WWE Wrestlemania
XXIX
Going into this years
“Show of Shows” I had a few expectations of how the show was going to
play out. Firstly The Undertaker against CM Punk would be the match
of the night, secondly Triple H against Brock Lesnar would be an all
out brawl and John Cena taking on The Rock would see a reverse of
last years main event. On all accounts, Wrestlemania didn't
disappoint.
WWE Championship Match:
John Cena Vs. The Rock
Now if you went into
this match expecting a catch-as-catch can classic you'd have probably
thrown your television out of the window before half way. If you'd
gone into it expecting to see two of the most popular WWE Superstars
of all time go at it once more, with a multitude of false finishes
and all their top spots thrown in for good measure you'd have had a
very enjoyable time. I for one was expecting the second.
Having been
disappointed with the first match the two had at last years
Wrestlemania, due to I think the overpowering year long built up to
which the match could never live up to, I found myself enjoying this
match a whole lot more. The false finishes worked well, I was pretty
sure it was over when they did the switch of last year's finish with
Cena delivering an Attitude Adjustment as The Rock attempted to steal
the Cenation Leader's Five Knuckle Shuffle, and even believed The
Rock had it won with a huge Rock Bottom.
Despite enjoying the
match overall, there were a few things that niggled at me during the
match. Firstly, John Cena could clearly be seen talking to The Rock
during the crossface Submission. Now, I appreciate a lot of what John
does in the ring, but one thing that has always annoyed me about him
is how loud he is during his matches, which after the amount of time
he has spent in the business, most of it spent at the top of the
biggest wrestling organisation in the world and numerous Wrestlemania
Main events, Cena really should be caught calling the match during
what many would consider the biggest match of the year. You could
hear Jerry Lawler scrambling for a reason to why Cena was casually
chatting away, passing it off as “talking smack”
Another niggle for me
was the ending, not that it was a bad finish, but it just felt like
the end had come two minutes earlier, especially in terms of rounding
out the storyline and the theme of redemption, when Cena suckered The
Rock into thinking he was going to make the same mistake as last
year, that for me should had ended it there, obviously after an AA
from Cena.
The Undertaker Vs. CM
Punk w/Paul Heyman
Now those predicting
anything less than a match of the night encounter between two of the
greatest WWE Superstars of all time should probably think about
watching a different show. We hadn't seen The Undertaker in a match
since his epic Hell in a Cell with Triple H at last years Mania,
whilst CM Punk had continued his WWE Championship run for most of the
year following. So it was always going to be interesting to see how
these two meshed going into the Showcase of the Immortals, especially
when at one point late last year that 'Taker wouldn't even be
performing on the show and CM Punk carrying an injury into the event.
The doubts over both
men's fitness were quickly dispelled when the worked their way to a
fantastic back and forth contest. As with many of CM Punk's greatest
matches, the first ten or so minutes of the bout were slow and
calculating as the two competitors got warmed up and the tension
built amongst the crowd in Metlife Stadium who knew the best was
still to come.
We saw number of big
moves thrown in from both me, Punk's early attempt at The Deadman's
Old School move set the tone for the contest going forward. Punk
works the disrespectful heel character very well, helped on by the
always stellar Paul Heyman. The Phenom twice went for the Last Ride
both times Punk escaping, the first leading to a leap from Punk from
the top rope to Spanish Announcers table, which stayed strong, to
land a huge elbow drop, which almost looked like The Best in the
World wasn't going to reach. The second saw Heyman pass Punk the urn
they'd carried in the build up, Punk bringing it down on 'Taker's
head.
This lead to probably
the biggest crowd reaction of the night, Punk attempt to pin
Undertaker in his own familiar style, complete with outstretched
tongue. I think the New Jersey crowd truly believed the streak was
over at that point, and if I'm honest so did I. That was the great
thing about this match, yes everyone predicted that The Undertaker
would win, but it was the times when the performers in the ring made
you truly believe that the match was about to go the other way, they
made you invest in the match as a whole and when 'Taker kicked out,
the crowd seemed as shocked as they had been when Punk kicked out of
the Tombstone Piledriver minutes earlier.
In the end it was the
second Tombstone that was enough to see off Punk. And as the The
Undertaker took control of the urn once more, paying tribute to the
late Paul Bearer, it got me thinking... have we just seen the last
match of one of the greatest of all time? For me, if The Undertaker
comes back next year, it needs to be for a match of this quality and
looking at the current roster, I can't see anyone else capable of
having a match like this with The Undertaker. So I guess we'll have
to wait and see.
