The Biz: WrestleMania 25- A Review of the Show and the Predictions
By
Nick Perkins
Nick Perkins reviews WrestleMania 25, as well as his predictions of the show.
Hola wrestling fans (or hello for our English speaking readers); Nicky P here. What an exciting week it’s been! WrestleMania came and went, Batista made his triumphant return, something or other probably happened in TNA, and I found out that I absolutely should never make predictions again. Yes, wrestling fans, I admit it- my WrestleMania 25 predictions were bad; real bad. Just about every wrestling journalist reviewed the big show (not to be confused with the Big Show…but just for the record, my review of him is that he’s big. Real big.), so I thought I’d throw my hat into the mix as well. I’m gonna review WrestleMania and refresh you, dear reader, on how awful my predictions were.
Money in the Bank Match
Cm Punk VS Kane VS Mark Henry VS Shelton Benjamin VS MVP Vs Kofi Kingston VS Finlay Vs Christian
Well, I was close with this one. I said it would come down to CM Punk and Christian, with Christian picking up the win. Um, well, it came down to CM Punk and Kane, weirdly, with CM Punk taking the briefcase. So, I was half right saying CM Punk would be in the final moments and he won, so I’m going to give myself a few points for that as well. So I’m going to give myself 25% of rightness. That being said, this match blew my mind. I watched this show with a buddy of mine who hadn’t watched wrestling for quite some time, and we were both on the edge of our seats. This was the second best match of the night.
Amount of Rightness- 25%
Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal
Lots of chicks that WWE didn’t acknowledge so neither will I…And Santina
I didn’t have the forethought that this would be the comedic relief of the show, and I should have- major lapse of judgment on my part. Nick and Chris of VOW both hated this segment. I didn’t hate it, and took it for what it was worth, but I wish it could have been a bit more serious. Wrestling fans are a nostalgic bunch, and WWE could have done something cool with the divas of the past. Instead, they provided us a laughable yet forgettable moment involving Santino Marella. Whatever. I’m glad he got to be showcased, and I think he’s one of the better entertainers in WWE today, so he deserved the spotlight. Hopefully they end the storyline though and let Santino be a boy again.
Amount of Rightness- 0%
Legends Grudge Match
Chris Jericho VS Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka w/ Ric Flair
Again, for what it was worth, it was good. I predicted that it wouldn’t be just a throwaway match, and I don’t think it was. Steamboat looked excellent, and I’m glad he got to shine in this match, as well as the next night on Raw. Jericho won, which I was wrong about (and I’m glad I was), and then he beat Flair up, with Mickey Rourke finally getting in the ring and laying out the artist formerly known as Y2J. I was half right.
Amount of Rightness- 50%
Extreme Rules Grudge Match
Jeff Hardy Vs Matt Hardy
I’m glad Matt won this match. I hope this feud continues for quite some time. It was a good match, though not as good as I thought it would be. I wasn’t a fan of Matt hitting Jeff with a Vacuum cleaner. I don’t think it took away from the match, but it could have. Jeff did his big spot off of the ladder and then Matt hit him with a wicked-cool Twist of Fate on a chair, picking up the clean win. I haven’t seen their stretcher match yet, but I hope it’s just as good, if not better than this WrestleMania match. Both brothers deserve to be in the spotlight together for a long time.
Amount of Rightness- 80%
Intercontinental Championship Match
JBL VS Rey Mysterio
I predicted that whether JBL retired or didn’t, he would win the match. I was wrong. We all know JBL lost in a few seconds to Rey Mysterio and then “quit.” I think these two could have had a pretty good match, but WWE chose to go the squash route. I predicted that if JBL retired, there would be a tournament to crown the new IC Champion that Mysterio could have won. Well, we skipped the middle man and Mysterio ended up winning the title. Good for him. I hope he continues to restore some prestige to the once, uh, prestigious title. I also wish JBL the best in all of his future endeavors.
Amount of Rightness- 25%
12 Years in the Making Grudge Match
Shawn Michaels VS The Undertaker
As I and most everyone else predicted, HBK and The Undertaker stole the show at the Show of Shows. There’s nothing I can say about that match that hasn’t already been said, except for the fact that it reminded the world why Shawn Michaels and Undertaker are the two very best performers that WWE has ever seen. It also reminded me why I was a wrestling fan. I was legitimately scared for ‘Taker when he dove over the ropes and landed on his head. Somehow I ended up actually standing on my friend’s couch. I don’t even remember doing that. This was the best match of the year, bottom line.
Amount of Rightness- 100%
World Heavyweight Championship Match
John Cena VS Edge VS Big Show
There’s really not much to say about this match. It was exactly what it was supposed to be, with the outcome that it was “supposed” to have, with John Cena winning the match and taking the Title. His final FU’s, er, Throwback’s, er, Attitude Adjusters, er, Attitude Adjustment’s, on the Big Show and Edge were a sight to see. It was a good ending to a solid match. I correctly guess that Cena would win, and I didn’t really make any other predictions about this match.
Amount of Rightness- 100%
WWE Championship Match
HHH VS Randy Orton
Yeah, yeah, yeah. HHH VS Orton wasn’t a great match. The ending was anti-climactic. It killed a lot of Orton’s momentum. Whatever. I think the match was OK, HHH won, which he should have, and it sets up an interesting main event for Backlash. It just bums me out that most wrestling journalists, if that’s even what we can call ourselves, focus so much on the bad, and not a lot on the good. WrestleMania 25 was a very good show. It seemed special. It had good matches. No, this match wasn’t their best, and yes, the ending of it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse too. I was completely sastisfied when WrestleMania 25 ended. I said that HHH would win, he’d close out the show, and Stephanie wouldn’t turn heel. I was right. I also said that I didn’t think WWE would have two babyface champions, but they do for a while, so I’ll deduct 10 percent from my amount.
Amount of Rightness- 90%
So altogether, I was about 59% correct in my predictions of WrestleMania 25. That’s not too good. But I’m sure I’ll continue to make predictions of what’s going to happen, cause that’s part of the fun of being a wrestling fan. In fact, I’m going to predict that Shane McMahon costs HHH the title at Backlash, and then joins Legacy. Shane is a 4th Generation wrestling-child, and he’d be a perfect mouthpiece for Orton. And I believe that at SummerSlam, Batista, HHH, and Randy Orton will fight in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship, in a battle of Evolution. I’m extremely excited about the prospect of that match, and I really hope WWE decides to do it. If not, it’s their loss. What were your thoughts on WrestleMania? What do you think is going to happen? As always, Email your thoughts, comments, concerns, social security number, or anything else to [email protected]. If I like what you say, I’ll post it in this column next week! A lot of you wrote in last time, and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, my inbox got clean-swept and I lost most (all) of your emails. Fortunately ,that won’t happen again.
Next week is a big week for me, and hopefully for wrestlezone.com. Some big, exciting changes are in the works, and I can’t wait for you guys to see. Stay tuned to wrestlezone.com to find out what those changes are! Until then, I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin.