of the card were complete filler and a waste of …
Source: www.amazon.com
Date Published: 1/13/2021
View: 5689
Wrestlemania XXV (2013 Redo): What Were They Thinking?
Rating: A+. Masterpiece, excellent, ic, best match they’ve ever had, best match of all time candate etc. Pick one, as they’re all …
Source: kbwrestlingreviews.com
Date Published: 5/13/2021
View: 4809
From the Bowery: WrestleMania XXV | 411MANIA
Now while I’ve had the DVD for months I have yet to watch the entire show. Since I was there live I will review as I normally do, but I will …
Source: 411mania.com
Date Published: 11/24/2022
View: 3467
WrestleMania 25 – Wikipedia
WrestleMania 25 was the 25th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Date Published: 2/18/2021
View: 9678
Depths of ‘Mania: WWE WrestleMania 25 Review
The big finale was Triple H coming to Randy Orton’s house and beating him up all over the place in one of the hokiest angles in recent memory.
Source: www.voicesofwrestling.com
Date Published: 7/3/2022
View: 6412
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주제에 대한 기사 평가 wrestlemania 25 review
- Author: Wrestling With Wregret
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- Date Published: 2022. 3. 23.
- Video Url link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwcZa-s-SnU
WWE WrestleMania 25 Review – TJR Wrestling
The 25th WrestleMania was a big one because it was the Silver Anniversary of the “granddaddy of them all.” The event was held in Houston’s Reliant Stadium.
If you’ll recall, Houston’s Astrodome held WM17, but that historic venue was no more. Reliant Stadium was a state-of-the-art NFL stadium that saw 72,744 fans in attendance for this historic event.
There is one match that people remember the most on this show: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. It wasn’t the main event, however. That was Triple H vs. Randy Orton in yet another match in their neverending feud.
For this WrestleMania recap, I didn’t write a play-by-play review of everything on the show. However, I did the usual analysis and star ratings, so I think it should be fine. I’ve also added some new 2022 thoughts in blue font as well.
WWE WrestleMania XXV
April 5, 2009
From Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas
The show started with the video package welcoming us to WrestleMania that they did every year. They are always awesome videos. I think that goes without saying by this point.
Howard Finkel welcomed us to the show and threw it over to Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls. She did well.
The announcers for the show were Jim Ross, Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler.
CM Punk, who won Money in the Bank the previous year, entered to a good pop. Mark Henry was accompanied by Tony Atlas and Henry was booed. Montel Vontavious Porter got a solid ovation as the United States Champion. Finlay was next with his “son” Hornswoggle joining him. Shelton Benjamin was in the MITB match for the fourth time in the five-year history of the ladder match. Kofi Kingston was next in his first WrestleMania. Christian got a good pop as a veteran of ladder matches. Kane was the last man to enter and this was when he was without a mask.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kofi Kingston vs. Kane vs. MVP vs. CM Punk vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry vs. Shelton Benjamin
Kane and Mark Henry used their power advantage to clear the ring at the start of the match. Henry hit a splash on Kane against the turnbuckle. Benjamin and Christian worked together to hit Kane and Henry with the ladder. Kingston dropkicked the ladder into them followed by a boom drop leg drop on the ladder. Finlay tossed Kingston out of the ring. Kane with a boot to knock down Finlay. Kane and Henry tried to climb, but the other guys brought them down. The big guys were both kicked out of the ring. Two ladders were set up, four guys climbed and Kane and Henry went back in to knock them all down. Kane knocked down Henry with a boot to the face. Kane tried to climb a ladder, but Henry sent Kane crashing into the top rope. Finlay with a drop toe hold on Henry followed by a low dropkick. Finlay with a suicide dive on Kane and Benjamin. Christian hit a springboard cross body block on Kane and Finlay. MVP hit a somersault dive off the apron on Kane, Christian and Finlay on the floor. Kingston and Punk each hit suicide dives on the guys on the floor. That set up Benjamin to climb a 15 foot high ladder and he hit a somersault dive off the ladder onto the four wrestlers on the floor below. That was huge! Very impressive move by Benjamin that led to a big ovation from the crowd. There were “holy shit” chants as well. Benjamin landed on five of the superstars. Even though Kane wasn’t hit by it, he sold it anyway. What a nice guy, Kane.
Mark Henry climbed the ropes to tease an attack, but Finlay hit Henry in the head with a shillelagh. Hornswoggle brought a step ladder into the ring. Finlay grabbed Hornswoggle, put him on Henry’s back and Hornswoggle hit a Tadpole Splash on the wrestlers on the floor. That was funny. Finlay hit Henry with the step ladder to knock him down. Finlay battled with Kingston, who connected with a dropkick (by going in between the standing ladder) to knock Finlay down followed by Kingston sending a ladder face first into Finlay. When Kingston charged, Finlay hit him with the step ladder. Finlay knocked Christian and Kane down thanks to using the step ladder as a weapon. Finlay tried to climb, so Kofi hit him with a Trouble in Paradise kick. When Kofi tried a climb, Henry pushed the ladder over. Henry tried setting up the ladder, Kingston climbed it and Henry caught Kingston leading to the World’s Strongest Slam on a ladder. Ouch. MVP used a ladder to hit Henry in the ribs to slow the big man down. MVP set up a bridge between a ladder and the ropes. Benjamin jumped off the ladder bridge and MVP caught Benjamin with a Powerbomb. MVP tried to climb the ladder, but CM Punk went after him. Christian pulled MVP down and hit a clothesline. Christian went up the ladder bridge to stop Punk’s climb. Christian hit the Unprettier on Punk b jumping off the ladder bridge and they went crashing to the mat. Benjamin with a spin kick on Kane. MVP climbed the ladder, Benjamin climbed a ladder on the floor, onto the bridge and he quickly got to MVP on the ladder. That was a nice spot. Benjamin went for a sunset flip off the ladder, but he lost his grip of MVP and they went down at the same time. Neither guy was hurt, but it was a botched spot. They followed up with Benjamin picking up MVP and tossing him over the top onto Henry, Atlas and Kingston on the floor, so that’s the spot they intended to do off the ladder. Henry did a great job of catching MVP. Benjamin and Finlay climbed up on opposite of ladders with Benjamin punching Finlay down. Christian and Benjamin each climbed ladders, then Shelton went tumbling down while Christian kept his balance on the ladder after bouncing off the ropes. The crowd really wanted Christian to win. Punk stopped Christian briefly until Punk’s leg was caught against a ladder. Kane went up with Christian and dropped him with a Chokeslam. Punk kicked Kane, so Kane grabbed him by the choke and Punk kicked Kane down. Punk reached up and grabbed the Money in the Bank briefcase for the win at 14:32.
Winner: CM Punk
Analysis: ***1/2 It was a good match like most MITB matches although they lacked the big spots to make it stand out. There weren’t as many crazy bumps aside from Benjamin’s insane dive off the ladder. Kofi Kingston had some cool moments too. Instead of guys doing wild bumps onto ladders, most of the bigger spots involved guys doing dives and then being caught by other wrestlers. That’s a lot safer. I had forgotten how much the crowd wanted Christian to win until I watched it again. When Punk won, I was surprised because he did it the year before, but as it turned out it was the right call.
(A very good match as usual. Punk winning it again was a surprise to me, but it’s not like I hated it since Punk was one of my favorite wrestlers at the time. I just didn’t expect a repeat winner.)
Kid Rock sang a medley of his songs. The divas danced while he sang. Then they went to the ring for their match.
25 Diva Battle Royal
Terrible match. They had all the current divas in the match, plus they brought back some former divas like Sunny, Torrie Wilson, Molly Holly and Jackie Gayda to name a few. Trish Stratus was asked to go, but she declined. Smart move by her. It wasn’t really funny either although I’m Vince sure loves seeing men dressed up like women, which is why Santino was booked to win this as his Santina character. The final three were Santina, Beth & Melina. Santina dumped them out to win at the 5:57 mark. Six minutes of my life I’ll never have back…twice now since I re-watched this.
Winner: Santina
Analysis: -** One of the worst matches ever. I don’t see how anybody in the company thought this was a good idea. It did nothing for any of the people involved.
(It was so bad. It really is one of the worst battle royals that you could ever watch. I remember Trish Stratus declining to be part of it and when you see how bad this was, I have to say it was such a smart decision by her.)
Chris Jericho vs. Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper & Ricky Steamboat w/Ric Flair
It was an elimination handicap match. It happened because they wanted to do Jericho vs. Mickey Rourke, star of the movie The Wrestler, but Rourke’s people didn’t want that to happen. Rourke was at ringside watching the match along with MMA fighter Frank Shamrock among others. Instead of wrestling Rourke, Jericho faced off against three legends. The legends had Ric Flair in their career. I’m sure Flair would have liked to have been in the match. Too bad he retired the year before. Jericho finished off Snuka with the Walls of Jericho and shortly after that he eliminated Piper with an enziguiri. When Steamboat wrestled Jericho for the final four minutes it was fun. Ricky still had a lot of athleticism even though he hadn’t wrestled in 15 years and the crowd was popping for a lot of his offense. He got an inside cradle that nearly got his team the win. Jericho finished him off with the Codebreaker at 8:57.
Winner by pinfall: Chris Jericho
Analysis: ** It wasn’t a bad match. Steamboat showed incredible athleticism for a guy that was 56 years old, but Piper & Snuka had no business being in the ring at their age. I also thought Jericho should have been in a bigger match considering he was the best wrestler in 2008. The Rourke stuff was okay as a celebrity moment, but could have been done better.
Post match, Jericho beat up Flair just for fun. That led to the showdown with Mickey Rourke. Jericho called him a coward. Rourke went into the ring. The crowd liked that. They had an impromptu boxing match. Rourke knocked him down with a left hook. Flair raised his hand and Flair’s music played, so the babyfaces were triumphant even though Jericho dominated the match.
(The original plan was to have Jericho face Rourke in a wrestling match, but Rourke’s management team thought it would hurt his chances at winning an Oscar for “The Wrestler.” Rourke didn’t win it anyway.)
Extreme Rules Match: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
This match came as a result of Matt Hardy costing Jeff Hardy the title match against Edge at the 2009 Royal Rumble. It was originally supposed to be Christian, but the internet got wind of it and it got changed. Allegedly. Believe what you want, I guess. I’m still mad that they changed the Edge/Christian reunion. Because of that, we had heel Matt against brother Jeff, who actually made it to this WrestleMania without getting suspended for drugs like he did the year before. They used a lot of weapons, had a good array of counter holds because they were brothers that knew the other’s moves and all of those things were incorporated into the match very well. The big bump saw Matt on a table, a chair on his chest and then a table was on top of that. Then Jeff went to the top and gave him a splash through all of that. It was a bit of a contrived spot to have Matt lying there for so long, but I still liked it. After that, Jeff pulled out two giant ladders. He did a legdrop off one of the ladders. Matt moved. Painful bump for Jeff there. Matt capitalized by using a folding chair, putting it around Jeff’s neck and giving him a Twist of Fate. Ouch. Matt covered for the win at 13:16.
Winner by pinfall: Matt Hardy
Analysis: ***1/2 I had high hopes for the match. It was good, but not great. I liked a lot of the big spots they did. The problem was that some of them took so long to set up. The ending was very well done with Jeff missing the big leg drop and Matt capitalizing with the Twist of Fate for the win. Jeff got his win back at Backlash a month later. Then he went on to have great main event feuds with Edge and later CM Punk, which my personal favorite feud of 2009.
(It’s a good match, but not a great one. I remember thinking Jeff would win here to end the rivalry, but it continued with Backlash a month later with Jeff picking up the win there. Even though Matt and Jeff are both very talented, I don’t know fans loved seeing them fight eachother)
Prior to the IC title match, the champion JBL said he was a proud Texan that loved living in New York City. Instant heat.
Intercontinental Title: JBL vs. Rey Mysterio
I’ll even do play by play for this. Rey was rocking the joker look. JBL attacked with a boot to the face before the match even started. The bell rang and Rey hit him with an enziguiri right off the bat. Dropkick to the ribs, 619 and then a top rope splash finished it at 0:22.
Winner by pinfall and New Intercontinental Champion: Rey Mysterio
Post match, JBL got on the microphone: “I’ve got something to say. I quit!” This was his retirement match. The crowd wasn’t sad to see him go.
Analysis: NR More of an angle than a match. A memorable moment because of JBL’s quitting.
The video package for Undertaker/Michaels was next. The match was set up after Shawn Michaels ended his feud with JBL. He was very happy, so he decided to challenge Undertaker at WrestleMania and try to be the first person to get a win after Undertaker was 16-0. It was the man with The Streak versus the man known as Mr. WrestleMania. Since it was the 25th WrestleMania, it was fitting that this was the matchup. They mixed religion with the match a bit as Michaels talked about having eternal life and Undertaker telling him that sometimes it was hell trying to get to heaven.
Michaels made his entrance in a white coat, descending on a platform. When he reached the stage, his music started up. He said a prayer and walked to the ring with a purpose. The crowd gave him a big ovation. Michaels looked towards the entrance as Undertaker arrived on the scene.
The Undertaker rose from under the stage. I guess he rose from hell while Michaels descended from heaven? The announcers put over the light vs. dark idea too. What’s cool is that they were both guys from Texas and this match took place in their home state, so it likely meant a lot for them to have this match in Texas. Four minutes after Taker’s music started, he entered the ring.
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
The story was that Michaels wasn’t intimidated by Undertaker. He was ready for him. Michaels used his speed to get some shots in early, hitting in a few hard chops to the chest. Undertaker overpowered him in the corner, Michaels faked a knee injury and then recovered quickly to attack Undertaker with punches to the head. Undertaker hit him in the head with punches of his own. Michaels was whipped into the corner, which flipped him upside down and then Undertaker gave him a back body drop. Undertaker gave him a Gorilla Press Slam followed by an elbow drop. Undertaker hit the Old School clothesline to a standing ovation. A running boot in the corner by Undertaker was avoided in the corner. Undertaker sold the right knee so Michaels focused on it with an attack to the back of the knee. Michaels put Undertaker in his inverted Figure Four Leg Lock submission. Undertaker fought out of it with punches to the head. Michaels dropkicked the knee. Undertaker was able to catch him and drove Michaels back to the corner. Running clothesline for Undertaker in the corner. Two of them. Snake Eyes into the corner turnbuckle followed by the big boot to the face and a leg drop to Michaels. That was an Undertaker sequence of moves that we would get used to over the years. Undertaker went for the Chokeslam, but Michaels countered it with a Crossface. That was an awesome counter. Undertaker countered it into a side slam for two. Crowd was popping for that. They were loud for much of the match, chanting the name of each man at various times. Michaels hit Undertaker with a flying forearm to the face. Kip up. Michaels hit two inverted atomic drops and then a clothesline. Michaels went to the top, Undertaker caught him with a Chokeslam, Michaels countered that, went for the Superkick, Undertaker dropped to his back to avoid that and Michaels went for the Figure Four. Undertaker countered that with Hell’s Gate to a huge ovation! Michaels was able to get his feet on the ropes. Ref made Undertaker break it. That was an outstanding sequence of moves right there. With Michaels body hanging off the apron, Undertaker hit a boot to the face and then his leg drop on the apron missed because Michaels was able to avoid it. Baseball slide dropkick by Michaels. Michaels went to the top rope and he jumped off the top with a moonsault. Undertaker moved out of the way. Michaels went crashing to the floor. His knee went smashing into the floor. The ref Marty Elias was checking on him. Undertaker got to his feet. He ran the ropes, he jumped over the top rope and Michaels put a camera man in front of him. JR: “Oh my God!” The camera man was Deuce from the Deuce & Domino tag team aka Sim Snuka, the son of Jimmy Snuka. He failed to get in the right spot to catch Undertaker for that spot. Soon after, he was released from his contract. It was a very scary landing for Undertaker. I remember thinking he was legit hurt because he dove all the way over the top rope and landed right on his head. What a tough man he is to be able to continue. The ref was also down because Michaels pushed him out of the way, so everybody was out on the floor. On the replay, you could see that Deuce should have been up about a foot to break Undertaker’s fall.
