SlamZilla

For today’s head to head, I got some help from a friend in choosing what I consider to be a “perfect” matchup.  Curt Hennig vs Chris Jericho.

     At first I wasn’t sure that this would be a good pairing, but the more I thought about it, and did a bit of digging into their pasts and history, I realized just how much alike they really are.  So on with the competition.

“Mr Perfect” Curt Hennig.  What many, including myself probably werent’ aware of, is the fact that Hennig actually did a short stint in the WWF from 1982 to 1984, teaming with  long time friend “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert  Or that he was already an established star in the AWA, winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Nick Bockwinkel in 1987.  What all of us do know, and love, is the man who entered the WWF that was absolutely PERFECT !  Who can ever forget those promo’s of him shooting half court 3 pointers, or throwing and catching his own Hail Mary pass.  And for over a year, he never lost a match.  Hennig of course was considered by insiders, and his peers, (most notably Ric Flair and Bret Hart)  as one of the greatest in ring performers in modern wrestling history.  He may have only won 2 Intercontinental Championships, and never became a World Champion while he was in the WWF, but Hennig  (who was also great on the Mic) was definitely one of the very best to ever grace a WWF ring.  Now THAT, was Perfect!

Chris Jericho.  Mr Jericho may not be perfect, but, “he is the very best in the World at what he does”.  Or so he likes to tell us.  And many of us would have to agree.  Jericho has played both the Heel, and the Good Guy, and has proven to be excellent at both. (I prefer him as a bad guy)  And thus far he has won 22 Championships in the WWF/WWE.  This includes 9 Intercontinental Championships,  and 6 World Championships.  One of those of course being the first ever Undisputed World Title.  Jericho is one of the most skilled men in the ring today, and is considered one of the best workers around.  Having wrestled not only in the U.S. and Canada, he has honed these skills in Japan and Mexico as well.  But not only is he a master in the ring, he is one of the very best of all time on the Mic.  As much as he may try to make us hate him, you can’t argue with success.

So, in a battle between one who is “perfect” and somebody who is the best in the World, who wins?  Unfortunately for Curt Hennig, I have to give the nod to Y2J.  Even though Hennig competed at a time when nobody could win the World Title because of Hulk Hogans iron grip on it, Mr Jericho has proven that over the course of his 20 year career, that being the very best, is simply what he does.

Winner….Chris Jericho.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

Poor John Cena.  He has been beaten up by The Nexus so many times that he must be loopy.  How else would you explain his attempt at putting together a team that was simply destined to fail.

     Lets examine this a little closer shall we.  Chris Jericho and Edge are both fine picks, on the surface.  Both have had their problems with Nexus, therefore they would have a reason for joining.  Payback.  The problem of course, is that neither of them play well with others.  Jericho, Edge, and Cena all hate each other, and in the case of Jericho, he has plainly stated that he plans on taking John Cena out.  So, the top three people in this team, can’t get along, and Cena has as much to worry about from these two as he does his opponents.

     Next up we have John Morrison.  Now this is a great pick, and it is about time that the WWE remembers how talented this guy is, and starts using him in more main event situations.  The obvious comparisons to Sean Michaels aside, Morrison really could be the next big thing.

     Another good pick was R-Truth.  While I don’t think that he is quite as talented as Morrison, he is a very solid person to have on the team.  Even though the seed of doubt was planted on this past weeks RAW, with Truth costing Morrison a match, there really won’t be any issues here come SummerSlam.

     But now we come to the final two people on Team Cena.  As much as I love Bret Hart, he has no business back in the ring.  I get that he would like some revenge for the little joyride that Nexus took him on, but he would be much better off being at ringside, as say, the manager of the team rather than a member of it. 

     Then there is The Great Khali.  Really??  What can I say, aside from a big chop to the top of the head, and a chokebomb, this is probably the least useful member of the team. 

     Naturally pointing all of this out is just for fun, as we all realize that the team wasn’t really picked by John Cena himself.  But it does beg the question of, who did put this group of misfit toys together?  Personally I don’t quite see this lineup making it all the way to SummerSlam.  As many have speculated, there are probably going to be some changes made between now and then.  My picks would be to remove Hart and Khali at the very least, and put in Evan Bourne, and possibly Mark Henry.  Either way, it should be interesting to see the Cena 7 battle each other before they even get a chance to face The Nexus.

