Welcome to the "only time that a Batista/Big Show main event has been entertaining is when the Hammerstein Ballroom was chanting ‘change the channel’" edition of The Wrestling List. All three titles changed hands at Backlash and I’m happy with every one of them.
New champions all around at Backlash last night. I'm all for every one of them too. Sounds like this was a good show. The show opened with Christian defeating Jack Swagger to win the ECW title after hitting the killswitch for the pinfall. The segment that followed had Christian and Edge running into each other in the hallway. Edge talked of how Christian was maybe thinking that he was better than everyone cause he was a champion while Christian told him that he had become crazy. Edge blamed that on Cena and said he would take care of that tonight. Nice to see them being put in a segment together. Next was Chris Jericho defeating Ricky The Dragon Steamboat with the walls of Jericho to win the match by submission. Steamboat got a big ovation afterwards. Kane defeated CM Punk following a chokeslam for the win. The next match was the I Quit match between Jeff and Matt Hardy. Would Jeff get a win on Matt or would it be 3-0 for Matt in this series of matches? Jeff duct taped Matt to the table in the ring where he couldn't move and also tied him with a rope. As Jeff climbed the ladder to jump on to Matt, Matt started pleading with Jeff not to do it saying how he was sorry and how their parents wouldn't want Jeff to do this. Jeff continued to stand on the ladder and Matt said I Quit to end the match. Jeff then moved from the ladder to the top rope doing his leapfrog over the ladder legdrop on to Matt on the table. The WWE title was on the line as Triple H, Batista, and Shane took on Legacy. If Legacy won, Orton would be the new champion. The finish had Cody nailing Shane with a chair as the ref didn't see it. Batista grabbed the chair from Cody but Triple H went to Batista and grabbed the chair from him. A DQ would cost Triple H the title. Dibiase took out Batista and then Orton hit a RKO on Triple H. Orton then followed with the head kick to get the pinfall and win the WWE championship. Closing the show was the World title last man standing match with John Cena defending against Edge. Cena and Edge ended up on the stage area with Cena picking up Edge for the adjustor. Big Show ran out and grabbed Cena. Show then chokeslammed Cena off of thes tage into a spotlight which had the exploding effect going on. Cena was then counted out with the ten count and Edge is your new World champion.
Tonight’s Raw opened with the new WWE Champion Randy Orton’s entrance taking his theme song through one run and nearly half of another. I was fine with it cause I love the song!! Volume up. Ha ha. He was introduced by Vickie Guerrero. Orton bragged about how the McMahons must be in mourning today cause their last hope had fallen. Vickie then announced that Batista would face Big Show tonight with the winner facing Orton at Judgment Day. Orton said that he would be demanding respect from the locker room and that they would all end up like Triple H if he didn’t get it. US Champion MVP made his way on to the stage and egged on Orton. Dibiase and Rhodes asked Orton if they could just take out MVP to stop his trash talking. Orton finally just whispered to Vickie and she announced that it would be Orton vs. MVP tonight on Raw. The match took place and was a competitive one. The match stopped when Shane McMahon arrived and wore out Orton with a kendo stick. Priceless ran out with chairs and Shane took off through the crowd. Shane then stood atop the lower level to stare down Orton. It provided for a cool shot with the fans cheering on Shane. Vickie later announced that Orton would face Shane next week on Raw. Ehhhhh. Not crazy about that one as I’m getting tired of the Orton/McMahons feud. The main event had Batista taking on Big Show. Yeah, I barely paid attention to it as their matches against each other about knock me out asleep every time. The finish had John Cena stumbling on to the stage. Show went into the aisle paying attention to Cena. Show got distracted and didn’t beat the count back in as he was running back to the ring. Show then got hit by a spear from Batista after the bell. Show and Cena stared each other down afterwards. Other action had Kofi Kingston defeating The Brian Kendrick in a fast paced match. Santina, Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, and Brie Bella defeated the team of Beth, Rosa, Maryse, and Jillian. Beth and Santina started the match but Santina quickly got away from her. Brie crawled under the ring and then both Bellas looked out at the heels. Hornswoggle then appeared as well. He chased Rosa around. Maryse and Beth tried to grab him under the ring but he used a fire extinguisher on them. A distracted Jillian was then rolled up from behind by Santina who won the match. Matt Hardy walked to the ring with his hand in a cast saying that he had never quit in anything in his life. He said that the only reason that he quit was because his hand had been broken. He talked of how he had no option last night and no option tonight cause he was being forced to wrestle. He said that he would wrestle tonight but under protest. His opponent was Goldust. He ended up nailing Goldust in the back of the head with the cast and won the match. The Colons defeated the team of Chavo Guerrero and Jamie Noble when Carlito hit the backstabber on Noble for the win. The Miz did a promo where he bragged about his status in Hollywood and then challenged Cena to a match. Cena never showed and Miz claimed a forfeit victory. At this point in the show, Cena wasn’t expected on it and he didn’t arrive until the end of it.
Other notes from Raw. Like I said, I’m just really ehhhhh to Orton and the McMahons feud continuing. Getting kind of tired of it and was hoping we had seen the end of it. When the lights were out and Lillian announced “the new general manager of Raw”, I thought for a moment that WWE had already changed plans and replaced Vickie. How come Kelly Kelly rarely gets in ring time anymore? Did you hear the pop for Mickie James tonight??!! Good stuff. Any chance of this Santina gimmick ending anytime soon? I’m afraid that WWE is going to keep using it and make the women’s division more of a comedy act instead of the women chasing Maryse. Goldust on Raw??!! Just strange when they suddenly bring someone out like that.
WWE advertised that a scramble match will take place on this week’s Smackdown which will be in Madison Square Garden. It will be Jeff Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho vs. John Morrison vs. The Great Khali. The winner will be the number one contender to Edge’s WWE championship.
Tazz is now on Facebook and posted comments about his leaving WWE. You can check it out at this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Human-Suplex-Machine-Taz/87912513335?ref=ts
Ric Flair will appear on this week’s Ring Of Honor TV show on HD Net. The show airs on Saturday night at 7pm central time with a replay at 10pm central time. on ROH HD Net show this Saturday night.
Here is the May preview for WWE 24/7 with Latino Legends being the theme of the month. Here is the programming that will be airing. Big Ones: WWE Judgment Day 2005, WWE Armageddon 2008. Old School house shows: MSG (3/14/82), MSG (7/12/86). TV Classics: NWA (November 1986), ECW (October 1996), World Class (July 1983), Monday Night Wars (Raw and Nitro from December 1997 with the Nitro including the Hogan/Sting rematch from Starrcade), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (the reairing of the Monday Night Wars starting from September-October 1995), Prime Time Wrestling (February 1988), Mid-Atlantic Wrestling (December 1981). The Hall Of Fame will be on Eddie Guerrero featuring a profile program and matches from his career. The shorties will be matches based around the Latino Legends theme. WWE 24/7 will also be airing The History Of The Intercontinental Championship DVD. The Film Room With Gordon Solie will return with two episodes. The winner of the fan voting will also air which will be either WWF In Your House 1, WCW Slamboree 1998, or WWE Judgment Day 2007.
That is it for another week. Take care and God bless!!
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Raw In The UK, Smackdown, & More - April 20, 2009
Welcome to the “are the new draft picks ever going to their own shows?” edition of The Wrestling List. Fun Raw tonight from the UK and I’ll get to it momentarily.
