people saw coming. There were plenty
of near-falls and times when it looked
like Sheamus was about to close out the
match. Overall it was a very solid and
well done match in the middle of the
card.

CM Punk versus Rey Mysterio was
fast paced and exciting, both guys have
styles that mesh well with the other, but
it would have been nice to see the match
go longer then the six and a half minutes
that it went for, which was among the
shortest on the card. Both guys like to
use a variety of aerial manoeuvres and
it played out as a classic good guy/bad
guy battle. Mysterio won in the end with
some great off-the-top-ropes moves, and
it was great all the way through, just a
little short.

The WWE had put a lot of time
into building up the Bret Hart-Vince
McMahon grudge match, and while it
was probably the weakest match of the
night, the two of them put on just about
all you could expect of them. The match
basically consisted of Hart bashing
Vince with a chair repeatedly and then
making him tap out to the sharpshooter,
and when Hart held up the chair after
the match was over, it looked pretty
dented. It was a nice touch having the
entire Hart family coming out for the
match too.

The match quality rose considerably
with the next bout, Chris Jericho
defending the World Heavyweight
Championship against Edge, who won
the 2010 Royal Rumble to get into the
match. Heading into Wrestlemania,
the two of them, who are two of the
WWE’s best overall performers, had
been a bit overshadowed by John
Cena/Batista and Shawn Michaels/
Undertaker, but they challenged for the
best overall match of the night. This was
another one that was hard to call leading
in, and Jericho, who has in the past long
been known primarily as a transitional
champion, successfully defended the
title, but in an odd twist, Edge beat the
crap out of him after the match, which
would lead one to assume that their
feud isn’t over. During the match, both
guys hit a wide array of great moves,
and more than once it seemed like Edge
would seal the victory with a spear,
or that Jericho would make Edge tap
out with the Walls of Jericho. Neither
happened though, and Jericho stole the
win after hitting Edge with the title belt
(in classic WWE fashion, the referee
was knocked out) and then connecting
with his signature finisher, the Code-
Breaker.

John Cena vs. Batista wasn’t
exactly the most riveting feud heading

 

into Wrestlemania, but they completely
redeemed themselves with a match that
was supposed to be average at best and
instead wound up stealing the show.
Cena went to the top rope far more then
he normally does and kicked out of

all of Batista’s power moves. The spot
where Batista caught a flying Cena in
midair and delivered a massive Spine-
Buster was just outstanding. It looked
like Cena, who entered into the match
with a nice entrance featuring the U.S.
Air Force, was done when Batista hit
his finishing move, the Batista Bomb
(which almost no one kicks out of), but
he kicked out, and went on to make
Batista tap out with the STF in a finish
that no one saw coming. This was

just an awesome match. Plus, it was
hilarious seeing Cena go right up to the
anti-Cena portion of the audience after
winning and show off to them.

It all led up to the main event,
Shawn Michaels versus The Undertaker,
which even though there was no title
up for grabs, was the unquestioned tue [F
main event. The match was beyond epic en
(even though it was tarnished a bit by a
jackass usher who demanded that I was
in the wrong seat and showed me why
making six bucks an hour is a horrible,
horrible thing), and because of the
stipulation that Michaels would have
to retire if he lost, it was pretty much
a 50-50 proposition as to who would
win. As it turned out, Michaels lost after
absorbing three Tombstone Pile Drivers
and an assortment of other moves that
most wrestlers don’t get up from in your 3
regular matches, but he didn’t go down
without a fight.

There was Michaels hitting three
Sweet Chin Music super kicks, and
his truly awe-inspiring Moonsault (a
back flip) off the top rope while The
Undertaker was lying prone on the
Spanish announce table a good 12 feet
away. For a 45-year-old man to do that
takes something more then tremendous
athleticism. After the match, The
Undertaker gave the floor to HBK ina
truly touching moment when he broke
character and saluted Michaels, who
has had one of the most legendary and
remarkable careers in wrestling history.
To put it lightly, it was a special thing to
be there for Michaels’ final match.

So even though there was a laundry
list of hiccups, and along the way it was
a weekend from hell where just about
everything that could have gone wrong
did, it was all worth it to see what was
the best Wrestlemania in the last decade
at least. To see this show, I’d do it all
over again.

 

  

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