WWE WrestleMania 27 review

So WrestleMania 27 is in the books. I enjoyed pretty much the whole event, some matches more than others, but all in all it was a solid show.

Here are my WM thoughts, as it went down….

-Amazing opening promo, as always. As I said in
my preview blog, WWE is the best in the world at doing video packages and the didn’t disappoint last night; they provided a different kind of packages, somewhat risky but highly great. Also the set and fireworks show were off the hook.

-The Rock kicked off WM and I thought his promo was OK and nothing more. Also the crowd seemed pretty dead. It was odd to hear the Rock directing how the crowd would chant, he didn’t need to do that on his last go-round. I felt the crowd was not mic’ed up correctly as you could not feel how hot they really were, also having the show in a stadium doesn’t help.

World Championship Match: Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio – Talk about being surprised by getting the WHC Match right off the bat, many people see this as a bad thing but I believe the first match is as important as the Main Event if not more, as the crowd may be a bit cold and the performers need to work harder to get them hot. I had Sheamus vs Bryan opening the show but they were bumped to the pre-show match. Edge and ADR brought their A games, and this was a well worked, damn good match. Edge retained the Title clean with a Spear. A solid opener with a result that really surprised me as I was sure ADR would win the Title, but oh well. With the post math stuff we are sure to get more of this feud, still with Christian involved -many expected him to turn, I did not, didn’t see a reason for him to do it-. (With Edge retaining I’m 0-1 in my predictions)

-Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes – I really enjoyed this match. Not the quickest or best match you will ever see but they truly told a good story. I’m so pleased by the way Cody has progressed throughout this feud; I love the darker, more psychotic Cody we got. I call it and had Rhodes winning (1-1), Mysterio gained nothing from winning and this is the Dashing One’s biggest win to date.

-That Snoop backstage segment… well I won’t comment on that.

The Big Show & Kane &; Santino & Kofi Kingston vs. WWE IC Champ Wade Barrett WWE Tag Champs Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel & Ezekiel Jackson – Talk about having a match just thrown in there for the heck of it. It lasts 90 seconds, some guys don’t even get tagged in and you have the IC and Tag Champs job in brutal fashion. Took a quick bathroom break in this one. (WWE wins, so I’m 2-1)

-Great line with Rock called Mae Young “Divasaurus”. Classic stuff. The Austin-Rock staredown was nicely done and gave to greats of the business a nice moment; all 3 of their Mania matches were great, I was lucky enough to be live at the AstroDome 10 years ago for the second one (this was when they tried to get Austin to go heel and align with McMahon). It was one of those special moments that had the IT factor.

-Randy Orton vs. CM Punk – This was a damn good match, as everyone figured. I was really pleased with this one and enjoyed it from start to finish. Punk is freaking awesome, he is my favorite heel right now, this is one of the guys I love to hate; so different from Cole who I just want off my screen). Fun, fun match with a great finish; I can’t stress enough the trust you must have in the other performer to pull off a move like the final RKO, it was nothing short of AMAZING. The slow motion replay was great and one of those Kodak Moments right when Randy takes Punk by the neck. I didn’t make a prediction on this one as it was to close to call.

-The HOF stuff was a bit rushed -loved how Drew Carey was booed loudly-, nice moment for some of the past greats; laughed at the little tuxedo bow Jim Duggan put on his 2×4. In the end the moment was for HBK. I could write a ton of HBK stuff but there is no way I can put into words how amazing of a performer Shawn is, truly in a class by himself.

-Jim Ross at WM!!! Great to have the best announcer in history back, even if it is for this one night. Nice to see Booker T get a bit of a WM moment too.

Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Michael Cole – Match went just as expected, Cole got in some offense, but in the end, King destroyed Cole, got his payback, and had his WM moment. I believe this went to long and even the live crowd got impatient, I would have given this 5 minutes and have Cole totally destroyed and just end this feud. (King gets the W, that puts me 3-1) King and Austin chugged some beers after. Hilarious bit afterwards with Booker T doing the Spinarooni and then taking a Stunner. The GM announced that Austin cost Cole the match, and reversed the decision giving Cole the match. Ugh. I felt so disappointed at this, this is the payoff the crowd gets for having this feud stuck down their throats the last 3-4 months? Such a RAW finish. Should have just had King beat the shit out of Cole and let him have his WM moment.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H – Wow. That’s all I can say. Undertaker and Hunter had a great great match. One of the best matches in WM history. We got almost half an hour of great action inside and around the ring; the backdrop Taker gave HHH off the announce table was great and H seemed to legitimately injure his wrist -although it didn’t hamper the match-. HHH hit UT with everything he had and the Deadman kept coming back for more. 3 pedigrees, chairshots -including one to the head, which is not seen nowadays- and even a Tombstone which I expected to be reversed. The ending was nicely done as HHH tapped out to Hell’s Gate why he lost grasp of the sledgehammer (this somewhat reminded me of the finist at WM17 where he had the hammer in his hand but was not able to used it in time as Taker hoisted him up for a Last Ride). Found it weird that Taker was carted out of the arena, seemed to be something legit as it doesn’t fit his character to sell that way. For one night, with it all on the line, both men delivered big time, and showed why tonight, they are two of the greatest of all time. Awesome match but still doesn’t overshadow Taker-Shawn from WM25. (4-1)

-John Morrison & Trish Stratus & Snooki vs. Dolph Ziggler & LayCool – Called this one as well. Feel bad for Ziggler, Morrison and LayCool who have been great this year and have to put up with this crap. Good thing it was over quick. (5-1) I hope they changed the mat and ropes after this one as I’m pretty sure Snooki is carrying every STD known to mankind.

-Can’t get over that Miz video package show before his introduction. WWE delivers again with something special.

I’ll look for a better quality video and upload it, but just by seen this one you can tell it was a perfectly made package.

WWE Championship: The Miz vs. John Cena – I’m a big fan of both guys but the match last night started out missing the IT factor, the live crowd felt the same way -starting out with Cena’s shitty entrance-. I saw as the Miz busted his ass and Cena didn’t seem to be into it at all. After Miz kicked out of the huge Attitude Adjustment it started to pick up steam and the crowd really got hot. The ending wasn’t something I would have expected at WrestleMania, more of a Raw thing but it believe it was done to not make anyone look weak and have a reason for Rock to come out. Rock screwing Cena was pretty predictable but I’m happy with Miz retaining the title in this one (6-1). The one thing I would have changed was the Rock beating Miz down, Miz should have ran out of the ring and have Dwayne beat Cena some more to further their feud.

Overall…this was a good WM, not great, but not awful.

Taker/HHH is the match of the night, no doubt.

Final prediction score: 6-1 not to bad, although that means it was somewhat of a predictable show… I’ll give the biggest show in history (until next month) a 7.83/10.

Mr Khakbaz out!!!

WWE WrestleMania 27

On the eve of pro-wrestling’s Super Bowl I give you my WWE WrestleMania 27 blog.

Let me start off by saying that I’m pretty excited for tomorrow nights event, far more then for WM26 which I found to be somewhat of a letdown. I, as most wrestling fans, find the period from the Royal Rumble up to WrestleMania the best there is in the year. Now doubt Vince puts his best work on display in order to get the highest buy rate possible on Sunday Night.

One of the things I most look up to is the presentation of the show. This goes from the opening video package (no one does these as the WWE), to the pyro display which is always awesome (see video from Wrestlemania 23)

and the singing of America the Beautiful (I’m not even American but WWE always finds someone who gives out a great performance (see this clip from Wrestlemania 24 from a performance by John Legend).