Friday Night Smackdown saw a mix of the newly drafted talent and the previous talent that were having their last Smackdown matches. Nothing really must see on the show but there was good action. Big Show faced Jeff Hardy in the opener. Matt Hardy got involved at the end with Jeff taking a swing at him on the apron. Jeff then dove out on to Matt on the floor. Jeff went for the whisper in the wind but Show caught him and nailed the knockout punch for the win. After the match, Matt walked in the ring and slapped Jeff. He then nailed a series of legdrops on to Jeff. Triple H and Randy Orton had a segment where they trash talked one another and Triple H informed him that their match on Raw would have no rules. Batista defeated Ted Dibiase with the Batista bomb. Dolph Ziggler defeated MVP with a rollup and pulled the tights. Wow, not sure what that says for either of them. Is that a sign of good things to come for Ziggler or bad things to come for MVP? I tend to think it is good things for Ziggler and they may push him. Undertaker defeated Shelton Benjamin with the tombstone. John Morrision defeated R Truth with the moonlight drive. Gail Kim got a clean win on Divas champion Maryse. There was a Khali kiss cam which I didn’t watch at all so I can’t tell you a thing about it. Solid show of action but nothing can’t miss.
Tonight’s Raw was taped earlier today in the UK. Fun show and a really hot crowd. A definite heel crowd too for the most part which is always fun. The main event was the No DQ match between Triple H and Randy Orton. They used the steps, chairs, table, and whatever else. I thought it was more entertaining that their WrestleMania match and it even had a run in. Legacy got involved near the end attacking Triple H. Shane ran out to help. However, Legacy still had control until Batista arrived. He was in control until Cody raked his eyes. Batista then speared Shane as he couldn’t see. They had been teasing earlier in the night about how Shane and Batista hadn’t gotten along last week along with Triple H. Triple H questioned Batista on the spear who explained that he couldn’t see. Batista got knocked out of the ring by Legacy and the battle continued. Triple H then got hit with a RKO and Orton got the win. Chris Jericho opened the show giving his Raw farewell talking of how he was going on to bigger things on Smackdown. He talked of how no one gave him any appreciation for what he has done on Raw. Ricky Steamboat walked out and gave him a thank you. His thank you was for reminding him how much he loved to perform for the fans and being proud of his accomplishments. Jericho ended up claiming that Steamboat was just out there to get the spotlight from the fans one last time. Jericho challenged him for a match at Backlash. Before Steamboat could answer, John Cena made his way to the ring. Jericho then left the ring not even wanting to acknowledge Cena. Cena said he had a message from Vickie that Jericho would be facing himself later in the night. As Jericho went on to leave, Steamboat accepted the Backlash match. The Cena/Jericho match was a fun one. Crowd was very into it and the crowd was mostly anti-Cena. Lots of counters in this one that made it fun. Jericho countered the adjustment into a codebreaker. Then, Cena was able to roll the walls into a STF. The two battled into the corner. Edge arrived to a big pop and knocked both of them off of the turnbuckle. Edge pounded on Cena and hit him with a spear. Edge then nailed Cena with a con-chair-to. He grabbed the mic and counted to ten as a way to preview their Backlash Last Man Standing match. Batista won a squash match on Chavo Guerrero that resulted in one move in the match, Batista bomb. CM Punk was able to counter a chokeslam attempt by Kane into a pin to win their match. Big Show defeated Rey Mysterio when Show caught Rey’s 619 attempt and then hit him with the knockout punch for the pin. Very fun segment with Santino and Santina. He introduced Santina who appeared on the screen. It was really funny as the video started fast forwarding and Santino tried to cover it up saying that his sister likes the red bull. Beth and Rosa interrupted the poem reading by Santino to his sister. Continuing with the funny of the video thing, Santina later reacted to the poem reading as if it had just finished but Beth had been having words with Santino for a bit at that point. Beth said that she had gotten the Khali kiss cam for Santina approved for Backlash. Beth had a women’s title match against Melina at that moment. Beth ended up nailing Rosa by accident. Melina then nailed a stunned Beth with her sunset flip slam for the win to retain the women’s title.
Other notes from Raw. Great crowd tonight. I always love the “boo” “yeah” chants when there is a punch exchange such as tonight with Cena and Jericho. The fans would boo every Cena punch and cheer the Jericho punches. Don’t you just crack up at WWE always working on protecting Cena whenever he gets booed? It is just funny how they go into damage control such as Cole saying that he always gets a big response from the WWE Universe and start using words like “controversial”. There are just some places that they go to where the fans don’t like him and you just can’t cover that. Fans are going to cheer and boo whoever they want. Huge Y2J chants tonight. Orton had a good group of fans tonight too. I always do laugh when there is a heel crowd and WWE panics on how to cover it on TV. I’m talking about how whenever they are in Canada, Lawler always goes into his “this is bizarro world in Canada” stuff which gets annoying after a while. How nasty would that spot have been if Orton had hit that DDT off the apron on to the steps? I was already trying to figure out how you protect that thing but it was countered. How funny was that Santino segment??!! That was great stuff. Did you see the “ask him” sign when Jericho had Cena in the walls? Cracked me up. I love that move by Beth where she bends a flexible Melina to where she kicks Melina with her own foot. Well, Mickie James has been taken out of the Raw opening all together and I find that annoying.
I was hoping to get the first episode of Superstars watched before tonight’s Wrestling List but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. I’ll watch the premiere and this week’s episode and review it next week.
I haven’t commented on this but Undertaker is ok after his dive out of the ring at WrestleMania. He was shaken up but was fine.
TNA held their Lockdown PPV last night and there were some big happenings coming out of it. One of those was Bobby Lashley joining TNA. The TNA title changed hands as Mick Foley was able to defeat Sting. TNA also teased another arrival to the company which if you saw the clues by Samoa Joe, you will get who it likely is.
Trish Stratus commented to Slam Wrestling about why she didn’t take part in the women’s battle royal at WrestleMania. I definitely agree with her comments as the women that they did bring back ended up hardly getting any kind of attention. When I say any kind of attention, I’m talking that we barely even saw them on camera and no intros. Here is what Trish had to say: "Simply, there were no finishes, no 'What's going to happen? Will I win?' discussed. It was just, 'Would you like to be in this 25-woman battle royal at Wrestlemania,' and I said, 'Thank you but I’m going to decline.' I’ve always said to come out of retirement is a big deal to me – so if I was to come out it is for something special. To be honest, I feel Wrestlemania is a place to create memorable moments in one’s career and frankly, with 25 women in the ring, I was just not sure how anyone could come out having their 'Wrestlemania moment,' maybe if it was a little clearer that could be accomplished for someone, I would have been a part of it. If I were to go back, I would like to do something that is new and fresh, there are so many girls right now that can work, I’d want to be able to mix it up with someone I hadn’t gotten the chance to before I left."
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2009/04/13/9103456.html
If you haven’t seen the movie, The Wrestler, like myself, it will be released on DVD tomorrow. I am going to pick it up and watch it soon. I hear great things about it!!
I had forgotten just how fun of a tag team that Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas were back in the early 90’s. I was watching WWE 24/7 over the weekend and watched some of the matches in the shorties section. The match wasn’t a classic by any means with them facing Vinnie Vegas and Big Sky. The run in at the end was very nice as Austin and Pillman made an attack on Steamboat and Douglas leading up to their series of matches for the tag team titles. They had some great matches against each other in that time period. Ahh, memories.
WWE Backlash is this Sunday on PPV and here is the lineup. The WWE championship is on the line when Triple H, Shane McMahon, and Batista take on Legacy. World Champion John Cena takes on Edge in a Last Man Standing Match. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy in an I Quit match. ECW Champion Jack Swagger defends against Christian. Chris Jericho takes on Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. I think this will be a solid show but I’m not crazy about the main event. The rest of the show looks good.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Friday Night Smackdown saw a mix of the newly drafted talent and the previous talent that were having their last Smackdown matches. Nothing really must see on the show but there was good action. Big Show faced Jeff Hardy in the opener. Matt Hardy got involved at the end with Jeff taking a swing at him on the apron. Jeff then dove out on to Matt on the floor. Jeff went for the whisper in the wind but Show caught him and nailed the knockout punch for the win. After the match, Matt walked in the ring and slapped Jeff. He then nailed a series of legdrops on to Jeff. Triple H and Randy Orton had a segment where they trash talked one another and Triple H informed him that their match on Raw would have no rules. Batista defeated Ted Dibiase with the Batista bomb. Dolph Ziggler defeated MVP with a rollup and pulled the tights. Wow, not sure what that says for either of them. Is that a sign of good things to come for Ziggler or bad things to come for MVP? I tend to think it is good things for Ziggler and they may push him. Undertaker defeated Shelton Benjamin with the tombstone. John Morrision defeated R Truth with the moonlight drive. Gail Kim got a clean win on Divas champion Maryse. There was a Khali kiss cam which I didn’t watch at all so I can’t tell you a thing about it. Solid show of action but nothing can’t miss.
