Wrestlemania 26 Thoughts

Unified Tag Team Championships: The Miz & Big Show defeated John Morrison & R-Truth
Horrible, quick, waste of time – these teams both are thrown together. Miz and Morrison were the champs last year. Now after all that has happened since last April 5th, we find them both having made a move which is not only lateral, but arguably regressive. This match was quick and did nothing more than get these guys onto the card, maybe that was the only point.

Randy Orton defeated Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes
Randy Orton was part of the main event last year, DiBiase and Rhodes were not even on the card. Clearly they have pulled him down a few notches on their way up. Randy is gaining a face push though and this match was (theoretically) the end of this feud and all parties involved can move on.

Jack Swagger defeated Dolph Ziggler, Shelton Benjamin, Drew McIntyre, Christian, Montel Vontavious Porter, Matt Hardy, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston and Kane in the Money in the Bank match
Not a particularly great MITB match, the end was broken, sadly, with Swagger struggling to get the briefcase off of the hook. At least this win breathes some life into Swagger.

Triple H defeated Sheamus
“But, daaaaaaaaad…” Well, this is great, Sheamus needed this win, badly, in order to give his character any credibility, jobbed to Triple H. Again, Triple H has to be ‘the man’ and crush the competition. Triple H didn’t need to win this match, Sheamus did. As usual, Triple H ruins wrestling.

Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk
Ok, Rey is the face and Punk is the heel, but this feud just began. Now that the face is victorious, what is the motivation to carry on this feud? Punk should have won.

Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon
If Bret didn’t win this match, it would have been lunacy. Vince took his beating like a man for what happened in Montreal in 1997. The swerve at the end was an afterthought, clearly, but it was entertaining to watch.

Chris Jericho (c) defeated Edge
Unexpected – and welcomed. Edge was looking like he was gonna roll right over Jericho and make his triumphant claim of the championship after winning the Royal Rumble. Now this feud and continue and these two can do some more business.

Michelle McCool, Layla, Maryse, Alicia Fox and Vickie Guerrero defeated Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix
This match was stupid and I didn’t respect it. Some divas can wrestle, some are just pretty faces. Vickie doing the frog splash was acceptable, but she botched the ending as well. Great that we have two women’s championships and neither is on the line at Wrestlemania. Eh, this match was what it was, bathroom break for the attendees.

John Cena defeated Batista (c)
I thought John Cena was the right guy to go over, but wasn’t sure if it would go that way. Batista was quite the heel going into this and in typical WrestleMania fashion, the good guy is supposed to triumph over evil. Cena posing with the “anti-Cena mob” after the match was awesome. Well played John Cena!

The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels
Wisely, this was saved for the main event. Last year, these two tied it up, but after they put on what was (arguably) one of the best matches of all time, it wasn’t the main event. Following these two is next to impossible. Although I think last year had the better bout, this year was still excellent, and the tear-jerking ending was Sean Michaels losing and exiting the arena to no music, shelving his career permanently.

Tell me this, why was there not one single interview segment on this show? Really not ok. Santino’s elongated Slim James (Slim Jim) commercial spot doesn’t count.

All in all, not a great show. Maybe next year…

WWE The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event DVD Set

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event DVD Box ArtThis DVD set is absolutely amazing to watch as an old school wrestling fan. For those of you who do not know, WWE (formerly “WWF”) used to have a late night show which ran on NBC when Saturday Night Live was in rerun. There were no monthly pay per view events in those days and most of time, this show served as the main story progressing medium. This show ran through the era which Mean Gene Okerlund referred to as “the glory days.” For the most part, The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event covers 1985-1992. In 2006, NBC and WWE restarted the Saturday Night’s Main Event program, although quite different and not nearly as crucial to progression as before. Luckily, there’s minimal 21st century covered on this set.

For me personally, I started watching wrestling in 1991. I back tracked heavily, renting all the videos I could leading up to the present. I watched all the ppvs I could get my hands on, but a lot of the events leading up to matches would take place on SNME, I could only get a glimpse of this action. I did not have cable in the sticks I used to live in, so seeing WWE on my TV at home was awesome. I only got to see a handful of them before they ended. The need for SNME was filled with the new, weekly, Monday Night Raw and Main Event vanished.

Now for this DVD set, hours and hours of big matches from Main Event, in full, with wrestler interviews about the action. Too keep it relevant to today, some of the active roster are on the DVD. The cast of characters is simply awesome. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Jake Roberts, Junk Yard Dog, Roddy Piper, Big Boss Man, Dusty Rhodes, Mr. T, Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ultimate Warrior, and of course, Andre the Giant are just some of the superstars you see throughout the set. Yeah sure, John Cena is there too, but again, that’s the 21st century stuff that may appeal to you, but I’m content with the “glory days.”

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell, I’m high on this DVD set. I have yet to tell you just how high, however. BUY THIS SET. Seriously, buy it now! This DVD set is by far the best collection the WWE has released, period. They have captured a great deal of action for the era that I grew up on and loved. I’m unbelievably happy with this set and it put a huge smile on my face multiple times. Wrestling was so colorful and larger than life back then and drinking it all in was quite an experience. All I have to say about this DVD collection is: 10