Wrestlemania XXVIII this Sunday!

Its Wrestlemania week and we are only days away from the biggest event of the year for wrestling fans across the world.

This could possibly be the biggest Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania X8 when The Rock went against Hulk Hogan, or Wrestlemania XIX with Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle.

This year has two huge matches headlining it and a great set of matches to support them.

We are in for an epic 4 hour spectacular, so let’s have a look at the matches on the card for this Sunday.

Kane vs. Randy Orton

After the flop story between Kane and John Cena, Kane set his sights on a new target, The Viper Randy Orton. The reason behind this is due to one of Kane’s final matches before he put his mask back on.

Back when Kane was slowly turning more “human” and after losing to Orton in a street fight last summer, Kane shook Randy’s hand in a show of respect. Kane doesn’t like that side of him and his show of weakness and is now determined to prove a point and get vengeance by beating Orton at Wrestlemania.

Not the most exciting match on the card and the build-up hasn’t been spectacular but it’s a chance to see Randy Orton in action, Kane on the other hand will need to step up his game or his side of things could flop like his last storyline.

Intercontinental Championship

Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show

Over recent weeks Cody has put a spotlight on Big Shows past Wrestlemania losses. Using old footage Cody showed clips of Big Shows matches from past Mania’s. His loss to Floyd Mayweather (WMXXIV) and Akebono (WM21) was shown as well as a clip of him not even at the event for WMX8.

The story pushes Show down further and further and it was obvious where it was going. In a later week Show vs. Cody was booked for a championship match at Mania, knowing that he would be facing the giant didn’t stop Cody from mocking the big man as he continues to ridicule him.

I like Big Show but I think he could be better and personally I prefer Cody as a Champ than Show. That being said though it would be really mean and a big low blow to have Big Show lose again at Mania. After having his past losses spotlighted and now holding the record for shortest World Title reign in history it would just be over doing it having him lose again. He might as well give up now if that’s the direction they are sending him down.

Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos vs. Eve & Beth Phoenix

A waste of a Divas match. Pointless. Unneeded. This will be the toilet break.

Originally the divas match was meant to be Beth vs. Kharma but most probably due to her new baby Kharma will not be performing at Mania. This tag match is a backup.

The story behind it is Maria Menounos, host of NBC’s The Extras, had been interviewing Kelly. Eve and Beth became jealous from this and the two divas turned up on the Extras to confront Maria and Kelly and that’s when the challenge was made.

Maria is no stranger to the ring as she performed at Tribute to the Troops and scored the pin on current Divas Champ Beth. But she is no pro either, this could have been a lot better match if Natalya was involved in Maria’s place and had the right back story to support it.

Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny

Over the past weeks Teddy Long GM of SmackDown and John Laurinaitis Interim GM of Raw have been fighting over full control of both Raw and SmackDown. The board of Directors have decided that there will be just one GM for both shows.

To decide this Teddy and Johnny spent the last few weeks putting together a 6 man team each for a 12 man tag match at Mania that will decide total control.

Team Captains are David Otunga for Johnny and current US Champ Santino Marella for Teddy.

Johnny quickly acquired Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler which obviously came with Vicki Guerrero. In response Teddy took R-Truth and Kofi Kingston.

Johnny then took on the big man Mark Henry and in response Teddy took The Great Khali.

Christian also joined Team Johnny but due to an attack from CM Punk he was injured on last night’s Raw.  He was quickly replaced by Drew McIntyre.

Zack Ryder was recruited to team Teddy as well as mascot Hornswoggle.

Lastly there was the Miz who was trying to prove why he should be involved in this match but kept coming up with losses that was not helping his case, but last night he was added to Team Johnny once he saved him from a pending Cobra strike.

Teddy just needed one more member by this point, and after a match between Mark Henry and Khali last night, Teddy ended up in the firing line of a Worlds Strongest Slam. Booker T jumped from the announcers table and laid out Mark with a scissor kick to the back of the head. Teddy then added Booker as the last man on the team.

So to Sum up-

Team Johnny – (C) David Otunga, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry, Drew McIntyre and The Miz

Team Teddy – (C) Santino Marella, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, The Great Khali, Zack Ryder and Booker T

This match might be a bit silly in places but is going to line up a big change in storylines, we could see the longest GM to ever be on WWE Teddy Long disappear, or we could lose Johnny back to the WWE offices where he belongs leaving us with one man as the onscreen GM of both shows.

My money is on Johnny winning but I will be supporting Team Teddy.

