Wrestlemania XXVI

[OlympicHero]

Well, it's only 2 and a half weeks away and the card is almost set. So what does everybody think this year's Mania looks like on paper?

I believe there's plenty of depth to provide a very entertaining show, up there with my personal favourites Mania 17, 21 and 24.

World Heavyweight Championship
Chris Jericho vs. Edge
This should have a fantastic match, providing Jericho is at his flawless best, rather than showing signs of sloppiness which he's known for. I'd expect Edge to go over in this one.

WWE Championship
Batista vs. John Cena
Though it may not win Match of the Year honours, it's still an intriguing contest between two of WWE's top stars. Now that Batista is playing the vicious heel too, this match should differ from their previous outing at Summerslam 2008. Cena to win this, evening up the rivalry at 1-1.

Bret "Hitman" Hart vs. Vince McMahon
This won't be much of a match, more of an angle big enough to grace the biggest stage of all. Just seeing these two in the ring on that night will provide a big enough spectacle though and Bret is bound to get some kind of revenge.

Triple H vs. Sheamus
I'm not the least bit interested in this match, simply because of the latter's involvement, but I suppose they need something to fill the card. Hopefully, HHH can carry the load and make it, at worst, watchable. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sheamus take the win in this one, seeing as though he and HHH are backstage buddies.

WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
ShowMiz vs. John Morrison & R-Truth
Again, a match I'm not really interested in due to Morrison's face run being the pits and R-Truth boring the snot out of me. Match quality should be ok, providing Show remains on the apron for the majority of it. ShowMiz to retain the gold in my opinion.

Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Christian vs. Matt Hardy vs. Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. MVP vs. Evan Bourne vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin
Wrestlemania's annual attraction will no doubt provide the same thrills and spills as in previous years, so I'm definitely looking forward to this one. Hard to pick a winner from the guys involved (where's Kofi Kingston?!?), but I'll go with "Captain Charisma".

Streak vs. Career - No Disqualification, No Count-Out
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
Last year's Mania was saved from being a complete dud by these two legends and the pressure is on for them to raise the bar even higher. The question is: Can they? Injuries have played a major factor over the past 12 months so it's hard to imagine them being able to tear the house down as they did last year.....but I hope I'm wrong. With both rumoured to be taking time off immediately after Mania, the outcome of this match has changed in my head hundreds of times......but I think Taker will extend the streak to 18-0 and hopefully lead to a long overdue HBK heel turn.

Where does that leave Orton and Legacy? The two matches I thought they may use have happened in the last 2 weeks on Raw......I guess we'll find out soon enough. Also, confrontations on Smackdown recently lead me to think it'll be CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio......which could steal the show if it does happen.

So, it should be a Mania to remember this year. It needs to be after last years very, very poor effort. But I think with the matches they have, and hopefully will have by the time it comes around, it will be a very rewarding show overall.

[Steala]

I like who they chose for the Money in the Bank ladder match. I also that Christian seems to be the favorite to win. I would have prefered if John Morrison was in the match instead of Kane - although that would make him the favorite to win, probably.

Y2J vs. Edge could be the best WrestleMania main event since Triple H vs. HBK vs. he who shall not be named.

Do you know the last time Triple H wrestled at WrestleMania and was not involved in a World Championship match? "WrestleMania X-Seven" (coincidentally the dumbest way WWE has written the number). Nine years ago! He missed WM 23 due to injury. Cena is now the torchbearer as his current (uninterrupted) tally is at 6 including this year.

[OlympicHero]

I hope Christian does win MITB.....i'd love to see him cash it in against a heel Edge, babyface Edge doesn't work for me.

Edge vs Jericho will have to pull out all the stops to rival that Triple Threat classic.....and the Undertaker vs. Edge main event from Mania 24, which was awesome too.

Triple H not in a title match........certainly does make a change! It would be nice to see a few new faces in the World Title scene in time for NEXT year's Mania. It would be great to see the likes of Legacy, Kingston, Morrison (as a heel!), Swagger and Christian in those high profile spots.

[Knoxville]

I think this years Mania is building up to be a bit lackluster.

The fact that they are still booking matches with two weeks to go shows sloppiness in the writing and booking. I think Mania this year might suck. A bit like last years. I have no interest in the Taker/HBK match as I cannot stand HBK and I have a horrible feeling he's going to go over. There's no way he's retiring. If this happens I'm boycotting the already poor wrestling scene.

