Why was WM 25 the worst WM ever ?

[harrythem]

WM 25 will always be special to me because, for years, my bird hated wrestling but the Big Show/Edge/Vicki Guerrero storyline actually turned her into a fan and now we both watch it with our little son!
On another not, considering it seemed like the plans for WM25 changed almost every single day, the show wasn't that bad, especially when you compare it to WM11 and WM9 (a toss up as to what one sucked the most me thinks) as both those two had months of building with no PPV's in-between to have to fit in and it still stuns me how badly they managed to suck! I mean, Orton Vs HHH was a let down but, at least it was a title match in the high-profile feud on Raw and not a novelty attraction involving a mid-carder and a soon to be disgraced pro-footballer!
The main thing I can safely say is that, thank god there wont be a thread like this next year as, with the matches announced and the talent in those matches, there should be some crackers at the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania this year!

 

[THE Madcap]

1.) A 25 sec IC title match & very bad farewell to JBL.

As mentioned by many others, JBL promised to make history and in true heel fashion, he did. I have no problem with this match and I'm sure JBL won't have too many issues with his farewell, seeing as how well he does on other avenues.

2.) A dark match for the unified tag titles.

There had to be a dark match. This was the weakest match on the card, I certainly wouldn't have been that interested in seeing the Carlito brothers winning the tag titles on that PPV. Plus, the fact that it is a title unification, gives reason for someone to buy the DVD.

3.) ECW title was not even mentioned.

Neither was the womens title. The ECW champ was either in MITB or not on the card so it's irrelevant really.

4.) Jericho beating up old farts, good for Jericho can beat up old people

Quite disrespectful to the legends. However, Steamboat's performance was one of the outstanding things from the show and Jericho's dominance in that match told a great story. The bit with Micke Rourke was jsut a basic Wrestlemania moment to give the WWE some press. Have no issue with that.

5.) Hardy vs Hardy what was the point of this a couple of weeks later they made up

The length of the feud is irrelevant to whether the PPV was any good. The build up to the feud was excellent and the match was decent.

6.) and lastly I know this is neat picking, it wasn't the 25Th anniversary it was the 24Th anniversary why because WM 2 was the 1 year anniversary of WM.

Or nit-picking... I picked up on this point quite a way before but its not a big deal. Most people didn't even notice that

(john cena winning the world title, well big surprise there cena winning a world title again)

would rather Cena than the Big Show win that one. And people would have wanted to see a world title change at 'Mania. With Cena being the biggest face in the company, his title win makes sense.

Not to mention the loss of money of you google it, WM 24 made more money.
This hardly a black eye for WWE & WM but Personally I have to say this was the worst WM ever.

You're entitled to your opinion. But IMO this wasn't the worse ever.

the one silver lining was Taker vs HBK it was a decent match so good there's now a rematch. I've even read that if taker loose's fans will riot.

Agreed. It was truely excellent. Even better live. But it did kill the atmosphere from the main event. I was absolutely dead by this point, as were everyone in the seats around me.

so to sum this up why was this such a bad PPV ?

it wasn't.

 

[j.beaner]

See this is what everybody says, But i didnt think that it was too bad.
-Firstly The Unified Tag match, Thank God it was a dark Match. The Only good one in that match was Morrison.
-the Mysterio, JBL match i was glad it was only 30 seconds. long. Mysterio with the IC title was pretty Sweet. But Watching JBL wrestling is just embarrising. I really didnt want to c that match so i was fairly happy that it ended quickly.
-The Hardy vs Hardy match i thought was cool. Jeff Hardy Had a lot of momentuem so Giving some of that to Matt helped him out, even though he hasnt really dont much lately. And We Got To see some hardcore characteristics added to Mania.
-But I do agree with u about the 25th Anniversery Thing
-Come on, Show some respect for the legends who paved the way for this buisness. I enjoyed seeing Snuka, Piper, Steamboat, and Flair Cutting Promos again
And On Top of all This We got to See One Of the Greatest Wrestlemania Matches in History Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker. And The WWE Title Was not too bad. The Cena Edge Big Show match was nothing special but still.

 

[Dum Dum Dudley]

It was nowhere near the worst WM but at the same time, nowhere near the best which, as it was (incorrectly!) the 25th anniversary of WM, made the whole event fall flat.

Positives? Another excellent MITB match, Taker/HBK, a pretty good extreme rules match between the Hardys and Ricky Steamboat showing us he's still got it.

Negatives? For me personally it was the lack of ECW talent on the card. To say the belt had been defended on every nearly every PPV in '08 and was defended at No Way Out a month prior to WM XXVI, i just felt it strange that not only was the belt not defended, but hardly any of the brands talent was featured. Barring Mark Henry and Christian in the MITB, no other talent was featured (i'm not including the dark match). No Swagger, Miz, Morrison or Finlay. I guess this just foreshadowed the brand's demise 11 months later.

