Superstar Sleeze

Just watched this angle (concession stand brawl, Moondogs squash, the Fuller/Jarrett MSC match, and this one), totally blown away by how fantastic it all was. I really dont have much to add, but I will stand this match was my favorite standalone segment of the whole angle. This may be my favorite brawl of all-time as it is really just incredible stuff. This is by far the best stuff I have seen out of my limited USWA watching.

It is a pick 'em when deciding between this and ''90 match. I am going to make the case for the '90 case, which may make it seem like I am slighting this match, but that is not my intention. I actually think '90 match felt more like a war with Pillman going to bat for his friend, Sting and being generally disgusted by his idol Ric Flair's actions. He comes out hot out of the gate and overwhelms Flair early. Eventually Flair is giving as good as he is getting, but that match is classic Flair with Flair making Pillman's offense look amazing and eventually they do some bs finish. This match made Pillman's heart look bigger than El Gigante. Now GAB '90 until his WWF run is my big Flair blackhole. Having watched his match with Steiner from Fall of '90, I saw a different Flair who was more concerned with getting his offense in rather than his opponents. This strikes me as someone who maybe feeling insecure about his position in the company and having an identity crisis. Maybe Flair reacted to this by taking control of larger chunks of matches to portray himself in a more positive light. That is not a bad thing, he cheats like a mutahfucka throughout but he clearly is on offense way more than expected as he is constantly cutting off Pillman. So it is not Pillman's offense that is being showcased but rather his ability to withstand Flair's dirty tactics. He does eventually get the visual pin to put over Air Pillman. Flair looked great on offense with a couple suplexes, chops and a low blow. I would hazard to say this is the best Flair looked in 1991. I prefer the 90 match because I thought Flair kind of went overboard with the jawing with the fans. I love a good jaw session especially when Flair is gesturing that he is going to take someone's lady friend on a Ride On Space Mountain, but I liked the general nonstop war between the two in 1990. We can all agree that is a shame these two never had a higher profile match. Finally, if I were so inclined to join the Flair debate (for the record Flair is the greatest wrestler ever in my mind), I would screaming from the mountaintops how different the '90 Pillman and '91 Pillman matches are and it is NOT just the haircut.

I love this match and Id go so far to say it is Hogan's best match Stateside (the Backlund '80, Vader '95 are close). It is much more violent, visceral and Southern than just about any Hogan match. Yet at the same time, it is distinctly WWF with the Patriotism and the focus on vicious spots rather than continuous viciousness. The entire story of the match is Hogan throwing all of Slaughter's dirty tactics back in his face: powder, fireballs, the boot and coup d'grace: the Camel Clutch. Slaughter was a bumping machine and sold like a million bucks. When it came time for him to take control, he was still convincing in beating Hogan down. I like this finish better than just about any Hogan match ever. Tremendous match with a style that you wish the WWF would bust put from a time to time back in their heyday.

I just want to echo most of the comments about how killer this match is and I think this match fleshes out what was missing from the RnR Express vs Doom match as the Powers of Pain were really delivering some badass offense on Marty's back. The babyface shines in those two matches are about equal; it is the heat segment where this match exceeds the RnR/Doom match so well. Marty got some serious air on some of those throws. Jannetty's selling is actually better than in the RnR's match, but he a little bit more chance to demonstrate it since he wasn't in a chinlock. Interesting they went with Marty as Ricky Morton and Shawn as the hot tag as Rockers' matches are usually better when the roles are reversed. I liked the finish as it was a good way to protect the Rockers and have PoP go over.

When I read these reviews, I said to myself "You must be shitting me." I think this is best Warrior performance where he is not being carried by the likes of Rude or Savage. There is something about Warrior fighting an evil Zombie that just seems so right. I think if there was a Sci-Fi/Comic Book wrestling fed where Warrior was the Ace Babyface and fought heel Robots, Zombies and Aliens that it would be pretty awesome. When Taker just keeps coming at Warrior at the beginning even as Warrior is clubbering was a cool visual. Taker gets in his one highspot at the time: the flying clothesline. Choking is boring and not well-done. What is well-done are Warrior's piledrivers. He should have added that to his arsenal. The Zombie Sit-ups and the counter to the Warrior Splash were very 80s horror movie campy cool. The finish was perfectly adequate and solidly booked with the Tombstone -> Comeback-> Urn Shot. This was totally preposterous and absurd, but I loved it. This is just one of those matches that the WWF produces better than anyone else. Not only that Warrior got a way better match out of the Undertaker at this point than Hogan did. Warrior looked really strong in this match to me. I have been racking my brain, but is this the best pre-1996 Undertaker match? I cant think of one.

