- 30,184
- 1,991
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2000
After months of build and anticipation, WWE's crown jewel is finally here, the 27th annual WrestleMania pay-per-view. The show has taken many forms throughout the years, from the first show in Madison Square Garden, to WrestleMania 2 that featured live matches from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, to the first ever WWF supershow with WrestleMania III in the Pontiac Silverdome, to WrestleMania VI in Toronto at the Skydome being the first WrestleMania outside of the US, to WrestleMania IX being the first outdoor show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and this would eventually to the modern day mega WrestleMania's moving from the normal arenas to the indoor and outdoor stadiums which began ten years ago with WrestleMania X-Seven at the Houston Astrodome. This year's WrestleMania takes place at the 73,000 seat Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The show is legitimately completely sold out. We have seen in previous years that open air stadiums have had trouble containing and translating crowd noise to television, so hopefully the roofed Georgia Dome will provide a better atmosphere.
This year's show has taken a different build than almost every past WrestleMania. The biggest selling point is based around not a match, but rather The Rock making his return to WWE. While his official role is the guest host of the show, fans are buying the PPV to see what role The Rock will play in the WWE Championship match between The Miz and John Cena, specifically what type of physical confrontation The Rock and Cena will have. It will be very interesting to see how this translates to PPV buys since The Rock has already been heavily featured on free WWE TV leading up to WrestleMania, including cutting numerous promos on John Cena, and just this past week becoming physically involved by taking out The Miz with The People's Elbow and then receiving an Attitude Adjustment from John Cena. With The Rock not being advertised for a wrestling match and already have had a face to face confrontation with John Cena this past Monday on Raw, it will be very interesting to see how many fans feel the need to pay the $55-$65 for WrestleMania to see what happens next. Add to the fact that The Rock has already been advertised as being live on Monday's Raw, fans on the fence about ordering WrestleMania many not feel the need to pay since they can just catch up on the angle Monday night. However, from the reports I've read, WWE does have a major angle planned for WrestleMania involving The Rock.
There are nine announced matches for the WrestleMania card. It is a solid card from top to bottom, but certainly not spectacular, and there isn't that one blow away match that fans are dying to see this year. I don't think it's a coincidence that many feel that way and this is the first year that Shawn Michaels isn't on the card. It is likely there will be a dark match battle royal for the guys on the roster not involved on the main show, and there's a good chance we get some type of divas segment since LayCool are the only divas currently involved on the card.
Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes
This match has been quite a while in the making. Months back, Mysterio injured the then "Dashing" Cody Rhodes with a 619. Rhodes was taken off TV before returning with a towel over his head, refusing to show his face saying that Mysterio took away his dashing looks. Rhodes then said he would be returning under a mask, and it certainly seemed they were building to a mask vs mask match. However, once Rhodes did return to TV, he was only wearing the clear protective mask which partially defeats the purpose. Dropping the 'Dashing' gimmick, he is now the 'Dastardly' Cody Rhodes, elevating himself from a comedic midcard heel to a serious upper level act. The tipping point of this program was a segment on Smackdown where Cody's father, Dusty Rhodes was in the ring and invited Rey Mysterio out with him. Dusty talked about how Rey was a friend of the family, and he was ashamed of what his son had become. He apologized to Rey and shook his hand, but as Rey turned to leave, Dusty refused to let go of the handshake, and Cody laid Rey out. It was an old school, by the book, heel segment that was simple but very effective. I've liked the build for this match, and I'm happy that they seem to be really getting behind Cody. With WWE so desperately needing new top level young stars, specifically heels, this could be the defining moment in Cody's career to get him to the next level. The thing that scares me is that this match reminds me a lot of Mysterio's Mania match last year with CM Punk. Although Punk was already much more established than Cody Rhodes currently is, everything pointed to Punk winning. It made sense for the storyline and for business going forward, but they went with the face Mysterio getting the win. I'm really hoping the same thing doesn't happen this year as a win for Mysterio does nothing for him and only hurts Rhodes going forward. Mysterio almost never has a bad match, so this should be a good opener to kick off the show.
