2009 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

I'm catching the replay now. Anyone know what the match order was? I'm too lazy to wade through several new pages.

 

MITB
Divas battle royal
Jericho vs. the legends
Hardys
Mysterio-JBL
Undertaker-HBK
Triple threat match
Orton-HHH

 

Sweet! That means I'll get to see it all. Caught a replay midway through the MITB.

 

Not impressed thus far.

CM Punk? Really?

Diva Battle Royal nearly put me to sleep and I'm annoyed of Santino's stupid antics.

Kid Rock needs to go away forever.

 

As I'd said several pages ago, I spent Sunday afternoon and evening at the home of the late SportsJournalists.com poster Tripp McNeely (James) with his mother, one of her relatives and a friend of hers as well as two of my former co-workers (who are still working at the newspaper where James and I became friends). For all of us, it was fitting to be together for WM. Last year's WM 24 was when we gathered at James' place to see Flair's last match and a MITB win for Punk (James' favorite wrestler). It was also the last time I saw James in person before he passed away. Great day, great food and company to share the PPV viewing with. James, I know would be happy for Punk, cursing Cena's win and bored by the HHH-Orton match.

Here's my thoughts.

MITB: Punk winning was great, but the match was rushed, lots of blown spots and I really do think (despite the Punk avatar) this match should have gone to MVP, Christian or even Kofi Kingston (would have been a major makeup for what happened to him when Edge prevented him from being in the EC earlier this year).

Divas BR: Horrible. Santino might not get Rosa in this breakup with Beth Phoenix that's obviously coming on Raw or at Backlash. I guess for everyone who wasn't able to see everyone who was in the BR since the women were eliminated as soon as they went out of the ring and regardless how they were eliminated (top rope, bottom rope, ring apron, etc.), you needed to have a slow-motion feature while crappy Kid (can't) Rock sang to see everyone as they walked past him. I saw that wwe.com has galleries of the divas who were in the BR, including Torrie Wilson, a blonde Molly Holly, Joy Giovanni and Sunny, who looks much better than she has in years, BTW.

Jericho vs. Legends: Snuka, don't EVER wrestle again. Autograph signings, sure. Wrestle? Never EVER again. Ditto Piper. Steamboat was good and he said in an article leading up to the match that he was at 80 percent. He had some good moves, but I don't anticipate a return to the ring for Steamboat. The Rourke stuff was lame.

Hardys: Matt winning was a surprise, but the way Jeff performed only reminds me why he's got drug issues. He's not living to see 40. The tables spot was crazy and so was the miss after hopping one ladder. This feud, however, just DOESN'T WORK WWE.

Mysterio-JBL: JBL able to make fun of himself with this performance was good for what it was. Rey winning the IC title hopefully means a shake up in the draft so that he can oppose Evan Bourne, Brian Kendrick, Hurricane and a few others, maybe Morrison if they break up his tag team with the Miz.

Taker-HBK: Fantastic. Without this match, the PPV would have nothing much to speak of. Early MOTY 2009 candidate from WWE and might not be topped the next eight months.

Cena-Edge-Big Show: I hope my prediction that it might be the swan song for Vickie is true, or perhaps, the beginning of the end of Vickie in WWE. They tried to make everyone forget her completely. Cena winning left both Edge and Show without resolution in the Vickie dept. but the fact she didn't stick around to the end means she was either legit hurt or they're just saving it for Raw/SD or the draft. Match itself was so-so.

HHH-Orton: Worst. Main. Event. Ever. Knowing they couldn't top Taker-HBK, they just gave up and the fans live did too. Of course WWE has a PPV on 4-26 so I reckon this gets a rematch since the hammer was used. I see them stripping HHH of the title and having he and Orton go for it at Backlash. This feud, though, for as much as they put into hyping it? HORRIBLE. In hindsight this should have been shown in the match before Mysterio-JBL with Cena-Edge-Show after that and HBK-Taker the main event.

 

It's a solid theory that someone, either HHH or Orton, was much less than 100 percent for this match. Otherwise, the buildup makes no sense at all.

 

Has there ever been a Wrestlemania match canceled at the last minute due to sudden injury?

 

JBL says goodbye a day later:

http://fans.wwe.com/jbl/blog/2009/04/06/jbl_no_more_thank_you

As I've stated on this board, I never liked the JBL character, but I must say this is a classy farewell address by John Layfield.

 

I admit I've been skimming through a lot of the WM feedback on here, so I apologize if somebody already mentioned this, but did anybody else notice during the Hardy-Hardy match that the referee actually came outside the ring and wiped the blood off Matt's face with a towel? I've been watching 20 years and can never remember a referee doing that midmatch. I thought it had to be one of two things:

1. The WWE's newfound PG philosophy has run amok to the point that they're not just avoiding blood at almost all times, but now they're actually cleaning it up in matches where no blood was planned.

2. They had something particularly gory in mind for later in the card and didn't want to ruin the impact. Clearly this never came to fruition, but I certainly wish it would've during Orton-HHH. That matched needed something ... ANYTHING.

Anyway, a couple other thoughts...

- The main event was the most boring WM final match I can ever remember, and I've seen 20 of the 25 WMs. There were streams of people heading for the exits in the middle of the match when Orton went to the headlock. I don't have a clue what they were going for, but they swung and missed badly.

- What a poorly paced show. Some stuff felt rushed, other stuff dragged on FOREVER. We had a grand total of two backstage segments, zero dialogue and a lot of nodding (Orton and his lackeys in the middle of the show, and HHH and the McMahons before the final match).

- I don't have anything to add about Undertaker-Michaels other than to say that had everybody at my buddy's house going nuts. I never wanted that match to end. And I have no idea how Undertaker didn't kill himself with that dive toward the camera man. His head hit the mat so hard, it left a dent. OUCH.

 

Undertaker will probably take six months off now, as he seems to do, to recuperate.

Regarding script or the lack of: Could WWE have had some low-level layoffs? I mean, every other "sports" or "entertainment" organization has.

 

Someone here said it best: Taker-HBK should have been the main event.

But if that were the case, I'd be willing to bet a few thousand of that sellout crowd would have been gone after walking out during the WWE title match.

 

We saw the same thing happen. And we went back and watched the replay and saw when Jeff went to get something under the apron, the referee whispered something to him, then he got up and went to the other side of the ring. Our guess was that the ref told him to go to the other side so the medic could come in and clean Matt's wounds.

I'm not a blood and guts kind of guy, but if WWE is definitely going to go full PG with their shows, I'll stop watching.