Weekly recap:OK then. This week's episode of RAW is in the books and with WrestleMania 5 days away, it seems like the card is set. Let's get down to it.
Announced WrestleMania matches:
WWE Championship: The Miz (c) vs. John Cena
The big hyped face off between John Cena, The Rock, and The Miz last night was fairly well done. The Rock made his way to the ring for the last segment of RAW and went through his usual rant and rave routine. Finally, John Cena came down to proffer his rebuttal. While Cena's response was surprisingly respectful of The Rock, it was also passionate. No one can argue that Cena is the hardest working guy on the WWE roster today. But WWE decided to make the argument about The Rock's problem with Cena (i.e., he plays to a kid-oriented audience, he dresses funny) when the actual issue between them to start with was that Cena questioned The Rock's passion for the business when he left for Hollywood. The Rock actually had more to be pissed about than Cena. But I digress. Before this could break down into fisticuffs, the forgotten WWE Champion, The Miz, interrupts the shenanigans with his well played two cents. Obviously, it devolves and The Miz and Alex Riley double team The Rock. The Great One manages to get rid of Riley and hit The People's Elbow on The Miz. Then Cena sneaks back in the ring and delivers an Attitude Adjustment to The Rock and leaves with a smirk on his face. That final sequence with Cena blindsiding The Rock sort of defeated the crux of Cena's "Face Me Like a Man" argument. Anyway, of course expect The Rock to get involved with the WWE Championship match on Sunday. But it still shouldn't affect the outcome.
Predicted % chance of winning: Cena (70%) - Miz (30%)
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) with Christian vs. Alberto del Rio with Brodus Clay
Biggest WrestleMania related disappointment: not including Christian in the World title match. Yes, sadly, Captain Charisma has been saddled with the job of being in Edge's corner for the match on Sunday. There is hope for Christian's future, but I will get into that in a minute.
Edge vs. del Rio should be a solid enough match, but it's not main event caliber. My guess is that this match goes on as the second or third last of the night (I would imagine the last three of the night are: Taker/HHH, Edge/del Rio, and Miz/Cena last). So given the fairly basic construction of this feud, this brings us back to Christian. I imagine he'll keep Brodus and Ricardo Rodriguez from interfering in the match. However, when Christian decides to intervene in the match himself, what will he do? They are clearly going to build towards an Edge vs. Christian feud at some point in the next few months, but are they going to pull the trigger at WrestleMania? My guess is no and they'll wait to have the Edge/Christian program until arou
Predicted % chance of winning: Edge (65%) - del Rio (35%)
The Undertaker vs. Triple H
Ok, so suddenly, this match became more interesting. And it only took the addition of the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. I was prepared for another super-boring nose-to-nose growling match between Taker and Triple H when HBK's music hit. Given the rather humorless and intense atmosphere in the ring with Taker and Triple H, it was pretty funny to see Shawn prancing his way to the ring with a smile on his face. Overall, it was a very good segment that I can't do justice to in a recap, but it all ends with Shawn leaving the ring saying to Triple H that "you can't win".
So where does that leave us with this match? Conventional knowledge would suggest that if Shawn Michaels couldn't beat the Undertaker for two years in a row, they're certainly not going to give that honor to Triple H. But, Triple H does have the most pull of all the wrestlers in WWE and if he wanted to end the streak, he could convince Vince to let him. But honestly, everyone, including Triple H, respect the Undertaker and they know that his undefeated streak is his legacy. Undertaker will be 19-0 after this year's WrestleMania and go on to WrestleMania 28 to make it 20-0 (against John Cena?) and retire.
Predicted % chance of winning: Undertaker (100%) - Triple H (0%)
CM Punk vs. Randy Orton
What could easily be headlining this year's WrestleMania will probably only get 12-15 minutes. Punk and Orton are at the top of their games and we should expect a big year from both of them after WrestleMania is all done. Oh and remember when The Nexus was the biggest story of the year? WWE has managed to spilt them up, squash all their heat, and leave the unfortunate leftover members off the card. Thanks for the hard work this year guys!
