Straight Blazing: Wrestlemania 25 Report For 04/05/09

Wrestlemania 25 Wrap up!

The 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania was one of the better Wrestlemanias we have had in the last few years. I can honestly say I came away after I seen it with a smile on my face and feeling like I got my moneys worth. Lets go through the wrestle mania match by match.. The sad part was Miz and Morrison v The Colons for the Unified Tag Title was not on the main show. Not only was it not on the main show but it was not streamed live on wwe’s website before the PPV. The Colons defeated the best tag team in wrestling to become the unified tag champs in a match you can only see on the Wrestlemania DVD.

Match 1: Money In The Bank Ladder Match featuring: Christian, Finlay, Mark Henry, Kane, CM Punk, Shelton Benjamin and MVP

This was a great opener and was a fairly decent match. CM Punk walked underneath every ladder on his entrance. Would he be unlucky? The match started out like a brawl as one would expect with various people brawling it out with one another. Some of the most memorable spots in this match were the amazing Shelton Benjamin diving senton from the 20 foot ladder in the entrance aisle. Before this though we seen a suicide dive fron Finlay and double suicide dives from Kofi Kingston and CM Punk to the outside on the big group. One of the funnier spots was when Hornswoggle got under the ring and brought out a stepladder which looked exactly like the real ladders. Mark Henry was on top of the turnbuckle after Finlay knocked him down onto it and Horny proceeded to do a tadpole splash off of Henrys back using the stepladder onto the group on the outside. After the outside the ring chaos settled down we seen quite a few good spots on the inside. Shelton Benjamin ladder walking from one ladder to another set up ladder which was horizontal on the ropes and propped into the other ladder creating a platform. From the platform he hopped on the other ladder and saved the match from ending by CM Punk. CM Punk got the upper hand when Christian came in to make the save. They were battling on the platform ladder and Punk went for a Go To Sleep and Christian reversed and did a botched Impaler off the platform onto the mat. Looked bad but stuff happens. Kofi’s two big spots were when he was being teamed up on with a ladder he hopped over the ladder as they charged him with it and delivered a dropkick and the BO BO BO combination using the ladder as a weapon. He also then climbed a ladder while it was standing straight and NOT unfolded to climb up while Mark Henry held it. Kofi got within grasp and mark whipped the ladder out and caught him then proceeded to give the Worlds Strongest Slam through the ladder. The end sequence of the match seen CM Punk get his foot hooked in the ladder and falling back so he couldn’t reach. Kane took the upper hand and almost had it until Punk regained his composure and delivered several kicks to the chest and head of Kane until he finally pushed him off with his foot and grabbed the briefcase.

Winner: CM Punk for the 2nd year in a row!
Match Rating: 7/10. Not the best MITB but it delivered and was a good opener.

Match 2: Divas Battle Royal

The amount of divas is too many to name but the returning women were Victoria, Molly Holly, Sunny, and Jackie Gayda. NO TRISH STRATUS… Sadly.. Now moving on.. Before this match we go the medley from Kid Rock which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. For the record Layla was the first diva eliminated while Lilian was announcing. The match was what is to be expected from a Diva’s battle royal. Beth Phoenix seemed to dominate and Santino who was wearing a bad wig and dress just walked around aimlessly not throwing a punch or anything. It came down to Beth Phoenix and Melina at the end with Santino still in there. While Beth and Melina were battling by the ropes Santino came over and eliminated them both to become the first Ms. Wrestlemania. In the post match interview he said he was Santina the twin of Santino. All around disappointing match but at least Santino made me chuckle..

Winner: Santino.. Err.. Santina Marella
Match Rating: 3/10. Were you expecting a masterpiece?

Match 3: Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, and Snuka w/Ric Flair v Chris Jericho

Well to begin with Mickey Rourke was in the audience and they made sure it was known on the program. The legends looked out of shape besides Steamboat of course. Roddy Piper looked drunk and started off the match and backed up what I just said by the way he was performing. The only memorable spot from Piper was doing a flying cross body on Jericho that took them both over the rope but Piper tried to hang on and really did a poor job. He tagged in Snuka then who went to work on Jericho for a little then Steamboat came in and worked on him as well. Steamboat did an amazing job flying off the top rope. Snuka comes back in and Jericho quickly dispenses of him with the walls of Jericho. He then pushes steamboat to the ground and begins his assault on Piper. Jericho hit’s the running enzuguri on Piper and picks up the pinfall. As he is getting back up Steamboat awaits from the top rope and delivers a flying cross body and gets the near fall. The next few minutes showed why Steamboat should still be wrestling as he hung with Jericho wonderfully. Until Jericho hit’s the code breaker and picks up the win over the legends. He then proceeds to code breaker flair and get on the mic and trash talk Mickey Rourke until Mick gets in the ring with Jericho. They exchange some sparring punches with one another and Mickey lands a left hook that “knocks Jericho out” to a good pop and him and Flair celebrate as Jericho scampers to the back.

