As I get older, it becomes harder to excuse myself for being a wrestling fan. The product isn’t necessarily geared toward someone like me. I’m in my early 30s, have two children, work in the Silicon Valley, and am a hardcore sports fan. I’m much more in MMA’s demographic than the wrestling demographic these days. It’s been that way for years now. And yes, if I have the choice, I’ll say I’m a MMA fan first, wrestling fan second, even though it’s not the case. I’m a wrestling fan first, and I guess, I always will be.

Wrestling at times can be so immature, irresponsible, idiotic, and terribly presented that it’s hard for me to even want to identify myself as a pro wrestling fan. But on nights like last night and tonight, I don’t have to run away from being a pro wrestling fan.

Last night, at WrestleMania XXVI, I watched one of the greatest displays of drama and passion I’ve ever seen at a “sporting” event. Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker put together a story that had a beginning, middle, and end that put most matches I’ve seen to shame. The story told was that Shawn Michaels would rather quit wrestling than come back to wrestling as not having beaten the Undertaker. He was against all odds, but it was the risk of finality that pushed him.

The match wasn’t technically better than last year’s match spot for spot. But it told the much better story. And that’s what I’ll remember rather than a bunch of spots and false finishes.

Tonight on Raw, Michaels said that he wasn’t coming back and that it was indeed his final match. He said that he was going to do whatever it took to make sure that he never wrestled again. In athletics, you’re forced out as your skills erode. You usually don’t have the choice to say when you call it quits. Actors can act until they die. For Michaels, I’m not sure why he wants to completely end it, or if he even will, but it’s his choice. That’s powerful.

He may even come back. Very few have quit and not come back for whatever reason. Bret Hart hadn’t wrestled in over 10 years and had his last match just last night. If Shawn needs the money or if he just gets creatively bored, he may come back. But for now, on his own accord he says it’s over.

From last night to tonight, I almost wish I didn’t ever have to watch wrestling again. To see one of the greatest to put on the tights say that he’ll never wrestle again and proving until the very end that he is still one of the best, was poetry in motion.

And the crowd chanted, “Thank you Shawn. Thank you Shawn. Thank you Shawn …”

Last year when I was in Houston for WrestleMania XXV, I was with Eddy Z, Chris, and Low Jones. I wasn’t able to get Low Jones on the show, but I did get Eddy Z and Chris to go over WrestleMania XXVI.

We talked the entire card and had some good perspectives on Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker II being that we were all there last year, and I was there this year.

Check it out.

Right click to download.

I won’t be doing running play by play for WrestleMania, since I’ll be there live, but I will chime in with live thoughts and this post will be updated frequently.

I’ll be adding more thoughts to the FGB Twitter page as the show goes on too.

- 26 man battle royal was won by Yoshi Tatsu. He threw out the Woo Woo guy.

- The roof started to open during the match.

- Unified Tag match opens the show.

- Morrison looked like a jobber tonight. Missed the Starship Pain and then was TKO’d like his name was Frank Mir by the Big Show.

- For whatever reason, they closed the roof. Maybe it was an experiment?
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There will be a Battle Royal tonight with the remaining members of the WWE on the main roster who have not been booked on Wrestlemania. The Battle Royal will be taped as a DVD/Bluray bonus match prior to the start of the show. We also have learned that the Divas Match is indeed going to be on the show.

Rumors have also stated that a title match will close the show – but we are unsure as to which.

Remember, special start time of 7PM Eastern.

Have fun!

Last night, I was live at the WWE Hall of Fame, and it was a very cool event. I was at the Hall of Fame last year too and I think I expected too much. They cut the time of the presenters and the inductees and it just seemed rushed.

But for whatever reason, this year, it didn’t feel that way.

If you want the quick and dirty, you can check out the Fight Game Blog Twitter feed. I tweeted live updates there last night. Or, you can search via the #wwehalloffame hash tag, which you’ll see all of my updates in as well.

You can also check out
photos from the event on our Facebook page. Become a fan and you’ll see photos from WrestleMania XXVI today go through your news feed.

I have a few more thoughts in reflection.

- Pat Patterson made a joke that the Mad Dog would always come over his house when Mad Dog and his wife would get in arguments and Pat said after a while, Mad Dog was ruining his rep. Most of the crowd didn’t get that one. I thought it was one of the best jokes of the night.

- Mad Dog Vachon and The Destroyer stumbled over their words a bit and lost their thought as well. I hope that doesn’t mean Vince McMahon and company don’t want to bring back old legends. Part of what made last night great is the scope of the wrestlers. From The Destroyer, to Stan Hansen, to Gorgeous George, to Roddy Piper, to Ted DiBiase, to Wendi Richter, to Antonio Inoki, the feeling all night was “wrestling history” and it was a cool feeling.

- Roddy Piper started strong, but I think he just started making things up. I was impressed with Richter though. She was very classy and seemed to really get what the night was about.
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I wasn’t able to watch the big UFC show last night, but it seemed that the story was that before the Shane Carwin/Brock Lesnar face-off, Carwin knocked Frank Mir’s face off. And Georges St. Pierre humbled Dan Hardy but couldn’t make him quit.

That’s pretty much how we predicted it here at FGB, but I don’t think any of us thought Hardy would last the entire fight. He has some testicular fortitude. I think the focus is now going to be, “What’s next?” for St. Pierre. Let’s just hope it’s not Jon Fitch. If I were Dana White, I’d raid Strikeforce for Jake Shields and try to sell him as a top contender, even though it probably wouldn’t be all that competitive match. But the guy I think they could really sell some tickets with is Nick Diaz. Maybe little brother Nate gets the next fight?

Dave Meltzer had the best quote about the Jon Fitch fight:

Anyway, for those of you who have kids, get a tape of this match and whenever they use dirty words or talk back, tell them they have to go to their room and watch Fitch fight.

You can also check out F4W/Wrestling Observer for the rest of the results.

I’ll have a full play by play account of the show on Monday.