The big selling point of WrestleMania 27 was that the Rock would return as host of the show. Now, what did host really mean? I figured he’d have several backstage vignettes and be with a lot of the guys, but after the show was over, it really didn’t mean anything. He was just there.

What it led to was coming back to main event WrestleMania 28 as an actual wrestler, but not knowing that beforehand, his promise of WrestleMania 27 being the most electric WrestleMania of all time didn’t come through. Overall, the show was disappointing as a four hour show, but because of two matches, you can’t say it wasn’t great in parts.

The Undertaker’s career as an active wrestler is nearly over. But when put in the ring with the right guy, he is one of the best big match wrestlers of all-time. Coming on the heels of a really good match with Batista at WrestleMania 23, and the best matches at WrestleMania 24 (Edge), 25, and 26 (Shawn Michaels for both matches), the expectation level was huge for his match at WrestleMania 27 with Triple H. The key to every Undertaker match at WrestleMania is simple. He’s undefeated on the WWE’s big show historically. Thus, his WrestleMania matches have predictable outcomes, but the way they get there becomes more and more important. In this match with Triple H, it started out slowly and then picked up after Triple H hit him with a couple of pedigrees. Triple H grew visibly frustrated as the Dead Man kicked out of his signature move. He then decided to use the Undertaker’s move against him, the Tombstone, and the crowd and people at home actually thought the streak was over. It was one of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history. Then, Taker kicked out and after withstanding a hellacious beating, put Triple H in his Hell’s Gate submission move, which is really just a sloppy gogoplata. Triple H struggled before submitting, making Undertaker 19-0 at WrestleMania.

It wasn’t the best match in WrestleMania history, or even in the top 7 or 8 probably, but it was the best moment of the night, and stole the show.

The other great match featured the guy who would become the hottest wrestler in the summer of 2011, CM Punk, against Randy Orton. Their match, had it been at the top of the card, rather than in the middle, really had a chance to be excellent, but it ended around the 15 minute mark. In the 15 minutes though, it was fantastic psychology by both men, with Orton selling his injured leg, and Punk making sure he wasn’t caught in either the RKO, or in punting distance. Punk, as the heel, controlled nearly the entire match, until the end, when Orton pulled up lame, giving Punk confidence that Orton was nearly done. Punk went to the top rop for a cross body and out of nowhere (well, not out of nowhere as we all predicted it was going to happen), Orton hit the RKO for the win.

The main event featured John Cena facing off against The Miz in an unfulfilling match. It had to follow Triple H and Undertaker and didn’t have a chance. The Miz’s character was too cartoony to matter and the fans never really bought him as a guy who could handle himself. And they really had no reason as Miz was booked as one of the most pansy champions of all time. They were just off their games and the crowd never really got into it. Miz concussed himself for real after hitting his head on the concrete floor taking a bump. Both wrestlers were counted out until The Rock came out to overrule the decision and then gave John Cena the Rock Bottom so Miz could pin him and keep the belt.

Cena and Rock were playing up a feud in the weeks before the match which overshadowed the Miz completely, and on the next day at Raw, they announced their main event match for WrestleMania 28.

Edge opened up the show beating Alberto Del Rio to keep his World Title. It was expected that Del Rio would be given the proverbial ball to run with, but Edge went over in a good, but slightly underwhelming match. After the match, Edge and Christian destroyed Del Rio’s Rolls Royce. It came out after that Edge was going to retire because of his badly damaged neck, so it was a retirement match of sorts, though not many knew at the time. Del Rio would get the ball for a short while, but wasn’t really allowed to run with it.

Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler had a match that was given a lot of build up, even though the payoff was expected to be very minimal. Lawler, even being with the company for over 15 years, had never had a wrestling match at WrestleMania. Unfortunately for Lawler, that match was with Michael Cole, who had become the single most annoying announcer in a very long time. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the referee, and the most likable thing about the match, but throughout the entire thing, it just seemed like a waste. Lawler made Cole tap, but the decision was reversed simply so that Cole could continue to agonize Lawler.

Cody Rhodes and Rey Mysterio had an interesting feud that culiminated at WrestleMania in a match. Usually, Rey Mysterio is the most reliable performer, but on this night, he looked hurt and slow. Rhodes has come into his own as a performer, but the match just didn’t work for the most part. Rhodes was wearing a face mask in a story line that wouldn’t end and he used it to beat Mysterio. It was fine for a second match on the card, but uninspiring for a Mysterio match.

There were two multi-person tag matches to round out the card. Snooki, of Jersey Shore fame (as if there’s anyone else named Snooki) was the celebrity of the night and tagged with a returning Trish Stratus and John Morrison to face Michelle McCool, Layla, and Dolph Ziggler. Snooki was much more athletic than you’d expect, supposedly stemming from a cheerleading background, and won the match for her team. Trish Stratus looked amazing in her first match in nearly 5 years.

In the biggest throwaway match on the card, Kane, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, and Santino beat The Corre, who were at one point, a big part of the future of the company as the Nexxus.

As a standalone show, it was underwhelming, but if you piece meal two or three matches from this show (throw in Edge vs. Del Rio), you’ll fine something to cheer about.

