Wrestlemania 25

[DrVenkman PhD]

I'll concede it was good and lent the show the "it's not just wrestling, it WrestleMania!" vibe you're supposed to get, but it was a rather long performance. I wouldn't call it awful or something that didn't belong there.

 

[Aero]

I'll concede it was good and lent the show the "it's not just wrestling, it WrestleMania!" vibe you're supposed to get, but it was a rather long performance. I wouldn't call it awful or something that didn't belong there.

This, plus the fact that the Tag Title match got bumped for time reasons. I'm usually not the type of person who gets annoyed by this type of thing, but considering Morrison & Miz have been one of the more entertaining acts on TV for the past year, and both teams were having great matches every other week, it seemed unfair to demote them to the dark match in lieu of a 10-15 minute mini-concert.

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

I didn't know Doink was wrestling tonight.

POTM

 

[The Buzz]

I enjoyed this year's Wrestlemania much more than 23 and 24. Piper looked better than I expected, Snuka looked frail as hell like I expected, and Steamboat looked real good.

MITB was a surprise with the Punk win, we all thought Punk would cash in tonight for some reason. Probably the drinks.

Big Show looked good tonight, I think he performed better than his opponents which was weird considering both are great big match players.

Undertaker/HBK was awesome, thought Taker crippled himself for a few minutes.

Triple H/Orton was horribly slow and plodding.

Hardy/Hardy was better than I expected.

 

[CookieMueller]

I agree with Aero. When I saw the matchlisting, which had Kid Rock listed as a performer, I saw nothing wrong with it. When the matchlisting had to be altered to remove a match (TITLE unification match, no less) that kind of ruins the whole "Well what harm is Kid Rock doing..." defense.

 

[fazzle]

I'm wondering if Kid Rock threw some sort of hissyfit backstage and demanded to play a longer set, and that's why the lineup got changed at the last minute?

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I'll concede it was good and lent the show the "it's not just wrestling, it WrestleMania!" vibe you're supposed to get, but it was a rather long performance. I wouldn't call it awful or something that didn't belong there.

This, plus the fact that the Tag Title match got bumped for time reasons. I'm usually not the type of person who gets annoyed by this type of thing, but considering Morrison & Miz have been one of the more entertaining acts on TV for the past year, and both teams were having great matches every other week, it seemed unfair to demote them to the dark match in lieu of a 10-15 minute mini-concert.

After watching how Mania played out, I don't think a match based around a comedy build really belonged there. A sad commentary on the tag titles I guess, but the bottom line is the match would have got 8 minutes and not be helpful to the overall card.

 

[skullman80]

I'll concede it was good and lent the show the "it's not just wrestling, it WrestleMania!" vibe you're supposed to get, but it was a rather long performance. I wouldn't call it awful or something that didn't belong there.

Oh it was beyond awful and it completely killed the crowd bigtime.

It was about 10 minutes too long, and he was terrible. The crowd shit all over it too. It was just awful.

 

[Aero]

I'll concede it was good and lent the show the "it's not just wrestling, it WrestleMania!" vibe you're supposed to get, but it was a rather long performance. I wouldn't call it awful or something that didn't belong there.

This, plus the fact that the Tag Title match got bumped for time reasons. I'm usually not the type of person who gets annoyed by this type of thing, but considering Morrison & Miz have been one of the more entertaining acts on TV for the past year, and both teams were having great matches every other week, it seemed unfair to demote them to the dark match in lieu of a 10-15 minute mini-concert.

After watching how Mania played out, I don't think a match based around a comedy build really belonged there. A sad commentary on the tag titles I guess, but the bottom line is the match would have got 8 minutes and not be helpful to the overall card.

I can agree with that to a point. Ultimately for me, even if it were just the likely 8 minute match on PPV, I would have gotten more enjoyment out of the 8 minute wrestling match than Kid Rock. But I do agree that it would have just about no impact on the general fanbase's overall enjoyment/perception of the show.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

They appeared to be applauding and cheering to me.

 

[skullman80]

They appeared to be applauding and cheering to me.

They appeared to be dead to me.

I dunno.. maybe it's just how I saw it, but I think he got no reaction at all. The few times he wanted to have the crowd sing.. you could hear crickets.