Back in the ring, Michaels was the first one to recover as he pulled himself into the ring. He grabbed the ref while another ref Chad Patton checked on Undertaker. Then Chad ran to the back. That was likely done to check on Undertaker’s health. Michaels stood the ref up in the corner, telling the ref to count Undertaker out. The crowd wasn’t a fan of the countout win, but Michaels was hoping it would be good enough. Undertaker got back to his knees and then rolled in after a count of nine to a standing ovation from the crowd. How many times do you see a standing ovation from a guy getting back into the ring to break a countout? Special match. Michaels went for the Sweet Chin Music. Undertaker caught him, gave him a Chokeslam and Michaels kicked out at two. It wasn’t just a Chokeslam, but it was one of the most impressive ones you will ever see because of how Michaels took the move. Great nearfall. Undertaker went for Tombstone, Michaels slipped out, Taker choked him, Michaels broke it and hit Sweet Chin Music out nowhere. Michaels was slow to cover, so Undertaker got his shoulder up at two with the crowd cheering loudly. Michaels kipped up again. Undertaker choked him and went for the Last Ride powerbomb. Michaels slipped out, attempting to get a sunset flip. Undertaker countered that, booted him in the gut and hit the Last Ride powerbomb for one…two…no. Another amazing nearfall. Crowd popped HUGE for that. Undertaker sold it great by selling his frustration at the move. Undertaker went to the top rope. He went for a Michaels-like Flying Elbow out of desperation. Michaels moved. Undertaker whipped him in the ropes, Michaels did his skin the cat move, Undertaker caught him off of that and gave him a Tombstone in the center of the ring. Wow that was such a great spot to do. Undertaker folded his hands on his chest for the one…two…no. Michaels got his shoulder up. Best nearfall ever? Everybody thought that was it. Crowd was popping loud for everything in this match as they should have been. The camera shot immediately after the move was perfect because it focused on Undertaker’s “what the hell?” face because he was shocked that Michaels had kicked out. The replay showed how great Michaels was at selling that sequence because he was shaking trying to get out of the hold. Undertaker did his throat slash gesture. He tried to pick Michaels up for another Tombstone, but Michaels countered it into a DDT, which was a very unique counter. It didn’t connect perfectly. It got the job done, though. Michaels found the strength to get to his feet and he climbed to the top rope. Flying Elbow for Michaels. He pulled himself to the corner where he tuned up the band for the Sweet Chin Music. Michaels connected with Sweet Chin Music right on the jaw to a huge pop. One…two…no! JR: “Good God almighty the match continues! This classic is continuing! The world is watching a classic!” If the Tombstone spot was the best nearfall in wrestling history, that one might have been the second best. Amazing. They were on their knees, then made it to their feet as Michaels threw chops while Undertaker threw punches. The crowd responded to every blow. Then Undertaker decided that was enough, so he just booted him in the face. Michaels slipped out of a Tombstone attempt. Undertaker’s charge into the corner was countered with a Michaels boot to the face. Michaels went to the top. Moonsault is caught by Undertaker. Tombstone. One…two…three. The match ended at 30:44. The Undertaker is 17-0 at WrestleMania. JR: “Seventeen and zero!”
Winner by pinfall: The Undertaker
Post match, both guys were lying on their back. Ross said he was honored to sit at ringside to see a match like this. The crowd was still cheering minutes after the match was over. They showed replays of all the big moments too. Michaels left. Undertaker posed in the ring as his music played. I would have loved to see them shake hands or something to allow the crowd to give them a standing ovation, but I understand why it wasn’t done.
Analysis: ***** Wow, what a match. They definitely followed the Austin/Rock formula for the WrestleMania match by having each guy kick out of the big spots. I never thought Michaels was going to win at any point, but those nearfalls were as believable as any Undertaker Mania match I’ve ever seen up to this point. Even when Taker went for covers and didn’t get them his facial expressions were great. I loved some of the spots in there and there’s no point in going over the big ones because everybody knows why they work. To me, the things that stand out were moments like when they were slugging it out at the end and Undertaker just booted him down forcing Shawn to collapse in a heap. That’s great. That’s how you properly do big man/little man spots. I thought Undertaker broke his neck when he jumped over the top rope and landed violently on the floor. I’m not sure what others felt when they saw it, but I thought he was done. I loved the story of the match being about Michaels’s heart and ability to never gave up. He took everything Undertaker had, yet he kept on fighting. He also nearly beat Undertaker multiple times and each time he didn’t he sold that frustration. That’s what I loved so much about this time. It was about the win. It was about who the better man was. After all, that’s what wrestling should be about.
The big question following it was where does it rank amongst the greatest matches ever? It’s hard to say. My number one was always Hart vs. Austin at WrestleMania 13. I’ve since watched this match many times. I think I like this one more. It was everything I like about professional wrestling. I think Jim Ross said it best as they were going through the replays: “As a wrestling fan how can you ask for anything more?”
I wrote way more about the match in a detailed review of it on TJRWrestling right here. I’ll share some what I wrote below.
(That Undertaker’s leap over the top rope that ended poorly still makes me cringe. We had seen him jump over the top rope like that many times in his career, but for him to land hard on his head/neck like that was scary. Sim Snuka (Deuce) was the cameraman there and he was supposed to be there to help with the fall. The Undertaker appeared to be fine, though. He got through the rest of the match without a problem, so kudos to him for being such a tough guy.
The final third of the match was so good. Listen to the crowd after Taker got back in the ring following the dive on the floor. There were so many incredible nearfalls that the crowd bought into. An Undertaker Chokeslam nearly did it, but Michaels kicked. Michaels came back with a Superkick for just two. Undertaker nailed the Last Ride Powerbomb for two and he was so frustrated that Michaels kicked out of it. Selling emotion on his face has always been a strength of The Undertaker. Undertaker came back with a Tombstone, Michaels kicked out and Undertaker had the greatest shocked look expression he’s ever done in his life. Perfect. Michaels countered another Tombstone attempt into a DDT that didn’t connect perfectly, but it got the job done. That set up the top rope elbow and Superkick from Michaels for a dramatic nearfall that drew a standing ovation when Undertaker kicked out. The finish was brilliant. Michaels went for a moonsault, Undertaker caught him in his arms, Michaels tried to break free and Undertaker hit another Tombstone to end. What a finish.)
What a perfect way to end the show, right? Nope. Instead, we had two matches left. I think if they could do it again they would have ended the show there. It was an incredible match that could not be topped.
World Heavyweight Title: Edge vs. John Cena vs. Big Show
Edge was now married to Vickie Guerrero. The story was that Vickie was in love with Big Show and Edge, so they were fighting for her love. I guess. It was a weak angle. There were about 100 Cena clones standing in the aisle as he made his entrance. They were all doing the “you can’t see me” hand gesture. The match wasn’t very memorable no matter what they tried. Maybe it would have been more memorable if they went on before Michaels/Undertaker. This was your typical three-way match with each guy getting in their usual array of nearfalls. The big spot was when Edge went to spear Cena, but he moved and then Vickie ended up taking it while she was standing on the apron. At least Chavo Guerrero was there to catch her. They could have used him in the Undertaker match for that. Show recovered from being tied in the ropes to give a chokeslam to Edge and then he knocked out Cena, but both guys fell out of the ring. In another memorable spot, Edge gave Show a spear through the security wall, which broke it and they were in the crowd. Later on, Cena went to the top, Show shoved him off and Edge gave Cena a Spear for two because Show prevented the pin. For the finish, Cena gave Big Show an Attitude Adjustment while Edge was on Show’s shoulders giving him a sleeper. The move was no longer known as the FU since WWE went PG in 2008. Then Cena gave Edge an AA onto Show. He covered Show for the win at 14:45.
Winner by pinfall and New World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena
Analysis: **3/4 The titles got passed around so much in 2009. Cena had the title at No Way Out, Edge snuck his way into the Elimination Chamber match and then Cena won it back here. Three weeks after this, Cena lost it back to Edge because Show gave Cena a chokeslam into a lighting structure. I would have preferred Cena vs. Edge here because they had better singles matches, but they had a lot of them too. It’s just that triple threat matches were overdone at WrestleMania by this point. The finish was pretty damn good, at least.
(That’s a pretty good rating for the match. Cena and Edge were always awesome together while they were able to incorporate Show when needed. It was the second straight year where Cena was in a triple threat match for a major World Title and this time he walked out with some gold.)
They introduced the Hall of Fame class of 2009: Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat, Bill Watts, Howard Finkel & Koko B. Ware. All deserving except Koko, who was barely above jobber status his whole career. Austin took off his suit and went to the ring for a beer celebration, much to the delight of the crowd.
The build for the Triple H/Orton feud was up next. I always thought this was a silly feud. Hunter was the WWE Champion. Orton went after Hunter’s family, which led to moments like Orton giving the punt to Vince & Shane McMahon, giving Stephanie McMahon an RKO and also a DDT off the ropes followed by a kiss while she was unconscious. There was also Vince and Shane McMahon, who showed up in support of Triple H, to counter Rhodes & Dibiase as allies of Orton. It was another WrestleMania that was all about the McMahons except this time they actually acknowledged that Hunter was really married to Stephanie.
WWE Title: Triple H vs. Randy Orton
The stipulation was that if Hunter got disqualified or counted out he would lose his title. The fans didn’t care for this match. It was too long. The babyface was already the champion and he was married to the daughter of the boss, so why would the fans feel sympathetic for him? I understand that’s why they did the bit with Orton attacking Hunter’s family, but these two feuded for way too long and by the time the match took place people were sick of it. It was a dead crowd for the majority of it. It was a boring match. The crowd really only popped for the signature moves. It wasn’t a match that won over the fans or brought them into the match. It was worked at such a slow pace. There were some nearfalls in the match that drew absolutely no reaction. A big moment near the end was when Orton went for the punt, but Hunter blocked it and flipped him over the top to the floor. Hunter went for a Pedigree on the English announce table, but Orton countered with a back drop that sent Hunter crashing onto the Spanish Announce Table. The table didn’t break, much to the surprise of everybody involved. Orton gave him a DDT on the floor, which was a really good spot that I liked. Orton threw Hunter into the ribs of the referee Scott Armstrong in the corner of the ring. It was intentional. Then he gave Hunter the RKO. He grabbed the sledgehammer, which was the weapon of choice in this feud of course. As Orton went back into the ring, Hunter booted him in the head with a punt. The crowd barely popped for it. They should have reacted to it louder, but they were tired of the match. Hunter hit him in the head with the sledgehammer, which was okay because the ref didn’t see it. Hunter finished him off with the Pedigree for the win at 23:35.
Winner by pinfall: Triple H
Analysis: **1/2 It was a letdown. A match that gets over 20 minutes featuring wrestlers as good as these two should have been better. It wasn’t constructed well. The fans didn’t care too much. There were moments when a lot of them were cheering for Orton, which could have been why he went babyface a year after this. At the Backlash PPV after this, Orton won back the WWE Title in a six-man tag match. I hated that idea. It was the feud ender, though, because he beat Hunter with a punt to the face.
(The feud bored me and Hunter/Orton had many matches better than this. Going nearly 25 minutes was a bad idea because the fans weren’t invested in it.)
Hunter celebrated to end the show. The video package with highlights of the event brought it home.
This event had a runtime of 3:57:29 on WWE Network.
FIVE RANDOM THOUGHTS
– I’ve run out of superlatives to use regarding the Undertaker/Michaels match. I really think it’s the best match. If they could do it again they likely would have finished the show off with Undertaker vs. Michaels because it was tough for anything to follow that. They would correct that mistake next year.
– The WWE and World Title matches weren’t the epics that they should be at an event like WrestleMania. I’m not sure what the popular opinion was of the Hunter/Orton feud in 2009. Personally, I found it to be very boring. Hunter wasn’t much of a sympathetic character. His family was mostly heels, yet all of a sudden we had to feel sorry for a guy married to the daughter of the boss? It didn’t work.
– When it happened, I was surprised that CM Punk won Money in the Bank for the second year in a row. What we didn’t know was that they planned on turning him heel and when they did that he really took off as a performer. His angle with Jeff Hardy in the summer was phenomenal, so in hindsight, I was absolutely fine with the Punk win.
– As previously mentioned, Chris Jericho deserved to be in a bigger match. If they couldn’t get Mickey Rourke to do the match, they should have put him against younger wrestlers so he could have a classic. Instead, he was forced to work with the legends that were limited in what they could do.
-The JBL angle was funny. I didn’t miss him in the ring.
OPINIONS
Best Match: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels – Easy choice for the best match.
Worst Match: Divas Battle Royal – What a mess.
Most Memorable Moment: Undertaker’s face when Michaels kicked out of a Tombstone – I could have picked many moments. That one stands out the most.
Five Stars:
1. Shawn Michaels
2. The Undertaker
3. Jeff Hardy
4. Matt Hardy
5. Shelton Benjamin
Show rating (out of 10): 7
The 25th WrestleMania featured the match that is, in my opinion, the best match in WWE history. Undertaker and Michaels gave us a classic that will live on forever. I thought the Hardy/Hardy match was a lot of fun and Money in the Bank was pretty good. The two major title matches weren’t great, but they had their good moments too. The Cena/Edge/Show match was definitely better than Triple H/Orton, which went on last. I wish Jericho was in a bigger match. He deserved that.
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That’s all for me. Check out the full list of my WWE PPV Review archive right here. Thanks for reading.
My contact info is below.
John Canton
Email [email protected]
The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania (2009)
Warning: Spoilers
Can you say anti-climax?
1) Money In The Bank Ladder Match A good opener. The thing that works against the MITB Ladder match is that there is only so many spots that you can do with a ladder. Over the last few years, Shelton Benjamin has done almost every interesting spot that a human being can do with a ladder. They are now struggling to out do the previous MITB Ladder matches. This however was a very credible ladder match, but probably the weakest (along with WM XXIII) of the MITB Ladder matches to date. Kofi Kingston probably emerged as the MITB show stealer, although Benjamin had the spot of the match with a crazy Swanton-type dive from the top of an insanely high ladder….. C+
2) Diva Battle Royal A waste of time. The old Divas like Sunny & Molly didn’t even get an entrance for the crowd to enjoy their return. To make things worse they had Santino win it. As funny as he is they need to start making him a credible wrestler (which he is capable of being) & not just a jobber who’s good on the mic, which they are making him out to be…… F
3) Chris Jericho vs The Legends Much better than I thought it would be. Dare I say that Ricky Steamboat nearly stole the show. What a performance by the Hall Of Famer. It was a match that didn’t steal the show but certainly didn’t disappoint. The spot with Mickey Rourke at the end was never going to be taken well if it was over the top, so maybe its subtle approach was appropriate….. C
4) Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy Good match with some extreme, but not over the top spots. I worried that the spots in this match would be over top, but they did them just right. The ring psychology was good & it was good to see Matt win as that was the result needed if they plan to extend this feud (which I think they will). The Twist Of Fate on the chair was superbly done….. B-
5) JBL vs Rey Misterio It would’ve been more spontaneous if they hadn’t done the exact same thing last year with Kane & Chavo Guerrero. JBL as boring as he is in the ring, is a master of psychology on the microphone. The angle of JBL quitting was as important as the actual 21 second match so I’ll take that into account when grading it….. D
6) Undertaker vs Shawn Michael Well….. When I saw Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels, I thought that you will never see a better match where no weapons are used EVER again. Not just getting caught up in the hype because Wrestle Mania was only yesterday, but this just might be the best Wrestle Mania match that I have ever seen. As far as storyline goes it was built up very well. As far as in ring action goes, it was a privilege to watch. As far as ring psychology goes, it was a master class. As far as crowd reaction goes, that much crowd reaction hasn’t been seen since Hogan vs The Rock. The WWE hasn’t received a 5 Star rating for a match in Wrestling Observer for over a decade. If this doesn’t get one then something is wrong. On a side note there was a spot where the Undertaker flew over the top rope & HBK moved out of the way sending Undertaker straight to the floor. Undertaker landed head first into the cameraman & a crunching noise was heard. I honestly thought for 5 seconds that The Undertaker had broken his neck & died live at Wrestle Mania….. A*
7) Edge vs John Cena vs Big Show A match that never should’ve been a world title match at Wrestle Mania in the first place. It wasn’t terrible though, but wasn’t anything that we haven’t seen before. Cena showcased his AMAZING strength by holding Big Show & Edge on his shoulders for a few seconds. This was closely followed by the 3 count that made him World Champion once again, which in turn made for a good finish to the match. Not as bad as a match with John Cena & Big Show could’ve been….. C
8) Triple H vs Randy Orton Imagine if Stone Cold Steve Austin lost to Shawn Michaels at WM 14. Imagine if The Ultimate Warrior lost to Hulk Hogan at WM 6. Imagine if Chris Benoit didn’t win at WM 20. They would’ve NEVER crossed over to that status that separates a transitional champion (Sergent Slaughter) from a dominant champion (Bret Hart). Orton who is without question the hottest thing in wrestling right now, was ready to take over like Triple H did at Wrestle Mania 2000. Randy Orton is in the the prime of his life at 28 & has a decade of dominance ahead of him. The only thing left for him to do was to defeat the man that he was destined to proceed as the No.1 bad guy in the world of wrestling at WM 25. Could Triple H get over himself for one second & do what was write for business? NO! He ruined Wrestle Mania 25 the same way that he ruined Wrestle Mania 18 by not letting The Rock & Hollywood Hogan be the main event. Orton will now have to start all over again rebuilding his character & we are destined to put up with Triple H until he breaks Ric Flair’s record & finally steps down like he should’ve done at the end of the Attitude Era….. The Match was a C+, but the ending completely downgraded it to an F
A lot rides on the main event of Wrestle Mania as that is what is remembered the most. The ending to this year’s main event was the most disappointing in WWE history!
