ProWrestlingViews.com

Posts Tagged ‘Undertaker’

It’s not official yet, but completely obvious: after last Monday’s RAW, Triple H will face down the Undertaker in an attempt to break “the Streak” at this year’s WrestleMania. Why else would Taker interrupt the firing of John Laurenitus as the “interim general manager of RAW?”

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!

Last week’s RAW scored a 3.83 Nielsen rating, the show’s biggest draw in almost two years, with their heavily-promoted 2/21/11 episode. With interest at a high after The Rock’s return to WWE the week before, fans flocked to the show to see what might be next.

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.

WWE confirmed on Friday that Undertaker’s opponent for WrestleMania 27 will be Triple H. Both are coming off IR and have a rich history that should play into the build-up to the match.

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!

UFC President Dana White has publicly stated his position on a possible Brock Lesnar-Undertaker confrontation at Wrestlemania this spring; although he didn’t go quite as far as saying Lesnar had a better shot getting it approval to take IT Jobs, he came close.

“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.

In a match with Rey Mysterio last week, Undertaker reportedly suffered a concussion and facial lacerations; when it was determined he wouldn’t recover in time for the PPV event, WWE wrote Taker out of the match on this week’s episode, citing Taker being found in a “vegetative state” after an attack by an unnnamed assailant.

Mysterio will take ‘Taker’s place in the Smackdown World Heavyweight Championship match, which will also involve C.M. Punk, Jack Swagger, and the Big Show. Losing Taker from the four-way is an example of quick weight loss, considering Mysterio’s diminutive stature.

Still, it should be an entertaining match.

First of all, let me stress that I hate how One Night Stand has changed in recent years. Initially debuting as an all-ECW event, then used for ECW vs. WWE matches, the PPV has devolved into just another WWE PPV event, in which the ECW brand is an afterthought. Keep in mind that the only match with current or original ECW members in it was the second match of the night; any other match on the card could have taken place at any other WWE PPV throughout the year.

That being said, the only remnant of ECW remaining in One Night Stand is that all the matches were “extreme rules” matches. Well, not really. More like they were all stipulation matches. Some of these dust-ups were pretty lackluster, but the match of the night has to go to the main event match between Edge and Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Title.

As a TLC (tables, ladders, chairs) match, the stipulation played to Edge’s strengths, as he made a living a decade ago, along with the Hardys, at putting on injury-defying TLC matches that almost shortened the careers of Matt and Jeff Hardy, as well as Edge and his then-partner, Christian Cage.

While Taker is nowhere near as acrobatic, fast and flexible as Edge is, well, Edge isn’t as nimble as he was a decade ago, either. Still, the two men put on an amazing show that proves why TLC matches are so popular… and so rare. If you ever get a chance to see one live, buy a bus and make sure you get there and take a bunch of friends along with.

The excitement was enhanced by having Taker’s career “on the line” based on the outcome of the match; since Edge won, that means that Taker conceivably has been “retired” by Edge, though it is widely expected that this is either an excuse to give Taker an extended vacation, which he takes periodically over the past few years, in order to minimize the abuse on his aging body, or may simply set Taker up to “reappear” on the Raw roster at the WWE Draft, due in three weeks during a special, three-hour Raw episode on USA.

After last year’s disappointing and far-too-average WrestleMania 23, I was almost afraid to watch this year’s biggest PPV event of the year, in case I would be disappointed yet again. Yet despite even the seemingly ridiculous Big Show-Floyd Mayweather match, WrestleMania 24 turned out to be one of the best editions of the annual PPV event in quite some years.

The matches that were not expected to amount to much were played appropriately for comedy, and the matches that were expected to be huge and meaningful were given plenty of time to play out. For a show that lives mostly out of travel trailers, this year’s WrestleMania delivered the goods in a way that it hasn’t for several years.

Signs that we were in store for a solid WrestleMania began early as the Money In the Bank match was given an unexpected twist ending, with underdog C.M. Punk getting the rub and the win over favorites like Chris Jericho, Mr. Kennedy, MVP and John Morrison. That match was given almost 14 minutes to play out and featured some of the best spots of the night.

I cheered when the Batista-Umaga match was kept mercifully short. Batista winning was just another example of WWE trying to convince a completely unconvinced fan base that SmackDown is just as good, if not better than, Raw. No way. All it convinced me of is that the company isn’t spending enough time establishing Umaga’s credibility as unstoppable, and also that they remain committed to overhyping Batista, who’s simply far too overrated for a man with such borderline mic skills and mat skills.

Kane defeating Chavo Guerrero in about 10 seconds to win the ECW title was an unforgivable crush and only continues to demonstrate how little the company cares about the credibility of the ECW brand.

But the Ric Flair-Shawn Michaels match was given a solid, heart-pounding 20 minutes plus to develop, allowing these veteran showmen to prove why they’ve had such lasting careers in sports entertainment. It was everything one could ask for in a retirement match for a man of Flair’s standing in pro wrestling history.

