It’s taken me two weeks to actually watch Wrestlemania 22. That’s how excited I was about the line up and the show. I really did intend to watch it before I knew what happened but circumstances and a total lack of interest prevented me from doing so. I lasted a week before succumbing to temptation and listening to Bryan and Vinny’s recap of the show. Now I’ve finally watched it and even fast forwarding through stuff I knew I really didn’t want to waste my life watching it still took a couple of bank holiday afternoon hours. Here are some notes, queries and observations. Normally I'd do ten but this is Wrestlemania, baby, and everything is bigger at Wrestlemania.

1. Money in the Bank was the first match which had any appeal. The six men involved were perhaps the oddest sextet ever to participate in a single contest. You had aged veterans Flair and Finlay (whodathunk we’d see Fit Finlay – who was bouncing around for Big Daddy twenty years ago – grace a Wrestlemania?), pure athletic phenomena Lashley and Benjamin, and risk taking daredevils Hardy and eventual winner Van Dam. The most amazing spot of the night saw Benjamin land at the top of a ladder having jumped from an unspecified place. I know that sounds vague – there was no replay so all we know is that there was a ladder and suddenly there was Shelton Benjamin standing on it. He didn’t climb it, he probably didn’t teleport so he must’ve flown.

2. The ladder match was hampered slightly by there being three "hardcore" matches on the show – this one, Michaels vs McMahon and Foley vs Edge. So they were limited in what spots they were allowed to do. This, of course, was a good thing as a couple of high spots in each match meant a hell of a lot more than six high spots in one match which all blurred together.

3. I wonder if I’ll ever not cry when they pay tribute to Eddie Guerrero. They brought out the Hall of Fame inductees and when Vicki Guerrero and Chavo Jr came out I found myself crying as usual.

4. The Edge vs Foley match was one of those which had been diluted by a build up which was both weak and gave too much away. It is bad enough that they don’t make you interested in seeing the two men fight, it is worse when they put so many violent spots on free TV that even those excited by the angles have already had their appetite sated. But they booked the match smartly and, whether by instruction from on high or not, they limited themselves to high spots that no one else would want to do. They used thumb tacks and they used fire. Both got huge pops, both achieved their goals and both are relatively safe in skilled hands.

5. There is something about evil, nasty, slutty Lita to which I am embarrassed to say I am drawn.

6. There is literally no upside to the Boogeyman. The crowd was quiet for him (and this was a hot crowd), he’s injury prone, he cannot do anything in the ring, his character can only work against strong heels who can do comedy and who have female sidekicks, and sooner or later the people who like him in an ironic way are going to realise he’s basically Papa Shango 2006 and he’s one of the most frequently cited examples of undiluted Wrestlecrap in history. Booker T tried to make Boogeyman look good but if you might as well give him a loaf of bread and a tin of sardines and ask him to feed the crowd.

7. Trish and Mickie had a heck of a match. The main points to note are (a) that the audience suddenly decided – for no reason at all – that they loved Mickie the lesbian and hated Trish the babyface, (b) Mickie has the best thighs in the business, (c) Mickie can actually work old-school as she worked over Trish’s injured leg for several minutes, (d) who will ever forget the spot where Trish has hold of Mickie and Mickie gets out of it by grabbing Trish’s crotch, holding on for as long as she can and then licking her hand? Who cares if the finish was absolutely and utterly botched? At least no one nearly died (unlike when Brock Lesnar botched his finish a few years ago). And I for one like the photos which have surfaced online of Mickie James’s "adult" past.

8. The Undertaker, unless in the ring with Kurt Angle, is basically a ring entrance and a couple of old spots these days. But now even his ring entrance annoys me. Why did someone have the brilliant idea to add fire to it? Not only do Kane and Booker T already use fire in their entrances but it also totally ruins the whole blue light effect. The Undertaker is meant to be a dark character. That’s why he dresses in black, has slow music, all the gothic trimmings and is lit in blue and purple. So adding fire just ruins all that. An inexplicable production mistake by WWE and one which they’ve been making for a while now.

