I realize that WWE/WWF might be a little to low brow for OOT but I don't know where else I'd post this. Anyways I used to watch WWF a ton as a kid and as a result of nothing being on TV monday nights started following it again cause it is pretty entertaining. Anyways Wrestlemania is a pretty big event so anyone watching it feel free to post your thoughts in here. I get its OOT but I'd rather not have this thread derail into OMG WRESTLING SUCKS ITS FAKE etc etc. I get that I just find it more entertaining than most stuff on TV.

Anyways WrestleMania is this Sunday. There's a press confrecne on NBC? tonight about it and a ton of WWF people are on Larry King Live tonight.

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/

Link to card above

My rough thoguhts

Ric Flair will lose. He's obv retiring maybe he wins and than annouces his retirement but he's so old and terrible in the ring.

Undertaker probably wins undefeated streak etc etc.

Randy Orton loses the title I'm not sure to who. But they've been really setting up a Feud between Cena and HHH for the last few weeks.

Mayweather has roughly a 0% chance of losing

Money in the bank match probably has to be Jericho or Kennedy who wins.

That card is ****ing depressing. I haven't watched WWE in like 4 years and there's basically nothing on that card that's new since then save the Divas and maybe ECW.

What ever happened to "Suck it!"? Do they still say that? I haven't watched wrestling since middle school, but "suck it" used to be a huge cultural phenomenon.

I think I'm going to bring it back and use it on a daily basis and see what happens.

The Undertaker is still doing it? Damn the guy must be immortal.

God I hate Cena so much. Im going to be so pissed when they hand him the title again and never have him lose it for another 2 years.

Over the last 6 months I've gotten back into WWE; I think it's been really good. Not the same product as 97 - 01; but much better than the last few years. That being said this card is pretty underwhelming. Especially since the last two PPVs have been spectacular.


The Big Show-Mayweather stuff has been very well done; with the only issue being Big Show is a heel and it seems as if Mayweather has 0 crowd support.

I can't see Cena not winning; I hate the triple threat format especially since it will confuse the "smarts" who usually root against cena. One of my guilty pleasures is when the crowd turns against the face like they have been doing with every Cena match for the last few years.

Money in the Bank should go to Kennedy; but it seems like they may have missed his mojo boat; he's not as relevant as he was 6 months ago..and he won it last year. My vote is for CM Punk or MVP. This will be the match of the night.

I can see Flair losing, his promo on Monday was pretty intense though.

If Undertaker wins I'll be pretty pissed; he's actually put on some pretty good matches lately...but enough already. I assume if a smackdown brand face/heel wins the MITB we will know the results of this one.

Don't forget about Umaga jobbing to Batista.

Anyway, they'll have my $55 bucks because I'm a sucker.

FYI, my wrestlemania party last year was a big hit.

No one followed wrestling but it was entertaining enough. Drank beer, ate pizza etc

Matt,
My one complaint with Mayweather is he feels really awkward abotu 1/2 the time. When he's doing his own thing he's awesome but you can tell when he's on the script and he's alwasy really awkward.

re Undertaker:
if the streak means something to him he definetely has enough pull to never lose at wrestlemania. Since he was supposed to have a title reign last year before he got injured i thinl he'll prob win.

For the Money in the Bank it really sucks for Jeff Hardy he was obv very hot and supposed to win and now got suspended. CM Punk could win i suppose but MVP is really unlikely he's not that hot right now and they already have stuff for him to do.

Yeah agreed. Some of the stuff he says is cheesy as hell. I like the behind the scenes big show stuff a lot.

It sucks that two of the best workers, Mysterio and Hardy are injured and suspended respectively.

Yeah this card really sucks. The build up for the matches other than the main event and Flair/HBK have been terrible too.

Preshow Battle Royal, winner faces ECW Champ Chavo Guerrero
I like that the WWE is starting to do this for WM to get guys a paycheck, which is all its there for. Kane is usually the guy who gets these spots against champs who have nothing to do and jobs to make the champ look good. I'd suspect that'll happen. Kane wins then jobs to Chavo.

Belfast Brawl: Finlay vs JBL

This match is so uninteresting I can't put it into words. Finlay doesn't get face heat, people with a brain hate the entire Hornswaggle storyline, and nobody really cares about JBL anymore. I guess Finlay wins to end this for good.

Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjack: Maria/Ashley vs Melina/Beth Phoenix

Standard women's stuff here, Santino tries to interfere and is taken out by Snoop Dogg, Maria pins Beth to give her a little cred. Also if you haven't seen the Playboy pics of Maria yet, you should. They are excellent.

Career on the line: Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels

Flair/HBK promos have been ridiculously good though however the match itself will suck. I'm interested to see how they handle the whole situation. I'm guessing after Flair loses a bunch of older guys and maybe many faces come out to celebrate the end of Flair's career, or maybe they save that for RAW. HBK ends Flair's career.