The first is that it was successful. The first show did about 80,000 PPV buys, which is a pretty good number in that of itself, even though the show wasn’t profitable. But based on word of mouth (and I’d guess a whole lot of tape trading of the first show), the second show did better and it set off the idea that you could run a series of these shows.

The second thing to come out of UFC 2 is that one of the more notable people in UFC history, Big John McCarthy was the referee of the show.

In an experiment, the tournament was increased from 8 fighters to 16 and thus, the winner (and first runner up) would have to fight four times on the show. From what I understand, this was done because none of the fights on the first show went long. But because there wasn’t enough time to air what would amount to fifteen matches, the show started at the very end of the first round with Royce Gracie facing off against karate fighter Minoki Ichihara. But just 12 seconds into the fight, Gracie took the karate away from Ichihara and took him down. He stayed on top of him for the entire fight, making for a terrible opening bout. But Gracie pulled off an armbar that got the crowd excited some five minutes later.

Because of an injury, Ken Shamrock wasn’t on the second show and only Patrick Smith was the second holdover from the first show. Smith didn’t have Shamrock to run into like on the first show and he cruised to the finals of the tournament with two submissions and one knock out. All together, his fights to get there took only two minutes and thirty five seconds.

He’d face Gracie in the finals. Gracie’s fights took a bit longer to win, but they all came by submission. Smith looked good in his first three fights and had some charisma, but I don’t think anyone thought of him as a Gracie killer. And after how quickly he lost to Gracie in the finals, it was even more apparent how far Gracie was ahead of everyone.

Smith’s corner threw in the towel after he couldn’t get out from under Gracie’s mount in just over a minute into the fight. It came off as a cold stoppage because Gracie had yet to do any real damage and as a viewer who enjoyed watching Gracie’s dominance, you didn’t get to see him him truly finish Smith off. Maybe that was even more impressive. Smith’s corner threw in the towel in anticipation of him taking a beating, rather than actually taking a beating.

The show wasn’t as fun as the first because there weren’t too many stand-out moments. And without Shamrock there, Gracie didn’t have a true foe that fans could see as an equal. Smith tried, but showed after tapping to fear (err, towel thrown in because of fear), that Gracie needed some competition, or else these shows would get predictable.

The UFC was a two-headed monster. The first company was headed by Art Davie, Rorian Gracie, and John Milius and called WOW Promotions. Davie was a businessman who was interested in putting an event together, Gracie was a member of the famed Gracie jiu-jitsu family, and Milius had a background in film. The second company was their TV partner, SEG.

Together, they created what became The Ultimate Fighting Championship. What it also became was a showcase for the sport of Brazillian jiu-jitsu. Rorion chose his younger brother Royce to represent the sport of jiu-jitsu, feeling quite confident that his brother would win the show and help out the business of Gracie jiu-jitsu.

SEG is credited with coming up with the octagon, the main hold over from the early years of the UFC.

The first show was an 8-man tournament with the winner receiving 50,000 dollars and it was available on PPV. The theme of the show was the age old story of which type of athlete was the toughest. Was it someone from the art of karate? How about a boxer? What about a wrestler?

The fights could only be stopped if the fighter himself tapped out or if the fighter’s corner threw in the towel. I’m not quite sure the fighters knew exactly what they were getting into considering you had boxer Art Jimmerson come into the cage with a boxing glove on one of his hands, eliminating any chance he had to grab onto anyone. He submitted quickly to Royce Gracie who didn’t even really do anything to him.

All in all, the fights were short, but there was still intrigue and home run moments that they could replay time and time again on highlight films. Gerard Gordeau threw a kick that knocked out four of Teila Tuli’s teeth with a blow that would be considered illegal today. Ken Shamrock submitted Patrick Smith with a heel hook, which also became his signature hold.

The production of the show was pretty terrible and it was nowhere near what HBO and Showtime was doing with their boxing broadcasts at the time. And the announcing was laughable as well. For the first show, kick boxers Bill Wallace and Kathy Long were joined by NFL great Jim Brown on the announce team. Two kick boxers and a football player had no idea what they were calling when the fight wasn’t on the feet. Brown stayed on board for the first six UFC shows which gave the shows a little bit of credibility for the company, but zero credibility in the announcing of what would eventually be called MMA.

(Brown was the color analyst and when they asked him his opinion, he would give really short cliched responses. The only thing he really provided was giving the viewers an idea how tough these guys really were because Brown was known as a super tough guy and if he said these guys were tough, they were tough.)

The two stars of the show were Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. Gracie was in a gi and was the smallest competitor, but he was tapping guys out in record time. He had a Bruce Lee-like mysteriousness in when you looked at him, he didn’t look like much. But once he locked his eyes on his prey, he was a savage. Shamrock looked the part. He was swollen like a body builder and stood tall with a mean streak like no other.

Watching the first round, it was clear that the two were the best fighters and you couldn’t wait to see them fight each other. After each easily won their first fights, they were matched up with each other in the semi-final, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. They should’ve been on opposite sides of the bracket so they could be matched up in the finals.