GHHCMMM21446777

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

The biggest event of the year has come and gone.  Did it live up to the hype?  I would have to say so.  Sure, not every match  was the greatest, but the ones that  mattered really did deliver.  And this year in a stroke of genius, they put the Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels match….Last. 

R-Truth & John Morrison vs MizShow.

     Quite frankly I really didn’t think this match was Wrestlemania worthy, and after watching it I stand by that thought.  It really wasn’t a bad match.  Its just that there was no real expectation for it.  Thankfully It was short, with Big Show scoring a knockout punch to Morrison.

Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes vs Ted Dibiase

    After all the build up for this one, and the multiple run in’s and beatdowns, I could not wait for this feud to be over with.  But would it be Randys revenge, or would one of the Legacy boys get the big win?  This one started off exactly like you would figure, with Legacy simply beating down Orton.  And right out of the playbook, they eventually come to blows when they stop each other from pinning Orton.  Then, what comes as a surprise to nobody, Orton comes back.  With a boot to the head of Rhodes, and and RKO for Dibiase, The Viper gets his revenge.  Despite being totally by the numbers, this was actually a pretty good match.

Money In The Bank Ladder Match.

     What can I really say about this?  MITB has always been a highlight of Wrestlemania sinces its debut.  This one featured ten men, and a whole lot of carnage.  I am still amazed at how they find new and interesting ways to use those ladders.  There were lots of insane moments in this one, but the big shock to me was who actually won.  Jack Swagger !  This guy has done a whole lot of nothing for the better part of the last year.  Perhaps this will be the first year that a MITB winner, fails to win a World Championship.

Triple H vs Sheamus.

     I have to say that despite not being a very big fan of HHH, this match was really good.  And it proved that Sheamus is definitely on his way to that main event status, and he deserves to be there.  Lots of give and take.  But in the end, Triple H gets the win.  I would like to see more of this feud though.

C.M. Punk vs Rey Mysterio.

     I was a tad let down by this match.  Usually Reys matches are more exciting.  I just don’t think they had enough time to really do everything they wanted to in this one.  And with virtually no build up, this could have just been the main event on Smackdown on any given week.  But that isn’t to say this match was bad.  It really was good.  Just not as good as it could have been.  And of course Rey gets the win.

Vince McMahon vs Bret Hart.

This really wasn’t so much a match, as it was a beating.  As you would have guessed, Vince thought he had pulled a fast one on Bret by buying off his entire family to be on his side, and surround the ring.  Even having his brother Bruce as the referee.  But I guess the tables were turned when Vince was informed that Bret knew about his plan, and the family simply took the payoff, but weren’t going to do help Vince at all.  Poor Vince, got screwed.  Then he got what I can only describe as one of the worst beatings I have ever seen McMahon take in the ring.  after getting pounded by Bret, his family, and taking multiple chair shots (wow there were a lot of them)  He finally tapped out to the Sharpshooter.

Edge vs Chris Jericho

     I had a feeling that this would be one of the better matches of the night, and it certainly was.  These two are masters at telling a story in the ring.  very well paced, with a few twists thrown in for good measure.  But in what I thought was a bit of a shock, Jericho hits a surprise Code Breaker, and gets the clean victory to retain his Title.  I am sure this feud will go on for a while.

The Divas have a ten woman tag match.  Everybody goes to the bathroom.  We find out later that Vickie hit some sort of Hog Splash and got the win for her team. 

John Cena vs Batista.

I guess I didn’t do too well in my predictions for Wrestlemania. Originally I had said I thought Cena would win.  Then took a chance and went with Batista.  Silly me, this is a John Cena at Wrestlemania match.  Honestly, this was a very good match.  I think the build up for it was done very well, and for once they did a good job of telling that story in the ring.  The moments where Cena looked like he was beaten mentally and physically.  And later the look on Batistas face when he just couldn’t put Cena away.  All good stuff.  But of course, Super Cena finds a way to do what he does best.  Pull off the big win, and become WWE Champion again.