Fantastic match! This was fabulous hold/counter-hold wrestling that progressed so well throughout the match. I will admit after two viewings (first in January) I still think the first fall is a little dry. I was not feeling the same urgency and I commend their selling while in the holds, but out of the holds I felt there was little drama in the first fall. Things picked up big time for me in the second fall. I loved Angel wrenching Dandy's leg after countering the sharpshooter and Dandy countering with an Indian Deatlock. There was more of a struggle and urgency in the second fall. My one complaint seems to be Angel Azteca is not very good at selling. In fact, while Dandy is selling both fatigue and injuries, I feel Angel is kind of blowing the whole thing off. I have never heard of Angel Azteca before this thread was created. I have to say El Dandy is 20x better than Angel. The third fall is stupendous wrestling. Angel's Russian Legsweeps are my favorite thing about him. El Dandy selling his knee so he cant execute a Mexican Surfboard is sweet. Dandy is wrestling the match of his life it feels. Dandy busts out a bunch of big bumps to spice up things: suplex to outside, takes the big dive, huge hotshot into top turnbuckle. The drop toehold into La Magistral is a beautiful finish. I think any match that is the greatest in its genre deserves to be GOAT Candidate. I just happen to love big bumps, face/heel dynamics, and vicious strikes enough that this is not my choice for GOAT. But if this is your preferred style, then I definitely think this is a worthy candidate and a match will enjoy to watch for years to come.

"Ricky Morton is like a waterbug" -JR. I know he was referring to how quick Morton is, but waterbug!?!?!? Missing that second gear to make this a truly great, all-time classic tag match. This was still a very good, traditional Rock N Rolls match. I liked the Rock N Rolls double teams early on and then Reed's power clotheslines to transition into the FIP segments. I thought the Doom control segments were missing a little something, but there was some good stuff. The finish was good and surprised that Doom went over as clean as they did with the top rope shoulderblock. I really did Reed's top rope shoulderblock.

NWA World Tag Team Champions Doom vs Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Barry Windham) - NWA Starrcade 1990 This had that intense Southern fight feel that has been lost in many ways due to the "arena-touring, multiple items of plundah" brawling that replaced it. The belt shot that busted Windham open looked particularly gruesome to me. The belt shot onto Simmons was also vicious. Reed's shouldertackle off the top was great as was the superplex. I thought the chair shots were all well-done especially for the time period. Reed barking out "Son of a bitch" was awesome. I am a huge mark for the piledriver and Butch Reed delivered a great one. I hated the finish. The double pin was lame and the only thing lamer was that friggin inside cradle that Windham used. Jesus, he could have use his leaping DDT. Incredibly violent and hate-filled, seemed to lose a bit of steam at the end and the finish was garbage. Also, my years of watching wrestling and heavy metal has totally brainwashed me into thinking that leather, assless chaps is the most badass and macho look any man can have. ****

Damn, babyface Ric Flair likes to go to WAR~! Bobby Eaton takes some massive bumps in this one: whip into the steel post, rocket launcher onto the railing, the back body drop on the concrete. I marked out at the beginning when Flair hiptossed Eaton. Years and years of watching him get blocked and then hiptossed, I was so happy he hiptossed someone. Eaton's rights are Truth and cannot be denied. The neck work was a nice touch. Flair getting popped in the head with the racquet scrambling to tear Corny to shreds only to falter in a heap coughing is the greatest thing ever. It was the perfect touch of anger and pain in a great moment. Flair's babyface comeback is scorching hot. This time the Flair Flip connects and Flair is FEELING IT. Strut finishing with the fists up is just so badass. He catches Eaton's foot on Alabama Jam and is going to slap the Figure-4 on the correct leg. Only to outcheat he heels by wailing on Corny and Eaton with the racquet all the while Sweet Stan is distracting the ref. Flair wins. Flair is BITCHIN'. (See what I did there, I read the other threads ).

