I figured that there's gonna be a bevy of Mania gossip and whatnot these last two weeks, so I made this nifty little thread for it. Yay!
WrestleMania XX LIVE! Sunday March 14, 2004 from Madison Square Garden 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern; HeAT at 3PM Pacific/6PM Eastern (Source: Spike TV's website) Hosted by Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler [Raw matches], Tazz & Michael Cole [SmackDown matches]; Cross-promotional matches probably will be called by Jim Ross & Tazz after success of them calling the Royal Rumble
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES Pete Rose, Superstar Billy Graham, Harley Race, Jesse Ventura, Big John Studd, the Junkyard Dog, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Tito Santana, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Don Muraco & Sgt. Slaughter
THE CARD [Announced & Speculated] World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H [Champion; with Ric Flair] vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero [Champion] vs. Kurt Angle Raw vs. SmackDown: Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar (Special Referee: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) Raw vs. SmackDown: Kane vs. The Undertaker Mick Foley & The Rock vs. Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Batista Raw vs. Smackdown Evening Gown Match: Miss Jackie & Stacy Kiebler vs. Sable & Torrie Wilson US Championship: The Big Show [Champion] vs. John Cena Cruiserweight Championship Open Challenge: Chavo Guerrero [Champion] vs. Every Cruiserweight who feels like showing up WWE Tag Team Championship: Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty [Champions] vs. The APA vs. World's Greatest Tag Team vs. The Bashams World Tag Team Championship: RVD & Booker T vs. Mark Jindrak/Garrison Cade vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. La Resistance Chris Jericho vs. Christian Women's Championship Hair vs. Title Match: Victoria vs. Molly Holly
UPDATED: After March 1st RAW
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(edited by Freeway420 on 3.3.04 1611) THE FLAMES: 32-24-5-3 for 72 points in 64 games
Uh, you forgot three matches. What about John Cena going for the U.S. Title against the Big Show. And it's almost certain their will be a WWE Tag Title Match. Same thing with the WWE Women's Title. Not being critical, just saying that's all!
That's 13 matches right there (seperating Cruiserweigh Open and winner v. Chavo).
I know the show is gonna' be 5 hours, but that's still REAL deep. You have to figure that WWE will probably want a boatload of "WrestleMania Moments" packages. And considering it's WWE, I also expect a boatload of backstage vignettes.
Plus, I'm sure they'll want a lot of the matches to go long. Foley/Rock v. Orton/Batista, Taker v. Kane, and Goldberg v. Lesnar will all probably get a decent amount of time. I'm sure they'll have Angle v. Guerrero go for even longer. And Hunter LOVES having long matches on PPV. And considering it's WrestleMania, and he's in there with Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels, I'm sure this match will be no exception.
So, with that, I'm guessing one of these matches ends up one Heat. And, if time is really restricted, another might be left off the card all together.
Still, that's not a bad looking card. I doubt it'll match up to WrestleMania 17 or 19. However, it should be a damn good show.
EDIT: I thought the Cruiseweight Open match was a seperate match with the winner facing Chavo. However, after checking, I guess I'm wrong. So that card stands at 12 matches. Still, my point stands.
I wouldn't be so sure. If there was going to be a title match at Mania involving the same participants, why do the title change on Raw three weeks out.
Originally posted by JMShapiro"Same thing with the WWE Women's Title."
I wouldn't be so sure. If there was going to be a title match at Mania involving the same participants, why do the title change on Raw three weeks out.
The title change on RAW was in a 4 way so they could probably set up a singles match against any of the 3 from that without too much difficulty.
If they're half way serious about giving Victoria a push as a face they really need should have her on the main card.
So right now (unofficially), here's who have matches at WrestleMania XX [by brand]:
RAW: World Heavyweight Champion Triple H Shawn Michaels Chris Benoit Goldberg Ric Flair Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton The Rock Batista Mick Foley Chris Jericho Christian Kane World Tag Team Champion Rob Van Dam World Tag Team Champion Booker T Mark Jindrak Garrison Cade Bubba Ray Dudley D-Von Dudley Rob Conway Sylvain Grenier RAW Sheriff "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Molly Holly Women's Champion Victoria Miss Jackie Stacy Kielber
SMACKDOWN!: WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero Kurt Angle Brock Lesnar The Undertaker United States Champion The Big Show John Cena Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero Jr. WWE Tag Team Champion Scotty 2 Hotty WWE Tag Team Champion Rikishi Sable Torrie Wilson
NOTE: WWE recognizes Cruiserweights as anybody below 235 pounds...so, here's the men on BOTH rosters who meet the criteria: SD: Akio [200], Billy Kidman [195], Funaki [180], Jamie Noble [200], Nunzio [175], Paul London [205], Rey Mysterio [165], Shannon Moore [175], Tajiri [205] & Ultimo Dragon [180] RAW: Matt Hardy [225], Lance Storm [WWE.com lists him as 240, but he's competed as a Cruiserweight in the past], Maven, Rico [228], Spike Dudley [150] & The Hurricane [191] That's a pretty good-looking bunch of Cruiserweights for the open.
