By Richard Gray on March 31st, 2008
WWE held their pay-per-view of the year last night with WrestleMania XXIV at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Widely regarded as the “Super Bowl” of professional wrestling, to say that my expectations were high would be a tremendous understatement; as I write today, I can tell you with confidence that I am not one bit disappointed. Not everything went well and there were some real stinkers on the card but my overall enjoyment of the event was saved by four very strong matches and an entertaining end to Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show. Since I have already given most of the thoughts on the matches in my Richard Reacts feature that I included throughout last night’s live WrestleMania coverage which you can still read here, I am going to do something a little different with this column. I am going to talk about each match but instead of running them down in the order in which they occurred I am going to countdown from the worst to the best.
In what I would say was one of the worst matches in WrestleMania (if you can even call it a match) history, Kane defeating Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW Championship in under 10 seconds was repulsive. It is not the fact that Kane won the title because Kane is a veteran in the company and is capable of holding a title, but it is how they did it. The less than 10 second squash match might as well have featured Chavo Guerrero laying down in another “finger poke of doom” moment and letting Kane walk out with his title. What little respect that the ECW Championship had left was devalued last night when the brand’s champion was booked to look inferior and insignificant on the grandest stage of them all. Imagine if you were a casual fan that only watches wrestling a couple of times a month but you tuned in for WrestleMania and saw that – would it make you want to watch ECW on Tuesdays?
The 24-Man Battle Royal was going to be my vote for worst match of the night, until the ECW Championship “match” occurred. The Battle Royal was way too quick and was just a glorified dark match. I guess it was fine for what it was as the 24 superstars in the match did help the crowd get ready for the event. Kane didn’t look extremely dominant in the Battle Royal but he easily took care of Chavo. Again, what does that say about the ECW Championship?
BunnyMania was actually not as bad as I expected. They kept it quick and used Snoop Dogg very effectively. I expected Santino Marella to affect the finish just as he did and thought that the spot with Snoop kissing Maria fit the situation perfect. I originally picked Maria over Melina in the bout but I understand how WWE creative booked Beth Phoenix by keeping her dominant while pushing Maria’s heat with her ex. Did anyone else notice that Beth’s butt was hanging out of her pants in several spots of the match? She might be the Glamazon but she is still very attractive.
I have to admit that I was disappointed by the Belfast Brawl featuring Finlay and JBL. I was thrilled that WWE opened WrestleMania with the match but I expected more. The match seemed like it was finally starting to gain momentum when JBL and Finlay “went home” out of the blue with JBL seemingly winning easily. It was not horrible but there was nothing to warrant WrestleMania excitement. I expected them to use juice but was not surprised when they decided to keep it dry. You never want to use blood too early in a wrestling event and with a match that lasted under 10 minutes, it was not necessary.
Umaga vs. Batista was exactly what I thought it would be. It was a match that featured some solid power spots, but nothing more. It was a filler match to give Batista his own singles bout on the card and a chance for the Samoan Bulldozer to move brands if WWE still wants to go in that direction. As I mentioned in my report last night, Umaga’s spinning heel kick to Batista was very solid and Batista getting Umaga up for the Batista Bomb was exciting. Batista had some trouble with it as he was falling backwards but you can’t fault him for executing it on a guy as big as Umaga.
Floyd Mayweather in a professional wrestling ring – to say that I was concerned was a tremendous understatement. WWE got so much mainstream press for the Mayweather vs. Big Show bout I knew that all eyes from a mainstream perspective (especially from the US sports world) would be on this match. I was praying for the sake of the company that it would work. I have to admit that at about five minutes in I was getting concerned. They were losing the crowd but Mayweather was still drawing good heel heat. When Mayweather’s handlers pulled him out of the ring, business picked up and the match turned out very solid. The chair shots from Mayweather onto Big Show were executed very well and Floyd did one hell of a job with the brass knuckle shot on Show. The knockout was a good finish because of Mayweather’s undefeated streak as a boxer and the greatest fighter in the world. Mayweather drew so much heat it left me feeling like he will be back for more.