Tonight’s Raw was taped earlier today in the UK. Fun show and a really hot crowd. A definite heel crowd too for the most part which is always fun. The main event was the No DQ match between Triple H and Randy Orton. They used the steps, chairs, table, and whatever else. I thought it was more entertaining that their WrestleMania match and it even had a run in. Legacy got involved near the end attacking Triple H. Shane ran out to help. However, Legacy still had control until Batista arrived. He was in control until Cody raked his eyes. Batista then speared Shane as he couldn’t see. They had been teasing earlier in the night about how Shane and Batista hadn’t gotten along last week along with Triple H. Triple H questioned Batista on the spear who explained that he couldn’t see. Batista got knocked out of the ring by Legacy and the battle continued. Triple H then got hit with a RKO and Orton got the win. Chris Jericho opened the show giving his Raw farewell talking of how he was going on to bigger things on Smackdown. He talked of how no one gave him any appreciation for what he has done on Raw. Ricky Steamboat walked out and gave him a thank you. His thank you was for reminding him how much he loved to perform for the fans and being proud of his accomplishments. Jericho ended up claiming that Steamboat was just out there to get the spotlight from the fans one last time. Jericho challenged him for a match at Backlash. Before Steamboat could answer, John Cena made his way to the ring. Jericho then left the ring not even wanting to acknowledge Cena. Cena said he had a message from Vickie that Jericho would be facing himself later in the night. As Jericho went on to leave, Steamboat accepted the Backlash match. The Cena/Jericho match was a fun one. Crowd was very into it and the crowd was mostly anti-Cena. Lots of counters in this one that made it fun. Jericho countered the adjustment into a codebreaker. Then, Cena was able to roll the walls into a STF. The two battled into the corner. Edge arrived to a big pop and knocked both of them off of the turnbuckle. Edge pounded on Cena and hit him with a spear. Edge then nailed Cena with a con-chair-to. He grabbed the mic and counted to ten as a way to preview their Backlash Last Man Standing match. Batista won a squash match on Chavo Guerrero that resulted in one move in the match, Batista bomb. CM Punk was able to counter a chokeslam attempt by Kane into a pin to win their match. Big Show defeated Rey Mysterio when Show caught Rey’s 619 attempt and then hit him with the knockout punch for the pin. Very fun segment with Santino and Santina. He introduced Santina who appeared on the screen. It was really funny as the video started fast forwarding and Santino tried to cover it up saying that his sister likes the red bull. Beth and Rosa interrupted the poem reading by Santino to his sister. Continuing with the funny of the video thing, Santina later reacted to the poem reading as if it had just finished but Beth had been having words with Santino for a bit at that point. Beth said that she had gotten the Khali kiss cam for Santina approved for Backlash. Beth had a women’s title match against Melina at that moment. Beth ended up nailing Rosa by accident. Melina then nailed a stunned Beth with her sunset flip slam for the win to retain the women’s title.
Other notes from Raw. Great crowd tonight. I always love the “boo” “yeah” chants when there is a punch exchange such as tonight with Cena and Jericho. The fans would boo every Cena punch and cheer the Jericho punches. Don’t you just crack up at WWE always working on protecting Cena whenever he gets booed? It is just funny how they go into damage control such as Cole saying that he always gets a big response from the WWE Universe and start using words like “controversial”. There are just some places that they go to where the fans don’t like him and you just can’t cover that. Fans are going to cheer and boo whoever they want. Huge Y2J chants tonight. Orton had a good group of fans tonight too. I always do laugh when there is a heel crowd and WWE panics on how to cover it on TV. I’m talking about how whenever they are in Canada, Lawler always goes into his “this is bizarro world in Canada” stuff which gets annoying after a while. How nasty would that spot have been if Orton had hit that DDT off the apron on to the steps? I was already trying to figure out how you protect that thing but it was countered. How funny was that Santino segment??!! That was great stuff. Did you see the “ask him” sign when Jericho had Cena in the walls? Cracked me up. I love that move by Beth where she bends a flexible Melina to where she kicks Melina with her own foot. Well, Mickie James has been taken out of the Raw opening all together and I find that annoying.
I was hoping to get the first episode of Superstars watched before tonight’s Wrestling List but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. I’ll watch the premiere and this week’s episode and review it next week.
I haven’t commented on this but Undertaker is ok after his dive out of the ring at WrestleMania. He was shaken up but was fine.
TNA held their Lockdown PPV last night and there were some big happenings coming out of it. One of those was Bobby Lashley joining TNA. The TNA title changed hands as Mick Foley was able to defeat Sting. TNA also teased another arrival to the company which if you saw the clues by Samoa Joe, you will get who it likely is.
Trish Stratus commented to Slam Wrestling about why she didn’t take part in the women’s battle royal at WrestleMania. I definitely agree with her comments as the women that they did bring back ended up hardly getting any kind of attention. When I say any kind of attention, I’m talking that we barely even saw them on camera and no intros. Here is what Trish had to say: "Simply, there were no finishes, no 'What's going to happen? Will I win?' discussed. It was just, 'Would you like to be in this 25-woman battle royal at Wrestlemania,' and I said, 'Thank you but I’m going to decline.' I’ve always said to come out of retirement is a big deal to me – so if I was to come out it is for something special. To be honest, I feel Wrestlemania is a place to create memorable moments in one’s career and frankly, with 25 women in the ring, I was just not sure how anyone could come out having their 'Wrestlemania moment,' maybe if it was a little clearer that could be accomplished for someone, I would have been a part of it. If I were to go back, I would like to do something that is new and fresh, there are so many girls right now that can work, I’d want to be able to mix it up with someone I hadn’t gotten the chance to before I left."
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2009/04/13/9103456.html
If you haven’t seen the movie, The Wrestler, like myself, it will be released on DVD tomorrow. I am going to pick it up and watch it soon. I hear great things about it!!
I had forgotten just how fun of a tag team that Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas were back in the early 90’s. I was watching WWE 24/7 over the weekend and watched some of the matches in the shorties section. The match wasn’t a classic by any means with them facing Vinnie Vegas and Big Sky. The run in at the end was very nice as Austin and Pillman made an attack on Steamboat and Douglas leading up to their series of matches for the tag team titles. They had some great matches against each other in that time period. Ahh, memories.
WWE Backlash is this Sunday on PPV and here is the lineup. The WWE championship is on the line when Triple H, Shane McMahon, and Batista take on Legacy. World Champion John Cena takes on Edge in a Last Man Standing Match. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy in an I Quit match. ECW Champion Jack Swagger defends against Christian. Chris Jericho takes on Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. I think this will be a solid show but I’m not crazy about the main event. The rest of the show looks good.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
WWE Draft Results and Thoughts - April 15, 2009
Welcome to the "well, they loaded up Raw and dismantled the show with a shaky network" edition of The Wrestling List. Not really many surprises in the draft with WWE making Raw a priority and making Smackdown not one with My Network TV not on very solid ground. Let's get on to Raw and the happenings.
WWE announced that they set a company record for live gate revenue with WrestleMania 25 bringing in $6.9 million in revenue. WWE.com had over 100 million page views on the Monday after WrestleMania. That is incredible!!!!
