For those of you that are regular readers of the blog here and AREN’T wrestling fans don’t worry… this is the last wrestling related post for a while.

With that being said, WrestleMania 28 is officially in the books and it’s time for a recap and a look back at the show that was.  As per usual we built our yearly Beeramid which was epic.

First off, I’ll say this was a FAR superior show compared to the last couple of years.  I always enjoy WrestleMania weekend cause we turn it into an event, but I have to say the show itself was a BIG part of my enjoyment this year.  That’s something I’ve not been able to say over the last couple of years.

• Sheamus beat Daniel Bryan for the World Title
  If you blinked, you missed it.  Sheamus hit Bryan with his finisher as soon as he turned around from giving AJ a kiss and just like that it was over.  The WWE has gotten a TON of shit for this one but I have to say this match got one of the loudest pops from us.  While you can’t really call this a “match” and I would have enjoyed watching Sheamus and Bryan go at it, this was a pretty cool way to get the show started.  And when you think about it this is a really nice way to play into the Daniel Bryan story line.
• Kane beat Randy Orton
  I can only imagine how pissed Randy and Kane were when they found out they were going on second.  Guess that’s what happens when you have no time to build a story line and when Orton is hurt all the time.  This was actually a really good wrestling match, but as I watched it I couldn’t help but think we were watching an episode of RAW.  Kane gets the clean win when he choke slams Orton off the top rope.  Good finish and good solid match.
• Big Show beat Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Title
  With all the talk of how Big Show chokes at Mania, this was a no brainer for me (though apparently I was in the minority).  Cody Rhodes is clearly an up and comer and quite frankly I think he needed to lose the title so he could move forward in his career.  This was a relatively short match but one that I thought was pretty well done.  Big Show is nearing the end of his career and I for one was happy to see him get a victory on the grandest stage of them all.  He was visibly emotional at the end  which makes me think he’s nearing the end of the road.  Decent match.
• Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos defeated Beth Phoenix and Eve
  Um… yeah.  This match happened.  Was there any doubt that Kelly & Maria were going to win this?  If you doubted it, you should have read this beforehand.  Celebrities don’t lose at WrestleMania… period.  To be fair though, Maria had some broken ribs from her stint on Dancing With The Stars and didn’t totally embarrass herself.  Thankfully this was a short one.  Oh yeah… and Even is smoking hot.  Yum.
• The Undertaker defeated HHH in Hell In A Cell
  I still don’t think Shawn Michaels should have been in this match, but I have to say that all 3 guys brought it and did a HELL of a job.  If you want an example of old school wrestling storytelling you don’t have to go any further than this match.  While Taker, HHH and Shawn are all clearly well beyond their prime these guys far exceeded my expectations and put on an outstanding match.  As big a Taker fan as I am, I had to say that before the match I was VERY worried that the streak would end, but I’m happy to say that he managed to run it to 20-0.  Now I’m just hoping that he’ll retire and not even think about turning back.  If that’s the case I’d like to thank Undertaker for an outstanding career.  Match of the night in my opinion.
• Team Johnny beat Team Teddy
  Honestly I couldn’t have cared less about this match.  To me this was just a way to get a bunch of guys onto the WrestleMania card.  And let’s face it, NO ONE in the locker room wanted to follow HHH/Taker so the placement on the card here makes perfect sense.  It wasn’t nearly the spot fest that I thought it would be and as I sit here just 5 days removed from the event I really can’t pick out anything memorable.  That said, I can’t pick out anything overly terrible either so for a 12 man match this is about as good as we could have expected.
• CM Punk retained his WWE Championhip by making Chris Jericho tap
  Heading into the match there were quite a few folks (myself included) that were hoping this would be the next coming of Savage/Steamboat from WrestleMania III.  And while it didn’t quite live up to that, it was a DAMN good match.  Lots of back and forth action with Jericho doing the clean tap job in the middle of the ring.  With the “your momma’s a whore” build prior to the event the outcome was pretty set in stone, but these guys told a great story and had a superb match.  If I wasn’t such a Taker fan this would have been the match of the night for me.
• The Rock beat John Cena
  I just don’t get it.  The booking here makes absolutely no sense to me.  I stated before where I thought they were going but based on this match and the outcome I’m clearly wrong.  I just don’t see the value of Rock winning here.  The next night on RAW, he did what we all knew he’d do and essentially said goodbye for the foreseeable future.  And for all those John Cena haters out there, PLEASE take a look at this match and watch how he CARRIED The Rock through the whole thing.  Pay special attention to when Rock is in Cena’s submission finisher and damn near falls asleep.  Dear Rock… it’s not a sleeper.  You should be in agony when your leg is touching your head.  I can only hope that there’s some sort of longer term plans here.  The match itself was pretty decent (aside from a couple of examples) but with a year long build which I think was a HUGE mistake this one was bound to fall flat.