I love how they played up Pillman's righteous indignation against Flair for his heel turn as the reason for his violence. This match was an incredible sprint and reminds you what happens when Flair has a worker opposite of him. Pillman is on fire early looking for revenge for his buddy, but Flair gets him to follow him outside so he can thumb in the eye. He throws Pillman into the railings and then just unloads some of the best Flair offense I have seen in a long time. This is the type of the match where Flair never felt like he was "bringing the bitch", but he was pissed off as the audacity of Pillman and was going to show this punk a lesson. I loved when Flair was pushing Pillman's back down and then popping him and Pillman coming back with chops, fantastic exchange. Pillman's babyface comeback was killer and climaxed so well with Air Pillman. The finish was oddly clean with Flair rolling through a cross-body and sort of grabbing some tights. For people that think Flair bitches out too much, this match is a great way to point how Flair can work toe-to-toe with a pissed off babyface and be just as pissed too.

For a while I thought this was going to make a run at the Flair match for the best Zenk singles match I have seen. I thought the beginning was better executed than the Flair match, but this had the advantage of AA firmly in the heel position. I liked Zenk going after Arn's left hand for a bit. The knee fake-out was really milked and I think that is how it should be done. The Irish Whip into the guardrail made me wish that they would bring back the old steel guardrails. Through the back work, I was thinking that AA exceeded Flair, but then he decided to sit in the chinlock. Logical and entertaining are not mutually inclusive for me. Zenk's karate kick sucked, but hey his missile dropkick looked fine. I would have had to watch the buildup, but this seems kinda out of nowhere. Very good TV match, but the Flair match is still better. What was the point of the short Zenk TV Title reign? Booking committee shake-up, Ole out the door and Dusty coming in?

Not much to add. Great broomstick match. I am going to watch AA vs Z-Man from later in the year and the Pillman matches eventually, but in this match I didn't think Z-Man offered much to the overall Flair package. Hell, I didnt even know the sleeper was his payoff as that is a pretty standard Flair spot so thanks for JR for that. God, Flair is so good. Things like the his facial expressions after the two slap exchanges and those sweet Mother of Mercy chops. Flair's hair is so magnificent at this point such a shame they made him cut it. Though Woman's hair is nothing to sneeze at either. Big hair is what is missing from rock n roll, wrestling and society in general at this point.

Sid tried. He really did. But nothing was stopping Wrath from sucking out loud. There was actually a semblance of psychology and Sid did sell his arm off the ring rope snap-thingy wrestlers do. The problem was that Wrath got any offense at all. Sid should have squashed that chump. Sid, who I have always thought had really shitty punches, nailed Hughes with a sweet one and if you pay close attention Sid actually hit a nice belly-to-back suplex. So given that, this is not the worst match of all-time, but still really bad. Was that a fuckin battle axe that Wrath carried with him? Where is Dusty when you need him? I cant get over that. A friggin' Battle-Axe. Wrestling is just awesome.

Gotta disagree with Loss, here. This match is not as good as the Eaton one in my opinion. The shine segment is the best of three matches as Anderson plays to Steiner's strengths during that better than anyone else did in this gauntlet. However, he was not able to construct as interesting of a heat segment as Eaton was. Though in fairness part of the problem was Steiner no-selling Anderson's King of the Mountain work. The finish was stupid and the booking was atrocious. This may have been salvageable if you swapped the position and finishes of the Flair and AA matches. Pete, I am interested in why you think Eaton has more "elite physical skills" than "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson. AA is stockier and always seemed to me presented as the more rough and tumble customer than the high flying member of the Midnight Express. I grant you that Bobby has the big right hand that comes all the way from Sweet Home Alabama, but I think that Anderson is considered the more physical of the two. Both are tough and both love to show ass and stooge. So I am nitpicking a little, but it was an interesting comment.

Gotta disagree with Loss, here. This match is not as good as the Eaton one in my opinion. The shine segment is the best of three matches as Anderson plays to Steiner's strengths during that better than anyone else did in this gauntlet. However, he was not able to construct as interesting of a heat segment as Eaton was. Though in fairness part of the problem was Steiner no-selling Anderson's King of the Mountain work. The finish was stupid and the booking was atrocious. This may have been salvageable if you swapped the position and finishes of the Flair and AA matches. Pete, I am interested in why you think Eaton has more "elite physical skills" than "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson. AA is stockier and always seemed to me presented as the more rough and tumble customer than the high flying member of the Midnight Express. I grant you that Bobby has the big right hand that comes all the way from Sweet Home Alabama, but I think that Anderson is considered the more physical of the two. Both are tough and both love to show ass and stooge. So I am nitpicking a little, but it was an interesting comment.