Raw was a three hour show with all three brands on the show. Draft picks were given out depending on winners of matches. Each wrestler that won would win a pick for their brand. So, I'll just run this from top to bottom as far as how the picks played out. First was Rey Mysterio (Raw) taking on Evan Bourne (ECW). Fun match with Rey winning with the 619 and splash. Raw gets the first draft pick of the night which turns out to be MVP bringing the US title with him. Next is Kane (Raw) taking on Brian Kendrick (Smackdown). Squash match with Kane hitting the chokeslam for the win. Raw gets another pick which turns out to be The Big Show. At this point, I'm thinking that the dismantling of Smackdown is underway!! That brings us to the women's match with Melina, Mickie James, and Kelly Kelly (Raw) taking on Michelle McCool, Maryse, and Natalya (Smackdown). The finish had Mickie jumping off the top rope and catching a boot from Michelle that knocked her out. Michelle got the win and Smackdown got their first pick of the night. Going to Smackdown is Melina and also the Women's championship. Champion vs. champion match next with World champion John Cena (Raw) taking on ECW champion Jack Swagger (ECW) with two picks on the line. Cena caught Swagger's springboard out of the corner and put him into the adjustment. Cena then won with the STF. Raw gets two more picks which turns out to be Matt Hardy and WWE champion Triple H. I just laughed at this point thinking what is Smackdown going to have left by the end of this show??!! Edge attacked Cena after the match but Cena was able to fight him off. Next is a sure win for Smackdown when Santino Marella (Raw) takes on The Great Khali (Smackdown). Beth and Rosa arrived at the beginning of the match with them saying that they had talked to Vickie about an added stipulation. If San tino lost, Santina would be a guest on the Khali kiss cam. The match was a squash and Smackdown got another pick. The next pick for them was Money In The Bank winner, CM Punk. I would like to say that I called the next match and how the picks would play out. The Miz (ECW) with John Morrison taking on Kofi Kingston (Raw). Long match which had John Morrison getting involved at the end and nailing Kofi. The ref saw it and it was a DQ. The pick for Raw was The Miz. Miz and Morrison gave their goodbyes and embraced. Then, Miz attacked Morrison as he was mad that his interference cost him to be moved. Next was the 15 man multi-brand battle royal with two picks on the line. Here were the participants. For Raw: MVP, Cryme Tyme, Mike Knox, and Big Show. For ECW: Finlay, Tyson Kidd, Burchill, Mark Henry, and Ortiz. For Smackdown: The Colons, R Truth, Chavo, and Edge. The battle royal came down to a final three of Henry, Big Show, and Edge with each brand being represented. Edge tried to make a deal against the big men and ended up getting chokeslammed by Big Show. Show and Henry went at it. Show ended up nailing Henry with the knockout punch and eliminated Henry. That brought it down to Edge and Show. Show charged at Edge who ducked and pulled the ropes. Show falls to the floor and Edge wins the draft battle royal for the second time in a row getting two picks for Smackdown. The picks were Kane and Chris Jericho. Christian was up next battling for ECW taking on Shelton Benjamin representing Smackdown. Christian got the win when he hit the killswitch. This gave ECW their first and only pick of the night which was Kozlov. Geez and ugh. Thanks for nothing there. Next match was between two recent draft picks as Matt Hardy (Raw) battled CM Punk (Smackdown). Jeff Hardy did a run in and attacked Matt which gave a DQ win to Matt. Jeff was about to hit the swanton on Matt but Matt took off and avoided it. Jeff then chased him out of there. So, Raw gets Maryse with the pick and that also brings the Divas championship. Both women's titles are evened out. Chris Jericho (Smackdown) takes on Tommy Dreamer (ECW). Jericho wins with a nasty looking codebreaker for the win. Smackdown gets Rey Mysterio and the Intercontinental championship. That was the last pick of the night. The other focus of the show was Batista, Triple H, and Shane McMahon all wanting a piece of Randy Orton. The three argued over it and Vickie made a match with the three of them taking on Priceless. The one that made the pin on the face team would get Orton next week. Orton was mad over this of course and got the match to include a stip for them as well. If Priceless won, they got a handicap match next week. The match was what you would expect. The three guys arguing over who would be in the ring to pick up the win. Batista had the win and then Shane broke up the count. They took each other out of the equation as Triple H hit the pedigree and got the win. He'll face Orton next week on Raw from the United Kingdom. Orton arrived at the end and faced off with the three in the ring.
Other notes from Raw. The dismantling of Smackdown just got to be humorous during the first half of the show. I was just thinking that you have to have someone draw on that show. I just thought of this but isn't Natalya more of a ECW talent now than Smackdown? Kind of weird with her being in that women's match battling for Smackdown. JR's line at Michael Cole of Cole having a vintage stamp collection got a laugh out of me. Glad that everyone else has picked up on the "vintage" everything lines from Cole. JR also got a good shot in on Lawler when Lawler got lost on who Mike Knox was. JR pointed out that he was one of the Raw guys and said way to know your talent. What was with the "if Dreamer is a legend then so is the Brooklyn Brawler" line from Todd Grisham??!! I wonder if that was a fed line to him or what. I thought that was a ridiculous comparison. Poor Josh Mathews gets a nose bleed just as the show goes on the air. Then, he obviously had Vince yelling in his ear about it as well. Great to see Chief Jay Strongbow in the house in Atlanta. Speaking of Atlanta, I always get WCW memories when they are in town. I'm glad that they pointed out that the unprettier move by Christian is now called the killswitch cause I hadn't picked up on the name change.
That brings us to the supplemental draft which took place today on WWE.com. Here are the happenings starting with the 13th pick:
13. Kennedy to Raw
14. Shad of Cryme Tyme to Smackdown
15. Alicia Fox to Smackdown
16. Primo Colon to Raw
17. Mike Knox to Smackdown
18. Ezekiel Jackson to ECW
19. Nikki Bella to Raw
20. Candice Michelle to Smackdown
21. Zack Ryder to ECW
22. Chavo Guerrero to Raw
23. Ricky Ortiz to Smackdown
24. Layla to Smackdown
25. Hornswoggle to Raw
26. DH Smith to ECW
27. John Morrison to Smackdown
28. Carlito to Raw
29. Natalya to ECW
30. Festus to Raw
31. JTG of Cryme Tyme to Smackdown
32. Dolph Ziggler to Smackdown
33. Brian Kendrick to Raw
34. Charlie Haas to Smackdown
35. Hurricane Helms to ECW
36. Brie Bella to Raw
Basically, the happenings have the unified tag team champions, The Colons, moving to Raw. With that team switching, Cryme Tyme goes to Smackdown. Kendrick and Zeke have been split up. Kennedy switches brands again. Morrison gets a singles move over to Smackdown. Natalya gets moved to ECW which is where she has been the most anyway except for her suddenly being involved on the Smackdown side of the women's match on Raw.
Ok, on to my thoughts on the overall draft. They loaded up Raw obviously as far as star power goes. Smackdown still got a lot of good workers added to the mix. Not much changed with ECW. I am concerned about several talents moving over over to Raw. Matt Hardy was a top heel on Smackdown but I worry that he'll get lost in the mix on Raw. The Miz without Morrison on Raw just seems like a really bad mix to me. I am afraid that he may turn into a squash match talent. However, Morrison on Smackdown should mean big things for him. Both major titles are on the same brand with the WWE and World titles.
