WrestleMania 22: We’re at the Allstate Arena in Chicago this year, the same venue as a portion of Mania 2 and Mania 13. This marks the last time that a WrestleMania was held in a normal arena sized venue (disregarding the lockdown-impacted Mania 36). Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler are on commentary for Raw, and Michael Cole & Tazz for SmackDown.
Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child sings ‘America the Beautiful’ to open, with the accompanying video package following the vaguely military theme of recent years. The true opening video package for the show is the classic Mania highlights package, before it cuts into hype for the biggest matches of the show. The musical theme for the night is Peter Gabriel’s classic ‘Big Time’.
WrestleMania 22: Big Show & Kane vs Carlito & Chris Masters
World Tag Team Championship
Future mainstays of Five Star Wrestling (as The Masters of Cool) are out first to challenge the Big Show and Kane, who are arguably the physically biggest pairing to hold those titles. Unlike the challengers, the Champions come out as a united front.
It’s a battle between wildly differing experience levels, especially at WrestleMania. Both Carlito and Masters are making their in ring debuts at the event, Carlito had a cameo the previous year getting beaten up by Steve Austin and Roddy Piper. Masters gets some early rub but neither he nor Carlito can overcome the size disadvantage. Show in particularly throws both men around with ease. Kane even dives to the floor just to underscore the dominance of the champions.
A sneaky use of an exposed turnbuckle gives Carlito and Masters an opening after Show runs headfirst straight into it. It’s only a brief opening mind you, Kane tagging in to take over. Masters manages to lock in his ‘master lock’ full nelson on Kane but Big Show just kicks him in the face to break it. Some double teaming from the challengers doesn’t work out and Kane hits the ‘Chokeslam’ to Carlito to pin and retain the titles. They lost the titles to the Spirit Squad the following night after falling foul of a 5-on-2 numbers disadvantage.
We go to Jonathan Coachman backstage, who is talking to Shawn Michaels. He predicts that his match later in the night with Vince McMahon will be violent and ‘hell’ for McMahon, instead of being a wrestling classic.
WrestleMania 22: Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Rob Van Dam, Bobby Lashley, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Ric Flair & Shelton Benjamin
The second ever iteration of the match features an interesting mix of names, some of whom seem more suited than others to this stipulation. Shelton Benjamin is walking into his second successive Money in the Bank as the reigning Intercontinental Champion. Bobby Lashley gets talked up by commentary during his entrance, and the rest of the field start the match by going straight for him.
Matt Hardy is the first to grab a ladder, practically straight away, but he gets it kicked into his face. Some early interesting sequences, Shelton Benjamin already a standout with a great run up a ladder and dive. Ric Flair shows he was willing to go all in despite being 57 at the time, taking a suplex right from the top of the ladder. Referees carry him to the back in a moment that seems to be trying for serious ‘reality’ vibes.
It’s the usual multi man ladder match car crash, a bit less high flying than the previous year, but still full of some vicious attacks with the ladders as weapons. Flair makes his way back to the ring and gets into it with Finlay, one of the few times the two transatlantic veterans faced off in the ring. Flair gets a good run in, getting very close to the briefcase before Finlay gets his own back and takes him out. Benjamin & Finlay are fighting at the top of the ladder before Lashley rather messily knocks them down. RVD then takes Lashley out with his own slightly messy attack. Hardy chooses to leg drop Lashley off the ladder rather than go for the briefcase.
A few more big attacks for various people before RVD looks close to victory, ‘ECW’ chants filling the arena. Benjamin springboards onto the ladder to cut him off before he and Hardy are knocked down. RVD grabs the briefcase to win. He would become the first person to announce their cash in ahead of down and win the WWE Title at ‘One Night Stand’ later in the year.
As a match it’s not quite as good as the inaugural version, it seems rushed at times, there are still some good moments, Shelton Benjamin providing at least a couple of them.
Josh Matthews is backstage with Gene Okerlund, who gets cut off by Randy Orton. Orton mocks him and Okerlund walks off, Orton then hyping his chances for the future and predicting his own Hall of Fame induction down the line. Batista then cuts him off, he’s not on the show proper through injury, he sets the stage for his return.