As for MITB (one of the only good things about Mania and this is soon to be stripped away, thanks to the MITB PPV) I think it's either going to be Christian or Mr. Ziggles.

The tag team match has no interst to me what so ever as I dont like Show, Mr No Personalitly Morrison or R-Truth. The only good thing about it is the miz and I dont think he can save this match alone.

I'm hoping Punk/Mysterio goes ahead as it will be the match of the night. I'm also thinking that as Mysterio has Knee surgery booked for April for Punk to go over and give Mysterio a heavy beat down to provide a story for his absence.

Edge vs. Y2J should be good but I'm not interested in Edge as he kinda bores me now but I'm still a big fan Jericho. Should be a good match but again, I'm not holding much hope.

As for Batista/Cena, yeah that's it.

[MetalBlade]

Punk v Rey is very likely to happen, and as you say Rey needs surgery so this has potential to get Punk's Straight Edge Society gimmick over on the big stage. I'd be pleased to see the little fucker unmasked.
Also, Little Ted blatantly hinted at a match against Randy this year, when he appeared with Big Ted on Sky Sports recently. As he holds a couple of TV pinfall victories over Orton in the last month, this also looks very likely. I do find it odd that Randy is so over with the fans though, given his record of worthless lousy acts of cowardice and sadism last year. WWE fans can be so forgiving.
Or should that be forgetful?
About the Money In The Bank, I am hoping Dolph Ziggler wins, as I see massive potential in him. He strikes me as one of those guys that, like Shawn and Bret before him, gets better the longer a match progresses. I expect to one day see him in an iron man match, and blow the roof off.
One thing that confuses me is the progression of Drew McIntyre as IC champ. He has brought nothing to the title, and appears far removed from the image Vince has bestowed upon him. It all leaves me questioning him as potentially a white elephant champion. And the sooner someone yanks it from round his unsubstantial waist, the better. Restore some honour to the title.
It would be specially nice if it were Danielson Bryan who took it from him.
Either way, this clown needs deposing at WrestleMania.

[OlympicHero]

Having Danielson win the gold would be perfect. That way the NXT show gets more exposure and we get a worthwhile I-C Champion.

The funny thing is I can't see McIntyre even wrestling at Mania.....maybe in the pre-show Battle Royal that they usually do, but thats about it. How about that for confidence in your I-C Champ Vince? He needs to lose that title ASAP, and Danielson is the perfect choice to take it from him.

[MetalBlade]

