hayden
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| #41 Posted on 30.3.07 2219.55 Reposted on: 30.3.14 2221.58 | Ashley over Melina - Playboy! Khali over Kane - as others have mentioned, they'll keep this short. Kennedy to win MITB - Edge and Orton will cost each other the match somehow, opening the door for a Kennedy win. The least likely of the eight to win is Matt Hardy. Lashley over Umaga - no way Trump loses his hair, plus they're higher on Lashley than Umaga anyway. Benoit over MVP - I just don't think Benoit will lose it to MVP here. Maybe in a future rematch. ECW Originals over the New Breed - I see RVD pinning someone here. Batista over Undertaker - I may be way off base here, but I think if Taker was winning, this would be on last. The fact that it's not leads me to think Taker's streak will end. Cena over Michaels - it's never wise, it seems, to beat against Cena.
Kane and Khali on the card but no Johnny Nitro? I know a lot of stuff happens behind the scenes that we don't see, but it really seemed to me that Nitro had earned a Mania match this year.
(edited by hayden on 30.3.07 2226) | oldschoolhero
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| #42 Posted on 31.3.07 0318.24 Reposted on: 31.3.14 0318.48 | If 'Taker's streak was ending, it'd be THE story of the night. The main event slot would most definitely be earmarked for it. And even though it's the sub-ME, there's no way they do a schmozz at this stage. | Freeway
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| #43 Posted on 31.3.07 1325.04 Reposted on: 31.3.14 1329.01 | RAW, Smackdown and ECW present WRESTLEMANIA XXIII
One Fall for the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship JOHN CENA [245 lbs; West Newbury, MA; 4th WrestleMania] vs. SHAWN MICHAELS [220 lbs; San Antonio, TX; 14th WrestleMania] Workrate Potential: Cena had a ****1/2 match with Umaga. Shawn Michaels is no Umaga. Prediction: The last time Shawn Michaels won a title at WrestleMania was 11 years ago when he beat Bret Hart. I don't see him doing it here, especially since Cena's the future. Two old-timer champions doesn't make sense.
One Fall for the World Heavyweight Championship BATISTA [308 lbs; Washington, DC; 3rd WrestleMania] vs. THE UNDERTAKER [320 lbs; Death Valley, CA; 15th WrestleMania] Workrate Potential: Motivated Undertaker can be golden (see No Way Out last year). Unmotivated Big Dave can ruin a match. This one depends on Big Dave. Prediction: Rest in peace, Batista. The Undertaker captures the World Title.
One Fall, Loser's Manager Gets His Head Shaved UMAGA [330 lbs; Isle of Samoa; WrestleMania debut; accompanied by Armando Alejandro Rodriguez and representing Vince McMahon] vs. BOBBY LASHLEY [295 lbs; Colorado Springs, CO; 2nd WrestleMania; representing Donald Trump] Workrate Potential: Like I said earlier, Umaga had a great match with John Cena. He'll probably have a pretty good match here. Prediction: Lashley wins, Vince gets shaved.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match EDGE [250 lbs; Toronto, Ontario; 6th WrestleMania] vs. RANDY ORTON [248 lbs; St. Louis, MO; 4th WrestleMania] vs. KING BOOKER [250 lbs; Houston, TX; 5th WrestleMania] vs. FINLAY [238 lbs; Belfast, Ireland; 2nd WrestleMania] vs. JEFF HARDY [215 lbs; Cameron, NC; 4th WrestleMania] vs. MATT HARDY [229 lbs; Cameron, NC; 6th WrestleMania] vs. KEN KENNEDY [245 lbs; Green Bay, WI; WrestleMania debut] vs. CM PUNK [227 lbs; Chicago, IL; WrestleMania debut] Workrate Potential: There's no Benoit or Jericho in there to direct traffic, but this will be a fun car crash at worst. Prediction: My heart says Punk but my gut says Kennedy. And a face won last year, so I say Mr. Kennedy...Kennedy becomes Mr. Money in the Bank.
One Fall for the United States Championship CHRIS BENOIT [234 lbs; Atlanta, GA; 7th WrestleMania] vs. MONTEL VONTAVIOUS PORTER [250 lbs; Miami, FL; WrestleMania debut] Workrate Potential: It's Benoit, so it depends completely on how carryable MVP can be. Their house show matches are said to have been quite good. Prediction: Benoit hasn't won a Mania match since he won the Big One at XX. I say he finally wins again here.
