Mania 23 Postwhore Thread

[brockandsable]

The most intriguing match on the card for me looks to be the Money In the Bank Ladder Match. 5 of the hottest superstars are in it already. King Booker and Edge are last year's MVP's of their respective shows. Their involvement immediately gives the match credibility since they are both former champions.

CM Punk is the hottest thing on ECW given that RVD is all but out the door and Bobby Lashley's title reign has been less than stellar. I worry about Punk's future because Vince McMahon is very reluctant to put World titles on "guys he did not create."

Jeff Hardy has been on a roll since his return and if he keeps up the pace, I don't see why a World Championship won't find its way to his shoulder by the end of the year. Mr. Kennedy's involvement is a given. He's my favorite to win it, but I'll hold out until we find out who the final entry is. My guess is either Randy Orton or Fit Finlay although involving Orton would be another slap to his face as the WWE has made it clear that he is not the champ of the future by passing the World Title over him multiple times.

[stocko]

i would love to see jeff hardy as world champ and at least in the title hunt, however, i just cant see it happening

[Assassin]

brockandsable said:

Jeff Hardy has been on a roll since his return and if he keeps up the pace, I don't see why a World Championship won't find its way to his shoulder by the end of the year.

Personally, I think it would be a bad move having a World Title around the waist of Jeff Hardy.

I'm having difficulty keeping up with wrestling at the moment, so I'll assume Mr. Hardy is a competitor in the Money In The Bank ladder match (which, thinking about it is a good assumption due to the fact that he's currently the focal point of discussion). I think he's a good candidate to potentially win the match, but if he did I doubt he'd win a World Title.

So far both winners of the ladder match have gone on to win the WWE Title, so someone has to come up short eventually or the winner might as well be awarded the title there and then instead of having to bother with the inconvenience of defeating John Cena. So, in my opinion whoever wins it, whether it be Jeff Hardy, Kennedy, Punk or whoever else I don't think they'll successfully defeat whoever the champion is at the time.

Going back to Jeff Hardy, you may or may not know this terminology, but he is what's known as a 'spot monkey' - he relies on his aerial maneuvers to get over with the fans. A World Champion, in most cases, needs to have a combination of good wrestling or high flying skills, as Jeff has, as well as natural charisma and excellent ability on the microphone. Unfortunately he does not have this trait, which is why I don't think he'll ever be a legitimate threat to whoever holds the WWE/World/ECW Title. As I said at the beginning of this post I think it'll be a bad move from a marketing stand point as Jeff will simply get crapped on if he ever became the top guy in the WWE.

[brockandsable]

Another idea would be to have Edge win it again and cash in that same night.

Imagine John Cena v. Edge v. HBK for the main event of the night, and Edge getting the victory to not only make him 7-0 at Mania, but also getting long awaited revenge against Cena to close out that feud.

[Assassin]

That's an interesting idea, and a strong possibilty as the Edge/Cena feud has never really been finished as you mentioned and Edge still has beef with HBK.

[brockandsable]

Yeah, Edge got the shaft by losing the title in his hometown at Unforgiven; what better way to make it up to him than by having him win the belt on the biggest stage of them all and go for a real title run this time. And Edge's last encounter with HBK in that streetfight was a cliffhanger as well so they could either close that out or continue the feud into Backlash.

[Aladdin]

I am 99.99% sure that won't happen, even thought i would LOVE for it to do so. Edge is the fucking man. In my eyes, in the WWE only Punk & HBK can compare to Edge at this time. He's so damn good at what he does, that he deserves the main event spot at Mania.

I'm loving the HBK/Cena build so far but i would much rather see HBK/Edge. The two just go together so well. I feel that Edge is really being wasted in the MITB match, and I'm soooooo worried that he's going to lose the match.

And to address the Jeff Hardy discussion, Assassin, I know that Jeff Hardy is a spot monkey (and yes we do know of that terminology ), but so was RVD. and he was a popular champ. I have to admit that i never liked him as champ, and i was even rooting for Cena in their match, even though at the time i hated Cena, but I feel that Jeff is different.

