Despite paying hardly any attention at all to pro wrestling for the past year or two, I still felt it would've been wrong to miss the annual Wrestemania, so I watched it on Sunday- and was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there was lots of crap, including two T&A-only matches, and one featuring a worm-eating character known as "The Bogeyman." But the major matches all delivered- especially Shawn Michaels jumping off a 20-foot ladder onto Vince McMahon; Mick Foley and Edge falling onto a burning table; a three-match that had masked Mexican star Rey Mysterio emerging with the World title; and the main event, in which ostensible good guy John Cena beat Triple-H despite having about 90% of the crowd booing him. Yes, they cheered villain Triple-H, even though he inexplicably came to the ring dressed like Conan the Barbarian, with throne and all.
Also saw the WWE Hall of Fame induction the night before. Bret Hart's long-awaited return was uneventful, and the true head-scratcher of the night was when inductee "Mean Gene" Okerlund ended his speech by expressing a wish to be "buried upside down so my critics can kiss my ass." Not only did he steal the line from Bob Knight, and not only did he say it wrong, but it didn't fit the rest of his feel-good speech, and since when did Mean Gene have "critics"?
For more, here's Rick Scaia's lengthy recap.
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 4, 2006 12:25 AM