Once the show kicks off we are in for some pretty solid matches and, from what I’ve read the possible match order will be:

Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the United States title.
With the risk of sounding biased, I’m a big fan of both guys. We all know what Bryan Danielson has done during his indy career, which has been nothing short of amazing -he, at one point, was the best in the world at what he did-, while his run in WWE has been good, his style has to change a bit to fit the structure. While Sheamus has a really unique look, he is good with the mic and is solid in the ring… I hate that they put any wrestler they have faith in on a huge losing steak like the one this fella was in, yet in a couple of weeks he was able to be back to a believable monster. If this is the opening match I expect it to go 10-13 minutes although I would love if they give these guys 15-18 so they can tell a great story and prove what they are capable of. I’m picking Sheamus to win after they take each other to the limit and Bryan keeps kicking out and coming for more. Bryan will win the title back at Extreme Rules.

Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole. 
This next match has been built up beautifully yet has the potential to be a disaster. Cole has played his role as an asshole to a T, maybe even going a little to far but it all has been for the sake of this match. The risk I see is how will Cole come back to the announce table to be the true voice of the WWE; it’s hard to have a guys who is an ass try to get people to buy PPVs, WWE will find the way to do it. Coming back to the match, I’m expecting Swagger to be involved a ton along with Stone Cold Steve Austin to coverup for Cole’s lack of experience. Hoping this doesn’t stink up the joint, I see this going 7-9 minutes with King picking up the win in his first (took long enough), and quite possibly, his last WrestleMania match. Expect a lot of beer to be drunk by Mr Austin

Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes. 
I’m a huge Mysterio fan, although his work rate has decreased the last 3 years; being from Tijuana I’ve seen Mysterio since the begging and his career has been nothing short (no pun intended) of amazing. For a 5 foot 6 inch guy (being generous here) to have the success he has had is a true testament to how awesome he is. This is a pic from around 2001 right after WCW had closed down and Mysterio was wrestling in Tijuana and Mexico City – I was around 5-7 or 5-8 back then so you can see how small he is-.

Opposing him will be Cody Rhodes. Who would have expected after Mania26 that Rhodes would be having a singles match at WM27 and DiBiase would be a jobber to the jobbers? Not me, but here he is and he has been great in his role; we have seen his tremendous growth over the last year. I’m not sure which way they will taking in this match, Mysterio would not benefit from this win and picking up a W at the granddaddy of them all would be the highlight of Rhodes’ career so far. I hope Cody takes the win in about 11-13 minutes.

The Corre vs. Big Show & Kane & Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov.
This match I have absolutely no interest in. At last notice Kozlov would not even make the match as they ran an angle at Axxess were The Corre attacked him and hurt his shoulder; I expect Kofi Kingston to take his place in this match. I was excited of the idea of having a Corre vs New Nexus match, but WWE decided to kick the head right of the Nexus (pun intended) to further the Orton-Punk feud, so we are stuck with Show and friends taking on Corre. Again, Barrett’s team would benefit immensely for picking up the W, so I’m going with them in a 5-7 minute match.

Snooki & John Morrison & Trish Stratus vs. Lay-Cool & Dolph Ziggler.
Another match I could care less of. I’d be so happy if they just let Ziggler and Morrison go out there and do their thing for 15 minutes but WWE is looking to capitalize on Jersey Shore’s huge audience and garner some media attention for the event. I despise Snooki and everything she stands for (I can’t believe how screwed up the American society is, I mean Snooki is a NY Times best seller… really?) but this may be a smart move, although I doubt someone will buy the show just to see what she does. As happens with most contests with an outsider, they pick up the win. So Nitro, Trish (still so hot after all these years) and Snooki will get their hand raised.

—Right after this match I hope they change the canvas and ropes at the risk of having the next Superstarts get infected by any STDs Snooki is carrying—

Randy Orton vs. CM Punk. 
This has the potential to be a show stealer. Seriously CM Punk is an amazing heel, he is kind of what the Joker was in the Dark Knight, his “screams” and “shut up” line to one of Orton’s many wives was amazing

I-m so biased as I love Punk, he is great at every aspect of what he does and this feud has been solid. I’m not a fan of a face Orton but he has carried his part in more than a nice way. I really hope they get 15-18 minutes to show what they can do; the one thing I fear in this match is that Orton has to sell the leg injury so that may hamper the overall quality. I’m not going to pick a winner in this one as it is to close to call, the one thing I wish for is a show-stealing match.

