Wrestlemania unpredictable
Just when I thought my NCAA bracket was the ultimate example of bad picking (my bracket entry long since torn to shreds) along comes Wrestlemania on Sunday, really putting my bad prognostication skills into focus.
The way I figure it, I went 2-6 picking the results of the show, hitting only the Undertaker’s win over Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship to extend his streak to 16-0, and the win by JBL over Fit Finlay in the Belfast Brawl.
Vince McMahon threw us a few twists and turns, to say the least, as wrestling bookers and writers are getting wise to a well-informed fan base who visit wrestling Web sites, read columns such as ‘No Holds Barred’ every week (shameless self promotion), and are pretty knowledgeable of the behind-the-scenes workings of the business.
However, at the same time as we’re getting into the fabric of the business, we fans still want to be surprised. However, the hurdle is set higher since we can get so much insider information on the Internet. This is why John Cena’s early return from his torn pectoral muscle this past Royal Rumble was such an incredible swerve as WWE was able to keep it totally quiet until the surprise was sprung.
WWE continued its swerving of wrestling fans at Wrestlemania, their biggest surprise, I believe, being Randy Orton retaining the WWE Championship in the triple threat match against Triple H and John Cena.
In a poll conducted by WWE prior to the match, only 8 percent of Wrestlemania viewers picked Orton to win the match. While even I could cite a hundred scenarios how Triple H or Cena could win, I couldn’t give you one scenario of how Orton could retain.
Actually, history was against Orton in at least three ways. First off, the faces (good guys) almost always win the title matches at Wrestlemania, the last heel I can recall winning being Triple H almost a decade ago. Sunday also broke a streak of Royal Rumble winners taking the title belt as Orton’s win snapped a seven-year streak as Cena was unable to convert his Rumble win into regaining his world title. And thirdly, Cena had held the next longest WM winning streak next to Undertaker as he was 4-0 going into their year’s Wrestlemania.
The C.M. Punk win in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match also came as a surprise as rumor was circulating Chris Jericho would win and feud with MVP over who would actually get the automatic title shot contained in the briefcase hung above the ring in the MITB match. There was also rumor that Kennedy would win MITB as he has served his punishment for his involvement in the Signature Pharmacies scandal which got him suspended for a month last year even as he was getting a major push after winning the 2007 MITB match.
The other entries such as Punk, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison and Carlito, it was believed, were simply space fillers. This was especially true seeing Punk has served as Chavo Guerreo’s personal jobber for the past couple of months in their ECW title feud. Of course Chavo had to pay the piper Sunday night, losing in record time to Kane to drop the ECW strap in a match so quick that if you blinked, you missed it.
As for the Punk win, I’ll be interested to see what they will do with the straight-edged superstar. Had Edge been Smackdown champion, I could see him feuding with him since there is bad blood already between the pair. However, I almost look for them to move him over to RAW, perhaps to freshen the feuds over there and go at it with Orton.
In other WM action, the Money Mayweather win over Big Show was surprisingly entertaining as the undefeated boxer obviously had done quite a bit of training in preparation for his match. Meanwhile, Big Show absorbed some seriously stiff shots from Mayweather as the pair pulled off a match which I figured would be major cheese.
All in all, this WM wasn’t the best I’ve seen simply because they really failed to build many of the matches properly leading in. However, this one likely had more surprises than I’ve seen in one show in a long time which helped make it enjoyable.