LG2004
I got WrestleMania XX as a Christmas gift, and it was pretty good. It's not the best WM, but it's up there (WrestleManias 17 and 19 were better). Here are my thoughts on the matches:Contains Spoilers:WWE United States Championship: Big Show Vs. John CenaBig Show gave the doctor of thugonomics a couple of good shots, but Cena managed to beat him after 2 FUs. The first one Show kicked out of, but John hit the 2nd one after striking Show w/ one of his Word Life brass knuckles. 4/5World Tag Team Championship: Fatal Four Way Match: Rob Van Dam/Booker T Vs. Dudley Boyz Vs. Garrison Cade/Mark Jindrak Vs. La ResistanceDecent match, with Booker and RVD retaining the gold. 3/5Chris Jericho Vs. ChristianGreat match between the former friends. The CLB wins after Trish interferes and accidentally hits Jericho, allowing Christian to roll up Y2J for the 3 count. This would be the start of Trish's heel run. 4/52-3 Handicap Tag Team Match: The Rock and Mick Foley Vs. Evolution (Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista)The Rock returns to the ring to team up with Rock and Sock tag team partner Mick Foley. While the Rock electrified the crowd w/ the People's Elbow (and adding in his version of Flair's strut for good measure), he and Foley lose after Randy hits the RKO on Foley (who tried to use Socko). 5/5Playboy Evening Gown Match: Sable and Torrie Wilson Vs. Stacy Keibler and Miss Jackie The Raw and SmackDown! divas never cease to amaze me. Even though the 4 of them don't really wrestle, I loved the match. Instead of having to defeat each other by tearing off their gowns, Sable suggests that they all take their gowns off and wrestle without them (in lingerie). All of the divas are all for it, except Miss Jackie, who had to have hers torn off by Torrie and Sable. After a few near falls (some very nice roll ups), Torrie pins Miss Jackie, giving her and Sable the win. 5/5WWE Cruiserweight Championship Open: Chavo Guerrero Vs. Jamie Noble Vs. Funaki Vs. Ultimo Dragon Vs. Rey Mysterio Vs. Nunzio Vs. Tajiri Vs. Shannon Moore Vs. Billy Kidman A pretty fast-paced match, but I think it was over too quick. Chavo ends up retaining the title after his dad helps him pin Rey Mysterio. 3/5Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar: Special Guest Referee: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin It's not as bad as some people have said. Sure they didn't do much for a moment, but they started to battle later. Goldberg wins after a Spear and Jackhammer. Austin then stuns Lesnar and Goldberg. 4/5WWE Tag Team Championship: Fatal Four Way Match: Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi Vs. APA Vs. Basham Brothers Vs. Benjamin/Haas Same comments as Raw match, the champions retain their titles. 3/5WWE Women's Championship: Victoria Vs. Molly Holly If Molly loses this, she gets her head shaved. Molly tries to use Victoria's Widow's Peak, but Victoria counters w/ a backslide pin, thus winning the match. Molly tries to escape from Victoria, but it's to no avail. Molly got what she deserved. A very close shave, you could say. lol 4/5WWE Championship Match: Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle A great match. Eddie and Kurt pulled out all of their best moves in this one. I thought the match was over when Eddie hit the frog splash. Unfortunately, Kurt kicked out. Eddie would retain his title after cheating (unlacing his boot) and rolling up Kurt. 5/5Undertaker Vs. Kane Not their best match, but close. It was also a little rushed. Taker's new look is okay, but I prefer his 1999 Deadman look. Kane would fall to the Taker after getting the Tombstone. 3/5World Heavyweight Championship: Triple Threat Match: Triple H Vs. Chris Benoit Vs. Shawn Michaels These 3 are some of the best superstars in the WWE today, although I'm not a fan of H-Boy. There were times when 2 of the men would briefly team up (HHH and HBK suplex Benoit through an announce table), but still it was every man for himself. The 3 men gave all they had in this match, and eventually Benoit would win after putting the Crossface on H-Boy, making him tap out. After the match, Eddie would come out and embrace his friend for his victory. 5/5
RagingCajun