Sure, Jeff relies on those big spots, but he has been excellent since he's returned. Apart from a few botched moves earlier on in his return he hasn't put a foot wrong in the ring. His story telling has improved a lot, and he's put on excellent matches with the likes of Nitro. The WWE seem to be exentuating his postives and hiding his negatives (mic skills). If they continued to do this but start to push him up the card, I am sure the fans would accept him as a legit contender and possible champ. Look at Benoit, he wasn't exactly great on the mic. Plus, Jeff is in a band. He should be getting used to talking in front of crowds and learning scripts. We haven't really seen what he can really do on the mic.

If you look back to his match with Taker, people were really rallying behind him to win that title, which shows that the people would support him. A quick title run would definitely be in the question. The guy has a huge fan-base who have watched him grow as a performer, so it would be nice to cap it all off with a title run.

Obviously, he would have to be put in the right storylines first. A feud with a heel HBK would be ideal. He's always been compared to Shawn, so a "you're never going to be as good as me" feud would be great.

[brockandsable]

I never thought I'd be saying this but I actually want HBK to beat Cena.

[Assassin]

You're not alone there chief.

This is Cena's 3rd Wrestlemania main event in a row, surely he can't win all of them?

[brockandsable]

I don't know: Hogan and Austin won three in a row when the WWE Title was involved. And Vince has a super hard on for Cena, so...

[Keith Williams]

Well for the past 2 MITB matches, a RAW wrestler has walked away with the contract. I think this year, perhaps they will let a Smackdown! wrestler win it. And if Mr. Kennedy happens to find himself in that match, perhaps he will be the one to walk out with the guarantee contract.

[brockandsable]

You can see it coming a mile away: Steve Austin will be the special guest ref in the billionaire v. billionaire match and will end up stunning McMahon, knocking him out. Then they will strap him in the chair and shave all his hair off. He'll probably proceed to stun Umaga and Lashley after that. Then the biggest pop of the night will be when he suddenly turns around and stuns Donald Trump. That's the way it'll happen because I saw it all in a dream.

[Assassin]

I think you mised out one vital moment in your dream - Austin will have a beer with Trump and stunner him just after the toast.

You're right though, that seems to be the most likely scenario.

[brockandsable]

Every year they try and have a "money" match, that is, a match that equal big dollars and is outside of the WWE Title. It could range anywhere from Rock v. Hogan to Goldberg v. Brock Lesnar. Somehow, this just doesn't live up so I figure they will add as much fire to this one as possible. The hair stip is a little interesting since the ECW Title is shit at this point. Adding Austin will definitely fire it up but it still needs one more element.

[Assassin]

Could the missing element possibly be throwing the ECW Title into the mix?

[brockandsable]

See, that's why I like you already, Assassin. You're a die-hard fan like myself who analyzes these things.

[brockandsable]

I agree with Soundscream that Benoit should be in the Money In the Bank III match but he'll probably wind up facing MVP for the U.S. Title as they foreshadowed that nicely on Smackdown! last night.

And you've got to love how the MITB match now has eight participants instead of six. There will be mad carnage with both Hardys in there, possibly facing each other at some point.

[brockandsable]

All the hype going toward the Billionaire v. Billionaire match. In Fantasy WWE, Hulk Hogan would be representing Donald Trump and Stone Cold would be Vince's man, IMO.

[Aladdin]

Other way around. Austin and Trump. Hogan and Vince.


And, I don't like the fact that there are 8 guys in the MITB. It's overkill. Simply too many people, that a lot of the focus will be taken off the indivuals. It will be more of a spot fest than usual. Six always seemed right, if not too much. Eight is just silly. And it shows that WWE really don't know what to do with their mid-card talent, so they just check a bunch of them into one match. Having fewer people and giving all of them a chance to actually win it, would have been better. Finlay ain't winning it. Neither is Booker. Matt isn't winning, but he'll put on a good show. Same with Jeff.

Punk & Kennedy fit in well, since they both fit in nicely to the match style and they're both legit contenders to the title.

Edge & Orton fit in nicely to the match itself, but really didn't need to be in it. It would have been much better for them to be involved in a more profile match, instead of getting lost in the shuffle of the MITB.

[brockandsable]

Edge and Orton are in because you can see their feud heating up. They are both former World Champions as well, so they give the match credibilty. I'll even go as far as to say they will have a one on one match at Backlash.

