The Road to WrestleMania: 40 Days Away

Elimination Chamber fallout:

So the Elimination Chamber PPV has come and gone and the line-up for WrestleMania XXVII is starting to take shape. The Miz retained the WWE title against Jerry "The King" Lawler and will move on to WM to face John Cena. Cena won his Elimination Chamber match against CM Punk, Randy Orton, R-Truth, John Morrison, and King Sheamus along with the right to face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania. Edge retained the World Heavyweight Title in his Elimination Chamber match against Rey Mysterio, Drew McIntyre, Wade Barrett, Kane, and the Big Show. Immediately after the match, Edge was blindsided by his number one contender, Alberto del Rio. But who would come to the aid of the Overrated Superstar? None other than his old tag team partner, Christian! Del Rio put Christian on the shelf six months ago and now Captain Charisma is back for revenge. I smell a Triple Threat...

Announced WrestleMania matches:

WWE Championship: The Miz (c) vs. John Cena

Expect John Cena to prevail once again and regain the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Presumed WrestleMania matches:

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) vs. Christian vs. Alberto del Rio

If they actually make this a Triple Threat, it will finally be the validation that Christian is main event material who has Vince McMahon's support. In the past 17 years, everyone who has participated in a World title match at WrestleMania has eventually gone on to win the big one at some point in their career. This bodes well for both Christian and del Rio for their futures.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

The return of the Deadman was partially squelched by the return of the Game last night on RAW. No words were exchanged between the two in their staredown, but it clearly paved the way for a WrestleMania rematch from WM17 where Triple H and Undertaker tore the roof down at the Houston Astrodome. I suspect the motivation for Triple H challenging Taker is to get a measure of payback for Undertaker retiring his best friend, Shawn Michaels, at last year's WM. This one will be good.

CM Punk vs. Randy Orton

This one should be good too. I'm glad that WWE is choosing to remember that Randy Orton screwed CM Punk out of his World title two and a half years ago. Now it's payback time. Punk is truly one of the best heels in WWE right now and Orton is one of the hottest faces. Their collision should be a classic.

Jerry "The King Lawler" vs. Michael Cole

After his failed WWE Championship bid, Jerry Lawler has found his way into his first WrestleMania match. By beating up broadcast partner Michael Cole, he will be fulfilling the wishes of most of WWE's fans. Cole has become one of the better antagonists on RAW (rare for a play-by-play announcer, most heel announcers are typically the color commentary guys) and this should be an entertaining, but obviously not technically sound, match. I'm hoping that Cole recruits Alex Riley to be in his corner so that it prompts The King to get good ol' JR to be his corner man.

Possible WrestleMania matches:

The Big Show vs. Wade Barrett

The Big Show and The Corre have been antagonizing each other for a few weeks so why not have this come down to a WrestleMania match? Barrett has lost some steam since being kicked out of Nexus, but he still has great talent and should be able to display that in Atlanta.

Who needs a WrestleMania dance partner?

• Rey Mysterio
• King Sheamus
• John Morrison
• R-Truth
  
• Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston
• United States Champion Daniel Bryan
• WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater
• Kane
• Jack Swagger
• All the Divas
  
• Drew McIntyre
• Eziekel Jackson
• Nexus
• Ted Dibiase
• "Dashing" Cody Rhodes
• Dolph Ziggler
• Mark Henry
• Santino Marella
• Vladimir Kozlov

You can expect Mysterio, Sheamus, Morrison, Kane, Kingston, and McIntyre to make the card. Everyone else is a question mark. Without the Money in the Bank ladder match, the ability to showcase a lot of the midcard talent is limited. It'll be interesting to see what feuds develop over the next few weeks.

WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2011

• Shawn Michaels
• "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
  

The Road to Elimination Chamber: Return of The Great One

Big Announcement on RAW:

Not a whole lot of storyline developments from RAW or SmackDown as the Elimination Chamber PPV draws closer. The stage has been set for both EC matches: one for the World Heavyweight title and one for the number one contendership for the WWE title. Before we get to that, we must attend to the biggest news coming from WWE this week: The return of The Rock.

Last week, Vince McMahon announced that WrestleMania XXVII would have a special guest host and then left the internet to speculate. Well, after the smoke cleared, The Rock's music filled the RAW arena last night and the People's Champion made his triumphant return to the squared circle. The Rock still knows how to pull off an intense promo and his catchphrases are still catchy, if not a little worn. Obviously, he'll be at WrestleMania and teased that he could "Lay the SmackDown" on anyone at the drop of a hat. The person he called out was a bit of a surprise though. None other than WWE's golden boy, John Cena.

Several years ago, as John Cena started to see his star rise with exposure through WWE films and such, many compared him to The Rock. Cena took issue with that. Cena's first love is wrestling and anything else is second banana. This called into question The Rock's passion for the business, whether he had used WWE as a springboard for greener pastures, and whether The Rock abandoned WWE and its fans when he got famous.