Overall….. C
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Wrestlemania Count-Up – Wrestlemania XXV (2013 Redo): What Were They Thinking?
Wrestlemania XXV
Date: April 5, 2009
Location: Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas
Attendance: 72,744
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler
After last year’s great show, we get….this. Wrestlemania 25 is often listed alongside the worst Wrestlemanias of all time. I watched it live and thought it sucked other than the candidate for best match ever in the middle of it. This is one of the ones that I wasn’t looking forward to but I have to be tortured for this job. Let’s get to it.
We open with a video of people being asked what the biggest moment in Wrestlemania history is over the first 25 years (let me get this out of the way: IT WAS TWENTY FOUR AT THAT TIME. This drove me CRAZY at the time because the show was built up as the 25th anniversary of the show, but that isn’t how things work. Think about it: when you get married, the day a year later is your first anniversary, meaning that Wrestlemania 2 would be the first anniversary, Wrestlemania 3 is your second anniversary and so on to Wrestlemania 25 being the TWENTY FOURTH ANNIVERARY, NOT THE TWENTY FIFTH!).
Anyway the answers are exactly what you would expect: ladder match, Hogan slamming Andre, Hogan vs. Warrior etc. This leads to a video of people saying they’re making the top moment tonight.
Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls sings America the Beautiful.
MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian vs. Kofi Kingston vs. CM Punk vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry vs. Kane
MITB here. Henry has Tony Atlas with him, MVP is the face US Champion and Kofi is still Jamaican. BIG pop for Christian here. It’s a big brawl to start as the fans are solidly behind Christian here. Christian and Shelton run over Henry with the big ladder but Kofi jumps over it and takes both guys down. There’s a Boom Drop onto the ladder onto both guys. The ladder is set up in the ring but here’s Kane to beat everyone up.
Henry and Kane go up the ladder but everyone bands together to pull them down. The monsters are both sent to the floor and a second regular sized ladder is set up. A bunch of people go up but Kane and Henry shove everyone down. Kane kicks Henry down and loads up the big ladder again. Henry breaks up that attempt but opts to throw the ladder at Finlay instead of climbing.
Finlay dives through the ropes at Kane and Shelton so Christian can dive onto Finlay and Kane to take them out. MVP dives on all three of them and Kofi and Punk hit stereo suicide dives to take out all four guys. Shelton climbs onto the huge ladder and DIVES onto all five guys, looking like he landed on his head at first look. Now HENRY goes up top but Finlay breaks it up to prevent an earthquake.
Horny slides in his own ladder to climb onto Henry’s back and dive onto all six guys on the floor. Finlay is the only guy standing and throws in a big ladder, but he had to fight Kofi. Kofi dives THROUGH the ladder and drops it onto Finlay for good measure. Finlay drops him with the Horny ladder and does the same to Christian and Kane. The Irishman tries to go up but Kofi kicks him down.
Kingston tries for a climb but Henry is back again and shoves down the ladder. In an AWESOME spot, Henry holds the ladder to set it in place and Kofi runs up, only to be dropped down and hit with a World’s Strongest Slam onto the ladder. MVP slides a ladder into the standing one to make a kind of platform. Shelton slides under the ladder and kicks MVP in the ribs. MVP comes back with a kind of powerbomb on Benjamin but Punk stops the climb.
Now it’s Christian and Punk with Punk on the ladder and Christian on the platform. Now they’re both on the same side of the ladder and Christian hits the Killswitch off the ladder. By hits I mean Christian drops him in midair and Punk’s head never came within three feet of the mat but you do what you can I guess. MVP climbs up but Shelton climbs a ladder on the floor to get to the platform to get to the ladder for a sunset bomb to MVP. By sunset bomb, I mean he doesn’t get MVP over and basically pulls MVP’s face down the ladder. That’s two big blown spots in a row.
MVP is up first and pounds on Shelton before being powerbombed over the top rope and down onto a few guys. His head looked to smack against the barricade in a scary spot. Shelton and Finlay are on the ladder now and Finlay is knocked onto the ladder platform. Christian takes Shelton down and pounds away until Shelton takes the platform apart.
Shelton and Christian are both standing on two ladders but Christian shoves Shelton to the floor. Punk however springboards onto the ladders but gets caught upside down in a ladder, which is what Punk did to Christian to win last year. Kane stops Christian and chokeshoves him down to the mat. Punk pops up and kicks Kane down to win his second straight MITB.
Rating: B-. The blown spots REALLY bring this down because they were some terribly blown spots. Punk winning is fine as it was eventually the catalyst for his heel turn but that wouldn’t be for about six months. The match was good and having some fresh blood with Kofi out there helped, but the match overall was a letdown compared to other years, as the problem becomes “how do you top the other stuff?”. Still good though.
Video on WWE taking over Houston for the week.
Now we get to the part of this show which makes fans’ heads hurt: a TWELVE MINUTE Kid Rock song medley. Keep in mind that a unification match for the two sets of tag titles was on the preshow and ran about 9 minutes. THAT can’t make Wrestlemania but this nonsense can. This is to set up the Miss Wrestlemania battle royal.
Miss Wrestlemania: Divas Battle Royal
Melina, Beth Phoenix, Santina Marella, Victoria, Brie Bella, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Jackie Gayda, Tiffany, Sunny, Rosa Mendes, Nikki Bella, Jillian Hall, Joy Giovanni, Katie Lea Burchill, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maria, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Mickie James, Molly Holly, Natalya, Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, Torrie Wilson
The medley contains the entrances for all 25 girls, none of whom get entrances or even introductions, so the fans have no idea who all is in this thing for the most part. Justin Roberts is reading the rules and people are already being eliminated. Not that we’re told WHO THEY ARE or anything but whatever. Oh and you can go through the ropes too. Cole: “You can get a look at all the entrants in this on WWE.com!” Yeah, that’s the only way to see them because KID ROCK had to eat up all their time.
Sunny, Torrie, Layla and Rosa are out for sure but the rest of them aren’t even mentioned. Gail and Jillian eliminate each other as Beth eliminates Tiffany and some other chick not mentioned. Molly and Kelly are put out as is Maryse. Beth dumps both Bellas and the only Divas left are Michelle, Mickie, Melina and Beth. Mickie and Michelle eliminate each other but Santina eliminates the other two. It’s Santino in drag if that wasn’t clear. Yeah, THIS is your payoff for bringing back all those famous chicks. This led to months of STUPID jokes and skits about them being brother and sister or something. No rating but this was awful.
Beth is ticked off, which led to months of stupid fights between the two of them. Santina dances post match.
We recap Jericho vs. Piper/Snuka/Steamboat which is built around the Mickey Rourke movie The Wrestler. The idea is that Jericho insulted Rourke and the movie because it’s not the same as getting in the ring. Rourke said he’d fight at Mania then backpedaled. We then had Jericho insult Snuka, Piper and Steamboat for sticking around too long. Flair was insulted as well but since Flair can’t wrestle anymore, Jericho beat up and challenged the other legends to a match here tonight.
Rourke is at ringside.
Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper/Jimmy Snuka/Ricky Steamboat
Flair is here to support his fellow old people. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s somewhere between smashed and alcohol poisoning. Jericho has to beat all three legends to win so he starts with Piper. Roddy looks bad but considering less than two years earlier he was diagnosed with lymphoma, this is pretty impressive.
Piper fires away to start and takes it to the mat before hooking a quick sunset flip for two. A kind of dropkick puts Chris down and Roddy pounds away in the corner. Jimmy comes in and the match turns into slow motion. To be fair he’s about 65 here. Ricky comes in and starts cranking on the arm as you would expect him to. Back to Jimmy for a double chop although only Ricky’s actually hits. Out of nowhere Jericho puts on the Walls for the elimination.
Piper comes back in and works over the ribs before throwing on the sleeper. It only lasts for a few seconds though before Jericho rams him into the top rope and gets the elimination via a running enziguri. This leaves Steamboat vs. Jericho with the Dragon coming in with the top rope cross body for a VERY close near fall. A snapmare puts Ricky down and jericho kicks him in the back before putting on a chinlock. In the STUPID part of the show, Jericho throws Steamboat over the ropes for him to skin the cat, but LET’S LOOK AT FLAIR INSTEAD!
Jericho gets backdropped over the top to the floor and IT’S A FLYING OLD MAN to take Jericho down again. Back in and a top rope chop has Jericho reeling. Steamboat jumps over Chris out of the corner and gets a rollup for two. Jericho finally hits the bulldog but the Lionsault misses. Ricky grabs a powerslam out of nowhere for two but gets caught in the Walls. Steamboat reverses THAT into a small package for the hottest two count you’ll see in years. If that’s not enough, Steamboat backflips out of a belly to back suplex, only to walk into the Codebreaker to let Jericho survive.
Rating: B-. WOW Steamboat had me going here and I knew what the ending was. Steamboat was 56 years old here and hadn’t wrestled regularly in FIFTEEN YEARS and just had the crowd actually believing he could beat Jericho five months after he lost the world title. That’s ASTONISHING and would lead to a one on one match between these two at Backlash. Snuka and Piper were there for one last hurrah but Steamboat was trying to steal the show and came pretty freaking close. This is a great example of a match with NO reason to be good which wound up being pretty sweet.
Post match Flair comes in but gets beaten down too. Jericho taunts Rourke (a real life former pro boxer) and gets punched out. This somehow took five minutes.
We recap Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy. The idea is that stuff had started happening to Jeff such as pyro nearly blinding him, someone trying to run him off the road, and BURNING HIS HOUSE DOWN. At Royal Rumble, Matt revealed that it was him behind it because he was jealous of Jeff’s success. Naturally, no charges were ever filed or anything like that, because why do that when you can have an extreme rules match here instead?
Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
Matt now has regular tights instead of the cargo jeans. Jeff takes him down and pounds away to start before heading to the floor. A hard poster to the head doesn’t do much to Matt, presumably BECAUSE IT WAS A POSTER. The steps work a bit better and there’s Poetry in Motion against the barricade to crush Matt. Back in and Poetry in Motion hits the corner instead of Matt and the Whisper in the Wind only hits chair.
Matt chokes away on the ropes and punches away at Jeff’s head. The Side Effect onto a chair gets two so Matt bends Jeff’s back around the post. It’s table time but Jeff fights off a suplex through said table and hits a running clothesline off the apron. Jeff busts out a kendo stick and a crutch to beat on Matt’s back before putting a trashcan over Matt’s head for the slingshot dropkick for two.
There goes Jeff’s shirt but the Swanton completely misses. The Twist of Fate gets two for Matt and he’s getting frustrated. Matt calls for a Swanton but gets caught in a superplex instead for no cover. There’s a BIG chair shot to Matt’s head which sends him to the floor. Jeff lays Matt on the table before putting another table on top of that table. There’s a HUGE splash through both tables along with Matt to leave everyone laying.
Back in and that only gets two, and now it’s time for the ladders required by a Hardys match. A legdrop keeps Matt down and the ladder is set up. Make that two ladders with one being bigger than the other. Jeff climbs the small ladder and jumps over the tall ladder, only to miss his big legdrop. Matt puts Jeff’s neck in the chair for a Twist of Fate to finally end this.
Rating: B. This was a solid brawl but it would all go downhill from here. Their feud didn’t ever quite work for the most part because the audience wasn’t all that interested and Matt didn’t work as a top heel. As for this match though, they beat the tar out of each other and Matt looked violent and evil. Unfortunately he couldn’t back that up for the most part.
Orton is ready for the main event.
Intercontinental Title: Rey Mysterio vs. John Bradshaw Layfield
Rey is challenging. JBL goes on a rant about how much Texas sucks and how they’ve lost their backbone. After this match is over, JBL is bailing on Texas and heading back to New York where he loves to be. Rey is the Joker from Dark Knight this year. They actually do big match intros here which isn’t something you see for a midcard title match. The referee reads them the rules and JBL kicks Rey in the head. Now the bell rings and Rey hits an enziguri, the 619 and a top rope splash for the pin and the title in about 20 seconds.
Post match JBL says he quits, which is his actual retirement as he’s never wrestled since.
We recap Shawn vs. Undertaker. Shawn freed himself from JBL at No Way Out and realized he needed a new challenge. What better for Mr. Wrestlemania to do than challenge the Streak? Shawn read passages from the Bible about separating light from darkness to show the differences between the two of them. Do you need more of a buildup than that?
Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
Shawn comes down from the top of the set all in white, Undertaker comes through the stage in black. Now THAT is an entrance. Feeling out process to start with Shawn circling around Taker and sticking with a few jabs here and there. Michaels pounds away in the corner and hits a hard chop but taker catches an incoming right hand. Taker LAUNCHES him into the corner and nearly out to the floor, only for Shawn to jump off the top and over Undertaker to get away.
Shawn might have hurt his knee but he’s channeling his inner Bret by goldbricking. Taker will have none of that and throws Shawn into the corner for more punishment. Michaels comes back with chops in the corner but gets backdropped down to stop the momentum. Taker drives some shoulder into Shawn but Shawn takes him down with a clothesline. The reverse Figure Four (called a regular one by that idiot Michael Cole) has Taker in trouble but he finally slugs his way out of it.
Taker pounds way in the corner but has to stop to shake life back into his leg. Snake eyes and the big boot put Shawn down and a legdrop gets two (brother). A chokeslam is countered into the Crossface by Shawn but Taker rolls over onto his side to block a lot of the pressure. After an attempted rollup by Undertaker, Shawn cranks on the hold a bit more, only to have Taker fight up and hit a big side slam for two. Back up and they slug it out with Shawn taking over via a flying forearm.
There’s the nipup but Shawn doesn’t tune up the band. Instead it’s a pair of atomic drops and a clothesline but as Shawn goes up, he jumps into the chokeslam. He escapes THAT and tries the superkick but is too far away, meaning the kick only hits Taker’s chest. It puts Taker down so Shawn tries the Figure Four but Taker counters into Hell’s Gate. Shawn flails around and gets a foot on the rope for a fast break but he’s clearly staggered.
