Wrestlemania 22:
Big Show & Kane vs Carlito & Chris Masters - ★★
- A standard tag match to open this show. Nothing great and nothing bad, just decent and watchable. It's hard to care when Show and Kane continuously made their opponents look like geeks every week, though. And they do the same here with this easy victory.
RVD vs Shelton Benjamin vs Finlay vs Ric Flair vs Matt Hardy vs Bobby Lashley - ★★★½
- Some people complain that this was too short but I enjoyed this a lot. As usual, there's lots of great spots which is expected when three masters of spots are present (RVD, Hardy and Shelton). There's also a bit of a storyline with Ric Flair being the odd man out who's in his late 50s and looking to recapture the World Title for one final run. He takes a brutal Superplex from the ladder early on and is helped to the back only to come back minutes later. Very fun match and the right man wins with RVD, who had been looking for his breakout into main event status for years after being directionless for so long.
JBL vs Chris Benoit - ★★★
- Such a waste of Benoit in this one. But still, they manage to pull something okay out of this. Just a standard Benoit match that is better for TV standards but not Wrestlemania worthy. I also thought all the constant raping of Eddie's corpse unnecessary. I can understand with Rey since he was the center of the event for months but Benoit had stayed away from any Eddie exploitation for months and for no reason, they have JBL mock Eddie despite the fact, it had nothing to do with whatever story they had going here. JBL reverses a Crossface into a roll-up and uses the ropes to become US Champion. Pretty short and enjoyable but it has its faults.
Edge vs Mick Foley - ★★★★
- A brutal match. Now this is not on par with Foley's classics in the past against the likes of HHH, The Rock or Orton but it is very good in its own right. Lots of brutal parts with Edge falling onto thumbtacks, mandible claw with barbwire and last but not least, the ending as Edge spears Foley through a flaming table. I still don't know how the fire was off as soon as they went through it. One of the greatest Wrestlemania moments ever and this also gave Foley his own moment since his WM record was understating his legacy before this.
The Boogeyman vs Booker T - ½★
- Not zero worthy like I expected it to be but still garbage. I really feel sorry for Booker T. It's like a nightmare for him whenever a "big" PPV comes around. His SummerSlam record doesn't have one single win in it and at WM, he's been screwed over 3 times at least. From jobbing at WM19 when it should've been his moment to being left off 21's card and now this? I guess the payoff was that he would finally get his break into the main event if he agreed to job to the Boogeyman.
Mickie James vs Trish Stratus - ★★★¼
- Quite possibly the best women's match I've seen. From the awesome build-up to the match itself, they deliver completely. The crowd is also hilarious as they boo Trish and cheer Mickie which leads to some special comments from JR and Lawler. Even though it's removed from the DVD version, Mickie James grabbing onto Trish's crotch and doing the V-lick is a classic. I bring the rating down by ¼ because of the botched finish. Trish failed to lift Mickie for the Stratusfaction stealing and instead, Mickie had to improvise and deliver a rushed Chick Kick.
Undertaker vs Mark Henry - ★★¼
- Once again, a waste of another top talent on the roster. Undertaker could've gotten a better opponent but instead got stuck with Mark Henry. Match is slow and kinda boring but Taker does his very best to make it work as he delivers an awesome over-the-top-rope dive and gives Henry a perfect Tombstone. It's kinda surprising because he was barely able to execute the Last Ride and almost landed Henry on his head had he dropped him one second later. The streak continues but is overshadowed by other stuff in this event.
Shawn Michaels vs Vince McMahon - ★★★
- I think I've already shown my disdain for the build-up to this. Absolutely horrendous but at least the payoff is worth watching as Shawn absolutely destroys Vince for almost the entire match-up. Spirit Squad and Shane interfere but they all fail at bringing Shawn down. Once Shane is handcuffed to the ropes, it's all Shawn's to beat the shit out of Vince with chair-shots, ladder shots and everything. The finish is awesome as Shawn brings out an extremely tall ladder and elbows Vince through a table all while Vince's torso is covered by a trashcan. Then the Sweet Chin Music to end it all. Even though I would be lying if I said I didn't like the beatdown, I think this one went on for FAR too long. Almost twenty minutes and so much time was wasted while setting up the spots. I just feel they could've utilized some of that time better as you will see now below.
Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton vs Kurt Angle - ★★★
- The build-up was kind of shit. Orton did awesome in it while Kurt was a generic "respect" babyface and Rey played the sympathetic card by constantly milking Eddie's name. That said, this match should've worked a lot better. Too bad it failed, mainly because of time restrictions. For the second year in a row, Smackdown's main event was screwed over because too much time was spent on bullshit and therefore, this only goes for 9 minutes but during that time, it's a fun match. Non-stop action for the whole match and Orton gave Mysterio one hell of a German Suplex during that double spot in the beginning. I think the booking focused too much on making Angle dominant, though. He makes both opponents tap out behind ref's back and in the end, Rey looks weak despite his victory. Crowd once again play the assholes as they boo him in favor of Kurt Angle.
Torrie Wilson vs Candice Michelle - 0
- Now this is zero worthy material. A complete waste of time and instead of this, they could've given the 7 or so minutes it took to the World Title match to make it into a classic. But nah, this stupid "pillowfight" had to get in there even though there's not a single use of pillows throughout the match.
John Cena vs Triple H - ★★★★
- Definitely better than I remembered and expected it being as I went in. Crowd truly makes this match as they are never quiet for even one second. This truly has that big time atmosphere as Cena's tiny fanbase here gets outdone by the anti-Cena fans who are large in numbers and dominate the place with brutal "Fuck you Cena" chants. Starts off slowly then HHH starts controlling most of the match early on. Ref bump happens and HHH brings out the sledgehammer but Cena kicks out. Then Cena takes over and hits the FU which HHH kicks out of. I like the desperation on his face at this point as he heads for the top rope and tries a Crossbody but misses completely. Fans were in for a surprise here as Cena gets the STFU locked in and makes HHH tap out. Nobody saw it coming and as such, the fans are stunned in silence when HHH taps. Very good match and one hell of a main event. It also looks like the crowd really got to Cena as he is about to cry after the match is over. In the post-game interview, some of that anger is visible on his face as he has some confrontational words to his haters and gives that killer look to the camera.
Overall: ★★★ out of ★★★★★ (WM22 could have been so much better but it was cursed. A classic match-up in the plans between Eddie and Shawn was scrapped because of the former's untimely passing, the World Title were completely changed too and Stone Cold/Hogan was planned but it never happened due to politics. From what we got, they could have done some far better match-ups. Instead of wasting Benoit and Undertaker in two irrelevant matches, they could've had them go one-on-one and put on MOTN. Otherwise, despite the screwy card, most matches managed to bring this up to decent. Main event was good, Hardcore match was good and the midcard of the event also offered some memorable matches. Still - it should have been so much more but what's done is done!)