Diabolik's Wrestlemania 25 Review

I know Rich posted some stuff before I could, since I had no internet connection where I was. I would have liked to watch it with Rich but it didn't happen.

Now the last bit of WWE programming that I watched was the Raw after Wrestlemania 24, when Ric Flair was walking down to the ring to give his goodbyes when I got a call from my girlfriend at the time and I pressed record on my tv tuner and it got all messed up. Now I could have watched following weeks, but the motivation wasn't there for me....at some point I was like 4 months out of watching WWE and I wasn't missing anything. So I made the vow to m=not watch, read or hear anything about WWE programming until Wrestlemania. Hell I even skipped my favorite PPV of the year because of the vow....So I sat down and watched the show...and I took notes....

The show is in Houston TX....home of Booker T....except when he is from Africa....I don't understand why they didn't do this show at MSG....whatever....They also keep calling it the 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania....but it isn't. If the first Wrestlemania was in 1985 and it is 2009....well if you can do basic math it is apparent. As a friend stated, Wrestlemania 2 was the first anniversary for Wrestlemania...therefore this has to be the 24th Anniversay. It's kind of like the Millennium issues people had....but anyway....

So the first match of the night is the Money in the Bank match. I know Wrestlemania usually starts out with this match and I fugred it was a decent way to get me back into the WWE style without bogging me down in storyline that I didn't know about...We had CM Punk, Mark Henry (WHY?!?!?!?!? If he were to climb the ladder it might break through the canvas), MVP (who is the US Champ, so there is no US Championship match tonight I guess), Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston (he is new to me) Kane and .....CHRISTIAN (who I had heard had left TNA, but since I haven't gotten to that point in the TNA timeline I was trying not to learn too much about it)...

Kofi is impressive. He is fast and agile, he jumped clear over a ladder being run at him and did some other athletic things....almost a shame he isn;t in the X-Division...Shelton takes a dive off a ladder and almost lands on his head....Kofi ran up an almost straight vertical ladder....Christian tries to Unprettier CM Punk from a ladder and fucks it up....and CM Punk is the winner again....

Next we get Kid Rock....who performs for over 10 minutes for no good reason....ok, they wanted to use his stripper anthem song for the Divas Battle Royale, but 10 minutes?...He could have at least done American Badass as a little props to The Undertaker....So 25 Divas in the ring...cluster fuck abounds....Santina Morella, Santino's twin sister from italy, wins the title of Ms. Wrestlemania...Santino in drag and getting a better paycheck than most people...go figure....I would almost watch WWE again just to see the outcome of that...like Santino walking down the hallway and then has to change into Santina...little things like that....

We get a little montage of Jericho calling out Mickey Rourke about his role in The Wrestler....I hear that there was consideration of the two of them facing off at Wrestlemania until there were Oscar nominations and Rourke's PR team shut it down....but this back and forth leads us to Jericho disrespecting the Legends (sound familiar???) of Ric FLair, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper, and Ricky The Dragon Steamboat....Which leads us to the Legends elimination match....Piper and Snuka sucked...I know Piper was fighting cancer...but if you are going to be wrestling, the least he could have done was train a little...at least he didn't take off his shirt...Steamboat stole the match though....he was in great shape, threw his arm drags perfectly, and made the match worth watching...even though he lost....after Flair gets in the ring and eventually gets hit with the Codebreaker, Mickey Rourke gets called out and gets in the ring and knocks Jericho for a loop, being as he used to be a Golden Gloves boxer....

Next up we have Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy....apparently Jeff won the WWE title and Matt won the ECW title...Matt was jealous....and in real life Jeff Hardy had a house fire that claimed the life of his dog and a bunch of personal effects....well the WWE spun that tragedy unto a storyline where Matt Hardy was attacking Jeff secretly and Jeff eventually confronts Matt...leading to this Extreme Rules match...crazy spot after crazy spot....Jeff takes a Twist of Fate with a chair wrapped around his head to give Matt the win....

Orton is pacing in the back with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr....

JBL comes to the ring as the Intercontinental Champ.....runs his mouth about Texas and a bunch of random crap....Rey Mysterio comes out dressed as The Joker....JBL kicks Mysterio in the face before the bell is rung....once the bell is rung Mysterio kicks his, sets him up for the 619 (stupid name for that move) amd wins...it took all of like 20 seconds.....JBL quits and walks out...

Next up is Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker....the montage for this is great...it showcases a lot of what was going on between the two of them....Shawn dressed up as The Undertaker only in white instead of black.....even in the entrances, Shawn is shown dressed in white descending from above where Taker comes up from below the stage.....This was the match of the night....hands down....even with the couple of blown spots it was really solid....in the end Michaels kicks out of the Choke Clam, the Last Ride, and a Tombstone....Taker kicks out of the Sweet Chin Music....at the end Michaels goes up for a Moonsault and Taker catches him and turns it into a Tombstone for the win....

Then we got the World Heavyweight Title match with Edge as champ vs Big Show and John Cena.....Cena's entrance is marked with a huge number f guys dressed as Cena lining up along the entrance ramp and doing the You can't see me wave while Cena runs down to the ring....Cena ends up winning the match by FUing (they call it the Attitude Adjustment or something like that now) Big Show and then Edge on top of Show....Gee...Cena is the World Heavyweight Champ...Whoop dee doo....

We then are treated to the WWE Hall of Fame inductees, with the Funks, Steamboat and the Von Erichs being inducted, along with Stone Cold....who comes out in a tux...walks away to the back and comes back with an ATV and rides around the ring...drinks some beer...has a brew with JR...then leaves....

And last but not least (or maybe it was least) we have the WWE title match with Triple H vs Randy Orton....apparently they let it out that Trips and Stephanie were actually married and Orton ends up attacking The McMahons including Steph....the storyline for this looked really good....unfortunately the match wasn't that good....it basically was Trips squashing Orton...even though Orton got some good hits and moves in....Trips retains the title after hitting Orton with a sledgehammer....

All in all...I wish that WWE would put the storyline bits of the shows on the web so I could skip the shitty wrestling and maybe still be interested in the stories...I mean the Matt and Jeff Hardy thing and the Taker Michaels stuff would have been cool to see as a build up....but I can't take 5 hours to watch the shitty wrestling....

So there you have it....looks like another year of not watching WWE.....