We head to the floor for a bit but Taker misses the apron legdrop. A baseball slide keeps Taker on the floor but as Shawn tries the moonsault to the floor, Taker moves and Shawn CRASHES onto the concrete. Back inside and Taker sits up and busts out the Taker Dive, only to overrotate and CRASH in a terrifying landing. Shawn thankfully pulled a cameraman in the way to block some of the impact but this scared me to death live.
Shawn tells the referee to count in a kind of mid-match heel turn but Taker makes it back in at nine. Another superkick attempt is ducked and a HUGE chokeslam gets an insanely close two. The fans are getting way into these near falls now. The Tombstone is countered, the superkick is blocked, the chokeslam is escaped and NOW the superkick hits for a very delayed two count. Shawn is up now and looks all ticked off.
Taker grabs him by the throat but the Last Ride is countered into a sunset flip bid, but THAT is countered into the biggest Last Ride ever for two. Watching this match for probably the fourth time I actually thought that was the finish. Think about that for a minute. Taker goes up top and misses a top rope elbow but as Shawn tries to skin the cat, Undertaker catches him in the Tombstone. He sticks the tongue out but THAT gets two, I believe making Shawn either the first or second guy ever to kick out of all three of Taker’s finishers.
Taker nearly collapses from the shock and has a look on his face saying he has no idea where to go now. Shawn spins out of a Tombstone bid into a DDT and both guys are down. Michaels slowly crawls to the top and drops the elbow for no cover. Instead he tunes up the band again and the fans are all over him as a result. The kick hits clean and Shawn covers almost immediately but it only gets two. These kickouts are getting better and better each time.
They fight up from their knees and use each other to pull themselves up before slugging it out with everything they’ve got. A big boot puts Shawn down but Taker charges into a boot in the corner to put him down. Shawn climbs up top and tries a moonsault press, but Taker somehow catches him in mid air for another Tombstone to make him 16-0, and that’s your match of the year.
Rating: A+. Masterpiece, excellent, classic, best match they’ve ever had, best match of all time candidate etc. Pick one, as they’re all appropriate. This is one of the only matches ever where I’ve been on the edge of my seat the entire time and lost my mind on the kickouts. Absolutely outstanding here and one of the best matches I’ve ever seen, and that covers quite a bit of ground.
Now what gets to follow that?
We recap Edge vs. Big Show vs. Cena for the Raw Title. Edge switched brands at No Way Out after losing the WWE Title and won the World Title in the other Chamber match, because the titles are interchangeable props which you can pass around like this for no apparent reason. Edge’s wife Vickie was blackmailed into putting Cena into a triple threat match because Cena had video of Show and Vickie having an affair. This is basically a glorified handicap match.
Raw World Title: Edge vs. Big Show vs. John Cena
Edge is defending and Vickie is STILL in the wheelchair. Cena’s big entrance this year: an army of probably 60 guys dressed in Cena gear make a tunnel for the real Cena to run through, complete with the old Word Life theme song. Cena fights off both guys but the numbers catch up with him, allowing the heels to take him down. Edge is knocked to the floor and it’s back to Cena who gets beaten down by the monster.
Show goes outside to get Edge but the champion dropkicks the steps into Show’s knees, allowing Cena to hit the top rope Fameasser to drive Show’s face into the floor. Back in and Cena tries a quick AA, only to be countered into the Edgecution for two. Show comes back in with a side slam for two on John but Cena comes back with right hands. When those don’t do much he tries to hit the ropes but Vickie’s nephew Chavo pulls him to the floor. That earns him an AA and we head back inside where John knocks Show into the ropes to tie him up. Show: “GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
Cena beats down Edge and now has a free shot at Big Show. Instead he hits the Shuffle on Edge which is actually pretty smart when you think about it. Here comes the AA but Vickie gets on the apron. Cena drops Edge but avoids a spear, sending Edge into Vickie. The distraction lets Cena roll Edge up for two but a collision puts both guys down. Show gets loose and beats up both other guys including hitting a splash to both guys in the same corner.
Cena escapes a double chokeslam but can’t get the AA. Instead Show hits him with the WMD but instead of, I don’t know, COVERING, he goes to the floor after Edge. Edge counters a chokeslam into a DDT on the floor and all three guys are down. The champion crawls over to the steps and sets them right next to Show. With a running start, Edge uses the steps as a springboard and dives at Show, sending both of them through the barricade and into the crowd.
Back in and Edge gets two on Cena but the spear is countered into the STF. John pulls it back to the center of the ring but Big Show breaks it up by grabbing Cena’s throat. A Vader Bomb elbow misses Edge and everyone is down again. In a rare sight, Edge and Cena team up to suplex Show down and then clothesline him to the floor.
The Throwback puts Edge down but as Cena goes up, Show shoves him off and into a spear from Edge for two. Everyone is inside again and Show charges into a boot from Edge. The champion tries a sleeper on Show, so in the HOW DID HE DO THAT spot of the year, Cena AA’s BOTH OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME. Edge slides off and Show takes the full brunt. Cena hits an AA on Edge onto Big Show and pins the giant for the title.
Rating: B-. Fine but it’s another meaningless title change in a year which would be full of such things. Edge would get the title back at Backlash to make sure that these title reigns are as forgettable as possible and give us Cena vs. Big Show for about the ninth time. The match was just ok for the most part until the eye popping finish.
Wrestlemania 26 is in Phoenix.
Now we get the Hall of Fame class: Terry and Dory Funk, Howard Finkel, Koko B. Ware, the Von Erichs and Ricky Steamboat. Oh and Steve Austin. Yeah him too. He takes off his suit and rides his ATV around ringside for one last moment.
This brings us to the main event of HHH vs. Orton. This was basically a continuation of Orton vs. the McMahons with HHH being the big soldier to fight in the war. Vince and Shane had already been taken out and Orton won the Rumble to get us here. With HHH firmly in his sights (again), Orton went on the attack.
One night on Raw, HHH was knocked into the ropes and tied up as Stephanie came down. Orton gave Stephanie the Elevated DDT before kissing her on the lips, further enraging HHH. At one point in the rivalry, HHH broke into Orton’s house and threw him through a window. Orton decided to fight HHH at Wrestlemania instead of pressing charges. The stage was perfectly set for the great beat down by HHH, allowing him to let out all of his aggression and rage on Orton.
While not the greatest story in the world, at least there was a solid idea and we should get a solid brawl out of things. There’s nothing wrong with a good old fashioned beating of a hated rival is there? Well apparently WWE saw something wrong with it, because there was a stipulation added: if HHH gets countered out or more importantly disqualified, he loses the WWE Title. Upon hearing this, everyone collectively said HUH?
This stipulation made no sense. The whole point of the match was to see HHH beat the stuffing out of Orton once and for all. What possible good could there be to make it a match where HHH had to keep calm and play by the rules? For some reason, this is what we got at Wrestlemania XXV.
HHH(c) vs. Randy Orton
HHH has a cool entrance here as he swings his hammer at the camera, only to reveal that it’s a big mirror that he shatters. They stare at each other for a bit before HHH takes Orton down and pounds away. The champion stomps on Orton in the corner and is threatened with a DQ, showing us how stupid this gimmick is. With HHH yelling at the referee, Orton grabs an RKO out of nowhere a minute and five seconds in. The Punt misses and there’s the Pedigree but HHH can’t follow up.
Orton is sent to the floor and rammed into the announce table before heading back in for more right hands. HHH catapults Orton throat first into the bottom rope before dropping some knees on the head. Randy heads back to the floor and counters a whip to send HHH into the steps. HHH gets whipped into the timekeeper’s table which apparently hurt his shoulder. Orton tries to get the countout to get the title but the Game is back in at nine.
Randy drops some knees and kicks to the ribs and it’s off to the chinlock. Back up after a few moments in the hold and HHH punches his way out of the corner. The jumping knee to Orton’s face puts him down and there’s the facebuster for good measure. The Pedigree is countered into a catapult though, sending HHH face first into the buckle. Not that it really matters though as a clothesline puts Orton down for two as the slow pace finally picks up a bit.
HHH gets shoved off the top but Orton dives off the top into a boot. A rollup gets two for the champion and they slug it out some more. The spinebuster puts Randy down but the Pedigree is countered into Orton’s backbreaker for two. HHH gets in another clothesline and goes up for some reason, only to jump into a dropkick. A kick to HHH’s ribs is caught and Orton is flipped over the top and out to the floor. They head over to the announce table and HHH picks up a monitor but drops it for fear of losing the title.
The champion tries a Pedigree on the announce table, only to be backdropped down onto the table which doesn’t break. With HHH still on the table, Orton hits the Elevated DDT to drive HHH head first into the floor. HHH still manages to get back in at 9 so Orton stomps away even more. Randy stomps away in the corner and chokes away as this is dragging again. HHH comes back but Orton throws HHH into the referee. There’s the RKO but the referee is down.
With no referee, Orton goes to the floor and gets a sledgehammer, but as he gets back inside HHH punts him in the head. A shot to the head with the sledgehammer puts Orton down and HHH pounds away. Orton is out cold so HHH hits another Pedigree for good measure and retains the title.
Rating: D. Erg that was awful. This was the same problem they had with the Cena vs. HHH match from a few years ago, where it felt like they were trying for something epic that told a story but it didn’t work at all. Instead it was these two punching and kicking a lot while having to stop because they might get disqualified. This didn’t work at all because the match didn’t fit the buildup, which was only decent in the first place.
HHH stands over Orton’s body like a viking standing over a big kill to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. There’s a lot to say here. First and foremost, this show is WAY better than I remember it with only two bad matches the whole way through. Unfortunately, the first of those two matches is after a nearly fifteen minute concert which no one wanted to see. The other match though is the main event which counting recap, entrances and post match stuff is nearly 40 minutes. That match is like a sledgehammer to the knees of this show and is easily one of the worst main events in Mania history.
On the other hand, the rest of the show is shockingly good, but it falls short of what it could have been in places. MITB is probably the worst yet but still solid, the Legends match was good but had absolutely no right to be, the Hardy match was good but nothing more, and the triple threat was about the same. The problem here is that one match is all anyone really remembers from this show other than a few individual moments. The memory of the main event hurts this thing a lot as it’s the only thing people remember other than the Streak match. Much better show than I remember, but it’s no classic.
Ratings Comparison
Finlay vs. Christian vs. CM Punk vs. Mark Henry vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. MVP vs. Kane
Original: C+
Redo: B-
Divas Battle Royal
Original: N/A
Redo: N/A
Roddy Piper/Jimmy Snuka/Ricky Steamboat vs. Chris Jericho
Original: C+
Redo: B-
Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
Original: C
Redo: B
John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Rey Mysterio
Original: N/A
Redo: N/A
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker
Original: A+
Redo: A+
John Cena vs. Edge vs. Big Show
Original: B-
Redo: B-
Randy Orton vs. HHH
Original: F+
Redo: D
Overall Rating
Original: D
Redo: B-
Did I mention this was the first live review I ever did?
Here’s the original review if you’re interested:
https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/04/01/history-of-wrestlemania-with-kb-wrestlemania-25-oh-dear-oh-dear-indeed/
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From the Bowery: WrestleMania XXV
From the Bowery: WrestleMania XXV
-April 5, 2009
-Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX
-This would be the first WrestleMania I ever attended, and for that reason alone it will be a special show for me. Now while I’ve had the DVD for months I have yet to watch the entire show. Since I was there live I will review as I normally do, but I will also include some thoughts as to what it was like being there.
Announce Team:Jim Ross, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and Michael Cole
-The opening video package features current WWE Superstars mentioning their favorite WrestleMania moments. This was tremendously done and I will admit that when this video played it hit me that I was finally at a WrestleMania. That coupled with seeing all those great WrestleMania moments that I had witnessed from the time I was a kid got me to get a little weepy eyed.
-Nicole Sherzinger of Pussycat Dolls Fame gets the honors of singing America the Beautiful.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Mark Henry vs. Kane vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian vs. MVP vs. CM Punk vs. Finlay
-The clear, cut crowd favorite with the live crowd was Christian as he received a huge reaction. Obviously that comes across very well on screen. Once Kane makes his entrance the shit is on as the kids say. Christian and Benjamin hit the floor to retrieve a ladder immediately while the others get destroyed by Kane and Henry. The two big men do battle in the ring as the crowd immediately starts chanting for Christian. A ladder gets brought in by Christian and Shelton as they take out the two big men. They try to take out Kofi, but he leaps over the ladder and dropkicks it back onto Christian and Shelton. He follows that up with his leg drop, but that hurts him just as much. Henry and Kane climb the ladder, but everyone else in the match make sure they can’t retrieve the case. Two ladders get set up and 4 men climb, but they crash and burn when Henry and Kane tip them. Nice! Kane is the last man standing and he starts to climb, but Henry returns to tip the ladder and send Kane crashing onto the top rope. Finlay comes back and hits a suicide dive onto Kane and MVP. That sets off a series where everyone hits a move to the floor: Christian hits the springboard crossbody, MVP comes off the apron with a senton, and Punk/Kofi hit stereo suicide dives onto the pile. Shelton says bitch please as he tops everyone with a senton off a huge ladder onto everyone the floor. Shelton is my hero. Henry wants to get in on the action, but Finlay stops the fun before Henry could climb to the top rope. Hornswoggle enters and uses a step ladder to climb Henry’s lifeless carcass laying on the top rope, and he dives off with a Tadpole Splash. Sure, the crowd loved it, but how does a midget have enough force to take out 5 men? Everyone regroups and Kofi swings through an open ladder to dropkick Finlay. Kofi’s trying to steal this show from Shelton it seems. Kofi starts to climb, but Henry tips the ladder. As Henry looks to set up the ladder, Kofi runs up the ladder to steal the case. Sweet! Great try, but Henry casually drops Kofi, catches him, and drops him onto a ladder with the World’s Strongest Slam. Dear Lord! Ladders start to get bridged off other ladders and that sets up a lot of crazy shit. Shelton comes off the bridged ladder, but MVP catches him with a sit down powerbomb. He climbs, but now Punk returns to stop that. Christian and Punk do battle on the bridged ladder and it ends with Punk eating an Unprettier! Thank God Punk didn’t take that well, or he would have broken his neck. Shelton scales a ladder on the floor, runs across the bridged ladder, and climbs the in ring ladder to stop MVP. He looks for the sunset flip powerbomb from the ladder, but the spot gets fucked up. Shelton is undaunted though as he power bombs MVP from the ring to the floor where he lands on Tony Atlas. Shelton and Christian do battle on two ladders and as it tips, Christian uses the top rope to balance himself while Shelton crashes to the floor. The crowd pops huge as they think Christian is about to win the match, but Punk makes the save. Big boos from the crowd for that. In a call back to the previous year, Punk gets hung upside down from the ladder and again, Christian looks poised to win. This time Kane is the bad guy as he brings Christian down with a chokeslam. That gave Punk a chance to get free and he starts firing off kicks to escape a goozle. He finally knocks Kane off and retrieves the briefcase at 14:24.
Winner: CM Punk via briefcase retrieval @ 14:24
-This seemed kind of short for some reason, but it still delivered as most expected. Shelton was awesome as usual, but Kofi ended up stealing the show with his crazy ass spots. The crowd was begging for a Christian win, and while Punk winning seemed weird at the time, it proved to be a great vehicle for his eventual heel turn. ***1/2
-Recap of Axxess. As part of the package I received passes to 2 sessions of Axxess and it was a blast. The only superstars I waited in line for were Ryder and Hawkins because there wasn’t much of a line. Everyone else I just pushed to the front of the railing and took pictures. The lines were insane and I really didn’t feel like waiting 2 hours to see Punk and Christian with the chance they might get switched out for someone else. The other activities at Axxess were pretty entertaining and being able to mess around in a WWE ring with the Hell in a Cell surrounding me was awesome. An added bonus with the package was the Mid-day Madness session where I did get to meet several wrestlers and get autographs and pictures. Those we were able to meet: Rey Mysterio, Mr. Kennedy, Evan Bourne, The Great Khali, and Maryse. Good Times there as Evan Bourne seemed to have the most fun with the fans out of all those were there.
