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PLEASE USE THE OFFICIAL WRESTLEMANIA XXV THREAD AT
http://niketalk.com/topic/166108
The biggest (or at least it is supposed to be the biggest) week of the year in professional wrestling is finally upon us. I promise to be 100% committed tothe thread this week with news, updates, and opinions each day as we build up to the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania this Sunday night.
The build towards WrestleMania has been considerably underwhelming this year. However, I will get into that much more later this week when I write up myofficial WrestleMania 25 preview. However, just for the sake of discussion, I want to list the WrestleMania 25 card as it stands today.
-Chris Jericho vs Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper with Ric Flair in their corner and Mickey Rourke at ringside
-25 Diva Battle Royal to crown "Miss WrestleMania"
-Money in the Bank Ladder Match featuring CM Punk, Mark Henry, Kane, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Kofi Kingston, MVP, and Finlay
-The Miz and Morrison vs Primo and Carlito Colon to Unify the Tag Team Titles
-JBL (c) vs Rey Mysterio Jr for the Intercontinental Championship, Plus JBL's "Announcement"
-Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy in an Extreme Rules Match
-The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels
-Edge (c) vs John Cena vs The Big Show for The World Heavyweight Championship and Vickie Guerrero
-HHH (c) vs Randy Orton for The WWE Championship
The card doesn't do a whole lot for me, but we'll see what they can do in the home stretch of shows this week. Of course, they are wasting an hourtomorrow night as ECW is an "All Divas" show. Ugh. They would do much better giving us Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne for the ECW Championship. Thatwould be an awesome way to kick off WrestleMania. Instead, they blow another chance to build new stars.
It's important to note that this Friday we get a very rare live Smackdown. So whereas we would usually get the final build for Raw matches tonight, thereis a very good chance we may not see that until Friday.
With the exception of two angles, I thought last week's Raw was another boring show that did nothing to get me really excited to buy WrestleMania. However, the two angles that did stand out were excellent. Sure, you could call it cheesy, corny, campy, whatever, but I really liked Shawn Michael'spromo in the grave yard. He went back to some of his old school heel tactics that made him so awesome once upon a time. The Undertaker's reaction to thevignette was pretty terrible, but that wasn't the point. I love the cocky, arrogant Shawn Michaels instead of the incredibly corny 40+ year old DX member. I also like that unlike all of the other feuds that mean anything for WrestleMania, they have actually kept these two men apart from each other. They havehad little to no phyiscal contact sans Shawn's superkick on Taker a few weeks back. One would think The Undertaker needs to get some sort of revenge asMichaels has got the best of this feud so far in my opinion.
The other highlight from last week was the closing segment with HHH, Randy Orton, and Stephanie. In what was a much needed shot in the arm for this feud,Randy Orton went back to his "Viper" character instead of the pathetic, whiny crap heel he had turned into over the past two months. Orton andLegacy got the best of HHH, handcuffed him to the ring, and then when Stephanie came out to beg for him to stop, he his her with a vicious hanging DDT. Ortonthen kissed her in a great scene before slamming HHH with the sledgehammer. Orton finally got some revenge in this feud after being humiliated by HHH weekafter week. It's amazing how the match immediately became interesting again when HHH doesn't just bury everyone else involved. However, I fear thatwas only a one week thing, as I can't imagine HHH allowing himself to look weak back to back weeks, especially as he will be out for revenge for his wife. However, call me crazy, but I have a strange feeling that Orton may walk out of WrestleMania as the WWE Champion.
One segment that really did not click for me was the opening segment between Chris Jericho and Ric Flair. It started out well enough, with Jericho and Flairgoing back and forth on the mic. But it quickly degraded into a segment that was frankly difficult to watch. Jericho beat down Flair, throwing him into thering steps and annouce table. Making him bleed like a dog. The amount that Flair has aged in his one year away from the ring was crystal clear. He no longerhas it. It is the exact reason Flair's retirement last year should have been the end of his phyical activities in the ring. It will be just like watchingPiper and Snuka on Sunday. These two no longer have any place being in the ring, but they can't leave the glory or paycheck. I guess it really is takingafter The Wrestler. Anyway, last week's segment would have been 10x more effective if Jericho would have dropped Flair with a single punch, and thencrushed his gold watch. Let the announcers, or better yet Jericho, tell the story of why he's crushing the watch. Instead, the watch just became anothersad moment in an overall depressing segment. Also, if Jerry Lawler is challenging Chris Jericho this week to get back at him for what he did to Flair lastweek, why did Lawler just stand around last week while Jericho decimated Flair? I clearly remember Lawler on the headset just yelling "Stop!". Ifhe cares enough to challenge him this week, why didn't he step in last week? Just more bad booking in my opinion.
