Pro Wrestling Power

Did it live up to the hype, or the potential it had on paper? No, not really. But Wrestlemania 26 was a good show. Not great, just good. Right off the bat, if I had to rank it with all the others, 1 through 26, I’d probably put it somewhere in the 11-15 range.

One thing that really hurt this year’s show, and I can’t emphasize this enough, was the pathetic, silent Phoenix crowd. To everyone that went to Wrestlemania in Phoenix, I have a question for you. Why did you even go? Seriously, if you aren’t really into the product and you don’t care about virtually anything that’s happening in front of you, then why even bother wasting your money and time? Granted, there were some boring moments and letdowns, like almost any year, but this had to be one of the worst wrestling crowds I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years as a fan. Hopefully, Vince doesn’t bring Wrestlemania back there for a long time. Even Atlanta, which is infamous for having some of the worst and most indifferent sports fans in the country, should be way more fired up for next year’s show than the quiet Phoenix crowd.

But as far as the actual quality of the show goes, terrible crowd aside, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. The major problem was that, much like last year, Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker not only stole the show, but pretty much carried it. At least this year they made the right move and had it be the last match, but I still fear for the future of this company when most of their best talent is currently anywhere from 39-45 years old.

The dark match 26 man battle royal had just about everyone on the roster who didn’t have a match at mania, except for Ezekiel Jackson for some odd reason, and I think they got it right by having Yoshi Tatsu get the win. This guy should have a pretty decent future as an upper mid carder in the WWE.

Now, the setting and atmosphere of the stadium, including the fireworks that went off throughout, were fantastic. It’s just too bad the crowd didn’t add anything to the equation. I still don’t understand those so called wrestling fans. This isn’t Sunday night Heat people, it’s freakin Wrestlemania!

Anyway, the opening tag team title match was decent but too short and had a bad ending. I don’t like the knockout punch as a finisher, especially when Big Show had such an awesome finisher in the chokeslam. Both R-Truth and John Morrison need to move on already and start to take off in their singles careers, especially Morrison. The Miz is ready right now to be a main event singles star. It’s just a matter of time before he and Show go their separate ways and he’s headlining a pay per view vs. a main event face.

For a feud that seemed to fall flat several times in the past few months, Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted Dibiase Jr. was surprisingly good. The latter two really are going to be a big part of the future of the company, while Orton proved that he is still the future number one guy in the WWE, either as a face or a heel. And judging from last night, he is going to be a full fledged face. I’d like to see him back in the title picture soon.

The Money in the Bank match is getting a lot of criticism. Sure it wasn’t the best one ever by a long shot, but it was decent and had some nice spots. It’s matches like this one and the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon match that really show how not allowing guys to bleed can hurt the performance. But overall I enjoyed it. I, along with almost everyone else, was shocked to see Jack Swagger win it. I just don’t see this guy as a championship contender yet, if ever. But hopefully I’m wrong and he develops his character and skills to the point where it’s believable when he decides to cash it in. It really didn’t take away too much from the match that he had trouble getting the briefcase unhooked. Some people on the Internet just love to nitpick every little thing. This match definitely helped Wrestlemania 26 a lot more than it hurt it.

Even more surprising, to me at least, was that you could say the same thing about Triple H vs. Sheamus. When I watched this match live I wasn’t initially too impressed. I also thought that maybe Triple H should have jobbed here to lift Sheamus to a more credible status in the company. But I watched a little bit of the PPV replay later on last night, and I watched this match closely. I’ll tell ya what, this was a very solid power wrestling match. You gotta give it to both of these guys, they really delivered. And Sheamus did look strong. He looked like he had Triple H in trouble. But on second thought, it’s good to see Triple H win and stay in the title hunt for at least another year, and Sheamus is not likely going to be flushed down to being a career mid carder. Quite the contrary, he looks like a mainstay top player in the industry for the next 10 years if continues to work at it.

CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio was kind of disappointing from a work rate standpoint. I was expecting a lot more, and a much longer match from these two. But they had to work with what time allotment was given to them, and they did ok considering that. I think Punk should have went over, but what do I know. Maybe they felt that for this feud to continue and for the storyline they have written, it would be better for Rey to get the initial advantage in the feud. I could see Punk winning at the next PPV or on an episode of Smackdown and then an eventual showdown with hair vs. mask on the line. As long as Mysterio is healthy, we could be seeing much better work out of these two over the course of the next few months.

I have to call a spade a spade: the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon match was not good. As one of my friends pointed out, it looked like this match was in slow motion. And indeed it was. That’s what happens when you put a jakked up 64 year old CEO againt a 52 year old stroke victim, no matter what their past performance may indicate. Really though, if you’re like me, you knew not to expect anything too great from this one going in, if you really thought about the age and physical condition of both men. And to that end, you couldn’t have been that disappointed. As the brilliant songwriter Nick Hexum once said, “You can’t be let down if you don’t expect the world.” And I didn’t expect a classic Hitman match, but it was still kind of hard to watch. It did, however, seem like a necessary conclusion to a real life feud that has gone on for the past 13 years. I liked the element of having the Hart family ringside, but they should have waited until the climax of the match to have them all turn against Vince, especially Bruce, who was the guest referee. Oh well, now everyone involved in the Montreal screwjob can move on and they can finally put this storyline to bed.

