horrorfan_1986

WWE Wrestlemania
April 2, 2006

~Dark Match~

18-Man Interpromotional Battle Royal
Hmm, is it really a dark match when it's taped? I don't know, but it's either the dark match or the pre-show that wasn't shown until the DVD. Anyhow. The match has Raw wrestlers: Eugene, Viscera, Goldust, Snitsky, Rob Conway, Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch, Tyson Tomko and Matt Striker. Smackdown has Funaki, Psychosis, Super Crazy, Stevie Richards (First time seen in months), MNM, Simon Dean, Road Warrior Animal and William Regal. Simon Dean tries to talk, but gets a big boot from Tomko and is thrown out by Snitsky. Richards with a little help from Eugene throws out Rob Conway. Out goes Funaki. Regal tosses out Cade. Richards show boats on the apron so Goldust gives him the butt butt to eliminate him. Striker out by The Road Warrior in his gay biker days. Murdoch clobbers Cray out. Eugene and Regal has a reunion. Goldust is out. Snistky interrupts the reunion by eliminating Regal. Yet another reason to hate the baby killer. Snapshot to Eugene and he's gone. Let's see, we have Murdoch, Vis, Snitsky, Tomko, MNM, Road Warrior and Psychosis. Murdoch and Psychosis are knocked out. 3 left for both brands. Raw has all big guys. Amazingly, only one of them is semi useful. Nothing much happens and I'm actually bored. MNM tries to double team Vis with little success. Cole and Tazz talks about how they're so thrilled to call this match. Yeah, what BS. MNM with some nice strikes against Vis. MNM attempts the Snapshot on Vis, but Mercury nearly breaks his back. The other three wrestlers haven't been doing anything of value. Vis with a double rape to MNM. Well that's an image that will haunt me in my sleep. Snitsky appears to have liked it. MNM is eliminated at the same time by Vis. Road Warrior ducks a boot and Snitsky knocks out his own partner, Tomko. Loud 'LOD' chant. I can't believe it, but I think they managed to book the three worst wrestlers to finish this match. Road Warrior eliminated from a boot by Snitsky. Vis ducks a boot and Snistky goes over the top rope. Viscera wins the battle royal. Tazz - "One of the best battle royal's I've eve been a part of." Someone has low standards. So with the great talents of Regal, MNM and the Mexicools, they decided to book this abortion of a battle royal. Even for a battle royal this was boring. Credit to MNM for trying to throw in some good moments, but even they couldn't save this. Even though Road Warrior was terrible at this time and had an even worse gimmick (Hawk = Bad. Looking like a gay biker = good), he at least had the support from the Chicago fans. They could of at least given him the win to start the show on a good note for the fans. 10 Minutes. 1 Star.

~PPV~

The Big Show and Kane (c) vs Chris Masters and Carlito - World Tag Team Championships
Show and Kane won the belts at Cyber Sunday 2005. However, this is the first first PPV title defense. Meanwhile, after being two of the hottest prospects on the Raw brand in 2005, Carlito and Masters formed a sort of friendship. At New Years Revolution, that team work nearly took the belt off of John Cena. By this point, there had been some friction between the pair. Carlito kept being a smart ass and taking advantage of Masters, while Masters finally had enough and knocked out his partner. Even with their problems, they were still together enough to go into this match. Kane and Masters starts out. Masters knocks Kane down with a shoulder block. Kane LEAPFROGS Masters and hits a drop kick. Someone looks motivated. Tag to Show. Show looks to be in the worst shape of his career. Some chops in the corner by Show. Show walks over Masters. Masters gets a tag to Carlito popping the crowd. Loud 'Carlito' chant. Show crotches Carlito. Show tosses Carlito to the outside on top of Masters. Kane climbs to the top rope and flies off on to Masters and Carlito to the floor. Damn, is this really Kane? Carlito dropkicks Show into the exposed turnbuckle. Two count only. A double suplex is thwarted and Show nails a double one to the heels. Tag to Kane and we get a HUGE back body drop to Carlito. Carlito runs into a side walk slam. Masters and Kane botches a sequence where Masters catches a top rope closeline from Kane into a Masterlock. Show breaks it up. The yet unnamed Back Stabber makes it's WM debut to Kane. The heels knock out Show out of the ring. Kane grabs Carlito around the neck, but Masters comes down with a double ax handle. Masters accidentally nails Carlito. Big boot to Masters and Kane finishes Carlito off with the Chokeslam to retain the titles. Show looks incredibly exhausted. The heels tease a break-up, but they make up...for now. This would be the only standard 2-on-2 World Tag Team Title match at Wrestlemania in brand history. In fact, it's the only one in this entire decade! With the amount of "Talent" in this match, this was actually pretty good. While Kane is hardly a great wrestler, you can really tell when he's motivated. The effort really paid off. According to a recent Chris Masters interview, he and Carlito were supposed to win the tag belts. However, two things got in the way. First, the bookers felt as if the Spirit Squad needed some sort of accomplishment as they would be involved heavily in one of Raw's major feuds. So instead, the Spirit Squad shocked everyone and defeated Kane and Show the following night on Raw. The other reason is the popularity of Carlito. It was becoming more and more difficult to ignore his face reactions. When you have a wrestler getting that kind of face pop when it's not even intended, you go with it. They would end up botching both reasons though. I was never a big fan of Masters, however; I really dug the team with Carlito. They had some great chemistry together that made them fun to watch. Sadly, this match also shows how poor the Raw tag division had become to have two makeshift teams in the title match. Since winning the tag belts, Hurricane turned heel on Rosey, Cade and Murdoch were quietly split up in hopes of a Murdroch push that never happened (Why?!) and I believe the Heart Throbs had stopped being booked. Besides the Spirit Squad (Who had debuted at the Royal Rumble), these were the only teams Raw had. Meanwhile, SD had a great MNM vs Mexicools match they could of put on. Oh well, it's nice to see the tag belts defended at Mania. To be fair, this is a lot better than other tag team defenses at Mania. 7 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.