Prediction: Cody Rhodes
Sheamus (c) vs Daniel Bryan - United States Championship Match
There have been rumors that this match has been bumped off the card to a dark match, but I can't see that being the case. We all know the story with Sheamus. After going through much of 2010 looking like he was going to become one of the next top stars in WWE, including knocking HHH out of action for nearly a year and winning the King of the Ring, WWE creative turned sour on Sheamus and buried him for the better part of four months. Sheamus lost week after week, often being squashed by talent who is nowhere near his level like Mark Henry and Evan Bourne. This culminated with the ultimate burial he received from the returning HHH.
Daniel Bryan won the United States Championship in September 2010 from The Miz, but after he won the title, he rarely defended it. It was mostly a prop, just as it was when Miz was the US Champion. Bryan became involved in a storyline with The Bella Twins where they had a contest to see who could sleep with him first, but instead, Bryan told them he was already dating Gail Kim. After a few weeks, this storyline was seemingly dropped.
Despite his months of losing, Sheamus became the #1 contender for the United States Championship. He lost the match via count out. He got on the mic and said that he wanted a rematch, and if he lost, he would retire. The following week, Sheamus defeated Bryan in a good match to become the new United States Champion. At this time, he also dropped the King Sheamus gimmick. Bryan used his rematch clause to get his match at WrestleMania. Sheamus accepted and then laid Bryan out with the Brogue Kick. If this match is given any amount of time, it should be very good. It will be great to see Danielson finally get his shot on the biggest stage. But I fear this match will not be given much time and be rushed through making it an afterthought on the card, just as the United States Title has been treated. I expect Sheamus to win because I can't see him just winning the title and then losing it right back. However, I guess we can't rule out the possibility of creative (Kevin Dunn) going sour on Sheamus again.
Prediction: Sheamus - Retains United States Championship
The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella, & Vladimir Kozlov vs The Corre (Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater)
The original plan for WrestleMania was to have The Corre take on The New Nexus, but of course Randy Orton eliminated all four members of CM Punk's New Nexus (Husky Harris, Michael McGuillicutty, David Otunga, and Mason Ryan). Instead, this match was thrown together. Wade Barrett went from a major heel with main event level potential to being thrown into The Corre group with three midcarders. It's nothing new with WWE, but they again have completely pulled the rug out from underneath a potential big star for years to come. Jackson has no talent to ever be a star, Heath Slater is the epitome of an indy geek, and Justin Gabriel is miscast as a heel, but will never be more than a midcard face in WWE. Slater and Gabriel may be the tag team champions, but they were made to look like jobbers a few weeks back against The Miz and John Cena.
The Big Show and Kane took out the entire group of The Corre by themselves a few weeks ago. So what did they do to even the odds? Add Santino and Kozlov to their team. Of course this was done simply for the "comedy" spot we got on Monday's Raw with Kane doing the trombone celebration with the rest of the team. Hilarious.
In one of the events on WrestleMania weekend, Kozlov had just defeated Tyler Reks when The Corre hit the ring and attacked him. This seemingly will be used as an injury angle to take Kozlov out of the match. While it's not confirmed, everything points to Kofi Kingston replacing him. This is certainly a good thing for the match. I don't see any upside for the faces to win, so The Corre should get the win to continue helping them build credibility as a heel stable.
Prediction: The Corre
Randy Orton vs CM Punk
This has been a very well build feud. CM Punk cost Randy Orton a chance at regaining the WWE Championship from The Miz at The Royal Rumble. When questioned about his motives, the always brilliant Punk brought up the time in 2008 when Randy Orton and Legacy attacked CM Punk making him lose his shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Since then, Punk has been relentless calling out Randall Keith Orton. Punk used the members of The New Nexus to attack Orton. However, the anonymous Raw GM stopped this and made a series of matches with Orton taking on each member of The New Nexus. If the New Nexus members won, they would be allowed at ringside during Punk and Orton's match at WrestleMania. If Orton won, the New Nexus members would be banned from ringside. One by one, Orton took on The New Nexus. First Husky Harris, then Michael McGuillicutty, then David Otunga, and then Mason Ryan. Not only did Orton beat each one of them preventing them from being at ringside at Mania, but he also hit each and every one with a punt to the head basically eliminating them and having them written off of TV.