The Money in the Bank ladder match was very good. It was not the best Money in the Bank ladder match ever, not even close, but it was still a good effort from all seven performers. John Morrison is absolutely insane for completing that moonsault out of the ring onto the outside with a ladder. That was one of the riskiest spots I have seen in a WWE ring in a long time. There were a couple of spots where I thought that Shelton Benjamin had been killed. The risks that all seven performers took were very real and they should all be praised for their efforts. I was not surprised about Matt Hardy’s return during the match and felt like it worked well to pick up on his feud with MVP. I was surprised that CM Punk got the victory and I have to complain about how WWE has booked Chris Jericho. Jericho’s return to the company was the most talked about thing all fall and now he is just another one of the guys. He returned and had some very good matches with Randy Orton only to have a weak program with JBL and was inserted into the Money in the Bank ladder match. With Jeff Hardy gone you have to wonder where that leaves Jericho. Jericho is not just another one of the guys – he is the former Undisputed Champion and one of the best workers in the company. He should have won the title shot and I worry about where the company is going with his character.
Randy Orton retains the WWE Championship. Are you surprised? I wasn’t because of the placement of the match. It was not booked as the main event and we had already seen one title change during the event. You had to figure that Undertaker was going over so the odds were very unlikely that WWE was going to change all three titles in one night. The triple-threat match itself with Orton, John Cena, and Triple H was a very good match. I liked the story that was told in this match. Triple H and John Cena looked as determined as ever but Randy Orton defied the odds once again and proved that he is a legitimate WWE Champion. All three of these guys worked their butts off and that is something that I have come to expect from Orton, Triple H, and Cena. It will be interesting to see where WWE plans to go with the WWE Championship as there have been all kinds of rumors, but I can’t complain about Randy Orton retaining.
Undertaker and Edge had the second best match of the night and on any other night at any other event it would have been the show stealer. The match started out slow which was needed because the match ended up going nearly 25 minutes. There were a lot of vintage Undertaker spots where he ‘rope walked’ with Edge that were executed to perfection. Edge showcased his selling abilities by taking perfect bumps and showed his versatility with textbook drop kicks. The finish was outstanding with the first referee getting knocked out and Charles Robinson running as fast as he could to get in for the count only for Undertaker to get a two count. Edge ended up tapping in Undertaker’s Gogoplata Choke to win the World Heavyweight Championship. A brilliant match!
The match of the night (and I’m sure that most of you will agree) was Shawn Michaels versus Ric Flair. I warned those who were reading my live coverage to bear with me as I knew that it was going to be tough. Michaels and Flair did exactly what they needed to do. Flair got in all of his vintage spots playing the ‘dirtiest player in the game’ with the chop block, eye poke, and discrete low blow that the referee doesn’t see. It was so much fun to watch! Michaels took some huge risks, missing one moonsault out of the ring onto the announce table and another connecting onto Flair at the bottom of the ramp. Flair used the Figure Four Leg Lock and Michaels was able to sneak in some premature Sweet Chin Music for some near submissions and falls. I fought back tears when it was time to “go home” as Michaels dialed up Sweet Chin Music one last night. Michaels hesitated, hit it, pinned Flair and told him that he loved him. It was very classy of Shawn to leave the ring immediately to give Flair the moment to himself. I wish that more would have been done at the end but I’m sure that Flair had it just as he wanted it. I got emotional when he kissed his children and walked to the back in tears. Thank you Ric Flair – you are a legend and the greatest of all time. I’m going to miss you.
In conclusion WrestleMania XXIV is a must see event. Order the replay, buy the DVD, there are memories in this pay-per-view that you will want to save forever. I’m getting chills just thinking about what a privilege that it was to cover Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels. There were lighting problems during the event that were annoying and WWE really dropped the ball with the ECW Championship but overall the pay-per-view was outstanding. Any publication that indicates otherwise is bitter on the business. If you are a true wrestling fan and could not appreciate the greatness in the career finale of Ric Flair then you need to follow another profession. We witnessed the greatest of our industry, our Michael Jordan; go out in style last night. Congratulations WWE on a tremendous pay-per-view!
Tags: Flair's career ends, New World Heavyweight Champion, Orton Retains, Wrestlemania
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March 31st, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Seeing the Undertaker in the old school Ministry style jacket/vest was great.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Thanks for the coverage of WM last night
March 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Sounds like wrestlemania was great, wish i could have seen it but money issues. Sad to see Flair go but now it’s time for the young guns to step up and take his place. ECW ECW ECW what a joke.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
In all honesty it was nothing real special. The large scale it was on was able to only ’spectacular’ thing about the whole night. It ‘looked’ good but didnt ‘feel’ right.
Undertaker winning was awesome as always but the crowd was dead for the whole match. Taker winning the title two years in a row sort of reminds me of how Sting won the TNA title, two years in a row at their biggest event. Funny…people crap all over the oldest guy in TNA winning two years in a row…but don’t on certainly one of the oldest guys in WWE doing the same feat…interesting.
Oh yeah and while on the subject of TNA someone needs to inform Michael Cole that it was not “a first” to see someone go over the top rope and land on another wrestler to avoid being eliminated from an over the top rope battle royal…guess he missed TNA impact a couple weekd ago when Curry Man did it to Jimmy Rave…again, interesting.
The WWE title match was too short, crowd was hot, but then ended sort of oddly. Orton won just out of nowhere, made Cena and Trips look very stupid.
Best matches of the night were money in the bank and flair/hbk. MITB was good top to bottom, same with Flair’s last match.
Bunnymania needed not even be there, just like kane/chavo and finlay/jbl…just some odd matches no one cared about. The ECW title match could have been really good, but in like 10 seconds??? Come on!
OK so can anyone tell me when the last time the IC title, US title or either of the Tag Team titles were properly defended at WM? I know last year the US title was, but what about any of the other ones? Why even have them???
Besides the look and sheer size, WM was nothing special. I think there is better buildup for Joe/Angle at LockDown.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Obviously a TNA mark. But anyway, I thought the show was solid. It didn’t leave me pissed about paying for it so good enough. I do think that once everyone gets over the fact that its Flairs last match and go back and watch it again, you won’t be screaming for a match of the year award. Its was good, it was solid, but it was everything I expected out of Flair. It showed why it was time to retire. I mean come on, HBK hit him in the face and 30 seconds later he throws himself on the matt? Its not the same as doing it in the cornor and coming out and falling face first. He threw himself backwards. It looked sloppy and at that point it started to feel almost comical.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I found myself feeling bad for Flair, not becuase it was his last match, but because someone on his level should have went out sometime back when he was able to put on that 5 star match.
I’m not bashing Flair or taking anything away from him. But face it, he hasn’t been able to put on a top notch match for the past few years and I wish he could have done that last night. I guess I was just hoping for the old Flair to BE the old Flair one more time. HE gave it his best and he did a good job, but I just can’t say it was anything spectacular.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
WM24 IMO delived big time an i was impressed with the show.
