Wrestlemania XXVIII – April 1, 2012

It’s that time of the year for Wrestlemania, so I thought I’d join the hundreds of other who do a recap of the show. Wasn’t a lot I was looking forward to on this show, but the atmosphere always makes up for the poor product. The whole PPV has basically been built around Rock/Cena and HHH/Undertaker with a little emphasis on Teddy/JL, everything has been treated like an afterthought. I’m not going to do a play by play recap of each match, just a little thought on each. After the long recap of the March Madness tournament, a shorter recap seems like a good idea. With that, let’s get to the show.

WWE March Madness 2011 Tournament

Taking a brief hiatus from the Coliseum Home Video collection, we’re going to recap a special WWE program. The WWE March Madness 2012 Tournament that aired on WWE On Demand. This is basically the WWE’s attempt to do the NCAA March Madness tournament. I have no idea of the matches, so it’s all going to be a surprise, but I have a bad feeling the final match will be Undertaker versus Shawn Michaels, I hope I’m wrong. Hopefully we get some good solid matches and no garbage. Let’s get underway.

Saturday Night’s Main Event #30 – February 8, 1992

Almost to the end of the SNME collection as we have two remaining. Tonight’s episode is three weeks after the Royal Rumble and two months before Wrestlemania. A lot has changed in the WWF since our last SNME back in April 1991. Hulk Hogan was defeated by the Undertaker at the Survivor Series 1991, but due to controversy we had a rematch five days later won by Hulk Hogan. This was not without more controversy and the title was declared vacant. Ric Flair, who debuted in the summer of 1991, won the 1992 Royal Rumble and in the process won the vacant World Title. Randy Savage, who reunited with Elizabeth at Wrestlemania, finally married Elizabeth at Summerslam. At the reception the happy couple was attacked by Jake Roberts and the Undertaker, setting off the Savage and Roberts feud that went through the fall and winter. Bret Hart finally captured his first singles title defeating Mr. Perfect and putting him out of wrestling for years. Bret defended the title proudly against all comers, but finally was beaten for the title by the Mountie. The Mountie would then quickly lose the belt, only two days later, to Roddy Piper, who finally gained a title after eight years with the WWF. The Nasty Boys were able to hold the tag titles up until they ran into the Legion of Doom at Summerslam, making the LOD the first Triple Crown tag team champions. The LOD would lose the tag titles one night before this show to the tag team of Money Inc, Ted DiBiase and IRS (formerly known as Mike Rotundo). Demolition has gone their separate ways as Ax was released, Crush became Hawaiian Crush, and Smash became the Repo Man. Finally Sid Vicious made his long awaited WWF debut in the summer destroying various heels and aligning himself with Hulk Hogan. This friendship was short lived as Sid was eliminated by Hulk at the Rumble and proceeded to eliminate Hulk allowing Ric Flair to win. These two men are forced to team tonight to face Ric Flair and Undertaker. In the Hulk and Sid’s corner, making his big return was Brutus Beefcake, who’s been out for almost two years after a parasailing accident. Let’s get down to ringside for the opening contest.

Monday Night Smackdown – April 19, 2010

 

Knowing the majority of the RAW roster is stuck overseas and going to miss the TV taping this week, I thought this might be worth a quick recap. Not going to be a detailed recap but just quick points for the show. Before I start though, if you haven’t seen Impact yet, watch it, it was amazing. Let’s see what the WWE can pull out without the usual gang of idiots.

Wrestlemania XXVI – March 28, 2010

 

Well, it’s finally Wrestlemania time. I watched the show live last night and honestly some of the matches were really big let downs. I hope they redeem themselves upon second viewing, but not optimistic. I went into this Wrestlemania not expecting much, only three matches interested me (Jericho/Edge, MITB, Rey/Punk) and they just were not as good as they could’ve been. If you follow me on twitter (nala310) you’ll see I posted my opinions up after each match. For those that missed it, here are my quick thoughts on the show and we’ll see if the replay changed anything. The tag match was good but way too short, under five minutes, what a bad start to the night. The triple threat match was surprisingly better than I expected, but Randy winning was obvious. Money in the Bank was a massive disappointment this year, ten men is way too many and most of the time they spent laying around. Jack Swagger winning made me happy, but made little to no sense. Triple H pinning Sheamus was a stupid thing to do, Sheamus needed a win here, and a Triple H loss would’ve been a catalyst to his heel turn. Maybe Sheamus is on the future endeavor list? Rey wins of course, as CM Punk is basically dead and buried at this point. I don’t think he’s won much since the Rumble, and beating JTG on Superstars isn’t a big win. CM Punk is the best they have and they don’t know how to utilize his talents, way to drop the ball. The Bret and Vince match was just boring, basically ten minutes of Vince getting his ass kicked. Went too long for what it was, but always nice to see Natalya. Jericho beating Edge just seemed wrong, all the buildup for the return of Edge and he loses? That is what they call stupid booking! The best part of the match happened after the match, and I’ll get to that later. Screw the diva match; it was a load of shit and not worth mentioning. Although I’m glad I got to stare at Mickie in those tight jeans for a couple minutes! Cena wins, no surprise there as once again we get Cena shoved down our throats. Get over it WWE, stop shoving Cena down people throats, it’s just not working. Was really hoping Swagger would cash in the Money in the Bank at this point, but no, nothing good there. Undertaker ends the career of Shawn Michaels in a good match, not great but good. I assume Shawn won’t be gone for long, probably return around Summerslam. Wish they’d stay gone when they lose, Ric Flair we’re all looking at you. All in all this was a mediocre Wrestlemania, and could’ve been a lot better. With that said, let’s see how the replay holds up.