Lumberjill Match for the Women's Championship MELINA PEREZ [Los Angeles, CA; WrestleMania debut] vs. ASHLEY MASSERO [New York, NY; WrestleMania debut] Workrate Potential: Bowling shoe ugly. Prediction: DivaSearch Ashley becomes Women's Champion.
8-Man Tag Team Match THE ECW ORIGINALS (Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, Sabu & the Sandman) [all debuting except for Van Dam, who is making his 4th appearance] vs. THE NEW BREED (Elijah Burke, Marcus CorVon, Matt Striker & Kevin Thorn) [all debuting] Workrate Potential: Clusterfuck. Prediction: New Breed cheats to win!
One Fall THE GREAT KHALI [450 lbs; India; WrestleMania debut] vs. KANE [315 lbs; Parts Unknown; 9th WrestleMania] Workrate Potential: Shitty. Prediction; Kane. | tlmkr38
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| #44 Posted on 31.3.07 1820.15 Reposted on: 31.3.14 1820.29 | Not gonna predict but a couple as I agree with most everyone else on them but on Umaga/Lashley I am thinking Vince will but a "Must pin or make submit" clause in there somewhere which means there will be a disqualification and no one gets their head shaved. Maybe Austin stuns everyone and disqualifies them both, either way since he is in the ring there will have to be at least one stunner.
Taker/Batista. Batista will hit Taker with a chair or something retaining the belt but losing to Taker so he keeps his winning streak. He's done it before.....
| Redcumo
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| #45 Posted on 31.3.07 2205.41 Reposted on: 31.3.14 2207.11 | Cena over Michaels. Undertaker over Batista. Edge in the Bank. Khali over Kane. Melina over Ashley. Benoit over Porter. Lashley over Umaga. Cor Von & Co. over Dreamer & Co. | ges7184
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| #46 Posted on 31.3.07 2222.53 Reposted on: 31.3.14 2223.34 | Predictions: Melina over Ashley (as stated before, playboy doesn't always mean championship. I think the purpose of putting her in this match is so that she can be in the spotlight while the magazine is on sale, not to put the belt on her. Melina is marginally the better wrestler, so I think they keep the belt on her.)
MVP over Benoit (I get the feeling that they are wanting to push MVP. Benoit has basically all but disappeared. And you have those Benoit to Raw rumors as well.)
New Breed over ECW Originals (The direction of ECW just doesn't favor the originals here.)
Money in the Bank: Edge wins (probably more of my preference than anything else. I don't have faith that Orton can carry the ball. I know Edge can. I do think Kennedy wouldn't be a bad choice either, though.)
Khali over Kane (Toss up)
Undertaker over Batista (If they ever do decide to break Undertaker's win streak, it has to be at the end of a better feud than this. Otherwise it's just a waste.)
Cena over HBK (Betting against Cena is just a bad idea. It is clear by now that WWE considers Cena the franchise player. He's not going to job out here.)
Umaga over Lashley via shenanigans (BUT Lashley crushes Umaga after the match AND McMahon gets his head shaved instead of Trump. The Lashley over Umaga just seems to obvious, so I would go with some kind of swerve that mixes things up, but ultimately gets us back to the same conclusion.)
Edit: For Umaga/Lashley I made it sound like that this is what I would do if I were booking, but what I meant was that this is just what I am going with for my pick (I meant to say "I will go", not "I would go", as in "I will go with my pick"). And mostly, I just wanted to pick something different than the 99% of people picking this match. It's for that reason I think there's a slight possibility of a swerve, even though they really shouldn't here, because as I said, they have to get back to the same conclusion anyway.)
(edited by ges7184 on 1.4.07 0841) | SEADAWG
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| #47 Posted on 1.4.07 0136.59 Reposted on: 1.4.14 0141.11 | Originally posted by ges7184 The Lashley over Umaga just seems to obvious, so I would go with some kind of swerve that mixes things up, but ultimately gets us back to the same conclusion.)
I dunno, as fun as Vince getting the shaving would/will be, I think if Lashley lost and it didn't happen to Trump then people might feel kinda cheated. | Freeway
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| #48 Posted on 1.4.07 0249.38 Reposted on: 1.4.14 0249.49 | Originally posted by SEADAWG
Originally posted by ges7184 The Lashley over Umaga just seems to obvious, so I would go with some kind of swerve that mixes things up, but ultimately gets us back to the same conclusion.)
