Kahran Ramsus

I think Diesel would have been the first significant opponent for Taker had we not known he was going to be gone in a month. Even then that was Taker's first big time Wrestlemania match. The streak has been pushed since at least Wrestlemania XIII against Sid, but it has become an even greater focus in recent years. No matter how they spin it though, Edge's streak is dead. He lost, plain and simple. It wasn't a pinfall or submission loss, but based on the rules of the match it was legitimate. Continuing to mention it would be as phoney as saying Shawn/Razor was the first ladder match in the WWF or that Bret Hart was undefeated in cage matches as of the one against Diesel at IYH.

Pontiac - 2 Warrior/Savage is as well a booked match as you will ever see with both men going all out and Savage becoming a bigger star despite getting pinned by a boot to the chest. Hogan/Andre was gigantic, but neither the match nor the feud was as good as Warrior/Savage. Atlantic City - 1 Tough one here and both related my pick in the Pontiac bracket. Hogan/Savage was the beginning of Savage's decline leading to the above match, whereas Flair/Savage was his final redemption. You can't go wrong with either, but I went with Savage/Hogan because if Savage/Flair has one flaw it is that they signed the match before they built the issue between them. Toronto - 2 Warrior/Hogan was one of the defining matches of its generation, but it is up against possibly the best match of all time. I had to go with Bret/Owen. New York City - 1 Steamboat/Savage was by far the best match in WWF history for a number of years and completely overshadowed the main event at the biggest show of all time. Arguably my favourite match ever. Houston - 1 I loved Austin/Rock and it was the biggest match of the last ten years. Seattle - 1 I'm not the biggest fan of the Iron Man match, but it is better than Jericho/Christian. Chicago - 1 Tough one, but ultimately Bret/Austin meant so much more. It made Austin, destroyed Bret and changed the face of the company for years to come. We are still seeing the effects of this match today. Anaheim - 5 The best the tag division has been since the 80s.

I don't have much to comment about here as it mostly went according to plan with the exception of Taker/Batista being much better than it had any right to be and my personal MOTN. The right person went over in every match, including the Originals & Melina which surprised me. Not the most unpredictable of Manias, but they rarely are anyways as at least lately it tends to be the one show that WWE gets right consistantly.

Rey Misterio & Randy Orton were the final two in the Royal Rumble last year, but HHH still got to be in the main event even though the title was retained by Cena.

With the steroid scandal, I really don't see them booking Orton to win. Edge at least has an explanation for what he did (whether you believe him or not), but there is no defending the myriad of drugs that Orton got caught with which is why his name features the most prominently amongst those affected. Besides, I didn't think Orton was going to win even before the scandal broke and Edge is clearly the star of the team at this point. Edge is probably the favourite to win, and the booking going in seems to reflect it. I'm still going with Kennedy though, who is the one who should win and hoping that Edge & Orton cancel each other out. What I am really against is some goofy ending where both Orton & Edge get the briefcase at the same time. The last thing I want is an inconclusive finish. The other matches are pretty predictable. Cena, Taker, Lashley, Khali, Ashley & The New Breed go over, although it would be my markout moment of the night if Umaga won. The only other match with any intrigue is Benoit/MVP, and even there I would be surprised if Benoit jobbed. I know he's moving to RAW so he is going to lose the title shortly, but I really don't see it being here. That probably has less to do with the outcome and more to do with match quality and getting the biggest star in the company (Cena) on last. It happened last year too.

I like the idea of having both sides of the bracket be exclusive to one brand and then have RAW vs. Smackdown in the finals. A KOTR Finals of say Edge vs. Kennedy would certainly have me interested. Didn't they kind of do that with the last KotR PPV? I know it was after the brand split...there were rumors they might try to do Buh-Buh Ray (RAW) vs Rev. D-Von (Smackdown) in the finals, but obviously that didn't happen. They screwed it up by having Jericho (a Smackdown wrestler) face RVD (RAW) and Lesnar (RAW) face Test (Smackdown) in the semi-finals.

If there was anybody who really needed this win, then yes. But wasting it on a main eventer like Batista or a lost cause like Randy Orton isn't going to mean anything. Guys like Finlay, Booker, Benoit, etc. are all on the downsides of their careers. Most of the upper midcard is aging. This isn't exactly 1998 WCW with 10 guys just itching for their shot. And 15-1 is nowhere near as impressive as 16-0. Would anybody remember the 1972 Miami Dolphins the way they do if they went 16-1? The 1973 was probably better than the 72 team, but nobody talks about them because they lost.