This unfortunately lead to the now infamous Randy Orton tour bus segment two weeks ago on Raw. Orton was shown arriving to Raw getting off of his tour bus where he was interviewed and spoke about how happy he was to be able to bring his wife and family along on the road with him. Yes, the psychotic viper is a loving family man. Just the character development trait he needed. Anyway, while Orton was having a match against Rey Mysterio, CM Punk was shown on the Titantron backstage at Orton's tour bus. Orton sprinted back, only to be attacked from behind with a wrench shot to his knee from Punk. The comedy ensued as Randy Orton's wife (a badly hired actress to play the part) came off the bus and seemingly screamed in lust over her fallen husband. Punk told her to shut up at which point she retreated onto the bus with a blank stare on her face. Punk said that Orton would not be punting anyone at WrestleMania. After he left, Orton's "wife" came back off the bus and began her orgasmic screams of horror once again.
Luckily, they were able to save the program this past week on Raw. Punk called out Orton. Orton came to the ring with his knee wrapped selling the previous week's injury. Orton got the better of Punk, hitting him with the the Hangman's DDT. He had Punk set up for the punt, but as he ran at him, his knee gave out. Punk left the ring, but upon realizing Orton was injured, he returned to the ring to hit him with the Go To Sleep.
This should be a good match with a lot of heat. Punk won't disappoint at Mania, and Orton will likely step up his usual methodical style for the big show. I'm predicting Punk to get the win here, even though history tells me WWE never likes to have Orton job. I just think there is still a lot of mileage left in this program, and by having Punk win, it lets Orton still chase for this revenge as the babyface, most likely at Backlash.
Prediction: CM Punk
John Morrison, Trish Stratus, & Snooki vs LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool) & Dolph Ziggler
Snooki was brought in as this year's celebrity attraction. Although she won't likely draw many additional buys, she does get WWE coverage from outlets like TMZ and Entrainment Tonight which Vince craves. I thought Snooki was actually pretty good in her segment a few weeks ago on Raw. She cut a simple promo putting over how she was happy to be there. Then, when LayCool tried to bully her, she got and Trish Stratus got the better of them and Snooki hit a Thesz Press on Layla. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the pretaped segment on Monday's Raw. Trish and Snooki were hanging out at a Jersey bar when LayCool got in their face, and it turned into an awful brawl. As we know, Snooki showed up to this three hours late and was drunk, and then it took them five hours to film about 60 seconds of footage. Following Snooki's Twitter, she seems to be into the whole WrestleMania weekend, attending the press conference earlier in the week with the Brunette Mafia shirts for her and Trish, and then being part of the Fan Axxess events. However, if i were WWE, I would keep a chaperone (not HHH) on her 24/7 to make sure she doesn't pull a Jeff Hardy leading into the match.
This match should be kept pretty simple. Give most of the time to Morrison and Ziggler. Let LayCool get the better of Trish, and then have Snooki make the save. The faces definitely get the win here. It's interesting that Vickie Guerrero isn't featured in the preview image for this match as she's played a major role in this program. The initial heat was between Vickie and Snooki, and most expect the post match big spot of this match to be Snooki taking out Vickie. You also can't have Trish look bad here since Tough Enough debuts on Monday where she's one of the trainers. If they book the match correctly, it should be fine.
Prediction: John Morrison, Trish Stratus, & Snooki
"The King" Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as Special Guest Referee
I'm not sure what it says about WWE, but this match has been built better and seemingly has more interest than any other match on WrestleMania. You can argue that the build for this match began almost a year ago when NXT first debuted and Michael Cole slowly began his transformation from the geek play-by-play guy to the ultimate troll heel character that he's now become. During this time, Michael Cole became the #1 mark for The Miz. After The Miz won the WWE Championship, he had a ladder match against Jerry Lawler for the WWE Championship, a title that Lawler has never held during his career. Lawler was ready to climb the ladder to win the title when Michael Cole left his broadcast position, prevented Lawler from climbing the ladder, and eventually cost him the match and the title. The match had not yet been made, but this is where the heat between Cole and Lawler really came to a head. Lawler would go on to earn another title shot against The Miz at the Elimination Chamber PPV in February. Many, including myself, expected Cole to once again cost Lawler the match, but instead, Cole just looked on as Miz defeated Lawler.