Great TV match, much better than the Flair one. Before I thought that Eaton was second to Flair in terms of best worker in America in 1990, but matches like this make think he may have superseded Flair. Nice bump from Eaton off the Steinerline to the floor, the early going establishes Steiner as a powerhouse. I like how Eaton when for an ab stretch early; it was contested; Steiner came out on top versus Flair just cutting off Steiner with chops and punches and Steiner throwing out a random spot. The tennis racket is a very, very smart transition. Eaton rules on offense. The clothesline and the backbreaker come to mind immediately. The Frankensteiner was definitely the right finish. This is why I love the yearbooks. I did not even know this match existed making my 2:30 am just that much more pleasurable. Lance Russell mentioned that the Steiners beat the MX for the US Tag belts. I know that the Steiners vs MX have had a couple matches over the years. Can anybody give me the dates of their best matches? That would be much appreciated.

Worst Flair match, pre-1991, I have ever seen and actually it has very little to do with booking. I actually think Flair took too much of this match. Now there is a sentence I never thought I'd write. That should have been my tip that he was jobbing. Steiner is pretty awful at selling so I don't think a match with this much Flair offense was playing to his strengths. While I get Loss' point that Scotty should work underneath, but Loss you have watched 20x the amount of Flair footage I have, but isnt it pretty rare for him to have anybody work underneath against him especially when he is a heel? It is not that Flair dominated it is the exact 50-50 nature of the match that irked me. What was literally like Steiner would do a spot and Flair would cut him off. Flair would do a spot and Steiner would cut him off. I think they were trying to sell it nip and tuck, but it just felt jarring and disjointed. Plus as bad as Steiner's selling was, Flair's selling was not much better. He got rammed into the ringpost and goes back on offense almost immediately. Flair being de-pushed seems a little strong. You needed Sting to try to go it on his own without Flair to be a crutch so that necessitated Flair being cycled down, but Flair got 50% of the offense in this match and was heavily protected in the finish. Finally Scott Steiner vs Ric Flair with Rick Steiner has to be an announcer's nightmare. EVen Lance Russell was having trouble. I can only imagine how JR would have butchered this... "Steiner with a Steinerline on Ric. Steiner. I mean Rick Steiner. *pause* He did the Steinerline. *pause* The Steiners were All-Americans out of the University of Michigan..."

I have been meaning to watch this match ever since this match took a hit in popularity. When I first watched it in like 2006ish, I remember liking it a good deal and specifically remember thinking the Sting dive was wicked cool and Luger ruled in this match. Fast forward to 2013, shocker of all shockers, Rick Steiner is the best wrestler of the four by a country mile and Scott Steiner is the worst of the four by equally large country mile. The bump Rick took off the Luger shoulderblock was awesome. It is amazing that without reading these comments I felt the same way about the beginning of the match. I was all like, "Jeez who pissed in everyone's corn flakes". The answer was Scott Steiner. I am a pretty big Scotty Steiner mark (one of my guilty pleasures in wrestling), but he was a no-selling, premature celebrating loon out there. The Russian Legsweep spot with Luger was one of the weirdest I have ever seen and almost on cue here comes Ricky with a pretty decent flying bulldog on Luger. I will say Luger still looks pretty good here before the Flair debacle. Finally outside of the tombstone reversal spot (which always rules) after the bulldog it seemed like they were filling time until Nikita came out. The finish made sense as it was a face vs face matchup and it set up the "big" Sting/Koloff for the next PPV. This is still a pretty good match with some shining spots it is just disjointed due to Scotty Steiner's worse tendencies shining through. Luger looked like he was ready to be World Champ and it is so sad what ended up happening. Sting looked like his overpepped, chipper self. Rick Steiner gave one of his best performances in my eyes. There is enough in this match for them to stay clearly on the right side of good. So I know Rick Steiner/Lex Luger had a title match later in the year, this match makes me want to see it, but the more rational part of me says that match will suck out loud. Only one way to find out...

