Moderators, I wasn’t sure if this was the right place for this or not. Please move if you think it needs to be elsewhere.
Anyway, a friend and I are loading up and making a 12 hour road trip to Detroit to see the Granddaddy of Them All (or was that Starcade?). Are there any other Dopers that are going to be there?
Starcade was the grandaddy of them all…back when they still called it pro wrestling instead of “sports entertainment”. I wouldn’t attend Wrestlemania if it was being held in the vacant lot next to my house. Just not into the modern product.
Should be a pretty decent card, from what I hear. Obviously, McMahon will be getting his head shaved–no way Trump would agree to that. Lashley will go over Umaga, possibly with an assist from special ref Steve Austin. Taker and Batista should be entertaining…I’m thinking Taker will keep his win streak intact and win the strap. Dunno about Michaels/Cena. Seems like Cena is getting the monster push, but I dunno if Michaels will agree to put him over clean…
I love this match because I honestly don’t know who’s going to win.
On the Cena side, like you said, he’s been getting the big push, and he’s the face of the franchise right now. The very vocal “you can’t wrestle” crowd (of which I am a proud member) seems to have quieted down and/or found something else about which to gripe.
On the Michaels side, the guy has been a loyal company guy for a long, long time, and his career is just about done. Like Foley, and to some degree like Mysterio, sometimes McMahon will put the title on a guy for a few months as thanks for a job well done or as a “lifetime achievement” award.
I see Michaels getting the title as “thanks” for doing the job for Hogan at Summerslam. Hogan got the win because he had McMahon over a barrel, and he got the win in the most disrespectful way possible, kicking out of the Superkick (the same Superkick that floored him during the “betrayal,” --SIDE RANT-- yes, I get that it’s choreographed, but selling the move consistently is what maintains the illusion, and I’d lay you dollars to donuts that Hogan demanded to kick out of the Superkick) and laying the same tired old Five Moves of Doom on Michaels, culminating with the worst finisher in wrestling history. I can see Michaels getting the title as “compensation” for not winning the Rumble (where I can guarantee you that Taker pulled rank to get that win). Michaels has done the job to anyone McMahon asked for three years now, and he deserves a final belt. I can also see him getting one final singles push as compensation for the fact that he and Hunter couldn’t get their tag-team push thanks to Hunter’s injury, making Shawn’s sacrificing of some of his principles for the sake of the show a little bit moot.
On the other hand, I see Cena retaining the title because Michaels could wrestle a block of wood and make the block of wood look like Verne Gagne, and giving Cena a match where he looks good and defeats a very credible opponent could help the push. McMahon loves his big hosses, and Cena is the closest thing to a hoss/Rock combination he’s got.
In the final analysis, I see Michaels putting Cena over clean, only because McMahon seems to have an inner radar for what will make the lowest common denominator shout and chant (which is generally diametrically opposed to what I want to see).
DISCLAIMER: I am a full-on mark for Michaels and always have been. I cannot stand Hogan, because he’s a Five Moves of Doom wrestler (possibly the first and still the biggest) and he uses his drawing power to wrestle glorified squash matches in the main event and his match script never changes and he can’t move in the ring any more and I HATE HIM. I also can’t stand Cena because his gimmick isn’t even that good, his mic style isn’t all that original, and he actually COULD wrestle (before he adopted the gimmick, he had some damn fine matches in his first year) before he got a full scholarship to the Hulk Hogan School of Take a Beating and Then Win With The Same Five Dumbass Moves in a Row (A Division of The University of Refusal To Put any Work Into Match Planning- We Don’t Care About Real Fans Campus).
GOD, I HATE HOGAN AND I AIN’T TO FOND OF CENA EITHER.
I’d love to actually talk wrestling with any of our fine community, but wrestling fans are more underrepresented than libertarian lesbian fundamentalist Muslims on this board.
I knew there were other fans on the board, but there have been very few wrestling-related topics.
I think Cena/HBK will steal the show, though I have no idea who’ll go over. I’m interested in the Taker/Batista match only for Taker’s entrance. It should be memorable.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the Money in the Bank match. 8 people, ladders, tables…God, it’ll be such a beautiful mess.
Why did they even bother with last night’s Battle Royal at RAW for Edge’s 8th spot? As soon as you saw Edge on the outside “hurt” you knew he was playing possum and would run in at the last minute and steal the victory. The first or second time they pulled that stunt it was surprising…but we’ve seen it too many times for it to surprise anyone anymore…and when the camera and the King and JR comment on him 3-4 times during the match…nobody’s fooled when it happens…
Yeah, no kidding. And to have him toss Ric Flair out at the end just irked me that much more.