Money in the Bank: The Sequel
With any success, there has to be a sequel. The match was originally brought back by Carlito, who somehow managed to lose his qualifying match.
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The participates from Raw are Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam and Shelton 'The true Mr. MITB' Benjamin and from SD: Finlay, Matt Hardy and Bobby Lashley. There's really only two story lines going into this. The first is that Hardy finally gets his chance in one of these matches. He was originally supposed to be in the first one (His first PPV back from the knee injury), but then all of the drama of the Lita/Edge affair happened so the WWE thought that having these two in a match with a bunch of weapons may of not been that great of an idea (I tend to agree
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). So Kane was thrown in instead and Hardy was then fired. The other story is the short feud between Finlay and Lashley. Finlay had cheated to defeat Lashley to qualify for this match. Lashley would end up winning a last chance battle royal to be the last entrant. This is only Flair's second ladder match ever, his first was earlier in the year against Edge. Lashley attacks everyone. Loud 'RVD' chant. Big press from Lashley to Flair. Super kick to Lashley by Shelton. Hardy is already trying to bring in a ladder, but RVD slides into the ladder and then launches himself onto the ladder and Hardy. Shelton and Finlay fights in the ring with the ladder. Shelton sets the ladder leaning against the ropes with a smile on his face. Shelton RUNS UP THE LADDER AND SENTONS ON EVERYONE ON THE OUTSIDE! And that's why he's Mr. MITB. Flair and Finlay are now in the ring. Flair climbs up the ladder, but is too far away. Hardy joins Flair to the top of the ladder. SUPERPLEX!!!! Flair takes a huge bump and sells it like he hurt himself. The refs call for the 'X' signal. We get a recap of the Shelton and Flair bump. Flair is taken to the back. RVD trips Shelton on the ladder. Shelton moves out of the way and RVD gives a ladder the Rolling Thunder. Lashley sets up a ladder. I'm shocked he even knows how to. Lashley tries to grab the briefcase from every rung. Shelton goes for the ladder sunset flip, but Lashley hangs on. Hardy and Finlay joins in to finally power bomb Lashley off. While I appreciate the work of making Lashley look powerful, they just ruined a fun spot. Finlay slams Shelton's face into a ladder. Finlay throws a ladder into Matt. Finlay takes out everyone with a ladder. Finlay throws down the ladder. Fuck ladders, Finlay just wants to fight. Flair limps back to the ring and chops Finlay on the outside. Flair rolls back into the ring all alone. Hardy once again stops him, but Flair chops him away. Chop to Shelton. Chop to Hardy. Chop to Shelton. Flair once again climbs up to the top of the ladder. Finlay climbs up with the shillelagh sending Flair falling slowly down to the mat. Great image of Flair with his arms still extended as he falls. Shelton joins Finlay to the top. Lashley uses a ladder to knock the heels off of the ladder. Dominator to Shelton. Lashley climbs up, but RVD hits a Van Daminator sending Bobby off. Lashley takes way too much time to fall. Screaming leg drop to Lashley from the ladder by Hardy. Finlay interrupts Hardy on the ladder. SIGN EFFECT FROM THE LADDER! RVD climbs up a ladder and hits a splash from the very top to Finlay. That just looks painful. RV to the top of the ladder, but Shelton out of nowhere jumps to the top of the ladder! Hardy uses another ladder to get a hand on the briefcase. Benjamin steps over to Hardy's ladder. RVD kicks the second ladder over sending Hardy and Shelton out to the floor. RVD pulls down the briefcase and wins MITB # 2. Like most sequels, this one doesn't live up to the first. The truth is, this one felt very underwhelming. I enjoyed the story of Flair and Shelton once again stealing the show, but outside of that, it was just spot after spot. The winner, RVD, was barely even seen in the match. Shelton's great spots is enough to make the match entertaining, but this is perhaps the worst MITB. 12 Minutes. 2 3/4 Stars.