We get to see the Hall of Fame class of 2006, without the headliner Bret Hart, who apparently felt ‘uncomfortable’ appearing. The most emotional moment is the appearance of Vickie and Chavo Guerrero representing the only recently passed Eddie.
WrestleMania 22: Chris Benoit vs John Bradshaw Layfield
WWE United States Championship
Two men connected to that Hall of Fame clash face off for the United States Title, Benoit having helped induct Eddie Guerrero the previous night and Layfield having started his career as part of the New Blackjacks. Big time entrance for JBL, limousine and all.
Commentary predict early on that this will be a physical match, and it lives up to that billing. Benoit has the technical advantage whenever the match goes to the mat. Benoit gets an early attempt at the ‘Crossface’ hold and manages to take over for a while. JBL uses underhanded tactics to fight back, including using Jillian Hall as a human shield, but it doesn’t last long. More cheap shots from JBL, including a mocking reference to Eddie Guerrero, before he his Benoit with a superplex. More mocking, including an attempt at the ‘Three Amigos’ suplexes that gets cut off after two.
Some back and forth before Benoit his the ‘Three Amigos’ to show JBL how it’s done, following it up with a Diving Headbutt for a close two count. JBL uses the referee as a shield to get some distance but gets locked in the ‘Crossface’. Layfield rolls it into a pinfall and grabs the ropes behind the referee’s back for more leverage to get the three count and the victory.
Difficult match to judge, there’s some good heat to it but there’s not all that much interesting action.
WrestleMania 22: Edge vs Mick Foley – Hardcore Match
Edge is deep into his run as the ‘Rated R superstar’, capitalising off the publicity of his affair with Lita and becoming the first man to cash in Money in the Bank. Foley was the guest referee when Edge lost the WWE Championship to John Cena, Edge blaming him. Edge laid down the challenge, Foley turned it into a hardcore match. Iconic ECW announcer Joey Styles joins Lawler & Ross to call the action.
Foley is on top in the first few exchanges but Edge turns it around and the weapons immediately come into play. Some swinging for the fences from Edge with a series of baking trays and road signs. Edge hits a Spear but seems to hurt his shoulder. It turns out Foley had barbed wire wrapped around his body, under his shirt. He removes the top shirt to reveal the classic Cactus Jack red flannel before further torturing Edge with the barbed wire. Foley brings in his barbed wire covered baseball bat, Lita jumps on his back to try and block it before Foley takes all three to the outside.
Foley looks to have an advantage as they fight on the floor but Edge manages to throw him into the steel steps, legs first, in a nasty looking landing. Edge then throws Foley shins first through the same steps. A chair and a table come into play, Foley avoiding a splash through a table by rolling off the table.
Edge starts to ramp things up even further, pouring lighter fluid on Foley before Foley fights back with a piledriver. Foley gets a moment of control, but Lita distracts him to turn the momentum back around. Barbed wire comes back into play, Foley bleeding. Edge finds a huge bag of thumbtacks which he pours on to the mat in one corner of the ring. Foley reverses an attack and slams Edge into the dense pile, Edge’s back looking disgusting. A barbed wire assisted attempt at the Mandible Claw puts Foley back in charge, catching both Edge and Lita with the hold before using the barbed wire bat. Foley spots the lighter fluid from earlier and starts to pour it onto the table that has remained on the outside throughout.
Lita intervenes and sets the table alright, setting up an iconic moment. A blood soaked Edge spears Foley from the apron through the flaming table. Edge pins Foley to win. A great hardcore spectacle, the ramping up of the violence throughout is exponential and all logical.
From the crazy hardcore to the straight crazy. Booker and Sharmell have been haunted by the cartoony Boogeyman for a while heading to this handicap match. Sharmell claims pre-match that Booker is a magnet for weirdo’s, something he denies, but is proven by their collisions with Pirate Paul Burchill, Snitsky licking Mae Young’s feet, and Goldust dressed as Oprah. Ted DiBiase is there for some normalcy. Todd Grisham is chatting to some competition winners on the floor about Snickers before we see a couple of the celebrities in attendance.
