I thought it would be fitting to review a Wrestlemania from a decade back and how do I feel about it? It was a show that if you watched it, you're most likely going to have a good time. It was a mix of great things but terrible things at the same time as most shows.
The 26th edition of Wrestlemania took place in the University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona on March 28th, 2010.
The commentators were Micheal Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker. Honestly, Striker was pretty good and a far better colour commentator than Lawler was on this show (even today, Lawler is still bleh on commentary).
The Miz And The Big Show vs John Morrison And R-Truth For The WWE Unified Tag Team Championship.
So, "Show-Miz" won the title from DX a month back if anybody was curious because I sure wasn't. During the match, Big Show prevented Miz from taking the starship pain by sliding Miz on to the outside.
That led to a knockout punch from Big Show to Morrison after he tagged Miz and retained the unified tag team championship. This wasn't a good match. It was probably one of the shortest tag team matches I could recall.
Placing it in as the opening match of the evening was odd, to say the least. The most offensive part of this entire thing was me hearing that awful mash-up theme song for Big Show and The Miz. By the way, I forgot how The Miz looked young as hell.
They not only lost the belts to the Hart Dynasty but as well as the "Show-Miz" were no more thanks to a knockout punch from Big Show, turning him babyface in the process. Yay, for Big Show as a good guy! (Sarcasm of course).
Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes vs Ted Dibaise Jr.
The night is not over with horrible theme songs as Cody Rhodes came out with generic instrumental country music. That was later replaced by "WHOA, You're only smoke and mirrors”. The Legacy were a dominant stable and reached highs of success (Cody and Ted's feud with DX was amazing, by the way).
However, dissension was built and got escalated even further when Cody unintentionally cost Randy Orton his WWE title win in Orton's match with Sheamus at the Royal Rumble due to an attack from Cody to Sheamus which the ref actually saw that spot, ending the match in a DQ.
Ted Dibaise Jr came out to calm Randy after he just attacked Cody but Randy did the predictable thing and punched Dibiase. So, essentially that's how this feud was formed. Now, on with the match.
Randy Orton started off with a dropkick to Dibaise Jr but thanks to Cody hitting Orton from behind, the entire first half of the match was all Rhodes and Dibaise Jr.
They then have a disagreement and both guys brawled on the outside. Orton nailed two quick scoop slams on both Rhodes and Dibaise Jr in a huge comeback which led to a punt kick to Cody Rhodes and an RKO to Dibaise Jr to win this match. A decent match. It told a simple story of one guy fighting two guys and a story like that should've been a handicap match but I’m just nitpicking.
The quote from Matt Striker "Perhaps a future Wrestlemania main event, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase", is extremely laughable given how they've been utilized by WWE since that line was uttered.
Cody Rhodes moved on from his Legacy days and became "Dashing" Cody Rhodes (WHOA!) while Ted Dibaise Jr had the possession of the million-dollar belt and feuded with Golddust over it which was just lame.
Kofi Kingston vs Christian vs Kane vs MVP vs Matt Hardy vs Jack Swagger vs Drew McIntyre vs Evan Bourne vs Shelton Benjamin In A Money In The Bank Ladder Match.
This match is historic in some aspects because this was the final Money In The Bank ladder match on the Wrestlemania show and that was before WWE made the announcement that there will be a solo Money In The Bank PPV.
I remember hating when they announced it and with Wrestlemania increasingly getting longer, I'm glad they made the decision to get rid of the Money In The Bank ladder match as a Wrestlemania tradition.
You would think that the final Wrestlemania Money In The Bank match ended with a kick a** of a match right?
Nah, it was okay. The highlight though was Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston. Bourne's best shooting star press from the ladder on Christian was superb and that camera shot made that spot better.
Swagger threw Matt Hardy on the ladder which if you're Matt, that spot was just a warm-up compared to the wild stuff he did in the past.
Kingston grabbed both broken ladders and tried to climb up top but a young Drew McIntyre, prevented that and pushed Kingston to the outside.