Winner: Chris Jericho, but gets knocked out by Mickey Rourke(who didn’t see this coming??)
Match Rating: 5/10 purely for Steamboat..

Match 4: Hardy v Hardy

It was a decent match that I believe needed the hardcore element into it to succeed. Jeff did a few Poetry In Motions off steps and chairs. As well as he did the running clothesline off of the apron he is famous for it seems. Matt delivered a nice Side Effect on a chair and also had the best spot of the match, but we will get to that. Jeff had two epic spots, as you would imagine. One was through two tables that were stacked and had Matt placed on the bottom one with a chair on it. It was a great spot and looked like it legit hurt. The other was Matt laying on the floor in the ring and Jeff set up his Leapfrog leg drop ladder thing, he went to hit it and came crashing down hard. Matt then proceeds to wrap a chair around the throat of Jeff and do the sickest Twist Of Fate I have ever seen which basically decapitated Jeff. Matt pins and picks up the victory in a better match then I expected at least.

Winner: Matt, Who’s new pants were AMAZING
Match Rating:7/10

Match 5: JBL v Rey Mysterio for the IC Title

Lets just say one thing.. Rey Mysterio won in 21 seconds of the official match starting.. This was a travesty to me because its becoming a trend for once a year that WM has a squash match.. I don’t believe that your biggest PPV of the year is a place for a squash contest. JBL beat the crap out of Rey, who was dressed as Joker from batman, and then he demanded the ref ring the bell and when the ref did Rey exploded with a little bit of offense. A 619 and that splash he does sealed the deal on JBL who proceeded to tell everyone he quit..

Winner: Rey Mysterio. New Champion.. Blah..
Match Rating: 0/10

Match 6: Undertaker v Shawn Michaels. Streak v Mr. Wrestlemania

The beginning of this match showed an amazing entrance from HBK as church type music played and he descended from the top of the arena on what seemed to be a cloud. It was a podium with smoke coming from it. He was dressed in all white and it looked like an awesome entrance. He got to the bottom and his regular music hit and then taker made his way to the ring and the match was on. People may hate my description of this match.. But I have no words for it. I have watched wrestling for the past 25+ years almost 30 and that match was one of the most fundamentally sound and beautifully done matches I have ever seen in my life. The last match that captured my attention and dragged me in like that my personal choice for best match of all time at WM 12. It reminded me so much of Steamboat v Macho and I have never seen Taker or HBK look that good before. I cant describe it because you have to witness it. If you missed Wrestlemania please look this match up because THIS IS WHAT WRESTLING IS. Kudos to taker and HBK for an amazing performance.. Damnit I hate Undertaker though…

Winner: The Undertaker off a beautiful sequence, one of many beautiful finisher sequences of the match
Match Rating: Perfection. 10/10

Match 7: Big Show v John Cena v Edge for the WHC

This was a solid little triple threat match which seen a good few spots. Big Show did the Andre the Giant thing where he got tied up in the ropes and watched Edge and Cena battle it out for a good bit. The best spot of the match in my opinion was the amazing strength showed by John Cena when he lifted Show and Edge on top of his shoulders and Edge then slipped off and he gave the Attitude Adjustment to Big Show. Edge then tried to get the upper hand and Cena gave him the Attitude Adjustment to Edge on top of Big Show and he pins Show and the Best Wrestler in the World wins the WHC

Winner: John Cena
Match Rating: 7/10

Stone Cold then came out and celebrated in the ring and toasted to the fans and JR. I wanted to take this part to say thank you to him, not that hes gonna read this, but even though I didn’t like Stone Cold… He revoltionized this industry and made a hell of an impact on this business. I hope we havent seen the last of him like he said, but if we have… Give me a HELL YEAH if you thank Stone Cold…

Main Event: HHH v Randy Orton

By far the most disappointing besides the Rey Mysterio match in my opinion. I don’t have much to say on it besides I feel that they dropped the ball majorly. Most of the fans there seemed to agree with me and just felt like the intensity wasn’t there as much. One big flaw was starting the match out with both people hitting their finisher right away. HHH destroys Orton towards the end and wins.. Yay…

Winner: HHH.. Duh..
Match Rating: 2/10

Overall PPV Rating: 8/10 and this is mainly cause of Taker/HBK. Hope you enjoyed the Wrestlemania Wrapup. And Remember I have to keep it under 2000 words so SORRY!!

Stay Blazin!