Chris Benoit (c) vs JBL - US Championship
After finally beating and winning the long feud with Booker T, Benoit was left without a proper feud for Wrestlemania. In comes JBL to randomly be booked in this. The build up for this feud saw Benoit break JBL's hand. This would be the battle of the World Champions of 2004. On one hand, you had one of my favorite champions of the decade with Benoit and on the other, my least favorite. Lock-up to start. Trade of punches. 'Let's Go Benoit' chant. JBL locks in a side head lock. Benoit fights for the Crossface early in the match. Headbutts to the back of JBL's neck. JBL gets a foot on the bottom rope. JBL quickly gets the side headlock back on. Benoit fights out and gets a leg lock. Punches to the back of JBL's head. CHOP in the corner. Another. JBL gets a boot to Benoit, but gets an arm drag in return. Sharpshooter attempt, but JBL just kicks him off. JBL rolls to the outside and uses Jillian to distract Benoit. JBL back in control in the ring. A Benoit chop is met with a boot. Hard punches in the corner to Chris. ROLLING GERMANS. Cut throat sign. Benoit climbs to the top rope, but JBL crotches Benoit. JBL does the Eddie taunt. Superplex from the top by JBL. Another 'Lets go Benoit' chant. JBL covers, but Benoit kicks out at two. JBL hits the Three Amigos....very slowly. Benoit knees out before the third one. Another big boot to Benoit. Benoit kicks out at two. Nerve hold by JBL brings the match down to a stop. *Waits for something to happen* Benoit starts to get up and nails a side suplex. Benoit nails the Three Amigos. Benoit heads to the top again and nails the Flying Headbutt. Cover...one...two...no, JBL kicks out. Benoit counters a Closeline From Hell with a German, but Bradshaw uses the ref to stop it. JBL tries another Closeline From Hell, but Benoit locks in the Crossface. JBL rolls over and with the help of the ropes pins Benoit to win the title. You have got to be kidding me. As much as Benoit tried, JBL managed to pull a below average match out of Benoit. In between the rest holds and using the same sequences over and over, JBL put the crowd to sleep. Benoit was able to get a few reactions from the fans, but it wasn't enough to save this. The first match was decent enough, but the second half was very dull and had a very underwhelming finish. For the second year in a row, JBL chokes at 'Mania, but would put on a better outing in the rematch (In this case, a steel cage match on Smackdown). JBL wouldn't do much with the title as he'd be gone after Judgment Day. Then again, so would Benoit. Well at least Benoit managed to redeem himself at the next Wrestlemania. 10 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.

Edge vs Mick Foley - Hardcore Match
In a rematch from the Royal Rumble, Edge lost to John Cena with Mick Foley being the special guest referee. Edge blamed Foley and attacked him. The feud would continue on. They had a great segment at
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that saw a flaming table and just a little taste of what fans could expect tonight. Even though he was the Raw commentator at the time, Joey Styles is forced into only calling this match. What a sign of respect. Foley comes out with a blue/gray colored flannel shirt. Edge already has a baseball bat. Face plant to Edge. Foley turns Edge upside down in a tree-of-woe. Cactus elbow of sorts. Edge comes back to knock Foley down. Lita throws in a cookie sheet and Foley gets smashed with it. A larger cookie sheet is used on Foley. Edge slides a road sign into the face of Foley. SPEAR!!!!Edge is in pain for some reason. WTH? FOLEY IS WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE!!! Foley throws off his other flannel to wear the trademark red one. Foley cuts the barbed wire off and whips Edge with it. Edge is already bleeding from his arm. Foley with his trademark punches as Edge gets tied up in the ropes. Foley pulls out barbie (Barbed wire baseball bat) from under the steps. Lita jumps on Foley's back. CACTUS CLOSELINE WITH LITA ON HIS BACK!!! Styles - "VINTAGE FOLEY" HA. Edge hip locks Foley into the steps. I have no idea why Foley loves having his hip/knees thrown to the steps. I'm shocked he can still walk from years of doing it. Edge sends Foley into the steps and Foley takes the hit on his knees. *Sigh* Come on Mick, I want you to walk when you're 50. Edge pulls out a ladder. Edge shoves Foley on the table and climbs to the top rope. Foley rolls off avoiding anything. Edge follows him and punches him. Edge slams Foley backwards to the steel entrance. 2 count. Lita hands Foley liter fluid. Edge sprays it with Foley. Holy shit. Piledriver to Edge. Edge gets a shoulder up at two. Lita distracts Foley long enough for Edge to hit a DDT on a cookie sheet. Edge can't believe Foley kicked out. Edge picks up barbie. Shot to the gut. To the back. Foley takes it to the face. Foley is busted open. Edge just rubs barbie into the forehead of Mick. Jericho DDT to barbie. One...Two...NO, Foley gets up a shoulder. Edge heads out to pull out a mysterious bag of some kind under the other set of steps. THUMBTACKS!!!! Joey Styles: - "It's time for some extreme acupuncture" Nice. Foley counters Edge and gives him a side suplex on to the thumbtacks. Mr. Socko is pulled out and Foley wraps him up with barbed wire. "SOCKO'S HARDCORE...SOCKO'S HARDCORE...SOCKO'S HARDCORE!" Edge gets a tin taste of Socko, but Lita interrupts. Lita gets extreme Socko! Lita is bleeding from the mouth. Foley uses barbie on Edge. Edge is now bleeding from the forehead. More shots to the head. Great image of a bloodied Foley smiling. Edge screams in pain while Foley scraps the head of Edge with barbie. Foley grabs the liter fluid and douses the table. Oh shit. Lita low blows Foley with barbie. Lita sprays the table with even MORE liter fluid. Fuck, do you think you have enough? Lita lights the table on fire. SPEAAARRRRR THROUGH THE ROPES AND THROUGH THE FLAMING TABLE!!!!!!!! FUCK! Edge covers and gets the pinfall. One of the greatest images in the history of wrestling as the camera pans to Edge. Edge is bloodied and shaking from the horrors he's just endured. Now that's a way to sell a match. One of Edge's eyes is full of blood. The finish is one of the most amazing sights in WWE history. For as conservative of a company as the WWE is (Yes, even before being TV-PG), I was shocked they'd do such a spot. Ironically, Foley's biggest contributions in wrestling has come after retiring. Along with Randy Orton, everything that Edge did before and after the Foley match will not compare. This is Edge's career defining match. The finish is one of the more iconic images in Wrestlemania history. Foley nearly kills himself to entertain the fans. Congrats Mick, you finally have your Wrestlemania moment. It's not quite as good as Foley vs Orton, but it's still a great hardcore match. This is just yet another reason why getting rid of the Hardcore title was a good idea. 15 Minutes. 4 Stars.

