WrestleMania XXVII is in the books as WWE looks ahead to another year of wrestling. Plus Finlay says goodbye.
Opening Witty Banter
“With a tear in my eye, this is the greatest moment in my life…â€
This Week in ‘E is dead.
At least in this incarnation; and under my watch. If someone wants to take up the mantle or the higher ups want to keep it going, by all means.
Thank you for your loyal readership and all your comments and feedback. As a writer it is truly humbling to not only know that people from all around the world are reading your work, but actually enjoy it.
I have written for Inside Pulse for over four years because I love this insane industry called pro wrestling. I did it not for the pay (because there was none); I did for my love of wrestling.
It’s not like you won’t hear from me again. I’m sure I will lurk around in the Roundtables and special features. Plus I may fill in for Aaron in The Backlash or pop up with an old school Historically Speaking or Assignment randomly or maybe come up with a free form blog every once in a while (A Mark’s Point of View? The Mark in Me? Something catchy like that?)
But it is time for me to move on. I need to make some changes in my life and focus on me; my career and personal life and just change and grow.
Speaking of other things, this past week I got some WWE action figures sent to me from Mattel due to my Examiner work. I’m not real sure on how to review them or what to do with them, so I enlisted my blonde tornado’s six year old help me break them in. I must say Saturday was a pretty fun little day of playing with wrestling action figures and watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on VHS. He walked away with a sweet Rock, John Morrison, a boring Wade Barrett and a super fun mini ring and figures that you can catapult all over hell. But I had to keep the WrestleMania VII edition of The Macho King for myself. I’m still a wrestling nerd after all.
So now…for one last time…let’s take some ‘E…
The News of the Week
I’m not going to talk about very much news from the week because everything this week just led to last night’s WrestleMania and would be just be redundant or not newsworthy by this point. So you’ll just get my thoughts on last night’s show.
Check out Jake’s recap of the show and Kyle’s 10 thoughts. I think we pretty much agreed on star ratings, but I think Jake underrated Triple H-Undertaker.
WrestleMania is like pizza, even when it is bad is still good. However in the long run the event felt a little on the disappointing side. It was odd to see a major event like this open with a World Heavyweight Championship match, but in hindsight it was probably a good idea to spread out the promote marquee matches.
It was disappointing that the Sheamus-Daniel Bryan United States Championship match was pushed off the main card completely and then transformed into some battle royal. (The Great Khali ended up winning said battle royal, by last eliminating last eliminating Sheamus).
But nothing was actively bad as all the major matches delivered and the Snooki experiment was kept short.
Edge retained the World Heavyweight Championship over Alberto Del Rio.
A lot of people immediately pegged Del Rio to walk out as Champion when it opened the show but it was a nice surprise to see Edge retain and his brother/tag team partner/friend Christian not turn on him…yet anyways. And seriously think about the fact that Johnny Curtis actually won NXT but has to be seen since winning the show, yet his runner up Brodus Clay has been all over the place since his “loss.â€
Cody Rhodes pinned Rey Mysterio.
This match was pretty much what I was expecting to be and delivered pretty well. Props have to go to Rhodes for being a young star that was able to get a victory over an established veteran. And think how far he was below Ted DiBiase on the pecking order last year at this time and now look at both of them.
The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella & Kofi Kingston beat The Corre.
It was absolutely criminal that the eight-man tag match lasted under two minutes but I guess some of those guys should just be incredibly happy to get a WrestleMania payday. Kane and Big Show are staples of the company that deserve to be on the show every year and I am glad Kingston got a chance to show off. Heath Slater was also the first Nexus guy to get his own action figure in stores. He must have some incriminating pictures of somebody.
Randy Orton pinned CM Punk.
Much like Rhodes-Mysterio, this delivered like I expected it to. They told a good story with Punk wearing out Orton, and I am always a huge fan of Orton hitting the RKO out of nowhere.
Michael Cole beat Jerry “The King†Lawler by disqualification.
While this was one of the most anticipated matches on the entire show, much like last year’s Hart-McMahon debacle this just went on far too long. The entrances (with two wrestlers, a corner man, a referee and two new announcers) just ate up too much time and all the extra curricular activities that happened before the match started took too long. Everyone knew the punch line of the match was Cole getting his comeuppance. He didn’t need that much time to get heat on himself.
Undertaker beat Triple H in a No Holds Barred match.
This was definitely the match of the night and match of the year contender. Unfairly many (including me) have tried to compete with Undertaker’s last two matches against Shawn Michaels, but this will surely hold up as a violent brawl that told a great story.
Snooki, Trish Stratus & John Morrison beat LayCool & Dolph Ziggler.
I think this got shorted on time due to the long time it took for Triple H & Undertaker to clear out, but it was fun for what it was and Snooki didn’t embarrass herself more than she normally does.
The Miz beat John Cena in a WWE Title match.
This seemed a lot like everyone just waiting for the inevitable run in from The Rock. But I loved both men’s pre-match video packages and Miz solidified himself as a star by being a villain that was allowed to walk out of the main event of WrestleMania still as reigning WWE Champion.
I have seen every WrestleMania live on PPV since 21 back in 2005. I spent full money to watch XXIV, XXV and XXVI and while I earned some money back for XXV and more than earned my money back for XXVI, let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t spend nearly that much money to enjoy XXVII.
