OAO WrestleMania 22 thread - 4/2/06

[Hawk 34 0]

Meaningless question, but did they do the wrapup music video they do at the end of every WrestleMania?

 

I'm a sucker for those.

 

Yes, they did.

[razazteca 0]

Anyone else hoping WWE actually has some continuity and has Booker T have his own Gold Colored Freak come out to help him beat Boogeyman?

I wanted Jedi Booker T to cut off the hand of Darth Flav myself.

[cabbageboy 0]

Man I was so pissed tonight. We had a huge storm here in Louisville and it knocked out the cable for pretty much the entire Rey/Angle/Orton match. I am now recording the replay so I can see that one. From what little I did see though I noticed Rey was getting booed all to shit. Not like Cena type booing, but I think the crowd was flat out fed up with his Eddie exploitation shit. History has shown when Rey gets pushed too hard, wins matches he shouldn't be winning, or generally acts like a douche the fans turn on him. Being Aztec Warrior Rey didn't exactly help his cause. Dude, you are not Tatanka.

 

Anyway the power was back on for the main event. And my god, what does it take WWE? Were they somehow shocked Cena got totally killed by that crowd tonight? This was literally a no win situation on a lot of levels. If HHH wins it means the "heel" goes over in the WM main (though HHH mostly played face tonight). If Cena wins it means more tedious crap of keeping the belt on him, refusing to acknowledge the problem, refusing to turn him heel. And now at Backlash at Rupp Arena in Lexington they won't get the insane crowd heat to do a double turn, since I know KY crowds (might even go to this show). Trust me, here in KY we're the biggest traditionalist marks you can imagine. Cena will be mostly cheered here, because we can't fathom booing the alleged face here, no matter how shitty he is. It's called years of Memphis and USWA indoctrination.

 

The Money in the Bank was fucking sweet tonight. I think the match may have been even better live, since the camerawork was really shoddy watching on TV. They missed the Shelton spot, they really didn't get the Van Terminator on Lashley all that well either. I think this one had more sheer bravado than last year's MITB, not to mention a much more crowd pleasing ending. The one drawback is not having Benoit's brilliant selling here...this was a total crazed spotfest. What the hell though, as a huge RVD fan I marked out like a bitch...I was flat out on my feet clapping.

 

Edge/Foley however was Match of the Night. I liked it better than Foley/Orton, mainly because Edge took that shit like a man tonight, didn't run to the back and have the tacks brushed off, and also went HEAD FIRST into the freakin fire for the finish. Just a great match.

 

But man, the so called faces did not have a good night, even in victory. The crowd shit all over the two guys who won the title matches. The crowd turned on Trish as well and cheered Mickie. Frankly I didn't think Shawn had all that much heat either, but maybe that was due to the Vince match simply going way too long (shave off 8 mins here and give it to the SD match!). Some of it also was that all the run ins came entirely too early, thus leaving Shane handcuffed for much too long to the point of it being anticlimactic.

 

In fact, the only guy on this show that was really over was Rob Van Dam. As in not in an icon or legend way such as Flair, UT, Shawn, Foley, HHH. Gee, could it be because RVD hasn't exploited his friend's death, isn't a wigger poseur, and isn't booked to be a complete idiot (like Trish)? Almost by accident they have booked Van Dam very well as a face: He might lose, but he doesn't bitch about it (not on TV anyway), just keeps coming back for more. It also helps to have the vicious smarks in the crowd predominantly be fans of his from ECW.

 

Anyway, I have to admit they have me interested in where this is all going. I'm feeling the HHH title win at Backlash in a no DQ type match, then RVD will cash in the MITB at ONS and hopefully win the title. Then they can do a non title rubber match HHH/Cena match in HIAC at Vengeance while RVD defends against Edge or Shelton. Or dare I say keep the title on Cena till ONS and just let that ECW crowd flat out annihilate Cena.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Meaningless question, but did they do the wrapup music video they do at the end of every WrestleMania?

 

I'm a sucker for those.

 

They had 2 different ones.

[SuperJerk 0]

Would you guys seriously have been happy if HHH had won? I seriously have a hard time believing this board wouldn't have been flooded with comments like "HHH won...big surprise, thanks Steph," etc. I don't like Cena, but did you guys really want HHH to go over?

 

 

I didn't care if either one of them went over, and that was part of the reason I didn't order the PPV. I didn't care.

 

However, from a booking standpoint, they really need to get the title off of Cena, or turn him heel. Or at least acknowledge that everyone hates him. Having J.R. try to explain it and still keeping him as a face is embarrasing.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Instead of explaining it away, just say that the dude doesn't care about cheers and boos. He's said it a bazillion times in promos since the backlash started, so why contradict him in commentary?