I didn’t really give my thoughts last week on the Hall Of Fame ceremony. I just recapped it without much opinion. My opinion of the overall show was mostly disappointment. WWE’s restrictions on speech length really hurt this show. The memories of these ceremonies over the years are the incredible stories that are told. Because of the hurried up speeches, we didn’t get to hear any of this stuff. The talent had to stay straight on course with their speeches and not have any time for stories. From what I have heard, it does sound WWE agrees that the Hall Of Fame wasn’t strong this year and because of that. If WWE really wants to get the show recorded for the TV special, they need to start it earlier in the afternoon. They probably hurt their buys on the WrestleMania DVD with rushing the Hall Of Fame. They count on a lot of fans doubledipping on WrestleMania so they’ll buy it again to get the Hall Of Fame ceremony. Because of the rushed speeches, I saw mostly all of the ceremony with very little of it cut out and won’t be buying the DVD. I think they’ll learn from this all next year.
WWE Superstars premieres tomorrow night on WGN at 7pm central time. The announced match for the show is The Undertaker taking on Matt Hardy. Just wild to have that show back.
I watched the E:60 special on Vince McMahon and WWE last night on ESPN. Very well produced segment. Nothing really new out of the interview. Nice to see the show give Vince and WWE a lot of credit for what they do business wise. Jeremy Schaap also talked to Stephanie McMahon as well and she came across very well in the interview. The show also featured a behind the scenes look at a creative meeting leading up to WrestleMania 25. If you see the show replayed, give the story a viewing as it is worth checking out.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
WWE announced that they set a company record for live gate revenue with WrestleMania 25 bringing in $6.9 million in revenue. WWE.com had over 100 million page views on the Monday after WrestleMania. That is incredible!!!!
Raw was a three hour show with all three brands on the show. Draft picks were given out depending on winners of matches. Each wrestler that won would win a pick for their brand. So, I'll just run this from top to bottom as far as how the picks played out. First was Rey Mysterio (Raw) taking on Evan Bourne (ECW). Fun match with Rey winning with the 619 and splash. Raw gets the first draft pick of the night which turns out to be MVP bringing the US title with him. Next is Kane (Raw) taking on Brian Kendrick (Smackdown). Squash match with Kane hitting the chokeslam for the win. Raw gets another pick which turns out to be The Big Show. At this point, I'm thinking that the dismantling of Smackdown is underway!! That brings us to the women's match with Melina, Mickie James, and Kelly Kelly (Raw) taking on Michelle McCool, Maryse, and Natalya (Smackdown). The finish had Mickie jumping off the top rope and catching a boot from Michelle that knocked her out. Michelle got the win and Smackdown got their first pick of the night. Going to Smackdown is Melina and also the Women's championship. Champion vs. champion match next with World champion John Cena (Raw) taking on ECW champion Jack Swagger (ECW) with two picks on the line. Cena caught Swagger's springboard out of the corner and put him into the adjustment. Cena then won with the STF. Raw gets two more picks which turns out to be Matt Hardy and WWE champion Triple H. I just laughed at this point thinking what is Smackdown going to have left by the end of this show??!! Edge attacked Cena after the match but Cena was able to fight him off. Next is a sure win for Smackdown when Santino Marella (Raw) takes on The Great Khali (Smackdown). Beth and Rosa arrived at the beginning of the match with them saying that they had talked to Vickie about an added stipulation. If San tino lost, Santina would be a guest on the Khali kiss cam. The match was a squash and Smackdown got another pick. The next pick for them was Money In The Bank winner, CM Punk. I would like to say that I called the next match and how the picks would play out. The Miz (ECW) with John Morrison taking on Kofi Kingston (Raw). Long match which had John Morrison getting involved at the end and nailing Kofi. The ref saw it and it was a DQ. The pick for Raw was The Miz. Miz and Morrison gave their goodbyes and embraced. Then, Miz attacked Morrison as he was mad that his interference cost him to be moved. Next was the 15 man multi-brand battle royal with two picks on the line. Here were the participants. For Raw: MVP, Cryme Tyme, Mike Knox, and Big Show. For ECW: Finlay, Tyson Kidd, Burchill, Mark Henry, and Ortiz. For Smackdown: The Colons, R Truth, Chavo, and Edge. The battle royal came down to a final three of Henry, Big Show, and Edge with each brand being represented. Edge tried to make a deal against the big men and ended up getting chokeslammed by Big Show. Show and Henry went at it. Show ended up nailing Henry with the knockout punch and eliminated Henry. That brought it down to Edge and Show. Show charged at Edge who ducked and pulled the ropes. Show falls to the floor and Edge wins the draft battle royal for the second time in a row getting two picks for Smackdown. The picks were Kane and Chris Jericho. Christian was up next battling for ECW taking on Shelton Benjamin representing Smackdown. Christian got the win when he hit the killswitch. This gave ECW their first and only pick of the night which was Kozlov. Geez and ugh. Thanks for nothing there. Next match was between two recent draft picks as Matt Hardy (Raw) battled CM Punk (Smackdown). Jeff Hardy did a run in and attacked Matt which gave a DQ win to Matt. Jeff was about to hit the swanton on Matt but Matt took off and avoided it. Jeff then chased him out of there. So, Raw gets Maryse with the pick and that also brings the Divas championship. Both women's titles are evened out. Chris Jericho (Smackdown) takes on Tommy Dreamer (ECW). Jericho wins with a nasty looking codebreaker for the win. Smackdown gets Rey Mysterio and the Intercontinental championship. That was the last pick of the night. The other focus of the show was Batista, Triple H, and Shane McMahon all wanting a piece of Randy Orton. The three argued over it and Vickie made a match with the three of them taking on Priceless. The one that made the pin on the face team would get Orton next week. Orton was mad over this of course and got the match to include a stip for them as well. If Priceless won, they got a handicap match next week. The match was what you would expect. The three guys arguing over who would be in the ring to pick up the win. Batista had the win and then Shane broke up the count. They took each other out of the equation as Triple H hit the pedigree and got the win. He'll face Orton next week on Raw from the United Kingdom. Orton arrived at the end and faced off with the three in the ring.
Other notes from Raw. The dismantling of Smackdown just got to be humorous during the first half of the show. I was just thinking that you have to have someone draw on that show. I just thought of this but isn't Natalya more of a ECW talent now than Smackdown? Kind of weird with her being in that women's match battling for Smackdown. JR's line at Michael Cole of Cole having a vintage stamp collection got a laugh out of me. Glad that everyone else has picked up on the "vintage" everything lines from Cole. JR also got a good shot in on Lawler when Lawler got lost on who Mike Knox was. JR pointed out that he was one of the Raw guys and said way to know your talent. What was with the "if Dreamer is a legend then so is the Brooklyn Brawler" line from Todd Grisham??!! I wonder if that was a fed line to him or what. I thought that was a ridiculous comparison. Poor Josh Mathews gets a nose bleed just as the show goes on the air. Then, he obviously had Vince yelling in his ear about it as well. Great to see Chief Jay Strongbow in the house in Atlanta. Speaking of Atlanta, I always get WCW memories when they are in town. I'm glad that they pointed out that the unprettier move by Christian is now called the killswitch cause I hadn't picked up on the name change.
That brings us to the supplemental draft which took place today on WWE.com. Here are the happenings starting with the 13th pick:
13. Kennedy to Raw
14. Shad of Cryme Tyme to Smackdown
15. Alicia Fox to Smackdown
16. Primo Colon to Raw
17. Mike Knox to Smackdown
18. Ezekiel Jackson to ECW
19. Nikki Bella to Raw
20. Candice Michelle to Smackdown
21. Zack Ryder to ECW
22. Chavo Guerrero to Raw
23. Ricky Ortiz to Smackdown
24. Layla to Smackdown
25. Hornswoggle to Raw
26. DH Smith to ECW
27. John Morrison to Smackdown
28. Carlito to Raw
29. Natalya to ECW
30. Festus to Raw
31. JTG of Cryme Tyme to Smackdown
32. Dolph Ziggler to Smackdown
33. Brian Kendrick to Raw
34. Charlie Haas to Smackdown
35. Hurricane Helms to ECW
36. Brie Bella to Raw
Basically, the happenings have the unified tag team champions, The Colons, moving to Raw. With that team switching, Cryme Tyme goes to Smackdown. Kendrick and Zeke have been split up. Kennedy switches brands again. Morrison gets a singles move over to Smackdown. Natalya gets moved to ECW which is where she has been the most anyway except for her suddenly being involved on the Smackdown side of the women's match on Raw.
