Wrestlemania 25 Review and Afterthoughts

[RIPSeanTaylor21]

HEY GUYS,


JUST WANTED TO GET EVERYBODY'S OPINION ON WRESTLEMANIA 25 and what you thought about the ppv (whomever watched it)

I thought it was good but not the best, the two main events didn't get the crowd's attention, but THE BEST MATCH hands down, went to Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels...Classic....Legendary...I can't believe i was there to see it. Anybody notice Rey Mysterio's Joker Outfit? Steve Austin once again? Tell me how ya feel!

I would appreciate your reviews and comments.

[dvd_mazter]

I watched it with a few of my friends and we all kinda agreed that it was decent but nothing stellar. Some of the matches were definitely Wrestlemania quality like HBK vs. Taker which was totally epic & the money in the bank match was quite good despite a couple of botched moves. Unfortunately Orton vs. HHH was a complete bore and felt like a Raw main event, not WM. Plus Kid Rock was terrible and the Divas match was ruined by the horrible commentary, I mean you could see it was Satino right away but they keep acting like they don't know who that mystery diva was. So stupid!

Scores:
Money in the Bank: 4 / 5
Diva's rumble: 0 / 5 (Kid Rock gets a negative 2)
IC JBL vs. Rey: Not really a match but still cool to see Mysterio dress like Joker and beat JBL so quickly.
Bro vs. Bro: 4 / 5 (Some cool spots, that twist of fate in the chair was ridiculously awesome)
Y2J vs. Legends: 3 / 5 (somewhat entertaining, we were kinda shocked how in shape Streamboat was. Rourke punching Jerchio was great)
HBK vs. Taker: 5 / 5 (Just like last year, HBK is involved in the best match. Wicked spots in this one; Taker's dive was crazy, he like missed it and almost broke his neck. The ending was perfectly done, I jumped out of my seat when HBK kicked out of the first tombstone. I was routing for HBK but I love Taker too and it's great to see the streak continue.)
Cena vs. Show vs. Edge: 3.5 / 5 (Not a bad triple threat match, nothing close to WMXX but still had some good stuff. I'm not a fan of Cena but him walking away with the title seemed like what would happen.)
HHH vs. Orton: 2.5 / 5 (Boring, these guys have fought each other some much that really there is nothing new to be scene. The ending was dissapointing, Hammered while ref was down. We were really hoping that the match would be a street fight or something but it was not to be.)

Anyways, overall, WM 25 wasn't as good as last year's but I still enjoyed it and most of the matches were decent (Cena/Edge/Show) - amazing (HBK/Taker). I will definitely pick it up when it comes to Blu.

[Mike53421]

Went out to a bar for dinner and drinks yesterday evening hoping to catch it but missed it, however, got home around 11:30pm EST and was able to catch the encore online. Money in the Bank was cool, despite the supposed botchery I only saw the replay of the Unprettier and maybe it was the small screen but it looked cool. I thought for a second that Christian or Kane were going to win, odd.

Jericho looked better than expected over the legends, considering the circumstances and the potential to bury Jericho's character it went as well as hoped I think.

Did they really credit Matt Hardy with burning down Jeff's home and killing his dog in the process? I don't watch Smackdown but saw the video beforehand and was just... shocked. Cool match though, liked the final spot with the Twist of Fate.

JBL could have at least gone out with a little more pride than quitting, but oh well.

Then I went to bed, caught a YouTube video of the Taker/HBK match and may have to catch that some point this week because it sounds solid. The kicking out of finishers was well done, HBK kicking out of the Tombstone had a huge shock factor to it, unfortunately the clip I was watching had "Undertaker wins, 17-0" in the title so, no suspense for me.

The rest seemed ordinary (after that), and maybe it's cause I was on MSN with the show on in the background but I didn't mind Kid Rock. Santina was funny.

[hc666]

Never saw it this year, first time i missed in years... because its the same thing over and over... no change anymore! Triple H vs Orton... Zzzzzzzzzz

But anyway glad to hear the HBK match was awesome, he truly is the show stopper! They would be nothing without him it seems.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

I thought that 'Mania this year was just disappointing. The Trips/Orton match wasn't as good as the build up turned out to be, plus it was just your typical Trips beatdown for the last half of the match.

Despite my criticisim on him, I thought JC actually did okay in the triple threat. He actually sold properly this time around unlike many other times. Still wish Edge won.

