Pascal is telling Hopkins to “take the test”, which I believe is a blood test in order to prove that he’s not taking performance enhancing drugs. Hopkins is ready to leave and Pascal puts his hand on his shoulder while shouting to take the test for the fans. This should be another fun fight.

Former WWE writer, David Lagana, has come up with his Mount Rushmore of WrestleMania list and has asked fans to post theirs.

I have two different lists. The first list is based on match quality. The crew at this website put together a list of WrestleMania’s 25 greatest matches, and out of those matches, I calculated which four guys came in the most in those matches and that will be the first list.

You can read the first two lists which have already been published. Our top five will be published on Tuesday morning.

WrestleMania’s greatest matches: 25-16
WrestleMania’s greatest matches: 15-6

The second list, and I think this is what Lagana is really getting at, is based on star power and who delivered those WrestleMania moments most. That is a less calculated list and simply based on my memories.

Lagana’s list is Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, and Shawn Michaels.
Continue Reading »

The FGB crew has revised our top WrestleMania match list by adding matches from the past two WrestleManias. Thus, we have a new top 25.

Check out 25-16 if you missed it.

Here is 15-6:

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

14. Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena – Wrestlemania 23
Alan says:

This match truly gets better on repeated viewings. I liked this when I first saw it, but it was on the re-watch that I really saw how magical it is. The build to this was so good, and the match was worthy of all the great angles that preceded it. Cena’s best ever work was from late ’06 to summer ’07 and this match fell slap bang in the middle of that period. His selling was unreal and he showed much more poise when on offense than usual. Shawn was as masterful as he always is on the big stage. The back and forth down the stretch was beautiful.

Winner: John Cena

13. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit – Wrestlemania X-Seven
Alan says:

The first 5 minutes of this match were surreal. You had two “smaller” wrestlers on Wrestlemania in front of 50,000-plus (really over 67,000) WWF fans, doing nothing but amateur wrestling. It was hold and counter hold….. AND IT GOT OVER…. it got over huge. I don’t think anything like that would have been envisioned in 1987. Heck, it wouldn’t have been envisioned in 1997. But Angle and Benoit were just that good, and while they would go on to have better matches, this remains a technical classic. It was the first time we witnessed their display of countering each other’s finishers which became a staple of their matches, and at the time that was really really cool. The finish was perhaps not what you’d ideally want from these two, but it’s non-conclusiveness left things open for rematches.

Winner: Kurt Angle
Continue Reading »

The FGB crew has revised our top WrestleMania match list by adding matches from the past two WrestleManias, and star ratings from one more crew member. Thus, we have a new top 25.

Here is 25-16:

25. John Cena vs. Triple H – WrestleMania 22
GG says:

Endings can be predictable in big matches. In fact, for some of them, they should be. But this one wasn’t. I can remember watching this match thinking that the best thing that can happen would be for John Cena to beat Triple H, to tap him out and for Triple H to finally make him. And even though that’s exactly what happened, I was quite unsure of it until the very end when Triple H’s hand tapped the mat frantically. The match was good, but the ending was brilliant.

Winner: John Cena

24. Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock – Wrestlemania X8
Big D says:

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan was, in many people’s eyes, the last real “Dream Match” in the business and perhaps the first truly authentic “WWF vs. WCW” match despite Hulk Hogan being synonymous with 1980s WWF. It was the superstar of the past vs. the superstar of the present.

While the work rate isn’t quite at the level of Steamboat/Flair, they put a very good match together designed to get Hulk Hogan on almost the same level as Rock, but little did they know that the jam packed 68,000 in the Toronto Skydome would make Hulk Hogan the biggest babyface since Wayne Gretzky. Reports came in that people LEFT the building after this match. They cared about nothing else but seeing their hero from the past attempt to slay another dragon and cup his hand to his ear.

Winner: The Rock

23. The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin – Wrestlemania XIX
Duan says:

Austin vs. Rock at XIX was the final chapter in one of the all time great WWE rivalries. It also provided a fitting end to the in ring career of Stone Cold, and gave the Rock the chance to finally get that big Mania win over The Rattlesnake.

While it was almost certainly not the best match these two ever had, It was still brilliantly dramatic in its own right. And given Austin’s physical shape and Rock’s relative inactivity at the time, the match far exceeded expectations.

Winner: The Rock

22. Randy “Macho Man” Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior – Wrestlemania VII
Alan says:

Randy Savage and Rick Rude have several things in common including Memphis roots, great voices, MANLY facial hair and oodles of in ring talent. But aside from all that, they are perhaps the only men to hold the key to the lock that is The Ultimate Warrior.

Nobody in wrestling got as many great matches out of Warrior as these two, and at Wrestlemania VII, Savage got perhaps the best. Built up as a Macho’s retirement match, this match saw him bump like a maniac for everything Warrior had in his arsenal. The crowd was worked into a frenzy and when they went into the finishing stretch I think everyone watching was on the edge of their seat. It was one of the most memorable finishes I’ve experienced. Warrior quite simply shoulder tackled Savage repeatedly for at least 3 minutes until Macho was completely and utterly decimated and all that was needed to pin him was a single foot. Throw in one of the all time great Mania moments with the reunion of Savage and Liz and you have a match more than deserving of it’s place on the list.

Winner: The Ultimate Warrior
Continue Reading »

Right before WrestleMania 25, I started writing reports of the build-up to the show based on the television shows, Raw and Smackdown starting with the Raw after Royal Rumble. Thus, I remember many things about the planning of this show, such as one of the original goals of the Chris Jericho vs. The Legends match was supposed to feature Mickey Rourke in an in-ring role. I remember the Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy storytelling that left a bitter taste in my mouth when they started to bring real life into the angle, but push it in a tasteless way. I also remember that the main event between Triple H and Randy Orton had a chance to be great, but the build was so up and down, it wasn’t on fire like it should’ve been.

In ten years, people will remember this show for two things. The first thing is the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels match that had the entire building rocking. I’ve been to very few live events where the building was rumbling as loudly as it was, which is a credit to both guys because in large stadiums, the sound goes upward and can be muted a bit. And if they remember a second thing (and they may not), it will be that Stone Cold Steve Austin was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame that same weekend.

Actually, when Austin was announced with the other Hall of Famers and then drove his four wheeler towards the ring and drank beer, it was the second loudest pop in the building. Both of those moments dwarfed the main event. By the time Triple H walked out for his match with Randy Orton, the fans were sitting on their hands. That’s not exactly the way you want your main event to be presented.

The Money In The Bank match was really good live, but it doesn’t come across as well on DVD. It was awe-inspiring to see guys gracefully fly in the air in person, but the actual up-close camera work hurts the visual. There was uncertainty as to who was going to win the actual match and receive a future title shot, but the crowd was clearly behind Christian. Instead, CM Punk won the match and all of a sudden, the wonder was if he’d cash in his title shot if Edge won his title match.
Continue Reading »