411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 28: WrestleMania 21

WORST MATCH: Akebono v Big Show: [2 out of 10] This was pretty excruciating to watch. I don’t know what was worse the match or seeing Big Show in a thong! Thankfully it was kept short however, and I guess it was a unique Wrestlemania experience. The match was still horrendous though. Although it has been used to push the Cody/Big Show feud on Smackdown so maybe some good came of this travesty, even if it was nearly 7 years later!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: The Birth of Money in the Bank: Who would have thought that putting 6 (later 8 then 10) men into a ladder match would produce one of the most exciting innovations in recent WWE memory? The ladder match was reborn in 2005, no longer was it on the verge of becoming outdated, and it had re-emerged in a new and more exciting light. The match was so successful it was repeated for the next 5 years until it was given its own PPV, which has been a resounding success. But at the very beginning it was 6 men from the Raw brand putting on a stellar match. It was like watching the first Hell in a Cell and knowing you were witnessing something different that would last, definitely the most influential match from Wrestlemania 21.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Cena and Batista: 2005 was also the year for the most recent breakout of new era defining superstars in the WWE. Batista and Cena (and to a lesser extent Orton and Edge) had become extremely popular leading up to 21, and that night they took over the WWE as the faces of the new generation. Ironically Cena didn’t really have a historic first WWE title win and it was Batista that had the better match out of the two. But obviously it was Cena who had the better run and became the dominant star post Wrestlemania, which must be a sore one for Batista to swallow.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 9 out of 10 – This was the best Wrestlemania post 17, at least in my opinion. The WWE created two of the biggest stars of this generation in one night, showing the power of winning the World Title for the first time at the granddaddy of them all. But it was the undercard that shined brightest at 21, from Orton nearly stealing the streak to Edge becoming the first ever Mr. Money in the Bank. Everything clicked, well everything that didn’t relate to sumo wrestling, a great PPV that is up there with some of the finest on record.

WORST MATCH: JBL vs. John Cena [*½] I didn’t have this as the lowest rated match on the show, but it disappointed more than any other match on the card and didn’t really do its job. This match was supposed to be John Cena’s big moment where he’d emerge as a man ready to carry WWE into the future. It was Cena’s first WWE title win, and he should have had an impressive showing against the man that’d held the WWE title for the past nine months. Instead, we got a match dominated by JBL where Cena looked like he didn’t even belong in the ring with the man, and he got a fluke victory at the end. Cena didn’t have his shining moment, and the match was dull to say the least. Big Show vs. Akebono was a bigger waste of time, but nobody expected that to be any good.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Piper’s Pit with Stone Cold Steve Austin. WrestleMania 21 had a pretty good percentage of the wrestling legend population on it, but the thing I was looking forward to most was seeing the anti-hero of the 80s interact with the anti-hero of the 90s. It didn’t disappoint, as Piper talked some junk, Austin talked some junk, Carlito came out and got beat up, beer was drank, Piper got stunned and good times were had by all.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Batista. Batista’s face turn against Triple H & Ric Flair was as well-booked as anything in WWE during this time period, and it showed in the high buyrate the show got. He came off like an intelligent monster with style that would still destroy people in the ring. It seemed like Batista was going to become the man to carry WWE into the future, along with John Cena. That didn’t exactly happen due to Batista having injury problems before his career ended, but this show was when he got to the next level and became a top guy.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 7 – This WrestleMania had some great stuff on it. Michaels vs. Angle was tremendous, Money in the Bank started a WrestleMania tradition, Undertaker vs. Randy Orton was probably Taker’s first great WrestleMania match, and Batista & Triple H had a good main event. There was also some really bad stuff on it too, like Show vs. Akebono, JBL vs. Cena, Trish Stratus vs. Christy Hemme, and what should have been a classic WM opening match with Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero was marred by Rey constantly adjusting his mask to the point where it distracted from the rest of the match. WrestleMania 21 isn’t quite up to the standards of the WrestleManias of this era, but it was still a fine show.

WORST MATCH: Trish Stratus vs. Christy Hemme [½*] Nothing to see here.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Over the years, we’ve seen Randy Orton bust out some pretty incredible variations of the RKO. However, one of the first major ones came during his match with The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 21 when he reversed the Chokeslam in mid-air into an RKO. It was an awesome moment that people didn’t see coming, and has remained the lasting image of that encounter.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Shelton Benjamin. Sure, Edge won the inaugural Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania 21, but it was Shelton Benjamin who people were talking about well after the show was over. He had a show-stealing performance that night that included huge dives to the outside, Stinger splashes on ladders, T-Bone suplexes off of ladders and of course, the incredible stair-stepping of the ladder leading to a clothesline on Chris Jericho. He set the (golden) standard for what we should expect out of these matches.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 7 – Looking back, this ended up being one of the most historically significant Wrestlemanias we’ve had as it marked the main event arrival of both John Cena and Batista, arguably the two biggest wrestling stars of the second half of the 2000s. Not only that, but it gave us a night filled with great action from top to bottom. The only thing keeping this one from a higher grade was the disappointing WWE Championship match and the absolute waste of time that was Big Show vs. Akebono.