He won the title shot on Feb 24 and the match was 3 weeks later. I guess they could have signed him in that 3 week period, but did they have to go full on implied racism in the build? First of all, you don't do that ever. Secondly if you do break that rule then Booker needs to go over regardless of anything.

As for his match against Sting, I don't think it was a comedy match at all. It was booked as kind of like a play telling the story of the Monday Night War. WWF won and they shook hands afterwards effectively ending the war forever.

It's what moorobot said. It was unintentional comedy. But the only possible entertainment most of us could derive from it was the goofy humor of it all.

I don't disagree about it being unintentional comedy. I was just saying what it looked like they were going for. I'm guessing which ever producer booked the match had some grand idea about reliving the late 90's in this match and what came out was nothing like he or they invisioned.

turned on network to see WM25 was on, michaels vs. taker specifically so watched it of course. after the match, the video package for the main event started up. was the buildup to this match as bad as it seems? edge vs. big show for the title but gets turned into a triple threat because cena has a video of big show making out with vicky? seems worse than this year is such a thing is possible

lol guess it wasn't the ME after all... good ol HHH

I was confused as **** for a second because that show has the worst ME in WM history. Possible hyperbole? At the time it sure was the worst but 27 and 29 are up there now.

yeah it was my mistake, i wasn't watching during WM25. i just assumed the triple threat was ME when i heard the title was on the line, but forgot they had the 2 belt thing going on.

crowd seemed to not like the HHH/Orton match very much either...

Sid vs. Undertaker has to be a strong contender for worst WM main event ever.

I'm trying to get through 25 myself and just can't do it. This might be where I finally tap out.

I didn't think there was any question. It's either Sid/Taker or Sid/Hogan.

I would think Hogan/Bundy is on the podium at least.

Hogan/Bundy wasn't great, but it surprised me by being non-horrible last time I saw it. I thought it was at least a two-star match, maybe a bit better. Told a coherent story at least.

WRESTLEMANIA XX

Where It All Begins...Again

So I've actually made it through 20 of these. Honestly I didn't think I would make it this far, and I don't know how many I have left in me at 3h 45min + a show. This one clocked in at 4:30 but at least it was a good show. A bit quirky at times, but a good show.

Show Notes

- Hey lookie, lookie here. It's the debut of John Cena at Wrestlemania. His Dr. of Thuganomics gimmick looks like something I would either love or absolutely despise. There would be no in between, but by what he did before the match with Big Show I think I may have liked it.

- loljohncenawins

- I understand and admire Vince's desire to get as many people a Mania payday as possible, but why does almost tag title match as WM have to be a multi team **** show? There were two 4 team matches on this card alone. As a fan of tag team wrestling, it's a hard trend to accept.

- Another great Chris Jericho match at Wrestlemania, and another match for him way too low on the card.

- I think the Evolution vs Rock and Sock Connection was very well done. Starting with the promo work before the match all the way through the after match in ring stuff was very good. And for the record, this is where big name part timers should be placed on the card. Not near or at the top. Those top spots should always be for full time guys.

- What is the fascination with throwaway T&A matches at WM. These do not draw one extra dime of revenue, and just take time away from performers that could use it. More on that later.

- Usually I would turn my nose up at something like the Cruiserweight Open, or whatever it was called, but there were a lot of very good performers who did nice work with the limited time they were given. I think if tweaked a little it could be a nice match gimmick on occasion.

- I need to rant a little right now. I know what I am going to say here might be a tad unpopular, but I need to say it. Goldberg may be the most overrated wrestler in the history of the business. Other than his look, everything good about him was gifted upon him by the people in charge. I know everyone likes to compare him with Ryback, but what did he do that is any different from what Ryback does now. I think Ryback is better on the mic, and they are both equally bad and dangerous in the ring. The only difference was that WCW needed someone to be the next big thing, so they gave him a bogus undefeated streak. I hope he never comes back on my TV again.

- Oh, and his match against Lesnar sucked at this show

- The Women's Championship match was good, and kudos to Molly Holly for taking one for the team. I really got a kick out of the fact they were still finishing her haircut when Angle came out for the next match.

- Great match between Angle and Eddie Guerrero. I forgot how good Eddie was and I'm really enjoying his Latino Heat gimmick. His untying of his boot to distract Angle for the finish was well done as was the entire match.

- I did chuckle a little at the irony of Kurt Angle referring to Guerrero as a drug addict on multiple occasions.

- What was the deal with only giving the 2nd to last match 6 minutes? Did they run long and had to cut this? Or was this the plan the whole way. If it was cut, the certainly could have used the 10 minutes wasted for the evening gown match. Not that I was pining for another Kane vs Undertaker match, but it just seemed a bit wrong that they only got 6 minutes.