WrestleMania 22: The Boogeyman vs Booker T & Queen Sharmell
Sharmell and Booker do a good job of acting despite the goofy nature of the whole situation, looking spooked on the way to the match, Booker making an effort to check under the ring. Boogeyman is classic daft ‘spooky’ nonsense, the whole segment is carrier by Booker and Sharmell’s comical overacting.
The ‘match’ portion of this is mostly Booker and Boogeyman, back and forth for a while. Boogeyman puts worms in his mouth as he was wont to do, before kissing Sharmell with the mouthful to send her running. A powerslam to Booker and Boogeyman wins. Your mileage might vary but this was rubbish, a waste of Booker T that even he and Sharmell being quite entertaining couldn’t save. Moving on.
WrestleMania 22: Trish Stratus vs Mickie James – WWE Women’s Championship
Mickie James had debuted as a Trish superfan and slowly became more and more of a stalker. Thank god it was well acted, James in particular, because this is the kind of material that could have been truly terrible with lesser participants. The video package comes across as a trailer for some kind of erotic horror film, it hits all the story beats. Unfortunately, Jerry Lawler is on commentary so there’s a lot of unnecessary fawning and sexualised comments.
Straight from the off the intensity on show lives up to the build up and after about a minute is already the best women’s match in event history. Even the commentary manages to call the moves, rather than focus on looks or just chatting. Stratus starts out on top but misses a kick and hits the ring post, giving James the advantage for a while. James shows off some submission holds as she tries to wear Stratus down, but also being perfectly happy to throw strikes and pull hair when that doesn’t work. Stratus gets jeered when she comes back, but that’s just Chicago for you.
Really good back and forth before Trish goes for ‘Stratusfaction’. In a moment that has been slightly edited from history, James grabs Stratus by the crotch to distract her. That moment is still on the Network, James following it up by licking her fingers and smiling, is not. James then hits Stratus’ own ‘Chick Kick’ to pin and win the title.
A step forward after too many women’s matches in a row that weren’t wrestling as much as excuses for titillation. It’s not brilliant and it’s one of the shorter matches on the night but it’s a step in the right direction and a sign of where the company could go if it only let the women actually wrestle.
We cut backstage to a heavily tanned Vince McMahon, surrounded by his family, including a pregnant Stephanie. He makes them all kneel and pray, basically taking the mick out of Shawn Michaels’ born again nature. It’s campy silly fun to build that match.
WrestleMania 22: The Undertaker vs Mark Henry – Casket Match
The Undertaker brings another one of his signature matches to WrestleMania with his first Casket Match at the event. Mark Henry cost Undertaker a World Title match on television recently, which seems like asking for trouble with WrestleMania 22 around the corner. Taker’s Druids are out first with the casket itself, followed by Henry, then Undertaker himself. A big run down of Undertaker’s history during his entrance, he’s already being talked up as a certain future Hall of Famer.
Henry starts off on top, ambushing Undertaker early. Undertaker can’t knock Henry down in the ring, but Henry stays on his feet. It’s all power from Henry, Taker almost seeming physically outmatched despite being taller. Henry is the first to call for the casket to be opened but can’t quite get Undertaker into it and Taker comes back.
‘Old School’ doesn’t take Henry off his feet but Taker does get some separation. The two men both end up standing in the casket, a unique moment with the sheer size of the casket on show. Despite having just been in the casket, Henry goes for a pinfall when they get back into the ring, looking really clever in the process. Henry then willingly climbs the ropes and gets caught with a sort of ‘Last Ride’, Undertaker not really getting Henry high enough to call it that. Henry goes to the floor and Undertaker hits the first of what would be a few spectacular suicide dives in his career, this one is a standout because he has to clear the casket. A ‘Tombstone piledriver’ in the ring and Undertaker rolls Henry into the casket and wins the match.
It’s a step down from the previous years effort against Randy Orton but it’s interesting enough. Henry looks strong, it takes a lot to even knock him off his feet. It’s probably the weakest of the era for the Undertaker at Mania but it’s not as bad as some of the earlier Streak matches.
