The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania Thread

[theone 0]

heres the complete list of people NOT currently booked at WM:

 

Raw

- Batista (injured)

- Charlie Haas

- Cody Rhodes

- Dolph Ziggler

- Goldust

- "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

- Jamie Noble

- JBL

- JTG

- Mike Knox

- Rey Mysterio

- Santino Marella

- Shad

- Sim Snuka

- Ted DiBiase

- William Regal

 

SmackDown

- Chavo Guerrero

- Curt Hawkins

- DH Smith

- Ezekiel Jackson

- Festus

- Hurricane Helms

- Jesse

- Jimmy Wang Yang

- Kung Fu Naki

- Mr. Kennedy (injured)

- R-Truth

- The Brian Kendrick

- The Great Khali

- Umaga

- Vladimir Kozlov

- Zack Ryder

 

ECW

- DJ Gabriel

- Evan Bourne

- Jack Swagger

- Paul Burchill

- Ricky Ortiz

- Tommy Dreamer

- Tyson Kidd

[Diamonddust 0]

heres the complete list of people NOT currently booked at WM:

 

Raw

- Batista (injured)

- Charlie Haas

- Cody Rhodes

- Dolph Ziggler

- Goldust

- "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

- Jamie Noble

- JBL

- JTG

- Mike Knox

- Rey Mysterio

- Santino Marella

- Shad

- Sim Snuka

- Ted DiBiase

- William Regal

 

SmackDown

- Chavo Guerrero

- Curt Hawkins

- DH Smith

- Ezekiel Jackson

- Festus

- Hurricane Helms

- Jesse

- Jimmy Wang Yang

- Kung Fu Naki

- Mr. Kennedy (injured)

- R-Truth

- The Brian Kendrick

- The Great Khali

- Umaga

- Vladimir Kozlov

- Zack Ryder

 

ECW

- DJ Gabriel

- Evan Bourne

- Jack Swagger

- Paul Burchill

- Ricky Ortiz

- Tommy Dreamer

- Tyson Kidd

 

Hasn't Rey vs. JBL been made official?

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

No, Rey just challenged him. It probably will happen, but it's not official yet.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Priceless will probably be involved in Orton's match and I'm certain Santino will be involved somehow with the Diva Battle Royal.

 

As for the rest, with a Diva Battle Royal I guess they won't be doing another battle royal to get guys on the (pre-)card like last year. So, tough luck, it looks like.

[RedJed 0]

Regarding Swagger still not having a match and reports that an ECW title match might not even be on Mania at all, I really am thinking they will just re-do what they did last year and have a dark match battle royale before the ppv starts, and that winner will take on Swagger. I don't expect whoever that is to beat Swagger, but I still expect an ECW title match on the card. Considering how little they care about the title, I wouldn't even be surprised to see them not decide or announce this until the last ECW show before Mania (so the week after next).

 

As far as the opponent, I'm hoping it's R-Truth, Bourne, or in some perverse way, Khali, but we'll see.

[theone 0]

Hasn't Rey vs. JBL been made official?

nope, probably wont happen till next monday

 

they just announced the challenge that was issued

[wwepromoter 0]

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 

-- Internally, no one has any confidence that Wrestlemania will do a buyrate anywhere close to the past two events. Most company officials predict the show doing somewhere in the 500k range, which would be the lowest since WrestleMania XIX in 2003.

 

If the "25th Anniversary of WrestleMania" experiences the same percentage drop as the Royal Rumble did (23 percent), the number would be around 800,000 buys. However, it would cost the company approximately $4,000,000 as compared to last year, and will more than likely lead to more cost-cutting measures from the company. So much of the company's financials are tied into the revenue that WrestleMania produces, so a number of jobs are on the line with this year's event.

 

WWE will be releasing their 1st quarter report featuring the numbers from WrestleMania in May, so that's when you can probably expect another storm of company layoffs to hit providing things don't turn around creatively within the next few weeks.

[NitroJMS 0]

I'm not surprised that WWE feels that way, as they have dropped the ball big time leading into this show. There were so many ways to go with the main events and they took some very pedestrian steps so we aren't getting anything fresh.

 

They could have easily dragged out Shawn vs. Jericho or JBL til Wrestlemania by having Jericho retain and sending Shawn home with a worked injury and having him win the Rumble, or having JBL win the title at RR and Shawn winning the Rumble again in this scenario, but why would they want Raw's most over face of the last year to headline a PPV?