- Now that was a main event. As far as triple threat matches go, it was one of the best I've ever seen. All three performers worked their asses off and the finish was very satisfying.

- The only bad thing about this match was the audience. I know I rag on wrestling audiences a lot, but their behavior at the end of this match was terrible. I understand they wanted Benoit to win, but after the job all three did, to boo Shawn Michaels while he was " Tuning up the band" preparing for his Sweet Chon Music was disgraceful. I don't care who you were rooting for to start, whoever won at the end of this deserved their applause.

- I don't know how much it has been used, but I really liked Michaels' crafty way of blading for his catapult into the ring post. When it first happened I thought he was bleeding too heavy too quickly for him to have bladed after hitting the post and I thought it could have been a hard way. But when I rewound the spot I saw him holding the blade and slice himself before the move while his back was on the mat. Very well done.


AWARD TIME

Match of the Night

Triple Threat match for the World Hwt. Title. This was one of the best Mania matches up to this point. It drew me in right away and held my attention the whole time. The story was told exceptionally.

Worst Match of the Night

The stupid evening gown match. I already went into why this should have never been on the card, and I'm looking forward to the PG era starting so we can lose this crap for good.

MVP

Eddie Guerrero. I really liked his work against Angle. He really looked like he was in his prime here, and it's a shame to know that he won't be around all that much longer.

LVP

The audience. For reasons I already stated and I really don't want to give them anymore time than I already gave them.

SHOW RANKINGS

Like I stated at the beginning this was a really good show. Again not elite level, but definitely top 10.

X-SEVEN
VIII
III
XIV
XIX
X
XX
VI
VII
X8
V
1
13
XII
IV
2000
XI
IX
2
XV

I knocked out the first 20 Manias although it took me a lot longer than I thought it would. My goal when I started doing these again back in late December was to get all 31 done before 32 happened, but as you can see, I won't get anywhere near that, and at almost 4 hrs a show I don't know if I will ever get there. With that said, I will start watching 21 and see where that takes me.

I don't think you'll find anyone around here who will defend Goldberg as being particularly talented, unless teejay makes a cameo.

WCW still made the Goldberg experience one that was in a different league than the Ryback bull**** of today, just by orchestrating his signature entrance if nothing else.

I'm with LKJ on this one. Even on wrestling forums, you won't find anyone who thinks Goldberg had any talent, at all. The only one who overrates Goldberg, is, Goldberg.

Goldberg is a demonstration that booking a guy really strong and presenting him as something special and distinct from the rest of the roster can turn somebody into a huge draw if he has physical charisma. One of the strangest things about contemporary wrestling is the paucity of serious attempts to build draws this way in just about every company.

In modern WWE it seems like Brock Lesnar kind of blocks out the sun in that lane. Not that you can't have more than one monster, but it's awfully difficult to god-push someone into being believable as anything close to a Lesnar equivalent.

Yeah, maybe it was teejay's Goldberg enthusiasm in that draft we did that made him seem more popular here than he actually is.

He doesn't even need to be that jacked physically. ****, they did it with John ****ing Tenta in the early90s. If the guy has SOME charisma he can seem like a monster.

He does this also in Badd Blood 1997 in HIAC vs Taker when Taker slingshots him into the side of the cell.

WRESTLEMANIA 21

Wrestlemania Goes Hollywood

So I have made it to the 2/3 mark of watching these shows and it has been an interesting ride. Plenty of ups and downs, and this show was fell somewhere in the middle. And to be honest after the fact knowing the performers who were on this show, that surprises me a bit. With that said there were some very good matches, and some that disappointed me. With that said, on to my thoughts.

SHOW THOUGHTS

- I see the disrespecting of tag team wrestling is continuing with the presentation of the tag champs on this show. WWE usually does a good job with their highlight packages that recap what got us to this match. They did not do a good job of that for this match. I guess that is the downside of watching the shows like this. I really had no feel for why tag partners were fighting, and I guess it was too much to ask for Cole and Tazz to fill me in.

- The match itself between Guerrero and Mysterio was a downer too. I expected a really good match, and I didn't feel that it what I watched. On paper these two should have tore it down, the fell far short of that.

- Speaking of disrespecting titles and champs, not only weren't the tag titles defended here, neither were the IC or US titles on this show. I'm curious as to what the thought process on this was behind the scenes. Or if there even was a thought process that went into it.