Clearly not as as good as the excellent RnRs match earlier, but still a killer match. I might have to watch more Midnight matches to really affirm this assertion, but I think MX is like the Ric Flair version of a tag team with their ability to be totally outclassed in the first ten minutes only to look totally boss in the next ten minutes. I liked the shine just fine as there were plenty of good spots to establish that the MX were lost without James E. Also, noticed JR was using "scintillating" and "vintage" in 1990, but I guess Zenk's rights werent carcinogenic (the worst JR modifier) as they were pathetic. Pillman over the top -> neckbreaker on floor -> Pillman's standard bump to railing was such a good transition to a FIP segment. That Pillman bumps ranks as my favorite stock bump from anyone. Slingshot. Backbreaker. Bobby Eaton is my hero and heroes are forever. I thought it was weird they let the faces kick out of Alabama Jamma and the Rocket Launcher, but the explanation give above suffices in clearing that up for me. I missed the loaded boot too due to the shitty dailymotion quality (I know, I know, eventually I will buy this ) and couldnt really hear the crowd. This match will definitely has some rewatchability for me as I thought it was a very good match that just missed that second gear to really put it over the top. Lastly, I know Stan Lane takes some flack for his kicks and understandably so, but is there anything else he does that gets on people's nerves because I actually think he is a really effective heel and brings a lot of personality to the team. I need to watch more Condrey, but I don't think the gap is as sizeable as people make it out to be.

What I think is so amazing about this match is its ability to seamlessly transition from comedy to dramatic wrestling. So many matches would have felt disjointed or directionless given this format, but that is why the Midnights and RnRs are the best of the all-time because of their deft execution of this format. This has to be one of the best face shine segments in the history of wrestling. It establishes the RnRs as clearly the best tag team, the Midnights bump & stooge in a way that keeps that million-watt smile on your face and it never feels like heel in peril. It is so good nobody has mentioned that cool spot where Morton climbs up on Eaton and delivers a fist drop onto Lane. That was a holy shit moment for me. They just jammed so many damn good spots in that opening segment. Next thing you know Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton slug it out and end up tumbling outside and Lane delivers a wicked slam and we enter Ricky Morton's bread and butter. The Midnights have so many MOVEZ~! but they never get lost in just tossing them out and everything is filled with great heelish behavior: the tennis racket shots, the eye-rakes and cutoffs. Morton is in his element. Is this considered the best RnR/Midnights match? I have not seen them all, but I don't think I have seen a better one as even before the finish it feels amazing. The face in peril segment I believe is in excess of 10+ minutes, but it never once drags. The finish is great and I am happy the Rock N Rolls go over because in such a feel-good match it was the perfect touch to have the Rock N Rolls pick up the duke. Right now, my two favorite matches to watch are this one and Ricky Morton vs Flair Steel Cage GAB '86. Ricky Morton is a Godsend to wrestling.

Who are you to doubt Keiji Muto? :D In fairness to your prognostication, Muto didn't work that match and I agree with you he couldn't have pulled off this match, but to his credit we both agree for that one night on August 11, 1991 he did produce something better with Chono. I had seen the finals once about six months ago and last nigh due to me scanning through this section. I just finished watching this match. I don't know how wildly this claim may come off, but I think if Chono didnt get injured he could have been the greatest Japanese babyface heavyweight of the 90s. Kobashi and Misawa are very good in their own ways, but I feel like Chono reigns in the histrionics of a Kobashi, while being more expressive and having better matwork than Misawa. Now of course, the injury derailed this and Chono turned into one of the greatest heels in the history of puroresu, but am I crazy for seeing how friggin good Chono is as a babyface in these matches against two very different opponents. 1990-1991 NJPW heavyweight action was so very good it is disappointed it became hit and miss as time progressed before it really went to hell.

Damnit, I'm from Boston, but couldnt go due to a combination of my new job and my brother being burnt out. I will have read/check it out when I get a chance.