So there you have it.  As I said before, overall it was a VERY entertaining show and far superior to the last few year’s offerings.

For those keeping track at home, the final win/losses for the night were:

• Chewie: 5/8
• Pip: 4/8
• Marko: 4/8

Speaking of the WrestleMania 28 Drinking Game.  Here are the final tallies on how often we drank for each rule.  I’m sure we missed a few here and there, but this is the gist.

1 Time

• If a Diva and wrestler make out
• Every time it’s mentioned that Miami is the Rock’s home town
• If Michaels super kicks someone
• Submission victory
• (Uunannounced) legend appearance or surprise return

3 Times

• Small package attempt
• Ref bump

4 Times

• Foreign object

5 Times

• Bloody wrestler
• Reference to the sponsored song
• Footage of a previous WrestleMania
• Something is “trending worldwide”

10 Times

• Missed match outcome

And the CLEAR winner… with a whopping 27 occurrences…

• A finishing move

Once again, it was an absolutely tremendous event and we’re already looking forward to next year.  Got a rule you think we should include in next year’s game?  Post a comment and we’ll get it added!

I have to give HUGE props to my brother Marko for once again joining us for the event.  Not only is the event itself Herculean in nature, but Mark and his wife had just 5 days prior welcomed their first child into the world.  As his wife said, “With a dad and uncle who are so big into wrestling… there’s no chance she won’t be a fan!”  And let’s be honest… what kind of an uncle would I be if I didn’t instill a love for wrestling in my niece?  On another family note, the Wife and kids were out of town this year which was a real bummer cause Pip (aka Mr. Matt) loves to see them and the boys talk about him just about all year… we’ll have to wait till next year for that.

In any case… with our rules of engagement set before us, we awoke Sunday morning ready for action.  I’ve often said that if you’re going to do something stupid you may as well go all the way, so we started with a tremendous pre-WrestleMania breakfast of steak, eggs & Yuengling!

The Breakfast Of Champions

Mark wasn’t going to be doing a ton of drinking as he was running on about 46 minutes of sleep, so Pip and I knew we had our work cut out for us.  Luckily, the first row of the Beeramid flew by with little incident.

1 Row Down... 6 To Go

Row #2 went by pretty easily as well.  Those first two are rough but rows 3, 4 and 5 is when business really starts to pick up.

2 Rows Down - Gaining Confidence

See what I mean?

3rd Row... Foreign Objects

At this point we were about halfway through the show and it was time to kick things into high gear.  Shotgun!

Rise... Above... Beer Bong

Row #4 - Time For An Attitude Adjustment!

Guess Who We're Rooting For?

Chalk this next one up to, “It sounded good at the time.”  Note to self… getting a large man into a Tombstone Piledriver is made to look very easy on television.  But to be fair, I don’t think the Undertaker drinks 15 beers prior to trying it.

Brother's Don't Hug. Brother's Gotta... Tombstone?

Million Dollar Dream & Pip Out = One More Beer!

The Champs... Are HERE!!!

Once again, we made it.  There will come a day when we may have to cut a row out of the glorious structure, but it was not to be this year.  For something as simple as stacking beer cans, the sense of accomplishment that we get is quite exhilarating.

We... Are The Champions... My Friend...

And We'll Keep On Fighting... Till The End

Break It Down!

Once Again... The Structure In All It's Glory

And just like that, Mania weekend was over.  Pip and I tend to build these twice a year weekends up in our mind, but I have to say this one was pretty fucking epic.  The return “match” with the Beeramid will take place at WrestleMania 29 on April 7th, 2013.  Stay tuned!

