Wrestlemania 26 Review

We interrupt the previously scheduled FFXI Update rant to bring you a review of one of the most anticipated Wrestlemania's in recent memory.

Wrestlemania XXVI.

I've been hyped about this for a while. Especially since Bret Hart made his return to the WWE in early January. What the WWE did this year building up to their annual mega-event was a little different than what they've done in some recent years. It seemed like they actually had a purpose for each show to build the stories leading into the event despite the fact that they had a PPV between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania.

The past few years, these stories have had their seeds planted in January around the Royal Rumble, but kind of got brushed to the side in favor of the stories leading up to whatever PPV they had scheduled for February. Then they'd almost rush the stories between the Feb PPV and Wrestlemania. This year, even the Feb PPV did nothing but build to Wrestlemania. It was a bit of a breath of fresh air from a story-telling standpoint. Granted, it wasn't must-see TV in some cases, but some of the stories were compelling enough to at least make you want to try to catch the next segment of build up the following week.

Before I go further, yes, it's fake. Stories are scripted. Blah, Blah, Blah. If you comment on this blog about it being fake, please make sure you aren't a fan of Reality TV. You have no argument regarding the legitimacy of pro wrestling since they sell themselves as "Sports Entertainment" and not something that's "Real" as "Reality TV" so often times likes to do. Reality TV is more scripted than Pro Wrestling, so if you like Survivor, American Idol, America's Got Talent, any of the food shows like Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, etc, do us all a favor and STFU. At least with pro-wrestling, there's legit athleticism and stunts happening.

So onto the card itself, in order of appearance.

26-Man Over the Top Rope Challenge:

This was a dark match. They only showed highlights of it later in the show with some dude I haven't really seen or heard of winning it. Good thing they didn't show it in it's entirety...

"ShowMiz" vs. John Morrison and R-Truth

The build up to this one seemed kind of haphazardly put together. The story had only been told for a couple weeks prior with Morrison and R-Truth winning some sort of match that made them No. 1 contenders. These two had never paired before prior to that, so any sort of a team history was negligent.

ShowMiz is a team comprised of the Big Show and The Miz. As much as I dislike Miz, the guy's come a long way. Having a 7'1", 500lb giant of a tag team partner often times means that A) The little guy will always lose the match or B) The big guy will do something stupid that costs them the match.

This wasn't the case when the match started. Good thing it was short. Match ended with Big Show clobbered Morrison with a huge right fist and knocked him out for the pin.

Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted Dibiase Jr. Triple Threat Match

These three formed the stable called "Legacy" for the better part of 2 years. Often times, stables such as these end up imploding a lot sooner than this. The premise behind this stable is that every one of these guys are 2nd generation stars with rather popular fathers. Orton is the son of "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Rhodes is the son of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. Ted Dibiase Jr. naturally, is the son of "The Million Dollar Man".

I'm not sure why this match was really on the card as it seemed like it could have been told on a Raw or something, but it was still a solid match with some decent story telling. Orton's been on top for a long while and it continued here with him performing a double DDT to both his competitors, booting Rhodes in the head and then hitting Million Dollar Baby with his RKO for the pin.

Personally, I would have liked to see Rhodes or Dibiase win this, especially since Dibiase's pops got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend too. The results here potentially set up a huge face turn for Orton, who's been one of the better heels in the company for the past few years. Aside from that, it really did nothing to progress any of their careers, which is the measuring stick used for Wrestlemania matches.

Money-In-The-Bank Ladder Match

This match has become a staple of Wrestlemania. The winner gets a guaranteed championship match at any point of their choosing up to a year. More often times than not, the winner here will use his contract to take advantage of a champ that's just taken a huge beatdown, but that's beside the point here...

They expanded the number of participants to 10 this year, which made for a huge clusterfuck of a match. There were some nice highlights, but it fell short of previous matches I believe due to the sheer number of people involved. A lot of the people like Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston weren't really able to get out and shine like they usually do in these matches.

That doesn't mean there wasn't a surprise ending though. The winner this year was Jack Swagger, an up and coming star with a highly decorated amateur background out of Oklahoma. Up until this match, Swagger had a brief run in ECW as it's champ and had mostly participated in gimmick/squash matches the months before Wrestlemania. Safe to say no one saw his win coming. Not sure this will make him more interesting on the mic, but he's definitely got a truckload of in-ring talent.

Christian had it right upon his return to WWE. Swagger's mic skills are akin to Sylvester the Cat of Looney Tunes fame. An arrogant, entitled character is always one that will get a reaction out of a crowd, but...

...an arrogant, entitled character with a lisp? How do you take that seriously in an antagonistic role?

HHH vs. Sheamus

This one had a decent build up. The angle here is HHH cost Sheamus the title by legit pinfall at the Feb. PPV. Sheamus is pissed and decides that to further his name, he'll take on the biggest dog in the yard at the biggest stage of them all. HHH respects this, but warns Sheamus that if he wins, his career will take off, but if he loses, he'll go back to toiling in obscurity.

