This Week in ‘E – The Fallout

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WrestleMania is in the books. Titles changed hands, people performed some crazy spots, a lot of fireworks were shot off and we said goodbye to a legend.

Opening Witty Banter
After all the hype, build-up and energy, another WrestleMania is in the books. Titles changed hands, people performed some crazy spots, a lot of fireworks were shot off and we said goodbye to a legend. But even though wrestling’s SuperBowl is over, thee is no off-season and so now it’s just back to business as usual for another week.

As for me, I’m exhausted after a whirlwind weekend of drinking at my old alma mater and boy is my liver tired. But seriously you haven’t watched the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony until you do so at 3:30 am drunk as hell. I just spent the whole hour marking out by myself to The Rock and Flair while everyone else had already passed out/went to bed. I knew The Rock was good but seeing him again really made me realize how good we had it in the late ‘90s. He is so far ahead of anyone in regards to mic work that it’s scary. To hear from him and Ric Flair within the same hour was truly a treat.

The Big Story
So there was a PPV last night and some results were expecting, while others were a little shocking. All the news throughout the week was really just build-up to WrestleMania so at this point it becomes irrelevant so I’m just going to dedicate my virtual corner of the world this week to the comings and goings of this “Showcase of the Immortals.”

Kane won the opening match/free for all 24-man battle royal after eliminating Mark Henry.

The result wasn’t really a shocker to me. He was easily the biggest star not already booked in a match and was the biggest face available to face uber-heel Chavo Guerrero later in the night.

John Legend opened up the show with a nice understated version of “America the Beautiful.”

In the show’s opening match proper, JBL beat Finlay in the Belfast Brawl. Hornswoggle accompanied Finlay to the ring and got a nice pop.

The pair had a nice brawl like I expected. Finlay even busted out a sweet tope that was definitely unexpected. The finish surprised me as I was sure Finlay would get the win but apparently this feud will continue.

CM Punk won the Money in the Bank ladder match over Chris Jericho, MVP, John Morrison, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin and Mr. Kennedy. Matt Hardy made an appearance and cost MVP a chance at winning the match.

This was a crazy spot fest, even more so than I expected it be. Off the top of my head I can think of Morrison’s moonsault onto four guys while carrying a ladder, Carlito’s lungblower onto Jericho from the ladder, a superplex/powerbomb three man spot and the crazy Shelton Benjamin cannon ball into a ladder that will become a replayed spot for years to come. I’m happy to see Punk win, and glad Matt Hardy is back so that his great feud with MVP came resume.

Batista beat Umaga in the RAW versus SmackDown! match.

They really played up the brand supremacy thing by having Theodore Long and William Regal out there to support their respective brand representative. The match wasn’t anything special; a lot Umaga nerve holds, followed by a quick Batista comeback and scary looking Batista-bomb.

Kane beat Chavo Guerrero in ten seconds to win the ECW Championship.

Chavo entered first and as he waited for Kane to come out the entryway, he snuck in from behind and had his arm cocked immediately for a chokeslam. I knew right then that this would be a brief squash. I’m glad Kane is finally getting a Title run, even if its just the ECW Title. I was hoping he would come out later on after Undertaker inevitably won and we could have gotten a WrestleMania XX-style moment with the Brothers of Destruction but to no avail.

Shawn Michaels pinned Ric Flair to end Flair’s career.

This match was as emotion-filled as I had expected. Michaels’ moonsault onto the RAW announce table was a crazy move but it helped set the stage for the rest of the match. These two consummate pros were able to build up to a really good match despite both men’s current limitations. The moment where Shawn said, “I’m sorry; I love you,” before he hit Flair with a third superkick will become stuff of WrestleMania lore. He then did the classy thing and left the ring immediately to let Flair have his time in the proverbial sun with 70,000 of his closest fans.

Beth Phoenix and Melina beat Maria and Ashley when Phoenix pinned Maria after a Fisherwoman’s Suplex.

This was realistically the only thing that could follow Flair’s emotionally draining spectacle. During the match the overhead ring lights went out but the women were professional and continued on without missing a beat. There was hijinks from Santino Marella, Jerry “Stupid” Lawler and “Snoopy the Dog” during the match, including a great post-match clothesline from Snoop Dogg to Santino followed by a Snoop Dogg-Maria make-out session. I also have to mention Snoop’s pimped out golf cart he drove down the insanely long entrance way and the throne he sat in at ringside.