So, did anyone else actually watch the biggest show of the year? Apart from me that is.
Well first of all, a report on the show as a whole.
WrestleMaria this year was basically a solid four hours of wrestling. Usually, the show is marred by filler segments and blighted by the incessant parade of celebrities strutting down the ramp.
Apart from a couple of nonsensical backstage moments and the usual Hall Of Fame inductees putting in an appearance, this year's WrestleMania escaped relatively unscathed by mainstream interference.
It appeared to be a show strictly for the fans, which made a massively refreshing change. Usually you can bank on approximately a dozen piss breaks during a WrestleMania, but this year I really was glad of Sky Plus, otherwise I would have wet myself three times over by the three hour mark.
Also, the overall production has to be the most impressive ever by WWE. The stage entrance was un-fucking-believable! And that pyramid lighting rig above the ring was nothing short of spectacular.
So, what of The actual quality of the substance?
The show started off with the tag team title match, which is unsurprising considering that only the IC title is considered less important by WWE.
The match itself was OK but woefully short, and the challengers never really looked likely winners.
The presence of The Big Show is almost too much of an obstacle for any other team to overcome. That this match was ended by a mere punch from the ring apron, shows just how dominant any team consisting of this giant is.
Next up was Randy Orton taking on his former subordinates Little Ted and Little Dust.
Although billed as a triple threat, this was always gonna be Randy against them two. But as expected, Ted and Cody just could not be on the same page, and were soon breaking up each other's pins, which gave Randy the ammo he needed to emerge victorious. The double-DDT from the middle rope was a brilliant moment. Gotta say though, the pop Randy received from the 72,000 plus crowd, was pretty tremendous given the heinousity of his acts over the past year.
The Money In The Bank ladder match produced several surprises, not least of which was the winner, Jack Swagger, who NOBODY fancied before this.
I think probably Christian was the standout performer here, but Matt Hardy came closest to winning, having almost unclipped the case before being sent tumbling.
Among the highlights was the use of three ladders with the big one in the middle and the smaller two forming bridges to it from middle ropes.
Remarkably early on the bill, appeared Triple H, in a grudge match against the former WWE champion Sheamus. The burning question in my mind was whether the Irishman could deliver the goods on the grandest stage of them all. I can report that despite being on the losing end of a Pedigree, Sheamus put in a very solid performance against Helmsley, and justified the investment Vince has made on securing his services.
CM Punk, despite being one of, if not THE standout performer of the past 12 months, was never gonna win his match against Rey Mysterio, who once again chose to sully Eddie's memory by wiggling his shoulders Guererro-style before frogsplashing the Straight Edge Superstar.
And so we come to the grudge match of The century.
To be honest, I never really expected this to be a clinic, but expected far more than what was delivered. It was disastrous. Bret simply staggered haphazardly around the ring and smashed Vince with a chair for about ten minutes, before making him tap to a sharpshooter.
There was admittedly a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing Vince floundering so badly, but this match looked so unplanned that it was quite disturbing initially before eventually becoming boring.
A massive anticlimax.
So the first of the world title matches arrived.
I honestly expected Edge to previal here, and the match was a very solid effort from both men.
Jericho was seemingly always one step ahead of Edge, who seemed a little over-exuberant at times but nevertheless, it was a thrilling encounter, in which Jericho justifiably retained.
The Divas match was utterly dreadful, and I don't wish to discuss it here.
The second big title match of the night saw Batista predictably beating seven shades out of John Cena for the majority of the bout. At one point I thought Cena had broke his fucking neck, but Cena recovered for the win.
I figured beforehand that anything less than defeat for Batista would be completely incompetant booking, and gladly they saw sense and put the title around the correct waist.
I'm not the biggest Cena fan, but I appreciate sensible booking.
Finally, the match this show was built upon.
Going into this match, I had little doubt that Taker's winning streak would remain intact, and that Shawn would lose, yet somehow weasel out of the stipulation.
But, judging by his heartfelt and unscripted farewell speech on Raw, it seems Shawn intends to honour the stipulation and indeed retire.
The match itself, while failing to reach the magnitude of last year's classic, certainly had the big match feel and it looked on more than one occasion looked as though Taker would emerge 17-1, but finally a Tombstone - and a jumping one at that - finally put to rest any hopes of Shawn ending the streak, and drew a line under the great man's career.
I think the biggest winners of the night were us the fans, who were finally given a WrestleMania which was relatively free of the usual trappings this show traditionally offers.
A solid 8.

[OlympicHero]

I also paid for and watched the show on the night........and am very happy I did so.

Agreeing with Metal, it was very refreshing to see a Mania concentrating on the matches and the talent, rather than any outside celebrity involvement. The set was unbelieveable, which is one thing WWE gets right every year, and after the opening pyro display I was amped up for the majority of the next 4 hours.

ShowMiz vs. Truth and Morrison would've been better had it been given more time......but they obviously wanted as much time as possible for The Main Event. Happy to see ShowMiz retain because Truth irritates the fuck out of me and face Morrison.....JUST DOESN'T WORK!

I enjoyed the Triple Threat match.....but felt the wrong guy won. As big a fan as I am of Orton, I felt having either Ted or Cody come out the victor could've helped further the feud.....but after Raw last night, that apparently isn't going to happen.

I was very surprised to see Swagger walk out as Mr. Money In The Bank.....but at least McInDIRE didn't win it, I found myself shouting at the TV when he was scaling the ladder......yes, I was in full Wrestlemania mark mode!

Pleasantly surprised by the Triple H / Sheamus match. I thought "The Celtic Warrior" put in the best performance of his short WWE career thus far, but I was glad to see Trips come out on top.

I had my one and only piss break during the early stages of the prior match, so I could get myself comfortable for the match I was looking forward to nearly as much as Taker/HBK. "The Second City Saint" CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio......despite it not having the time to create a classic, it was still an outstanding match in my opinion. Would've loved to have seen Punk go over and see what they would've done with Mysterio in the Straight Edge Society, but I guess the outcome was the right one on the night.

The less said about the Divas Match AND Bret vs. Vince the better.......