One month from today, the WWE will put on its largest pay per view of the year… WrestleMania!  Miami, Florida hosts this year’s event and once again my basement will host the building of The Beeramid.  And while the full card for the even isn’t set yet, there are quite a few matches that have been announced (or are highly rumored).

WWE Championship
CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho – This match may very well be the best on the card, but honestly the lead up to it (thus far at least) has been complete crap in my opinion.  When Chris Jericho returned to the WWE just before the Royal Rumble, we were greeted with all kinds of promos that talked about the “end of the world as we knew it”.  Jericho managed to have a pretty good showing at the Rumble (he was the runner up) but nothing really changed.  It wasn’t until the night after on RAW that he came out and attacked Punk.  Personally I thought he should have gone after the Undertaker and his streak, but the WWE booking team decided to go this way.  Promos and sloppy booking aside, this one has all the makings of an instant classic.  However, just like the classic Savage/Steamboat matchup from WrestleMania III it’s going to be far overshadowed by other “main events”.  Championships typically change hands at Mania, but I honestly think Jericho’s better days are behind him.  I’m looking for Punk to retain and propel him into super-stardom.

World Heavyweight Championship
Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan - This match was actually on the card last year (for the U.S. Championship) but was bumped off the broadcast and made a dark match.  There’s very little pressure on these guys to perform cause of the 4 main-ish events, this is by far the least exciting of the bunch.  That said, both of these guys are really good workers and they very well put on an outstanding match.  Daniel Bryan is REALLY pissing me off these days which is to say he’s playing his heel role to perfection.  Sheamus is a stud in the making and is definitely in line for a big push so I’m guessing he’s going to walk out with the strap.  Looking back on this post, it’s amazing just how far he’s come since January of 2010.  Well done sir!

Hell In A Cell & The Streak
The Undertaker vs. Triple H – I’ll preface this by saying I’m a huge Undertaker fan, but this is far and away the “main event” in my book… and that was before they decided to put it in the cage.  I don’t necessarily think we needed this match for a third time at WrestleMania, but I have to say they really have done a great job at hyping the match and really making it “matter”.  Count me as one of the folks that NEVER wants to see the streak end but I could have understood it if Taker was going to put over a younger guy or a guy that they really wanted to push to the next level.  Quite frankly though HHH just isn’t that guy.  There is absolutely no reason that Taker should lose this match.  It will do nothing for HHH’s career if he were to be the one to end the streak.  He’s already a hall of famer, already an umteen time champion, already banging the bosses daughter.  I can’t for the life of me think that 20 years from now the WWE will want to look back and say, “Remember that Undertaker guy… yeah, his 19-1 record at WrestleMania was pretty damned impressive.”  It would be a colossal mistake to end the streak in my opinion.  Looking for Taker to run it to 20-0 and then retire.

John Cena vs. The Rock – We’ve been building to this match since the day after last year’s WrestleMania.  Quite frankly, I don’t care.  I’m not one of those folks that hates John Cena, but I’m also not one of those that loves The Rock.  Dwayne was absolutely BRILLIANT when he was at the top of his game.  One of the best of all time.  But that was 10 years ago.  Now he’s a movie star who moonlights as a wrestler.  I don’t blame the guy at all mind you, but at this point, to this fan, he’s irrelevant.  Sure, he can still pop a crowd and I’m sure come Mania he’ll “bring it” big time but I simply cannot see him putting over John Cena with the event being in his home town and with a big summer blockbuster (G.I. Joe Retaliation) coming out.  Now… if the WWE wants to really show some balls in the booking department, and they have Cena go over?  Now we’re talking… that would be epic.

Other stuff that’s on the horizon include a “match” between Johnny Ace and Teddy Long, a Diva’s match, Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes and a couple of others.  I have to say that WrestleMania 28 is shaping up to be the best in recent memory.  Bring it on!

Triple Threat Steel Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Daniel Bryan (c) defeated Big Show and Mark Henry
Talk about a great way to start the show.  I’m absolutely loving Daniel Bryan as a heel and putting him in this type of match against two big men where there’s “no escape” is brilliant.  This was a bit shorter that I would have liked but all 3 guys worked hard even though  it was reported that Henry was injured going into the match.  I’d thought this was going to be “match of the night” and while it didn’t quite live up to that it was a great opener.

