WRESTLMANIA XXVI
Get All Fired Up
Im back, Bitches! Actually just in case you didnt know or forgot, this is my new account. I used to be under AJD804, but when I found out some Russian scum bag was using my account to scam swappers, they had to close that one. Anyway, I know its been a while, but now Im back to hopefully close out these last few Manias. Lets get on to the show.
SHOW NOTES
- We have the obligatory ultra patriotic opening that Vince loves. This includes America The Beautiful sung by someone named after a terrible Disney Movie. I have no idea who Fantasia is and if i never hear another song from her ill be just fine.
- Apparently we are in Phoenix this year at University of Phoenix Stadium. I really wish The Arizona Cardinals would have taken up the local Mexican restaurant chain's bid for the naming rights. Pink Taco Stadium sounds so much better. Either way this was a terrible venue to host Mania. The crowd for 90% of the show sounded like the werent interested. They looked like they were into it, but I guess the sound just went up and out of the hole in the roof.
- Shomiz? Really? This was an actual thing in the WWE? I mean the two wrestlers together were ok, but that name is awful. Breezango is a better team name than that.
- And what was the deal with all of the different belts? If you are going to have a unified championship, then just have one, or in this case two belts. I dont need to see both guys carrying two belts. And eventhough it was never mentioned once. Im assuming that third belt that Miz was carrying was the US title.
- But I guess I cant really ask for much more when it was said that R-Truth and John Morrison got this opportunity by winning a match that aired literally 2 day prior. Great build.
- As I have stated many times before I really dont like matches with more than 2 wrestlers or teams, but the triple threat matc with the former Legacy members was really well done. I just wish it was given more time, but tht seems to be a theme throughout the show.
- How did anyone involved with WWE think it was a good idea to have 10 people in a MitB ladder match? That was the most jumbled piece of crap match Ive seen in a long time.
- I did enjoy the spot where Kofi used the broken ladder as a pair of stilts. Really creative. And Jack Swagger won. Yay!
- Seemed like a decent enough HoF class in 2010. I thought having Ted DiBiase as the headliner was a nice touch as well. In my notes that I was taking during the show I wrote that I found it curious the Bret Hart didnt come out and figured that he was pulling the same stuff he did when he was inducted. I found out later that I was wrong.
- I have to admit something. This is the second time Im attempting to watch this show. I tried once shortly after I did the write up for WM XXV. I fell asleep watching the Sheamus vs HHH match, but I attributed that to not getting a lot of sleep around that time. That wasnt it at all. This match was just boring. It wasnt bad, just boring.
- I am glad to see that the up and comer, HHH got the win here. Hopefully this will launch his career to the next level.
- When I saw that the next match was CM Punk vs Rey, I got legitimately excited that I was going to finally get to see a really good match on this show. While it wasnt close to a bad match, it really wasnt all that good either. I would rate it a solid Meh!
- I know a lot of people think Big SHow's KO Punch is the worst finisher ever, but in my opinion it doesnt get any worse than the 619. Its basically a pair of shins to the head that has to be comically set up. Terrible.
- And I see that my question about Bret Hart not being on the HoF stage was answered. It looks like yet another Legacy Wrestler vs Vince match. At least this one had a legit back story to it
- Isnt it great to see the entire Hart family out there together, pretending to love each other. If you havent read Bret's book, then you have no idea what a collection of turds this family really is. I found myself playing "Who is the scummiest Hart sibling?" during this match. I finally settled on the ref for this match. I think that was Bruce, but who the hell really knows.
- I thought the three man booth of Cole, Lawler, and Stryker just didnt work. I dont think Stryker understood that he wasnt the play by play guy. I really like his work on Lucha Underground, but here it just didnt fit. With that said, he had a great line when Natalya hit Vince during this match. After she hit him he said "Best of luck in your future endeavors." I popped for that line.
- Towards the end of the package that was setting up the Jericho/Edge match, there was a spot where Edge went for a spear and Jericho nailed him with the belt. That shot looked stiff as hell, and didnt look much better when they showed it two more times.
- It was nice to finally watch a match that I would consider good. As stated before Im not a fan of Edge's work as a singles competetor, but this was a good match.
- And of course the followed it up with the 10 diva tag team match. I dont think it could have been botchier if Sin Cara was in it. I did enjoy the Styles Clash that Michele McCool did. That really came out of nowhere.
- In what I can only assume was an homage to LKJ, both World Champs came out first in their respective matches.