 

[The Buzz]

Even though I thought the performance was decent, I've noticed that wrestling fans could care less about live music at a wrestling event.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Well, let's put it this way - no one threw garbage and there wasn't a loud round of booing, so I wouldn't say the fans despised it, but there was no huge standing 'o either, just some applause.

I'll also admit this is the time I took to make a few phone calls I had to make before the show ended but couldn't make before it started, so maybe I missed the more offended reaction you mentioned.

MMA Fans: Explain the jab Meltzer took at Affliction by comparing the Kid Rock performance to Affliction: Banned. Thanks!

 

[Precious Roy]

I don't have a big problem with Kid Rock getting 10 minutes, not my cup of tea, and 6 or 7 would have sufficed, but there's nothing wrong with "The Superbowl of Wrestling" having a musical performance. I can buy into the thought that Kid Rock demanded he get more time than what they slotted him for, and that would help explain the spot they put him in. AC/DC would have been better, but I digress...

Even with 10 minutes for Kid Rock there's no reason they couldn't cut some other stuff a little bit shorter here and there and fit the tag title match on the PPV.

Miz/Morrison not getting on the show is a shame, they're under the radar a bit, let's face it they're way more popular with us net geeks than the average fan due to the Dirt Sheet, but are pretty much the MVPs of the mid card and the only tag team that's been worth a damn in years. Morrison has so much potential to be a huge star, it's amazing to me that they didn't get him on the show. And it really really sucks that all those jobbers didn't get to be on the PPV, because a lot of them really deserved it! I'm sure they'll end up getting the same payday, but it would have been nice for guys like Great Khali and Jamie Noble to get a Wrestlemania moment. I still think it's The Brian Kendrick's fault somehow.

 

[Mazto]

They appeared to be applauding and cheering to me.

It's over! YAY!

 

[Precious Roy]

MMA Fans: Explain the jab Meltzer took at Affliction by comparing the Kid Rock performance to Affliction: Banned. Thanks!

Megadeth played and the crowd shit on it

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

MITB: KOFI KOFI KOFI but unmemorable. The finish with Punk was cool, but it'd be nice if he cashed it soon so I can actually see a run with the title for him (I wasn't watching for most of last year). I agree with ***3/4 or so, tops.

Diva Thing: Victoria got her little spot and a good pop for it so it's all good. I'm glad it didn't end with some "all the girls come back and beat the crap out of Santino" angle. No rating, it's just fun.

Old Dudes and Ricky Steamboat/Jericho: I'm so glad that after loads of hype about how good Steamboat was on WWE DVDs and whatnot that he was able to deliver big time. He's one of those Puro-style old dudes who still kick ass and have the crowd eating out of their hands. The crap after the first match and then the Jericho/Steamboat match was a little lame but the wrestlers always eat it at the expense of celebrities. Why not Jericho? Better than Bobby Lashley. **

Hardy Boys Mysteries: This was as extreme (read: gory and suicidal) as WWE will allow on their biggest show these days. But it was still pretty good. The brothers have no wrestling chemistry, so why not put 'em in something like this? A fuckin' dry-vac? That's some bingo hall shit right there. Matt winning by knowing his brother was a risk-taking functional retard was cool and the deathblow was sick.

David d. Goliath with the machine gun in 0:02: "Why so SERIOUS, Bradshaw?" * for the costume and Luke-O's post.

Gods Clash In The Heavens Above Us Mortals match: Okay, Shawn didn't botch that moonsault. Undertaker swatted him out of the air with the N64 flair. The DDT was the only really fucked up bit of the match. When you jump over the top rope and into a cameraman, you land on your head sometimes. Undertaker learned that tonight. Added intensity and a "HOLY FUCK!" to get you interested early. I enjoyed the early goings of the match where Shawn was trying to wrestle Undertaker like Bret Hart or something and Undertaker just powered out of everything. SHAWN'S ENTRANCE WINS ****2/5, probably'll improve as I watch the replay this very moment on a stream. This was the match of the night for the sports bar.