Booker T and Sharmell vs The Boogeyman
After the Benoit feud, Booker needed something to do, so he was put with his buddy, The Boogeyman. Booker faked an injury to get out of an one-on-one match at SNME. After Teddy Long learned the truth, he made this match. Booker being a true gentleman allows Sharmell to start off. HA. It ends up being a ploy as Booker attacks Boogey from behind. The ringside is hard to see from the red fog caused by Boogey's entrance. Sharmell distracts the ref long enough for Booker to low blow Boogey. Boogey Boogey-Up's. Booker counters a closeline into the Book End. Booker kicks out at two. Boogey keeps knocking Booker down with double chops. Boogey avoids the Scissors Kick. Booker in slow motion is thrown shoulder first into the post. WORMS~!!!! Sharmell comes in with Boogey's stick, but stops to scream, allowing Boogey to turn around. Boogey gives Sharmell a wormy kiss. Sharmell runs to the back screaming, terribly. Boogey finishes Booker off with a double armed choke slam. Boogey celebrates by eating some worms. So in just his two PPV matches, Boogey has defeated JBL and Booker T. Amazing. Terrible match. I'm thinking Booker was still recovering from the groin injury that he suffered in the middle of the Best of Seven Series with Benoit. So due to that, Booker needed to take it easy. That being said, Booker continues his streak of not being booked well at 'Mania. First there was 18 where he fought Edge over a Japanese shampoo commercial. Then for 19, he was thrown in a WHT feud with Hunter where there was blatant racism done by Hunter. Booker ends up losing. WM 20, Booker is in a meaningless 4 way tag match that was an embarrassment to the tag belts. Finally, last year at 21, Booker wasn't even booked on the actual PPV. At least they kept this short. 4 Minutes. 1/2 Star.

