Wrestlemania 25

4/5 Wrestlemania 25 PPV results from Houston, TX

Carlito & Primo Colon over John Morrison & The Miz to unify the tag titles. They bumped the match from the PPV due to time constraints. Matt Striker and Todd Grisham handled announcing for the DVD. The finish was a spot where Carlito speared Miz through the ropes on to the lumberjacks, and then Primo reversed a moonlight drive into a back stabber to pin Morrison. Personally I would have rather watched this than a rocker who was cool 10 years ago. Dolph Ziggler was one of the lumberjacks so he appears to be okay (story we were told was that he was busted hardway and banged up his shoulder at Fan Axxess). The other lumberjacks were Jamie Noble, Great Khali, Hawkins & Ryder, Cryme Tyme, Hurricane Helms, Paul Burchill, Goldust, Charlie Haas, Mike Knox, Vladimir Kozlov, R-Truth, Evan Bourne, Jimmy Wang Yang, Tommy Dreamer, William Regal, Jack Swagger, Ezekiel Jackson, and Brian Kendrick.

The show opened with the Pussycat Doll singing America the Beautiful. The three-man announce team was Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Michael “Vintage” Cole.

CM Punk won Money in the Bank over Christian, Finlay, Mark Henry, MVP, Kane, Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston. This was perhaps second best match of the show. There were several cool spots and you can tell a lot of work went into putting the match together. The only other guys you could see winning this one were Christian, MVP or Benjamin. The crowd really wanted Christian to win and many started booing when it became obvious that Punk was getting the briefcase.

Santino Marella in drag as “Santina” became Miss Wrestlemania winning the Diva Battle Royal. Everyone was brought out during the Kid Rock concert. They should have at least given entrances to the past Divas — Joy Giovanni (who nobody had a clue about although she was backstage at Raw a few weeks ago), Molly Holly, Jackie Gayda-Haas (who looked in better shape than any women on the roster), Sunny (who looked good for her age), Torrie Wilson and Victoria. Trish Stratus coming in fell through but they were working on it up until the last few days. The WWE version as I was told, which I’m very skeptical about, is that she wanted to win the match and that wasn’t going to happen. They had already contacted the other women so they decided to use them anyway and it turned out to be a waste of time and money. The match to me was just a complete trainwreck and you could barely identify anyone. The worst part was Ross, Lawler and Cole being made to look like idiots as they kayfabed that they didn’t know Santina was really Santino. It became worse when the crowd started chanting for Santino. Candice Michelle and Mae Young were ringside as guest time keepers. The current Divas in the match were: Eve Torres, Jillian Hall, Katie Lea Burchill, Brie Bella, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Melina, Mickie James, Maria, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Rosa Mendes, and Tiffany.

Chris Jericho over Roddy Piper (54), Ricky Steamboat (56) and Jimmy Snuka (65). Ric Flair was managing the legends and Mickey Rourke was sat ringside with Frank Shamrock. Sadly, Piper and Snuka can’t do much of anything any more and looked terrible. Steamboat did most of the work after Piper and Snuka were eliminated. He looked in great shape for his age doing his trademark arm drags, bumped off the top rope a few times, and even managed a plancha to the outside. This could easily have been a pretty decent singles match. In the end Jericho got the pin with a codebreaker. Flair stormed the ring but Jericho laid him out too. He challenged Rourke to get in the ring and Rourke saved face for the legends knocking Jericho out with a left hook. I guess they’re hoping for some mainstream play. Rourke and Flair celebrated and left together.

Matt Hardy over Jeff Hardy in an extreme rules match. Good match for the time they had but the crowd wasn’t all that into it. The story was Jeff destroying Matt with move after move. He missed a leapfrog leg drop from an eight foot ladder over a ten foot ladder. Cole announced it as 20 feet in the air. Matt gained the advantage and won by putting Jeff’s head in a steel chair and using a twist of fate for the pin.

Rey Mysterio, who came out looking like Dink the Clown from Wrestlemania 10, over JBL to win the Intercontinental title. Match was short and sweet. JBL was telling people last night at the Wrestlemania after party that he has wrestled his last match.

The Undertaker over Shawn Michaels in what will go down as one of the greatest matches in Wrestlemania history. Fantastically paced going just over 30 minutes. There was a scary spot when Taker dived over the top rope and crashed into a plant cameraman. That won’t feel good this morning. The last 10 minutes featured near falls as they took turns to kick out of each other’s finisher. Taker kicked out of the elbow drop and superkick, and Michaels kicked out of the last ride, chokeslam and tombstone piledriver. Finish was Michaels doing a moonsault from the top rope and Taker catching him and turning it into another tombstone. It will be a sad day when these two retire. The streak remains in tact at 17-0.

John Cena over Edge and Big Show to win the World title. Cena did a cool entrance with a hundred guys walking out dressed identical to him to his old music. It was based on something Eminem did at the MTV Music Awards a few years ago. I know some people didn’t like this match but I thought it was really good for the most part. The finish was Cena squatting both Show and Edge on his shoulders for a double attitude adjustment. Edge slipped off so Cena hit the move on Show, and then hit the move on Edge back on to Show.

They announced Wrestlemania 26 for March 28, 2010 in Phoenix, AZ.

Justin Roberts announced the Hall of Fame class of 2009. Austin came out last in his broken Men’s Warehouse suit and then quickly disappeared for a few seconds. His entrance music hit and he drove down to the ring in an ATV for a beer bash. The crowd was really hot for this segment. Probably the wrong place on the card to have this farewell moment.

Triple H over Randy Orton to retain the WWE title. They added a late stip that the title would change hands on a countout or DQ pushing the idea Hunter couldn’t the sledge hammer, so of course he was going to. Anti-climactic finish to the show. The crowd was flat and restless by this point. There was a ref bump when Orton pushed Hunter into Scott Armstrong. He hit the RKO and went to the outside for the sledge hammer, but as he was climbing back into the ring Hunter punted him in the head, hit him with the sledge hammer, and then pinned him with a pedigree. There will probably be a deal on Raw tonight with Orton crying foul due to the illegal use of the sledge hammer.

credit: Mike Aldren