Belfast Brawl JBL V Finlay - this was hard hitting a good for the time given. There was some stiff cookie sheet/trash can/Shillalgh/kendo stick shots here an also a table spot pretty good i liked it JBL won 3 Stars
MITB Ladder Match: AMAZING imo the best mitb yet some very nice spots some we have never seen before. Great spots included Shelton going through the ladder, Morrions moonsault with the ladder, carlito backstabber of the ladder, kennedys mic check of the ladder to punk, the triple tower suplex/powerbomb of the ladder, the bridge ladders where morrison climed up but got crotched & Hardys twist of fate to mvp of ladder. So you see mitb was awesome there are more spots but too many to recall cm punk won well deserved an its a 4 half star
Batista V Umaga: average match batista wasnt very good in this but umaga was. The crowd were booing batista an chanting U U U UMAGA lol Batista hit a off balanced bomb for the win average 2 half stars
ECW Title Kane V Chavo: blink an u miss it kane wins ecw title after chokeslam i will give it half a star cause kane won the ECW title at WM kane deserves it. Half a star
HBK V Flair: AWESOME very emotional match HBK killed himself in this with those 2 moonsaults one threw a table must of hurt. Great wrestling by both men an HBK ended it say sorry i love you then hit the music an flair goes out ina blaze of glory very emotional you must see this match, 4 half stars
BunnyMania: I was pissed about the lighing going off cause it took away from the match even if it is a women match. It was better than last years womens match though. An they did continue under the emergency lights quite well so i say 1 an 1/4 stars
Triple Threat: The emergency lighting was still on during this match but the full power an all the lighting came back on just after orton hit the double ddt to both hhh an cena. As soon as this was not the main event i knew orton would retain. It was fast paced a good action a little short but still good 4 stars. P.S Cenas entrance music was Awful
Show/floyd: This exceeded my expectations an was quite entertaining floyd took some bumps an show took some hard chair shots an a stiff right hand so i was entertained so i say 3 stars
Edge V Taker: Excellent main event at the start it was a little slow but edge did take a nasty fall to the arena floor an taker did his excellent dive over the ropes so the start want that bad. It really got going when they were having a slug fest of right hands it picked up from there an was great counter after counter kicking out of finishers ref bumb, interfearence, Camera used as a weapon 2 spears by edge ut still Taker wins via submission 16-0 world champ 4 1/2 Stars
March 31st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I disagree. Flair put on a good showing, once again taking spots that no one his age would even DARE to take. Flair looked in really good shape, and I ( like many others ) were holding back those tears when Michaels mouthed “I’m sorry“ and took it home.
Speaking of Michaels, he was excellent as well and I was really worried that he hurt himself when missing the moonsault and crashing through the announcer’s table.
WrestleMania as a whole was very entertaining for me. Honestly, I didn’t find a boring moment, but I think I can attribute that to the fact that I’m not a very critical person. Sue me. :[
Oh, Louis, sounds like you're bitter that TNA can't put on a show like WrestleMania . . . even if it's Bound for Glory. :]
March 31st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Say it loud! Say it proud! And STILL WWE Champion “The Legend Killer” and “The One Man Dynasty! Randy Orton!!!!!!!! That’s right not John Cena, not HHH but Randy Orton! Randy Orton showed the entire world why he is a one man dynasty! He beat the odds last night unlike Chavo and Edge who LOST their belts. Ha! Ha! Ha! Now say it with me one more time! And STILL WWE Champion “The Legend Killer” and “The One Man Dynasty! Randy Orton!!!!!!!!
March 31st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Say it loud and say it proud! And STILL WWE Champion……..”The Legend Killer and The One Man Dynasty” Randy Orton!……. That’s right not Cena! not HHH! but Randy Orton is still the WWE Champion! He beats the odds and regain his WWE Championship at WM24 last night. Maybe you guys should stop unestimating a one man dynasty! Now one more time!….And STILL WWE Champion……..”The Legend Killer and The One Man Dynasty” Randy Orton!…….
March 31st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I personally haven’t seen anything that good from TNA compared to mania 24. That was the best wrestlemania I have ever seen imo… I started watching at wm 17 and i saw em all ever since.
Finlay vs JBL- ***- great opener just wish there was some blood and maybe few minutes more. They used hornswoggle very well in this and i actually felt kinda bad for him
MITB- **** 1/2- Not the longest money in the bank but hte most exciting especially with those unbelievable spots and especailly Morrison’s!
ECW title kane vs chavo - N/A- nah too short of a match to rate it.. wasn’t a match at all,but im glad kane won it
Batista vs Umaga- ** 1/2- I thought it was a watchable match and definetly the best umaga match since his matches with cena imo. Crowd was way in it too.
Flair vs Shawn Micheals- *****- yes u saw that right.. the psychology, the emotion and even the wrestling was just perfect for me I enjoyed everything in the match and saw some old school flair whcih i definetly haven’t seen lot of since i am not an older person who seen wrestling in the 80s.