Trish Stratus (c) vs Mickie James - Women's Championship
Upon her debut in early October, Mickie James became Trish Stratus' biggest fan. It started off as just annoying, but then Mickie kept upping the psycho level. Finally, Trish had enough and told Mickie that she wanted a break. With Torrie Wilson being injured or whatever, Trish needed a partner for SNME against Victoria and Candice. Mickie volunteered and Trish reluctantly agreed, but only for it to be their last time together. Trish won the match without tagging in Mickie. After the match, Mickie wanted a handshake, but when she hugged Trish, Trish shoved her off. Mickie would give her a Chick Kick (Redubbed as the Mick Kick) thus finally turning heel. Things only got better as Mickie James kidnapped Ashley and lured Trish to the ring. Once in the ring, Mickie delivered a sick looking jumping DDT. In other words, they were having the best feud thus far in 2006. Violent tie-up to start. Mickie just slaps Trish until Trish gives a elbow in return. Lou Thesz Press by Trish. Terrible chop by Trish. Second one is a bit better. Third ends up being the worst. Just stop doing chops Trish, you suck at them. Trish kicks Mickie to the outside. Stratus misses Mickie and gives the ring post a chick kick. Mickie works over the knee by slamming it into the post. Trade of punches back in the ring. Mickie goes low with a drop kick. Loud 'Let's Go Mickie' chant. She might be the heel, but she's finally a woman wrestler doing something creative and fun. More working on the knee of Trish. Half Boston Crab, Lance Storm would be proud. Mickie pulls the hair of Trish and slams her face first back down to the mat. Sick looking kick to the back of Trish's knee while it was caught up in the ropes. Mickie poses for the fans and gets a great reaction. Spinning head scissors by Trish. The fans begins to boo whenever Trish is on offense. Ha...that's awesome. JR tries to say the fans just feels like being defiant. Trish goes to splash Mickie in the corner, but James gets the boots up to block. Mickie avoids the head scissors in the corner and slams Trish down to the mat. The fans are loving anything Mickie does. Hurricarana is countered and reversed into a power bomb by Trish. Awkward spot where Trish tries to go for the Matrix move, but she ducks down too quickly. Trish gets in the side head lock for the Stratusfaction, but Mickie grabs Trish's crotch. The WWE edits out Mickie licking her fans while laughing. The WWE also edits out the Stratusfaction by Mickie botch. Cut to Mickie nailing the Mick Kick to pin Trish and become the new Women's Champion. Mickie was damn near perfect at this time. She had the psycho gimmick down to perfection and was easily the best women's wrestler the WWE had at the time. She even managed to take a sub par worker in Trish and get a good match out of Trish. In fact, this is the only match of Trish's that I would consider good. The match did have the typical awkward moments that women matches are known for, largely due to Trish. However, the intensity and the crowd reaction easily made it a non issue. While I'm normally not a fan of the WWE (Or any company editing matches) the edit of the botch at the very end needed to be done. They had built up a pretty good match, but the botch really hurt the lasting feeling the match gave me. So without the botch, there was nothing to hurt the match greatly. I can't help, but miss this Mickie. Much like 2002-2003 Victoria, she was so much different than all of the other divas. I actually had a reason to care about her, unlike today. This feud (Mickie mainly), was my main reason to watch Raw around this time. I'm not the typical diva's fan who thinks it's a good match even though it can't even compare to the quality of the other matches on a card. This was a good wrestling match and it didn't need any BS curve for women wrestling. 9 Minutes. 3 1/4 Stars.

Mark Henry vs The Undertaker - Casket Match
After his brief feud with Kurt Angle, Taker needed a match for Wrestlemania. In comes Mark Henry. Henry would cost Taker the World Title in a rematch against Angle. At SNME, Taker gave the Tombstone to Davari, Mark Henry's manager. With that, Davari was out of the picture. A bunch of druids, including former ROH Pure Champion, John Walters, rolls out the casket.Henry jumps Taker to start the match. Henry continues the assault. Taker gets in a big boot, but Henry won't be knocked off of his feet. On the outside, Taker slams Henry's face to the stairs. Henry blocks a second shot and sends Taker into the steps. Henry breaks up an Old School attempt. It's all Henry thus far. Henry calls for the casket to be opened. Taker gets in a low kick to force Henry off of him. Another Old School attempt. Cole: "This is VINTAGE UNDERTAKER". Henry takes back over on offense. Henry lands feet first in the casket. Mark drags Taker in with him. Taker is punched down flat on the bottom of the casket. Taker chokes Henry to stand back up. Henry rolls back in the ring as Taker follows. Henry catches Taker in mid air for a slam. Henry goes for a cover. Not pin falls in a casket match, buddy. Henry kicks Taker in the casket, but Taker catches Henry around the throat to get back in the ring. Taker attempts a headbutt, but he just ends up hurting himself. Very slowly, Henry climbs up to the middle rope to get in some punches. Taker hits a badly performed Last Ride. Henry is thrown up past the casket. AIRRRR TAKEERRRR flies over the top rope and the casket to land on Henry. Tombstone back in the ring. Taker calls for the refs to raise the lid. Henry is rolled into the casket and Taker closes the casket to win the match. Taker is now 14-0. This would be the Wrestlemania debut of the casket match. To be fair, we got an old school traditional casket match. By that, I mean it was boring and it flat out sucked. Henry was terrible and Taker just couldn't get anything good out of him. Henry got in so much more offense then I imagined he would, but it's not like anyone believed Henry had a chance to win though. Ironically, I can remember reading on several news sites that Vince was considering having Henry win. I can see the logic behind it. It would of been shocking, but since Taker didn't get pinned, you could still go for the undefeated streak like what they did with Edge. This was pretty bad, even for a casket match though. 9 Minutes. 3/4 Star.

