WWE held their pay-per-view of the year last night with WrestleMania XXIV at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Widely regarded as the “Super Bowl” of professional wrestling, to say that my expectations were high would be a tremendous understatement; as I write today, I can tell you with confidence that I am not one bit disappointed. Not everything went well and there were some real stinkers on the card but my overall enjoyment of the event was saved by four very strong matches and an entertaining end to Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show. Since I have already given most of the thoughts on the matches in my Richard Reacts feature that I included throughout last night’s live WrestleMania coverage which you can still read here, I am going to do something a little different with this column. I am going to talk about each match but instead of running them down in the order in which they occurred I am going to countdown from the worst to the best.
In what I would say was one of the worst matches in WrestleMania (if you can even call it a match) history, Kane defeating Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW Championship in under 10 seconds was repulsive. It is not the fact that Kane won the title because Kane is a veteran in the company and is capable of holding a title, but it is how they did it. The less than 10 second squash match might as well have featured Chavo Guerrero laying down in another “finger poke of doom” moment and letting Kane walk out with his title. What little respect that the ECW Championship had left was devalued last night when the brand’s champion was booked to look inferior and insignificant on the grandest stage of them all. Imagine if you were a casual fan that only watches wrestling a couple of times a month but you tuned in for WrestleMania and saw that – would it make you want to watch ECW on Tuesdays?
The 24-Man Battle Royal was going to be my vote for worst match of the night, until the ECW Championship “match” occurred. The Battle Royal was way too quick and was just a glorified dark match. I guess it was fine for what it was as the 24 superstars in the match did help the crowd get ready for the event. Kane didn’t look extremely dominant in the Battle Royal but he easily took care of Chavo. Again, what does that say about the ECW Championship?
BunnyMania was actually not as bad as I expected. They kept it quick and used Snoop Dogg very effectively. I expected Santino Marella to affect the finish just as he did and thought that the spot with Snoop kissing Maria fit the situation perfect. I originally picked Maria over Melina in the bout but I understand how WWE creative booked Beth Phoenix by keeping her dominant while pushing Maria’s heat with her ex. Did anyone else notice that Beth’s butt was hanging out of her pants in several spots of the match? She might be the Glamazon but she is still very attractive.
I have to admit that I was disappointed by the Belfast Brawl featuring Finlay and JBL. I was thrilled that WWE opened WrestleMania with the match but I expected more. The match seemed like it was finally starting to gain momentum when JBL and Finlay “went home” out of the blue with JBL seemingly winning easily. It was not horrible but there was nothing to warrant WrestleMania excitement. I expected them to use juice but was not surprised when they decided to keep it dry. You never want to use blood too early in a wrestling event and with a match that lasted under 10 minutes, it was not necessary.
Umaga vs. Batista was exactly what I thought it would be. It was a match that featured some solid power spots, but nothing more. It was a filler match to give Batista his own singles bout on the card and a chance for the Samoan Bulldozer to move brands if WWE still wants to go in that direction. As I mentioned in my report last night, Umaga’s spinning heel kick to Batista was very solid and Batista getting Umaga up for the Batista Bomb was exciting. Batista had some trouble with it as he was falling backwards but you can’t fault him for executing it on a guy as big as Umaga.
Floyd Mayweather in a professional wrestling ring – to say that I was concerned was a tremendous understatement. WWE got so much mainstream press for the Mayweather vs. Big Show bout I knew that all eyes from a mainstream perspective (especially from the US sports world) would be on this match. I was praying for the sake of the company that it would work. I have to admit that at about five minutes in I was getting concerned. They were losing the crowd but Mayweather was still drawing good heel heat. When Mayweather’s handlers pulled him out of the ring, business picked up and the match turned out very solid. The chair shots from Mayweather onto Big Show were executed very well and Floyd did one hell of a job with the brass knuckle shot on Show. The knockout was a good finish because of Mayweather’s undefeated streak as a boxer and the greatest fighter in the world. Mayweather drew so much heat it left me feeling like he will be back for more.
