Wrestlemania XXV Thread

[FedEx227]

This isn't Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy we're talking about though. This is two supposedly "even" guys, one on the rise and one that has been dominating for years. There HAS to be more spice to it. Absolutely has to.

In my mind they've kinda broke that face wins at the end thing. Wrestlemania 2000 and Wrestlemania X-7 both showed that.

Even if they wanted to have Face HHH go over do it in a way that sorta hints that Orton has a chance. Even a kick out would've made it seem SOMEWHAT worthwhile. The booking of this match gave no appearance that Orton had a chance, or was about to win. There was no back-forth, NOTHING. No run-ins from Legacy, no run-ins from McMahons, NOTHING.

I don't necessarily have a problem with HHH winning, I have a problem with the way the match as a whole was booked and performed. It accomplished nothing on the biggest stage of the year.

Someone from another forum put it pretty nicely

It made sense for HHH to exact his physical revenge during the match. But this match--by design--should have been built to put Orton over in the end, hook or crook. I mean, they hot-shotted the WWE Title back onto HHH two months ago after arguably the most boring long-term reign in years just to job Orton out? Terrible short-sightedness.

Orton's THE heel right now like HHH was 10 years ago. Wrestlemania is where you make or establish NEW stars and tell NEW stories. HHH winning made sense, but it was NOT memorable. No one bar the biggest HHH mark will remember this match or this outcome in any significant historical light ever. It's worthless. The wrong person went over.

This night needed to close with a moment that shook things up; that passed the torch; or got you talking like previous historically significant Mania’s. It did not. All they did was shoehorn the status quo YET AGAIN. HHH should have only been booked in his millionth Wrestlemania main event to PUT OVER Orton. His time is passed. I don't care if he jobs at Backlash. Backlash is garbage. No one remembers Backlash. It means nothing.

WWE dropped the ball.

 

[EmpireWF]

In their mind likely, Orton doesn't need that during WM because he's taken out the McMahons. Plus, on RAW they can have him bitch about HHH using the sledgehammer and getting the rematch at Backlash.

It sucks though because Orton could be the biggest guy in the company but they keep pulling him back at points like this.

Would have been something new/interesting to have Orton look great in winning tonight, then have Hunter go a bit nuts in seeking revenge.

 

[FedEx227]

And that's my gripe. Orton was ready to take that step. They gave him the reigns a few years ago and he wasn't ready, but he had all the makings to FINALLY make that step at Wrestlemania and now it's back to square one.

"You screwed me, you used a sledgehammer" blah blah, Orton wins at Backlash cool, nobody cares.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Just got back. Still sorting through my thoughts on being there live. It was definitely a spectacle. I enjoyed the wrestling moreso at the Friday ROH show, but that's at least partly because of how far we were from the ring. It also didn't help that there were plenty of idiots sitting around me.

The MITB seemed spotty, and seemed to have a number of screw-ups. Cool to see CM Punk win. The Divas match was bleh, the Hardy's didn't seem anything special, and the Legends match was pretty painful to watch outside of Steamboat. HBK-Undertaker was good and the fans were hot.

The Cena-Edge-Big Show match went pretty much as expected. Nice way to finish it, but you had to know Cena was winning.

As for Orton-Triple H, they protected Triple H. Again. I don't see the payoff to it. There's no reason, beyond protecting him. Six months from now, we'll have another Triple H and Orton feud and we're supposed to care, despite the fact that Orton never comes out ahead.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

I thought the MitB match was just a terrible spot fest. For matches like this, you need to tell some sort of story, and here they didn't tell much of any. Just a spot fest...a few cool spots, thats it. Meh.

The Women's Battle Royal was bad and there was no funny to be had at all.

The Hardy's match was ok at best...for a match like this, you need to tell a fuckin story, they didn't tell anything here...

JBL match was a joke...terrible. At least Rey Rey had a cool mask.

Taker v. HBK was good, but it wasn't epic or anything. I don't thin they told a great story.

Cena/Edge/Big Slow was meh. Paint by numbers job.

HHH/Orton was ridiculously anti-climactic and served no purpose. Orton needed to win that match. Should have had the Cena match as the final match.

Lame overall. Only one match worthy of WrestleMania...Taker and HBK. Glad I didn't buy.