Vince McMahon vs Shawn Michaels - Street Fight
This started back in late 2005 when Vince McMahon was bringing up the Montreal Screw Job once again in order to promote the Bret Hart DVD. Of all people, Shawn Michaels came out and told Vince he needed to get over it and grow up. Keep in mind that Michaels was doing the same thing around Summerslam time. Anyways, at the Royal Rumble, Shane McMahon attacked and eliminated Shawn Michaels. Vince would pull yet another fake screw job at SNME when Shane defeated Shawn Michaels. Vince is very orange. Shawn attacks Vince on the outside while Vince was posing next to his Muscle Fitness magazine cover. Michaels throws Vince over the Raw announce table. Vince is choked by the head phone cable. Shawn brings in the framed magazine cover into the ring. Shawn breaks the frame over the head of McMahon. The Spirit Squad runs out and attacks Shawn. SS hits their 5 man finisher where they launch Shawn high up into the air. Michaels moves out of the way of the Kenny leg drop. Everyone takes a mega phone shot. Kenny is thrown over the top rope and sentons onto the rest of the Squad. Vince closelines Shawn. Vince chokes Shawn out in the corner. McMahon pulls off his belt and goes Hollywood on Michaels. More choking to Michaels. McMahon tries a superkick, but Michaels catches the leg. Michaels uses Vince's belt to Hollywood Vince. Top rope elbow to Vince. Sweet Chin Music is called. Shane McMahon nails Shawn with a kendo stick. Shane O'Mac has a pair of handcuffs. McMahon pulls his pants down. It's the Wrestlemania 'Kiss My Ass Club'~!!!!! Shawn stops Shane and shoves Shane's face into his father's ass. Shane is closelined to the outside. Shawn handcuffs Shane to the middle rope. Shawn murders Shane with some kendo stick hits. Shawn brings in a chair into the ring. Vince takes a stiff shot with it. McMahon is busted open. Shawn considers the SCM, but decides against it. Shawn heads back outside and pulls out a ladder. Vince takes a slow motion ladder shot to the head. Vince is bleeding puddles. Michaels decides against another SCM. Back to under the ring, Michaels pulls out a couple of garbage cans and a table. Garbage can shot to Vince's head. Michaels sets up the table in the middle of the ring and lays Vince on it. Shawn climbs up the ladder, but decides against it. Shawn punches Shane on the outside and pulls out an even larger ladder from under the ring. Shane continues to stay away from Michaels for some unknown reason. Vince remains dead on the table as Shawn sets up the larger ladder. Michaels shoves the garbage can over the head of Vince. At the top of the ladder, Shawn gives Vince the 'Suck It' sign and then leaps off of the ladder and smashes through the table on top of Vince. Shawn prevents any doctors from helping McMahon. Sweet Chin Music to Vince and Shawn picks up the victory. While it's always fun seeing someone beat down Vince, this went on too long. The match was either Michaels attacking Vince or Michaels fighting off some of Vince's help. I don't like how Shane stayed out of the way whenever Michaels was near him. Yes, you're handcuffed to the ropes, but you could of still kept interfering. This was basically a twenty minute squash. This should be the end of the feud. However, this 'Classic' feud would still see Michaels team up with God at Backlash, the complete burial of the tag team champions and Vince's head being shoved up the ass of the Big Show in one of the least dangerous HIAC matches ever. I don't know, they didn't really do anything that couldn't have been done in half of the time on Raw. 19 Minutes. 2 Stars.

Kurt Angle (c) vs Randy Orton vs Rey Mysterio - World Heavyweight Championship
So Rey Mysterio won the Royal Rumble. However, after Randy Orton talked Mysterio into putting the title shot on the line at No Way Out, Mysterio lost. However, that would turn out to be meaningless as at the next Smackdown, Teddy Long still threw Mysterio into the title match. It was during the buildup that Orton hit the best RKO ever during a Mysterio vs Finlay match. As Mysterio springboards into the ring, Orton jumped up and hit his finisher. Anyways, Orton is the heel, Mysterio is the face, while Angle is the tweener. Mysterio has P.O.D. playing for his entrance. This is the night of the infamous Aztec bird outfit. Orton uses the belt to attack Angle before the bell. Mysterio cross bodies right into a dropkick. German Suplex by Angle. Angle hits a German Suplex on Orton AND Mysterio! The fans love Kurt tonight. Orton gets a 2 on Angle after his neck breaker on the back. Angle launches Mysterio up so he can hit a top rope hurricrana in mid air. Damn, this is fast paced. 'Let's Go Angle' chant. Angle closelines Mysterio and gets a two from it. Mysterio with a death blow kick to Angle. Massive tilt-a-whirl head scissors to Angle. Angle catches Mysterio during the 619 into an Ankle Lock. Orton distracts the referee while Mysterio taps out. German Suplex to Orton. Overhead German to Mysterio. Standard one to Orton. Angle hits the Angle Slam over the top rope to Mysterio. Ankle lock to Orton. Angle grape vines the leg, but Mysterio grabs the ref. Orton taps, but the ref doesn't see. Mysterio drops the dime on Angle. One...Two...NO! Angle kicks out. Angle sends Mysterio shoulder first into the post. Down goes the straps! An Angle Slam is reversed into an RKO! One...TWO...NO! Angle kicks out. Orton's ankle is hurt. Orton climbs to the top rope, but Angle runs up and joins him to nail the top rope Angle Slam. Mysterio botches a 619 around the post to Angle. Mysterio gets a two inside on Angle. Orton knees Angle out of the ring. Unique neckbreaker by Orton. That gets a two count. Orton calls for the RKO. angle runs up behind him and nails the Angle Slam on Orton. One...TWO...NO! Orton kicks out. Angle stands up and prepares Mysterio for the Angle Slam. Mysterio reverses it and arm drags Angle out of the ring. 619 to Orton. WEST COAST POP! ONE...TWO....THREE! Mysterio wins the World Heavyweight Championship! Amazingly, this is given less time than the Casket match and the US title match. At less than 10 minutes, these guys barely had any time to tell a story. So instead, they managed to keep a fast pace to do as many moves and spots as possible. This would of been perfect for a Smackdown match, but this is Wrestlemania. To get such a short match is a slap in the face of SD. Give these three men 20-30 men and they could of easily put on a MOTY. The other problem of the match is that they gave the belt to the guy the crowd cared about the least amount. Angle was insanely over. Orton was getting great reactions. Mysterio was getting boos. I know there's a lot of fans who believes Mysterio was only given the belt because Eddie died. However, I don't. For one, Mysterio spent most of 2005 defeating Eddie. If nothing else, Eddie's death just made Mysterio's title win happen a lot sooner. But that's all meaningless as this match was given a terrible time and the wrong man went over. GREAT SD match, but it's not what a World title match at 'Mania should be about. 9 Minutes. 3 1/4 Stars.