- While Batista was walking to the ring, Michael Cole decided to drop some knowledge on us. He claimed that the WWE Championship was defended 25 times up to this point and the title changed hands 15 of those times. Someone needed to remind him that the championship wasnt defended at WM 1 or IV.
- I was shocked that I enjoyed the match between Cena and Batista as much as I did. I really felt with the way the night had been going and the lack of crowd involvemnt up to this point, they had a chance to really stink out the joint. I was pleasantly surprised.
- I really got a kick out of Cena celebrating after his win with the group if ringside people who were wearing I Hate Cena shirts. Really good stuff.
- What can you say about the Taker vs HBK match? It was one of the best matches Ive seen in a Wrestlemania to this point. Im not sure if it was better than their first match, but at worst its just behind it. I just finished watching it about 90 minutes ago, so maybe ill take a little more time to digest it, and also maybe watch both again.
- What a sick moonsault HBK did from the top rope on to the annouce table. Someone needs to tell him he doesnt have to do that stuff. DOnt get me wrong it was awesome, but man it looked scary.
- The aftermatch stuff was really great too. Im glad they didnt play HBK's theme music as he walked out, that would have taken me out of the moment.
- I may have brought this up before, but now that it is over after this match, I would like to talk about HBK's career. Between the time that I came back to watching wrestling in 2014 and having watched and reviewed all of these shows, I heard a lot of people in podcasts and shoot interviews talk about Shawn Michaels in the most glowing terms possible. Austin and Flair have said multiple times that he is the best in ring worker of all time, and before watching these shows, I was shaking my head at that and couldnt figure out why they would say that.
Then I saw his return to the ring work at Wrestlemania and a couple matches at Summerslam. Wow! I guess in his time off he really figured some things out, because he is easily the best wrestler in Wrestlemania history. His work before his retirement after XIV was good. Ive commented a few times here that I really liked it, but I didnt think it came even close to "best of all time" territory. But every match he had from XIX on was just stellar. OK maybe 22 against Vince wasnt stellar, but it was definitely the best match Vince has had at Mania. I dont think there are enough positive words I can use to describe his work so Ill stop now.
AWARDS TIME
Match of the Night
Im pretty sure this is the first and only back to back winner, as HBK/Taker take it again. Just another great match out of them. If I was into giving star ratings this would be a 4 3/4* easy.
Worst Match of the Night
I thought about giving this to MitB because of there being 10 people in it, but it would be a travesty for any match but the Divas tag match getting the nod here. What a pile of steaming turds this botchfest was.
MVP
Even if he didnt deserve it, which he did by a mile, I still would have given it to HBK. Im pretty sure Ive given it to him 4 or 5 times now, so Im just going to rename it the HBK award from here on out.
LVP
Vicki Guerrero. What the hell was that frog splash thing she tried to do in honor of Eddie. Im pretty sure Eddie turned over when she landed on her feet and then flopped down on Kelly Kelly. Oh and then she botched the cover. Who the hell botches the winning pin attempt?
Sign of the Night
Its been a while since I gave it out, and maybe because ive been away from this for so long, Ive softened a bit, but there were three signs I just loved.
1. Right before the Jericho/Edge match someone held up a sign that read "I Hope A Canadian Wins This"
2. There was a sign visible before the Cena/Batista match that was just a Mooninite. If you dont know what a Mooninite is, you need to stop right now, google it, and then spend the next few hours aquainting yourself with ATHF
3. Also there was a sign opposite the hard camera for the Cena/Batista match that read "Batista Likes Fishsticks" I dont know why, but I just loved that.
SHOW RANKINGS
This was a decent show by Wrestlemania standards. It certainly wasnt a one show match that we sometimes get from these, but it also wasnt in the top tier either. I would put it probably a little above X8.
X-SEVEN
VIII
III
XIV
XIX
23
X
XX
22
VI
VII
XXVI
X8
V
XXV
XXIV
21
1
13
XII
IV
XI
IX
2
XV
It feels good to be back, and hopefully I can get into swing of this again and get these knocked out soon. After rereading what others have wrote, I think im in line for some not so good shows coming up. I know one of the main event participants in the next show and Im not exactly thrilled about it. I also havent decided how Im going to handle 31 and 32 yet. Ill probably just rewatch 31 just like every other show, but Im not sure about 32. I guess Ill just rewatch that too, but at 4 1/2 boring hours its going to be a slog. Until next time.
AJ