Wrestlemania 25

[Precious Roy]

Kind of sucks that Orton lost after winning the Rumble and having all that momentum earlier in the year, but that was the right finish. I'm sure this feud isn't over yet, Orton will get the title at a later date. I wonder if they might have Vickie Guerrero retroactively rule it a DQ and award the belt to Orton on RAW tomorrow night...

Not a bad show, but not up the level of the last couple of years. Michaels and Undertaker was great, MITB was a fun spot fest and the two title matches were acceptable. Lots of cool entrances and one of the coolest Mysterio looks. The Jericho deal was a real let down, so was Hardy v. Hardy. Could have done something better with Austin, and it could have used a bigger celebrity presence.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I stand by my thoughts earlier. Taker/HBK should have been the made. Neither the crowd nor myself could get pumped for either title match afterwards.

 

[mellow]

So, Comcast fucked up and myself along with a group of friends had to huddle around the computer finding streams all night. Can't say that all is lost, as this show didn't impress me very much.

 

[Precious Roy]

nm

 

[Precious Roy]

And there goes Orton's chance of ever getting to the next level.

Dude, he's already at that level, and he has been since the Cena feud a couple of years ago!

 

[oldskool]

Was it just me or did HHH/Orton kind of suck? I didn't see all of it, but everything I saw was just pretty basic and lame.

I saw all of it and it sucked. Maybe it's just that it went on 2 matches after UT/HBK's legendary ***** classic, maybe it's because it was refereed by oft-recognized potential Legacy member Scott Armstrong instead of Mike Chioda, but it was just lame. It's like somebody was minorly injured, so they stared with an RKO and a Pedigree so they could have a really slow, methodical match instead of the masochistic double beating we all expected & wanted.

First WM where the Rumble winner didn't capture the gold since 2000 where The Rock also fell to HHH.

On the other hand, my WM stream just switched to cricket, which thus far has out-lamed it.

 

[Silence]

Average show, and I hate how Edge gets yet another short title reign.

 

[strummer]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there. But the announcers didn't sell it so it I'm not sure if that's where they're going

not as good as the past 5 or 6 manias but still and enjoyable show

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

First WM where the Rumble winner didn't capture the gold since 2000 where The Rock also fell to HHH.

Cena didn't win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania last year.

 

[Aero]

This wasn't the best WM of recent years, but it certainly wasn't the worst. HBK-Taker delivered a classic match, and MITB and Triple Threat were both solid.

The Hardys match was an interesting case. On one hand, I liked a bunch of the spots, but it's tough to have this kind of match on a show that already had a highspots ladder match earlier in the night. The chair-assisted Twist of Fate was a great finish though, and I'm actually shocked they had the right guy, Matt, go over.

The legends match was saved by Steamboat. He looked winded toward the end, but his half of the match had me marking out nonstop, and I legitimately thought he had Jericho beat several times. Good stuff.

HHH-Orton definitely needed some blood, but I suppose they're likely saving it for the gimmick rematch at Backlash or Judgment Day. I liked the finish, but yeah, the crowd just didn't seem to care.

For what it's worth, the $6.95 stream was totally worth it. I didn't have a single skip/pause all night, and the quality was fantastic. Best of all, I didn't have to keep tabs on several streams at a time.

 

[Gary]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

 

[strummer]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind of triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

 

[oldskool]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind of triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

They do if they don't want to get Guerrero'd out of the title.

 

[Precious Roy]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind of triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

It was one of Eddie Guerrero's signature spots!

Totally random question, did Eddie and HBK ever have a match against each? I can't remember one

 

[ChrisMWaters]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind of triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

It was one of Eddie Guerrero's signature spots!

Totally random question, did Eddie and HBK ever have a match against each? I can't remember one

No.

They were to compete against each other in a Survivor Series match...but Eddie died a week or two before it.

 

[strummer]

I think SKeith underrated MITB at ***1/4

and nice of him to take a parting shot at JBL

 

[Precious Roy]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind of triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

It was one of Eddie Guerrero's signature spots!

Totally random question, did Eddie and HBK ever have a match against each? I can't remember one

No.

They were to compete against each other in a Survivor Series match...but Eddie died a week or two before it.

Thanks. I didn't think they did but I couldn't remember. Shame it never happened.

I wouldn't rate Taker-HBK *****. More in the ****1/2 range. I'm in the minority but my favorite Taker-HBK match is still the first one @ Ground Zero 1997.

Taker's matches with Edge, Orton, HHH and Flair were all pretty great, how does this one rank compared to those?

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Because I'm a bit lazy right now, here's word for word what I already wrote for F4W:

Thumbs Up
Best: Undertaker/Shawn Michaels
Worst: Divas Battle Royal

Overall, I really enjoyed this WrestleMania. The build was sup-bar and I think that was reflected in the not bad but nothing special title matches that closed the show with limited heat, but I felt almost everything leading up to it was excellent. In the first 3 hours of the show, the only real black eye was the overly long Kid Rock performance (to quote the late, great Gorilla Monsoon's comment about Run DMC at WrestleMania V, "a little bit of that went a long way with me") that segued into the Divas Battle Royal. What an absolute waste to bring back Sunny (I assume she was the one in the black tights with a sun on them), Torrie, and Molly for one night and have them barely acknowledged. Sunny looked to be in awesome shape but since, for reasons that somehow seemed to be on purpose, they never gave her a close-up shot after she was eliminated, I don't really know. Prior to that, Money in the Bank 5 delivered on the crazy; every time those 8 man did a match on TV, it made you less and less interested in the match, so kudos to them.