-The Kid Rock mini concert is next, though it’s not on the DVD release. Most shit on this and while it didn’t go over well with the crowd, I enjoyed parts of it. I did think it went a bit too long though.
Miss WrestleMania: 25 Diva Battle Royal
-Participants: Alicia Fox, Beth Phoenix, Brie Bella, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Jillian Hall, Joy Giovanni, Katie Lea Burchill, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maria, Maryse, Melina, Michelle McCool, Mickie James, Miss Jackie, Molly Holly, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Rosa Mendes, Sunny, Tiffany, Torrie Wilson, Victoria, and of course, Santina Marella. The ladies got a group entrance during the Kid Rock concert so as to not reveal Santina being in the match. The crowd quickly picks up on it though. Layla is the first diva tossed out as she hits the floor before the ring instructions were complete. Others get tossed shortly after and it’s just a mess at this point. Lawler is sure enjoying himself though. Sunny gets tossed somewhere in the chaos and its a few moments later when the crowd starts a loud “Santino” chant. Beth Phoenix is the dominant one in the ring as she’s tossed about half a dozen women within 30 seconds. Now Lawler and JR pick up on a rather ugly looking diva in the ring that’s just standing around instead of fighting. Santina watches as McCool and Mickie fight on the top rope and end up falling to the floor. That leaves Santina, Beth, and Melina as your final three in the match. Beth hooks the double arm chicken wing, but gets tangled in the rooms and Santina shoves them both out to pick up the win at 5:57. Candice Michelle presents Santina with “her” crown and sash after the match. The crowd eats up Santino and his dancing after the match as he fully commits to the role.
Winner: Santina Marella at 5:57
-I guess it adds to the spectacle at WrestleMania, but this was pretty horrible. The only intrigue was seeing the divas from the past, but they didn’t even get a proper entrance. Even at 6 minutes this seemed way too long. DUD
-Recap of Chris Jericho rebelling against “The Wrestler” and all the legends that won’t give up the dream. This is actually a pretty sweet video package that has parts of the movie mixed in.
Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper (w/ Ric Flair)
-Mickey Rourke is sitting at ringside in support of the Hall of Famers. I had hopes leading up to this show that it would be Austin getting one last match, but no dice. Piper and Snuka don’t add all that much to this match as the intrigue for me was seeing what Steamboat could do after being sidelined for 14 years. Piper gets the start as he orders Steamboat and Snuka out of the ring. Jericho has to get a decision over each member of the legend’s team in order to win the match. Piper jumps Jericho before the bell and takes him to the floor. Jericho eats the announce table and then gets fired back into the ring. It’s a special night as Piper has the balls to break out a dropkick. Wow! Snuka gets the tag and he most definitely looks in the worst shape out of everyone. Seriously the poor man looks like he was unearthed and thankfully he tags out to Steamboat. The crowd comes to life as the Dragon flies off the top with a chop. He sinks in his patented arm drags as JR drools. Don’t worry, Jim, me too. Snuka gets the tag back and Jericho locks him the Wall to send him packing at 3:45. Piper becomes the legal man and he uses a thumb to the eye to get the advantage. Classic! He locks in the sleeper, but Jericho breaks and hits an enziguiri to eliminate Piper at 4:45. That leaves us with Jericho vs. Steamboat and thank God for that. The Dragon comes off the top with a crossbody, but Jericho gets the shoulder up at two. Jericho hits a vicious clothesline to kill Ricky’s momentum. He tries to trade chops and that’s really fucking stupid on his part. The Dragon lights up his chest, so Jericho uses his own thumb to the eye. He grounds Steamboat with a headlock, and the crowd erupts as they cheer Ricky to his feet. Jericho tries to dump him to the floor, but the world marks out as he skins the cat. Jericho takes a shot at Flair before turning around and getting sent to the floor by Steamboat. Ricky is a crazy bastard as he hits a slingshot plancha to Jericho on the floor. God Bless the Dragon! Steamboat stays on the offensive back inside and gets a roll-up for two. The chops start flowing again, but this time Jericho gets the advantage. He hits a running bulldog, but misses the Lionsault. A blind charge gets the advantage back for Jericho, but he runs into a powerslam for two. Jericho scoops the legs and looks for the Walls, but Steamboat counters to a cradle for two. Jericho tries a suplex, but Steamboat flips out, but Jericho is prepared and hits the code breaker to kill the fun at 8:53. Jericho beats up Flair after the match and then challenges Rourke to get in the ring. He obliges and Jericho gets knocked down with a left hook. I think they drew this out just a little bit for the payoff we got.
Winner: Chris Jericho via final pin at 8:53
-The first 4:45 wasn’t very good, but the finally 4 minutes with Steamboat was a boat load of fun. Seeing that Steamboat was more ring ready that most figured, a proper one on one match between the two would come the following month. As for this match the best thing I can say is that at times it was a lot of fun. **
-Video package covering Hardy vs. Hardy, and it’s pretty good as well.
Extreme Rules: Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy
-Jeff is super over as one would expect and I kind of feel for Matt for some reason. Jeff starts things off with a slap to the face and starts reigning down blows. They immediately hit the floor and Matt gets a WrestleMania poster wrapped around his head. Not sure how much damage that would do, but it made for a cool sound and visual. Jeff uses the stairs to assist him with Poetry in Motion as it sends Matt crashing into the barrier. Back in the ring and Jeff goes for Poetry in Motion again, but Matt’s not falling for it again as moves. Jeff tries to hit Whisper in the Wind, but Matt swats him out of the air with a chair. Sweet! Matt looks under the ring and pulls out a shop vac. Wait, seriously? Thankfully he doesn’t use the hose in any form and opts to just blast Jeff in the head with it. That works I guess. Matt hits the side effect onto a chair, but Jeff gets out the back door at two. Matt shows a vicious side as he wraps Jeff’s body around the steel post and stretches the hell out of his brother. Cool! A table gets prepped on the floor and Matt looks for a suplex from the apron. Jeff turns the tide and hits a clothesline from the apron. He sends Matt into the steps and then starts looking under the ring for more plunder. This time he finds a kendo stick and a crutch. They keep some crazy shit under that ring. A garbage can gets placed on Matt’s head and Jeff cleans his clock with the crutch. He heads up and looks for the Swanton, but Matt rolls out of the way. He quickly hits the Twist of Fate, but Jeff gets the shoulder up at two. Matt starts to mock Jeff and calls for a Swanton of his own, but Jeff meets him on the top rope. Matt gets brought down the hard way with a superplex, and Jeff blasts him with a chair to send him to the floor. They finally get back to the table that was set up earlier and Matt gets placed on said table. That’s not enough for Jeff those as he stacks another table onto the lifeless body of Matt. Jeff heads up top and hits a splash that breaks Matt and both tables. Damn! A replay shows that Jeff may have taken the worst of the move as he went through the first table and Matt barely got touched. Jeff looks for the win back in the ring, but Matt gets a foot on the bottom rope. Jeff goes back under the ring and grabs something he is familiar with: ladders. Jeff starts to channel his inner Sabu as he fires off a chair assisted leg drop. A medium sized ladder gets set up next to a big ass ladder and the crowd knows what is coming next. Jeff attempts the leap frog leg drop, but Matt rolls out of the way. Matt can seemingly finish, but he opts to destroy Jeff with a chair assisted Twist of Fate. Sick shit right there! The pin is academic at 13:13.
Winner: Matt Hardy via pin at 13:13
-Really this is about what you would expect from these two men. The crowd really wasn’t all that into as I think they don’t buy these two as opponents, but they won them over with a pretty awesome ending. Matt going over was the right call, but in the long run it never did anything to elevate him. ***
Intercontinental Title: JBL © vs. Rey Mysterio
-The IC title gets defended at WrestleMania for the first time in 7 years. JBL comes to ring with mic in hand and runs down the state of Texas. He promises to give us the most dominant victory in WrestleMania History before returning to New York City. Rey goes with Heath Ledger’s Joker as his special WrestleMania look this year and JR makes a poor joke that he would later apologize for (When Lawler asked if Rey was paying tribute to Ledger, JR said “I think Rey’s career is alive and well, King). Oh, kind of a low blow there Jim, but to his credit he did apologize for the remark. JBL hits a vicious boot during the ref’s instructions and he beats Rey down in the corner before the opening bell. Rey tells the ref he wants to start the match. The bell rings and Rey hits an enziguiri, a 6-1-9, and a splash to get the win at 0:21.
Winner and New Intercontinental Champion: Rey Mysterio via pin at 0:21
-After 7 years of not being defended the IC Title gets the ECW Title treatment from the previous year. My cousin actually missed the match as he was getting something to drink and fighting with an usher because he didn’t take his ticket with him. I told him he didn’t miss much when he got back. SQUASH
-Epic video package for Shawn/Taker
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
-Shawn descends from the heavens decked out in all white to angelic music, and Taker rises from Hell in his normal all black attire. Cool! Sadly, no druids with torches though. That kind of pissed me off being there live. We were seated on risers near the stage and were surrounded by a passionate group of women that we pro Shawn, and my ears took a beating during this match. Overall though, Taker had the edge as far as crowd support. This really showed have closed the show as this was the match the crowd was waiting to see. Dueling chants start early as Shawn fires off some chops. Michaels tries to stick and move, but get caught and powered back into the corner. He ends up on the middle rope and gives Taker a crotch chop before leaping over him. Shawn tries to fake a leg injury on the landing, but Taker’s not buying it. He tosses Shawn all over the ring and sends him bouncing into the corner. He lifts Shawn with a military press slam and sends him crashing to the mat. That gets a two count as Shawn gets out before Taker can get a leg hooked. Taker heads up for Old School and it connects to a loud pop. He charges at Shawn in the corner, but Michaels moves. Taker got caught up in the ropes and appears to have injured a leg. Shawn smells blood and attacks the knee. It appears he wants a sharpshooter, but instead he opts for a figure four. JR and Lawler mention that Taker has lost every previous match with Shawn. Taker breaks the hold, so Shawn dropkicks the knee. Sweet! Taker starts punching his knee to get some feeling, and steamrolls Shawn in the corner. Snake eyes and a big boot follow as Taker starts signaling for the end. He looks for the chokeslam, but Shawn turns that into a crossface. He can’t break the hold, but is able to roll Shawn into a pin attempt a few times. Taker battles to his feet and breaks the hold with a sidewalk slam that gets a two count. Taker no sells a boot to the chest, but misses a clothesline and Shawn hits the flying forearm. He kips up and drops Taker with an inverted atomic drop. He follows that with some chops and then another inverted atomic drop. Shawn heads up top and looks for the elbow, but Taker sits up and pulls Shawn down with a goozle. Shawn escapes and looks for Sweet Chin Music, but Taker drops to the mat. Shawn stays a step ahead and looks for the figure four again, but Taker counters to Hell’s Gate. A desperate Shawn gets to the ropes before the hold can be applied. Nice sequence there. The action heads to the floor and Taker stalks Michaels around the ring. He preps Shawn on the apron and goes for the leg drop, but nobody’s home. A baseball slide sends Taker away from the ringside and Shawn heads up top. He attempts a moonsault to the floor, but Taker just casually walks away as Shawn hits with a sickening thud. Damn! The ref checks on Shawn and Taker sets up in the ring. He tries for the Flying Dead Man, but Shawn pulls the cameraman in the way and Taker ends up landing head first on the floor. Damn, that shit was nasty. I like the call back to the 1st Hell in a Cell Match with the cameraman getting abused. The replays only confirm that Taker is lucky he didn’t break his neck. Shawn pulls himself back into the ring and realizes the ref is down on the floor. He drags the ref back into the ring and pleads with him to start the ten count. Such a simple little spot, but the crowd loved every second of it and Shawn sold it perfectly. The anguish on his face was awesome as Taker made it back into the ring at 9. Shawn regroups and preps for Sweet Chin Music. Taker swats the foot away and hits a massive chokeslam for a hot near fall. Taker looks for the Tombstone, but Shawn slides off and tries for Sweet Chin Music again. This time Taker catches the foot and looks for another chokeslam. Shawn pushes off and finally hits Sweet Chin Music. He crawls for the pin, but Taker is out at two. Both men are down, but Shawn gets to his feet first and looks for the kill. Taker catches him with another goozle, and looks for the Last Ride. Shawn counters to a sunset flip, but Taker counters that and ends up getting quite possibly the greatest Last Ride I’ve ever seen from him. Somehow Shawn is out at two and the crowd is getting rabid at this point. Taker seems desperate now as he heads up top and tries to hit Shawn’s flying elbow. That doesn’t work out well though as Shawn rolls out of the way. Shawn charges and gets sent over the top rope, but he skins the cat. Sadly for him, Taker turns that into a Tombstone, and that looks to be all, but Shawn kicks out at two. Holy Hell! Everyone had that pegged as the finish and when Shawn kicked out I saw some poor guy spill a tray of beers because he couldn’t believe what he saw. Good times! Taker goes right back to the Tombstone, but Shawn floats around and hits an ugly looking ddt. Shawn crawls to the corner and pulls himself to the top rope. He looks unbalance and basically falls off with the flying elbow. He crawls to the ropes again and uses them to pull himself to his feet. He tunes up the band again, and a sick looking Sweet Chin Music follows. Now Taker kicks out and Shawn’s world is just crushed. The crowd starts and this is awesome chant, and I’m proud to say I took part in that chant. Both men start exchanging blows in the center of the ring, and the crowd cheers and Woos depending on who is landing the blow. Taker’s tired of this shit and just casually boots Shawn in the head. Bad ass! Shawn gets whipped into the corner, but a charge misses. Shawn heads back up top and tries a moonsault, but Taker catches him in perfect position for the Tombstone and we have 17-0 at 30:41.
Winner: The Undertaker via pin at 30:41
-Easily the greatest match I have ever seen live. The only other ones in the running before this match were Jericho/RVD at Unforgiven 2001 or HHH/Jeff Hardy at Armageddon 2007. Being there live may make me partial as I’ve never experienced anything like I did with this match. After the match finished I watched as grown men hugged each other due to the awesomeness of what they just saw. This match totally exhausted the crowd and really should have closed the show as nothing was going to top this. You think they would have learned their lesson from WrestleMania X-8. As for the match it may have started a little slow, but who cares? *****
-Video package for the World Title Match.
World Heavyweight Title: Edge © vs. John Cena vs. The Big Show
-Champion out first (boo!), and Cena gets his super special WrestleMania entrance. I will admit that I marked out like a little girl when Basic Thuganomics started playing. I thought we may be getting old school Cena, but instead we got a shit load of Cena clones lining the aisle. The real deal Cena comes out to “My Time is Now” and all the girls in the crowd mark out like, well, little girls. Cool entrance, but all it did for me was confirm that “Basic Thuganomics” is a hell of a lot better than “My Time is Now.” Cena was not very popular in Houston and there a guy in our hotel selling anti Cena merchandise. I kind of wish I would have purchased one just for a keepsake. Big Show dominates early as Edge and Cena pinball off of him. Edge wants to negotiate a truce, but Show’s not down with that. He abuses Edge in the corner and Cena comes charging in, but he eats a boot. Yeah, that was stupid of Cena. Edge gets sent to the floor and Cena gets walked on while Chavo wheels Vickie around the ring. Show gets caught groin first in the top rope and Cena sends him to the floor. Edge dropkicks the steps into Show’s knee and Cena comes off the top rope to the floor with the rocker dropper. That takes Show out of the match and now Cena and Edge go at it back inside the ring. Edge heads up top, but Cena knocks him to the floor. That brings Show back into the ring and he drops Cena with a sidewalk slam for two. Cena fights back to his feet and builds some momentum, but Chavo grabs his leg. He eats Attitude Adjustment on the floor and once back in the ring a shoulder block leaves Show tied up in the ropes. Edge tries to intervene, but Cena controls him and hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Vickie is miraculously healed and screams at Cena to stop the Attitude Adjustment. Edge tries a spear, but Cena moves and Vickie takes the move. That sends her crashing to the floor and onto Chavo. Show yells at the ref to untie him and the ref listens. Smart man! Show dominates both men again as Cole and JR exchange metaphors about the size of Show’s hands. Cena lifts Show for the Attitude Adjustment, but can’t get the move as Show slides off his back and hits the knockout punch. Show heads to the floor and focuses on Edge. He looks for a chokeslam to the Spanish announce table, but Edge counters to a ddt on the floor. He arranges the steps to his liking and leaps off them with a spear that sends both men through the security wall. That looked kind of cool, but the crowd is still coming down of the Shawn/Taker high, so it doesn’t get the reaction one would expect. Edge realizes Show is too damn fat to get back to the ring, so he turns his attention to the KO’d Cena. He salivates in the corner as he preps for the spear, but Cena counters to the STF. I guess they told the U to get the F out. Show reappears and pulls Edge to the ropes to break the hold. He goozles Cena for good measure and delivers a head butt to leave him out on the floor. He tries a Vader Bomb, but Edge rolls out of the way. Edge and Cena team up to suplex Show. They realize they need to team together to take out Show and send him to the floor with a double clothesline. The partnership doesn’t last long though as Edge immediately turns on Cena. Heh! Edge locks in a sleeper, but Cena breaks and hits the Throwback. He heads to the top, but Show shoves him off and right into a spear for Edge. Nice! Edge gets the cover, but Show pulls him out of the ring and delivers a big ass chop. Edge puts Show in a sleeper and that’s gives us our “what the fuck” spot of the match as Cena puts both men on his shoulders for a brief second. Impressive! Edge slides off and Show ends up taking the Attitude Adjustment. Edge gets his Attitude Adjusted onto the Big Show and Cena covers Show to claim the title at 14:42.