Undertaker vs Sean Michaels.

     I thought this should have been the closing match of last years Wrestlemania.  But with the added stipulation of The Streak vs The Career, it did give this one something special to end the night with.  But could they do it again?  Could the sequel be as good as the original?  The answers are Yes, and YES !  I would still rate their first meeting a bit higher as a match, but this one was off the scale in terms of emotion.   These two threw everything they had at each other, and tore the house down.  This will easily be considered the best match of the year again.  And the ending saw a battered Sean Michaels climb up The Undertaker, who is yelling at him to “stay down”  only to mock Taker by drawing his thumb arcross his throat, then slapping him in the face.  This of course ended the brief moment of compassion, as Undertaker gave Michaels one last Tombstone, where he actually jumped in the air to deliver it, and pinned Michaels for the 1.2.3.  Thus Ending his career.

My final thought on this one, is that this was one of the better Wrestlemanias that I have seen in the last 5 years or so.  If you haven’t seen it yet, then what are you waiting for?

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

Well, it is just about here. Wrestlemania 26.  So I thought I would take a few moments to make some predictions.  Normally I kind of suck at these, so I will take a wild guess and say that I might get about half of them right.  That way if I do any better, it won’t seem like an epic failure.  So let me begin.

John Cena vs Batista. 

This one has been built up rather well in such a short time.  And seeing Batista get one up on Cena at every turn has been quite funny.  But what does that usually mean?  Normally it would mean that Cena will take a huge beating, yet come back to win the big one.  For some reason though, I want to say that Batista will win this one.  It would drag out this new feud for a while longer, and not be so predictable.  So, I will go out on a limb, and say that Batista retains.

Edge vs Jericho.

     As a Canadian, this one is just win-win for me.  I love both of these guys, and they have been doing a great job of building this one up.  I have stated before that I think that this match could steal the whole show.  But that depends on the Undertaker vs Michaels match.  Either way, this should be very good.  But in the end, I think Edge will come out on top.

Showmiz vs R-Truth and John Morrison.

     Really?  This is something that should take up time at Wrestlemania?  Well, I suppose since Miz has both the Tag, and U.S. title, that one of them should be defended.  So we get a team that was pretty much thrown together to face another one that isn’t much better.  I guess if I have to choose, I will predict Morrison and Truth.  With the draft coming up after Mania, both of these teams could face a split.  But this way, Miz only has one Belt to carry with him.

Money In The Bank.

     Wow, we have 10 guys in it this year.  And with the new PG rating, and no chair shots to the head, this might be a very watered down version of what is normally one of the most exciting matches on the card.  With so many people though, I’m sure they can come up with a few interesting spots.  My guess is, since they made such a fuss over Drew McIntyre even getting into this match, that he will win it.  You know, this is the guy that is “destined” to be a World Champion……ugh.

HHH vs Sheamus.

     Here is an interesting match.  Sheamus has a great upside as a future main eventer.  HHH, is his workout buddy, and as we have already seen, that means you get moved up the ladder a little faster. (Sheamus has already won, one World Title thus far)  But if you are HHH, do you put over your new friend at the biggest show of the year, or do you think about your own legacy?  Normally I would say that HHH pads his resume a bit more, but I am all about taking risks this year.  I will say Sheamus wins this one.  Even if its by D.Q.

Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon.

     Ah, the 12 year history of this feud is finally coming to a head.  Sort of reminds me of when Vince squared off with Hulk Hogan all those years ago.  Even with help,  he just couldn’t get the job done.  In fact, Vince’s Wrestlemania outings have been a bit of a disaster.  I don’t see this being much different.  He will have his outside interference, and some moments where he can gloat.  But in the end, Its Sharpshooter, and tap out.

Randy Orton vs Ted Dibiase vs Cody Rhodes.

     I honestly could care less about this match.  Orton bores me to tears, and his former friends are about as interesting to watch as grass growing.  Not to mention, they have been facing each other in some capacity for weeks now.  But I have to choose a winner, so I will say Orton one ups Dibiase and The Gargoyle….er, Rhodes. 