- And that brings us to the first ever Money in the Bank match. I rarely look at a show's card before watching it, so I had no idea who was in it, so when the wrestlers were announced, I got a little more disappointed knowing how good of a singles match each competition could have had. And the funniest part of it, is that I was already thinking about my post here and how I would have rather seen the six performers face off in 3 singles matches. Then the final wrestler came out... Kane. Kane? Really? It felt like I was watching Sesame Street again playing the " One of these things is not like the other" game, and light would dim on Kane.

- I'm sure though that in the moment, this was seen as a new and exciting concept, and it did deliver for the most part. As far as gimmick 6 man ladder matches go, this one was very good although I felt like the winner was obvious but I'm sure that is in part to hindsight.

- What the hell is a Eugene, and why is he on my television?

- You know, this journey through the Undertaker's Mania career has been very very underwhelming. At this point, and I know it changes in a few years, he has had maybe one or two good matches at WM. This one with Orton, although not a classic, was better than I thought it would be. They meshed together better than I thought they would, and this is definitely in the top 3 or 4 of Taker Mania matches. Plus anytime I get to see Bob Orton revive the cast gimmick, it's a good day.

- I guess they had another Women's match. I have know previous knowledge of this, but I'm guessing it was originally supposed to be Trish vs Lita, but Lita got injured and Chrissy Hemme was the last minute replacement. And her Playboy spread gave her the nod over other more qualified women.

- I am really enjoying watching Shawn Michaels 2nd act with regards to his wrestling career. It's nice to watch one of the greats seemingly only worried about having the best match possible every time out and not dealing with title positioning. Flair had a similar run towards the end of his career, and Jericho and the Dudleys are examples of that in today's WWE.

- Pairing him with Angle was a genius move here and the two put on a story telling clinic. Very well done, and probably a top 5 WM match up to this point. It also helps that they gave this match almost 30 minutes. Which I found surprising since it got a lot more time than the main event.

- I'm glad they gave Piper a chance to redeem himself after the Morton Downey Jr. debacle back at VII. I guess it was a good way to get Austin on the show, and to give that annoying guy, Carlito, a rub. I don't know if it succeeded, but it was entertaining.

- I used to be a really big fan of Sumo wrestling back in the 90's and early 2000's, so my interest was piqued when I heard that Akebono was making an appearance. And I enjoyed his sumo match with Big Show for what it was.

- 12 minutes for the WWE title match at a Wrestlemania? The only two matches that got less was the Women's match and the sumo match. They should have named this show Wrestlemania Goes Disrespectful. I can understand why people think the titles mean nothing after watching this show.

- I did really like JBL's entrance though.

- Color me shocked the HHH did the honors for Batista. I would have bet a substantial amount of money on HHH winning this match cleanly with a Pedigree after kicking out of three finishers from Batista. Good match too.

AWARDS TIME

Match of the Night

Easy winner here is Michaels vs Angle. There seems to be a trend growing with regards to Michaels showing up here. He is one of the performers of all time.

Worst Match of the Night

I guess I'll go with the Women's title match. There were only 3 title matches on this show, and this was easily the worst, but I'm not blaming the wrestlers for it. They did what they could, it just wasn't that good.

MVP

Shawn Michaels. Yet again he wins this award. His storytelling was exceptional, and I really loved his facial expressions when deciding to tap out to the ankle lock. It was very well done.

LVP

Kane. Did he do anything in the ladder match? He literally could have forgot to come out and that MitB match wouldn't have lost a step.

The WTF?! What Did I Just Watch Moment

That Eugene/Terrorist Shiek/ Hogan skit. What the hell was that?


SHOW RANKINGS

After 4 straight really good shows, this one comes in a little below those. While not terrible, I think it left a lot to be desired. I would put it somewhere in the middle with regards to the previous 20 shows.

X-SEVEN
VIII
III
XIV
XIX
X
XX
VI
VII
X8
V
21
1
13
XII
IV
2000
XI
IX
2
XV

And on we move to Wrestlemania 22. I don't want to keep harping on how it's getting increasing difficult to keep watching these, so I will just say that I will do my best.

The Morton Downey Jr. debacle was at V.

I actually liked Carlito decently well (stupidity of him talking at the start of his entrance theme notwithstanding), but by the time he officially drugged his way out of the WWE it didn't feel like much of a loss.

Eddie faced Rey because Eddie wanted to prove to himself that he could beat Rey. They had many matches on tv and Eddie never ever won.

I love that Hogan moment. Dat pop!

Bah. I couldn't remember if it was V or VII. That was the last note I wrote, and the iPad was losing juice, and I didn't want to chance losing everything looking it up. Still, that isn't an excuse, I need to be better

I wonder if 13 would be consensus worst wm if not for hart Austin