I will be interested to see how much Mickey Rourke is mentioned tonight. The WWE has stated he will be sitting at ringside for the match, but only in passing. They have no emphasized the point, almost as if they don't know if he's actually going to show up. If they really want to sell the angle, they shoulddo everything in their power to have Rourke at Raw tonight to put a final sell on this angle that is barely grasping to life right now.
I can't wait to hear how the WWE spins the disasterous opening weekend for 12 Rounds. Originally projected to open at around $10 million, the projectionsdropped to $7.5 million, and in reality it only did $5.3 million making it a complete flop. In comparision, The Marine opened at over $7.2 million and stillwas not profitable until it went to DVD. 12 Rounds will have a tough time ever being profitable at this rate. Vince, you knew when to give up with the XFL. It's time to give it up with the movies. You just don't have it.
I hope JBL gives us some type of hint tonight about his historic announcement at WrestleMania. This is another item that has almost been forgotten about sinceoriginally being announced. If I had to guess right now, it would be that he is retiring and buying ECW. He would then "re-brand" ECW which wouldgo along with the rumors we've seen. However, that is just my speculation.
Something with the Divas tonight. Probably once again humiliating Santino. If I were Santino, I would go Bret Hart and hock a loogy in Vince's face andquit. It's pathetic how he is embarrassed every week on national TV when he is 100x more entertaining than anyone else on the roster.
We'll probably also have something with the MITB competitors even though they've already done just about every match you can leading up toWrestleMania. Just please keep Hornswoggle off the mic.
And lastly, John Cena should shut the hell up with his challenge to The Rock. The Rock isn't coming back and frankly doesn't care about you. It makesCena and the WWE look like a second rate organization making these challenges that they know won't come true. It's like when Eric Bischoff waschallenging Vince McMahon in WCW. Or when TNA offered a job to Sarah Palin. Ok, maybe it's not that bad.
http://niketalk.com/topic/166108
The biggest (or at least it is supposed to be the biggest) week of the year in professional wrestling is finally upon us. I promise to be 100% committed tothe thread this week with news, updates, and opinions each day as we build up to the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania this Sunday night.
The build towards WrestleMania has been considerably underwhelming this year. However, I will get into that much more later this week when I write up myofficial WrestleMania 25 preview. However, just for the sake of discussion, I want to list the WrestleMania 25 card as it stands today.
-Chris Jericho vs Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper with Ric Flair in their corner and Mickey Rourke at ringside
-25 Diva Battle Royal to crown "Miss WrestleMania"
-Money in the Bank Ladder Match featuring CM Punk, Mark Henry, Kane, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Kofi Kingston, MVP, and Finlay
-The Miz and Morrison vs Primo and Carlito Colon to Unify the Tag Team Titles
-JBL (c) vs Rey Mysterio Jr for the Intercontinental Championship, Plus JBL's "Announcement"
-Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy in an Extreme Rules Match
-The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels
-Edge (c) vs John Cena vs The Big Show for The World Heavyweight Championship and Vickie Guerrero
-HHH (c) vs Randy Orton for The WWE Championship
The card doesn't do a whole lot for me, but we'll see what they can do in the home stretch of shows this week. Of course, they are wasting an hourtomorrow night as ECW is an "All Divas" show. Ugh. They would do much better giving us Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne for the ECW Championship. Thatwould be an awesome way to kick off WrestleMania. Instead, they blow another chance to build new stars.
It's important to note that this Friday we get a very rare live Smackdown. So whereas we would usually get the final build for Raw matches tonight, thereis a very good chance we may not see that until Friday.
With the exception of two angles, I thought last week's Raw was another boring show that did nothing to get me really excited to buy WrestleMania. However, the two angles that did stand out were excellent. Sure, you could call it cheesy, corny, campy, whatever, but I really liked Shawn Michael'spromo in the grave yard. He went back to some of his old school heel tactics that made him so awesome once upon a time. The Undertaker's reaction to thevignette was pretty terrible, but that wasn't the point. I love the cocky, arrogant Shawn Michaels instead of the incredibly corny 40+ year old DX member. I also like that unlike all of the other feuds that mean anything for WrestleMania, they have actually kept these two men apart from each other. They havehad little to no phyiscal contact sans Shawn's superkick on Taker a few weeks back. One would think The Undertaker needs to get some sort of revenge asMichaels has got the best of this feud so far in my opinion.
