WrestleMania XXIV
March 31, 2008
JBL/Finlay was a solid opener that was a little disappointing, only because I saw Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens beat the hell out of each other Saturday night at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor in much better fashion. JBL tossing the trash can at Hornswaggle, however, was awesome. **3/4
On first watch, and live, Money in the Bank IV seemed like the best one yet. John Morrison absolutely stole the show with sick spot after sick spot. Shelton brought it, as he always does, and this was really the first year where EVERYONE in the match had a cool, innovative spot. The right guy (CM Punk) went over, and Matt Hardy’s pop was ungodly. Since I’ve always liked him 1,000,000,000 times more than his overrated spot monkey of a brother, this bodes well. ****
Batista-Umaga was the worst match of the night besides Bunnymania. Crowd was into Batista until the match started, at which point we started a “Youmanga” chant that caught on in the stands. Horrid match with a botched finish. *1/2
Kane over Chavo shocked everyone with how quick it was, though my bud couldn’t stop laughing afterwards. No rating. Oh, and Chavo got no reaction.
The whole day was Flair’s. From the moment we got to Fan Access, everything just had an epic feel to it. The most commonly seen shirts were of Flair (also a lot of Cena, Triple H, DX, Kennedy, Hogan, Austin and, of all things, Bret Hart shirts). As for the match itself, while I don’t think highly of Flair’s work these days ... it was awesome. He brought it again for the first time in a non-gimmick match since the Triple H RAW match, but the showstopper was, as usual, HBK. Michaels absolutely busted his ass to make Flair look like a million bucks and still credible. The drama and storytelling were just unbelievably well done, especially from HBK. The pained look on his face throughout the match every time he was close to finishing was just the latest example of why he is the greatest drama man in wrestling ... maybe ever. ***1/2-**** on first viewing.
Bunnymania was terrible. Crowd was dead, wrestling sucked, Snoop got the biggest pop. -*
The triple threat match was good, but far from great. Felt a lot like the Angle-Orton-Mysterio match, actually, in that it was rushed. Some really cool spots, though, and a sick finish. Right guy went over, too. Orton is the man. ***1/4
Edge/Undertaker was impressive. The crowd was kinda dead at the start (largely, I suspect, because the finish wasn’t in doubt and no one watches Smackdown). But these two pros went out and got the crowd on the edge of its seats, working a damn fine pro wrestling match. Nothing overly fancy here (outside the usual awesome Taker plancha, which is even more impressive live), just outstanding pro wrestling. I had no problem with the gogoplata submission finish, nor did the live crowd. The finish makes Edge look GREAT, as Taker was still nearly out after the match ended. ****1/4-****1/2.
Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of the show, and I hope to God I get to go back to Mania some day. This whole weekend has been crazy, and I need to catch some sleep. More on the best wrestling weekend of my life later this week.