Women’s lumberjack- ***- not gonna lie it was decent for a woman’s match.. liked the ending
Mayweather vs Big show- **** (for entertainment value)- wow i enjoyed watching this, and i knew that mayweather had to go over didn’t want himt o look bad in the media… sick chair shots!
March 31st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
It is sad that ric flair is gone. Now ric flair as good as he is now retired, but hulk hogan 7 years younger than flair can’t hardly move hasn’t retired.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I can’t believe their is no more flair no more styling and profiling. Is undertaker the first person in history to win wwe title back to back wrestlemanias. Still can’t get over flair you dont realize what you got till you loose it.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Wrestlemania was better than I suspected. I thought it would be a regular pay-per-view . It delivered and raw is always great tonight because its after wrestlemania. WWE needs to make some stars now because undertaker, triple h and shawn michaels are next.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:55 pm
“rick” I do not write “Richard Reacts” in the news pieces to stroke my ego. I write it to give people one opinion on the news. That does not mean that you have to agree with what I think. I keep it separate from the news so that if you do not want to read it, you don’t have too. I feel that it is necessary to include some opinion because so many people steal news from Wrestling News World we want to give our readers a little something extra. Sorry that I offended you, however, did you have to use profanity to bring your point across? An email would have been sufficient.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I was a little bit dissapointed with the entrances at WM. Only Cena and Undertaker got a special entrance, and Cena’s was so lame (like last year with the car). I was hoping Orton or Edge (as the champions) would get something spectacular.
I liked Undertaker coming out in his old gear, but other than that, his entrance was not new(but still good). My ideal Undertaker entrance would be him riding in on a jet black horse, dressed in a black “grim reaper”-cloak, witn a scithe in hand, slowly making his way towards the ring.
So WM felt big because of the sheer size of the bowl, but none of the entrances where really WM entrances. But that is something i noticed alst year too, then it was just Cena who had anything different. The last time i saw a great WM entrance was HHH at WM 22, when he was on his throne.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Seems like it’s that time of the month for “rick.”
CRYME TYME IS BACK!
March 31st, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Great wrestlemania… everyone pulled out all the stops. And yeah Luke… Cryme Tyme is back !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats awesome!!!
April 1st, 2008 at 1:16 am
Woooooooo! =)
April 1st, 2008 at 4:59 am
The Flair/HBK match may not have been a five star Flair showing by Flair standards of 9 or 10 years ago. But Why would he go out when he could still put on a five star match? Taking into account the fact that he is as old as he is and did make the decision to hang it up, this was a five star match. Let’s face facts, had this match taken place 9 or ten years ago, you would have seen a better showing out of Flair AND HBK. But for a nearly 60 year old man to go 20 some odd minutes is five star no matter what. It’s not fair to compare it to a Flair match when he was in his prime because if he was in his prime he wouldn’t be retiring. Face it, it’s not going to be Steamboat/Savage from these two at this point. Given the circumstance, it was a SIX star showing from both performers. It’s not fair to compare a wrestler’s final match to a match a decade earlier. Wrestler’s just don’t hold up that well physically so it’s unfair to compare it that way. It’s a sixty year old man and a forty year old man with two fake knees. It’s not going to compare to when the two were younger. But given the circumstances, the ages of Flair and Shawn, the fact that it was the end of the career of the greatest wrestler of all time, and the fact that it was on the biggest stage of them all and not given a main even spot, it was an amazing match. There’s no way anything could follow that. It should have closed the show.
On a side note, I’m glad Flair appeared on RAW one last time for people like me who didn’t get to see the Hall of Fame Ceremony and didn’t actually see the match itself and and were only able to read the coverage here on WNW (outstanding job on the coverage as always by the way). It was great to see him surrounded by all the old guys like The Horsemen, and Harley Race, and Dean Malenko, and everyone. I admittedly got a little choked up when the whole WWE roster surrounded the ring at the end. I thought it was a proper send off, even if it didn’t make up for not letting the match close Wrestlemania.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:02 am
Was i the only one who thought wwe was going to throw a massive curve ball and have edge end takers streak?
placing it as the main event, edges countless counters and then two spears. i truly believed throughout the match edge was going to win.
takers streak is now just too predictable, i thought wwe was going to shock us and end it but they got scared.