Brand Supremacy: Umaga (RAW) vs Batista (SmackDown)

Batista wins since Umaga has pretty much become a JTTS, allowing Michael Cole to go on and on about how great Smackdown is. I can't think of a single reason to care about this match.

Mystery match: Floyd Mayweather vs Big Show

We still don't know what kind of match this will be. I read a possible synopsis that will probably be used: they spend about 10 minutes doing nothing but having Floyd running away from Show, Show chokeslams Floyd, Floyd's people run in for the schmozz ending, Show chucks them all away but Floyd comes back and gets in a few shots. I doubt anything of significance will happen in this match and its really been ruined by the fact that Vince hasn't just made Show the face since they've completely abandoned Rey Misterio's part in this feud and there are exactly zero wrestling fans who like Floyd, and he's been playing heel the whole time. So the fans don't really know who to root for and so they just kinda sit there. Well done Vince.

Money in the Bank: Mr. Kennedy vs Shelton Benjamin vs Chris Jericho vs CM Punk vs John Morrison vs Montel Vontavious Porter vs Carlito

Ok, so we know for sure Shelton, Morrison, Carlito have no chance at all to win. I forsee a Jericho heel turn which means he probably won't win, and he was getting very little heat when he came back to challenge Orton. That leaves Kennedy, Punk, and MVP. CM Punk should win and be drafted to RAW during the draft lottery. His pops are starting to dwindle a little bit, time to get him off ECW for good.

World Heavyweight Title: Edge (c) vs Undertaker

Taker's WM streak should basically carry on for as long as he's active. There's no active wrestler who I'd have Taker job to at WM just for the sake of ending the streak and/or giving that guy cred. It's just not worth it. Taker wins, although I would not be shocked at all if its a schmozz allowing Edge to keep the belt.

Triple Threat for the WWE title: Randy Orton (c) vs Triple H vs John Cena

I'd book Orton to win but he probably won't. He needs a big time credible win over these guys which he doesn't have, thus everyone KNOWS he won't win. If I had to book either Triple H or Cena to win, I'd book Triple H to pin Cena clean, then turn Cena by having him go nuts post-match and attack Triple H. RAW needs main even heels badly. Orton is the only ME heel they have right now.

I really don't understand the hate for Cena. No, he's not a great worker and he definitely has his issues in the ring, mostly for me is his seemingly complete inability to sell properly, but he's energetic and good on the mic, and he's good enough in the ring that he's neither looking like a complete jackass nor hurting his opponents so what's the problem? The Five Knuckle Shuffle needs to go though, unless he's a heel in which he HAS to do it because it drives the fans crazy.

How ****ing dumb is Jeff Hardy? He was a lock to be a main eventer for life after the current programs end...and he ****s it up. I mean it's understandable he could be dissapointed about not getting the belt 2 months ago, but the WWE was basically ready to put him at the top...now after the latest shenanigans I'm sure he'll be buried again. I wish Matt Hardy V 1.0 had gotten the same opportunities.

russ.
wow...great analysis. I'd read your website.

The BR I could se Henry or Kane winning it and losing to Chavo right after. But maybe Elijah or Kofi will win it just to give them a chance to put on a half decent match with Chavo.

Finaly v JBL will probably be a decent brawl at least. Don't really like Hornswaggle and don't see Finlay as a face, more of a lesser of two evils.

Bunnymania is stupid. The last 4 WM's have had a stupid diva's match, let's make it 5.

I think HBK-Flair might have a chance at being half decent, HBK wins though.

Batista-Umaga will be garbage. Batista in under 5.

Floyd-TBS is so bizarre. Floyd's a heel, Big Show's a heel (on purpose at least), I'm supposed to root for who?

MITB is always good, I could see CM Punk winning it, maybe Kennedy.

Undertaker could lose to Edge, but UT will probably win and hold the title for a few months/until he's hurt.

Triple Threat I can't decide how I want to win/who'd make sense. Cena I don't want to see with the belt for at least another year. Orton is doing okay with it. HHH hasn't had it in a while. If Cena wins I guess we'll get more Cena-Orton-maybe HHH for a few months. If Orton wins I guess it's him vs who he didn't pin for at least April. If HHH wins I'm guessing him v Orton for a while.

Problems with Cena:
-He does the exact same moves in a match every time in a certain order. (Although Hogan and Bret did the same thing, Hart mixed it up more though)
-Doesn't sell. (WM23-ruined some of the match for me)
-His promo's are lame (Every thing he says is a genitals joke)
-Never seems to be in any real danger of losing.

Russ,
Great analysis completely agree about Cena.

Also its really a shame the Orton Jeff Hardy feud got ruined cause the Royal Rumble was at MSG. They just had no room to work and ended up having a pretty ****ty match but and then their feud got buried by Cena/suspension.