MITB: They shouldn't have let CM Punk win it again. This is like the 2nd year running. And this isn't like when Edge won it, because when Edge won it the second time, it was because Mr Kennedy got injured or suspended (I can't remember which it was).

Matt/Jeff match was ok at best but I thought it ended a bit too soon. They could have let it go on for another 5 minutes.

The diva battle royal: Seriously...was it that hard for the announcers to relise that it was just Santino in drag?

The legends match: I pretty much almost dozed off during this match, although Steamboat has still got it.

JBL/Mysterio was a dud. It was probably only an excuse because I heard that he's having back problems again and is probably going back to commentry due to Tazz leaving WWE.

The Taker/HBK match was defenatly the best of the night. It started off slow but in the last 15 minutes, it got really exciting and intense. I mean Michaels kicking out of the last ride and the first tombstone was just crazy, as is with Taker kicking out of 2 superkicks (well, I think it was 2).

Overall: 6/10

This 'Mania just didn't live up the suprises of last years one. If this was supposed to be the 25th anniversery of WrestleMania, WWE should have made it like one.

[JamesKurtovich]

Haven't seen WWE for a while.. but this sounds cool. Maybe I'll get it on DVD/Blu-ray. Speaking of which, anyone know if the Wrestlemania Anthology series is coming out on Blu?

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

Haven't seen WWE for a while.. but this sounds cool. Maybe I'll get it on DVD/Blu-ray. Speaking of which, anyone know if the Wrestlemania Anthology series is coming out on Blu?

I don't really know. All of the WreslteMania's up until XXIV were recorded on standard def. So far, 'Mania XXIV is the only one released on BD.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

Haven't seen WWE for a while.. but this sounds cool. Maybe I'll get it on DVD/Blu-ray.

I'll get the Blu for the Hall Of Fame ceremony.

As for the event, the Taker/HBK match was the only one I really liked.

[dvd_mazter]

Originally Posted by Mike53421

Went out to a bar for dinner and drinks yesterday evening hoping to catch it but missed it, however, got home around 11:30pm EST and was able to catch the encore online. Money in the Bank was cool, despite the supposed botchery I only saw the replay of the Unprettier and maybe it was the small screen but it looked cool. I thought for a second that Christian or Kane were going to win, odd.

Jericho looked better than expected over the legends, considering the circumstances and the potential to bury Jericho's character it went as well as hoped I think.

Did they really credit Matt Hardy with burning down Jeff's home and killing his dog in the process? I don't watch Smackdown but saw the video beforehand and was just... shocked. Cool match though, liked the final spot with the Twist of Fate.

JBL could have at least gone out with a little more pride than quitting, but oh well.

Then I went to bed, caught a YouTube video of the Taker/HBK match and may have to catch that some point this week because it sounds solid. The kicking out of finishers was well done, HBK kicking out of the Tombstone had a huge shock factor to it, unfortunately the clip I was watching had "Undertaker wins, 17-0" in the title so, no suspense for me.

The rest seemed ordinary (after that), and maybe it's cause I was on MSN with the show on in the background but I didn't mind Kid Rock. Santina was funny.

Ya, that was one of the botched movies in the match (CM Punk jumped too high for the unprettier so his head never hit the mat). The other we saw was MVP went for a rolling powerbomb from the ladder but he slipped before he could get it off. So he just did a regular powerbomb (although he did throw the guy outside). The other move wasn't really botched, just sloppy. Bejammin doing the swanton from the top of the ladder into the crowd of 7 guys but nobody caught him, so he landed square on his back. We thought he was badly injured but thankfully he was okay.

Still even with those, the match was still really good. I was shocked that Henry could climb the ladder without it breaking, must have re-inforced them this year

And the HBK vs. Taker match was incredible, classic wrestling . Again, I was completely shocked that HBK kicked out of the first tombstone because nobody kicks out especially at Wrestlemania

[PCiAM]

HBK always steals the show with his Wrestlemania matches ever since the Wrestlemania X ladder match between him and Razor Ramon.

As for the rest, well, bleh. Word on the street is that Triple HHH refuses to job lately. He's so overrated. But I guess sleeping with Vince's daughter gets you those benefits.