Ok, on to my thoughts on the overall draft. They loaded up Raw obviously as far as star power goes. Smackdown still got a lot of good workers added to the mix. Not much changed with ECW. I am concerned about several talents moving over over to Raw. Matt Hardy was a top heel on Smackdown but I worry that he'll get lost in the mix on Raw. The Miz without Morrison on Raw just seems like a really bad mix to me. I am afraid that he may turn into a squash match talent. However, Morrison on Smackdown should mean big things for him. Both major titles are on the same brand with the WWE and World titles.
I didn’t really give my thoughts last week on the Hall Of Fame ceremony. I just recapped it without much opinion. My opinion of the overall show was mostly disappointment. WWE’s restrictions on speech length really hurt this show. The memories of these ceremonies over the years are the incredible stories that are told. Because of the hurried up speeches, we didn’t get to hear any of this stuff. The talent had to stay straight on course with their speeches and not have any time for stories. From what I have heard, it does sound WWE agrees that the Hall Of Fame wasn’t strong this year and because of that. If WWE really wants to get the show recorded for the TV special, they need to start it earlier in the afternoon. They probably hurt their buys on the WrestleMania DVD with rushing the Hall Of Fame. They count on a lot of fans doubledipping on WrestleMania so they’ll buy it again to get the Hall Of Fame ceremony. Because of the rushed speeches, I saw mostly all of the ceremony with very little of it cut out and won’t be buying the DVD. I think they’ll learn from this all next year.
WWE Superstars premieres tomorrow night on WGN at 7pm central time. The announced match for the show is The Undertaker taking on Matt Hardy. Just wild to have that show back.
I watched the E:60 special on Vince McMahon and WWE last night on ESPN. Very well produced segment. Nothing really new out of the interview. Nice to see the show give Vince and WWE a lot of credit for what they do business wise. Jeremy Schaap also talked to Stephanie McMahon as well and she came across very well in the interview. The show also featured a behind the scenes look at a creative meeting leading up to WrestleMania 25. If you see the show replayed, give the story a viewing as it is worth checking out.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
WrestleMania 25 Thoughts & Recap, Hall Of Fame Ceremony, Raw - April 6, 2009
WrestleMania 25 took place last night from Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX with a sellout attendance of 72,744. Like I said, I loved the show. I didn’t like everything on it but overall I was very happy with the show. First, I’m going to give you the results of the show and then I’ll go into my thoughts more in depth in the next paragraph. The tag title unification match was moved to before the show and the move wasn’t announced until the day of the show. The Colons defeated Miz and Morrison in a lumberjack match to become the unified tag team champions. WWE.com in the past has shown the pre show battle royals on the website but nothing this year. The match should be on the DVD. Not big on them getting moved off the show. The show opened with Nicole Scherzinger singing America The Beautful which was a nice rendition. Big pyro display to kick off the event. Always impressive. Money In The Bank opened the show and there was a big pop from the fans upon the announcement by Lillian. Just an incredible match. Shelton started the match big with him doing the somersault off of the ladder on the floor and landing on the group. Kofi did an awesome spot where he leapfrogged the ladder and then took out the two that tried to take him out. Kane and Mark Henry did a good power spot where they shoved both ladders over which contained all of their opponents. Fun moment when Hornswoggle did the tadpole splash to the floor including him bringing out a step ladder from under the ring. At one point, Mark Henry tried to stand the ladder up and then Kofi ran up the ladder as Henry held it while trying to get to the briefcase. It looked awesome!!! There was a moment where three ladders were all lined up perfect from the floor. Shelton scaled the ladder from the floor right up to the briefcase and it looked great. How about Shelton launching MVP in a power bomb out of the ring landing on a couple on the outside. Christian was super over with the fans and I loved him getting shoved over on the ladder and catching himself with his foot on the ropes. He balanced and got the ladder back up as the fans went nuts!! The match came down to CM Punk and Kane trying to get the briefcase. Punk kicked Kane off and then got the briefcase to win Money In The Bank for the second straight year. I was shocked to see him win again as I didn’t think WWE would do it. I’m thrilled with it though!!!! Next up was Kid Rock’s performance and he ran through about four songs. As he performed the last song, the divas made their way down to the ring walking by Kid Rock. No introductions which means that we had no clue who was in the match!! For the record, the five returning stars were Sunny, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, Jackie Gayda, and Victoria. About midway through, I kept trying to figure out who the one woman was in the ring. Who was it? Well, it was Santino Marella dressed as a woman. He ended up dumping out Beth and Melina at the end of the match. Santino got on the mic saying that he was Santino’s twin sister from Italy named Santina. He is crowned Miss WrestleMania and did his dance to go with it. Next was the three on one elimination match with Jericho taking on Steamboat, Snuka, and Piper with Flair in their corner. Big pop for the legends and the biggest was for Piper. Snuka was eliminated first from the walls. Piper then got eliminated following a kick and pin. This brought it down to a nice five or so minute one on one between Jericho and Steamboat. This was awesome!!!! Steamboat was all over the top rope hitting moves. Jericho punched Flair off the apron and then Steamboat did the skin the cat move which got a big cheer from me. The fans were popping like crazy for Steamboat. Jericho ended up winning with the codebreaker. Flair got in the ring afterwards and was delivering some big chops!! Jericho hit the codebreaker on Flair and then called out Mickey Rourke who was at ringside. Rourke ended up getting in the ring and they went at it. It was all punches. Rourke knocked Jericho down and then Flair held up Rourke’s arm. That brought us to the extreme rules match with Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy. Matt countered Jeff’s whisper in the wind with a big shot as he nailed him with a chair shot. Jeff at one point put a trash can on Matt’s head and blasted him with crutches. Matt hit the twist of fate and Jeff was able to kick out. Jeff then stacked two tables and put Matt in between them with a chair on top of him. Jeff then did a dive and took them out. The finish had Jeff going for his ladder leapfrog spot and missed the legdrop. Matt then hooked Jeff’s head in the chair and hit the twist of fate which landed like he hit it on him with a standing chair. Matt Hardy gets the win. The Intercontinental title match was next and if you blinked, you missed it. Rey vs. JBL. Rey walked out to his normal tradtion of dressing as a cartoon character and was dressed as Heath Ledger’s Joker. This match was over fast. JBL kicked Rey before the bell rang. As Rey tried to recover, JBL yelled at the ref to ring the bell and start the match. The ref rang the bell and Rey nailed JBL. Rey hit the 619 and the springboard splash for the win and won the Intercontinental championship. After the match, JBL was frustrated and got on the mic saying that he quit. Next was the main event of the night and one of the best matches ever. Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker. The streak vs. Mr. WrestleMania. Shawn was lowered on to the stage in all white. He then went into his traditional entrance from there. Undertaker’s entrance was incredible as always. He rose up through the stage and then did his traditional entrance. There were so many great spots and counters in this match that are just impossible to recap but I’ll try. The fans were split in this match with Undertaker and HBK chants. The crowd was just incredible in this one but it was easy to get into cause it was such a great match. Shawn went for the superkick and Undertaker just dropped on to the mat to avoid it. Shawn then went for the figure four and then it was countered into the choke but Shawn got to the ropes. Shawn went for the moonsault on to the floor but Undertaker just swatted him away to avoid it. Incredible and scary spot when Shawn was on the floor. Undertaker went for his big dive that he only does in rare occassions. As Undertaker went to jump, Shawn shoved the ref out of the way and pulled the cameraman in the way. Taker landed on the cameraman and it looked nasty along with Undertaker about landing on his own head. It was scary and looked nasty in every replay. I was concerned about the guy that he landed on too. They traded finishers for a while followed by kickouts. Shawn kicked out of the chokeslam and the last ride while Undertaker was kicking out of superkicks. GREAT spot where Shawn skinned the cat back into the ring but Undertaker caught him into a tombstone position. Shawn was flying all around trying to get out of it but got hit with it it. I thought that was the finish and then Shawn kicked out. Taker went for another tombstone and Shawn countered it into a DDT. Shawn caught Taker square with a superkick but Taker kicked out again. The finish had Shawn going for a moonsault in the ring but Taker caught him and put him in a tombstone. Taker gets the pin and is 17-0 at WrestleMania. Just incredible!! An incredible match!! It was 30 minutes in length. The first of the two title matches was next with Edge defending against John Cena and Big Show. Vickie was at ringside but taken out of the equation when Edge accidentally hit her with a spear. Show was tied up in the ropes at this point. Funny moment with him yelling at the ref to get him out now. The finish of the match was really cool with Cena picking up Big Show for the attitude adjustor while Edge was also on top of Show. So, Cena picked both of them up. Edge did roll off unfortunately, but Cena hit Show with it. Then, he hit Edge with it. Cena pinned Big Show to win the World title. Afterwards, he made his way into the crowd and celebrated with the fans including Nascar’s Carl Edwards as they are good friends. Next, the 2009 Hall Of Fame members were announced to the live crowd. Austin was introduced last and walked out in his suit. Big pop for him. Austin then disappeared as the rest of the guys waved to the fans. Austin’s music hit and he drove out on the four wheeler back in his normal gear. Austin then flew to the ring on that four wheeler and drove it around. He made his way into the ring and called for the beer and did his normal beer bash for the fans. The fans were eating it up and I was as well. Just great to see Austin again and it was definitely played up on TV that this was the farewell to Austin. Austin went out to the floor and gave JR a beer. They toasted as Austin wore his cowboy hat. Just a great moment. Austin then drove back up the ramp with an awesome steady camera shot of him driving as he held his arm up for the fans. Just an incredible moment as JR said that we’d all remember when the Austin era began and ended. Last match of the night was Triple H defending the WWE title against Randy Orton. If Triple H used any objects, he would be DQ’d and lose the belt. No McManons could get involved either. Yeah, this match just fell flat. The crowd just wasn’t into it at all. Orton did have a big group of fans there with the RKO chants breaking out. Each of them hit their finishers right at the beginning of the match. The fans got into a bit with the punch exchange. Even the finish didn’t get that big of a reaction. Orton threw Triple H into the ref and hit the RKO. Orton then pulled a sledgehammer from under the ring. As Orton climbed in the ring, Triple H punted him with the concussion kick. He nailed Orton with the sledgehammer and nailed him with punches followed by the pedigree. The ref then got back up and made the three count as Triple H retained the WWE title. Then, we of course got the music video wrap up of the event which always is well produced.
Now, on to my more in depth thoughts on the show. Nice to see WWE use that time limit for the show right to the maximum. It went right at four hours. Best WrestleMania crowd since Chicago for WrestleMania 22 in my opinion. The lineup of matches definitely hurt the ending. I said this all along but Shawn and Undertaker should have closed that show. That match was just like Hogan/Rock from WM18 where the fans were so into that and not into things as much after that. Interesting that Triple H was the victim of both of those dream matches going last on the card. I noticed that the fans had been great all night but after Shawn/Undertaker, they fell off a bit for the World title match but were still into it. They were not into Triple H/Orton at all. Yep, Shawn/Undertaker should have closed it. Without a doubt. That Money In The Bank ladder match was just incredible. So many memorable spots and I was cheering through the whole thing. Best Money In The Bank match in history. The crowd was just eating it up. When the match ended, my first thought was sending my condolences to the rest of the WWE roster who had to follow that one. Now, there was one exception that I KNEW was going to follow and take the lead by far and that was Shawn and Undertaker. The divas battle royal should have been so much better. What was the point of bringing back the divas if we barely even see them? I was thrilled to see Molly but she was barely on camera. WWE should have introduced them. Just seemed like a waste. I did get a laugh out of trying to figure out who the mysterious female was in the ring which was Santino, or Santina. I’m thinking that Ricky Steamboat should wrestle more often!! He looked incredible in the ring!!! I was cheering big time over his high flying spots. The classic deep arm drags got me cheering along with the top rope chops. Wow is all that can be said and the crowd was loving him. The Mickey Rourke stuff was just kind of “ehh” to me. That whole thing just fizzled over the last several weeks with Jericho and Rourke. However, Steamboat saved this whole match big time!!!! They were having to do some major bleeping on Piper’s language. Must have forgotten the new PG TV rating. LOL. Loved seeing all of the legends as always. Jeff and Matt was very good. Really enjoyed it. Lots of good spots and back and forth. I really thought that Matt needed to get the win so I’m happy with that. I was thinking last week with how this match really was like Bret and Owen from WrestleMania 10 and how Owen’s win set that feud up bigger for the whole summer. Now, Matt has that win just like Owen did on Bret. Rey/JBL. Whatever. A short JBL match so I’m happy, 21 second win. I’m already trying to figure out where I’m going to put Shawn/Undertaker on my top WrestleMania matches ever. It is going to go really high on the list!! I was on the EDGE OF MY SEAT for most of this match. The counters and kickouts to the big moves were as dramatic as you can get. They were selling each other’s moves like crazy and I loved watching Shawn scramble like crazy to get out of it with that mentality of he had to avoid this or it was doom. Same with Undertaker where he ducked the superkick and tried to avoid taking those. Just such great mentality in this match with how it was done. I’ve talked to one of my friends getting his live views on WrestleMania and we are both just drooling over how great that match was. Hearing his live perspective of it is just amazing. He saw one of the best matches ever in history!!!! The World title triple threat match was fine. I thought it really built momentum throughout it. Cena winning wasn’t a shocker and I loved the finish cause that was just impressive. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Classic!! Great to see him out there having fun with the fans. That place was going crazy. How fast was he going on that four wheeler on the way to the ring??!!!! Wow. How great was Austin and JR getting to do one more toast together at ringsideI!! Who is going to be the next guy to take WWE to the next level like Austin did? Like I said, Orton and Triple H was a letdown for me. Just wasn’t really into it and it wasn’t very exciting. It finishing the show didn’t help it any especially without any drama. They aren’t closing the show with an Orton title win. I loved the opening of the show with the WWE superstars telling their favorite WrestleMania moments. When Kid Rock performed Cowboy, all I could think was Jeff Jarrett. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chosen one. LOL. It was cool to hear the old John Cena music for a little bit. Note to WWE, take a listen to the reaction that Christian got at WrestleMania!!!!! The fans love him so push him!! Did I hear a Candido chant when Sunny was leaving the ring? Like I said, I really enjoyed the show. If you didn’t see Shawn and Undertaker, you missed one of the greatest matches in wrestling history. Words can’t describe it and seeing it without knowing who was going to win was amazing. There were times where you thought you knew who was going to win and then the match would go a different direction. They really kept you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. Forget the seat cause Houston sure did. They were standing through it!!! You want a match that will glue you to the screen. Watch that one!!!!
