The biggest show of the year has come and gone, and while there are a million reports of the show online, here's my quick recap, in case you missed the show.

JBL d. Finlay w/Hornswoggle
They did the new/fake ECW stuff with trash cans and the like. Finlay brought the emotion to this match. I'm surprised Hornswoggle came out right away, as I thought he'd be saved as a surprise. JBL wins a disappointing and overly fake match with his version of the lariat. When I say this is overly fake, I mean that because there were several times when Finlay had the match won, but instead walked around waiting for JBL to get up and beat him up some. I thought this was a horrible way to start the show because the match didn't live up to the hype, there was no blood for such a heated rivalry and JBL going over Finlay cleanly seemed odd, as Mania is usually the show where good overcomes evil.

CM Punk won the Money in the Bank Match
Out of all the MITB's, I thought this was the weakest match of them all, but it was a fun match to watch. Shelton Benjamin killed himself here, basically swantoning a ladder from the top of another ladder. Sick stuff. Matt Hardy was a good surprise, although expected. He took MVP out of the match. I like Punk winning this match, and that wet swooshing noise you heard afterwards was all the ROHbots at once ejaculating. Punk gives the company fresh direction with the MITB gimmick. I can't see them wasting the MITB gimmick on ECW so I'm guessing a switch to RAW or Smackdown is in Punk's cards. However, I can also see Punk being the first MITB winner not to successfully cash in his title match, because I can't see Punk on top of Raw or SD just yet.

It was good to see Howard Finkel on the show in some capacity, although it would've been cool to hear him do one of the title matches. The HOF people looked happy to be there. Funny bit with Mike Graham & Mae Young. I wish they would've inducted more living people as this class seemed to have the most dead people in it out of all the WWE HOF classes.

The Snoop Dogg/Santino interaction was funny. It would've been better if it was the Rock and Santino, but you take what you can get. Snoop looked happy to be there and not just there to cash a paycheck.

Batista d. Umaga
This was boring to me as I'm not a huge Batista fan. The best spot in the match to me was Umaga kicking Batista in the face, sending him to the floor. There was just way too many restholds in this. Umaga nursed two nerve holds. How does a jungle beast know about nerve holds? The savagery for this match wasn't here. Umaga dominated the match only for Batista to hit two moves at the end to win. Batista almost killed Umaga with the powerbomb. Umaga drops to 0-2 at Mania.

Kane d. Chavo to win the ECW Heavyweight Title
This match was a chokeslam and done. I liked it. Realistically, Kane should be killing a cruiserweight and that's what happened. I don't know if this was punishment for Chavo being at TNA, but I thought this was perfect. No one cares about ECW anyway, Chavo was a super weak champion, and while the ECW title means nothing, it is a good way to reward the service that Kane has given the WWE for the last 11 years.

That girl from the Cosby show/Hanging with Mr Cooper got fat. She had the grandma arm stuff going. That was really cool of the WWE to give away tickets to 50 kids in 50 states. For all the flak WWE gets, they really go above and beyond to help out whoever whenever they can. Even that Cena stuff, granting 100 wishes is very admirable too.

Shawn Michaels d. Ric Flair to retire him
HBK & Flair are my two favorite wrestlers, so this match could've been bad but I'm so biased with this one that to me, this was Match of the Night. No one does PPV like the WWE. The way this story was sold was perfect. I loved this match. It should've been the main event, followed by a Flair speech, followed by watching the sold out locker room celebrate with Flair once he got to the back.

For all the HBK haters, this was just another example of why HBK is the best today. Moonsaulting an announcers table made everyone wonder if he was seriously hurt. All the moves in this match made sense, as they were all talked about in the promos before this match.

"I'm Sorry, I Love You" will never be forgotten by true wrestling fans. I do agree what others have said online - if this match was indoors it would've got a better reaction, as alot of the crowd heat was lost in the open air stadium. Regardless, a great match and a great way to send Flair off. After hearing Coachman/Cole doing Mania's main event, hopefully Flair will either become a color commentator or a manager. There's no reason to let this guy go if he wants to work full time. To me, this was worth the price tag of the PPV and better than their MSG match from 2003.

WWE Womens Champ Beth Phoenix & Melina d. Ashley & Maria in a Playboy Bunnies Lumberjill match
How depressed do you think Mickie James & Victoria were watching these bimbos (Sans Beth) get a Wrestlemania match payday, while they were forced to dance to Snoop Dogg?

Snoop Dogg excelled in his role. You know WWE must've been furious when the power went out, but if the power was going to go out in any match, you'd want it to happen in your worst match of the show, so at least it happened here and not during a real match.

Sloppy stuff all around here, with Santino screwing Maria out of the win. Snoop Dogg got a good pop for knocking out Santino. The kiss with Snoop & Maria looked so fake and bad.

Randy Orton d. HHH & John Cena to retain the RAW Championship
Good finish here, and one that shocked everyone. Everyone was picking HHH or Cena. While putting this match on early did arise suspicions that Orton would go over, I doubt anyone was 100% sure. HHH pedigreed Cena, followed by Orton punting HHH in the head to steal the pin on Cena. Perfect finish with all three retaining their heat. With HHH & Cena chasing Orton, and with Jeff Hardy still on the horizon, I don't see how PUnk will fit in for the future, which going back, is the reason I don't see him being successful in cashing the MITB. Orton vs Punk will be a new and fresh match though. I'm still shocked HHH went down for the fourth consecutive Mania.

Floyd Mayweather d. Big Show
I didn't like this at all. This match was over gimmicked as it had to be to get Show down, but I'd rather see the heat go on a wrestler rather on Floyd. Floyd made Show look stupid by knocking him out, even with all the over booked stuff. I thought the WWE locker room was united? Where were all the WWE jobber guys that ran in three weeks ago when Mayweathers people were interfering? I understand that Floyd had to go over, but I think the heat could've been on a wrestler who cost Show the match. An opportunity was lost here.

The Undertaker d. Edge to win the Smackdown Title
Perfect closing for a Wrestlemania. I liked everything about this match, even with all the run-ins, ref bumps, the counters, the false finishes and everything. I'm not a fan of Undertaker doing the submission for the finish, but who am I to question the Undertaker. I guess this being the third Mania that featured Taker taking the title, they wanted to do something different. Great job all around and a good way to send the show to its conclusion.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. It won't rank up there with one of the top Mania's ever, but it did have its Mania moment with HBK/Flair. In this era of PPVs every month and PPV matches being given away on free TV, it's hard to deliver super shows like the WWE did in the 80's and early 90's, but this PPV did stand out from other recent WWE PPV offerings. Not worth the 50 bucks, but with Flair/HBK, it's hard to complain.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com

The information on this website is exclusive property of the Declaration of Independents and cannot be used elsewhere without proper link credit. All DOI purchases are non-refundable. All mail (electronic or postal) sent to the DOI becomes property of the DOI which allows the DOI to reprint that e-mail in it's entirety by doing so, if the email is considered newsworthy.

Copyright declarationofindependents.net & doiwrestling.com. All Rights Reserved.