Cole would continue to berate and talk down to Lawler on Raw until Lawler could take no more. However, the Anonymous Raw GM made an edict that if Lawler put his hands on Cole, he would be fired. This lead to a great promo from Lawler talking about the fact that he never wrestled at WrestleMania throughout his entire career, and so he was challenging Michael Cole to a match for the show. Cole refused, telling Lawler he would never fight him before running away like a cowardly heel. However, the following week, Cole announced he would accept the match on two conditions. The first being that he would have Jack Swagger in his corner as his new personal trainer. The second being that he could choose the special guest referee of his choosing. The following week, Cole teased everyone that the special guest ref would be Stone Cold Steve Austin before calling the fans morons and bringing out JBL. JBL came out and cut a promo about how he hated bullies and promised to call the match down the middle. However, before he could sign the contract, Austin hit the ring hitting JBL with a stunner. Austin took the contract and signed his name making himself the guest referee for the match. Cole looked on screaming in horror. Austin helped JBL up, offering him a beer, before hitting him with another stunner. Austin then went outside the ring and dumped beers on Cole's head.
It seemed as though this may have killed the heat on Cole, but Cole returned to his trolling self. Cole promised to expose family dirt on Lawler. He brought out Lawler's on, Brian Christopher, who spoke badly about his father. Jim Ross then made his return, getting on the mic to tell Cole that this had gone far enough. He called Cole a rat bastard. As this was going on Swagger attacked Lawler on the outside and then got in the ring to put the ankle lock on Jim Ross. It was probably the best segment leading into this match. Over the past two weeks, Cole debuted the Cole Mine which is a plexiglass protective cage that he sits in at ringside while he announces. It's just another great tool to put over Cole as the cowardly, trolling heel.
Two week ago Swagger again attacked Lawler. Lawler was able to fight him off for a moment, but Swagger got the better of him. Swagger locked Lawler into the ankle lock before handing him off to Cole who applied the ankle lock to Lawler as well. This past week, Lawler faced Swagger in a match. Lawler used a steel chair and repeated hit him with it to get disqualified. Lawler then went after Cole. Cole retreated into the Cole Mine. Lawler tried to climb into the Cole Mine, but Cole threw a drink in Lawler's face before security carried Lawler away.
The build for this match as been tremendous, and fans are salivated at the chance to see Lawler finally get his opportunity to get his hands on Cole. Reports are that Cole will continue using the Cole Mine post-WrestleMania, so there may be plans for this feud to continue. If that's the case, there would need to be some type of screwjob finish with Cole sneaking out a win, perhaps by disqualification. However, this is one of those cases where there is no need to swerve the fans. Just keep it simple and give the fans exactly what they are paying to see. Although reports are that Lawler has been told he is not allowed to use the piledriver, Lawler needs to beat Cole cleanly, pinning him in the middle of the ring. After the match, have Swagger try to get involved only to receive a stunner from Austin. Then Lawler and Austin can celebrate together in the ring for Lawler's only WrestleMania match.
Prediction: Jerry Lawler
Alberto Del Rio (w/ Brodus Clay) vs Edge (c) (w/ Christian) - World Heavyweight Championship Match
This match was set after Alberto Del Rio won the Royal Rumble in January and chose that he would challenge Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship. I'm never quite sure why the Rumble winner announces who he'll be facing before the title matches at Elimination Chamber, but I guess it doesn't matter now since Edge retained at Elimination Chamber. I was initially really looking forward to this match, but I really feel like it has lost some steam over the past few weeks. I think there are a few problems. First, Del Rio has cut the exact same promo week after week after week about it being his destiny to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. Literally, nothing has changed. He comes out in his nice car, swings his scarf around, and then cuts his promo. All of these other matches have had storyline build leading to Mania, but this hasn't which makes the match just seem old by this point despite the match not having happened yet.
The other problem is Brodus Clay being added alongside Alberto Del Rio. If Clay would have been used as a legitimate badass big man body guard who protected Del Rio by laying out Edge and Christian, it would have been fine. But instead, he was brought in as Alex Riley Pt 2. Maybe not quite as geeky, but he is just Del Rio's rookie sidekick who gets beaten up and pinned week after week. Not only does he not bring anything to Del Rio's character or the match, but it just buries him for anything they want to do with him in the future. Plus, I can't imagine them keeping Del Rio and Clay together past WrestleMania, especially if Del Rio becomes champion, because it's not like they would have Del Rio and Clay face each other anytime soon.
