WrestleMania 25: Heaven and hell
- Jose Alfonso Taboada
- Feb 15, 2021
- 8 min read
April 5th, 2009
Location: Houston, Texas
Venue: Reliant Stadium
Attendance: 72,744
Theme songs: "Shoot to Thrill" and "War Machine" by AC/DC
It’s a milestone year for the WWE as they were ready to present the 25th edition of WrestleMania. It would be promoted as the “25th anniversary.” While the thought was there, it technically wasn’t the 25th anniversary? Just roll with it.
Houston would host its first WrestleMania in eight years, this time in Reliant Stadium. The event may have been subpar, but nobody anticipated what could be the best WrestleMania match of all time.
A giant silver star was set as the stage entrance as 70,000+ were in attendance to get the party started. The opening video package that comes before “America the Beautiful” opened the broadcast in a change of pace. WWE superstars shared their favorite WrestleMania moments in the last 25 years.
Nicole Scherzinger would be the one who sang "America the Beautiful" as the pyro soon went off to get WrestleMania 25 off and running.
WrestleMania 25 would quietly see the end of an era. Jim Ross, the most recognizable voice in WWE history, called his final WrestleMania from start to finish. He would come back over the years for a match or two. Eventually, he would leave the company and find other opportunities to do play-by-play.
Eight matches were scheduled for the night. WrestleMania 25 opened with the 5th Money in the Bank ladder match. For a second consecutive year, CM Punk would climb the ladder and gain another championship opportunity. Punk would be the only one to this day who won back-to-back Money in the Bank ladder matches.
Chris Jericho went a bit crazy in 2009 as he began a rivalry with actor Mickey Rourke after he acted in the film “The Wrestler.” The movie was about the appreciation of older wrestlers who continued to do what they love. For some odd reason, Jericho didn’t want to appreciate individuals who continued to wrestle way past their prime.
All of that culminated into a 3-on-1 elimination handicap match at WrestleMania in which Jericho would face Hall of Famers Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
Jericho would eliminate all of them and leave WrestleMania with the victory. After the match, Jericho challenged Rourke to a fight. Unfortunately for Y2J, Rourke would land a punch and knocked him down.
This may have seemed pointless, but it was nice for the WWE Legends to be back on the grand stage.
In another brother vs. brother match at WrestleMania, Matt and Jeff Hardy would fight in an Extreme Rules match after Matt turned on his brother at the Royal Rumble a few months prior.
Jeff came close to winning, but once Matt put his head in between a seat and executed his signature “Twist of Fate,” it was lights out. Like I said at WrestleMania 10, siblings fight all the time. This was taken to another level.
For the first time since WrestleMania 18, the Intercontinental Championship was on the line as John “Bradshaw” Layfield defended his title against Rey Mysterio. The once prestigious Intercontinental Championship was absent or, the champion was involved in another program.
In just 21 seconds, Rey Mysterio got the best of JBL and stole the win, making it one of the fastest WrestleMania matches in history. At the end of the match, JBL grabbed a microphone and quit the company, marking his official retirement.
Finally, in a dull main event for the WWE Championship, Triple H would hang on to his title against Randy Orton.
It’s already bad enough when you know that (excluding WrestleMania 23 due to injury) Triple H had been involved in a World Championship match in every WrestleMania since 18 in Toronto.
It’s been said by critics that Orton and Triple H never had chemistry in the match. Not to mention, you shouldn’t hear the referee tell Triple H, “Hey, wrap it up. We have five minutes left.”
While Triple H would continue to compete at WrestleMania, this would be his final World Championship match until 2016 in Dallas. Thank goodness for a break in between.
Miss WrestleMania is who?
If you’ve been paying attention to my last three or four posts, you’ll see that I’ve barely brought up the women who were competing at WrestleMania.
Simply put, they were involved in terrible matches. From pillow fights to evening gown matches, you can tell that WWE only had women involved for our quote-on-quote “entertainment.”
Of course, props to women like Trish Stratus, Mickie James, Victoria, Lita, etc., who gave it their all when they were competing for the Women’s Championship. When women weren’t given a proper platform, individuals like the examples I listed were the small light for women’s wrestling.
Heck, by WrestleMania 25, a second women’s title named “Divas Championship” was used as an “alternative” but would eventually replace the coveted Women’s Championship.
In Houston, the women never had a championship match. Instead, the first-ever “Miss WrestleMania” would be crowned in a battle royal. It featured current talent and past female personalities such as Sunny and Miss Jackie.
If you want to pinpoint a moment where the women of WWE reached a low point at WrestleMania, look no further than this battle royal.
Beth Pheonix was last eliminated by a female who was never seen in WWE up until that moment. Her name was Santina Marella, who so happened to be Santino Marella’s twin sister.
Let’s point out the obvious. WWE asked Santino Marella, one of their male talent, to dress up like a woman to win a WOMEN’S battle royal.
An “emotional” Santina began to shake and cry “tears of joy” when Candice Michelle put on a crown on “her” head and a sash that said “Miss WrestleMania.”
I bring this up because this was probably the worst moment of the night, and it’s awful for the women to go through that. They deserve so much better, and it would take years before they’re taken seriously in WWE. For now, it’s just a never-ending hell of horrible booking and embarrassing moments.
Cena's strong
I know I made a point of Triple H in many World Championship matches, but let’s not forget who’s also continuing to be in the world title picture.