The WWE Hall Of Fame took place on Saturday night. Most of the ceremony aired on WWE.com with the inductions of The Funks, Koko B. Ware, The Von Erichs, Howard Finkel, and Cowboy Bill Watts. That all went for about one hour and twenty minutes in length. Keep in mind that WWE was enforcing the new speech time limit rules, three minutes for the one doing the inducting and ten minutes for the Hall Of Famer. The shorter speeches actually worked in my favor cause based on what I’ve read in the live report, the WWE.com stuff, and the TV special, very little was edited out. So, I doubt that I’ll be buying the WrestleMania DVD cause I have just about all of the Hall Of Fame now. Thanks for saving me $35 WWE. I’ll watch it when it airs on WWE 24/7 in a few months. One thing that I LOVED was that WWE made plenty of announcements that they would be ejecting fans who continue to yell out just to yell out. This has gotten VERY annoying in recent years and there have been some fans that are just plain rude. They posted that they would be removed from the building without any warning. I was definitely able to tell a difference in the ceremony as the yelling was at a minimum for sure during the WWE.com portion of the ceremony. Todd Grisham hosted the WWE.com portion of the ceremony while Lawler took over for Steamboat and Austin. The speeches were good but kept short. Funks were great as was Dusty inducting them. Honky Tonk inducted Koko. Howard Finkel was fun. Seeing Kevin Von Erich and Michael Hayes together was just awesome even though I’m used to seeing them together hosting the World Class shows on WWE 24/7. Bill Watts speech was better than I expected it to be. I enjoyed JR’s introduction of Watts as well. The USA special opened with Todd Grisham bringing out Jerry Lawler to hand over the hosting duties. Flair was introduced and he looked down at Shawn Michaels. They pointed to their WrestleMania watches that were gifts from last year and I thought that was a fun moment. Flair said that Steamboat was the greatest opponent that he ever had putting over their matches in the 70’s as way better than their 80’s/90’s matches. He said that Steamboat embodied what a good guy was supposed to be with how he treated the fans. Flair said that the ladies LOVED Steamboat and they he would put Steamboat up against The Von Erichs anyday on who was the bigger ladies man. Steamboat had tears in his eyes when he was introduced. He and Flair embraced and then tied up which got a huge pop from the fans. I loved it as well!! He talked of how he and Flair were able to grab the fans attention in their matches. He put over all of his great opponents over the years going through all the great names that you remember and including Austin who was his last opponent. He talked of Triple H and how a younger Triple H was talking to him on the plane one day. He said that Triple H was very respectful of him giving him the window seat, armrest, and just asking so many smart questions about the business and wanting to learn. Triple H was shown in the crowd bowing to Steamboat. He did point out his family in the audience but it was cut out of the broadcast. Just a great speech with Steamboat and also Flair. Last was Vince McMahon inducting Austin. McMahon talked of their relationship over the years and called him the greatest WWE superstar ever. Vince talked about some of their matches and how Austin would constantly say “sorry” during their matches when he’d hit Vince too hard. Vince joked that he thought his name was “sorry” by the time he got to the locker room. That was edited off the TV special. Funny moment. Austin’s music video was shown and it had been updated. Looked great. Austin was introduced to a big pop. Austin started off joking about his suit and how he had just popped a button off of it. It was a really funny moment. Austin gave big credit to the guy who put the music video together saying how incredible that it was. Agreed!! Austin thanked the fans who had been so loyal to him talking about how he had been through knee injuries, neck injury, a divorce, another knee injury, another divorce, and how the fans were always there to welcome him back. It was left off of the broadcast but Austin apologized for walking out of WWE in 2002 saying that he didn’t agree with the creative team at the time and they both lost a lot of money cause of it. Austin joked about how the results of his aptitude test in high school said that he’d be a park ranger. He said he loved park rangers but that just wasn’t going to do for him. He said it was an honor to perform for the fans and had no regrets about anything. Fans chanted “thank you Austin” and also “one more match”. He said he “didn’t know about that” at the one more match chant. He said that he was closing the door on his wrestling career but looked forward to entertaining the fans in other avenues. Austin wrapped it up saying that he could talk for another hour cause he hadn’t used any of his notes. He thanked the fans and said that he loved everyone from the bottom of his heart. Austin closed with “and that’s the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so”. He finished up with a beer toast and handed his other beer to Cena and they toasted together.
Tonight’s Raw set up two matches for Backlash. Orton opened the show and wanted his rematch. He said that the McMahons and WWE owed him one. He threatened to take more action if the McMahons got in his way again mentioning Linda by name and the grandchildren. Vince walked out and Orton stepped out of the ring. Vince said that Orton would not be getting his rematch cause he didn’t deserve it for everything he had done to his family. He did say that there would be a match at Backlash with Vince, Shane, and Triple H against Legacy. Vince did say that he was up for a fight tonight as Orton had challenged him. The match was set for later on. Shane and Triple H tried to talk him out of it but Vince was determined to go through with it with no help. The match took place. Vince was on offense for a little bit but then Orton took over. He hit the RKO and was going for the concussion punt. Shane ran in and stopped him. Legacy jumped on Shane. Triple H got involved but the triple team was on. Then, Batista’s music hit and he made his return. Orton took one shot and then bailed. Batista, Triple H, and Shane took care of the others. Vince got on the mic and said that he would not be able to make it to Backlash and announced that Batista would be his replacement in the tag match. The other Backlash main event match was announced by Vickie Guerrero. She announced that Edge would get his last World title rematch against Cena in a last man standing match. Vickie also said that she is now the current GM of Raw for good. Fun 10 man tag team match with Jeff Hardy, Cena, Steamboat, Punk, and Rey against Matt Hardy, Jericho, Kane, Big Show, and Edge. Steamboat looked aweome in this match as well. The fans were going nuts for him. The show was in Houston as well over at the smaller building which also hosted the Hall Of Fame ceremony on Saturday. Fans were chanting “you still got it” at Steamboat very loudly. I completely agree!!! Big pop from the fans on the deep arm drags. Steamboat was in the ring for a long time. The finish had Rey hitting a 619 on to Jericho and Edge. Rey hit the splash on to Jericho while Steamboat hit the high crossed body on Edge. Rey pinned Jericho for the win. Afterwards, the team celebrated and left the ring so that Steamboat could celebrate with the fans by himself as the rest of the team applauded from the aisle. The Colons defeated Miz and Morrison in another tag title lumberjack match when Carlito pinned Miz with the backstabber. There was a 10 divas match with the Raw team against the Smackdown team. The Raw team won when Mickie James pinned Natalya with a DDT. Santina Marella (notice I said Santina) talked of what the plans were from here. Beth Phoenix and Rosa came to the ring. Beth was mad at Santino saying that he was embarrassing himself and mad over being eliminated last night. Beth challenged for a match. Santina accepted. The finish had Beth with Santina over her head but then fell backwards with Santina getting the win.
Other notes from Raw. How great was Steamboat yet again??!!!! How odd was it to see Edge and Matt Hardy working together? Santino doing the dancing is just hilarious. This Santino and Santina typing is starting to get frustrating. Ha ha. WWE is serious over those replay buys as they weren’t showing hardly any video of the event tonight. They usually show the finale music video during the broadcast and have for the last several years. Nothing tonight.
The WWE Draft special will take place next Monday on USA. Special three hour show and start time of 7pm central time. Who will be switching shows? We’ll find out. I’ve heard nothing about it.
The April programming for WWE 24/7 has premiered. Here is your lineup of stuff to see this month. The theme is Large and In Charge with the concept being about the big men in wrestling. Big Ones airing include WCW SuperBrawl V (Hogan vs. Vader), WWE No Mercy 2004, WWE Survivor Series 2008. Old School house shows include: MSG (10/23/78), Maple Leaf Gardens (8/18/85), MSG (4/30/90), MSG (9/23/85). TV Classics airing include (NWA (October 1986), ECW (September 1996), Monday Night Wars (Raw & Nitro from December 1997), World Class (June 1983), Mid-Atlantic (December 1981), and Prime Time Wrestling (February 1988). A couple of home video releases will be airing including the old Diesel Coliseum Home Video and the Brock Lesnar: Here Comes The Pain DVD. Hall Of Fame profile is on Gorilla Monsoon. Shorties for the month will be big men matches.
With all the talk of Steamboat, I just had to mention that 20 years ago this week was the Clash VI Steamboat/Flair match. Unreal!!!! Can you believe it has been that long? Still one of the greatest matches of all time!!
That is it for this week. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
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