Sunday, April 5, 2009

4/5/09 WrestleMania XXV

DARK MATCH: Carlito & Primo defeated The Miz & John Morrison to unify the Tag Team Titles.

CM Punk vs. Mark Henry vs. MVP vs. Finlay vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Christian vs. Kane (Money in the Bank Ladder Match
)
S2X: ***3/4 (Just your typical great MITB match, which is still a great thing. Nice innovation.)
Red: ***1/4 (Fun as always. Kofi was a beast, but I was expecting a lot more. Probably the worst one we've had. But very nice surprise with Punk winning for the second year in a row.)
Tom: ***3/4 (Woulda been a helluva main event on any other card. :-D)
Chris: **** (Gets the rating for Kane protecting Punk)

Overall rating: ***1/2

NOTE: Tom rates Kid Rock's performance ***

25-Diva Battle Royal (Santino Marella wins)
S2X: DUD (Sorry, Santino post-match celebration does not count here. Crowd completely dead.)
Red: 1/4* (You knew Santino was winning as soon as he was seen. Pretty bland. Mickie had a couple nice moves, though. And Torrie is still hot.)
Tom: ** (Santino for Hall of Fame!)
Chris: * (Bonus for the bad Santino dancing.)

Overall rating: 3/4*

Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, & Roddy Piper

S2X: **1/4 (Steamboat was the star here...he was unbelievable. Unfortunately, Piper and Snuka were practically dead weight and didn't need to be involved.)
Red: **1/4 (Pipeer and Snuka were blah, but the match really picked up when Steamboat was in the ring. The dude has still got it! Some awesome near falls. I was shocked.)
Tom: *** (We've seen tonight that the legends can still go when they want to.)
Chris: **** (Great match.)

Overall rating: **3/4

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy (Extreme Rules)
S2X: ***1/4 (Great use of weapons; nice sick spots; creative use of chair for finish.)
Red: ***3/4 (Jeff Hardy is just insane. And every spot he did just proved it. These two know extreme rules and dammit they proved it here tonight.)
Tom: ***1/2
Chris: ***** (Especially with Matt getting the win)

Overall rating: ***3/4

JBL vs. Rey Mysterio (IC Title)
S2X: DUD (A squash?! Why?! Not at WrestleMania!)
Red: DUD (What the hell?)
Tom: ** (21 seconds! They essentially gave the match away on free TV.)
Chris: ***3/4 (Back to the commentator's desk for JBL.)

Overall rating: *1/2

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
S2X: ***** (We just might have the first WWE five-star match from Meltzer in 12 years. How fitting would that be? That last WWE five-star match: HBK vs. Taker in the Hell in a Cell.)
Red: ***** (Oh. My. God. One of the greatest matches I have witnessed in my life. These two are insane. The near falls in this match were amazing, especially that first Tombstone. I can't wait to watch this match again.)
Tom: ***** ($TEXAS STARS!)
Chris: ***** (What a match. Great match with an awesome spot. Line of the night: "I just had an out-of-body experience.")

Overall rating: *****

John Cena vs. Edge vs. The Big Show (World Title)
S2X: **1/4 (The match was OK, but nothing to write home about. Oh yeah, and it had the crappy position of being the match right after a classic.)
Red: *** (Ehhh. Some fun things. Cena lifting both men up for the FU was just amazing. I got into the match, but I think its placement just killed it for me.)
Tom: DUD (*Insert rioting intelligible language here*)
Chris: *** (It was OK.)

Overall rating: **

Triple H vs. Randy Orton (WWE Title)
S2X: ** (It just seemed like the crowd didn't know what to think at times. It just seemed like a bunch of moments all bunched up into a good 15 minutes. Some nice spots, some sloppy spots.)
Red: ***1/2 (Intensity was definitely here, but I really feel this match was 70 percent kicks and punches. It just got boring to me. I just didn't really get this match, even though it was good.)
Tom: ** (Meh match, meh ending to show.)
Chris: ***3/4 (Match kinda lagged in the middle.)

Overll rating: **3/4

Overall rating of PPV
S2X: ***3/4 (Aside from the Taker/HBK match, the show was a pretty ordinary PPV. But this PPV was still better than a ton of other PPVs.)
Red: **** (I think a lot of potential was missed here. The HBK/Undertaker match was so great that anything that followed it suffered greatly. I blame Kid Rock. Still a very fun PPV though. And I got to see one hell of a match.)
Tom: **** (HBK and Taker carried the night. Enough said.)
Chris: **** (Hardys, Taker, and Michaels really carried the show. Honorable mention to Steamboat who showed he could still go full speed. Only critique would be the position of the mikes made the crowd seem dead.)

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