The other highlight from last week was the closing segment with HHH, Randy Orton, and Stephanie. In what was a much needed shot in the arm for this feud,Randy Orton went back to his "Viper" character instead of the pathetic, whiny crap heel he had turned into over the past two months. Orton andLegacy got the best of HHH, handcuffed him to the ring, and then when Stephanie came out to beg for him to stop, he his her with a vicious hanging DDT. Ortonthen kissed her in a great scene before slamming HHH with the sledgehammer. Orton finally got some revenge in this feud after being humiliated by HHH weekafter week. It's amazing how the match immediately became interesting again when HHH doesn't just bury everyone else involved. However, I fear thatwas only a one week thing, as I can't imagine HHH allowing himself to look weak back to back weeks, especially as he will be out for revenge for his wife. However, call me crazy, but I have a strange feeling that Orton may walk out of WrestleMania as the WWE Champion.
One segment that really did not click for me was the opening segment between Chris Jericho and Ric Flair. It started out well enough, with Jericho and Flairgoing back and forth on the mic. But it quickly degraded into a segment that was frankly difficult to watch. Jericho beat down Flair, throwing him into thering steps and annouce table. Making him bleed like a dog. The amount that Flair has aged in his one year away from the ring was crystal clear. He no longerhas it. It is the exact reason Flair's retirement last year should have been the end of his phyical activities in the ring. It will be just like watchingPiper and Snuka on Sunday. These two no longer have any place being in the ring, but they can't leave the glory or paycheck. I guess it really is takingafter The Wrestler. Anyway, last week's segment would have been 10x more effective if Jericho would have dropped Flair with a single punch, and thencrushed his gold watch. Let the announcers, or better yet Jericho, tell the story of why he's crushing the watch. Instead, the watch just became anothersad moment in an overall depressing segment. Also, if Jerry Lawler is challenging Chris Jericho this week to get back at him for what he did to Flair lastweek, why did Lawler just stand around last week while Jericho decimated Flair? I clearly remember Lawler on the headset just yelling "Stop!". Ifhe cares enough to challenge him this week, why didn't he step in last week? Just more bad booking in my opinion.
I will be interested to see how much Mickey Rourke is mentioned tonight. The WWE has stated he will be sitting at ringside for the match, but only in passing. They have no emphasized the point, almost as if they don't know if he's actually going to show up. If they really want to sell the angle, they shoulddo everything in their power to have Rourke at Raw tonight to put a final sell on this angle that is barely grasping to life right now.
I can't wait to hear how the WWE spins the disasterous opening weekend for 12 Rounds. Originally projected to open at around $10 million, the projectionsdropped to $7.5 million, and in reality it only did $5.3 million making it a complete flop. In comparision, The Marine opened at over $7.2 million and stillwas not profitable until it went to DVD. 12 Rounds will have a tough time ever being profitable at this rate. Vince, you knew when to give up with the XFL. It's time to give it up with the movies. You just don't have it.
I hope JBL gives us some type of hint tonight about his historic announcement at WrestleMania. This is another item that has almost been forgotten about sinceoriginally being announced. If I had to guess right now, it would be that he is retiring and buying ECW. He would then "re-brand" ECW which wouldgo along with the rumors we've seen. However, that is just my speculation.
Something with the Divas tonight. Probably once again humiliating Santino. If I were Santino, I would go Bret Hart and hock a loogy in Vince's face andquit. It's pathetic how he is embarrassed every week on national TV when he is 100x more entertaining than anyone else on the roster.
We'll probably also have something with the MITB competitors even though they've already done just about every match you can leading up toWrestleMania. Just please keep Hornswoggle off the mic.
And lastly, John Cena should shut the hell up with his challenge to The Rock. The Rock isn't coming back and frankly doesn't care about you. It makesCena and the WWE look like a second rate organization making these challenges that they know won't come true. It's like when Eric Bischoff waschallenging Vince McMahon in WCW. Or when TNA offered a job to Sarah Palin. Ok, maybe it's not that bad.
