[Stu]

Anyway here's a copy and paste job of my show review/uberrant from the UKFF forums :

I'm still not sure what to think of the show, and I'm halfway through watching it for a second time now. One thing I find that is starting to happen every year with me is that I get so pumped for the big event that by the time the main event comes on at half three in the morning I'm so sick and tired of the overbearing pageantry of it all that I'm really looking foward to the next nights Raw and even the upcoming B-Show so that a sense of normality can ensue. Another sad thing is that the company went all out to be EntertainmentMania this year. As some people are more than willing to point out I know that it's been sports entertainment for years now but they really, really hammered it home this year with all the little things. The use of certain phrases was more noticeable than ever - even this time last year. Cole's show opening introduction went something along the lines of 'this is the epitome of Americana, the epitome of pop culture and entertainment'.

The desperate thing about all of this is not that it's so shameful and heretical etc that they are shunning our glorious wrestling it's just the fact that it's totally, ridiculously unbelievable. It's a wrestling entertainment event that people bought for their hard earned dollar because they like that particular medium of entertainment. WWE are now past treating it as a medium. It's just entertainment. They have not actually got an adjective to describe what the contents of a match are. No real word to describe what happens from bell to bell. It's just so hysterically unreal because for all the grandstanding about it being an entertainment phenomenon let's face it ... it's just a very well advertised wrestling event with a smattering of celebrity. It's going to get a small box on the bottom corner of disposable celebrity websites - and that's if they are lucky. It's not an entertainment phenomenon. It's a really well known wrestling PPV that gets massive attention in wrestling circles, a healthy amount of attention in the host city, and a smattering of attention everywhere else.

The show itself was just all over the house pace wise. I can only assume the script went through endless screenings and redrafts by a small army of people who all had conflicting ideas. It's become a major problem with WrestleMania over the past few years that was exposed at it's worst here and it really needs to be addressed next year. The show was four hours long and managed to look both too full and too empty. Every year they try and do so much with video packages, silly celebrity bits and airport runways masquerading as aisleways that some of the matches appear tragically short or even cut altogether. The old three hour shows compared to last night managed to seem far longer, more enjoyable and flowed better. I'm not complaining about the length, celebrities or entranceway just the clearly horrible execution of it all that leaves the show looking as if it was organized by a child with ADHD.

The opening video was gash, but that was expected. Black and white images, Freddie Blassie, and orchestral music is wrestling. Throwaway cock rock and CGI is entertainment, brother. The Rock's segment went on far, far too long and he really didn't work around the crowd and the massive dead air that exists in these stadiums. Waiting for a fruity pebble chant to take off was painful to watch and like the rest of his segments that night he didn't really do much, didn't really host much, and just sounded like he was Dwayne Johnson playing The Rock in a movie about the WWE. I expected him to bump into a myriad of stars and take the piss out of each and every one of them. I did expect Mean Gene and Moolah to crop up somewhere in that but by christ did I expect more.

I can see where they were coming from positioning a main event match as the curtain jerker but sorry, no. It doesn't work. I enjoyed the match a lot for what it was though. Don't see the big deal in Edge banging up Del Rio's car as a face. Certain faces can get away with that and it's not as if he is white meat anyway. The problem was it dragged out for far too long and the car didn't sell a bit of it. I really wanted a Christian heel turn here because I honestly don't see much value in him being the short haired, less charismatic counterpart to Edge.

Cody and Rey was just fine. The mask spot was interesting even if Rey's intent on continuing with his tradition of having headgear trouble at WrestleMania. I was looking at the UKFF chatbox for the duration of The Corre's match but I despair for Wade Barrett. I really hope he is not ruined. Given the WWE's booking these days he could easily **** off for six months, come back, win the title for six minutes, and end up wrestling the exact same match at next year's WrestleMania.

Punk/Orton was a bit boring. Generic grudge match and Punk didn't do any wonders in making a Randy Orton match seem in any way dynamic or interesting. Michael 'Rick Steiner' Cole Vs. King was great apart from a dud bit in the middle that reeked of Hart/Vince from a year prior. Still I love that he won and I love that he was dressed like he escaped from Wrestlers Prison. HIS NOT READY YET!

Triple H and 'Taker ... that took awhile to get going, didn't it? It started so fast that it managed to burn me out in just the complete opposite way anything is meant to burn anyone out. I can see what they were going for though to be fair to the lads. Triple H isin't Michaels and this match was never going to top the previous two years efforts. Just get outside the ring and **** things up straight away. The last ten minutes were fantastic though. The Triple H piledriver was absoloutely awesome and the count got me big time. 'Taker almost killed himself to get the match working and Triple H was no slouch either. He sold the entire story of it brilliantly.

Snooki needs to be a diva. Like ... now.

The main event was absoloute pants. The DQ finish was both unnecessary and highly awkward.