When Gracie and Shamrock were in the cage together, it felt like a big deal. Shamrock looked like he was simply going to overpower Gracie, but the wily jiu-jitsu veteran sunk in a rear naked choke using his gi, which was totally legal, and won in less than a minute. Shamrock was just as surprised as anyone, but knew that he needed to learn how to defend jiu-jitsu if he was ever going to beat Gracie.

Gracie would go on to beat Gordeau by rear naked choke with just 1:44 gone in the first round to cement himself as the very first UFC winner. What he also did was put jiu-jitsu on the map in the United States.

Overall, the show had solid action and a few really cool moments. But the production and announcing took it down a notch as the presentation was less than professional. But I would recommend anyone who hasn’t seen this show and is a fan of MMA today to take a look at the very first show. It was truly memorable both for the right and wrong reasons.

I Am Bruce Lee is a very good documentary on the life of Lee. It’s like a big screen version of an oral history book. Lee’s wife, Linde Lee Caldwell provides the soul of the piece. She is his biggest fan and provides a lot of insight into what Lee’s thoughts may have been in certain situations, such as his big fight with Wong Jack Man, which actually caused Lee to change his style into the more free-flowing Jeet Kun Do, which he liked the call the style of no style. His daughter is also all over the film and provides great insight as well.

The UFC is all over the film from Dana White to Jon Jones. It’s hard to tell if they were truly big fans, or if they simply provided another angle for Lee to fit into today’s pop culture. Gina Carano didn’t really provide much and she was just as stiff as she was in Haywire. Stephan Bonnar seemed to be a genuine Lee fan, remembering dialogue of his films and even trying to mimic a choreographed Lee punching scene.

The odd ball of the cameos was Gene LeBell, who claimed that Chuck Norris could beat Bruce Lee in a fight, in Lee’s own documentary. He cut a pro wrestling promo at the end that cracked a lot of people up. Others like Kobe Bryant and Manny Pacquiao provided nice commentary, but weren’t necessary either.

When the movie discussed Lee’s life and his movie career, it was pretty darn interesting. When it went off tangent with the UFC talk and other oddities such as whether or not Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini could beat Lee in a boxing match, it wasn’t as interesting. I’d still suggest checking it out if you’re Lee fan though. It was fun to see him on the big screen. I imagine it’ll be on DVD very soon.

The film’s major storyline is about a broken family. Brothers Brendan and Tommy are estranged because their father, played by Nick Nolte, was an alcoholic and drove their mother away. The brothers were split up as well as Tommy went with his mother, even though that wasn’t the original plan. They went their separate ways as early adults, but they’re back in the same place for the first time since they were teenagers, at a MMA tournament called Sparta, which pits all of the top non-UFC middleweight fighters in a two-day tournament with a winner-take-home purse of 5 million dollars.

This part of the film is pretty unrealistic if you understand how the sport of MMA works. Fighters wouldn’t join a tournament if only the winner was paid, and no MMA tournament would get the necessary publicity to make any sort of sense, unless there was UFC involvement, and even then, the UFC doesn’t run tournaments anymore. However, most people watching this movie won’t even understand how Hollywood-ized that portion of the film is, so it won’t really matter.

The brothers are played by Joel Edgarton (Brendan) and Tom Hardy (Tommy). Neither guy is easily recognizable for their work, but their characters are easily recognizable if you look for the inspiration for their characters. Brendan is a school teacher whose house is about to be foreclosed on because he and his wife had to take out a second mortage to pay for expensive treatments for his youngest daughter’s illness. And they’re short on money again. He also looks dead on like UFC welterweight legend Matt Hughes. Tommy is an ex-Marine (much like UFC star Brian Stann) who goes by his mother’s maiden name and has a sketchy past. He has tattoos, is angry, fights like Bill Goldberg used to wrestle and snarls like Brock Lesnar.

The brothers find themselves in the winner-take-all tournament, but the crux of the movie is just as much about their relationships with their father, as it is about the MMA tournament. And that is why the movie works. Each son has a different reason to be upset at Nolte’s Paddy. His drinking split the family in two and now as a battered old man, he recognizes it and works on fixing it, but the pain is too deep for forgiveness.

The movie does a great job at explaining the background of the characters and tying up loose ends with their backstory. You can understand Brendan’s point of view just as well as you can understand Tommy’s. And you feel for Paddy throughout, while not feeling like he deserves to be forgiven completely.

Brendan’s wife Tess, played by Jennifer Morrison, almost turns villain as she’s worried about her husband’s safety and his ability to win the tournament, especially after watching video of Russian killer Koba, played by pro wrestler Kurt Angle, powerbombing people. The obvious inspiration for the character is Fedor Emelianenko. Otherwise, she’s pretty likable and almost too pretty for the wife role. Frank Grillo is magnificent as Brendan’s trainer. He has some Frank Shamrock in him, but looks like Miguel Torres.

