Official FightGameBlog Ultimate Wrestlemania XXVI Preview
Alright folks, it is the week of the biggest sports entertainment extravaganza of all time – Wrestlemania XXVI. Today we present our ultimate FightGameBlog preview of the show. Everything you needed to know about Wrestlemania will be right here as we detail all of the matches on what looks to be one of the greatest Wrestlemania events of all time. With GG there in Glendale participating on the festivities, I and my elite group of esteemed genuises will give our predictions on the show.
This year’s panel includes:
Big D – Creator of the Superfriends and Fight Game Blog Co-Founder
GG – Fight Game Blog Co-Founder and Editor
Alan 4L – Fight Game Blog International Correspondent
Duan – Fight Game Blog Superhero
Talon Thorne – Fight Game Blog Columnist
Cactus Jim – Fight Game Blog Wine Tester
Ari Goldstien – Founder and Promoter of Believe Pro Wrestling and the Florida Wrestling Academy
Chessarmy – Founder and Host of QCW Radio (Every Monday Night at 11:30PM Eastern)
Let’s begin.
Match #1: Unified WWE Tag Team Championship – ShoMiz (The Miz and The Big Show) (c) vs. John Morrison and R-Truth
This was kind of thrown together at the last minute to ensure that these four guys got a spot on the show – specially The Miz. Miz has shown in the past three months that is special and leaving him off this card like they did last year would be a travesty as well as just plain stupid. Morrison and Truth are decent challengers individually, but the reality is that they are a makeshift team that’s just there to most likely do the job and give Miz and Show a big historic Mania win. The tag belts have not been defended on the main card of a Wrestlemania since 2006, and before that since 2002 – so I guess it’s a four year cycle. We’ll see ya 2014!!
Big D – ShoMiz
Duan – ShoMiz
GG – Morrison & Truth
Cactus Jim – ShoMiz
Talon – ShoMiz
Ari – ShoMiz
Alan4L – ShoMiz
Chessarmy – ShoMiz
Notes: All but one have chosen the team of Big Show and The Miz to retain, which I think is a safe bet. Why kill Miz’ momentum against two guys who could possibly be midcard for life (unfortunately)? Question remains – will Danielson be there?
Match #2: Money in the Bank VI: Christian vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jack Swagger vs. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston.
Allegedly this will be the final Money in the Bank Ladder Match to take place at a Wrestlemania and boy is it stacked. TEN WWE Superstars will compete to climb the ladder to the top and earn a contract for a WWE Championship Match anytime in the next 365 days. This is basically the match where they throw the midcarders in to get a payday. We’ve got giants, high flyers, and good atheletes rounding out the list. Let’s see what the FightGameBloggers have to say…
Big D – Christian
Duan – Christian
GG – Drew
Cactus Jim – Christian
Talon – Christian
Ari – Drew
Alan4L – Drew
Chessarmy – Christian
Notes: Looks like it will be Christian or Drew breaking the glass ceiling into the main event. Christian is probably the most deserving guy, but Drew has a bright future too.
Match #3: Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase
Talk about dropping the ball. The buildup for this Wrestlemania for just about every match has been damn near perfect with the exception of this one. They had a lot of solid-gold angles in place last year with both Cody and Ted, but apparently creative has just completely forgotten or stopped caring. Now, Orton is a heel that nobody except a select few want to cheer for and Cody and Ted have been made to look like two jabroni lackeys for the past month. WWE creative should be embarrassed with themselves, as they were seemingly handed a golden egg and proceeded to crush it with their bare hands. Unless they involve each of these guys respective fathers – I don’t care.
Big D – Orton
GG – Orton
Duan – Ted Dibiase
Chessarmy – Orton
Talon – Ted Dibiase
Ari – Orton
Cactus Jim – Orton
Alan4L – Orton
Notes: It looks like Cody may be looking at the lights (or the sky, since it’s open-ceiling).
Match #4: Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk
CM Punk is the most effective heel in the business today next to perhaps Chris Jericho. The incredible angle that they did on Smackdown building to this where Punk mocked Rey’s family right in front of him was amazing. Rey’s anger and fury to fight back equated to many, many buys. This match was talked about late last year as murmurs began about Punk wanting to work with Rey. It was supposed to be mask vs. hair (an old school Mexican gimmick match), but that’s been changed. The new stipulation now is that if Rey loses, he must join the Straight Edge Society, Punk’s group of no-alchohol/no-drugs outcasts he began to recruit in the winter. The match itself will be awesome as these guys worked together ages ago for IWA-MS and will probably do some incredible spots and transitions. It can’t NOT be fun!