The Bella Twins and The Divas of Doom (Beth Phoenix & Natalya) defeated Alicia Fox, Eve, Kelly Kelly and Tamina
I’ll admit that this I could have done without, but there was some good stuff here as well.  I don’t understand the folks who scream at the top of their lungs for the WWE to develop a Diva’s roster, but then complain when they put a match like this on the card.  Think about it… the only way you’re going to build this kind of division is to put these fine ass ladies on PPV.  Sure a one on one match between Phoenix and say Kharma is what we all want, but this type of match gives 8 spots on PPV as opposed to 2.

 John Cena fought Kane to a double count out
Yeah… this sucked balls.  This whole “embrace the hate” speed bump on the way to The Rock at WrestleMania is just silly.  At this point I don’t think there’s a chance in hell they’re going to turn John Cena heel so why bother with this?  And if you ARE going to do it, then why not end the feud here?  The way it stands there’s only 1 more PPV before Mania where you KNOW that Cena isn’t really going to be going 100% for fear of getting injured.  Are they really going to build Zack Ryder out of this?  Um… kay.  I absolutely HATE when we get count outs or disqualifications on PPV so this was an epic fail in my book.

Brodus Clay (with Cameron Lynn and Naomi) defeated Drew McIntyre
I feel bad for Drew McIntyre.  Dude is a good worker that’s stuck in this mid card hell.  Sure the WWE needs folks to feed the Brodus Clay machine but I could think of about 30 other guys that I’m throw at him first.  A lot of people were pissed that we got our Clay fix here rather than in the Rumble match itself.  Why?  He clearly wasn’t going to win the Rumble this year, which means someone’s going to have to put him out making him look weak at least for a moment.  This way, he can have another squash, get the PPV exposure and continue to the story.  Good booking.

Singles match for the WWE Championship with John Laurinaitis as special guest referee
CM Punk (c) defeated Dolph Ziggler
I’ll be honest.  I thought this was going to suck.  I wasn’t sure how they were going to work the Laurinaitis angle in here and I was pretty sure that they were going to put the strap on Ziggler.  While I love the #HEEL, I think it’s a bit too soon and it would been a mistake.  Luckily I was wrong and the WWE got this one right.  The in-ring action was exactly what I’d hoped for and Ziggler once again cemented himself as one of the best bumpers in the business.  With Johnny Ace taking himself out of the ring Punk & Ziggles were able to put on a good match without too many shenanigans (until the end at least).  Hearing Punk say, “I beat him 3 times” was just awesome and I have to say that I was impressed with the way the match ended.  Match of the night.

The Royal Rumble
This was the best Rumble match I can remember in the last few years.  There were quite a few guys that had a legit shot of winning. It was the first time in history that everyone was eligible (even folks who’s wrestled earlier in the evening) so there was a real sense of anticipation as the seconds clicked down to see who was next.  While we didn’t have the super returns that we’ve had in the past (Diesel & Booker T last year, Cena, HHH, Taker in previous years) there were some surprise entrants that made me mark out.  Ricardo Rodriguez coming out to ADR’s gimmick was outstanding.  Seeing the first ever Rumble winner Hacksaw Jim Duggan mix it up was awesome and I just about popped my top when Kharma made her return.

There’s a ton of people out there that are pissed Sheamus won the Rumble.  Why?  He’s a stud.  Are you pissed that Chris Jericho didn’t win?  He doesn’t need it.  He’s gonna go into a program with Punk (I still think he should go after Taker) and that frees up Sheamus to have the battle that was bumped from last year’s Mania: Bryan vs. Sheamus.  Or better yet, how about a 4-way match that would unify the titles?  How epic would Sheamus vs. Jericho vs. Punk vs. Bryan be???

The Road To The Beeramid

While the Rumble is the first stop on the Road To WrestleMania, it’s also the first stop on the Road To The Beeramid.  From now until the big day, Pip and I will be putting the finishing touches on the WrestleMania 28 Drinking Game.  Marko watched the show with me this year but wasn’t drinking and my brother from another mother Pip wasn’t in town.  That said, I got into pre-Beeramid form with a first… The Rumblemid!