[Agent Bond]

This was easily the worst Wrestlamania since 2000. I will admit the rest of the card paid off, but not enough to justify a $55 purchase so I am thankful I watched it at the sports bar.

- Best Money In The Bank match since the original, you could argue it even surpassed it. Too bad it seemed like everybody had to be sloppy and botch a spot or two. Its really cool CM Punk won again making him the first guy to win MITB back to back although I wish Kennedy would've done that last year.

- I didn't mind Kid Rock performing, but he was out there for like 20 minutes, resulting in the tag title match being removed from the card. People were there to see wrestling and they take a hyped match away to have an needless extended concert. Really? Really!?

- Jericho Vs. the Legends was better than I thought, but only because of Steamboat. Snuka and Piper were dead weight for the match, it should've just been Chris Vs. Ricky or have better legends involved in the match like Sgt. Slaughter or Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I gotta give to it to The Dragon though, to come out of retirement and end his career properly following his HOF induction putting over Jericho who became a wrestler because of Ricky was totally awesome and brought things full circle (ala Flair / Michaels). Also, it was cool to see Mickey get involved to contribute to the Wrestlemania Recall collection, I'm just glad Jericho finally won a match at Wrestlemania.

- Poor JBL. I knew he was going to do something historic with him planning to retire as the IC Champion, but instead Rey defeated him in 21 seconds in TX. That blows. Rey winning the IC title was cool, but they should've at least had a 5 to 10 minute match. I didn't realize Rey was the Joker at first, I thought he was a ****ed up looking Doink The Clown. I'm going to miss JBL. His return run was okay, I mean he did get a couple of title shots as well becoming IC Champion, I just wish he would've been the world champion just one more time. Thanks for everthing, Bradshaw!

- Hardy / Hardy was cool. Face it, we all knew even back then it was going to come to this. Jeff Hardy almost breaking his ass into with the missed Leg Drop off the ladder = OUCH!. I'm just glad Version 1 finally proved to the world who the better brother was.

- Undertaker / Michaels is already MOTY. I don't think anybody else is going to even come close. My sportsbar went nuts for this match as they were easily split. I did love how HBK was dressed in white coming down from the sky while Undertaker was in black coming up from the ground. Cool shit right there, no druids needed either. That plancha was scary, I mean how could the "camera man" **** up trying to catch the guy? Worse than most baseball players if you ask me. My favorite part was Undertaker catching Michaels out of the skin the cat into the Tombstone, but of course the moonsault was just as cool. I'm just glad Undertaker finally kicked Michaels like should've done 12 years ago. No DX or Kane to save HBK's ass this time. A 30 minute classic match indeed.

- Cena / Edge / Show: the match was what it was. I already knew Cena was winning after I watched the buildup video. His Chaing Gang entrance was great (Word Life!), my favorite since the Ford Mustang Fast and The Furious entrance in Detroit. I loved how Cena FUed Edge onto Big Show after he got FUed. The best part was my buddy whose a big Cena fan went to the front of the sports bar as soon as Cena won and did the "You Can't See Me!" hand gesture to piss off all the Cena haters that were there.

- I was really surprised Austin had no involvement with any of the Wrestlemania matches whatsoever. It was cool he got the sendoff that he did, but I wish he would've at least stunned Jericho or McMahon for good measure just one more time.

- RKO / HHH was the most anticlimatic world title match since JBL / Cena. Yeah, it was back and forth, but they've had better matches in the past. The fact there were no run-ins by any of McMahons OR Legacy, no blading, no swerves, no nothing made the main event very underwhelming. Oh yeah, and of course Triple H "had" to go over. Give me a break! I don't care what anybody says, Randy Orton should've won whether The Legacy helped him or not. They better have next year's Royal Rumble winners win the ****ing title at Wrestlemania otherwise winning the Royal Rumble is going to be irrelevant. Some people say Wrestlemania 25 was a good / decent show, but as far as I'm concerned, Helmsley defeating Orton ruined it. Its like watching a good movie with a shitty ending, all you remember is the shitty ending.



So basically, If Christian won MITB, Colons vs. Miz and Morrison (with M&M winning) replaced Kid Rock, the Divas got a proper entrance with an actual Diva winning (Why the **** was Santino Marella in the match to begin with?), JBL / Mysterio went longer, and Orton winning the God damn title like he should've, this would've been one of the best Wrestlemanias ever instead of being disappointing.