Entertainmentmania 27

Edge vs Alberto Del Rio

This was surprisingly decent thanks to Del Rio really giving it his all. All of the arm-work was good, he took his trademark crazy Hamrick-style bump to the outside, and most of the big spots in the match were well placed. Edge still sucks though, and in 2011 you can't get away with a guy with an injured arm surviving a jujigatame for like a whole minute like Edge did. It's just not believable.

Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes

Pretty awesome match and it was nice to see Rey get a decent length match at Wrestlemania for a change. Rhodes was super-aggressive and had some sick counters to some of Rey's stuff. Loved the way they brought the story with the mask and the knee-brace into play, and every shot to the face felt like a believable match ender because of it. Rey's diving headbutts with the mask were rad.

The Corre vs The Big Show/Kane/Santino Marrella/Kofi Kingston

Why was this even on the show? The entrances lasted longer than the match itself.

CM Punk vs Randy Orton

This was a pretty good one-man-show from Punk. His facial expressions and mocking Orton were great, and all of his legwork was neat and used smartly as a way to cut-off Orton and work his way back into the match. His Warriors Way-style kneedrop and kick out of the RKO were also pretty cool. Orton's selling could have been a little better, but I dug him fighting out of a hold with headbutts, and he was fine in his role. The legwork paying off with Orton not being able to do the punt was also clever.

Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole

I'd be kidding myself if I said this was the match it should have been, but I did enjoy some of it. Cole's outfit and whole persona is just outstanding, Lawler coming out in classic Memphis gear was awesome and Swagger was real good in his role. The problem with this was that Cole was on offence for SO LONG. He should have been on top of Lawler for like a minute or two at best, and it got to the point where the crowd were just waiting for the Stunner instead of caring about the match. Also no Piledriver was dissapointing. And the Dusty finish was the Dusty finish.

The Undertaker vs HHH (No Holds Barred)

Opening minutes of this were actually shockingly good. Undertaker getting outmatched at throwing fists by HHH set the tone well, and all the brawling on the outside was real good. HHH's bump off the table was fucking nuts. It pretty much bombed when they went back into the ring though and turned into the same repetitive boring finisher kick-out crap we've seen a billion times over and then some. Oustide of the HHH Tombstone (which I admit was well done), I don't see how anyone could buy into anything they did ending the match, and they seemed to spend half the time laying around doing nothing. And that was the worst Gogoplatza I've ever seen and HHH once again survived way too long for it to believable.

John Morrison/Trish Stratus/Snooki vs Dolph Ziggler/LayCool

Short if inoffensive tag. Morrison's crazy spot and Snooki's shocking athletisism made it more of a match than the 8-man tag.

The Miz vs John Cena

Bad match for a number of reasons. Cena seemed almost like he was phoning it in with how little he did outside his by-the-numbers routine he does every Monday night. The crowd was dead because *everyone* was just waiting for Rock to do whatever he was going to do, which meant everything before his appearence was just obvious filler. The whole over-booking BS with the re-start and Rock was just bullshit, and the whole match just made Cena and Miz look bad by comparing them to the Rock. Just because Rock is a bigger star than them, doesn't mean you should draw attention to it.

Best Of 2011