No Holds Barred Match: Triple H w/Shawn
Michaels Vs. Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman
Now earlier, I
mentioned that my expectations for this one would be and all out
brawl and on that stance this match once again delivered. With a
number of decent spots involving steel chairs, steel steps and of
course Triple H's trusty sledgehammer. However this match suffered
from it's placing on the card, having the follow Undertaker's victory
over CM Punk was always going to be difficult, with a crowd clearly
physically and emotionally tired from the previous match.
Whilst this match was
a decent brawl, it heavily missed the element of realism that Brock's
match with John Cena at last year's Extreme Rules show had. The
hatred between the two that has been mentioned over the last several
weeks and pushed throughout the match by Jerry Lawler and co. just
didn't seem to be evident in the bout. It's clear that Lesnar is
uncomfortable with dealing with WWE storylines by the fact that he
wasn't present at any of the 'Mania promotions including the official
press conference and this was clear for all to see during the match.
However, despite
saying this the match is put together well as you'd expect from these
two veterans, as well as Paul Heyman. Each spot felt like a natural
step up from the one that had been seen previously as each competitor
came up with new ways to try to put their opponents away.
Once Triple H had the
Kimura locked on Lesnar after focusing on his arm, especially after
Michaels sweet chin music to Paul Heyman, I was legitimately willing
Lesnar not to tap out, just as the Metlife came alive in the match,
the repeating Kimura attempt began to build and it felt like Triple H
may beat Lesnar with his own submission hold. It felt like something
Triple H would have come with backstage to help boost his already
huge ego, luckily my opinion of Triple H was boosted when Lesnar
eventually managed to get out of the hold.
The Game eventually
picked up the win with a sledgehammer shot followed by a pedigree
onto the steel steps, which felt like a much more satisfying ending
to the bout. However, I'm not sure exactly what The Cerebral
Assassins win and continued career really brings to the table of the
current WWE. Hunter can still go that's for sure, but maybe it's time
to step aside and let some younger stars take the spots on these big
cards.
World Heavyweight
Championship: Alberto Del Rio w/Ricardo Rodriguez Vs. Jack Swagger
w/Zeb Colter
This contest for me
was the surprise of the night. I expect a good technical contest
between the two, however Swagger and Del Rio went above and beyond
those expectations, pulling off a great, if not a little short,
technical contest with some nice reversals and some nice story
telling involving both Rodriguez and Colter.
Last year, no one
would have predicted that these two would be in one of the four
biggest matches at Wrestlemania, with Del Rio out injured (returning
the day after Wrestlemania) and Jack Swagger getting lost in the mess
that was Team Jonny against Team Teddy. Swagger's run of bad luck
continued for most of the year, until he was given time of for a
repackage, whilst Del Rio stayed in the World Title hunt for most of
the year having multiple PPV matches with Sheamus before getting lost
in the card and ending up lost on Team Ziggler at Survivor Series,
the answer to this, turning Del Rio into an unlikely hero. Despite
thinking this could never work, I have enjoyed Del Rio's face run and
the returning Jack Swagger, repackaged with a Xenophobic “Real
American” gimmick seemed like the perfect opponent.
In terms of storyline
build up, I thought this was one of the strongest matches on the
card, helped by both stars being full time competitors and being
afforded plenty of time across Raw, Smackdown and Main Event.
The ending of the
match focussed on both men's finishing submission holds Del Rio's
Cross Armbreaker and Swagger's Patriot Lock. Reversals were a plenty
as these men showed of they're amateur wrestling ability, both
managing to make each other look strong. Swagger holding on for so
long in Armbreaker, allows him to stay strong going forward and
hopefully we'll get a rematch between the two at Extreme Rules that
will afford them the extra time they no doubt deserved for this
outing.
The Best of the
Rest
For me, the best match on the under card, was The Shield's victory
over the make shift team of Randy Orton, Sheamus and Big Show. The
Shield continue to be built up very well by WWE and the steady build
up for them has only helped the team gain popularity and momentum as
WWE look to learn from their mistakes with Nexus a few years ago. The
six man tags the Shield have had over the last few PPV's have been
some of the best I have ever seen. They seem to have the psychology
of these types of matches nailed on and the same could be said for
tonight.