The First Ever Rumblemid

But what if that’s NOT who Jericho’s going after.  What if it’s someone less… alive?  The Undertaker perhaps?

Hear me out.  I don’t typically do predictions seeing as the last couple of predictions (My Bound For Glory Picks and A Heel Turn For Cena) I’ve done haven’t quite come through.

But… think about this.  All of the “lead to return” videos for Jericho were talking about how it was the “beginning of the end”.  What if he’s referring to the end of Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak?

Last year, when they set up the HHH/Taker match at Mania, HHH threw just about the entire roster under the bus by telling Taker that there was no one in the back that could match up with him (which was true).  But throw Jericho into the mix and that’s no longer a true statement.  Jericho and Taker has never been done at Mania.  Jericho is a guy that Taker could trust to protect him in the ring.  Let’s face it, The Undertaker is old.  He’s my all time favorite wrestler but I think he’s well past his prime and if he makes it to Mania this year it’s going to be his last.  His match last year was great, but I really don’t want to see him and HHH go at it for the 3rd time at Mania (even if HHH’s career is on the line which I’m guessing it will be.)

I REALLY don’t want the streak to end.  20-0 would be perfect and it’d be all kinds of awesome to end it with The Best In The World At What He Does.”  This may be all shot to hell next week when Jericho comes out and cuts a promo on CM Punk (or causes him to lose the the title at the Royal Rumble) but I think it’d be a super cool angle for the WWE to explore.

87 days to Mania and the return of the Beeramid!

The Top 10 Posts Of 2011
(Based On Number Of Views)

#10 – Thoughts At 35
No matter how hard I try, I continue to get older.  On this “milestone” birthday I decided to jot down a few musings.

#9 – 100 Facts About Me – Or At Least 50
I really dove into Twitter in the past year.  There was a game/activity going around where you had to tweet out 100 facts about yourself.  I got halfway home before I decided to call it a day.

#8 – WrestleMania VI – The Ultimate Challenge
This was #10 on last year’s list.  It’s part of my WrestleMania Project where I’m reviewing every show since the beginning.  This particular show was outstanding, as the main event pitted Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior against WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan.  Tremendous.

#7 – Top 10 Guilty Pleasure Movies
Another list that I put together way back in the day.  These are flicks that no matter how bad they are, I’ll watch every time they’re on TV.

#6 – Harry Hamlin Made Me Smile (in 2010)
Another repeat from last year’s list.  This is a report of a video game that Pip played with an interesting cameo in it.

#5 – The Overuse Of LOL
There aren’t a lot of things in pop culture that piss me off, but this is of them.  My take (OK… more of a rant) on the use of the term “LOL” in today’s culture.

#4 – Empire Snow Removal – Solon, Ohio & Twinsburg, Ohio
Way back in 2008, I got screwed over by a scam called The Snowplow Guys.  This year, I got a flyer in my mailbox for the same service.  I wasn’t happy, and wrote this post.

#3 – The Best Animated GIF Ever
The title of the post pretty much says it all.  It’s epic.

#2 – The WrestleMania 27 Drinking Game
If you’re a regular reader, you know that a couple of times a year, Pip and I get together and pretend we’re a lot younger than we are.  One of these times is during WrestleMania weekend.  Each year, we build The Beeramid with the help of a drinking game that we develop through the year.

#1 – Top 80?s Action Movies
For the second year in a row, the top spot goes to this post that I made about my favorite 80?s action flicks.  Love it!

Since WWE announced it’s Mania main event the day after last year’s show (Rock vs. John Cena for those not paying attention), I figured we’d better get going and put together rules of engagement for the evening’s festivities.

This year, we’re starting something a bit different.  Moving forward, we’ll have 20 rules for each event.  This first batch of 10 will carry over from year to year and the second batch will be Mania-specific rules.

