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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20. Mick Foley vs. Edge – Wrestlemania 22
Alan says:

This match is definitely one of the best brawls in the last couple of years. The match was about two things – giving Mick his “Wrestlemania Moment” and solidifying Edge as a top star. The twists and turns in this match were absorbing and extremely creative (i.e. Foley concealing barbwire under his flannel). Lita of all people took the bump of the match when Foley hit Edge with the Cactus Clothesline with her on his back. It was great. Also great was the finish, which will go down as one of THE classic Wrestlemania moments.

Winner: Edge

You can see the awesome finish at the 2:25 mark.

Why does John Cena try and find a way to bring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson into every conversation he has when it comes to movies? Ok, maybe the interviewers ask him about Johnson since Johnson has made the successful transition from wrestler to movie star.

John Cena says that no matter what, he’ll never leave WWE, yet he continues to give small digs to Johnson at the same time. MTV.com has an interview with Cena, and I wanted to highlight a few quotes.

“He’s the guy I say I won’t be like,” he told MTV News. ” ‘Cause he — although a very, very successful actor and super-nice guy, consummate professional, one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever met — he left the WWE.”

In order for Johnson to be successful, he had to completely separate himself from wrestling. Wrestling is seen as such low brow entertainment that movie producers and studios don’t want to associate with someone who comes from a brand of entertainment where people die before their 40s from abuse, steroids are rampant (well, not that it’s not a problem with actors), and much of what they do is lowest common denominator kind of stuff. I’m sure that if wrestling didn’t have the kind of stench that it does, Johnson wouldn’t have had to completely disassociate himself.

“I really hope that people respond to ‘12 Rounds,’ the movie is a success, and more movies come down the line, [but] I’m just not for leaving the WWE,” Cena said. “I love my job. I have a long-term commitment. That’s the one difference in my future career path and what he’s done.”

I’m a Cena fan. I love the guy. But his career path isn’t even close to that of Johnson’s career path. When Johnson was on top in WWE in 1999 through 2002, he was a much bigger star than Cena has ever been. And when it comes to the size of star in the movie industry, it’s not even close. Cena can’t compare himself to Johnson in either career, so his argument is meaningless.

“We have a very loyal fanbase,” Cena said. “For him to go on the front and say, ‘I love the business,’ and then not be a part of it [is something I'd never do].”

You can still love something and then separate yourself from it. You have the freedom and ability to do it. It’s going to be done for you anyway. One day, either Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, or Triple H will tell John Cena that his day is done. And he will eventually have to step away. Does that have anything to do with his love for the industry? Not one bit. Johnson is a movie star and he can still be a movie star who loves the business. He has the freedom to choose to not want to be involved with it anymore.

“I’ve been trying to wrestle him. It’s not that I don’t think he’ll accept the challenge; he truly has a full plate,” he said. “I think our fans would like to see him come back to the ring. Dwayne Johnson or the Rock or whatever he wants call himself vs. John Cena. Let’s say ‘WrestleMania XXVI.’ “

Good luck with that one homie.

Photo of Dwayne Johnson by stewartcc and shared via creative commons

With Affliction seemingly on its last legs, what will Fedor Emelianenko do?

Does Fedor need to come to the UFC to prove his worth? Does Dana White need him in the UFC to have the best fighters in the world?

Will Fedor fight in the UFC this year?

Vote in the upper right.

Let me start off this review with some amazing information. Two actual pieces of amazing information.

Amazing info piece number 1: Kurt Angle wrestled in the main event with a broken freaking neck.

Amazing info piece number 2: The night before the show, Stone Cold Steve Austin was in the hospital after feeling adverse affects from stress, working out, and drinking high energy ephedrine laced drinks. He thought he was having a heart attack.

Those two guys sucked it up, and for the sake of the show, for the sake of the WWE, and for the sake of their boss, Vince McMahon, they wrestled their matches. But, Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon was seen as the top match and all the advertising was based around this match which would be marketed as “20 Years In The Making”.

Most of the WWE created hype surrounded the match that wanted to be the answer to the question of who created Hulkamania. It turned out to be a good match, but wasn’t close to the efforts that some of the other wrestlers provided.

Kurt Angle found out about a month before this Wrestlemania that he had a broken neck and was probably not going to be able to wrestle at Mania. He was going to need neck surgery and would likely miss over a year of ring time. He decided to tough it out and wrestle Brock Lesnar at Mania and defend his WWE Title. There was a ton of worry that Kurt would hurt his neck and become paralyzed. However, Kurt took the advice of a doctor that said he couldn’t do much worse in hurting his neck in the match and decided to go on and compete, albeit with reservation. The reservation was because Brock Lesnar had become the most dominant big man in the game and he wasn’t in there throwing the soft stuff. The match turned out to be a true classic, and in the end it wasn’t Kurt that everyone was worried about.
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