clean rob

1) Taker [entrance] 2) Benoit [post-match] 3) Brock [post-match] Tough to guess, actually (apart from the obvious monster Taker pop).

Hey, I'd love to see London at Mania as much as the next guy, but there's no need for any Funaki hating.

Could be interesting, but if they don't gel at all together the commentary could be horrible, and bad commentary can really drag a match down. Brock/Berg and Kane/Taker are both too big to go risking that on, so I'd stick with the JR/Tazz combo, which seems to work really well. I'd rather just see a promo from each GM before the big interpromotional matches about how important the matches are for the competing brands...maybe not before Taker/Kane, but definitely Brock/Berg. Fuck it, if you're going to have the match, stick Tazz with Lawler for extra mindlessness.

(bored, so has a look) Ugh, what a horribly tacky ring. Why am I not surprised?

Wrong? Nah, it's Wrestlemania - there has to be a bit of fanny, it's a 'sports entertainment extravaganza', yes? Seriously, I feel pretty bad for all three of those guys. Storm seems like a genuinely nice guy judging from all the pieces I've read by him, Matt's career has gone to shit since he moved to Raw, and London can't get on the show even when there's a cruserweight exclusive Battle Royale-type deal. They could at least have let him go out there, do a few spots and get eliminated. Ho hum.

He's certainly never done one on WWE/F television, but I've heard from several sources that he was able to do one during the time he was in OVW after losing a lot of weight and really shaping up. I've seen a photo of him during that time and he certainly looked capable of one. How come you're so sure, K89?

This sounds like a bad idea, it may make some money in the short term but in the long term fans will eventually be driven away. There isn't enough build to most feuds as it is! The PPVs are fine the way they are at the moment IMO. No we don't.

I KNOW it's happened before, but that was when the company was getting great buyrates for the PPVs and could afford to throw such a curveball at the audience (which I believe paid off with the subsequent Backlash buyrate). However right now the company doesn't need to be taking any risks like that, and it will be hoping a lot of irregular PPV watchers buy WMXX 'just because' it's WMXX. It makes sense to end the show on a 'happy note', as this is more likely to get this demographic to continue purchasing PPVs. Plus, it's WMXX, the blow-off of all blow-offs, supposedly. How crap is having a heel win the ME?

I just flat out refuse to believe they'll end the show on a downer by having a heel win the final match on the card. So either HHH will lobby to have the Raw Title match on last and drop the belt, or end up lower down the card again and retain.

The cruiserweight match and the main event were brilliant. Quick ratings - 2 Cool vs. Bashams: ** Fun opener, nice teasing of the Bansai Drop on Shaniqua. Noble vs. Nidia: DUD. Both worse, and longer, than I was expecting. APA vs. TWGTT: *1/2 Fairly tedious, although there was at least a vague story to this one and some good work (as always) from TWGTT. Holly vs. Rhyno: 1/2* I thought their little match on Smackdown was watchable, but this was b-o-r-i-n-g. Seemed to suck a lot of life out the crowd. Worst booked match all night as well. Rey vs. Chavo: **** I absolutely loved this and it completely woke me up after the last 3 matches. Great work by both guys, Chavo's focusing on Rey's chest was very nice and Rey did his comebacks beautifully. The ending was the way it should have been, letting Chavo win with just a little interference from dad and setting up the inevitable rematch. Angle vs. Cena vs. Show: **3/4 Pretty typical 3-way, enjoyable but nothing special. Well booked though and nice work on Cena's knee. Eddie vs. Brock: ****1/2 Absolute stunner of a match, even better than I was expecting. Goldberg's interference had to happen really, and wasn't too detrimental to the match in the end due to Brock kicking out of the spear. Also, Eddie's counter to the F5 and Brock's running high knees (and subsequent tumble over the top) were awesome. Great use of submissions, loved the story, good selling by both guys - and Eddie is champ!

I believe that for the last couple of years all the shows have sold out, so I wouldn't leave it too late. Ehh?

Yeah I'm going to the Newcastle show too. £5 booking fee though, bloody cheek!

Like all those other enjoyable Bob Holly, Basham and APA matches. Personally, I enjoyed Hollys match last week with Angle. I thought some of the Bashams matches as tag champs were quite well done, they aren't bad per se IMO - just un-over and stuck with a shitty gimmick. I also think Scotty is highly watchable in the ring when he's playing the face in peril type of role instead of dancing about and giving people his godawful finisher. The APA do indeed suck, but I love TWGTT's offense so much I'll probably enjoy parts of that match too. I'm not saying any or all of these matches will be good or even not bad, but I don't think all of them will be completely devoid of merit. That's all.

Well clearly. He just looks really different to me, that's all. I don't think it suits him. He seems happy though! I know you didn't - I was just saying it definitely won't be.

Well it's only speculation and opinion and all that but I'd say the only bad match on the card is Noble/Nidia, and the rest at least have potential to be enjoyable. I'm going to bed now anyway so I guess we'll just have to see how they pan out. ...and surely you must be optimistic in some way, or else you wouldn't even bother to watch!

So the matches will be bad AND short. Wow, I better lock up my wallet so I don't order this entertainment extrvaganza~! more than once. - Err, not really what I was saying. There will be some mediocre, short matches and some good, long matches. Optimism is the most useless human trait on earth. - Somebody needs a hug, huh?