[Hawk 34 0]

You know, the hardcore match was actually pretty smart. It only had one big spot but wasn't neccesarily a generic hardcore rules match.

 

The wrap-around barb-wire on Foley was great, Edge's reaction at the end was gold. The barbed wire socko on Lita? Tremendous. Foley took some good bumps but didn't do anything dramatically contrived or anything. Was I the only one expecting Foley to be a human fire-ball after he had the fluid poured on him?

 

The spot with Lita on Foley's back during the catcus clothesline was great.

 

Also, "wrestlemania virginity". Great.

[NoCalMike 0]

I don't know how much this has been mentioned already because I was watching the PPV with a bunch of friends, old and new(!!!) and I haven't had a chance to read through this entire thread but is it rather pathetic to anyone else the amount of damage control Jim Ross was trying to spew prior to the Cena match, talking about how "these fans are fans of tradition, so I bet they will favor Triple H" I am sorry but are you fucking kidding me Jim Ross? I guess that goes for just about every crowd in the past three months.

 

What makes it more horrible is, it's not like the crowd actually liked Triple H, they just HATE Cena and think he is undeserving of the spot he has as the Raw Champ.

 

I remember when NY turned on The Rock, but that was different, Rock was becoming stale and Brock Lesner was a more than ample Replacement for the spotlight, and the crowd knew it, and that is who they wanted.

 

Opposed to last night when you could have replaced Triple H with about anyone and they still would have booed the hell out of Cena.

 

I just think it was disgusting how Jim Ross tried to go WAY FUCKING OVERBOARD with trying to "explain" why Cena was going to get booed.

 

Those 5-10 mintues could have been used better elsewhere.

[Boon 0]

I don't know how much this has been mentioned already because I was watching the PPV with a bunch of friends, old and new(!!!) and I haven't had a chance to read through this entire thread but is it rather pathetic to anyone else the amount of damage control Jim Ross was trying to spew prior to the Cena match, talking about how "these fans are fans of tradition, so I bet they will favor Triple H" I am sorry but are you fucking kidding me Jim Ross? I guess that goes for just about every crowd in the past three months.

 

What makes it more horrible is, it's not like the crowd actually like Triple H, they just HATE Cena and think he is undeserving of the spot he has as the Raw Champ.

 

I remember when NY turned on The Rock, but that was different, Rock was becoming stale and Brock Lesner was the an ample Replacement for the spotlight, and the crowd knew it, and that is who they wanted.

 

Opposed to last night when you have replaced Triple H with about anyone and they still would have booed the hell out of Cena.

 

I just think it was disgusting how Jim Ross tried to go WAY FUCKING OVERBOARD with trying to "explain" why Cena was going to get booed.

 

Those 5-10 mintues could have been used better elsewhere.

Anyone remember the promo that The Rock cut in Toronto, after they turned on him? Amazing.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

BTW, Batista's cameo completely went un-mentioned as well.

I mentioned it.

 

I said Batista's ears were HUGE!

 

Any bigger and those things will start eating people.

[SuperJerk 0]

Trivia Questions (because I actually want to know):

 

Which incoming world champions have retained titles at a WM?

 

The ones I can think of are:

Hogan

Yokozuna (technically, since he retained against Lugar)

Diesel

HHH

Eddie Guerrero

John Cena

 

Am I missing anybody?

[razazteca 0]

A few notes from WM22:

 

1. Foley vs Edge was the match of the night

 

2. I could not stop laughing at the entrances of both HHH as Conan the Barbarian and Cena the Untouchable

 

3. Rey as the WCW Big Gold Belt Champion was nice but just like the Money in the Bank match it was too short

 

4. Mixed crowd reaction during the main event must have everybody scared after the dueling chants of "Let's go Cena" vs "FUCK YOU Cena!"

 

5. Joey Styles, Taz, Michael Cole need to work all of the matches from now on

 

6. Did Mr. McMahon use too much bronzer/iodine?

[NoCalMike 0]

Instead of explaining it away, just say that the dude doesn't care about cheers and boos. He's said it a bazillion times in promos since the backlash started, so why contradict him in commentary?

 

 

Well the thing is that just isn't good enough, and is obviously not working. I mean you can get away with that when say 25% of the crowd is not behind you, but when 75% or more is not backing you, then as the "top face" you have to do more and be better. Of course as we have all witnessed leading up to WM, Triple did his hardest to make Cena fail by cutting Face-SmartAss style promos, and the "I am god, so it doesn't matter" promos.

