Well, it’s finally come to an end. A year’s worth of build-up for one of the most hyped events of wrestling history. We saw icons clash, foes defeated, champions crowned and…some chick from Access Hollywood rub her bum in someone’s face (Ok, that part wasn’t that bad). But despite all this, how did this year’s ‘Showcase of the Immortals’ fare under the eye’s of internet reviewer scrutiny? Did it live up to the hype? What were the best moments? What made us want to tear our eyes out with embarrassment? Let’s find out.
Before I get to the matches themselves, I want to go into some of the peripheral details of the show as it was broadcast. For starters, when the hell are we going to get some decent commentators again? Hearing either dead air or inane chatter from Michael Cole and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler is really starting to grate on me now. What happened to the commentators actually, I don’t know, calling the match? Hyping up the feud? Putting some emotional context on the action? The commentary team is supposed to act as the Greek chorus of wrestling and these two are more like an annoying bank manager and an old man going in and out of consciousness out there. Bring back Jim Ross full time for the love of god!
I’d also like to note before you read this that there were a few non-wrestling segments during the pay-per-view, including a segment with Santino Marella and Mick Foley eating crab with some fishing guy, and Brodus Clay dancing with a bunch of women in ‘big momma’ suits. I didn’t go into any detail about them later on in this article because, basically, they were all bloody awful, and there’s really nothing to say other than that.
The show started in usual fashion with ‘America The Beautiful’ sung by Smackdown ring announcer Lilian Garcia. Two air force jets also flew over to signal the beginning of the event, held in Miami’s Sun Life Stadium in front of a record 78,363 fans in attendance. Like many people, I hate the level of cheesy, sentimental patriotism that only the good ol’ US of A can produce, so these kinds of segments are always cringe-inducing and unpleasant for me. But I guess, it’s harmless enough really.
