Road to Wrestlemania XXVII, Part Six

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This is part six of the X-Blog’s Road to Wrestlemania series, where each week I will do my best to prognosticate what the card of Wrestlemania XXVII will look like based solely on the events of the past week in WWE. So, be warned, because this might contain spoilers.

SPECULATED MATCHES

Intercontinental Championship: Make that two Smackdowns in a row where Kofi Kingston is nowhere to be found. And some people thought I was being too hard on WWE for booking Kofi in a rivalry with Alberto Del Rio that he could not win. Well, naysayers, this is the result I feared. Now, Kofi is so buried he can’t even appear on Smackdown to beat a jobber and make himself look good again. All hope seems lost for an Intercontinental Championship match come Wrestlemania XXVII.

Divas Match: Between The Bellas & Eve, The Bellas & Gail Kim, LayCool & Kelly Kelly, LayCool & Trish, LayCool & Beth Phoenix, Vickie & Trish and the plethora of other diva rivalries, it’s impossible to speculate on what the divas match at Wrestlemania will be. But, I can pretty much guarantee that there will be a divas match because Vince feels like there must be at least one – no matter how much it’s gonna suck.

RUMORED/EXPECTED MATCHES

United States Championship: Only after being completely destroyed by main-eventers last week on Smackdown, does Daniel Bryan and Sheamus receive a championship match at Wrestlemania. How does that work out, let alone make any sense? I should bitch and moan, but at least this match seems to be happening. I’d be more upset if Daniel Bryan was being left off the card completely. This has to be a low blow to Sheamus, who spent the better part of the year thinking he was going to have a rematch with Triple H at Wrestlemania, only to be buried for months and end up in a last minute gasp for the United States Championship. Fortunately for Sheamus, Daniel Bryan is the US Champion and he can have a great match with anyone, anywhere, anytime. I’m not exactly psyched that Gail Kim & The Bellas are rumored to be at ringside during this match, taking the focus away from the competitors, but again, I should just be happy WWE isn’t leaving Bryan out completely.

The Corre vs Big Show & Kane: This match is no longer being dubbed to be for the Tag Team Championships, because WWE doesn’t care about the Tag Team Championships. This match is no longer being dubbed a BIG vs BIG match because WWE doesn’t care about BIG vs BIG matches – no that can’t be right. However, I did notice this past Friday on Smackdown, they did have Big Show take Ezekiel Jackson out with a steel chair, which I believe is the first time Big Show got the better of Zeke since their rivalry started. Now that WWE has expanded this to include all of The Corre and Kane, it’s lost the BIG vs BIG specialty that made it interesting. I’d much rather this match either be for the Tag Team Championships or just be between Big Show & Ezekiel Jackson, but I’ll take what I can get.

CONFIRMED MATCHES

‘Dashing’ Cody Rhodes vs Rey Mysterio: This match was finally made solid this past Friday on Smackdown, which was the best news coming from Smackdown. I’m still very much looking forward to this match and I hope that either A) Cody Rhodes wins a very exciting match, further pushing him toward the main event, or B) Mysterio wins and exciting match due to the debut of Sin Cara, which would then create a rivalry between Rhodes & Sin Cara, which could be mutually beneficial.

Jerry Lawler vs Micheal Cole w/Jack Swagger: Once more, I’ll say this: WWE is doing an excellent job in hyping up this match. They got Steve Austin, of all people, to be the Special Guest Referee. They even got JBL, one of my all-time favorites, to play the role of the bait before the switch. Who else is going to return or take part of the hype this match is building? This might be the most hyped match for Wrestlemania in a good long time. In fact, this is the hype match for the PPV. There’s one every Wrestlemania. In years past, it was Mayweather vs Big Show, or Trump vs McMahon, or Bret Hart vs McMahon, etc. Look at how well those matches turned out. Those hype matches are meant to sucker fans into buying/attending the event, only for them to falter greatly. So far, so good.

Randy Orton vs CM Punk: I’m still not pumped for this match. I don’t see it’s value. Odds are, Punk won’t win. Odds are, Orton will. Knowing those odds ahead of time don’t help. It’s entirely possible that Punk pulls out a surprise win over MEGAORTON, but he won’t do it without the help of his Nexus cronies, who have been wittled down to only Mason Ryan, which/whom I think is ridiculous. But even if Punk wins this match, aside from it being a win for smarks everywhere, so what? Does he now receive the #1 contendership for the WWE Championship? I hope not, because that means another Punk/Cena rivalry and I doubt lightning can strike twice for Punk and he can take down both SUPERFACES consecutively. I guess a win is a win, and if Punk wins, I’ll be ecstatic, but odds are, he won’t.

Undertaker vs Triple H: I think what I hate most about this match isn’t that it’s a senseless matchup purely made for it’s marquee value, nor that the buildup pisses on the entire WWE roster (especially Sheamus, Kane & Wade Barrett), not even the blind eye that’s being turned to Wrestlemania X-7. What I hate the most about this match is that I want to see it. I was really pumped for the first Triple H vs Undertaker Wrestlemania match that did not happen. I remember this one line of dialogue from the buildup from that match.

Undertaker: You’re in my yard. I’m the big dog that runs this yard.

Triple H: Well, your yard is in the middle of my world.

I don’t know why I remember or liked that dialogue, but I do. I wish WWE would pay homage to that match by admitting this is a Wrestlemania rematch from 10 years earlier. I would think the fact that 10 years is a round number would be a good reason to bring the former match to light. I’ve always been a Triple H fan, especially when he was a mega-heel. And while I’ve never really been an Undertaker fan, I’ve always respected the guy. This would be a match that I would want to see if WWE didn’t make it completely ridiculous in the buildup. Pisses me off.

World Heavyweight Championship: Unfortunately, as this match continues to build toward Wrestlemania, it becomes less and less interesting. I thought the inclusion of Christian would inject this rivalry with a little bit of freshness, but it hasn’t. I thought the use of Alberto Del Rio’s NXT rookie, Brodus Clay, would be fun, and it has, but it’s only served to take some focus off of Del Rio and Edge. None of this has anything to do with Del Rio or Edge, because they are playing their roles perfectly. Del Rio, the confident & proud challenger, and Edge, the stout yet worried champion. If there’s one good thing I can say about this match, its that it’s completely unpredictable. Unlike with pretty much every other match on the card, I don’t know where WWE is going with this rivalry post-Wrestlemania, which makes it difficult to know who is going to win. That’s a very good thing because I’m going to be very attentive watching this match.

WWE Championship: Contrary to the above, this match, while completely predictable, is getting more interesting as Wrestlemania gets closer. The best thing that happened this past Monday on RAW was The Miz being able to close out RAW with his words to Cena & The Rock. The worst thing that happened this past Monday on RAW was The Mis being able to close out RAW with his words to Cena & The Rock. Yes, I meant to do that. The Miz’s words, while making him more of a viable threat in this match, is putting him in the middle of a place he does want to be – between a Rock and SUPERFACE. The old adage says: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The Miz putting himself between Rock & Cena will only lead to the two of them ganging up on him. But this was WWE’s plan all along. Both Cena & The Rock are babyfaces, although appealing to two different audiences. Miz is just a heel all around. At Wrestlemania, it’s almost written in stone that Cena & The Rock will join forces against him in an attempt to bridge the gap between the two audiences and make Cena even more of a SUPERFACE than he already is.