Both of these men are huge. There wasn't going to be much in the way of technical wrestling here, but they still managed to pull off an above average match. For all the knocks HHH takes about his status in the company being mostly due to his marriage with Vince's daughter, Stephanie, he's still one of the best entertainers in the business today. He's probably put more people over than the rest of the vets on that roster currently and this match was certainly no exception. Even though HHH won, Sheamus put on one hell of a show. Hopefully this means the "Evil Ronald McDonald" that prioritizes his manscaping moreso than his skin tone will be able to use this to keep his stock rising.

CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio

This was another match that had very little build up, but the build it has was borderline creepy/been there-done that. Punk's character is that of an arrogant Jesus. He's formed this "Straight-Edge Society" that preaches about living a life free of alcohol and other influential substances. Punk is very good in this role, often times preaching to the crowd as he walks to the ring.

Mysterio's involvement comes when he costs Punk a chance to be in the Money-In-The-Bank match. Punk obviously takes issue with someone foiling his scheme of using his Straight-Edge members to get him a win, and shows up the following week to berate and chide Mysterio into a match while Mysterio's family is celebrating his daughter's 9th birthday.

Oddly enough, Mysterio's children are taller than he is...

The stipulation here is that if Punk wins, Mysterio has to pledge allegience to Punk's group.

These guys put on an excellent match that should have gone on a lot longer than it did. Seemed like they only wanted to spend about 10 minutes on the match itself. I'm not sure if the powers that be saw the potential for spotlight hogging off the main event, but this one potentially could have stolen the show had it been allowed to develop that way.

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon

The build up to this moment has been 13 years in the making. There are those that believe that if the Montreal Screwjob never happened, then Bret would have never suffered the concussion that ended his career, his brother Owen wouldn't have died in the ring and Bret subsequently wouldn't have had the motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed along his left side due to a stroke he suffered from hitting his head.

These were all very real things that happened in a mostly fake world.

Seeing this man back in the ring with the spotlight squarely on him is something the wrestling universe has wanted to see for a very long time. The fact that it was Vince across the squared circle from him made it that much better.

Anyone expecting to see a wrestling match here was probably disappointed. Bret can't wrestle to the degree he used to because of his injuries and Vince...well he's 65 years old and could never wrestle to begin with. A bit of a surprise twist here was that Vince "paid" the entire Hart family to be at ringside acting as lumberjacks on his behalf only to find out that Bret outsmarted him. What ensued was a beat down of government mule proportions on Vince. I know a lot of the stuff is fake and pulled and whatnot, but there were some legit bumps that Vince took that, despite his physique, a 65 year old man shouldn't be taking.

I got the impression Vince was really trying to show just how sorry he was to Bret for the events that transpired in 1997. Bret got the moment he wanted out of it. Vince was put in the Sharpshooter and tapped with a huge Hart Family celebration taking place.

My only gripe with this match was that it lasted a little too long...but you don't care because of the respect for Bret Hart.

Chris Jericho vs. Edge - World Heavyweight Championship

Awesome match with an awesome buildup. Edge returned from a blown out Achilles tendon to win the Royal Rumble. Winning the rumble has always carried the stipulation of a guaranteed title shot of the winner's choosing at Wrestlemania. Prior to his injury, Edge had been partnered with Jericho and they looked poised to make a long run as tag team champs. Obviously, blowing out your achilles is never a good thing. Add in Jericho's salty comments about Edge after he was injured and you have the set up for this match.

The match went back and forth with Edge trying to hit Jericho with the Spear (running charge). Jericho ultimately used some ref bashing to nail Edge with the belt and retain. The celebration was shortlived though as Edge finally nailed a Spear and drove Jericho off the announcer's tables and through the barricades around the ring. That was one hell of a bump Jericho took there and had the crowd chanting "HOLY SHIT" at them.

10-Woman Diva Tag Match

Really? This match shouldn't have come this late in the card. I felt like it killed a lot of the momentum the Edge vs. Jericho match had created. It's good the Divas got some love and all, but this really should have happened early on.

On top of that, I get that it's nice for Vickie Guerrero to pay homage to her late husband and all, but is it really that much of an homage when she's constantly getting needled for her size/girth? I know the announcers were probably told some of the move names and whatnot, but changing the name of Eddie's signature "Frog Splash" to "Hog Splash" was a little much. Add in the botched finish and you have a recipe for disaster.

John Cena vs. Batista - WWE Championship

The build up to this match was fantastic as well with Batista settling into his newly minted heel role and lambasting Cena about how much better he was, yet Cena was the face of the company. This match also carried an air of truth to it as every time Cena and Batista have met up in the ring, Cena's been injured in a major way. The last time was at Summerslam 1.5 years ago where an aerial move was converted into a sit-down power bomb that literally broke part of Cena's neck.

As for the match itself, it didn't disappoint. Cena actually showed off a little bit of wrestling skill outside of his normal brawler move set. After a number of hard slams and big power moves, Cena pulls out the win to take the championship away from Batista.

