Catching Up: MARCH BADNESS Notes, WrestleMania 25 Thoughts & more!

With so much going on in Goldberg-land, I've barely had time to think, let alone blog. One thing about promoting wrestling, there is always something to do and always something left undone.

Last night's WrestleMania was a good show with a phenomenal Undertaker-Michaels match that ranks among the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time. When you realize that those two men are probably double the average age of the rest of the WWE roster, it makes their level of excellence that much more amazing.

I have a lot to say about the Chris Jericho-Legends-Mickey Rourke segment. This was a huge letdown on a lot of levels. Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka should not have been in the ring. It was sad to see two great stars portrayed as washed up has-beens. Ricky Steamboat made an excellent accounting of himself, and looking back, it would have been better if it was just Steamboat, with Flair in his corner, vs. Jericho. Mickey Rourke brought nothing to this. There was no build up for him, no emotional investment. I've heard the term "SportsCenter moment" with regard to Rourke's appearance. The time could have been used better on something else.

I'll have more on the subject this week on The Mouthpiece Wrestling Show, Wednesday at 5 PM EST on WWZN Boston, 1510 The Zone. We'll be recapping the show, getting your thoughts and opinions and getting some first hand reports from folks who were there for the WWE events, as well as some of the other wrestling events taking place in Houston that weekend.

NECW's MARCH BADNESS (yeah I know Roy Jones Jr. ripped that name off from us, as we have used it for years) is in the books and was another great night of action in front of another great crowd in Quincy, MA.

NECW has been doing great business of late, which I attribute to a number of different factors - great booking and creative effort, great talent and great promotion and marketing would be a few of the reasons. I think the current economy plays a role too, as NECW is a far more affordable option than mainstream major league franchise sports and is a more family friendly option as well.

MARCH BADNESS saw the return of Sean Gorman, shockingly aligning himself with "The Golden Greek" Alex Arion. There are also new tag team champions in NECW, as The Crown Jewels, you should pardon the expression, upended PRIDE to take the titles.

Antonio Thomas had a great match with NECW Triple Crown Champion, Max Bauer, and if it were not for the interference of Alex Arion, that title could have changed hands as well.

By the way, I think the Bauer-Arion bout at GENESIS 8 was in the same league as anything on this year's WrestleMania. I am looking forward to the rematch between those two taking place at NECW's SPRING BREAKDOWN on Saturday night, April 18 in Quincy at the Armory.

All the results are up at the newly redesigned NECW website - www.NECWwrestling.com. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new site, which was the brainchild of Brian Wilkins. This is a project that took a long time to implement, but the results are outstanding and there will be more features added in the coming weeks.

I'll more thoughts later this week.