Top 5 performers at WrestleMania 29
The Undertaker (Image courtesy wrestlebloggers.blogspot.in)
Hello folks! WrestleMania 29 is done and dusted, and we’ve already seen the aftershocks on Monday Night RAW. WrestleMania 29 was a huge financial success, although most of the matches were underwhelming, and the build and hype surrounding the event was very less compared to all the previous WrestleManias. There were about 10 matches announced for the big event including the pre-show, but the mixed tag team match between Tons of Funk and Funkadactyls vs Team Rhodes Scholars and the Bella Twins was nixed at the last minute, so as to squeeze in more time for the three main matches to end the show.
Now, going into the event, everyone expected strong showing from the three main events as it is, and also from certain performers like Chris Jericho and Curtis, aka Fandango, who are two phenomenal athletes. The fans were also hoping for some kind of swerve to happen; a possible Cena heel turn or Punk defeating the Undertaker (Although that number was pretty small). At the end of the event, I pick five top performers coming out of WrestleMania 29, and give my thoughts and analysis about why I picked them over others on the card.
5. Paul Heyman
At number 5, we have perhaps the most brilliant mind in wrestling industry today, Paul Heyman. Heyman pulled a double duty on Sunday, as he was in the corners of both CM Punk and Brock Lesnar for their matches. Paul knows the business inside out and added to the drama of both the matches. Starting off with the Taker-Punk match, Heyman was a valuable addition to the saga between Taker and the Second City Saint. During the match, Paul told a great story at ringside (Watch his expressions carefully if you’re a student of the game. No pun intended). He made it believable for the fans that Punk might just win the match, with him telling Punk that he got ever so close to pinning the Dead man. Heyman kept telling Punk that he was ‘half a second short’, and then ‘just a quarter of a second short’ from beating The Undertaker. Those are the small nuances a great manager takes care of, and that’s exactly what Heyman did. This earned Heyman the 5th spot on my list, even though he wasn’t featured in a match on the card.
4. Triple H
The fourth performer on my list is The Game, Triple H. Hunter had a good brawl with Brock Lesnar and after nearly 23 minutes, he won his match. Going into the event, everyone expected an all out brawl between him and Brock, as Brock is a legitimate fighter, and the No Holds Barred stipulation meant that these two guys would just have a go at each other. In previous years, Paul could put good, in fact great matches only with those who were top level performers – the HBKs, Undertakers and so on. But at WrestleMania 29, he had a good match with Lesnar, which told a lot of story between the two, and the timings of their spots were really good. Hunter also sold the beat down he received from Lesnar well, which was a valuable addition. Where will Hunter go from here? We have to wait and see, but if he keeps performing at this level at least once a year, there is no need for him to ‘retire’ officially.
3. Brock Lesnar
We have the man who brought legitimacy back to the WWE – Brock Lesnar. Going into the event, most of us expected Lesnar to lose. We saw it coming due to the stipulations, as well as the storyline between these two men. Lesnar dominated the match early, and even though it was a No Holds Barred match, he absolutely destroyed Hunter with the overhead throws. It was only during the end that Triple H made a comeback and won the match, but Lesnar was the guy who brought the ‘brawler’ out of Hunter. Their match was exciting, and although it fell short of some people’s expectations, it was enough to be the second best match on the night. This also puts Lesnar at number 3 in my list.
2. Undertaker
I guess this wasn’t a surprise for anyone. Taker and Punk had the best match of the night, hands down. At the age of 48, Taker put on the best match of the night for the 5th consecutive year at a WrestleMania. Do we need to see Taker retire while he can still outperform the rest of the locker room? As a Taker fan, I’d say no. Starting with his awe inspiring entrance till the very end when he left the ring with the urn in his hand, The Undertaker was at the top of his game and NY NJ fans knew it. They all gave the Dead man a standing ovation at the end of the match, and even though the ‘You still got it’ chant doesn’t make sense, he has more ‘it’ than the entire roster. Although he could have topped my list, there was one other person who deserved it as much as The Undertaker, and since he lost at WrestleMania, I decided to give him the honours here.
1. CM Punk
I bet everyone saw this coming, huh? Yes, I am a CM Punk guy, but the performance he put at WrestleMania earns him the number 1 spot on my list. His match with The Undertaker kind of saved the PPV, as the rest of the card, except for the Brock-Triple H bout, fell way short of everyone’s expectations. The reason I did not include anyone else was because, frankly, no one else deserved it. Cena-Rock was one of the worst main events at WrestleMania in recent memory (Well, let’s just conveniently forget the main events Cena performed in); the Jericho-Fandango match got very less time and the gimmick of Fandango slowed down the flow of the match. In the end, even though Punk couldn’t end the streak, he went out with all guns blazing. I for one, would love to see a rematch between the two during the next WrestleMania, but would like WWE to build and hype their feud better, as there is so much they can do with these two great athletes.
Well, that does it from me for now. If you agree or disagree with my list, do feel free to drop some comments below. Until next time, like the NJ crowd sang, ‘Do do, do do do do do’.