My Take On 3.30.10: WWE WrestleMania XXVI

WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVI!

THE RESULTS
* UNIFIED TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Miz and Big Show defeated John Morrison and R-Truth @ 3:10 via pin {* }
* Randy Orton defeated Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes @ 9:00 via pin {**}
* MONEY IN THE BANK: Jack Swagger wins Money in the Bank @ 13:40 {***½}
* HHH defeated Sheamus @ 12:00 via pin {***}
* Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk @ 6:30 via pin {**½}
* NO HOLDS BARRED: Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon @ 11:00 via submission {NR}
* WORLD TITLE MATCH: Chris Jericho defeated Edge @ 15:50 via {***½}
* Michelle McCool, Maryse, Layla, Alicia Fox and Vickie Guerrero defeated Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Eve, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix @ 3:00 via pin {SHIT}
* WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena won the WWE Title, defeating Batista @ 13:30 via submission {***¾}
* STREAK vs. CAREER: The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels @ 24:00 via pin {****¾}

MY TAKE ON THE SHOW Match #1 – Unified Tag Team Title Match: The opening match of the show barely got over three minutes, showing that he company still doesn’t really care about the tag team titles. This is proof that there was NO NEED to add the ladies tag match that is advertised for later, and also that they may have too many video packages planned. The action was fine for what it was, but it was a complete waste to send them out there for three-minutes. Match #2 – Legacy Triple Threat: The legacy triple threat match was second on the show, and I would be lying if I said I was excited for the match. Rhodes and DiBiase had been so poorly booked for, well, their entire Legacy run, that no one cared. The crowd LOVED Orton here, and cheered for anything and everything he did. Over like Super Grover. The match was fine, but it was formula, they beat on Orton, they turned on each other, and Orton won. Like I said, legacy was booked poorly, so Orton winning was absolutely the right call here, and hopefully it is the end to a very disappointing feud. Thankfully the replay got it later, but WWE production missing the initial punt by Orton on Rhodes was a rare mistake by them. It was fine for what it was, but the show is off to a VERY slow start in my opinion. Match #3 – Money in the Bank: Rock on for almost everyone getting new Mania gear, I liked that. For some reason people really hated on this match during the show coverage, but I rather enjoyed it. I still think that it would have been better with six of eight guys, but all things considered, it was good. Every year I wonder what new spots they can do, as they have seemingly all been done, but they worked in some new and fresh stuff, and that really helped. Leading in many thought McIntyre would win, with Christian getting the outside shot. There was even a late rumor that Kofi would win. For a match labeled the most predictable MITB ever, they threw us a curveball and had Jack Swagger win. While not an all time great MITB match, due to some mistakes and SO MANY GUYS, it was a good one and a breath of fresh air considering the action we got earlier in the night. Match #4 – HHH vs. Sheamus: The first two matches on the card set a bad toe I felt, and the MITB match really picked things up for me personally, and match wise, helped the show. I felt that HHH vs. Sheamus was a very good mid-card WrestleMania match. They got 12-mimutes, worked a smart pace, and Sheamus got more than I thought he would against HHH on “the biggest stage of the year.” They did a good job with the teases of the finishes, Sheamus looked comfortable on this level, and this was HHH’s best singles match in a while. I personally would have liked Sheamus to get the win here, as he “needed it,” while HHH is bulletproof, but what can you do? I actually hope that this continues, as a win by Sheamus would do him well, and they have some good chemistry already. Match #5 – CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio: Unfortunately this came off as a disappointment. Rey vs. Punk had one of the best builds on TV heading into WrestleMania, and of course they have the talent to steal the show. But instead of them getting the chance to do that, they got under seven-minutes, and while they worked hard and did their best, it was just a giant disappointment. The Reader’s Digest version of a 15-minite match if you will. Also, with Rey winning, I feel that they killed what could have continued a great angle, and that it could have led to a hair vs. mask match. They may still get there, but I don’t like HOW they are going to get there. Simply disappointing, considering the triple threat got nine-minutes, and people didn’t care about that feud. Match #6 – Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon: This one, this was weird. Basically I felt that it was too long and way too overbooked. Your general wrestling fan in 2010 doesn’t know about the dysfunctional Hart family. They don’t get why they COULD turn on Bret. They don’t know that Bret put the KIBOSH on a program with Bruce hart and instead chose Owen. It made little sense, and seemed like doing shit just to do it. Also, what