They definitely need another heel which makes me think either Jericho turns heel or Kennedy wins money in the bank.

"Bunnymania is stupid. The last 4 WM's have had a stupid diva's match, let's make it 5."

The thing is that there's gotta be like x number of people that buy the ppv because of this and like zero people who won't because of it.

John Cena lost it for me the minute he started rapping slow enough for people to get his punchlines (these being WWE marks, that means "slower than spoken word").

Here's my rundown - and Russ, I agree with pretty much everything you said.

Ignoring Finlay/JBL, ECW Battle Royal, and BunnyMania. Of those, the Divas match will probably be the most entertaining, if only to see if Snoop knocks out Santino. And, well, Ashley and Maria are on the same team.

Batista/Umaga: Batista wins and it'll be a shame if this one takes more than 5 minutes. Never thought I'd see a match in which I could say, technically, Batista is the better wrestler. Umaga has way worn out his welcome (and I'm looking at you too, Great Khali).

HBK and Flair has potential to be a great match, and honestly I'm just looking forward to seeing if Flair's got one last good one in him at Wrestlemania. The hype has been solid and it was obvious from the time it was announced it would be HBK. Every other time Flair's put a midcard heel down, and now its time to go out. Making Orton tap clean on Monday with his family there was a nice touch.

Pretty Boy Floyd is going to beat the Show, but that's just because these celebrities always do. Reminds me of Lawrence Taylor putting down Bam Bam in like 95 I think. Doesn't do a whole lot for Show's comeback. Start with Rey who then gets hurt and then likely job to a 150-pound boxer at Mania?

Money in the Bank will be good, but not nearly as good as it would have been with Jeff in the match. Shelton won't win, and neither will MVP or John Morrison or Carlito. That leaves basically a 3-way ladder match with Jericho, Punk, and Kennedy. Punk doesn't need to win it to just stay on Smackdown/ECW because he has no chance of going for the World Heavyweight (as long as Edge/Taker/Batista are going at it) and doesn't need it to get a match with Chavo on a "brand" with like 3 top-level talents. I don't like Jericho merely because Raw has 3 top guys right now regardless of who wins the WWE Title match plus Shawn Michaels when he's done with Flair, PLUS the inevitable return of Jeff Hardy after his suspension. Kennedy is the guy with the most versatility - he won it last year and got unlucky with his injury. They need an extra heel (especially with my Triple Threat prediction) and he needs needs NEEDS a push to stay relevant. Kennedy is the winner for the second year in a row.

Taker probably isn't going to job to Edge. I don't see the streak really ever ending (not even because Taker wouldn't do it, but because that's really the best way to hype any Taker match at Wrestlemania - bring up "the streak"). I can only hope they don't have this one finish ugly. Taker was supposed to have a good run on top after he won it last year, so he'll probably do it again this year.

I like Trips to win the triple threat just because he's been out for so long. He's also the easiest to turn heel. The fans are slowly turning against Cena, but they haven't planted any seeds for a heel turn. Plus, a Cena turn would be awesome, which is why it'll never happen. He's almost like the Rock or Austin - even if the fans hate him, they'll always love him. HHH is easy to hate because he's already got the gimmick of doing anything to win, clean or otherwise. He's been on top for a long time but they could probably make Cena a better babyface by turning HHH heel. Tough call. I could see it going to either Hunter or Cena, but I'm pretty sure Orton's run is done.

I've had a long-time love/hate relationship with WWE. I'm currently in "hate".

I still watch the big four PPVs each year, but haven't watched a full episode of RAW in about 6 months. I just find the show repetitively boring.

The card this year is absolutely awful. $20M for Mayweather? And you put him with Big Show? How many PPV buys is he going to sell, Vince? I'll hand it to Captain Insano, he's selling his ass off for this, but just a terrible business decision by WWE.

They handled the Flair retirement tour poorly, and you're telling me that they can't get Steamboat out there one more time instead of a match we've already seen a bunch of times recently in Flair/HBK? Hell, since Vince is throwing money around, why not throw $1 at Sting for a one-off with Flair? He'd probably get a buy out of me and a lot of other people for that.

Paging RVD...

Also, I was one of the people who was genuinely excited to see Jericho come back, but I'm really not enjoying his schtick the way I used to.

Who's going to buy WM because of Bunnymania? I agree no one is leaving because of it.

Once John Cena went from Rapper to Superhero I turned on him.

Figured this would be a good thread to post this in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K-wEUCCvE0
All of the sheik videos are incredible.
This is really depressing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZMybi4K1H8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWB5d5aglA

I agree, the card is whatever. I loved this video promo for the three way though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgWYGSFBxDE

Anyone know what that irish celtic song playing in the background is?

Jack,

I have no idea, but I'm pretty ****ing sure they exist.