Why is wrestlemania 24 so expensive

He went to the top rope, but Undertaker shoved him. Edge went crashing to the floor. You know what that means? Undertaker ran the ropes and jumped over the top rope onto Edge on the floor. That no hands plancha by Undertaker is one of the most impressive moves in the business. The crowd was pretty quiet early on, but ever signature Undertaker spot generated a good reaction.

Undertaker went for the Last Ride. Edge gave him a boot to the face for the count of two. Edge threw Undertaker over the security wall so Undertaker was in the front row. He took the bump back first too. Edge rolled him back in the ring for a count of two.

The focus on the back continued by Edge. He applied a single leg Boston Crab variation with his knee buried into the back of Undertaker. Undertaker fought out of the hold as well as another leg submission hold. Undertaker won the slugfest. He hit two corner splashes, then the Snake Eyes and Edge countered the big boot with a dropkick to the face. That was sweet. The match kicked into another gear at this point. The crowd became louder too. Undertaker went for a chokeslam.

Edge countered with the leaping Edgecution DDT for two. Another sweet counter gets two. Undertaker hit a chokeslam for two. Edge prevented the Old School Clothesline again, crotching Undertaker on the top rope. Edge hit a superplex for two. Edge gave Undertaker punches in the corner, then posed in the corner and Edge countered the Last Ride into a neckbreaker for two.

Undertaker came back with the Last Ride powerbomb for one…two…no. Terrific nearfall right there. Undertaker went for the Tombstone. Edge slipped out of it and hit the Edge-o-matic neckbreaker for two. Undertaker came back. He finally hit the Old School Clothesline. Big boot was avoided by Edge, so Undertaker gave the boot to referee Jimmy Korderas. Reverse DDT for Edge. Undertaker gave him a choke, so Edge kicked him in the nuts. No ref to see the disqualification there.

Edge stole a camera. That was a nod to Survivor Series when he hit Undertaker in the head with a camera. He hit Undertaker in the head here. Cena goes for the double FU, but Hunter slips off at the last moment. The greatest compliment I can pay a match is being afraid of it ending, and this is one of those matches.

The action is non-stop the entire time, and it flows seamlessly. Some had grief with the fact it was so short, but had it been longer we would have had rest-holds, and moments where everyone is down.

So what we got was all the killer and none of the filler. They tried to book Big Show like a heel, but Mayweather was such a little bitch that Show was being cheered for everything. Unheard of in wrestling. Any stars I give this match are purely for me enjoying the site of Floyd getting hurt. The Undertaker vs. It was different. Edge went full tilt, countering everything from chokelsams to the Old-School, giving The Dead Man a receipt for all of it. Undertaker himself had an answer for everything Edge had as well, from submissions to spears.

Summary: The setting is absolutely gorgeous with the tropical colors and open arena. Everything you expect to deliver does so and then some. The opening match keeps great company as one of the best WM openers of all time. While there were questions about what would happen in the matches, another question simply was what happens if it rains? Thankfully the rain held off. There is something else worth mentioning. If the stories are good people will watch whether the wrestlers are cutting their heads open or not.

The booking and the talent means more than what rating the show has. For me, my interest in the product was restored. I wrote in the WM23 recap that I was barely watching in the second half of because of the Benoit murders. Then Jericho came back. Then I ordered the Rumble and realized just how much I missed it. I only wrote a handful of columns that year. I started with the Raw Deal in the spring of and have been doing it ever since.

The first shot was of some fighter jets flying over the stadium. Very cool. John Legend sang America The Beautiful at the top of the stage.

They aired a video package that featured several different wrestlers talking about how big it was to be on the WrestleMania stage. Like always, the video production team did stellar work. Huge crowd. A year earlier JBL was announcing. He decided to return to the ring. JBL was the heel of course and he was out first. Finlay entered along with Hornswoggle.

Belfast Brawl: JBL vs. Finlay No disqualifications or countouts. You could only win by pinfall or submission in the ring. Early on, Finlay whipped JBL into the ring steps.

Finlay threw weapons in the ring like an idiot, so JBL hit him in the head with a garbage can. Crowd was loud for every trash can lid shot to the head. JBL brought the steel steps in the ring. Finlay gave him a back drop to counter a powerbomb. He destroyed JBL with cookie sheet shots to the head. Steel cookie sheet I should add.

