The Late Late WrestleMania XXVI Review: By Matthew Evans (01/05/10)

*Apologies for the lateness of this review. I had planned to write this column sooner but following the tragic death of Chris Kanyon, I thought it would be more appropriate to pay tribute to him first, and once that column was done, I struggled to find the time to do a WM review between doing the “Predictions” with the team, helping to run the site whilst trying to balance it all with work and life in general outside of Smash Wrestling.

WWE WrestleMania XXVI took place on Sunday, March 28, 2010 before 72, 219 fans at the University Of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona.

Although the show boasted a number of title and “speciality” matches (including the in-ring return of Bret “Hitman” Hart in a “No Holds Barred” Match against Vince McMahon), the star attraction for many people was Undertaker VS Shawn Michaels; a “WrestleMania Rematch” where it was “Career VS The Streak”. Last year at WrestleMania XXV, these two men stole the show (and in the eyes of most, saved it from the proverbial PPV scrap heap). Would they do the same this year?

After Yoshi Tatsu won a non-televised 26-man Battle Royal and “American Idol” star Fantasia gave her rendition of “America The Beautiful” (which wasn’t all the impressive in my opinion; I still say that WWE should just ask Lillian Garcia to do the honours every year), it was time for the first official match at WM XXVI.

WWE Unified Tag-Team Champions The Miz & The Big Show defended their straps against John Morrison & R-Truth. This one had the potential to be an exciting and memorable affair and it certainly got off to a bright start, with the Morrison and Truth stunning “Team Show-Miz” with their high-flying offence.

However, things went south for the challengers when Show saved Miz from Morrison’s “Star-Ship Pain” from the ropes and drove R-Truth back-first into the steel post.

The finish came out of nowhere and the match was far too short to mean anything. (The finish itself was also piss-poor: Big Show hit Morrison with his weak-looking “knockout punch” as John bounced off the ropes in an attempt at a high-risk move). This had to be the most disappointing opening match I can recall at a WM in quite a while.

The 2nd bout of the night (a triple threat match between Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase) was marginally better than I expected it to be, although for the most part, it was a glorified handicap match, which we've already seen way too many times on Raw. Plus the confusion surrounding who was face and heel was annoying and took away from the match.

The end result was never in doubt, but there were some interesting exchanges between Dibiase and Rhodes, before Orton planted them both with a double-DDT from the top-rope. The finish came when Randy gave Cody the “Punt Of Doom” (hardly very babyface like) and hit Dibiase with the “RKO” for the pin fall.

It was now time for the annual “spot-fest” known as “Money In The Bank”. The participants were Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, MVP, Evan Bourne, Matt Hardy, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Kane and Christian) and generally speaking, this somewhat overcrowded ladder match was pretty good.

However, it’s worth pointing out that some of the stunts (i.e. Kofi landing on his head on the ladder, Matt Hardy landing back first on another ladder, falling from the 1st ladder) were reckless and it was really just a series of crazy stunts that will ultimately take years off the careers of those who performed them. I also think that the whole idea is getting tired and I'm getting a little sick of watching these matches and seeing people get dangerously close to breaking their neck, or worse. On the plus side, at least Jack Swagger winning was a real surprise, even if he took too long to unfasten the case!

Sheamus could have done with a “WM Moment” of his own in his match against HHH, but despite a valiant effort, the “Celtic Warrior” came up short.

Still, he DID get a few near falls on “The Game” and weakened him with his usual power-based moves. He also avoided “The Pedigree” early on, but succumbed to it in the end.

Overall, I thought HHH VS Sheamus was good, but not great. I think there's potential for Sheamus, but for me, this felt like a TV match as opposed to a PPV bout.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to say about Rey Mysterio VS CM Punk as like the opening tag-title match, it was criminally cut short.

Mysterio came out dressed like one of the “Avator” characters and fortunately did not suffer the usual “WM mask problems” that he usually gets when he pays tribute to the latest movie at the “Granddaddy Of Them All”.

However, he DID have to put up with some outside interference from Punk’s “Straight Edge Society” (Luke Gallows & Sarina). It was Sarina who blocked an early “619” attempt, but later on Punk collided with Gallows, allowing Rey to hit the “619” properly and finish off the former WWE World Champion with a top-rope splash.

Post-match, there was no sneak-attack from the SES and no celebration in the ring with Rey and his family (which was odd, considering the whole feud had been initially been built around Punk insulting Mysterio in front of his wife and children and “ruining” Rey’s daughter’s birthday).

Once match that should have been cut short (or scrapped altogether) was the “No Holds Barred” Match between Bret Hart (making his first WM appearance since WM 13) and Vince McMahon. Even with the knowledge that Bret was limited due his career-ending concussion in 1999 and his pay-out from Lloyds Of London for said injury, this “worked shoot” grudge match was shockingly bad.

To disguise the limitations, they could have used some creative short-cuts, but instead they brought out members of the Hart Family (some of whom were trying desperately to “get themselves over” on camera) to aid Bret (they had apparently “set up” McMahon by agreeing to be his “lumberjacks” and then siding with Bret) in a one-sided pasting that resembled an angle more than a match and went on WAY too long.

The highlight was The Hart Dynasty (DH Smith & Tyson Kidd with Bret’s niece Natalya Neidhart) drilling Vince with the “Hart Attack” on the floor. The rest of the bout was tiresome and somewhat disturbing. There was no drama or suspense, because it was just Vince taking a pasting, over and over again. The idea was that he was "paying" for Montreal, but was I the only one (in story line parlance) feeling sorry for him as he took a one-sided pasting from Bret and his family?