That match and the purely emotional match of flair vs michaels were a cut above the rest of the matches.
MITB was exceptional yet again. Jericho should have won though.
My only complaint was the triple threat match, confusing ending and not given enough time! I haven’t seen raw yet, so dont know where they’re going with backlash but after that conclusion another triple threat seems like the only option.
cena has to be there no matter what!
Overall even though every major result didn’t go the way i wanted, i still really enjoyed mania!great job wwe and thankyou flair!
April 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
Thanks everyone for all of the feedback! Also I’m glad that everyone enjoyed the coverage, remember we do coverage for every WWE and TNA pay-per-view!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am
i think that the magic of wrestlemania was hurt by
1. the power failure
2.(most important) The firework failure at the end and it will cost wwe dearly if they dont react now.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 am
Just got to watch the show early this morning and thought it was pretty good, my feed for the only cut off a little bit.
It was a good WM but the whole lighting thing did throw it off cause the womens match was good considering maria and ashley were in there.
The WWE title match was good and I was suprized to see HHH throw on the crossface, he got a good pop for that. I think Randy dominated for the most part but the ending was super quick, I would have liked to have seen HHH get up after the pedigree for another one and have Randy give him and RKO out of now where on to Cena.
Umaga carried Batista threw there match, and liked the fact that there were some smarks close to the front starting and Umaga chant.
Flair vs. HBK, I think so much has already been said, but I think it should be the greatest WM moment of all time, with “I’m sorry, I love you.”
It probably won’t be to the general fan but to all smarks it should be.
The only thing more emotional that this that I can ever see is when Vince or Linda leave us for good.
Edge vs Taker, I thought this was better then Batista and Taker last year, and that was a highly rated match. Edge got to show of some nice in ring skills and if we all didn’t know that taker was goig to win it would have been even better.
MITB, great to see Punk win, but then they are keeping it humble and having him lose to Jericho the next night on Raw. I think we will have to watch Punk get over certain guys first before he cahes in the title shot. I think he will cash it in next time they have a big show in Chicago.
JBL vs Finaly, this is the match that my feed cut out and it did seem kinda quick to me.
I think its a good WM and this one is going to be hard to top next year, its WM25 so it has to be huge, wonder what they will do next?
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 am
hey luke, good blog, i was just wondering if you could suggest any good alter bridge songs, aside from the mainstream ones like rise today and metalinguis?
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
I’m not Luke nor is this his blog, however, here are some Alter Bridge songs you might enjoy:
Broken Wings
Open Your Eyes
In Loving Memory
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Overall, I was blown away at the whole damn thing. They pushed all the right buttons for me.
True, there were some sub-par things about it (Edge vs. Taker, the ending of Finlay vs. JBL, the entire Umaga vs. Batista “match”) but overall the good outweighed the bad by far. My favourite was Orton vs. Triple H vs. Cena. All three men (I do not hate Cena for his abilities — he CAN wrestle very well and is a good mike man, I just hate the way they book him.), Orton vs. Triple H already proven many times before to be a deadly combination of godlikeness, pulled out all their stops and delivered a fantastic showing that kept me on the edge of my seat.
I’m not usually an emotional guy, but the last minutes of the Ric Flair vs. Michaels match gave me both cold chills, a feeling of thankfulness and a feeling of sadness towards it being the last match of one of the best combined mike men/wrestlers in the business. He never, to me, excelled in either of the two branches alone, but nobody were ever better at being that good at both at the same time.
Also, MITB kicked ass. Kennedy looked more badass than usual clean shaven, and I was of course rooting for him all the way, although, all men brought their best and are to be commended for it.
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Just goes to show you, when they want to, WWE can make even SmackDown! talent look good, because it’s WrestleMania baby! Greatest PPV since No Mercy ‘07…no kiddin’!
Well, that’s it for me…bring back WrestlingDiscussion! Or Damien Demento will make you poop your drawers!