I was just getting back into the wwe just before the No Way Out PPV a month before wrestlemania so i was able to follow the stories leading into it and was quite impressed with the quality of the event.Obviously the hype going into this Wrestlemania was (to the outside world) Mayweather vs Big show. However within Wrestling the show was all about Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels, where if Flair lost then his career would be over. So for all wrestling fans its a must have as it is 2 of the all time greats up against each other on the grandest stage of them all.Match 1 Belfast Brawl JBL vs Finlay 7/10 Not a bad match by any means. Hard hitting as you would expect from 2 men like Finlay and Bradshaw with a few entertaining spots. An enjoyable and worthy opener for Wrestlemania, just overshadowed by matches later on the card.Match 2 Money In The Bank Ladder Match. 7.5/10 Always enjoyable to watch. MitB was a great concept for wrestlemanias and this one didn't disappoint. Slight criticism would be that you could see a few wrestlers being a touch lethargic when preventing someone from grabbing the briefcase which meant they had to be REALLI slow in reaching for it. However there were quite a few high spots in this match involving Jericho, Shelton Benjamin and John Morrison.Match 3 Umaga vs Batista 7/10 This match could have been better. Again it wasn't bad but it seemed very run-of-the-mill and average for a match at Wrestlemania between 2 big men. Although there were a few good displays of power from Batista and agility from Umaga and the crowd did get into it which keeps this match on 7/10 Match 4 ECW Championship Match. Chavo Guerrero vs The Battle Royale Winner 1/10 I don think there is a single person who liked this. ECW gets one match per PPV. This is the biggest PPV of the year and they were given an 8 second match. I sincerely hope the writers change this for Wrestlemania 25. VERY disappointing Match 5 Career threatening match. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels 10/10 10/10 because these 2 wrestlers did do nothing wrong in this match. they excelled themselves and you even see Flair successfully perform a top rope move!!! lol. This match had so much emotion and had a perfectly fitting ending. Considering Michaels is early 40's and Flair is late 50's it was an incredible display of athleticism and a fantastic match.Match 6 Playboy Bunnymania Lumberjill Match Maria and Ashley vs Beth Pheonix and Melina. 5/10 Its very difficult to give womens matches high ratings as they simply don't captivate the audience enough. This match was also stupidly placed on the card. After Flair vs Michaels and before the WWE championship match. Nothing wrong with this match but just nothing special. Apart from snoop dogg and the slight beating santino gets.Match 7 WWE Championship Match Randy Orton vs HHH vs John Cena 6.5/10 Disappointed a bit here because these are 3 great wrestlers. The match didn't seem gripping enough for me. After being caught up in Wrestlemania so far this was a let down with an ending that could have been much better. Nonetheless worth a watch, but for something that was no DQ and no Countout there was barely any hardcore intervention, which would have been fine had the wrestling been more entertaining.Match 8 The Biggest vs The Best Floyd Mayweather vs Big Show 8/10 What can i say? Very entertaining considering the size difference. Both Mayweather and Big Show fought very well and both took a substantial amounts of beatings. I was impressed with Mayweathers ability to put up a good fight. Surprisingly good Match 9 World Heavyweight Championship Match. Undertaker vs Edge 10/10 A slight bias here as these are 2 of my top 3 favourite wrestlers, but this was an awesome and deserving main event. Both men brought their best to this match and it went back and forth keeping the crowd on their feet. Sensational main event of good length, that topped off what was an entertaining 'Mania.Hall Of Fame Ceremony. 10/10 Now its a bit strange 'rating' the hall of fame ceremony, but it comes with the DVD and it is definitely worth watching. JBL was very funny inducting the Brisco's, there was a very long part with none other that THE ROCK who was incredibly entertaining as always and he gave a good light hearted roasting to many including Santino, John Cena, Jericho, Foley and others. But aside from being funny, this was a tear jerker at many points but mainly in the Ric Flair induction. Not tear jerking to the extent of the 2006 ceremony with Eddie Guerrero but it was highly emotional nonetheless and needs to be watching by wrestling fans.On the whole a very solid Mania and definitely one of the better ones. Though the event card equates to just over 7/10 it was also the way the event was put together along with the attendance (in excess of 70.000) and the atmosphere that kept the rating high. The WWE really did put on a classy show. Not as good as 17 or 21 but still very good.

Overall, this is a pretty standard and quite respectable Wrestlemania DVD package. However, I have a warning to any WWE fans who are contemplating springing for the rather expensive deluxe 3-disc collector's edition of Wrestlemania 24. One of the reasons I purchased the 3-disc edition was to own the unforgettable 2008 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony. Be forewarned though that the ceremony is truncated. In the original broadcast of the Hall of Fame Ceremony, before presenting any awards, the Rock made all kinds of clever and light-hearted comments. These included self-deprecating remarks about his own involvement in the "Doom" box office debacle, sarcastic words about Santino Marella and a jab at John Cena and his work in the WWE film "The Marine". Sadly, this lively and entertaining banter has all been removed from the DVD version of the Hall of Fame ceremony. The most disturbing part is that this was obviously a conscious decision by the WWE to save money. I felt robbed, since it was one of the main reasons I bought the collection. I am sure that other WWE fans will clearly feel the same. If they don't, they should. This is unfortunately, a reminder of all that is wrong about the WWE today.