John, Yeah reading it back, I see your point. I think watching wrestling live is a very similar experiencing to watching music live for me where I just enjoy it for the atmosphere, presentation and being there with my brother and/or friends. If I watched that show on a TV, I probably would have found myself agreeing with all of you wholeheartedly. When I was writing that I was trying to reconcile the amount of fun I had with what I truly felt. For instance, I think Cena/Rocky bit the big one besides a couple spots, but it was tremendous fun rooting on Cena in the pro-Rocky environment. The audible groans from Rocky fans when he went for the Five Knuckle Shuffle -> FU -> Kick out -> Huge Pop was an awesome moment. I didn't explain that clearly, which was due to the fact the Michigan game was starting to get away from us at that point. I truly do think the card was better than the past two Manias from a "watch on TV" perspective, but it was such a fun atmosphere that is why I am giving this card a pass. I was a little harsh on the crowd. I softened my stance on the crowd as it became more good-natured in their chants. It would get tiresome if a smark crowd showed up every RAW, but once a year, it is a nice twist. The continual singing of Fandango's entrance was tremendous. Did anyone catch the real highlight of the night? When Orton came out to cut his promo, he said a line and then stopped walked over to Sheamus and from his mouth you could read "What's my line?" My brother and I were rolling especially when all he had to do was ask the crowd if they wanted to see him kick Show's ass.

I have only seen the opening segment, but fuck this crowd. My brother said it sounds like all the assholes from the Hall of Fame (the most disrespectful and embarassing crowd I have been a part of) showed up for this. The smarky Miami crowd was fun and playful with all their "Yes!" fun. These are just a bunch of jaded pricks. Though watching Cena worked them was excellent. I don't want to see a face vs face match for a long time. This news comes to great disappointment to me as Mark Henry was fresh and interesting fodder for John Cena. I am higher on Ryback than most, but this is not an effective use of him. Ryback mowing down the Shield is what would be the best.