Other negatives include the abysmal divas match which to be fair, occurs on every WM card bar this year's (fingers crossed). Kid Rock's clusterfuck of a musical medley robbing us of a decent tag match and WWE's insistence of using triple threat matches at WM when, from my recollection, there have only been two good ones (Jericho/Angle/Benoit at WM16 and the maint event at WM20).

I agree, this PPV was not special which is a shame as WM is, as you Yanks put it, Wrestling's Superbowl. But it wasn't a total mess either. In a way, Taker/HBK did save this from falling even further down the rankings of WMs but also, for an incorrectly billed anniversary, i felt the event just fell flat.

 

[Blade]

Well I've wanted to ask this for a while now & I am aware some others think that there were other WM's that were bad. So here is what I can remember off the top of my head from WM 25.

Watch Wrestlemania 9. Seriously.

1.) A 25 sec IC title match & very bad farewell to JBL.

In kayfabe terms, that's exactly how JBL should've left. A slow downward spiral that ends up with him getting squahed and losing all dignity. You realise JBL was a heel, right? Like, one of the best heels of the last decade. That exactly the kind of exit he should've had. Last time I checked heels are supposed to be bad guys. If JBL exited after winning the world title at Wrestlemania, people wouldn't be happy. Because he's A HEEL.

2.) A dark match for the unified tag titles.

In fairness, there's a huge different between the unified tag titles now and back then. Basically, nobody cared about the tag titles a year ago. Some people cared about Miz and Morrison but nobody cared about Primo and Carlito and nobody cared about the titles. It was a decent business decision.

3.) ECW title was not even mentioned.

Well the only Mania-worth match that WWE could've made was Swagger vs Christian. But they wanted Swagger to be a credible champion and they wanted to keep Christian hot from his return so they waited till Backlash to make the title change.

4.) Jericho beating up old farts, good for Jericho can beat up old people

Wow, way to show respect. Also, if you didn't mark out a little for Steamboat's performance well then... You must be dead inside or something, cause that was pretty awesome.

5.) Hardy vs Hardy what was the point of this a couple of weeks later they made up

Well the point of the match was, I dunno, IT WAS A DRAW, perhaps? Matt Hardy was going to get a decent heel push by the look of it, but he broke his hand and then his inside burst, so he had to leave for a couple of months. When he came back, Punk was the top heel, which was the position it seemed they were planning for Matt so they did the only they could and turned him back to a face. Hardy's fault for being injured.

But the future booking should have absolutely no effect on how you rate the PPV.

6.) and lastly I know this is neat picking, it wasn't the 25Th anniversary it was the 24Th anniversary why because WM 2 was the 1 year anniversary of WM.

That is NITpicking, yeah.

(john cena winning the world title, well big surprise there cena winning a world title again)

Oh noez, the biggest draw as the top guy. What kinda business sense is that.

Not to mention the loss of money of you google it, WM 24 made more money.
This hardly a black eye for WWE & WM but Personally I have to say this was the worst WM ever.

You know what you should google? The meaning of "loss". There is a difference between decrease in profit and loss. The former isn't usually a bad thing. Especially considering Mania 25 still made more than we will in a lifetime.

the one silver lining was Taker vs HBK it was a decent match so good there's now a rematch.

"Decent"? You're kidding me, right?

I've even read that if taker loose's fans will riot.

Oh wow.

Wow, you read the article on the WZ front page that led to the WWE's website forums where one guy made a thread saying "If Taker loses, We riot!" and then was disagreed with by basically everyone. Is that what you read?

so to sum this up why was this such a bad PPV ?

It's not a bad PPV. It was decent. There was some good stuff in there, quite a bit of it, actually. In fact, I only genuinely disliked the Kid Rock stuff and the main event. I quite enjoyed the rest.

 

[Coco]

In fairness, there's a huge different between the unified tag titles now and back then. Basically, nobody cared about the tag titles a year ago. Some people cared about Miz and Morrison but nobody cared about Primo and Carlito and nobody cared about the titles. It was a decent business decision.

I'd love to hear how you think not giving the people something that was advertised (a match that was delivering week in and week out going into the show, no less) is a good business decision. Really. What school of business thought are you going with here, Blade?

Well the only Mania-worth match that WWE could've made was Swagger vs Christian.

WWE's fault for not putting effort into building Bourne up as a top face on ECW.

But they wanted Swagger to be a credible champion and they wanted to keep Christian hot from his return so they waited till Backlash to make the title change.

I'm confused. How did that extra month of being champion make Swagger credible? Also, how is it that Christian lost once to Swagger already before Mania and maintained his heat but a loss at Mania would have cooled him off?

You're not really making sense here.

Well the point of the match was, I dunno, IT WAS A DRAW, perhaps? Matt Hardy was going to get a decent heel push by the look of it, but he broke his hand and then his inside burst, so he had to leave for a couple of months. When he came back, Punk was the top heel, which was the position it seemed they were planning for Matt so they did the only they could and turned him back to a face. Hardy's fault for being injured.

