-- 3/28 WWE WrestleMania 26 Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0; 3.0): Best: Michaels-Taker. Worst: Divas match; the major main event dead giveaway. A solid WrestleMania from top to bottom. The Divas match was plain sloppy and Hart-McMahon took too long to finish. The other matches were decent at the very least. I'm surprised that Swagger got the nod for Money in the Bank. ShoMiz, Cena, Orton (and the face reaction), and Bret's win were all expected. Triple H winning was kinda "eh" considering the match was middle of the card. Shawn Michaels retiring at this point was inevitable. But Michaels leaving with this storyline is still a bitter pill to swallow. I still can't get that statement out of my head: "If I can't beat you, I have no career." I don't know if I ever will, since I have been an HBK fan since his Midnight Rockers days in the AWA. What's worse is there was absolutely NO reasonable doubt going into tonight: the finish was given away back at the Slammys and the challenge. It continued with the tag title and re-match loss. Even Shawn's subdued pyro, ring attire, and body language on his way to the ring gave it away. Shawn Michaels will be missed, and he is one I will excuse for going back on his retirement word (though I don't expect he will). The two scores mark the difference between the PPV without the editorial knowledge and opinion, and the PPV with that knowledge. This was one of those days when I wish I didn't know this much.

Steve of Boston, Mass. (7.0): Best Match: Taker-HBK. Worst: Dead crowd/Lack of excitement. I thoroughly enjoyed Taker-HBK - great drama and emotion told throughout and HBK was by far the best in the business and definitely Mr. WrestleMania. That been said, let's hold him to the stipulation. The next time we see HBK should be at next year's Hall of Fame induction. As for the rest, it felt like a pretty good Raw show, but lacking a special event feel "on the grandest stage of them all." Maybe it was the crowd audio, but they sounded silent at times. I wanted C.M. Punk to win and have Rey join the SES; I think that could have been an interesting storyline over the next couple months. I also think after effectively creating Batista as a monster and him probably playing the role the best he ever has on the mic and in the ring, they made him look too weak by tapping out. The Animal monster they've been building up should not be tapping out. The other issue I have is WWE has taken two excellent heel characters and have turned them face and they simply aren't as good in that role. I can understand Edge as face coming back from injury, seeking revenge on Y2J, but he's much better as the calculating ultimate opportunist. As for Randy Orton, he plays the psycho heel role great with the glary-eyed slow walk to the ring and all the bad things he's done as a Legend Killer.

Dan of Williamstown of Melbourne, Australia. (8.0): Best Match: Taker vs. HBK. Worst Match: McMahon vs. Hart. The whole Hart family thing was just awful. Just disappointing and really poor all-around. To the title matches, I was happy to see Jericho hold over Edge, who is not over as a face and really ought to be turned heel. Jericho is easily one of the best performers in WWE at the moment and this WrestleMania victory was a good reward for two years of tremendous work reinventing his character. I thought Batista submitting to Cena made a mockery of the build-up to this match, although Cena winning was the right result. It was interesting seeing Triple H on so early on the card, and I was surprisingly impressed by his match with Sheamus. With the usual post-WrestleMania exodus of top-line performers in WWE, this was the right result as Triple H will be back in the headliner position through this summer. Money in the Bank was so-so and I was very surprised to see Swagger get the win. Finally, Taker vs. HBK. For the third year running, I've been emotional watching WrestleMania. I've seen my all-time favorite wrestler, Ric Flair, retire, and my two favorites right behind him, Taker and HBK, wrestle two years in a row, and now Shawn Michaels has retired. I'm going to struggle feeling an emotional connection to the remaining wrestlers, as I just don't relate to the newer performers as I did the older ones I grew up with. In my view, Cena, Batista, Edge, etc. just don't have the same charisma or in-ring abilities as Taker, HBK, Flair, etc.

Sam Weiss of San Diego, Calif. (6.0): Best Match: Taker-HBK. Worst Match: Hart debacle. I feel sorry for Bret Hart - he and we deserved better. It looked like a pathetic form of sadism on the part of Bret because McMahon did not fight back other than a few seconds of using the tire-iron. It was a bad image to leave of Bret Hart in the minds of the viewers, plus there was no drama during the entire scene. Other than that low point in the PPV, I found myself being frustrated by the feeling that several other of the matches were abbreviated and cut short on what they could have been. This was especially true of the Mysterio-Punk match. Those two deserve a good 20 minutes to showcase their talents. As for the Divas match - yes, it will be panned by most of the Torch faithful, but I always find it interesting to see how much of Gail Kim's anatomy the WWE can expose and still pretend they are doing a "PG" rated show. Let's also realize that Vickie Guerrero is the third best heel in WWE after Jericho and Punk. Finally, the main event went exactly as it should have. Like everybody else, though, I think a certain element of the storytelling was missed by not having a high quality play-by-play announcer. The very moment the ref struck the mat a third time screamed out for one of Jim Ross's classic epithets.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE PPV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the PPV, click here.

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