John Cena was entering his fifth consecutive World Championship match at WrestleMania, the sixth straight championship match if you want to include his US Title bout at WrestleMania 20.
The reason I bring this up was because of how weird the lead up was. I love to joke around with my friends, saying that WWE is my favorite soap opera. However, the storyline for this title fight did feel like a soap opera.
World Heavyweight Champion Edge was (storyline) married to Vickie Guerrero and was part of a faction known as “La Familia” (Spanish for “The Family"). Guerrero (who was the general manager of SmackDown) announced that Edge would be taking on the Big Show at WrestleMania.
On the other hand, Cena was mad that he wouldn’t get an opportunity after losing the title to Edge at No Way Out.
This is where that “soap opera” aspect comes into play. Just as Edge and Big Show were about to sign the contract to make their match official, Cena came out, whispered something in Guerrero’s ear, and walked off. Vickie freaked out, and the following week, she added Cena into the match, making it a triple threat.
It turns out Cena had dirt on Vickie. He had footage of Vickie having an affair with the Big Show! Isn’t WWE TV great? I’ll jump ahead to WrestleMania.
The match lasted nearly 15 minutes. As much as I criticize WWE for how they used Cena, I must give credit for what this man did to win.
Edge was sitting at the top of the turnbuckle, trying to hop onto the Big Show and gain some control over him.
Cena suddenly came rushing in and picked up Show for his Attitude Adjustment. However, Edge was already on top of Show, meaning that Cena was lifting over 700 pounds.
The crowd got up in amazement, as well as those watching at home. Cena showed the world he’s freakishly strong and would execute that Attitude Adjustment to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
All I can say is hot damn, Cena. Hot damn.
The lightness and the darkness
The Road to WrestleMania for The Undertaker was an interesting one. “The Deadman” wasn’t feuding with anybody leading up to the big day.
Instead, the focus was turned for people to compete against each other to earn the right to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania and conquer his undefeated winning streak.
JBL and Shawn Michaels competed on Raw to see who was heading to WrestleMania for that honor. Michaels would defeat the Intercontinental Champion, and Undertaker’s opponent was determined.
Understanding that Undertaker focused on the darkness around him, the “Heartbreak Kid” (HBK) would begin playing his own mind games towards the Deadman.
HBK began dressing up in white attire to represent himself as the light of the WWE or, in other words, God. Michaels started to bringing up references from the bible on how light would come into the world as darkness tried to take over.
In a fitting matter, the story was executed to perfection as both began to play mind games with each other. Considering how great both had performed in past WrestleManias, you couldn’t find two better opponents to square off against one another.
The big day came, and Michaels continued his theme of the heavens, descending from a platform with light shining on him. As for The Undertaker? He ascended from under the stage to represent the depths of hell. Two opposites would come together and put on an absolute classic.
The match went on for just over a half-hour, the longest bout of the night. They would go back-and-forth, showing why they’re the best performers in WrestleMania history.
One of the first big moments of the night came when Michaels was outside of the ring, and Undertaker was ready to jump over the ropes and onto HBK.
As Undertaker was midway through his jump, Michaels grabbed the nearest cameraman and put the poor soul in front of ‘Taker.
Unfortunately, the cameraman wasn’t in the proper position, and Undertaker landed on his neck, who would thankfully be alright.
After a continuous exchange of chokeslams and superkicks, Michaels went up to the turnbuckle for a moonsault to try and get Undertaker.
Instead, Undertaker grabbed Michaels mid-air and would give him his Tombstone Piledriver and picked up the win.
It has been regarded as one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time, and both men have nothing to be ashamed about for their performances. For nearly the entire match, fans rarely sat down and were glued to what was unfolding in front of them.
Shawn Michaels came close, but ultimately was the next victim of “The Streak.” The Undertaker grew to 17-0.
Final thoughts
I was on a stretch of amazing WrestleManias. Unfortunately, that streak stops here as WrestleMania 25 was easily forgettable.
If it wasn’t for Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania 25 might have been included in the “worst WrestleMania” pile. I think WWE caught a massive break having such a classic on their hands.
The two World Championship matches, unfortunately, were boring. The women were put in a horrible spot. Jericho and a bunch of legends? It felt unnecessary.
Around this time in my life, I started to tune away from WWE as I was beginning to outgrow it. I remember being at my cousin’s place trying to watch this but eventually said never mind. As I watched it this time around, thank goodness I did.
There’s not much else to say about WrestleMania 25 as it’s merely a matter of moving on and getting ready for the following year.
It would take us to the desert as Arizona made sure WrestleMania felt the heat. Unfortunately, the world would see another conclusion of an epic career. It would leave WWE fans all over the world heartbroken.
Results:
- CM Punk def. Christian, Finlay, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Montel Vontavious Porter and Shelton Benjamin – Money in the Bank ladder match
- Santina Marella wins 25-woman “Miss WrestleMania” battle royal
- Chris Jericho def. Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat, and Roddy Piper – Handicap elimination match
- Matt Hardy def. Jeff Hardy – Extreme Rules match
- Rey Mysterio def. John “Bradshaw” Layfield (c) – Intercontinental Championship
- The Undertaker def. Shawn Michaels
- John Cena def. Big Show and Edge (c) – World Heavyweight Championship
- Triple H (c) def. Randy Orton – WWE Championship
Rating: C-
Thanks for reading. Look out for tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 26.
10 days away until WrestleMania 35.
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