Friday Night Smackdown – March 26, 2010

 

Well, it’s time for the final stop on our Road to Wrestlemania. However before we get there, I finally reviewed the Undertaker versus Shawn Michaels match from last year. The introductions were impressive; I have to admit, seeing Shawn descend from Heaven while Undertaker rose from Hell. The two best parts of the match were the near death moments, as Shawn missed the moonsault and splattered on the floor. Then a few minutes later Undertaker did his best impression of Brock Lesnar attempting to break his neck doing a dive. The match had a lot of just laying around, which I knew is supposed to be exciting, but it just felt like they couldn’t keep the pace. I admit I liked all the reversals of the finishers, but the ending felt like a letdown. The reversal from the moonsault to the Tombstone just felt lame, overall I’d give the match an 8/10 overall. Wasn’t as great as everyone claims but still not bad, I just didn’t like all the kickouts from the finishers, made the moves look weak doing that. Honestly it felt like it dragged, not as bad as the Iron Man Match from Wrestlemania 12, but if they clipped off about ten minutes it would’ve been better. Curious to see what they pull off this year still, but I hope Shawn loses. The streak should never be broken, or if it is it should be a young talent who can use the push for years. Anyways, let’s get to the final Smackdown and finally Wrestlemania! Well, I didn’t realize there were two different versions of Smackdown this week, and downloaded the usual one, which wound up being the International Version. This one has classic matches from Wrestlemania, where as the US one has the new stuff. So guess we’ll do the International one first and then the US one.

The Week in Review – March 15 – 19, 2010

 

Best Match of the Week

1. Christian, Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu v. Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger & William Regal from Superstars 9.25/10

Worst Match of the Week

1. Undertaker v. Drew McIntyre from Smackdown DUD

Well, I missed a few weeks of the reviews, but there really hasn’t been much to rave about on the shows. I hate to say it but Superstars and Wrestlicious are quickly becoming the two shows to see each week. I still need to get a chance to watch the NXT shows and recap them, I’ve only watched the first one or two, and liked it. Hopefully this week the recaps of NXT will be done. As for the shows this week, Smackdown was bad, RAW was better than usual, Superstars was phenomenal, Impact was mediocre and Wrestlicious was just plain old fun. Overall Superstars is far and away the best show of the week with three amazing matches.

Friday Night Smackdown – March 19, 2010

 

Tonight’s the second to last episode of Smackdown before Wrestlemania, and as it stands so far we have no diva matches at the PPV. This needs to be fixed immediately, not that they’d get sufficient time to put on a good match. Besides the fact that the two best female wrestlers are currently injured and won’t be at Wrestlemania, Melina & Mickie, it makes it hard to find a match that might be good. I expect them to do a tag match of some sort, probably won’t be announced till next week’s Smackdown. If they do a tag match it’ll probably be Michelle, Layla & Melina against Gail, Eve & Kelly. They really need to unify the titles and just move all the divas to RAW, there’s just not enough to warrant two titles. Also it seems like the Smackdown title match is being shunted lower and lower each week, as they’re now talking about the three main events of Wrestlemania being Cena/Batista, HBK/Undertaker, Bret/Vince and not Edge/Jericho. Personally I’m more interested in seeing Edge and Jericho then the other three matches, as both men can put on a great match, but I’m betting it gets the least amount of time of the four matches. Lots of guys so far not scheduled for Wrestlemania, wonder if we’ll get the return of the dark match battle royal? Mark Henry, Khali, Kofi, Tatsu, Regal, Jackson, Kozlov, Archer, Hart Dynasty, Cryme Tyme, Masters are all unscheduled for the big show. That’s a lot of guys not getting a Wrestlemania bonus, so I’d be surprised if they don’t do a battle royal this year. Well, let’s focus on tonight’s episode of Smackdown as I only know one match tonight, McCool & Layla versus Tiffany & Phoenix, which I guess means Phoenix is now a good girl? She’s better off as a tweener feuding with everyone and attacking random people, but at least she gets TV time. Maybe if they can do an eight diva tag for Wrestlemania and add Vickie to McCool’s team and Phoenix to Gail’s team. Let’s be real optimists and make it elimination, let it go about twenty minutes and end with McCool and Beth, with Beth winning and uniting both belts into the real Women’s title! Never happen, but would be nice.

Friday Night Smackdown – March 12, 2010

 

Well, it’s been a pretty lackluster week of WWE programming so far. It’s really making me miss ECW, at least that could be counted on for a good match or two. With only 18 days till Wrestlemania, the WWE really needs to step it up and make the show look exciting. Right now Wrestlemania is a one match show for me, Edge versus Jericho, and maybe the MITB match. Everything else just does not impress me, Taker and Shawn won’t live up to the lofty expectations of the IWC and Shawn won’t stay out forever. I bet if he loses he’s back by Survivor Series or whatever they’re calling the November PPV now. Anyways, let’s get Smackdown finished and hope for a better set of show next week, as it will be kicked off with Stone Cold on RAW!

Monday Night RAW – March 8, 2010

 

The Monday Night Wars are in full effect, as TNA put forth a great show this week.WWE is countering TNA’s debut episode with John Cena facing Vince McMahon. Not sure how they decided this was going to be a good main event, as I don’t think it’ll be better than TNA’s main event. Also tonight we have special guest host Criss Angel, which should be moderately entertaining. At least he’s new and fresh, unlike Cheech and Chong from last week which have not been relevant since the seventies. I wish they’d give up on the guest host idea; it’s been a failure so far with only a few being interesting. Well, let’s see how WWE compared to TNA tonight.