Hardy and Edgarton are solid in their roles. They don’t overshadow Nolte, who gives a great performance. In the cage, both guys look pretty good. Edgarton learned lots of submissions for his role while Hardy added lots of muscle to look like a believable brawler/muay thai fighter. His fighting style is a storyline hole because he was a prodigy high school wrestler, but uses zero wrestling in his fights. Again, most people watching this movie won’t catch something like that.

MMA fighters Nate Marquardt and Anthony Johnson are noticeable as fighters in the Sparta tournament. Noted MMA trainer Greg Jackson was on-hand to make sure the fight scenes were realistic.

It’s obvious that O’Connor is a fight fan. It’s also obvious that by being the director of Miracle and Pride And Glory that he knows how to do sports movies with feel and emotion. He gets most of it right with Warrior. My only real qualm with the movie is that it takes a little while to get going and there’s not a whole lot of action in the first half of the film. But it makes it for it in the second half. It’s a tradeoff though. The storytelling is good and in order for it to take place, the action had to take a backseat.

Their strategy hasn’t necessarily worked quite yet. The film branch of their business is continually one of the only money losers, yet they don’t seem to be quitting. Very recently, WWE’s strategy has been to do a limited edition theater release and then go straight to DVD. I don’t really know why they bother with the theatrical release, other than to simply say that they did it.

What separates That’s What I Am from their other movies is that it’s the first movie they’ve done where their star wrestler, in this case Randy Orton, only had a bit part, and real actors carried the movie. Ed Harris is the only adult actor on the poster and Orton’s in the movie for maybe five minutes. I think their goal here was to get publicity on the quality of the film rather than on their big bumbling wrestler who was in it.

That’s What I Am has heart and the idea is a fine one. But it’s message is very heavy-handed and has an after school special feel to it at times. The movie preaches tolerance and anti-bullying, which is kind of funny coming from a company that endorses huge wrestlers who bully each other.

It’s set in the mid-60s at a junior high school in California. The main character is Andy Nichol, who from time to time also narrates the film, in his now adult voice. He’s faced with all the oddities involved with junior high school like girls, bullying, and the pressure to fit in. It’s a strong setting because I think if you poll most adults, they’d probably say junior high school was the most confusing time of their youth.

There is a two-way message here and the movie would’ve been better with just only one. The idea is that kids bully because they don’t know any better and they’re simply trying to fit in, mimicking what they see at home. But also, there’s a secondary message about how people related to the thought of someone perceived as a homosexual teaching their children. The bullying part of the movie is done well. It all makes sense and even in the cases of those bullying, you can understand why they feel the need to do it, and yes, they eventually get their comeuppance.

But when the movie tries to deal with the idea of prejudice against homosexuals, it stumbles, falls, and doesn’t really get back up. Ed Harris’s Mr. Simon is known as everyone’s favorite teacher and yet, the thought of him being homosexual is used as a scare tactic to rally the parents against the school. And all of this happens because of Randy Orton. Randy Orton plays the parent of a one of the bullying children, but this child is worse than most because he bullies a girl simply because she’s ugly. Her savoir is a social outcast himself nicknamed Big G, as in Big Ginger, because is a foot taller than everyone else and has fire engine red hair. Big G scares the bully away right in front of Andy and Andy sees that Big G is really just someone who stands up for the good, and it’s not his fault that he looks different than others.

But because Orton’s kid was nearly kicked out of school for his offense and muttered that his teacher could be gay, he goes to the principal, played by Amy Madigan, and threatens to go to the papers unless it’s proven that Mr. Simon is not gay. And here’s the moral conundrum for Madigan’s character. Who really cares if he’s gay? He’s a fantastic teacher. But if lies are spread that they are employing a gay teacher (and it’s implied that gay teachers were characterized as perverts), the school might not be able to recover from the press. This part of the movie seemed to be a huge focal point, but it’s not really brought up again until the end. I have a feeling that writer and director Michael Pavone simply couldn’t figure out how to tie this together with the rest of the theme.

Most of the movie is about the kids. It’s about how they relate to each other. Mr. Simon puts the narrator and Big G together to work on a project. Andy is able to learn about Big G and finds out that underneath the rough exterior is a great person. It’s a good theme. It’s one that you want your kids to learn. But there’s just a bit of awkwardness when it comes to putting it all together.

I commend the WWE for wanting to make good themed movies rather than just the action packed shoot ‘em up type film, especially after Sylvester Stallone showed that you can still make money with that kind of mindless film if you put the right people in it. But until they hit the lottery with something that really touches the masses, I think they’re going to continue struggling. This is one of their better films, but that’s not saying much.

But other than the help of MTV and a couple of actual wrestling records produced with actual wrestlers on the mic, there wasn’t much rock about it. Hulk Hogan could strum the guitar a little bit, but Roddy Piper’s actual skill in playing the bagpipes wasn’t necessarily rock & roll. Some twenty five years later, an actual wrestler defined the rock & wrestling connection. That man is Chris Jericho.

Jericho’s second book, Undisputed: How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps isn’t the same type of wrestling book that his first autobiography was. A Lion’s Tale: Around The World In Spandex was his journey in the crazy world of professional wrestling, from growing up as a huge fan of wrestling to becoming one of the most entertaining and underrated wrestlers of the mid-to-late 90s. Undisputed picks up right where that book left off, with his arrival into WWE as Y2J, aka The Millennium Man.