Both Christian and Jack Swagger exchanged some lefts and rights but Swagger pushed Christian on the mat, grabbing the briefcase and won the Money In The Bank ladder match.
Swagger cashed in on his future stablemate, Chris Jericho to win his first and only world heavyweight championship on Smackdown.
We then got the introduction of the 2010 Hall Of Fame Class which Bob Uecker's Hall Of Fame speech was an all-time great. That dude was absolutely hilarious.
Triple H vs Sheamus.
The video package for this feud like almost every other video promo package was great. You know what's also great? Hearing Sheamus coming out to "TOO MANY LIMES, TOO MANY LIMES". Triple H didn't have his usual fancy entrance for Wrestlemania which is odd.
This feud came about after Triple H pinned Sheamus in the Elimination Chamber match to which Sheamus brutally attacked Triple H after the game lost a tag team match with Shawn Michaels against Show-Miz.
Probably one of the shortest storylines builds on this show but I ain't complaining. I just wasn't invested in this feud but the match itself was actually good.
During the match, Triple H got out of Sheamus' rest hold into a back suplex. Another move that Triple H reserved was the Celtic cross or the Razor's edge after Sheamus countered Triple H's pedigree.
Speaking of pedigree, Sheamus carried Triple H but ate the pedigree from outta nowhere to defeat the Irish lad.
So, this feud continued till Extreme Rules when Sheamus takes the W and that ends Triple H as a full-time performer, preparing his behind the scenes role with the company which makes me feel a 1000 years ago just thinking about it.
CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio.
The Straight Edge Leader cuts a promo during his entrance on how drinking alcohol wouldn't save others and joining his nation will guarantee turn, someone, into the light you know, cult talk but actually right?
These two men have great chemistry in the ring and this was no exception. Mysterio took a roundhouse kick from CM Punk to which Punk covered him many times and Rey kicked every pinfall out.
The match concludes when Rey Mysterio hits the 619 on Punk and wins this match. Just like the Triple H and Sheamus feud, the bout is not over but the difference is that it lasted till the inaugural Over The Limit PPV which saw CM Punk rocking a bold thanks to Rey Mysterio in a hair vs SES pledge match.
The later matches were even better and by far, the highlight of Punk's Straight Edge Society run. It was indeed a shame that it led to a boring Big Show and the entire straight edge feud.
Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon In A No Holds Barred Match.
*Sigh* here we go with this match. I will say the story of Bret Hart forgiving the man he got screw from only for that man to kick him in the *sigh* grapefruits basically screwing Bret in the process was pretty good.
Vince McMahon came out and he brought some lumberjacks aka Bret's family along with the special guest referee, Bruce Hart to the ring.
The new name for this match is a no holds barred, lumberjack match which sounds more horrifying than any other Paranormal Activity movies. It turns out that the Hart family was on Bret's side all along.
The lumberjacks severely attacked Vince McMahon that led to Bret Hart himself attacking Vince over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Hart then finally applied the sharpshooter, tapping out Vince McMahon and won this bout.
I get it that it isn't the Bret Hart of old but this was a plain dull way to have the Hitman execute a wrestling match.
The commentators promoted next year's Wrestlemania aka the show that shall not be named. It doesn't exist in my world.
Chris Jericho vs Edge For The World Heavyweight Championship.
It is definitely weird to see Chris Jericho in a WWE setting again. It's probably the fact that I'm used to seeing Jericho in AEW so much but it is what it is.
Edge and Chris were once tag team champions but Edge got hurt so Chris moved on without him by forming Jerishow (love that tag team).
Edge then won the 2010 Rumble match and chose his former tag team partner as his Wrestlemania opponent. Another okay match in a night full of non-offensive matches.
Edge at one point, threw Chris Jericho on the turnbuckle area after he reversed the code breaker from Jericho which Edge looked like he wanted to check on Chris after that turnbuckle bump.
Chris failed a spear attempt and instead ate a boot from Edge but when Edge tried to hit the spear, Jericho countered that with the code-breaker (Edge kicked out of that one).