Three Dicks, One Chick title match: Everyone was game and it was good enough for government work or a monthly PPV but not enough for the venue or the preceding act. Cena's got mad respect from me for holding up Big Show and Edge up at the same time for a second and a half and not crumpling. ***1/2

BLOOD FEUD - BLOOD = Stipulation was dumb because they ended up cheating anyway. Orton appeared to be trying hard but HHH was thinking this was tomorrow night's Raw main event. The ending made sense I suppose, but a good way to fix HHH retaining would be for Orton to win in the same and CM Punk to show up and beat Orton for a high note at the end and superduperpushing a new star while removing the title from the goofy HHH/Orton feud. It was boring. Not good, not bad, just boring. Maybe that's worse than bad. **1/2

Overall, the match I wanted to see with otherwise dull build and nothing else interesting was great, and there were a few nice surprises here and there. I give the whole show/presentation/misc. a 6.75 out of 10.

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

Oh, the tag match really could have helped this show. It'd have more equilibrium and the potential for one more good match on the card. As it was the show only had tags in a 3 on 1 elimination match.

 

[Precious Roy]

MITB: KOFI KOFI KOFI but unmemorable. The finish with Punk was cool, but it'd be nice if he cashed it soon so I can actually see a run with the title for him (I wasn't watching for most of last year). I agree with ***3/4 or so, tops.

Diva Thing: Victoria got her little spot and a good pop for it so it's all good. I'm glad it didn't end with some "all the girls come back and beat the crap out of Santino" angle. No rating, it's just fun.

Old Dudes and Ricky Steamboat/Jericho: I'm so glad that after loads of hype about how good Steamboat was on WWE DVDs and whatnot that he was able to deliver big time. He's one of those Puro-style old dudes who still kick ass and have the crowd eating out of their hands. The crap after the first match and then the Jericho/Steamboat match was a little lame but the wrestlers always eat it at the expense of celebrities. Why not Jericho? Better than Bobby Lashley. **

Hardy Boys Mysteries: This was as extreme (read: gory and suicidal) as WWE will allow on their biggest show these days. But it was still pretty good. The brothers have no wrestling chemistry, so why not put 'em in something like this? A fuckin' dry-vac? That's some bingo hall shit right there. Matt winning by knowing his brother was a risk-taking functional retard was cool and the deathblow was sick.

David d. Goliath with the machine gun in 0:02: "Why so SERIOUS, Bradshaw?" * for the costume and Luke-O's post.

Gods Clash In The Heavens Above Us Mortals match: Okay, Shawn didn't botch that moonsault. Undertaker swatted him out of the air with the N64 flair. The DDT was the only really fucked up bit of the match. When you jump over the top rope and into a cameraman, you land on your head sometimes. Undertaker learned that tonight. Added intensity and a "HOLY FUCK!" to get you interested early. I enjoyed the early goings of the match where Shawn was trying to wrestle Undertaker like Bret Hart or something and Undertaker just powered out of everything. SHAWN'S ENTRANCE WINS ****2/5, probably'll improve as I watch the replay this very moment on a stream. This was the match of the night for the sports bar.

Three Dicks, One Chick title match: Everyone was game and it was good enough for government work or a monthly PPV but not enough for the venue or the preceding act. Cena's got mad respect from me for holding up Big Show and Edge up at the same time for a second and a half and not crumpling. ***1/2

BLOOD FEUD - BLOOD = Stipulation was dumb because they ended up cheating anyway. Orton appeared to be trying hard but HHH was thinking this was tomorrow night's Raw main event. The ending made sense I suppose, but a good way to fix HHH retaining would be for Orton to win in the same and CM Punk to show up and beat Orton for a high note at the end and superduperpushing a new star while removing the title from the goofy HHH/Orton feud. It was boring. Not good, not bad, just boring. Maybe that's worse than bad. **1/2

Overall, the match I wanted to see with otherwise dull build and nothing else interesting was great, and there were a few nice surprises here and there. I give the whole show/presentation/misc. a 6.75 out of 10.

This.

 

[Perfxion]

Great event live. The reason the crowd sounded dead for Kid Rock is because any noise and nobody could hear him. Sound was terrible live. Main Event felt flat. The true main event was Taker and HBK. Kofi and Shelton were the shit in the MITB match. The diva battle royal really sucked as all you could see was Santino and a bunch of blondes. Ray as Joker was great. People near by couldn't tell until the camera was really close to the face. There were more Edge fans in the dome than Cena fans.

