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Wrestlemania 24.... Started Slow, But Eventually Gained That

B. S. Windon | Gold Coast, QLD, Aus | 03/31/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This years show did indeed have it's good, and it's bad. Although my hopes weren't too high for this years "Showcase of the Immortals" as the build up wasn't very well done in my oppinion, for a Wrestlemania anyway. Was it a good PPV? Answer: Yes, it was a BRILLIANT PPV! A good Wrestlemania? Well, for the most part, yes. A solid 4.5/5 in my oppinion. Now let's have a look at the matches while staying completely spoiler free.

John "Bradshaw" Layfield VS Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) in a Belfast Brawl
-It seemed suitable to open the show with this match as I always had fears the fans interest would wan during it. JBL is quite boring in the ring, and while I love Finlay as a wrestler, he isn't completely "over" yet. So I feared this match would be met with silence. Opening the show prevented that as it meant everything was freash for the fans. Unfortunately the match sucked. After the most build up out of any match (It dated all the way back to last year and the whole "Who is Vince's son?" angle), the most emotional storyline... we got, well we got nothing really. The "brawl" was nothing. Finlay's emotion leading up to WM was wasted. The match completely failed it's purpose.

CM Punk VS Shelton Benjamin VS Chris Jericho VS Carlito VS Montel Vontavious Porter VS Mr. Kennedy VS John Morrison in a Money in the Bank ladder match
-Good bump showcase. Not as good a match as previous years, but some awesome bumps. Seemed a bit unorganized though. Still, the winner truly deserved it, even if he was underused in the match. Shelton takes a bloody killer bump. I shared the same expression Carlito wears when it happened.

Umaga VS Batista
-This match didn't stand out at all. I don't think it was expected to though. Easily could've been done on a usual PPV or RAW/SD. Not WM worthy.

Kane VS Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW Championship
-Really, there was no one else that would've won this. And it's revealed early in the night so I don't consider it a spoiler. Kinda odd they didn't show the hyped on TV battle royal, but then again, WWE doesn't make sense often. Quick match, pretty pointless.

Ric Flair VS HBK in a career threatening match
-What an emotional match. Longtime wrestling fans are sure to be overcome with emotional during this match. A fantastic story is told in the ring, backed up solid ringwork. Besides the Money in the bank, this is the only other match so far that has had that unique WM feel.


Beth Phoenix and Melina VS Maria and Ashley in a Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjill match
Lumberjills: Cherry, Eve Torres, Michelle McCool, Victoria, Mickie James, Jillian Hall, Katie Lea Burchill, Kelly Kelly, Layla and Maryse.
-I took a toilet break at the start of the match as I knew this match would be crap. A boring match made worse by a mishap during the match. Only worth watching for Snoop Dogg's entertainment. He's one cool cat.

HHH VS Randy Orton VS John Cena in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWE Championship
-The match was, alright. Didn't really tickle my fancy but I can see some people really enjoying it. Just fast forward John Cena's entrance... it's some goofy marching band entrance. Ergh! The end is quite unexpected and was well done.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. VS The Big Show in a No Disqualification match
-This match was way better than I expected. Slow, but it had a big feeling to it. Which I found impressive, that they gained that bigtime feeling. A real shocking ending. Pure wrestling fans will despise it, but it's more entertaining than expected.

The Undertaker VS Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship
-THIS is what Wrestlemania is about! What a main event! It had the big feeling to it and truly gave off the feeling anything can happen. The false finishes, reversals, everything was done beautifully. This match saved the show from being a 3 star Mania, to making it a 4-4.5 star mania!

As for the promo's and backstage segments... they were alright. Some entertaining ones. They all pretty much added to the WM feeling.

...Also, it looked SPECTACULAR in High-Def!!!
If possiable it should be watched in HD!

Every current wrestling fan should watch this, to see what the Mania "feeling" is. Because by the main event, the show is oozing that bigtime feel. Past fans... watch it for the classic Flair/HBK match and Edge/Taker match (Both 4- 4.5 star matches in my oppinion). Plus you get several good 3- 4 star matches. Skip the belfast brawl (which could've been good, considering the 2 wrestlers are excellent brawlers) and the Diva match.

The DVD/Blu-ray should also come with the Hall of Fame ceremony which makes this a worthy buy as we see the end of an era.
4- 4.5/5 Stars."

One Of The Best WrestleMania's In Years

D.P. | California | 05/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Belfast Brawl Match: Finlay vs. J.B.L. - This was just a glorified way of saying that this match was a street fight. With weapons like a chair, trash cans, and Finlay's usual prop (sorry, I can't spell it right if I tried) & the return of Hornswoggle, who got involved at times, this was a very enjoyable brawl & the best performance I've seen from J.B.L. since his return.

Money In The Bank Ladder Match: Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. John Morrison vs. Carlito vs. M.V.P. vs. Mr. Kennedy....Kennedy (sorry, I'm a mark for that) - Anyways, you know that this match is set to be nothing more than a non-stop spotfest and boy was it ever. Morrison's moonsault off the top rope with ladder in hand & later taking a fall that every man watch felt, Shelton Benjamin's "tower of doom" powerbomb off the ladder & his fall out of the ring onto the ladder wedged on the outside, the Walls Of Jericho on the ladder, Carlito's "backstabber" off the ladder, and the return of Matt Hardy. One of the best Money In The Bank's matches yet.