**SPOILERS AHEAD**So much hype but it didn't deliver. That's just my opinion anyway. These are the matches I can remember:John Cena VS Big ShowCena had to win cuz if he didn't it just wouldn't be Mania! Pretty okay match to start things up. Big Show absolutely man-handled Cena.Heck,Show man-handles everyone!I must say great acting from Cena when he took that boot from Show to the face. Ya gotta love these wrestlers. I mean they work so hard to make it look as if they are actually hurt!A bit of a heel tactic from Cena by using the chain on Show but let's face it, if it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have won the US title that night.Big pop for the F-U from the crowd.Match Rating - 7/10Christian VS Chris JerichoOh look another love triangle...how....refreshing. Why does the WWE resort to using soap-opera tactics, I don't know. Stellar performance by Christian I must say. He is really becoming one of RAW's top heels without a doubt. I actually thought Y2J had this one in the bag but then Trish came along. At first I thought she was going to distract Jericho by being hurt & then cause him to be pinned. Well that did happen and more.This was in my view a REAL surprise ending!!Match Rating - 6.5/10Brock Lesnar VS GoldbergThis was a sorry excuse for a wrestling match. What the heck happened?!? Before these two nimrods got it on, they stared at one another,ran into one another a few times and basically bored the heck out of me & MSG.For months,I waited for this since Survivor Series. And for what, to be gravely disappointed.Match Rating - 3/10Taker VS KaneFinally The Undertaker is home.Mark Calaway has reprised his role of the deadman and all is well with the world.The match was short and sweet. Vintage taker moments such as him sitting up after being chokeslammed was a sight for sore eyes.Speaking of eyes the famous Undertaker eye-roll is back!! Man when he tombstoned Kane I thought he truly had broken Kane's neck!! Not a stupendous match but a stupendous return.This was the HIGHLIGHT of the whole night!!Match Rating - 7.5/10Triple H VS HBK VS BenoitWhat a way to end off the evening,by crowning Benoit the new Champ!! Kudos to all 3 superstars on their performances! When Shawn did that Crossbody to Benoit & The Game on the outside I almost fainted. At 38 years old he can still do that?!? Amazing athlete in HBK. Triple H wasn't as dominant as I thought he would be being that he is the brawler of the three. Benoit in my mind, is the closest thing to Marvel's Wolverine in real life. Can you say "Berserker Rage"?!? After being suplexed through the table the guy like he upped the tenacity and was relentless.Great finish in making The Game tap out.And even greater, Eddie Guerrerro congratulating Chris showing so much emotion. Now that match, is what Mania is all about!Match Rating 8/10Total Rating - 7/10
Gary Ballance
*Spoilers ahead*Hyped for a year in advance, WrestleMania XX would've had to have been pretty damn good to live up to its enormous hype. Held in New York's Madison Square Garden, with the questionable tagline of "Where it all begins again", WMXX wasn't that memorable save for the excellent main event between reigning World Champion Triple H, Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels. While the main event was given plenty of time, the card was way overbooked and many matches were far too short- in particular, the Cruiserweight Open. Thus, the midcard was a mixture of good and bad matches. Onto the matches..Match 1- John Cena vs Big Show [US Title]. A strange choice for an opener as the point of the opening match is to warm up the crowd. Big Show killed the crowd with some dreadful, slow, plodding offence. Cena only had a little offence at the end and, unsurprisingly picked up the win w/ an FU to begin his long overdue US Title reign. The match was a little boring during the middle with Big Show on the offensive. He was a terrible US Champion, so it was good to give the Title to someone who'd defend it. Average match.Match 2- La Resistance vs Dudleyz vs Cade/Jindrak vs Booker T/RVD [Raw Tag Titles.] Thrown-together Fatal 4 Way match. Not great to be honest. RVD and Booker T were a thrown-together team which devalues the Tag Team division- same w/ Edge and Benoit. Raw needs some more ACTUAL tag teams as opposed to just throwing 2 popular midcarders together as they so often do. Booker T and RVD retain via 5 Star Frog Splash. (What happened in 2003? 2002 produced Randy Orton, John Cena and Brock Lesnar. 2003 produced hosses like Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones and bland wrestlers like Cade, Jindrak, La Resistance, Rodney Mack and Orlando Jordan. Hopefully some promising new talent will emerge this year.)Match 3- Christian vs Chris Jericho. Jericho is my favourite wrestler and while I was extremely annoyed that his WrestleMania losing streak was further extended, a loss to Christian was the right result to continue the feud properly going into Backlash. Jericho won the feud anyway, so it's not the end of the world! The match itself was really enjoyable and was, in my opinion, the best match of the night after the main event. Disappointing ending, but some terrific action. How has Jericho not been World Champ on Raw yet? (Oh yeah, Triple H.)Match 4- Evolution (Orton, Batista, Flair) vs The Rock & Mick Foley. I was annoyed at the time this match was signed as I thought the Orton- Foley feud was going well, and a singles