It’s Wrestlemania week, and I can’t contain my excitement. This card actually looks pretty good, and Wrestlemania season always brings my fan level up, no matter how apathetic I am to WWE the rest of the year.
So for my final Wolski’s Wrestling Ramblings this week, I want to talk about my first Wrestlemania and what it meant to me.
I started being a wrestling fan in 2009, a mythical time back when SuperCenatm was in full swing, CM Punk was doing the great Straight Edge Society gimmick, and my favorite thing at the time was Shawn Michaels and Triple H in D-Generation X.
I was at the ripe age of 13, and still had doubts on what was real and what was choreographed. I knew the results were predetermined, but that was about it, which made it super exciting to watch.
My dad took me to the Raw in Dayton in January 2010 where Bret “Hitman” Hart made his return to WWE. He was my dad’s favorite wrestler, and it was an awesome time.
So due to his return and my interest, my dad ordered Wrestlemania 26 and we watched it together.
This was a weird time in WWE where they were trying to make new stars, but the wrestlers would either not live up to expectations, or the company would cut their legs out from under them. Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz were superstars that the WWE was trying to make happen during this time.
The only one that really made an immediate impact was Sheamus, who beat John Cena for the WWE title in the first year of his career, much to my shock. I hated Sheamus at first, but started to like him in the back of my mind since he started wrestling right when my fandom started.
The Miz was also on the rise, and was given the slow meteoric rise, winning the US title, and the tag team championships with the Big Show. He’d later win Money in the Bank later in the year and win the WWE championship in November by cashing in on Randy Orton.
But on to the Wrestlemania 26 card. Looking back, it was pretty stacked. The main event was Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker, with Michaels career on the line. I never saw the first match between the two, but was super invested in the story of Michaels obsessing over beating Taker.
The match was phenomenal, and was one of my all time favorites for a while. The drama, the moves and the little doubt in my mind that made me think Michaels would win all contributed to make this a great main event. A year or so later, I would see their match at Wrestlemania 25, which I think was just a hair better than this one. Both were great in their own way though.
The WWE championship match was John Cena vs Batista. This was at the height of Batista’s great heel run and was a nice back and forth powerhouse match. It ended kinda lame with Cena just bouncing back from a Batista bomb and making him tap out, but it’s how every Cena match went at the time. Nothing too offensive there.
The World Heavyweight title was also on the line with Chris Jericho defending against Edge, who won the Royal Rumble after a career-threatening achilles tendon injury. The two were tag team partners and won the belts in the summer, but Edge would suffer the injury a week into their reign.
This led to Jericho getting the Big Show as his replacement partner, which turned into some great TV that year. Throughout the whole time, Jericho was talking smack about Edge being injury prone, which only led to more animosity between the two.
This was my introduction to Edge, and I loved his rock star look and attitude, and I enjoyed chanting “SPEAR, SPEAR, SPEAR” along with him. These two had a really good match full of nice technical sequences and reversals. Plus the ending was awesome as Jericho stole the victory and kept his title, but was brutally speared through the barricade by Edge.
The other huge match was Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon in a fight for revenge, as both were still steaming over the Montreal Screwjob. At the time I was excited to see it, but the build was stupid in hindsight. They didn’t need to have Vince kick Bret in the balls or do the whole fake broken leg thing.
All they would’ve needed to do was show some video packages of the Montreal Screwjob, and maybe play “Wrestling With Shadows” on USA Network to show why they hate each other. Plus the match was just a really bad, way too long beatdown of McMahon by Hart. It was a 10 minute affair that should have lasted two. However, if this gave Hart some closure, it was worth it.
The rest of the card was kinda forgettable, as Randy Orton won a triple threat with the other members of legacy. Big Show and Miz won a tag team match, Rey Mysterio beat CM Punk in a really short match, and the women were thrown in a short 10 man tag.
The only other match that stuck with me was Sheamus vs Triple H, since I was a fan of both men. They had a nice little match that told a good story of Sheamus making a rookie mistake and paying for it.
Overall, it was a middle of the road Mania, with a lot of wrestlers transitioning into part time roles and a lot of younger guys were being groomed for bigger pushes. It’s interesting to watch now, but as a teenager I was into every match and loved the spectacle of it all.
I’m not that enthusiastic about it nowadays, but I’ll always remember watching Wrestlemania 26 with my dad, and the sense of wonder you can get when wrestling is on point.
Who knows, I may get that from this year’s event. Most of the matches from Smackdown are going to be awesome. Nakamura and Styles, Asuka and Charlotte, the four-way for the US title and the tag title three-way match could all steal the show (I’m personally rooting for my guys, The New Day).
See you on Monday, and let me know what your first Wrestlemania was. How’d it make you feel back then and what do you feel upon retrospect? What match was the best from that event? What are you looking forward to for this year’s Mania?
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor
