-- 3/28 WWE WrestleMania 26 Reax

Brad in Missouri (6.5): Best: HBK-Taker. Worst: MITB. I get together with the same group of old friends every year for Mania. It was a fun night, but to me, it was full of disappointments. Keep in mind this was the culmination of at least three months of work and $55, so there was a lot on the line. The tag match wouldn't have been a good Smackdown main event, let alone on Mania. The Divas match wasn't disappointing when NO ONE expected anything (we haven't expected anything since Mickie-Trish). Triple H won a better match than I expected, as he should have. Punk-Rey needed more time, but that obviously went to the horrendous Vince-Hart match. Just terrible TV. Bret looked like it was hard to bend over to pick up a chair. Edge-Jericho was under expectations, and the table spot was nothing shocking. Cena-Batista was pretty good; GREAT signs in the crowd during this one. Michaels-Taker was as good as I expected, which was stellar. Totally expected the HBK win and anticipated the final moments. I think I liked how Ric Flair went out better, but it was still good. Money in the Bank is usually a treasure and diamond in the rough with creativity, sacrifice, and unpredictability. This year, it was short on creativity, short on surprise, and especially short on time. Eight men is a maximum here. They all look silly staring up from the apron waiting for their turn to go do a spot. I think McIntyre took a lariat and was out for six minutes. This disappointment alone took my score down from an 8.0. Regardless, a fun night. Hopefully, Atlanta will have a better crowd next year because Phoenix was not lively for the most part.

Peter Young of Orange, NSW, Australia (8.0): Best Match: Michaels vs. Taker. Worst Match: McMahon vs. Hart. I enjoyed the event as a whole. Michaels's final match certainly equaled last year's, but I was disappointed by the copying of the Flair retirement match ending with Shawn signaling to be finished off. Cena vs. Batista was solid but lacked the passion of the build-up. Vickie was horrible. Why did they focus on her for the Divas's only Mania match? The pyramid set was awesome. Best sign for the Jericho match: "I hope a Canadian wins." Do I sense a heel turn from Edge? The Hart vs. McMahon fight was awful. Why didn't they leave the twist until the end of the match? And exactly how are Bret's out-of-shape relatives a threat to pumped-up Vince? Do the Hart Dynasty still want jobs after Mania? Swagger's win was a nice surprise. Sheamus and Rey should have won their very solid matches to continue storylines. Does Rey realize that the Na'vi were TALL blue aliens in Avatar? Good value for my PPV dollar overall.

Joe Fitz of Melbourne, Australia (6.0): Best Match: Cena vs. Batista. Worst Match: Hart vs. McMahon. Mania, understandably, is judged on its own criteria but I think we're often dishonest about that criteria. Rather than go in with "can they meet my high expectations?" I think that we should regard it as something like Christmas in that we tell ourselves "it delivered again" even when it didn't. Other fans have noted that Mania is now so formulaic (and so based around building to a contrived "WrestleMania Moment (TM) for the WWE Universe (TM)," that is comes off as too stage-managed. And so, this show only partially delivered. I think the first hour of the show was the most consistently entertaining. Starting with the second hour, Triple H is so limited in the ring now that his so-called "good" matches have to rely purely on teasing the finisher from the first minute. Rey and Punk was ridiculously short - and the pretty obvious "anti-drugs/drinking is uncool" undertone of this angle still leaves me cold. Hart-McMahon should have been the easiest thing in the world to book, and yet it was a gigantic, cold, bowling shoe ugly affair. Cena-Batista, in terms of pacing, action, and believability, was the standout. The last ten or so minutes of Taker-Michaels was dramatic, partly because of the stakes and partly because they dragged out each successive big spot. There is something ridiculous, though, in the repeated nearfalls from the same move.

Patrick Ricketts of Pittsburgh, Pa. (8.0): Best Match: Undertaker vs. Shawn. Worst Match: The Divas tag debacle. I ordered this year's WrestleMania because of Taker vs. Shawn. The rest of the show could have been hit or miss and it wouldn't have really bothered me too much. Great production value as always from the WWE and a solid undercard (great performances by Edge, Jericho, Cena, and Batista) made this purchase well worth the money. But, let's be honest. Taker and Shawn tore the house down again and I can't even begin to describe how proud I am to be a wrestling fan after watching two guys with the skill and passion that they posses do what they did in the ring again. With Taker's injuries this year and Shawn seemingly burned out, I was worried that last year's epic encounter couldn't have been reached, but they proved me wrong. It was a different kind of match than last year and that is what I was hoping we would get. Tremendous performance by both men, and if this was indeed Shawn's final match, what a way to go out.

Martin Firestein of Chicago, Ill. (5.0): Best Match: Undertaker vs. HBK. Worst Match: either the Divas match or the tag title match. There were some definite highlights on this show. Undertaker vs. HBK wasn't quite as good as last year's match - I had last year at four-stars and this one maybe one-quarter-star lower - but I'm not going to complain. Those two put on a masterful performance and had the best ring psychology of any match on the card. And that spike Tombstone was vicious! Cena vs. Batista was good. I figured Cena would win, but I thought it would come a lot easier than it did, so props to WWE for protecting Batista to some extent. Triple H vs. Sheamus was nothing to write home about. They should do a stipulation match were if Sheamus loses, he must get a tan. Bret vs. Vince was what it should've been – a non-stop beat down, but even that was disappointing, in a way. Given Bret's physical condition, WWE should've had Bret and Vince as corner men for Batista and Cena, and Bret should've brought out his family to make sure and Batista didn't do anything to "screw" Cena. Punk vs. Rey was criminally short, and I think they could've given more time to Edge vs. Jericho too. WWE had some major timing issues on this show. It was like they were rushing to ensure that there was enough time for Undertaker vs. HBK, and sacrificed the rest of the show to do it. Only nine minutes for the months of build up of the Legacy/Orton implosion? Three minutes for the tag title match? Really? Maybe next year, they shouldn't make the card so top heavy?

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE PPV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the PPV, click here.

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