Hopefully, he’ll never tarnish the memory of this match by coming out of retirement for “one more run” endlessly, like Terry Funk sadly chose to do. The Flair-HBK match was my personal favorite of the night and, all by itself, made WrestleMania 24 one of the best in recent memory.

The next indicator that we had a legendary WrestleMania on our hands was when the company swerved everyone on the WWE Title match and, instead of putting the belt back on John Cena, or – heaven forbid! – giving Triple H another title run, the victory was given to Randy Orton, extending his run as a true heel champion and making him anything but an “interim champion.” While the triple-threat match played out nicely, receiving over 14 minutes of air time, it would have been even better had it been given another five minutes or so. Still, the match was hot from start to finish and the surprise ending of keeping the belt on Orton was a refreshing change of pace.

Then, WWE completely shocked me by giving the Big Show-Mayweather match nearly 12 minutes to play out, and managing to make such length seem legitimate despiet the David vs. Goliath matchup. Somehow, they allowed Mayweather to survive the onslaught of the Big Show in a credible fashion that didn’t rob Show of his overwhelming physical threat status. And even though Mayweather earned the improbable win, he did so in classic WWE style by delivering a brass knuckle punch to Big Show’s jaw for the win. All in all, what could have been a crush or a joke match turned out to be a whole heck of a lot more entertaining than last year’s Hair-vs.-Hair match between Vince and Donald Trump, as well as their in-ring seconds, Batista vs. Bobby Lashley. This year’s Show-Mayweather bout turned out to be a far better way to draw mainstream headlines, and deliver an entertaining match at the same time.

The showstopper was the 24 minutes given to Edge and the Undertaker to decide the fate of the World Heavyweight Title. Apparently, the company’s obsession with selling SmackDown as the superior brand over Raw continues, as this match initially held little interest for me. Yet Edge is a legit heel and Taker is a solid worker, even if he is a bit long in the tooth these days.

Given the storyline of Taker’s “undefeated at WrestleMania” streak, the match held a fair amount of suspense, since the question was weather the company was finally ready to pass the torch and allow Edge to be the superstar to end Taker’s WrestleMania streak, or if they were still committed to pushing Taker as a legit title holder/contender.

Given ‘Taker’s win, the fans went home happy at the end and time will tell whether Taker will hold the belt until at least SummerSlam, or if he’s just being used as an interim champ while WWE reshuffles the SmackDown deck to reinvigorate that show after it has been festering for ages.

Personally, I think MVP is the future of SmackDown; but not this time out. Overall, several matches were terrific or even legendary, and the show finally lived up to being the top PPV in the WWE calendar year, after seeming a bit too average – recently and especially last year. Well done, at last, WWE.

Former WWE champion John Cena, sidelined last fall with a shoulder injury that promised to keep him out beyond WrestleMania, returned to the active roster on Sunday as the 30th entrant in the Royal Rumble and went on to win the match and earn an automatic title shot against the champion of his choice at WrestleMania. It is almost a guarantee that Cena, who was injured by Orton, will focus on regaining his WWE title from the Legend Killer, rather than jump brands to take on Edge on SmackDown or C.M. Punk on ECW.

The Rumble event featured classic wrestlers Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and Mick Foley, all sporting their retirement luxury watches; Cena’s spot had been teased to be the return of The Big Show, Paul Wight, who did not appear at the Rumble. Instead, Cena returned at least four months ahead of his announced recovery schedule, a turn of events that, while likely planned, has to have Vince McMahon and WWE stockholders sighing in relief.

Unlike previous Rumbles, no one Superstar was given a dominating run; Undertaker, Triple H and Kane all eliminate three or four guys, but only the eventual winner, Cena, had a real dominant stretch leading to the win. Even then, Cena eliminated only four, including Triple H for the win. In previous years, some WWE superstars have been allowed “ring-clearing runs,” eliminating up for six or more superstars to establish their dominance despite not being given a Rumble victory. That didn’t happen this year.

The when and where of Paul “The Big Show” Wight’s return remains a mystery but is still expected to take place, despite being used as a red herring to cover the return of Cena.

For the second PPV in a row, WWE is ending things with a SmackDown World Heavyweight title match involving Batista and Undertaker. I enjoy ‘Taker, but the only way anyone could ever get me to admit that Batista’s a good champion is if the ONLY alternative was to make Finlay champ. Yes, that would be worse, so no thanks, my friend.

I guess what salvages the choice to put it at the end is that it IS a Hell In A Cell match; too bad Mick Foley isn’t involved. But I guess he’s better off hawking diet pills than trying to maintain an in-ring career at this point.

Taker dominated early and I’m kind of pleased to say that it wasn’t a “lazy big-man” match like last month. Something about the Hell In a Cell match seems to bring out the best in whoever is involved, and this one gets pretty brutal and pretty amazing at the same time. The action seems faster and more brutal.