match between the two was in order. This handicap tag match was fine though. Interesting to see Foley and Flair in the ring together as they supposedly despise each other outside the ring. Good action here, and a brilliant (but unpopular) finish as Orton nails Foley out of nowhere with the RKO for the pin. Hopefully if The Rock does return later this year he and Orton will feud, as that would be extremely interesting to see.Match 5- Torrie Wilson & Sable vs Stacy Keibler & Jackie Gayda. The T&A portion of the evening. Dreadful wrestling and mercifully short.Match 6- Cruiserweight Open, featuring Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Funaki, Nunzio, Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Akio, Tajiri & Chavo Guerrero. Considering the appalling amount of time they were given, this was quite enjoyable. I thought it was absolutely shameful, however, that they didn't include the excellent Paul London in this match. A great talent. The eliminations were far too quick and the overall finish was pathetic. (Billy Kidman followed in Brock Lesnar's footsteps showing you should never attempt a Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania! He nearly killed himself trying to hit one to the outside!) The amount of time given to this match shows the contempt WWE treats its Cruiserweight Division with; ironic, as the Division could be the one thing that could save Smackdown from the crap it has become. Match 7- Brock Lesnar vs Bill Goldberg. For the build-up this feud had, this match was absolutely atrocious. Both men were leaving after this match and should be ashamed of themselves for ending their WWE careers with it. The only good aspect of this match was the animated MSG crowd who chanted "This match sucks", "Boring", "We want Bret" and "You sold out"(at Lesnar). WWE dubbed over these chants on the DVD thus making the match utterly unwatchable now! Goldberg won this dismal display with a Jackhammer. (I won't presume to know what life on the road is like for a WWE wrestler, but Brock Lesnar was given a huge push immediately by WWE and was "put over" by many big names like The Undertaker, The Rock, Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan. I can see why many are annoyed by his departure. Goldberg's year in WWE was dreadful and it's better for all concerned that he's gone.)Match 8- Scotty/Rikishi vs Bashams vs APA vs The World's Greatest Tag Team. I mentioned already that 2003 was a disappointing year for new wrestlers- the only exception (besides Brian "Spanky" Kendrick, who has since left) has been The World's Greatest Tag Team- Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. Hopefully, they will go on to greater things in the coming months. This match was, like the Raw 4 Way, thrown together. It wasn't great, and once again the champions (Scotty & Rikishi, still living off their gimmick from 2000) retained. Pointless.Match 9- Victoria vs Molly [Women's Title.] Raw has a fine Womens division (despite what the critics say) and Molly & Victoria are excellent additions to that division, but this match was far too short and was disappointing. The end was typical for a Womens match: a roll-up. Whoever's booking the finishes to these matches should be shot! Let them use their finishers for Christ's sake! Victoria's 'Widow's Peak' is a brilliant finisher!Match 10- Eddy Guerrero vs Kurt Angle [WWE Title]. Angle hasn't been his old self this year and his role as Smackdown's General Manager has, to use an Americanism, sucked. This match was pretty good but was a little lacking considering how good it could've been. The finish (another roll-up) was a little better than the Women's match as it was quite clever. Some good action, but could've been better.Match 11- The Undertaker vs Kane. The Undertaker's appearance disappointed everyone, I think, as he looked exactly like the old "Biker Undertaker" only with a different entrance and Paul Bearer. The match was a fairly typical "hoss" match which Taker won w/ a Tombstone. Great entrance, but that was about it.Match 12- Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit [World Heavyweight Title]. One of the best main events of recent years, and certainly the best match Triple H has had in quite some time. Brilliant back-and-forth action. A triple threat match usually always delivers as there's no need for 'restholds' (sleeper holds, chinlocks, etc.) as one wrestler is usually knocked outside while the other two go at it. A great match and the right result. Benoit finally gets his chance to shine and begins his World title reign, making Triple H tap out to the Crippler Crossface.Nothing too memorable on the whole. The only disappointments were the Cruiserweight Open (time-wise, not action-wise) and the abysmal showdown between Lesnar and Goldberg. Otherwise, a fine event.