RAW vs. SmackDown: Batista vs. Umaga - This was the first flop of the night as Umaga completely dominated & carried this match (and even had the crowd cheering for him) until Batista blocked the samoan spike & "unleashed the animal" with the spinebuster & powerbomb (which he lost his balance doing). It wasn't as bad as Cena/JBL from WrestleMania 21 but it's basically the same type of match.

ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero vs. Kane - Unfortunally, I blinked during this match & missed the whole thing. Just kidding but seriously, Chavo's entrance was longer than the match as Kane chokeslammed his way to the first World/Brand Championship in almost 10 years & possibly setting a new WrestleMania record (sorry King Kong Bundy).

Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair - Unfortunally, Ric Flair's matches as of late were just lackluster to average as best but Shawn gave Ric the best match he's had since the 2005 series of matches with Triple H. This match was an emotional rollercoaster as you saw Ric Flair pulling out some of his old "dirtiest player in the game" tricks on HBK throughout the match while HBK was conflicted with "putting 'Old Yeller' out of his misery" & even held back from taking Flair out with sweet chin music early in the match. During one point, HBK returned Flair's slap from RAW & drew "first blood" on Flair by making his mouth bleed while later, Flair looked like he was fighting for his life in HBK's figure four & even ripped off the bottom turnbuckle post in the process of trying to get out of it. However, Flair's career was ended with the words "I'm sorry, I love you" & the third sweet chin music. This was the type of performance that Ric Flair needed to end his career on...and he got it.

Playboy Bunnymania Lumberjack Match: Maria & Ashley vs. Beth Phoenix & Melina - Looking that all the previous "Playboy" matches in WM history, I expected the usual boring trainwreck but this match was better than I expected as Beth & Melina showed by they were some of the best female wrestlers in mainstream wrestling today (with some nice doubleteam work) while Maria did a decent job in the ring herself & Ashley was able to not drag the match down unlike last year. There was a moment when the lights went out and had to put spotlights on the ring but it was still a watchable match with cameo appearences from Santino Marella, Jerry Lawler, and even Snoop Dogg throwing a clothesline that look better than anything Ashley did.

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H - Before I get started, I liked Cena's entrance with the college band playing his entrance music. Well, this was the shocker of the night concidering the winner of the match was the person nobody expected just based off 92% of WWE's own poll & a majority the comments in the reviews of Royal Rumble & No Way Out on Amazon itself. As for the match itself, it was your typical triple threat match in which it was non-stop action with each man having their moments at various times along with the various moments of one man stopping another from winning the match before Orton got the biggest win in his championship reign...and for those trivia fans who like to keep score of this type of thing, this was Cena's first WrestleMania loss & the fourth time a heel has walked out of WrestleMania a World Champion.

Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather - Well this was the best "worked" boxing influenced match I've seen in wrestling but concidering how crappy the other ones were, that's not much of a compliment. The match was entertaining for what it was once they got away from trying to make it a look like a real "shoot" match & started getting entertaining with Mayweather's crew getting involved at times with chairs & brass knucks coming into play. Too bad they didn't book Mayweather as the heel in this feud, as he is just a natural in that role, because I got a guilty pleasure out of Big Show chopping & just manhandling him at times. In the end, this match was like the Billionaries match last year where it was about the the hype of the celebrity appearence to draw money instead of having a high quality match so with that in concideration, this was an entertaining match for what it was...and at least he didn't have to see Big Show in a diaper unlike his celebrity match at WrestleMania 21.

WWE Champion Edge vs Undertaker - Edge finally made it into the WrestleMania main event that various people (myself included) felt should have been his years ago & I guess WWE learned their lesson from last year in putting the Undertaker title match on last since he usually deliveres...and this was no expection. Edge worked on Taker's back thoughout various parts of the match with the match getting better & better as time went on with a couple of near falls that would have had you convinced that he was actually going to lose. Justice was served after what happened close to a year earlier as Taker regained his championship from Edge thanks to "that choke hold" (PLEASE FIND A NAME TO THE HOLD ALREADY!). As a side note, let's be honest here...did anyone ever think we would see Johnathan Coachman ever calling a WrestleMania main event based off how bad he's been in the past? I thought he was going to take away from the match with his commentary but props for Coach in putting on a good performance, he wasn't Jim Ross but he was better here & throughout the show than he's usually been in the past.

The only DVD extras here was the entire Hall Of Fame ceremony (spread over two DVD's) inducting The Brisco Brothers, Gordon Solie, Mae Young, and Eddie Graham. The real highlights though was the return of The Rock to induct his grandfather Peter Maivia & his father Rocky Johnson...but not before roasting various members of the WWE roster to the point to where I had to pause the DVD because I was laughing so hard. Along with this was the induction of Ric Flair by Triple H including the story of how he met Ric Flair with a baloon & even giving a mention to Michael "Stay Puff Marshmellow Pimp" Hayes. The other was the traditional WrestleMania preshow battle royal which was won by Kane.