Candice vs Torrie Wilson - Playboy Pillow Fight
Torrie and Candice were on the same side up until Candice was revealed as the next Playboy Playmate. Candice started looking down at Torrie out of jealousy that Torrie had been in two Playboys before. There's a bed in the middle of the ring. Torrie even brought her tiny dog out to the ring. Torrie actually hits a suplex. Back body drop onto the bed. Candice actually sells it like it hurt. Torrie flips the bed over on Candice and jumps on the mattress. Torrie rubs her dog's ass on the face of Candice. Wow, I'm so glad the Triple Threat had time removed so we had enough time for this. Torrie rips off Candice's dress. Candice does her stupid Go Daddy twirl. Candice snapmare's Torrie on the bed. Candice uses a pair of scissors to cut open Torrie's dress. Hmm, maybe Candice should be renamed Candice Vicious. Torrie gets a roll up to win the match. I can't believe this got half the time that the WHT match got. Absolutely terrible. I never want to see this again. 4 Minutes. 1/2 Star.

John Cena (c) vs Triple H - WWE Championship
Hunter won a tournament to earn this title shot. Hunter comes out in full Barbarian gear. Sadly, I'm not talking about the Powers of Pain Barbarian. This is the debut of the 'King of Kings'. Cena has his 40's/50's gangster Chicago entrance that sees CM Punk making his Wrestlemania debut as one of the gangsters. Punk actually gets the most screen time out of all of the gangsters. I believe I see Deuce out there as well. The Chicago fan is very anti-Cena and pro-Hunter. Although, to be fair, I think Hitler would of been cheered over Cena tonight. The bell rings and here we go. The crowd is very into it already. Tie-up to start with Hunter locking in the side head lock. Hunter out wrestling Cena gets a huge applause. Hunter continues to out wrestle Cena which only causes the crowd to get louder. Loud 'Cena Sucks' chant. JR tries to pit this as a new school vs old school match which is why Cena is being booed. Every move Hunter does gets a cheer and Cena gets a boo. Loud 'Triple H' chant. Hunter throws Cena out of the ring to a loud cheer. This is incredible. Cena comes back with punches and loud boos. Cena gets a 2 after a fisherman suplex. JR gets upset as people get on Cena's case about being a bad wrestler. Loud 'Cena can't wrestle' chant. Hunter takes a Hennig bump over the top rope. Hunter gets a back body drop on the entrance ramp. Cena throws Hunter back in the ring to get an 1 count. High knee by Hunter. 'Nananana Good Bye' song is chanted for Cena's title reign. Running closeline by Hunter. One...two...no, Cena gets a shoulder up. Neckbreaker gets Hunter a two. Dual 'Let's Go Cena' 'Cena Sucks' chants. Sleeper by Trips. Cena rams Hunter to the corner to escape the sleeper. Closeline by Cena. Big body slam and Cena hits Hunter with his spinning slam. 'YOU CANT SEEE MEEEE', Hunter stands up and hits a Double A Spinebuster. One...TWO...NO! A pair of Shoulder blocks by Cena and he's able to connect with the 5 Knuckle Shuffle. STFU!!! Hunter is fighting it though, slowly crawling to the ropes. Hunter reaches the ropes.Hunter avoids a FU and pushes Cena into the ref. Hunter with a double low blow to Cena and the ref. Hunter does the 'You Can't See Me' and then with the 'Suck It' sign. SLEDGEHAMMER!!!! Cena blocks the hammer shot. Punches. Trips nails Cena with the sledgehammer. Cover. ONE...TWO...NO!!!! Cena kicks out!!! Hunter covers again, but only gets a 2 again. Cena hits a back body drop to escape the Pedigree. FU!!!! One...TWO...NO! Hunter kicks out of the FU! Cena looks heart broken. John climbs to the top rope and misses a cross body. Pedigree is reversed into the STFU!!!! Cena traps Hunter's arm. The ref raises Hunter's arm. One....TWO.....THR...NOOOO!!!! Hunter is still alive! Hunter tries reaching for the ropes but taps out. Cena retains the WWE championship. This one reminds me a lot of Hunter vs Jericho from WM 18. Both matches are average, not great, but not bad. However, unlike 18, the crowd is fully alive and always chanting something. While the dead crowd at 18 killed the title match, it made this match. The match has great crowd involvement which makes this a fun match to check out. Had the crowd been dead, I would of probably dropped 2 full stars. But for an average match, I was really into it and so was everyone else. The WWE shoving Cena down our throats indirectly helped save this main event. 22 Minutes. 4 Stars.