While the wrestling fan in me absorbed every nook and cranny of the inside world of Jericho’s WWE career, I did feel a little disconnected from the rock & roll part of his career. Jericho is the lead vocalist for his band Fozzy, which started out as the cover band Fozzy Ozbourne. Jericho pretended to be Mongoose McQueen and while the band was a real band, it was more of a fun hobby and artistic expression than second career. I’m not a fan of Fozzy or really a fan of Fozzy’s style of music, and that’s probably why I felt a bit disconnected. It might’ve also been because I wanted to read more about his WWE career. However, the Fozzy portions of the book are very entertaining because Jericho has a true passion for his music career. In fact, while Jericho obviously loves entertaining wrestling fans, you kind of get the idea that he has just as much fun, or maybe even more fun entertaining Fozzy fans.

Jericho is a charming writer and is excellent at telling stories. His style will always be compared to Mick Foley and they do have similar writing styles. From a writing standpoint, Foley’s the better overall writer, but Jericho compares favorably. I don’t know this for a fact, but I did feel that some of Jericho’s best work may have been edited down a bit. The chapter on his mother is full of emotion and compelling writing. His mother was slowly dying and she was losing her grasp on reality. Jericho writes about the last moment he spent with her and how he was so frustrated, yet was able to find peace. I would’ve loved to see him stretch that part of the book more, but I can imagine that it was hard to write. The other chapter that I wish was a bit longer was also probably pretty hard to write.

When the Chris Benoit murder happened, WWE pretty much erased him from history. Jericho makes mention of that throughout the book when talking about matches against or with Benoit. But the Benoit chapter has Jericho asking just as many questions as he has answers. Benoit was his close friend in the wrestling business, but he tells stories of Benoit’s awkward personality, like how he’d call Jericho and leave a voice message and Jericho would immediately call him back, only for Benoit to not only not answer the phone, but not get back to Jericho for weeks. Maybe the best two paragraphs written in the book are when he’s telling the story of having to talk to Benoit’s son David. There’s some interesting self-analyzation that he goes through while doing the right thing, and feeling like he probably didn’t help at all.

The book is much more fun than I’m letting on and there’s also some really good inside tidbits about WWE for the hardcore wrestling fans. You learn a lot about the Vince McMahon of the last 10 years. It seems that he and Jericho have had an up and down relationship, but in the end, Jericho has a tremendous amount of respect for him. Jericho also has a great amount of respect for the Rock, who he had many memorable matches with. His characterization of Triple H might be the best of all. In no way does he kiss Triple H’s backside. There are bits and pieces of Triple H’s selfishness on display, but because Jericho will probably always have a relationship with WWE, and Triple H has a lot of stroke in the company, I would’ve totally understood if he wrote only the positive things about the man.

As a wrestling fan, I enjoyed Jericho’s first book more, but you can see the growth in his story telling ability through the written word. Even a month after finishing the book, I can think back to his chapters on his mother and Chris Benoit. Thankfully, there will be another book written. This one ends before his last WWE comeback. What’s left to come is probably his best wrestling run ever. I can’t wait.

They booked two strong title matches before the main event and overall, this was a very strong show. But there was one thing missing that is very apparent from the second you turn on the show. And it didn’t hurt my live viewing so I didn’t even know about it until I watched it back. What’s missing is Jim Ross.

The announcing was so subdued on this show that I barely noticed it. Sometimes that isn’t a bad thing. You can let the wrestling speak for itself. But at WrestleMania, nothing can be subdued. Everything has to be up another level. And without Jim Ross, the announcing took this show down a level. Live, I thought it was much better than it came across on the DVD. The announcing crew of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker were off their game. Striker was stepping over Lawler’s punchlines and Cole was just pushing everything as positive which came off fake. If JR was there announcing, it might’ve made it one of the classic WrestleManias of all time.

For the most part, all the matches made complete and perfect sense. Like what happens at most WrestleManias, many matches were cut short on time. If some of the matches had more time, they could’ve been all-time classics. But, in a four hour show, you can’t have all classics. All the matches have to give the viewer and the audience something a little bit different. And WrestleMania 26 did this very well.

For your die-hard in-ring wrestling fans, Edge and Chris Jericho had a near 4 star quality match. Live, it was definitely 4 stars, but back on DVD it wasn’t as hot. I’m not exactly sure why. The finish, where Jericho won clean with the code-breaker was fine live, but seemed a bit anticlimactic on DVD. Also, after the match, when Edge speared Jericho off the announcer’s table and through the barricade, it was awesome live, and on the DVD, was just a fun stunt.

For fans of a good old fashioned big man brawl, John Cena vs. Batista was their cup of tea. This match will probably go down as one of the more under-appreciated WrestleMania matches of its time. The crowd was fantastically hot for this match and it ended just as it should’ve, with the obnoxious bully Batista getting his.

