Looking Back at Wrestlemania - Part Six
Wrestlemania XXII - Not up there as one of the great Wrestlemania cards, as the WWE were now looking at a future without Steve Austin and The Rock. The main event saw John Cena retaining the WWE title against Triple H, where Cena come out as Al Capone and Hunter was Conan the Barbarian. The World Heavyweight title was won by Rey Mysterio in a three way against champion Kurt Angle and Randy Orton match was good but was badly hindered as it wa, s given less than 10 minutes. Pleasant surprise of the night was Edge defeating Mick Foley in an excellent Hardcore match. Less welcome were the Undertaker and Mark Henry battling in a casket match, Vince and Shawn going nearly 20 minutes in a wildly overbooked 'No Holds Barred' match. Rob Van Dam won the second MITB ladder match that was again very good, the god awful team of Kane & Big Show retained the tag titles against Carlito & Chris Masters.
Wrestlemania XXIII - The most successful Wrestlemania so far, featured a match where both Vince McMahon and Donald Trump put up their hair (make your own jokes there). The match itself was Umaga (backed by Vince) and Bobby Lashley (backed by Trump), match wasn't great and to the surprise of absolutely no-one it was Vince who found himself bald. The actual main event was John Cena again winning this time against Shawn Michaels, after the match Shawn was livid due to Cena forgetting to sell his back after Shawn had spent several minutes straight working on it. The Undertaker went 15-0 and also won the World Heavyweight title by beating Dave Batista. Mr Kennedy had his WWE career highlight when he won the MITB match but several weeks later lost the title opportunity in a match against Edge. Chris Benoit retained the US title against MVP. One of the worst Wrestlemania matches also happened here when Great Khali beat Kane.
Wrestlemania XXIV - Quite the loaded show, this featured Ric Flair's final WWE match when he lost to Shawn Michaels in a very entertaining and fitting finale for the Nature Boy, the WWE also had Floyd Mayweather defeating the Big Show in a No DQ match when he used brass knuckles to knock him out. The main event though was The Undertaker getting the better of Edge to win another World Heavyweight title and take his streak to 16-0 in a very good match, I also think that this was Edge's first Wrestlemania defeat. Randy Orton defeated John Cena and Triple H to retain the WWE title in a three way. CM Punk won his first MITB match that also featured Chris Jericho in his first Wrestlemania since returning to the company. Kane won the now defunct ECW title from Chavo Guerrero in 12 seconds, well if your going to make Chavo a joke you might as well go all the way with it.
Wrestlemania XXV - The first Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker match at Wrestlemania, this was an outstanding affair and received pretty much ***** across the board, unfortunately this went on 6th on a 8 match card and because it was so good it completely overshadowed the main event. The main event was Triple H retaining the WWE title against Randy Orton, the match was average at best and Orton sadly did not come across well. CM Punk had his second MITB win, fans wished it was Christian. JBL clearly not working by the hour dropped the IC title to Rey Mysterio in 21 seconds on his way out of the company. Matt defeated Jeff in a battle of the Hardy brothers, imagine that match in TNA these days what a terrifying thought. The World Heavyweight title was won by John Cena in a three way that featured Edge and Big Show.
Wrestlemania XXVI - On paper this should have been a really good show, it was entertaining but frankly wasn't as good as it should have been. The main event was the re-match between Taker and HBK which was just as well as against the odds they had another fantastic match which again saw Shawn coming up short and thus had to retire. Last years Wrestlemania also saw Bret Hart have his first Wrestlemania match since 1997 against Vince McMahon, although the build up was excellent the match itself was badly booked and executed and despite the obvious limitations of Vince and Bret they stumbled through an atrocious 11 minute fiasco. John Cena won the WWE title in an entertaining match against Dave Batista, Triple H decided that now was not the time to put over Sheamus, Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk in a match that could have been great if it had been given more than 6 minutes. Chris Jericho retained his World Heavyweight title against Edge in another good match. In what could be the last MITB match at Wrestlemania Jack Swagger took an age to finally unhook the briefcase.
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