Archive for the ‘Professional Wrestling’ Category

With Wrestlemania XXV just a week away, I am going to attempt to predict the results of the big card.  It gets tricky trying to follow the storyline and thought patterns of Vince McMahon.  Wrestlemania is in Houston, Texas this year.  Keep in mind, I stand by my predictions if there are no huge swerves in stoylines leading up to Wrestlemania on next weeks Monday Night Raw or Smackdown shows.

Chris Jericho vs WWE Legends : The WWE legends are Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Ricky Steamboat, and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.  Jericho should destroy the three legends as he has been for the past several weeks on Raw.  I see Stone Cold Steve Austin getting involved somehow, perhaps as “guest enforcer”.  I also see Ric Flair attacking Jericho after the match.  My prediction for the match is that Jericho will be rolling along, the ref gets squished in the corner “accidentally” as Jericho continues to control things.  When he feels he is ready to win officially, he starts screaming for a ref to come out and count, look for this to be Stone Cold Steve Austin.  The legends will get the tainted upset victory after Chris Jericho gets punked.  Look for Mickey Rourke to be at ringside or in the legends corner.

25 Diva Battle Royal:  I didn’t know there were 25 divas in the WWE.  I can only come up with about 18, so it will be interesting to see someone like Mae Young get tossed over the top rope.  The only other possibilities I can see are Gail Kim making a WWE debut, Lillian Garcia competing, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley competing, and possibly bringing back Wendy Richter for nostalgic purposes.  Santino Marella is supposedly trying to get into this match as a diva participant.  Look for the entertaining Santino to get his wish but cost his girlfriend the Glamazon her chance at winning.  I see that relationship ending in this match.  My prediction is that Gail Kim will show up and be the last eliminated by winner and suprise entrant Trish Stratus.

Money In The Bank Ladder Match: First of all, I don’t think Mark Henry can climb a ladder without breaking it, so we will eliminate him now and focus on the other seven combatants.  Kane, Kofi Kingston, CM Punk, Finley, Shelton Benjaman, Christian Cage, and MVP will be participating in this years ladder match.  These have been the most exciting matches for me over the past few WM’s.  I do not think that Kane or Finley will win.  Kane is no good in a high risk match like this one and Finley will employ his dwarf son Hornswaggle at some capacity.  Usually the WWE will make the winner of this match someone who is ready for a big push to main event status.  Last year CM Punk won, so I don’t think he will repeat.  It comes down to two guys in my opinion – Christian Cage and MVP.  My official prediction is that MVP will win as the WWE is really trying to push him as a babyface. 

Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker:  This should be interesting.  16-0 is the Undertakers unblemished Wrestlemania record and Shawn Michaels has had the nickname Mr. Wrestlemania for years.  Something has to give here.  I am going to say that Undertaker wins and keeps his perfect record at Wrestlemania in a long and tough match.  I would guess this match will go over a half hour which is epic, especially from two 40+ year old veterans.  The Undertaker will use questionable tactics to win.

Primo and Carlito vs Miz and Morrison:  The big tag team unification match.  I am kind of sick of this angle and am hoping for Carlito and Primo to win to end the Miz and Morrison run.  I think John Morrison is the WWE star in waiting as a singles wrestler.  Unfortunately, I feel that Miz and Morrison will win this match.  The newly divided Bella Twins will start on opposite ends of the ring but end up walking out with unified champions Morrison and The Miz at the end of the match.

JBL vs Rey Mysterio:  This match has received the least amount of promotion on WWE programming.  It is another weird matchup as big, bulky, and powerful faces off against, fast, risky, and high-flying.  I hope WWE lets JBL keep the belt because he is such a great heel.  However, the WWE loves to give Mysterio gold he should not have.  I predict that Rey Mysterio wins the Intercontinental Title.

Edge vs Cena vs Big Show:  I’m sure if everyone voted on this that Cena would have about 90% of the votes to win the match.  I don’t see it that way.  I am sticking by my gut instinct here and saying that Christian will be out to give Edge the assist.  Look for the Big Show to land outside somehow and lay there for most of the match.  Cena will have the match pretty well in control and just when it looks like he is going to win, I am calling for Christian Cage to come out and help his lifelong pal, Edge, retain the title.  When Big Show comes to his senses, he will swear off Vicki Guerrerro, as will Edge, leaving her broken hearted in this contest to win not only the belt, but Vicki’s love.  Edge retains the belt here!

Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy :  This is the hardest matchup to predict.  Either Jeff is going to dominate and win or Matt will do something underhanded to win.  Saying that Jeff will win is just too easy, so I am going to call for Matt Hardy to win this match.  Something really goofy is going to shock Jeff before he gets pinned.  Momma Hardy yelling for her boys to stop fighting each other, drug relapse, car wreck footage, firework mishap, or the reappearance of the dog Jeff thought died in the fire.  Somehow, Matt is gonna win.

Triple H vs Randy Orton:  This is the match getting the most WM 25 hype.  Pretty good storyline that Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase have been a part of from the word go.  I am sure they will appear at some point in the match.  Someone will come to the aid of Triple H, and I am guessing it will be Vince and Shane McMahon.  Look for the McMahons to prevent Rhodes and DiBiase to interfere allowing Triple H to get the win here.     

Danny Bonaduce just can’t keep himself out of the ring.  After a successful stint on Hulk Hogan’s Championship Wrestling, Bonaduce is in the ring, yet again.  Earlier this year, he boxed against Jose Canseco resulting in a draw.  He has also been involved with Celebrity Boxing and several random altercations. 

