Sunday, March 28, 2010

3/28/10 WrestleMania XXVI

The Big Show & The Miz vs. John Morrison & R-Truth (Unified Tag Team Titles): Not the match I would have picked to start the show. It was your typical average match. No clue what R-Truth was thinking trying to dive onto Big Show. No real suspense whatsoever; crowd had a little life, but not what you'd want in an opening contest. *

Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes: Orton got his offense in, but when Legacy got the upper hand, the pace was agonizingly slow. Orton hit virtually all his signature moves, including punting poor Cody in the head. OK crowd reaction and good storytelling, but nothing much to write home about. I have no idea why Legacy had to lose here. Making them lose -- and in such a fashion shown here tonight -- does nothing for their careers. In fact, it only makes Legacy look stupid. Being with Orton all these months now looks for naught. *1/4

Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Evan Bourne vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Matt Hardy vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kane vs. Christian (Money in the Bank Ladder Match): This was a great match. Not as many sick spots as in year's past, but still very respectable. Some very creative uses with the ladder, especially Kingston using a broken ladder as stilts. I did not expect Swagger to win the match, but good for him. Seems like WWE really has plans for the All-American American later this year. But man, Swagger really had a hard time unhooking that briefcase. Tsk tsk. ***1/4

Triple H vs. Sheamus: Another very nice match. Definitely one of Sheamus' biggest match to date, showing that he could handle the WM pressure. Good back-and-forth action with some nice counters. HHH may have won, but Sheamus looked very good in the process. **3/4

Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk: If Mysterio lost, he would be forced to join the Straight Edge Society. Mysterio came out with the Avatar-like costume, which was pretty cool. The match did not get nearly as much time as I would have liked, probably because there were ten matches on the card and they wanted to give a lot more time to the two title matches and Taker/HBK. But come on, 6:30?! Really?! However, the match was still very entertaining. The finish was typical of what has gone on for the past few weeks: Serena and Luke Gallows getting involved. But Mysterio this time came out on top. Storyline is not over, but a good match nonetheless. **1/2

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon (No Holds Barred): And we have the match 13 years in the making that I honestly would never see. Obviously, the storytelling and back story was excellent. But if you were looking for wrestling here, wrong match to view. It was basically Bret beating Vince down for about 10 minutes. I'm real torn on whether to actually rate this. But I will. Just a very lengthy boring beatdown. I would normally give negative stars for this, but the storyline saves it. DUD

Chris Jericho vs. Edge (World Heavyweight Title): Surprisingly, the crowd was not really into it for the first part of the match. We had a couple of false finishes at the end. Saw some nice counters in the match. I liked Jericho going after Edge's Achilles' heel, another way to tell a great story. It really was a toss-up to me as to who would win, but based upon Edge getting a measure of revenge after the match, it seems like the feud will continue anyway. ***1/2

Michelle McCool, Maryse, Layla, Alicia Fox, & Vickie Guerrero vs. Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres: Almost all the divas botched something, topped off by Vickie Guerrero delivering the worst frog splash (or was it a hog splash) in history. An unintentional lifting up of Kelly's shoulders on the pin...fail. Please do not let Vickie Guerrero wrestle anymore. -*

John Cena vs. Batista (WWE Title): Cena's entrance was pretty cool, as it usually seems to be at WM. Slow start to the match, but picked up at the end. Again, a few false finishes pretty much saved the limited moveset of these two guys. Counters were a bit sloppy, but the crowd was into it. I thought the re-creation of that Summerslam 2008 Batista Bomb (catching Cena coming off the top) was good, but could have been done better. Not too much else to really write home about because that's really all we had. Cena wins again, and Cena haters all over the world will be rioting tonight. ***1/4

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (Streak vs. Career): And clearly this match received match of the night honors. For two forty-somethings to basically give it their all for over 25 minutes is a testament to how respected they are in this business. I'll say it right now: this match was definitely not as good as last year's, but then again, these two would have had to do something completely superhuman to top last year anyway. The tombstone on the outside was pretty cool to see. The storyline was outstanding, the buildup impeccable. I liked the many false finishes and a couple of sick spots they did. The streak remains intact, and Shawn Michaels will forever be Mr. WrestleMania. ****1/2
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MVPs: Shawn Michaels gets top billing tonight. What a career. I don't care if Undertaker goes 100-0 at WM. HBK will forever be Mr. WrestleMania.

Overall Rating: A few of the matches were good, but a bunch of matches were either rushed or, in the divas match, very bad. Bret's fight with Vince was not even a match, just a chance for the entire Hart family to take out 13 years of frustration on the boss. I am very happy that WWE learned from last year and put Taker/HBK II last. Unfortunately, Father Time did not allow us to get the full potential of that match. Was it worth spending $55? Maybe. A bunch of matches were at least three stars, but a few were about one star or less. Also, I got to see HBK's last match (supposedly). So I guess long story short, the rating is pretty decent, but could have been better. ***1/4

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