JBL came back with a boot to the face. JBL had the shillelagh of Finlay. Hornswoggle ran in from behind and hit JBL in the back with a kendo stick. Finlay grabbed a table from under the ring. Huge ovation for that.

They fought in the ring with Finlay knocking him down with a left handed clothesline. JBL went to the floor. He decked Hornswoggle with a shot to the head. Is it wrong that I cheered that? JBL went out on the other side of the ring. Finlay charged in, dove between the middle and top rope and JBL crushed him in the head with a trash can lid. Great spot.

In the ring, Finlay kicked out at two. JBL threw a trash can at Hornswoggle. Haha that was funny. He nailed Finlay in the head with a trash can.

Finlay whipped JBL through the table that was set up in the corner. JBL kicked out at two. Nice nearfall. JBL grabbed the kendo stick and hit Finlay in the knee with it. Clothesline from Hell by JBL. He covered for the win at Winner: JBL. The crowd likes weapons being used, so whenever they hit eachother with weapons the response was generally a favorable one.

They are two veteran wrestlers that worked hard and put on a good, physical brawl. I always liked Finlay more as a heel, but he worked well as a babyface in this match. The lovely Kim Kardashian was the guest hostess. I just know she has a ridiculously nice ass, so God bless her for that.

She mentioned the Money in the Bank ladder match being up next. Ken Kennedy showed up to say he would win it for the second year in a row. Easy joke. Had to. There were seven men in the Money in the Bank ladder match. He was a tag champ with Miz and on the ECW brand. In other words, they did not care about the IC, US or tag titles to book them in actual matches.

I remember going into it thinking MVP or Jericho was going to win. It was a weird dynamic with seven guys in the match. They all went to the floor early on except for MVP, who had a ladder in the middle of the ring and hit everybody in the face with it. Jericho hit MVP in the face with the ladder. All six announcers called the match, by the way. Morrison grabbed a ladder, climbed the top rope and did a moonsault backwards onto four of the guys.

Crowd popped big for it. Kennedy made a climb, Jericho stopped it and Morrison climbed up on the other side of the ladder to brawl with Kennedy. Benjamin climbed up on a ladder beside them. They did the tower of doom spot with Benjamin doing a sunset flip off the ladder on Kennedy who gave a suplex to Morrison off the other ladder. Carlito tried to push Shelton off the ladder, but Shelton landed on the top rope. Eventually he fell down, though. Benjamin climbed up.

Kennedy gave Punk a forward roll onto one of the ladders. Benjamin hit a spinning kick on Carlito to put him down. Benjamin climbed up, but Carlito and Kennedy pushed him off so he did a somersault over the top and landed back first onto a ladder that was set up sideways.

Morrison threw a ladder at MVP to prevent him from getting it. Jericho gave Morrison the Walls of Jericho at the top of the ladder. It was still good here, though. Kennedy climbed up, but Jericho was there too.

Kennedy and Punk fell off. Carlito gave Jericho the Back Stabber off the top of the ladder. The only man still standing was MVP. He climbed up. Out of the crowd was Matt Hardy, who was in his ring gear. Crowd popped huge for it. Cole reminded us that MVP had taken out Hardy with a knee injury for the previous five months.

That was a really cool moment. Hardy left through the crowd. Morrison did this spot where he climbed up the ladder on a bad angle and he got thrown off so he was crotched on the top rope. Crazy bump. Carlito climbed. Kennedy shoved him off. Punk nailed Kennedy off a ladder with a shot to the face. Jericho gave Punk the Codebreaker while Punk had a tiny ladder in his hands. Crazy action. Jericho climbed all alone.

Punk recovered. They fought at the top of a ladder. Jericho had it. Punk climbed up and grabbed the briefcase for the win at Winner: CM Punk. It was still a very good match. They did a nice job of doing finishing moves from the top of the ladder.

Some of them were difficult bumps to take, but they pulled it off and impressed me. It was a good kind of surprise because I was always a fan of the guy. That was some nice story continuity. Backstage there were shots of John Cena, Randy Orton and Triple H preparing for their match later in the show in their own locker rooms. There was a video about the Hall of Fame class of , which led to clips of the ceremony from the night before.