I dunno, as fun as Vince getting the shaving would/will be, I think if Lashley lost and it didn't happen to Trump then people might feel kinda cheated.
Plus, they've sold a lot of buys based on the "NO MATTER WHAT, SOMEBODY WILL LEAVE BALDER THAN THEY CAME IN" guarantee. | TwisterF5
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| #49 Posted on 1.4.07 0802.26 Reposted on: 1.4.14 0802.31 | - MVP over Benoit. - Money in the Bank: Orton. - Khali/Kane: No Contest. - Melina over Ashley. - Lashley over Umaga (I see an "April Fools" swerve here somewhere...like Vince using it as an excuse to not get his head shaved, but will anyway...) - New Breed over the EC-Dub Originals. - Cena over Michaels. - Undertaker over Batista.
Match of the Night: Cena/Michaels will be about a 27 minute masterpiece, mainly because of Michaels. Trainwreck of the Night: I'd think Melina/Ashley, but there will be so much eye candy, nobody will notice... so my vote is for Kane/Khali. | TheOldMan
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| #50 Posted on 1.4.07 1235.20 Reposted on: 1.4.14 1235.25 | May as well get this on the record for future shame
The show will start with a typically impressive WWE highlight package, then 15 minutes to introduce the seven announce teams assigned to the event. This will take about as long as a 20-man battle royal.
1) Benoit makes MVP tap to the crossface.
There's no way that coasting against the Guatamalan, Lichtensteinian, and Ethiopian champions should set someone up to beat Benoit by ANY method. My thought was this would be a good way to pop the crowd, and start a feud that will help MVP's career get going. Maybe in the month leading up to Backlash, he could try warming up against collegiate champions. Being MVP, they would be champions from Mid-Major schools (Benoit moving to Raw obviously would upset the apple cart - and hopefully it would only be because they need heel Benoit to challenge for the WWE title)
2) New Breed defeats ECW Originals as Burke pins Sandman.
This one will likely simmer all the way to One Night Stand '07, so we need to keep getting heat on the heel faction. A relatively brief match, Extreme Rules will be brought into play, or cause the Originals to get DQed if not added before the match. Dreamer will be overruled in the back when he asks to take the pin. And if RVD is pinned, let the rumors hit the floor.
3) Edge wins the Money in the Bank ladder match, and does an injury angle on the spot, or this coming week.
My thought is that there is money in a future streak vs streak Edge/Taker match, and the year-long gimmick of the briefcase is good to help someone keep in the mix while working out an injury. Bonus prediction: We plant the seeds for a Jeff vs. Matt feud.
Punk: shows well, too soon to see him as a world champion Kennedy: my #2 choice to win if not Edge Orton: needs to build the company's confidence in him again Hardys: MitB seems to work better as a heel gimmick overall, and all the current champions are faces. A face would not wait too long to use the contract. Booker: already established as a championship contender, MitB would not really elevate his career above where it is now Finlay: I don't see him winning this without the ref making seven "X" signs first, but Fit and Hornswoggle should boost the comedy quotient here.
4) Great Khali pins Kane after the tree slam.
Kane carries the match as best he can, in his "MonsterJobber to the Stars" role, J.R. breaks out a bowling shoe reference, and someone in the back gets strung up from a hook after laughing at Kane post-match. Khali continues to give interviews in his Peter Boyle "Young Frankenstein" tribute-style.
5) Vince McMahon's rug is pulled off, and the rest of his head is shaved in the "Battle of the Billionaires" match in a sort-of "Dusty" finish
Okay, everybody ordering this match KNOWS that there is no way that Trump is getting shaved, and I don't see Vince pulling a bait-and-switch of this magnitude at WM. Yet since the result is so bleedin' obvious, the focus is not the match itself, but the story they tell in getting around to the result. The way I see it, the only way to make a Wrestlemania moment out of this (aside from convincing Trump to do the job) is to make it appear that Trump is going to have to do the job.