Big D – Rey Mysterio
Duan – Rey Mysterio
Alan4L – CM Punk
GG – Rey Mysterio
Chessarmy – Rey Mysterio
Cactus Jim – CM Punk
Ari – CM Punk
Talon – CM Punk
Notes: Right down the middle – 4 and 4. Regardless, I DO believe this feud will continue for a couple more months – so perhaps this is just chapter 1. Will we finally see the Hair vs. Mask stip in the future?
Match #5: Triple H vs. Sheamus
I like the very simple booking of this match. A week before the Elimination Chamber, Sheamus attacked both Triple H and John Cena with the intent of softening them up for the Chamber match to make Sheamus job of defending the title easier. When we got to the PPV, Sheamus was pedigreed and eliminated by Hunter. 2 Weeks later, after a match with DX against Miz & Big Show, Sheamus attacked H and planted him with the boot. A week later, an awesome promo was cut by the two in an in-ring confrontation, leading to a brawl. Sheamus revealed that he always looked up to H when he watched WWF, watching him batter through Austin, Rock, Taker, and the like. Sheamus has already been champion one year into his debut in on the main roster and this is undoubtedly the biggest match of his career thusfar.
This match was originally rumored shortly after Sheamus defeated John Cena for the WWE title at the TLC PPV in December and was supposed to be for that title, but plans have changed. It’s no secret that the WWE likes Sheamus and is giving him a monster push, but what may be a secret is just how much Hunter likes Sheamus. Hunter and Sheamus are work-out partners. Hunter has taken Sheamus under his wing like he did Batista all those years ago. As a result, I DO think that HHH will make Sheamus look good in their encounter, regardless of the outcome. The smarkyness in me leans toward Triple H squashing another young guy, but again, he likes Sheamus, so maybe he will put him over like he did to Batista, Cena, and Canadian Wrestler X.
Big D – Sheamus
Duan – Sheamus
Alan4L – Triple H
GG – Triple H
Chessarmy – Sheamus
Cactus Jim – Triple H
Ari – Triple H
Talon – Sheamus
Notes: Again – right down the middle. Logic would dictate that Triple H would do the job since he got to win last year and ruin another Wrestlemania, but this is selfish Triple H. Or is it? Will he make his boy look good and take the 1-2-3? We shall see…
Match #6: WWE Title: Batista (c) vs. John Cena
I love it. Remember, this was originally the planned main event for Wrestlemania last year before Batista suffered injury #457. The last time they battled was at Summerslam 2008 and they were tag team partners in a thrown-together match; an obvious last-ditch effort to garner extra buys. This time, we have heelish Dave, now aligned with Vince McMahon, jealous that the WWE made John Cena their poster boy while Dave was left in the dust. Pretty much everything Dave said in his promo a month ago is true – Cena and Batista DID have mirroring careers. They started in the summer of 2002 and had decent mid-card runs, coming up slowly, both winning world titles at Wrestlemania 21. It’s a perfect angle. Every time that Dave and John have battled, Dave has won. So Cena has that doubt in the back of his head. This match is going to be a gimmicked up match – but probably be very good, much like their last match.
Big D – John Cena
Chessarmy – John Cena
Alan4L – Batista
Cactus Jim – John Cena
Duan – Batista
Ari – John Cena
Talon – John Cena
GG – John Cena
Notes: John Cena edges Batista out, which I think makes sense considering Batista is technically 2-0 against Cena (really 1-0 in legit competitive matches). Cena winning here would at least tie it, leading to a big blow off, possibly in a Cell or some kind of gimmick (even though they should probably do 3 more).
Match #7: No Holds Barred: Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon
What can be said about this one. 13 years in the making here. I just remember when the story first broke about the return of the Hitman and the conversations that spurred from this match happening. It’s obvious that they had something, then somewhat dropped the ball with shenanigans, then picked the ball back in the past few weeks with perfectly written angles that actually make sense. Nobody can fuck with Vince performance-wise in this angle, and I suspect the match will be loaded with shenanigans. Neither man will take that many bumps and just brawl for about 8 or 9 minutes until Bret finished Vince off with the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring on the biggest stage of them all.
Big D – Hart
Alan4L – Hart
Chessarmy – Hart
Duan – Hart
Ari – Hart
Talon – Hart
GG – Hart
Cactus Jim – Hart
Note: Forgone conclusion. I picked these gentlemen because we’re not idiots (well maybe Chessarmy is)
Match #9: Streak vs. Career: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
The biggest rematch in the history of the game. Last year, Taker and Michaels had undoubtedly the best match of the year and some would even argue it was the best match in Wrestlemania history, with Undertaker coming out on top. None of us really expected that they would ever face each other again and most pretty much hoped they didn’t – simply because it would be damn near impossible to top the first match. During the 2009 Slammy Awards, Shawn Michaels laid out a challenge for a rematch with the Undertaker. At the time, a lot of us saw this as just a mask to cover-up another match, perhaps with Triple H. Undertaker had been rumored to face Chris Jericho or John Cena at Wrestlemania at the time as well.