Randy Orton beat John Cena and Triple H in a triple threat WWE Championship match.

I was really expecting a 30 minute epic out of these three, but it amounted to a 14 minute typical triple threat formula match. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see Orton walk out as Champion but was pleasantly surprised. The placement on the card also set off red flags that Orton was winning as heels traditionally don’t close out WrestleMania, but I just couldn’t imagine Cena and Triple H not going on last.

Floyd Mayweather beat The Big Show by KO.

This match was better than I expected it would be. Show got a chance to look dominant by beating up Mayweather and his posse a good bit. Mayweather finally won with some chairshots and a brass knuckled right hand. It was good for the spectacle I guess.

Undertaker beat Edge to win the World Championship.

As if it wasn’t obvious Undertaker that was winning the fact he was going on last only cemented that fact. The match started out slow but picked up in the last ten minutes or so with a great series of reversals and near falls. Even in defeat Edge looked good as Undertaker gave him plenty of offense and looked like his equal. My only gripe is that Undertaker won via submission with his pro wrestling version of the gogopolatta, as opposed to standing tall after a Tombstone or Last Ride. After Kane won the ECW Championship in a perverse way I was kind of hoping for a WrestleMania XX-style moment with “The Brothers of Destruction.”

Everything Else Fit For Print
There isn’t really a whole lot of other news I want to talk about as most of its irrelevant by this point, and most of the news from the latter part of the week was just about all the TNA-WWE interactions stemming from Orlando, but I do want to give my two cents about Derek Graham-Couch aka Robbie McAllister being pointed out on the live TNA Impact show on Thursday night.

Apparently Robbie was in the crowd to watch his friend Johnny Devine perform. He stood in line to get in just like every other fan. He was dressed down completely and tried not to draw any attention to himself. As soon as TNA showed him on camera he immediately got a call or text from WWE telling him to get out of there. They did list him under his real name with the heading “WWE Wrestler” so as not to face legal action by printing his stage name. He was sent home from all WrestleMania festivities, but hasn’t been released, fined or suspended yet.

I’m kind of conflicted in regards to the whole thing. Apparently it was clearly stated by WWE that they didn’t want any of their talent appearing around TNA talent or shows. So Robbie was clearly violating what his employers instructed of him. But on the other hand TNA kind of went the low road by showing him in the crowd, when a guy like Robbie doesn’t really bring the notoriety to casual fans. Apparently talent backstage at TNA was unhappy with management for showing him as they knew he would be in danger of losing his job based on his on-screen appearance, and Robbie isn’t a guy who has a lot of stroke within in WWE. If WWE fires him the company won’t be out much, but Robbie would be in some serious financial trouble. I can see both sides of the argument here, but on thing is for certain, Robbie McAllister the Highlander has never got this much publicity in his wrestling career, and all he did was sit in the crowd as a fan.

WrestleMania took in $5.85 million in live gate, making it the highest grossing show in the company’s history.

Damn, that’s a lot of money. It’s obvious that WWE has still got it.

RAW’s On Tonight!
Nothing has been announced officially for RAW tonight but apparently talent from all three brands is expected to be there. Plus it sounds like Ric Flair will give a farewell address and fallout from the Finlay-JBL match and “Bunnymania.”

On Last Week’s Episode…
Two times the SmackDown! coverage.

Our own Kace Evers was live at last week’s ECW/SmackDown! taping that featured a much better than expected Shelton Benjamin/Carlito match.

Paul gets RAW.

How They Rated
A.M. RAW (3.23.08) – .8

RAW (3.24.08) – 3.42

ECW (3.25.08) – 1.43

SmackDown! (3.29.08) –

This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Iain continues his series of WrestleMania themed columns.

Kirschner gives a preview of CHIKARA’s Young Lions Cup coming up in May.

IP Staff Roundtable Results for WWE WrestleMania XXIV
Come back to IP later this evening for a separate post highlighting the staff’s WrestleMania Roundtable Results.

Mark was a columnist for Pulse Wrestling for over four years, evolving from his original “Historically Speaking” commentary-style column into the Monday morning powerhouse known as “This Week in ‘E.” He also contributes to other ventures, outside of IP, most notably as the National Pro Wrestling Examiner for Examiner.com and a contributor for The Wrestling Press. Follow me on Twitter here.