they did just lasted too long. People wanted to see Bret beat down Vince, lock in the sharpshooter and get revenge for Montreal. I appreciate that Vince basically got his ass beat for 10-minutes, but it FELT…SOOOOOOO…LOOOOONG. Add into the fact that the psychology was all backwards and that it took 132 Harts to beat Vince, and I did not enjoy things. Also, I didn’t want to see Bret struggle. Watching him lay into Vince and stumble from time to time, it was just hard to watch really. In the end, this was overkill with the moment people wanted about 7-minutes too late. I know this may be blasphemy to knock this, but that’s just how I feel. Match #7 – World Title Match: I was really looking forward to Edge vs. Jericho. I had the feeling Jericho would retain, as Edge had gotten the better of Jericho, and also they are really just beginning their feud. I felt that the match was good, but was finished before they really got to the climax you may have expected. Don’t get me wrong, this was not bad at all, but I had the feeling that they were holding back. That is good as the feud is continuing, but also bad for those that had the high expectations. Jericho won is true dick fashion, still ate the spear after the match, and the best part of this is that the feud will continue. Match #8 – Divas Match: For as much as I like ladies wrestling, this was nothing more than an excuse to fit more people on the card. The promo time and match time could have been better used for Punk vs. Rey in my opinion. The match was BAD, run in, sloppily hit a move, bail, rise, repeat, and then the horrible “hog slash” as it was called by Vickie was just the filling in a shit sandwich. Sorry ladies, no offense to you, but this just had no place on the card. Match #9 – WWE Title Match: I think that many people looked down on this match, due to it involving Cena and Batista. I can understand that, as they haven’t been having great matches as of late, but they do work well together, and they have delivered on the big shows. I may be in the minority, and that is cool, but not only did I like this match, I thought it was better than Edge and Jericho. This match had a GREAT intensity to it, and both guys worked hard and tried to give the match an epic feel. I really got into it, and felt that they did a good job. What I disliked was Cena winning the title back so soon. I would have liked to see the program go a bit longer with Cena chasing, but that’s just me. Cena wins his 9th, 19th or 99th title, who knows at this point, but it just didn’t feel like it was important when he won. But again, that’s just me. Match #10 – Streak vs. Career: Going into the match I had concerns. I loved last year’s match, and while I knew they KNEW how to have another classic, the facts were that they were both beat up, a year older, and lightning doesn’t always strike twice. I don’t want to compare the match to last year, as they were telling two different stories and having two different matches. I felt that they delivered, and had one hell of a match. I loved that they got the main event spot, I loved how they worked the match, they pulled me in, and I loved it. They went all out, and they didn’t disappoint. The end was great, with Shawn signaling to Taker and then slapping him, only to eat the JUMPING tombstone, a super finisher if you will to end HBK’s career. It was a great ending to a great match, and the after match with Taker showing his respect, and Shawn taking the long walk to the back was the perfect ending to the show. I highly doubt that this is the end, due to wrestling retirements being what they are, but IF this is the end for HBK, it sucks. What ever the case may be, I hope the man is happy, he deserves a break, even if it is for good. Commentary: For the most part the commentary was horrible. Lawler seemed unmotivated for most of the evening, Striker has turned into a parody of himself and Michael Cole is just so bad. I was hoping and praying all night that Jim Ross would appear and call the main event, and it just never happened. The state of WWE commentary is not good right now, and at times, took away from the action. The show obviously could have been better with some alterations, but it was nowhere near as bad as some have made it out to be. Tin my opinion, this was easily the best WWE PPV of the year, and overall, the second best PPV of the year. OVERALL: Overall the event was a good one, but it also lacked in some ways. Cena vs. Batista, Jericho vs. Edge, MITB and HHH vs. Sheamus were all good, while Taker vs. HBK stole the show. Punk vs. Rey was fine for the short time given, but it was such a crime to see them short changed. The legacy triple threat was fine, only due to Orton being awesome drawing such a good crowd reaction. The ladies match was a waste, Bret vs. Vince went WAAAAAAAAAAAY too long, gave us the moment, but was filled with bullshit and the tag match, while ok action wise, was so short it was ridiculous. I didn’t feel ripped off, I enjoyed the main matches, so a pretty good show overall. SHOW RATING: 7.75 411 RATINGS SCALE: 0 – 0.9: Torture 1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous 2 – 2.9: Very Bad 3 – 3.9: Bad 4 – 4.9: Poor 5 – 5.9: Not So Good 6 – 6.9: Average 7 – 7.9: Good 8 – 8.9: Very Good 9 – 9.9: Amazing 10: Virtually Perfect