He also made a comment towards John Cena at this event too, which was pretty memorable. The last inductee was Ric Flair. Snoop was excited. He brought in Festus for a comedy segment. Santino showed up too. What a gimmick. Mick Foley showed up. Bad comedy. They showed Freddy Prinze Jr. He actually worked for WWE for a few years. Not really. There was a Raw vs.

Smackdown match next. It was Batista from Smackdown versus Umaga from Raw. Batista was in the World Title match the previous two years, so this was a step back for him.

He got a really good reaction. I forgot to mention that Teddy Long introduced Batista. Obviously Umaga was the heel. Batista vs. Umaga I like how they tried to convince us that this was an important match for brand supremacy. Batista gave him a shoulderblock to knock Umaga to the floor. In the ring, Umaga hit a nice spinning heel kick.

Very athletic for a big guy. A kick to the jaw sent Batista to the floor. Hard whip into the corner sent Batista crashing to the mat. Umaga continued the offense with a nice bodyslam. Umaga went to the middle rope and missed a headbutt as Batista rolled away.

Umaga gave him a vice grip. Batista fought out, but Umaga gave him a Samoan Drop. Batista slowed him down with a boot to the face and he blocked the Samoan Spike. Umaga charged and hit skull first into the steel ring post. Batista gave him the spinebuster.

He shook the ropes. Batista hit the Batista Bomb to win at Winner: Batista. The Batista Bomb was impressive at the end. Batista won for Smackdown, which meant absolutely nothing. Batista was fighting for Smackdown, yet he got drafted to Raw soon after this.

They showed a clip of Floyd preparing with his crew. There was a tale of the tape for the match with Show weighing pounds and Mayweather weighing pounds. Kane won it, last defeating Mark Henry. It was the last time too. Kane Chavo was a heel. Kane was too lazy to walk down the aisle, so he showed up through the crowd and was behind Chavo.

Ref rang the bell. Kane gave him a chokeslam. Kane won in 8 seconds. Weak segment. There was a commercial with Carlito talking to Maria. They were having drinks. He battled the seagull, which was biting his nipple at one point.

He beat the seagull with punches. That was a WrestleMania 24 commercial. It was a commercial for an event we were already watching. It was not funny. Actress Raven Simone was in the ring. That makes me feel old. That was good.

Big ovation for that. Michaels was the one that announced that Flair would be an inductee in the Hall of Fame. Michaels said he idolized Flair and called him the greatest wrestler of all time. They skipped ahead to a promo where Vince McMahon told Flair that if he lost one more match then that would be the end of his career. Flair said the best way for him to cap off his career is to wrestle Michaels at WrestleMania.

Flair said he needed to know if he could still go with the best and that was Michaels. Michaels said he would do it.

The intensity picked up on Raw. Flair slapped him in the face. Michaels said he was going to put Flair out of his misery. Backstage, Mike Adamle interviewed Ric Flair. He asked Flair for his game plan. To be the man. They did the intros for the Career Threatening Match. If Flair lost he retired. If Flair won he got to keep wrestling. Michaels came out first. Huge babyface pop. Flair was next. He got a big ovation as well.

In case you were wondering, Flair was 59 years old going into the match while Michaels was It was a big deal. Career Threatening Match: Shawn Michaels vs. They traded some basic holds early. Flair won an exchange with an arm drag. Flair shoved him hard in the chest, so Michaels slapped him in the face and told him he wanted HBK so he got him. Flair chopped him. Flair put him down with a back elbow followed by the patented running knee to the head.

Michaels went up top and Flair threw him off the top rope. Then Flair went up, Michaels went to throw him down, but Flair countered that and Flair hit a cross body.

He hit a move off the top! Flair went for the Figure Four, but Michaels kicked him out to the floor and then gave him a baseball slide dropkick. Michaels went for a springboard moonsault. Flair moved. Michaels went rib first right into the corner of the announce table, which broke it. My God! That had to hurt. Flair gave him a back suplex for two. Flair gave him a double underhook suplex for two. Nobody believed that was it, but JR was yelling about it as if it was close.

Flair gave Michaels a delayed standing vertical suplex for a two count.