Wrestlemania Week Day One: Reflections on XXVI and the year that was

Hopefully Wrestlemania is better than this stupid looking video game.

Next Sunday is Wrestlemania! That may not mean much to you, but as a wrestling fan it's like Super Bowl week, but cooler. To celebrate, (and since I'm in search of another hobby) The Flan's blog will (hopefully) write a wrestling blog each day this week, culminating with next Sunday's extravaganza.

One of the best things about wrestling is getting together with a bunch of die-hard fans and enjoying the show together and counting next Sunday, I have watched four of the last five Wrestlemania's in a group atmosphere. But there is a tradeoff: You're only paying attention half the time. With that in mind I decided to watch Wrestlemania XXVI yesterday. Not the best Wrestlemania, but the main event matches and most of the midcard were decent. A few thoughts:


--Unified Tag Team Match: Wikipedia states that this match was only three minutes and 24 seconds. I thought it was a little longer than that, like five minutes and 14 seconds. Point is you have a future hall of famer, the current WWE champion, an up-and-comer with main event talent and R-Truth (three out of four ain't bad) and you give them less than five minutes at the biggest show of the year. I'll save the disgrace that is called the Tag Team division for another day.


--Orton vs. DiBIase vs. Rhodes: When you're with a group, you don't pay attention to the announcers and you certainly don't pay attention to the crowd reaction. It was amazing how much the crowd did not care about DiBiase and Rhodes, almost like they weren't there. A year later nothing's changed. Rhodes is starting to get a little bit of a pop with his "dashing" gimmick and DiBiase has fallen into obscurity.

It took this guy longer to unlatch then hook then it did to climb the ladder unchallenged.

--Money in the Bank Ladder Match: First off, I'm glad this match has been scrapped from Wrestlemania, but more on that later this week. Despite what I think about the MITB concept, it still creates an exciting match with great moments, except this one. Anyway, during the commentary Matt Striker said "who will lead the WWE into the 21st Century?!" First, I thought Stone Cold, The Rock and DX already took care of that. Secondly, let's look at where the 10 participants of that match are now.

• Shelton Benjamin-Out of WWE, currently at ROH.

• MVP-Out of WWE, don't really care where he ended up.

• Drew McIntyre-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, currently a glorified jobber.

• Matt Hardy-Out of WWE, helping his brother run TNA into the ground.

• Christian-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, currently involved in Edge-Del Rio feud.

• Kane-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, most likely will take on The Corre with Kofi and Big Show.

• Kofi Kingston-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, see Kane.

• Jack Swagger-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, but is "training" Michael Cole for his match against Jerry "The King"  Lawler.

• Dolph Ziggler-Will face "Snooki" at Wrestlemania XXVII. Yes, I said "Snooki".

• Evan Bourne-No Wrestlemania XXVII match, also currently a glorified jobber.

So out of the 10 participants in last year's MITB match, only one is currently scheduled to comepte in a match at Wrestlemania, if you even want to call it that. Anyway, Swagger won this match, and thanks to the beauty of DVD and selective editing, clinched the briefcase in a matter of seconds.

--Triple H vs. Sheamus: In my opinion the best match of the night. Triple H is Triple H and Sheamus brought his A-game. Great match.

--Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk: Speaking of editing, if you watch the DVD you won't see this, After that the match went smoothly. Mysterio always brings excitement and Punk is the future, again, more on that later this week.

He may be old, but he does know how to
accurately draw Ric Flair.

--Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon: Sad. Just sad. The Hitman was a childhood hero of mine and to see him hobble around like that broke my heart (no pun intended). Storyline-wise it was stupidity for Vince to hire the Hart family to "screw" Bret. It made absolutely no sense. Bret beat up Vince for 10 minutes and other than ending a real feud that began 13 years ago it was a waste of time.

--Chris Jericho vs. Edge: Another good match. Jericho hit Edge in the face with the World Heavyweight Championship for the win, which is what the heels are supposed to do. I'd hate to sound like a broken record, but more on that later this week.

--10-Diva Tag Match: I can barely get people to care about these other matches, I'm not gonna waste time talking about this Title IX "match".

--Batista vs. John Cena: Considering this was for the WWE Championship, it should have been better than it was. There was a moment there where we all thought Cena got hurt pretty bad (what I'm speaking of starts around 4:10) but I guess he pulled through it. He then celebrated with a few haters, showing what a good sport he is.

--Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: The Gunslinger should have taken some advice from HBK on longevity because, in my opinion, Shawn Michaels' in-ring ability got better with age. The Undertaker has been great for 20-plus years, but started to show some wear in this match. A good match, but nowhere near as epic as their match at Wrestlemania XXV. 'Taker won and HBK retired. Considering this man had a hand in kicking my favorite wrestler out 13 years ago I didn't shed too many tears, but Shawn Michaels is one of the few icons that transcend the industry.

And that's that. Since then it's been quite a year: Jack Swagger became the worst champion in recent memory (but did get a sandwich named after him); Bret makes himself look worse than he already has; Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan and a bunch of jobbers made all the kids in the arena cry; Kane got some long-deserved respect; someone in the writing room thought this guy was sufficient enough to be champion; The guy in the middle of this pic got a huge push in a short amount of time; Michael Cole became an utter disgrace; John Morrison and Sheamus had an incredible ladder match; This, which needs no introduction:

Check back the rest of the week for more Wrestlemania Week blogs.

Out.