While the basketball game is at halftime (Lets Go Blue!), might as well write up my thoughts on last night show, which I was at live and in vivid technicolor. I was also at Wrestlemania XXVIIII last year and I thought this one blew it out of the water. I had way better seats this year though as I was in the lower bowl as opposed to on the floor by the ramp. Raked stadium seating is so much better unless you in the first couple rows on the floor. I never felt cold, but I was layered up. I am a sucker for pomp & circumstance as much as any wrestling fan, but I think this was fine as there were a ton of fireworks and cool entrances from Taker & CM Punk. It could have been better, most definitely, but it was better than Miami. I think it is a valid criticism that they were a little no-nonsense when I like a little bit of nonsense, myself. I agree with Childs' breakdown on the top three matches. Each was very distinctives and there is plenty of room to judge the matches very differently. Now where I am shocked is how lukewarm you all were towards the undercard. I thought that was something where this Wrestlemania kicked the past several Wrestlemanias in the ass. I really dug the Shield/Babyfaces matches. I was irked that the fans booed Sheamus while they cheered Orton. I would hear arguments for other, but I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE since last September. He is the best offensive wrestler they have. The ring was not mic'd well, but you could still hear his shots. I love his physicality. I agree that Show playing Ricky Morton was so strange when Sheamus is also so good on the defensive side of wrestling. What I think this match did so well was play up all the babyfaces spots. It was just an incredibly fun babyface shine segment. The Shield did not play up their gimmick with their chaotic pack mentality as much, but in the situation they still worked fine. This worked as a great opener because of the hot babyface action and great work by the Shield. you could tell the Big Show was just shoehorned into the match did fill out the sides by the ending, which only pissed off more than Ryback wasnt in this match. Mark Henry vs Ryback was so disappointing. Ryback is so much better than a Goldberg/Warrior because he can actually work a normal wrestling match due to his willingness to sell/bump. This match was plodding and just was an underwhelming. I liked the finish a lot because 1. It was great psychology 2. Sets up the rematch with the question, Can he Shellshock him? Then of course the post-match was retarded for reasons already explored. The crowd (very stereotypically smarky) was red hot for Daniel Bryan. The callback to last year was a great false finish as everyone around me popped up. I thought the match was a fun collection of spots, but that was it. The Shield match outstriped this one for me, but that isnt really a slight against this match, which was a fun popcorn affair. I was very happy to see Bryan get the duke with a diving headbutt. Big E has the fuckin worst-looking finish in the WWE right now. So fuckin awful. Jericho vs Fandango was a bit better than I think you guys are giving it credit for. Besides the obvious Lionsault fuck up, I didn't see any sloppiness from Jericho, but watching it live you can miss these guys. I thought Jericho was wicked phsyical and really brought out some nice violence lighting up Fandango while in pissed off babyface mode. Then he was taking some nice bumps to make Fandango make him look like a million bucks. Fandango was there and I think he needs some more seasoning. I had this right in there with the Shield match and was a really nice undercard match. Del Rio vs Swagger was overall pretty forgetful. I am a Swagger mark. This gimmick sucks for him, but I am always impressed by his stature and overall athleticism. I love watching him on offense especially the Swaggerbomb. The spot of the match was Del Rio gouging Swagger's eyes while he had him in the cross-armbreaker. Of course, they got a little intricate in their ode to Shawn Michaels with the reversals. The finish was out of nowhere and just felt anti-climatic, which was the theme of the night. CM Punk vs Undertaker was a match totally elevated by the crowd. Holy fuck, besides the Raw before Money In The Bank 2011, I have never heard a crowd so fuckin hot. The smarks were reveling into their douchebaggery by cheering for CM Punk and that got the rest of us really vocal for Taker. The angle for this set this match up to be so much better than the Lovefests with the Kliq the past four years. Undertaker came out hot because he wanted to fuck Punk up and thus they worked a much tighter style. Even though the finish was never doubt, the ride getting there was most definitely great. That slimy, scuzzy, summy CM Punk got his comeuppance at the hands of the Ultimate Authority of the WWE and other finish seems silly. My one quibble was the GTS -> Tombstone (only with even more No-Sell) should have been finish instead of the false finish because the finish was just a little cooler than that. The spot of the match for me was the Undertaker powering up out of the Anaconda Vice. Out of the big three matches, Undertaker was the one most going for revenge that is why I think some babyface no-selling is in order because it is his emotion that renders him impervious to pain. HHH vs Brock - this was nowhere near the incredible bout they had at Summerslam (yes, I truly believe that bout last year was a legitimate MOTYC and will defend that match until I am blue in the face). This match has zero heat. Dont let anyone fool you. You could hear a pin drop in that arena until the finish. I love Brock to death, but HHH is not very good as a babyface at all (not that you didnt really already know that). This match went way too long and had some of the normal HHH deadspots, but it was not a fucking awful match. It was a decent match that didnt deliver. I think with one simple booking change they could have made this into a great match. You just do the Valentine/Tito storyline from '85. Tito learned the figure-4 in retaliation just so he could break Valentine's leg. If you run 4 weeks of vignettes of HHH learning the Kimura to break Brock's arm, how fuckin badass would that have been. Then all of sudden those Kimura attempts by HHH would have meant extra. What was nice about this match was the finish was actually hot and the climax because they didn't bust a zillion finish and it was actually built up logically. I think on rewatch with some piped heat by the WWE sound engineers I will like this match a lot more on rewatch. This match did not deliver, but it was not awful Rock vs Cena II fuckin sucked. It was the worst display of WWE main event/Kliq epic I have ever seen. The callbacks were the only thing fun about this, but learning of The Rock's injury maybe that can excuse this. There was a small boring chant during the Rock's sleeper and the heat was nowhere near the heat level in Miami. The right guy went over. I have been a Cena fan since Money In The Bank 2011. I know, I know I am a Johnny-Come-Lately, but better late than never. Well this was the worst Cena match in forever. I know someone brought this up that this was similar to Punk/Cena and he thought it was hypocritical to like one and not the other. I couldn't disagree more. I am no Punk fanboy and that TV match was incredible. It wad laid out perfectly as a way to Cena earn his victory by unlocking his level of his offense (yes there was a little bit of that in this match) before each had to bust moves that the other wouldnt expect (piledriver vs 'rana) to pick up the win. I am willing to elaborate more on this but we under halfway to go before the game ends. In sum, I thought this was way better than the past two Wrestlemanias (and I was at the Miami one) and was a really fun live experience. Even though, the main event sucked, my brother and I still had fun ragging on it. Oh yeah, as a huge 80s metal fan, seeing Living Color live was wicked bitchin' I don't feel like this was at all deserving of all the jeers it has been getting. I thought it was a good show with a fun undercard, an incredible match with Punk/Taker, a well-structured albeit underwhelming Brock/Trips and a shitty main event hey they can't all be winners.