I watched 'Mania on justin.tv, and thought this years edition was pretty lackluster for the supposed Superbowl of pro wrestling.
The best moments were probably the MITB affair, Santinos comedy spot (even if I loathe the fact that a womens wrestling is beneath even joke characters like him now), and the Jericho/Legends encounter. Honestly, I would've taken a Jericho/Steamboat-match instead of the handicap one if I knew how impressive Steamboat still is in the ring. And yes, Taker/Michaels is one of these, though not to the extent people claim.
I get why most people creamed their pants over the Taker/HBK -affair, but I didn't really like it that much. The first 15-20 minutes or so were pretty good "Big Mania Match" - stuff with things like Michaels breaking the Gogoplata, Takers suicide dive which nearly killed him, etc. The second half of the match had me barely staying awake.
If they had ended it with the rope flip - Tombstone spot, the match would've been better structured as a whole, more compact and still leaving the crowd vivid for the rest of the card without losing any value from the fight itself. Instead the match devolved into a nearfall-whoring spotfest that not only exhausted the crowd, but added a buttload of pointless crap to it and really devalued the match IMO. I mean, it was still good and the best match on the card - which really says more about the other matches than this one - but I don't see the mother of all matches in this one like most people do at the moment.
And oh yeah, Triple H managed to completely kill the ME by himself. Orton was constantly doing his best Satan-impression to desperately try to portray himself as a royal fucktard and get HHH some face heat, and HHH just didn't get it. Then again, why would he? The fact that he's a McMahon now doesn't change anything if he refuses to act like it, and Triple H was still pulling the same bastard heel-thingy he always does. And the ending was so predictable, decisive and so Triple H-y that Ortons credibility will have to be excavated from the Earths core after that one.
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