In the end, this was the most enjoyable WrestleMania I've seen since 20 as everything was watchable & nothing was so horrible that I would skip over it everytime I watch the event. This was a 4 star event but the Hall Of Fame & even the battle royal which had it's entertaining moments like Jamie Noble's creative way of getting back in the ring without his feet touching the floor push it up a star. I highly recommend this WrestleMania event.

Side Note: The Wal-Mart version of this WrestleMania comes with the McMahon DVD."

The Blu-Ray version looks TOO good at times.

S. Swasey | Huber Heights, Ohio USA | 05/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not going to go into great detail about the card of the night because I'm pretty sure most know what it was by now. I will say besides a few duds, it was a great card. I will go as far as to say that it is the best Wrestle Mania since the days of Stone Cold and The Rock headlining the main event.

I'm mainly here to talk specifically about the Blu-Ray version. This is by far one of the best looking, clearest, most colorful Blu-Rays I have seen yet. I don't have HD cable so I watched WM24 in standard def. After watching it on Blu-Ray, it was almost unbelievable on how much more detail the Blu-Ray version had. I was able to see bruises and cuts on superstars that I was not able to do in SD. Everything just had almost a three dimensional "pop" to it. Something worth noting that it is only in 1080i(in which I it was viewed from a 57" 1080i HDTV in my case)but it is so incredibly crisp, I don't see how you would notice. I've viewed atleast 30-40 Blu-Rays since getting my PS3 and WM24 is easily at the top of the list.

So the video quality(You know, one of the main reasons to get the Blu-Ray version) is easily rated 5 stars IMO.

Other than that, it's an amazing pay per view regardless if it has a few matches that aren't that great. Just having Ric Flairs historic last match on here makes this worth the price of admission alone."

A great wrestlemania, one of the best in my opinion.

buck naked | us | 04/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Watching this Wrestlemania was a joy. to me there was only one sub par match on the card and it was still descent. i guess i'll go match by match like everyone else.

finlay vs jbl- one of the better hardcore brawls we've seen in sometime. trash cans, kendo sticks, cookie sheets, steel steps were all used and this was the right match to open with. could of gone a little longer but was fun while it lasted and i loved the ending unlike a lot of people. fun match.

money in the bank- this one never disappoints and i thought this years was the best. i don't understand alot of people saying it's the weakest of them all. tons of action, killer spots, a great return of a missed superstar and a great ending with the right guy winning. this match ruled.

batista vs umaga- this was the one kind of letdown. neither guy seemed overly inspired although umaga looked to be trying hard. big dave just seemed kind of off and i thought the powerbomb at the end was great even if it seemed a little botched. it still looked powerful and made sense given umagas size.

kane vs chavo- kane gets his moment, he deserves it. quick, no complaints as i don't think it would've been a good match otherwise.

ric flair vs shawn michaels-the best match of the night, hands down. great story, great wrestling, off the chart emotion. this will be a big wrestlemania moment forever. kudos to vince for letting flair go out on the grandest stage of them all with the best there is going right now. this match was incredible and the end was perfect. the cameras were spot on getting both guys and setting the incredible emotion in the ending of that match. nice touch for everyone to just shut up and watch flair walk that aisle for the final time. this is worth buying the dvd for alone. incredible.

the bunnymania match- a good cooldown match. i even enjoyed it. they tried hard and didn't screw anything up. it wasn't a mat classic but everything they did was well executed and they didn't even blink during the power failure. ashley still is pretty bad. maria did pretty good and the heel team were both good. not bad at all.

cena vs triple h vs orton- i loved this triple threat match. fast paced. some new inventive spots and i love how the match ended and who won. a great triple threat match and a great match period. the 2nd best wrestlemania triple threat just a hair behind wm 20.

big show vs mayweather- i expected an atrocity. whoever booked this deserves a huge bonus. this match was entertaining and turned out being ten times better than i ever thought it could be. mayweather sold like a pro and big show looked great here. fun match.

edge vs undertaker- glad this went on last as i think taker should've been in the last match at wm 23 coming off his royal rumble win. him and edge go on to have a hell of a match. started off slow and built it into a great match. the final ten minutes were great and i loved the ending. taker breaking out a suprise and something new. the perfect ending to an incredible wrestlemania.

i hope to be there in person next year but this wrestlemania comes highly recommended. a very solid and entertaining four hours. my only complaint is we watched it in hd which is widescreen and the release info says fullscreen. i'm hoping that's a typo. it was shown in high def widescreen so the dvd should be widescreen too. that's just a personal gripe though. don't pass this one up though. it's a hell of a show.

EDIT: The WWE did the right thing and released this dvd in a spectacular quality 16x9 widescreen transfer which was one of the things that was greatly debated before release. I won't review it again but watching it a second time just brought back the memory of what a great event it was. An excellent wrestlemania. I can only imagine how great the blu-ray version looks but this dvd looks great as well and is in glorious widescreen. Kudos WWE!"