Winner and New World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena via pin on Big Show at 14:42
-Credit to these three for keeping the crowd invested in the match. They had the benefit of having three men in the match to keep things moving, and they used that to their advantage. There were some innovative spots in the match, but it was your standard 3 way match. ***1/4
-Recap of the Hall of Fame Ceremony. It was kind of disappointing to be honest. I was so looking forward to this, but nobody really got a chance to shine due to time constraints. The clock counting down each guy’s time killed any real enjoyment from the speeches. I wanted to hear each guy talk about the careers and experiences in this building for as long as they wanted. Hopefully it goes back to that at some point.
-The entire Class of 2009 is introduced: Terry and Dork Funk Jr., The Von Erich Family (represented by Kevin Von Erich), Koko B. Ware, “Cowboy” Bill Watts, Howard Finkel, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
-Austin leaves the other Hall of Famers on the stage and then the glass shatters. Austin heads back to the ring on a quad and celebrates in the ring with some beers. This was basically Austin’s way of saying goodbye to the fans, as I don’t think we’re getting one more match out of him (though it would be great if he proved me wrong).
-Video naming Arizona as the host for WrestleMania XXVI. I will be there!
-The attendance is announced at 72,744.
-Vide package for HHH/Orton. The build to this was fantastic as Orton mowed his way through each member of the McMahon Family. This was tied into HHH’s betrayal of Orton during their Evolution days. The Punt of God on Vince is still damn impressive, and the stuff with him attacking Stephanie is pretty sweet as well. This had tremendous build, but then we got what followed.
WWE Title: HHH © vs. Randy Orton
-The first problem I have with the match is the stipulation that was tacked on at the last minute. The title can now change hands if HHH gets disqualified or counted-out. What the hell is that? Sure it may help with the psychology and story of the match, but it hampers the chances of them having a good match. HHH gets a super special entrance as he tosses a sledge hammer through a glass window. I don’t actually remember seeing that live and now I realize that it was something taped before hand and spliced in with the live feed. What the hell is that about? JR and the King immediately put over that HHH will have to decide if it is more important to keep the title or destroy HHH. Orton gets a strong reaction for a guy that just assaulted a woman. Perhaps Chris Brown should try to get on RAW as a guest host. HHH takes Orton down to start and fires away with right hands. He pounds Orton in the corner and the ref pulls him back. He tells HHH that he doesn’t want to DQ, but he will if he has to. Orton uses the distraction to hit a RKO, but doesn’t go for a cover. Idiot! Instead he stalls and decides to hit the punt kick, but HHH moves and Orton ends up eating a pedigree. Well, they’re back to square one. Both men roll to the floor and HHH attacks Orton from behind. They brawl by the announce table, and Orton bails back to the ring. HHH gets a bottle of water from a fan and uses it to revive himself following the RKO. Ok then. Orton gets his head bounced off the ring post and then tries to beg off, but HHH is not having any of that. He catapults Orton throat first into the bottom rope and starts dropping some knees. The crowd is scary quiet for a WrestleMania Main Event. Orton takes some abuse and keeps trying to create separation. Finally Orton gets the advantage after sending HHH into the stairs. HHH gets fired into the security wall and ends up in the front row as a result. Orton is more than happy to take a count-out and HHH staggers back in the ring at the count of 7. That may have been a nice spot had Taker/Shawn not done it a 1000 times better earlier in the match. The crowd shows some life, but it has nothing to do with the match. The attention of the crowd turns from the match and towards a certain section of the stadium. That’s not a good sign for this match. Orton stomps away as he takes control. He looks for his patented chin lock and that’s the last thing this match needs. Perhaps HHH is aware of that as well as he hits a belly to back to break the hold. HHH charges and gets caught with a pretty nice powerslam. Now that gives Orton the opportunity to hook the chin lock. JR mentions that Orton has a disturbing way of applying this hold. I appreciate the effort JR, but this isn’t the UFC, so in the world of wresting it’s just a rest hold that is killing an already dead crowd. HHH fights back to his fight and the crowd shows signs of life as they trade blows. See, this is what we wanted. HHH hits the Harley Race high knee, and a face buster sets up the Pedigree. Orton counters however and catapults HHH into the top turnbuckle. He no-sells however and rips off Orton’s head with a clothesline. They head up top and fight on the top rope. Orton drops HHH face first on the turnbuckle, and looks to come off the middle rope, but HHH gets a boot up. He looks for the Pedigree again, but Orton turns it into a jackknife cover for two. Orton charges and gets caught with a spinebuster. Another attempt at the Pedigree and Orton counters with an inverted backbreaker for two. He looks for follow up, but HHH sends him down with a back elbow. HHH heads up top and gets caught with a dropkick from Orton on the way down. The crowd actually appreciated that one. Orton preps for the Punt Kick, but HHH catches the boot. He flips Orton over the top rope and to the floor where they brawl some more. HHH sends Orton into the announce table (couldn’t that be considered a DQ?). HHH wants to use the TV monitor and the crowd wants him to as well, but the ref talks him out of it. Boo! They fight on the announce table and HHH looks for the pedigree (where’s the ref telling him about a DQ now?), but Orton backdrops him to the Spanish Announce Table (which doesn’t break). Orton drags HHH into position and hits the elevated DDT on the floor. Again Orton begs the ref to start the count and this time the crowd is buying it a little more, but really, there’s no way a WrestleMania is going to close with a count-out in the Main Event. HHH makes it back into the ring and Orton stomps the ever loving piss out of him. He was channeling Austin from WM X-7 there, but using his foot instead of a chair. The ref gets bumped in the corner and for good measure Orton sends HHH back into the ref. He hits the RKO as HHH bounces back, but there’s no ref. Orton pulls out a sledgehammer, but receives a Punt Kick from HHH as he tries to get back in the ring. Nice! Now HHH has the sledgehammer and Orton gets his jaw jacked. HHH hides the evidence, pounds away, and hits the Pedigree to get the anti-climactic win at 23:24.
Winner and Still WWE Champion: HHH via pin at 23:24
-I know what they were going for here, and I can appreciate the story they were trying to tell. Realistically, Shawn/Taker should have closed the show and this match wouldn’t have come as poorly as it did. Watching it again, it’s not as bad as most people make it out to be. It just suffers from a stipulation that hampers it, and the fact that the crowd is burnt out from a previous match. You think they would have learned from WrestleMania X-8. **1/2
Top 5 WrestleMania Matches
1) WrestleMania III: IC Title: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat *****
2) WrestleMania 13: Submission Match: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin *****
3) WrestleMania XXV: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels *****
4) WrestleMania 21: Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels *****
5) WrestleMania XX: World Title: HHH vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit *****
The 411: This event is special to me because it was the first WrestleMania I ever attended. Shawn/Taker is definitely a must see, and there are good efforts with MITB, the Hardys, and the World Title Match. The black eye on the show is that HHH/Orton did not deliver. It also hurts that Backlash a month later gave us what WrestleMania should have been. Give us that card and add Taker/Shawn and you have a great WrestleMania. Instead we got a decent show that features an all time classic match. Final Score: 6.5 [ Average ] legend
WrestleMania 25
2009 World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view event
WrestleMania 25 (also marketed as The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania and written as WrestleMania 25th Anniversary) was the 25th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion’s Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on April 5, 2009, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. It was the second WrestleMania held in Houston; the first was WrestleMania X-Seven at the Reliant Astrodome, which was held in April 2001. It was also the last WrestleMania to feature the ECW brand.
Eight matches were held on the event’s card, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The final match of the night, which was the main match of the Raw brand, was a singles match which Triple H defeat Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship. The main match of the SmackDown brand was a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which saw John Cena defeat defending champion Edge and Big Show to win the championship. Another marquee match saw The Undertaker defeat Shawn Michaels to extend his undefeated WrestleMania streak to 17-0. Featured matches on the undercard included Matt Hardy defeating Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match, Chris Jericho defeated the team of Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka, and the annual Money in the Bank ladder match which was won by CM Punk.
Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 8, 2008. For the third consecutive year, WrestleMania broke the record for the highest-grossing pay-per-view in WWE history, grossing US$6.9 million in ticket sales, which included fans from all 50 U.S. states, 24 countries, and seven Canadian provinces.[1] WrestleMania 25 generated approximately 960,000 pay-per-view buys, grossing $21.0 million in revenue.[2][3] The event pumped an estimated $49.8 million into the local economy and generated $5.7 million in local tax revenue, equating to 600 full-time jobs for the area. With an attendance of 72,744, it is the 8th largest attendance in WrestleMania history.[4]
Production [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
Pyrotechnics from the WrestleMania 25 entrance set, in front of an attendance of 72,744 fans
WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April.[5] It was the first of WWE’s original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the “Big Four”.[6] WrestleMania 25 was scheduled to be held on April 5, 2009, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The event featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.[7][8] The event was marketed as “The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania” and written as “WrestleMania 25th Anniversary”.[9]
As the second WrestleMania to be held in Houston and the state of Texas after WrestleMania X-Seven at the Astrodome,[10] WWE mainly promoted WrestleMania 25 under the tagline “Everything Is Bigger in Texas, Especially WrestleMania” since its announcement at WrestleMania XXIV in March 2008.[11] WWE later began using “The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania” name in late-2008 to primarily promote the event.[12] Tickets for WrestleMania 25 were originally scheduled to go on sale September 20, 2008, but had to be postponed out of concern for the residents near the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Ike and the disaster area declaration by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Following another postponement due to the effect of Ike on the state of Texas, WWE announced that ticket sales would be postponed until November 8, 2008.[13][14]
The official theme songs for the event were AC/DC’s “War Machine” and their live version of “Shoot to Thrill”,[15] as well as “So Hott” by Kid Rock.[16] Other songs used at the event include “Crash” by Decyfer Down and “Touched” by VAST.[17][18]
Marketing [ edit ]
According to WWE’s executive vice president, Michelle Wilson, WrestleMania 25 featured the most extensive promotional campaign in WrestleMania history. Promotion for the event included a merchandise deal with Kmart enabling discounts on the pay-per-view’s retail price, as well as deals with DirecTV and Dish Network to promote through interactive television. The campaign also saw WWE mail to previous purchasers of WrestleMania, professional boxing and mixed martial arts pay-per-views to order their show. WWE spent US$10 million for cross-channel spots on television networks such as ESPN, MTV and the USA Network.[19] The Army National Guard were the primary sponsor for the event, using the event to help enhance their recruitment.[20] To commemorate the event, THQ and Yuke’s produced a video game, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, that was released a few weeks prior to the event and featured past competitors from the company.[21]
As with previous WrestleMania events, a series of events were held in the week preceding WrestleMania 25. For the second consecutive year, WrestleManiArt, an art exhibition and auction featuring work by WWE wrestlers and local artists, was held at the Julia Ideson Building on April 1, with the proceeds going to Houston Public Library Foundation. WrestleMania’s annual fan convention, WrestleMania Axxess, was held from April 2 through April 5 at Reliant Center. On April 4, WWE hosted its annual WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the Toyota Center, where the Class of 2009 were inducted.[22][23]
Storylines [ edit ]
WrestleMania featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi—World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers were portrayed as either a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches.[24] The event featured wrestlers from WWE’s Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE’s employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.[25]
John “Bradshaw” Layfield (JBL) defeated CM Punk on the March 9 episode of Raw to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.[26] A week later, JBL’s old rival Rey Mysterio issued a challenge to face JBL for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. With the match accepted by JBL, this would be the first time since WrestleMania X8 that the Intercontinental Championship would be defended at WrestleMania. On the March 30 episode of Raw, JBL was pinned by Mysterio in a non-title match.
At No Way Out, Shawn Michaels defeated John “Bradshaw” Layfield (JBL) in a match with the added stipulation that if JBL had won, he would have become the owner of Michaels’ name and likeness. On the February 16 episode of Raw, Michaels challenged JBL to another match, with the winner advancing to WrestleMania to challenge The Undertaker to attempt to end his undefeated streak at the event.[27] The next week on Raw, Michaels defeated JBL, but it was later announced that another competitor would stand in his way to prevent him from advancing to the show in the form of Vladimir Kozlov, who also made a challenge to Undertaker;[28] the two wrestled the next week on Raw with Michaels defeating Kozlov, and earning his match with Undertaker.[29] The next week on Raw, Undertaker and Michaels defeated Kozlov and JBL in a tag match. After the match, Michaels attacked Undertaker. The pair played mind games with each other over the following weeks.
The headline of WrestleMania 25 was a confrontation over the WWE Championship, rooted at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in January by Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble match. Per the traditional stipulation of the match, Orton was given the opportunity to choose to wrestle for the WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship at WrestleMania.[30] Simultaneously, Orton began to assault the McMahon family, the owners of the WWE. During this conflict, Orton punted both Vince and Shane McMahon (father and son, respectively) in the head as well as RKO-ing Stephanie McMahon (Vince’s daughter), which enraged the WWE Champion (and Stephanie’s husband)[31] Triple H.[27] On the March 2 episode of Raw, Triple H convinced Orton to use his title opportunity in a match for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.[29] The following weeks saw Triple H attack Orton both backstage and at his house. In retaliation, Orton attacked Triple H’s wife Stephanie McMahon. As a result, Triple H recruited his brother-in-law and father-in-law, Shane and Vince McMahon respectively.
After the main event of the March 2 episode of Raw, SmackDown general manager Vickie Guerrero announced that her husband Edge would defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show at WrestleMania.[29] A contract to be signed to make the match official was intended to be held on the next episode of SmackDown; however, John Cena, from whom Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship at the previous month’s pay per view, No Way Out (in the Elimination Chamber match), interfered with the signing before whispering a message in Vickie’s ear prompting the signing to be canceled.[32] The next week on Raw, Vickie announced to the surprise of Edge and Big Show that Cena would be in the match, thus making it a Triple Threat match. It was soon revealed that the match would involve the new challenger based on Cena extorting Guerrero with footage of the general manager having adulterous relations with Big Show.[33] The next week on Raw, Edge, Vickie and Big Show were set to confront Cena due to Cena revealing the affair between Vickie and Big Show, much to the chagrin of all three. As a result, Guerrero arranged a match pitting Edge against Cena with herself serving as a special guest referee. With all that misdirected hostility focused on Cena, who could not touch Vickie or he would sacrifice his World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania, a lopsided confrontation seemed inevitable. As Edge and Cena battled, Big Show walked down the ramp toward the ring. When he arrived, Edge joined him in tying Cena up within the ring ropes. Fittingly, each drove their anger in his direction: Edge speared him, Vickie slapped him and Big Show drove his giant fist into Cena’s ribs several times before clocking him in the jaw. Edge then speared Big Show and sent a message that he would retain his title at WrestleMania.