Year Over Year Rules

1. 1 drink for a missed match outcome / 3 drinks if title match / 5 drinks if main event
2. 1 drink for foreign object
3. 3 drinks for a bloody wrestler / 5 if an announcer references a “crimson mask”
4. 3 drinks for (unannounced) legend appearance or a surprise return
5. 1 drink for a small package attempt / finish beer if it wins the match
6. 1 drink for each reference to the sponsored song
7. 2 drinks for a submission victory
8. 5 drinks for a double count out or double DQ
9. 1 drink for a finisher / 2 if opponent kicks out / 4 if it’s reversed / Finish beer if the reversal directly leads to pin fall or submission
10. 1 drink every time they show footage of a previous WrestleMania

I was working on Friday and Al had the day off, so he was nice enough to give Pip a ride downtown.  After work, I rode the RTA into town to meet up with the boys.  Needless to say, I felt like a sardine riding the RTA to the stadium.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one with that brilliant idea.  We met up at Cadillac Ranch for some awesome pre-game grub.

Opening Day in Cleveland is essentially a holiday… second only to St. Patrick’s Day.  That said, there were a TON of people who were WAY ahead of us in the drinking department – including this guy who was busting a move to Footloose.  I can’t be hyper critical though… Pip and I did the same thing at his wedding.

We made our way to Jacob’s Field which was beautiful as always.  Yes… I know it’s called Progressive Field these days.  I don’t care… it’ll always be “The Jake” to me.  The Indians did a great job during the pregame and honored recently deceased Bob Feller with a very touching video.

After the game, we headed out to celebrate my buddy Brad’s birthday for a while.  Through many protests, we called it a night before going “next door” and headed home.  In retrospect a very good decision.

Saturday we hung out with the boys during the day and then met up with one of Pip’s high school classmates and her husband for dinner and some drinks.  SUPER cool people that I’m so happy to have met.  After meeting up with them, Pip had to make his annual trek to the Annex.  Even if its for one beer (which this year it was) it’s nice to be back “home”.  We continued our rounds of local bars with a stop at Legends to check out some of the scenery… and a very talented band.  Knowing that Sunday was going to be a big day we headed home rather early.

Sunday – WrestleMania day.  Marko got in on this year’s action and came over at around 5:00 for the 7:00 show.  We got ourselves some food and we were ready for the evening’s festivities.  I’m certainly not a “foodie” by the traditional sense of the word, but I have to say we did a pretty damn good job in the food department.

I won’t go into the details of the show here but if you’re interested in my thoughts you can find them here.  The Beeramid as per usual was a tall challenge but I’m thrilled to report that we once again were up to the task.

If you want the blow by blow details of the Beeramid challenge you can find them here.  Suffice to say it was once again A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  Monday morning rolled around rather quickly and just like that the weekend was over.  Miraculously I was at the office right around normal time on Monday morning and Pip was out the door and on the road by 9:00 as well.  We don’t have a date yet for my trip to visit the Pips but it’s typically in the fall.  I absolutely can’t wait (though my liver does need a bit of a rest).  See you soon brother!

Let The Games Begin

At this point I don’t think the first beer had even been popped.  Truly the faces of the optimistic as we knew (but possibly had forgotten) what lay ahead.  Pip took care of our “uniforms” for the evening once again.  He’s rocking the Strike Force t-shirt and I’m pimping the super cool Legion Of Doom (ironically in the year they got inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame).  Marko’s holding up his end by going with the WrestleMania XX shirt which he and I attended!

Row #1 - A Good Start

Row #2 - Getting A Little Cocky

Row #3 - Trouble Brewing...

I don’t know about you, but after a few beers we started to get a bit rowdy… typical brother stuff for sure

Row #4 - Things Getting Ugly

Row #5 - Hell Breaking Loose

Row #6 - Foreign Objects Are Introduced

Row #7 - To The Victors Go The Hangovers

Once again… we stand victorious over the great structure known only as The Beeramid.  She’s a formidable foe and we’ll attempt it once again next year.  I have to say that having Marko along for the ride made it much easier this year.  Also interesting to point out that I was at work at regular time the next day raring to go!

I'm The King Of The World!!!

The Structure In All Its Glory

The Aftermath - Cleanup's A Bitch

406-4-Life

I tried to get a bit artsy with this one here, but in retrospect this one pretty much sums it up.  406 Northlane is more that just a college address.  It’s come to represent a state of mind and a time in my life where I met some of my best friends.  WrestleMania 28 is scheduled for April 1st, 2012 in Miami, Florida.  We won’t be in Miami but I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll give it another go for Beeramid 2012.  Until then!