It was all uphill from the Divas bit as Ricky Steamboat delivered big time in his match (I loved the smattering "You've still got it!" chant). It was no technical marvel, but it was awesome to see Steamboat go at it and not be embarassing. Matt vs. Jeff was a very good spot fest, and Undertaker vs. Shawn delivered just as good as people thought it would.

Then they did the main events. These were technically fine matches, but really seemed to be missing the 'zing' that makes a Mania main event. It was very reminiscent of watching HHH vs. Jericho try to follow Rock vs. Hogan in that you knew the guys were trying but the audience was pretty burned out. I can't fault them for their efforts though, but the last hour did drag down what was looking to be an upper tier WrestleMania.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Don't forget Vs Batista at 23 when you're talking about great Taker matches at 'Mania.

Man, looking back at it...the man's matches at 'Mania are showstealers (any of the above mentioned) or absolute stinkers (Vs Giant Gonzalez at IX, Vs King Kong Bundy at XI, Vs Albert and The Big Show at XIX, Vs Mark Henry at 22)...I guess his matches against Jake Roberts and Kane kind of all in between the two but I'll give 'em a pass since one's the match that certified him as a superstar and one's his most memorable feud.

 

[strummer]

I think the ending lays ground for a Double Turn. Hunter acted incredibly heelish there

It was just Orton getting his comuppance in the end. Nothing heelish about it.

The "hiding the weapon" spot kind off triggered something in my mind as babyfaces usually don't do that

It was one of Eddie Guerrero's signature spots!

Totally random question, did Eddie and HBK ever have a match against each? I can't remember one

of course but that was really a once in a lifetime (awesome) gimmick/character for Eddy. There haven't been a ton of coniving ,cheating babyfaces

I don't know just the whole hiding the weapon (even though he would have been DQ'd) and doing it after the ref bump just came off heelish. I think the ending will lead to the rematches though

 

[skullman80]

It was overall underwhelming...


That being said just for Taker/HBK alone... I am ok with dropping the 55$.

 

[strummer]

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/wrestlemania/2009/april1-7/9795470

pretty awesome post match Cena interview

 

[Precious Roy]

Don't forget Vs Batista at 23 when you're talking about great Taker matches at 'Mania.

Man, looking back at it...the man's matches at 'Mania are showstealers (any of the above mentioned) or absolute stinkers (Vs Giant Gonzalez at IX, Vs King Kong Bundy at XI, Vs Albert and The Big Show at XIX, Vs Mark Henry at 22)...I guess his matches against Jake Roberts and Kane kind of all in between the two but I'll give 'em a pass since one's the match that certified him as a superstar and one's his most memorable feud.

Thanks, I knew I was forgetting one!

It's pretty much a tradition that Undertaker's match steals the show now. He had the best match this year, arguably the previous two years, and the Orton match was my favorite of that year's show. This after years of terrible Wrestlemania matches!

 

[Jingus]

I think SKeith underrated MITB at ***1/4

and nice of him to take a parting shot at JBL

Where's Keith's review? Didn't see one at Insidepulse.

 

[CookieMueller]

I just got back from watching this. Just my thoughts:

Tag team match...wtf? That was so lame not to put it on TV.
Surprised to see Punk win it again. I can't see him winning a title any time in the near future. Maybe a second-tier title, but not a big one.
That Kid Rock bullshit was ridiculous. If someone spends $55 on a WRESTLING PPV...they want to see wrestling.
Way to screw over every woman in the promotion (and some that aren't). They should have let Beth Phoenix take out Melina and then walk over and knock Santino out and split them up. I like Santino and that's why I would have preferred to see it that way. This makes him look like a punk even more than getting beat up by the divas last week.
I didn't care for the Legends match. I wish they would have let Steamboat go over. Rourke was a waste of time.
The Hardy match is what I figured it would be: Jeff would dominate, Matt would win.
The JBL match surprised me. I figured he'd retire with the belt. It's probably better this way.
The UT/HBK match made the show. I was marking out like I haven't done in a loooong time for that one. One of the best WWE matches I've ever seen.
I was one of the ones that would have argued against UT/HBK ending the show, but I take it all back. I was wrong. It wasn't even the quality of the title matches. They were both decent enough matches. They just couldn't compare. The crowd was done with the show after UT/HBK.
The triple threat match was the better of the two title matches. Glad Cena got it.
I'm of the opnion that Orton needed to win it. And I'm not even an Orton fan. It was a bit of deflation to see it end that way. This is the one that should have been No DQ. It was pretty lame that HHH could destroy Orton's house on Raw, but now he can't even hit him with a TV monitor. Very anticlimatic.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I think SKeith underrated MITB at ***1/4

and nice of him to take a parting shot at JBL

Where's Keith's review? Didn't see one at Insidepulse.

1. I would assume his blog, but that seems to not be working.
2. I also assume it would be a QnD movie theatre rant since that's where he saw the show.

 

[daileyxplanet]

My wife decided we were going to clean tonight. So I didn't get to go to BDubs OR watch a stream. PWtorrents will be my life jacket.

 

[Jebus]

I think SKeith underrated MITB at ***1/4

and nice of him to take a parting shot at JBL

Where's Keith's review? Didn't see one at Insidepulse.

1. I would assume his blog, but that seems to not be working.
2. I also assume it would be a QnD movie theatre rant since that's where he saw the show.

It's on his blog.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I keep getting "forbidden" when I try to read it. I would see if it's available as a facebook note but my boss is lurking around tonight and FB use is a big no-no (long story that has nothing to do with WM25 short, it would mean we're using an unauthorized browser not subject to the the proxy blocks of using IE).

 

[zio]

Am I the only one who really liked Kid Rock's performance? Dude is one hell of a performer and I have enjoyed both of his WWF/E performances.