The fifth annual Money in the Bank ladder match was announced for WrestleMania 25 on the February 23 episode of Raw. The briefcase holds a symbolic contract which the holder would be able to exchange for a WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship match at any time or location of his choosing up until one year.[34] To participate in the match, a wrestler had to first qualify for it by winning a match; this process began on the February 23 episode of Raw, in which CM Punk qualified by defeating The Miz and John Morrison in a Triple Threat match.[28] The next week of Raw, Kane defeated Rey Mysterio and Mike Knox in another Triple Threat match.[29] The next night on ECW, Mark Henry qualified for the match by defeating Santino Marella.[35] Both Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and Shelton Benjamin qualified for the match on the March 6 episode of SmackDown by defeating Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy in respective singles matches.[32] On the March 9 episode of Raw, Kofi Kingston qualified by defeating Chris Jericho.[33] Christian qualified the next night on ECW by winning a battle royal when he last eliminated Chavo Guerrero Jr.[36] Finlay was the final wrestler to qualify for the match when he defeated The Brian Kendrick on the March 13 episode of SmackDown.[37] Over the following weeks, the participants competed in eight-man tag team matches and an eight-man battle royal.
The buildup to WrestleMania 25 also included a rivalry between brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy. During Jeff’s match against Edge at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Championship, Matt came down to the ring, appearing to help his brother.[38] Instead, Matt turned on Jeff by hitting him with a steel chair, costing Jeff the match and his WWE title. After losing his Money in the Bank qualifying match to MVP on the March 6 episode of SmackDown, Matt interfered in Jeff’s qualifying match later that night by punching Jeff’s opponent, Shelton Benjamin, disqualifying Jeff from the match.[32] A week later, Matt provoked Jeff even further by referring to Jeff’s recent accidents, including Jeff’s incident at the night of Survivor Series where he was found unconscious in a hotel stairwell (which caused him to be removed of the WWE Championship match and being replaced by Edge at that event), the recent account of someone driving Jeff off the road, and the misfiring of the pyrotechnics in his entrance. Matt then talked about the fire to Jeff’s house a year prior, killing his dog Jack. This ultimately led to Jeff retaliating against his brother after weeks of passive resistance. Later that night, it was announced that Matt and Jeff would fight each other at WrestleMania[37] with a subsequent announcement a week later declaring the match to be held under Extreme Rules.[39]
On the January 23 episode of SmackDown, WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Primo and Carlito) defeated World Tag Team Champions, John Morrison and The Miz in a tag team match.[40] After their loss, Miz and Morrison proceeded to harass their defeaters on their weekly Internet show, the Dirt Sheet, as well as profess the brothers’ impotence towards their associates, The Bella Twins. The two teams wrestled again on the February 13 episode of SmackDown, with the winning team earning a date with the Bellas. Miz and Morrison won the rematch and the date.[41] The two teams continued their feud in the coming weeks, and while the initial focus of the feud was the competition for the Bella Twins, the feud took on a dual purpose as each team successfully defended their respective titles in subsequent matches with both teams retaining their respective belts; it was announced on the March 17 episode of ECW that the WWE and World Tag Team titles would be unified at WrestleMania into what would be called the “Unified WWE Tag Team Championship”.[42]
At the 15th Screen Actors Guild Awards, actor Mickey Rourke, who gained critical acclaim at the time for his role in the film The Wrestler, had announced he would be competing at WrestleMania, specifically targeting Chris Jericho.[43] The announcement led to a storyline confrontation between the two on Larry King Live, which showed signs of second thoughts from Rourke.[44] On January 28, it was announced Rourke’s spokesperson that the actor would not compete at the event,[45] but would still be in attendance.[46] Jericho’s narrative subsequently evolved towards one of the themes from The Wrestler, which was the respect for older wrestlers after their careers start to decline, of which Jericho disapproved. On the February 9 episode of Raw, Ric Flair appeared to protest Jericho’s tirades, professing that the wrestlers should be respected, as they had paved the way for the future generations to make a living, leading to a heated exchange between the two.[47] Over the coming weeks, Jericho was confronted by a number of legends including Roddy Piper,[27] Ricky Steamboat,[28] and Jimmy Snuka on an episode of Piper’s Pit hosted by Jericho himself.[29] Each confrontation resulted in Jericho viciously attacking each respective wrestler. The following week, Jericho challenged Flair to a match. Although Flair declined (honoring his retirement from active competition), he offered to be in the corner of Piper, Steamboat, and Snuka for their challenge against Jericho in a handicap match. Jericho accepted the challenge, but subsequently attacked and bloodied Flair.[48]
Event [ edit ]
Dark match [ edit ]
Before the event was aired live, the crowd in attendance were treated to a dark match, which featured the WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) compete against the World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz in a Winner Takes All Lumberjack match, which has a number of wrestlers surround the ring in order to keep any competitor from avoiding the match, to unify the World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship. The Colóns won the encounter after Primo executed the Backstabber on Morrison.
As the event went live on pay-per-view and right before the opening pyro, Nicole Scherzinger sang “America the Beautiful”.[49]
Preliminary matches [ edit ]
The Money in the Bank ladder match was the start of the event as the participants: CM Punk, Kane, Mark Henry, MVP, Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston, Christian, and Finlay, fought for the briefcase that was suspended. The match was littered with many notable moments, including a series of the match’s combatants performing dives onto the floor of the arena onto each other, as well as Benjamin diving off of the top of a ladder with a senton bomb onto his opponents. The ladder was also used as a weapon by the competitors, which saw it being thrown at each other or, in the case of Kingston, to be used as extra force dropped on their chest as Kofi incapacitated them by draping the collapsed ladder over their bodies and leg dropping onto the ladder. The finish came with Punk and Kane on top of the ladder, which saw Punk execute a series of kicks on Kane from atop the ladder, knocking him off. Punk went on to win the match after he grabbed the hanging briefcase. Punk’s victory marked his second consecutive victory in the match.[34]
After the match, Kid Rock performed a live medley of songs: “Bawitdaba”, “Rock N Roll Jesus”, “Cowboy”, “All Summer Long”, and “So Hott”.[49] During the last song, the female competitors of the WWE would come to the ring to compete in a 25-Diva battle royal, to crown “Miss WrestleMania”. The match featured Divas that were employed by WWE at the time and Divas that had worked for WWE in the past. Santino Marella, who portrayed a diva called “Santina”, his twin sister, won the match and was crowned “Miss WrestleMania”. Mae Young acted as the special guest timekeeper of the match while Candice Michelle was the one who gave the sash and crown to Santina.
The next match featured Chris Jericho facing Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper (who were accompanied to the ring by Ric Flair) in a three-on-one handicap elimination match. Before long, Jericho had caused Snuka to submit the Walls of Jericho. He then pinned Piper after an enzuigiri. Steamboat, however, would outlast his partners as he was able to execute a number of his signature moves including arm drags, chops, and a plancha. Jericho was able to regain control of the match by connecting with the Codebreaker, pinning Steamboat to win the match. After the match, Jericho challenged Mickey Rourke, sitting at ringside, to come into the ring. Rourke finally entered the ring and knocked Jericho onto the canvas with a punch before being commended by Ric Flair.[50]
The fourth bout was the Extreme Rules match between brothers Jeff and Matt Hardy. This featured a multitude of moments that saw the Hardys assault each other with many different weapon-based attacks, which included assaults with numerous objects under the ring and Jeff splash from the top turnbuckle through a pair of tables, with Matt sandwiched between the two and a chair. Jeff, seeking to end the match, attempted to set up a ladder for him to ascend while he would perform a maneuver similar to a leapfrog over the hurdle, and diving down in a seated position known as a leapfrog leg drop, ultimately missing his target, due to Matt’s last-minute dodge, which resulted in Matt gaining the advantage over his brother. He then forced Jeff’s head in between the seat and back of a steel chair, then executed the Twist of Fate with Jeff’s head in the chair to win the match via pinfall.[51]
A singles match for the Intercontinental Championship was next, in which Rey Mysterio faced defending champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield. Before the match started, JBL kicked Mysterio and punched him down to the ground for a few seconds. But once the referee started the match, Mysterio surprised JBL by quickly executing the 619 before pinning him for a win via pinfall in twenty-two seconds. Following the match, a frustrated JBL grabbed a microphone and proclaimed, “I quit!”. This has been JBL’s last singles match as an active performer. The match marked the first time since WrestleMania X8 that the Intercontinental Championship has been defended at a WrestleMania event.[52]
Main event matches [ edit ]
The next match pitted The Undertaker against Shawn Michaels. Michaels made his entrance descending on a platform to symbolize the light; in sharp contrast, The Undertaker entered second, ascending from the floor with fire shooting up from the stage. The match began with a fast pace by both men going for strikes to have them countered before Michaels feigned a knee injury to gain the advantage, and the pace slowed. This led to an exchange of signature moves and submission holds, which saw Michaels escape The Undertaker’s Hell’s Gate and dodge multiple attempts at the chokeslam while Undertaker blocked attempts at Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music. The action went to the outside of the ring with Michaels attempting a moonsault, only to have The Undertaker avoid the attempt. This led to The Undertaker attempting a suicide dive over the top rope, only to have Michaels pull the nearby cameraman (played by Sim Snuka) into Undertaker. The spot, however, did not go as intended. The idea was for Michaels to push the referee out of the way, and pull Snuka into the path of Undertaker and for Snuka to catch Undertaker before he hit the ground. However, Snuka was standing too far back and Undertaker landed almost head first on the protective mats surrounding the ring. He remained on the floor of the arena for some time, while Michaels revived the referee, rolling him back into the ring and having the referee start to count out the Undertaker. The referee began to count as the Undertaker started to revive, and when the official got to the count of 9, Undertaker rolled into the ring, managing to beat the count of 10. The match continued with both men performing all of their respective finishing moves. The Undertaker executed the Last Ride and chokeslam, Michaels executed Sweet Chin Music twice and Undertaker executed a Tombstone Piledriver on Michaels – all of which scored near-falls. Undertaker won the match after Michaels attempted another moonsault only to be caught in mid-air, and landed into another Tombstone Piledriver. As a result of this victory, The Undertaker remained undefeated at WrestleMania, extending his record to 17–0. Throughout the match, fans were split, chanting for both superstars, and at one point chanted “This is awesome”, referring to the match itself. This match won Match of the Year at the 2009 WWE Slammy Awards which took place live on WWE Raw.[53] It also won Match of the Year from Pro Wrestling Illustrated and Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The World Heavyweight Championship was contested for in a Triple Threat match between the champion, Edge, Big Show, and John Cena, who entered through an aisle of look-alikes to start the match; Vickie Guerrero was brought out to ringside in a wheelchair by Chavo Guerrero Jr. due to her emotional investment in both Edge and Big Show. The action began with some brawling and some early teamwork from Big Show and Edge before their alliance crumbled. The match spilled to the outside seeing Edge spear Big Show through the guardrail. Cena returned Edge to the ring before applying the STF before Big Show came to his senses, and broke up the action, leading to Cena and Edge teaming up to remove Big Show from the equation before turning on each other. Cena won the match by lifting both Big Show and Edge at the same exact time and set up the Attitude Adjustment on Big Show, then dropping Edge onto Big Show with the same move before pinning Big Show to win his second World Heavyweight Championship.
Next after that, the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame class was introduced in this order by Justin Roberts: Terry and Dory Funk Jr., “Cowboy” Bill Watts, Howard Finkel, Koko B. Ware, the Von Erich family (represented by Kevin Von Erich), Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. After the introductions were made, Austin drove to ringside and all around the ring in an ATV, and toasted the fans with beer.
The last match of the event was for the WWE Championship; the match was contested between the champion, Triple H, and Randy Orton. As per a pre-match stipulation by Vickie Guerrero, if Triple H had been disqualified or had been counted out during the match, he would have lost the title to Orton. The champion had his signature weapon, the sledgehammer, in hand only to relinquish it prior to entering the ring by throwing it through a glass wall. Early in the match, Triple H did everything in his power to hurt Orton without being disqualified in the process. Orton performed a Back Body Drop to Triple H onto the Spanish announce table. At one point, Orton threw Triple H to a turnbuckle where the referee was standing, causing him to collide, and knocked out the referee. After executing an RKO on Triple H, Orton tried to gain more advantage and went out of the ring to pick up Triple H’s signature weapon, the sledgehammer. As Orton made his way back to the ring, Triple H delivered a punt kick to Orton. Triple H took his sledgehammer from Orton, hit him with it and executed the Pedigree to retain the WWE Championship.
Reception [ edit ]
Shawn Michaels , seen entering at WrestleMania 25, would attempt to end The Undertaker’s winning streak at the event; the match was acclaimed by critics and is often considered to be one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history.
WrestleMania 25 received mixed reviews from various sources. Gordon Holmes of Comcast criticized the mini-concert by Kid Rock, stating that “Kid Rock gets ten minutes and The Miz and Morrison don’t? Blasphemy!” [sic] He also criticized the 25-Divas Battle Royal which “was a bit of a mess, we didn’t even get proper introductions for returning Divas like Sunny, Molly Holly, and Torrie Wilson.”[54] Dale Plummer of Canadian Online Explorer’s Slam! Sports stated that “the top of this year’s card looked an awful lot like last year’s. Just swap out Floyd Mayweather Jr. for Shawn Michaels and everyone else was the same.” However, he praised the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels match by rating it a ten out of ten, his highest rated match. The main event received a seven out of ten. Overall, he rated the event 7.5 out of ten.[55] Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter also criticized Kid Rock’s performance, but praised the Undertaker vs. Michaels match. He rated it five out of five, and stated that “the match that deserved to end this show was Taker-Michaels.”[53] IGN offered their own review of WrestleMania 25, with IGN TV writer Dan Iverson praising Kofi Kingston, Shawn Michaels, and Ricky Steamboat for their performances, but also criticizing WWE for not showing the Tag Team unification match during the event itself. He finished off the review by stating: “It was just too bad that the potential of the card wasn’t lived up to”, also giving it an overall rating of seven out of 10.[56] Arash Markazi of Sports Illustrated wrote that Mickey Rourke’s appearance “may have been one of the worst executed in WrestleMania history.”[57]
The Randy Orton vs. Triple H main event was generally regarded by critics as a disappointing ending to the show. Holmes of Comcast.net believes that the match “never seemed to click”[54] and Kevin Eck of The Baltimore Sun stated that he was “disappointed that it didn’t feel more special after some great angles on TV.”[58] Nick Tywalk of Slam! Wrestling wrote that it was “solid and had its share of drama, but the lack of outside interference or plot twists of any kind failed to spark the same feeling of energy Reliant Stadium had in it a few hours before. It was almost a “That’s it?” reaction that first came to mind.”[59] Wade Keller gave the match 3.75 out of 5. He called the match “good, both well-plotted and well-executed, appropriate to the storyline and feud”, but added that “it just wasn’t able to follow the classic two matches earlier.”[53]
The match between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels is now critically acclaimed and received the 2009 Match of the Year award by both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.[60][61] It is widely regarded as one of the greatest matches in professional wrestling history.
Aftermath [ edit ]
The rivalry between Triple H and Randy Orton continued after WrestleMania when both men would meet in a six-man tag team match at Backlash on the following episode of Raw. The match would pit Triple H, Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon against The Legacy (Orton with his protégés, Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes). Vince’s part in the match was later replaced by a returning Batista. At Backlash Randy Orton and The Legacy defeated Triple H, Shane, and Batista for the WWE Championship. Triple H was put out of action after being punted by Orton after the events of the pay-per-view, while Shane was attacked by Legacy and was taken out on a stretcher. Two months later, Batista later suffered the same fate and was taken out of the building by security, while Triple H made his return and continued his feud with Randy Orton. They would later battle in a Last Man Standing Match on Raw for the WWE Championship which went to a no contest, then at The Bash, Randy Orton defeated Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match, and would later end their feud in a Triple Threat Match at Night of Champions, with Randy Orton retaining his title against both Triple H and John Cena. Orton would then begin a feud with Cena while Triple H would go out to re-unite DX.