World Heavyweight Championship

Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus

This was a match we was meant to have last year at Wrestlemania XXVII but it was bumped to a dark match and then removed all together.

This year though we are getting it and there is a bigger prize in the middle.

D Bryan won the World Title off Big Show late last year by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and handing Show the record of Shortest World Title Reign.

From that point onwards Bryan went on a slow decline into a Heel character that he has bought forward very well.

Early this year Sheamus won the Royal Rumble allowing him a title match at Mania. At the time he had a choice between Bryan and CM Punk but wouldn’t revile his choice till Elimination Chamber but it was obvious who he would go for. At the Chamber event Sheamus came to the ring at the end of the Smackdown match and laid out its winner D Bryan signalling what title he will be going for at Mania.

The rivalry has continued to heat up and we should be in for a good match, but that being said there is a wild card in play.

Bryan has got an on screen girlfriend, AJ, who he is using to his advantage as well as pushing his Heel character more by playing an overly pushy and bossy boyfriend belittling his girlfriend AJ. AJ continues to play the innocent one, even with the way he treats her saying she still “loves” him.

Yes this is very soap opera like story, but it could put an interesting aspect to the Title match this Sunday.

WWE Championship

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho

This match has been building ever since Jericho returned to WWE in what could only be one of the biggest disappointments in WWE history. The end of the world as we know it never came, there was no big revile or change and his cryptic messages lead to nothing but his return.

In the end Jericho won a number one contender Battle Royal after Elimination Chamber lining up the match we knew was coming.

A feud was already high before this point but as soon as the match was booked it was spot lighted.

To add extra heat to the match Jericho recently started talking about Punks parents and sister’s apparent problems, such as the fact that his dad was a drunk.

These verbal attacks lead to Punk breaking PG and using the word shit 3 times. Even though he swore it was muted for us at home. Last night on Raw after another verbal attack from Jericho, Punk locked Christian in the Cobra Clutch in rage and this is what sparked the apparent injury mentioned earlier.

This should put some serious heat on the match and it has done what Jericho is best at doing and that is being hated.

We should have a strong Punk crowd at Mania but there will still be Jericho support out there to.

Hell in a Cell End of an Era

Undertaker vs. Triple H guest Ref. Shawn Michaels

Since Mania last year we have been wondering when Undertaker would be coming back and who he would face and most likely be his last Wrestlemania opponent. They decided to go with Triple H in what is looking to be the most exciting match of the Undertaker streak.

This year the match has been stuck in a Hell in a Cell, a place which Taker and Trips are no strangers two. It’s their home away from home as they have been in the most Hell in Cell matches out of all superstars. In fact up until the first Hell in a Cell PPV there hadn’t been a Cell match that didn’t involve one of these men in one way or another.

Not only is it in a Cell, but the referee will be the legend Shawn Michaels, best friend to Trips and a loser to Undertakers streak two years running. He holds the fate of the streak and an era in his hands.

Over the past month we have had a lot of confrontation that is really heating up the match and emphasising the end of an era headline.

But a big question is what era is ending? Is it the end of an era because these 3 men are the last of the old days, they were here before the PG era, the Invasion era, and the Attitude era.

Or is it the end of PG or something along them lines? As you may have noticed WWE have been pushing boundaries, harsher language as mentioned earlier and matches that are rougher as well as more close edged stories, it does look like they are spacing themselves from the PG rating.

Speculation predicts that this match will be like the old days and that there will be blood. Another clue of that is in the promo videos for the match. Usually if they show old footage with blood they would black and white the shot, or cut it out of the shot altogether, but this time it is shown quite clearly.

The whole thing is exciting and I’m looking forward to seeing these two legends but heads for what should be the final time.

Also on top of all this Undertaker still has not reviled his new hairdo, or should I say lack of hair, nor has he reviled a new look.

What waits at the end of the line for these men?

John Cena vs. The Rock

The biggest match ever in WWE, the biggest name of the past vs. the biggest name of today, The Rock vs. John Cena.

This is a match that has been a year in the making and it is finally just days away. The real build for it has been within the past month but hasn’t sat right some people.

To avoid the two fighting each other it’s been week after week of promos, some have been bad, some good. But it has got quite samey and boring and we wanted something different to happen, regardless though it hasn’t taken away from the match at all, the two names alone is the selling point.

One promo that sticks in peoples mind though was old school Cena. One week Cena came out to classic world life music and dressed in his classic gear and performed a John Cena rap.

Later in the show The Rock performed a “Rock” Concert, reminiscent of the days around Wrestlemania XIX when he used to play the guitar a lot.

