On April the 1st, the crowd at Fort Field can be seen erupting from their seats as the fireworks from the center stage exploded with such impact signalling the beginning of one of the most anticipated PPVs of the year - Wrestlemania 23. WWF or WWE, as it is known as now, has come a long long way in 23 years. Therefore, the theme for this year's Wrestlemania is, "All Grown Up". Short clips of wrestlers potrayed in their youth, like a young boy smashing two milk cartons together like how Stone Cold Steve Austin smashes beer cans together were shown. I sure as hell wasn't at Ford Field. I just bought the pirated DVD to watch the greatest show on Earth, about a week late. Ah well. I must say there are only a few Wrestlemanias that I am truly satisfied with. I haven't watched the older ones like the time where Hulk Hogan had bodyslammed Andre the Giant or the Montreal Screwjob either. I would say I began watching wrestling, for serious, around WMXX (Wrestlemania 20 for the uninitiated). It was heart-touching to see two best friends, Chris Benoit, the Rabid Wolverine, known for his "Toothless Agression" and Latino Heat compadre, the late Eddie Guerrero, stand together in the ring, finally achieved what they had sought out to do in a long long time, win the gold. As they embraced and confetti fell from the top of the arena in Madison Square Garden, and in the background the crowd is cheering their heads off with Our Lady Peace singing "Whatever", it was truly what they call, a Wrestlemania moment.
Wrestlemania 23
I have to admit that since I wasn't exactly watching every episode of Raw, Smackdown and ECW that were leading up to WM23, I wasn't exactly pumped up to watch the matches that were gonna be on. However, I had to watch. There were a few good reasons like...
i) The Battle of the Billionaires
ii) Batista vs 'Taker
iii) Cena vs HBK
iv) 6-man Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Nothing more. Not even the Lumberjill match for the Women's Championship, Melina vs Ashley. I basically fast-forwarded everything to the matches that I wanted to watch. It was kind of amusing when Kane whipped out his chain and hook from his movie, See No Evil, reminding us of the gruesome character, Jacob Goodnight that he played in the movie, to beat the shit outta Khali but the Punjabi monster just ripped Kane to shreds wth it. Yikes. The world championship matches were so-so, nothing spectacular. The challengers were both old and experienced, so we've seen enough to know what they're capable of. The champs were both young and were a bit more unpredictable. Sadly, Undertaker HAD to retain his undefeated streak at Wrestlemania, making it a 15-0 streak. I seriously wished that Batista had ended his streak. Fuck. Cena vs HBK, however, started out bad with HBK trash-talking Cena and crap like that. HBK went for the old tricks of focusing on one body part and taking it out, shot by shot. Eventually, Cena landed one too many FUs and made HBK tap to the second STFU he had to dish out. It would be a rather fresh experience to see HBK as champ because his title reigns were when I was still in diapers. Cena has been champ for way way way too long, not counting the time Edge banked in his Money in the Bank contract deal right after Cena had been brutally ripped to shreds in New Year's Revolution's Elimination Chamber match with 5 other Superstars. The 6-man ladder match was amusing at best. The usual tricks of punching on ladders, pushing of ladders, using ladders as weapons and stuff. The amusing highlight of the match was when King Booker (formerly Booker T) pulled out a small ladder (just 3 steps) and the look on his face was priceless! In the end Mr Kennedy won, kinda fair and square. About 1/4 into the match, Jeff Hardy had dived from the top of the ladder onto Edge who was lying on a ladder that was positioned above the floor by placing both ends on the ring apron and the security barrier. The ladder snapped as both men tumbled down onto the floor with Edge not moving. It was great to see that sonnovabitch getting hammered like that. Unfortunately it wasn't fatal enough to get him out of everyone's hair. Once I again I look back at the previous WMs... The greatest Money in the Bank Ladder Match that I've seen was at WMXX again, featuring some stars like Benoit, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, Jericho and Christian, if I am not mistaken. Extremely incredible atheletiscm was shown that night when Shelton ran up ladders to deliver clotheslines and shit. Damn. Alright, alright. Lastly, the Battle of the Billionaires. For the uninformed, this fued between Mr Vincent Kennedy McMahon and the man himself, DONALD TRUMP had started out friendly until Donald Trump rained money (YES, MOTHERFUCKING actual MONEY) on the crowd during McMahon's self-proclaimed "McMahon Appreciation Night". The whole thing eventually boiled to the point McMahon started a match at WM23, and the stipulation being winner shaves loser bald. They both had representatives since it would be rather unsettling to see Donald with only his trunks and boots whacking the shit outta McMahon. Trump chose the ECW champion, Bobby Lashley to represent him while McMahon chose the Samoan Bulldozer (and illiterate and very caveman-like) Umaga. For the match to proceed smoothly since both factions here aren't exactly boy scouts, the WWE Board of Directors enlisted the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special referee. Sure enough, Stunners were handed out to everyone in attendance and McMahon got his head shaved bald. It was a good day at Fort Field.
I would think that most of you wouldn't have understood a damn thing I just rattled on and on about up there but once you watch wrestling, come back again to this post. Let's just hope that the Wrestlemanias to come are much more incredible than the last. Peace out y'all!
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