Wrestlemania 27 PPV Review

WWE: Wrestlemania 27 Collector's EditionWWE Wrestlemania 27 - Pay-per-view Review

By Phil Allely

Wrestlemania is the WWE’s biggest and grandest event of the year and it usually delivers on its promise of being ‘the granddaddy of them all’. However this year things were slow to build for the event and it was only when Undertaker and Triple H re-appeared on our screens to build up their match, that things picked up steam for many of us.  The inclusion of The Rock as host , Stone Cold Steve Austin as a special guest referee and even women’s legend Trish Stratus was stepping back into the ring, the stage was set for one memorable night, right?.

The mania card was looking very good indeed prior to the event and with some nice pre-show work there seemed to be a  lot of hype around many of the matches, of course with Shawn Michaels retired and Undertaker in pretty bad shape his match with Triple ?H was going to have to be something spectacular indeed for the ‘Dead Man’ to pull of another high profile win and retain his undefeated streak at Wrestlemania.

The Rock kicked things off with a long tirade, where he verbally sparred with John Cena and wound the full house into a frenzy with his antics. The only negative point being the proposed US title match was scrapped and replaced by Rock’s introductory speech.

In the first title match of the night there were high hopes that challenger Alberto Del Rio would leave the Georgia Dome with the World Heavyweight Title around his waist. Champion Edge was selling an injured arm and worked very hard indeed to make the WWE newcomer look even more impressive than he is naturally. Christian, Ricardo and Brodus Clay at ringside helped keep things moving on also, after some near falls and nice moves things ended swift enough after one distraction too many saw Edge nail a hard looking spear to retain his belt.

Cody Rhodes has finally found himself character wise in the WWE and now his protective face mask wearing persona has really got some heel heat on him. His opponent Rey Mysterio (this year in superhero costume) gave his all in this one, although fans seemed indifferent throughout. The finish came as Rhodes worked on Rey (legitimately) injured knee and used Rey’s own knee brace to assist his Cross Rhodes finisher for the surprise win.

Next up The Corre faced the team of Kane, Big Show, Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston. Not a huge amount to speak of here though, things quickly degenerated into a full on brawl and each man hit his finisher before a Cobra and Knockout Punch combo by Show and Marella put Heath Slater down for the three count.

Randy Orton and CM Punk’s feud continued in style as both went all out to impress the sell-out crowd. This one was a great was for each to showcase their talents, there were plenty of near falls, stiff exchanges, signature moves and a great finishing sequence. Orton pulled of the win after he intercepted a Punk aerial move with a mid-air RKO.

The 2011 Hall of Fame Inductees come out next to a nice ovation, introduced by Mean Gene Okerland it’s nice to see the lovely Sunny, Abdullah the Butcher, Road Warrior Animal, Paul Ellering, Bullet Bob Armstrong and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, comedy star Drew Carey is there too. The roof lifted off the arena when star inductee Shawn Michaels music hit.

A returning Jim Ross and Booker T joined the announce team as Jerry Lawler made his Wrestlemania debut against Michael Cole. Steve Austin as guest referee proved to be a good move indeed, he instantly wound up Cole’s second Jack Swagger and did his best to maintain order in a chaotic grudge match. Lawler did exact a fair measure of revenge on Cole, but Austin’s over-eager refereeing saw Lawlers tap-out victory overturned.

Triple H versus The Undertaker was a very good No Holds barred effort by both men. The fact that it had two superb Michaels/Taker matches from previous years to attempt to match was a downside though.  Taker as always really upped his game and showed some slowness, but no less willingness to absorb punishment in pursuit of a good match. Triple H was in fine form too, the pair hit some nice moves, risky manoeuvres and snatched a few near falls along the way. Things quickly went down the weapons route with chair shots, even Trips trusty sledgehammer being used, but ultimately proving to be no match for a determined Taker.  A Hells Gate submission hold saw a weary ‘Dead Man’ pull off another Mania win and clock up his 19th undefeated match at the annual event.

Snooki, Trish Stratus and John Morrison then took LayCool and Dolph Ziggler in a lively and short mixed tag team bout. This positioning was surely a move by the WWE to slow things down a bit intensity wise after such a gruelling match prior to it. Ziggler, Morrison and Vickie Guerrero all kept this one in its zone. Stratus didn’t seem to have missed a beat since her retirement, Snooki pulled off a few decent moves and LayCool played their roles well indeed. Snooki put Michelle McCool away to pull off the win for her team.

Finally it was main event time and both Miz and John Cena has an awful lot f work to do to appease a crowd who had yet to witness a real true Wrestlemania moment in the ring or a title change. Cena and Miz do work well together and they put forth a heck of a match. The crowd just seemed to drift off at times during it though. As the action ramped up Alex Riley stuck his nose into proceedings to distract the referee, however it failed as Miz inadvertently knocked Riley out with the briefcase instead of Cena. The action spilled out to ringside where both men got counted out for the No Contest decision.

Luckilly The Rock decided to ignore the Raw GM’s email messages and restart the bout. This time it was no DQ, No Count out etc., it didn’t last long though as Rock blasted Cena with a Rock Bottom to allow Miz the win and to keep his cherished gold.

Wrestlemania was in no way a flop of a show, many of the matches were above par and well received by those in attendance too, there just wasn’t that spark and tingle of excitement that Mania usually brings with it. Perhaps it is the fact that according to reports many of the matches were rewritten early in the day, or perhaps it was because the WWE at present is short of real top line talent, Batista, Jericho, Michaels are all out of the equation for now at least. Two of the star attractions were retired grapplers Steve Austin and The Rock, plus of course the Undertaker/Triple H feud was hastily thrust upon us after the other ideas for them were put on the back burner for now. But WWE then pulled off the coup of the century during the following nights Raw, on that show (which usually draws one of the highest ratings of the year) The Rock made the announcement that he would step back into the ring and face John Cena at Wrestlemania 28. So there you have it this years Mania was all one big build up to next years one, interesting, different and a wonderful swerve by the WWE, roll on 2012s event.