WrestleMania, like pizza, even when it is bad is still good. However in the long run the event felt a little on the disappointing side. It was odd to see a major event like this open with a World Heavyweight Championship match, but in hindsight it was probably a good idea to spread out the promote marquee matches.
It was disappointing that the Sheamus-Daniel Bryan United States Championship match was pushed off the main card completely and then transformed into some battle royal. (The Great Khali ended up winning said battle royal, by last eliminating last eliminating Sheamus).
But nothing was actively bad as all the major matches delivered and the Snooki experiment was kept short.
…
World Wrestling Entertainment released agent/producer/wrestler David “Fit†Finlay earlier this week, according to PWInsider.
The reasoning apparently stems from a house show that took place this past weekend in Champaign, Illinois. WWE Champion The Miz was instructed to interrupt the night’s opening National Anthem in order to set up a match between himself and Randy Orton for later in the evening. However many representatives from the National Guard were in attendance and were not pleased with the Anthem being interrupted and used in such a way to continue a storyline. The National Guard is a big sponsor and partner with WWE so their opinion carries a lot of weight with the company at this point.
When word reached its way back to WWE management, the decision was made to release Finlay, who was the highest-ranking producer for the show and thus was considered responsible for making the decision to send The Miz out there for he interruption. Therefore Finlay “had to fall on the sword†and became the scapegoat for the situation.
Finlay is and was well-liked by staff and the wrestlers. It is more than likely that Finlay will only be out of a job for a brief time, as a way to make an example out of him, before being brought back in the fold. The same type of situation happened last summer with Daniel Bryan.
Finlay is a third-generation wrestler from Northern Ireland who began wrestling in 1974. He began working in World Championship Wrestling in 1995 and worked off/on for them until their demise. He was then brought into WWE in 2001 after they bought World Championship Wrestling. As a producer/agent for WWE he is responsible for reviving women’s wrestling in the company in the early 2000s period and is responsible for producing women wrestlers like Trish Stratus, Victoria, Molly Holly, Gail Kim, Jazz, Jacqueline and many others.
In 2006 he made a highly successful return to the ring in WWE and was a solid fixture on the SmackDown brand’s upper card until he quietly moved back into his backstage role in early 2010.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Finlay in the ring personally, I recognize his talent and legacy and hope he is back in the fold soon enough once the furor dies down.
Wrestler of the Week
Week of March 28 – April 3: The Miz
Did anyone really expect to walk out of WrestleMania still as WWE Champion? I know sure surprised me as well, let alone win in the main event. That video package before the match was amazingly beautiful. While I understand why it didn’t debut until now it should be replayed ad nauseum this coming week on all WWE TV programs. And when he inevitably turns babyface some day it will be just the thing to put him over the top. Well done to someone who seems to truly love the business and has worked his ass off to get where he’s at right now.
RAW’s On Tonight!
Tonight is surely WWE night on the USA Network. Starting at 7 pm catch a one hour edited version of the Hall of Fame, which I assume will include Shawn Michaels, Sunny and The Road Warriors. Then there will be a two hour RAW which set in motion the next year of booking and build to the inevitable upcoming draft. Oh yeah, and The Rock will on hand to continue what will hopefully lead to a match against John Cena at SummerSlam. After that stick around to watch Stone Cold Steve Austin, Trish Stratus, Booker T, Bill DeMott and company kick off a new season of Tough Enough. It should be a good night.
On Last Week’s Episode…
SmackDown results and 10 thoughts
Superstars results and 10 thoughts
RAW report, 10 thoughts and judicial review
How They Rated
Superstars (3.24.11) – .57
SmackDown! (3.25.11) – 1.96
A.M. RAW (3.27.11) –
RAW (3.28.11) – 3.8
This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Pulse is just full of new writers of excitement, wild ideas, optimism and great columns, and I love it. Check out some of the new batch, including Chris Sanders – The Rager, Joel Leonard – No Chance, Rhett Davis – The O’Really Report,
Jonah Kue – Kue’s Corner and Mike Gojira – The Stomping Ground
Logan’s recaps are one of my favorite things to read each week. He needs more love on this site.
If I adore Logan then I love Andrew Wheeler. His FYE is a pure thing of joy to read each week. He is entertaining, engaging and by all clues seems to a smart man. It’s a travesty he didn’t take my place in the top authors section on the right hand side of this wonderful site.
CB has been around forever and knows his stuff and shows a more positive attitude that most pro wrestling columnists. He’s truly a refreshing read.
I read more about pro wrestling in one week than any normal man should but I never learn more about the industry in any one column than I do when I read David Ditch. He’s one of the good ones and I’m sure he knows more about puro than I do about WWE.
And finally I need to give a shout out and some love to my esteemed colleague Aaron. He’s been my buddy since we worked together on another failed attempt at VS. back in 2008, and we are no longer just writing colleagues. For someone who I have never met I feel like I can call him a friend. We have gotten to the point where we often talk more about love, life and the real world than we do about pro wrestling. Some day I will get to NYC so we can watch some live wrestling and get a little sideways. Plus he’s an amazing writer and knows more about the psychology of wrestling than anyone I’ve ever talked to. We’ve always complemented each other well and made a good team. Even though I can’t share in your man love for Dick Murdoch…haha..
Mark has been a columnist for Pulse Wrestling for over three years now, evolving from his original “Historically Speaking†commentary-style column into his current 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.
