WrestleMania 21
April 3, 2005 - Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
- Well, I made it -- less than a year between reviews! The next several will be interesting to go through, as I don't think I've seen any of them in full.
- Lilian Garcia does America the Beautiful again. They then run through clips of all the fantastic movie parodies they did leading up to the show, as part of the WrestleMania Goes Hollywood theme. I can't decide which one is my favourite, they're all so good. The set is terrific as well, with the spotlights, old-school marquee displaying the matches, red carpet in the aisle and the theatre curtain over the TitanTron.
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero ***1/2
Eddie and Rey are the Smackdown tag team champions, BTW. Add Eddie to the list of WrestleMania freefallers, co-main eventer to curtain jerker in one year flat. It fit into the storyline, though, which was Eddie losing his confidence since losing the title to JBL, and trying to build himself back up by proving he could beat Rey, even though they were partners. Crowd is solidly behind him. Rey annoys the living **** out of me by adjusting his mask constantly throughout the match. Eddie controls most of the way with mat wrestling and stiff-looking power moves that looked like they could snap Rey in half. He can't finish, though, and is visibly frustrated, moreso when Rey counters a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into the West Coast Pop for an out-of-nowhere win. Eddie did the respect handshake afterward, saving the heel turn for later. This was nowhere near their legendary Havoc 97 match, but still quite good.
- Backstage, HHH can't resist trying to bury JBL for no reason other than he can.
- I object to JR calling Rob Schneider one of Hollywood's biggest stars just on general principle.
Money in the Bank ladder match: IC champion Shelton Benjamin, Chris Benoit, Christian, Edge, Chris Jericho and Kane ****3/4
The original, and still the best. I can't possibly do this justice here. Unreal spots, pacing, selling (especially Benoit selling the **** out of the arm all match) -- just brilliant. Nothing looked contrived here at all, no slow climbing or blatantly setting up spots. Plus this really launched Edge to the top as the start of his Ultimate Opportunist character. Unfortunately, the star of the match, Benjamin, was the only one whose career went downhill afterward. I had to see how on earth they set up for Benjamin's famous ladder run without making it obvious; Christian did just a phenomenal job subtly getting the ladder into position and holding it in place entirely within the flow of the match. This completely revitalized the ladder match and would give fans a guaranteed great match to look forward to at Mania every year.
- And now we get Eugene down to talk about WrestleMania moments. And midgets. This draws out Muhammad Hassan, upset that he's not even on the card, to accuse everyone of being bigots and to beat down Eugene. Hassan puts Eugene in the camel clutch, when Real American hits and the place comes absolutely UNGLUED. Hulk Hogan, inducted into the HoF the night before, comes down to get rid of Hassan and Daivari, and does the super-extended posedown for everyone (including fellow former WCW champion David Arquette, lol). This was actually pretty awesome.
The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton ***
Orton had just gone back to being the Legend Killer after a thoroughly awful face run over the summer, where he beat Benoit for the title, got kicked out of Evolution as a result, and then was summarily buried by HHH in his first title defence. Nice video package to intro this, I'd forgotten he RKOed Stacy Keibler during the build. Druids with torches for Taker's entrance. This was very methodical (read: slow), particularly in the middle portion with multiple restholds, but the crowd stayed in it through to the frenetic finish. One of the best spots I can remember to close, with Orton reversing a chokeslam into a surprise RKO that could've been easily bought as the finish, only to get too full of himself and try a tombstone, which of course is reversed by Taker for the pin. Pretty solid, all things considered.
Women's title: Trish Stratus (c) vs. Christy Hemme 1/2*
How sad is it that THIS was the only secondary title match? Christy was the inaugural Diva Search winner, and a spread in Playboy got her this spot at WrestleMania. Unfortunately, she couldn't work a lick, which makes this probably the only "heel underestimates inexperienced face" angle where the face was actually properly estimated the whole time. Half-star solely for Trish's heel work.
Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle *****
Absolutely brilliant. Told a simple but great story -- two top-level guys wanting to prove themselves against the other on the biggest stage possible, unwilling to quit until given absolutely no other option. The finish, with HBK fighting valiantly but futilely in the heel hook, was one of the most compelling in WM history. It's so hard to make a crowd care this much about a match with nothing at stake, no gimmicks and no historical implications (a la Bret/Austin), and it's a testament to how amazing both these guys are that the match rose to such a high level. They were able to keep the crowd interested during a two-minute side headlock! It's unfortunate that this got matched against Flair/Steakboat in the greatest matches bracket, because this clearly deserved to go further, just a textbook example of how to put on a great wrestling match.
- Piper's Pit with Austin (and Carlito). Nothing especially noteworthy, although watching Piper try to beat the What? chant was funny.
Sumo match: Big Show vs. Akebono
No rating for sumo matches, but I didn't hate this. But then, I actually think sumo is pretty cool.
WWE title: JBL (c) vs. John Cena *
JOHN CENA SUUUU...oh, wait. Oof, this was not good. I mean, obviously if you're going to run with Cena as the franchise, you have no choice but to put him over the guy who's held the belt for almost the entire year, and when that guy's JBL, you have to accept that you're not going to get a good match. Even so, this still came in under expectations. JBL killed the crowd dead with his boring, limited offence and gave Cena virtually nothing until the end, not exactly the showcase you'd expect for a guy who's being pushed as the future. Easily the worst WWF/E title match at Mania aside from Sid/Taker at WM13.
- Mean Gene Okerlund introduces the 2005 Hall of Famers - Nikolai Volkoff, Iron Sheik, Paul Orndorff, Bob Orton, Jimmy Hart, Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan.
World heavyweight title: Triple H (c) vs. Batista **1/2
The angle leading to this was great, especially when they ended the slow burn and finally pulled the trigger on Batista's face turn -- still one of the best moments in Raw's history. HHH, of course, gets Motorhead to play him down to the ring. This one started out following a very similar pattern to the previous match, with HHH methodically controlling things and not giving much to Batista in the way of comebacks, before they picked things up with a nice bloody brawl over the final few minutes to wake the crowd up. Nothing terribly offensive, but I feel like this could've been booked a lot better.
Overall: 7.25/10
This felt like the polar opposite of last year's show. Whereas XX's strength lay in a pair of blowaway main events that left a great lasting impression, 21 featured amazing work in the undercard -- particularly MitB and HBK/Angle -- and fell flat where it counted most. It's not a bad show by any means, not even close, but when the main events are the worst matches on the card, the show suffers greatly. I would compare this best with Wrestlemania VIII (elite first half, terrible second half), with 21 coming in just slightly over.
Ratings so far:
X-7 - 10.0
III - 9.5
XX - 8.75
X - 8.5
XIV - 8.0
21 - 7.25
VIII - 7.0
VII - 6.0
X8 - 5.5
VI - 5.25
V - 5.0
2000 - 5.0
XII - 4.75
I - 4.5
13 - 4.5
XI - 4.0
2 - 3.5
IV - 3.0
IX - 2.5
XV - 2.0