Predicted % chance of winning: Punk (50%) - Orton (50%)
Jerry "The King Lawler" vs. Michael Cole with Jack Swagger -- Special Guest Referee Stone Cold Steve Austin
This should be entertaining so long as they don't let it go on for more than 5 minutes. Cole is not a wrestler and Jerry can only carry him in a match for so long. Jack Swagger should expect to get a Stone Cold Stunner from Austin at some point on Sunday. Prepare yourself. I wonder how they're going to manage Lawler and Cole continuing to call RAW after this? Will we see Good Ol' JR again at WrestleMania? Why did they change The King's music?
Predicted % chance of winning: Lawler (95%) - Cole (5%)
Rey Mysterio vs. "Dashing" Cody RhodesActually starting to be more interested in this one. Cody has been doing a fine job in developing his character. It seems like a win would benefit Cody much more than Rey, but WWE seems to like having Rey win at WrestleMania. Probably goes over well with the kids.
Predicted % chance of winning: Mysterio (40%) - Rhodes (60%)
John Morrison, Trish Stratus, & Snooki vs. Dolph Ziggler & Lay-Cool with Vickie Guerrero
No more comments. Hopefully Morrison and Ziggler will have bigger and better things come their way after WrestleMania because they've both been exceptionally good over the past few months.
Predicted % chance of winning: Team Morrison (90%) - Team Ziggler (10%)
United States Championship: Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan
Sheamus seems to have dropped the "King" moniker. This is a step down for him as he faced Triple H last year and spent a good few months as WWE Champion in 2010. However, they've both demonstrated that they can put on a good match together so this will probably be OK. Nothing earth shattering though.
Predicted % chance of winning: Sheamus (95%) - Daniel Bryan (5%)
The Big Show, Kane, Vladimir Kozlov, and Santino Marella vs. The Corre
Kane was World Heavyweight champion this year for five months this year. Wade Barrett dominated WWE with Nexus for the last half of 2010. Big Show has main evented two WrestleManias. And the best they can do is throw them all into a comedy throwaway eight man tag match? This is sloppy booking. Are you really telling me that Kofi Kingston wouldn't want to exercise his Intercontinental rematch clause against Barrett at WrestleMania? The Corre will win this match. And guess who they will be pinning for the win?
Predicted % chance of winning: The Corre (95%) - Team Show/Kane (5%)
WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2011:
- Shawn Michaels
- The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering
- Hacksaw Jim Duggan
- Bullet Bob Armstrong
- Sunny
- Drew Carey
- Abdullah the Butcher
Who's left out of WrestleMania?
If you're left out of WrestleMania, you're bound for the pre-show Battle Royal. Watch your back as 35% of the participants in last year's Battle Royal were released sometime between last year's WM and this year. An asterisk (*) means you have a pretty good chance of being fired this year because...who the hell are you?
- R-Truth
- Kofi Kingston
- Drew McIntyre
- Ted DiBiase
- Mark Henry
- The Great Khali
- The rest of the new Nexus
- David Hart Smith
- Goldust
- Evan Bourne
- The Usos
- Michael Tarver*
- Primo*
- Tyson Kidd
- Yoshi Tatsu*
- William Regal
- Zach Ryder*
- Chavo Guerrero
- Chris Masters*
- Curt Hawkins*
- JTG*
- Trent Barreta*
- Tyler Reks*
- Most of the Divas
This year's WrestleMania has a different feel than year's past. I chalk it up to the fact that no matter how the card shapes up, we've come to expect a memorable show because of two things: a) the Money in the Bank ladder match; and b) whatever match Shawn Michaels was in. And this is totally not me being biased towards HBK. Since WrestleMania XIX, Shawn has typically delivered the best match of the night (vs. Triple H and Benoit at 20, vs. Angle at 21, vs. Vince at 22, vs. Flair at 24, vs. Undertaker at 25, vs. Undertaker at 26). No HBK, means no guaranteed classic match. No MitB ladder match means no guaranteed high spots. WWE always comes up big at WrestleMania so I'm sure they're planning for this. I guess we'll just sit back and see what unfolds.
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