The champ took his title belt and struck Edge with it while the ref was unconscious and Chris pinned Edge but the Rated R Superstar kicked out. Jericho hits the final code-breaker to retain the world heavyweight championship.
After the match, Chris Jericho took a spear from Edge through the barricade that could destroy your ribs.
I wasn't a fan of the ending but now witnessing the feud once again, the ending made sense given how personal the feud became.
The title was a distraction and having the title being out the picture via a cash-in by Jack Swagger was the right move.
Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James And Kelly Kelly vs Maryse, Vickie Guererro, Alicia Fox, Michelle McCool And Layla.
Whenever a Divas match is on the air, people would waste no time to enter the bathroom.Man, how women's wrestling in WWE has changed in a decade. The heel team won with a splash from Vickie to Kelly Kelly.
John Cena vs Batista For The WWE Championship.
Hell yea. I'm going to write about one of my favourite heel runs of all time even though it was short as hell similar to the Rock's Hollywood gimmick and how it was also short but to be fair, both runs were longer than each Sasha Banks' women's championship reign.
Vince McMahon showed up after John Cena's WWE title Elimination Chamber match win and Batista was brought up by the owner of WWE to defeat a beat up John Cena and capture the WWE championship which that's exactly what happened.
A beat by beat the same spot regarding how Edge captured the title from an exhausted John Cena after Cena successfully retained the title in an Elimination Chamber match but I don't mind it.
The Animal pulled out a rare submission move with a sleeper hold on John Cena but Cena somehow got out of it.
Cena was about to successfully nail the five knuckle shuffle but Batista immediately delivered the spinebuster.
John hits the top rope five knuckle shuffle on Batista which looked cool. Both men then hit their respective finishers and they still survived the encounter.
Batista delivered the second spinebuster reversing the Cena leg drop from the top rope. The Animal wanted to nail the Batista bomb, however, John locked in the STF and made Batista tap out to win his title reign.
An awesome match and their matches after this were fun too but after that feud, it is the last time we get to see the Animal until 2014 aka the worst time for any big return in the middle of Daniel Bryan's yes movement. Felt so sorry for Dave there.
The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels. Career vs Streak.
Here. We. F'ing. Go. The match that I prefer over the Wrestlemania 25 bout. The match that had the best storyline than the Wrestlemania 25 one and I'm going to briefly describe it.
Shawn Michaels' reason why he challenged The Undertaker for a Wrestlemania again is this, he was close to ending the Deadman's undefeated streak.
He tried to win the Royal Rumble match and challenge Taker for his world title belt but it failed so he showed up inside Taker's world title defence at Elimination Chamber and cost him the belt by hitting him with the sweet chin music.
Jim Ross was supposed to be the special guest commentator for this match. However, according to reports, Vince McMahon shot it down because JR wasn't a full-time commentator, McMahon instead wanted to highlight the current full-time commentators like Micheal Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker. He was in the building so that's something. On a side note, both Taker and Shawn requested Vince for JR to call this match.
I'm gonna keep the descriptions or the highlights of the match minimal as this review is already as long as it needed to be. The Undertaker starts off this epic match with some quick moves like the Snake eyes into the big boot.
One of the main highlights of this match was when The Undertaker delivered the tombstone piledriver to Shawn on the outside floor. Another highlight and by far, the memorable one was when Micheals delivered the moonsault on Undertaker through the announce table.
After a few tombstone piledriver Michaels took from the Deadman, Undertaker nailed the final one to retain his streak as well as ending Shawn Michaels' long and detailed career. Like I said, it was a great match. A story that didn't need a sequel yet it surpassed the first one like most movie trilogies.
Like: The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels (duh?), John Cena vs Batista, CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio, Triple H vs Sheamus.
Didn't like: Miz and Big Show vs R Truth And John Morrison, would've liked for the Randy Orton vs Ted Dibaise Jr vs Cody Rhodes to be instead Orton vs Ted and Cody, the Divas tag match, Bret vs Vince.
The question is, what do you think about Wrestlemania 26? Put any of your thoughts in the comments below and follow me on twitter @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay home and take care of yourselves.
Comments
Post a Comment