WWE Wrestlemania 27 was a show of disappointment. Many will point to the match quality and who went over as the main culprits behind the show coming off as lackluster. Still others will point to an inconsistent crowd and increased expectations. All of these are part of the problem, but not the main issue with the show. The main problem with Wrestlemania 27 was that for a shot with such a splendid build, every match seemed like it should have been the climax, yet astoundingly few matches actually bothered to finish storylines logically. Let’s examine and review the show.
The Rock’s opening ten minute or so promo was exactly as expected. He didn’t bust anything out of the ordinary out, but managed to please the crowd with his catchphrases. This was fully expected and just a way to pander to the crowd before Rock’s real involvement later on.
The opener will draw a lot of controversy for numerous reasons. The placement on the card was suspect and, in addition, “the wrong man†won. First of all, a title match probably shouldn’t open a show as that does nothing for one’s suspension of disbelief. The placement also largely spoiled the winner. Opening with a title match usually means the champion retains, especially if that champion is a good guy. That win is intended to hype the crowd and since the match was stellar, it did just that. Alberto Del Rio and Edge really worked hard, kept the match fast-paced, and told a solid story between Del Rio trying to injure Edge’s arm and take advantage of all the distractions present at ringside. Christian evening those odds made for a solid story and their willingness to work in high spots kept the pace up. With all of that in place, the decision to keep the belt on Edge is entirely defensible. What isn’t defensible, however, is that after months of building to this match, Edge and Christian destroy Del Rio’s car. That move necessitates the furthering of the feud, as destruction of personal property elevates the villains ire at the heroes turning a satisfying, if surprising conclusion into angle advancement.
Cody Rhodes and Rey Mysterio went on next and managed a pretty good match. Rhodes has recently claimed to be a superior technical wrestler to Daniel Bryan and, well, this match just didn’t show that. Given time on the biggest stage, Rhodes really needed a better performance here even with a solid story to the match. Rhodes was attempting to “get revenge†on Rey for injuring his nose, but in reality wasn’t injured and was using his mask as a weapon. Rey, meanwhile, had a legitimate knee injury, but Rhodes was claiming Rey’s knee was fine and the brace was just a weapon. In the end, while Rey would use the mask (a narrative mistake in the context of the hero being wronged), Cody would use the legitimate weapon for the win. It was a solid match, but hurt by the prior match doing a number of the same moves and spots a similar, but more spectacular manner (Cody’s second rope head kick compared to Del Rio’s top rope enziguiri being a microcosm of what I’m talking about). Even so, this is among the closest that WWE came to getting it right on this show.
Backstage, there were several celebrity segments with Pee Wee Herman and Snoop Dog and such. Complaints about this center on how much time they took when Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus was cut from the show. Bryan is my favorite wrestler, but that’s nonsense. Wrestlemania at a friend’s place drew 23 people, few of them hardcore fans. They didn’t come by to see a great match, but rather for the celebrities and spectacle. These segments provided that. Bryan and Sheamus still deserved their spot on the card, but it’s difficult to find where on a card this crowded. No match really went too long, and several would have benefited from a few more minutes. WWE are at fault for booking themselves into that corner, but not for choosing the celebrities over the match. This is why Money in the Bank was helpful and important on Wrestlemania. It good everyone on the card and cleared up the under card so focus and time could be spent on the main matches and spectacle without slighting the talent.
Notably, we now go to the eight man tag, a squash. Corre deserved better than this on this show for carrying Raw for so much of the year, but, probably because there wasn’t enough time, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Kane and Santino just destroyed Corre. With more time this could have been more akin to a tag formula match with everyone getting their due, but given the face of the US Title match, these guy should just be pleased they got to be on PPV.
CM Punk and Randy Orton did not, as many thought, steal the show. The two did, however, show incredible chemistry in a short, action packed match. These are the two best wrestlers on the roster at committing to their characters and making it play a role in the match, which is just what they did here. Two similar talents went after one another, with Orton being more physically dominant, but hobbled by an injury, thereby allowing Punk to have a chance. This built and climaxed extremely well when Orton’s injury seemed ready to cost him the match and Punk got cocky and let his hubris make him take his time in capitalizing. Orton, of course, nailed an RKO and won decisively, seemingly ending this feud. Naturally, on a night were nothing seemed to go right for WWE, this is the one feud on the card that seemed to have some legs under it. Formerly about Nexus, these two could have built a strong one-on-one rivalry up, but such a decisive victory for Orton makes that unlikely.
Michael Cole got his comeuppance from Jerry Lawler and Stone Cold as, two hours into the show, we got our first real bit of emotional catharsis. Cole had tortured Lawler for so long that now, finally, it was time for him to pay, and pay he did. Cole was actively bad as a wrestler, as it was obvious he would be, but he managed to be smarmy, obnoxious, and ridiculous enough to make the beating he took very satisfying. The only way it could have been better would have been if Lawler busted out the piledriver…then the over thinking on the writing ruined a great moment and the decision was reversed. This feud had build perfectly for ages and just as the proper ending was ready, the story is forced to continue after the heroes ultimate victory on the biggest stage. Now, worse, the feud gains Cole having cost Lawler at his first ever WrestleMania, upstaging him and leaving absolutely no way for Lawler to prove victorious unless this goes straight to next year’s WrestleMania. It won’t, and this was the first time the show veered into the actively bad rather than rushed and unsatisfying.