About the number of people in the match, I'm all for the additional two peeps. WWE has to make $$$, so they'll throw all the big names in. There is potential Hardy v. Hardy in there and that's literally, money in the bank. Finlay was awesome from last year, but I thought Benoit would have been the better addition. And then there's CM Punk and Kennedy as you said.

As for the winner, Kennedy is already a main eventer as proven by the last two PPVs. Winning this match wouldn't make that much sense. There's Edge, whose got a Wrestlemania streak going, but if he wins it, he will probably cash in that same night with Cena and Edge and that seems unlikely. I don't think CM Punk is on Vince's favorite person list, or anyone in ECW for that matter. Jeff Hardy is money but is a flight risk and Matt Hardy is the reident bump/jobber. King Booker's was just a World Champion, so I seriously doubt it. This leaves Finlay and Orton. Orton has been given chance after chance after chance but the WWE keeps shitting on him for his misbehavior.

Fit Finlay.

Vince has been giving the proven vets more and more opportunities at the title over the past year. Booker, Batista, HBK and Taker just to name a few. And the Little Bastard gimmick is gold. I'm leaning toward Finlay, but I won't pick just yet. But Fit Finaly would be a convincing and entertaining World Champ.

[The Great JT]

What I want to see is Shawn win the title. Lord only knows he deserves it one last time.

That and Vinny-Mac get his head shaved.

[Aladdin]

Batista isn't a veteran. Far from it. Just because he's old doesn't make him a vet.

People want to see the Hardyz on the same team. A Hardyz/MNM tables match or even TLC would have been awesome. Throw in WGTT & London/Kendrick and you have a hell of a match up.

Kennedy is not where near main event material. He's boring in the ring and is very stale on the mic.

I know Edge & Orton are in it because of their "feud" but there are other ways of doing that where they can be in more high profile matches. I just think it's a waste for Edge, not so much Orton (he's crap anyway). But, after the EXCELLENT year Edge had, he's back to where he was 2 years ago. There's been no growth. Last year, he was in a high profile match that stole the show, that centred around him losing the title. This year he should have been in something like that too, seeing as he wouldn't be in the WWE Title match. Edge/Hogan or something like that. Something that would have gotten him over even more. The MITB won't do anything for him, even if he does win it (which he had better) and goes onto win the title, because there's no growth. It's regression.


I would have preferred Benoit to be in the match instead of Finlay, he fits in much better. But, seeing as he isn't, I would have put him in a match against Helms. Helms had a great 2006 IMO, and with his dominance over the CW division and his recent title loss, it makes sense for him to challenge Benoit for the US Title. It would have been a hell of a match, and he most def deserves it more than MVP.

[brockandsable]

aladdin said:

Kennedy is not where near main event material. He's boring in the ring and is very stale on the mic.

Man, what SD! have you been watching? Kennedy's enthusiasm and his Rock-like mannerisms make him gold. He's one of three reasons I even watch Smackdown. Where are your glasses?

[Aladdin]

He's boring, dude.

He does the same damn thing all the time. His mannerisms are decent but that alone doesn't make him main event level.

He's decent in the ring when he has someone to carry him or if he's brawling. But nothing spectacular.

He can talk well, but it's always the same thing. Just because he can increase and decrease the tone & volume of his voice, doesn't mean he's great on the mic. It's always the same old shit.

Very much overrated.

[Keith Williams]

Well people were saying the same thing about John Cena. Great on the mic, but in the ring not so great. Plus don't forget that the wwe likes to handcuff their wrestlers. Won't let them execuite every move that they can. If its not punch,kick, punch, then its not the wwe style. Look no farther then the cruiserweights.

Kennedy, to me has the looks of a future superstar. I can honestly see him holding the world title on smackdown by Christmas. Thats why I picked him to win the money in the bank contest. Wouldn't surpise me if he cashed it in around Great American Bash. That way Taker vs Batistia can run its course. Or better yet, cash it at Wrestlemania. Could you imagine the uproar if Taker won the belt from Batistia, was celebrating and then Kennedys music hit, he comes out, cashes in the contract, and beats a broken down, tired Taker?