Edge and Jericho was a solid World Title match with a surprising, almost clean win for Y2J. An Edge heel turn has to be in the works soon......I just don't believe his character as a good guy and that's because he had been such a damn brilliant bad guy for the last 5 or so years.

Really, really wanted Batista to go over Cena for two reasons........Batista as the bad ass heel is awesome and I can't stand Cena. The DDT that nearly killed Cena had me screaming "Oooooh!" like the 70,000 plus in attendance......that was insane! And I thought that Batista was gonna win it on more than one occasion, but sadly my hopes were dashed by Cena's typically unrealistic use of the STF.

Which brings me to The Main Event. The Streak vs. The Career. It's very rare that a sequel is as good or better than the original......and sadly, that was the case here. The bar was raised to unimaginable heights last year so it was near impossible for Taker and HBK to deliver like that again......but that didn't stop them from trying. Filled with the drama, excitement and crowd reaction you'd expect from such a huge match the two legends delivered another memorable Wrestlemania Main Event. I was teary eyed at the conclusion, as HBK made his way up the ramp, because I believe he genuinely is retiring.....and if that's the case then it means we've seen the greatest in-ring performer of all time (in my opinion) wrestle his last ever match......and that's big. Following his farewell address on Raw, I can't see how he would want a more perfect way to go out. He surely won't want to tarnish his reputation by doing what all the others do (Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk etc.) and come back, over the hill, looking for a big pay day. Farewell HBK.

For me, it was a great PPV, with a perfect ending. Well done WWE........the question is, where do they go from here? Will they FINALLY hand the Main Event spots to some fresh headliners? I guess time will tell.

[Woo]

Wow, I too watched this PPV and found it to be average on almost every level.

I disagree that John Morrison doesn't work. His promos as a face suck, but every fan still marks out for the flashy moves he does. Sadly he didn't have time to do many here as this was far too short to mean anything.

Up next saw Randy Orton kill both Cody and Ted. It was so one-sided it was silly and as usual made both of them look like bitches. Strangely booked feud.

Money in the bank was simply overbooked. There was never a dumb moment, and it did have its highlights- the best being Kofi Kingston use a broken ladder as stilts to try and climb for the belt. Christian was good here, as was Matt, Dolph and Evan Bourne, but there was simply too many people. Swagger took forever to try an pull down that belt, it was so cringe worthy. Also why the fuck did he win? Just so they can have someone not win the world title? He's being treated so bad that I doubt he'll be winning.

HHH/Sheamus was again average. Amazing video package and a good storyline, but it's Triple H vs. Sheamus.... It was never going to be a classic. The highlight here was another fantastic Cole remark who was obviously being fed lines by Vince in an effort to make him sound gay. "Sheamus may have lost, but he's earned the right to be in the Game." That had me almost choking on my pizza.

Punk vs Rey was a good match. Not a classic, but a good match. I was hoping for a Punk win as it would have made a good storyline. Ahh, well.

I am not going to bad mouth the Bret Hat match too much as I love Bret. The problem was this wasn't nearly as over-booked as it should have been imo.

The women's match was a non-event. Vickie hit a Frogsplash, disgustingly called a "Hog Splash".

Edge/Y2J was a fine match.... again though both men have had far better ones at Mania. Very surprising win here.

Batty/Cena was probably the match I enjoyed the most all evening and the one of the only true "Wrestlemania worthy" matches that evening imo. I thought Cena almost killed Batty on that awesome FU at one point. Batty was always going to lose, but by tap-out?! Shocker!

HBK vs Taker really belt like a massive deal, and it was. I liked the way they played on past matches with Taker locking in a Crossface and an ankle lock and they both exchanged Flair-ish chops at one point (Shawn faced Benoit and Angle at Mania's past and they both also took on Flair) however I feel that those spots weren't meant to elude to the past at all and I just made those connections. The commentators didn't mention them either.

As for the match, well it was "You do that finisher, I kick out and do this finisher, you kick out and do that one." It's the best main event at Mania for 6 years, but as good as it was that's not saying too much.

[Woo]

Oh I forgot to add that the reason I found this so underwhelming was because of the crowd's complete apathy. This shows why Wrestlemania should always take place in the usual WWE territories like New York, Texas, Chicago, Pittsburgh or Canada. Their crowds are so much better...

Secondary while the set was great for us it meant that during entrances and victory celebrations half the arena couldn't even see anything due to the stupid tron in the middle of the ring.... no wonder they were so apathetic.