 

Cena should have been placed in a match against a legend to actually cement his status, whether it be Hogan, Austin, Taker, or someone else. His quick return to win the title was completely pointless since he should have chased the belt all the way to WM25.

 

Jericho's legend gimmick has sputtered and died since Hogan is hurt and Flair and Austin are unwilling to do the match, so we get a hodge podge of superstars that are entirely past their prime (Snuka, Piper) or who are more famous for being in other feds (Steamboat).

 

Orton/HHH really doesn't need the title involved, but its gotten very silly with all the police storylines of late. Why doesn't Steph and Vince just charge Orton with assault for striking them, if Randy continually wants to threaten them with legal action? Also, the McMahons have been heels most of the last year and never really turned face, yet Orton is supposedly the heel here and HHH is the face so it doesn't make too much sense to anyone paying attention.

 

I'd personally shake up the card slightly and have it be something like this and let's assume Jericho never lost the belt at Survivor Series:

 

No DQ Grudge Match - HHH vs. Randy Orton

John Cena vs. Undertaker - Taker jobs to finally solidify Cena

Smackdown Champion Edge vs. Big Show - Guess Referee Vickie?

RAW Champion Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels - angle plays out similarly with Flair and Rourke in Shawn's corner

Gimmick Match - Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

Battle of the Brands - IC Champion CM Punk vs. US Champion Shelton Benjamin

MITB - Miz, Morrison, Rey, Finlay, Kofi, MVP, Umaga, Kozlov

ECW Champion Jack Swagger vs. Christian

Random Diva Match

Battle of the Brands - Tag Title Unification - Carlito/Primo vs. Cryme Time vs. Winners of Tag Team Battle Royale

 

Pre-show - Tag Team Battle Royale (Final Two in Ring enter the Tag Unification Match) - Kane, JBL, and the rest that didn't make the main card.

[zappafrank 0]

In a different twist on the "It's not the 25th anniversary till next year" deal, do you think anyone actually had the balls to point out the obvious to Vince?

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

In a different twist on the "It's not the 25th anniversary till next year" deal, do you think anyone actually had the balls to point out the obvious to Vince?

 

WHO CARES?

[foleyfanforever88 0]

In a different twist on the "It's not the 25th anniversary till next year" deal, do you think anyone actually had the balls to point out the obvious to Vince?

 

WHO CARES?

 

BUT WHY IS REY MYSTERIO ON SMACKDOWN THIS WEEK!?! DOES THE BRAND SPLIT MEAN NOTHING???

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

In a different twist on the "It's not the 25th anniversary till next year" deal, do you think anyone actually had the balls to point out the obvious to Vince?

 

WHO CARES?

 

Were people this bad in 1994 when WrestleMania X was promoted as "Ten Years in the Making"? This is such trivial nonsense.

[wwepromoter 0]

I'm not surprised that WWE feels that way, as they have dropped the ball big time leading into this show. There were so many ways to go with the main events and they took some very pedestrian steps so we aren't getting anything fresh.

 

They could have easily dragged out Shawn vs. Jericho or JBL til Wrestlemania by having Jericho retain and sending Shawn home with a worked injury and having him win the Rumble, or having JBL win the title at RR and Shawn winning the Rumble again in this scenario, but why would they want Raw's most over face of the last year to headline a PPV?

 

Cena should have been placed in a match against a legend to actually cement his status, whether it be Hogan, Austin, Taker, or someone else. His quick return to win the title was completely pointless since he should have chased the belt all the way to WM25.

 

Jericho's legend gimmick has sputtered and died since Hogan is hurt and Flair and Austin are unwilling to do the match, so we get a hodge podge of superstars that are entirely past their prime (Snuka, Piper) or who are more famous for being in other feds (Steamboat).

 

Orton/HHH really doesn't need the title involved, but its gotten very silly with all the police storylines of late. Why doesn't Steph and Vince just charge Orton with assault for striking them, if Randy continually wants to threaten them with legal action? Also, the McMahons have been heels most of the last year and never really turned face, yet Orton is supposedly the heel here and HHH is the face so it doesn't make too much sense to anyone paying attention.

 

I'd personally shake up the card slightly and have it be something like this and let's assume Jericho never lost the belt at Survivor Series:

 

No DQ Grudge Match - HHH vs. Randy Orton

John Cena vs. Undertaker - Taker jobs to finally solidify Cena

Smackdown Champion Edge vs. Big Show - Guess Referee Vickie?

