Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 4.01.08: WWE WrestleMania XXIV

Posted by Larry Csonka on 04.01.2008

Depending on who you ask this was simultaneously the best and worst WrestleMania of all time. Polarizing, isn’t it? If you want to know what I thought of the show, come on in too see!

How the 4R's of wRestling Work!

Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R's all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.

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411 PODCASTS~!

411's back with another huge podcast broadcast! This week 411's Larry (with barely any voice) and Christi Csonka are back to discuss WrestleMania 24, an event that is getting a very diverse reaction from fans. Was it the worst WrestleMania ever? No way. Was it the best? No, but it was a damn good show that saw Randy Orton retain his title, CM Punk surprisingly winning the Money in the Bank match, Kane setting land speed records to win the ECW title and an awesomely emotional Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels match. Come on in and enjoy!

DOWNLOAD HERE

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WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXIV~!:

The Matches:

BELFAST BRAWL: JBL defeated Finlay @ 9:25 via pin **¼

MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: CM PUNK won @ 14:00 ***¾

Raw vs. Smackdown - The Battle for Brand Supremacy: Batista defeated @ 7:10 via pin*¼

ECW TITLE MATCH: Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero to become the NEW CHAMPION @ 0:10 via pin N/A

CAREER THREATENING MATCH: HBK defeated Ric Flair to end his career @ 20:45 via pin *****

BUNNYMANIA: Beth and Melina defeated Maria and Ashley @ 6:05 via pin ½*

WWE TITLE MATCH: Randy Orton defeated John Cena and HHH @ 14:15 via pin ***¾

THE BIGGEST vs. THE BEST: Floyd Mayweather defeated the Big Show @ 11:35 via KO **½

WORLD TITLE MATCH: The Undertaker defeated Edge to become the NEW WORLD CHAMPION @ 23:51 via submission ****½

The Right:

BELFAST BRAWL: A lot of people thought that this was an odd choice for the opening match. At first I thought so as well, but in the end it makes sense. I have said many times that the opening match has a job. It shouldn't overshadow the rest of the card, but should be good enough to get everyone excited. It should involve people that the fans know and are connected with through hopefully a good angle. While we can debate the angle being "good" or not, it is an angle people have an attachment to one way or another, so it fits the mold. I figured that this would be a match in which they beat the shi tout of each other for 10-minutes. I was close. I have to be honest, I expected more of a Japanese Strong Style match as opposed to the weapons filled brawl, but it worked. The crowd stayed with them, Hornswoggle made his comeback and played into the match, and it worked fine. The highlight of this was 49-year old Fit Finlay doing a SUICIDE DIVE! As if this man wasn't great enough, he pulled out all the stops. Sure he ate a trashcan lid shot, but it as great. In the end JBL got the win, and I would assume that this feud MUST continue. I am a little torn on this, I am a guy that feels feuds should end at WM, but they rarely do these days so we'll live with that. A fine way to open the show.

THE BIGGEST vs. THE BEST: I know a lot of people hated this, but I think that this went off as well as it possibly could have. The crowd was into everything that they did, they loved Show and wanted him to kill the cocky little fighter and all of his crew. This could have been a disaster, Floyd could have decided not to take anything and have his crew do all of the work. But he worked the match, he took shots from Show, side slams and allowed Show to walk on him. He worked hard, Show was great and they came away with a good match overall. The bottom line is this. Show didn't come off looking weak here. It took Floyd, a bunch of his crew, multiple chair shots, a low blow and KNUX to "KO" the Big Show. And it wasn't like he dropped Show and left him for dead. Show almost beat the count. Floyd was a chicken shit that escaped with his life, and Show looked like he got screwed. It worked and came off very well, actually way better than it had any right too. I really can't wait to see the buy rate, because they got a ton of attention from this and as I said at the beginning, I think they will do some big business from this.

MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: The Money in the Bank Ladder Match was again another crazy match this year. I wonder all the time how guys are going to top themselves in these kind of matches, and then I watch ladder war from ROH and I say, "Well they did." I went into this match with high hopes; Jericho has a lot of ladder match experience, Shelton has a good amount of experience from past MITB matches, Kennedy was in last year's match, Morrison has worked ladder matches and a lot of these guys like Shelton and Morrison are such great athletes that some major shit would have to go wrong for this match to suck. They did some innovative spots, Shelton about died, Carlito didn't fuck up too bad and in the end I was pleased with the match. Also the Matt Hardy run in came off great, and I guess we will get closure to the US Title program, which is good. Punk was definitely a surprise winner, but I think that it was a cool move. They obviously made the call to elevate someone with the win, Jericho didn't need it, and with the new drive towards kids, Punk is a good one to chose for the simple fact of his straight edge lifestyle, drugs are bad, Mmmm Kay. In the end we got a fun as hell match with some memorable spots and a surprise winner, I like it.

WWE TITLE MATCH: The WWE title match went on third from the end, and when I saw this I knew that Orton would be retaining. It was the rumored main event for weeks, and that was because Cena and HHH were rumored to be taking the title. But when they changed the order, it set the way for the heel win here. I particularly enjoyed this match as I expected a slow and plotting affair with a hot ending, but they decided on a spring style match and set a good pace and kept it up for a bit over 14-minutes. It was lively, well organized and it looked as if Orton had no chance to win. Then finish was great, HHH had got the pedigree on Cena and went for the pin. Unfortunately for HHH Randy Orton was back in, and killed him with the concussion kick. Orton then pinned Cena to retain the title, shocking many and again providing a nice surprise. Some have complained about the match "only getting 14-minutes," but I think what we have to remember is that longer doesn't mean better. If they would have gotten 25-minutes they would have worked the same exact match, just with long rest spots. This was a 14-minute sprint that never got boring, had a cool finish and a surprise winner. Be careful what you wish for kids, all I heard was complaints and wished for HHH and Cena not to win. Well, they didn't win and Cena took the pin. What more can you ask for as far as surprises? All most nobody saw that coming.

WORLD TITLE MATCH: The main event of the evening was for the world title. I was glad to see that Smackdown got to close the show, I think that Taker deserved it as did Edge. Now the big problem is that everyone expected Taker to win here, especially going on last. That means that they had a lot of hard work ahead of themselves to make people think that Edge had a chance to win the match. I felt that they did that and more. They smartly started slow since they were going long and built well from there. Taker did the crazy Undertaker Dive, which was awesome, but at every turn Edge was cutting him off whenever he would try anything. They played off of other times that Edge screwed Taker, like with the Camera shot and as the match went on, and Edge kept stopping all of the classic Taker spots, the crowd got hotter and people actually believed that Edge had a shot at winning. They did the ref bump spot, which was going to annoy me but the way they did it again made you think that Taker would lose. He got the tombstone, got the cover, Charles Robinson dashed to the ring and counted the near fall and you could hear the crowd being deflated as they thought Taker had the win. Taker would dispose of the Rated Rmy but ate a spear for 2. Edge was pissed, speared him again and out of that is where the finish came. And for those of you trying to think you know what you are talking about, Taker was not using a triangle choke, he used a GOGOPLATA, the move he has been working to get over for like 5-months. Taker got the GOGOPLATA, Edge tapped, Taker went 16-0 and won the title in a great main event. On that note, I hope that they play off the fact that Taker's shoulders were down while he had the hold applied, that could he a great angle coming out of this.

CAREER THREATENING MATCH: And I save this for last, because this was the main event of the evening to me. I have to admit, I know we were all hoping for a good match, but I had very high expectations. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania doesn't disappoint, and I had this feeling that with Shawn out there, his family in attendance and the go for broke feeling one last time, the Nature Boy, RIC FUCKING FLAIR would walk that isle and do what he has done better than anyone for the last 35-years. They started out with some grappling and Flair looked like he was game right away. Flair got to do the press off the top to HBK and then not only did he go up top, but he got to connect with a cross body. I marked out. HBK would send Flair to the floor and then almost kill himself as he would miss the Asai Moonsault to the floor, and ate the Raw announce table. That had to suck. Flair would go to work, hitting the butterfly suplex and chopping the life from HBK. They later did a moonsault spot from the top rope to the floor, which only grazed Flair. Some people threw a shit fit right away, but I was still digging the match as HBK was bringing Mr. WrestleMania to Flair. HBK looked to have the match in hand as he made his signature comeback, but he would pause on the superkick and Flair scoped the legs and locked in the figure four, and the crowd popped! HBK would escape, only to get caught in it again. After turning the hold Flair would release it, he strutted and looked in control until he ate a superkick out of nowhere. He would then tune up the band, but Flair was down. He tried to pick him up, and then the dirtiest player in the game went into survival mode and low blowed HBK. Flair would use a roll up with the tights and an eye poke to try and win, but HBK kept fighting. They started exchanging chops again, and again out of nowhere HBK nailed another superkick on Flair. Shawn went to the corner to tune up the band, but the look on his face told you it as the last thing that he wanted to do. Flair would get to his knees and tell Shawn to do it, knowing that he had given his all and that this was the end. Shawn looked at Flair and said…


