Wrestlemania 21 Edition

Well after what seems like an eternity away from wrestling101 I am finally back where I belong, after Easter holidays have been covered and Internet access restored. But I didn’t spend the whole holiday period working. God no. I managed to squeeze in the WWE’s biggest PPV of the year, WrestleMania 21. Here’s what I thought.

WrestleMania this year was, in my opinion, indescribable. It was great, it was exciting, and it was watchable. But it was also dull, in some ways lifeless, and not one match stood out. And yes Messrs Angle and Michaels, I include you in that column.

Mania kicked off with two guys who I have optimum respect for in the wrestling world. Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. Many were predicting massive things for this match and there was potential for it to scoop all sorts of awards. But they did not deliver at all. Mysterio spent the entire match holding his mask checking it was still in place as opposed to actually caring about his moves – two spots of which he blew. Surely on the biggest show of the year, Rey should have worn something that did not restrict his movement. Still the luchadore went over in a surprising decision. And now the Eddie heel turn bells are ringing.

Slightly deflated after such a letdown I felt that match two would provide some much needed relief. Ladders and Mania seem to be a good combination. And I was luckily proved correct with match number two really getting the show under way. Kane’s entrance was spectacular but not as much as Shelton Benjamin’s performance. Here is a man who should be destined for great things if he improves his mic skills.

Your scribe will forever remember his run up the ladder and his amazing somersault to the outside. The match also had a favorable outcome as far as I am concerned. Edge would make a great World Champion, so lets hope when he gets his chance they let him take it with both hands.

Match number three was preceded by the segment in which a one-night-only (we’ll see about that) Hulk Hogan beat down Hassan and Daivari to massive crowd pops; but when the match got underway it proved to be a very solid match – one of Undertaker’s best pay-per-view shows of the last five years.

Back and forth it went, and even I thought ‘Taker was about to lie down for the three after Orton hit him with the Tombstone. But it was not to be, with Undie’ reversing and pinning poor Randy whose career, you could say has never really looked worse.

I won’t even mention the women’s title match, as it was one of the biggest stinkers ever to appear on a Mania show. Christy even apologised to Vince after the match for her blown spots and weak offence. And how pathetic does she look with her fists up?

Then came the match I was looking forward to all night. The inter-promotional (well, Raw v Smackdown!) Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels contest. But surprisingly these men did not start out as a brawl as you would expect after watching the build up. Instead we got 15 minutes of pure boredom with headlocks reversed into well, headlocks.

The final 12 minutes saw the match spice up though with Kurt having one of his best matches since his Chris Benoit feud. The ending was especially noteworthy, with Angle’s ankle lock being on for the longest period of time I can recall without the recipient tapping out.

It was a mighty effort from two men who are, lets face it, knocking on a little bit and a bit broken down, but the opening periods were too dull for this to be considered a classic.

Piper’s Pit was going nowhere until the arrival of Carlito Caribbean Cool (Carlito’s Cabana is going to be great). It was just another lame Piper promo (don’t get me started on this guy and his lack of talent) with Stone Cold doing his best to liven things up. But of course the ending, which everyone knew was going to happen– Stunners galore-made it at least worth a view.

Then came The Big Show and Akebono in an extremely bad sumo match. Why WWE had to put this on the show of the year is beyond me. WWE fans want WWE wrestling. And definitely not Big Show in what can only be described as an oversized thong.

Thankfully the WWE kept Cena’s title win over JBL as short as possible as nobody would want to have seen these go at it for any longer than they did. What really frustrates me at the moment is the lack of talent in the upper tier of WWE. Brace yourselves for a spinning title belt people – it’s coming.

And then came the main event. The match that will always go down in history as the centre piece of that particular Mania. Batista versus Triple H was a great match but lacked the heat and excitement from the crowd that a match like this deserves and also seemed to lack the real excitement. Will Dave Batista make a good World Heavyweight Champion? We’ll have to see.

As you can tell, I am not particularly impressed with WWE at the moment and I really hope that the impending draft happens as soon as possible because fresh faces and feuds are what we need.

Finally for this week, I would like to send my best wishes to Matt Hardy, Terry ‘Rhyno’ Gerin, Aaron ‘Jesus’ Aguilera and William ‘Paul Bearer’ Moody who have all been released from their contracts. Good luck guys.

Andrew Morris