The other problem is that Del Rio had been on a great winning streak for quite a few months, leading into The Royal Rumble and then the weeks leading to WrestleMania. However, over the past three weeks, out of nowhere, Christian has defeated Del Rio twice, once in a cage match, and once in a straight singles match. So if they were planning to add Christian to the title match making it a Triple Threat Match, then fine, no problem. Christian's two victories over the current #1 contender would make perfect sense as a reason to add him to the match. However, Christian was not added to the match. Instead, Christian will just be in Edge's corner. So instead, the #1 contender has lost clean twice to a person not in the match. The booking just doesn't make any sense.
Edge and Del Rio should have a very good match. Edge has headlined Mania's before, and although this is Del Rio's first Mania, he's wrestled huge shows in Mexico and Japan before. Edge has lost four straight WrestleMania matches, and many expect that streak to extend to five this year. The big question is what role does Christian play in the match. Many are expecting a heel turn, but I think it is too soon for that to happen. The haven't yet established a legitimate reason for Christian to turn on Edge. If they are set on Christian costing Edge the match, I would have Christian "inadvertently" cost Edge the match, but not have him turn heel on the spot. That way you can plant the seed for the eventual Christian heel turn leading to the long desired program between Edge and Christian. Christian plays much better as a heel, so it will eventually be the right move. The other move they could do is have Edge retain and Christian lay out Edge after the match, but I really think Del Rio's "destiny" is realized and he walks out as World Heavyweight Champion.
Prediction: Alberto Del Rio - New World Heavyweight Champion
The Undertaker vs Triple H
There has been a lot of internal debate as to whether this match or The Miz vs John Cena would be the main event of the show. Initially this was penciled in as the main event, but it now seems that The Miz and Cena and whatever role The Rock plays has been moved to the main event. This match may be bigger than the WWE Championship match, but The Rock is the real centerpiece of the show, and he should go on last.
This match came about relatively late for a match of this significance. The Undertaker made his return to WWE on 2/21/11, but as he entered the ring, HHH also made his return interrupting The Undertaker. The two had an intense stare down without a word being said. Both men looked toward the WrestleMania sign above the ring and then looked at each other. The Undertaker smirked and began to walk away, but then turned back and gestured a throat slash towards Triple H. Triple H responded with a DX crotch chop. And with that, the match was set with The Undertaker putting his perfect 18-0 record at WrestleMania on the line.
Over the next weeks, they kept these men separated. Triple H cut his much criticized promo where he buried the entire WWE locker room saying that The Undertaker was the only challenge that was left for him. The Undertaker went on to cut a similar promo. The Undertaker has had no physical work since returning. Triple H has buried both Sheamus and Ted Dibiase Jr, but no televised matches (he has wrestled three total matches between house shows and dark matches).
There has been an overall theme of death in this program. Triple H said that when he beats The Undertaker, the streak dies and The Undertaker dies with the streak. Likewise, Triple H said that if he can't beat The Undertaker, he will die trying. The original plan was for this match to be Streak vs Career, but they decided against that which is the right move considering such a small time to build the match. However, with them focusing so much on death, it is safe to assume both men will both be out of action for some time following this match. The Undertaker's shoulder is still not healed from his surgery and will never correctly recover. Plus, his body is in overall bad shape, especially his knees and back. He'll be limited to just a few matches a year at this point going forward. And Triple H is set to make the transition from the ring to full time in the front office, so his on air presence will be much more sparse.