C.M. Punk vs Rey Mysterio.

     Despite having virtually no build up for this match, aside from Punk saying mean things to Reys family, and making them all upset, I think this one should be very good.  Rey is exciting, and Punk is great as the “Charles Manson” of the WWE.  And since there has been so little build up, I predict that Punk wins, and forces Rey to join his Straight Edge Baldies.  Hey, under the mask, he’s already a member.

Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels….part 2.

     I didn’t like the idea of this match, because you can never do something that amazing twice in a row.  But I know this will still be a damn good match.  They will try some different things, and since it has been stressed that you can only win by pinfall or submission, there should be plenty of, out of the ring action.  In all, this could once again steal the show.  But no matter what, Undertaker will come out on top. 18-0.

     Oh, and I guess the Diva’s are doing something too.  Um, I’ll just say the good guys/ladies win.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

With the Royal Rumble less than a week away, I thought I would weigh in with my thoughts on the overall card itself, and how I think things might play out.  Like many of you, I do like to check out the most recent rumours and gossip, but when it comes to Pay Per Views, I try not to read them just prior to the show, so I can be surprised.  Especially since plans change so rapidly.  What somebody thinks is a possible spoiler, turns out to be nothing at all.  That being said, some of the recent things I have read, and watching the show’s leading up to the Rumble have me wondering if we are going to be getting a show with zero surprise factor at all.  First off, we have the ECW Championship being defended.  Christian vs Ezekiel Jackson.  Why on Earth Christian has been forced to sit this long in ECW is beyond me.  Sure he has been the Champion for quite some time, but he deserves to be on one of the main shows.  I see Christian losing this match simply so they can take the Title off of him in preperation for a move come draft time. Next up we have the Womens Championship match.  Michelle McCool vs Mickie James.  Normally I would think that James would win this one, just to finally put an end to the whole “Piggy James” nonsense.  But with talk of her releasing a Country album of all things, I have my doubts.  This might turn out to be a half decent match though, since these two can actually wrestle.  The first of the two World Title matches is The Undertaker vs Rey Mysterio.  Taker is in pretty rough shape these days, so I don’t see this being a very long one.  Rey will be fast, and make this look exciting, but in the end Taker wins and moves on to the main event at Wrestlemania.  The second Title defense is Sheamus, taking on Randy Orton.  Earlier I did a post on how I felt that Sheamus would not walk out of this match as Champion, because I did not see him headling Wrestlemania.  I still stand by that, but some rumours are going around about the Rumble match itself that puts a bit of doubt in my mind now.  And so that brings us to the Rumble Match itself.  As per usual, the build up has highlighted how this is every man for himself.  People making bold claims that they will win.  Silly over the top rope challenges, and teams having words with each other.  Teams like D.X.  And here is where things get a little strange.  The whole notion that if Shawn Michaels wins, he can get his shot at The Undertaker again.  And HHH, basically just wanting to win, because…..well, just because.  One rumour out there, has both men winning in a Tie, so that they both get what they want.  I certainly hope this doesn’t happen, as it cheapens the whole point of ” I am the one”  John Cena winning would simply be par for the course, but this scenario works for my prediction of Randy Orton having the Title.  Then there is Batista.  No doubt if he wins, its a rematch with The Undertaker.  But for some reason, I think that the Sean Michaels rematch would be pushed first.  As for a surprise winner?  I don’t see it happening, but I see Edge making his return at the Rumble.  I doubt he will win, but I think he will eliminate Chris Jericho, thus setting up a fine feud that could last all the way to Mania.  So, who do I pick as the overall winner?  If I must choose a name, I’ll go with Cena.  Not exactly going out on a limb with that one, but I see this Rumble being pretty much by the numbers anyway. 