On the same episode of Raw, it was announced that Vickie Guerrero would vacate her role as SmackDown general manager to become the new permanent Raw general manager. As her first act, Guerrero announced that John Cena would defend his World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash against Edge in a Last Man Standing match.
The animosity between Matt and Jeff Hardy continued on the episode of SmackDown following WrestleMania, leading to continued assaults between the two; newly appointed SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long would announce one last match between the two at Backlash, an “I Quit” match.
CM Punk would be drafted to the SmackDown brand, which would see him try on multiple occasions to invoke his contractually-guaranteed title match from winning the Money in the Bank ladder match; Punk would be able to get his match at Extreme Rules in June by defeating Jeff Hardy to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Prior to CM Punk defeating Jeff Hardy, Hardy was involved in a World Heavyweight Championship ladder match with Edge. Hardy had managed to trap Edge between the ladder, climb it, and retrieve the hanging belt. It was at this point that CM Punk cashed in his “Money in the Bank” briefcase. As the briefcase guaranteed a title shot, CM Punk capitalized from an exhausted Jeff Hardy. CM Punk had hit the “GTS” (Go to Sleep) yet remarkably Hardy kicked out. CM Punk then hit a second one to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
After the events of WrestleMania, both Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker took a four-month hiatus from the WWE. Shawn came back to reform D-Generation X (D-X) with Triple H so that they came face to face with The Legacy at SummerSlam. The Undertaker also returned at SummerSlam and attacked the then-World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk. At the Slammy Awards, the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels won the Best Match of the Year, with Michaels expressing that he was glad that he had created history at WrestleMania, but just when he was about to leave, he challenged the Undertaker to a rematch at the next WrestleMania. The Undertaker later denied the challenge, saying he had nothing more to prove to Michaels, and told Michaels that he would have to earn the spot. Michaels later entered the 2010 Royal Rumble, but would be eliminated by Batista. He later tried to enter the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship, but he was defeated by Randy Orton to earn the spot. Then at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Michaels cost The Undertaker his World Heavyweight Championship. The next night on Raw, the Undertaker accepted the rematch, but only on the condition that Michaels would retire from WWE if he lost. At WrestleMania XXVI The Undertaker defeated Michaels in a Streak vs. Career Match, thus ending Michaels’ career. The next night on Raw, Michaels said farewell to WWE, with his best friend and D-X member Triple H right next to him as they spent their last time, together before Michaels finally left the building.
WrestleMania 25 was the last WrestleMania to feature the ECW brand, and subsequently the ECW Championship, as the brand was disbanded in February 2010, deactivating the championship along with it.[62]
Results [ edit ]
Depths of ‘Mania: WWE WrestleMania 25 Review
Wrestling has told stories for ages — it isn’t a new concept. One of the best builds in WrestleMania history, Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan, told a story. It was about a friend who wanted more, so he reached to new depths in order to get what he wanted, a WWE title shot. That’s it; there’s not more to it. It was so simple and so easy and realistic people bought it, and many people will argue with the number but to this day, it was one of the biggest shows in WWE history, over a storyline that didn’t need to have much thought put into it.
Up and down this card, there’s a bunch of dumb STORIES. STORIES (all capital letters for me) mean that you have to do this and this and this and this so that by the time you get to the actual match, it’s like…who cares? Matt and Jeff Hardy couldn’t have a simple story about Matt being jealous of Jeff. He had to set him on fire with his pyro, kill his dog, burn down his house, beat him up backstage, cut promos with dramatic music just to put over the fact that he was jealous of his brother. They made it so over complicated that it was super funny at times.
Don’t even get me started on the Orton/Hunter feud. Orton, instead of just being an ass kicker who destroyed the McMahon family so that he could get into Hunter’s mind, instead had to tell a STORY. Stephanie McMahon was brought back to acknowledge that she and Hunter, in real life, were still married. Or something. They didn’t explain this very well. Orton punted Vince McMahon. But he couldn’t be fired, you see, because he had IED, which meant he had a short fuse or something, and thus couldn’t be fired. So he proceeded to be mean and beat up all of the McMahons for several months, including Stephanie which made Hunter shake with anger, which was kind of funny looking at. The big finale was Triple H coming to Randy Orton’s house and beating him up all over the place in one of the hokiest angles in recent memory. When Austin did it at Pillman’s house, at least it felt kinda real. This felt so staged and dumbed it boggled my mind at the time. It still does now!
So no wonder the most interesting part of tonight’s card is Undertaker and Shawn Michaels going at it. After a confrontation at the Rumble, Shawn simply wanted to face the Undertaker. There’s no underlying STORY about Undertaker hating religion or Shawn wanting to baptize Undertaker or any stupid nonsense. They just wanted to see who was better at the biggest stage of the game. It’s so easy to do the simplest of stories sometime in professional wrestling, it’s truly amazing that it’s becoming a lost art. Hell, have you seen this year’s WrestleMania card? My point proven.
Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls sang America the Beautiful this year. Another great performance!
Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Want to know the entrants? I’m sure you do! CM Punk, Mark Henry, MVP, Finlay (along with his awesome old school ring coat), Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston (from Jamaica), Christian, and Kane are vying for the briefcase this year. Everyone ganged up on Kane and Big Show to start things off. They came back, however, and proceeded to shove everyone off. Everyone winds up on the outside where Shelton climbs a huge ladder and does his big spot of the year, a massive senton to the outside that looked super scary. MARK HENRY actually attempted to climb to the top rope but Finlay hits him with the shilalie. Hornswoggle brings out a stepladder and everyone uses it to pummel each other. Mark Henry adjusts the ladder, collapsing it when suddenly Kofi Kingston climbs up the ladder regardless, only for Henry to grab him and give him the worlds strongest slam on the ladder. Looks way more cooler than I’m describing it. MVP climbs as Punk does as well. Christian takes down MVP and tries to take down Punk and eventually does with an unprettier off a resting ladder on the ring ropes. Shelton grabs MVP and powerbombs him off the ring and to the floor, another scary spot. Christian shoves Shelton off and starts to climb but Punk is back as they exchange punches on top of the ladder. Like the previous year, this time it’s Punk who gets his leg stuck in the ladder as Christian tries to catch the briefcase. Kane takes him out, but gets pummeled with kicks as Punk grabs the briefcase and wins. Another fun car crash of a match. ****
WrestleMania Fan Axxess is shown. I hear this is usually pretty bad, but hey they make it look fun, so good for them!
Kid Rock performed. Fast forwarded like nobody’s business. What got me really upset about this was not Kid Rock performing, because I know why they do it even if it gets zero reaction from the crowd. What got me pissed at the time was that they spent all this time hyping up this Diva’s Battle Royal that would feature divas from the past, and that was genuinely intriguing. So they bring them all out during his performance without naming any of them; the only way you can tell who was there was by who the announcers brought up. I guess I should retroactively put up #givedivasachance here.
25 Diva Battle Royal: They started before the bell even rang to introduce them. Layla was thrown out right before Justin Roberts even said anything. They manage to mention that Sunny was there, and I saw Molly Holly in a corner somewhere. Jackie Gayda was brought up as well but I never saw her. And I think Big Show’s Friend Joy Giovanni was here as well, but she wasn’t even brought up once. Another completely annoying thing was that it was obvious that Santino in drag was in here. It was never explained why, and the commentators did not bring it up once even though he was clearly on camera during the later stages of the match, and it was so obvious that they were told not to bring it up. And once they did, they pretended like they had no idea who it was. He dumped Beth Phoenix and someone else over to win, I think Mickie James. So yes, to conclude this was all for a Santino comedy segment and gimmick that dragged on for months with no end. Santina then danced after, leaving Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon in pieces. I don’t even know why I’m mad about this match so much; most Diva matches on WrestleMania are like this. But the way it was presented here was just new levels of awful. An insult to my intelligence and time. -**
Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka: Originally, they wanted Mickey Rourke (who starred in The Wrestler the prior year) to face Jericho, but considering he was getting Oscar buzz at the time, he decided against that and instead opted to appear in the crowd. The replacement was this match, with Ric Flair in their corner. Each person had to be eliminated, so Piper starts off for his team by charging at Jericho. He comes in like nobody’s business, including a clothesline to the floor that looked ugly. But hey, he was fired up. Snuka came in and did mostly nothing. Then something amazing happened. Ricky Steamboat was tagged in and actually looked mobile by doing a chop off the top rope and sinking in his infamous arm drags, which woke up the crowd. Snuka is tagged in and is quickly taken out with the walls of Jericho. Piper comes in and sinks in the sleeper but Jericho runs into the ropes and hits an enziguri to eliminate him. Steamboat flies in with the crossbody for the nearfall. Jericho throws him out, but Steamboat skins the cat (albeit barely) then flies off with a crossbody to the floor. Jericho comes back with a bulldog but misses the lionsault. Jericho gets the walls but Steamboat reverses into a cradle for a nearfall. Steamboat slides from behind Jericho but gets caught with the codebreaker which ends the match. Steamboat’s performance was the true story of this match, something that even years later was still genuinely amazing to witness. ***
Flair comes in after the match and beats up Jericho, but he comes back and eliminates him to the floor as he cuts a promo saying that he’s eliminated all the hall of fame washouts forever, and calls in Mickey Rourke. He eventually does, and after some stalling punches Jericho out. Flair comes in and he and Rourke celebrate.
Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy: Eh. This wasn’t terrible, but it was a bunch of spots and weapon shots. Unless you’re Owen and Bret, brother versus brother matches never work that well for some reason. A lot of back and forth. Hey, an unprotected steel chair shot too. I guess they didn’t understand that whole concussion thing yet. Jeff sets up two tables and comes off with a huge splash to the floor. Hardy tries to cover him, but it’s only a nearfall. He sets up two ladders and goes for the legdrop off it but Matt dodges at the last moment as Jeff crashes butt first on the mat. I guess that’ll shorten him a few inches. Matt puts Jeff’s head inside a chair then hits a twist of fate for the pinfall. **3/4
Randy Orton was backstage getting ready. They put the camera on his face for a really long time, a weird WWE trait they can’t help but do these days.
Intercontinental Championship – JBL (c) vs. Rey Mysterio: JBL cut a promo before the match saying how he’d know he would come back to Texas as a champion. Texas has no champions, after all, and it has no men. Today he will give them the most dominant victory in WrestleMania history. Rey Mysterio then came out looking like the Joker. Lawler questioned if this was a tribute to Heath Ledger. JR replied that Mysterio’s career was alive and well. GEEZ. JBL jumped Mysterio before the bell rang, and when the ref separates them and the match started, Mysterio comes back with an enziguri, the 619, and a springboard splash for the win. NR
After the match, JBL sat in the ring looking sad. He gets the mic and says something to say. After lots of stalling, he announces that he quits, then leaves. I wish he’d come back so I wouldn’t have to hear him commentate.
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: Shawn came out from the top of the entrance wearing a white robe and hat. Undertaker came out from underneath the stage. Symbolism here. This is a match people have always remembered, and it will probably always be seen as one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. I have to agree. I don’t even know what it is that makes this match so great. I think at this point in time, both guys knew how to work and tell a story in the ring, and this match (along with the match the following year) exemplified that. The fact that the crowd was into this from bell to bell helped a lot as well. A really awesome back and forth spectacle. They exchanged finishers and submissions from the get go. Undertaker catches Shawn in the gogoplata (that they finally gave a name to after a year, the Hell’s Gate) but he escapes to the outside. Undertaker eventually goes for the big giant tope, but the cameraman who was supposed to grab him (Sim Snuka) proceeded not to, and Undertaker nearly landed right on his head. Life, a split millisecond away from completely breaking his neck. A super scary ass spot. Undertaker barely manages to get in and does. Shawn tries the superkick but Undertaker immediately chokeslams him for a nearfall. A Last Ride doesn’t take care of him either. Undertaker hits a big elbow from the top rope, channeling his days as Mean Mark Callous in WCW. Undertaker follows with the tombstone but SHAWN KICKS OUT. Of the tombstone. At WrestleMania. That’s a new one! Undertaker goes for the tombstone again but somehow Shawn counters that into a DDT. Shawn’s second superkick doesn’t secure the victory. Huge chop and punch battle ensues. Shawn goes for a moonsault, but Undertaker grabs him and tombstones him for the victory. Just an awesome, incredible match held in front of the right crowd and setting. ****3/4
World Heavyweight Championship – Edge (c) vs. John Cena vs. Big Show: Cena’s big entrance this year was that a bunch of people came out in Cena attire and did his “you can’t see me” gesture as he made his way to the ring. I dunno, I guess they thought it was clever. I forget why these guys feuded. As it turns out, it was all over Vickie Guerrero. Hmm, that’s weird. ANYWAY, they had the typical triple threat match. Chavo wheeled out Vickie and looked concerned since in storyline she loved both Edge and Big Show. They get big show tied up on the ropes as Vickie tries to get on the apron. Cena just manages to avoid her but Edge runs up to him and accidently spears Vickie. And by spear I mean kind of touched her as she fell off the apron. Big Show comes back and does his giant shtick. Edge and Big Show manage to get to the outside and Edge launches off with a big splash that sends him into the barricade. Edge tries for the spear, but Cena locks in the STF. Edge nearly gets to the ropes, but Cena drags him away. Big Show comes back but Edge and Cena team together to rid him. Edge lays out Cena as Big Show comes back and Edge puts him in a sleeper, but Cena comes back with the AA on Big Show, then another on Edge that sends him out of the ring as Cena covers Big Show to win the title. To tell you how memorable this title run was, I completely forgot it existed until I saw it again just now. But hey, still a pretty good match full of action. ***1/2
Hall of Fame time! The Funks, Koko B. Ware, the Von Erichs, Bill Watts, Howard Finkel, Ricky Steamboat and Steve Austin were all inducted this year. Everyone comes out in front of the crowd, and Austin comes out in an AV and celebrates in the ring.
WWE Championship – Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton: This feels weird being a main event. Not only because nothing could really top HBK/Undertaker but a face champion facing a heel challenger is weird in the modern days. Always feels like it’s the face chasing the title, not the heel. Stipulations are that if Triple H is DQ’d he loses the title. They do a cute spot to establish this as Triple H pelted Orton in the corner with punches and the referee kept telling him “I’LL DISQUALIFY YOU”. Orton hits an RKO immediately. He misses the punt kick, however, and Triple H turns it into a pedigree. They have a back and forth match from here, it was fine. Triple H got thrown into the barricade and made it to the ring at 9. Orton got the heat on him for a while but Triple H cut him off and goes for something on the top rope, but Orton replies by bashing his head into the turnbuckle. Triple H gets a foot up when Orton jumps off. They both try their finishers but nothing works. Orton tries for the punt kick but Triple H opts to grab his leg and tumbles him out of the ring. Triple H grabs a tv monitor but the referee yells at him not to do it or it’s a DQ. Triple H instead opts to put him on the table (I guess table spots aren’t DQs…but that brings up the question, well, why arent they?) Triple H tries the pedigree, but Orton counters it into a back body drop as Triple H falls onto another table that, well, proceeds not to break. Oops. He follows that with the draping DDT to the floor. Ref bump. Orton hits the RKO and proceeds to bring out the sledgehammer. As Orton gets into the ring, Triple H comes out of nowhere with the punt kick to Orton’s head. Triple H gets the sledgehammer and blasts Orton with it. Triple H then punches Orton forever, then pedigrees him to win the match. It was fine, but the main event presence wasn’t there, the finish felt pretty flat and the crowd was just kind of there. **1/2
Triple H celebrates with the pyro, fireworks going off as the show concludes.
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