His promo didn’t quite wow us like Cenas but was still good to see some old school Rock all the same.

Both these promos made us think about how it isn’t a PG era promo and its old school, is this further clue to the end of PG?

The next thing on peoples mind is the result of the match; people are thinking Cena will win and it will lead to a rematch on Raw or at the next PPV.

I personally want it to go the other way, I would prefer to see The Rock win, just because I’m old school and I’m obviously going to support the old school character, even if it is for just one night.

Either way this should the most epic match in history, and hopefully it won’t be the last.

So that’s it, big names, big card a BIG Wrestlemania, and I couldn’t be more excited! This is going to be a brilliant weekend, and I hope you all enjoy it.

Questions for you.

Predictions?

Team Teddy or Team Johnny?

Team Bring it or Team Cenation?

What will happen in the Cell?

That’s it for now Matty.D signing off.

A Terrific Chamber!

So last night was Elimination Chamber, the final stop on the road to Wrestlemania and man did it in impress in my opinion!

It all started with the WWE Championship Chamber. My support was on Ziggler throughout.

Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, but while in the match he performed brilliantly as well as taking some great hits to the steel grating being thrown over the ropes multiple times throughout.

Punk and Kofi started the match off in a great opener, Dolph was first to join in showing off his skills, Truth next who didn’t really leave a great impact on the match, and he was eliminated first by CM Punk.

Miz entered next and soon found himself in the Anaconda Vice. It looked to be all over for the Awesome Superstar when Jericho entered and Punk and Jericho came face to face.

The two men became the focus fighting hard and giving us a preview of what may come at Mania.

Ziggler came back into the fray to receive a Code Breaker from Jericho, Eliminating him from the match.

A beaten down Kofi who may have bleeding, (ref stuck some medical gloves on, either someone was bleeding or he was about to give someone a rectal exam.) came back into play flying off the top of a pod onto Miz and Punk, but was soon wrapped up in a painful looking Walls of Jericho. With Jericho’s knee in the back of his head Kofi had no choice but to tap.

The punishment didn’t end there though as Jericho continued to punish the man until he finally chucked him out the Chamber.

Just as the door was closing Jericho received a kick to the head from Punk, sending him out of the Chamber and knocking a camera man down with the door.

At first this all looked like part of the act but then as it dragged out it seemed more real. EMT’s came down to check on Jericho as the replays where repeated from various angles. It was then that you can see that Jericho did hit his head pretty hard on his way down. He was obviously meant to fall out but maybe not land in the way he did.

A slightly lost Punk contemplated how to play this out until things finally moved on.

Jericho was ruled out of the match leaving Miz and Punk to fight it out and after a few close calls it was Punk that walked away victorious.

Later we saw Josh Matthews back stage with Jericho in the background being still attended to by the medics.

So the main thing on my mind is, was this a legit injury or a very well performed piece in the match? If it is a real injury I don’t think it was overly serious as Jericho wasn’t taken to any nearby medical facilities or Hospital and was attended to at the arena.

Hopefully it will turn out to be a minor concussion, weather real or scripted, and therefore won’t affect the storyline too badly and leaving our hopes for Jericho vs. Punk at Mania intact.

Next up came a quite impressive and long Divas match between two of the top Women in WWE today.

Beth Phoenix and Tamina put together a great filler match, best Divas match of recent years. Unfortunately the crowd didn’t hold it up being there usual quiet and boring selves and it made this impressive contest seem lacklustre.

The match saw some solid wrestling, some out of ring action as well as a Tamina flying off the turnbuckle and a Glam Slam from Beth.

Tamina’s flight from the top landed flush but Beth kicked out, a Glam Slam later and Beth retains her Divas title hopefully lining up a Kharma vs. Beth Mania match.

Before the second Chamber match we had a special announcement from John Laurinaitis. It wasn’t an announcement though it was a group of Heel Wrestlers appealing for John to be both Raw and Smackdown GM. Superstars that appeared to support John were Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry and Christian.

With David Otunga already present the men spoke about how they would want Teddy out and John in as SmackDown GM as well as Raw. Otunga then used his phone snap a picture of the group that soon appeared on Twitter and wwe.com.

Then we entered the oddest Chamber matches we have ever seen yet an exciting one. Throughout the event back stage clips have been shown promoting Santino Marella in a Rocky Balboa style to the music of former Superstar Eugene. That being said it didn’t really promote him well as it was quite silly but once we got to the match all that was forgotten.