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

As usual, I will not have any spoilers in my review, so lets get right down to business.  First off, Im not much caring for this new direction that the WWE is going in with “Theme” Pay Per Views now.  Much like guest hosts on Raw, It works in small doses, but not every single month.  Of course of all the gimick matches to have, at least the Hell In A Cell match is a fan favourite.  Personally I like TNA’s Lockdown PPV, where every match is held in the cage, so this concept of the main events being in the Cell was just fine with me.  But were they all good?  Lets start with the opener.  C.M Punk vs The Undertaker.  This was the first of the three Cell matches, and quite frankly Im glad it done and out of the way first.  I am a huge Undertaker fan, and It pains me to see somebody who obviously isn’t at 100% compete in this sort of match.  It was short, and really not very good.  Punk and Taker could have a tremendous feud ahead of them, but only when Undertaker is healed up.  Hopefully that happens sooner, rather than later.  From there, we do a complete 180, and see a fantastic match between two stars who’s future looks very bright.  John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler (god I hate his name)  This one easily stole the show. Now this is a feud that I hope goes on for a while. I said the same a while back about Zigglers war with Rey Mysterio. Perhaps we can get him involved somehow?  Either way,  The Friday Night Delight, and Mr Ziggles had the match of the night.  But once again, we have to take the good with the bad.  A few personal lowlights had to be the Diva’s title match.  Not a train wreck, but still just an excuse to hit the concession stand.  And Drew McIntyre vs R-Truth.  I really hope Mr McIntyre shows us much more on Friday nights, because his debut match was a snore fest.  The U.S. title match with Kofi Kingston, The Miz, and Jack Swagger was entertaining.  But personally Im getting tired of all these 3 and 4 man matches for that Title.  Jericho and Big show are proving me right by making the tag team division interesting again.  And their match against Batista and Rey Mysterio was another in what is becoming a string of great tag matches these two have had on PPV.  Now as the the last two Cell matches.  The DX vs Legacy war might have finally come to an end in what has got the be the strangest Cell match ever.  A good match, but just unusual.  And Finally, the saga of John Cena vs Randy Orton goes to the next level.  It won’t rank among the top Cell matches ever, but It was still a fairly good main event.  In all,  Hell In A Cell was a pretty good show.  Im still not totally convinced that there should be more than one Cell match on any PPV though.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

C.M. Punk.  The straight edge world champion.  He is the first, of his kind in WWE.  And he’s better than us. Or so he likes to say.  The problem is, he just keeps going, and going, and going. His mouth is like the energizer bunny.  It never seems to run out of energy.  Now don’t get me wrong, as a Wrestler, Punk is great.  I have always liked watching his matches, and It’s nice to see somebody else at the top.  And I also understand that this is Punks new thing for getting heat with the crowd now that he is no longer a “good guy”  I just wish that his diatribes didn’t go on for what feels like an hour.  Perhaps Punk needs to study some of the masters on the Mic.  Some of the people who were excellent at getting the crowd to hate them.  People Like Edge, and Chris Jericho.  And even the Rock, when he was first starting out and was  hearing the “Rocky Sucks” chants.  These men have the ability to get the crowd going with just a few words, and sometimes a look.  But I digress.   The scary part of Punks new found passion for preaching, is that he is on the show that actually tapes, and edits, unlike Raw which is live.  So I can just imagine how much of his rambling gets cut out?  Hopefully sometime soon he will be hated enough that he won’t have to do this long and boring promo’s.  One can hope. 

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

For quite some time now, I have been complaining about the lack of a good tag team division in WWE.  This, despite the fact that they had two seperate tag champions on their hands.  I guess somebody finally smartened up and they at least combined the two into one, unified title. (but they still carry both sets of belts)  Now the big question is this.  Are they actually going to put any effort into pushing the tag team titles that got stagnant due to lack of use?  It seems that the WWE’s stance on tag teams, is that they do not draw as well as the individual wrestlers, therefore are not worth the effort.  But anybody who watches TNA can tell you, that good tag teams can also equal ratings, and money.  But at least for the moment, It looks as though they are going to give Jericho and Big Show a shot at making the tag division respectable again.  My theory for getting this ball rolling would be to start having random teams come together to see if they can work. (Like Mark Henry and MVP)  Sometimes things get thrown together and something  just clicks.   And if it doesn’t, then they get squashed, and Its on to the next challengers.  I suppose only time will tell if these two can pull it off.  But with Jericho’s Mic skills, and the size of Big Show as an anchor man, I think that given enough time they could indeed revive tag team wrestling.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post