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LARRY’S RANKINGS THUS FAR FOR 2010
Rankings may change through out the year upon a second, third, tenth, one hundredth viewing…

2010’s TOP PPVs:

–DG USA Freedom Gate {8.5}

–WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVI {7.75}
–DG USA Fearless {7.5}

–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {6.9}
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {6.8}
–WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER {6.7}

–TNA Destination X {5.5}
–TNA GENESIS {5.0}

2010 TOP PPV Matches:

–CAREER vs. STREAK: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {****¾}

–Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi defeated Dragon Kid and Shingo Takagi (DG USA Freedom Gate) {****½}

–TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (TNA Genesis) {****¼}
–YAMATO defeated Davey Richards (DG USA Freedom Gate) {****¼}

–The Smackdown Elimination Chamber (WWE Elimination Chamber) {****}
–The Royal Rumble Match (The Royal Rumble Match) {****}

–TNA TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (TNA Against All Odds) {***¾}
–Ultimate X Match: The Motor City Machine Guns (Sabin and Shelley) vs. Generation Me (Max and Jeremy) (Destination X) {***¾}
–FIP TITLE MATCH: Masaaki Mochizuki © vs. Davey Richards (DG USA Fearless) {***¾}
–ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH: Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino vs. Young Bucks vs. Shingo and YAMATO (DG USA Fearless) {***¾}
–WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Batista (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***¾}

–OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH: BxB Hulk © vs. Dragon Kid (DG USA Fearless) {***½}
–OPEN THE FREEDON GATE TITLE MATCH: Elimination Rules: BxB Hulk defeated Cima, Akuma and Yamato (DG USA Freedom Gate) {***½}
–Ladder Match: Kazarian vs. Daniels vs. Amazing Red vs. Brian Kendrick (Destination X) {***½}
–Desmond Wolfe vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero (TNA Genesis) {***½}
–WORLD TITLE MATCH: The Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Royal Rumble) {***½}
–WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge vs. Chris Jericho (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***½}
–MONEY IN THE BANK: Christian vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jack Swagger vs. MVP vs. Evan Bourne vs. Matt Hardy vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***½}

2010’s PPV MVPs:
Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.

–TNA GENESIS – Kurt Angle and AJ Styles: Delivering Once Again
–DG USA FREEDOM GATE – BxB Hulk: Double Duty To Become The Champion
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE – Edge: He’s Back!
–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS – Pope D’Angelo Dinero – Pope Is Pimpin!
–WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER – Undertaker – Through Hell Fire and Brimstone…literally…
–DG USA FEARLESS – Davey Richards – Constantly Delivering
–TNA DESTINATION X – Kazarian – Rules The X-Division Gimmicks
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVI – Undertaker and Shawn Michaels – They Did It…Again

2010’s TOP TV Matches:
I will update as often as needed. I sometimes get behind on programming, so there may be delays.

–The Young Bucks vs. The American Wolves (ROH ON HDNET 02.08.10) {****¼}

–Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The Young Bucks (ROH on HDNet 2.25.10) ****
–CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown 02.12.10) {****}
–TNA World Title Match: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (TNA IMPACT 1.04.10) {****}

–RVD and Jeff Hardy vs. Beer Money (TNA Impact 3.22.10) ***¾
–Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong (ROH ON HDNET 1.04.10) {***¾}

–Rey Mysterio vs. Tyson Kidd (WWE Superstars 3.25.10) ***½
–El Generico vs. Kenny King (ROH on HDNet 3.08.10) ***½
–Shawn Michaels vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown 1.29.10) {***½}
–Colt Cabana and Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries and Kenny King (ROH on HDNet 1.18.10) {***½}
–Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe (ROH on HDNet 1.18.10) {***½}
–WWE Unified Tag Team Title Match: DX vs. Jeri-Show (WWE RAW 1.04.10) {***½}

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KEY:
–DG USA
–TNA
–ROH
–WWE

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