Anyone who watched Danny Bonaduce’s reality show on VH1 a couple of years back knows what a trainwreck this guy has become.  Disturbing footage showed Bonaduce chugging a fifth of Vodka mixed with a quart of Gatorade, shooting himself up with HGH, and basically being the loosest cannon possible.  Bonaduce is not boring, people love watching the race when the cars wreck, so why not watch Bonaduce wreck too.

Eric Young, a member of the Total Nonstop Action (TNA) professional wrestling promotion, was an in-studio guest of Bonaduce to promote the upcoming TNA pay-per-view Lockdown, Six Sides of Steel.  While interviewing Young, Bonaduce claimed he had never heard of him and that he must not be much of a wrestler.  This prompted Young to stand up and slap Bonaduce pretty hard (as seen in the video), and chaos ensued as it usually will when Bonaduce feels threatened.  Anyway, TNA has signed Bonaduce to wrestle aginst Eric Young on the Lockdown card.

The card will also feature retired Mick Foley to wrestle 55-year old Sting in the main event.  I’m sure the buy rate on this event will soar now that Danny Bonaduce will be wrestling.  Maybe Don Nelson lookalike Ruben Kincade will interfere in the match.

Andrew “Test” Martin, 33,  was found dead at his Tampa home Friday.  Police responded to a call from a concerned neighbor who claimed she could see Martin lying motionless in his home and saying he was unresponsive to phone and doorbell attempts.  The officers who responded forced entry and proclaimed Martin dead.  Test had a history of steroid and alcohol abuse.  He got a DUI in April of 2008 and had problems passing drug tests eventually leading up to his career coming to a halt.

Martin started wrestling in 1997 after meeting with Bret “Hitman” Hart and performing on a Canadian independent circuit for a year or so under the names of Martin Kane and TJ Thunder.  He debuted with WWE in 1998 under the name of Test.   

While an active WWE wrestler, Martin was a European, Intercontinental, Tag Team, and a Hardcore Champion.  Perhaps his best known angle was his scripted onscreen engagement to Stephanie McMahon.  Triple H eventually drugged her and snuck her through a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas to complete the storyline.  He also had success as half of T & A, along with his partner Albert and managed by Trish Stratus.

Martin was romantically linked with current WWE Diva Kelly Kelly and had dated Stacey Kiebler in the past as well.  Martin would have been 34 in a few days.  Hopefully, for the sake of McMahon and the WWE the death is not performance drug related.  The WWE is reeling from the recent deaths of Davey Boy Smith, Eddie Guerrerro, Chris Benoit, and Brian Pillman, in drug related autopsies.

With Wrestlemania 25 right around the corner, I had to post what I felt was one of the highest risk moves ever attempted by a wrestler.  Jeff Hardy is fearless.  He has done amazing things in ladder and cage matches, but nothing tops this dive onto Randy Orton.  Hardy’s popularity is at an all-time high, mostly becuase of risks he takes such as this one.  He calls this move the Swanton Bomb and usually delivers it off of the top rope to an opponent laid out in the ring.  This particular Swanton Bomb is executed with significantly more air between Hardy and his target, the very “over” Randy Orton.

Wrestlemania XXV is still about a month away, and I am sure that many of my predictions will not be exact as Vince McMahon loves to add to storylines on the way there.  However, I see a few long-developing storylines I can predict.  There will be a final Wrestlemania XXV prediction post closer to the event.  Kick these around for now.

The money in the bank ladder match will be loaded with high flyers.  Usually WWE will pick five or six guys depending on how many are needed elsewhere.  I am going to predict this to be the end of Miz and Morrison as a tag team and as friends.  Miz is the consumate heel, but I think John Morrison would do fine as a babyface.  Look for this ladder match to start that push for him.  Others to compete in the ladder match will be R Truth, Evan Borne, CM Punk, and possibly Carlito and Primo Colon.  Morrison will win this thing and defeat whichever heel champ there is later in the year when he cashes his suitcase in.

When WWE brought Christian Cage back to ECW, it was because they knew he would be cheered no matter where they put him.  Edge has been active on both Raw and Smackdown lately, so McMahon had to keep Christian away.  Look for a big heel turn from Christian in April.  I am sure that he will appear in some form to help Edge soon.  Their chemistry was magical as tag champs, lest we forget “for those with the benefit of flash photograpy“‘ etc.  Speaking of Edge, if John Cena doesn’t get his rematch in the next couple of weeks, look for the Edge-Cena match at WM 25.

Triple H obviously has it out for Randy Orton.  Problem is how will WWE package the sides to be fair?  Who will be the people to keep Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes away?  Look for Sim Snuka and Manu to come to the aid of HHH as early as tonight.  Triple H will probably lose the title to Orton at WM25.

Jeff Hardy will probably face-off with his brother Matt.  I am looking for this to be a classic.  Jeff will keep his “I wont fight my own brother attitude”, for a couple of weeks more until Matt does something so horrible that it pushes Jeff over the edge.  Look for Jeff to win a battle here.

Finally, my last early prediction for WM 25 is Chris Jericho’s role.  Jericho has been disrespectful to legends, WWE HOF’ers, and future HOF’ers as well.  Look for Mickey Rourke to be in Jericho’s opponent’s corner.  I am guessing the opponent to be either Flair, Piper, and/or Ricky Steamboat, or Shawn Michaels.  There is a sleeper possibility that Stone Cold Steve Austin will be involved, either as an opponent or a ref.

I invite your comments, tell me whether you agree so far, or what you think that I may have missed.