It’s a wrestling fan’s dream match. Jericho was at one time, and became the only man so far, to wear both the WWE Title and the World Championship Title once controlled by WCW, at the same time, giving rise to his reputation as the world’s only Undisputed Champion. He also made his career for his microphone skills.

Punk is a wrestler much in the tradition of Jericho; his mic skills literally saved WWE from low ratings and renewed interest in its television product through his “shoot interviews” this past summer.

So it looks like great news for real wrestling fans; both Jericho and Punk know how to work a match and ring psychology, they know how to talk, and they’ll probably outperform Rock-Cena at this year’s WrestleMania. Who could ask for more?

I could: I want a vTech Kidizoom camera for WrestleMania! Hee hee.

Undertaker’s most hyped career record is being undefeated at WrestleMania. He always wins, compiling a 19-0 record. Two of those wins have been over Triple H. The first came in at Wrestlemania X-Seven, the second came last year at WrestleMania XXVII, and in what could be the final match of his historic career, it appears the third WM match between the pair will come this year.

Hunter and Taker put on an impressive show at least year’s Wrestlemania, so a rubber match is no surprise. We’ll see how soon they make the obvious official. In the interim, expect the interim general manager of RAW to remain Laurenitus, with perhaps a stipulation attached to the match that if Taker wins, he becomes the permanent GM of RAW.

You heard the speculation here first!

Those with SD memory cards aplenty may even have, stored away somewhere, episodes of RAW in which Mike Tyson’s guest spot at WrestleMania was similarly promoted. Given that Dwayne Johnson is a WWE product and knows their system, expect more cameos and pre-WM involvement from The Rock in the final months leading up to his big showdown with Cena.

Kingston brings more speed and athleticism to the table, but the loss of Kozlov represents a loss of strength and size. Still, Kingston’s showmanship should make the event more entertaining, to be sure. Let’s just hope WWE has enough Howard point of care carts to cover all the potential injuries today in such a major event.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the return of Leaping Lanny Poffo (remember him?) and his shilling of a diet pill that works. Instead, it was about what folks expected… the Undertaker made his return after a long injury layoff. Of course, there was a twist: Triple H returned from similar circumstances as well.

A double injury-return weeks out from WrestleMania? Good call.

Taker defeated Triple H about ten years ago to maintain his “undefeated at WrestleMania” streak, and ended Shawn Michaels’ career just last year at WrestleMania 26, so it appears there will be plenty of history between the two, and that WWE is acknowledging all of this in promoting the match.

Smart move. WWE fans will need an appetite suppressant to hold them over until this one!

How about the return of Mick Foley? The performer variously known as Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack is one of the few veterans with the mic skills to still pull off terrific promos with The Rock; it’d be great TV to see the two of them in the ring again, even if all they did was trash-talk each other and the rest of the WWE.

One doesn’t need an online business degree to recognize Foley would mean money right now, if they can get him on board in time to share ring-time with The Rock. (Even though getting an online business degree is not a bad idea…)

There are many folks The Rock could face. Some would love to see The Rock return to end Undertaker’s WrestleMania winning streak, but that pair has faced off so often it would not really generate the necessary hype. Some would love to see Chris Jericho return and have The Undisputed Champ face off against The People’s Champ.

But that’s all nostalgia talking, too.

I’d rather see The Rock face someone who has risen to the top since his absence; someone he’s never faced before, which would make their first match together at WrestleMania that much more special.

There are some great candidates. Some wouldn’t even require a cash advance to get them to sign on.

The best option might be to have The Rock face off with WWE Champ The Miz; the former Real Worlder had a hard time gaining respect even as recently as a year ago, but is now serving a respectable run as champ and seems set to travel to WrestleMania with the gold still around his waist. His career trajectory mirrors Johnson’s, who struggled in his early years before recreating himself as The Rock and become the most over performer of the last 20 years, with the possible exception of Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Getting the rub from The Rock would boost The Miz at a time when WWE really needs such next-gen stars as him to really begin to shine and prove themselves capable of carrying the company forward.

Still, it’s unlikely The Rock will be hanging around for a title run, so a match with The Miz may be out of the question.

A personal favorite would be to match The Rock up against CM Punk, another younger talent who could benefit from the rub. Daniel Bryan is probably too unproven for WWE to give him a match against The Rock, but few other in-ring performers could hang with The Rock as well as Bryan.

I don’t believe The Rock has ever faced off with Randy Orton, unless it was very early in Orton’s run as the Legend Killer, but they could have a great match.

Finally, what most people seem to want is a Rock-Cena match. While that would certainly be a highlight match, Cena’s too much of a veteran now to really be considered as someone who needs that sort of career boost. I’d rather see a younger talent given the opp.

Rock pulled out ever gag and catchphrase fans had been waiting for seven years to hear one more time, and the old hits blew the roof off the place. What that says about The Rock, or what it may say about the current WWE talent level, is debatable, but Dwayne did his due diligence to kick off WrestleMania 27 hype in earnest, doing everything but chinning himself on a pull up bar to get the crowd heated up.

Younger WWE talents should be taking notes; The Rock became one of WWE’s most electrifying performers during the Attitude Era for a reason. If they can learn how to play up a crowd and their own games go up a notch, the veteran cameo by Rock will be worth whatever McMahon had to pony up to pull it off.

“Brock Lesnar is still under contract with the UFC,” White told TMZ.com. “He is not going to wrestle in the WWE. He cannot wrestle, box, or fight anywhere else.”

That pretty much settles that. Lesnar is still a huge star in UFC, but after his loss to Velasquez, he has much to prove in UFC before he can think about a fluff match at WrestleMania.

The Undertaker has a 17-0 streak at WresteMania coming into the night; and this is two WMs in a row for ‘Taker and Michaels to face off against each other. Taker is 45 and Michaels is 44, but Michaels put his career on the line if he fails to end ‘Taker’s victory streak at WM.

Classic wrestling storytelling. All in-ring stuff without the contrived storylines. And the in-ring execution was Wii-worthy. Energetic, epic and memorable as to veteran performers offered their all.

With nearly 26 minutes to tell their story, the match had an appropriate WrestleMania epic feel, and although the outcome wasn’t the hoped-for upset, even if it means Michaels is off Raw for a while, this was certainly a worthy match for him to go out on.

Worse, however, was the in-ring execution. Now 64, McMahon is no longer able to pull off a convincing in-ring presence. While his match with Hart made storyline and business sense, McMahon simply isn’t up to the job the way he was twelve years ago when he was regularly facing off with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The entire match had Bret on offense and McMahon barely made a recovery, let alone ever got any offense going enough to put the outcome in doubt and add some drama to the event. As a result, I’d have enjoyed myself more spending that time buying new office furniture.

Hart himself is no spring chicken, either. At 52, he is at an age where he might be in shape enough to take bumps convincingly the way McMahon did twelve years ago when he was 52, but to dominate an opponent like this? Not convincing. The match lacked energy and called to mind the tired, plodding pace of the Verne Gagne-Nick Bockwinkle AWA matches of the mid-1980s.