There was a lot to like about the last Raw before Wrestlemania 25, but there was a lot that made you scratch your head too. Before I get to that, I’d like to get one major gripe out of the way. Can we please stop calling this the 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania? Unless they’re celebrating the anniversary of Wrestlemania Zero, they’re wrong. Next year would actually be the 25th Anniversary of the first Wrestlemania.

Ok, I got that out of my system and now I can move on.

I have to say that if I was a fan that hadn’t just watched many weeks of television, the last angle to Raw was a lot of fun. But being that I’ve been watching Raw for many weeks leading up to Wrestlemania this weekend, I just can’t pretend that the angle closed off perfectly.

What was needed to really bring it home that Triple H wants to kick Randy Orton’s ass? For one, Triple H needed to talk. He needed to tell the fans that if Wrestlemania was his last night on earth, he would get revenge on Orton for what he did to Stephanie. But he’s such a terrible babyface, they instead made him nearly get revenge on the show before Wrestlemania. I almost wish that last week’s angle where Orton planted that gnarly kiss on a knocked out cold Stephanie was the last thing we see until the match. Really, Orton and HHH shouldn’t have even touched tonight.
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In the 80s, when two big champions squared off face to face – it was a big deal and almost always guaranteed a sell out.

Today we present a face to face back and forth promo between WWWF Champion Bob Backlund and NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, hyping up a big unification match to happen on Independence Day – July 4th, 1982, at the Omni in Atlanta, GA. In the early 80s, Georgia was one of the hottest territories in the country and the Omni was a perfect building to host this big match.

Thanks to Jared Cheeseman for the heads-up

Wrestlemania weekend isn’t just Wrestlemania weekend anymore. It’s the actual close of WWE’s fiscal year. It’s what they gear all of their marketing towards. And because of all the time and money spent towards the event, it usually succeeds and is the one time of the year where most WWE fans buy a wrestling PPV and sit with their friends and watch. It’s pretty much how it was designed originally by Vince McMahon. It is now the Super Bowl of wrestling.

But where as the final game in football is the only thing important going on (unless you count all the parties), Wrestlemania weekend now includes something that is almost more interesting than the wrestling show itself. For the the last three years, WWE has added a Hall of Fame ceremony as an extra event. They televised an hour of it on television and streamed it on the internet, but they add the entire DVD ceremony on the DVD as added incentive to buy the release.

Wrestlemania 22 was the first time in Wrestlemania history that the Hall of Fame ceremony (or any extracurricular activity) actually overshadowed the wrestling card. There were two reasons for that. First, the booking, build-up and match making for the card was pretty atrocious. Thankfully the guys put on awesome performances and the card ending up being pretty good. But the other reason is because of Bret Hart and the late Eddie Guerrero.
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15. The Undertaker vs. Edge – Wrestlemania 24
Big D says:

I was actually there live to watch Undertaker vs. Edge at Wrestlemania XXIV. It was really a great match live as well as a great match on DVD with the exception of the absolutely horrible commentary by Cole and Coachman. The match itself felt sort of like an All Japan main event. The Orlando crowd was watching with intent and popping for the near falls and Edge’s reversals. The finish however, was predictable. Taker doesn’t lose at Wrestlemania.

The best moment for me was just seeing Edge walk down with his fireworks and music blazing. This was his first real Wrestlemania main event and he was closing the show. He got to close out the show with an awesome match.

Winner: The Undertaker

In 2004, Vince McMahon gave die-hard wrestling fans their wish. Undervalued wrestlers, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were at the top of the mountain and fans were happy. But soon there after, both men who were at the top of their careers, were soon beltless. Guerrero lost the WWE Championship to JBL who was a good character, but not a wrestler of Guerrero’s caliber. Benoit would eventually lose his World Championship to Randy Orton in August of 2004. In Guerrero’s case, he wasn’t ready to be champ according to him. He wasn’t ready to handle the responsibility of being in the main event every week and being the most important wrestler on the Smackdown brand. Benoit’s reason for losing was a little different. Vince McMahon wanted to capitalize on a hot Randy Orton, even though it killed Orton in the process.

As Wrestlemania 21 neared, the two champions were Triple H from the Raw brand and JBL from the Smackdown brand. Vince was ready to use younger (not by age in Batista’s case, but by how long he’s been around) stars and see if they could become headlining stars. These men weren’t undervalued ring generals like Guerrero and Benoit. You could actually make a case of them being overvalued and overrated. But one thing was certain. Both guys were over with their fans. Dave Batista wasn’t supposed to be the guy in the role of future champion. That guy was supposed to be Randy Orton. But when Orton beat Benoit for the belt at SummerSlam, he was subsequently turned face, and Triple H came in, killed him dead and picked up his lost pieces (the championship) in the process.

Orton was no longer championship material, and he was thrown into a match with The Undertaker. When Orton was floundering after the reasonless face turn, Batista became “the cool one” of Evolution. Big Dave was now being booked in Orton’s spot and he was a cool heel. His angle with Triple H was becoming a huge box office draw, and Batista was on his way. But was he ready to take the strap at Wrestlemania?
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Wrestlemania was Vince McMahon’s baby. Technically Stephanie and Shane were his kids, but one could imagine that Vince took just as much care in his raising and handling of Wrestlemania as he did with his own children. And shame on those of you who just said that he might’ve shown more love and care for Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania was live in Madison Square Garden in 1985, and Wrestlemania 10 was also at the Garden in 1995. It didn’t take a genius to figure that Wrestlemania XX would call the Garden home. The line-up was stacked for Mania XX and Vince started promoting the event at Mania XIX. It had an entire year of promotion and it delivered.

There were a couple big ifs about this PPV. Or maybe a couple of big woulds. Would Vince McMahon give Chris Benoit the World Championship? Would Vince McMahon give Eddie Guerrero more than a one month reign as WWE Champion? Would Mick Foley be the Mick Foley of old? And would Hulk Hogan make a triumphant return at Wrestlemania XX?

Well, the answer to the first three questions was yes, but sadly, at least from this old Hulkamaniac’s point of view, the fourth was a big fat no. The PPV was set up with making Chris Benoit the superstar wrestling fans have always wanted him to be as well as establishing Eddy Guerrero as a fighting champion. And it did those things very well in my opinion.

The problem with having a PPV of this magnitude is that if it is a solid event, but doesn’t quite match the hype, it almost feels like a failure. And while that wasn’t the case here, if it wasn’t for the two championship bouts, it might’ve been looked at as a failure. The reason for that is because there were two huge matches that were advertised just as hard and maybe even harder than the two championship matches, and those failed miserably.
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