I was also disappointed that there wasn't a run-in from someone who's had dealings with both Bret and Vince (for example Goldberg: I know he couldn’t have done anything physical to Bret, but imagine if he had teased attacking Bret and ended up “Spearing” Vince?), as it would have added a bit of intrigue to a match that for me, had none whatsoever (to be honest, it was sad to see Bret and Vince reduced to this).

After Bret battered Vince’s arms, legs and back with a series of brutal chair shots, “The Hitman” gave everyone what they had been waiting to see: McMahon in the “Sharp-Shooter”, submitting to the pain. Due to the crowd being deflated by the repetitive and uninteresting action that had preceded the move, the response to this was nowhere near as great as it would have been had they have just booked an angle where Vince “called out” Bret at a WM and got knocked out and put in the submission move.

Fortunately, Edge and Chris Jericho brought things back up to standard with a solid WWE World Heavyweight Title Match that started a little slow, but did become just a bit special with a series of near-falls and finishing move exchanges towards the end.

Jericho applied “The Walls Of Jericho” but Edge escaped. Edge also kicked out of a “Code-Breaker” but after getting decked with the title belt and hit with another “Code-Breaker”, could not avoid getting pinned.

Post-match, Jericho attacked Edge but came to regret it when Edge “Speared” him from the desk and into the ringside barricade. This looked brutal and I think Edge was too “heelish” here for fans to truly get behind him.

A late addition to the WM card was a Divas tag match pitting Michelle McCool, Layla, Vickie Guerrero, Maryse & Alicia Fox against Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim. However, at less than 5 minutes long, it makes you wonder why WWE added it at all.
All the Divas hit their finishing moves (some better than others) as everyone rushed about trying to get noticed. This could have been done on TV, had they done this they could have added more time onto Mysterio/ Punk or the tag-title match.

The finish also looked terrible, plus who thought it was a good idea for non-worker Vickie Guerrero to perform a top-rope splash on poor Kelly Kelly? (Vickie got the win for her team, although the referee had to tell her to “re-pin” Kelly as she wasn’t covering her properly).
(On a side-note, I must admit it was sweet seeing Vickie pay tribute to her late husband Eddie Guerrero. However, the “feel-good moment” of Vickie doing Eddie’s infamous wiggle was spoiled by Michael Cole (likely on order) calling the finishing move a “Hog Splash”).

Batista defended his WWE Championship against John Cena next in an entertaining bout that like Edge/ Jericho earlier on, didn’t really get going until the big moves and near-finishes kicked in later.

“The Animal” escaped an STF and drilled Cena with a nasty-looking DDT variation that came perilously close to breaking John’s neck for good. Fortunately, Cena recovered, although he was understandably a little woozy for a few moments thereafter.

The finish came when Cena escaped a “Batista Bomb” attempt and rolled through to apply another STF. Cena got the win, while most of the fans booed (Batista was the crowd favourite here, even though that’s not they way WWE had booked the story).

Post-match, Cena celebrated his win, surrounded by a bunch of “Cena-Haters” wearing their own “I Hate Cena” shirts. One guy in particular clearly gave the “thumbs down” to Cena, but to his credit “The Champ” didn’t seem to care. That’s one of the qualities I truly admire about John Cena: For all the verbal abuse and stick he gets, he treats it like water off a duck’s back.

Finally, it was time for the REAL main event: Undertaker VS Shawn Michaels. Would Undertaker end Shawn’s career or would Michaels be the man to end ‘Taker’s undefeated WM streak?

First of all, I will freely admit that this was easily the best match on the show. However, in my opinion, I don’t believe it topped last year’s effort, although admittedly, that was always going to be difficult to do.

Michaels wisely tried to ground the “Dead Man” and weakened his knee with a “Figure-Four Leg-Lock.” Undertaker came back and hit Shawn with a “Choke-Slam” and a “Tombstone” but could not put the “Show-Stopper” away.

‘Taker gave “HBK” something to think about when he avoided defeat from a super-kick, while Shawn truly displayed he was “playing for keeps” when he hit an awesome moon-sault from the ring onto Undertaker, driving him through the Spanish announcers’ table (the impact was sick, I truly believed that Undertaker suffered a broken leg).

Towards the end, it was as if Undertaker was showing “weakness” and didn’t want to wipe out Michaels and his career. But Shawn wouldn’t quit, so ‘Taker hit him with an extra-powerful jumping “Tombstone” to end a superb match and an incredible career.

After the match, Undertaker and Michaels shook hands and hugged. Shawn left the ring as Jerry Lawler bid him “farewell” on commentary. Michaels would get his official send-off the following night on Raw in a somewhat “low-key” (only Undertaker and HHH appeared on camera during Shawn’s speech) but nonetheless emotional and heart-felt “good-bye” from one of the greatest in-ring performers and all-round “showmen” of his or any generation.

Overall, WWE WM XXVI, was a “middle of the road” event for me. It had its moments, but only Undertaker/ Michaels truly stood out, while other bouts suffered from time constraints or general “pacing” issues (i.e slow starters).

It was marginally better than WM XXV last year, but still didn’t feel like a true “Mania” as it lacked the sparkle and the edge-of-your-seat excitement that we have come to expect every year on the “Grandest Stage Of Them All.”

Regarding Shawn Michaels and his career, I wouldn’t want to “count my chickens yet”. Yes, he’s had a superb career and yes, he’s saved his money and has a comfortable family-oriented life outside of wrestling. But history has taught has that wrestlers find it difficult to stick to their “retirements” (whether it be due to pressure from promotions, wrestlers, fans or the burning desire of the individual to continue performing). I’ll talk about Shawn Michaels and his career in further detail in an upcoming column, but for now I’d say “wait and see.”

Previously posted on Smashwrestling:

http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/