If you wanted something fast paced, Rey Mysterio and CM Punk brought it. This was one of the matches that could’ve been an all-time classic, but that wasn’t the job of the match. The job was for it to be a change of pace and really get WrestleMania going, with Rey getting revenge on the hairy man who scared his daughter. I think Rey Mysterio will go down as one of the greatest WWE superstars ever. There’s no wrestler I’d rather watch.

For those fans of revenge stories, you had the ultimate with Bret Hart against Vince McMahon. Before the match came on, WWE produced a perfect video package of the angle, going from the Montreal Screwjob to Hart coming back to WWE to shake hands with Vince, only for Vince to kick him low. And then they moved onto Hart faking an injury so that McMahon would get in the ring with him. It didn’t play out week after week as good as it did in this video package. The angle was good, though not great. But the video package made it seem like it was the greatest angle ever. The match itself was pretty poor, but I’m not sure what they were going to be able to do. Bret and his family beat Vince up like no one else has ever beat Vince up, including Teddy Hart and David Hart Smith doing a version of Bret and Jim Neidhardt’s Hart Attack move, but off the top rope and to the floor. Vince’s head snapped hard against the mats on the outside in a sickening thud. Bret won with a sharpshooter to end the feud and a 13-year storyline.

Here are some other thoughts on the matches before I get to the main event:

- The opener was disappointing as John Morrison and R-Truth lost to The Miz-Show. It wasn’t disappointing that they lost, but only that Morrison was treated like a jabroni in the match.

- Randy Orton was over with the crowd and his handicap match against the former Legacy was fine and exactly what it should’ve been, but it felt pretty unimportant all the same.

- Triple H beating Sheamus was the right finish for the show, though, I’m not sure anyone in the building thought Sheamus had a chance. There’s being over strong, and there’s being over too strong. Interestingly, HHH doesn’t always win at WrestleMania. It just feels like he does.

- Money In The Bank wasn’t the usual spot fest, but the match made sense. Jack Swagger winning was a true surprise as we all thought Drew McIntyre was going to win the match.

- The less said about the Divas match, the better.

Now, the main event was a rematch from the previous year. How did they create intrigue in the rematch? Well, Shawn Michaels said that if he didn’t beat the Undertaker, he was going to retire. He made beating the Undertaker more important than anything else. And it worked.

What made this match just as special (or more special than their previous encounter based on how you felt) is that the idea was that Michaels was going to give everything he had in his body to win, and if he couldn’t win, he simply wasn’t the better man. The psychology was off the charts, ending with the Undertaker showing a tad of sympathy for Michaels, and Michaels getting mad at him for doing so. Then Taker brought out the jumping tombstone to end it. It was a fantastic match in ever sense of the word.

The Blu-ray version of the DVD features the dark match Battle Royal as well as the Hall of Fame speeches from the evening prior, lead by Ted DiBiase. Bob Ueker was the best of the speakers.
Overall, this was a strong effort. But the show was better live. There were things in the matches that were better for the live crowd, and live, we didn’t have to hear the bad announcing.

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.

But Edge didn’t win. John Cena vs. The Big Show vs. Edge was either the third or fourth most interesting match and it was for one of the two big championships. Part of the reason why it wasn’t hyped as much is because the build was more comedy related, centered around Vickie Guerrero, rather than any real feud. It hurt the match, but having it as a three-way with the Big Show involved hurt it as well. If only John Cena and Edge were involved, it’s a better match.

They worked hard and John Cena performed a few superhuman feats of strength, including putting both Edge and Show on his back at the same time, but as big as they tried to make Cena winning, it was just ok for what it was.

Chris Jericho’s match against the WWE Legends (Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka) originally started with Mickey Rourke, fresh off his buzz from The Wrestler, challenging Chris Jericho, but then backing off from his claims. Someone in Hollywood probably told him to not get in the ring. Maybe it was the Rock. That’s when it turned into the handicap match. It was awkward and clumsy and was only really there to get Ric Flair and Rourke involved. Rourke, who was sitting next to MMA fighter Frank Shamrock in the crowd, knocked Jericho out after Jericho beat all the legends. Something did come out of the match though. Ricky Steamboat came out of retirement to have a really good match with Jericho after this show.

Hardy vs. Hardy was pretty tasteless in its build. Jeff Hardy’s trailer was really burnt to a crisp and he lost his dog in the fire. They used that real life happening to help push the storyline which was basically Matt being jealous of Jeff’s success and trying to sabotage Jeff. Jeff, wouldn’t succumb to Matt’s petty actions, until he talked about Jeff’s dog dying in the fire. Finally, Jeff bit and they were going to settle their feud in an extreme rules match.

The match itself was just ok. Part of the problem is that fans didn’t really want to see them wrestle. Back in the early 2000s, they feuded and no one wanted to see it then. Here they were again, and it was the same. Not only that, but Matt, the heel, won the match and it was pretty deflating live.

Here are other highlights (and lowlights) of some things that happened before I get to the two big matches:

- It was fairly well known that JBL was nearing the end of his career, and he lost to Rey Mysterio in his Intercontinental title defense in just 21 seconds. He quit right after the match and hasn’t wrestled since.