WrestleMania 22: Shawn Michaels vs Mr. McMahon – No Holds Barred
A feud that had spanned four months to this time, McMahon getting increasingly unhinged in his efforts to screw Michaels over, including getting Shane to eliminate Michaels at the Royal Rumble. This is possibly peak delusional Mr. McMahon, he’s not as evil as he used to be, he’s straight up crazy. It feels a lot like the McMahon vs Hulk Hogan feud from a few years prior, except Michaels is in much better shape at this point than Hogan was then.
A missed opportunity during McMahon’s entrance for him to come out to the early version of Michaels’ music where it was McMahon himself singing…
McMahon doesn’t enter the ring straight away; he instead poses next to a picture of his cover appearance for ‘Muscle & Fitness’ magazine. Michaels attacks straight away on the floor. Jim Ross’ headset gets knocked off in the melee and we’re temporarily down to just Lawler. Michaels wraps the magazine cover around McMahons head before the Spirit Squad run down to interfere. The five male cheerleaders had been brought in by McMahon and had been doing his dirty work for a while. They briefly take Michaels down, but he fights them off in comical fashion, McMahon getting back into the match after the distraction.
McMahon makes things uncomfortably physical by choking Michaels with a belt before undercutting it with humour with an OTT display of hype. Michaels then whips McMahon with the belt and follows up with an elbow drop. An attempt at the ‘Sweet Chin Music’ is stopped by a kendo stick waving Shane McMahon, who also brings some handcuffs into play. Vince bares his ass to try and make Michaels kiss it again but it’s Shane who takes a spill into it, ending up handcuffed to the ropes. Michaels get some taunting in before giving Shane a beating with a kendo stick.
Michaels has the match won but decides to get a ladder instead of putting McMahon down with ‘Sweet Chin Music’, Vince already bleeding but taking a ladder shot to the forehead. It’s all Michaels after this, just getting a cathartic beating in on his boss. Vince is laid out on a table and Michaels looks to tease an elbow drop from a ladder, before deciding the ladder is too short and getting a larger one. Solid little bit of physical comedy.
Michaels puts a trash can on Vince’s upper body before finally hitting the long teased Elbow drop, and getting a D-Generation X crotch chop in there as well. Doctors appear to try and take Vince away but Michaels scares them off, fully embracing the DX attitude. The ‘Sweet Chin Music’. The Win.
It’s daft, over the top stuff, but it’s very entertaining. Both Vince and Shane McMahon’s biggest upside in the ring was their willingness to take a beating and put their bodies on the line, and opposite Michaels that’s a very fun combination. The feud between Michaels and the McMahon’s wouldn’t end here, it carried through to June and featured Michaels teaming with ‘God’ in a match, and the return of DX.
WrestleMania 22: Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton
World Heavyweight Championship
Mysterio had won the Royal Rumble in emotional fashion, paying tribute to his friend Eddie Guerrero in the process. Orton was the last man eliminated in that match and had picked on Mysterio’s emotions with some infamously dark promos about Guerrero. Orton had beaten Mysterio to steal away his title shot at No Way Out the previous month, but Mysterio was re-added to the match by Teddy Long due to Orton’s cheating.
Mysterio gets a big entrance with his theme being performed live and Aztec inspired attire. Orton takes Angle out of the match right at the bell by using the title belt itself as a weapon, Angle quickly back in to get some revenge. There’s an early double ‘German Suplex’ from Angle to both of his opponents. No messing about, there’s no stalling and a lot of work between all three men. Plenty of athleticism from all three. There’s a strange edit on the Network version, or a strange line from Tazz, where he says the exact same phrase twice in succession. Mysterio goes for the ‘619’ but gets caught in the ‘Ankle Lock’ from Angle. Orton tries to involve a chair but, despite it being legal in this context, the referee tries to stop him and misses Mysterio tapping out.
Angle throws a series of big suplexes, Tazz invokes ‘Suplex City’ years before that phrase would become Brock Lesnar’s. Angle locks in the ‘Ankle Lock’ on Orton, who taps whilst the referee is again distracted, this time by Mysterio. Orton hits an ‘RKO’ on Angle but Angle kicks out.