I like the idea of having both sides of the bracket be exclusive to one brand and then have RAW vs. Smackdown in the finals. A KOTR Finals of say Edge vs. Kennedy would certainly have me interested.

Yeah give it to the 40+ year old injury prone guy with no interest in wrestling... GENIUS! Well, would you rather they wait another year, put Undertaker against someone like MVP or Kennedy, and hope he's "feeling it" that night enough to finally put someone over? Personally, I'd want him to retire undefeated. This is one of the few remaining things in wrestling that actually means anything anymore and they've been pushing the streak since at least Wrestlemania XIII 10 years ago. It would be a shame to lose something this important just to put over the latest flavour of the month who will be back down in the midcard in a few weeks or some veteran who doesn't need the rub anyways. Aside from maybe Mr. Kennedy or possibly Kane, I don't see anyone in the company who would actually benefit from ending the streak, so why not let the fans enjoy something historic?

The reason it's a knock is because Vince is trying to recapture the late '80s/late '90s (the eras of Hulk/Austin-Rock) on Cena's back. It's a stupid knock. Big deal that Cena isn't a Austin/Rock/Hogan level draw. Almost nobody will get to that level again. Cena is a big enough draw that he makes WWE a ton of money, and makes himself a ton of money. Goodfellas is crap, if only because The Godfather is better. I never understood the idea that some people cling to where the pick the absolute highest mark of all time and then immediately blast anybody/thing who doesn't reach that mark. It is an idiotic line of thinking.

The first guy that simply left me wondering why he was in the position that he was in was Akeem the African Dream's initial push in 1988. Bossman I could get, but I could never figure out how some big fat white guy who was pretending to be black and was completely awful in the ring was being pushed as a legitimate opponent for the Megapowers. Keep in mind that I started watching just before Wrestlemania IV so I missed the initial Honkytonk Man push which probably would have me scratching my head as a 7 year old at the time. I know the first time I saw Wrestlemania III I didn't find it believable at all that HTM could pin Jake Roberts.

Pontiac 1, 2 Atlantic City 1, 2 Toronto 1, 2 New York 1, 6 Houston 1, 7 Seattle 1, 10 Chicago 1, 2 Anaheim 5, 2 Not many upsets here. The only noticeable one is my first #1 seed to go down. Hogan/Rock just isn't as fun as Edge & Christian winning their second Wrestlemania ladder match in a row.

Hogan is interesting as I used to hate him at the time, but now that I am older I have a much greater appreciation of what he meant to the business. This is the opposite of how it was/is for most people. If Yoko was to go over at Wrestlemania IX, it likely wouldn't be last. The Megamaniacs going over Money Inc for the tag titles probably would have been the main event in that case.

Semi-Agreed. Giving the title to Diesel was a good idea given that Bret just got over a long run in 1994 and we needed something fresh. I don't even mind him crushing Backlund that much because while it completely ruined Backlund it really was a big boost to Diesel's career. The real problem with the Diesel reign is that once it got into the spring and it clearly wasn't working with Sid/Diesel drawing houses in the hundreds, they really needed to move into a different direction. Instead the title reign limped on all the way to October, killing business pretty much all the way. We're getting into fantasy territory here, but I would have booked Sid to go over Diesel at KOTR and then have him drop it to Shawn Michaels at Summerslam. Michaels wasn't any draw in 1996, but I blame a large part of that on the insulting 'boyhood dream' angle and a match at Wrestlemania where any sports fan or anybody who ever saw Rocky knew that Bret Hart should have retained the title on a draw after the time limit expired. In 1995 though, HBK was the hottest thing going and the belt should have gone to him a lot sooner. He would have been the best choice, but even if it was somebody else, Diesel on top clearly wasn't working and the WWF needed to go in a different direction. WM IX was pretty bad, but I had no problem with the ending. What killed the title was not Hogan winning it at WM IX, but the aftermath where he disappeared for 3 months.

Pontiac 1, 12, 6, 2 The only (minor) upset is going with the Battle Royal from Wrestlemania 2. I find it one of the most enjoyable battle royals out there (and certainly the best of the Mania BRs) and a perfect example of how celebrity wrestlers should be used. It was just a fun match with nothing on the line but pride. Atlantic 1, 4, 3, 2 Nothing to say here. Four blowouts. Toronto 1, 13, 14, 2 Went with the Rockers/Towers for the WMV tag match. Fun little man/big man match, and seeing Shawn get crushed at the end never fails to bring a smile to my face. Money Inc/Mega Maniacs should have been so much better than it was and so I went with Owen winning his first title in the WWF. That match sucks too, but the surprise is fun (even if Lawler blows it early) and the Owen win was worth it. New York 1, 4, 6, 7 The 2 & 3 seeds fall to simply better matches. Bret/Yoko shouldn't have gotten past the first round and isn't in the same league as Dream Team/Bulldogs. Bret/Piper is one of those rare true passing of the torch matches and one of my favourite matches in WWF history. Houston 1, 4, 6, 7 Much like the previous bracket, the 2 & 3 seeds go down to clearly better matches. Seattle 1, 16, 3, 10 I hated DX and since Shane/X-Pac was pretty much the death of the real thing (compared to the bastardized versions we've had since that I don't even take seriously) after Trip's heel turn, I can't vote against that match here. Austin/Rock I was an overbooked mess and one of the worst main events in Wrestlemania history IMO. Chicago 1, 4, 6, 2 Four of the best Wrestlemania matches of all time are in this bracket. Anaheim 1, 5, 3, 7 Only real surprise here is Austin/Shawn. Both guys were game, but limited by injuries so the match itself was good, but not what it could have been and not as good as their KOTR match 9 months earlier. Plus I can't stand Mike Tyson. I'll go with Benoit winning the IC Title in a match nobody expected him to win barely two months after his debut.

I actually thought that match was quite entertaining. The Bart Gunn/Butterbean match did more to expose the business than the one you speak of. Worst though is probably Undertaker/Giant Gonzales from Wrestlemania IX. That was just pitiful.

yep, I remember that....told him his neck looked like a "stack of dimes" Don't forget the "lesson" they taught Chris Masters. He was put into rehab for Wellness Policy violations and came out, um, about 1/3 of the man he went in as. When he got back on TV he got jobbed out repeatedly, mocked in commentary, and even HHH laughed at his physique in a backstage skit. Nothing like sending the message loud and clear that if you go off the juice, you're not long for the company That could be taken either way. Was Masters mocked and buried because he was small or because of the wellness policy violation?

AL East Boston Toronto (WC) New York Tampa Bay Baltimore AL Central Chicago Cleveland Detroit Minnesota Kansas City AL West Los Angelas Oakland Seattle Texas NL East New York Philadelphia (WC) Atlanta Florida Washington NL Central St. Louis Chicago Milwaukee Houston Cincinnati Pittsburgh NL West Los Angelas Arizona San Diego Colorado San Francisco ALCS - Chicago d. Toronto NLCS - New York d. Los Angelas WS - New York Mets d. Chicago White Sox AL MVP - Vladimir Guerrero AL Cy Young - Roy Halladay NL MVP - Albert Pujols NL Cy Young - Carlos Zambrano

Trevor Murdoch should be safe. Of the main guys the only guys who look mostly normal are Kennedy & Finlay. But honestly, this is wrestling, we shouldn't be surprised no matter who gets linked to something like this.

I'm not terribly surprised about any of them.

I'd say the casual fan hates him....but what do they know? Probably. But you never know. Jesse Ventura was one of the most popular personalities in the company in a similar role.

Sorry. I didn't think we were supposed to put comments. I will for the next round. The only real high seeds I voted against were Bret/Yoko, which never really impressed me and certainly I was never as interested in as Hennig/Luger and Austin/Rock (XV) which I thought was an overbooked mess in comparison to the fun brawl that was the LOD/Ahmed vs. NOD match at XIII. I didn't care for Austin/Rock at XIX either, but Austin/Rock at XVII is one of my favourite matches of all time. I'll do the upset thing in the next round too.

I was interested in watching RAW this Monday for the first time in a long time. Now without JBL, I'm not sure I'll bother.

1996-2006 1 9 5 4 6 3 7 2 Seattle Region 1 8 12 13 6 3 10 15 Chicago Region 1 9 5 4 6 3 7 2 Anaheim Region 1 8 5 4 6 3 10 2

1985-1995 Pontiac Region 1 8 12 4 6 3 7 2 Atlantic City Region 1 8 12 13 6 3 7 2 Toronto Region 1 8 5 13 11 3 7 2 New York City Region 1 8 5 4 6 3 7 15