It began to haunt Shawn more and more. Shawn and Taker had numerous confrontations, climaxing at one on Monday Night Raw where HBK challenged Taker to the rematch. Taker, the World Heavyweight Champion at the time, denied Shawn, claiming he had nothing else to prove. The only way for HBK to get his rematch was to win the Royal Rumble. Shawn came very close to winning, but wound up getting chucked out by Dave Batista. Shawn freaked out and disappeared off television for a long time. Michaels returned at the February Elimination Chamber PPV and came up from under the Chamber with a screwdriver to get into the structure and superkicked Taker, allowing Jericho to score the win. The next night, Taker and Shawn finally made it official. Shawn is coming into this match better than ever and Taker never loses at Mania. This is the first time since Randy Orton where I actually believe that Shawn has a chance to break the streak, even though I vehemently feel that the honor should go to the next big star, perhaps Taker feels Shawn is his best opponent and most deserving (it certainly wasn’t King Kong Bundy). Wrestling fans are torn on picking a winner here… who will it be?
Big D – The Undertaker
Alan4L – Shawn Michaels
Chessarmy – The Undertaker
GG – The Undertaker
Duan – The Undertaker
Ari – The Undertaker
Talon – Shawn Michaels
Cactus Jim – The Undertaker
Note: This one gives me chills. We all chose the END OF SHAWN MICHAELS’ CAREER (Yeah right) except two brave souls. Talon and Alan4L, two great men, grabbed the extreme underdog and believe history will be made in which the Undertaker will finally lose. Boy I can’t wait for this one.
Match #10: World Title: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Edge
The story of former tag team champions battling isn’t a new thing. Neither is the “returning from injury to win the big gold” angle. However, this is Edge and I love Edge. These guys were a shortlived tag team in the summer of 2009, until Edge suffered an achilles heel injury that took him out for the rest of the year. The first few weeks after the injury, Jericho began to trash talk Edge and call him weak. Months passed and Jericho forgot all about it. At the Royal Rumble, Edge returned as #29 and won the thing. Edge then teased facing then-WWE Champ Sheamus by brawling with him the following night. After Jericho won the title from the Undertaker in the Chamber, Edge made his mind up the following night, spearing Jericho and cementing his spot against him in the main event of Wrestlemania XXVI.
Throughout the weeks after, Edge continued to taunt Jericho, primarily focusing on his main weapon – the spear – claiming that when he hits it – he would become champion. He’s gone on a spearing rampage, leaving victims in his wake, including Jericho. Jericho got one over on Edge on an edition of Smackdown when he hit him with the belt and laid him out. Now, the former partners are on a collision course for the biggest stage of them all.
Big D – Edge
Alan4L – Edge
Chessarmy – Edge
GG – Edge
Duan – Edge
Ari – Chris Jericho
Talon – Edge
Cactus Jim – Chris Jericho
Notes: For the past two years, the Royal Rumble winner has NOT won their respective title at Wrestlemania. Apparently most of us feel it’s time now.
Other Notes:
– There was supposed to be a 6-Diva match added. Whether or not it is, it’s not important enough to be included in this anyways. I do think we will see them on the PPV
– There was also a rumored 8 man match featuring the NXT Rookies. This may indeed happen as a dark match/DVD exclusive (or maybe the women’s match)
– We expect the Hart Family to be there en-masse, perhaps to participate in the Hart/McMahon shenanigans
– We are still unsure as to which match closes the show.
– American Idol Season 3 Winner Fantasia will be singing “America the Beautiful” to open the show
– There is a gigantic pyro rig PLUS the ceiling WILL be open for the show, making it the first Wrestlemania ever to have an open retractable ceiling in a dome and the third-ever to not have a roof (after 9 and 24)
Not enough?
Twix, Alarm Clocks and Dave Meltzer’s Leather Jacket present Superfriends 060 – The Road Ends
The Road to Wrestlemania is going to end on March 24th as Superfriends presents THE MOST thorough preview to the Wrestlemania XXVI weekend in existence. We will be joined by QCW Radio’s The One and Only Dennin to talk about the biggest pro wrestling weekend of the year and make our final predictions on what appears to be the biggest Wrestlemania in quite a long time. In addition to Wrestlemania, we will also discuss the Hall of Fame, the Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA shows that weekend. Plus, your calls!
Wednesday Night, March 24th 2010 at 10PM Eastern LIVE on www.blogtalkradio.com/Superfriends
BE THERE!!!!!!!!!!