9. I know every review everywhere has mentioned this but Vince McMahon leading his family in prayer was one of the most bizarrely funny things I’ve seen on TV. "GOD" he barked by way of an opening, "you’ve never liked me and I’ve never liked you."

10. The story of his match with Shawn Michaels was that Shawn beat the hell out of him and kept refusing to take the win, preferring to lay ever more of a beating on Vince. Vince, being the toughest man alive because it’s his ball and no one else can play unless he says so, took this inhuman beating and still had enough left to flip Shawn the finger as he was being wheeled out. This match had the big ladder spots for those keeping tabs on the hardcore spots in each encounter.

11. It is still weird to remember that this match was basically revenge for Montreal but with Shawn Michaels of all people playing the role of Bret Hart.

12. The only bit of the three way Smackdown title match which didn’t make any sense was Rey’s entrance. It always sounds like a great idea to have a live band play an entrance theme and yet it never works. Rey actually shot up through the floor, walked back stage again, climbed up to where POD were playing, saluted the crowd, walked back stage AGAIN, before finally emerging back in the entrance way in full Aztec regalia. Everyone hated the band and so Rey got no reaction for any of his appearances.

13. The Chicago crowd was first acknowledged as being a bit odd during the women’s match. They did the "this is the WWE – people can cheer for who they want to" speech then and were doing it again here as the Chi Town fans booed Rey whenever he was in with Kurt Angle. Thank goodness they didn’t have Rey beating Angle for the win or his big title win would’ve been ruined by a hostile crowd. They got ten minutes – that shows what the Smackdown title means. Also, the fact that I call it the Smackdown title because I can’t remember its real name.

14. Next came an attempt (which failed) to make Cena the babyface. He sat, all alone, preparing for his title match while Triple H was being tended to by an army of assistants. Triple H – a decade on from being the American Blue Blood with a monied past and privileged up bringing – has now regained his pampered heritage in a vain effort to make Cena appeal to the working class demographic.

15. So they follow that with HHH coming up through the stage, on a throne, dressed as Conan the Barbarian, backed by a new theme from Motorhead. HHH being twice as good as everyone else now has two theme tunes and just sat there while Lemmy belted out his first, springing to life only when the second started. People wonder why HHH is so big at the moment. It is obviously because he needs to bulk up so he’ll be able to fit all his nicknames onto a single t-shirt. Oh and the iron cross motif has got way out of hand.

16. Then the drugs really kicked in. We were expecting John Cena but instead got a two minute film about the Great Depression. It explained that the economy crashed, everyone was broke except politicians and the rich, and the only people with enough guts to stand up and work their way out of poverty were that fine body of men lead by Al Capone. Yes – the gangsters are now babyfaces in WWE land. Out came a 1920s car filled with men carrying machine guns. They surrounded the ring and out came Cena. He fired a few blanks into the air but failed to drown out the boos. What a hip hop kid with a fan-support problem has to do with Al Capone I don’t know but it was still less silly that seeing HHH in a fur loin cloth and plastic crown.

17. Cena being booed isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He’s still hugely popular with the merchandise buying public and it ensures his matches have a lot of heat. As we entered the final stretch the crowd was going into business for themselves and were red hot for everything. Cena doesn’t get the "go away – we don’t like you" boos that Jeff Jarrett gets. People like booing Cena. They like cheering him, booing him, supporting him, hating him, seeing him win, seeing him lose – they like being part of the Cena phenomenon. They feel empowered because they can go with the flow, they can go against the flow, they can go against the people going against the flow and they can go against the people who go against the people who… et cetera. Would it be better if everyone loved Cena? Not really – he’s too limited to sustain that kind of support. The unique relationship he has with the audience might almost be the Big Thing the WWE are looking for to carry them into the next boom period.

So was it a good show? Yes I think it was. The company is still in the hands of a mad man and the old guard at the top will still prevent anyone new from getting to that level and there are still people who think the Tim White suicide videos are funny and their main plan for next year’s Wrestlemania is Hulk Hogan vs Steve Austin but on this night they exceeded expectations. The next task is to exceed expectations when those expectations aren’t really low.