WrestleMania 26 Results
|WrestleMania 26 is in the books, and while our own Random Villain attended the show live, I’ll report the results and my thoughts here.
Before the show, they had one of the traditional pre-show battle royals so everyone can get on the show and get a little bit of the Mania payday. Yoshi Tatsu won…. a good move, he put on some great matches in ECW.
The show kicked off with ShowMiz vs. Morrison and R-Truth. This was a good opener, as it was short, sweet, and to the point. Morrison and R-Truth are the most annoying team in wrestling right now with their jolly attitudes and kid-friendly jokes. One Big Show punch and done.
Match 2 was Orton vs. Dibiase vs. Rhodes. Wow, the most over guy in the company goes on second. This was good, as the crowd loved everything Orton did, and the fans went home happy as Orton gets the win.
The Money in the Bank match was up next and was the usual spotfest, but it was good and exciting as always. Innovative spots like every year, and Jack Swagger walks away as the new Mr. Money in the Bank. This is probably an attempt to push Swagger again, which may not be a bad thing, at least it’s different.
Next up we had another rare early card appearance, this time it was Triple H appearing earlier in the card than he has in probably 10 years. His match with Sheamus was descent, and Triple H won, not much more to it.
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio was next. Another good match, Rey wins, the crowd likes it. Would have probably been a better story if Rey lost and had to join the Straight Edge Society, but it’s WWE, what do you expect.
Next up was the no holds barred match between Vince McMahon and Bret Hart. This match was one of the few that had that “Mania feel” to it, being we’ve had 13 years of build-up, and such a history behind it. Vince brought out the Hart family as lumberjacks, saying he paid them off, but Bret revealed they were all screwing Vince and were on his side. The Hart Dynasty finally got to do something with Bret on screen which was good. Bruce Hart served as special referee. This match was Bret Hart beating the hell out of Vince McMahon, nothing more, nothing less. Vince beat the hell out of Vince with a pipe and a chair, to the point the announcers almost made Bret seem like a heel for not stopping. Hopefully, that will lead to some sort of follow-up with Bret. This match was disappointing overall…why couldn’t we at least get an Anvil run-in or SOME attempt at a surprise? Bret is limited in what he can do, and they didn’t do anything special here.
Jericho vs. Edge was up next. Another great match, which was starting to look like the theme of the night here. Glad to see Jericho pull out the win, and not go with the obvious Edge simply wins ending. Edge spears Jericho through the guard rail after the bell, which tells us we will definitely see a rematch here.
The 10 Diva tag was up next to break up the main events. Typical Divas match, with the predictable finisher by each diva finish going on. Vickie Guerrero’s “bullfrog splash” on Kelly Kelly was the finish as the heels went over, although the pin was botched when Kelly’s shoulders weren’t down and the ref had to count twice.
Batista vs. Cena follows which tells us Undertaker vs. Michaels is thankfully the main event, as it should be. Batista vs. Cena follows with the night’s theme of great matches. Lots of near falls, lots of people behind Batista (most likely the males who won’t cheer like a girl for Cena. HORRIBLE finish as we see Batista, who has really gotten over as a cocky bastard heel, tap out to Cena’s STFU. Been there, done that. We saw Triple H do it, we’ve seen countless others. Cena is stale, and having him beat a guy who’s really getting over is typical WWE bullshit.
Finally our main event, the much anticipated Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, streak vs. career match. This match may have topped WrestleMania 25’s version. Great match, great emotion, tons of near falls. The finish comes as Undertaker tells Michaels to stay down, HBK does Taker’s throat cut motion to him, as if to tell him to end it all, then slaps the shit out of the Undertaker, which causes Taker to grab HBK, jump into the air for a brutal looking Tombstone, and the win….thus ending the career of Shawn Michaels. Undertaker pulled Michaels up after the match, shook his hand, then left so Shawn could have his WrestleMania moment saying farewell to the crowd. HBK got a great response, and the show ended as it should, as nothing could have followed that.
Overall WrestleMania 26 was all about great matches. No surprises, no shocking moments, just good matches. To me, the surprises are what Mania needs to truly feel like Mania. When you have no matches that are on the level of Rock vs. Hogan, which had an epic feel just to see those 2 in the ring together, creativity and surprises are what is needed. It wasn’t a bad show by any means, but once again WrestleMania lacks the total feel it’s been missing the past few years.
Tomorrow night should be a very special night on RAW if WWE goes with a Shawn Michaels retirement in the same fashion they did for Ric Flair.