Taker seemed on his way to the win when the all-too-publicized return of Edge screw-jobbed him out of it. Edge was hiding under the ring and gets up inside and breaks up the count. He then hits Taker with a variety of objects, including a chairshot of the sort that I thought he vowed would be banned in WWE, in the wake of both the Chris Benoit Family Tragedy and the drug-steroid scandals that followed. But then, Edge is one of those rumored to have suffered a ‘roid-related suspension, so maybe he wasn’t exactly setting at home watching when the word came down from VKM.

Anyway, Edge knocks Taker senseless, drapes Batista over Taker and allows The Beast to get a cheap win. So I guess he figures Batista is more of a clear-cut good guy for him to feud against in his quest to regain the World Title. Maybe that’ll help business on Smackdown pick up. Time will tell.

WINNER: Batista (with some help from Edge)
RATING: 8.6

This year’s WrestleMania is quickly gearing up to be one of the most lackluster outings the WWE has seen since the days when Sid Viscious, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were headlining main events for Vince McMahon’s promotion. Unlike those days, it’s not that the WWE lacks star power these days; it’s a matter of uninspiring booking that would make even Donald Trump prefer a boat charter cruise to watching the annual four-hour pay per view event.

As things stand now, the top two titles are being booked like so: The Smackdown world title holder, Batista, will be facing off against the Undertaker, while the Raw title holder, John Cena, will be facing off against Shawn Michaels. It’s an example of WWE favoritism booking at its worst.

Batista has had an uninspiring second title run as champ and while he’s a younger, fresher face in the title mix, his opponent has been around for over 15 years and lacks any hint of freshness; the Undertaker’s schtick was old at least five years ago, and his vaunted “undefeated at WrestleMania” run isn’t a compelling enough storyline to really put butts in the seats anymore. I couldn’t care less than I do right now about the outcome.

Making matters worse is that Batista is over with the Smackdown crowd as a “face,” while ‘Taker will simply never be booed at this point in his career, no matter what he does. Far more interesting for the WWE title would be to add Smackdown’s two top heels into the mix for a Fatal Four-Way match for Smackdown’s world title. I’m speaking, of course, about Montel Vontavius Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy. A four-way clash between Batista, Undertaker, MVP and Mr. Kennedy would be far more compelling.

Over on RAW, the same “face vs. face” dynamic holds solid. Shawn Michaels, like Taker, is a long-term vet who lacks freshness and is so established with the crowd he really won’t ever be meaningfully booed or hated, which means another match in which a face champion, John Cena, could be booed in favor of a veteran challenger who can’t get over as a heel anymore. A heel turn for Cena is a possibility, but would only hurt his star power at this point in his title reign.

Far better would have been to book Cena against a true monster heel, the physically impressive and imposing Great Khali, in a sort of Wrestlemania III flashback match to the classic Hogan-Andre match. This would allow for a lot of David vs. Goliath excitement, and if McMahon felt he owed Shawn Michaels a main event nod, he could serve as a “where do his loyalties lie” special referee to the match.

I could list the handful of other matches that, so far, seem ill-conceived, but what’s the point? If the two main event matches are already a bust, this year’s WrestleMania is destined to be, as well.

As recent broadcasts reveal, the WWE’s top four superstars are now clear. The only people considered “WrestleMania main event-worthy” are The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Batista. Arguably, only one of those superstars belongs in that elite group.

Heck, even though WWE claimed Undertaker could lay claim to ECW champion Bobby Lashley’s title just as easily as Cena’s or Batista’s, he wasn’t even featured in the big showdown on SmackDown last week. He finally showed up on Raw this week, but it was too little, too late. Despite ECW being more entertaining than SmackDown, WWE clearly doesn’t respect the promotion.

John Cena is unarguably WWE’s current top superstar and belongs in a WrestleMania main event. But the rest? Well, Batista doesn’t put butts in the seats and doesn’t really belong in that elite group, and if SmackDown wasn’t such a roster wasteland, he wouldn’t be there.

As for Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, anyone who was main eventing back when Hulkamania was still running wild in the WWF ought not still be main eventing today. And it’s sad, since there are many younger superstars who would be better fits for a WrestleMania main event.

On the SmackDown side, Mr. Kennedy is very close to being ready, and nothing would help him peak better than a WrestleMania main event against Batista. Matt Hardy is also close to breaking through to main event status as a singles wrestler, after years and years of being a star tag-team player and having to make the adjustment to singles wrestling the last couple-three years.

The talent pool is even deeper on the Raw side of the pond. Both Edge and Randy orton are already ready to main event WrestleMania, and would make worthy adversaries for Cena. And if VKM really wanted to call back some memories of Hogan-Andre, he could easily toss The Great Khali against Cena un a man vs. monster type of storyline.

But for now, it seems, VKM can’t look past the stars of two decades ago, so it’ll be a retread of Undertaker and Shawn Michaels sharing main event stages with the current champs. And with ‘Taker having an undefeated record at WrestleMania, they may as well put his address plaque on Batista’s belt right now.

Uninspiring. Predictable. Too bad…