Let me first point out that before we even started watching the show last night we learned that the Sheamus VS Daniel Bryan match for the United States Championship was scrapped from the WM card and turned into a dark match with lumber jacks. Seriously? They couldn’t have shortened the Cole/Lawler match? or removed the Show/Kane match? It’s a shame that what could have been a great match was removed just for the more showy matches. Granted it got more names on the WM card, it just didn’t allow for what could have been an amazing match.

The show itself started with The Rock, and it was pretty entertaining, but the real disappointment came with the announcement that the first match would be the World Heavyweight Championship. I don’t believe that there has ever been a Royal Rumble winner in a World Championship match that opened Wrestlemania. So from the get go, things were shaping up to be odd. The match itself was slow and prodding and just didn’t set the world on fire at all. I don’t even think we can consider this a Main Event? Perhaps they should say the winner of the Royal Rumble will get a Championship match at WrestleMania…not headline or Main Event when the winner this year was no where near the Main Event. I think opening a PPV with a World Championship is fine for one of the gimmick PPVs (like Elimination Chamber or Hell in a Cell) but not for WrestleMania. For shame WWE!

Next was the Cody Rhodes/Rey Mysterio match that was pretty entertaining. I like what they’ve done with Cody Rhodes. I hadn’t thought about it until Sunday but instead of going with the tired and used “Dashing” gimmick with its narcissist tendencies and flip it around and have him think he is hideous and ugly and constantly covering his face. Now I know they seem to be high on Rhodes as of right now, but mark my words, by some point this summer, they will turn his gimmick into a comedy act. It always happens. When they can’t get someone over, they make them a comedy act. Does anyone remember Kenzo Suzuki?

Like I said, the Show/Kane/Marella/Kingston VS The Corre was a waste of time and this one was probably the only one that should have gone on as the dark match. No disrespect to anyone involved here as I think out of everyone, the young up-and-coming superstars in The Corre along with Kofi Kingston deserve to be at WM. Show and Kane are definitely huge WWE stars, but they are both past their prime and are probably just there because Vince likes them. As for Santino, at this point in time I am going to relegate him as 2011’s Hornswoggle. He should be happy he is still in the company. I felt that The Corre deserved a better match and seeing what happened to them on Raw, it doesn’t look like things are going to be getting any better for Wolf Pac 2.0.

CM Punk has the distinction of being in two highly sought feuds at WrestleMania (Punk/Mysterio from WM 26 and Punk/Orton from 27) that have not fully lived up to the hype. Again, that’s just my opinion; a lot of people were calling this one the match of the night and I have to say that for me, with the lackluster number of matches, it would have to be between Punk/Orton or Mysterio/Rhodes. At the WrestleMania party that I was at, I believe Andre said that “I just can’t get excited for Orton matches anymore” and I have been saying that for quite some time. I think by having him be a face, he is a lot less predictable and interesting to watch. His move set is still that of a heel. After some quick moves he always goes to the stomping that he made famous as a heel and the only thing that makes him a face is quite literally his “Viper Coiling” segment at the end of a match setting up his finish. Not a bad match, but everything on this PPV was too slow.

Morrison with Trish and Snooki VS Ziggler and Lay-Cool satisfied the need to have a celebrity in a match that was quick and really painless. Snooki surprisingly did much better in her 1 minute of ring time, ultimately winning the match, then I actually thought she would have done. I’m sure in about ten years she’ll be accepting her induction into the WWE Hall of Fame like Drew Carey did this year.

If it wasn’t for Stone Cold Steve Austin being as entertaining as he was for the Cole/Lawler match, I would have considered it an entire waste. Going into this match I stated that “I bet this one is better than the Brett Hart vs Vince from last year…but aside from Austin stunning everyone, this one was just as offensive as the Hart vs McMahon.

Triple H coming out to Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls was great. I even loved the silver skull mask that he had on when he came out with that (also reminded me of Shao Khan from the Mortal Kombat series). I also enjoy Undertaker’s Johnny Cash song of an entrance. But the match itself wasn’t as good as the last two years with Shawn Michaels. And we all knew that going into this match, this was just a straight out brawl between these two. I mean, they did a lot of dangerous stunts, but ultimately, it wasn’t the greatest of matches. At least Undertaker is now 19-0.

And finally, John Cena VS The Miz, which was, again, an OK match. I found myself at one point saying, “What is this, Monday Night Raw?” I mean, it was a very slow paced match, on that I felt I had seen a few times on Raw. And it got exciting when The Rock came out, but I have to say, overall, it was just OK. The best thing was the “It doesn’t matter what he says!” line when he tossed the Anonymous Raw General Manager’s laptop off of it’s podium.

I do believe that the Money in the Bank Ladder match was heavily missed at this year’s show. I mean, I have an idea that may solve this, why not make the WrestleMania MitB match like the Royal Rumble, give the winner a specific date that they will be able to cash it on, let’s say the main event of the PPV Money in the Bank. The said MitB winner could defend it against whoever between now and then and could make the MitB briefcase worth holding, like a championship. Then at Money in the Bank they can crown two people who would be able to hold onto those briefcases for the duration of a year. It was very disappointing not seeing MitB at WrestleMania. I thought that was a huge attraction.

Overall, I have to say that WWE really seems to not know how to build a card for one of their major Pay Per Views, and aside from the Royal Rumble (which itself is a giant gimmick PPV) SummerSlam, Survivor Series and WrestleMania have all been falling flat as of late. Perhaps it is because with all the gimmick PPVs, they really can’t build to a gimmick match at one of the majors for fear that it would take away from the feel of a gimmick PPV. I think what they HAVE to start doing is creating more compelling characters that the audience can get behind, more compelling characters will lead to more compelling story-lines.

All-in-all, the PPV wasn’t that great, but I had a great time at the party…and I guess that’s worth it enough.