The match started with Wade Barrett and Big Show, first to join them was Cody Rhodes turning things into a Triple Threat giving us all high hopes for any of these guys to win.

Next in was the underdog, the shocker entry from a SmackDown Battle Royal, Santino Marella.

He didn’t get eliminated but he didn’t do much else as he was quickly squashed and put on the side line for most of the match.

Khali was next in and was first out as Big Show took the Punjabi Playboy out with a well-placed spear.

By now Show had enough of waiting and wanted Daniel Bryan and wasn’t waiting till his pod opened.

Big Show climbed the turnbuckle in front of Bryans pod then attempted to reach inside but of course was stopped by the chains. So what was the simple solution? Well obviously to rip them chains and climb inside anyway, which Big Show did. Big Show climbed into Bryans pod and pounded on the Champ as the countdown played and the pod door opened giving the men some room to fight.

It didn’t take long though for Bryan to end up back in the pod he came from as Show throws the man through the now closed door breaking the glass and landing back inside.

Bryan was then saved for now by Barrett who with the help of Cody was able to remove the big man from the match. It was then that Marella jumped in and with a sneak roll up took out Rhodes to leaving Bryan, Barrett and Marella.

Barrett removed Santino back to the side lines and turned his focus to Bryan who received an awkward Power Bomb into the chained wall and then sat on a turnbuckle and his head bashed into the glass of the pod behind him.

Marella suddenly returned to life taking Wade’s attention away from the champ, once the two men were down Bryan flue from the top turnbuckle with a Chris Benoit style head-butt to Wade and Marella crawled in for the cover eliminating the Brit.

So it was down to the most unlikely of all people Santino Marella and Daniel Bryan in what was an amazing ending to the match.

The crowd was on fire as all support was on Santino and I was on the edge of my seat wanting the impossible to happen.

It was a close one as the two men put on a great show filled with Santinos flair and style and the appearance of the Cobra.

The Cobra actually hit Bryan making it look like it was all over, the crowd were going wild as the Ref counted but it wasn’t meant to be as Bryan kicked out at the last minute.

Santino was in shock and before he knew it Bryan had twisted him, Cobra and all, into the LeBell lock. Santino put up a hell of a fight and the crowd was going wild as he struggled to escape and almost did but on this night it just wasn’t meant to be, Santino was forced to tap.

Even though he didn’t win Santino showed that his in ring skills were up to par with those top superstars, if it wasn’t for his silly gimmicks he would be there more often. I hope he continues heading up the ladder to success.

It wasn’t over for Bryan though as Sheamus came to the ring laid out Bryan with a Celtic Cross, signalling his opponent for April 1^st.

After an impromptu and pointless, crowd killing US Title match between Justin Gabriel and Jack Swagger we headed into the main event.

The Ambulance match between Kane and John Cena, a match with an absolutely obvious ending that if you didn’t see coming you are blinded by what you want to happen, instead of thinking of what will happen.

Even though we all knew Cena would win the road to that moment was an entertaining one. The two men fought from the ring to the ambulance, through the crowd, around the announcers table and back again.

Key moments were a monitor to Kane’s head followed by the steel steps, John Cena receiving a Choke Slam through the Spanish Announcers table, (is it ever there for anything else?) and Kane being thrown from the top of the Ambulance via an Attitude Adjustment. Obviously from the way he flew and sound on his landing said that Kane landed on either a crash mat or a load of Card board boxes which the fans on the nearby stands should of got a good look of so I am keeping my eyes out for pictures on the web.

It was the Attitude Adjustment that took the monster down, dragging his body back Cena threw the Big Red Machine in the back of the Ambulance closed the doors and sent it away.

The final image of the night being Cena pointing at the Wrestlemania sign as we should now start the build-up for Rock vs. Cena.

I rate this PPV 4 out of 5 stars, it was a great show and entertained throughout but whenever a Chamber, Cell, or Cage is involved I feel that there should some R rated content which of course we don’t get, that will always cost them at least half a star in my books.

Undertaker on Raw

Word is that Undertaker will be on tonight’s Raw and most probably sporting his new look, from what I’m told the man is completely bald. How will this affect the fans though? Can we relate to it? I am hoping we will be greeting the more Human side of the Undertaker character as he hopefully turns back into Bad Ass Undertaker or at least something close to it.

Questions for you.

What did you think of the event?

Do you think Jericho is or was Injured?

Predictions for Mania?

What will be the result of Undertakers new look?

That’s all for now Matty.D signing off.