WrestleMania 23

March 30, 2007

I just realized that Mania is this weekend so if I’m going to offer my WrestleMania predictions, I best get to it now. I’m not nearly as interested in WrestleMania as I was a month ago. The build for this year’s WrestleMania has been very poor in my opinion. Granted all of that wasn’t WWE’s fault, HHH getting hurt threw a wrench in the works, but for whatever reason once the matches were announced no further intrigue was built.

A lot of the lack of built was unavoidable. With both title matches featuring baby face opponents there wasn’t a lot that could be done. Little to no tension was built between the champions and challengers, likely in an effort to not force the crowd to choose a favourite and inevitably turn someone heel. This left me completely bored after the matches were announced. I liked the match ups and wanted to see them but, came to terms with the fact not much of significance was going to happen until April first so what was the point of getting excited before then. I doubt I was the only person who got sick of hearing Big Dave tell us how much he respected the Undertaker.

Other matches lacked build as well, and again by design that seemed unavoidable. The Money in the Bank Ladder match while entertaining, its a match that is just sold on the match itself and once the participants were selected not much else needed to be or could be done. Same for the Battle of the Billionaires; back in the day grudges were built up over a long period of time and the matches were announced and then the big stipulation was the icing on the cake. With this match the stipulation was announced first, it was huge, but the actual announcement of the match and any further tensions built really didn’t matter much. The be all and end all of this match is the hair cut so again it will be great on Sunday but did nothing for me over the last month of build.

After those matches there isn’t too much else to sink your teeth into. Melina vs. Ashley was actually built fairly well but isn’t going to be a show-selling angle. Kane and Kahli haven’t really done much (which is likely a good thing). Benoit vs. MVP, I didn’t even know about (I must have missed the SD they announced this match). This leaves the ECW 8 man tag, but I don’t keep up on ECW much and like the women’s match I doubt this match is the one selling buys to WrestleMania. I still have interest in seeing the show as I think several of these matches will be very good, and the hair cut alone will probably make the show worth buying, I’m just not as interested as I was a month ago and find it mind boggling how little long term booking goes into the Biggest show of the year. Is there an angle with more than a few weeks or even one month of back-story?

Enough about my thoughts leading up to the show it’s time for the Kreskin Challenge, if you will, time to make some prediction.

John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (Winner: John Cena)

Batista vs. The Undertaker (Winner: Undertaker, the streak continues)

Battle of the Billionaires (Winner: Lashley/Trump, Vince’s hair cut will feature the greatest facial expressions and selling in the history of the business)

Money in the Bank (Winner: Kennedy who will use the contract to jump to RAW and challenge Cena. If I can pick a plan B Edge wins and jumps to SD to challenge Taker)

Kane vs. Great Kahli (Winner: Kahli, I just don’t see them beating this guy)

Melina vs. Ashley (Winner: This is a close call but I’m going with Ashley)

Benoit vs. MVP (I’m on the fence with this one. If they open the show with it, Benoit up, anywhere else on the show I’m going with MVP)

ECW 8 Man Tag (Winners: New Breed)

I’m also going to predict they put the World Heavyweight Title on last over the WWE Title. I think Cena and HBK will be the better match but with my predicted title change Taker standing tall to close the show 15-0 and the New World Heavyweight Champion wins out.

That’s my take!
Lance Storm