"I'm sorry…I love you."

HBK then threw the superkick, pinned Flair, immediately hugged him after the bell rang and Flair is crying as he lay there, knowing that it is over. People in the crowd were crying, Flair's family was crying; I venture a bet that a large number of the boys backstage were crying and hell, I shed a tear. As I said in my recap, I don't think they could have done the match better. One or two small missteps do not matter here; this is possibly the most emotional match I have ever seen and a fitting send off for Flair and that is why I gave it *****. A match isn't just about OMG MOVEZ, it is telling a story and I felt that they did that in this match. The era of Ric Flair is over, and for the first time in my life as a wrestling fan I have to accept the reality that he won't be wrestling anymore. Thanks for everything Ric.

Purgatory:

NADDA:

The wRong:

BUNNYMANIA: Ah yes, BunnyMania, the yearly match to feature the Playboy chick. This year they did this and didn't have a women's title match, which is didn't like, but the tag s better than Maria challenging for the title I suppose. Some people say that it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, but I have to say that it wasn't any good either. Wow, Ashley pulled out a slow ass RANA, yippie! The match was bad, that's all. But I will say that I give the ladies a lot of credit, they were true professionals out there when the lights went out. They kept working and trying to have something resembling a match until they finally got some spotlights to help them. I do give them credit for that, but the match was not good at all. The good news is that Beth got the pin, Santino was funny and Lawler and Snoop got to lay him out. So on those levels it was fine, but I personally could have done without the entire deal. Sorry, I don't care about the Playboy chicks and all of that stuff. I want to see women's wrestling. And yes I know that puts me in the minority, but that's what I like to see.

ECW TITLE MATCH: I am really torn on this match to be honest with you. On one hand I see that they wanted to reestablish Kane as a monster. He went through the battle royal and then snuck up on Chavo to win in mere seconds. I also figure that this is a reward for Kane being such a company man over the years. A chance to let him be a "champion" of the 3rd brand for more than a day, like his initial WWF Title run; to me that all makes sense. People popped for it, so obviously there is an audience that wanted to see this. So it works on that level. On the other hand I think that the squash in seconds makes Chavo look like a complete bitch, and by proxy CM Punk looks like a bitch. Chavo defeated Punk clean multiple times, and then you have Kane walk in there and kill Chavo like he was one of the Naturals. Some have speculated that this was a punishment for Chavo, and maybe it was. But in ring punishments sometimes hurt more than just the one person. And really I think that this is a case of it doing more harm than good. ECW was already a choke and I don't think that this helped any.

Raw vs. Smackdown - The Battle for Brand Supremacy: Truth be told I was really looking forward to the Raw vs. Smackdown - The Battle for Brand Supremacy match between YOU-MANG-AH and Big Dave. Big Dave has been on a roll since last year's Mania and steps up when he has a good opponent, and Umaga is a damn good big man. They had all the ingredients to have a good match. But it didn't happen. They had an uninspired 7-minute TV main event in the middle of WrestleMania and that was that. Batista won clean with a powerbomb that he fell on, and really there isn't much to say. To me this was a huge disappointment as it could have been much more.