- Kid Rock performed live, but it was edited off the DVD. I’m not a Kid Rock fan, but I have nothing against his music. I was actually quite thankful because his performance allowed me to use the restroom during the show. His performance predated the Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal, which was a farce and won by Santino Marella dressed as a woman.

- Miz and Morrison faced The Colon Brothers in a tag team match to unify both sets of tag team titles. The Bellas were involved as a part of the story, but they were no where to be seen during the match. The Colon Brothers would win, but the match would be a dark match, and not on the PPV. You can blame Kid Rock for that one.

Now, onto the two most important matches of the show. The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels should’ve been the match to close the show. For whatever reason, it wasn’t and it would’ve probably changed most people’s perception about the show. The reality is that the show wasn’t more than a slightly better than average WrestleMania. But if Michaels/Taker closed the show, it would’ve been accepted better.

Taker and Michaels was a masterpiece. While I have a couple of issues with the match, it really was a brilliant performance by both guys. The Undertaker may not have more than one or two matches that are good all year, but when he works with the right person, he looks like the greatest big man to ever grace the squared circle. And Michaels has always been the right person for him. The story was that Michaels was desperate to break the Undertaker’s WrestleMania winning streak, but for every step he took, Taker was right with him, or a step ahead. Michaels fought and fought and just couldn’t beat him.

(My main problem with the match had to do with the fact that I never believed Michaels was going to win the match. I just couldn’t get into it like I wanted to.)

The fans loved the match so much that more likely than not, Triple H and Randy Orton weren’t going to be able to follow it. Their story was so up and down. They would add great realism, and then they would add bad soap opera-ish acting. It didn’t work both ways. At one point, the angle was super cold after Triple H broke into Randy Orton’s house to attack him and the acting was so bad, it made John Cena’s acting in The Marine look Bale-esque.

But it gained some steam when Orton handcuffed Triple H to the ropes and DDTd his real life wife, Stephanie McMahon, Vince’s daughter. He then kissed her in the creepiest way possible while she was out cold. But the angle slightly lost steam again when Vince, Triple H, and Vince’s son Shane came out to attack Randy and his legacy group of Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes.

I hated this match live. It felt so anti-climactic and I hated the finish. When Triple H pinned Orton, I felt like I was robbed by the ending of the match. But watching it back on DVD, it made more sense and was a lot better. I think live, I was expecting Legacy and the McMahons to get involved, so by not seeing them in the match, I figured the match wasn’t going to end. So when it ended, it ended flat. But watching it back on DVD, I understood it much better. The idea behind the match was that it wasn’t a match, it was a fight. There was a personal feud behind it that wasn’t going to be resolved around wrestling moves. It was going to be resolved around a fight. To handicap Triple H, if he was disqualified or counted out, Orton would win his championship. Triple H dominated and won a long match that was much better in hindsight.

The show was up and down and had both good and bad. It was also better and worse on DVD compared to watching it live. As a whole, it wasn’t as good as the best WrestleManias and slightly better than some of the average WrestleManias.

A few other details:

- WWE shows are shot in HD, so the Blu-ray transfer does look beautiful.

- The DVD also features the Hall of Fame ceremony, which isn’t as good as it had been in the past because WWE shortened the length of the speeches, which really hurt the ceremony.

- The Unified Tag Team Championship is the only match featured on the DVD that PPV viewers never saw. But the Kid Rock concert was shown on the PPV and not on the DVD.

The story starts from before the original WrestleMania, when Vince McMahon decided to go national with his dad’s once territorial product. It’s very similar to the story they’ve told of going national on other DVDs, with very little insight, other than Vince saying that his father wouldn’t have liked him going national.

Guys like Jerry Lawler, Vince himself, Howard Finkel, and Mean Gene Okerlund are there to talk about some of the earlier WrestleManias, but the story loses all credibility immediately when Okerlund tells that old myth that before Vince McMahon took wrestling national, shows were in old armories and not in arenas. Also, Jerry Lawler talks glowingly about the early days of WrestleMania, when it was well known that he was anti-WWF in those days and tried to keep his Memphis region going for as long as possible. Lawler, specifically, just looks like he’s picking up a pay check because you don’t believe a word he’s saying. Finkel, McMahon, and Okerlund were there, so at the very least, what they say has some validity. Jerry Brisco, who you’d expect to lie, did say that closed circuit TV was a new thing when Vince was doing it, even though boxing had been doing it for years.

The story starts to go in order from the first WrestleMania. But somewhere along the way, they just decided to not really tell the story in the order of the shows. I’m not sure if they didn’t have the time or if it wasn’t all that exciting, but some of the biggest WrestleManias ever, including X7 were barely more than an afterthought, while some bad WrestleManias like XI were given more time because of the celebrity involved. The Hulk Hogan WrestleManias were shown as much bigger than the Steve Austin and Rock lead Manias and some of it made sense. If not for Hogan and Vince, WrestleMania and WWF would’ve never taken off. But it’s sort of alarming at how Austin and Rock are made to look like lesser stars than Hogan. Maybe Vince just remembers some of those shows more memorably.

