I planned on making this a Wrestlemania, Raw column, however I was so unhappy with Raw, and since there were only a few segments and that I liked, I think I will just forget about Raw and go right to my thoughts on Wrestlemania. What were the few exceptions that I liked on Raw? I’m glad you asked. I liked the opener with Shawn Michaels giving one his strongest promo’s ever when he confronted John Cena. And while I could do without HBK and Cena defending their tag team titles with some of the tag teams that were thrown out there, I am thrilled that Cena and Michaels are no longer the tag team champs. I thought their title reign should have come to an end a long time ago. So giving the Hardy’s the titles made me very happy, although I would prefer to see Jeff on his own. I also liked the WGTT vs. Flair and Carlito. That was a solid match. Vince running around at the end trying to escape Lashley was funny. Vince looked like a cartoon character without his hair. That segment ended up on a very humorous note when he hid under Lillian Garcia’s skirt. So those were my Raw highlights of the night.
But on the other hand, Wrestlemania was full of highlights for me. In fact the only match that stunk was Ashley vs. Melina. I’m glad it was kept as short as it was. So with this match being the worst of the show the rest was all very good. First I want to say I only missed one of my predictions. I went with the New Breed and we all know that they lost. I don’t remember the last time I did so well, that’s how long ago it was. Now if I can only do it again for Backlash. Okay now let me tell you my very positive thoughts about Wrestlemania. I might be just a tad prejudice but I think last years Money In The Bank Match was better, BUT this years match was very good, VERY GOOD. I loved it and thought it was a smart move to make this the opening match.
I thought everyone did a great job, and after reading that Edge broke his jaw in two places months ago, I really liked how they got him out of the match with Jeff Hardy jumping off the ladder and leg dropping Edge while he laid on top of another ladder. It was a brutal move and so effective. I also loved Hornswoggle coming out; oh by the way did you see the crowd reaction when he popped up? They loved him and I loved how he tried so hard to climb the ladder and reach the briefcase for Finlay who was down on the mat. And being the bully that Hornswoggle is he tried his hardest to get that briefcase and punched Mr. Kennedy…..Kennedy. And Kennedy responded with one hell of a move, he picked up the Little Bastard and did this COOL flip off the ladder onto the mat. My husband thought the little guy might be seriously hurt, but he seemed okay. Man the action here was great; and I was really glad that CM Punk and Kennedy were the last two going at it. It made me feel good that they made Punk look so strong out there. The Kennedy win did not surprise me and either did the match. It was just as fantastic as I thought it would be.
Kane vs. Khali came off well. I thought these two worked very well together and my only complaint was how the match kind of ended abruptly with Khali choke-slamming Kane for the win. For some reason with all the brawling they did the ending seemed to happen a little too fast for me. But as I said I liked the match. The whole backstage dance skit with Cryme Tyme. Eugene Extreme Expose. The Fabulous Moolah. Mae Young, Slick, Dusty Rhodes, Slaughter, Jimmy Hart, IRS, Pat Patterson, Gerald Briscoe, Mean Gene Okerlund, Howard Finkel and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was nice. It brought in so many of the older stars and I got a kick out of Moolah and Mae Young dressed just like Extreme Expose. I never have a problem admitting when I’m wrong and I was so wrong about MVP. MVP showed me a lot Sunday in his match against Chris Benoit. This was a very good match not only because of Benoit but because of MVP. I didn’t know the guy had it in him and I was surprised by how well those two worked together. I wish the crowd response would have been a lot better; they were a little too quiet for me.
I got a kick out of the Donald Trump, Boogeyman segment. I have missed the Boogeyman’s signing for a long time. When he sings he does it in such a creepy way that it fits his character so well. And Trump handled all of this like he runs across someone like the Boogeyman every day. I just thought this was a fun segment. My match of the night and believe me it wasn’t hard for me to pick this one was Undertaker vs. Batista. These two guys worked their asses off from beginning to the end. And you add the Detroit crowd and I saw an almost flawless match. Taker worked like a guy in his 30’s and maybe now Batista’s critics will see that Batista can work a very solid match. I loved this match and never once did I feel bored by it. These two guys just kept things exciting the whole time. And I use this a lot but, Taker’s win was icing on the cake. I really would have hated to see his Wrestlemania streak broken.
Another match that really shocked me and I mean in a good way was the New Breed vs. The Originals. I really didn’t see the Originals, Rvd, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, and The Sandman beating Kevin Thorn, Elijah Burke, Matt Striker and Monty Brown, yes to me he’s Monty Brown, not Marcus whatever. This was a match that I wish would have been longer but at least it came off so well. By the way they had a rematch last night on ECW and it was even better and much more extreme than Sunday’s match. This is another match that gave me so much more than I expected. As far as the Lashley vs. Umaga Hair vs. Hair match goes, while it wasn’t my favorite match, it wasn’t a match I despised thanks to Steve Austin being in there. Just Austin’s presence in the ring was enough to make this fun to watch. I never imagined that Austin would fall to Umaga and when he made it back in and got even that’s when I really got into this one. Austin in my books was the star of the match and as I said that’s why I liked what I was watching.
Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena was a good match, but not my match of the night. I thought it was done well. HBK killed himself out there. I had a problem throughout the match with Cena under selling the “injuries” that he endured from Michaels. I am not saying Cena was lousy in the match because he wasn’t but to me Cena was Cena like he is in most of his matches. This match belonged to Shawn and yes Cena’s win really depressed me. I might have praised this match if Cena lost, but the win just brought me right down. This almost two year reign and his three in a row Wrestlemania wins is just too much for me. It would have been so cool to have not only Taker win but Michaels as well. But as you can see I loved the show and I also thought that the Hall Of Fame was just excellent.
I watched the first part on WWE.com and then later in the evening I finished it on the USA network. This was another very classy show and the star of this one without a doubt had to be Dusty Rhodes. The man can move, I just loved his dancing and I thought his speech was great. I thought it was so great of him putting over other stars and of course what touched me was what he said about missing Triple H at Wrestlemania. Seeing a very emotional Hunter and the crowd chanting his name made me feel so good. I also heard from my friends that were there that the standing ovation lasted for a long time, but was edited out for TV. So again that just touches me so much. Every inductee gave a great acceptance speech and it’s always nice to hear from Bobby Heenan. I know I will buy the Wrestlemania DVD when it’s released mainly because I would like to watch the complete ceremony.
What a great Wrestlemania and I can’t wait until Wrestlemania 24 in Orlando, Florida. I want to thank you all for sending me your predictions. And Todd and John thank you for giving me first hand information all weekend long. And to my friend Fiona I wish I could have been there with you again this year but thank you so much for keeping in touch with me. Here in Chicago Smackdown won’t be on until Saturday because of baseball, and with Sunday being Easter I won’t be around. I will be back in a week with Raw thoughts and anything else that pops up between now and then.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