HBK vs. Undertaker II - Career vs. Streak

This, my friends, is exactly what Wrestlemania was built for. Last year, HBK and Undertaker put on a wrestling clinic that I hope all of the young stars of the future look to. This year, rumors had been swirling that either HBK or the Undertaker were set to retire (they're both mid-40s with a ton of injuries).

Undertaker is undefeated at Wrestlemania. Once he hit 10-0 or 11-0, his "streak" became the subject of each of his matches. Someone would always try to step up to end that streak. A lot of people are of the mindset that it should only end in a "passing the torch" type fashion where a younger star that's proven himself, but isn't quite to that elite level yet can use that momentum to further their careers.

Personally, I'm of the mindset that if the streak is going to end, it has to be in a match of these proportions. There's no guarantee that the moment created by ending the streak will live on in infamy if they let a young guy end it. However, you put an HBK across the ring from him and if HBK wins, that is a guaranteed moment worthy of someone of the caliber of the Undertaker.

The buildup to this match was phenomenal. After costing Undertaker his title at the Feb PPV (where Jericho won it), Undertaker sought retribution. He finally agreed to have the match HBK had been demanding for the better part of 2 months with the added stipulation that if HBK lost, his career was over. Thus...

Career vs. Streak.

Quick montage of the story building up.



These guys pulled out all the stops. I thought it was going to be difficult for them to top what they did last year and, early on, it definitely looked like they weren't going to be able to do it. As the match progressed though and finisher after finisher after finisher were executed, it became clear they were building up to something huge. You don't execute finishers that many times in one match and not have something insane planned for the end.

For you non-wrestling types: Finishers = signature moves that usually end the match. HBK's finisher is the Super Kick or "Sweet Chin Music". Undertaker's finishers are the Last Ride (standing power bomb) or Tombstone (pile driver).

Undertaker gave HBK one hell of a last ride. I've seriously not seen anyone hoisted to that height and slammed that hard. Undertaker, being spent himself, didn't cover quickly enough and HBK managed to kick out. Undertaker then Tombstoned HBK yet again (I think this was literally the 3rd or 4th tombstone HBK had taken), but HBK kicked out again.

Undertaker was in disbelief. After pacing around the ring a bit, he stops over HBKs body and signals the end of the match by starting his signature throat slash. About halfway through it, he looks down to see HBK crawling back up to his feet, using Undertaker for support as he's doing so. After yelling "STAY DOWN!" a couple times, HBK looks up at Undertaker and defiantly mocks Undertaker's throat slash. Then he slaps the shit out of Undertaker.

Undertaker fell to the ropes for a brief minute, but turns around pissed off, scoops up HBK, turns him upside down and does this running Tombstone that he's never done before. The force of that move damn near flattened the ring. Undertaker picks up the win, thus ending HBK's brilliant wrestling career.

What transpired next was a microcosm of the sheer magnitude of this event. The Undertaker and HBK both broke character, shook hands and embraced in the middle of the ring. Seeing this happen sent chills down my spine. Undertaker NEVER breaks character. If he comes out to pay tribute to anyone, it's always in character. The cameras were on Undertaker's face after the handshake and hug and we see him mouth "You are one tough son of a bitch." Y'see, Undertaker's character is that of his emotionless namesake. He's only supposed to show anger in the ring.

After the comment, Undertaker got out of the way and let HBK have his moment. He broke down to tears in the middle of the ring as he thanked the WWE Universe for his career. Backstage, he's seen shaking hands and talking with Bret Hart (who he has a not-so-great history with). He's also commenting that while you can never say never, this is about as close to never coming back as you can get. He stated he always envisions himself being involved in some capacity with the WWE, just not in the ring anymore. With that, we see him walk off.

I'm not naive enough to believe that HBK won't be back on TV in some capacity down the road. "Career ending" matches usually do not end with a career ending. In HBK's case though, I suspect there's a lot more truth to his career being done given his injury history and his family.

Regardless of that, there really could not be a better ending to this man's career if it is indeed over. Kudos to the WWE for recognizing this and putting this match on for him and then allowing the participants to show their respects to each other after it was done.

Conclusion

Every Wrestlemania tends to have a moment or two that stands out. While not a perfect 'Mania (I still think 17 or 20 are the standard), it doesn't get much better. I'd rate this one an 8-9/10 for that last match alone along with the Bret Hart moment and some other, very good matches.

Wrestlemania is built for moments like these. The typical live event the WWE does usually has about 10-30k people in attendance. Wrestlemania is always 60k+ (in some cases, 100k+). There are more eyes on the action than at any point in the year. Stars are made and broken on this stage. People always remember Hogan scoop slamming Andre the Giant or Stone Cold passing out in a pool of blood after refusing to submit to Bret Hart's sharpshooter. Or they remember HBK's descent from the rafters or Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero winning titles (despite what happened with Benoit a few years later tragically).

I don't have a clue what they could possibly do for Wrestlemania 27 that could top this though. They're almost out of legends...

The future's bright though. With the right stories and some modernization of their ability to tell them, we should see moments like these for a long time to come.