WrestleMania 25 liveblogging Part VI

By Rick Morris

Shawn Michaels descended some type of device at the top of the ramp before his ring entrance, preceeding another super-long Undertaker intro.

They went back and forth early with the Undertaker hitting his Old School move for an early pop. HBK then put Taker in a leglock before the big man took over on offense again. Michaels bumped really well during this sequence, although regrettably not on a par with the Hulk Hogan SummerSlam '05 match.

Michaels then hit the Crossface out of nowhere. Using that ... ooooookay. They then went back and forth for awhile before the Undertaker caught Michaels coming off the top rope with an attempted chokeslam (after Taker did his sit-up move). HBK hit the Sweet Chin Music, but when he tried to follow that up with another leglock, the Undertaker put him in his chokehold and only a desperate lunge for the ropes freed Michaels. Great sequence there.

The next big "WOW" moment came when the Undertaker swatted Michaels away when he went to hit a moonsault on the floor and HBK hit flush. STN President Paul Belfi wondered aloud if that was a receipt for something. We would then see something even worse a moment later as HBK moved a cameraman in front of Taker as he was diving out of the ring -- and Taker missed him almost entirely and took what looked to be a violent header on the floor. It's very hard to tell how much of that was selling and how much of that was Undertaker suffering the ill effects of a horribly botched headfirst move on the floor.

HBK moved into the ring and began arguing for the ref to count his opponent out. Taker then began to move and made it back into the ring by half a count. As Michaels posed in waiting for Sweet Chin Music, the Undertaker blocked it and hit a chokeslam -- which got only a two count. Michaels then did hit SCM after missing it one more time, but only got a near-count as well. Undertaker than failed to hit a Last Ride, but then did hit it and got -- only a two count! Taker missed an elbowdrop off the top rope. Then the Undertaker threw HBK over the top rope, only to have Michaels do the "skin the cat" move. He tried to catch Taker with a head scissors, only to be caught in The Tombstone. 1-2-KICK OUT! Full on All-Japan multi-finisher goodness here, folks! Michaels reversed a subsequent Tombstone attempt into a desperation DDT. Michaels then hit the elbowdrop off the top rope and, rather than cover Taker, he "tuned up the band." Taker staggered to his feet, Michaels pounced and -- HIT IT! 1-2-KICK OUT! That was 2 and 63/64s right there. As my good friend and blogger extraordinaire Don Peterson just said, "Gus Johnson should be calling this match!"

Michaels and the Undertaker then exchanged blows before Michaels fought out of another Tombstone. A kick to Undertaker's face led to Michaels attempting a moonsault, only to be caught in the Tombstone for the finish. Best match of the night, one of the best of the year after a relatively slow start. 4 1/2 snowflakes.