 

I mean if Triple H wanted to come off as a True Heel then he should do the type of things Taz would do during his super heel run, whenever small pockets of fans started cheering for him, you know a sizable enough portion that it could be picked up by TV audience, Taz would immediately rip into them and tel them he doesn't want their stupid cheers because blah blah and this, that and the other thing, but NOOOOO, what does Mr. Helmsley do? He acknowledges his cheers, plays up to the crowd, and therefore sabatoges the face.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I sorta like the idea of Batista coming after Rey for his title back given they were big friends and all..but I think Batista coming back only serves enough purpose for them to have Orton beat Rey at whatever the SD PPV is in May to set up Orton/Batista at Summerslam probably.

 

Ugh..

[spman 0]

Eh, this show was all right. The Ladder match was good, so was Foley vs Edge. THe Smackdown World Title match was too short, and Triple H vs Cena had good drama, but wasn't too great of a match. Undertaker vs Henry put me to sleep, and I didn't wake up until the end of Michaels vs Vince, so I missed both of those. The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical. Rey, Triple H, and Cena's entrances were all horrifying, that's all I have to say.

[bob_barron 0]

Am I the only one who loved Cena's entrance?

 

He came off as so bad-ass

[Hawk 34 0]

I guess Foley used his creative control to get color in his match? I figured it would be exclusive to McMahon/Shawn.

 

Even Trips was clean. (I think, I forgot the match itself already)

[Guest JRE]

Cena's entrance was great, could have done without the ROH Mafia coming out to lame music though. HHH's entrance was horrible. Rey's entrance was no less painful than any other entrance with a live musical act- when will they learn?

 

Anyways, that wasn't the worst Wrestlemania ever. So good.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Am I the only one who loved Cena's entrance?

 

He came off as so bad-ass

 

Yeah..but..

 

 

that sorta kills that.

[skullman80 0]

Am I the only one who loved Cena's entrance?

 

He came off as so bad-ass

 

Yeah..totally badass.

 

 

Priceless....

[Guest Dam(o)nYankees]

Fuck the haters. Vince realized that the promotion needs a future, and anyone who wanted HHH as the champion again is a goddamn retard.

Why does it have to be Cena? Cena has failed. In monumental fashion. MOVE ON TO THE NEXT GUY.

[razazteca 0]

The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical.

I was preoccopied with beer or something so my legally blind friend had to tell me how the match ended.....now that is hysterical.

[Guest Dam(o)nYankees]

Am I the only one who loved Cena's entrance?

 

He came off as so bad-ass

He looked like a kid playing dress up. Not nearly on the level of Hunter, but bad none the less.

[Internet Warfare 0]

What was the song they used for triple H's lil intro before his real theme came on?

[Hawk 34 0]

The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical.

I was preoccopied with beer or something so my legally blind friend had to tell me how the match ended.....now that is hysterical.

 

WTF? That was probably the MOTN, if not second match of the night after the Hardcore match.

 

It, in no way sucked.

[skullman80 0]

What was the song they used for triple H's lil intro before his real theme came on?

 

Sounded like a Motorhead song. A different Motorhead song than his main entrance.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Fuck the haters. Vince realized that the promotion needs a future, and anyone who wanted HHH as the champion again is a goddamn retard.

Why does it have to be Cena? Cena has failed. In monumental fashion. MOVE ON TO THE NEXT GUY.

 

I keep waiting for them to shove Lashley down our throats as a Main Event guy..I thought for sure that he'd win MITB and it would set up Orton/Lashley. But everytime they put him in a big match, he's useless. Maybe they at least realize that.

 

I dont know who the next guy is on RAW. RVD? Masters? Shelton?

[razazteca 0]

The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical.

I was preoccopied with beer or something so my legally blind friend had to tell me how the match ended.....now that is hysterical.

 

WTF? That was probably the MOTN, if not second match of the night after the Hardcore match.

 

It, in no way sucked.

Was it the only match that had a noticable botch?

[ChrisMWaters 0]

The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical.

I was preoccopied with beer or something so my legally blind friend had to tell me how the match ended.....now that is hysterical.

 

WTF? That was probably the MOTN, if not second match of the night after the Hardcore match.

 

It, in no way sucked.

Was it the only match that had a noticable botch?

Rey botched his around the post 619 in the World Title match.

[Hawk 34 0]

The Womans match was about as good as could be expected, which is to say it sucked. That botched ending was hysterical.

I was preoccopied with beer or something so my legally blind friend had to tell me how the match ended.....now that is hysterical.

 

WTF? That was probably the MOTN, if not second match of the night after the Hardcore match.

 

It, in no way sucked.

Was it the only match that had a noticable botch?

 

So, a botch makes a match bad? Mickie, covered it very skillfully.

 

Rey botched too, does that mean that match sucked?