The biggest moment of the match came when Big Show managed to spear
all three member of The Shield at once as they attempted their triple
powerbomb on Sheamus. As well as Seth Rollin's dangerous dive to the
outside, where he seemed to hit the barricade pretty hard, if he's
not injured in some way, he's very lucky after Randy Orton failed to
absorb any of the dive.
Towards the end of the match, WWE teased a Randy Orton heel turn, as
Orton stole a tag from The Big Show, eventually leading to an RKO on
Seth Rollins, and straight into a huge spear from Roman Reigns which
lead to the victory. However, WWE in my opinion went for the easy
options, turning Big Show instantly back, with two knock-out punches
to Sheamus and Orton. This seems the case with WWE at the moment,
they look scared to make that leap in case it goes wrong, with both
Orton and a large proportion fans calling for a heel turn it's clear
what should have happened, but maybe WWE just sees it as too much of
a risk.
The Fandango and Chris Jericho matches was marred with a number of
errors in a match that did neither men any favours. A lot was
expected from these after WWE held off the former Johnny Curtis's
début until the Granddaddy of them All and against a competitor of
Chris Jericho's standing, it's understandable that the pressure was
huge on the two to perform. However that performance never came and
the match felt like the two going through the motions, with the
awkward ending not helping towards this. It also seemed an odd
decision for Jericho to kick out of Fandango's finish on his début,
and Fandango to still win.
The Tag Team title contest, featuring Team Hell No facing the team
of Dolph Ziggler and the debuting Big E Langston, was a solid contest
but forgettable one. Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler proved during
their short time in the ring, why they are considered two the most
technically gifted competitors in the WWE with some stellar ring
work, whilst Kane continues to amaze with his ability to still go at
this level on a full time basis and Big E looked solid on his main
roster début. A lot of people expected this loss would lead to
Ziggler cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase later in the
night, however this was not to be, and I'd hazard a guess that
Ziggler's comments about The Rock and Cena earlier in the week might
have something to do with it.
Mark Henry against Ryback went longer than I had expected but the
bulk of the match was pretty much how everyone saw it. Two wrestlers
of this size were never going to have a technical master class, it
was was always going to be two big guys throwing each other around.
They managed to keep both men strong with Henry picking up the
victory, followed by Ryback lifting Henry up for a Shellshock, which
was a spectacular sight. Ryback must have been training after being
unable to lift Paul Heyman at Raw house show last year!
The pre-show featured the Intercontinental Championship match between
Wade Barrett and The Miz. The match was had not much difference from
the match they had on Raw a few weeks ago, about the same length and
similar work from both. It was technically sound with no real botches
of note, but felt like it was just missing something and seeing as
the pre-show was a full hour could have done with having longer than
it was given. The finish was nice with The Miz finally finding a
decent way to get into the Figure Four Leg Lock which he has
butchered for weeks.
Unfortunately the Tons of Funk/Funkadactyls Vs. Rhodes Scholars/Bella
Twins was cut from the show. Although this would never have set the
world a light it would have been a nice change of pace for the show.
Finally...
Overall, I thought Wrestlemania XXIX was an enjoyable show, which
largely lived up to my expectations (not that those were particularly
high in some places) The variety of matches featured seemed like a
good balance for The Shows of Shows, which I think would have
satisfied the more casual of fans. Of course there is never please
some areas of fandom, who will complain about the title being on a
part timer and then complain again when, arguably, the hardest work
guy in the company takes the title from him. Will complain one year
about a main event not being for the WWE Championship, and complain
the next when the main event is for the WWE Championship.
Personally I think the order did harm the show in it's latter stages.
The sheer energy from the crowd during the CM Punk Vs. Undertaker
match left the crowd tired for Triple H Vs. Brock Lesnar which
couldn't live up to what had gone before, leaving the crowd flat
going into the Main Event. I would have swapped the Punk/Taker with
Triple H/Lesnar which should have lead to a louder more invested
crowd for The Game and The Next Big Thing, with the quality of The
Phenom and The Best in the World's match being able to draw the fans
back. The Rock and John Cena might have then suffered, but if Diddy's
performance was moved in between the two, it would have given the
audience a chance to breath and hopefully be ready for the WWE
Championship Main Event.
That's Wrestlemania done for another year, if you have any opinions
of your own leave them in the comment box below. You can also message
me on Twitter @IamNotAlanDale and if you can find me on Facebook I'm
under my real name.
Time to get ready for tonights big Raw. I'm excited to see how it
plays out.