They show WrestleMania 2, which was live in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York as a failure, but WrestleMania III is shown in a bright light. There’s a lot of time invested on that show, which is still remembered as one of the biggest shows they’ve ever done. The Hulk Hogan/Andre The Giant main event story was told well, with Andre looking like the biggest attraction and most respected wrestler ever. Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan both said that Hogan was so nervous before the match because they didn’t know how well Andre would cooperate. Surprising to me, they also gave a lot of time to Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, which was the actual match that stole the show.

There were some interesting stories told about the next few shows. WrestleMania IV, which was one of the most boring shows ever, was told in reverence because Donald Trump wanted to host the show in Atlantic City, which to them meant that they made it main stream. Edge had fond memories of WrestleMania VI since he was there live at the show as a youngster. Sgt. Slaughter told a story that I’d never heard about his involvement in WrestleMania VII. He said that Vince told him he was going to be in the main event of the show because Hulk Hogan didn’t want to work with anyone else. I’d always heard that they wanted to do Hogan and Warrior again in a rematch, but it didn’t work, and because of the war in 1991, they went with the Iraqi sympathizer angle and Slaughter was just the right person to do that angle.

For WrestleMania VIII, they talked about Ric Flair coming over to WWE and mentioned that the reason they went away from the logical Hogan/Flair main event is because the house show program they did wasn’t all that hot and the spark was over. But Jerry Brisco (I think) did mention that because both guys had such big egos, the matches never reached their potential.

Maybe the most intriguing part of the story was the inside look at WrestleMania IX. WrestleManix IX was quite possibly the worst show they’ve ever done, but they had some great footage of how Vince put the show together. Watching Vince McMahon in gorilla position dancing with Shawn Michaels, helping him get psyched up to go into the ring was priceless. There was also footage of Hogan shaking hands with an in-costume Giant Gonzalez. Jerry Brisco laughed while talking about how Vince loved to mess with Bobby Heenan and how Heenan’s entrance onto that show was done for Vince’s entertainment.

Once they started talking about WrestleMania XI, the documentary went down hill. The shows from then on out weren’t given much time and they spent more time talking about the Hall Of Fame and WWE Axxess and things of that nature, rather than the matches themselves. Can you imagine a documentary about WrestleMania with barely a few hints about the epic Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin match, which at that time was the single most successful match in history? Well, they did it.

Or how about barely any footage of Austin, Eddie Guerrero, Ric Flair, and a few pieces of mailed in interview footage with the Rock? There was an attempt to make WrestleMania 23 with Donald Trump important, and they got that right because it’s still the single most successful WrestleMania. And they also made WrestleMania 24 with Floyd Mayweather seem pretty important. But in the process, they overlooked their stars, the real reason why the last 10 or so Manias have been fun for actual wrestling fans.

The documentary has it’s ups and downs, but in the end, it leaves you wanting more. I wanted more of the great feuds recapped. I wanted to hear more from Vince on why they decided to bring in Trump or Mayweather, and also who they missed out on. I wanted more behind the scenes footage like they shot for WrestleMania IX. I wanted to see the method behind the mania.

Instead, there’s a ton of footage you’ve already seen, and most of the actual matches take a back seat to the pomp and circumstance. The main idea I got out of the documentary is that Vince McMahon knew how to get mainstream eye balls on his product, even when it wasn’t all that hot. That’s true promotion and is the reason why he’s succeeded for so long. He made people think his show was important, even if it really wasn’t.

Here are the special features and extra matches:

- Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper & Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
WrestleMania, 31st March, 1985
- WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage vs. Ricky ‘the Dragon’ Steamboat
WrestleMania III, 29th March, 1987
- WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
WrestleMania III, 29th March, 1987
- Retirement Match
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage
WrestleMania VII, 24th March, 1991
- Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels
WrestleMania X, 20th March, 1994
- WWE Championship Match
Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
WrestleMania XIV, 29th March, 1998
- WWE Tag Team Championship – Triangle Ladder Match
The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge / Christian
WrestleMania 2000, 2nd April, 2000
- Street Fight
Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon
WrestleMania X-Seven, 1st April, 2001
- The Rock vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan
WrestleMania X-8, 17th March, 2002
- WWE Championship Match
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar
WrestleMania XIX, 30th March, 2003
– WWE Championship Match
John Cena vs. Triple H
WrestleMania 22, 2nd April, 2006

Blu-ray Exclusive Content
- Money in the Bank Ladder Match
CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Jericho vs. Carlito vs. MVP vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. John Morrison
WrestleMania XXIV, 30th March, 2008
- The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
WrestleMania XXV, 5th April, 2009
- WWE Championship Match
Batista vs. John Cena
WrestleMania XXVI, 28th March, 2010

Special Features:
- Gene Okerlund Interviews Liberace
- Underestimating the crowd at WrestleMania IX
- Bobby Heenan’s Wild Ride
- Rey Mysterio on His WrestleMania Outfits
- John Cena on Making an Entrance
- Edge on Facing the Undertaker at WrestleMania
- Bret Hart on his Return to WrestleMania
- “My Favorite WrestleMania Moment”