Matt was moved to Raw. Edge, Jericho, and Punk were on SmackDown. Hardy was never in the books as a top heel and his injury didn't prevent such a thing from happening in 2009. His injury cooled off his push, but he was never going to be the TOP heel.

But the future booking should have absolutely no effect on how you rate the PPV.

Agreed. I was just correcting you.

Look, I'm right there with the people who think this show was decent. But don't use shit arguments like the ones I quoted.

 

[Blade]

I'd love to hear how you think not giving the people something that was advertised (a match that was delivering week in and week out going into the show, no less) is a good business decision. Really. What school of business thought are you going with here, Blade?

You said it yourself. People had seen it, what, 3 times on free TV? Why would you take up precious PPV time with a match that people didn't care about it? Yeah it was moronic to replace that tag match with Kid Rock. But if they had actually replaced it with a decent and fresh match and kept the tag match dark, then that would've been a good idea.

They gave the match free on WWE's website. People didn't have to pay to see a match they'd seen a 3 times in the last month but it still got people in the mood.

WWE's fault for not putting effort into building Bourne up as a top face on ECW.

Again, that makes absolutely no difference to the PPV itself. That's hypothetical. For all we know, Bourne vs Swagger could've been shit. Can't use that as an argument.

I'm confused. How did that extra month of being champion make Swagger credible?

Well, it's generally believed that the longer a champion holds his title while having successful title defences regularly, the more credible they become.

Also, how is it that Christian lost once to Swagger already before Mania and maintained his heat but a loss at Mania would have cooled him off?

[/QUOTE]

My apologies for that, I thought the Swagger/Christian title match had a dirty finish.

Matt was moved to Raw. Edge, Jericho, and Punk were on SmackDown. Hardy was never in the books as a top heel and his injury didn't prevent such a thing from happening in 2009. His injury cooled off his push, but he was never going to be the TOP heel.

Matt was moved to Raw, but he was still appearing on Smackdown because he kept feuding with Jeff until Backlash. Perhaps top heel was an overstatement, but he was definitely getting an uppermidcard heel push. Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten the win at Mania because they wouldn't give a clean win at Wrestlemania over a main eventer to a midcarder. He was certainly getting a decent push.

Look, I'm right there with the people who think this show was decent. But don't use shit arguments like the ones I quoted.

K. Arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

[Jonnie Walker]

It honestly wasn't the worst ever. It wasn't even that bad. Sure, Orton vs. Triple H was very poor when you look at it as the main event of the year's biggest PPV. And, yeah, there was a 21 second IC Title match, but you know what else there was? One of the greatest matches ever in HBK vs. Taker, and a very good MitB match. It also showed that Steamboat still had it more than half of the roster (cough, cena, cough) and a good Hardy match that led to an amazing I Quit match at Backlash. Sure, we suffered through ten minutes of Kid Rock over a match for the tag titles, and sure, SuperCena won again, but you know what, it was better than plenty of other Mania's and PPV's that year. So it wasn't the worst ever, it wasn't the best either. It was average.

 

[tnarage2]

I really liked last years Wrestlemania. Other than the miss Wrestlemania match. Other than that it was a pretty good show. I'd liked the Hardy vs Hardy match , the World heavyweight title match. And the MITB match. but the match of the night and possibly the decade the match between Taker and HBK was the best match.......... Oh yeah HHH vs Orton wasnt bad either. I think Wrestlemania 25 was one of the most underrated Wrestlemania's ever.

 

[whatalife1683]

Wrestlemania 25 was not the worst mania ever. It was not a great Mania, but it did have Taker vs hbk (instant classic) and Cena vs Edge vs Show (which was a good match). I think the hype for it could have killed it for you. As I believe, it did not live up to the hype. It could have been a lot better. but it not even at the bottom 5. The worst Wrestlemania is a tie between 9 and 11. Wrestlemania 13 would be next on my list. I say 13 only had the Austin Match and that Chicago street fight, but the rest of it was garbage IMO. After Wrestlemania 13, I would put Wrestlemania 1 and 2. Yes, Wrestlemania 1 was important, but it was an horrendous show. The same thing with Wrestlemania 2. It came from 3 different places, but the matches were bad or too many matches with little time. These are my opinions, and I've been openly critical of the first few Manias. Hell, you can make a case for Wrestlemania 3 being bad. It was very important for passing the torch, but only Steamboat vs Savage was the only good match to watch. Andre was very limited at the time, so him and Hogan had a bad match. As I stated and pointed out worse Wrestlemanias, Wrestlemania 25 was not great but far from the worse.

 

[The Idiot]

How the hell can WM 25 be the worst Wrestlemania ever??? And who even said that? It had perhaps the greatest match in Wrestlemania history, how can anyone say this was the worst ever?

Go watch Wrestlemania 11 and then come back and say 25 was the worst ever.