Bryan and Sheamus killed the first hour of the show. Why oh why oh why did they do that? For me, if you needed time and you needed to end one in seconds, do it with the obvious SMACKDOWN guy that can knock people cold in a heartbeat, err, Big Show? It makes me wonder if this was the plan all along because there has been - IMO - a poor build for Sheamus vs. Bryan all along. They have to bounce back strong with Bryan this Friday or even tonight - if they use it as a way to further build his heel character, fine. If they let him fade away, dreadful booking.
Like I say, the Bryan-Sheamus thing spoilt WM until HIAC for me. Orton vs. Kane was actually OK but lacked a feud to interest me, add in some anger over Bryan and you have a recipe for someone not interested in Kane-Orton. If I'd been there, I'd have been chanting 'Daniel Bryan' with the rest of them! Cody and Show was a letdown for me, I think that Cody's year has now taken him backwards and he is in danger of becoming a Kofi Kingston - always in the midcard. They pushed him well last year and he beat Mysterio, he has a win over Orton and now he's losing to Big Show easily? Not for me. Divas Match went as expected and Maria getting the pin on Beth was predictable.
Enter Hell in a Cell. Wow. I've posted on another forum about how the use of the cell was perfect - whilst people will say "Why was the cell not used?" understandably in some ways, if you focus on the figurative use of it, it was epic. The cell wasn't a weapon for me, it wasn't something to jump, fall or be thrown off/from, it wasn't the HIAC that Taker, HHH, Foley and HBK have made famous, it was a cell that seperated those three men, the last three men of an era, from everything else. As a metaphor, the cell added so much to the atmosphere, it screamed a finality, the end, one way or another. Add in a good wrestling match and a near faultless performance from HBK, the emotion and the story made it one of the greatest ever IMO. Kudos to both. I think UT at Mania is done, I see him finishing at Survivor Series where it all began.
Team Johnny and Team Teddy wasn't too bad for a 12-man match if I'm honest. Problem is that it followed HIAC and the crowd were spent at that point. In hindsight, Divas there would have been better and the GM match before HIAC. Logical move having John L winning, a heel GM is always better. Eve turning on Ryder (again) was predictable but I didn't see it been used to end the match.
Punk and Jericho - for sure, a great match but there was something not quite right for me though I can't tell you what. It just didn't live up to the incredibly high standards I have of these two - on any other PPV, fine, WrestleMania, I don't know. I just expected something bigger somewhere but I'm guessing they weren't supposed to put on an absolute clinic ahead of Cena/Rock!
Cena and Rock - didn't see that finish coming. Wow. Cena didn't seem himself to me but well done WWE for shocking us all - if there was going to be a clean win, you'd not have had many calling Rock to win it. Rock did a great job of making Cena look good so that the loss doesn't hurt him too much but this should, please, should lead to some kind of development to Cena's character. Not necessarily a heel turn but a different edge, side of him that people can get behind again. I said to my missus last night as we were watching the Cena/Rock documentary before that he comes across as such a nice fella, a guy you'd be happy for your kid to idolise, he says all the right things and he acts in the right way - he's just not very entertaining no more. Until he develops, he will not become one of the greats that he should do - Rock proves that he can come back and blow Cena away in terms of reaction. You know that Austin can too, Cena can't get near Undertaker, HHH and HBK ... he needs to develop now and hopefully this is the catalyst. RAW tonight could be interesting.