The Money in the Bank ladder match was very good. It was not the best Money in the Bank ladder match ever, not even close, but it was still a good effort from all seven performers. John Morrison is absolutely insane for completing that moonsault out of the ring onto the outside with a ladder. That was one of the riskiest spots I have seen in a WWE ring in a long time. There were a couple of spots where I thought that Shelton Benjamin had been killed. The risks that all seven performers took were very real and they should all be praised for their efforts. I was not surprised about Matt Hardy’s return during the match and felt like it worked well to pick up on his feud with MVP. I was surprised that CM Punk got the victory and I have to complain about how WWE has booked Chris Jericho. Jericho’s return to the company was the most talked about thing all fall and now he is just another one of the guys. He returned and had some very good matches with Randy Orton only to have a weak program with JBL and was inserted into the Money in the Bank ladder match. With Jeff Hardy gone you have to wonder where that leaves Jericho. Jericho is not just another one of the guys – he is the former Undisputed Champion and one of the best workers in the company. He should have won the title shot and I worry about where the company is going with his character.
Randy Orton retains the WWE Championship. Are you surprised? I wasn’t because of the placement of the match. It was not booked as the main event and we had already seen one title change during the event. You had to figure that Undertaker was going over so the odds were very unlikely that WWE was going to change all three titles in one night. The triple-threat match itself with Orton, John Cena, and Triple H was a very good match. I liked the story that was told in this match. Triple H and John Cena looked as determined as ever but Randy Orton defied the odds once again and proved that he is a legitimate WWE Champion. All three of these guys worked their butts off and that is something that I have come to expect from Orton, Triple H, and Cena. It will be interesting to see where WWE plans to go with the WWE Championship as there have been all kinds of rumors, but I can’t complain about Randy Orton retaining.
Undertaker and Edge had the second best match of the night and on any other night at any other event it would have been the show stealer. The match started out slow which was needed because the match ended up going nearly 25 minutes. There were a lot of vintage Undertaker spots where he ‘rope walked’ with Edge that were executed to perfection. Edge showcased his selling abilities by taking perfect bumps and showed his versatility with textbook drop kicks. The finish was outstanding with the first referee getting knocked out and Charles Robinson running as fast as he could to get in for the count only for Undertaker to get a two count. Edge ended up tapping in Undertaker’s Gogoplata Choke to win the World Heavyweight Championship. A brilliant match!
The match of the night (and I’m sure that most of you will agree) was Shawn Michaels versus Ric Flair. I warned those who were reading my live coverage to bear with me as I knew that it was going to be tough. Michaels and Flair did exactly what they needed to do. Flair got in all of his vintage spots playing the ‘dirtiest player in the game’ with the chop block, eye poke, and discrete low blow that the referee doesn’t see. It was so much fun to watch! Michaels took some huge risks, missing one moonsault out of the ring onto the announce table and another connecting onto Flair at the bottom of the ramp. Flair used the Figure Four Leg Lock and Michaels was able to sneak in some premature Sweet Chin Music for some near submissions and falls. I fought back tears when it was time to “go home” as Michaels dialed up Sweet Chin Music one last night. Michaels hesitated, hit it, pinned Flair and told him that he loved him. It was very classy of Shawn to leave the ring immediately to give Flair the moment to himself. I wish that more would have been done at the end but I’m sure that Flair had it just as he wanted it. I got emotional when he kissed his children and walked to the back in tears. Thank you Ric Flair – you are a legend and the greatest of all time. I’m going to miss you.
In conclusion WrestleMania XXIV is a must see event. Order the replay, buy the DVD, there are memories in this pay-per-view that you will want to save forever. I’m getting chills just thinking about what a privilege that it was to cover Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels. There were lighting problems during the event that were annoying and WWE really dropped the ball with the ECW Championship but overall the pay-per-view was outstanding. Any publication that indicates otherwise is bitter on the business. If you are a true wrestling fan and could not appreciate the greatness in the career finale of Ric Flair then you need to follow another profession. We witnessed the greatest of our industry, our Michael Jordan; go out in style last night. Congratulations WWE on a tremendous pay-per-view!
Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com
Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to Rajah.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.