First of all, I was really, really surprised (but not in a bad way) when Matt Hardy retained the Cruiserweight belt against Rey Mysterio Jr. I think everyone thought that it was going to be a given that Rey would get the title, but it was not to be, and I was very excited by that.
I was also really surprised that Chris Benoit and Rhyno did not get a hold of the WWE Tag Team Titles. Again, it wasn’t necessarily a bad surprise, but I did not think that Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin would walk out of Safeco Field with those belts.
Then we get to the more disappointing aspects of Wrestlemania surprises last year. The first one being that Kane and Rob Van Dam vs. Lance Storm and Chief Morley for the World Tag Team Titles got moved to Heat and bumped from the actual Wrestlemania show. That was total horse shit. You mean to tell me that Kane, an (at the time) six-year WWE veteran (longer than that if you count the other characters he played prior to Kane) and Rob Van Dam, who is so over it’s not even right sometimes, can’t get a spot on the Wrestlemania card, but there is time for TWO Limp Bizkit performances and a “Miller Lite Cat Fight”? What the hell? Not to mention Lance Storm, who STILL has yet to see a Wrestlemania match, and Morley, who has been with the WWE for six years or so at that point, gets nothing? Makes no sense.
Then there’s the World Title match. Triple H vs. Booker T. Triple H repeatedly made racial comments and completely degraded Booker T’s character in the storyline leading into this match, and it was only fair that they should have given Booker T a win and a short title reign for enduring this (just as they should have with Kane and the Katie Vick storyline, but that’s another story). Instead Booker T gets Pedigreed and sent back down to the tag team division like everyone before and after him who goes up against Triple H these days (except of course Shawn Michaels).
Speaking of Shawn Michaels, he went up against Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania XIX. Michaels got the win, despite the fact that I felt like Chris Jericho should have won in order to perhaps boost himself back up to World Title contention, where he hadn’t been in a year at that point. Yeah, Michaels is a legend, and yeah, he was making his first Wrestlemania appearance in five years, but come on. Shawn Michaels has had his career and he didn’t do the job all that often then, let Jericho have his career and give the guy the rub. I was not pleased with Jericho losing that match, even if he did get his heat back with a ballshot afterwards.
Then there was the WWE title match between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar. It was a good match, especially considering Angle was working with a broken neck. That said, we all knew Lesnar would win. The most hilarious thing I think I have ever seen in Wrestlemania history happened when Lesnar went for the Shooting Star Press, and instead did a Shooting Star Piledriver and ended up being luck to walk out of there, let alone be the WWE Champion.
It was a solid show, just a few disappointing results. Wrestlemania XX comes to us live from Madison Square Garden on Sunday, and I’ll be there. Unbelievable. The card looks absolutely great. I’m most looking forward to Kane vs. Undertaker and The Rock & Sock Connection vs. Evolution. I’m sure I’ll be back sometime next week with a column devoted to Wrestlemania XX and maybe some of the other news stories going around right now.
Until next time…