Orton/Foley definitely won't main event, it's a side attraction match designed purely to get Orton over. Eddy/Angle will be a great match, but doesn't have a 'main event' feel, and although Eddy is a hugely over face right now, he'll be defending the belt rather than trying to win it. Goldberg/Brock is the money match, but as a heel Brock is surely going to win it won't be last match of the night. Taker/Kane should be fairly low down the card, but Taker's promo vids have been getting huge pops...so maybe, but I still doubt it - although Taker's initial pop will be gargantuan I can't see the heat for this match as a whole surpassing all the other MEs by much. Which leaves the Three Way. It's got TWO (at the moment) over faces going for the belt on the most over heel in the company. Although the triple threat stip has fucked things up somewhat, it's still (kind of) the classic Mania story. It's gotta be on last. On a side note, Choken - what the hell happened to Keith?

Reading your predictions, you have either two or three (depending on if you pick the high or low number) being good. OUT OF SEVEN. BAD show. JMA never said it would be a good show, he said some of the matches could be good. Besides, the only really offensive match on the card is the Nidia/Noble one, and that's surely going to be extemely short. The tag matches and Holly/Rhyno won't be particularly good but shouldn't be truly awful or particularly long. The three matches that will (likely) all be given 15+ minutes have the potential to be good to very good. That's not a bad show by WWE standards at all, it's mediocre at worst. Go on AS, try a little optimism..you might like it!

Could be a sleeper PPV with a bit of luck, the build has been mostly awful but Smackdown PPVs seem to be able to balance lacklustre booking out with good action in-ring. Hardcore Holly vs. Rhyno Prediction: Stiff, short match. Both guys can work a pretty good brawl so I expect little actual wrestling. Holly doesn't look to be going anywhere so Rhyno wins. The APA vs. TSPWGTT Prediction: Some heel title contenders are required. WGTT have to win. Nidia vs. Knoble in a Blindfold match Prediction: Hopefully, Knoble finalises his heel turn by brutalizing Nidia with the Tiger Driver. Too Cool, Ver. 2.0 vs. The Basham Bros and Shaniqua for the WWE tag titles Prediction: This better not be as underwhelming as the match where Too Cool took the belts. Shaniqua gets a stinkface and a Basham gets pinned. Angle vs. Cena vs. Big Show for #1 contendership Prediction: Angle vs. Cena @ No Mercy was great and Big Show works well in this environment, could break ***1/2 with some luck. Angle wins, surely. Rey Mysterio, with Boxing Great, uh...??? vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., with Chavo Sr. for the CW championship Prediction: It's all faces going over in the rest of the big matches, so I reckon Chavo wins the belt after interference from his dad. Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar (w/ Goldberg at ringside) for the WWE Title Prediction: An otherwise superb match is soured by Goldberg interference, but at least Eddie finally gets the big gold belt. Edit: (reads above post) Dude, Spanky's gone.

^^^ Amen to that. Although I did laugh heartily when he came out in the Rumble to a deathly hush.

Yeah, I've never heard any reports ever say Big Show could manage a SSP - he could definitely do a moonsault at one point though. (to be fair, who can't?) Perhaps you're mixing him up with Mark Henry, who apparently could pull off a SSP when he dropped all the excess pounds some time ago in OVW. Wasn't Big Show supposedly going to pull out the moonsault against Nash at some point in WCW, but Kevin flat out refused to take it? Or am I just imagining that one?

I saw Guns & Roses play about 18 months back, and personally, I thought they were fucking great (although true to form, they were waaay late on stage). I'd love to see them at WM, but absolutely not doing some shitty rap cover of one of their classics. They won't go anyway, so meh.

Whilst I normally like to be optimistic about this sort of thing, I can't see Eddie getting anything close to a clean pin on Brock. I think the best case realistic scenario is something along the lines of: GB interferes and spears Brock while the ref is down or distracted by Eddie, but Brock still kicks out. The ref sees GB at ringside and sends him to the back, but while he's busy doing so Eddie does some cheating of his own to pick up the pinfall. That way at least he's 'done it' himself, to a degree. I agree with Downhome, BTW -it's unnecessary having the title match go over 30 when we all know it isn't going to end before Goldy gets in the ring. And besides, Brock works better in medium-length matches.

Unless Eddie starts doing this sort of thing on a regular basis, I can't see anyone in the WWE caring too much. Saying 'get the fuck away from me, asshole' to a fan is mean, but that's all. It certainly doesn't sound like a tell-tale sign he's back on the bottle.

There's really no time at all to build towards any matches properly, so I'm guessing they'll just throw a couple of tag matches together - The Bashams inevitable rematch with Scotty and Rikishi and maybe a #1 contenders match as well (WGTT vs. London/Kidman would be nice). I wouldn't mind seeing Kyo Dai vs. the FBI, despite their total lack of interaction so far. I expect around 45 minutes being devoted to any combination of McMahons/Heyman/Divas who want to be in Playboy/Ernest Miller. To be fair, both Vengeance and No Mercy looked shit on paper last year, and I found them both entertaining. Here's hoping Smackdown can make it 3 in a row.