Is Cena still running around saluting all the time? That was really getting annoying. (I don’t actually watch the shows, but my boyfriend is a major addict/fan)
Yep…he’s still doing that weird, fingers up salute.
Did you guys see that
• Kurt Angle
• Randy Orton
• Adam Copeland (Edge)
• Shane Helms (The Hurricane)
• Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio)
• Eddie Guerrero
were named in the steroids probe?
They need to probe a little deeper. Eddie Guerrero has been dead for quite a while. --oops. I see they did mention his death.
Otherwise no real surprises there. Angle is pretty much a poster child for steroid abuse. The others are or have been apparently enhanced at various times. These days, it would be almost more surprising that a wrestler tested clean.
I did see that.
I thought Orton and Edge as more HGH guys. They’re not “big” like Hunter or Cena or Batista. Mysterio weighs what I weigh (175) despite being 4 or 5 inches shorter. Helms went from being skinny for his height to being over 200 and jacked.
Then again, it doesn’t surprise me one bit. They’re performers. Size sells. You cant go on the road that many days and not have “help” maintaining those physiques. Besides, it’s not like the outcome is dependent on it.
I think it would be easier to name the guys that didn’t take something. However, I’m kind of surprised to see Hurricane up there.
As for Angle…is anybody convinced that he’s lost his mind? Looking at the some of the things he’s said on various radio interviews, this guy is one or two steps away from making the Ultimate Warrior look coherent.
That’s a BOLD statement.
I haven’t seen any of his interviews- I find TNA to be badly choreographed and I can’t really get into any of the characters.
What’s he been saying?
From an interview on the Bubba the Love Sponge show in January…
Said that he makes more money now with TNA than he did with WWE.
Said Dixie Carter knows more about business than Vince McMahon.
Said that TNA Impact did a record rating last week and that the show now gets more viewers than Smackdown and ECW.
Said that TNA is working on bringing Hulk Hogan and Big Show in, adding that Big Show was one of the hardest workers in WWE but was never appreciated.
Said that a doctor told him that Vince McMahon is “a heart attack waiting to happen” judging by the purple veins on his nose.
Said that WWE got a major business deal in China because of him, but that Shane McMahon ended up getting the credit for it.
Said Triple H is a slimeball but that he has a great mind and will be good for WWE after he retires.
Once again said that TNA drew a higher rating last week than Smackdown.
Said that Hulk Hogan and Goldberg might come to TNA soon and when that happens, they will beat RAW.
Said TNA’s top free agents are Hulk Hogan, Big Show, and Chris Jericho.
Said that Test is already a multi-millionaire from his investments in real estate.
Said Chris Jericho is very tough because he once got drunk and stood up to Test who Angle said is also a legit tough guy.
Said that Christian needs to be a total heel and that they are taking him in that direction now. He also said that Christian needs a long title reign but also needs to learn to take direction better, mentioning that he will have a match of the year with him soon.
Said he had a lot of respect for Hulk Hogan as a businessman and mentioned that he had a five star match with Hogan at the King of the Ring.
Said that he is a wrestler, agent, and writer with TNA and said that if Big Show comes to TNA, he would make sure he would stay undefeated for a long time.
Said that Shawn Michaels refused to be moved to the Smackdown brand which is why he ended up being moved there. He said that Vince McMahon told him that Angle was their first choice for the move, but that was a lie. He also said some weird thing about how Shawn Michaels never puts anybody over, but then said that Michaels said he would put over Angle at WrestleMania.
Said that RVD once admitted to him that he doesn’t know how to work a match and just does highspots and then points to himself.
Said he wants Tito Ortiz on the phone next week on the Bubba Show so they can discuss a potential MMA fight.
Bubba also said during the interview that Hulk Hogan told him that Dixie Carter was the real deal and that she had backers who could buy and sell Vince McMahon ten times over.
Bubba and Angle agreed that TNA should combat WWE by going after big names, just like WCW did.
That just one interview…he’s done more where he’s challenged Chuck Liddell to a UFC match.
While I do think that Kurt Angle has taken too many chairs to the head, a lot of his comments were spot on. Some of those comments are just ego talking, and Kurt is no slouch in that department - of course, that could be said of nearly every wrestler. Not the first time I’ve heard similar statements about Hogan, HHH, Michaels, and RVD, although Big Show was a surprise.