I predict that this will be the first Vince PPV match in memory not to have a "no DQ" stipulation - maybe even Trump being shown as smart enough not to go along with it after seeing Vince use it to his benefit this past Monday. I have Austin take a ref bump, and after a good number of the boys get a WM payday interfering against Lashley, Shane O'Mac comes out in a ref's shirt to count the pin. Just as the heels start to pull Trump toward the chair, and with Vince grinning demonically with the clippers in hand, Stone Cold gets back up, and demands a restart to the match (Eugene gets involved to point out what happened on the Titantron). Lashley spears Umaga, pin, Vince protests, stunner - stunner on Shane, J.R. has an orgasm, Austin drags Vince's sorry carcass into the chair, pours beer on him, Trump lets Lashley and/or Eugene do the cutting. Bonus prediction: Vince's toupeč will be exposed to boot. No one can ever accuse Vince of not showing ass when the time comes.
6) Melina pins Ashley to retain the Women's Championship when Victoria holds her legs from outside the ring to prevent a kick out.
Short, with plenty of Diva-licious lumberjilling to cover for the fact that Ashley is about a 0.85 on the Gayda Scale. I agree with most that the Playboy covergirl is virtually assured of winning the title, but Ashley is just SO inept that.. aw, who am I kidding?
6) Ashley schoolgirls Melina to win the Women's Championship.
7) Undertaker pins Batista after the Last Ride to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
Undertaker will pull out all the stops to make this memorable, he'll dive over the ropes - there will be blood from a stairs shot, a Batista bomb through the Spanish announce table, etc. But no one thinks that the streak is ending tonight. Unfortunately for 'Taker, Vince has his own match to worry about making a pre-destined ending look interesting, so these two are pretty much on their own.
8) Shawn Michaels pins John Cena after Sweet Chin Music to win the WWE World Championship in the match of the night.
This was the hardest one to handicap, but I finally decided that Cena's had his belt for a fairly long time, and there are limited options for main event feuds on the Raw side, with HHH and Edge both on the shelf in the months to come. HBK as champion makes for a much more interesting feud IMHO, and I think this will end the show on the highest note possible, which is not such a small consideration for a WrestleMania. Bonus prediction: HBK will reprise the zip-line entrance, and I have no earthly idea how Cena will top his "Gangster" production number from last year.
(If the last two matches are reversed, then I would look for Cena retaining, and Taker's win being the big send-off.)
Provisional predictions:
A) Ric Flair makes Carlito tap to the figure-four leglock. B) Johnny Nitro wins the battle royal, unless there is no Flair match, in which case Carlito tosses Flair to win. | Above Average 1
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| #51 Posted on 1.4.07 1456.14 Reposted on: 1.4.14 1457.05 | MVP beats Benoit: I can't see how it helps MVP to lose here, where it won't ruin Benoit especially because I expect a lot of cheating, and Benoit making him tap after the match.
New Breed beat The ECW Originals: The New Breed are the ones that need to be built up, and Tommy Dreamer never has a problem losing.
Edge wins Money in The Bank: They can't end his streak in a match involving so many others.
Kane no contest Kalhi: They just brawl, and brawl, and brawl. The winners are the fans!
Lashley beats Umaga: Cleanly after Stone Cold and Eugene take care of the gang that Vince send's down.
Melina beats Ashley: Just because Melina still has issues with other Diva's while Ashley is just hot.
Undertaker beats Batista: After a nice brawl/power match. The Tombstone ends it.
Cena vs Michaels: Doesn't really matter who wins, but I'm going to go with Cena. Should be match of the night. | flairforthegold13
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| #52 Posted on 1.4.07 1527.21 Reposted on: 1.4.14 1528.32 | Melina over Ashley.
MVP over Benoit.
Khali over Kane.
New Breed over Original.
Lashley over Umaga - ANYONE who's overthinking this and picking Umaga needs to lay off the weed.
Kennedy in MITB makes the most sense.
Cena over Michaels. I'm not sure and it makes better booking sense for Michaels to win, but with a huge casual audience watching you should put your top guy over.
Undertaker over Batista. | Reverend J Shaft
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| #53 Posted on 2.4.07 1438.13 Reposted on: 2.4.14 1442.01 | Originally posted by oldschoolhero I fail to see how MVP is heatless, in any sense of the word. The guy gets a reaction coming out, he gets bood whilst he wrestles, and he gets booed when he talks. He's a great midcard heel act.
Yeah, try telling that to the 80,000+ people I sat with at Ford Field last night who collectively yawned during MVP's entire appearance last night. | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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