Bravo.
WWE can talk about 'Once in a Lifetime' and 'End of an Era' all they want, but this is what I'll remember WM28 for.
Response from last thread:
[quote name='masked lemon']I get what you are saying, but what exactly did you want them to do with the cell? You say you wanted the cell used more in the match, what other way could it have been used besides as a weapon, because like I said, you surely don't expect them to climb it.
I don't think it needed to be a hiac match either, but for different reasons. I don't think at this point an Undertaker Wrestlemania match needs any extra gimmicks added to it. The streak is more than enough to make it a compelling match.
It's been pretty much established that normal wrestling isn't enough to beat UT, so I feel weapons are fine in the match. Neither of these men can put on technical clinics, so we get a hardcore style match, and I'm fine with that.
You're not wrong for not liking the match, that's your opinion. I just felt like opening a debate about what more you would have liked to have seen. I personally thought the match was great, but I would have liked to have seen a Last Ride, and I would have done away with the ref run in. More finisher reversals would have been good also.[/QUOTE]
That's fair. It's tough to armchair book it from the perspective of not wanting it to be HiaC anyway, but I would have at least gone outside. A nice 'driven through a panel' spot would've worked for me, possibly leading to the destruction of the (shockingly still standing by the end of the event) Spanish announce table. Taking that further, if they're outside, it's pretty easy and not extremely dangerous to do a table spot that doesn't involve climbing all the way up, similar to the first HiaC match. Working that into the context of the match, HHH beats Taker down, somehow ends up driving him through the cage wall. Taker no sells, sits up, HHH's escape is blocked by the fallen cage portion on one side and Taker on the other, so he starts climbing up. Gets a few feet up, Taker pulls him off and through the annouce table. HHH gets time to recover because Michaels won't let Taker near him. The rest of the match can play out the same way.
The flipside of that idea would be to have Michaels be behind whoever goes through the cage, leading to a series of pinfalls, submissions, whatever, where there just isn't a ref. Build it so each man has technically 'won' a number of falls without winning the match.
I'm pulling these out of my ass, so I won't even claim they're good ideas. At the very least, though, they make use of the caged environment.
I agree that the matches don't need gimmicks, but my armchair booking idea last night was to have made it a casket match. Same build, but now you have the added 'oomph' of Taker reminding both Michaels and HHH that it's the match which cost HBK four years of his career, and almost ended it completely. If you're going to work with the history of these men, it's a way to use a gimmick that actually means something. It adds more drama to it, because it wouldn't just be Michaels helping a friend to do what he couldn't... it'd be him remembering just how much Taker has cost him.
Anyway, it was an okay match. What baffles me is how much praise it seems to be getting. I'm more than happy to agree to disagree on this one, but I didn't think it was that special. I ranted about it already, but the 'end of an era' thing bugged me, since it seemed like WWE was promoting it like there was so much on the line... but they never bothered to tell us what. Taker loses, the Streak ends. Fine. HHH loses, and... uh... yeah. I have no idea. Overall, I'm disappointed that they went with repeats instead of laying out a unique match that really fit the occassion.