RAW Champion Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels - angle plays out similarly with Flair and Rourke in Shawn's corner

Gimmick Match - Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

Battle of the Brands - IC Champion CM Punk vs. US Champion Shelton Benjamin

MITB - Miz, Morrison, Rey, Finlay, Kofi, MVP, Umaga, Kozlov

ECW Champion Jack Swagger vs. Christian

Random Diva Match

Battle of the Brands - Tag Title Unification - Carlito/Primo vs. Cryme Time vs. Winners of Tag Team Battle Royale

 

Pre-show - Tag Team Battle Royale (Final Two in Ring enter the Tag Unification Match) - Kane, JBL, and the rest that didn't make the main card.

 

That HBK/Jericho angle sounds interesting because they could have done exactly what they have done with Jericho, but it could have led to HBK saving the legends and also getting his last chance at the title in his homestate. It would have also freed up Cena to be in a better position for now.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I remember when Jericho won the title at Unforgiven, I thought his angle with Shawn would slowly fade into the background until it came back hot and culminated with Shawn beating him for the title at Mania. What a fool I was on that one.

[The Niggardly King 0]

You know, I wouldn't mind if whenever Kofi qualified for a big match, only for him to be taken out while making his entrance. Think of the legs for that gimmick! Swagger should attack him and then win the MitB!

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

In a different twist on the "It's not the 25th anniversary till next year" deal, do you think anyone actually had the balls to point out the obvious to Vince?

 

WHO CARES?

 

Were people this bad in 1994 when WrestleMania X was promoted as "Ten Years in the Making"? This is such trivial nonsense.

Not really, but then TSM was just five people on a mailing list back then.

 

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It was a bad day when you opened your mail and found gay pornography.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

The problem the wwe runs into is it's constantly chasing ratings and PPV buys, so it can never really slow burn a storyline. Basically they have a whole card of new storylines going into WM, and if they don't work, the card suffers - instead of stretching out good storylines and having epic culminations. Hardy finally winning the title, HBK vs Jericho blow-off both could have been saved for WM, but the wwe wants all PPV's to be equal. I like the idea of Cena vs Undertaker because there would be a real unknown winner - Cena could win that match, or Undertaker could keep his streak alive.

 

HBK vs ©Jericho

©Edge(w Matt) vs Jeff Hardy(w Christian)

John Cena vs The Undertaker

HHH(w Flair and Batista) vs Orton(with Legacy)

Mysterio vs Swagger© for ECW title

Punk vs Regal for IC Title

Benjamin vs MVP for US title

Big Show vs Miz/Morrison for tag Titles

MITB (JBL promises to win it and cash it in after the ME)

Diva Battle Royal

[The Buzz 0]

I too thought that Jericho and HBK would find it's way to Mania, and I thought the Regal/Punk feud would be longer than a few Raw matches, possibly finding it's blowoff at Wrestlemania. With the way they were pushing the IC title, I thought it was going to get a focus again but it was just a promotional tool for the fucking dvd. I guess if JBL defends it against Mysterio, then that is a step forward.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

No surprise, but WWE.com confirmed that JBL vs. Rey is a go.

[pochorenella 0]

What I find kinda strange is that Jericho's match is not listed in the Mania website.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I guess it's still an issued challenge.

[The Niggardly King 0]

or maybe swerve and they bring in someone else

[Angle-plex 0]

I saw somebody suggest the Ultimate Warrior vs Jericho. What do you guys think of that.

[Brett Favre 0]

As long as he beats Jericho in a few minutes.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I'd say bring back Razor Ramoan to defend the legends

[NitroJMS 0]

I saw somebody suggest the Ultimate Warrior vs Jericho. What do you guys think of that.

 

It'd certainly be better than what they have now, plus Warrior looked okay in his comeback match last year, not great, but I'm sure he could work a simple 5-10 minute match with Jericho.

[jericho4life 0]

I saw somebody suggest the Ultimate Warrior vs Jericho. What do you guys think of that.

 

It'd certainly be better than what they have now, plus Warrior looked okay in his comeback match last year, not great, but I'm sure he could work a simple 5-10 minute match with Jericho.

 

He did find his way into the Legends of Wrestlemania game...

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Is Shelton Benjamin the favorite now to win MITB after dropping the US Title? It makes sense for him to get pushed up to the Main Event.

[Aero 0]

I would've picked Christian as the favorite, but since news got out that Vince still doesn't care for him, I'd have to lean toward Benjamin as winning, which is fine with me since he's overdue to win at least one of these.