 

[CookieMueller]

That diva battle royal was just a sea of arms and hair until it got down to about 4 or 5 left.

 

[Perfxion]

It would have been nice to say who the fuck was in the match as I couldn't pick out 5 people in the ring. All I know is that Torrie, Beth, Santino, and Melina were in the match. Beyond that, I was too far away to see, then didn't care who.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

MMA Fans: Explain the jab Meltzer took at Affliction by comparing the Kid Rock performance to Affliction: Banned. Thanks!

Megadeth played and the crowd shit on it

Did they not play their rendition of the Duke Nukem theme? I would have been pretty mad if they didn't and pretty happy if they did.

Reviews to Meltz have been mixed at best, but "In the Middle" seems to come up an awful lot, though one guy really seemed to "get it" with his Mania 21 comparison. Mania 21 is a great MITB match and a great Shawn Michaels match with a time wasting Piper's Pit, two weak world title matches on a top, and a sumo wrestling match. But that good is so good that I think that's a pretty great Mania.

 

[Perfxion]

One thing to note, it took an hour just to leave the parking lot. That fucking sucks. As they only allowed three exits on a place holding over 70K people.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

When I see people calling this the weakest MITB yet, I often wonder if they ever saw MITB 2. Perhaps they did, but only remember Shelton Benjamin outta f'n nowhere. I wondered the same thing about the same comments last year too. The only spot in this year's MITB match I thought was bad was I go myself all hyped up for the Killprettier on a ladder, but instead Christian jumped off and Punk landed very awkwardly (and not the "oooh, that had to hurt" awkwardly, but the "was that supposed to hurt?" awkwardly). MVP not selling the Sunset Bomb actually worked since Benjamin gave him that brutal powerbomb from the ring to the floor instead.

 

[Papacita]

You bastards need to stop replying while I'm trying to post! Bastards!

Actually broke down and ordered the show tonight. Don't agree with anybody suggesting that HBK/Taker was 5 stars, but I did enjoy it, especially after Taker spiked himself on that suicide dive (I half way expected him to get counted out once Shawn told the ref to start counting). Also, the shot of Taker after Shawn kicks out of the tombstone is the best visual in the history of pro wrestling that didn't involve nudity. I approve.

The rest, not so much. MITB was fun, but a little goofy (that all that "connect the ladders" stuff started to grate on me after a while); the lack of an entrance for the Divas pissed me off (you bring Sunny back after god knows how long and she barely gets any screen time???), though dancing Santina almost made up for it; without going back to the cliched "Jericho looked weak" arguments, I didn't really care to see him get handled by Rourke so easily, but STEAMBOAT~! made up for it with his performance (Piper cursing his ass off during the match gave me some laughs as well); I thought the Hardys' match was weak, but I had no interest in that anyway; Rey/Bradshaw was a little predictable, but I can't complain (Rey looked kinda spooky as the Joker too); props to Cena on the deadlift, but I didn't really care for the WWE title match; dug the idea of HHH/Orton busting out the finishers early, but that was about it, and I absolutely DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT like the idea of HHH going over here. I know the whole "HHH loses at Mania" thing is a bit predictable, but given Orton's momentum in recent months, this seems like the match that HHH really should've lost.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

You bastards need to stop replying while I'm trying to post! Bastards!

Just turn that feature off.

 

[CookieMueller]

It would have been nice to say who the fuck was in the match as I couldn't pick out 5 people in the ring. All I know is that Torrie, Beth, Santino, and Melina were in the match. Beyond that, I was too far away to see, then didn't care who.

Well at least you knew Torrie was in the match, that's more than the at-home viewers can say.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

The person I thought was Sunny could have just as easily been Tiffany. The person I thought was Tiffany could have been Kelly. The person I thought was Kelly... and so on.

I did chuckle at Gail Kim being ID'd as "one of the Bella Twins has been eliminated".

 

[Papacita]

You bastards need to stop replying while I'm trying to post! Bastards!

Just turn that feature off.

Thank you! Your help on this matter is greatly appreciate, Venk!

No good bastards!