I think the whole thing was blown out of proportion anyway. It seems like Cena was saying more about his loyalty to and passion for wrestling than The Rock's perceived abandonment. Wrestling has a long history with Hollywood with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Goldberg, and Stone Cold Steve Austin all trying their hand at acting. These efforts were met largely with indifference. But The Rock broke through. He went from hokey pro-wrestler to bonafide Hollywood celebrity. So can you really blame him for leaving WWE? I think not.

Anyhoo, The Rock has called out John Cena. It is unclear whether this will lead to an actual match or just a (hopefully) epic confrontation at WM27. Either way, The Rock said last night that he'd never leave us again. And I believe him. No one expects him to quit his day job and return to the WWE grind, but it's always nice to see him and he has paid proper respect to where he came from over and over again.

Elimination Chamber matches:

RAW Elimination Chamber: John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. CM Punk vs. King Sheamus vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth

Cena will probably end up winning this match and going on to headline WM27 against The Miz. If WWE's plan is to have a Cena/Rock match, then look for CM Punk to win the Chamber match and somehow steal the WWE title from The Miz before WrestleMania so that we can have a CM Punk/Randy Orton main event.

Likelihood of winning: 1. John Cena; 2. CM Punk; 3. Randy Orton; 4. King Sheamus; 5. John Morrison; 6. R-Truth

SmackDown Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Wade Barrett vs. Kane vs. Drew McIntyre

With Alberto del Rio already waiting for World Heavyweight Champion at WM, only two match-ups make any sense. Del Rio vs. Edge or Del Rio vs. Mysterio. One of these two will go into Atlanta as World Heavyweight Champion.

Likelihood of winning: 1. Edge; 2. Rey Mysterio; 3. Dolph Ziggler; 4. Kane; 5. Wade Barrett; 6. Drew McIntyre

WWE Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler

This match is a complete joke. I'm all for giving Lawler a shot at the WWE title. He's a legend and he's earned it. But not at the PPV before WrestleMania. No one in their right mind believes that Lawler will be main eventing WrestleMania. They'll tease that The King has a shot, but The Miz will win on Sunday. His biggest challenge will be whether he can escape next Monday's RAW with the WWE title. If they're going to make a change in the WrestleMania main event, it'll happen then.

Notables who are not doing anything at Elimination Chamber: Alberto del Rio, Intercontinental Champion - Kofi Kingston, United States Champion - Daniel Bryan, Tag Team Champions - Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov, Big Show, the rest of The Corre, the rest of Nexus, Jack Swagger, all the Divas, Ted DiBiase, and Cody Rhodes.

Because the Elimination Chamber PPV only has three matches currently announces, expect some non-sensical matches to be added to the card as filler.

Other notes:

The Undertaker is expected to return next Monday, but there is some speculation that the mysterious promos are pointing to another dark and shadowy wrestling legend. None other than Sting. The most famous wrestler to never work for WWE is no longer on the TNA website and maybe, just maybe, heading for WrestleMania. Possibly as the Undertaker's opponent. Stay tuned.

The Road to Elimination Chamber

Huh. It seems like WWE is actually going to let The Miz take the WWE Championship all the way to WrestleMania. Not that it's really undeserved as The Miz has paid his dues and is a very entertaining heel on the mic. But something about The Miz + WrestleMania main event isn't clicking for me yet. Oh well. With The Miz all set to take on his number one contender, Jerry "The King" Lawler(?!), at Elimination Chamber, The Miz will be punching his ticket to WrestleMania as champion. Also, since they're making a big deal out of this, we'll probably also see The King compete in his first WM match. Maybe against Michael Cole or Alex Riley?

The Elimination Chamber matches have been set up thusly:

World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber - Edge(c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kane vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Wade Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler

With Alberto del Rio waiting in the wings to challege at WM, the only viable options to win this match are Edge and Mysterio. My guess is Edge keeps the title and continues to bore us all the way to April. I'm digging del Rio now though. He's got the cocky jackassness that all good heels have (i.e., The Rock, DX version of HBK, Chris Jericho).

WWE Championship Number One Contender Elimination Chamber - John Cena vs. CM Punk vs. Randy Orton vs. R-Truth vs. John Morrison vs. King Sheamus

If The Miz is going to WM as champ, you can count on John Cena winning the Elimination Chamber. Punk and Orton are already mixed up in a feud of their own. Sheamus may get blindsided by a returning Triple H to set up a WM feud. And Truth and Morrison won't get the duke. Maybe if all hell breaks loose, Punk somehow ends up as WWE Champion at Elimination Chamber and Orton challenges him at WM.

Either way, WM feuds seem to be shaping up as:

The Miz vs. John Cena
CM Punk vs. Randy Orton
Edge vs. Alberto del Rio
Wade Barrett vs. The Big Show

Funny how last year, I assumed that the future of WWE would be the likes of Sheamus, DiBiase, Rhodes, and Jack Swagger, but these guys are not currently making any significant movement towards a meaningful WrestleMania match.

Oh yeah, who is going to fight the Undertaker? Right now, the best bet is Sheamus or Barrett. Maybe a returning Chris Jericho? Stay tuned.