The build for this match had been very underwhelming until this past Monday. The Undertaker and Triple H confronted each other in the ring. Then Shawn Michaels made a surprise return. The three had an amazing segment. Shawn put over both men over before questioning Triple H as to why he thought Hunter could do what he couldn't. Triple H fired back saying Shawn went soft and he had to win this match. Triple H put over The Undertaker talking about how he was a legend in the locker room, and the only person he respect as much as Taker was Shawn. However, Triple H said he had made a promise with Shawn that if either of them could no longer go, they would let the other know, and if they wouldn't listen, they would put them out of their misery. Triple H said he returned for one reason, and that was to put The Undertaker out of his misery. He said in six days, The Undertaker would be 18-1, and Triple H would be the one. The Undertaker responded by saying when it's his time to go, he would want Triple H to be the one to do it, but it wasn't yet his time and the streak would live on. The Undertaker looked to Shawn and said that Shawn may have given him his best matches at WrestleMania, but now when he looks at Shawn, he doesn't see the same arrogance and confidence. He said Shawn would go into the Hall of Fame full of regrets, and all he sees is a man who's career he ended. At this point, Shawn went to Superkick The Undertaker, but Taker caught his foot. Taker grabbed Michaels by the throat, but Triple H pulled Shawn away and got in Taker's face. Triple H said "Shawn, tell him why I'm going to win at WrestleMania." Shawn stood in the corner looking distraught and didn't respond. As Triple H approached him, Shawn left the ring. Shawn stood on the outside looking back at Triple H. Hunter yelled for Shawn, but Shawn said "I'm sorry. You can't win." We can criticize Triple H for his booking, or The Undertaker for being broken down in the ring, but this segment showed why these guys are legends in the business.
The match has been made a no disqualification match which is a good thing so these guys can use all of the smoke and mirrors to cover up their deficiencies in the ring. After Monday's segment, the big question is will Shawn play a role in the match. Will he attempt to cost The Undertaker the match? Will he cost Triple H the match? Regardless of what happens, although the wrestling may not be the best quality, the match is going to have that huge WrestleMania feel. I wasn't looking forward to this one, but after Monday's segment, I'm excited for this match now. Of course the outcome will be The Undertaker getting the win, but I'm interested to see how they get there.
Prediction: The Undertaker - Streak improves to 19-0
The Miz (c) vs John Cena - WWE Championship Match
The placement of The Rock in the promo picture for this match tells you everything you need to know. He's not part of the match, but he's front and center on the poster.
The booking of The Miz has been a major sticking point with me. Although he has been WWE Champion for months since cashing in Money in the Bank to beat Randy Orton, The Miz's reign has been anything but champion worthy. The only clean wins The Miz has over five months are against John Morrison, Daniel Bryan, and Jerry Lawler. And you can even argue that some of those matches were with the help of Alex Riley. The Miz hasn't been able to go over clean against the big stars like Orton and Cena. Yes, for a number of weeks The Miz was able to get the best of John Cena, every single one of those times was either with the help of Alex Riley or by attacking Cena from behind. There was never a straight confrontation where the current WWE Champion was able to overcome Cena. WWE seems to be behind The Miz, especially because of his mainstream media appeal, so I don't understand the reluctance to book him as a legitimate heel champion allowing him to get a few statement victories.
Briefly on the topic of Alex Riley, they need to get rid of this guy and disconnect him from The Miz. Riley comes across as such a lower midcard geek. He had potential at first, but he hasn't panned out. And then after losing his match to John Cena a few weeks back, he was in fact "fired." However, Riley returned two weeks later with no legitimate explanation and was right back being The Miz's sidekick geek. He does nothing but bring down The Miz's character.
After weeks of getting attacked by The Miz and Alex Riley, John Cena finally got the better of the two two weeks ago on Raw. After leading us to believe that he was not in the arena, Cena had his interview set removed revealing he was backstage the whole time. He headed to the ring, beat up both The Miz and Riley, and laid out Riley as The Miz ran off. With no one believing The Miz has a legitimate shot against Cena, they really should have had the last interaction between the two having The Miz lay Cena out cleanly, but obviously that didn't happen.
Even though The Miz is the champion, the real draw here is what will happen between The Rock and John Cena. This all actually began about 2-3 years ago when John Cena criticized The Rock for leaving WWE to work in Hollywood. These were actually the thoughts of Vince and WWE, but it was Cena who recited them, and thus leaded to the much talked about dream match between The Rock and Cena. The Rock made a few comments here and there about Cena not only making terrible movies, but that he would never be on the level of guys like him and Austin. So seven weeks ago when Vince McMahon welcomed The Rock back to WWE has the special guest host of WrestleMania, The Rock immediately turned his attention to John Cena. He gave a classic Rock promo using all of his famous phrases to put Cena in his place, saying he would see him at WrestleMania.