The Ridiculous:

SHOWCASE: This is something that I firmly believe in, and something I will likely be complaining about for some time to come, and that is the "Showcase" argument. And what I mean by this is that I strongly feel that ALL of the titles should be defended at WrestleMania. WrestleMania is supposedly the World Series, Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Stanley Cup, Olympics, Masters and World Cup all rolled into one incredible night. Then WHY is this not the night that the titles are all defended? Some people will tell me it isn't practical anymore. Why isn't it practical anymore? In all actuality the titles should be the MOST important thing on the shows and the chasing of the titles is where the money is made. Why was it more important in the early WrestleMania shows but not now? I noticed how many titles there are because I discuss how badly booked that they are. They have three separate shows, they separated the rosters and still can't find time to effectively book the titles. You see, I am sorry, but it bothers me that the IC Title hasn't been defended at a WrestleMania since WrestleMania 18. I hate that the tag titles are shunned. I hate that the US Title got tossed into the MITB match and I hate that the Women's Title had to be caught up in BunnyMania. I just feel that if this is "The Biggest Show of the Year" that they should have the titles all defended, the only time of the year where you can and could see every WWE/ECW Title on the line. THAT is a showcase. I don't give a shit about Vengeance either, in my opinion WrestleMania should be the night of champions and my mind won't be changed anytime soon.

Closing Thoughts:
When I look at the event, I have to ask if the big matches delivered. Show vs. Mayweather delivered, the WWE title match delivered, the World title match delivered, MITB delivered and Flair vs. HBK delivered. The Belfast Brawl was good, and while not a big match adds into the matches that delivered. BunnyMania was going to suck and it did, the ECW title match wasn't long enough to suck (although we can debate the booking,) Big Dave vs. YOU-MANG-AH was a complete disappointment and of course I have my showcase complaint. I thought that this year's show had better matches than last year's show; it had the emotional Flair retirement match and two surprises with Punk winning MITB and Orton retaining.

Overall I will go with a 8.7 out of 10, making this my PPV of the year thus far. THere was good wrestling as I have four of the matches making it on the yearend list below. I guess I enjoyed the show a lot more than some, but we all have opinions and it's fun to debate. As mentioned the big draw matches all delivered, there was very little suck and while we only had three title matches, overall I found myself really enjoying this year's offering. Thumbs up here, and I cannot wait for the DVD so I can see the Hall of Fame ceremony.

2008 PPV Rankings:
-WWE WRESTLEMANIA {8.7}
-ROH RISING ABOVE {8.6}
-ROH UNDENIABLE {8.5}
-WWE NO WAY OUT {8.1}
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {8.0}
-TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {7.5}
-TNA DESTINATION X {7.25}
-TNA FINAL RESOLUTION {6.75}

2008 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
-(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) CAREER THREATENING MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels *****

-(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge © vs. The Undertaker ****½
(ROH RISING ABOVE) ROH World Title Match: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Austin Aries ****½

-(ROH UNDENIABLE) GRUDGE MATCH: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong ****¼
-(WWE NO WAY OUT) RAW ELIMINATION CHAMBER ****¼

-(TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS) TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle © vs. Christian Cage ****
-(TNA FINAL RESOLUTION) TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle © vs. Christian Cage ****
-(WWE ROYAL RUMBLE) The Royal Rumble Match ****

-(TNA FINAL RESOLUTION) TNA NO-DQ WOMEN'S TITLE MATCH: Gail Kim ©vs. Awesome Kong ***¾
-(TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS) HARDCORE STREET FIGHT: Team 3D and Brother Devine vs. Black Machismo and the Motor City Machineguns ***¾
-(ROH UNDENIABLE) ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The No Remorse Corps ***¾
-(ROH RISING ABOVE) ROH World Tag Team Title - 2 of 3 Falls Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The No Remorse Corps ***¾
-(WWE NO WAY OUT) SMACKDOWN ELIMINATION CHAMBER ***¾
-(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) WWE TITLE MATCH: Randy Orton © vs. John Cena vs. HHH ***¾
-(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. MVP vs. John Morrison vs. Carlito vs. CM Punk vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. Shelton Benjamin ***¾

2008 PPV MVP AWARDS:
This is a little added deal I started last year, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV's. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.

-TNA FINAL RESOLUTION: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong (Making us Care about Women's Wrestling on the National Stage)
-ROH UNDENIABLE: Strong vs. Aries (The Grudge is Settled)
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE: John Cena Shocks the World (No One Saw it Coming)
-TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS: Black Machismo Saves the X-Division (He is a Superman)
-WWE NO WAY OUT: Taker Eliminates the Competition (Elimination Chamber MVP)
-TNA DESTINATION X: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong © vs. ODB (Stepping up Again)
-WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXIV: Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Thank You Flair)