Im kinda confused as to what story you wanted told in the MITB match that was just a bunch of guys thrown into a spotfest, like you said. I thought it was a pretty solid spotfest, too. They came with a couple things ive never seen before, which I always enjoy.

I thought the Taker/HBK match was phenomenal. Again.. what do you mean by a story? The story was that HBK damn near broke his streak a few times and they also got pretty creative with the finish and the Skinning the Cat into the Tombstone, which I also thought was awesome. You got a little bit of everything in that match. Definitely will be match of the year.

HHH/Orton was beyond brutal. Worse than the HHH/Booker T main event from a few years back. My lord was it bad. It would've been half decent if Orton won, but there was no payout in any of that. So bad.

The Cena ending was cool but the match was garbage. But you couldnt be expecting much.

The Legends match was beyond terrible too. Seeing the potential of what a Jericho/Steamboat could've been like was cool, but come on. Jericho beats everyone, beats up Flair, then Micky Rourke takes him out? LAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Good lord beyond lame. My god..

Lol @ Vince getting anal and probably changing the plan of the JBL match when everyone speculated that it'd be him retiring with the IC championship. Whats the history there? Fastest loss in Wrestlemania history? I dont even think it was that. Again, very lame.

On the whole.. pretty bad show. Taker/HBK was outstanding.. MITB is always enjoyable for me, but beyond that, brutal.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

PS: If Orton faces anyone... ANYONE, including Hogan and Vince McMahon himself, other than Triple H last nite.. he goes Over. And its done well, too. Triple H may have single handedly ruined wrestling.

 

[EmpireWF]

Triple H may have single handedly ruined wrestling.

I wouldn't go <I>that</i> far.

 

[Liquidrob]

 

[Bigpapa42]

I noticed that at the event. didn't know Shammy was tight with Rourke. Is Micky making an MMA movie next, perhaps?

 

[FedEx227]

ILol @ Vince getting anal and probably changing the plan of the JBL match when everyone speculated that it'd be him retiring with the IC championship. Whats the history there? Fastest loss in Wrestlemania history? I dont even think it was that. Again, very lame.

It wasn't the quickest, so it was incredibly worthless.

I thought the idea of him keeping the IC Title then retiring on top would have been a great idea. If you push him as this annoying, cocky heel announcer what better way then to have him continually say that he "retired with a championship, undefeated IC champion, etc."

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Im kinda confused as to what story you wanted told in the MITB match that was just a bunch of guys thrown into a spotfest, like you said. I thought it was a pretty solid spotfest, too. They came with a couple things ive never seen before, which I always enjoy.

I thought the Taker/HBK match was phenomenal. Again.. what do you mean by a story? The story was that HBK damn near broke his streak a few times and they also got pretty creative with the finish and the Skinning the Cat into the Tombstone, which I also thought was awesome. You got a little bit of everything in that match. Definitely will be match of the year.

The MitB match - There are plenty of ways to tell the story...the little guys taking out the two big guys...you can start a feud in the match and let it carry over to the next show/ppv/etc...there are plenty of ways to tell a story, the older MitB matches did so in some way...hell, they incorporated Hardy last year into the match with MVP. This was just a spotfest with a good number of botched spots. Meh.

As for the Taker match...yes, it was phenomenal...I thought the front end of the match could have told a better story. The back end was great and kept you on the edge, but I thought the front end could have done a better job at telling the story that they tried to portray leading up to it...HBK not being intimidated by the Taker or his streak or the event. It was still good, just a hair shy of epic...the internet is kind of overreacting to it, similarly to the way that they overreacted to Angle/Benoit a few years back. It was the GOAT at the time (because the internet is always about GOAT and WOAT) but its not talked about much at all, now.

We'll see how it holds up historically.

At this point, after only seeing it once, not sure I'd say it was better then two of Shawn's matches...Iron Man match and his Ladder Match v. Razor.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I noticed that at the event. didn't know Shammy was tight with Rourke. Is Micky making an MMA movie next, perhaps?

Rourke brought back up in case anyone tried to double cross him during the angle.

Seriously.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Rourke brought back up in case anyone tried to double cross him during the angle.

Seriously.

You know, as paranoid as that sounds, I don't blame him. He's not part of the business and I doubt he really "knows" most of these guys that well. Its not Vince has never done if before, either.

 

[EmpireWF]

Rourke is pals with Shamrock, some how.

He was cageside the week after for Shamrock's fight w/ Diaz.