I pretty much gave up on this blog as I had neither good or bad things to say about wrestling, both TNA & WWE are knocking out such average content that it's pointless reviewing any of it. However Wrestlemania is always the one show a year where WWE gets everything right and everyone forgets for one night just how stale the product is.
This year was different, I can only say that we watched the end of one PPV and the birth of another, Wrestlemania is no more and EntertainmentMania has been born.
Wrestlers have been replaced by Superstars who have now been replaced by Entertainers. WWF Fans were replaced by the WWE Universe, even the most electrifying man in Sports Entertainment has been rebranded.
I know I'm older than Vinces' targeted demographic, but I don't see many 8-16 year olds with $65 to spend on a monthly PPV, so whilst he's aiming for the parents of said demographic I'm left wondering what part of the show is meant for me. It's not the wrestling as that's been simplified so anyone can attempt it (even though they tell you not to), it's not the violence as there isn't any. It's not the divas as they wear more clothes than the guys nowadays. As I'm left pondering this unanswerable question I shall continue my badly written rant/review.
I'm just going to say a few words about each match as I could probably go on about this show for days.
Now before the show even starts I find out that Bryan vs. Sheamus has been pulled, I thought it would at least be a dark match but no, not even happening. Although there was a dark match. Khali winning a battle royal. I guess it counts as a gimmick match. Barely.
Raw starts with The Rock cutting a promo, then they decide to go back and restart the show proper.
Edge v. Del Rio was actually a good choice for an opener although you don't usually start a show with a heel win, so Edge looked odds on to retain for the whole match, at no point, even with his 3 against 2 advantage did it look like he would win. Think Santino winning The Royal Rumble would have been a better result in hindsight, given how this turned out.
The post match beatdown of the Rolls Royce was very Smackdown! however and just made Del Rio look like a bitch. 6/10 for the whole thing.
Cody Rhodes beat Rey Mysterio in the match of the night, had a good story, good background and was well paced, also the fans were into it. 8/10
Corre vs. Kingston, Marella, Kane & Big Show was just getting started when it finished, the entrances went longer than the match. It only existed to give Kane & Show a mania pay day. 3/10 Worthless.
Orton & Punk had a lot longer thankfully and had a decent bout, but as this was tipped as the show stealer by the IWC it fell short of our high expectations, still it ended up being the 2nd best match of the night with Orton getting the victory 7/10
Cole getting the victory over Lawler was the only logical choice after everything that had come before, but parts of this match were hard to watch, for long periods. Plus Lawler came across as being a complete dick. 4/10
Undertaker vs. Triple H has split a lot of the crowd, some are calling it a great match others are rightly saying it was over long, tedious and nowhere near as good as the match that never happened between them at WMX7. I enjoyed the match, and it was better than I thought it would be, but they took shortcut after shortcut and botched the ending. 6/10
John Morrison, Trish Stratus & Snooki def. Dolph Ziggler & Lay-Cool in a 'We want Media attention' match. It served it's purpose, it will be mentioned on TMZ and MTV and in 20 years time people will look back fondly on such Wrestlemania guests such as Wheres The Beef Lady, That kid from Home Improvement and the oompa loompah from Jersey. 3/10 Dolph, Trish & Jo Mo deserved more than this.
Before we get the main event Miz has a phenomenal video package and a non over the top but decent entrance followed by John Cena blacking it up, Redding it up and then Supermanning it up.
The match was okay considering Cena had to carry the thing, Miz got in some decent attacks and made their first PPV match seem like a bad dream. I was even happy with the finish, it was a clean double count out after some decent brawling on the outside. Until The Rock decided a clean finish at WrestleMania wasn't allowed, and had to come out and restart the thing. He then flattened Cena allowing Miz to win. Rock also then took out Miz leaving an actor in the middle of the ring to sing off EntertainmentMania. 7/10
Total PPV Rating 5.5/10
I need to go and watch something other than wrestling as I feel like I've been burnt out by this and I have to watch Raw, Hall Of Fame & Tough Enough tomorrow to see if they're going to publicly apologise, But if this has taught me anything I think it's that if you can stream it illegally on the internet, it's definately worth the price.