Triple H and The Undertaker nearly saved the show. Their match was nearly as good as the previous ending was bad. Undertaker’s willingness to put his body on the line and find another level at WrestleMania was the story going in, while Triple H thought he was past his prime and needed to be put down, something H felt uniquely qualified for. So, Triple H came out and was fairly dominant. He took and kicked out of everything the Undertaker had and it really seemed Taker needed to use his whole arsenal and take huge risks to stay in the match. Trip then went for the big finish and in what may have seemed an anticlimax, was trapped in the Hell’s Gate until he tapped. That was, I would guess, not the plan, as Taker seemed to have hurt himself seriously in the match, but still worked as an inspired bit of storytelling. Just when Triple H seemed most dominant, finally ready to put the old-man down after having hit him with his own finisher, H grabbed his trusty weapon and seemed poised to end the Streak. The Streak, though, had a life of its own in the Undertaker’s desperation, as he grabbed the Hell’s Gate last second. Triple H, trapped, would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, tapping out as he had before at Wrestlemania. Undertaker, meanwhile, even in victory, could not move. He proved he and the Streak were not done yet, but he gave everything he had and was unable to leave under his own power. The match wasn’t quite as good as the two Taker-HBK classics, but this one managed just as much emotional resonance with an ending that will hold up far better in hindsight. Sadly, although there is impetus for a rematch, Triple H can claim Undertaker barely beat him and got lucky, that will have to wait a year to come to fruition since the match means nothing without The Streak and WrestleMania. Ultimately, the two HBK-Taker matches felt like their own books, while this felt more a prelude to next year.
John Morrison, Snooki and Trish Stratus beat LayCool and Dolph Ziggler in a very quick match. Time was clearly running short here, especially after Undertaker took so much time to get out of the ring. Still, everyone hit their spots, and Snooki looked impressively athletic. Shockingly, they finished this without Vickie Guerrero being humiliated, but that seems more like another sacrifice to time.
John Cena and The Miz had a bad match. These two, quite simply, didn’t seem up to the demands of finishing a WrestleMania, especially after Triple H and Undertaker. The match, even before the ridiculous non-finish, was flat. The double countout, simply put, was a disastrous choice. With no chance that anything like that finished WrestleMania, there was no reason to even bother with that. It was a lazy, cliché excuse to get the Rock out there, and worse, it was an unnecessary excuse because The Rock already had an issue with both men. The re-start, with Rock costing Cena the title, was likewise, as good as a non-finish, essentially guaranteeing that the entire feud will continue and turning the main event of the biggest show of the year into an advertisement for tomorrow Raw. There was just no payoff whatsoever and the story is right where it was before WrestleMania began. Without Rock winning the title, this should not have main-evented over Triple H vs. The Undertaker. Since they went nearly to 11pm here, time probably, again, played a role, but just as poor budget will be held against a movie, poor payoff and time management is held against them here. The most damning thing I can say about this is that it actually made me less interested in seeing Raw despite the Rock’s presence. I see no reason for this to be different than last week’s show, story wise, as the hot story is now just another record stuck on repeat.
K Sawyer Paul wondered earlier in the week if WrestleMania had any chance of topping Raw:
“We really didn’t need the last seven weeks. We really just needed tonight. I would not be terribly surprised if this show will turn out to be more satisfying than Wrestlemania itself.
Will Punk/Orton really be better than Punk’s cross-legged soliloquy, followed by Randall Keith Orton’s falter? Will HHH/Undertaker really be more watchable than their final meeting, with Shawn in the middle? Will Edge and Alberto really be more satisfying than an Edge and Christian reunion? Will Snooki in six-person match be more amusing than watching her flub lines and miss cues and force Trish and Michelle to make the camera pay attention to them on the pool table instead? And finally, finally, will Miz/Cena with the Rock’s involvement be in any way superior to their inaugural meeting?â€
Allow me to take that one step further – with the episodic, never ending nature of wrestling today, with how storylines and build and just go on and on without narrative structure, and with the de-emphasis on finishing things decisively in the ring, WrestleMania was last week’s Raw. It was the best of absolutely everything that WWE and wrestling have become. With Shawn Michaels retirement, so retired the great match and in-ring solution. Now, we have the story, the ultimate in building tension occurring before the match and the match itself will fail to solve the issue set up. The point shifts, then, from the settling of the feud, from the wrestling to the promotion, to the angle, to the story… to the entertainment. Orton and Punk was good, but nowhere near Punk’s soliloquy and Orton’s falter. Edge and Del Rio had a very good match, but couldn’t top Edge and Christian being back together against a common foe on Raw. Snooki’s match was surprisingly entertaining, but she was far more entertaining in her usual trainwreck fashion in that bar, while Bryan and Morrison got to face Sheamus and Ziggler without the distractions. Miz/Cena was a mess of a match, but if you didn’t have chills during their Raw encounter with the Rock, I’m unsure why you’d watch these shows. Finally, as great as Undertaker vs. Triple H was, and it was the show’s only real success, it was entirely set up by the three-pronged confrontation with Shawn Michaels. Even when WrestleMania Sunday worked, it was as a direct result of what was really WrestleMania Monday Raw.
