WWE Wrestlemania 25
WWE Wrestlemania 25 (4/5/2009) â€" Houston, TX
MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: MVP vs. CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas)- 9/10. I absolutely LOVE this match. It is packed with action and just plain fun, and having so many guys in the match gives everyone enough time to sell. I have to complement them on the sequence of dives in this match. They did a great job of not making it feel like the same thing over and over again by having all of the dives come from different places and angles. The Mark Henry dive-tease remains my favorite moment in Money In The Bank history. Lawler did an excellent job of covering up the botched Arabian Powerbomb spot with Shelton and MVP.
25 DIVA BATTLE ROYALE- DUD! Not only the entire divas division, but even past divas get thrown under the bus to put over Santino’s cross-dressing gimmick. I am not giving it a negative rating because the actual ring-work wasn’t bad. Another major failing of this match was that WWE was hyping up the fact that past divas would be returning, but they didn’t have Lita or Trish. Those two are by far the biggest names WWE has ever had. Without at least one of those two, anything billed as the “past” of the Divas’ Division will be disappointing. I did pop huge for Molly Holly, though.
HANDICAP MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, & Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (w/Ric Flair)- 5.25/10, but most of that is from the Jericho vs. Steamboat part. Steamboat still has it.
AFTERMATH- CRAP! The pro wrestler gets taken out by the actor with one punch. WTF?! Way to poop on the business.
EXTRME RULES MATCH: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy- 7.5/10
WWE INTERCONTINENTALTITLE MATCH: John Bradshaw Layfield(c) vs. Rey Mysterio- DUD! The least believable squash in the history of wrestling, made even more ridiculous by the announcers talking about JBL’s size advantage beforehand.
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Edge(c) (w/Vickie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero Jr.) vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena- 7.5/10 During his special, fancy entrance, Cena pulls a page out of Sting’s mid-late 90’s playbook and brings along an army of look-a-likes.
THE UNDERTAKER vs. SHAWN MICHAELS- A PERFECT 10/10. Everyone came into this match expecting nothing less than magic… and these guys delivered.
MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE IN WHICH THE TITLE CAN CHANGE HANDS ON A COUNT-OUT OR A DISQUALIFICATION: Triple H(c) vs. Randy Orton- 5.75/10. Extremely disappointing. This match just did not work. This feud really needed a No DQ’s stip, but the stip they gave it was one that forced the guys to stay away from potential DQs (i.e. excessive violence) as much as possible. This just did not work at all.
A very all over the place show from WWE. There wasn’t much in the middle here. What was good was great (or awesome) and what was bad was terrible. The main points against this match are its two duds and the horribly disappointing main event, but to make up for that it had some utterly awesome matches, including a perfect match between Taker and HBK. I would definitely recommend buying this, but when watching it, remember that the “fast forward” button is your friend.
MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: MVP vs. CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas)- 9/10. I absolutely LOVE this match. It is packed with action and just plain fun, and having so many guys in the match gives everyone enough time to sell. I have to complement them on the sequence of dives in this match. They did a great job of not making it feel like the same thing over and over again by having all of the dives come from different places and angles. The Mark Henry dive-tease remains my favorite moment in Money In The Bank history. Lawler did an excellent job of covering up the botched Arabian Powerbomb spot with Shelton and MVP.
25 DIVA BATTLE ROYALE- DUD! Not only the entire divas division, but even past divas get thrown under the bus to put over Santino’s cross-dressing gimmick. I am not giving it a negative rating because the actual ring-work wasn’t bad. Another major failing of this match was that WWE was hyping up the fact that past divas would be returning, but they didn’t have Lita or Trish. Those two are by far the biggest names WWE has ever had. Without at least one of those two, anything billed as the “past” of the Divas’ Division will be disappointing. I did pop huge for Molly Holly, though.
HANDICAP MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, & Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (w/Ric Flair)- 5.25/10, but most of that is from the Jericho vs. Steamboat part. Steamboat still has it.
AFTERMATH- CRAP! The pro wrestler gets taken out by the actor with one punch. WTF?! Way to poop on the business.
EXTRME RULES MATCH: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy- 7.5/10
WWE INTERCONTINENTALTITLE MATCH: John Bradshaw Layfield(c) vs. Rey Mysterio- DUD! The least believable squash in the history of wrestling, made even more ridiculous by the announcers talking about JBL’s size advantage beforehand.
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Edge(c) (w/Vickie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero Jr.) vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena- 7.5/10 During his special, fancy entrance, Cena pulls a page out of Sting’s mid-late 90’s playbook and brings along an army of look-a-likes.
THE UNDERTAKER vs. SHAWN MICHAELS- A PERFECT 10/10. Everyone came into this match expecting nothing less than magic… and these guys delivered.
MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE IN WHICH THE TITLE CAN CHANGE HANDS ON A COUNT-OUT OR A DISQUALIFICATION: Triple H(c) vs. Randy Orton- 5.75/10. Extremely disappointing. This match just did not work. This feud really needed a No DQ’s stip, but the stip they gave it was one that forced the guys to stay away from potential DQs (i.e. excessive violence) as much as possible. This just did not work at all.
A very all over the place show from WWE. There wasn’t much in the middle here. What was good was great (or awesome) and what was bad was terrible. The main points against this match are its two duds and the horribly disappointing main event, but to make up for that it had some utterly awesome matches, including a perfect match between Taker and HBK. I would definitely recommend buying this, but when watching it, remember that the “fast forward” button is your friend.