Overall
This one has an old school feel to it. The bookers tried so hard to get everyone on the show that it ended up hurting the show. The fact that the WHT match only had 9 minutes shows that there was too much action booked. Drop Booker and Sharmell vs Boogeyman and Torrie vs Candice and this would of really improved the show. While it's not a perfect 'Mania, I still enjoy it. Both World title matches were fun, a women's match actually entertained me and there was a fantastic hardcore brawl. Overall, there's four really good matches, three really bad ones and then the rest is pretty average. Not a great ratio, but it's good enough to leave me happy. Just the fact that there's several matches I can see myself watching over and over leaves this Mania as slightly one of the better ones of this decade.

Best Match: Edge vs Mick Foley
Worst Match: Candice vs Torrie Wilson

Overall grade: B-

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King Steventon

Side Effect*


Foley has a nice habit of "making" things. Tommy Dreamer, Triple H, Hell In A Cell, Orton, Edge, etc.

I thought Trish wasn't actually that bad in her match. She worked stiffer than usual and sold Mickie's legwork pretty well (even if it did lead to nothing), and she took a few nasty looking bumps. Mickie botching was AWFUL considering it was the biggest womens match this decade and her face heat instantly turned into "You fucked up" chants.

I dug the 2006 Chamber match, mostly because of the Carlito/Masters stuff. The HBK/Vince fued was some of the biggest crap this decade. Angle carried the triple threat.

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Tommy Platinum

This was a strange Wrestlemania, as while it contained some good matches, there was way too much crap on the card. Matches like Boogey/Booker, JBL/Benoit and the stupid Pillow Fight had no place on a Mania card, and I wasn't interested in the tag match either, although I may rewatch it now, as I usually don't pay attention and don't remember it being good.

lol @ sign effect.

I hated the World Heavyweight Title match too. I didn't like the whole angle with the charity case winning, but also I felt the match was way too short and didn't have an epic feel to it at all. Like you said, fine for a Smackdown match but it didn't feel like a title match on the grandest stage of them all. It was just a short, fun match with some cool spots and fast paced action. I loved Orton's character around the time though, such a dick.

No surprises that I feel you underrated the Vince/HBK match. It may not have been great but I found it very entertaining and I don't think the feud was too awful. Well, not until Backlash anyway. I liked the match and the finish was a cool moment.

Foley/Edge was a great match and when I watch it I can't help but thinking how they've ruined Edge now. I loved Edge when, despite the ultimate opportunist gimmick already being established after his MITB cash-in, he was actually hardcore and could get it done. It was a great match to put Edge over and it was great to see Foley finally do something memorable at a Wrestlemania. Both guys deserved the moment and it helped Edge's career more than any other win. Strange match to have at a Mania too. You don't expect to see something that bloody on a Mania card, especially so low down the card.

Oh yeah I forgot Taker/Henry from the list of shitty matches. Most of Taker's streak defences have been bad, but this was one of the worst. Impossible to get a good match out of Henry no matter who you are.

Cena/Triple H was a pretty good main event. I agree with your ratings for this and the hardcore match, and yeah the fans obviously made it.

MITB was my least favorite too, despite the badness of WM 23.

Mickie/Trish was pretty great for a womens match and I think you're being harsh on Trish lol. The first time I saw it was on DVD and I didn't realize Mickie made that terrible botch at the end, which hurt the match considerably. Fans turning on Trish due to Mickie's charisma was pretty lol.

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horrorfan_1986

I want to know how Mickie was responsible for the botch when it's the person taking the Stratusfaction who does all the work.

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King Steventon

???

The person who takes it just has to move with them and take a faceplant, Mickie was the one who missed the ropes when she tred to jump up on them. Either way, she didn't recover from it particularly well.

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horrorfan_1986

She missed it because Trish's knee buckled.

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King Steventon

I can't rememebr so I'll take your word for it. They could have saved that if they played it up as selling, lawls >_>

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Tommy Platinum

Jim just loves Mickie and hates Trish. Pretty sure it was Mickie's fault.



Looks like Mickie missed the ropes to me.

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horrorfan_1986

I love Mickie and hate Trish? This is the only Trish or Mickie match I can stand watching. You can clearly see that Mickie didn't even have time to get her feet much past the middle ropes to get to the top ropes before Trish started to fall. Trish immediately started to drop Mickie as soon as she picked her up off of the ground.

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Toaster Oven

tbh, it looks like Mickie just doesn't jump high enough.

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