A Fantastic Wrestlemania!!!!! JBL vs Finlay(Belfast Brawl) A great way to kick the show off!! Some nice damage was dished out on both sides. JBL fought more like he did in his APA days(and thats a good thing). Finlay took most of the punishment but he looked good doing it. THANKFULLY, Hornswaggle did not screw up the match. Both of these men are worthy of World Title gold IMO. 8/10 Money in the Bank Match(Morrison vs Benjamin vs CM Punk vs Carlito vs MVP vs Jericho vs Kennedy) This M.I.B was a lot better than last years. Though Jeff Hardy was not present, these men really tore the house down. All 7 wrestlers really put out, but Morrison and Benjamin were the true stars of this match. Morrison does a moonsault to the outside while holding a ladder and Benjamin was his usual superbly athletic self(he also took one of the ugliest falls ever seen at Wrestlemania). If WWE knows whats good for them they should focus a lot of attention on these 7 men who are undoubtedly the future of this business. 10/10 Batista vs Umaga(Inter-promotional match) This match was pretty solid. Not excellent, but it also was nowhere near terrible. It could have been a little longer, and a few weapons might have benefited the match more. Batista evidently strains his back power bombing the 300 pound Umaga. 7/10 Kane vs Chavo Guerrero(ECW Title) I can't say this match was bad because there was no match!!!!!!!!! Kane chokeslammed Guerrero and won!!It was probably cut short due to time. Guerrero and Kane deserve better though. --/10 Shawn Michaels vs Ric Flair(Retirement match) HBK was supposed to give Ric Flair the greatest match of his career, and in my opinion this was. Both men worked well together(which HBK can do with anybody) and they both received and dished out a lot of punishment. The first and last "Sweet Chin Music"'s were pretty ugly on the 59 year old Flair. HBK darn near tore himself in half when he missed the moonsault on the table and hits mainly floor when Flair was late to receive HBK from a diving moonsault from the turnbuckle to the outside. Great match!! 9.5/10 Beth Phoenix & Melina vs Ashley & Maria (BunnyMania Lumberjill Match) This was the only terrible match in this years Wrestlemania. A huge waste of time. This is the match that should have been cut short. Nothing great or superb happened. Just the exploitation of the Divas which I'm really getting sick of. Oh, and I forgot, Snoop Dogg was pointlessly in this match. 5/10 John Cena vs HHH vs Randy Orton(WWE Title match) Now I honestly must say, I had my doubts about this one at first. But these 3 men worked pretty well together!!! Cena and Orton actually out shined the veteran HHH who still performed pretty well. The match could have been a tad bit longer but it definitely gets you on your feet. Great entrance by Cena(who I must say is actually getting a little better). 9/10 Floyd Mayweather vs Big Show/ I thought this was going to be yet another pointless celebrity showing. But this was a very good match and Mayweather gets my respect for taking a lot of punishment. The crowd was really into this match!! Great work by both men. 8/10 Undertaker vs Edge(World Title) Both of these men deserved this long overdue slot in the main event. It started out a bit slow with brawling going back and forth, but then it started to pick up towards the middle. The whole title vs streak idea, added with the main event suspense really had me on the edge of my seat!!! Taker gains the title once more and is now 16-0!!! 9/10

This wrestlemania went well not as exciting and hyped as i thought it was going to be but it did prove some surprises.Match 1.24 man battle royal went OK could of been more exciting but then again it was a dark match.Winner Kane Match 2 (Start of the show).We had Finlay face John Bradshaw Layfield in a Belfast brawl could of been more exciting.Winner JBL Match 3.This years money in the bank went off well we had some guys who have been there before and some new ones,John Morrison did a excellent moonsault of the top rope with a ladder in his hands we had a lot of ladder fight and Shelton Benjamin had a nasty fall through a ladder,MVP almost won it but we had a Hardy 1.0 appear and Twisted MVP's dreams of winning it down the drain,It finally came down to Chris Jericho(I'am a jericho fan)and Cm Punk Y2J came close but Cm Punk caused y2J to get hung up in the ladder allowing Him to capture the briefcase and the contract for a championship anytime anywhere.Winner Cm Punk.Match 4.This battle for brand supremacy went OK could of been better but the match was fast paced for some reason i thought there were gonna be some table bombings overall Batista finishes it with The Batista Bomb.Winner BatistaMatch 5.SQUASH MATCH need i say more chavo went down after a 1-2-3 in 9 seconds from a choke slam about time Kane its been 6 years since you won a singles belt now don't lose it in one day just like you did to Austin.Winner Kane New ECW ChampionMatch 6.This is the match i was waiting for i had an idea who was gonna win but Flair was the best wrestler ever in my opinion but he went down without a fight, It was a well fought match and was the true main event. I was put to tears at the end HBK wins by SCM if you don't know what SCM means you haven't been around for long.Winner HBKMatch 7.I watched it and found it exciting and fun the diva's hot as always and a good match, The crew had a malfunction with the lights and had to use a another source of light so the crowd could see. Although Maria and Ashley lost,Santino got a trip down snoop dog lane after a clothesline from the rapper and then to top it off Snoop gave maria a smooch for putting on a show and santino got reported out the arena hopefully to the nearest Asylum.Winners Melina And WC:Beth PhonenixMatch 8.Why this wasn't the main event well the title change no hands the match teased who was gonna win around between john cena and triple h but overall the opportunist Orton stole the win and retained after triple h scored a pedigree and got a congratulations from Orton by getting punted in the head.Winner OrtonMatch 9.It was OK although may weather didn't take much of a beating his handlers took the most beatings may weather wins it and leaves with out any broken bones although i believes brass knuckles would knock someone out,Sorda like deja vu when cena knocked big show at WM 20.Winner Floyd may weatherMatch 10.Well Streak vs Streak Edge vs Undertaker it went OK and the match was well enough for me but the edge heads should of gotten involved earlier but undertaker wins it by putting edge in the horrifying submission winning the Big Gold Belt.winner undertaker 16-0 BABYOverall this wrestlemania had a good show could of done better but good. 7 out of 10