Cena responded back the following week. He returned to the thug life rap gimmick, cutting pretty decent, very non-PG, rap on Cena. Although the rap was filled with homophobic slurs (that would later get WWE in trouble with GLAAD and force Cena to make a public apology), it still did the job of building the anticipation of an eventual Rock/Cena confrontation. The next week, they aired a pre-taped promo from The Rock. Although it was pre-taped, the energy and enthusiasm was something you could only get from The Rock. He said he may have left WWE, but he is still proud of everything he's done in WWE and still has the desire and passion to bring it everyday. He also said that he couldn't believe Cena responded to him with a rap. Both Cena and WWE promoted and hyped Cena's response for the following week. Cena said that he wouldn't rap this week, but instead would use hip-hop. This turned out to be an awful segment that sounded like Cena was reading a nursery rhyme with awful content. It was the worst part of the entire program. The Rock again wasn't live in the arena the following week, but did have another pre-taped segment where he talked with "John Cena" who was a little kid decked out head to toe in Cena gear. It was a hilarious segment with the kid Cena admitting he really wasn't very good.
This lead to this past Monday's Raw with The Rock appearing live. The Rock came out for the main event segment. He cut a promo on John Cena basically saying come WrestleMania, he was going to kick his ***. John Cena came out hamming it up for the camera with his big goofy smile. This was the most anti-Cena crowd we've had in quite a long time. Cena cut a promo in the ring with The Rock that basically made me want to throw up. It was an anti-bullying campaign where he said he was proud of who he was, what he wore, and that his fans were children and it was wrong of The Rock to make fun of him for that. Cena said no one can judge him but God. The Rock responded back that not even God would be able to save him this Sunday. The Miz then hit the ring. He said he was the champion and would still be champion after Sunday. He said Cena would lose, but at least Cena would go down swinging unlike The Rock. Miz said Rock's movies have grossed over 1.2 billion dollars, and The Rock wouldn't risk that by getting physically involved. The Miz and Riley then attacked The Rock, but The Rock was able to fight them off, dumping Riley, and eventually hitting The People's Elbow on The Miz. However, as soon as he got up from The People's Elbow, John Cena was there waiting and hit The Rock with the Attitude Adjustment. Cena left the ring to huge heel heat with a big smile on his face. I've said it in the past, but I would have kept Cena and The Rock apart until WrestleMania, making fans pay to see their confrontation. But now, the selling point is what will The Rock's response to Cena be. Obviously, one way or another, this needs to end with The Rock giving Cena a Rock Bottom.
Back to the match itself, it will be good, but I think just about everyone will be looking past the match to what will happen with The Rock. Hopefully the crowd isn't too restless and doesn't turn on the match. I find it hard to believe that John Cena doesn't win the WWE Championship. I think the stat is that he's won the championship at six of the past seven WrestleManias. There is no possible way The Miz retains cleanly, so the only possible way he retains the title is if The Rock costs Cena the match. What goes on with The Rock all depends on what future plans they have for him. We already know he will be on Raw Monday night. We have to assume they are building toward an eventual Rock vs Cena match, we just don't know when it will actually happen. They could do it at Backlash next month, but putting a match like Rock/Cena on a B PPV seems like a mistake. They may do it at Summerslam, but The Rock is already signed on to shoot a new movie this summer and his schedule may not work out. If they are planning on waiting for WrestleMania XXVIII, it's so hard to plan for something that far in advance. So there are many factors at play, and the timing will determine what happens in the main event of WrestleMania. There has been some talk of a WrestleMania IX rehash where The Rock would immediately challenge the winner of the Miz/Cena match to win the WWE Championship, but I don't see that happening.
My final prediction is John Cena defeats The Miz cleanly to win the WWE Championship. Here's where I'm going to switch up things a little bit from the expected. I'm going to say that The Rock confronts Cena in the ring. Cena lays out The Rock with a belt shot to end the show, officially turning Cena heel. The following night on Raw, The Rock can hit his Rock Bottom, but you have accomplished the goal of turning Cena building huge anticipation for the eventual Rock/Cena match.
Prediction: John Cena - New WWE Champion
I think this is going to be a great WrestleMania. It's a solid card from top to bottom. With the exception of the two tag matches, all seven other matches have the realistic opportunity to be 3*'s or better. With word that Jim Ross will be calling at least the main event matches on the show, it should be a very exciting night. I know I wrote a novel here, but I hope everyone takes the time to at least glance through my preview and enjoys it.