World Champion Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio. 
Being a Mexican you can expect who I’m rooting for, but the fact of the matter is that Del Rio has had the greatest rookie year in history. Just about 10 months ago (05/31) I was watching Del Rio in a dark match prior to a Raw taping in Austin, TX (he picked up a win over Tatsu) (see pic)

and now here he is, winning the Royal Rumble and in one the Main Events of the biggest show in the history of the world (until the next PPV). Edge, well he is a proven competitor who is as good as they get. This rivalry has missed the IT factor and not sure if Christian has provided it. I see Del Rio winning the title but it is hard to imagine he is going to win clean, so the logical thing would be for Christian to screw Edge although this would take the focus off Mr. Del Rio. All in all I hope they have a great 20 minute match with Alberto Pendejo -gotta love how WWE doesn’t censor cursing in Spanish, and Alberto uses a ton of bad words on live TV – picking up his Second World title win (the first on was the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship about 2-3 years ago)

Undertaker vs. Triple H. 
This may be the shortest part of my this blog. Amazing buildup

Two of the greatest in-ring performers of our generation fighting it out on the biggest stage of them all. I expect this to be a classic for the ages with the Undertaker picking up the W after close to 30 minutes of brawling that will likely spill out of the ring and around the arena, similar to their encounter 10 years ago at the Astrodome at WM17. I expect Shawn Michael to be involved in some capacity but he will not be the deciding factor in this match. Undertaker 19-0

WWE champion The Miz vs. John Cena. 
This match HAS to close the show as it will have the Rock involved, which is sure to be a money maker. My fear is that the crowd will be spent after the previous historic match and will be dead for this one, similar to what happened at WM25 where the HHH and Orton fell flat on it’s face to close the show after an AWESOME Taker-Michaels match. Nor sure how Rock will be used here as he has beef with both guys but he will no doubt lay the SmackDown here. As of last Monday I expected Cena to win this one, but after the way the treated Miz -jobbing to the Rock- he could be in line for the biggest upset at Mania EVER. Usually when a guy get the upper hand heading into a PPV they end up losing, and Cena was the last man standing on Raw. My final prediction will be a win for the Miz in 20 minutes.

All in all it seems like a good show, I hope we get a great PPV which is well worth the money and not with a 90 second main event. Having The Rock, Austin, Michaels and Snooki might help out with the buy rate which I’m expecting to be pretty close, if not, higher that 1M. I be tweeting my comments live during the PPV so you can check that out and I’ll post a review blog tomorrow eveing.

For now, Mr Khakbaz out!

2010 Royal Rumble Review

So the 2011 Royal Rumble is past us. What was thought to be a memorable night truly fell flat on it’s face.

Both men’s Title matches were weekly show matches and both focuses more on the outside action than on the in-ring competitors.

The Divas Fatal 4 way was pretty solid.

The Rumble Match itself SUCKED big time! We had the quick returns of Kevin Nash and Booker T which was good, only they were eliminated quickly. The great thing is getting the win for Alberto Del Rio. This guy is money and has had an incredible rookie year.

I remember seeing Del Rio wrestle prior to a Raw taping in Austin, TX last May. 8 months later the guy is on is way to main-eventing WrestleMania. I’m a huge fan of the guy and it doesn’t hurt that a fellow Mexican (if you didn’t get that, I’m Mexican) wins on of the most important matches on the WWE calendar.

I’m not going to talk anything else about the show because I think it stunk!

Congrats Alberto Rodriguez, you have busted you ass for so many years in Mexico; Dos Caras has evolved into on of the major Superstars of the Present and for decades to come. A story like this one show that hard work does pay off!!! Alberto Del Rio has come a long way and has a longer way to go to prove HE IS THE MAN!

MrKhakbaz out!