Wrestlemania 25 - My Predictions

This weekend is the biggest weekend on the wrestling calendar as we all await Wrestlemania 25 this Sunday so with this in mind I thought you guys may like to know my thoughts and predictions on all the matches on the card.

Intercontinental Title Match
JBL vs. Rey Mysterio

Being in his home state could prove to be the deciding factor for JBL. WWE really haven’t done anything with Rey since his world title push and I don’t think he is in line for another crack at it so my predictions are a JBL win here. JBL hasn’t got that many memorable Wrestlemania wins under his belt and in what could and should be his last year I think he will get the win. As a match I am not expecting much from it and it could well be our opening match.

Winner: JBL

Tag Team Lumberjack Title Unification match

The Colons vs. The Miz and Morrison

This is a match I have been waiting for on PPV for some time. Over past months WWE haven’t really pushed any tag match at a PPV but hopefully now these two teams will have the stage to show why Vince should put more effort behind the tag scene. I am really torn in this one because I do think both teams are great. The only thing that will ruin this match is it being a Lumberjack Match, why WWE couldn’t just let these two teams bring the house down I don’t know, so I do fear that would could be a great match could get ruined.

Winner: The Miz and Morrison

Diva Battle Royal

The way they schedule Diva matches at Wrestlemania can sometimes be stupid. For many years they have sandwiched it in between the semi main event match and the main event match which instead of giving the fans some breathing space has killed them so I hope they get this one out of the way early. Expect Santino to get involved somehow and look out for a possible appearance from Trish Stratus but whatever you do don’t expect a great match.

Winner: Gail Kim

Money in the Bank
CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Mark Henry vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Christian vs. Finlay

In this match expect Kofi, Shelton and Christian to provide you with some new and innovative bumps. Vince is down on Christian at the moment so don’t expect the obvious win for him given his history in ladder matches. If CM Punk were to win he would make history as first person to win it back to back but I don’t see WWE pushing him that hard. My thoughts are they could either give it to Kane as he hasn’t won before and is one of Vince’s most consistent stars, give it to MVP and finally give him the push they have been promising or an outside bet is Shelton Benjamin as I know a lot of people backstage are impressed with him right now.


Winner: Kane

Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka

What should have been a great entertaining match could be flop of the night, not many people want to see either of the legends wrestle let alone all three. Expect Jericho to go in to monster heel roll and beat on the legends a fair bit and then for them to have a heroic comeback with Flair helping them to the win.

Winners: The Legends

Extreme Rules Match: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

The only thing that was going to make this match great at Mania was if there was some heat between the two of them and a great feud which had been built up for months but instead this match has really limped in to mania. As a tag team there styles use to compliment each other but against each other I really don’t think it is going to work. The only thing that will make the match interesting is the extreme rules stipulation so expect some ladders to come in to play and for one of the brothers to be taken out of there on a stretcher.

Winner: Matt Hardy

World Heavyweight Championship
Edge vs. Big Show vs. John Cena

In this match I really like the Love Triangle storyline but not sure if I am looking forward to the match. Edge is really going to have to keep this match together as Big Show and Cena can provide entertainment but without Edge it would just be a mess. I think we are going to see Edge and Big Show trying to team up on Cena and then double crossing each other. If they want to finish the love triangle storyline at Mania they will have Vickie come out cost both Big Show and Edge the match, leave the ring and let Cena pick up the win.

Winner: John Cena

The Undertaker vs. HBK

This is match I am looking forward to more than anything else on the card the two biggest legends in WWE right now both going at it in their own home state. The build up has been immense and miles better than anything else on the card. The only problem is I think the build up has been too good and overshadowed the title matches, just have to be careful we don’t get another Hogan / Rock Wrestlemania 18 situation where this match wasn’t the main event but burned the fans out before the main event. HBK in the past got some big wins over Undertaker, In Your House 17 first hell in a Cell and Royal Rumble 1998 casket match so I expect The Undertaker to get his revenge and keep the streak. Last year HBK got to steal the show and get a win over Flair so I think he should do the job and the honors for The Undertaker this year.

Winner: The Undertaker


WWE Championship
Triple H vs. Randy Orton

I have been saying for some time now that I think it is time for the year of Orton and over the last four months Orton has delivered. The segments between him and HHH have been brilliant and that has mainly been down to Orton and not HHH. These two have told an intense storyline which makes us all believe they really hate each other which is what great storytelling is all about and these two have the ability to back it up with a great match. Now HHH has lost quite a few big matches at Mania over the last six years so he is more than in line for a big win at Mania which would give me cause to believe it was going to be HHH retaining but I think Orton is just to on his game at the moment.

Winner: Randy Orton

Other things to watch out for

We have both Ken Kennedy and Batista who could make an appearance. Kennedy has been doing a lot of international PR for Mania so would make sense to see him and news on Batista and his recovery from injury has been very quiet as of late. The night before Mania Steve Austin is getting inducted to the hall of fame so in his home state will he make a Wrestlemania appearance and make an impact? With mania you always get the rumor mill and gossip but I really think there is a strong possibility of one of these things happening.