Mysterio tries to hit a ‘619’ round the ring post but messes it up, he recovers to get a close pinfall on Angle. More near falls for each man before Mysterio gets a run, knocks Angle out of the ring, hits a ‘619’ and the ‘West Coast Pop’ onto Orton, to pin and win the title.
A fun, rapid match that absolutely flies by, it’s under ten minutes and there’s no fat on it. Great moment for Mysterio becoming World Champion. His reign wouldn’t necessarily live up to this moment but in itself it’s lovely to see. Especially when Mysterio is congratulated on stage by Chavo and Vicki Guerrero, visibly emotional under his mask.
WrestleMania 22: Torrie Wilson vs Candice Michelle – Playboy Pillow Fight
Clearly WWE didn’t want to put two World Championship matches next to each other at the end of the show for a second year. So here we get a pillow fight. Just to balance out the actual wrestling match Mickie James and Trish Stratus apparently.
What is there to say? It’s two women in ball gowns scrappily fighting around a bed in the ring. Torrie Wilson does throw a suplex in there to prove it’s not entirely nonsense, that and an axe handle from Michelle are the two actual wrestling moves in the shole thing. Both women end up in their lingerie, obviously. Oh, and a roll up finishes the match, Torrie Wilson winning.
It happened, moving on.
WrestleMania 22: John Cena vs Triple H – WWE Championship
The streets vs the privileged. Triple H having won a tournament on Raw to claim this title shot. Jim Ross claims on commentary that John Cena has already main evented two WrestleManias, this is actually the first time he’s closed the show. The stage is set up before the match for the crowd to be against Cena, not ridiculous in Chicago.
Triple H rises from under the stage on a throne, starting a tradition of his for ever more ridiculous entrances. The Conan the Barbarian look he seems to be going for here is undercut slightly by the water bottle he always carries. John Cena gets a similarly cinematic entrance, with a prohibition, gangster aesthetic. Cena is preceded to the ring in a 1920s car, with Tommy Gun toting gangster accompaniment, one of whom is famously CM Punk. By this point Cena was already getting his famously mixed reactions from crowds, this one in Chicago are no different. A big turnaround from when he was unanimously a crowd favourite at the previous years show.
A slow opening, the two men circling one another and getting used to the raucously partial crowd. Triple H shows his advantage in the chain wrestling game early on, taking Cena off his game with some technical exchanges. Cena’s strike heavy and relatively simple comebacks get booed immensely. Jim Ross tries to explain Cena as ‘not a bad wrestler, just unorthodox’. That unorthodox style gives Cena some openings as they fight to the outside, Triple H taking a hard landing onto part of the entrance ramp.
That doesn’t keep Triple H down for long as he takes over to a chorus of duelling ‘Let’s go Cena/Cena Sucks’ chants. Triple H seems to be enjoying his widespread support in the building and dominates with some homages to old school wrestling. He even does a sleeper hold at one point. It’s a slow-going classically Triple H forced epic, the crowd elevating it and clearly spurring both men on to put in more work. Cena eventually goes for his submission move, the then ‘STFU’ (later it would drop the U). HHH makes it to the ropes and in the aftermath the referee gets knocked down. Triple H mimics his old teammate Shawn Michaels by taunting Cena with the DX Crotch Chop before decking Cena with a sledgehammer shot. The referee is slow to wake up and Cena kicks out. An ‘FU’ only gets Cena a two count before he counters a ‘Pedigree’ attempt from HHH in the ‘STFU’. After a close call, Triple H eventually taps out and Cena wins to retain the WWE Championship.
A bit overlong, as is usually the course with major Triple H matches, but it’s a big win for Cena. He’d get far better at holding up his end of a match as his career continued but for his first Mania main event, it’s a decent enough match.
Overall – WrestleMania 22
A hot crowd elevate a decent show. Edge vs Foley and the triple threat featuring Rey Mysterio are the main stand out matches but the main event is decent, Michaels vs McMahon is fun chaos and the Money in the Bank ladder match is memorable.
There’s also the first real decent women’s title match in Trish vs Mickie, soap opera storyline aside. It’s balanced out Torrie Wilson vs Candice Michelle but we’re still a decade away from Women’s wrestling being taken seriously in WWE so it’s at least a start.