I thought Edge vs. Chris Jericho was the second best match of the night, but still not quite what I hoped it would be. I don’t know if Edge will ever be the same after his injury. He was solid here though, and Jericho was very good. I like the decision to have Jericho retain. Hopefully they can keep this feud going and have some better matches down the road, while turning the focus of the feud away from the spear and into something that will, you know, get people to care. Perhaps turning the focus to that big, shiny gold world championship belt could take this angle to the next level? It’s just a hunch.

Here’s my new policy on women’s wrestling matches anymore: I will try as hard as I can to sum up my reaction to a match or angle in one sentence, or at least in as little time as possible. So here’s my comment for the Divas tag match: The match sucked hard and Vickie Guerrero is hideous.

John Cena vs. Batista surprisingly exceeded expectations. I hate the fact that Cena won, but I really don’t like Batista with the belt either, although he is much more tolerable as the cocky heel than his previous persona. But hats off to these guys. I predicted that they’d at least try hard and give it everything they had, and they did. The result was much like the Triple H vs. Sheamus match: A solid power wrestling match with good twists and turns and a decent ending, although the wrong guy might have won. The things I liked most about this match though were that it didn’t go on last and Cena’s smiling with the title next to the group of guys wearing “We hate Cena” t-shirts. Classic. I almost like him now because of that. But not really.

Finally we come to the match that once again made this Wrestlemania and should go down in history, along with last year’s encounter, as one of the top 10 pro wrestling matches ever. It was that good. Don’t let your eyes deceive you into thinking that the Wrestlemania 25 match was much better. It might have been slightly better, but this one was also ridiculously awesome and very deserving of being the last match main event, especially when you consider the stipulation of career vs. streak.

Shawn Michaels is the freakin man. Not that Undertaker isn’t, but dear lord, that moonsault from the top rope through the announce table was a “Wrestlemania moment” if I ever saw one. At almost 45 years old, the guy is still a phenomenal athlete and performer.

But it wasn’t just that one move. The whole match, from both guys, was a display of awesome execution, great counters and the most important aspect of any great modern wrestling match, kicking out of finishers. You could say that was overdone, but you’d be wrong. They did as much as they could to top last year and by God they just might have. If they didn’t they came pretty damn close, and what more could you ask for?

I was happy in a way to see the streak continue but I was slightly pulling for Michaels to win the match. But I really didn’t care who won, because in the end, as corny as it sounds, it was the fans who won. Well, at least the fans watching around the world on PPV won. The Phoenix crowd of 72,219 sounded like a crowd of 2,000 at a golf match. They were relatively quiet even throughout this epic display of awesomeness, and inexplicably for the post match events, with Michaels reflecting on his 25 year hall of fame career. Oh well, lesson learned I guess. Phoenix doesn’t have passionate wrestling fans. But Michaels and Undertaker were the epitome of passion last night. The kind of passion that the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase spoke of Saturday night at the hall of fame induction ceremony. The kind of passion that is seemingly lacking from many of today’s younger superstars, or at least the writing crew behind the scenes. Any way you look at it though, this was a classic match, one for the ages that will never be forgotten, and one that ended a feud that will go down as one of the best ever.

As for the show on a whole, like I said, it was good but not great. I think about a 3 or 3.5 star rating is appropriate. It was significantly better than Wrestlemania 25, but that’s barely a compliment. Michaels vs. Taker saved the day once again, but this time they had a little bit better supporting cast. You now have to wonder about the future of this company and whether the guys in their 20′s and early 30′s can carry the WWE into the new decade. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and even Vince McMahon are likely done as in ring competitors. Undertaker’s retirement isn’t far off either. Triple H, Chris Jericho, Edge, Batista and several others might be nearing the end of their careers and the replacements don’t look like they’re near ready to carry the ball. Let’s hope the progression of guys like Miz, Morrison, Dibiase and Rhodes starts to speed up over the course of this year, or Wrestlemania 27 might really be a disaster. But that’s much too far away to worry about now, and most times Vince ends up pulling things together just when you think everything looks bleak, so I’ll trust him on the development of the younger stars.

Wrestlemania 26 might not have occurred during a “boom” period, had a whole lot of celebrity star power or even a slew of 4 and 5 star matches, but for what it was, it was a good show, and in some ways it does set up the next few months in the WWE rather well. And even if this wasn’t Shawn Michaels’ last match, this Wrestlemania will go down in history, like last year’s, as having one of the best wrestling matches of all time on its card, between two of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.