WWE Raw Review - 3rd March 2008

The anticipation is continuing to grow in the run up to Wrestlemania and I for one am starting to get in to Wrestlemania mood by watching some of the Mania’s from years gone by. I was looking forward to seeing what the WWE was going to do this week with Raw as I sat down for my weekly viewing.

As always there were some good and bad points, I will start with the bad points.

Poor Production

I thought the first in ring segment with Big Show fighting a professional fighter whilst Floyd Mayweather looked on through a live satellite link as he was broadcast on the Raw Titantron. This was a nice idea however was poorly produced as during the introductions of both competitors there were many shots which had other cameramen in shot which is not we are use to with WWE. The when the Big Show got on the mic to talk to Floyd the footage on the screen of Floyd was poorly produced and it looked like it was pre-recorded and not live as he wasn’t really responding to what Big Show was staying as well as just talking over big Show.

Use of Super Crazy

Once one of ECW’s top stars is now used as a jobber every week in other words he loses all his matches and normally in squash style. As Super Crazy is given no promos, no out of ring segments or no coverage from the commentators he reminds me very much of the 80 early 90s style of wrestling where you would have guys like Brooklyn Brawler and Barry Horrowitz who very rarely won a match or had a storyline. Now I’m not saying Super Crazy should be on top of the pile but if you are going to give him TV time and use him you need to do something with him.

Finlay / JBL / McMahon feud

Ok the premise to this feud may be very loose but now they have decided on this direction they need to run with it. They tried to put the feud over by having Finlay and McMahon having an in ring discussion to confirm what JBL had said was true about Hornswoggle being Finlay’s son which was needed. After this though they went to a shot of JBL with Hornswoggle in the worst ever hospital set I have seen on TV. JBL started to put the beat on Hornswoggle and Finlay just stayed in the ring to watch it on the screen. It did a great job of putting JBL over as a heel but took away from Finlay. Finlay was left looking like a stupid, helpless face. Instead of staying in the ring Finlay should have run backstage when he saw what was going on to try and get in a car to get there as soon as possible. Now that would have been sensible storytelling.

No TV time for Burchill

After three weeks of TV time on Raw Paul Burchill and Katie lea were nowhere to be seen this week. When you are developing a new wrestler and character you need to keep them on TV every week it makes no sense for WWE to invest the time in them to then not have them on TV. I know it’s a hard time for them to get established at the moment with everything surrounding Wrestlemania but if you are going to do it you have to commit to it.

Now on to the good points

Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy was Chris Jericho’s guest in the return of the Highlight Reel and showed some brilliant character development. Since his feud with Randy Orton he had gone back to just having his regular style matches with no mic or promo time but we got to see more of his developing character today as he hit the twist of fate on fellow face Jericho. We have seen hardy work a character lead feud against a heel but it is good to see him working well feuding with other faces.

Carlito

Was great to see him have a single match on Raw and win a place in the ‘Money in the Bank’ match at Wrestlemania. Two years ago he was in the first match at Wrestlemania last year he was moved to a dark match but now he is in a major match. The WWE need to start re-investing time in him though as he needs more than just the odd match to get his character across.

Randy Orton’s push

The creative team had come up with a great idea to structure the last three Raw’s with a Triple Threat Takeover. Each week before Mania one of the triple threat competitors will have the power to make the main event on Raw. This week it was the turn of Cena who chose to put Orton against Triple H. After the match Cena stormed the ring to hit the F-U on HHH only to be then on the receiving end of an RKO from Orton who left Raw as the last man standing. Triple H and Cena don’t need to be built but it’s Orton that needs to be built to the point where fans don’t think Triple H and Cena will be able to get the belt off him which is starting to be done.

Overall

A very entertaining Raw with lots going on, regardless of the matches and the results as long as the creative team keep it a fast paced show then its going to keep the viewers hooked which is what this show was. I think things are bubbling under at the moment with the pace of build up to Mania which is good as it has got me expecting great things from the next three episodes of Raw which is what the creative team need to do but they just now need to deliver.

Introduction

Hi Guys

Welcome to 'The Wrestling Project.' This is a new Blog I have set up to discuss the goings on in the crazy and strange world of Professional Wrestling that we all know and love.

Each week I am going to be giving you my views on the PPVs and TV shows of the two major American Wrestling promotions those being WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and TNA (Total Nonstop Action). On top of this I am going to be predicting where storylines are leading and telling you my thoughts on how I think the two promotions should be booked.

This Blog has been set up as a project to see if the writers and creative teams behind these two promotions read what is written on the internet and if anything the fans say actually affects the direction they take the company or a storyline in.

Hope you enjoy reading my weekly Blogs and be sure to leave a comment, whether you agree with me or not I want to hear your thoughts.

All the best

Adam Sibley