• Edge retained the World Title over Alberto Del Rio
  I thought for SURE that Del Rio was going to walk out of Mania with the strap.  Not sure where the WWE is going to go with his character at this point but it’s clear he’s going to continue to feud with Edge based on the fact that Edge beat the hell out of his car post match.  I’m guessing we’ll get some sort of Edge/Christian/Del Rio feud in the upcoming weeks here.  This was a solid opener and I really had high hopes for the show after this one.  I was kind of disappointed that they kept telling us that Edge was 0-3 when defending the title at Mania.  Kind of gave away the outcome in my opinion.
• Cody Rhodes beat Rey Mysterio
  I can’t say I’m shocked that Cody got the win here.  I think he actually needed this match (career wise) way more than Rey does and I’m happy to see Rey putting over a younger competitor.  That said, this wasn’t Rey’s finest match.  I’m guessing that we’re going to see Rey against that new high flier that they’ve been introducing.  So so match and DEFINITELY not the worst on the card.
• Kane, Big Show, Santino & Kofi beat The Corre
  Who cares?!?!?  This was thankfully rather short and actually wasn’t too bad to watch.  I’m not quite sure why the Corre wouldn’t get the win here though… why not build those guys?  I mean they DO have 3 title belts between the four guys right?
• Randy Orton beat CM Punk
  Another WTF match for me.  If you’re going to go through WEEKS of building CM Punk as a bad ass and a few MORE weeks of having Orton dismantle his team then why WOULDN’T Punk win this match?  Makes no sense from a storyline perspective.  Punk at this point is buried.  Stupid booking by the WWE in my opinion.  That said it was a good match with Orton playing the “my knee won’t hold me” card and a very nice finish with a RKO out of nowhere.  Quite frankly either this or Edge/Del Rio is match of the night.
• Michael Cole beat Lawler by DQ
  This was just piss poor.  Lawler actually got the win and then the RAW GM (why do we still have THIS storyline going on) comes on and tells us that Austin interfered so Cole gets the win.  This was so bad it made Vince/Bret from WrestleMania 26 look like a masterpiece.  This makes NO sense on so many levels.  Complete waste of a match.
• The Undertaker made HHH tap
  This was decent but it was missing something…. and that something was HHH’s career.  For a No Holds Barred match this was pretty uneventful.  You can tell that both guys were really working hard but they’re just nearing the end of the road.  I’m guessing we’ll see a rematch of this one at next year’s Mania with Taker going for 20-0 against HHH’s career.  Not sure why in the hell Taker was carted out after the match.  He must be setting up his 6 month hiatus that he typically takes after WrestleMania. Decent match but not nearly what Shawn/Taker was the last couple of years.
  

At this point in the night we realized that there was something wrong timing-wise with the show.  We had about an hour remaining with 3 advertised matches.  Houston… we have a problem.  As it turns out, Sheamus/Daniel Bryan for the US Title was a dark match.  That sucks cause I’m guessing that would have been a hell of a lot better than some of the crap we got.

• Snooki, Trish, Morrison beat Ziggler & LayCool
  Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame.  I knew for a FACT that Snooki wasn’t going to lose but come on folks… you’ve got to give us SOMETHING better than this.
• Miz retained the WWE title over John Cena
  I think we all saw this coming a mile away.  Maybe not the way they got there but the end result.  Cena/Miz go to a double count out and out comes Rock (saying “Fuck THAT shit…” which is really funny).  Rock gets on the mic, restarts the match, gives Cena a Rock Bottom and Miz retains.  We’re clearly headed toward a Cena/Rock program which doesn’t NEED the title involved.  This was mildly entertaining though I was just sort of waiting for things to happen.

I’m not sure if I’m just a jaded wrestling fan or what, but I’ve been pretty disappointed with the last couple of year’s offerings.  This is the biggest show of the year and I’m just always hoping for a HUGE show from the WWE.  Maybe I’m just building things way up in my mind to the point where I can’t be satisfied.  That said… I can’t WAIT for April 1st, 2012… WrestleMania 28 in Miami!

What did you think of the show last night?