FUN FACT: Sixteen former Heavyweight Champions are on the card for WrestleMania [Austin, Rock, Foley, Flair, HHH, Benoit, HBK, Jericho, Kane, Booker T, Goldberg, Guerrero, Angle, Lesnar, Big Show & The Undertaker]. In addition, The Rock, Ric Flair & Mick Foley have 28 reigns between them (and they're all in one match).
(edited by Freeway420 on 2.3.04 0116) THE FLAMES: 32-24-5-3 for 72 points in 64 games
I've been thinking about the Hair stipulation for the woman's championship match. Despite the insane things WWE has done in the past, I doubt they're gonna make Molly actually shave her head bald (unless she's preapproved it, which I highly doubt). So I'm thinking about all the possible outcomes for this match, and right now I"m at three.
1.) Victoria retains, Molly goes bald (most unlikely) 2.) Molly wins, sets up for a long, and potentially entertaining feud (most likely) 3.) Victoria retains, but instead of shaving Molly bald, she just cuts it short, kinda like the Jericho/Nash match.
I'm thinking that Victoria will retain, and Molly will find some way out of it, but I can't think of how she would do that.
Aside from that, Mania's mantra is 'Where it all begins... Again'. So I'm thinking a good portion of heel/face changes are going to occur during or the weeks immediately following Mania.
This is just some thoughts on how I see things changing:
Face to Heel Lita (since returning, her match win ratio has been very low, mostly thanks to Victoria, directly or not. I smell a feud where she teams with Molly.) Shawn Michaels (He's superkicked Benoit how many times now? And the crowds are starting to rag on him for it. Possibly taking Orton's spot in Evolution.) The Rock (I highly doubt it. He just got back, it's far to soon to disband their newly resurected tag team.) Stacy Keibler (Wow, what am I on? Raw divas will loose the match, she'll blame Jackie and nail her and Rico with a chair.)
Heel to Face Bischoff (Hey, anything's possible. He has been civil with Austin for a few weeks now. And Vince has been giving him crap about their Monday Night Wars.) Randy Orton (He'll turn on Hunter, possibly causing him the match. Or maybe try to help H and fail, get his butt whopped, and pull a Rico "You're all holding me down!" promo. Either way, Evolution will ditch him.) Big Show (He's lost his "I'll stomp you because I want to." and become "I'll stomp you because that's how it goes. Hey, I AM 500 lbs, ya' know." This one may stop when he reaches a more neutral state.)
Oddball a tag team (One or more of the tag teams getting pinned, which will lead to them breaking up and feuding as heel vs face. High probability for champions.) Stephanie/Heyman (This ons is a tad farfetched. Steph makes her return to Smackdown, she'll beat down Heyman and dethrown him as GM. He'll become a manager to Lesnar, who begins a face change after loosing pathetically to Goldberg in his goodbye match. Heyman plays the innocent victim with Lesnar to facehood and feuds with Steph, Brock will get grueling three+ vs one matches as punishment.)
As a side note: Rico's a cruiserweight? Well, I'm shocked.
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HHH: You two had better stop your ambiguiously gay excersions before I kick you happy asses out of Evolution, damn it! (H yelling at Ric & Randy from 'God Knows', http://www.fanfiction.net/.) ~~*~~*~~ Triple H is like fine wine, his grace and talents accented gracefully by his advancing years. Ah, yes, just like fine wine; that or those triple chedder nachos I forgot in the back of my fridge for three months. ~~*~~*~~ Be good, Vince. Don't be dumb.
Originally posted by Freeway420NOTE: WWE recognizes Cruiserweights as anybody below 235 pounds...so, here's the men on BOTH rosters who meet the criteria: SD: Akio [200], Billy Kidman [195], Funaki [180], Jamie Noble [200], Nunzio [175], Paul London [205], Rey Mysterio [165], Shannon Moore [175], Tajiri [205] & Ultimo Dragon [180] RAW: Matt Hardy [225], Lance Storm [WWE.com lists him as 240, but he's competed as a Cruiserweight in the past], Maven, Rico [228], Spike Dudley [150] & The Hurricane [191] That's a pretty good-looking bunch of Cruiserweights for the open
The limit for cruiserweights is 220 pounds not 235. So that eliminates Matt Hardy, Maven, Rico and Lance Storm.
Originally posted by Freeway420NOTE: WWE recognizes Cruiserweights as anybody below 235 pounds...so, here's the men on BOTH rosters who meet the criteria: SD: Akio [200], Billy Kidman [195], Funaki [180], Jamie Noble [200], Nunzio [175], Paul London [205], Rey Mysterio [165], Shannon Moore [175], Tajiri [205] & Ultimo Dragon [180] RAW: Matt Hardy [225], Lance Storm [WWE.com lists him as 240, but he's competed as a Cruiserweight in the past], Maven, Rico [228], Spike Dudley [150] & The Hurricane [191] That's a pretty good-looking bunch of Cruiserweights for the open
The limit for cruiserweights is 220 pounds not 235. So that eliminates Matt Hardy, Maven, Rico and Lance Storm.
Wrestling-Titles.com has it as 225, which seems pretty consistent with the WCW/WWF/E version of things. Besides, they fudge numbers all the time, so I don't think they'd be against lying about somebody's weight to get them into the Cruiserweight match.